Combatting Skepticism Towards HR

[Excerpt] When assessing the essentiality of HR within a firm, one must first ask what is meant by the word “essential” within a business context. The trickiness here, however, is that such a definition is highly contingent on the type and size of a particular firm. If one defines “essential” as “indispensable,” then HR is almost certainly not essential in very small firms. In such instances, the work of HR can be done by other managers and the owners themselves. On the other hand, if one defines “essential” as “adding considerable value,” then innovative human resource policies can create a competitive advantage even in the smallest of firms. Instead of relying on a single definition of essentiality, this essay will focus on the reasons why human resources practices are often called into question in the first place. Furthermore, I will propose recommendations on how to combat skepticism toward HR

On-site manufacture of propellant oxygen from lunar resources

The Aerojet Carbothermal Process for the manufacture of oxygen from lunar resources has three essential steps: the reduction of silicate with methane to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen; the reduction of carbon monoxide with hydrogen to form methane and water; and the electrolysis of water to form oxygen and hydrogen. This cyclic process does not depend upon the presence of water or water precursors in the lunar materials; it will produce oxygen from silicates regardless of their precise composition and fine structure. Research on the first step of the process was initiated by determining some of the operating conditions required to reduce igneous rock with carbon and silicon carbide. The initial phase of research on the second step is completed; quantitative conversion of carbon monoxide and hydrogen to methane and water was achieved with a nickel-on-kieselguhr catalyst. The equipment used in and the results obtained from these process studies are reported in detail

Co-ordinating distributed knowledge: An investigation into the use of an organisational memory

This paper presents an ethnographically informed investigation into the use of an organisational memory, focusing in particular on how information was used in the performance of work. We argue that understanding how people make use of distributed knowledge is crucial to the design of an organisational memory. However, we take the perspective that an ‘organisational memory’ is not technology dependant, but is an emergent property of group interaction. In this sense, the technology does not form the organisational memory, but provides a novel means of augmenting the co-ordination of collaborative action. The study examines the generation, development and maintenance of knowledge repositories and archives. The knowledge and information captured in the organisational memory enabled the team members to establish a common understanding of the design and to gain an appreciation of the issues and concerns of the other disciplines. The study demonstrates why technology should not be thought of in isolation from its contexts of use, but also how designers can make use of the creative flexibility that people employ in their everyday activities. The findings of the study are therefore of direct relevance to both the design of knowledge archives and to the management of this information within organisations

Helicity dynamics in stratified turbulence in the absence of forcing

A numerical study of decaying stably-stratified flows is performed. Relatively high stratification and moderate Reynolds numbers are considered, and a particular emphasis is placed on the role of helicity (velocity-vorticity correlations). The problem is tackled by integrating the Boussinesq equations in a periodic cubical domain using different initial conditions: a non-helical Taylor-Green (TG) flow, a fully helical Beltrami (ABC) flow, and random flows with a tunable helicity. We show that for stratified ABC flows helicity undergoes a substantially slower decay than for unstratified ABC flows. This fact is likely associated to the combined effect of stratification and large scale coherent structures. Indeed, when the latter are missing, as in random flows, helicity is rapidly destroyed by the onset of gravitational waves. A type of large-scale dissipative "cyclostrophic" balance can be invoked to explain this behavior. When helicity survives in the system it strongly affects the temporal energy decay and the energy distribution among Fourier modes. We discover in fact that the decay rate of energy for stratified helical flows is much slower than for stratified non-helical flows and can be considered with a phenomenological model in a way similar to what is done for unstratified rotating flows. We also show that helicity, when strong, has a measurable effect on the Fourier spectra, in particular at scales larger than the buoyancy scale for which it displays a rather flat scaling associated with vertical shear

In vitro transformation of lymphoid cells by Abelson murine leukemia virus

Cell cultures prepared from fetal murine liver were infected by Abelson murine leukemia virus. After about 2 weeks, proliferating cells of lymphoid morphology appeared in some of the cultures. Addition of 2-mercaptoethanol to the initial culture medium greatly enhanced the appearance of the lymphoid cells. Immunoglobulin determinants were evident on the cells in some cultures. Continuous passage of the cells in certain cultures was possible and the passaged cells could form tumors after animal inoculation. Because Abelson murine leukemia virus is able to induce in vitro malignant transformation of lymphoid cells, it probably causes leukemia by directly affecting cellular growth control

Transport: Introduction

Space transportation requirements for the NASA baseline scenario for future space missions are discussed. Spacecraft/propulsion technologies required for surface-to-orbit, orbit-to-orbit, and surface (lunar) transportation are addressed

Large-scale anisotropy in stably stratified rotating flows

We present results from direct numerical simulations of the Boussinesq equations in the presence of rotation and/or stratification, both in the vertical direction. The runs are forced isotropically and randomly at small scales and have spatial resolutions of up to $1024^3$ grid points and Reynolds numbers of $\approx 1000$. We first show that solutions with negative energy flux and inverse cascades develop in rotating turbulence, whether or not stratification is present. However, the purely stratified case is characterized instead by an early-time, highly anisotropic transfer to large scales with almost zero net isotropic energy flux. This is consistent with previous studies that observed the development of vertically sheared horizontal winds, although only at substantially later times. However, and unlike previous works, when sufficient scale separation is allowed between the forcing scale and the domain size, the total energy displays a perpendicular (horizontal) spectrum with power law behavior compatible with $\sim k_\perp^{-5/3}$, including in the absence of rotation. In this latter purely stratified case, such a spectrum is the result of a direct cascade of the energy contained in the large-scale horizontal wind, as is evidenced by a strong positive flux of energy in the parallel direction at all scales including the largest resolved scales

Isotropisation at small scales of rotating helically-driven turbulence

We present numerical evidence of how three-dimensionalization occurs at small scale in rotating turbulence with Beltrami (ABC) forcing, creating helical flow. The Zeman scale $\ell_{\Omega}$ at which the inertial and eddy turn-over times are equal is more than one order of magnitude larger than the dissipation scale, with the relevant domains (large-scale inverse cascade of energy, dual regime in the direct cascade of energy $E$ and helicity $H$, and dissipation) each moderately resolved. These results stem from the analysis of a large direct numerical simulation on a grid of $3072^3$ points, with Rossby and Reynolds numbers respectively equal to 0.07 and $2.7\times 10^4$. At scales smaller than the forcing, a helical wave-modulated inertial law for the energy and helicity spectra is followed beyond $\ell_{\Omega}$ by Kolmogorov spectra for $E$ and $H$. Looking at the two-dimensional slow manifold, we also show that the helicity spectrum breaks down at $\ell_{\Omega}$, a clear sign of recovery of three-dimensionality in the small scales.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure