An alternative industrial extension model: The experience of the food manufacturing industry

The ability to reach small manufacturers with productivity enhancing technology requires implementation of alternative industrial extension strategies. We describe one such strategy being pursued in the food manufacturing industry. Given the large numbers of small manufacturers and of potential technology suppliers, the challenge is to create an effective approach that takes advantage of the market aggregation capacity of food industry trade associations. Through a food manufacturing coalition, this extension effort will identify common industry needs for technology; assess and adapt existing technology;stimulate vendors to capitalize on the technology; and rely upon market forces to encourage innovative problem solving.     

A provisional typology of lawyer attitudes towards divorce practice

To test the proposition that attorneys in divorce may be classified into distinctive types, 46 members of the Family Law Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association completed a 61 item Lawyer Role Questionnaire (LRQ). The LRQ assessed attitudes regarding goals of and obstacles to a constructive settlement, sources of professional satisfaction, usefulness of mental health professionals, and general attitudes towards divorce and divorce clients. The modal responses on the LRQ portrayed the attorney as a fair, but tough-minded professional, primarily concerned with the welfare of children and ensuring equity. Factor analysis identified four principal attitudinal components of the LRQ: aPsychological factor, anAdvocacy factor, aSocial Work factor, and aClient as Problem factor. Hierachial cluster analysis utilizing the mean factor scores yielded two highly distinguishable attorney subgroups:Counselors (n=24), oriented to psychological and interpersonal issues and disinclined towards the use of adversarial tactics, andAdvocates (n=22), with the reverse orientation. Two subclusters of these main groups were also identified:Gladiators (n=4), with a strongly combatative stance and a highly negative attitude toward the client, andJourneymen (n=10), best characterized by their lack of enthusiasm for any of the dimensions popular with the other types. The results correspond well to the previous, but scanty, literature on lawyer dispositions. Methodological and conceptual issues raised by the study are considered and the possible relationship between lawyer type and the process and outcome of settlement negotiations is discussed.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, Baltimore, Maryland, October, 1979.     

Experience in the transfer of handpump technology to less developed countries

Many of the world's nations have neither adequate water supplies nor sufficient sanitation facilities. The United Nations, therefore, designated 1981–1990 as the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade with the explicit goal of providing the world's poor with access to adequate water supplies and proper sanitations. Over the past eight years, the International Division of the Engineering Experiment Station at Georgia Tech has been helping the world's poorer countries assess their need for handoperated water pumps, develop effective hand pump programs, and manufacture, install, maintain and monitor the pumps. The purpose of this paper is to provide a methodology for technology transfer that is applicable to hand pumps as well as to numerous other hardware items.     

UTS: Accelerating public sector technology utilization

This paper describes the Urban Technology System (UTS) Program in its overall context. It also describes some specific local government needs, their technological solutions, and the results achieved through solution implementation.     

Models for commercialization of technology from universities and research laboratories

One of the most admired aspects of U.S. technology has been the ability to assimilate and commercialize new science and technology. In light of the rising international competition, there has been new emphasis placed on the commercialization of U.S. science and technology developed in the federal laboratories. While research and development remains the focus of these laboratories, passage of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Act of 1980 and the Technology Transfer Act of 1986 has resulted in a means to further the exploitation of discoveries, patents, and copyrights developed within the laboratories. The transfer of technology to industrial partners and users is a complex task for a federal laboratory. Since the interaction with industry, as well as market knowledge and assessment of the needs of business users are beyond the charter of a federal laboratory, new organizational mechanisms are required in order to obtain full commercial value from the laboratories' efforts. A study was instituted to examine selected organizational and policy arrangements for achieving the optimum commercial value from the science and technology research at the research and development laboratories sponsored and funded by the U.S. government.     

Technology transfer: Water purification,U.S. Army to the civilian community

The Logistics Support Laboratory at the Belvoir Research and Development Center is responsible for the development of water purification equipment for the field Army. Developing water purification systems for military use has led to technological breakthroughs which have benefitted the civilian community. Two examples are the evaluation of the Army's ERDLator for the decontamination of water polluted with asbestos fibers, and design of a plant for the soluble-sulfide precipitation of heavy metals from industrial wastewater.     

Technology transfer into capital-intensive industry II. Effect of legislative action

Government policy supports the customary industrial goal of putting new technology to work in industry as quickly as possible, so as to enhance productivity and save energy. There is continuing debate over how to achieve this goal, specifically as to the impact of legislation on efforts to improve industrial energy conservation. The Office of Technology Assessment has studied the effects of four types of legislation on four large energy-using industries: Chemicals, paper, petroleum refining and steel. The legislative options include fuel taxes, changes in depreciation rules, energy tax credits, and lower interest rates. The analysis indicates that reasonable levels of the first three of these will not be persuasive in motivating new investments, and will not speed up the rate of new technology penetration. The limits of new technology introduction are set by capital availability and cash flow. Accordingly, lower interest rates which promote capital availability would indeed increase the levels of capital spending and hence accelerate energy conservation.