Changes in work and competences

This introductory chapter is in three sections, and will discuss the main changes that have affected the world of work over the past 50 years, and their consequences on organisations, activities, and the competences of employees. (DIPF/Orig.

Tidal and rotational effects in the perturbations of hierarchical triple stellar systems. II. Eccentric systems - the case of AS Camelopardalis

We study the perturbations of a relatively close third star on a tidally distorted eccentric eclipsing binary. We consider both the observational consequences of the variations of the orbital elements and the interactions of the stellar rotation with the orbital revolution in the presence of dissipation. We concentrate mainly on the effect of a hypothetical third companion on both the real, and the observed apsidal motion period. We investigate how the observed period derived mainly from some variants of the O-C relates to the real apsidal motion period. We carried out both analytical and numerical investigations and give the time variations of the orbital elements of the binary both in the dynamical and the observational reference frames. We give the direct analytical form of an eclipsing O-C affected simultaneously by the mutual tidal forces and the gravitational interactions with a tertiary. We also integrated numerically simultaneously the orbital and rotational equations for the possible hierarchical triple stellar system AS Camelopardalis. We find that there is a significant domain of the possible hierarchical triple system configurations, where both the dynamical and the observational effects tend to measure longer apsidal advance rate than is expected theoretically. This happens when the mutual inclination of the close and the wide orbits is large, and the orbital plane of the tertiary almost coincides with the plane of the sky. We also obtain new numerical results on the interaction of the orbital evolution and stellar rotation in such triplets. The most important fact is that resonances might occur as the stellar rotational rate varies during the dissipation-driven synchronization process...Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures (reduced quality!), accepted for publication for Astronomy and Astrophysic

Experimental investigation of tool wear and its effect on TiSiN-coated ball-end mill geometry in high-speed milling

International audienceIn this paper, an experimental investigation was carried out in order to identify the tool life of sintered carbide ball-end mill based on spindle speed variation. The used tool is coated with titanium silicon nitride “TiSiN” which is a high-hardened and high heatresistant coat. Experiments were conducted on parallelepiped plane workpieces on AISI 4142 during high-speed milling. Two kinds of tests were realized, the first is a wear experiment using high cutting parameters in order to identify the wear criterion model as a function of the spindle speed. The second one is an accelerated wear experiment to develop an empirical model for the tool life. The research revealed that the tool life and wear criterion value decrease when increasing the spindle speed. It is observed that the wear increases linearly in the normal wear zone. Furthermore, the effect of tool wear on the ball-end mill geometry and the cutting parameters were also investigated. A noticeable variation was found on the effective radius of the tool which affect the tool geometry such as the direction angles of the elementary cutting edge which results in the variation of the cutting parameters. An important effect also of the effective radius variation on the cutting speed was proved

A new approach of productive models: the world that changed the machine

"Im letzten Jahrzehnt hat sich die Welt der Automobilindustrie wieder einmal stark verändert. Zu Beginn der 1990er Jahre schienen amerikanische und europäische Automobilproduzenten keine Wahl zu haben, das japanische System der schlanken Produktion zu übernehmen, in dem auch die Arbeitnehmer und Zulieferer zu kontinuierlichen Verbesserungen angehalten waren. Doch heute scheint die Begeisterung für das japanische Produktionsmodell verschwunden. Wie ist die ökonomische Krise Japans zu erklären, in der es für Unternehmen wie Nissan, Mazda und Mitsubishi Ende der neunziger Jahre nötig wurde, strategische Allianzen einzugehen, oder aufgekauft zu werden, wenn nicht bankrott zu gehen? Wie ist zu verstehen, dass Toyota und Honda so viel schwächer expandieren, während gleichzeitig gut erholte europäische und amerikanische Automobilproduzenten den weltweiten Reigen von Aufkäufen, Fusionen und Allianzen anführen? Die hier entwickelten Antworten beruhen auf den Analysen des internationalen Forschungsverbundes GERPISA, in dem Ökonomen und Soziologen der Abhängigkeit erfolgreicher Produktionspolitiken von nationalen Institutionen oder 'Regulationen' nachspüren." (Autorenreferat)"Once again, and over a ten-year span, the worldwide automobile industrial environment has changed. At the start of 1990's, American and European carmakers seemed to be forced rapidly to adopt the Japanese system of lean production that included the active participation by workers and suppliers in achieving performance improvement objectives. And yet, a short decade later, this quasi-unanimous conviction of the superiority of the new production model seems to have lost its zest. How can one account for the economic crisis in Japan, where firms such as Nissan, Mazda, and Mitsubishi were required at the end of the 1990s to seek out capitalistic alliances or become totally absorbed in order to avoid bankruptcy? How can one account for Toyota and Honda's diminished expansion while simultaneously American and European firms are recovering to the point of leading the acquisitions-mergers-alliance dance throughout the world? These questions have been tackled by GERPISA, an international research network of sociologists and economists, pinpointing profound dependencies between production models and national institutions or 'regulations'." (author's abstract

Multivariate approximation methods and applications to geophysics and geodesy

The first report in a series is presented which is intended to be written by the author with the purpose of treating a class of approximation methods of functions in one and several variables and ways of applying them to geophysics and geodesy. The first report is divided in three parts and is devoted to the presentation of the mathematical theory and formulas. Various optimal ways of representing functions in one and several variables and the associated error when information is had about the function such as satellite data of different kinds are discussed. The framework chosen is Hilbert spaces. Experiments were performed on satellite altimeter data and on satellite to satellite tracking data

The moral malaises of modern pediatric medicine

Le cadre éthique dominant en médecine pédiatrique est intrinsèquement problématique, car des considérations morales importantes y restent dissimulées. Ce problème correspond bien au déplacement des malaises moraux dans la modernité énoncés par Charles Taylor. En nous référant à Taylor, nous soutenons que la médecine pédiatrique contemporaine et la bioéthique reflètent la théorie morale moderne centrée sur des procédures décisionnelles, sans considération explicite des fondements moraux de telles procédures. L'objectif de cette thèse est d'examiner les préoccupations morales de la médecine pédiatrique contemporaine grâce au cadre philosophique développé par Taylor. Le travail de Taylor a orienté cette recherche (a) méthodologiquement, car sa conception de l'herméneutique a servi de cadre d'analyse ; et (b) substantivement, car son analyse de la modernité et de la théorie morale a été une référence indispensable. La philosophie herméneutique de Taylor ainsi que son analyse de la modernité sont examinés afin de retracer les horizons de signification et les imaginaires sociaux dans lesquels la médecine pédiatrique est née et s’est attachée à des orientations morales particulières. Cette approche montre que la médecine pédiatrique apparaît 1) d’abord lorsque les intérêts économiques et militaires de l'Etat le conduisent à valoriser la santé des enfants, 2) ensuite lorsque apparaît une orientation éthique mettant l’accent sur l'enfant lui-même selon le critère du meilleur intérêt de l’enfant. Trois malaises moraux ont été identifiés dans la médecine pédiatrique moderne: (a) la convergence du droit et de l'éthique; (b) la conception des enfants comme étant incapables et dépendants ; et (c) la nature ambiguë du concept du meilleur intérêt. Nous examinons ces malaises afin de révéler les horizons de signification et les imaginaires sociaux qui leur ont donné naissance. Un cadre taylorien est également proposé afin d’enrichir la pratique bioéthique pédiatrique actuelle – la récupération et le rapprochement herméneutiques – permettant ainsi l’accordage interprétatif et la réconciliation des considérations morales dissimulées dans le cadre éthique courant. Les implications à l’égard de la recherche ainsi que la pratique et la formation en pédiatrie sont présentées.The dominant ethical framework in pediatric medicine is inherently problematic because important moral considerations are concealed. This problem is congruent with the displacement of moral malaises in modernity articulated by Charles Taylor. Drawing on Taylor’s work, I argue that contemporary pediatric medicine and bioethics are reflective of modern moral theory, which is centered on decisional procedures without explicit regard for the substantive moral grounds that such procedures should relate to. The goal of this thesis is to examine moral concerns in contemporary pediatric medicine through Taylor’s philosophical work. Taylor’s ideas oriented this examination (a) methodologically, as his conception of hermeneutics served as the analytical framework, and (b) substantively, by drawing on his analysis of modernity and moral theory. Taylor’s hermeneutical philosophy as well as his examination of modernity are reviewed to provide a philosophical framework for tracing the horizons of significance and social imaginaries within which pediatric medicine emerged and became aligned with particular moral orientations. An operational explicitation of Taylor’s hermeneutical approach was developed to examine (a) the early history of pediatric medicine as children’s health became valued in light of state and societal economic and military interests and (b) the emergence and ongoing development of the best interests standard, a more child-centered ethical orientation. Three moral malaises in modern pediatric medicine were identified: (a) the convergence of law and ethics; (b) the construal of children as incapable and dependent; and (c) the ambiguous nature of best interests. These malaises were examined to the retrieve the background horizons of significance and social imaginaries against which they were shaped. Moreover, a Taylorian framework for the practice of pediatric bioethics is proposed - hermeneutical retrieval and rapprochement - to enrich pediatric practice through interpretive attunement and reconciliation of concealed moral considerations. The implications for future research as well as pediatric practice and education are outlined

Competence and Competence Development

What are today’s main concepts and theories – and the main stakes – associated with the issue of competences in organisations? Several topics are discussed, including competence issues regarding the evolution of work, professionalisation, competence evaluation, competence management, and the competences of adult educators and trainers, as well as European policies regarding competence needs and development. From the Contents: Changes in Work and Competences Professionalisation and the Development of Competences in Education and Training The Role of Professional Didactics in Skills Development for Training and Education Professionals Competence Evaluation Processes in Adult Education Competence Management and Adult Education Changes in Vocational Training and New Models of Competences for Individual

On an unhappy marriage, Henry James and atoms : Vladimir Nabokov reading (on) Anton Chekhov

Nabokov’s lecture on Anton Chekhov stands out for its numerous citations from Korney Chukovsky’s 1947 article ‘Friend Chekhov.’ At the same time, however, the lecture contains many more references to other critics, as well – some of them explicit, though not necessarily clear, others more concealed. In an attempt to trace the sources Nabokov used when drafting his Chekhov lecture, the article offers a concrete view of Nabokov’s critical laboratory. Additionally, the article sheds light on his relation to other critics and critical movements, more specifically with respect to the competing ‘tendencies’ at work in the canonization of Chekhov’s oeuvre during the interwar period: Russian émigré, Soviet, and Anglo-American

鎮守の森の公共性 : 神社、内在性、言説的世俗化

This article analyzes contemporary Shinto ideology in the light of recent theories on the formation of the category “secular” and on secularization. Drawing on Charles Taylor’s discussion of the original meaning of the categories “religious” and “secular,” as well as the work of Kuroda Toshio and others, it suggests that premodern shrine worship may have been perceived as the “immanent,” “this-worldly” counterpart of a more transcendentally oriented monastic Buddhism. In the Meiji period, Shinto developed into a modern Japanese “immanent frame” (or “Shinto secular,” as Josephson has called it)—a public, collective, non-optional frame of reference— while Buddhism, Christianity, and “new religions” were configured as “religious,” that is, private and optional. Contemporary Shinto leaders such as Tanaka Tsunekiyo and Sonoda Minoru draw upon such Meiji-period understandings of Shinto as the immanent, foundational framework by which Japanese culture and society are shaped and conditioned. According to them, Shinto should not be subject to the same legal restrictions as other religions, as it is an essentially public tradition uniting communities (kyōdōtai) around their shared sacred center, the shrine grove (chinju no mori). As this article demonstrates, these authors actively contribute to Shinto’s discursive secularization: they seek to dissociate Shinto from “religion,” instead framing it as Japan’s underlying “traditional culture” (dentō bunka). Rather than challenging the postwar legal state apparatus and separation of religion and state, therefore, they seek to renegotiate Shinto’s position within this apparatus, asserting its role as a “secular” worship tradition concerned with the common good of the nation as a whole