This book covers the latest progress in the field of transparent ceramics, emphasizing their processing as well as solid-state lasers. It consists of 10 chapters covering the synthesis, characterization and compaction, fundamentals of sintering, densification of transparent ceramics by different methods as well as transparent ceramic applications. This book can be used as a reference for senior undergraduate to postgraduate students, researchers, engineers and material scientists working in solid-state physics.

The authors explore a new framework for evaluating economic development projects. This framework is based on a job-chain approach. Each new job created by an economic development incentive is filled by an employee who leaves behind another job. In turn, that job may be filled by someone who leaves behind their old job, etc. Such job chains end when an unemployedworker, someone not previously in the labor force, or an in-migrant to the labor market takes a vacancy. Job chains are the mechanism for observing and measuring "trickle down". The job trains model developed in this book presents new insights into local economic development evaluation and strategy.

Sintering of Ceramics provides the only comprehensive treatment of the theories and principles of sintering and their application to the production of advanced ceramics with the required target microstructure. Stemming from the author's bestselling text, Ceramic Processing and Sintering, this book includes additional material selected

As the field's premiere source, this reference is extensively revised and expanded to collect hard-to-find applications, equations, derivations, and examples illustrating the latest developments in ceramic processing technology. This book is concerned primarily with the processing of polycrystalline ceramics and focuses on the widespread fabrication of ceramics by the firing of consolidated powders forms. A brief treatment of sol-gel processing is also included. Ceramic Processing and Sintering, Second Edition provides clear and intensive discussions on colloidal and sol-gel processing, sintering of ceramics, and kinetic processes in materials. From powder synthesis and consolidation to sintering and densification behavior, this latest edition emphasizes the impact of each processing procedure on ceramic properties. The second edition also contains new and extended discussions on colloid stability, polymer growth and gelation, additives in ceramic forming, diffusion and defect strucutre, normal and abnormal grain growth, microwave sintering, Rayleigh instability effects, and Ostwald ripening. Illustrating the interconnectedness between the various steps in the overall fabrication route, Ceramic Processing and Sintering, Second Edition approaches the fundamental issues of each process and show how they are applied to the practical fabrication of ceramics.

Materials scientists continue to develop stronger, more versatile ceramics for advanced technological applications, such as electronic components, fuel cells, engines, sensors, catalysts, superconductors, and space shuttles. From the start of the fabrication process to the final fabricated microstructure, Ceramic Processing covers all aspects of modern processing for polycrystalline ceramics. Stemming from chapters in the author's bestselling text, Ceramic Processing and Sintering, this book gathers additional information selected from many sources and review articles in a single, well-researched resource. The author outlines the most commonly employed ceramic fabrication processes by the consolidation and sintering of powders. A systematic approach highlights the importance of each step as well as the interconnection between the various steps in the overall fabrication route. The in-depth treatment of production methods includes powder, colloidal, and sol-gel processing as well as chemical synthesis of powders, forming, sintering, and microstructure control. The book covers powder preparation and characterization, organic additives in ceramic processing, mixing and packing of particles, drying, and debinding. It also describes recent technologies such as the synthesis of nanoscale powders and solid freeform fabrication. Ceramic Processing provides a thorough foundation and reference in the production of ceramic materials for advanced undergraduates and graduate students as well as professionals in corporate training or professional courses.

Here, Jacobus discusses objects and attributes that test our perceptions and preoccupy both Romantic poetry and modern philosophy. John Clare, John Constable, W.G. Sebald, and Gerhard Richter make appearances around the central figure of William Wordsworth as Jacobus explores trees, rocks, clouds, and sleep in their work.

The paper explains how a country can fall into a “low-skill, bad-job trap,” in which workers acquire insufficient training and firms provide insufficient skilled vacancies. In particular, the paper argues that in countries where a large proportion of the workforce is unskilled, firms have little incentive to provide good jobs (requiring high skills and providing high wages), and if few good jobs are available, workers have little incentive to acquire skills. In this context, the paper examines the need and effectiveness of training policy, and provides a possible explanation for why western countries have responded so differently to the broad-based shift in labor demand from unskilled to skilled labor.