The Top Management Team,Reflexivity, Knowledge Sharing and New Product Performance: A Study of the Irish Software Industry

In the present study, we develop a model to predict new product performance incorporating the literature on top management team (TMT) composition, trustworthiness, knowledge sharing and task reflexivity in organizations. We hypothesize that diversity and trustworthiness in the TMT should influence knowledge sharing and reflexivity and reflexivity and knowledge sharing would be positively associated with new product performance. We test the model using data collected from 39 indigenous software firms in Ireland. Results indicate that age diversity was positively related to knowledge sharing ability while educational level, tenure and functional diversity of the TMT did not have any direct effect on reflexivity or knowledge sharing ability or motivation. However, educational level of TMT, tenure and age diversity had indirect effects on reflexivity and knowledge sharing through the intervening variable of TMT trustworthiness. Further, knowledge sharing and task reflexivity had direct effects on market new product performance. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Simulating the Thermal Behavior of Buildings Using Artificial Neural Networks-Based Coarse-Grain Modeling

This paper reports on the development of a new approach for simulating the thermal behavior of buildings that overcome the limitations of conventional heat-transfer simulation methods such as the finite difference method and the finite element method. The proposed technique uses a coarse-grain approach to model development whereby each element represents a complete building component such as a wall, internal space, or floor. The thermal behavior of each coarse-grain element is captured using empirical modeling techniques such as artificial neural networks (ANNs). The main advantages of the approach compared to conventional simulation methods are (1) simplified model construction for the end-user; (2) simplified model reconfiguration; (3) significantly faster simulation runs (orders of magnitude faster for two- and three-dimensional models); and (4) potentially more accurate results. The paper demonstrates the viability of the approach through a number of experiments with a model of a composite wall. The approach is shown to be able to sustain highly accurate long-term simulation runs, if the coarse-grain modeling elements are implemented as ANNs. In contrast, an implementation of the coarse-grain elements using a linear model is shown to function inaccurately and erratically. The paper concludes with an identification of on-going work and future areas for development of the technique.     

三门峡水利枢纽汛期排沙平水发电冲淤特性分析

1994～1999年三门峡水利枢纽进行汛期发电试验.洪水期降低水位敞泄排沙,恢复库容;平水期控制水位发电,入库泥沙经垂水段分选,出库泥沙数量与粒径减小.壅水段淤积物大致以锥体形态分布在北村以下,选择适当时机或利用洪水降低水位排沙3～4天,可全部清理出库.北村以上河道在前期大幅冲刷的基础上,溯源中刷继续发展,向上延伸至黄淤33断面附近.6年汛期发电试验,古夺以下库段冲淤基本平衡,潼-古段因受水沙变化的影响,累计淤积0.16亿m3.     

Advanced space solar cells

This paper will present a brief overview of the status of research and development of advanced space solar cells from a variety of materials. Most of the investigations at present are focused on binary, ternary and quaternary III–V semiconducting compounds such as InP, GaInAs and GaInP₂. Growth techniques used for producing laboratory cells include liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE), organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) or any of a number of variations of these techniques, such as atomic layer epitaxy (ALE), etc. Gallium arsenide is at present the only commercially available III–V compound solar cell. Compound III–V multiple bandgap cells are now under development in a jointly sponsored NASA/Air Force manufacturing technology demonstration program. In general, the decision to use a particular cell technology in space is determined by several factors, emphasis on any particular one depending on the mission environment: some are related to the properties of the photovoltaic material itself, such as efficiency and resistance to radiation damage, and some are related to details of the cell structure and associated materials, such as survivability under repeated thermal cycling and resistance to atomic oxygen erosion. The impact of these requirements on cell material selection and structural design is briefly discussed. This paper was produced under the auspices of the US Government and is therefore not subject to copyright in the USA     

Genre, rhetorical interpretation, and the open case: teaching theanalytical report

Analytical reports, being one of the most difficult genres to teach in a technical writing course, are best taught through the “open case” method. Open cases take advantage of the fact that students are already situated in a workplace environment, the college campus. Engineering students can use the genre to impose order on this chaotic environment, conducting various forms of research on engineering-related campus issues. A process for developing open case assignments is provided     

Influence of the dislocation density on the performance ofheteroepitaxial indium phosphide solar cells

The authors point out that heteroepitaxial indium phosphide solar cells developed to date have low efficiency due to misfit dislocations. Dislocations act as recombination centers and strongly influence the solar cell performance. Calculations have been made to study the dependence of heteroepitaxial InP solar cell efficiency on dislocation density. The effects of surface recombination velocity and cell emitter thickness are also considered. Calculated results are compared with the available experimental results on representative InP solar cells. It is shown that heteroepitaxial InP cells with over 20% AM0 efficiency could be fabricated if dislocation density can be reduced to <10⁵ cm^-2 and the surface recombination velocity reduced to <10⁵ cm/s     

Japanese encephalitis on Saipan: a survey of suspected mosquito vectors

An outbreak of Japanese encephalitis (JE) occurred on Saipan, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, in October 1990. Adult and larval mosquitoes were collected during September-October 1991 to retrospectively determine the probable mosquito vector(s). Virus was not isolated from 119 mosquito pools composed of 7,250 adult specimens as follows: Aedes vexans nocturnis (14%), Culex tritaeniorhynchus (39%), Cx. sitiens group (11%), Culex (Culex) species (35%), and < 1% each of Ae. albopictus, Ae. oakleyi, Aedes saipanensis, Cx. annulirostris marianae, and Cx. fuscanus. Three additional species were collected only as larvae: Anopheles indefinitus, Ae. neopandani, and Cx. quinquefasciatus. Among the vectors of JE incriminated in other areas, Cx. tritaeniorhynchus was the predominant species in our collections and the principal species feeding on swine. This is the first published record of the occurrence of this species on Saipan. Culex tritaeniorhynchus is abundant and widely distributed on the southern half of Saipan where human JE cases occurred in 1990, and where swine seroconversions were detected. Although the identity of the mosquito vector(s) responsible for the 1990 outbreak cannot be established with certainty, our results suggest that Cx. tritaeniorhychus was probably involved.     

Improved digital automatic gain control for p.c.m. signals

A digital automatic gain control is described which uses an open-loop instead of a closed-loop configuration. This change has been made to eliminate oscillations in gain which occurred with sinusoidal input signals in the closed-loop system described previously. Results of a computer simulation of the new system are presented.     

A Simple Method For The Determination of Thickness and Grain Size of Deposited Films as Used On Non-Conductive Specimens For Scanning Electron Microscopy

Latex spheres in linear aggregates allow coating materials to accumulate only along their free surface. Transverse to the axis of the aggregate the diameter of a sphere will increase corresponding to the uncoated diameter plus twice the film thickness. Parallel to the axis of the aggregate the diameter of terminal spheres will increase with one film thickness, whereas the diameter of ‘enclosed’ spheres remain constant. By mounting uniform latex spheres on standard electron microscope-grids and comparing the transverse to the parallel diameter of linearly aggregated spheres in the transmission electron microscope, the film thickness produced by various coating procedures has been determined. The grain size and crack formations in the films may be examined simultaneously.