The Limits of U.S.-China Military Cooperation: Lessons from 1995-1999

"The Limits of U.S.-China Military Cooperation: Lessons from 1995-1999" (with Kurt Campbell) The Washington Quarterly 29: 1 (Winter 2005), pp. 169-186

Soviet National Security Decision Making

Winston Churchill\u27s characterization of the Soviet Union as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma may overstate Western understanding of the USSR\u27s national security decision-making. The evidence in this domain is sparse, and what we do have is incomplete. Indeed, the Soviets have taken extraordinary steps to maintain the black box that shields how and why their decisions are made. With these caveats in mind, knowledge of Soviet decision-making can be summed up in a few general statements. First, the Soviet leadership is an integrated political-military body, where political authority is dominant, but where the professional military retains an important influence. Second, the role of institutions and individuals varies within and between leaderships, according to the issue under consideration (e.g., doctrine, procurement, etc.), and between times of peace and war. The potential for evolution in the roles of institutions is particularly apparent in the current period of perestroika. Gorbachev has initiated changes that appear to be aimed at transforming the security decision-making apparatus. Finally, the historical record of decision-making in superpower crises indicates that the Soviet Union has been very cautious in confrontations with the United States, a tendency that need not prove true in future clashes

A core competency model for aligning information technology with business objectives

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-98).Advances in Information Technology and Information Systems delivery over the past decades have restructured industries and created enormous value. Interestingly however, research shows companies traditionally have a very difficult time capturing the value from their investment. Any surplus created by these improvements is often competed away and given back to customers. Wall Street's irrational exuberance of the late 1990's has given way to a far more conservative and critical view concerning IT investment. Decision makers are focused on demonstrating that Information Technology expenditures result in positive net returns to the company. IT managers are faced with a fundamental question: How does the organization use Information Technology to create sustainable competitive advantage and capture value in its industry? This thesis proposes a framework, the Core Competency Model, to help companies think about Information Services strategy and Information Technology deployment. Instead of seeking to create competitive advantage through IT investment alone, it introduces the concept of core competencies. IT resources can be quickly duplicated by competitors, as has been shown in the research.(cont.) Core competencies, the complex blending of unique resources and capabilities, are much more difficult to duplicate and form the basis for true sustainable competitive advantage. At its heart, the Core Competency Model suggests that the role of the IS group is to support the formation and enhancement of the organization's core competencies. It further identifies several capabilities and resources that the IS group must possess to fully support the core competencies of the enterprise. This model, if truly utilized, would change the nature of a company's internal dialog on IT spending. Debate over which business units should get which IT resources would be replaced with discussion of the strategic direction and core competencies of the company. Decisions concerning IS resource allocation and IT spending would follow very naturally from this discussion. The Core Competency Model provides a framework for this dialog, beginning with the strategic identification of core competencies, and ending with the tactical analysis of the Information Systems group's capabilities and resources. The final chapter presents some recommendations aimed at helping BMC West successfully develop a set of core competencies, the first step toward creating sustainable competitive advantage in their industry.by Kurt Campbell.S.M.M.B.A

Beyond Goldwater-Nichols

This report culminated almost two years of effort at CSIS, which began by developing an approach for both revisiting the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 and for addressing issues that were beyond the scope of that landmark legislation

The Stellar-Disk Electric (Short) Circuit: Observational Predictions for a YSO Jet Flow

We discuss the star-disk electric circuit for a young stellar object (YSO) and calculate the expected torques on the star and the disk. We obtain the same disk magnetic field and star-disk torques as given by standard magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) analysis. We show how a short circuit in the star-disk electric circuit may produce a magnetically-driven jet flow from the inner edge of a disk surrounding a young star. An unsteady bipolar jet flow is produced that flows perpendicular to the disk plane. Jet speeds of order hundreds of kilometres per second are possible, while the outflow mass loss rate is proportional to the mass accretion rate and is a function of the disk inner radius relative to the disk co-rotation radius.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Transition to PCR diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis in the Norwegian healthcare system: could the increase in reported cases be due to higher sensitivity or a change in the testing algorithm?

publishedVersio

Comparison of Hop Derived Humulone Constituents in Beer Using UV-Vis, HPLC, and LC-MS

Lupulones and humulones are two families of compounds derived from the hop flower (Humulus lupulus), utilized in brewing beer. Isohumulones are produced during the boiling process by isomerization reactions of humulones and are the primary bittering compounds in beer. The concentration in parts per million (ppm) of isohumulone is reported as IBU (International Bittering Units). Measurement of these compounds is valuable to brewers, but is confounded by other constituents in beer which may also absorb at the 275nm wavelength in UV-Vis spectrometry, the industry standard method. 25 samples were measured using UV-Vis, then analyzed by High Precision Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and HPLC-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS). Results were varied with respect to reported IBU. Of note, a sample containing an adjunct had much higher 275nm absorbance than expected, absent when eluted through HPLC, suggesting a falsely higher reading than actual due to interference by the adjunct