I&M education for the new millennium: a U.S. perspective

Instrumentation-and-measurement (I&M) education is of interest to a number of stakeholders. Measurement standards provide the foundation for commerce. Equipment companies need fresh ideas in order to innovate and produce improved instrumentation products. The myriad of industries that use measurement and instrumentation products need to apply equipment correctly to get optimal results. Academic institutions are charged with developing new knowledge and transmitting that knowledge through undergraduate and graduate education programs. In the spirit of total quality management, it is important to periodically review both our goals and how well we are meeting them. Some of the issues relevant to I&M education are discussed, focusing on the status of I&M education in the U.S., followed by observations about opportunities for improvement     

Stolt‐Nielsen's comfort for the ‘average arbitrator’: An analysis of the post‐Hall Street ‘manifest disregard’ award review standard

Christopher Walsh , of Newark, N.J., looks at the current state of the longstanding use of manifest disregard as an addition to Federal Arbitration Act standards for challenging awards. He focuses on the recent Second Circuit case of Stolt‐Nielsen v. Animalfeeds.     

Questioning the Institutional Boundaries of U.S. Communication Research: An Epistemological Inquiry

Interpreting three levels of assumptions—the ideal case, the object-domain, and the method of inquiry—for each of the three subdisciplines of communication—rhetoric, interpersonal and mass—provides a foundation for assessing an appropriate and comprehensive definition of the domain of communication study.     

Euro Commitments: An Analysis of ICC Arbitration of ‘Fair,Reasonable and Non‐Discriminatory’ Royalties

Standards Setting Organizations, or SSOs, arose in various industries to promote interoperability and competition. Increasingly, standards have been established in the field of electronic communications by SSOs, such as the nonprofit Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a professional group that advocates for technology innovations, which has adopted standards for Wi‐Fi, for example.     

Why programs are no longer enough: An interview on collaborating at the U.S. TSA

How a federal agency, with tens of thousands of employees and the nation's security in its mission, remade its conflict resolution processes into a full‐fledged decisionmaking and management system. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration's Deborah A. Katz is interviewed by New York conflict resolution consultant Judith Cohen in the first of two parts.     

Replacing the mediator orientation grids,again: Proposing a ‘new new grid system’

The mediation profession's standard for assessment is revised, updated and—maybe—finalized. Leonard L. Riskin, of Columbia, Mo., who debuted his “Mediator Orientation Grid” in these pages a decade ago, revisits his process tool, which has now grown into a “New New Grid System.”.     

Economic conditions in the U.S. electrical, electronics, and related industries: an assessment

Derived from a report of the Ad Hoc Committee To Assess U.S. Economic Conditions in the Electrical, Electronics, and Related Industries, this article reports on the group's principal findings for the 1970s. Their study sees a slowing of the demand for engineers with the rate increasing at about 2 percent a year, with supply and demand for electrical engineers reasonably in balance Government spending in domestic areas will probably not offset military and space decreases until at least 1980. The electrical/ electronics industry will show an average annual growth of about 7.5 to 8 percent per year. Government action to provide a better data base on manpower and industrial output, reduce trade barriers, stabilize the economy, and foster research and development through tax incentives is urged.     

Pornography, Politics, and the Press: The U.S. Attorney General's Commission on Pornography

A close examination of the Commission's deliberations and Report shows selective use of evidence, without much light shed from more recent thinking and scholarship and with surprisingly little attention from the media.     

Meta-imaging, The War Room, and the hyperreality of U.S. politics

In this essay we explore a new form of political communication, the meta-image , or the communicative act whereby political campaigns and their chroniclers publicly display and foreground the art and practice of political image construction. We examine a compelling example of meta-imaging-the 1993 film, The War Room . We identify how the film functions as a reflection of the hyperreality of U.S. politics. We then argue that The War Room , through the use of naturalized military metaphors, works toward the edification of image making as a normative campaign process and a reaffirmation of U.S. national identity.     

The Zn(S,O,OH)/ZnMgO buffer in thin‐film Cu(In,Ga)(Se,S)2‐based solar cells part II: Magnetron sputtering of the ZnMgO buffer layer for in‐line co‐evaporated Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells

A ZnS/Zn_1‐xMg_xO buffer combination was developed to replace the CdS/i‐ZnO layers in in‐line co‐evaporated Cu(In,Ga)Se₂(CIGS)‐based solar cells. The ZnS was deposited by the chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique and the Zn_1‐xMg_xO layer by RF magnetron sputtering from ceramic targets. The [Mg]/([Mg] + [Zn]) ratio in the target was varied between x = 0·0 and 0·4. The composition, the crystal structure, and the optical properties of the resulting layers were analyzed. Small laboratory cells and 10 × 10 cm² modules were realized with high reproducibility and enhanced stability. The transmission is improved in the wavelength region between 330 and 550 nm for the ZnS/Zn_1‐xMg_xO layers. Therefore, a large gain in the short‐circuit current density up to 12% was obtained, which resulted in higher conversion efficiencies up to 9% relative as compared to cells with the CdS/i‐ZnO buffer system. Peak efficiencies of 18% with small laboratory cells and 15·2% with 10 × 10 cm² mini‐modules were demonstrated. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.