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Study tours — of foreign companies and competitors — are a popular management training technique, but there have been few opportunities to study the situation in the UK, at least in the field of advanced electronics manufacturing strategy. Added to this there are few opportunities for informally getting together networks of engineers who could discuss basic manufacturing problems in the UK. The UK Department of Trade and Industry hopes that this situation will end as its Advanced Manufacturing in Electronics (AMIE) programme continues. A key part of this is allowing project engineers and managers to visit other companies to see what is actually being done, rather than what is merely equipment manufacturers' hype, or what is merely supposed by technical journals as being the case!

There have been few studies about the prevalence of substance abuse and links to offending behaviour among those with intellectual disabilities. This paper aims to address this issue.

This baseline audit describes: the prevalence of alcohol and substance misuse in patients within a forensic intellectual disability service; and the introduction of a Drug and Alcohol Awareness Course. In total, 74 patients were included in the audit.

Roughly half of the patients audited had co‐morbid harmful use or dependence with the problem being equally prevalent in men and women. Whilst alcohol and cannabis were the commonest drugs of abuse, cocaine, stimulants and opiates were abused by a small but significant number. Of those with harmful use or dependence, 35 per cent had used the drug in the immediate lead up to their index offence. A diagnosis of personality disorder and past history of convictions for violent offences was significantly more likely to be present in the group with harmful use or dependence. There were no differences on major mental illnesses or pervasive developmental disorders.

The high prevalence of substance abuse makes it an important risk factor that could determine treatment outcomes. Forensic intellectual disability units need replicable substance abuse targeted treatment programmes that can be formally audited and evaluated.

Findings are discussed in relation to service planning and treatment outcomes from forensic intellectual disability services.

When I met Yorgos for the first time I was spending some time as a tourist in a small village in Southern Crete, Greece, which I later called Pousos. This was after several returns as a traveling anthropologist and after the place had become my primary field site for studying the transnational and turbulent social and cultural relations created by both tourism and migration in the Greek-Mediterranean border zones of the European Union (EU) (Römhild, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2010). At that time, in the late 1990s, Yorgos was running a tavern right across the small town square and opposite the small complex of restored stone houses in which my family and I had rented an apartment for our stay. He shared the work with Amie, his girlfriend, who served the meals and chatted with the guests while Yorgos would spend much time in the kitchen.

Recent publications, including Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2009) and A New Biology for the 21st Century (National Research Council, 2009), highlight needed changes for undergraduate science education. These include a shift away from traditionally structured lab courses toward more authentic scientific inquiry experiences in undergraduate science laboratories. The aim of these reform initiatives is for students to develop not only conceptual understanding of the big ideas of science but also the skills required to conduct an investigation and an understanding of science as a human process of constructing scientific knowledge (National Research Council, 2011). The work that we describe here examines the challenges and successes of engaging nonscience majors in a large introductory university-level science course in conducting scientific inquiry. To understand the course structure and the nature of the laboratory experiences, we describe two different lab experiences. In both cases, students engaged in guided inquiry and then were asked to engage in a more open-ended inquiry experience. Our findings suggest that students need significant scaffolding to make the transition from more guided inquiry to more open-ended inquiry.

Many organizations have reported significant benefits after the implementation of Lean Six Sigma (LSS). Embracing LSS requires asking some important questions: How Lean Six Sigma Readiness (LESIRE) can be measured? How can an organization identify the barriers for LESIRE? Answers to these questions are critical to both academicians and practitioners. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This study illustrates the development process of a Lean Six Sigma Readiness (LESIRE) evaluation model to assess an organization’s readiness for LSS deployment using the fuzzy approach. The model was developed from 4 enablers, 16 criteria and 46 attributes of LSS, identified through a literature review.

To demonstrate the efficiency of the model, this study testing the LESIRE evaluation model in three Indian SMEs. Using experts’ ratings and weight, the researchers calculated the Fuzzy Lean Six Sigma index (FLSS) which indicates the LESIRE level of an organization and the Fuzzy Performance Importance Index (FPII) that helps to identify the barriers for LESIRE.

The main limitations of this study are that it did not consider the failure factors of LSS for model development and the LESIRE was only tested in manufacturing industries. Thus, future researchers could focus on developing a model with failure factors. The results obtained from the SMEs show that LESIRE is capable of assessing LESIRE in an industrial scenario and helps practitioners to measure LESIRE for the future decision making process.

The LESIRE model is easy to understand and use without much computation complexity. This simplicity makes the LESIRE evaluation model unique from other LSS models. Further, LESIRE was tested in three different SMEs, and it aided them to identify and improve their weak areas, thereby readying them for LSS deployment.

The main contribution of this study it proposes a LESIRE model that evaluates the organization for FLSS and FPII for LESIRE, which is essential for the organization embarking on an LSS journey. Further, it improves the readiness of the organization that is already practicing LSS.

ITS: Intertrade Scientific Ltd, the UK based manufacturer of the MCT/Browne InfraRed Reflow Soldering Systems for SMT and Hybrid applications, as part of their aggressive drive into Europe, has announced the signing of a distributor agreement with Maquinaria Suiza SA of Spain. Under the agreement, Maquinaria Suiza will be the sole supplier of the highly successful product range to Spain and Portugal.

Cybercrime is a prevalent and serious threat to publicly traded companies. Defending company information systems from cybercrime is one of the most important aspects of technology management. Cybercrime often not only results in stolen assets and lost business but also damages a company’s reputation, which in turn may affect the company’s stock market value. This is a serious concern to company managers, financial analysts, investors and creditors. This paper aims to examine the impact of cybercrime on stock prices of a sample of publicly traded companies.

Financial data were gathered on companies that were reported in news stories as victims of cybercrime. The market price of the company’s stock was recorded for several days before the news report and several days after. The percentage change in the stock price was compared to the change in the Dow Jones Industrial average to determine whether the stock price increased or decreased along with the rest of the market.

Stock prices were negatively affected in all time periods examined, significantly so in one period.

This paper describes cases concerning cybercrime, thereby bringing attention to the value of cybersecurity in protecting computers, identity and transactions. Cyber security is necessary to avoid becoming a victim of cybercrime. Specific security improvements and preventive measures are provided within the paper. Preventive measures are generally less costly than repairs after a cybercrime.

This is an original manuscript that adds to the literature regarding cybercrime and preventive measures.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the dispersed yet influential presence of the French in the Australian wine industry from the beginning of the industry until the present day. It looks at the physical presence of the French on Australian soil (e.g. winemakers, companies, vines) and the French cultural influence (e.g. publications, stereotypes, promotion). It aims to provide an historical context in which to place questions concerning contemporary Australian attitudes to French wine and to wine in general.

Historical review of French presence and influence on the Australian wine industry using historical and contemporary documents and records.

While the French presence in Australia has always been minimal, it exerts a powerful influence on the Australian wine industry. Throughout the history of the industry, French individuals and culture have maintained the image of “French expertise”, thus French wine is still the point of reference for the Australian wine industry and consumer. The high status enjoyed by French wine can be attributed in part to the historical influence of the French on Australian wine.

Further research into attitudes to French wine in Australia is needed to understand consumer preferences.

The paper represents one of the first attempts to investigate the presence and influence of French wines and winemaking in the Australian wine industry. It presents an historical account of the French in the Australian wine industry and the influence of French culture on Australian wine.

RANK XEROX could be a good company to copy. Not only has it won the top UK award for quality in production and business for the second time, it has also, through a shrewd use of automated production equipment, managed to trim manufacturing costs to such an extent that it has been winning assembly business from its Japanese associate, Fuji‐Xerox, in the manufacture of low‐cost photocopiers.

The purpose of this paper is to share knowledge of how annotation can be the basis for knowledge sharing.

The method used was derived from mathematical methods applied to set theory.

It was presented that one document can be easily used for experience sharing with multiple users. Multiple documents will be difficult to use as source of experience sharing.

Experience sharing has never been presented as intersection of annotation, document and users using mathematic principles.