Man and His Technology

(Presented as a part of the Symposium on Man at the Centennial Program of the Iowa Academy of Science, Ames, Iowa April 18, 1975.) Alexis Carrel, a Nobel laureate of 1912, published a book in 1935 that he titled Man the Unknown. This might have been an appropriate theme for this paper. As Carrel pointed out 40 years ago, although there is much that is known about man, there is need of a much more profound knowledge of ourselves. And not only a knowledge of man as an isolated fragment in the cosmos, but, perhaps even more importantly, a knowledge of man as an integral part of the universe, adapting, adjusting, controlling, struggling, failing, surviving

Thermoplastic coating of carbon fibers

A continuous powder coating system was developed for coating carbon fiber with LaRC-TPI (Langley Research Center-Thermoplastic Polyimide), a high-temperature thermoplastic polymide invented by NASA-Langley. The coating line developed used a pneumatic fiber spreader to separate the individual fibers. The polymer was applied within a recirculating powder coating chamber then melted using a combination of direct electrical resistance and convective heating to make it adhere to the fiber tow. The tension and speed of the line were controlled with a dancer arm and an electrically driven fiber wind-up and wind-off. The effects of heating during the coating process on the flexibility of the prepreg produced were investigated. The uniformity with which the fiber tow could be coated with polymer also was examined. Composite specimens were fabricated from the prepreg and tested to determine optimum process conditions. The study showed that a very uniform and flexible prepeg with up to 50 percent by volume polymer could be produced with this powder coating system. The coating line minimized powder loss and produced prepeg in lengths of up to 300 m. The fiber spreading was found to have a major effect on the coating uniformity and flexibility. Though test results showed low composite tensile strengths, analysis of fracture surfaces under scanning electron microscope indicated that fiber/matrix adhesion was adequate

Leveling coatings for reducing the atomic oxygen defect density in protected graphite fiber epoxy composites

Pinholes or other defect sites in a protective oxide coating provide pathways for atomic oxygen in low Earth orbit to reach underlying material. One concept of enhancing the lifetime of materials in low Earth orbit is to apply a leveling coating to the material prior to applying any reflective and protective coatings. Using a surface tension leveling coating concept, a low viscosity epoxy was applied to the surface of several composite coupons. A protective layer of 1000 A of SiO2 was deposited on top of the leveling coating, and the coupons were exposed to an atomic oxygen environment in a plasma asher. Pinhole populations per unit area were estimated by counting the number of undercut sites observed by scanning electron microscopy. Defect density values of 180,000 defects/sq cm were reduced to about 1000 defects/sq cm as a result of the applied leveling coating. These improvements occur at a mass penalty of about 2.5 mg/sq cm

A Quality Approach to Tacit Knowledge Capture: Effective Practice to Achieving Operational Excellence

Knowledge loss resulting from an aging workforce continues to be a management nightmare that has obliged many organizational leaders to develop strategies aimed at documenting mission-critical knowledge. Yet knowledge captured and stored in repositories continues to lack quality. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of integrating quality management into the tacit knowledge capture process. Further studies on the effects of personality in the knowledge capture processes could lead to insights on reasons for diminished knowledge quality. From a social perspective, the implementation of a model that encompasses personality and quality management could improve decision-making processes

Modeling the gradient evolution and decay of harmony systems

The diachronic trajectories of vowel harmony systems have been understudied but offer significant insight into both the possible domains of vowel harmony as well as the interaction between phonetic coarticulation and phonological harmony. This paper proposes a novel analysis of decaying labial harmony in Kazakh, unifying phonetics and phonology in one formalism (Flemming 2001) that incorporates both abstract morpho-phonological and temporal phonetic factors to drive the gradient harmony pattern in contemporary Kazakh. These factors are defined and implemented in a regression-like model that accurately predicts the degree of coarticulation on non-initial vowels. The structure of the model is then discussed in diachronic terms, outlining the development and decline of harmony, as predicted by the model. Significantly, these predictions are supported by typologically attested domains of harmony among the world's languages. The model developed herein is thus able to accurately predict the fine-grained degree of coarticulation in Kazakh, as well as suggest a plausible pathway for the evolution and decay of harmony patterns more broadly.The diachronic trajectories of vowel harmony systems have been understudied, but offer significant insight into both the possible domains of vowel harmony as well as the interaction between phonetic coarticulation and phonological harmony. This paper proposes a novel analysis of decaying labial harmony in Kazakh, unifying phonetics and phonology in one formalism (Flemming 2001) that incorporates both abstract morpho-phonological and temporal phonetic factors to drive the gradient harmony pattern in contemporary Kazakh. These factors are defined and implemented in a regression-like model that accurately predicts the degree of coarticulation on non-initial vowels. The structure of the model is then discussed in diachronic terms, outlining the development and decline of harmony, as predicted by the model. Significantly, these predictions are supported by typologically attested domains of harmony among the world's languages. The model developed herein is thus able to accurately predict the fine-grained degree of coarticulation in Kazakh, as well as suggest a plausible pathway for the evolution and decay of harmony patterns more broadly

Open Letter to Science Teachers

Our responsibilities as science educators have never been greater than they are today. I know personally that such a statement has been made regularly since the 1930s, and I suspect it was commonplace some before that. These responsibilities have had various emphases identified as the reason for their being. The emphases have included such applications as those made to industry, engineering, medicine, warfare, and space exploration

The Northeast Iowa Science Fair

The first Northeast Iowa Science Fair was held on the campus of State College of Iowa (then Iowa State Teachers College) on March 20, 1954. Approximately 140 exhibits from eighteen schools were observed and judged. This was the first Science Fair associated with the National Science Fair to be held in the State of Iowa

Outcomes of Enterprise Resource Planning System on Organizational Productivity

Leaders within local government organizations do not understand how to achieve expected and desired benefits from the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The lack of alignment between social and technical elements in ERP implementation continues to depress organizational productivity. The prime objective of our quantitative correlational study was to examine whether social and technical elements increase use and productivity in ERP implementation. Sociotechnical systems theory provided the theoretical basis for our study. We examined six dimensional variables relating to ERP implementation. Our key findings indicated positive significant relationships between ERP and information sharing, between ERP system quality and ease of ERP use, and between ERP system quality and organizational productivity. Further studies could examine other dimensions that could ensure ERP sustainability in other government organizations