A method including depositing an alloying layer along a sidewall of an opening and in direct contact with a seed layer, the alloying layer includes a crystalline structure that cannot serve as a seed for plating a conductive material, exposing the opening to an electroplating solution including the conductive material, the conductive material is not present in the alloying layer, applying an electrical potential to a cathode causing the conductive material to deposit from the electroplating solution onto the cathode exposed at the bottom of the opening and causing the opening to fill with the conductive material, the cathode includes an exposed portion of the seed layer and excludes the alloying layer, and forming a first intermetallic compound along an intersection between the alloying layer and the conductive material, the first intermetallic compound is formed as a precipitate within a solid solution of the alloying layer and the conductive material.

A system for accelerated manufacturing of concrete modular housing units including a first deck platform including a plurality of exterior movable wall forms. A second deck platform including a plurality of exterior movable wall forms. A first concrete slab is placed on the first deck platform. At least one core including a plurality of core walls placed on the first concrete slab. The exterior movable wall forms of the first deck platform are positioned proximate the core walls to define a wall space there between configured to receive wet concrete and create a first concrete modular housing unit. A second concrete slab is placed on the second deck platform. Wet concrete in the wall space is allowed to set a until it is partially cured and then the at least one core is removed from the first concrete slab and placed on the second concrete slab such that the at least one core can be reused one or more times during a predetermined amount of time to create a least a second concrete modular housing unit while the first concrete modular housing unit is still curing.

A tie system and method for forming a wall from a hardenable building material. In one embodiment, the tie system includes multiple ties configured to be directly interconnected into a vertically extending tie stack such that multiple tie stacks can be positioned over a footing in a spaced apart arrangement. The multiple tie stacks are configured to extend substantially perpendicular between substantially parallel panel structures. Each tie stack includes one or more base members and one or more wall ties, each of which directly attach to each other in a vertically stacked arrangement.

A heat-resistant door device for closing a horizontal coke oven chamber is made of a refractory material, using a material containing silica or a material containing silica and aluminum oxides, in particular. The material has a low temperature expansion coefficient and it is thermally well insulating so that the door is not deformed and/or distorted during the coal carbonization process. The door device is built of a coke oven wall mainly located above the door and embracing the door as well as of a mobile door located underneath. Thereby less cold ambient air enters into the coke oven chamber and radiation losses are minimized. The door may be comprised of an ellipsoidal bulge by which the coke can be better pushed into the coking chamber. The oven wall embracing the oven door can also be made of a refractory material containing silica or of a material containing silica and aluminum oxides.

A method for reducing the coking time in the oven area near the door or end wall and for improving coke quality and situation of emissions by compensating for radiation losses through coke oven chamber doors and end walls is described. This compensation is accomplished by varying the height of the coal cake in the environment of the frontal coke oven chamber doors. The variation is achieved both by increasing or decreasing the coal cake over part of the length or over the entire length of the coke oven chamber door. The reduction in the height of the coal cake can be generated by omission of coal or coal compacts, the increase in height can be accomplished by stacking of coal and pressing or adding of coal compacts, with it also being envisaged to omit the pressing cycle so as to obtain a recess with a lower coal cake density which also has less heat radiation.

A housing for a transmission is disclosed. The housing may have a plurality of integrally-formed walls that together create an enclosure with an open first end and an open second end disposed axially opposite the first end. The housing may also have a first flange located at the first end of the enclosure and configured to engage an input housing of an engine, and a second flange located at the second end of the enclosure and configured to engage a differential housing. The plurality of integrally formed walls includes a lower wall having at least one impingement protection feature.

A modular wall includes a plurality of inter-connectable and interchangeable wall modules. At least one of the wall modules includes a recessed, extendable piece of furniture, such as a bed, desk, table, work surface or chair. When in a closed configuration, the furniture folds into or otherwise resides within a recessed pocket in the modular wall. When in the closed configuration, the outer surface of the furniture forms an exterior surface of the wall module; thereby, concealing the furniture seamlessly into the modular wall. The exterior surface can comprise one or more exterior interchangeable tiles.

Thermally-isolating wall anchors and reinforcement devices and anchoring systems employing the same are disclosed for use in masonry cavity walls. A thermally-isolating coating is applied to the wall anchor, which is interconnected with a wire formative veneer tie. The thermally-isolating coating is selected from a distinct grouping of materials, that are applied using a specific variety of methods, in one or more layers and cured and cross-linked to provide high-strength adhesion. The thermally-coated wall anchors provide an in-cavity thermal break that severs the thermal threads running throughout the cavity wall structure, reducing the U- and K-values of the anchoring system by thermally-isolating the metal components.

When in-person classes were cancelled for the semester at Wake Forest University, Professor Justin Catanoso knew he would have to break some of his own rules.

WHILE almost every athlete has been affected by the global shutdown of sport, it is perhaps the old and the young who are feeling it the most.

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After more than a year of demolition and digging down, KeyArena will finally start building back up next week when the first wall begins to be erected in the venue's northeast quadrant. Workers inside have been diligently — and spaciously — going about their business during the coronavirus pandemic.

Graffiti artists in Tamworth are now able to legally paint on two walls at the skate park after talks with Tamworth Regional Council deliver 6 month trial.

Desertification and land degradation affect the lives of around three billion people, according to UN estimates. Two ambitious projects aim at halting desertification and returning soil to productivity: the Great Green Wall project in northern Africa; and the Green Great Wall initiative in China.

For the past three years, the Darwin Street Art Festival has enlivened the city's derelict laneways. This year, those artworks are coming to life, thanks to an augmented-reality app that transforms static images into three-dimensional animations.

Check out The Walls Group's latest video.

Although Royal Bank of Scotland is back in loss on a so-called statutory basis, having made the tiniest of profits in the final three months of last year, that doesn't really tell the story of what has been going on at this semi-nationalised bank.

But, as is par for the course with big, complex universal banks, these numbers do almost as much to obscure as to enlighten.

They are, for example, heavily influenced by changes in the valuation of debt sold by Royal Bank of Scotland to investors and of credit insurance bought from taxpayers in the form of the Asset Protection Scheme.

There was a loss of not far off £1bn on these items. Now it's moot whether it really enhances our understanding of Royal Bank of Scotland's performance that the value of these contracts - which can't be broken at a moment's notice - have moved against RBS.

More important, I think, is that operating profits of RBS's retail and commercial operations are almost a fifth better than a year ago at £1.9bn, though a little bit lower than in the fourth quarter of 2010.

The trend at RBS's global banking and markets business - what most would call its investment banking arm - was more volatile. Operating profits were £1.1bn in the latest period, double what was generated in the final quarter of 2010, but a third less than the bumper first three months of last year.

For the bank as a whole, the charge for debts going bad seems to be on an unambiguously declining trend, from £2.7bn in the first quarter of 2010, to £2.1bn in the final quarter of last year, and just under £2bn in the latest quarterly figures.

As for other important measures, RBS is succeeding in widening the gap between what it charges for credit and what it has to pay to borrow (good for shareholders, not always welcomed by customers) - and overheads appear to be under control.

So there is progress towards re-establishing RBS as thriving, growing business, which could prosper without the benefit of exceptional support from taxpayers - although that progress goes by fits and starts rather than in one giant leap (witness, as with Lloyds, a big increase in losses on lending to the troubled Irish economy).

What will perhaps spark some controversy is that the provision of credit to small businesses fell 7%. And, once again, RBS puts this down to a weakness of demand rather than a lack of any determination on its part to supply - but that doesn't enlighten on whether it's the unattractive borrowing terms on offer that puts off some potential business borrowers.

Also RBS has gone on the record for the first time with its opposition to the proposal from the Independent Banking Commission that internal firewalls should be erected inside giant banks such as RBS.

RBS says that the Independent Banking Commission's recommendation that universal banks like it should erect internal firewalls, or should put their retail and investment banking operations into separate insulated subsidiaries, are "likely to add to bank costs - impacting both customers and shareholders -without the safety gains that the broader Basel process is delivering" (the Basel process is the global negotiations on strengthening banks).

It is also striking that RBS signals that it isn't overjoyed at the unilateral decision made yesterday by Lloyds to chuck in the towel in the banks' legal battle against the regulators' judgement that they should make comprehensive restitution to those mis-sold PPI loan insurance. The banks says: "a decision on appeal of the court case...has not yet been made as it relates to important other issues of retrospective regulation".

As I've mentioned before, if RBS follows Lloyds's lead and offers a comprehensive PPI settlement, that would probably cost the bank a bit more than £1bn, about a third of the cost to Lloyds.

And if we're in the business of comparing the two partly nationalised mega banks, Lloyds and RBS, both still look some way from being in a fit state to see taxpayers' huge stakes privatised at a profit to all of us.

However if Lloyds entered the reporting season looking as though it was nearer to privatisation than RBS, their respective latest results probably show RBS inching forward a bit in that journey and Lloyds perhaps retreating slightly.

Customized malware used to compromise physical and virtual firewalls

8 November 2019

Animal rescuers in Britain said a fox was rescued from the narrow gap between the external walls of a house and its garage.

This event organized by the Migration Policy Institute and American Enterprise Institute features a conversation on U.S.-Mexico border conditions, as well as policy responses and regional cooperation on illegal immigration. 

This event features a smart conversation by a range of experts on U.S.-Mexico border conditions, looking at policy responses by both countries and regional cooperation.

More barriers exist now than at the end of World War II, says designer Alexandra Auer. And when you erect one wall, you unwittingly create a second -- an "us" versus "them" partition in the mind that compromises our collective safety. With intriguing results from her social design project focused on two elementary schools separated by a fence, Auer encourages us to dismantle our biases and regain perspective on all the things we have in common.

London : Printed and sold by Thos. and John Bowles, printsellers, [1728]

Smiley and energetic, Christine lives in the semi-arid region of Karamoja in north-east Uganda. Her husband passed away some time ago and she is now taking care of her six children on her own. Christine struggled in managing her household and securing the basic needs for her children. “I was permanently asking somebody for something,” she describes. Agriculture had always been [...]

Caernarfon, where the discovery was made, was key to Edward I's conquest of the Welsh

The Bus4Life brings God's love to the marginalised in Tata, Hungary.

WHILE almost every athlete has been affected by the global shutdown of sport, it is perhaps the old and the young who are feeling it the most.

High school teacher Kateryna Haggerty explains how visual aids in her classroom help her English-language learner students write more confidently.

Since 1998, Northern Ireland's murals have shifted from glorifying gunmen towards depictions of happy times. The tributes to frontline healthcare workers could be a similar sign old wounds are healing

Green Mountain Power’s commitment to innovation delivered bigger savings to customers as New England recently hit a new yearly peak for power demand.

The mayor of the western Turkish town of İznik, which is a key venue in the history of Christianity, has launched a campaign against those who paint the historic city walls with graffiti despite repeated warnings. Click through for the story in photos...

Vast machines have left the subterranean world of a potash mine in the Urals with ammonite-like whorls, photographed for a project to highlight lasting human impacts on the planet.

The U.S. government reported more catastrophic economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis on Friday as the pandemic pierced the very walls of the White House and California gave the green light for its factories to restart after a seven-week lockdown.

The acclaimed Australian artist is painting black squares on a gallery wall with his eyes closed to protest against the values that led us to climate crisis.

Billionaire and new dad Elon Musk has opened up about the alarming "privacy issues" that sparked his property-buying bonanza.The Tesla and SpaceX founder, who has just welcomed his sixth child, was interviewed by comedian Joe Rogan...

Strong and lightweight bamboo features prominently in this beautiful renovation of a rooftop cafe.

As we move into full consumer season it can be difficult to equate your green intentions with the holiday spirit of giving. Perhaps it is time to consider the true value of a gift and how it is made. The Treehugger gift guide will certainly inspire

We've heard of transformer apartments, but what about a transformer garden. These movable green walls create flexible outdoor spaces.

We are going to need a new term that binds them all together. A lecture in 20 slides.

Vibrant tones liven up this redesign of a 1920s apartment in Stockholm, Sweden.

Blank city walls are huge canvases for this artist transforming our perception of ordinary buildings.

A super minimalist mobile ice fishing hut consists of a wooden frame, some chicken wire and walls of ice, made on the spot.

C'mon guys, look where you are going. This is an Apple product and you are clearly using it wrong.

Colombian tropical town Villanueva's popular library is an example of non pretentious architecture gone right. Projected by Alejandro Piñol, Germán Ramírez, Miguel Torres and Carlos Meza, it was built with local materials and

World-renowned for their work in Medellin, especially for the Orchid House at the Botanical Garden, Colombian firm Plan B Architects is busy and keeps coming up with great projects.