Japanese And Western Management Approaches: Is Convergence Occurring?

Japan’s rapid economic growth in the 1970s and 1980s, and the success of a number of Japanese factories overseas, led to great interest in the Japanese managerial system and some specific techniques used by Japanese companies. A plethora of books and articles were written about the value of (or threat from) Japanese business-government cooperation, the Japanese employment system and management-labor cooperation, the avoidance of excessive competition, the wide use of long-term relationships and planning, and the emphasis on growth rather than short-term profits. There was also much written about specific Japanese techniques including the use of quality circles, continuous improvement, total quality management, flexible production, and just-in-time and lean production. Many European, Canadian, and U.S. companies adopted some of the most widely publicized Japanese techniques, often in substantially modified form. Important aspects of production and logistics were revolutionized. Some companies also used modified Japanese approaches in attempting to improve management-labor relations.  In Japan, the economic problems from the 1990s to the present, and the success of some foreign firms, led to increased interest in Western management approaches. There was growing concern that the traditional Japanese ways of doing business were inadequate to cope with the changing international and domestic environments. During the past decade, there has been wide discussion in the business press of the need for adopting selected Western methods. A number of Japanese companies have announced that they are changing their traditional employment practices, and mergers and acquisitions have become increasingly common. It thus might appear that Japanese and Western managerial philosophy and approaches are converging. While Japan and the West have each benefited substantially from the adoption of ideas and techniques from the other, basic differences remain in the values, beliefs, and objectives of business, government, and society. In this paper, these differences are discussed, and the degree of convergence is seen to be limited more to techniques than to the basic assumptions, objectives, and strategies that drive business

Quantum Hall effect in narrow graphene ribbons

The edge states in the integer quantum Hall effect are known to be significantly affected by electrostatic interactions leading to the formation of compressible and incompressible strips at the boundaries of Hall bars. We show here, in a combined experimental and theoretical analysis, that this does not hold for the quantum Hall effect in narrow graphene ribbons. In our graphene Hall bar, which is only 60 nm wide, we observe the quantum Hall effect up to Landau level index k=2 and show within a zero free-parameter model that the spatial extent of the compressible and incompressible strips is of a similar magnitude as the magnetic length. We conclude that in narrow graphene ribbons the single-particle picture is a more appropriate description of the quantum Hall effect and that electrostatic effects are of minor importance.Comment: RevTex, 5 pages, 4 figures (matches published version

Analytic free-form lens design in 3D: coupling three ray sets using two lens surfaces

The two-dimensional analytic optics design method presented in a previous paper [Opt. Express 20, 5576–5585 (2012)] is extended in this work to the three-dimensional case, enabling the coupling of three ray sets with two free-form lens surfaces. Fermat’s principle is used to deduce additional sets of functional differential equations which make it possible to calculate the lens surfaces. Ray tracing simulations demonstrate the excellent imaging performance of the resulting free-form lenses described by more than 100 coefficients

Multi-rate data fusion for state and parameter estimation in (Bio-)chemical process engineering

For efficient operation, modern control approaches for biochemical process engineering require information on the states of the process such as temperature, humidity or chemical composition. Those measurement are gathered from a set of sensors which differ with respect to sampling rates and measurement quality. Furthermore, for biochemical processes in particular, analysis of physical samples is necessary, e.g., to infer cellular composition resulting in delayed information. As an alternative for the use of this delayed measurement for control, so-called soft-sensor approaches can be used to fuse delayed multirate measurements with the help of a mathematical process model and provide information on the current state of the process. In this manuscript we present a complete methodology based on cascaded unscented Kalman filters for state estimation from delayed and multi-rate measurements. The approach is demonstrated for two examples, an exothermic chemical reactor and a recently developed model for biopolymer production. The results indicate that the the current state of the systems can be accurately reconstructed and therefore represent a promising tool for further application in advanced model-based control not only of the considered processes but also of related processes

Group 2 Innate Lymphoid Cells in Respiratory Allergic Inflammation

Millions of people worldwide are suffering from allergic inflammatory airway disorders. These conditions are regarded as a consequence of multiple imbalanced immune events resulting in an inadequate response with the exact underlying mechanisms still being a subject of ongoing research. Several cell populations have been proposed to be involved but it is becoming increasingly evident that group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) play a key role in the initiation and orchestration of respiratory allergic inflammation. ILC2s are important mediators of inflammation but also tissue remodeling by secreting large amounts of signature cytokines within a short time period. Thereby, ILC2s instruct innate but also adaptive immune responses. Here, we will discuss the recent literature on allergic inflammation of the respiratory tract with a focus on ILC2 biology. Furthermore, we will highlight different therapeutic strategies to treat pulmonary allergic inflammation and their potential influence on ILC2 function as well as discuss the perspective of using human ILC2s for diagnostic purposes

A relativistically covariant version of Bohm's quantum field theory for the scalar field

We give a relativistically covariant, wave-functional formulation of Bohm's quantum field theory for the scalar field based on a general foliation of space-time by space-like hypersurfaces. The wave functional, which guides the evolution of the field, is space-time-foliation independent but the field itself is not. Hence, in order to have a theory in which the field may be considered a beable, some extra rule must be given to determine the foliation. We suggest one such rule based on the eigen vectors of the energy-momentum tensor of the field itself.Comment: 1 figure. Submitted to J Phys A. 20/05/04 replacement has additional references and a few minor changes made for clarity. Accepted by J Phys

The Application of Ultrasonics in Non-Destructive Testing: A Review of Some of the Research at University College London

This paper presents a review of some of the research projects at University College London which use ultrasonic waves in non-destructive testing. The projects covered include a low-frequency scanning acoustic microscope, a new dark-field acoustic microscope, an update on finite difference model studies of wave propagation and scattering, developments in mode-conversion techniques for defect characterisation, a new high-resolution acoustic field sampling probe and a resume of the work on Zn0 transducers

Shot noise in lithographically patterned graphene nanoribbons

We have investigated shot noise and conductance of multiterminal graphene nanoribbon devices at temperatures down to 50 mK. Away from the charge neutrality point, we find a Fano factor F≈0.4, nearly independent of the charge density. Our shot noise results are consistent with theoretical models for disordered graphene ribbons with a dimensionless scattering strength K0 ≈ 10 corresponding to rather strong disorder. Close to charge neutrality, an increase in F up to ∼0.7 is found, which indicates the presence of a dominant Coulomb gap possibly due to a single quantum dot in the transport gap.Peer reviewe