The U.S. Automotive Industry: National and State Trends in Manufacturing Employment

[Excerpt] The U.S. motor vehicle manufacturing industry\u27 employs 880,000 workers, or approximately 6.6% of the U.S. manufacturing workforce, including those who work in the large motor vehicle parts manufacturing sector, as well as those who assemble motor vehicles. Since the beginning of the decade, the nation\u27s automotive manufacturing sector has eliminated more than 435,000 automotive manufacturing jobs (or an amount equal to about 3.3% of all manufacturing jobs in 2008). The employment level first dipped below one million in 2007 and fell to 880,000 workers last year. With the restructuring and bankruptcy of Chrysler and General Motors, and the ongoing recession in the auto sector, employment in the nation\u27s automotive manufacturing industry will most likely shrink in 2009 and 2010 as additional assembly, powertrain, and auto parts plants close. This report provides an analysis of automotive manufacturing employment, with a focus on national and state trends. The 111th Congress continues to be heavily engaged in oversight and legislative proposals in response to the unprecedented crisis of the domestic motor vehicle manufacturing industry. The Detroit-based automotive manufacturers (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) have suffered a series of setbacks in recent years with their share of the domestic market dropping from 64.5% in 2001 to 47.5% in 2008. As a consequence, the traditional auto states of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio have been—and will continue to be—heavily impacted by the changes taking place in the automotive sector. Together, there are now 152,000 fewer automotive manufacturing jobs in these three states than there were five years ago. Recent automotive sales and production data indicate the enormous changes taking place in today\u27s motor vehicle manufacturing sector. For instance, automotive sales fell to 13.2 million units in 2008, down by 18% from 2007, and forecasts indicate U.S. consumers are expected to purchase fewer than 10 million cars and light trucks in 2009. There has also been a loss of market share by the Detroit 3 producers which has created gains for foreign-owned domestic manufacturers and imports. Some recent Detroit 3 automotive manufacturing employment losses are partially offset by new investments by foreign-owned manufacturers in the United States as they have open, or will open, new plants in states like Indiana, Georgia, and Tennessee. Many Members of Congress, and especially those members from the traditional auto belt states of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, have expressed their concerns about lost jobs in the automotive manufacturing sector. With the sale of GM assets to the U.S. government and Chrysler assets to Fiat, two new companies have emerged that will be substantially smaller than the companies that went into bankruptcy. As a consequence, the total level of motor vehicle manufacturing employment will be reduced, especially in locales where facilities have closed. The most recent automotive manufacturing employment data indicate that 42% of all persons in the industry work in one of the three traditional auto belt states, each of which at present employs more than 100,000 persons in the industry. Michigan alone has accounted for 40% of the net job loss in the industry since 2003. Losses in Ohio and Indiana have been less severe, offset somewhat by foreign investment. Alabama, with fewer total automotive manufacturing employees, has been the big job gainer, adding over 12,000 auto manufacturing jobs since 2003. Texas, now the eighth largest state by automotive employment, gained 5,200 jobs between 2003 and 2008. Auto industry states in the South including Kentucky, South Carolina, and Tennessee have lost jobs in recent years, but far fewer than in the traditional auto belt states

Conceptual Metaphor in the Health Care Culture

The conceptual metaphor has meaning only when understood within the cultural framework which gives rise to the conceptualization. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction of cognition (conceptual metaphor) and culture as manifest during intercultural communication in teaching-learning sessions between health care providers and patients. An ethnography of communication (Hymes, 1974; Saville-Troike, 1989) was the method employed to investigate the use of metaphor by patients, nurses and other health care professionals. Patients were viewed as a sojourner group in the health care culture; nurses and their health care partners were seen as a host group. Data were collected during a six month period using participant observation and key informant interviews with groups of sojourners/patients and a host/staff group consisting of six different health care specialties. The communication setting was an outpatient diabetic education program for those with a new diagnosis or whose condition had recently become unstable. The duration of the education program was six sessions, with variable participant attendance rates. Ethnographic findings indicated that the communication of each of the two groups presented a variety of distinctive features, as well as shared features. The sojourner group communication events and acts included the creation of pre- and post-sessions, the creation of personal narratives, and the practice of stopping the communication. Hosts also generated distinct communication events and acts which were stand-alone sessions, the use of a lecture format, a minimized response to the sojourner narratives, as well as confrontation of non-adherent sojourners. They shared several constructs and meanings in the use of several metaphoric domains, as well as the use of the machine metaphor of control (Ting-Toomey, 1987). Both groups also exhibited instances of parallel meanings in regard to the metaphor they used. The two groups shared many of the same source and target domains but some were incongruently interpreted by the groups. The findings have implications for future research into use of machine metaphors in health care communication, as well as implications for those health professionals who implement patient teaching to become more cognizant that their metaphors should be examined for effectiveness. Health communicators, who plan and implement programs, need to recognize that health communication may be more effective when they create a communication partnership toward encouraging the “voice” of patients in the process

Web-based phosphine fumigation monitoring with active sensor validation confirms lethality in stored grains: Presentation

The predominant measurement technologies for fumigation gases over the past 60 years include colorimetric tubes, photoionization detectors, and electrochemical sensors. Their limitations and inaccuracies are well documented. Spectros Instruments has shown non-dispersive infrared monitoring (NDIR) to be a superior analytical tool for the practical measurement of fumigation gases as shown in Table 1. Any compliant fumigation monitor must be accurate, reliable and affordable. Stored Product Protection has additional requirements in remote regions such as Central China and Western Australia. In these cases, the value of real time access via the internet to fumigation data collected with NDIR Technology from a remote location adds heretofore unknown benefits. Allocation of manpower and materials resources are optimized by access to information about fumigant gas levels in grain storages via the internet. Data is automatically transferred to a central database that can be accessed in real-time from any location with internet access. Intelligent monitors with built-in diagnostics tracking barometric pressure, temperature, sample flows and detector voltages are described. This data collection, data warehousing and reporting platform maintains measurement traceability to certified compliance with secure, encrypted electronic notebook format. Knowing REAL phosphine concentrations allows informed decisions to be made to achieve required CxT and avoid situations leading to target pest phosphine resistance.The predominant measurement technologies for fumigation gases over the past 60 years include colorimetric tubes, photoionization detectors, and electrochemical sensors. Their limitations and inaccuracies are well documented. Spectros Instruments has shown non-dispersive infrared monitoring (NDIR) to be a superior analytical tool for the practical measurement of fumigation gases as shown in Table 1. Any compliant fumigation monitor must be accurate, reliable and affordable. Stored Product Protection has additional requirements in remote regions such as Central China and Western Australia. In these cases, the value of real time access via the internet to fumigation data collected with NDIR Technology from a remote location adds heretofore unknown benefits. Allocation of manpower and materials resources are optimized by access to information about fumigant gas levels in grain storages via the internet. Data is automatically transferred to a central database that can be accessed in real-time from any location with internet access. Intelligent monitors with built-in diagnostics tracking barometric pressure, temperature, sample flows and detector voltages are described. This data collection, data warehousing and reporting platform maintains measurement traceability to certified compliance with secure, encrypted electronic notebook format. Knowing REAL phosphine concentrations allows informed decisions to be made to achieve required CxT and avoid situations leading to target pest phosphine resistance

Applications of micro-fluidic platforms integrating packed stationary phases

To design and fabricate novel centrifugal micro-fluidic platforms integrating packed stationary phases for solid-phase micro-extraction in a wide range of (bio)analytical applications. To design and fabricate novel micro-fluidic platforms integrating packed stationary phases capable of withstanding significant high pressures

Nitinol 60 as a Material For Spacecraft Triboelements

The mechanical properties of Nitinol 60, 60 w/o Ni, 40 w/oTi (55 a/o Ni, 45 a/o Ti) are sufficiently attractive to warrant its consideration as a lubricated spacecraft triboelement. The ability to lubricate Nitinol 60 by the oils usually used on spacecraft mechanisms--Pennzane 2001A, Krytox 143AC and Castrol 815Z - was experimentally determined. These oils were run in the boundary lubrication regime for Nitinol 60 balls running against a 440C steel counterface in the vacuum spiral orbit tribometer. Test results consisting of the coefficient of friction versus time (friction traces) and relative degradation rates are presented. Contrary to the inability to successfully lubricate other metal alloys with high titanium content, it was found that Nitinol 60 is able to be lubricated by these oils. Overall, the results presented here indicate that Nitinol 60 is a credible candidate material for spacecraft bearing applications

Intermetallic Nickel-Titanium Alloys for Oil-Lubricated Bearing Applications

An intermetallic nickel-titanium alloy, NITINOL 60 (60NiTi), containing 60 wt% nickel and 40 wt% titanium, is shown to be a promising candidate material for oil-lubricated rolling and sliding contact applications such as bearings and gears. NiTi alloys are well known and normally exploited for their shape memory behavior. When properly processed, however, NITINOL 60 exhibits excellent dimensional stability and useful structural properties. Processed via high temperature, high-pressure powder metallurgy techniques or other means, NITINOL 60 offers a broad combination of physical properties that make it unique among bearing materials. NITINOL 60 is hard, electrically conductive, highly corrosion resistant, less dense than steel, readily machined prior to final heat treatment, nongalling and nonmagnetic. No other bearing alloy, metallic or ceramic encompasses all of these attributes. Further, NITINOL 60 has shown remarkable tribological performance when compared to other aerospace bearing alloys under oil-lubricated conditions. Spiral orbit tribometer (SOT) tests were conducted in vacuum using NITINOL 60 balls loaded between rotating 440C stainless steel disks, lubricated with synthetic hydrocarbon oil. Under conditions considered representative of precision bearings, the performance (life and friction) equaled or exceeded that observed with silicon nitride or titanium carbide coated 440C bearing balls. Based upon this preliminary data, it appears that NITINOL 60, despite its high titanium content, is a promising candidate alloy for advanced mechanical systems requiring superior and intrinsic corrosion resistance, electrical conductivity and nonmagnetic behavior under lubricated contacting conditions

Centrifugally-driven sample extraction, preconcentration and purification in microfluidic compact discs

Centrifugally driven micro-fluidic discs (µ-CDs) have attracted significant interest within the analytical science community over the last decade, primarily being focused on the potential of such platforms for performing parallel and/or multiplex biological assays and further application in biomedical diagnostics. More recently, µ-CD based devices have also been applied to environmental analysis as platforms for multi-sample extraction and transportation, prior to off-disc analysis in the laboratory. Therefore, this review critically summarises recent developments with µ-CD platforms for sample extraction, preconcentration, fractionation and purification in bioanalytical and environmental applications. In addition to also summarising the 10 common methods employed in the fabrication of µCD platforms, as applications of µ-CDs in sample extraction are generally based on enclosed series of extraction phases/micro-columns, the preparation of these stationary phases in micro-fluidic channels embedded in µ-CDs is also discussed

A new species of Dermopristis Kearn, Whittington & Evans-Gowing, 2010 (Monogenea: Microbothriidae), with observations on associations between the gut diverticula and reproductive system and on the presence of denticles in the nasal fossae of the host Glaucostegus typus (Bennett) (Elasmobranchii: Rhinobatidae)

Dermopristis cairae n. sp. (Microbothriidae) is described from the skin and possibly from the nasal fossae of the giant shovelnosed ray Glaucostegus typus (Bennett). The new species is distinguished from D. paradoxus Kearn, Whittington & Evans-Gowing, 2010 by its larger size, body shape, lack of transverse ridges on the ventral surface and absence of a seminal receptacle. Extensive short gut branches lie dorsal to the testes and adjacent to the coiled region of the vas deferens and the oo¨type, possibly reflecting high metabolic demand in these areas. Denticles are present in the lining of the nasal fossae of G. typus, providing a firm substrate for the cement-based attachment of a microbothriid. However, confirmation that D. cairae inhabits the nasal fossae of G. typus is required