Leveraging the Dialectical Theory in Case Study Analysis: Genzyme\u27s Ethical Dilemma

This paper provides the theoretical framework for a case study that I share with students in my courses. The dialectical theory is used to analyze ethical conundrums pertaining to Genzyme, a successful bio-tech corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts that manufactures treatments for serious diseases such as kidney problems, immune diseases, and cancer. We discuss questions such as: is Genzyme acting unethically when averaging extremely high profit margins on drugs for rare diseases? Is the company taking advantage of the lack of pharmaceutical choices that patients have when addressing their ailments? The dialectical theory provides the framework and vocabulary for discussing, unpacking, and analyzing the complex aspects of this ethics case study. The students are taught various management strategies for dealing with dialectical tensions. Moreover, students are encouraged to think objectively and systemically in order to understand the complexities of ethical decision-making processes

Leadership succession: a discourse analysis of governance dialectics in two nonprofit organizations

Nonprofit organizations across the country are faced with a leadership crisis due to unprecedented demographic changes and challenges. The en masse retirement of the baby boomers leaves leadership positions in nonprofit organizations vacant and vulnerable. This study uses discourse analysis and dialectical theory to compare and contrast the leadership succession processes in two Texas-based nonprofit organizations. Both organizations have comparable missions, religious backgrounds, and annual budgets. In addition, the two organizations share similar structures in terms of board of directors, board chair, and executive director (ED) dynamics. This research is a descriptive comparative case study. The specific purpose of this study is to examine how various board members, including the board chair and the incumbent ED, construct the leadership succession process through their discursive interactions and strategies. This study demonstrates that leadership succession in nonprofits is a convoluted process enacted discursively by conflicting or collaborating key organizational actors huddled around various leadership nuclei. These nuclei include, in various combinations, the EDs, board chairs, vice-chairs, and even spouses of some of these actors. The leadership nuclei morph over time, based on the management of dialectical tensions experienced across four stages in the succession process: presuccession, during succession A and B, and post-succession. This research contributes to the larger body of leadership succession knowledge in multiple ways. First, this study reveals that leadership is an amorphous and dynamic concept contested among organizational actors across time. Second, the study highlights the architectonic role of discourse in the leadership succession process. The succession process is enacted through the key organizational actors' discursive exchanges. Third, this research points to three types of dialectical tensions underlying the actors' discursive interactions: individual-centered dialectics ("staying/leaving"), relation-centered dialectics ("blaming/absolving," "freedom/control," and "cooperation/competition"), and organization-centered dialectics ("change/stability"). Next, this study demonstrates that organizational or individual crisis prompts the succession process, and that change, conflict, goals, and deadlines grow out of the succession process and not the other way around. Finally, this study contributes specifically to the research area of small nonprofit organizations. There is a paucity of research examining the succession process in small nonprofits, and this study addresses this need

Composite slab behavior and strength analysis under static and dynamic loads

Steel-framed buildings are typically constructed using steel-deck-reinforced concrete floor slabs. The in-plane (or diaphragm) strength and stiffness of the floor system are frequently utilized in the lateral load-resisting system design. This paper presents the results of an experimental research program in which four full size composite diaphragms were vertically loaded to the limit state, under static or dynamic loads. Two test specimens were provided with longitudinal steel-deck ribs, and the other two specimens with cross steel-deck ribs. Typical composite diaphragm limit states are described, and the controlling limit state for each of the full size tests is indicated. The interaction effects between the reinforced concrete slab and the steel girder on the composite slab strength and stiffness were mainly studied

The upgrade of the ALICE TPC with GEMs and continuous readout

The upgrade of the ALICE TPC will allow the experiment to cope with the high interaction rates foreseen for the forthcoming Run 3 and Run 4 at the CERN LHC. In this article, we describe the design of new readout chambers and front-end electronics, which are driven by the goals of the experiment. Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detectors arranged in stacks containing four GEMs each, and continuous readout electronics based on the SAMPA chip, an ALICE development, are replacing the previous elements. The construction of these new elements, together with their associated quality control procedures, is explained in detail. Finally, the readout chamber and front-end electronics cards replacement, together with the commissioning of the detector prior to installation in the experimental cavern, are presented. After a nine-year period of R&D, construction, and assembly, the upgrade of the TPC was completed in 2020.publishedVersio

The ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a general-purpose, heavy-ion detector at the CERN LHC which focuses on QCD, the strong-interaction sector of the Standard Model. It is designed to address the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark-gluon plasma at extreme values of energy density and temperature in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Besides running with Pb ions, the physics programme includes collisions with lighter ions, lower energy running and dedicated proton-nucleus runs. ALICE will also take data with proton beams at the top LHC energy to collect reference data for the heavy-ion programme and to address several QCD topics for which ALICE is complementary to the other LHC detectors. The ALICE detector has been built by a collaboration including currently over 1000 physicists and engineers from 105 Institutes in 30 countries. Its overall dimensions are 161626 m3 with a total weight of approximately 10 000 t. The experiment consists of 18 different detector systems each with its own specific technology choice and design constraints, driven both by the physics requirements and the experimental conditions expected at LHC. The most stringent design constraint is to cope with the extreme particle multiplicity anticipated in central Pb-Pb collisions. The different subsystems were optimized to provide high-momentum resolution as well as excellent Particle Identification (PID) over a broad range in momentum, up to the highest multiplicities predicted for LHC. This will allow for comprehensive studies of hadrons, electrons, muons, and photons produced in the collision of heavy nuclei. Most detector systems are scheduled to be installed and ready for data taking by mid-2008 when the LHC is scheduled to start operation, with the exception of parts of the Photon Spectrometer (PHOS), Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) and Electro Magnetic Calorimeter (EMCal). These detectors will be completed for the high-luminosity ion run expected in 2010. This paper describes in detail the detector components as installed for the first data taking in the summer of 2008

Current Status on Pulsed Laser Deposition of Coatings from Animal-Origin Calcium Phosphate Sources

The aim of this paper is to present the current status on animal-origin hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings synthesized by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique for medical implant applications. PLD as a thin film synthesis method, although limited in terms of surface covered area, still gathers interest among researchers due to its advantages such as stoichiometric transfer, thickness control, film adherence, and relatively simple experimental set-up. While animal-origin HA synthesized by bacteria or extracted from animal bones, eggshells, and clams was tested in the form of thin films or scaffolds as a bioactive agent before, the reported results on PLD coatings from HA materials extracted from natural sources were not gathered and compared until the present study. Since natural apatite contains trace elements and new functional groups, such as CO32− and HPO42− in its complex molecules, physical-chemical results on the transfer of animal-origin HA by PLD are extremely interesting due to the stoichiometric transfer possibilities of this technique. The points of interest of this paper are the origin of HA from various sustainable resources, the extraction methods employed, the supplemental functional groups, and ions present in animal-origin HA targets and coatings as compared to synthetic HA, the coatings’ morphology function of the type of HA, and the structure and crystalline status after deposition (where properties were superior to synthetic HA), and the influence of various dopants on these properties. The most interesting studies published in the last decade in scientific literature were compared and morphological, elemental, structural, and mechanical data were compiled and interpreted. The biological response of different types of animal-origin apatites on a variety of cell types was qualitatively assessed by comparing MTS assay data of various studies, where the testing conditions were possible. Antibacterial and antifungal activity of some doped animal-origin HA coatings was also discussed

Real-Time Defects Analyses Using High-Speed Imaging during Aluminum Magnesium Alloy Laser Welding

In this study a continuous wave Ytterbium-doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (Yb: YAG) disk laser has been used for welding of AlMg3 casted alloy. A high-speed imaging camera has been employed to record hot vapor plume features during the process. The purpose was to identify a mechanism of pores detection in real-time based on correlations between metallographic analyses and area/intensity of the hot vapor in various locations of the samples. The pores formation and especially the position of these pores had to be kept under control in order to weld thick samples. Based on the characterization of the hot vapor, it has been found that the increase of the vapor area that exceeded a threshold value (18.5 ± 1 mm2) was a sign of pores formation within the weld seam. For identification of the pores’ locations during welding, the monitored element was the hot vapor intensity. The hot vapor core spots having a grayscale level reaching 255 was associated with the formation of a local pore. These findings have been devised based on correlation between pores placement in welds cross-section microscopy images and the hot vapor plume features in those respective positions

Real-Time Defects Analyses Using High-Speed Imaging during Aluminum Magnesium Alloy Laser Welding

In this study a continuous wave Ytterbium-doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (Yb: YAG) disk laser has been used for welding of AlMg3 casted alloy. A high-speed imaging camera has been employed to record hot vapor plume features during the process. The purpose was to identify a mechanism of pores detection in real-time based on correlations between metallographic analyses and area/intensity of the hot vapor in various locations of the samples. The pores formation and especially the position of these pores had to be kept under control in order to weld thick samples. Based on the characterization of the hot vapor, it has been found that the increase of the vapor area that exceeded a threshold value (18.5 ± 1 mm2) was a sign of pores formation within the weld seam. For identification of the pores’ locations during welding, the monitored element was the hot vapor intensity. The hot vapor core spots having a grayscale level reaching 255 was associated with the formation of a local pore. These findings have been devised based on correlation between pores placement in welds cross-section microscopy images and the hot vapor plume features in those respective positions