The eN scattering spin observables are derived from the long established NN scattering formalism. Some conditions on the eN observables emerge more transparently than from the specific eN calculations themselves.

Multiple hollow-cathode slots were utilized on a profiled solid-copper electrode taht extended stable glow discharge to higher pressures in copper lasers. This novel electrode design, which dramatically reduced discharge jitter and window contamination, has been run for more than 8000 hours with very little degradation.

The success of a genetic optimization algorithm in continuous parameter space depends on the recombination (crossover) operators that it uses. In this paper we consider a wide spectrum of such operators within a unified framework and study their relative importance in the search process. We consider four basic types recombination operators which cover the relevant exploration potential of a continuous space: Interpolation, Extrapolation, Exchange and Mutation. Each of these basic types may have several variants. We characterize the various operators and their variants by their spatial sampling properties and examine their contributions to the search by applying different mixtures of the operators in several benchmark problems. The results suggest that the optimal mixture of operators may depend on the problem. But, in general, all basic types are needed for efficient optimization.