Characterisation of organic-inorganic hybrid coatings deposited on aluminium substrates

Optically transparent silica-based single amorphous phase organic-inorganic hybrid coating materials with differing organic/inorganic ratios have been prepared by a novel patented sol-gel process and deposited using a simple angled flow coating method on commercially pure aluminium substrates. Transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterise the microstructures of the hybrid materials and the quality of the interfaces between the coatings and the aluminium substrates. The scratch resistance, critical load to failure and failure modes of these hybrid coating materials were studied using a simple scratch test. The coatings produced were all shown to adhere well to the aluminium substrates and exhibit good levels of scratch resistance.     

Does Collaboration Work?

Bringing together a number of design celebrities, among them Greg Lynn, UN Studio, Foreign Office Architects (FOA) and Kevin Kennon Architect, United Architects (UA) was established to create a collaborative proposal for the 2003 competition for a new World Trade Center. Invoking the name as well as the intentions of what started as a similar collaborative formation by established actors and film-makers in the 1940s (United Artists) to challenge mainstream corporate power, UA attempted to offer more visionary alternatives to the expectations of typical mainstream architectural solutions. Kevin Kennon here presents an insider's perspective on the UA collaboration and employs his unique history, including his former partnership at Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) to raise important questions about collective design in terms of authorship, identity and practice. Central to his observations are the differences between the efficiency models of corporate teams and truly collaborative endeavours. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using strategic management practices to promote participatory democracy in Australian local government

Abstract

Strategic management was introduced as a critical component of Australian local government reform during the 1990s. In addition to encouraging efficiency and effectiveness of operation, it was also intended to promote participatory democracy within local authorities. The paper explores the extent to which this objective has been achieved through an analysis of twenty‐five New South Wales municipalities. Discussion concludes that while strategic management has enhanced community involvement in local governance, it cannot be a substitute for traditional democratic processes.     

Analysis of Relation Between Binding and Magnetic Force in Generators in Extreme Conditions

Because of the action of strong magnetic forces, it’s difficult to avoid end winding vibration in the large turbo-generator stator. Sometimes it leads to the occurrence of accidents and affects the normal operation of the generator. This paper firstly lays out the calculation method for end winding magnetic force. Second, based on the structure of large machines, the natural vibration frequency equation and forced oscillation equation is set up. Third, through the analysis of magnetic force calculation and vibration on the end winding of turbo-generator, it will be shown that the end winding vibration is related to the magnetic force and the position of winding binds as well as binding tightness. We can ease the winding vibration by distributing binding position appropriately or add more bindings, and test the concept through experimental data.     

Reconstructing experiences with iScale

We present iScale, a survey tool for the retrospective elicitation of longitudinal user experience data. iScale aims to minimize retrospection bias and employs graphing to impose a process during the reconstruction of one's experiences. Two versions, the constructive and the value-account iScale, were motivated by two distinct theories on how people reconstruct emotional experiences from memory. These two versions were tested in two separate studies. Study 1 aimed at providing qualitative insight into the use of iScale and compared its performance to that of free-hand graphing. Study 2 compared the two versions of iScale to free recall, a control condition that does not impose structure on the reconstruction process. Overall, iScale resulted in an increase in the amount, the richness, and the test–retest consistency of recalled information as compared to free recall. These results provide support for the viability of retrospective techniques as a cost-effective alternative to longitudinal studies.     

An empirical study of the relationships among employee’s perceptions of HR practice,human capital,and department performance: A case of AT & T Subordinate telecoms company in Taiwan

The telecom industry in Taiwan began to enter a vigorous development stage after Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan enacted the three major telecommunications laws in 1996. After 2003, the number of mobile phone subscribers began to shrink after reaching a climax penetration rate of 111%. The problems which were ignored during the high growth period began to appear. This research discusses which human practices are effective in developing human capital and whether they will influence the performance of the telecom industry. Human capital is used as a mediate variable between human resources and department performance. Through a questionnaire survey, an analysis by mean, standard deviation, and Pearson correlation is performed. A causal multivariable analysis by structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the causal relationship among these factors.     

Mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide (MEPDG): a bird’s-eye view

Past editions of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Guide for Design of Pavement Structures have served well for several decades; nevertheless, many serious limitations exist for their continued use as the nation’s primary pavement design procedures. Researchers are now incorporating the latest advances in pavement design into the new Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG), developed under the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) 1-37A project and adopted and published by AASHTO. The MEPDG procedure offers several dramatic improvements over the current pavement design guide and presents a new paradigm in the way pavement design is performed. However, MEPDG is substantially more complex than the AASHTO Design Guide by considering the input parameters that influence pavement performance, including traffic, climate, pavement structure and material properties, and applying the principles of engineering mechanics to predict critical pavement responses. It requires significantly more input from the designer. Some of the required data are either not tracked previously or are stored in locations not familiar to designers, and many data sets need to be preprocessed for use in the MEPDG. As a result, tremendous research work has been conducted and still more challenges need to be tackled both in federal and state levels for the full implementation of MEPDG. This paper, for the first time, provides a comprehensive bird’s eye view for the MEPDG procedure, including the evolvement of the design methodology, an overview of the design philosophy and its components, the research conducted during the development, improvement, and implementation phases, and the challenges remained and future developments directions. It is anticipated that the efforts in this paper aid in enhancing the mechanistic-empirical based pavement design for future continuous improvement to keep up with changes in trucking, materials, construction, design concepts, computers, and so on.

     

Ultraviolet stimulated electron source for use with low energy plasma instrument calibration

We have developed and demonstrated a versatile, compact electron source that can produce a mono-energetic electron beam up to 50 mm in diameter from 0.1 to 30 keV with an energy spread of <10 eV. By illuminating a metal cathode plate with a single near ultraviolet light emitting diode, a spatially uniform electron beam with 15% variation over 1 cm(2) can be generated. A uniform electric field in front of the cathode surface accelerates the electrons into a beam with an angular divergence of <1° at 1 keV. The beam intensity can be controlled from 10 to 10(9) electrons cm(-2) s(-1).     

The uncertainty of radius estimation in least-squares sphere-fitting,with an introduction to a new summation based method

This paper considers the sensitivity of three sphere-fitting algorithms to real-world measurement errors. It pays particular attention to nominally spherical surfaces, such as those typically measured by tactile and optical profilometers, addressing the limitations of sensor gauge range and angular tolerance. A recently proposed linear circle-fitting algorithm is extended to a sphere-fitting algorithm and its performance compared to two long standing sphere-fitting algorithms; namely linear and non-linear least-squares. Sources of measurement error in optical profilometers are discussed, and user defined scan parameters are optimised based on the results of a designed experiment. The performance of all three sphere-fitting algorithms are tested on a sphere superimposed with varying degrees of surface irregularities in a Monte Carlo simulation; this study shows that both linear routines display a negative skewness in their radius error distribution. Finally, a method of predicting radius uncertainty is offered that considers the surface residual that remains after sphere-fitting and relates this to the radius uncertainty of the chosen algorithm.