The Quest for Relevance: Roles for Academia and Industry in Japan and the U.S.

While U.S. industry is making headway in worldwide markets, much remains to be done. Some have proposed that improving the relevance of engineering education can have a marked influence on the future success of U.S. manufacturing. Some in academia have heard industries' cries for help to improve relevancy in engineering education and have responded with various solutions. Is this the situation in Japan? What is the state of engineering education in Japan? Where is it headed and how does the U.S. compare? We found that industry-academia relationships like those being strengthened in the U.S. are minimal in Japan. Surprisingly, Japanese industry and academia appear not to be headed in a collaborative direction and are even more detached from one another than in the United States. This paper presents some differences in the way Japan and the U.S. view their roles for academia and industry and their interrelationships. Our objective is to further motivate U.S. educators to collaborate with industry and continue to integrate greater relevancy into engineering education.     

A comparison of the U.S. FIFRA GLP standards with the Japan MAFF GLP standards.

Side-by-side comparisons are an effective way to compare different GLP standards. These comparisons allow easy elucidation of differences in the regulations. A side-by-side comparison of the EPA, GLPs and the IMAFF GLPs was constructed and evaluated. The major differences are reported.     

U.S. federal laboratories and their research partners: a quantitative case study

Scientometrics - The Stevenson–Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 made explicit the technology transfer responsibilities of U.S. Federal laboratories. The Federal Technology Transfer...     

Thermophysical studies of natural and disturbed landscape complexes in the north of the U.S.S.R.

Seasonal and annual peculiarities of the soil heat-balance regime in the north of the U.S.S.R. are discussed, and a reduction in the ratio between heat expenditure on evaporation and radiation balance with increasing latitude is revealed. In contrast, the ratio between heat flow to the soil and radiation balance is shown to increase northwards.Data on the thermal conductivity of soil cover and peat are systematized, and energy exchange processes between the soil and atmosphere are estimated qualitatively by the removal or disturbance of the turf-vegetation layer.Heat-balance peculiarities of the forest landscapes of Siberia are compared with open sites, and the limits to changes of balance components by forest removal are identified.     

Financial performance, ISO 9000 standard and safe driving practices effects on accident rate in the U.S. motor carrier industry

The question this research address is if voluntary certification with ISO 9000 standards can reduce the number of accidents large trucks have. Certification might have a positive effect depending upon the actions a company takes as a result of being certified, for instance, a company may change driver training and maintenance and how it carries out corrective action. We identified 40 ISO 9002: 1994 certified U.S. trucking companies and compared their safety performance before and after ISO certification. We also compared them to a group of motor carriers that had similar characteristics but were not certified. The safety performance of the certified carriers was significantly better after certification than before, and it also was significantly better than that of non-certified carriers, findings that we believe can be useful to carriers, shippers and regulators who wish to better understand the value of certification.     

Failure mode and effects analysis in the U.K. motor industry: A state-of-the-art study

This paper reports the main findings of a questionnaire survey on the use of failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) in the United Kingdom motor industry. Survey data were obtained from 78 organizations. Among the main findings are: the majority of suppliers only started to use FMEA because it was a contractual requirement of their customer; however, a number of them are now seeking to make more use of the technique to facilitate their process of quality improvement; FMEA is treated by the majority of organizations as a team activity; engineers still view FMEA as a hard slog; more use should be made of computerized aids to reduce the effort in preparing and updating the FMEA; and the main difficulties encountered in the use of FMEA are related to time constraints, poor organizational understanding of the importance of FMEA, inadequate training and lack of management commitment. It is also pointed out that organizations are not satisfied with the current training courses on FMEA.     

气隙式热开关的特性研究及压力调节

论述了气隙式热开关的原理，结构形式及参数特性，讨论了它的结构尺寸对性能参数的影响。给出了导热管的直径，长度，壁厚与导通热导之间的关系曲线以及气体压强，外壳厚度与关断热导之间的关系曲线。建立了气隙式热开关的数学模型，求出了导通热流的瞬态响应特性，并给出了特性曲线有压力调节系统图。     

中国电影科研所赴美考察报告

中国电影科研所近期组团赴美进行了专题业务考察，此行主要目的是了解国际上在数字中间片技术、数字电影拍摄技术和数字影院技术方面的最新进展，就我所数字中间片实验室的建设和正在进行的相关研究项目与国外同行进行交流，顺便了解一些电影数字化修复工艺和技术的情况。     

Diversifying the U.S. Engineering Workforce: A New Model

Existing approaches to increasing diversity conceptually pose the problem as a leaky pipeline. Although the pipeline model has supported several types of interventions, the mental model oversimplifies complexities of the underlying processes, focuses interventions at points of unwanted leakage, and suggests that leaks need to be plugged instead of systems renewed. Analysis suggests that even if leak‐stopping interventions could be multiplied through significant increases in funding, they would remain insufficient to attain the goal of having student enrollments in engineering substantially reflect the demographics of the general population. Therefore, a new analogical model, which emphasizes flows of personal and interpersonal energy within the educational system, is offered to guide future interventions. Finally, suggestions for applying the model to increase diversity in engineering are proposed.     

A comparative study of patenting activity in U.S. and Brazilian scientific institutions

Patents generated from scientific research indicate academic involvement in technology development. Academic patenting activity is recent, even in developed countries. This study compares patenting activity of Brazilian and American universities. Brazilian universities had 29.5-fold increase in applications and 4.01-fold in grants (1990–2001), about twice the increase presented by American universities in this period. However, a significant fraction of Brazilian academic applications are abandoned due to the lack of specialized staff to help in writing and to shepherd the application through the patenting process in universities. The participation of research institutes in technological innovation is increasing steadily, even without financial incentives. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

美国食品标签管理的细微之处

食品标签制度食品标签作为一种重要的食品安全健康标识,已经在许多国家形成一种重要的认证标识制度,在方便食品安全的监管落实与责任追究的同时,广大消费者也能依据食品标签上的信息,挑选与购买符合安全及健康标准的农产品及食品扑朔迷离的"老酸奶风波"最     

美国食品标签管理的细微之处

食品标签制度 食品标签作为一种重要的食品安全健康标识,已经在许多国家形成一种重要的认证标识制度,在方便食品安全的监管落实与责任追究的同时,广大消费者也能依据食品标签上的信息,挑选与购买符合安全及健康标准的农产品及食品。     

The effects of thermal diffusion of nitrogen gas on silicon nitridation rate

Journal of Materials Science Letters -     

Technological innovation and the U.S. banking industry: Innovation in the U.S. retail and wholesale banking sectors

In this paper, case studies of “best practice” retail and wholesale banks are used to explore the influence of technological change on the banking industry. The impact that specific technologies are having on the retail and whole-sale sectors is discussed. Briefly, the evidence shows that there is tremendous pressure on the banking industry to restructure at the current level of technology and competition. Retail banks are looking to client-server, open systems, groupware, workflow software, and imaging technology to restructure and consolidate their operations. Wholesale banks are using information technology to support specialized fee-income generating strategies. Nonetheless, in both the retail and wholesale banking sectors, nonbank financial service providers such as pension funds, insurance companies, money market funds and mutual funds are gaining market share. As these competitors expand their role, I find that the financial services competitor with the best strategy and technology is increasingly no longer a traditional bank.     

A simple model for the release rate of hazardous gas from a hole on high-pressure pipelines

It is very important to estimate the mass flow rate of possible accidental releases from the gas pipeline, in order to perform the hazard analysis or the risk based management in the gas facilities. This paper presents a simplified model to estimate the release rate from a hole on the high-pressure gas pipeline. It consists of a correction factor accounting for the pressure drop through pipeline due to the wall friction loss, and the release rate without friction loss. The model, whatever kind of gas may be considered, has some positive deviation from the theoretical complex equations, and it ranges from about 0 up to 20%. The deviation will reduce to zero, as the release point approaches to the reservoir. It increases with the specific heat ratio of gas and the dimensionless hole-size which is the effective area of the hole divided by the cross-sectional area of the pipe. The model is compared with damage areas of real accidents with success. It overestimates the release rate slightly and may be a useful tool to estimate the release rate quickly in performing the hazard analysis or the risk based management in the gas facilities.     

Comparison of U.S.S.R. Codes and U.S. Army Manual for design of foundations on permafrost

A comparative study was made of design criteria and analytical methods for footings and pile foundations on permafrost employed in U.S.S.R. Design Code SNiP II-18-76 (1977) and U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory Special Report 80-34 developed in the early 1970s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and published in 1980. The absence of adequate constitutive equations for frozen soils and of rigorous solutions of the boundary problems has made it necessary to incorporate (explicitly or implicitly) various safety factors in the foundation analyses. From the review it is concluded that the principal difference between these practices is in the assessment and application of appropriate values of safety factors, which leads to a substantial discrepancy in the dimensions and costs of footings and pile foundations in permafrost.     

中美页岩气成藏条件、分布特征差异研究与启示

美国页岩气大多为海相热成因型,产气页岩主要分布在前陆和克拉通盆地的泥盆—石炭系,埋藏深度一般为1 500～3 500 m。我国页岩分为海相、海陆过渡相与煤系、湖相三类,其中海相页岩主要发育在坳拉槽和克拉通盆地的下古生界,富有机质集中段分布稳定,热成熟度偏高,有较高的含气量,勘探前景最好;海陆过渡相与煤系页岩主要发育在大型坳陷和前陆盆地,层系以石炭系—侏罗系为主,没有明显的富有机质集中段,含气量差别较大,勘探潜力有待落实;湖相页岩主要发育在中、新生代陆相盆地,富有机质集中段厚度大,成熟度较高的凹陷中心区可能具有一定资源前景。预测我国页岩气勘探将经历较长的探索期,未来年产量可达500亿～600亿m3规模。     

美国技术性贸易措施体系剖析

1.引言技术法规、技术标准与合格评定程序是保证产品满足消费者需求的基本技术性措施,当其用作国际货物贸易中产品市场准入的尺度时,则构成为技术性贸易措施。这些措施对各国间的货物贸易有着直接的影响。技术性贸易措施具有推动经济发展、加速科技成果转化成现实生产力、提升产业技术水平、保证产品质量、保护环境和保障人民生命安全等积极作用,只有当其被用作国际贸易中的保护主义工具时,才构成为技术性贸易壁垒。研究表明,世界上各经济体在制定和实施技术性贸易措施时,既不是局限于单一措施,也不是上述三种基本措施的简单加合,而是将这三…