The statistical monitoring of a complex manufacturing process

This paper describes the development of a multivariate statistical process performance monitoring scheme for a high-speed polyester film production facility. The objective for applying multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) was to improve product consistency, detect process changes and disturbances and increase operator awareness of the impact of both routine maintenance and unusual events. The background to MSPC is briefly described and the various stages in the development of an at-line MSPC representation for the production line are described. A number of case studies are used to illustrate the power of the methodology, highlighting its potential to assist in process maintenance, the detection of changes in process operation and the potential for the identification of badly tuned controller loops.     

Self-objectification: Relevance for the species and society

Mead described how, as a result of the social interaction process, the individual becomes an object to him or herself. This self-objectification process makes important contributions to the evolutionary success of the human species and to the survival of the society, although it is also a major source of social and personal problems. Through the distinctive human capacity for self-construction, human beings can build different selves with different skills to meet the changing demands of the environment. Through the objectification of thoughts and feelings, people are able to subordinate their organismic impulses to the control of social rules, thereby maintaining social order.     

Research Selectivity, Managerialism, and the Academic Labor Process: The Future of Nonmainstream Economics in U.K. Universities

This paper reports the results of empiricalresearch designed to explore the impact of researchselectivity on the work and employment of academiceconomists in U.K. universities.Research selectivityis seen as part of the general trend towardmanagerialism in higher education in both the U.K. andabroad. Managerialism based on performance indicatorsand hierarchical control has been contrasted withcollegiate control-based or informal peer review. However,analysis of the academic labor process has idealizedcollegiate relations at the expense of professionalhierarchies and intellectual authority relations. We argue that in the U.K., there has evolved amainstream economics which is located within awell-defined neoclassical core. We find that theexistence of lists of core mainstream journals which arebelieved to count most in the periodic ranking exerciseposes a serious threat to academic freedom and diversitywithin the profession, institutionalizing the controlwhich representatives of the mainstream exercise over both the academic labor process and jobmarket. In this way, managerialism combines with peerreview to outflank resistance to new forms ofcontrolling academic labor at the same time asreinforcing disciplinary boundaries through centralizedsystems of bureaucratic standardization andcontrol.     

Biosocial foundations for adolescent female sexuality

Despite the widespread assumption that hormones stimulate motivation for sexual behavior in adolescence, no published empirical studies have demonstrated this link. In a cross-sectional study of 78 females in the eighth, ninth, and tenth grades in public schools, we show that hormones have effects on sexual motivation and behavior. Comparison with previous results from a parallel sample of males indicates that for both sexes these effects are primarily androgenic in origin and for the most part exert their effects directly rather than through the social interpretation of age and hormone-induced pubertal development.     

Persistent militants and quiescent comrades: intra-industry strike activity on the docks, 1947-89⊃

Although dockers have figured prominently as a critical case in many standard theories of industrial conflict, they have often behaved in ways which these theories cannot grasp. This is perhaps most clearly evident when strike action at the port rather than the industry level is the subject of attention. Most notably, industry level theories cannot explain the persistent militancy of dockers employed in the major ports and the relative quiescence of their comrades employed at the smaller ports. To be sure, industry level variables can be used to understand the general character of workplace relations and the processes involved in strike action, but to fully explain the actual incidence and intensity of strike action over both time and place also requires analysis of the particular patterns of labour regulation at different ports and the consequent patterns of conflict and accommodation at the workplace level.     

Spherical symmetry: An elementary justification

Summary The present paper includes characterizations of the conditions of spherical symmetry and of centered spherical symmetry. These characterizations provide an empirical justification for the above mentioned conditions of symmetry.     

Household finance management and the labour market: a case study in Hartlepool

This paper reports on the results of a survey carried out in Hartlepool towards the end of 1989. It considers the problems posed by data collection through survey methods to enquire into the management of household finances, and adopts a procedure which first examines treatment of the man's wage, and follows with additional questions about use of the woman's wage, access to personal spending money, and the location of final authority over spending. The data are based on a comparsion between four different groupings with reference to the man's employment status: Group A: couples in which the man has been unemployed for at least the last 12 months. Group B: couples in which the man is currently employed and has held the same job for at least the last twelve months. Group C: couples in which the man has been recently recruited to employment. Group D: a residual group covering any other status, notably early retirement, sickness, disability or student status. An age range of 20–55 was imposed. Marked contrasts were found between these groupings though further variation was introduced by employment for the woman. Broadly speaking there are two instances of heightened financial influence for women: low income prompts female management, whilst women's employment (and therefore higher income) increases joint management. It is in the traditional and declining situation of a sole male earner in which female authority or influence is at its lowest.