Materials
New Technique
for Blending Polymers Yields Novel Structures
Two
polymers may be incompatible with each other, yet, when forced together
during processing, can produce a material that combines the best features
of each. Most
engineering plastics are polymer blends. Blending technologies are
already in wide use for large parts such as car bumpers, but new applications
are emerging for parts that are similar in size to the dispersed polymer
droplets.
Using visualization
technology to study the polymer blending process, NIST scientists
have discovered the formation of novel polymer structures that can
occur in such microscale applications. NIST measurements show that,
when two incompatible polymer liquids are mechanically blended together,
one may deform into very long strings that are extremely stable. This
remarkable transformation occurs under special conditions—when
the size of a typical polymer droplet is comparable to the size of
the part being made, such as ultrathin films and other micron-scale
components. When the processing meets these conditions, the droplets
spontaneously reorganize into “superstrings.”
Potential microscale
applications of super-string components could include conductive plastic
wires, ultrathin composite materials and tissue engineering.
Kalman Migler,
a scientist in NIST’s Materials
Science and Engineering Laboratory, has published a paper on these
findings, “String formation in sheared polymer blends: Coalescence,
breakup, and finite size effects,” in the Feb. 5, 2001, issue
of Physical Review Letters.
For more information
about this research, contact Migler.
Media
Contact:
Pamela
Houghtaling, (301) 975-5745
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Administration
Sutherland Officially
Named as Boulder Labs Director
Susan
L. Sutherland, a career government employee who has held increasingly
responsible positions within the Department of Commerce, has been
named director of the NIST Boulder Laboratories. Sutherland
had been acting director since last August when Paul Domich, the previous
acting director, accepted a detail to the White House Office of Science
and Technology Policy.
As director,
Sutherland is the senior site manager and oversees the facilities
and technical infrastructure for NIST Boulder’s 400 scientists,
engineers, technicians and support staff. She also leads the public
outreach effort associated with Boulder’s technical programs
and is responsible for inter-actions with the Boulder community and
other agencies at Commerce’s Colorado site.
Sutherland began
her government career in 1971 with Commerce’s National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration and served with three NOAA agencies
for the next 22 years.
In 1993, Sutherland
served in the Commerce Policy Office before becoming director of the
Modernization Transition Control Office of NOAA’s National Weather
Service. There, she directed budget and scheduling activities for
NWS’s five-year, $4 billion modernization program.
From 1998 until
her assignment to Boulder, she was acting director for executive budgeting
and assistance management at Commerce.
Media
Contact:
Fred
McGehan (Boulder) , (303) 497-3246
Computer
Security
New Tool for
Identifying Vulnerabilities Up and Running
Sometimes,
computers just have too much software. Or at least that is the way
it seems to many systems administrators who have to stay on top of
viruses and other computer
security “Achilles heels.” Keeping up with the 100 or so
new vulnerabilities discovered each month can be an almost overwhelming
task, especially since a single software flaw may be known by over
10 different names and no one source provides information on all of
them.
However, NIST
has developed a way to make keeping up with vulnerabilities much easier.
The new extensive ICAT index—available on NIST’s World Wide
Web site at http://icat.nist.gov—allows
people to search for information on vulnerabilities efficiently using
a standard naming scheme developed by MITRE (http://cve.mitre.org).
Users can quickly zero in on the data they need by using pull-down
menus that specify product characteristics (such as vendor name and
version number) and vulnerability characteristics (such as related
exploit type, vulnerability consequence and exposed component type)
for more than 2,000 software vulnerabilities.
ICAT provides
users with summaries of the vulnerabilities and links to public vulnerability
databases available on the Internet, which provide detailed information
and “patches” to make software more secure.
ICAT was developed
by researchers in the Computer Security Division of NIST’s Information
Technology Laboratory. It should prove to be a valuable resource for
systems administrators, computer security officers, law enforcement
officials, computer security researchers and
software developers.
Purdue University’s
Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security
has created a way to get regular electronic mail updates from the
ICAT index.
For technical
information, contact Peter
Mell. Comments about ICAT may be sent to icat@nist.gov.
Media
Contact:
Philip
Bulman, (301) 975-5661
Standards
NIST Finds Agencies
Relying More Heavily on Private Sector
NIST’s
second annual review of standards-related activities in the federal
government reports that agencies are markedly increasing their use
of voluntary standards but, at the same time, their participation
in private-sector standards committees is continuing a worrisome decline.
Required by the
National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act, NIST’s just-released
report surveys fiscal year 1999 activities undertaken in 14 cabinet-level
departments and 12 independent agencies. Altogether, the 26 agencies
retired 542 government-unique requirements and specifications, replacing
them with voluntary standards. The total is nearly four times greater
than the number of substitutions made in 1998. In support of procurement,
regulatory and other activities, agencies also adopted nearly 2,700
additional voluntary standards, which did not entail replacing in-house
governmental standards. The Department of Defense led the way: It
adopted 627 voluntary standards and did away with 491 DOD-unique specifications.
The NTTAA directs
the federal government to use private-sector standards, whenever practical.
The 1996 law charges NIST with coordinating this transition, which
aims to increase efficiency by enabling agencies to make greater use
of commercial products and services. If they determine, however, that
appropriate voluntary standards do not exist for a particular purpose,
agencies can develop their own, as they did 88 times in 1999.
NIST also found
that the number of agency personnel participating in standards activities
is continuing to decline. The total fell to about 2,800 people, a
12 percent decrease from the previous year. The report attributes
the decrease, in part, to staff attrition and agency efforts to tighten
the focus of their standards programs.
For more information on the report, contact Belinda
Collins.
Media
Contact:
Michael
E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
Quality
Baldrige Criteria
Can Help Assess, Improve ... and Go for the Gold
For
a dozen years, the Baldrige
Criteria for Performance Excellence have helped thousands
of U.S. organizations—businesses as well as education and
health-care organizations—assess and then improve their
performance.
One of the nation’s
most popular and influential organizational improvement publications,
the criteria are tailored for three different audiences: for-profit
businesses, education organizations and health-care providers.
The 2001 criteria
booklet is easy to use and includes a series of questions covering
seven key areas: leadership, strategic planning, customer and market
focus, information and analysis, human resource focus, process management
and business results.
Over the years,
the criteria have been revised and streamlined to focus more sharply
on overall strategy-driven performance and results as integral parts
of modern management practice. Recognizing the increasing importance
of information management, the 2001 criteria include a new item addressing
the availability, quality and accessibility of data and the quality
of software and hardware.
This year’s
criteria booklet also includes a new section, which asks an organization
to describe its environment; relationships with customers, suppliers
and other partners; and challenges. This profile is the starting point
for both self-assessment and submitting an application. For many organizations,
it may be the sole basis for initial action planning.
If your organization
is ready to “Go for the Gold,” now is the time to submit
an application for the 2001 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Mark two important dates on your calendar: April 5, 2001, is the due
date for eligibility forms, and May 31, 2001, is the application deadline.
Single copies
of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence are available
from NIST by calling (301) 975-2036; faxing a request to (301) 948-3716;
sending an e-mail to nqp@nist.gov;
or by downloading from www.quality.nist.gov.
Additional copies and other material may be ordered for a fee from
the American Society for Quality, (800) 248-1946; www.asq.org.
Media
Contact:
Jan
Kosko, (301) 975-2767
Centennial
March Symposium
Sizes Up the Past, Future of Standards
Thousands
upon thousands of standards exist to advance incredibly diverse aims—from
ensuring that the threads of fire hoses and hydrants match to enabling
computers to connect to networks. In fact, a international professional
organization recently ranked the promulgation of standards among the
top 10 engineering accomplishments of the last century. But the picture
isn’t always rosy. These so-called documentary standards sometimes
can be bones of fierce contention, triggering market battles, impeding
trade and causing diplomatic friction.
In
celebration of its 100th birthday, NIST will host a March
7, 2001, symposium at its Gaithersburg, Md., headquarters, to
survey the past, present and future of the occasionally turbulent
standards world. Experts from industry, international standards organizations,
academe and government will weigh the evolving role of standards and
the hundreds of organizations that develop them. The focus will be
on specific economic sectors, such as information technology, transportation
and construction.
Speakers will
include Lawrence Eicher, secretary general, International Organization
for Standardization; Mathias Funfschilling, president, International
Electrotechnical Commission; Oliver Smoot, chairman, American National
Standards Institute; June Ling, American Society of Mechanical Engineers;
and Jim Thomas, president, American Society for Testing and Materials.
NIST participants will include acting director Karen Brown and several
past directors: Lewis Branscomb, Arati Prabhakar and Ray Kammer.
An important
contributor to U.S. and international standardization activities since
its creation in 1901, NIST coordinates the federal government’s
standards-related activities with the private sector.
For more information
on the NIST Centennial Standards Symposium, visit the NIST Office
of Standards Services web page at www.ts.nist.gov/oss;
or contact Mary
Jo DiBernardo.
Media
Contact:
Michael
E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
Go back to NIST News Page
Editor:
Michael E. Newman
Date
created: 2/20/01
Last updated:
2/20/01
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