ALBERT

Notes: At the end of 1984, for the third consecutive year, a research team from INSEAD administered a survey of the largest manufacturers in Europe. This survey attempts to provide an insight into the technological and manufacturing strategy designed and implemented by these large manufacturers.Each year since 1982 about 150 companies have completed the questionnaire, and of these 150 replies about one third are repeat answers. The database thus covers about 350 companies. As a consequence this allows us not only to analyse the static picture for a single year, but also to draw a dynamic picture of how thinking about technological and manufacturing strategy is changing within the European Manufacturing Industry.An analysis of the questionnaire's results allows us to assert some hypotheses about:a. Changes in the length of the product lifecycle.b. The importance of process engineering and proprietary process know-how.c. The interface between manufacturing and research and development as perceived by the manufacturing side.Since a similar survey is conducted for North America and Japan at the same time, it is possible to posit the European manufacturers vis-à-vis their global competitors for some of these issues.

Notes: AbstractThe research question in the present article can be phrased in the following way: what are the elements which influence the perception of the utility of information received from another function? A field study research has been conducted in 40 Belgian companies. In each company, we have studied two on-going innovation projects (one planning project, one development project). Crossfunctional communication behaviours at the R&D/marketing interface have been measured by means of mailed structured questionnaires. Three-hundred and eighty-six questionnaires have been returned. The data analyses show that there are four underlying information dimensions, i.e. the perceived relevance, the perceived comprehensibility, the perceived novelty and the perceived credibility of information. We also discuss some contingency variables (function of the message receiver, stage in the innovation process) that might moderate the impact of these dimensions. It will be shown that the interaction between source and receiver has a significant impact on the perceived credibility, the perceived comprehensibility and the perceived novelty of the received information.

Notes: AbstractA major issue for organizations planning for technological turnaround concerns the question of how to internalize the new technology. This article reports the findings of an exploratory research that addressed this problem. A multiple case study approach has been used to study and analyze the different strategies and organizational approaches to absorb alien technologies (in-house development, intercompany co-operation, purchase of technology, contract research, joint-venture, acquisition). On the basis of the results, a propositional framework has been developed which offers managers a perspective to develop a strategy with respect to the appropriate organizational design to ‘de-mature’ technologically mature business units.

Notes: AbstractGlobal R&D management, the management of company R&D effort distributed over different countries, a task that concerns multinational firms, has not been widely studied. The authors have therefore carried out in-depth studies of global R&D conducted by 7 European and 15 Japanese companies. Their objective was to identify ‘best practice’ and so construct a framework for future research.The authors' conclusions are as follows. Globalisation, that is decentralisation of R&D, has become a necessity for multinationals as a result of the localisation of competition, of product life becoming shorter than development time, and the need to locate laboratories near sources of new technological know-how.Because foreign acquisitions often lead to the acquisition of laboratories, questions are raised about how best to integrate them with the administrative practices of the ‘home’ organization, whether to reorganize them or to close them down. When it is necessary to set up a new foreign-based laboratory deciding its exact location will require the weighing of factors such as whether the activities are to be market or process oriented, where on the R to D scale the activities will be placed, and how far direction of the laboratory's programmes and work will be decentralised.Global management also demands special attention to the building of an open communication network among the laboratories, the best form of which has yet to be determined. The main concern in human resource management will be how to select and develop an internationally oriented management corps and how to train R&D professionals to communicate across sites.If globally dispersed R&D laboratories are to be most effectively used then a new framework for their management needs to be developed.

Notes: Shortening design cycle times, without increasing design costs or sacrificing quality has become an important management goal. In this paper, we will provide a short overview of the literature on shortening design cycle times. Building on this, we want to establish how manufacturing and the manufacturing/R&D interface can contribute to shorter development cycle times. The European Manufacturing Futures database will be used to test some of the literature findings on a sample of large European Manufacturers.

Notes: SYNOPSIS. Merozoites from Plasmodiunz gallinaceum (exoerythrocytic forms) have been observed with the electron microscope in thin sections of infected tissue cultures. When still in segmenter formation, at the end of the intracellular cycle, a small canaliculum can be observed in their proximal part which runs from the nuclear region down into the cytoplasmic core of the segmenter, where, in some sections, it continues directly into the endoplasmic reticulum of the core.Large, vacuole-like empty spaces in the merozoites recall swollen mitochondria. They show short villi at the periphery, instead of the typical cristae; they resemble the mitochondria of starved tissue cells.In the distal pole of the merozoites, one or two oval bodies of great electron density are present, among several smaller granules, both structures still being of unknown significance. The rest of the cytoplasm is of great electron density and shows a fine granulation.In the young trophozoites the oval bodies and the smaller granules disappear. Also, mitochondria are not found just after parasites enter a cell. These, however, reappear soon.The contact of the trophozoites with the cytoplasm of the host is intimate. Both surface membranes of the parasite are visible, mostly intact, but showing also openings which are considered artifacts, since no images have been obtained which indicate a passage of material through them from the host to the parasite. It is believed, however, that the parasite takes up material from the host through the membranes by an osmotic process. The fading of the electron density and the greater distance between the particles of its cytoplasm in the growing parasite seem to prove this. The particles which are responsible for the electron density of the merozoites, and of the young trophozoites, do not differ in their aspect from the RNA particles of the host cells.The nucleus, which in the merozoites and in the very first intracellular stages shows a homogenous fine and dense granulation, develops a darker region later, of irregular shape, which is located eccentrically, and is considered the nucleolus of these forms.

Notes: Whole cell DNA from Leishmania tropica has 2 peaks when banded by CsCl equilibrium density centrifugation. The main band has a buoyant density of 1.721 and the satellite band a buoyant density of 1.705, with Clostridium perfringens DNA (ρ= 1.6915) used as a reference. The satellite band has been identified as the kinetoplast DNA by purifying DNA from isolated kinetoplasts. L. tropica has the highest G + C content of both nuclear and kinetoplastic DNA thus far reported for trypanosomatids. The effects of ethidium bromide, acriflavin, proflavin, and 5-aminoacridine on the kinetoplast of L. tropica have been compared. Ethidium bromide and acriflavin, but not proflavin or 5-aminoacridine, induce dyskinetoplasty. L. tropica is one of the most sensitive trypanosomatids to ethidium bromide and acriflavin. Examination of the DNA from drug-treated cells in CsCl gradients revealed a loss of the satellite band after ethidium bromide or acriflavin treatment, but not after proflavin or 5-aminoacridine treatment. Cell division was required to produce these effects on the kinetoplast.

Notes: Trypanosoma cruzi has been cultured in pigment epithelial cells of the iris from the chick embryo. Melanin granules, identical with those of the host cells were found in the intracellular, amastigote (leishmania) forms. In many of the intracellular forms cytostome-like structures were seen, often in intimate contact with the pigment granules of the host cells, which suggests the uptake of melanin granules through the cytostomes by the process of intracellular phagotrophy.