Structured packings for use in oxygen service: Flammability considerations

Metallic structured packings have found increasing use in the cryogenic distillation of air. An experimental program was performed to test the flammability of selected metal packings under simulated high oxygen concentration operating conditions. Aluminum flammability in gaseous oxygen has been shown to be very dependent upon argon dilution, and in the presence of liquid oxygen, strong energy releases have been observed. Brass packing exhibited an unexpectedly high relative flammability whereas copper has been found to be non-flammable in all tested oxygen purities. These findings suggest the use of copper structured packing in higher purity GOX/LOX regions of an air separation distillation column and aluminum structured packing in the remainder of the column.     

A Cluster Analysis of Young Adult College Students' Beef Consumption Behavior Using the Constructs of a Proposed Modified Model of Planned Behavior

The theory of reasoned action (TRA) served as the theoretical framework for this study. This study focused on the development and analysis of a proposed modified model of planned behavior (MMpB) to investigate the beef consumption habits of young adult college students. The participants were a convenience self-selected sample of young adult college students from a major southeastern and southwestern university. A self-report survey was administered to (N = 914) students in classrooms at both universities. Using cluster and discriminant analysis three distinct cluster groupings were found based on the behavior construct.     

Money Information in Lonergan–von Neumann Systems

Important technological changes have posed serious difficulties in the practical use of von Neumann's model of economic growth, which explicitly ‘eliminated all monetary complications’. The present paper draws on Lonergan's development of some Schumpeterian ideas to extend the von Neumann model to incorporate technological change with money. It gives an analysis of the notion of credit money as ‘information on the move”. General comparisons with the data of economic history indicate that the model shows a new realism in representing important dynamic aspects of cyclic economic growth.     

Creativity Business Discipline = Higher Profits Faster from New Product Development

A study was conducted of 69 analysts evaluating 267 early-stage new product development (NPD) projects in a major global chemical company over a 10-year time span. Positive correlations were found between profits resulting from NPD project analyses and the degree of creativity of the analysts evaluating those projects. Creativity can be reliably measured with standard psychological instruments, such as the MBTI® Creativity Index. Analysts with MBTI Creativity Indices above the median for the group studied identified opportunities providing 12 to 13 times more profit than those with MBTI Creativity Indices below the median, when both groups were rigorously trained and coached in "stage-gate" business analysis methods.
NPD requires breakthrough creativity because the first ideas for commercialization are almost never commercial until they have been substantially revised through a thought process involving branching. It is therefore most productive to preselect innovative, creative people for the early stages of NPD, and then teach this group the business discipline required in stage-gate NPD processes.
The results show that by utilizing these principles, both the overall speed and productivity of typical NPD processes can be increased approximately nine-fold, or nearly an order of magnitude when compared to today's typical linear stage-gate processes.     

Predicting and controlling flammability of multiple fuel and multiple inert mixtures

Le Chatelier's Rule is in wide use for predicting the flammability of mixtures with multiple fuels present. The rule does not conveniently handle multiple inerts or elevated temperatures and pressures. This paper describes an alternate method, developed at Air Products, called FLAMCHEK^TM, which conveniently handles these variables. This method for predicting flammability is based upon the commonality of the adiabatic flame temperature of a wide variety of fuels at their upper and lower flammable limits. The method, if PC based, can be extended to automatically control the addition of inerts, fuels, or oxidizers in order to avoid flammable conditions. The concept may be extended to more involved applications, such as within an oil well with fuel gas mixtures containing oxygen. In this case, the location from which a gas sample is obtained for analysis (wellhead) may have a different fuel analysis and flammability condition than the location where an explosion is likely to initiate (bottom of well). Hence a correction of the fuels analysis is required.     

Short-run auction price adjustments

Summary Daily prices at the Pijnacker agricultural auctions were analyzed by some new spectral techniques based on the fast Fourier transform. Within the context of linear theory, it was found that the short-run variations in prices could be described by a random-walk model. No significant correlation was observed between these price movements and the short-run fluctuations in the amounts sold. Even the strong weekly cycle in supplies had no matching effect on prices.     

Case studies in geotechnics: Some expedients for technical innovation

The path from fundamental research and development of a product to success in the market place is described, together with an account of some of the difficulties faced by the innovator. The essential nature of physical and mathematical modelling is emphasised and the advantages, not only for the mainstream programme of research and development work but also in the identification of other potentially fruitful areas for possible development, are highlighted. An indication of the licensing and marketing aspects which are essential to ensure that an invention becomes an innovation are given, and particular attention is drawn to the difficulties of a small business organization penetrating international markets in a high-technology field of activity. Finally, an attempt is made to identify some of the expedients necessary in technical innovation and, where appropriate, reference is made to the influence of engineering education.     

Evolutionary von Neumann models

The Schumpeter theory of the role of money in a technologically developing economy can be formalised in terms of an evolutive von Neumann model. The present paper first, incorporates credit money into the von Neumann framework and second, permits additions to the input and output matrices to incorporate improvements in technology in the simplest Lonergan Schumpeter production model. This model shows a strong form of creative destruction in the transition between Schumpeter's initial and final stationary states. The dual model suggests a comparison of Lonergan's income concepts with a macro generalisation of the financial concepts advocated by Littleton, Chambers and Hendrikson for adaptive firms.