Convergent Forces Research Articles

Transitional management in an evolving European context

The author considers “1992” a form of “transnationalization” of business in Europe since it is essentially a border-crossing process. Focusing more on a European model of management rather than national ones may give us a version competitive with the rather dominant American and Japanese ones. The creation of a transnational European model of management should be rooted in the values and behaviour of a European way of life. In Europe, there are both convergent and divergent forces and tendencies at work. The “soft” value components of management, such as leadership and human resource practices, are culture-specific and tend to emphasize differences between European countries' management practices. Jules van Dijck suggests some measures to encourage the development of a European model of management, including lifelong learning, increasing individualization, and attitudes and culture as well as cognitive knowledge. A recent survey of young European managers confirms this approach.

THE POUND AND THE PUNT REVISITED

Whereas the pound has remained outside the EMS for the last ten years, the Irish punt has been a fully participating member since the inception of the EMS in March 1979. As such the punt experienced the depreciation of the EMS bloc against the pound in 1980‐1 and, largely because of this, it suffered from a higher rate of inflation in the first half of the 1980s. But against a background of greater intra‐EMS stability, Irish inflation has fallen steadily. It is now closer to German inflation than at any time in the last twenty years and in the nearly three years since the last EMS realignment, has been well below inflation in the UK. At the same time output in Ireland has advanced steadily and the trade balance has moved into surplus. The Irish experience has therefore paralleled that of the EMS as a whole. After a shaky start, the EMS has proved to be a powerful force for convergence and by switching from a fixed link to the pound to one against the DM, the Irish economy is being transformed into a relatively low inflation economy. The contrast with the pound panty period is marked. It is different not to conclude that the UK' recent economic performance, particularly on inflation, would have been significantly improved if it too had chosen the route of full EMS membership.

Nonlinear dynamic analysis of elastic frames

A co-rotational formulation and numerical procedure for the dynamic analysis of in-plane frames is presented. The nodal coordinates, incremental displacements and rotations, velocities, acceler-ations, and equations of motion of the system are defined in terms of fixed global coordinates, whereas the total strains in the beam element are measured in an element coordinate system which rotates and translates with the element but does not deform with the element. The element equations are constructed using the small deflection beam theory with the inclusion of the effect of axial force first in the element coordinate system, and then transformed to the global coordinate system by standard procedure. An incremental-iterative method based on the Newmark direct integration method and the Newton-Raphson method is used here for the solution of the nonlinear dynamic equilibrium equations. To improve convergence properties of the equilibrium iterations, the previous convergent axial force is used to calculate the geometric stiffness matrix. Numerical examples show the accuracy and efficiency of the present method.

MANAGERIAL THINKING: AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACTCross‐cultural studies of managerial attitudes, beliefs and values have produced evidence to support both the view that industrialization is a force for convergence, and for the notion that national cultural realities continue to support divergence. Data from an investigation of Malawian managers are considered in relation to those from comparable previous studies in other countries, and more specifically in terms of the African context. Some tentative hypotheses are advanced, to account for distinctive aspects of managerial thinking in Malawi.

Magmatic intervals, transgression-regression cycles and oceanic events in the Cretaceous and Tertiary of southern South America

The southern part of South America provides an excellent test area to analyse relationships between transgression-regression cycles along a passive continental margin with magmatic activity and tectonic movements of the Andean Orogen. Most of the tectono-eustatic sea-level changes recognized are related to magmatic activity, whether calc-alkaline or alkaline. The magmatic activity depends on whether tectonic convergence or extension forces are dominant.

Determination of water mass properties of water pumped down from the Ekman layer to the geostrophic flow below

In a subtropical gyre, the convergent Ekman layer forces water downward into the geostrophic flow below. The properties and depth of the mixed layer vary considerably during the course of the year, but this variability does not penetrate into the geostrophic region. Evidently there is some process at work that selects only late winter water for actual net downward pumping. It is a process much like that performed by Maxwell's Demon. Arguing from a particular example in a North Atlantic region where Sverdrup dynamics is presumed to prevail, an elementary description is given as to how the Demon works and a sample set of profiles by season is computed. Present day mixed layer models involve a local vertical mixing process. Thermocline theories involve adiabatic flow from high latitudes. There is an intermediate depth range at which the two processes operate alternatively, according to season.

Surface chemical properties of banded sea slicks

Surface concentrations and film pressures of slick-forming organic constituents were measured in situ and on surface water samples from the Pacific Ocean, west of San Diego. The surface tension data, accurate to ±0·6 dyne/cm, indicated that film pressures ranged as low as a few dyne/cm in the banded slicks associated with internal waves. This observation is consistent with previously reported data which show that water-insoluble surface films damp capillary waves strongly at film pressures as low as 0·5–1·0 dyne/cm. Some surface-active material was present in all samples, whether from ‘clean’ rippled water or from visible slicks. Film pressures were measured as a function of the surface concentration of film-forming constituents. These data indicated that concentrations in many of the slicked zones were just sufficient to damp or resist the formation of ripples. This observation was also corroborated by the in situ surface tension data. It was estimated that a four-fold compression of the surface layer by horizontal convergent forces was required to create visible slicks at this location.

Optimization of light-gage cold-formed steel shapes by parametric bandwidth constriction

Optimization of structural shapes governed by the American Iron and Steel Institute Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members presents particular problems. Not only must a variety of buckling formulas be considered for flexural-torsional buckling of the shape as a whole as well as for buckling of the separate plate elements of the cross-section, but also the section properties used to evaluate buckling stress constraints are themselves stress dependent. A simplicial technique is detailed for forcing convergence to competitive designs in spite of the iterative computational oscillations caused by the nonlinear complexity and discontinuities that are present in the mathematical programming problem which must be solved. The set of constraints includes all applicable and unmodified design formulas appearing in the AISI specification. The technique is a two-phase process which gradually constricts the range limits of the design parameters as observed over a set number of iterations and adaptively relieves cyclic infeasibilities caused by the constriction. Convergence is also aided by the use of a character string manipulation language to generate machine readable expressions for the exact differentials of all nonlinear functions. The behavior of the convergence forcing technique is demonstrated for a lipped Z shape in flexure and for a two-channel lipped wide flange beam column.

The Exploration of Certain Features of Tornado Dynamics Using a Laboratory Model

Abstract Three characteristic features of tornadoes are simulated in a laboratory system and the associated flow is observed and discussed. These are (i) a characteristic surface pressure profile, (ii) a bulging deformation on the vortex core, and (iii) multiple vortices in a single convergence system. Vortex motion is very sensitive to the geometrical features of the larger flow in which it is imbedded. Only when the diameter of the updraft column exceeds the depth of the inflow layer can features (i) and (iii) be produced in the present model. When the updraft diameter is large compared to the depth of inflow, inertial effects associated with large changes in radial momentum produce significant convergent forces. When the updraft diameter is small compared to depth of inflow layer, the inflow speed is relatively small and related inertial effects are small. It is concluded that radial momentum flux is an important factor in the production of atmospheric vortices.

Current Developments in Farm Labor Legislation

HE plight of the farm worker has been a matter of some concern for many years. But it is only recently, during the past few years, that there has been real public awareness of the problem and indication that ameliorative action is, and will be, forthcoming. I would like to discuss the several convergent forces which in my opinion have brought about this changed situation. I will also briefly review recently enacted farm labor legislation and some of the major bills now before the Congress.

Selectivity or Simplification

IF the ability to adapt oneself to changing conditions in order to survive is a measure of intelligence, then the existence of this quality in teachers of modern foreign languages is now, as never before, being tested by convergent forces. The attacks of the naturalistic instrumentalists is unabated; pragmatical curriculum-builders are issuing ever greater challenges as to the worth of foreign language study; and because of a continuing shortage of jobs in industry-rather than to a love of learning-secondary schools are overcrowded with mediocre students, who have been herded in an unselected mass into overflowing classes. In the face of these conditions, has the language teacher been sufficiently thoughtful and self-assertive concerning the problems which the situation brings into relief? Some of those that stand out sharply are: (1) Shall the traditional standards be lowered to the level of the undifferentiated masses? (2) Shall the teacher insist-against material interest-that numbers be limited and the old standards preserved? (3) Shall some means be devised, through homogeneous grouping and modified courses, to give all the applicants of fair intelligence the brand and the quantity of language culture their parents want them to get? Any floundering indecision among these alternatives must result in the weakest of compromises and failure to achieve any noteworthy teaching success. To lower the standards indiscriminately would savor of the equalitarian idea that none shall eat what all may not digest; but, as Dr. Benjamin Greenberg says in the October, 1936, issue of the French Review (p. 21): It is a curious thing about American education that so much pain is taken not to keep the unfit pupil out but so to modify the course of study as to help keep the weak pupil in. Nevertheless, we must probably charge to our own lack of foresight a part at least of Greenberg's sad commentary that many of our language teachers are surrendering to these theories, namely, that through realia, customs, manners, and institutions, language must be taught as a social science, so that the child will learn to adjust himself to a changed world. He cogently adds: