Thermal monitoring, measurement, and control system for a Volatile Condensable Materials (VCM) test apparatus

A thermal monitoring and control concept is described for a volatile condensable materials (VCM) test apparatus where electric resistance heaters are employed. The technique is computer based, but requires only proportioning ON/OFF relay control signals supplied through a programmable scanner and simple quadrac power controllers. System uniqueness is derived from automatic temperature measurements and the averaging of these measurements in discrete overlapping temperature zones. Overall control tolerance proves to be better than + or - 0.5 C from room ambient temperature to 150 C. Using precisely calibrated thermocouples, the method provides excellent temperature control of a small copper VCM heating plate at 125 + or - 0.2 C over a 24 hr test period. For purposes of unattended operation, the programmable computer/controller provides a continual data printout of system operation. Real time operator command is also provided for, as is automatic shutdown of the system and operator alarm in the event of malfunction

Depressed collector for electron beams

A depressed collector for recovery of spent beam energy from electromagnetic sources emitting sheet or large aspect ration annular electron beams operating aver a broad range of beam voltages and currents. The collector incorporates a trap for capturing and preventing the return of reflected and secondary electrons

Application of LANDSAT data to delimitation of avalanche hazards in Montane, Colorado

The author has identified the following significant results. Photointerpretation of individual avalanche paths on single band black and white LANDSAT images is greatly hindered by terrain shadows and the low spatial resolution of the LANDSAT system. Maps produced in this way are biased towards the larger avalanche paths that are under the most favorable illumination conditions during imaging; other large avalanche paths, under less favorable illumination, are often not detectable and the smaller paths, even those defined by sharp trimlines, are only rarely identifiable

Preventing False Confessions: Is Oickle Up to the Task?

In R. v. Oickle, the Supreme Court of Canada expressly stated that the Canadian confessions rule should recognize which interrogation techniques commonly produce false confessions so as to avoid miscarriages of justice. As a result, the Court reformulated the traditional confessions rule in an attempt to better protect against false confessions. An obvious question is whether the Court succeeded in attaining this goal. An examination of the reformulated rule indicates that, viewed in the abstract and measured against the current state of knowledge on false confessions, the modern rule does offer considerable protection to innocent persons, but it also has some significant shortcomings. Additional reforms are necessary to further reduce the risk of false confessions. These reforms should include greater judicial recognition of the individual risk factors associated with false confessions, mandatory videotaping of interrogation, and direct regulation of particular interrogation tactics. The Court should also consider incorporating a post-confession reliability analysis into the modern confessions rule

Personality and Hazardous Judgment Patterns Within A Student Civil Aviation Population

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality profiles and hazardous judgment patterns within a student civil aviation population. Thirty subjects receiving private pilot instruction from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certified flight schools or independent private instructor pilots in central Texas successfully completed testing. Two instruments were employed: the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Form G--Self-Scorable (Briggs & Myers, 1987), and an inventory designed by researchers at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to measure pilot hazardous attitudes (Berlin, et al., 1982). Data analysis was conducted using Pearson\u27s r. While the results provided limited support for the existence of personality/hazardous attitude relationships, they failed to support the research hypothesis at the level of significance established (p\u3c.05). Results from the Embry-Riddle inventory demonstrated strong similarities to those obtained by earlier researchers (Lester & Bombaci, 1984). Type distribution from the MBTI suggested the existence of an aggregate personality profile considerably distinct from the general population at large

The Information System as a Competitive Weapon

Long considered backoffice support tools, information systems have become strategic competitive weapons. In the airline, travel services financial services, and distribution industries, for example, information systems have become strategic competitive weapons. Information systems have been used to produce new productsorto substantiallymodifyold one. Frequently, these systems increase the customer\u27s switching costs, and thereby increase dependence on the supplier This phenomenon has been discussed by several researchers, and disparate descriptive models proposed. A new model the Customer Resource Life Cycle Model, provides a powerful descriptive capability and potential as a mechanism for generating strategic applications. The model assumes competitive advantages can be obtained by supporting a customer\u27s resource life cycle via information systems technologies. Numerous applications illustrate the descriptive power of the modeL The considerable attention recently paid to using information systems as competitive weapons can be attributed to several factors, includingthe unrelenting decline of the cost of information technologies; structural changes inthe economywroughtbythe recenteconomic decline and subsequent recovery; and perhaps most importantly, by the deregulation of many industries-particularly airlines and finaricial services. Companies, once shackled by regulatoly agencies, have moved quickly to replace limited, but well understood product lines with a varied, ever changing menu of new products and services Information systems have played a critical role in managing this diversity. Information systems are beginning to distinguish successful firms from their competitors And they are doing it where it counts-in the market place. Information systems are emerging from the back office and making their way to the corporate boardroom. Recentstudies(reviewedinthepaper) describe how informationsystems canbeexploitedt:o an organization\u27s competitive advantage and present descriptive models for classifying successful strategic applications or evaluating the potential of proposed applications. We presentanewmodelfordescribingstrategicinformationsystems,amodel withaprescriptive character. We expect that the model will foster and encourage the discovery of new opportunities for the successful application of information system technologies. We have populatedthemodelwithseveraldozenexamples ofsuchinformationsystemapplicationsto enhance the prescriptive capabilities. The Product/Resource Life Cycle It is well known that an organization\u27s products or services go through a fairly well-defined life cycle. Within IBM\u27s Business Systems Planning process, for instance, four stages are proposed for the life cycle of both products/services and supporting resources: The Customer\u27s Resource Life Cycle The products an organization provides its customers are, from the customers perspective, supporting resources. To acquire them the customer goes through a resource life cycle, a life cycle frequently requiring a considerable investment of time and effort to manage. If the suppliercan assistthe customerin managingthis life cycle, thenthe supplier, throughhigher quality customer service, may differentiate itself from its competitors. Simultaneously, the supplier has introduced customer switching costs. The customer\u27s resource life cycle (CRLC) can frequently be supported through the application of supplier-provided IST. Frequently, transactions with customers are sufficiently homogeneous to economicallyjustify the supplier developing support systems which the customer can\u27t afford. The four-stage IBM model is a helpful starting point, but provides a ratherrough cut at the CRLC. A more detailed breakdown significantly improves the model\u27s utility. Burnstine has proposed an eleven-stage resource life cycle model and we have extended it by two more stages(seeExhibit).Anyofthesethirteen-stagesmaybeamenabletosupportfromsupplierdeveloped strategic information systems. The CRLC model provides a tool forseeking outnew competitive applications. The 13 stages focus the search, while the dozens of examples included in the paper provide analogies that serve as a catalyst to creative thought Competitive information systems have already shown themselves to be of strategic importance in severalindustries and their influence is being felt in manyothers Theimportance of these systems has been well documented in the literature, and several authors have provided criteria usefulinevaluating the utilityof both existingandpotentialapplications. The CRLC model goes a step further by providing a tool to assist in identifying such systems Because it focuses on customer service, the model is of primary use for building in customer switching costs and differentiating a product or service. 1

Examining the Relationship between Community Residents\u27 Economic Status and the Outcomes of Community Development Programs

In designing and implementing community development interventions the economic status of targeted participants is a demographic characteristic worth considering. The findings from this research indicate that even within the limited economies of rural Mexican villages there are variations in economic status that affect the ways in which the outcomes of community development programs are perceived. The poorest of the poor are likely to be less satisfied with development projects than those with average or better-off economic status. This is true whether a development project uses a bottomup approach or a top-down approach. The more participatory approach does not attenuate the relationship between economic status and satisfaction with development programs. On the contrary, it may exacerbate it

Development of a 402.5 MHz 140 kW Inductive Output Tube

This report contains the results of Phase I of an SBIR to develop a Pulsed Inductive Output Tube (IOT) with 140 kW at 400 MHz for powering H-proton beams. A number of sources, including single beam and multiple beam klystrons, can provide this power, but the IOT provides higher efficiency. Efficiencies exceeding 70% are routinely achieved. The gain is typically limited to approximately 24 dB; however, the availability of highly efficient, solid state drivers reduces the significance of this limitation, particularly at lower frequencies. This program initially focused on developing a 402 MHz IOT; however, the DOE requirement for this device was terminated during the program. The SBIR effort was refocused on improving the IOT design codes to more accurately simulate the time dependent behavior of the input cavity, electron gun, output cavity, and collector. Significant improvement was achieved in modeling capability and simulation accuracy

Computerized system for translating a torch head

The system provides a constant travel speed along a contoured workpiece. It has a driven skate characterized by an elongated bed, with a pair of independently pivoted trucks connected to the bed for support. The trucks are mounted on a contoured track of arbitrary configuration in a mutually spaced relation. An axially extensible torch head manipulator arm is mounted on the bed of the carriage and projects perpendicular from the midportion. The torch head is mounted at its distal end. A real-time computerized control drive subsystem is used to advance the skate along the track of a variable rate for maintaining a constant speed for the torch head tip, and to position the torch axis relative to a preset angle to the workpiece