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1 – 10 of 366Christopher Stroehlein, Hermann Landes, Andreas Krug and Peter Dietz
The purpose of this paper is to investigate magneto-mechanical coupling occurring in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems. The authors study influence of the strength of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate magneto-mechanical coupling occurring in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems. The authors study influence of the strength of the background field on the coupling of mechanically isolated, conductive cylindrical structures and the so-called shields. This coupling has a strong impact on frequency-dependent thermal losses occurring in the shield structures which are of high importance in MRI systems.
Design/methodology/approach
In the investigations, numerical methods are applied. First, finite element methods taking into account the full magneto-mechanical coupling are used to investigate the coupled physical phenomena. As these calculations may be time-consuming, several approximate predictive methods are derived. Modal expansion factors and participation factors are based on combinations of structural eigenmode calculations and eddy current calculations using Biot–Savart representations of the dynamic gradient field. In addition, a parallelism factor expressed in terms of the shield vibrations is defined to measure the coupling between the distinct cylinders.
Findings
It is found that the strength of the background field strongly influences the coupling of the distinct shields, which strongly increases the parallelism of the shield vibrations. Furthermore, modal expansion and participation factors are significantly influenced, caused by frequency shifts due to magnetic stiffening and increased magnetic coupling.
Research limitations/implications
The current work is limited to the modal expansions of a single shield. This needs to be extended in the future as comparison of modal expansion factors and finite element simulation indicate.
Originality/value
The defined factors estimating parallelism and modal participation in magneto-mechanical coupling are original work and studied for the first time.
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Warren S. Stone, President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, when asked, at the height of the anti‐union open shop movement of the 1920s, what labor thought of the…
Abstract
Warren S. Stone, President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, when asked, at the height of the anti‐union open shop movement of the 1920s, what labor thought of the churches, said “…labour does not think very much of Iabor.”
The purpose of this paper is to explain the US society’s insignificant mitigation of climate change using Niklas Luhmann’s (1989) autopoietic social systems theory in ecological…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain the US society’s insignificant mitigation of climate change using Niklas Luhmann’s (1989) autopoietic social systems theory in ecological communication. Specifically, the author’s analysis falls within the context of Luhmann re-moralized while focusing on particular function systems’ binary codes and their repellence of substantive US climate change mitigation policy across systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The author achieves this purpose by resituating Luhmann’s conception of evolution to forgo systems teleology and better contextualize the spatial-temporal scale of climate change; reinforcing complexity reduction and differentiation by integrating communication and media scholar John D. Peters’s (1999) “communication chasm” concept as one mechanism through which codes sustain over time; and applying these integrated concepts to prominent the US climate change mitigation attempts.
Findings
The author concludes that climate change mitigation efforts are the amalgamation of the systems’ moral communications. Mitigation efforts have relegated themselves to subsystems of the ten major systems given the polarizing nature of their predominant care/harm moral binary. Communication chasms persist because these moral communications cannot both adhere to the systems’ binary codes and communicate the climate crisis’s urgency. The more time that passes, the more codes force mitigation organizations, activist efforts and their moral communications to adapt and sacrifice their actions to align with the encircling systems’ code.
Social implications
In addition to the conceptual contribution, the social implication is that by identifying how and why climate change mitigation efforts are subsumed by the larger systems and their codes, climate change activists and practitioners can better tool their tactics to change the codes at the heart of the systems if serious and substantive climate change mitigation is to prevail.
Originality/value
To the author’s knowledge, there has not been an integration of a historical communication concept into, and sociological application of, ecological communication in the context of climate change mitigation.
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Richard York, Eugene A. Rosa and Thomas Dietz
Ascientific consensus has emerged indicating that the global climate is changing due to anthropogenic (i.e., human induced) driving forces. Our previous research reformulated the…
Abstract
Ascientific consensus has emerged indicating that the global climate is changing due to anthropogenic (i.e., human induced) driving forces. Our previous research reformulated the well‐known I=PAT (environmental Impacts equal the multiplicative product of Population, Affluence, and Technology) model into stochastic form, named it the STIRPAT model, and used it to assess the effects of population and affluence on carbon dioxide loads. Here we extend those findings by examining the impacts of population, affluence and other factors on the emissions of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), as well as the combined global warming potential of these two gases. We also assess the potential for “ecological modernization” or an “environmental Kuznets curve” (EKC) effect to curb GHG emissions. Our findings suggest that population is a consistent force behind GHG emissions, that affluence also drives emissions, that urbanization and industrialization increase emissions, and that tropical nations have lower emissions than non‐tropical nations, controlling for other factors. Contrary to what ecological modernization and EKC theorists predict, we find that to date there is no compelling evidence of a decline in emissions with modernization. These results support both the “treadmill of production” thesis and the “metabolic rift” thesis.
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Joerg Dietz, Stacey R. Fitzsimmons, Zeynep Aycan, Anne Marie Francesco, Karsten Jonsen, Joyce Osland, Sonja A. Sackmann, Hyun-Jung Lee and Nakiye A. Boyacigiller
Graduates of cross-cultural management (CCM) courses should be capable of both tackling international and cross-cultural situations and creating positive value from the diversity…
Abstract
Purpose
Graduates of cross-cultural management (CCM) courses should be capable of both tackling international and cross-cultural situations and creating positive value from the diversity inherent in these situations. Such value creation is challenging because these situations are typically complex due to differences in cultural values, traditions, social practices, and institutions, such as legal rules, coupled with variation in, for example, wealth and civil rights among stakeholders. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors argue that a scientific mindfulness approach to teaching CCM can help students identify and leverage positive aspects of differences and thereby contribute to positive change in cross-cultural situations.
Findings
Scientific mindfulness combines mindfulness and scientific thinking with the explicit goal to drive positive change in the world.
Originality/value
The authors explain how the action principles of scientific mindfulness enable learners to build positive value from cultural diversity. The authors then describe how to enact these principles in the context of CCM education.
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East Asian industrializations and the crisis of Latin American developmentalism in the 1970s and 1980s have been at the center of disputes over the conditions leading to a…
Abstract
East Asian industrializations and the crisis of Latin American developmentalism in the 1970s and 1980s have been at the center of disputes over the conditions leading to a socially optimal extension and intensification of capitalist production relations in the periphery. The contrast in regional styles and outcomes of development is deemed to be the key to a final adjudication between the competing analytical claims of neoclassical economists and statist currents within political economy. Neoclassical critiques of excessive Latin American tampering with markets find confirmation for neoliberal prescriptions in the open, export‐oriented East Asian regimes. That East Asian development is not a paragon of neoliberal virtue, and that relatively freer markets might not be the most important part of the story, is the crux of the enduring statist critique. Over a decade of contestation has given way to significant refinements, among them, a recognition of the importance of sequencing import‐and export‐substitution. The modicum of foresight and discipline that seems to be implied in proper sequencing has weighed in favor of the statist emphasis on the role of ‘developmental states.’ Even researchers disposed to enshrine the virtues of markets in the process of modernization, find it difficult not to concede that the East Asian record rests on more than macroeconomic stability; although they remain skeptical about the cruder claims of states successfully ‘picking winners and losers’ (Dollar and Sokoloff 1994). Perhaps the most enduring legacy of this controversy—only extreme zealots could deny this—is the mounting empirical evidence supporting the argument that economic development is an inherently discontinuous process, and reliance on the market institution leaves societies woefully unprepared to ‘negotiate’ through an unstable and asymmetrical international political economy.
Lance T. LeLoup, Andrea Dietz, Mihaly Hogye, Zoltan Papai, Laszlo Urban and Laszlo Varadi
The transition to democracy and a free market economy in Hungary and other Central European nations has provided a unique opportunity to study rapid change in budget systems…
Abstract
The transition to democracy and a free market economy in Hungary and other Central European nations has provided a unique opportunity to study rapid change in budget systems, institutions, and policies. This article examines budgeting in Hungary since 1989, beginning with an analysis of the comparative budgeting literature in an attempt to identify an appropriate theoretical framework for the study. Then it explores budgetary definition and measurement problems, debt and economic conditions, external actors and constraints on the budget, budget institutions and process, and the impact of Parliament on the budget and concludes by assessing the problems and prospects for Hungarian budgeting.
In 2006 the German-based electronics company Siemens faced widespread corruption and bribery allegations. Investigations of the German state attorney’s office disclosed an amount…
Abstract
In 2006 the German-based electronics company Siemens faced widespread corruption and bribery allegations. Investigations of the German state attorney’s office disclosed an amount of more than 2.3 billion of suspicious payments to foreign governments (Schubert & Miller, 2008). It turned out that Siemens had bribed governmental officials in order to secure contracts and to obtain favorable conditions over more than three decades (Schmidt, 2009). Though Siemens had a clearly stated anticorruption policy this did not prevent the company from getting involved in one of the largest corporate scandals in German business history.
A deeper analysis of the scandal reveals at least four fundamental shortcomings which enabled the corrupt practices on all organizational levels. First, most of the managers saw no alternatives to secure their foreign business, especially in countries where bribery payment has been a widespread practice. Second, the managers had created misguided bonds of loyalty believing that personal engagement in the corruption scheme was part of their dedication to the company. Third, due to corporate routines and commonly accepted practices, most managers lacked a clear sense of reality seeing corruption as part of the regular business at Siemens. Fourth, poor governance structures and a lack of clear regulations for doing business in a corrupt environment made it easier for managers to bypass official regulations.
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