Supply Chains and Porous Boundaries: The Disaggregation of Legal Services

The economic downturn has had significant effects on law firms, and is causing many of them to rethink some basic assumptions about how they operate. In important respects, however, the downturn has simply intensified the effects of some deeper trends that preceded it, which are likely to continue after any recovery that may occur. This paper explores one of these trends, which is corporate client insistence that law firms “disaggregate” their services into discrete tasks that can be delegated to the least costly providers who can perform them. With advances in communications technology, there is increasing likelihood that some of these persons may be located outside the formal boundaries of the firm. This means that law firms may need increasingly to confront the make or buy decision that their corporate clients have regularly confronted for some time. The potential for vertical disintegration is a relatively recent development for legal services, but is well-established in other sectors of the global economy. Empirical work in several disciplines has identified a number of issues that arise for organizations as the make or buy decision becomes a potentially more salient feature of their operations. Much of this work has focused in particular on the implications of relying on outsourcing as an integral part of the production process. This paper discusses research on: (1) the challenges of ensuring that work performed outside the firm is fully integrated into the production process; (2) coordinating projects for which networks of organizations are responsible; (3) managing the transfer of knowledge inside and outside of firms that are participants in a supply chain; and (4) addressing the impact of using contingent workers on an organization’s workforce, structure, and culture. A review of this research suggests considerations that law firms will need to assess if they begin significantly to extend the process of providing services beyond their formal boundaries. Discussing the research also is intended to introduce concepts that may become increasingly relevant to law firms, but which currently are not commonly used to analyze their operations. Considering how these concepts are applicable to law firms may prompt us to rethink how to conceptualize these firms and what they do. This paper therefore is a preliminary attempt to explore: (1) the extent to which law firms may come to resemble the vertically disintegrated organizations that populate many other economic sectors and (2) the potential implications of this trend for the provision of legal services,the trajectory of legal careers, and lawyers’ sense of themselves as members of a distinct profession

Alternative strategies for space station financing

The attributes of the proposed space station program are oriented toward research activities and technologies which generate long term benefits for mankind. Unless such technologies are deemed of national interest and thus are government funded, they must stand on their own in the market place. Therefore, the objectives of a United States space station should be based on commercial criteria; otherwise, such a project attracts no long term funding. There is encouraging evidence that some potential space station activities should generate revenues from shuttle related projects within the decade. Materials processing concepts as well as remote sensing indicate substantial potential. Futhermore, the economics and thus the commercial feasibility of such projects will be improved by the operating efficiencies available with an ongoing space station program

Asphericity Can Cause Nonuniform Lithium Intercalation in Battery Active Particles

Uniform intercalation is desired to enable next-generation Li-ion batteries. While we expect nonuniformity in materials undergoing a phase change, single-phase intercalation materials such as nickel manganese cobalt oxide are believed to lithiate uniformly at the particle/electrolyte interface. However, recent imaging reveals nonuniform lithiation. Motivated by this discrepancy, we examine if aspherical particle shape can cause such nonuniformity since the conventional belief is based on spherical particle theory. We obtain real particle geometries using rapid lab-based X-ray computed tomography and subsequently perform physics-based calculations accounting for electrochemical reactions at the particle/electrolyte interface and lithium transport inside the particle bulk. The aspherical geometry breaks the symmetry and causes nonuniform reaction distribution. Such nonuniformity is exacerbated as the particle becomes more aspherical. The proposed mechanism represents a fundamental limit on achievable lithiation uniformity in aspherical particles in the absence of other mechanisms causing inhomogeneity, such as grain structure, nonuniform carbon-binder coating, etc

Waste Management at SRS - Making It Happen

The past five years have witnessed a remarkable transition in the pace and scope of waste management activities at SRS. At the start of the new M&O contract in 1996, little was being done with the waste generated at the site apart from storing it in readiness for future treatment and disposal. Large volumes of legacy waste, particularly TRU and Low Level Waste, had accumulated over many years of operation of the site's nuclear facilities, and the backlog was increasing. WSRC proposed the use of the talents of the ''best in class'' partners for the new contract which, together with a more commercial approach, was expected to deliver more results without a concomitant increase in cost. This paper charts the successes in the Solid Waste arena and analyzes the basis for success

Examining the Cycling Behaviour of Li-Ion Batteries Using Ultrasonic Time-of-Flight Measurements

Diagnostic systems for Li-ion batteries have become increasingly important due to the larger size, and cost of the batteries being deployed in increasingly demanding applications, including electric vehicles. Here, ultrasound acoustic time-of-flight (ToF) analysis is conducted under a range of operating conditions. Measurements are performed on a commercial pouch cell during varying discharge rates to identify a range of effects that influence the acoustic ToF measurements. The cell was examined using X-ray computed tomography to ensure no significant defects were present and to confirm the layered structure in the region being investigated, validating the signal pattern observed. Analyses of the acoustic signals obtained suggest that stresses are generated in the electrodes during both the charge and discharge of the cell with the magnitude of Young's modulus for the component materials being both a function of the state-of-charge and applied current. Characteristic responses for both electrodes during the charge/discharge cycle highlight the potential application of the technique as a real-time diagnostic tool

Study of the tortuosity factors at multi-scale for a novel-structured SOFC anode

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. Gas transport properties are closely related to the tortuosity of the pore network within porous materials. For the first time, this study explores a multi-scale imaging and modelling method to measure the tortuosity of an Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) electrode material with pore sizes spanning over hundreds of orders of magnitude. This analysis is normally challenging using image-based techniques, as pores of different sizes may not be easily resolved at the same time using X-ray computed tomography (CT). In this study, a tubular SOFC anode, fabricated by a phase inversion technique, is used to illustrate this approach. A heat flux analogy is used to simulate mass transport and the results show that the embedded large-scale finger-like pores can significantly improve mass transport by providing less tortuous pathways

A Dilatometric Study of Graphite Electrodes during Cycling with X-ray Computed Tomography

Graphite is the most commonly used anode material in commercial lithium-ion batteries (LiBs). Understanding the mechanisms driving the dimensional changes of graphite can pave the way to methods for inhibiting degradation pathways and possibly predict electrochemical performance loss. In this study, correlative microscopy tools were used alongside electrochemical dilatometry (ECD) to provide new insights into the dimensional changes during galvanostatic cycling. X-ray computed tomography (CT) provided a morphological perspective of the cycled electrode so that the effects of dilation and contraction on effective diffusivity and electrode pore phase volume fraction could be examined. During the first cycle, the graphite electrode underwent thickness changes close to 9% after lithiation and, moreover, it did not return to its initial thickness after subsequent delithiation. The irreversible dilation increased over subsequent cycles. It is suggested the primary reason for this dilation is electrode delamination. This is supported by the finding that the electrode porosity remained mostly unchanged during cycling, as revealed by X-ray CT

An Investigation into Creep Cavity Development in 316H Stainless Steel

Creep-induced cavitation is an important failure mechanism in steel components operating at high temperature. Robust techniques are required to observe and quantify creep cavitation. In this paper, the use of two complementary analysis techniques: small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), and quantitative metallography, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), is reported. The development of creep cavities that is accumulated under uniaxial load has been studied as a function of creep strain and life fraction, by carrying out interrupted tests on two sets of creep test specimens that are prepared from a Type-316H austenitic stainless steel reactor component. In order to examine the effects of pre-strain on creep damage formation, one set of specimens was subjected to a plastic pre-strain of 8%, and the other set had no pre-strain. Each set of specimens was subjected to different loading and temperature conditions, representative of those of current and future power plant operation. Cavities of up to 300 nm in size are quantified by using SANS, and their size distribution, as a function of determined creep strain. Cavitation increases significantly as creep strain increases throughout creep life. These results are confirmed by quantitative metallography analysis

An Advanced Microstructural and Electrochemical Datasheet on 18650 Li-Ion Batteries with Nickel-Rich NMC811 Cathodes and Graphite-Silicon Anodes

Cylindrical lithium-ion batteries are used across a wide range of applications from spacesuits to automotive vehicles. Specifically, many manufacturers are producing cells in the 18650 geometry i.e. a steel cylinder of diameter and length ca. 18 and 65 mm, respectively. One example is the LG Chem INR18650 MJ1 (nominal values: 3.5 Ah, 3.6 V, 12.2 Wh). This article describes the electrochemical performance and microstructural assembly of such cells, where all the under-pinning data is made openly available for the benefit of the wider community. The charge-discharge capacity is reported for 400 operational cycles via the manufacturer's guidelines along with full-cell, individual electrode coating and particle 3D imaging. Within the electrochemical data, the distinction between protocol transition, beginning-of-life (BoL) capacity loss, and prolonged degradation is outlined and, subsequently, each aspect of the microstructural characterization is broken down into key metrics that may aid in understanding such degradation (e.g. electrode assembly layers, coating thickness, areal loading, particle size and shape). All key information is summarized in a quick-access advanced datasheet in order to provide an initial baseline of information to guide research paths, inform experiments and aid computational modellers