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"The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for" (Wittgenstein). When learning something completely new, we connect the unknown term to an already existing part of our knowledge. We can only build new ideas and insights upon an existing conceptual foundation. In the field of statistics, we educators frequently find ourselves met with great confusion when teaching novices. These students, entirely unfamiliar with even basic statistics, must connect the introduced statistical terms within their personal existing networks of largely non-statistical knowledge. Lecturers, on the other hand, who are well versed in statistics, have deeply internalized the content to be taught and its relevant context. The juxtaposition of the two roles may produce amusement in a lecturer upon gaining insight into the word associations made by the statistical novices. For example, a ‘logistic regression’ does not involve the ‘shipping of goods in economically difficult times,’ though this might seem entirely reasonable and intuitive to the statistics learner. Other times, these different perspectives can lead to headaches and frustration for both learners and their lecturers. In this article, we illustrate how simple statistical terms are initially connected to a student’s pre-exiting knowledge and how these associations change after completing an introductory course in applied statistics. Furthermore, we emphasize the important difference between “term”, “approach”, and “context”. Understanding this fundamental distinction may help improve the communication between the lecturer and the learner. We offer a collection of practical tools for instructors to help promote students’ conceptual understanding in a supportive, mutually-beneficial learning environment.
The ability of film stars to attract viewers is a widely accepted rationale for hiring expensive actors. However, the precise mechanisms behind this ‘drawing power’ remain unclear. By reviewing the existing literature, six possible antecedents of drawing power are identified. Artists with high acting abilities (i) increase a film’s artistic appeal, (ii) function as markers of quality and (iii) facilitate the matching process with the right audiences. Widely popular, commonly perceived as beautiful/handsome but often less talented actors, on the other hand, rather (iv) facilitate the marketing campaigns of films, (v) offer entertaining interactions with famous personalities and (vi) provide manifold opportunities for gossiping. Based on a discussion of the implications for theory and a preliminary analysis of a sample of Hollywood actors, managerial recommendations for those who have and those who depend on star drawing power are developed.
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the strategic consequences of manufacturing location decisions, with a focus on understanding the link between collocating manufacturing with other value chain activities, via reshoring or retaining and organizational agility.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses qualitative data from 115 interviews with executives from UK high value manufacturing companies to explore the recent phenomenon of reshoring and the strategic effects of manufacturing location.
Findings
The location of manufacturing is operationally and strategically important for multinational companies. The spatial dispersion of manufacturing is determined by firm-specific and external factors, both of which are subject to constant change. The analysis shows that concentrating on manufacturing in their home countries enables firms to increase organizational agility and stimulate innovation. Better integration with and more extensive collaboration between related value chain activities, such as research and development, sales and marketing, leads to higher flexibility, speed and responsiveness to customer requirements. However, under certain conditions, firms also continue to benefit from the known advantages of offshoring.
Originality/value
This research sheds light on possible strategic downsides of global value chains, characterized by dispersed activities and intermitted processes. The results provide evidence that retaining manufacturing or bringing back manufacturing operations to a company’s home country can increase organizational flexibility, speed, adaptability, innovativeness and responsiveness to customer requirements. As these capabilities are critical for long-term survival, especially in dynamic environments, firms need to review their global factory configurations and determine whether the short-term advantages of foreign locations continue to justify offshoring practices.
Over the past decade, the proliferation of entrepreneurial ventures and small firms with sustainable business models have pushed the sustainability agenda in the fashion industry. Despite prominent success stories, these companies often encounter significant operative challenges that hinder growth or even cause business failure. This paper adopts a qualitative research design and uses data gathered during 18 expert interviews with entrepreneurs and executive managers of 18 firms from 13 countries to identify and explore the dominant challenges that micro- and small-sized sustainable fashion companies struggle with. The results indicate that communicating with consumers is perceived as surprisingly difficult, especially because sustainable brands need to justify higher prices and explain the added benefits of their products. Second, resource constraints lead to operative friction and overburdening of the decision makers and their small management teams. Third, sustainable sourcing and production processes are economically difficult in an industry that continues to occupy a mass and low-cost logic. Against the background of these insights, a range of managerial recommendations are developed and contextualized in the framework of the Business Model Canvas. This novel approach makes the suggestions which are rooted in the resource-based view actionable and supports sustainable businesses to better manage their operations and achieve growth. For example, collaborative approaches with different stakeholders may mitigate constraints across all three identified problem areas.
The 3GPP release 16 integrates TSN functionality into 5G and standardizes various options for TSN time synchronization over 5G such as transparent mode and bridge mode. The time domains for the TSN network and the 5G network are kept separate with an option to synchronize either of the networks to the other. The TSN time synchronization over 5G is possible either by using the IEEE 1588 generalized Precision Time Protocol (gPTP) based on UDP/IP multicast or via IEEE 802.1AS based on Ethernet PDUs. The INET and Simu5G simulation frameworks, which are both based on the OMNeT++ discrete event simulator, are widely used for simulating TSN and 5G networks. The INET framework comprises the 802.1AS based time synchronization mechanism, and Simu5G provides the 5G user plane carrying IP PDUs. We modified the 802.1AS-based synchronization model of INET so that it works over UDP/IP. With that, it is possible to synchronize TSN slaves (connected to 5G UEs), across a 5G network, with a TSN master clock, present within a TSN network, that is connected to the 5G core network. Our simulation results show that 500 microseconds of synchronization accuracy can be achieved with the corrected asymmetric propagation delay of uplink and downlink between the gNodeB (gNB) and the User Equipment (UE). Furthermore, the synchronization accuracy can be improved if the delay difference between uplink and downlink is known.
The aim of the study was to examine different pH parameters, such as variations throughout the day, depending on differing concentrate feed proportions. Moreover, special attention was payed to individual variation in microbial efficiencies (microbial crude protein/fermented organic matter) and their relation to ruminal pH, nutrient flows and digestibilities. For this, cows were grouped according to microbial efficiency (more, n = 5, vs. less efficient cows, n = 4). After calving, thirteen ruminally cannulated pluriparous cows, including nine duodenally cannulated animals, were divided into groups offered rations with a lower (35% on dry matter basis, n = 7) or a higher (60% on dry matter basis, n = 6) concentrate feed proportion. Ruminal pH parameters were assessed continuously by using intraruminal probes. Nutrient flows, nutrient digestibility and microbial efficiency were determined for duodenally cannulated cows. For most ruminal pH parameters it seemed that individual variability was higher than the treatment effect. However, a positive relationship between actual concentrate intake and diurnal pH fluctuations was found. Besides, the effect of individually different microbial efficiencies was assessed. Again, there were no group differences for pH parameters. However, nutrient flows were significantly higher in more efficient cows, whereas digestibilities were lower in in more efficient cows.
Duckweed is a promising resource for future feed and food production as well as wastewater treatment. However, diseases and pests can critically limit the performance of the production systems. Patches of discolored and bleached duckweed (Lemna minor L.) appeared in hydroponic systems and spread rapidly through the crop. Pythium myriotylum was confirmed as the causing pathogen by microbiological and molecular biological analysis. This is the first report of P. myriotylum on duckweed in Germany. The result and possible countermeasures are discussed.
The development of non-precious metal-based electrodes that actively and stably support the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in water electrolysis systems remains a challenge, especially at low pH levels. The recently published study has conclusively shown that the addition of haematite to H2 SO4 is a highly effective method of significantly reducing oxygen evolution overpotential and extending anode life. The far superior result is achieved by concentrating oxygen evolution centres on the oxide particles rather than on the electrode. However, unsatisfactory Faradaic efficiencies of the OER and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) parts as well as the required high haematite load impede applicability and upscaling of this process. Here it is shown that the same performance is achieved with three times less metal oxide powder if NiO/H2 SO4 suspensions are used along with stainless steel anodes. The reason for the enormous improvement in OER performance by adding NiO to the electrolyte is the weakening of the intramolecular O─H bond in the water molecules, which is under the direct influence of the nickel oxide suspended in the electrolyte. The manipulation of bonds in water molecules to increase the tendency of the water to split is a ground-breaking development, as shown in this first example.
The development of base metal electrodes that can act as active and stable oxygen generating electrodes in water electrolysis systems, especially at low pH levels, remains a challenge. The use of suspensions as electrolytes for water splitting has until recently been limited to photoelectrocatalytic approaches. A high current density (j=30 mA/cm2) for water electrolysis has been achieved at a very low oxygen evolution reaction (OER) potential (E=1.36 V vs. RHE) using a SnO2/H2SO4 suspension-based electrolyte in combination with a steel anode. More importantly, the high charge-to-oxygen conversion rate (Faraday efficiency of 88% for OER at j=10 mA/cm2 current density). Since cyclic voltammetry (CV) experiments show that oxygen evolution starts at a low, but not exceptionally low, potential, the reason for the low potential in chronoamperometry (CP) tests is an increase in the active electrode area, which has been confirmed by various experiments. For the first time, the addition of a relatively small amount of solids to a clear electrolyte has been shown to significantly reduce the overpotential of the OER in water electrolysis down to the 100 mV region, resulting in a remarkable reduction in anode wear while maintaining a high current density.