3D Printing and Product Assortment Strategy

3D printing, as a production technology, differs from conventional technologies in three characteristics: design freedom—that is, it can handle certain product designs that conventional technologies cannot; quality distinction—that is, depending on the focal quality dimension, it can lead to a quality level superior or inferior to that of conventional technologies; and natural flexibility—that is, it is endowed with capacity flexibility without sacrificing operational efficiency. This paper investigates the joint impact of these characteristics when a firm selects conceptual designs to form its product assortment, taking into account the production-technology choices available for each design: 3D printing and two conventional technologies (dedicated and traditional flexible). Some designs can be processed by using any technology (generic), whereas others are specific to 3D printing (3D-specific). The firm selects designs to be handled by each technology and then invests accordingly in technology adoption, product development, capacity, and production. We characterize the structure of the optimal assortment based on the popularity of each design. Within the sets of generic designs and 3D-specific designs, respectively, the most popular designs should be included in the assortment; under a mild condition, the optimal assortment comprises the most popular ones among all the designs. Within the optimal assortment, 3D printing should handle the less popular generic designs than conventional technologies. We further demonstrate that the design freedom or improved quality associated with 3D printing may reduce the firm’s optimal product variety. In the absence of design freedom and quality distinction, natural flexibility by itself always enhances product variety; by contrast, traditional flexible technology may reduce product variety. Numerical study shows that 3D printing tends to be more valuable when popularities of the generic designs are distributed more evenly and when popularities of the 3D-specific designs are distributed less evenly. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.

Simulated cochlear-implant processing reveals major loss of acoustic information relevant to talkers’ voice quality differencesa

ABSTRACTThe ability to discern variations in talkers’ voice quality is important for effective talker identification and robust speech processing; yet, little is known about how faithfully acoustic information relevant to variations in talkers’ voice quality is transmitted through cochlear implant (CI) speech processing. This study analyzed unprocessed and CI-simulated versions of sustained vowel sounds /a/ from two groups of individuals with normal and disordered voice qualities to investigate the effects of CI speech processing on acoustic information relevant to the talkers’ voice quality distinction. The CI-simulated stimuli were created by processing the vowel sounds using 4-, 8-, 12-, 16-, 22-, and 32-channel noise-vocoders. The voice quality for each stimulus was characterized by calculating mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs). Then, the effects of CI speech processing on the acoustic distinctiveness between normal and disordered voices was measured by calculating the Mahalanobis distance and classification accuracy of support vector machines (SVMs) on their MFCC features. The results showed that CI noise vocoding is substantially detrimental to acoustic information involved in voice quality distinction, suggesting that CI listeners likely experience difficulties in perceiving voice quality variations. The results underscore challenges CI users may face for effective recognition of talkers and processing their speech.

Technai: Dogmatism and the Technologies of Doubt

Chapter Seven undertakes to articulate Hume’s scepticism with regard to the third dimension of the Pyrrhonian Fourfold—technê. More particularly, the chapter examines the instruments he deploys against dogmatism, that is his technologies of doubt. The chapter devotes special attention to Hume’s sceptical arguments regarding the epistemic capacities of reason and the senses, especially in regard to the primary/secondary quality distinction and what Hume calls ‘false philosophy.’ The text argues that Hume is an entirely radical sceptic who refuses all epistemic and metaphysical claims, including those related to personal identity, the immateriality of the soul, hidden substances, energies, and powers, including the causal power. The chapter explains what exactly counts for Hume as dogmatism and what is not consistent with scepticism. The chapter explores the import to empiricism of Hume’s Copy Principle.

competividad de las empresas turísticas de guerrero con base en el sistema nacional de certificación turística.

Resumen 5 empresas turísticas en Guerrero, dos hoteles y tres restaurantes con el propósito de buscar ser más competitivas en el mercado, integraron sus certificaciones, sellos, y reconocimientos nacionales e internacionales , además de sus altos estándares de calidad, innovando e implementando acciones continuas en materia de capacitación, promoción, calidad del servicio, certificación laboral, cultura turística y normatividad ambiental participaron en la convocatoria para obtener el Distintivo Nacional de Calidad Turística, que otorgo por primera vez la Secretaria de Turismo Federal, logrando el nivel Diamante con un rango de 1850 a 1954 cumpliendo con el 70% de los 13 factores requeridos por el Sistema. Palabras claveDiamante Distintivo Empresas Guerrero Turísticas.Abstract In Guerrero, 5 touristic enterprises, two hotels and three restaurants, with the purpose of becoming more competitive in the market, achieved their national and international certifications, seals and acknowledgements, also their high quality standards, innovating and implementing continuous improvements in the subject of training, promotion, service quality, labor certification, environmental standards and culture of tourism, took part in the National Quality Distinction for Tourism, given for the first time by the Federal Secretariat of Tourism, achieving the Diamond Level ranking at 1850 to 1954 complying with 70% of the 13 factors required by the system. KeywordsDistinctive Diamond Tourist Warrior Companies.

Reid's Primary/Secondary Quality Distinction in a Broad Context

The paper focuses on Reid's unique epistemological distinction between the primary and the secondary qualities and examines it in relation to other facets of his philosophy: his stance vis-à-vis the scientific inquiries of secondary qualities; his aesthetics; his analysis of the perception of the primary quality of hardness; his theory of learning. An inquiry into the primary/secondary distinction which takes into account such a broad context will reveal it to be far more sophisticated, dynamic and flexible than an analysis of the distinction which solely takes into consideration the passages in which the Scottish philosopher directly and straightforwardly introduces it.

Sensible Qualities and Secondary Qualities in the First Dialogue

By focusing on the First Dialogue’s use of ‘sensible quality’ rather than ‘idea’, we can draw out some important morals that allow us to better appreciate its actual accomplishments. Whereas the Principles is an attack on materialist mechanism primarily via its representative theory of perception, the First Dialogue is an attack on materialist mechanism primarily via its primary/secondary-quality distinction. Viewing the First Dialogue in this light allows us to see it as more effective and insightful than we otherwise might, although it also requires us to acknowledge that Hylas is never as philosophically naïve as Berkeley sometimes seems to suggest.

Understanding Reid’s Distinction

This chapter defends the interpretation of Reid put forth in Chapter 4. Reid's primary/secondary quality distinction is epistemic rather than metaphysical, conceptual rather than phenomenological, and causal in a loose and lawlike sense. Since such a reading is at odds with every other reading of Reid on this matter, rival interpretations receive extensive treatment as well.

Conclusion

This chapter ties together all of the threads of argument laid out in the preceding chapters. It places the views that have been canvassed in the context of the crisis of perception. Although the Cartesians’ solutions to the crisis are fanciful, the problems they are trying to solve are very real, although often obscured by the miasma of confusion that surrounds phenomenal character. Arguably, those of us who still accept something like the primary and secondary quality distinction face these problems today.