Recent Articles

• Out-of-autoclave here to stay for high-quality composites

  Aldo Crugnola, Nick Schott and Don Rosato Engineering

  The manufacturing of high-quality structural composite components for aerospace applications has historically involved autoclave curing, a time-consuming, high-labor, and capital-intensive manufacturing process. As the aerospace and defense industries look to lower costs, composite parts manufacturers are searching for low-cost alternatives to traditional autoclave molding processes that can produce the same mechanical performance that autoclave curing provides. Both commercial and academic research and development have been focusing on a variety of liquid molding or low-pressure consolidation processes to meet this need for lower cost "out-of-autoclave" composite molding.

• Forget empowerment! What you need are self-directed employees

  Hank Boyer Business Management, Services & Risk Management

  Remember when the latest buzzword was empowerment? The premise was that employees who were empowered would be more committed to successful outcomes because they had the ability to make decisions, commit resources, own the decision, etc. As someone was empowered, they also became more accountable for results. What's wrong with empowerment? Plenty!

• Why you should carry spiders at your pet store

  Kevin Plazak Pet Care

  Recently, I was asked to stock and sell tarantulas. In my mind, this translated to "pay money for spiders." Big, hairy spiders. Things that get my wife jumping on furniture to get away from them while screaming for me to kill them. I didn’t take the request all that seriously and ignored it. But the requests kept coming in — rose hair tarantulas and pinktoe tarantulas. Every other store wanted them. My customers asked…and I needed to figure it out.

• Flexible work policies could be key to more rested employees

  Cait Harrison Business Management, Services & Risk Management

  Are your employees getting enough sleep? Likely not. Chances are they’re sleeping less than the seven to nine hours recommended by the National Sleep Foundation — averaging 6.8 hours per night, according to Gallup. But there may be something you can do about it. A new study published in the journal Sleep Health shows that workers will likely get more sleep when their employers play a more active role in ensuring they're better rested — especially when they offer flexible work policies.

• What healthcare providers need to know about measles

  Joan Spitrey Medical & Allied Healthcare

  Many who work in healthcare today are too young to remember the measles epidemics of years past. Therefore, their knowledge and care of this previously eradicated disease is extremely limited and quick identification of infected individuals could be limited. As we learned last year from our Ebola exposures, our lack of knowledge of uncommon, yet highly communicative diseases is our Achilles' heel. As healthcare providers, we owe it to ourselves and our patients to remain informed of such diseases.

• Has the oil price hit its floor?

  Stefanie Heerwig Natural Resources

  Abdulla Al-Badri, secretary general of OPEC, announced recently that oil prices might have reached their floor and could even rise to up to $200 per barrel in the near future. This is a surprising comment, given OPEC's resistance to decrease its oil production and complaints by struggling oil exporters like Nigeria and Venezuela. In fact, Al-Badri's comment was in response to the biggest one-day gain in oil prices since 2009. Brent rose almost 8 percent and finished above $50 per barrel while Western Texas intermediate crude jumped by 7 percent to $53 per barrel.

• Managing your online reputation

  Christina Thielst Communications

  Social channels provide tremendous opportunities to use your voice and find others with similar interests. Being on key social channels also makes it easy for customers, networkers and recruiters to find you and see if your education, skills, interests and goals match with their needs. However, careful consideration and management of one's reputation is imperative.

• The state of consolidation in outpatient PT

  Charlotte Bohnett Medical & Allied Healthcare

  During PPS 2014 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the industry's heaviest hitters — now backed by private equity dollars — strolled about the trade show floor, introducing themselves to clinic owners and negotiating acquisition deals right then and there. This anecdote provides a mere glimpse into a trend sweeping the healthcare industry: consolidation. Healthcare services have always been in high demand, but with 8,000 baby boomers reaching retirement age every day, the healthcare market has never been more saturated with consumers — and that makes private practice acquisition a highly lucrative investment move for qualified buyers.

• SAR privatization good for UK, other countries

  Mark Huber Transportation Technology & Automotive

  The U.K. is embarking on an experiment that will see much of the helicopter search-and-rescue missions that used to be flown by Royal Air Force helicopters now performed by those belonging to the Bristow Group under a long-term contract. If the program succeeds, expect to see copycats spring up around the world. The rationale for privatizing helicopter search and rescue basically comes down to economics; civilians can generally perform many military missions cheaper and more efficiently, save for those that involve actually shooting.

• Why your office can handle hiring new dentists and staff

  Jill Nesbitt Oral & Dental Healthcare

  In the last week, I experienced two opposite attitudes about the growth of dental practices. On the one hand, I was talking with a small group of dentists who understand that group practices are growing quickly and changing the landscape of dentistry. On the other hand, I talked with a dental office manager who played a significant role in improving her dental practice – she had substantially increased the production thanks to filling schedules and knew the dentist was considering hiring another dentist. However, when faced with the idea that the practice may need to hire additional support staff, this office manager was completely against that kind of growth.

Page 1050 of 1307 pages
‹ First  < 1048 1049 1050 1051 1052 >  Last ›