Contribution of two diagnosis tools to support interface situation during production launch

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityFirms are urged to constantly introduce new products. Hence, the New Product Development process should be mastered, especially its final phase, the production launch. This paper addresses the critical issue of the information exchange during production launch. Two diagnosis tools considering production launch as a key interface are presented. They permit to examine the information flows, to highlight their weaknesses and hence to find solutions for further improvements. This paper also presents the results of a case study where the diagnosis tools were implemented during a switchgear development project.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Compan

Rotation of Hot Horizontal Branch Stars in Galactic Globular Clusters

We present high resolution UVES+VLT spectroscopic observations of 61 stars in the extended blue horizontal branches of the Galactic globular clusters NGC 1904 (M79), NGC 2808, NGC 6093 (M80), and NGC 7078 M15). Our data reveal for the first time the presence in NGC 1904 of a sizable population of fast (v sin(i) >= 20 km/s) horizontal branch (HB) rotators, confined to the cool end of the EHB, similar to that found in M13. We also confirm the fast rotators already observed in NGC 7078. The cooler stars (T_eff < 11,500 K) in these three clusters show a range of rotation rates, with a group of stars rotating at ~ 15 km/s or less, and a fast rotating group at ~ 30 km/s. Apparently, the fast rotators are relatively more abundant in NGC 1904 and M13, than in NGC 7078. No fast rotators have been identified in NGC 2808 and NGC 6093. All the stars hotter than T_eff ~ 11,500 K have projected rotational velocities vsini< 12 km/s. The connection between photometric gaps in the HB and the change in the projected rotational velocities is not confirmed by the new data. However, our data are consistent with a relation between this discontinuity and the HB jump.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, A.S.P. Conf. Ser., in press in Vol. 296, 200

La equidad y la inclusión social: uno de los desafíos de la educación y la escuela hoy

La educación no está siendo capaz de contribuir a superar las desigualdades ni de reducir la brecha social, por lo que es preciso realizar mayores esfuerzos para que realmente se convierta en un motor de mayor equidad social. El movimiento de la inclusión ha surgido con fuerza en los últimos años para hacer frente a los altos índices de exclusión y discriminación y a las desigualdades educativas presentes en la mayoría de los sistemas educativos del mundo. La perspectiva de la inclusión demanda avanzar hacia un único sistema educativo que sea más diversificado para atender de forma adecuada las necesidades los distintos colectivos y personas, con el fin de lograr, por distintas vías equivalentes en calidad, aprendizajes equiparables para toda la población. Esto supone superar la actual separación entre la educación para todos y la educación para aquellos que por diferentes razones son considerados “diferentes”

The Politics of Literature in Michel Foucault: Veridiction, Fiction and Desire

This article is based on two hypotheses. The first is that in the later Foucault we would find a reformulation of the status that literature had occupied in his work and the development of a politics of literature (already developed in “Sujetos irregulares: ficción y política en el Sade de Michel Foucault”). The second considers that fiction and desire are inseparably joined, which leads me to analyse the logic of Sade as logic of desire in the lectures that Foucault gave on the author at the University of Buffalo (1970). A reading of both aspects together needs to be undertaken so that we can understand, on the one hand, Foucault’s work on the institutional character of literature with which he aimed to pull literature out of its political impasse. Methodologically, this focus enables us to understand how literature occupied a central-marginal place in his work. On the other hand, we need to understand his work on the genealogy of the “subject of desire” and of the alternative forms of subjectivity, and how it is in dialogue with the former aspect. I conclude that his politics of literature is associated with the concept of “bad literature” and with an aesthetics of self as politics of desire/duty. This paper is therefore also a proposal for the interpretation of the role that literature plays in one of the central questions: the definition of the subject as interrelation in late Foucault

Processes of Subjectivation: The Biopolitics and Politics of Literature in the Later Foucault

The last few years saw the publication of the lectures given by Michel Foucault at the Collège de France from 1970-71 until the year of his death, 1984. In May 2015, Éditions du Seuil published Théories et institutions pénales (1971-1972), which is the last volume of the series. Knowledge of these published lectures has led to a return to the French thinker’s work and to a transformation of the studies on subjectivity and politics both in literary theory and philosophy. The study of his work, in particular of his later theoretical production and of its reception, is therefore necessary and urgent. This special issue attends the influence of the later Foucault’s legacy, focusing on the central theme of the processes of subjectivation and what are considered to be its two of the most important roots: the literary and the political

Comparative study of the quality of risk disclosures in shareholders and stakeholder reports between developed and developing countries (case: oil industry)

The current global and competitive environment in which companies within the oil and gas (O&G) sector find themselves requires a greater degree of information that allows users to have a better understanding of the companies’ economic situation and risks they face. For that reason, there is a need to mitigate negative impacts that affect their activities. The objective of this research is to perform a comparative study between the quality of risk disclosures in shareholder and stakeholder reports of O&G companies, headquartered in developed (Canada, the UK and the US) and developing countries (Colombia, Brazil and Argentina) listed on their local stock exchange for the period 2016-2017; their size and its propensity to follow IPIECA (2015) as a voluntary industry guide to produce stakeholders' reports. Using the quantity of risk keywords as indicative of risk quality disclosures by following Bareta and Bonzolan, (2004) approach. The following findings were encountered: (a) companies based in developed countries tend to disclose high-quality risks in their shareholder reports, however the difference compared to developing countries is not significant due to the accounting globalized principles used. Stakeholder reports quality is highly associated with the adoption of industry-specific voluntary guidelines in both developed and developing countries. Additionally, the findings show that the quality of risk disclosures can also be influenced by stakeholder pressures that cause companies to change their reporting approach, in both developed and developing countries; (b) the size of the company in terms of total assets is not a determining factor that influences the company quality of risk disclosures nor for shareholders or stakeholder reports of the companies in developed or developing country; (c) The use of the voluntary guidelines of O&G (IPIECA), develops and improves risk disclosures quality in the shareholder and stakeholder reports of companies within the industry to enable good practices

Literature and Politics in the Later Foucault

While it has been argued that Foucault’s interest in literature was limited to the 1960s and of a mostly depoliticized nature, the philosopher's previously unpublished later works suggest a different reality, showing a sustained interest in literature and its politics. In the light of this new material, this study repositions Foucault's ideas within recent debates on the politics of literature

The peculiar horizontal branch morphology of the Galactic globular clusters NGC 6388 and NGC 6441: new insights from UV observations

Context. In this paper we present multiband optical and UV Hubble Space Telescope photometry of the two Galactic globular clusters NGC 6388 and NGC 6441. Aims. We investigate the properties of their anomalous horizontal branches in different photometric planes in order to shed light on the nature of the physical mechanism(s) responsible for the existence of an extended blue tail and of a slope in the horizontal branch, visible in all the color-magnitude diagrams. Methods. New photometric data have been collected and carefully reduced. Empirical data have been compared with updated stellar models of low-mass, metal-rich, He-burning structures, transformed to the observational plane with appropriate model atmospheres. Results. We have obtained the first UV color-magnitude diagrams for NGC 6388 and NGC 6441. These diagrams confirm previous results, obtained in optical bands, about the presence of a sizeable stellar population of extremely hot horizontal branch stars. At least in NGC 6388, we find a clear indication that at the hot end of the horizontal branch the distribution of stars forms a hook-like feature, closely resembling those observed in NGC 2808 and Omega Cen. We briefly review the theoretical scenarios that have been suggested for interpreting this observational feature. We also investigate the tilted horizontal branch morphology and provide further evidence that supports early suggestions that this feature cannot be interpreted as an effect of differential reddening. We show that a possible solution of the puzzle is to assume that a small fraction - ranging between 10-20% - of the stellar population in the two clusters is strongly helium-enriched (Y ~ 0.40 in NGC 6388 and Y ~ 0.35 in NGC 6441). The occurrence of a spread in the He abundance between the canonical value (Y ~ 0.26) and the quoted upper limits can significantly help in explaining the "whole" morphology of the horizontal branch and the pulsational properties of the variable stars in the target clusters