American Dream and New Management in Alfred P. Sloans Adventures of a White-Collar Man

This paper analyzes Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.s Adventures of a White-Collar Man published in 1941. It attempts to find the reason that he wrote the book then. Sloan explicitly insists that the prosperous American society was possible thanks to the adventurers in engineering and business. This paper interprets that he intended to remind the readers that the American Dream were still valid and alive. More importantly, this paper points out that more significant aspects of this book is that it shows the rise of new era in business management. Due to the complexity and the size of the companies, Sloan found totally new and effective principles and successfully applied them to General Motors. The new management that he used became a standard ever since. Therefore Sloan can be seen as a demarcation of a new era in American history

Effects of Flexibility, Security, and Information Features on Supplier Participation in the Sharing Economy: An Empirical Study

Firms in the sharing economy typically offer higher flexibility but lower security of working conditions. In response to challenges from suppliers and policy makers, several platform companies are reconsidering their approach. This study examines the effects of offering sharing economy suppliers a menu of contract options, differentiated by varying levels of flexibility, security, and information transparency on their willingness to work for a platform. We focus on ridesharing, one of the largest sectors in the sharing economy, but the insights translate to other segments of this emerging sector. Using a discrete choice experiment, we find drivers’ willingness to work for ridesharing generally increases when the platform offers diversified combinations of flexibility, security, and transparency. We also find evidence that suppliers’ preferences to participate in the sharing economy are influenced by the working conditions in their alternative employment options

The effect of shear tractions on frictionally-excited thermoelastic instability

A parametric study is conducted to determine the effect of normal displacements due to shear tractions on the critical speed for frictionally-excited thermoelastic instability. The results show that shear effects can be very significant when the materials have comparable thermal properties and their neglect can lead to a non-conservative overestimate of critical speed. It is also found that the common approximation of one material as a non-conductor typically underestimates the critical speed by an order of magnitude if the ratio of the two material conductivities is greater than 0.005.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/30993/1/0000668.pd

Experimental studies of strong dipolar interparticle interaction in monodisperse Fe3O4 nanoparticles

Interparticle interaction of monodisperse Fe3 O4 nanoparticles has been experimentally investigated by dispersing the nanoparticles in solvents. With increasing the interparticle distances to larger than 100 nm in a controlled manner, the authors found that the blocking temperature (TB) of the nanoparticles drops continuously and eventually gets saturated with a total drop in TB of 7-17 K observed for 3, 5, and 7 nm samples, compared with their respective nanopowder samples. By carefully studying the dependence of TB on the interparticle distance, the authors could demonstrate that the experimental dependence of TB follows the theoretical curve of the dipole-dipole interaction. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.open313

Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework Decorated Molybdenum Carbide Catalysts for Hydrodeoxygenation of Guaiacol to Phenol

Bimetallic zeolitic imidazolate framework (BMZIF)-decorated Mo carbide catalysts were designed for the catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol to produce phenol with high selectivity. A uniform layer of BMZIF was systematically coated onto the surface of the MoO3 nanorods. During carbonization at 700 degrees C for 4 h, BMZIF generated active species (ZnO, CoO) on highly dispersed N-doped carbons, creating a porous shell structure. Simultaneously, the MoO3 nanorod was transformed into the Mo2C phase. The resulting core@shell type Mo2C@BMZIF-700 degrees C (4 h) catalyst promoted a 97% guaiacol conversion and 70% phenol selectivity under 4 MPa of H-2 at 330 degrees C for 4 h, which was not achieved by other supported catalysts. The catalyst also showed excellent selective cleavage of the methoxy group of lignin derivatives (syringol and vanillin), which makes it suitable for selective demethoxylation in future biomass catalysis. Moreover, it exhibits excellent recyclability and stability without changing the structure or active species

Boosting hot electron flux and catalytic activity at metal-oxide interfaces of PtCo bimetallic nanoparticles

Despite numerous studies, the origin of the enhanced catalytic performance of bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) remains elusive because of the ever-changing surface structures, compositions, and oxidation states of NPs under reaction conditions. An effective strategy for obtaining critical clues for the phenomenon is real-time quantitative detection of hot electrons induced by a chemical reaction on the catalysts. Here, we investigate hot electrons excited on PtCo bimetallic NPs during H-2 oxidation by measuring the chemicurrent on a catalytic nanodiode while changing the Pt composition of the NPs. We reveal that the presence of a CoO/Pt interface enables efficient transport of electrons and higher catalytic activity for PtCo NPs. These results are consistent with theoretical calculations suggesting that lower activation energy and higher exothermicity are required for the reaction at the CoO/Pt interfac