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Quality

Baldrige Winners Beat S&P 500 for Eighth Year

The “Baldrige Index” has outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 for the eighth year in a row. The index is a fictitious stock fund made up of publicly traded U.S. companies that received a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award between 1991 and 2000. NIST “invested” a hypothetical $1,000 in the two whole company winners (Eastman Chemical Co. and Solectron Corp.) and the parent companies of 18 subsidiary winners. Another $1,000 was invested in the S&P 500.

The two whole company winners outperformed the S&P 500 by almost 4.5 to 1, a 512 percent return on investment. The group of parent companies plus whole company winners outperformed the S&P 500 by about 3 to 1, achieving a 323 percent return on investment.

While receiving a Baldrige Award is not a guarantee of success, Baldrige Award winners must show continuous and major improvements. When Solectron Corp. won the Baldrige Award in 1991, revenue was $265 million with 1,500 employees. When the company won again in 1997, revenue was $4 billion with 18,215 employees. In 2001 Solectron’s revenue was $18 billion with 60,000 employees.

Interested persons may obtain a copy of the 2002 Baldrige Index study online at www.nist.gov/public_affairs/factsheet/stockstudy.htm or by faxing a request to (301) 926-1630.

Media Contact:
Jan Kosko, (301) 975-2767

 

Medicine

NIST Facilitates Development of New Cancer Treatment

A promising but still experimental radiation therapy for cancer may move a step closer to clinical use with some help from NIST.

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) involves giving a patient a drug compound containing an isotope of boron, boron-10, which is taken up by a growing cancer tumor or small clusters of cancer cells. The tumor region is irradiated with a neutron beam of sufficient energy to penetrate the body without damaging healthy tissue, causing the boron to split into two high-energy particles that destroy tumor cells while largely sparing healthy ones. Only recently developed to the point where clinical trials are being considered, BNCT could be used to treat any type of cancer provided that a boron-containing compound can be found or designed to concentrate in the cancerous cells.

Working with collaborators from Cornell University, NIST researchers will attempt to use secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) to map the distribution of the boronated chemotherapy agents in cultures of glioblastoma, an incurable and highly malignant brain cancer. Conventional techniques are not sensitive enough to map boron at therapeutically relevant levels, nor selective for the active boron isotope. But SIMS, which provides detailed information on surface composition, may be able to map individual isotopes and perhaps intact molecules at sub-cellular spatial resolution with the required sensitivity.

Studies are planned to quantify boron uptake as a function of exposure time and drug concentration, determine the relative uptake of various drug cocktails, and image the intact drug molecules in cell cultures to determine how they are metabolized. A rare, high-performance SIMS instrument will be used to map the distribution of boron isotopes.

For more information, contact Greg Gillen, (301) 975-2190, j.gillen@nist.gov.

Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025

 

Materials

NIST, Stanford Researchers Make Magnets Go Out-of-Order

Stanford University and NIST researchers have developed a model approach that could remove the guesswork in designing advanced materials with exotic magnetic properties, such as those exploited to increase the capacity of data storage technology.

Reported in the March 1, 2002, issue of Science, the model system enables scientists to introduce random impurities (non-magnetic atoms) until they disrupt the long-range order of these so-called “low-dimensional quantum magnets.” Key measurements were made at the NIST Center for Neutron Research in Gaithersburg, Md.

The long-pursued model should help guide efforts to engineer materials with enhanced properties stemming from quantum processes.

For more about the Science paper, go to www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/02/quantum36.html. For technical information, contact Jeffrey Lynn, (301) 975-6246, jeffrey.lynn@nist.gov.

Media Contact:
Mark Bello, (301) 975-3776

 

 

Administration

Mehuron to Retire from ITL Director/NIST CIO Posts

William O. Mehuron, director of NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) and Chief Information Officer for the institute, has announced his retirement effective as of April 3, 2002. ITL works with industry, research and government organizations to make information technology more usable, more secure, more scalable and more interoperable than it is today. In support of this mission, ITL develops tests and test methods that both the developers and the users of the technology need to objectively measure, compare and improve their systems. The laboratory also develops computer security standards and guidelines for the federal government.

Mehuron came to NIST in 1998 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he served as director of the NOAA Systems Acquisition Office from 1995 until 1997, and then as acting deputy under secretary from 1997 until 1998. Earlier in his government career, Mehuron was director for research and engineering at the National Security Agency (NSA).

In the private sector, Mehuron held senior management positions with several advanced technology organizations.

ITL Deputy Director Susan Zevin will serve as acting director until a successor to Mehuron is named.

Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025

 

 

Manufacturing

NIST Seeks End to a Problem of Large (and Small) Dimensions

What if information on dimensional specifications and tolerances could flow easily—and without a glitch—from part design to analysis of inspection results? Together, automakers and their suppliers would save hundreds of millions of dollars. But to go from design to final inspection, this information may have to pass through almost 40 interfaces, according to a recent NIST analysis. When these interfaces are incompatible—as they often are—they become costly, time-consuming roadblocks to data exchange.

At the request of several automotive companies and makers of measurement equipment, NIST has helped launch efforts to eliminate these interoperability problems. Organized under the umbrella of the Automotive Industry Action Group, a team is developing: candidate standards for representing part features and tolerances in computer-aided design programs; tools for creating portable inspection programs that can be used on any coordinate measuring machine or other inspection equipment; and a standard format for reporting inspection results. In support, NIST is creating a distributed testbed for evaluating prototype interface specifications and measurement-related software using these prospective standards. Software and hardware are located at factories and facilities of companies participating in the pilot tests. To aid software vendors, NIST also is developing standard test cases and methods that software firms use as they incorporate candidate interfaces into their products.

For more information, contact Al Wavering, (301) 975-3461, albert.wavering@nist.gov.

Media Contact:
John Blair, (301) 975-4261

 

 

Environment

NIST Treatment for Gas Cylinders to Improve Emissions Testing

Even a whiff of pollution emitted by the low-emissions cars of the future could be measured accurately with today’s technology, thanks to a recent advance by NIST. A new approach in the manufacture of compressed gas standards overcomes a problem that previously hindered the measurement of trace levels of nitric oxide (NO) gas—a major contributor to smog and acid rain—and reduced the shelf life of the standards used to make those measurements.

Devices used to measure the concentration of NO in automobile exhaust must be calibrated with precisely defined quantities of the compound. Until now, NO was not stable in NIST Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) at the lower levels needed by emissions testers. This required testers to return their SRMs to NIST for recalibration biannually—an added expense in time and money.

The problem worsens as automakers and elected officials seek to reduce automobile emissions even further. As the allowable levels of NO are lowered, emissions testers must be able to accurately measure smaller and smaller concentrations. The challenge to NIST is to produce SRMs which are 10 times lower in NO concentration without magnifying the sensitivity of the standard to any contaminants present.

NIST has developed a pre-filling treatment that appears to stabilize the cylinders containing NO in a nitrogen gas matrix. Working with industry partner Scott Specialty Gases, the treatment was applied several years ago to 15 experimental cylinders containing between 0.5 and 1.25 parts per million NO. It was only recently that sufficient time had passed for NIST scientists to conclude that all of the cylinders are stable.

NIST, with financial support from the automobile industry, has worked with Scott to produce two new SRMs at 0.5 and 1 part-per-million NO. These SRMs will be available for sale in about two years.

For technical information, contact William Thorn, (301) 975-3905, william.thorn@nist.gov.

Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025

 

 

Thermophysics

Accurate Fluid Properties Vital for Future, Says NIST

Accurate thermophysical properties of fluids are essential to design and operation in the chemical process industries. A new paper from NIST warns that these data must not be taken for granted.

In the paper titled “Fluid Properties and New Technologies: Connecting Design with Reality” (which appeared in the February 2002 issue of Chemical Engineering Progress), the authors state: “Research on fluid properties cannot continue with ‘business as usual’ if it is to meet the future needs of industry. Emerging technologies will require measurements and models for different fluids, and improved ways of utilizing data. In principle, this should be an opportunity for the revitalization of property research.”

The report addresses the many challenges, both in industry and academia, that threaten the ability of the research community to supply essential data. It also details the main areas of oppor-tunity for fluid property work to contribute to the development of new technologies. These areas include molecular simulation, combinatorial methods and measurements, process miniaturization, environmental technology, unconventional mixtures and materials, and data standardization and exchange.

The authors of the article are Allan H. Harvey and Arno Laesecke of the Physical and Chemical Properties Division of NIST's Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory.

Copies of the article (paper no. 02-05) may be obtained from Sarabeth Harris, NIST, MC104, Boulder, Colo. 80305-3328; (303) 497-3237; sarabeth@boulder.nist.gov

Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025