Conference Reviews

Abstract

The desire to teach in a way that acknowledges our position in the world as global citizens faces several challenges, many of which are global in nature. We identify three of these. First, there is the split between “modern” and “traditional” that can be found in a wide range of institutional and historical practices the world over. Second, there is the problem of language which has embedded within it certain historical presumptions. Third, there is the hesitancy in studio teaching to address issues that allow students to see themselves as actors in global history. What we advocate is a global critique of anti-global practices.     

New product development in new ventures: the quest for resources

Innovation and new product development (NPD) are becoming more important as strategic initiatives. Yet, innovation creates challenges for most existing organisations, thus leading to the emergence of new ventures (NVs) as vehicles to deliver innovation. NVs present owners and management with unique opportunities and challenges. On one hand, the NV can focus its attention on specific innovation(s) without having to compete with other goals and departments for resource access. Resources are critical to the successful development and launch of new products and can come from financial lenders and/or suppliers. However, because they are new and because their only asset of worth is the highly risky innovation, NVs are at a strong disadvantage in securing access to these resources. This study explores the effectiveness of using personal equity investments as a strategy for securing access and for enhancing NPD success. Using signalling theory as the theoretical framework and data from 745 NPD projects representing manufacturing innovations, this study finds that equity investment is particularly successful in its NPD impact although not impactful with suppliers. As a signal, it can be argued that equity is a strong, high-quality signal. Reasons for these findings and directions for future research are provided.     

Port reduction in parametrized component static condensation: approximation and a posteriori error estimation

We introduce a port (interface) approximation and a posteriori error bound framework for a general component‐based static condensation method in the context of parameter‐dependent linear elliptic partial differential equations. The key ingredients are as follows: (i) efficient empirical port approximation spaces—the dimensions of these spaces may be chosen small to reduce the computational cost associated with formation and solution of the static condensation system; and (ii) a computationally tractable a posteriori error bound realized through a non‐conforming approximation and associated conditioner—the error in the global system approximation, or in a scalar output quantity, may be bounded relatively sharply with respect to the underlying finite element discretization. Our approximation and a posteriori error bound framework is of particular computational relevance for the static condensation reduced basis element (SCRBE) method. We provide several numerical examples within the SCRBE context, which serve to demonstrate the convergence rate of our port approximation procedure as well as the efficacy of our port reduction error bounds. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficient,high photostability,high brightness,co-polymer solid state dye lasers

Abstract

We report an investigation of the laser beam quality, efficiency and photostability of rhodamine 590 solid state dye lasers with hosts based upon 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate and methylmethacrylate P(HEMA:MMA) co-polymers and modified methylmethacrylate (MPMMA) polymers with ethanol and dimethylsulphoxide additives. Highest efficiencies were obtained with MPMMA, with slope efficiencies of up to 44% (corresponding to 61% optical-optical conversion) measured for ethanolic MPMMA. P(HEMA:MMA) hosts gave superior photostability, with the highest normalized photostability of 240 GJ mol^?1 obtained for a P(HEMA:MMA) 1:1 rod. A simple resonator has been used to compensate the effects of thermal lensing and pump mode-mismatch, resulting in optimized beam quality for MPMMA lasers.