Flight Mechanics of the Wright Aircraft 1903-1912

Perhaps the most curious aspect of the Wright Brothers' program to invent and commercialize the airplane is their decision in 1900 to use their novel canard configuration, and to persist with that geometry until 1910 despite the known deficiency that the aircraft were unstable in pitch. The reasons for their initial choice are well-known. Several studies in the part twenty years have proven beyond doubt that the Wrights did not intentionally make their canards unstable. The pitch instability of their machine was an unwitting byproduct of their design chosen partly out of fear of the conventional design and partly (they reasoned) for more positive control. With their great emphasis on control, the Wrights were able to develop a successful aircraft, albeit difficult to fly additionally because the 1903 aircraft also possessed a fast spiral instability. A canard design is not necessarily unstable, but owing chiefly to their airfoil, and an unfortunate fore-and-aft mass distribution, the Wright canards were all unstable. Though easier to fly, their 1909 aircraft was more unstable than the famous 1903 FZper and the Brothers did not have a stable design until they finally adopted a conventional aft horizontal tail in 1910. Successful control of the canard aircraft depended heavily on large damping-in-pitch. The purpose of this paper is to apply modern analysis of flight mechanics to trace the detailed flying characteristics of their powered aircraft from 1903 to 1910 when they finally gave up the canard. Its a story in which technology, stubborness and commercialization are intimately mingled; we are concerned here only with the technology. © by 2003

The spiritual organization: critical reflections on the instrumentality of workplace spirituality

Authors' draft of article. Final version published by Routledge in Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion available online at: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/14766086.aspThis paper offers a theoretical contribution to the current debate on workplace spirituality by: (a) providing a selective critical review of scholarship, research and corporate practices which treat workplace spirituality in performative terms, that is, as a resource or means to be manipulated instrumentally and appropriated for economic ends; (b) extending Ezioni’s analysis of complex organizations and proposing a new category, the ‘spiritual organization’, and; (c) positing three alternative positions with respect to workplace spirituality that follow from the preceding critique. The spiritual organization can be taken to represent the development of a trajectory of social technologies that have sought, incrementally, to control the bodies, minds, emotions and souls of employees. Alternatively, it might be employed to conceptualize the way in which employees use the workplace as a site for pursuing their own spiritualities (a reverse instrumentalism). Finally, we consider the possible incommensurability of ‘work organization’ and ‘spirituality’ discourses

Designing a broad-spectrum integrative approach for cancer prevention and treatment

Targeted therapies and the consequent adoption of "personalized" oncology have achieved notablesuccesses in some cancers; however, significant problems remain with this approach. Many targetedtherapies are highly toxic, costs are extremely high, and most patients experience relapse after a fewdisease-free months. Relapses arise from genetic heterogeneity in tumors, which harbor therapy-resistantimmortalized cells that have adopted alternate and compensatory pathways (i.e., pathways that are notreliant upon the same mechanisms as those which have been targeted). To address these limitations, aninternational task force of 180 scientists was assembled to explore the concept of a low-toxicity "broad-spectrum" therapeutic approach that could simultaneously target many key pathways and mechanisms. Using cancer hallmark phenotypes and the tumor microenvironment to account for the various aspectsof relevant cancer biology, interdisciplinary teams reviewed each hallmark area and nominated a widerange of high-priority targets (74 in total) that could be modified to improve patient outcomes. For thesetargets, corresponding low-toxicity therapeutic approaches were then suggested, many of which werephytochemicals. Proposed actions on each target and all of the approaches were further reviewed forknown effects on other hallmark areas and the tumor microenvironment. Potential contrary or procar-cinogenic effects were found for 3.9% of the relationships between targets and hallmarks, and mixedevidence of complementary and contrary relationships was found for 7.1%. Approximately 67% of therelationships revealed potentially complementary effects, and the remainder had no known relationship. Among the approaches, 1.1% had contrary, 2.8% had mixed and 62.1% had complementary relationships. These results suggest that a broad-spectrum approach should be feasible from a safety standpoint. Thisnovel approach has potential to be relatively inexpensive, it should help us address stages and types ofcancer that lack conventional treatment, and it may reduce relapse risks. A proposed agenda for futureresearch is offered

Selectivity, Kinetics, and Efficiency of Reversible Anion Exchange with TcO4- in a Supertetrahedral Cationic Framework

[ThB5O6(OH)6][BO(OH)2]center dot 2.5H2O (Notre Dame Thorium Borate-1, NDTB-1) is an inorganic supertetrahedral cationic framework material that is derived from boric acid flux reactions. NDTB-1 exhibits facile single crystal to single crystal anion exchange with a variety of common anions such as Cl-, Br-, NO3-, IO3-, ClO4-, MnO4-, and CrO42-. More importantly, NDTB-1 is selective for the removal of TcO4- from nuclear waste streams even though there are large excesses of competing anions such as Cl-, NO3-, and NO2-. Competing anion exchange experiments and magic-angle spinning (MAS)-NMR spectroscopy of anion-exchanged NDTB-1 demonstrate that this unprecedented selectivity originates from the ability of NDTB-1 to trap TcO4- within cavities, whereas others remain mobile within channels in the material. The exchange kinetics of TcO4- in NDTB-1 are second-order with the rate constant k2 of 0.059 s-1 M-1. The anion exchange capacity of NDTB-1 for TcO4- is 162.2 mg g-1 (0.5421 mol mol-1) with a maximum distribution coefficient Kd of 1.0534 x 10(4) mL g-1. Finally, it is demonstrated that the exchange for TcO4- in NDTB-1 is reversible. TcO4- trapped in NDTB-1 can be exchanged out using higher-charged anions with a similar size such as PO43- and SeO42-, and therefore the material can be easily recycled and reused

The development and current status of Medi SPICE

There is increasing demand for effective software process assessment and improvement in the medical device industry. This is due to the expanding and complex role that software now plays in the operation and functionality of medical devices. This paper outlines the development and current status of Medi SPICE a software process assessment and improvement model which is being developed to meet the specific requirements of this safety-critical domain. This includes the selection of the most appropriate software process improvement model on which to base Medi SPICE. Its initial development and restructuring to conform to ISO/IEC 15504-5:2012 and ISO/IEC 12207:2008. The structure and content of its process reference model is outlined and an industry based trial assessment of 11 of its processes discussed. Current and future work is considered including the timeframe for the release of a full version of the Medi SPICE model