A conceptual framework for enterprise management

This paper reports on the theoretical foundations and the practical reasons for the increasing popularity of the enterprise management perspective. Theoretical foundations are given that discuss vertically integrated, virtual and extended enterprises in terms of endogenous and exogenous factors, and the tensions that these create. An exploratory study in the German automotive industry using inductive grounded theory was conducted, involving data collection via 28 semi-structured interviews with 16 companies and data validation via a questionnaire survey receiving 110 responses from 52 companies. The research delivers a conceptual framework to show how enterprise structures emerge, depending on the prevailing type of core competencies that they use. Furthermore, it proposes contingency-planning recommendations to facilitate managing the change from one structure to another as the demands placed upon the enterprise change.

The future of the public library:reimagining the moral economy of the 'people's university'

New media technologies, the digitisation of information, learning archives and heritage resources are changing the nature of the public library and museums services across the globe, and, in so doing, changing the way present and future users of these services interact with these institutions in real and virtual spaces. New digital technologies are rewriting the nature of participation, learning and engagement with the public library, and fashioning a new paradigm where virtual and physical spaces and educative and temporal environments operate symbiotically. It is with such a creatively disruptive paradigm that the £193 million Library of Birmingham project in the United Kingdom is being developed. New and old media forms and platforms are helping to fashion new public places and spaces that reaffirm the importance of public libraries as conceived in the nineteenth century. As people’s universities, the public library service offers a web of connective learning opportunities and affordances. This article considers the importance of community libraries as sites of intercultural understanding and practical social democracy. Their significance is reaffirmed through the initial findings in the first of a series of community interventions forming part of a long-term project, ‘Connecting Spaces and Places’, funded by the Royal Society of Arts.

Satisfaction with primary care:the perspectives of people with schizophrenia

Background. Schizophrenia affects up to 1% of the population in the UK. People with schizophrenia use the National Health Service frequently and over a long period of time. However, their views on satisfaction with primary care are rarely sought. Objectives. This study aimed to explore the elements of satisfaction with primary care for people with schizophrenia. Method. A primary care-based study was carried out using semi-structured interviews with 45 patients with schizophrenia receiving shared care with the Northern Birmingham Mental Health Trust between 1999 and 2000. Results. Five major themes that affect satisfaction emerged from the data: the exceptional potential of the consultation itself; the importance of aspects of the organization of primary care; the construction of the user in the doctor-patient relationship; the influence of stereotypes on GP behaviour; and the importance of hope for recovery. Conclusion. Satisfaction with primary care is multiply mediated. It is also rarely expected or achieved by this group of patients. There is a significant gap between the rhetoric and the reality of user involvement in primary care consultations. Acknowledging the tensions between societal and GP views of schizophrenia as an incurable life sentence and the importance to patients of hope for recovery is likely to lead to greater satisfaction with primary health care for people with schizophrenia.

Sympathetic control of accommodation:evidence for inter-subject variation

Autonomic innervation of ciliary smooth muscle is mediated principally by the parasympathetic nervous system and is supplemented by the sympathetic nervous system. Previous drug and nerve stimulation experiments on humans and animals have demonstrated that sympathetic innervation is inhibitory (via β-2 adrenoceptors), relatively small, slow and augmented by concurrent levels of background parasympathetic activity. These characteristics are pertinent to the sympathetic system having a specific role in our ability to adapt successfully to sustained near vision tasks and, given the clear association between near vision and the onset and development of myopia, to a putative aetiological role in myopia development in pre-disposed individuals. A fifth characteristic, namely the variation between individuals in access to an inhibitory sympathetic facility is therefore of particular interest. A novel method for continuous recording of accommodation, currently employed in a large sample longitudinal study of myopia in young adults, was used following topical instillation of non-selective (timolol) and selective (betaxolol) sympathetic β-adrenoceptor antagonists. Measures of post-task accommodative hysteresis were taken with reference to the time-course of regression of accommodation when open-loop (Difference of Gaussian) conditions were immediately imposed following short (10 s) and long (3 min) duration far (0D) and near (3D above tonic level) tasks viewed through a Badal system. Data confirm earlier informal experimental observations that only one in three individuals are likely to have access to a sympathetic inhibitory facility during sustained near vision. © 2002 The College of Optometrists.

Sensitivity enhancement using annealed polymer optical fibre based sensors for pressure sensing applications

Thermal annealing can be used to induce a permanent negative Bragg wavelength shift for polymer fibre grating sensors and it was originally used for multiplexing purposes. Recently, researchers showed that annealing can also provide additional benefits, such as strain and humidity sensitivity enhancement and augmented temperature operational range. The annealing process can change both the optical and mechanical properties of the fibre. In this paper, the annealing effects on the stress and force sensitivities of PMMA fibre Bragg grating sensors are investigated. The incentive for that investigation was an unexpected behaviour observed in an array of sensors which were used for liquid level monitoring. One sensor exhibited much lower pressure sensitivity and that was the only one that was not annealed. To further investigate the phenomenon, additional sensors were photo-inscribed and characterised with regard their stress and force sensitivities. Then, the fibres were annealed by placing them in hot water, controlling with that way the humidity factor. After annealing, stress and force sensitivities were measured again. The results show that the annealing can improve the stress and force sensitivity of the devices. This can provide better performing sensors for use in stress, force and pressure sensing applications.

Munkavásárlás vagy dolgozóbérlés? Elmélkedés a munkaviszony közgazdasági értelmezéséről. = Purchase of work or renting of workers?

Munkaszolgáltatások adásvételeként értelmezendő-e a munkaviszony vagy dolgozók bérléseként? A közgazdaság-tudomány álláspontja következetlen: jellemzően dolgozóbérlésnek deklarálja, ugyanakkor ideálisan munkaszolgáltatások adásvételeként gondolja el. Az írás érvelése szerint e következetlenség vélhető oka az abból fakadó szaktudományi dilemma, hogy a tömeges dolgozóbérlés színtereként értelmezett munkaerőpiac versenyzői egyensúlya elvi lehetetlenség. _______ Should the employment relationship be interpreted as a form of purchase of labour services or as one of renting workers? Economics typically portrays it as the latter, but idealizes it as the former. This apparent inconsistency can presumably be attributed to the dilemma arising from the theoretical incompatibility of the core economic concept of competitive equilibrium and the reality of mass renting of people in the labour market.

Marxists into Muslims: The Iranian irony

This dissertation examines the influence of Islamic ideology on Iranian Marxists during the 1979 revolution. The purpose of this study is to extricate the influence of Islamic culture, ideology, and terminology on Marxist organizations and on individuals who identified themselves as Marxists in Iran. This is especially of interest since in many ways Marxism and Islam are ideologically in conflict. Were Marxists aware of the influences of Islam in their behavior and ideology? To investigate the irony publications put forth by several Marxist organizations before and after the 1979 revolution were examined. A history of such influence both ideologically and contextually is depicted to demonstrate their political and cultural significance. Through the study of Marxist political organs, theoretical publication and political flyers distributed during and after the revolution, the phenomenon of Marxists converting to an Islamic ideology became clearer. Many Marxist organizations were demonstrably utilizing Islamic political ideology to organize and mobilize masses of Iranians. This study shows a historical precedence of Marxists’ usage of Islam in the political history of Iran dating back to early twentieth-century. Primary and secondary Marxist literature showed that Islam was an inescapable social and political reality for Iranian Marxists. Not only was there a common upbringing but a common enemy fostered provisional collusion between the two. The internalizing the idea of martyrdom—of Shi’a Islam—was a shared belied that united Marxists with Muslins in their attempt to effect sociopolitical change in Iran. Studying Marxist publications shows evidence that many Iranian Marxists were not conscious of using Islamic ethics and terminology since Islamic beliefs are part of the taken-for-granted world of Iranian culture. This contextual belief system, pervasive within the culture and a change of political ideology is what created the conditions for the possibility of Marxists becoming Muslims.

Globalizing governmentality: Sites of neoliberal assemblage in the Americas

This dissertation analyzes processes of globalization, through a critical examination of the dynamics of neoliberalism in the Americas. It employs and also develops a Foucauldian governmentality analytical framework, demonstrating how such a framework contributes to our understanding of world politics. This dissertation also develops the concept of a liberal political imaginary—consisting of the market, society, and the state—and utilizes this as an analytical framework for understanding the globalization of neoliberal forms of governance. The research suggests that discourses and practices of globalization, global civil society, and global governance represent a fundamental transformation in the way that contemporary social and political reality is understood, and that this has significant consequences for the kinds of political practices and relations that are possible. Moreover, the research suggests the globalization of a neoliberal form of competitive subjectivity that can be applied to a broad range of actors—from individuals to nation-states and international organizations—is reshaping contemporary world politics. The dissertation concludes by suggesting how Foucauldian IR can move forward by incorporating studies of contemporary transformations in capitalism into their analyses.

Marxists into Muslims: An Iranian Irony

This dissertation examines the influence of Islamic ideology on Iranian Marxists during the 1979 revolution. The purpose of this study is to extricate the influence of Islamic culture, ideology, and terminology on Marxist organizations and on individuals who identified themselves as Marxists in Iran. This is especially of interest since in many ways Marxism and Islam are ideologically in conflict. Were Marxists aware of the influences of Islam in their behavior and ideology? To investigate the irony publications put forth by several Marxist organizations before and after the 1979 revolution were examined. A history of such influence both ideologically and contextually is depicted to demonstrate their political and cultural significance. Through the study of Marxist political organs, theoretical publication and political flyers distributed during and after the revolution, the phenomenon of Marxists converting to an Islamic ideology became clearer. Many Marxist organizations were demonstrably utilizing Islamic political ideology to organize and mobilize masses of Iranians. This study shows a historical precedence of Marxists’ usage of Islam in the political history of Iran dating back to early twentieth-century. Primary and secondary Marxist literature showed that Islam was an inescapable social and political reality for Iranian Marxists. Not only was there a common upbringing but a common enemy fostered provisional collusion between the two. The internalizing the idea of martyrdom—of Shi’a Islam—was a shared belied that united Marxists with Muslins in their attempt to effect sociopolitical change in Iran. Studying Marxist publications shows evidence that many Iranian Marxists were not conscious of using Islamic ethics and terminology since Islamic beliefs are part of the taken-for-granted world of Iranian culture. This contextual belief system, pervasive within the culture and a change of political ideology is what created the conditions for the possibility of Marxists becoming Muslims.

Classificação de técnicas e auxílio à navegação de busca com base em sua carga cognitiva, precisão e eficiência

Navigation, in both virtual and real environments, is the process of a deliberated movement to a specific place that is usually away from the origin point, and that cannot be perceived from it. Navigation aid techniques (TANs) have as their main objective help finding a path through a virtual environment to a desired location and, are widely used because they ease the navigation on these unknown environments. Tools like maps, GPS (Global Positioning System) or even oral instructions are real world examples of TAN usage. Most of the works which propose new TANs for virtual environments aim to analyze their impact in efficiency gain on navigation tasks from a known place to an unknown place. However, such papers tend to ignore the effect caused by a TAN usage over the route knowledge acquisition process, which is important on virtual to real training transfer, for example. Based on a user study, it was possible to confirm that TANs with different strategies affects the performance of search tasks differently and that the efficiency of the help provided by a TAN is not inversely related to the cognitive load of the technique’s aids. A technique classification formula was created. This formula utilizes three factors instead of only efficiency. The experiment’s data were applied to the formula and we obtained a better refinement of help level provided by TANs.

Luz e vida: uma proposta de formação continuada de professores

The Course “Light and Life”, which is a product of the present research, is a mediator in helping Science Teachers on how to deal with the Physics classes in secondary school. The aim of the present study was to propose a course which can help Science Teachers with their difficulties in the teaching of Physics in the later years of secondary school, mainly about topics related to the theme Light. The elaboration of the product of this research involved structuring and applying a course of continued formation through the “Fun with Science and Art Museum-DICA, under the theme Light, to Science Teachers of the later years of secondary school, in order to promote an environment of dialogue and problem raising as means of disseminating and discussing the teaching of topics related to Light in the teaching of Sciences. The formation course presented a flexible structure in order to widen the relation between the researcher and the teachers participating in the course, aiming to give an answer to the formative needs of the teachers in relation to the theme proposed. In order to know and discuss the problems and challenges of the teaching of Physics in the Science classes, an approach of insertion and integration of concepts related to the theme Light was conducted, mainly on topics relating to the contents of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, according to the curriculum and the abilities of Sciences worked on in class, through the approach of concepts and practice which approximate the practical and theoretical reality of the formative needs of the teachers involved in this study. This work aimed to understand the relation of Science Teachers with the theme Light and comprehend the relation of the teachers with the present proposal of continued formation promoted by the Museum DICA. The methodological option of this research remained in the domains of qualitative research whose analysis was based on the content analysis. The data collection was carried out through questionnaires and group discussions recorded in audio, besides the participative observation of the researcher. As the research product, the structuring and application of a course of continued formation of Science Teachers of secondary school was proposed, under the thematic Light, and a later restructuring of the course under the same thematic based on the data collected after the application of the referred course, which will be later promoted by the Museum DICA.

The puppet as a tool for working in Art Therapy

This article aims to investigate the possibilities of building puppets in art therapy workshop, for this it realizes a tour of the primitive use of the puppet as a magical twin and potential towards the study of authors who have used the puppets as a therapeutic tool from the first half of the twentieth century. It’s raised an own theoretical organization, which includes the consideration of the significance of the body in the construction and management of the puppet and the puppet transitional perspective, halfway of external reality and psychic reality as an object that makes fantasy and reality arises built.

Notas críticas y exegéticas sobre el capítulo 166 (Antonio Diógenes, Las maravillas de más allá de Tule) de la "Biblioteca" de Focio.

Notas críticas y exegéticas sobre el capítulo 166 (Antonio Diógenes, Las maravillas de más allá de Tule) de la Biblioteca de Focio.

“Niemand zeugt für den Zeugen”. Temporalidad y memoria en la poesía de Paul Celan

El artículo analiza cómo Paul Celan, utilizando recursos arreferenciales y antimiméticos propios de la poésie pure y la poesía absoluta, desarrolla un modelo poético en el que la temporalidad y la memoria son determinantes. En el nuevo modelo, el lenguaje no constituye una realidad autónoma e inmanente; antes bien, se concreta en una acción dialógica y remite a una realidad extralingüística. El mismo texto poético configura un espacio del recuerdo, se erige en un lugar de memoria que, a través de las sedimentaciones históricas que arrastra el lenguaje, da testimonio de lo ocurrido.

Difusión teatral del transformismo: El caso de "Les deux Jockos", 1825

Durante el siglo XIX el transformismo irrumpe en el panorama científico, una irrupción cuyas implicaciones filosóficas y sociales se traducen, entre otros, en obras teatrales en las que la temática refleja la difusión de estas nuevas ideas. Les deux Jockos, de 1825, ejemplifica ese grupo de representaciones que ponen en escena el debate transformista en una sociedad todavía dominada por los preceptos fijistas defendidos desde las instituciones y las élites sociales de la época. Así pues, el análisis de la obra permitirá desvelar aquellos elementos relacionados con el nuevo paradigma de naturaleza propuesto, al tiempo que evidencia la capacidad de influencia de la realidad histórica, social y cultural sobre el género teatral.