A Discussion on manufacturing technology in the 1980s - Introductory remarks

I would like to join the President in welcoming you to this discussion meeting on Manufacturing Technology in the 1980s. Before going any further I should say that the lion’s share of the organization has been done by Dr Williamson. In addition to finding many of the speakers he has had to deal with every question which has arisen during the last month as I have been away on a month’s visit to India, Australia and the United States. This is the third discussion meeting in the Royal Society series dealing with technological developments in the 1980s. The first two meetings dealt with building and ship technology, while the one after this is concerned with agricultural productivity. Manufacturing covers the entire range of industries from continuous processes like those in the metallurgical and chemical industries involving large capital expenditure, to the backstreet workshop producing components for local sale or for larger industries. In the United Kingdom, and in nearly all advanced countries, manufacturing is by far the largest single element in the gross national product. A consideration of future developments is therefore something which will affect a large proportion of the working population. While this meeting cannot hope to cover all aspects of the subject, the organizers have arranged the programme to cover the spectrum from continuous processes to batch manufacture. In the formal papers the speakers will examine trends of development not only in technical matters but also in human and environmental terms. It has been said that the Western world is entering a second Industrial Revolution in which industries will have to provide greater intellectual stimulus for their workers, particularly those working on mass-production processes, much better communication between management and workers, and much greater consideration for the environment both inside and outside the factory. Meeting these problems is likely to absorb every bit as much management and engineering talent as has gone into the technical achievements of the last hundred years.

Author(s):  
colin flint

According to many, we live in a time of war that was ushered in by the attacks of September 11, 2001. Paradoxically, in the prior three years, between 3.1 and 4.7 million people had been killed in conflict in the Congo alone. Numerous other wars raged across the globe. Clearly, to say that a time of war has emerged only since 9/11 is, on the one hand, ethnocentric and plain wrong. On the other hand, awareness of war among the general population of the Western world emerged after 9/11; perception rather than reality drives commentators to define the current period as one of conflict and not peace. It seems almost certain that the current generation of young adults will grow politically mature in a time when the whole world is aware of war. War has been a prevalent occurrence; in the last few decades one can cite Vietnam, the Falklands, Chechnya, Iran and Iraq, Sierra Leone, Nicaragua, and Kashmir, to name only a few. The attacks of 9/11 were, from a global perspective, just one more horrific instance of human carnage. However, geopolitically, targeting the United States on its own homeland has created significant changes. War, the “hot war” on terrorism rather than the Cold War, is dominating global geopolitical imperatives and the national debates of many countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Iraq, Iran, North and South Korea, and others). As the sole superpower, the United States has set the agenda. The citizens of the West can no longer ignore and avoid war. Despite its associated horrors, this is also an opportunity: we can become knowledgeable about wars beyond our immediate experiences. Geography is a powerful tool to gain and organize such knowledge. What is war? War takes many forms, from terrorist attacks to interstate conflict. Its form, its scale, its victims, its motives, and its weaponry are varied. But one aspect of war is universal across space and time: war is tyranny. The power of this statement refers to the processes by which people who did not initiate war become cogs in a fighting machine mobilized to defend territory, values, and collective identities from aggression.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-33
Author(s):  
Jacob Barrett

“The Experiment” presents scholars of religion with an opportunity to draw upon their training to reflect upon a contemporary issue. Editorial assistant Jacob Barrett engages with a recent edited volume from Routledge titled Leading Works in Law and Religion that, while focusing on the identity of the subfield of law and religion within the discipline of legal studies in the United Kingdom and Ireland, provides many sites for comparison with the religion and law subfield of religious studies in the United States context. Drawing upon the model set by the volume, Barrett imagines what a volume titled Leading Works in Religion and Law could look like and what the subfield of religion and law stands to gain from engaging in a project like the one done by its law and religion counterpart.


2012 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricio Sáiz ◽  
Paloma Fernández Pérez

Trademarks have traditionally been viewed as assets that, although intangible, nevertheless contribute to the success of firms. This study, based on a compilation of national trademark data, corrects existing distortions of the historical role of brands and their—often unsuccessful—use as business tools by countries, sectors, or firms. Legislation on, and the profuse use of, trademarks in the Western world was pioneered by Spain, rather than by France, the United States, or the United Kingdom, and was initiated in unusual sectors, such as papermaking and textiles, rather than in the more usual ones of food and beverages. Analysis of the applicants of Catalan trademarks, across sectors, during almost a century, reveals that the legal possession of a brand cannot in itself guarantee a firm's success.


Author(s):  
Rahat Zaidi

Islamophobia is a term used to describe society’s phobic reaction to a certain religious or ideological group. Historically, the coined word Islamophobia has been manipulated into various constructs, which pose a microcosm-macrocosm challenge for educators over whether or not the education system can act as a platform for better understanding what is currently transpiring in the world. It is in the classroom that educators and students can grapple with the sociophobic situation and pull apart the two sides of Islam and phobia. In the classroom there are learning opportunities that can foster critical new understandings about why social phobias exist and challenge, through an antiphobic curriculum, the fear and indifference of otherness. New and higher levels of immigration in the Western world, rising tensions in non-Muslim populations, and the baggage of history have brought us to a critical turning point. Educators can respond positively and constructively to this challenge and opportunity and help to steer the course. Although Islamophobia is present in many countries worldwide, assimilationist policies vary from country to country. Nonetheless, individual countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Australia, and in those in Western Europe, have their own takes on Islamophobia. Since 9/11 there has been significant agreement among scholars that societal changes can be constructed through the systematic employment of specific curricular initiatives. These initiatives call into question the traditional trajectory of how the sentiments of Islamophobia can be successfully countered in the classroom to reduce sociophobic tensions and increase cultural and linguistic awareness. This can happen through culturally sustaining pedagogy, whose primary objective is to embrace literate, linguistic, and cultural pluralism in the school system. Education has tremendous power to challenge phobic perspectives and move beyond the traditional realm of what has historically been the norm in the classroom.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 153-174
Author(s):  
Christian Jaag ◽  
Matthias Finger

Incumbent postal operators (POs) are particularly challenged with rapid technological developments and especially with digitalization which substitutes their letter mail, yet generally boosts parcel volumes. As a consequence, they have to rethink their strategy, especially for their post office network. The article presents potential strategies and discusses the main trends in postal network evolution among incumbent POs, focusing in particular on the examples of Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States, and assesses these strategies against a set of key performance and development indicators.


Author(s):  
Amparo Martinez Guerra

En los últimos años, la protección de menores frente comportamientos de abuso y explotación sexual ha sido una de las preocupaciones principales en los sistemas legales de Derecho continental y anglosajón. La respuesta de los Legisladores penales ha sido la elevación de la edad de consentimiento sexual de los menores de edad. Sin embargo, la medida provoca problemas interpretativos de índole constitucional que no pueden ser obviados. Por un lado, la posible afectación del derecho fundamental a la privacidad de los propios menores (desarrollo de su sexualidad). Por otro, la proporcionalidad de la sanción penal prevista para ese tipo de delitos, así como los efectos de la inscripción en los Registros de Delincuentes sexuales. En España, la modificación de la LO 1/2015, de 30 de marzo, elevó la edad de consentimiento sexual a los 16 años. La reforma también incluyó el nuevo art. 183 quáter, que permite al Tribunal eximir de responsabilidad penal cuando autor y víctima sean “próximos por edad y grado de desarrollo o madurez”. En los sistemas penales anglosajones esta cláusula, denominada “cláusula de escape” o “cláusula Romeo y Julieta”, es una de las piezas centrales del delito del statutory rape o delito de violación definido por estatuto. Este artículo examina los orígenes, configuración y el fundamento de la exclusión de la responsabilidad penal por “cercanía en edad o desarrollo” en los Estados Unidos de América (sistemas federal y estatal), Reino Unido e Irlanda del Norte, República de Irlanda y Canadá. El artículo analiza también la jurisprudencia más importante al respecto y los problemas constitucionales derivados de las nuevas las edades de consentimiento.In recent years the protection of minors against sexual abuse and exploitation has been one of the main concerns in the Civil and Common Law legal systems. The response of the Criminal Legislators has been the raise of the age of sexual consent of minors. However, this measure causes constitutional problems that cannot be ignored. On the one hand, the conflict with the minor fundamental right of privacy (development of the sexuality). On the other hand, the proportionality of the criminal sanction provided for such crimes, as well as the effects of the registration in the Sex Offenders Registry. In Spain, the amendment introduced by the Organic Law 1/2015, of March 30, raised the age of sexual consent to 16 years. The Law created the new article 183 quater in the Criminal Code to allow the Court to exempt from criminal responsibility when the defendant and the victim are «close in age and development or maturity». In Common Law criminal systems that clause, called «escape clause» or «Romeo and Juliet clause» is one of the central pieces of the statutory rape. This article examines the origins, the elements and the rationale of the exclusion of criminal responsibility for «close in age and development» in the United States of America (federal and state law), the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Ireland and Canada. The article analyses the most important case-law regarding the constitutional problems arising from the new ages of consent. 


2009 ◽  
pp. 9-19
Author(s):  
Augusto Preta

- Even though competition among platforms has not yet clearly established a winner, digital TV has grown significantly everywhere. Technological developments have allowed new models for content consumption. User-generated content, on-demand services, catch up TV, PVRs which allow the creation of individual schedules and skipping commercials are disrupting the traditional passive mode of content consumption. Faced with these new models, some TV players are actually proactive in creating cross-platform synergies, in order to exploit their expertise and brand across a multitude of platforms, thus increasing their profits. The competitive scenario is undergoing substantial changes compared to the one we had grown familiar with over the last twenty years. Penetration of digital TV is moving ahead: in June 2008, there were nearly 100 million digital TV households in Western Europe, thus reaching 60% of European TV households. Satellite is still the most widespread digital access, but digital terrestrial television records the highest growth rates, thanks to the success reported in some of the biggest markets. After the Netherlands, also Finland and Sweden have completed the analogue switch-off. New platforms such as ADSL, FTTH are still struggling to conquer a place in the market. Although it is still a marginal platform, the IPTV is reporting interesting figures. Other services followed in Germany, Finland and the United Kingdom after the first commercial launch of mobile broadcast TV in Italy in June 2006,. Other services are expected to be launched with the EC supported standard DVB-H. Keywords: television, digital TV, convergence, market strategy. Parole chiave: televisione, TV digitale, convergenza, strategia di mercato. . Jel Classification: L82


2021 ◽  
pp. 97-112
Author(s):  
Christian Hofmann

This chapter details the reactions of central banks to the current Covid-19 pandemic and contrasts them with their monetary policy operations during normal (non-crisis) times and their reactions to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007–2009. It situates the response of central banks in Asia within a global context, examining and comparing the responses of central banks in the United States, the Euro area, the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Moreover, the chapter explains why this crisis is unprecedented, making it dangerous in terms of financial stability and state finances and difficult for central banks to return to normality. In the current crisis, central banks find themselves in an ambiguous situation. On the one hand, they are better prepared than they were thirteen years ago when the GFC erupted. On the other hand, relying on experience from the GFC comes with risks. No two crises are ever the same, and this is especially true for the Covid-19 pandemic. Financial markets and economies are not the triggers of this crisis as they were in many previous crises when central banks had to react swiftly and forcefully; instead, they have fallen victim to a calamity that paralyzes society, trade, and business globally.


1978 ◽  
Vol 132 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Kulhara ◽  
N. N. Wig

The results of a follow-up study of schizophrenics attending a centre in North West India are reported. The relevant literature is reviewed, The results were compared with two well-known studies, one from the United Kingdom and the other from Mauritius. The evidence presented suggests that the course taken by schizophrenia in a newly-developed city and its neighbourhood in this part of India is similar to the one seen in the Western world. This study does not support the view that chronicity of schizophrenia in non-European, non-white populations is different, at least in an urban setting.


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