EBEX is a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to measure the intensity and polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The measurements would probe the inflationary epoch that took place shortly after the big bang and would significantly improve constraints on the values of several cosmological parameters. EBEX is unique in its broad frequency coverage and in its ability to provide critical information about the level of polarized Galactic foregrounds which will be necessary for all future CMB polarization experiments. EBEX consists of a 1.5 m Dragone-type telescope that provides a resolution of less than 8 arcminutes over four focal planes each of 4. diffraction limited field of view at frequencies up to 450 GHz. The experiment is designed to accommodate 330 transition edge bolometric detectors per focal plane, for a total of up to 1320 detectors. EBEX will operate with frequency bands centered at 150, 250, 350, and 450 GHz. Polarimetry is achieved with a rotating achromatic half-wave plate. EBEX is currently in the design and construction phase, and first light is scheduled for 2008.

Questions about the choice to marry have dominated the public discourse in recent years. But with the spotlight focused on the question of who can marry whom, few have paid attention to how a couple crosses marriage's legal threshold. Yet a steady stream of cases in recent years -- in which individuals have litigated whether they legally married -- has revealed that answers to the latter question can have monumental consequences for the individuals who risk being deemed married or unmarried against their will. This Article has descriptive and normative goals. Descriptively, it exposes the pervasive legal uncertainty regarding both the role and definition of marital choice. It also reveals the stakes of that choice for individuals, the state, and third parties. Normatively, it argues that a valid choice to marry must promote autonomy by facilitating self-authorship and manifesting consent to the legal rights and obligations of marriage. To perform these functions, the relevant act must be objectively measurable and intelligible to the spouses and the law. For this definition to be sufficiently protective of individual interests, states must adopt rigorous standards for establishing consent. Formalities are often crucial in this process, as they are the currency through which couples most commonly telegraph marriage or non-marriage, but they are not exclusive. This Article considers how burdens of proof, the timing and scope of relief, and objective conduct can also establish a valid choice to marry.

The effect of contact pad geometry on fretting fatigue behavior of high strength steel was examined by using the clamping double bridge pads system. In order to investigate the effects of bridge pad shapes, the fretting fatigue tests were carried out by using four types of bridge pad with different leg height h*. The fretting fatigue strength decreased with decreasing in the h*. Also, the stick area increased as increasing of the h*. The contact pressure distribution was measured by strain gauge and calculated by using a finite element method in order to investigate the effect of the pads leg height h*. The contact pressure concentrated in the inside on the contact surface where the main crack initiated. Two-stage tests were carried out in order to investigate the fretting fatigue damage. The two-stage test was performed to a certain cycles under fretting condition and then plain tests without fretting as removing the pads were continued.

The law regulates some of society's most significant relationships through status. Yet social and legal changes can diminish a status's effectiveness or importance. The debates surrounding worker classification and nonmarital relationship recognition provide two pressing examples. By some estimates, over one quarter of all U.S. workers are part of the gig economy. If these gig workers are classified as employees, many rights will flow to them by virtue of that status; if they are instead classified as independent contractors, they get almost none of them. This binary approach exists in the family law context as well. Over 35 million adults are in committed nonmarital relationships marked by some combination of intimacy, property sharing, cohabitation, and joint childrearing. But the law will treat the overwhelming majority of them as single, meaning that unlike spouses, they will find themselves without legal protections and subsidies throughout the relationship and at its end. The problem in both contexts is lack of fit between status regimes and emerging social realities.This Article investigates the persistence of status-based regulation through the lenses of employment and marriage. In doing so, it makes three contributions. First, it identifies the relevant features of status and the tradeoffs inherent in regulating through status. Second, it shows how these features have led to the failure of employment and marriage to regulate gig workers and nonmarital partners, and identifies institutional design questions to guide status-based reforms. Third, the Article argues that confronting these institutional design questions is inevitable because status-based regulation itself is inevitable--when it comes to regulating socially valuable relationships, there is really no other option.

Activation of concrete in wall depends on the incident neutron energy spectrum, composition of the concrete, depth from the wall surface and other parameters. Dependency on the neutron energy spectrum was evaluated by the SCALE system calculations on each important reaction for the activation of concrete. The activation of a concrete wall can be estimated by summing the values of activities for each reaction based on the data of composition of the concrete and the incident neutron energy spectrum.