The role of 1st tier suppliers in automobile product modularisation: the search for a coherent strategy

Modularization is a growing concept in auto industry. Architectural decisions had been many time studied from the car maker's point of view. This article addresses the question of supplier's strategy in the modular business. A prior publication (Fourcade Midler 2004) showed that supplier's involvement could take various forms, from light coordination to heavy investment in deep module redesign. This article will investigate how these different modular involvement profile could fit in general 1st Tier supplier's strategy. It is based both on a general study of automotive suppliers industrial field and an interactive research that we have been pursuing in conjunction with one 1st Tier supplier since 2001.

Mechanical design of structures -Optimization of structures under fatigue life criterion

MasterThese lectures are devoted to the presentation of a new computational procedure for fatigue analysis of structures. This method, which is based on the theory of hys-teresis operators, consists to reduce computation of the damage D caused by a time varying stress t ∈ [0, T ] → Σ e (t) to the energy dissipated in the hysteresis loops of the image H µ (Σ e) of Σ e by an appropriately calibrated Preisach operator H µ. We then see that this formalism allows to reduce the structure optimization problem, which consists to seek design parameters u minimizing the damage in some given parts of a structure, to the minimization of the mapping u → D(u) = T 0 H µ (Σ e , t) d t where Σ e (x u) is a numerical mapping governed by a system of second order differential equations M uẍ + W uẋ + K u x = F (t) describing the dynamical behavior of the considered structure. Furthermore, we provide and validate a series of algorithms allowing to solve the optimization problem by a steepest descent method tailored to manage large dynamical problems derived from finite element models. At last, the theoretical results obtained in this course are illustrated with the help of numerous examples, intended for supporting the relevancy of the approach and providing implementation templates in design engineering software

Ordinal Citizenship

The expansion of social citizenship in the 20th century mitigated the brute effects of economic inequality in people's lives. The new rights also created new social divisions, however, separating citizens according to their ability to do well through them. In the 21st century the conceptual matrix of citizenship has developed further, powered by new technologies that have promised new freedoms and opportunities in every aspect of people's lives. As the scope of economic and social incorporation has broadened, the possibilities for classifying, sorting, slotting, and scaling people have also grown and diversified. Echoing the earlier rise of the meritocracy, this new matrix produces its own winners and losers, partly recycling old inequalities, and partly creating new ones. Demands for self‐care and individual fitness pile up, eroding the universal and solidaristic basis upon which the expansion of citizenship historically thrived. In its place stands what I call “ordinal citizenship,” a form of social inclusion that thrives on social measurement, differentiation, and hierarchy

Young Platforms and Old Politics: Quantitative Analysis of Parties’ Instagram Posts During the 2022 French Legislative Elections

The French legislative elections of 2022 saw President Emmanuel Macron's majority in the National Assembly being dramatically tilted. This was driven by youth votes that favoured the left-wing group NUPES and the far- right party Rassemblement National. The literature on young people's online political communication, on the characteristics of social media campaigns and on political outreach to young people usually assumes dichotomies of political engagement and age. The aim of this study is to challenge these dichotomies and establish a baseline of communication characteristics for each of these areas, as well as for the areas of political campaigning on Instagram and political campaigning for young people. The content of the Instagram pages of the parties in the elections and their youth branches was analysed quantitatively. A codebook combining a priori, inductive and deductive knowledge was used to highlight patterns in the use of social media, visual and campaign features. Statistical tests were conducted to examine their relationship to the pages of youth and traditional parties, and to the pages of parties more or less successful in mobilising young voters. Statistically significant features were arranged in a matrix that summarises them visually. The results show that youth parties and the parties that are more successful in mobilising young voters have similar visual approach to information structure and presentation. Additionally, while youth and more successful parties might follow different strategies in their choices of topics and issues, they follow similar trends identifiable only by considering the strategies employed by their counterparts

Field Theory And Second Renormalization Group For Multifractals In Percolation

The field-theory for multifractals in percolation is reformulated in such a way that multifractal exponents clearly appear as eigenvalues of a second renormalization group. The first renormalization group describes geometrical properties of percolation clusters, while the second-one describes electrical properties, including noise cumulants. In this context, multifractal exponents are associated with symmetry-breaking fields in replica space. This provides an explanation for their observability. It is suggested that multifractal exponents are ''dominant'' instead of ''relevant'' since there exists an arbitrary scale factor which can change their sign from positive to negative without changing the Physics of the problem.Comment: RevTex, 10 page