Democratisation of Business How More Democratic Business Structures Generate Innovation

Democratisation is a topic that is increasingly finding its way into the economic debate and is also becoming more and more of a trend within companies. The debates reveal various advantages and disadvantages of democratising companies. Within the various models of democratisation of companies, however, there seems to be a lack of coherent integration of the theoretical integration of this into the broad corporate structures – at least within business perspective. These often refer to orthodox theoretical foundations of hierarchical structures and corporate orientations, which in principle oppose and partly run counter to various forms of democratisation. In the present contribution, minimal conditions are to be worked out on the basis of democracy as cooperation and applied to the most elementary corporate structures. In such a coherent orientation and embedding, it can be shown that disadvantages of democratisation in the corporate context can be reduced and innovation and thus competitiveness can be promoted in a multidimensional way.

The Effect of Aging on Precipitates, Mechanical and Magnetic Properties of Fe-21Cr-15Ni-6Mn-Nb Low Magnetic Stainless Steel

The effect of aging on the precipitates, mechanical and magnetic properties of Fe-21Cr-15Ni-6Mn-Nb low magnetic stainless steel were investigated. The steel was aged at 550–750 °C for 2 h after solution heat treatment at 1100 °C for 1 h. During the aging treatment, the (Nb, V)(C, N) particles gradually precipitated in the grain, which were coherent or semi-coherent with the matrix. When the aging temperature was beyond 650 °C, the coarsening rate of (Nb, V)(C, N) particles increase rapidly and the coherent orientation between (Nb, V)(C, N) particles and the matrix was lost gradually. Meanwhile, coarse M23C6 was distributed at the grain boundary with chain shape, which was non-coherent with the matrix. The coarsening behavior of (Nb, V)(C, N) precipitates in the grain was analyzed, and the size of the particles precipitated after aging treatment at 650°C for different time was calculated and studied. After aging treatment at 650 °C for 2 h, the yield strength and tensile strength of the stainless steel was 705.6 MPa and 1002.3 MPa, the elongation and the relative magnetic permeability was 37.8% and 1.0035, respectively.

Integration of hardware and web artefacts in embedded systems

This paper is a guide for the realization of integration processes between Web artifacts and the Hardware that supports them in Embedded Systems oriented to the internet of things. This suggested method is based on tests and hardware and software architecture design that contemplates the support of Web transactions taking into account the limitations of an Embedded System. The result of the study is a guide for working groups with a structured systematic and coherent orientation of process of integration between software and hardware, aimed to Embedded Systems that interact on the Web.

Ordering of the cellular arrangement and xylogenesis in wounded shoots of willow

Development of living organisms is characterized by self-organization, which results in ordered cell and tissue patterns. Xylem formation in callus tissue may serve as a model to study these phenomena. Applying auxin on the apical transverse cut surface of willow shoot segments stimulates the proliferation of callus with an unorganized cell arrangement. In some areas of callus, the cells form an ordered system and partly differentiate into tracheary elements. Below the cut surface a zone of initially unorganized parenchymatous cells is produced by the cambium. Later, some of the cells formed ordered arrangements giving rise to differentiation in xylem rays with a subsequent layer of normal wood. Digital image processing software based on a structure tensor revealed a more coherent orientation of the cellular pattern in the callus region close to the cambial zone in the cut shoot surface, compared with the areas at further distances near the outer parts of the callus ring. Differentiation of tracheary xylem elements occurs mostly in the regions where a higher degree of cellular ordering in parenchyma tissue is observed. Digital image analysis is a useful tool for the quantitative estimation of subtle changes of cellular ordering in various regions of regenerating tissue. Wider application of this tool may open new opportunities in studies of the complex mechanisms that control morphogenetic patterns in plants.

Critique and argumentation

At the core of critical discourse analysis lies its emancipatory agenda: arguing for social equality and against discrimination. In the case of the discourse-historical approach (DHA), this stance has been theoretically justified mainly through references to Habermas’ language-philosophy. At the same time, the analysis of actually occurring argumentative speech requires more than a theoretical underpinning of one’s critique and, here, DHA has benefitted from drawing on van Eemeren and Grootendorst’s Pragma-Dialectical argumentation theory. However, Pragma-Dialectics is not just a tool kit but rests on Popper and Albert’s critical rationalism. This results in both epistemological as well as normative conflicts at the paradigm-core of DHA between critical rationalism and Habermas’ critical theory regarding the concept of critique. In this article, we review the different epistemological and normative underpinnings of DHA and Pragma-Dialectics and discuss the consequences of implementing the latter in the former. We conclude by arguing for a coherent orientation towards Habermas’ language-philosophy in order to maintain a high degree of consistency in DHA.

Situated Environmental Learning in Southern Africa at the Start of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development

Within the globalising trajectory of modernism, conservation, then environmental (EE) and now sustainability education (ESD) have each emerged as developing responses to risk produced by and in the modern state. Through adopting a long term process perspective, this paper narrates the emergence of situated learning perspectives and a developing re-orientation of EE at the start of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD). We identified the need to examine ESD practice in responses to recent ESD consultations in 14 southern African countries, where a rhetorical marking was noted in discussions on ESD practices, particularly with regard to changing teaching and learning processes. The paper narrates how an interplay of review, research and practical engagement activities have all contributed to an extended critical review of learning interactions in environmental education in an attempt to provide useful perspective for educational activities within the UNDESD. We found that EE and ESD initiatives only acquired more substantive meaning and coherent orientation when examined within ongoing inquiries into situated learning, agency and risk reduction in contexts of poverty, vulnerability and risk, the key concern to us in this paper and the primary focus of the WEHAB (Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Biodiversity) sustainable development agenda in the region.

Fish behaviour and orientation-dependent backscatter in acoustic Doppler profiler data

It is well known that fish target strength can be affected by fish behaviour. In particular, the specific orientation between a target (fish) and an echosounder system is critical in interpreting the apparent target strength. This situation is further complicated for Doppler current-profiler systems that have an array of diverging beams and where each beam will interact with targets with a different orientation. When targets themselves have random orientations, each beam will see the same range of target strengths and the average values would be the same. However, if targets such as schooling fish have a preferred orientation, then an asymmetry is present and different target strengths can be expected. This hypothesis is explored using observations of Norwegian spring-spawning herring (Clupea harengus) under a variety of schooling conditions. When schooling fish are migrating and have well-defined, coherent orientations, differences in backscatter strength of about 5 dB can be seen depending on beam orientation. This difference disappears when fish are not actively migrating and so do not have coherent orientation. These differences can be used to infer behaviour of schooling fish but they also indicate that caution must be exercised when averaging backscatter data from separate Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) beams.