Academic literature on the topic 'Extraordinary transport'

Dangerous goods - goods which, by the nature of their physical characteristics, chemical composition, dimensions, or other specific features and nature (live animals or fish), for some reason endanger human life or health, the environment natural or general order or material goods, including those with features of the principles of humanitarianism. The transport of dangerous and oversize goods is one of the most difficult specialties in the field of goods transport in public transport, in particular in road and rail transport. Such transport is regulated by a number of legal acts that do not apply to companies carrying out tasks related to the transport of loads, the so-called neutral. The United Nations has created a closed TN directory, giving everyone a four-digit "UN number", at the same time dividing them into classes depending on the threat or the predominant threat. The provisions of the ADR agreement relate, inter alia, to the rules (requirements) for TN transport in terms of limiting the possible effects of a potential release of hazardous substances (e.g. as a result of road or rail collisions), as well as, above all, the forms and principles of preventing the possibility of such events. The transport of dangerous goods is a special type of transport and it is subject to specific legal provisions, meeting and observing a number of specific requirements. The safety of this type of transport depends on the proper organization of its transport and the maximum involvement of participants in the entire process. The organization of the transport of hazardous materials requires a comprehensive, comprehensive view of the vehicle, packaging and cargo (means of transport and packaging should be adapted to the transported goods) as well as people involved in the preparation of transport, drivers with appropriate authorizations and training, setting the route, securing this routes in terms of maintaining safety in the event of an emergency. The article offers the author's approaches to the investigation of modern challenges of dangerous and extraordinary goods transportations.

We have discovered that some weak uncouplers (typified by butylated hydroxytoluene) have a dynamic range of more than 106in vitro: the concentration giving measurable uncoupling is less than one millionth of the concentration causing full uncoupling. They achieve this through a high-affinity interaction with the mitochondrial adenine nucleotide translocase that causes significant but limited uncoupling at extremely low uncoupler concentrations, together with more conventional uncoupling at much higher concentrations. Uncoupling at the translocase is not by a conventional weak acid/anion cycling mechanism since it is also caused by substituted triphenylphosphonium molecules, which are not anionic and cannot protonate. Covalent attachment of the uncoupler to a mitochondrially targeted hydrophobic cation sensitizes it to membrane potential, giving a small additional effect. The wide dynamic range of these uncouplers in isolated mitochondria and intact cells reveals a novel allosteric activation of proton transport through the adenine nucleotide translocase and provides a promising starting point for designing safer uncouplers for obesity therapy.

The transport properties of polycrystalline La0.9Sb0.1MnO3(LSMO) bulk prepared by the solid-state reaction were investigated. We find that transport behaviors heavily depend on the synthesis process. The resistivity of LSMO1 for less rubbing time shows one metal-insulator transition (MIT) peak at temperature of 201 K, while the resistivity of LSMO2 for more rubbing time shows a MIT and a shoulder at about 240 and 140 K, respectively. The magnetoresistance (MR) ratio of LSMO2 reaches 41% under magnetic field of 2 T. Moreover, the MR ratio keeps significant value within broad temperature range. The infrared (IR) absorption spectra of LSMO2 show that the stretch-mode peak split into two Gaussian peaks with the gap about 70 cm-1. This large splitting indicates there are strong distortion and disorder in LSMO2 sample. The results are interpreted in terms of the disorder system and phase separation in perovskite manganites.

Novel ion exchange membrane with just the right width of selective aqueous ionic domain (<0.6 nm) and unique functionalities show extraordinary ion selectivity. These unique ion transport properties of our membrane is reflected in a remarkable flow battery performance.

AbstractThe paper deals with the research of the demand and supply of public passenger transport services in the state of emergency caused by the COVID-19 disease. The extraordinary situation has been affecting the behaviour and decision-making of passengers and their demand for public transport not only in the Slovak Republic but globally. The situation has caused a significant decline in passenger transport as well as changes in the structure of passengers who still use the public transport system. Several operators have responded to declining demand by reducing the transport services supply, to reduce operating costs. The declining demand is reflected in a decrease in transport revenues and an increase in the demonstrable loss of operators providing public passenger transport services.

This thesis is focused on analysis of the legislative regulations for special road transportation between Czech Republic and the Balkan Peninsula. In this work, special transportation stands for heavy and bulky costs that exceed the maximum limits. To carry out such transportations, following the legal standarts of each state where the intended destination is (Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia), is needed. The work is divided into chapters that deal with these issues and provide an overview of the legal standards which must be fulfilled in these particular states. The result of this thesis is to provide the necessary information to Czech transporter to perform these special transportations.

Cette thèse en cotutelle entre l'Université Joseph Fourier à Grenoble et l'Université Nationale du Vietnam à Hanoi traite de l'étude des propriétés magnétiques et électriques de structures basées sur GdCo et sur des multicouches Fe/Cr. GdCo est un alliage ferrimagnétique dont la composition peut être choisie afin d'obtenir la compensation, c'est à dire une aimantation nette nulle, à une température de compensation inférieure à la température de Curie. Les films ont été déposés par la technique de pulvérisation cathodique magnétron. Ils sont amorphes et possèdent une anisotropie perpendiculaire induite par la croissance. Proche de la température de compensation, l'aimantation spontanée est perpendiculaire et l'imagerie par effet Kerr polaire ainsi que l'effet Hall extraordinaire ont été largement utilisés pour étudier les films dans la gamme (4-300 K) et de 0 à 6 Tesla. Un gradient de composition dans le plan peut être induit et a entrainé l'étude d'une paroi de compensation d'aimantation nulle. Les contributions de Gd et Co à l'effet Hall extraordinaire ont été déterminées. Proche de la compensation, l'effet Hall à haut champ permet d'accéder au régime de spin flop. Des multicouches GdCo/Cu/NiFe pour lesquelles GdCo est à anisotropie perpendiculaire et NiFe à anisotropie planaire ont été élaborées. Elles présentent de la magnétorésistance géante (GMR) dont la valeur ne dépend pas de l'angle entre les aimantations nettes desdeux couches magnétiques.
L'étude de la GMR des multicouches Fe/Cr traite de la contribution des interfaces au mécanisme GMR. En variant l'épaisseur du fer et en recuisant les multicouches, il est possible d'accéder aux contributions d'interface.

During neural activity, action potentials travel down axons, generating effective charge current pulses, which are central in neuron-to-neuron communication. Consequently, said current pulses generate associated magnetic fields with amplitudes on the order of picotesla (pT) and femtotesla (fT) and durations of 10’s of ms. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a technique used to measure the cortical magnetic fields associated with neural activity. MEG limitations include the inability to detect signals from deeper regions of the brain, the need to house the equipment in special magnetically shielded rooms to cancel out environmental noise, and the use of superconducting magnets, requiring cryogenic temperatures, bringing opportunities for new magnetic sensors to overcome these limitations and to further advance neuroscience. An extraordinary magnetoresistance (EMR) tunable graphene magnetometer could potentially achieve this goal. Its advantages are linear response at room temperature (RT), sensitivity enhancement owing to combination of geometric and Hall effects, microscale size to place the sensor closer to the source or macroscale size for large source area, and noise and sensitivity tailoring. The magnetic sensitivity of EMR sensors is, among others, strongly dependent on the charge mobility of the sensing graphene layer. Mechanisms affecting the carrier mobility in graphene monolayers include interactions between the substrate and graphene, such as electron-phonon scattering, charge impurities, and surface roughness. The present work reviews and proposes a material set for increasing graphene mobility, thus providing a pathway towards pT and fT detection. The successful fabrication of large-size magnetic sensors employing CVD graphene is described, as well as the fabrication of trilayer magnetic sensors employing mechanical exfoliation of h-BN and graphene. The magneto-transport response of CVD graphene Hall bar and EMR magnetic sensors is compared to that obtained in equivalent trilayer devices. The sensor response characteristics are reported, and a determination is provided for key performance parameters such as current and voltage sensitivity and magnetic resolution. These parameters crucially depend on the material's intrinsic properties. The Hall cross magnetic sensor here reported has a magnetic sensitivity of ~ 600 nanotesla (nT). We find that the attained sensitivity of the devices here reported is limited by contaminants on the graphene surface, which negatively impact carrier mobility and carrier density, and by high contact resistance of ~2.7 kΩ µm at the metallic contacts. Reducing the contact resistance to < 150 Ω µm and eliminating surface contamination, as discussed in this work, paves the way towards pT and ultimately fT sensitivity using these novel magnetic sensors. Finite element modeling (FEM) is used to simulate the sensor response, which agrees with experimental data with an error of less than 3%. This enables the prediction and optimization of the magnetic sensor performance as a function of material parameters and fabrication changes. Predictive studies indicate that an EMR magnetic sensor could attain a sensitivity of 1.9 nT/√Hz employing graphene with carrier mobilities of 180,000 cm²/Vs, carrier densities of 1.3×10¹¹ cm^-2 and a device contact resistance of 150 Ω µm. This sensitivity increments to 443 pT/√Hz if the mobility is 245,000 cm²/Vs, carrier density is 1.6×10¹⁰ cm^-2, and a lower contact resistance of 30 Ω µm. Such devices could readily be deployed in wearable devices to detect biomagnetic signals originating from the human heart and skeletal muscles and for developing advanced human-machine interfaces.

This chapter analyzes the critical break in Faulkner’s career, between the relatively conventional and long-winded draft of Flags in the Dust (1927) and the extraordinary literary achievement The Sound and the Fury (1929)—both of which tackle the same basic material. It speculates that one determining factor is the diminution, in absolute terms, of Southern descriptive prose from one book to the next, and argues that Faulkner motivates this eclipse of one of the perdurable romance techniques via an astute attention to the changes wrought to the “distribution of the sensible” by the increase in automobile use in the late 1920s. The “chronotopes” of romance are modified from within by the extent to which automobile and electric streetcar transport overtakes the now anachronistic horse-and-buggy traps and mule-drawn carts of an earlier epoch. Faulkner proved perceptive as regards these modifications, and rendered them in enduring aesthetic terms in his early masterpiece.

The Stone of Scone is neither ornate nor decorative, but rather is plain, heavy, and unwieldy. Yet this stone’s plain appearance is not matched with a plain history; it has been stolen, broken, cracked, and chipped, blown up by Suffragettes, declared a fake, and is the subject of at least one symphony. This is a well-loved stone, but it is also a highly contested object due to its extraordinary function: it can transform men and women into kings and queens. Since time immemorial the stone was key to the inauguration of Scottish monarchs, and it was due to its monarch-making capabilities that the stone was stolen by the English king in 1296, and transported to Westminster Abbey, where it was incorporated into British coronation rituals. This chapter considers the stone’s significance in the context of material culture and emotions, tracing its long, affective history.

‘Twelve Year a Whore, fives times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest, and died a Penitent’: so the title page of this extraordinary novel describes the career of the woman known as Moll Flanders, whose real name we never discover. And so, in a tour-de-force of writing by the businessman, political satirist, and spy Daniel Defoe, Moll tells her own story, a vivid and racy tale of a woman's experience in the seamy side of life in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England and America. Born in Newgate prison, and seduced in the home of her adoptive family, she learns to live off her wits, defying the traditional depiction of women as helpless victims. First published in 1722, and one of the earliest novels in the English language, its account of opportunism, endurance, and survival speaks as strongly to us today as it did to its original readers.

According to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, half of humanity lives in cities. The urban population has increased from 750 million people in 1950 to 3,600 million in 2011. It is estimated that by 2030 almost 60% of the population world will reside in urban areas. In Spain already does more than 80%. This will lead to significant growth in the coming years, and cities must be prepared to serve new services on a sustainable way: from meeting the needs of potable water or clean air transport will be a challenge of extraordinary magnitude and an opportunity for the industry. The Spanish National Plan for Smart Cities is a continuation of different initiatives proposing to do a set of new political measures that involve the mobilization of resources that will put special emphasis on sustainability.

According to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, half of humanity lives in cities. The urban population has increased from 750 million people in 1950 to 3,600 million in 2011. It is estimated that by 2030 almost 60% of the population world will reside in urban areas. In Spain already does more than 80%. This will lead to significant growth in the coming years, and cities must be prepared to serve new services on a sustainable way: from meeting the needs of potable water or clean air transport will be a challenge of extraordinary magnitude and an opportunity for the industry. The Spanish National Plan for Smart Cities is a continuation of different initiatives proposing to do a set of new political measures that involve the mobilization of resources that will put special emphasis on sustainability.

According to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, half of humanity lives in cities. The urban population has increased from 750 million people in 1950 to 3,600 million in 2011. It is estimated that by 2030 almost 60% of the population world will reside in urban areas. In Spain already does more than 80%. This will lead to significant growth in the coming years, and cities must be prepared to serve new services on a sustainable way: from meeting the needs of potable water or clean air transport will be a challenge of extraordinary magnitude and an opportunity for the industry. The Spanish National Plan for Smart Cities is a continuation of different initiatives proposing to do a set of new political measures that involve the mobilization of resources that will put special emphasis on sustainability.

In the second half of the 19th century Pécs was one of the most dynamically developing cities of Hungary. This process persisted until World War I. The losses of the world war and the following 3 years of Serbian occupation caused huge damages in the economy and society of the city. The paper, bringing forward the antecedents of the economic history and the economic environment, reviews the first golden age of the tourism of Pécs. The tourism of Pécs experienced an extraordinary development in the 1930s. The cities of the country, getting over the trauma of World War I and the Great Economic Crisis, realised the economic opportunities of tourism and their majority started a conscious development of this branch of economy. Its importance was also realised by the management of Pécs and among the first in the country, on the 28th March, 1933 the municipality committee adjudicated to establish the tourism committee and the tourism bureau. An enthusiastic welcome “propaganda” has been launched and a conscious product development work has been realised primarily concentrating on – in today’s terms – cultural and ecotourism. The tourism supply was based on the heritage values of the city and on the natural beauties of the Mecsek Mountains. The hosting conditions, such as the accommodations and guest catering places, were established with the adequate quality. Such transport connections were realised – which can make us envious even today – as the direct flight connections with Budapest and Kaposvár or the train connections with Vienna. Budapest could be accessed within 3 hours by train and due to the cheap railways domestic tourism became multitudinous and its greatest beneficiary was Pécs. The city development decisions payed regard to the needs of tourism and there was also an intention to utilise the local products in tourism which is even fashionable today. Presently the market of local products has its renaissance. The results of the 1930s have their impacts on the tourism of the present day Pécs as well.

Imperial networks in northern North America flowed initially along the waterways that gave access to the trade-associated hunting, trapping, timber extraction, and related activities. Hunting was essential to many indigenous societies, and required relatively little investment for the first wave of traders and settlers. It generated valuable resources in a number of colonized zones. But hunting frontiers in the British Empire differed. In part, the reasons were environmental. The assemblage of species in North America and Africa were possibly more similar 15,000 years ago ‘when the American West looked much as [the] Serengeti plains do today’. Large mammals including mammoths, big cats, and wild horses roamed the northern hemisphere prairies. Climate change, combined with the impact of rapid human migration through the Americas 10–12,000 years ago, resulted in many extinctions so that the wildlife of the two areas had become distinctive by the onset of European colonization. This opened up divergent opportunities for consumption and trade. Southern Africa was a frontier of heat rather than cold. There were no animals with the thick glossy fur favoured by Europeans for outer garments or for felt. Southern Africa’s most prized hunted commodity—aside from meat—was equally unpredictable. While mammoths had been exterminated in North America, an elephant species with large tusks survived into the modern era in Africa. Environmental factors also shaped the technology of hunting and carriage. Southern Africa lacked navigable rivers and lakes; Canada’s abundance of water was matched by South Africa’s dearth. Although the spread of firearms and horses was common to both regions, South Africa’s transport sinews were dusty, rutted ox-wagon tracks across the veld rather than the cool, wooded lakes and streams along which canoes could be paddled. In part, differences resulted from the chance value of particular animal products. Southern Africa was home to an extraordinary range of large mammals. The richness of wildlife can be judged by the variety of predators at the top of the food chain—lions, leopards, cheetahs, caracals, hyenas, wild dogs, jackals, as well as smaller cats. The antelope population was unparalleled in the diversity of its species. But variety did not in itself translate into value.

As alternative source of financing, microfinance and crowdfunding organizations are increasingly relying on commitment, compliance and cooperation among individuals, groups, and communities. In considering the extraordinary growth of the market for microfunding and microlending in recent years, this article aims to investigate a number of important questions. Can the conventional rule of social collateral applied to group lending be replicated in online crowdfunding? What are the institutional, social and organizational requirements in order to transpose the social collateral model of solidarity and responsibility to heterogeneous online crowdfunding and microlending platforms? What would be the implications for borrowers and lenders in terms of group compliance, collaboration and cooperation? By highlighting the differences and similarities between microfinance and crowdfunding structures, the article seeks to provide a broad comparative framework for analyzing different patterns of behavior in communities, organizations and networks that engage in crowdfunding and microlending activities.

As alternative source of financing, microfinance and crowdfunding organizations are increasingly relying on commitment, compliance and cooperation among individuals, groups, and communities. In considering the extraordinary growth of the market for microfunding and microlending in recent years, this article aims to investigate a number of important questions. Can the conventional rule of social collateral applied to group lending be replicated in online crowdfunding? What are the institutional, social and organizational requirements in order to transpose the social collateral model of solidarity and responsibility to heterogeneous online crowdfunding and microlending platforms? What would be the implications for borrowers and lenders in terms of group compliance, collaboration and cooperation? By highlighting the differences and similarities between microfinance and crowdfunding structures, the article seeks to provide a broad comparative framework for analyzing different patterns of behavior in communities, organizations and networks that engage in crowdfunding and microlending activities.

This passage, from Dad’s essay “Man’s Leisure Time,” seems to sum up why Dad had turned to bow-and-arrow making as a favorite hobby in the late 1920s. Archery became a family enterprise. Dad loved to hunt, and we all grew up participating in hunting and archery practice at or near the Shack as well as further afield. And it turned out that Mother particularly had an extraordinary talent and skill for tournament archery. My father was a skilled carpenter, and probably learned from his father, Carl Leopold, who was skilled with hand tools. Dad’s father was the president of the Leopold Desk Company of Burlington, Iowa, and all of Dad’s siblings became expert in woodworking. Dad started making bows and arrows in 1926, when someone gave him a bow stave of yew wood. In Madison he began to shape this stave, and later ones of Osage orange or yew, into beautiful bows. In the basement he kept his giant toolbox of carpenter tools, which he had transported from Albuquerque. We still have that great box and some of his tools—planes, squares, chisels, files, saws, and such. In the basement he also set up a German-style workbench, with a wood vise on the right side, a metal quick-release vise on the left, and a series of peg holes down the middle to hold a block in place for using a plane. Dad placed his giant staves of Osage orange or yew in the vice and shaped the bow with a sharp drawknife and a wood file. The midsection, where the grip was located, was carefully shaped and made oval to fit the hand securely. To gauge the symmetry of his sculpturing of the bow stave, he hung up a large sheet of brown paper on the wall and placed a hook high at the top, hung up the bow, and, with the bowstring attached to the sculptured bow tips, pulled the string downward so the bow bent, and so he could see if the curve of the drawn bow was evenly symmetrical.

The present study reports on a series of direct numerical simulation of turbulent rotating channel flows at rotation numbers higher than those previously reported. The bulk Reynolds number (Re) was set approximately constant at 5800, while the non-dimensional rotation number Ro was increased up to 5.79. The flow visualization showed that the structure of the enlarged eddies on the pressure side, and the orientation of the structure was inclined towards downstream. The investigation of the budget of Reynolds stress transport equation indicated that the pressure transport of Reynolds stress and re-distribution term were extraordinary large at higher Ro. This led the conventional decomposition of velocity-pressure correlation terms to being not appropriate in this flow. It is suggested that the Reynolds stress modeling should better target the correlation between velocity and pressure gradient, or pressure diffusion and re-distribution terms must be handled with the same efforts, which indeed increases the task of modeling.

The Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) will most likely produce electricity and process heat, with both being considered for hydrogen production. To capture nuclear process heat, and transport it to a distant industrial facility requires a high temperature system of heat exchangers, pumps and/or compressors. The heat transfer system is particularly challenging not only due to the elevated temperatures (up to ∼ 1300K) and industrial scale power transport (≥50 MW), but also due to a potentially large separation distance between the nuclear and industrial plants (100+m) dictated by safety and licensing mandates. The work reported here is the preliminary analysis of two-phase thermosyphon heat transfer performance with alkali metals. A thermosyphon is a device for transporting heat from one point to another with quite extraordinary properties. In contrast to single-phased forced convective heat transfer via ‘pumping a fluid’, a thermosyphon (also called a wickless heat pipe) transfers heat through the vaporization / condensing process. The condensate is further returned to the hot source by gravity, i.e. without any requirement of pumps or compressors. With this mode of heat transfer, the thermosyphon has the capability to transport heat at high rates over appreciable distances, virtually isothermally and without any requirement for external pumping devices. Two-phase heat transfer by a thermosyphon has the advantage of high enthalpy transport that includes the sensible heat of the liquid, the latent heat of vaporization, and vapor superheat. In contrast, single-phase forced convection transports only the sensible heat of the fluid. Additionally, vapor-phase velocities within a thermosyphon are much greater than single-phase liquid velocities within a forced convective loop. Thermosyphon performance can be limited by the sonic limit (choking) of vapor flow and/or by condensate entrainment. Proper thermosyphon requires analysis of both.

The experience gained during the operation and maintenance stages of the Camisea pipeline transportation system (STD) in Peru, crossing from the Tropical jungle in the Cusco region to the coast, in Lima city, has enabled us to develop and apply techniques in construction and maintenance works focused on controlling of the vertical undermining of riverbeds and the erosion of margins at river crossings and creeks crossed by the pipeline carrying NG and NGL. According to the above, a technical assessment study was conducted of the crosses rivers and creeks that have high priority of the Camisea pipeline path, comprising — among other disciplines — hydraulic and undermining analysis, as well as an hydrologic and geo-morphological evaluation and other issues regarding general geology and geo-techniques at each crossing site. A work program was developed using the information obtained in the three sectors travelled by the (STD) in order to develop and complement works at the crossings of rivers and valleys aiming to protect the integrity of the pipeline from erosion produced by major and extraordinary floods in riverbeds and alluvial slides in narrow valleys, by means of confinement and sedimentation works. The jobs performed in rainforest, mountain and coastal terrain crossed by the pipeline considered different river morphology types — being the most common the straight, gravel braided and curved river travels — and regimes in both flow speed and width of the riverbed. From the topographic follow-up and monitoring stage on — before and after the rain season — at crossings beneath the riverbeds, it was determined that the deterioration process affecting the crossing stripe corresponds to erosion consisting in the alteration of the watercourse banks that affects the piping foundations. The works are completed considering the type of resources available at the site of the river crossing — i. e., the engineering is particular to each sector, and designing is performed upon available materials in the area. The most utilized works at river and creeks crossings on the Camisea piping system are as follows: i) protection of riverbeds and creeks slopes using gabion mesh and pads; ii) sedimentation systems on gabion mesh; iii) Energy dissipation devices at creeks crossings; iv) rip-rap–type armoring of riverbeds; v) confinement check dams; vi) marginal protection dikes; vii) marginal protection rock fill dams; viii) protection and sedimentation breakwaters, among others.

Cray supercomputers are purpose-built to meet the special needs of capability class HPC applications. Recent advances in Cray scalar supercomputer systems resulted in the introduction of the higher density compute cabinet that consumes significant amounts of electrical power and produces an extraordinary amount of heat. Due to the new design requirements, which have tremendous consequences with regard to thermal management, new cooling concepts were required. The XT4 can have up to 30,000 dual-core Opterons, and the SeaStar2 interconnection chip plugs right into the Hyper Transport links on the Opteron processors to make a very fast mesh of processors and memory for applications. Such a machine consumes about 5.2 megawatts of power to deliver around 1.15 petaflops. That is twice the size of Red Storm, but more than a factor of 10 more performance. The extra power density required additional modification to the cooling system. This article describes the design, simulations and verification of the XT-3 and XT-4 systems. Over the past few years thermal design for cooling microprocessors has become increasingly challenging, as silicon technology continues to scale in accordance with Moore’s law. The industry has traditionally relied on gradual improvements in air cooled, solid metal heat sinks to keep pace with change in microprocessor design to provide cost effective solution for removing from microprocessors. In Cray’s XT-4 system, chip power density is expected to almost double that of it’s Red Storm/XT-3 predecessors, while maintaining the same cabinet size.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) exhibit extraordinary mechanical and thermal properties and as such have become the subject of large research interest. Furthermore, CNTs in a polymer matrix have been shown to significantly enhance the thermal conductivity of the polymer/CNT composite in some cases. A few areas of application for this work are thermal interface materials, thermally conductive composites used in aerospace applications, and polymer heat exchangers. In each of these applications the purpose of the polymer or epoxy is to take advantage of the mechanical properties or chemical inertness. The current issue with their adoption is still the poor thermal conductivity. One approach to overcoming this issue is to embed thermally conductive materials into the host material in low concentrations to enhance the effective thermal conductivity. There has been a significant amount of work in this area, but we are far from an understanding that allows us to design a nanocomposite that gives the desired thermal conductivity (specifically in the high thermal conductivity range). This work explores the role that chemical modification (functionalization) of the CNT can play in tailoring thermal transport properties of the composite under strain. It is expected that the functionalization process would have some effect on conduction between the CNT and the polymer matrix and therefore either increase or decrease the ability of the composite to transport thermal energy. This paper focuses on three different functionalizations of CNT and explores the thermal conductivity of a polymer/CNT composite that uses polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the matrix. The three functionalizations of CNTs considered are that of unfunctionalized, functionalized with a carboxyl group (-COOH), and functionalized with a hydroxyl group (-OH). The CNTs used in this study are strictly multi-walled carbon nanobutes (MWCNTs) purified to 95%. The effect of these three functionalizations on the overall thermal conductivity of the composite is evaluated through experimental methods with a stepped bar apparatus at various levels of strain on the composite sample. Results show that, while functionalization of the CNT may affect the CNT/PDMS bond, the stepped bar apparatus does not provide enough precision on the level of strain placed on the sample for a comparison across functionalizations. Future work will try to elucidate both the effect of strain and functionalization using multiple thermal conductivity measurement techniques.

Thermal interface materials (TIMs) play a critical role in microelectronics packaging. In this paper, a novel aligned-graphite/solder TIM is described. Unlike traditional TIMs infiltrated with randomly-oriented high-conductivity fillers, the aligned-graphite/solder TIMs provide both extraordinarily high thermal conductivity along the heat transport direction, and controllable stiffness to conform to surfaces with different roughness and hardness, greatly improving the overall heat transfer performance. In addition, vertically connected solder layers can lock the graphite layers in place and reinforce the strength of the entire package. Thermal performance of the graphite TIMs was determined experimentally based on the ASTM-D5470 method with comparison to two commercially available TIMs. The graphite TIMs also experienced a thermal cycling test and a high temperature stability test to establish its performance merit in practical applications. Experiments showed that the overall thermal resistivity of a 150-to-200-μm-thick graphite TIM film was less than 0.035 °C/(W/cm2) when bonding two smooth copper surfaces together at a processing pressure of 30 psi, which corresponds to an approximately 2–3X improvement over a Ag-Sn solder alloy (Indalloy 121). Preliminary thermal cycling and high temperature stability tests showed that the thermal performance of the graphite TIM was very stable, and did not degrade during these tests. The tests also indicated that the presence of surface roughness of 10 μm on one of the copper surfaces reduced the overall thermal resistivity by approximately 30%. A numerical simulation verified this trend.

Attention to safety and health are of ever-increasing priority to industrial organizations. Good Safety is demanded by stockholders, employees, and the community while increasing injury costs provide additional motivation for safety and health excellence. Safety has always been a strong corporate value of DuPont and a vital part of its culture. As a result, DuPont has become a benchmark in safety and health performance. Since 1990, DuPont has re-engineered itself to meet global competition and address future vision. In the new re-engineered organizational structures, DuPont has also had to re-engineer its safety management systems. A special Discovery Team was chartered by DuPont senior management to determine the “best practices’ for safety and health being used in DuPont best-performing sites. A summary of the findings is presented, and five of the practices are discussed. Excellence in safety and health management is more important today than ever. Public awareness, federal and state regulations, and enlightened management have resulted in a widespread conviction that all employees have the right to work in an environment that will not adversely affect their safety and health. In DuPont, we believe that excellence in safety and health is necessary to achieve global competitiveness, maintain employee loyalty, and be an accepted member of the communities in which we make, handle, use, and transport products. Safety can also be the “catalyst” to achieving excellence in other important business parameters. The organizational and communication skills developed by management, individuals, and teams in safety can be directly applied to other company initiatives. As we look into the 21st Century, we must also recognize that new organizational structures (flatter with empowered teams) will require new safety management techniques and systems in order to maintain continuous improvement in safety performance. Injury costs, which have risen dramatically in the past twenty years, provide another incentive for safety and health excellence. Shown in the Figure 1, injury costs have increased even after correcting for inflation. Many companies have found these costs to be an “invisible drain” on earnings and profitability. In some organizations, significant initiatives have been launched to better manage the workers’ compensation systems. We have found that the ultimate solution is to prevent injuries and incidents before they occur. A globally-respected company, DuPont is regarded as a well-managed, extremely ethical firm that is the benchmark in industrial safety performance. Like many other companies, DuPont has re-engineered itself and downsized its operations since 1985. Through these changes, we have maintained dedication to our principles and developed new techniques to manage in these organizational environments. As a diversified company, our operations involve chemical process facilities, production line operations, field activities, and sales and distribution of materials. Our customer base is almost entirely industrial and yet we still maintain a high level of consumer awareness and positive perception. The DuPont concern for safety dates back to the early 1800s and the first days of the company. In 1802 E.I. DuPont, a Frenchman, began manufacturing quality grade explosives to fill America’s growing need to build roads, clear fields, increase mining output, and protect its recently won independence. Because explosives production is such a hazardous industry, DuPont recognized and accepted the need for an effective safety effort. The building walls of the first powder mill near Wilmington, Delaware, were built three stones thick on three sides. The back remained open to the Brandywine River to direct any explosive forces away from other buildings and employees. To set the safety example, DuPont also built his home and the homes of his managers next to the powder yard. An effective safety program was a necessity. It represented the first defense against instant corporate liquidation. Safety needs more than a well-designed plant, however. In 1811, work rules were posted in the mill to guide employee work habits. Though not nearly as sophisticated as the safety standards of today, they did introduce an important basic concept — that safety must be a line management responsibility. Later, DuPont introduced an employee health program and hired a company doctor. An early step taken in 1912 was the keeping of safety statistics, approximately 60 years before the federal requirement to do so. We had a visible measure of our safety performance and were determined that we were going to improve it. When the nation entered World War I, the DuPont Company supplied 40 percent of the explosives used by the Allied Forces, more than 1.5 billion pounds. To accomplish this task, over 30,000 new employees were hired and trained to build and operate many plants. Among these facilities was the largest smokeless powder plant the world had ever seen. The new plant was producing granulated powder in a record 116 days after ground breaking. The trends on the safety performance chart reflect the problems that a large new work force can pose until the employees fully accept the company’s safety philosophy. The first arrow reflects the World War I scale-up, and the second arrow represents rapid diversification into new businesses during the 1920s. These instances of significant deterioration in safety performance reinforced DuPont’s commitment to reduce the unsafe acts that were causing 96 percent of our injuries. Only 4 percent of injuries result from unsafe conditions or equipment — the remainder result from the unsafe acts of people. This is an important concept if we are to focus our attention on reducing injuries and incidents within the work environment. World War II brought on a similar set of demands. The story was similar to World War I but the numbers were even more astonishing: one billion dollars in capital expenditures, 54 new plants, 75,000 additional employees, and 4.5 billion pounds of explosives produced — 20 percent of the volume used by the Allied Forces. Yet, the performance during the war years showed no significant deviation from the pre-war years. In 1941, the DuPont Company was 10 times safer than all industry and 9 times safer than the Chemical Industry. Management and the line organization were finally working as they should to control the real causes of injuries. Today, DuPont is about 50 times safer than US industrial safety performance averages. Comparing performance to other industries, it is interesting to note that seemingly “hazard-free” industries seem to have extraordinarily high injury rates. This is because, as DuPont has found out, performance is a function of injury prevention and safety management systems, not hazard exposure. Our success in safety results from a sound safety management philosophy. Each of the 125 DuPont facilities is responsible for its own safety program, progress, and performance. However, management at each of these facilities approaches safety from the same fundamental and sound philosophy. This philosophy can be expressed in eleven straightforward principles. The first principle is that all injuries can be prevented. That statement may seem a bit optimistic. In fact, we believe that this is a realistic goal and not just a theoretical objective. Our safety performance proves that the objective is achievable. We have plants with over 2,000 employees that have operated for over 10 years without a lost time injury. As injuries and incidents are investigated, we can always identify actions that could have prevented that incident. If we manage safety in a proactive — rather than reactive — manner, we will eliminate injuries by reducing the acts and conditions that cause them. The second principle is that management, which includes all levels through first-line supervisors, is responsible and accountable for preventing injuries. Only when senior management exerts sustained and consistent leadership in establishing safety goals, demanding accountability for safety performance and providing the necessary resources, can a safety program be effective in an industrial environment. The third principle states that, while recognizing management responsibility, it takes the combined energy of the entire organization to reach sustained, continuous improvement in safety and health performance. Creating an environment in which employees feel ownership for the safety effort and make significant contributions is an essential task for management, and one that needs deliberate and ongoing attention. The fourth principle is a corollary to the first principle that all injuries are preventable. It holds that all operating exposures that may result in injuries or illnesses can be controlled. No matter what the exposure, an effective safeguard can be provided. It is preferable, of course, to eliminate sources of danger, but when this is not reasonable or practical, supervision must specify measures such as special training, safety devices, and protective clothing. Our fifth safety principle states that safety is a condition of employment. Conscientious assumption of safety responsibility is required from all employees from their first day on the job. Each employee must be convinced that he or she has a responsibility for working safely. The sixth safety principle: Employees must be trained to work safely. We have found that an awareness for safety does not come naturally and that people have to be trained to work safely. With effective training programs to teach, motivate, and sustain safety knowledge, all injuries and illnesses can be eliminated. Our seventh principle holds that management must audit performance on the workplace to assess safety program success. Comprehensive inspections of both facilities and programs not only confirm their effectiveness in achieving the desired performance, but also detect specific problems and help to identify weaknesses in the safety effort. The Company’s eighth principle states that all deficiencies must be corrected promptly. Without prompt action, risk of injuries will increase and, even more important, the credibility of management’s safety efforts will suffer. Our ninth principle is a statement that off-the-job safety is an important part of the overall safety effort. We do not expect nor want employees to “turn safety on” as they come to work and “turn it off” when they go home. The company safety culture truly becomes of the individual employee’s way of thinking. The tenth principle recognizes that it’s good business to prevent injuries. Injuries cost money. However, hidden or indirect costs usually exceed the direct cost. Our last principle is the most important. Safety must be integrated as core business and personal value. There are two reasons for this. First, we’ve learned from almost 200 years of experience that 96 percent of safety incidents are directly caused by the action of people, not by faulty equipment or inadequate safety standards. But conversely, it is our people who provide the solutions to our safety problems. They are the one essential ingredient in the recipe for a safe workplace. Intelligent, trained, and motivated employees are any company’s greatest resource. Our success in safety depends upon the men and women in our plants following procedures, participating actively in training, and identifying and alerting each other and management to potential hazards. By demonstrating a real concern for each employee, management helps establish a mutual respect, and the foundation is laid for a solid safety program. This, of course, is also the foundation for good employee relations. An important lesson learned in DuPont is that the majority of injuries are caused by unsafe acts and at-risk behaviors rather than unsafe equipment or conditions. In fact, in several DuPont studies it was estimated that 96 percent of injuries are caused by unsafe acts. This was particularly revealing when considering safety audits — if audits were only focused on conditions, at best we could only prevent four percent of our injuries. By establishing management systems for safety auditing that focus on people, including audit training, techniques, and plans, all incidents are preventable. Of course, employee contribution and involvement in auditing leads to sustainability through stakeholdership in the system. Management safety audits help to make manage the “behavioral balance.” Every job and task performed at a site can do be done at-risk or safely. The essence of a good safety system ensures that safe behavior is the accepted norm amongst employees, and that it is the expected and respected way of doing things. Shifting employees norms contributes mightily to changing culture. The management safety audit provides a way to quantify these norms. DuPont safety performance has continued to improve since we began keeping records in 1911 until about 1990. In the 1990–1994 time frame, performance deteriorated as shown in the chart that follows: This increase in injuries caused great concern to senior DuPont management as well as employees. It occurred while the corporation was undergoing changes in organization. In order to sustain our technological, competitive, and business leadership positions, DuPont began re-engineering itself beginning in about 1990. New streamlined organizational structures and collaborative work processes eliminated many positions and levels of management and supervision. The total employment of the company was reduced about 25 percent during these four years. In our traditional hierarchical organization structures, every level of supervision and management knew exactly what they were expected to do with safety, and all had important roles. As many of these levels were eliminated, new systems needed to be identified for these new organizations. In early 1995, Edgar S. Woolard, DuPont Chairman, chartered a Corporate Discovery Team to look for processes that will put DuPont on a consistent path toward a goal of zero injuries and occupational illnesses. The cross-functional team used a mode of “discovery through learning” from as many DuPont employees and sites around the world. The Discovery Team fostered the rapid sharing and leveraging of “best practices” and innovative approaches being pursued at DuPont’s plants, field sites, laboratories, and office locations. In short, the team examined the company’s current state, described the future state, identified barriers between the two, and recommended key ways to overcome these barriers. After reporting back to executive management in April, 1995, the Discovery Team was realigned to help organizations implement their recommendations. The Discovery Team reconfirmed key values in DuPont — in short, that all injuries, incidents, and occupational illnesses are preventable and that safety is a source of competitive advantage. As such, the steps taken to improve safety performance also improve overall competitiveness. Senior management made this belief clear: “We will strengthen our business by making safety excellence an integral part of all business activities.” One of the key findings of the Discovery Team was the identification of the best practices used within the company, which are listed below: ▪ Felt Leadership – Management Commitment ▪ Business Integration ▪ Responsibility and Accountability ▪ Individual/Team Involvement and Influence ▪ Contractor Safety ▪ Metrics and Measurements ▪ Communications ▪ Rewards and Recognition ▪ Caring Interdependent Culture; Team-Based Work Process and Systems ▪ Performance Standards and Operating Discipline ▪ Training/Capability ▪ Technology ▪ Safety and Health Resources ▪ Management and Team Audits ▪ Deviation Investigation ▪ Risk Management and Emergency Response ▪ Process Safety ▪ Off-the-Job Safety and Health Education Attention to each of these best practices is essential to achieve sustained improvements in safety and health. The Discovery Implementation in conjunction with DuPont Safety and Environmental Management Services has developed a Safety Self-Assessment around these systems. In this presentation, we will discuss a few of these practices and learn what they mean. Paper published with permission.