Blockchain, Leadership And Management: Business AS Usual Or Radical Disruption?

The Internet provided the world with interconnection. However, it did not provide it with trust. Trust is lacking everywhere in our society and is the reason for the existence of powerful intermediaries aggregating power. Trust is what prevents the digital world to take over. This has consequences for organisations: they are inefficient because time, energy, money and passion are wasted on verifying everything happens as decided. Managers play the role of intermediaries in such case: they connect experts with each others and instruct them of what to do. As a result, in our expert society, people's engagement is low because no one is there to inspire and empower them. In other words, our society faces an unprecedented lack of leadership. Provided all those shortcomings, the study imagines the potential repercussions, especially in the context of management, of implementing a blockchain infrastructure in any type of organisation. Indeed, the blockchain technology seems to be able to remedy to those issues, for this distributed and immutable ledger provides security, decentralisation and transparency. In the context of a blockchain economy, the findings show that value creation will be rearranged, with experts directly collaborating with each others, and hierarchy being eliminated. This could, in turn, render managers obsolete, as a blockchain infrastructure will automate most of the tasks. As a result, only a strong, action-oriented, leadership would maintain the organisation together. This leadership-in-action would consist in igniting people to take action; coach members of the organisations so that their contribution makes sense in the greater context of life

Interactions between nutrition and gastrointestinal infections with parasitic nematodes in goats

Parasitic nematodes of the digestive tract remain one of the main constraints to goat production both in temperate and tropical countries. The usual mode of control of these gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) based on the repeated use of anthelmintics is now strongly questioned because of the increasing development of resistance to these molecules. Among the alternative methods to anthelmintics currently available, the manipulation of host nutrition in order to improve the host resistance and/or resilience to parasitic infections seems to represent one of the most promising options to reduce the dependence on conventional chemotherapy and to favour the sustainable control of gastro intestinal nematode infections. This paper will review the available information on the interactions between nutrition and nematode parasitism in dairy or meat goats both in temperate and tropical conditions. It will refer to quantitative aspects of the diet (influence of the protein and/or energy parts) as well as to qualitative components (effects of plant secondary metabolites on worm biology) and will discuss the specificities of goats in regard of theses interactions

Gestion non chimique du parasitisme par les nématodes chez les petits ruminants.

L‘agriculture biologique est particulièrement touchée par le parasitisme en raison de son utilisation intensive du pâturage, alors que les traitements anthelminthiques y sont très encadrés.Cet article propose plusieurs méthodes naturelles de lutte contre les nématodes

Thick films of YSZ electrolytes by dip-coating process

Yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ, 8% Y2O3) thick films were coated on porous Ni-YSZ substrates using the dip-coating process and a suspension with a new formulation. The suspension was obtained by addition of a polymeric matrix in a stable suspension of a commercial YSZ (Tosoh) powders dispersed in an azeotropic MEK-EtOH mixture. The green layers were densified after an optimization of the suspension composition. YSZ Tosoh particles encapsulated by a zirconium alkoxide sol and added with colloidal alkoxide precursor are used to load the suspension. The in situ growth of these colloids increases significantly the layers density after an appropriated heat treatment. The obtained films are continuous, homogeneous and 20 μm thick. Different microstructures are obtained depending on the synthesis parameters of the suspension

BLOCKCHAIN, LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: BUSINESS AS USUAL OR RADICAL DISRUPTION?

The Internet provided the world with interconnection. However, it did not provide it with trust. Trust is lacking everywhere in our society and is the reason for the existence of powerful intermediaries aggregating power. Trust is what prevents the digital world to take over. This has consequences for organisations: they are inefficient because time, energy, money and passion are wasted on verifying everything happens as decided. Managers play the role of intermediaries in such case: they connect experts with each others and instruct them of what to do. As a result, in our expert society, people’s engagement is low because no one is there to inspire and empower them. In other words, our society faces an unprecedented lack of leadership. Provided all those shortcomings, the study imagines the potential repercussions, especially in the context of management, of implementing a blockchain infrastructure in any type of organisation. Indeed, the blockchain technology seems to be able to remedy to those issues, for this distributed and immutable ledger provides security, decentralisation and transparency. In the context of a blockchain economy, the findings show that value creation will be rearranged, with experts directly collaborating with each others, and hierarchy being eliminated. This could, in turn, render managers obsolete, as a blockchain infrastructure will automate most of the tasks. As a result, only a strong, action-oriented, leadership would maintain the organisation together. This leadership-in-action would consist in igniting people to take action; coach members of the organisations so that their contribution makes sense in the greater context of life

Asymptotic solvers for ordinary differential equations with multiple frequencies

We construct asymptotic expansions for ordinary differential equations with highly oscillatory forcing terms, focusing on the case of multiple, non-commensurate frequencies. We derive an asymptotic expansion in inverse powers of the oscillatory parameter and use its truncation as an exceedingly effective means to discretize the differential equation in question. Numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of the method

Backward error analysis and the substitution law for Lie group integrators

Butcher series are combinatorial devices used in the study of numerical methods for differential equations evolving on vector spaces. More precisely, they are formal series developments of differential operators indexed over rooted trees, and can be used to represent a large class of numerical methods. The theory of backward error analysis for differential equations has a particularly nice description when applied to methods represented by Butcher series. For the study of differential equations evolving on more general manifolds, a generalization of Butcher series has been introduced, called Lie--Butcher series. This paper presents the theory of backward error analysis for methods based on Lie--Butcher series.Comment: Minor corrections and additions. Final versio

A micropillar for cavity optomechanics

We present a new micromechanical resonator designed for cavity optomechanics. We have used a micropillar geometry to obtain a high-frequency mechanical resonance with a low effective mass and a very high quality factor. We have coated a 60-$\mu$m diameter low-loss dielectric mirror on top of the pillar and are planning to use this micromirror as part of a high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavity, to laser cool the resonator down to its quantum ground state and to monitor its quantum position fluctuations by quantum-limited optical interferometry