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This paper aims to investigate what factors influence women’s meaningful and equitable persistence in computing and technology fields. It draws on theories of learning and equity from the learning sciences to inform the understanding of women’s underrepresentation in computing as it investigates young women who showed an interest in computing in high school and followed-up with them in their college and careers.

The mixed-methods approach compares data from quantitative surveys and qualitative focus groups and interviews. The sample comes from database of 1,500 young women who expressed interest in computing by applying for an award for high schoolers. These women were surveyed in 2013 and then again in 2016, with 511 women identifying themselves as high schoolers in 2013 and then having graduated and pursued college or careers in the second survey. The authors also conducted qualitative interviews and focus groups with 90 women from the same sample.

The findings show that multiple factors influence women’s persistence in computing, but the best predictor of women’s persistence is access to early computing and programming opportunities. However, access and opportunities must be evaluated within broader social and contextual factors.

The main limitation is that the authors measure women’s persistence in computing according to their chosen major or profession. This study does not measure the impact of computational thinking in women’s everyday lives.

Educators and policymakers should consider efforts to make Computer Science-for-All a reality.

Few longitudinal studies of a large sample of women exist that follow women interested in computing from high school into college and careers particularly from a critical educational equity perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between employees' perceptions of diversity training (DT) existence and effectiveness with organizational commitment (OC), and career satisfaction (CS).

The analyses in this paper utilize survey data collected between 2006 and 2007 from over 11,000 managers, professionals, and executives working in nine large organizations in corporate Canada. The survey included questions about employees' perceptions of their work experiences and outcomes and their organizations' diversity practices. Comparisons of means as well as multivariate regression analyses were undertaken.

The paper shows that employees who perceived DT to be effective were significantly more committed to their organizations and more satisfied with their careers than employees who perceived DT to be ineffective or non‐existent.

The paper examines the linkages between DT, OS, and CS based on survey responses from managers, professionals, and executives. Findings may therefore not be applicable to entry level employees.

DT, and in particular when viewed by employees to be effective, increases employees' OC and CS, which are associated with loyalty, lower turnover and higher employee engagement.

The paper found that employees' OC and CS are highest when they perceived DT to be effective. Factors associated with OC and CS are explored based on employees' perceptions of the availability and effectiveness of DT.

The purpose of this study is to show the importance of adequately considering quality measures within the use of composite indicators (CIs). Policy support often relies on high quality indicators. Often, the underlying data of relevant indicators are coming mainly from sample surveys. Obviously, the reliability of the indicators then heavily relies on the sampling design and other quality aspects.

Starting from the well-known work on sensitivity analysis of indicators, this study integrates the sampling process as an additional source of variability. The methodology is evaluated in a close-to-reality simulation environment using relevant and important surveys with different sampling designs. As an example, this study uses data related to the statistics of income and living conditions (SILC). The study is based on a design-based simulation framework.

In general, the normalisation method is dominating as source of the total variance of CI. In our study, we show that the sampling process also becomes rather relevant and generally dominates the influence of different weighting methods. We show that in some scenarios approximately 40 per cent of the variability in the sensitivity analysis comes from the sampling process. The quality of ranking derived from CIs then suffers considerably from the sampling design. When using data sources from different quality, e.g. in regional comparisons, one may expect some cases with biased CI values which may become useless for applications.

The impact of sampling heavily depends on the data gathering process. In case of sample data, the sampling designs play an important role. However, the design effect still depends on the variables taken into account and has to be considered carefully.

The findings show the importance of considering the quality framework the European Code of Practice also for CIs. This additional information shall foster to understand possible over- or misinterpretations of CIs, especially when deriving rankings from the indicators. Specialised statistical methods shall be integrated in future research, particularly when focusing on regional indicators.

CIs are often used for policy monitoring. In general, the data gathering process is not considered adequately by end-users. This becomes especially important when being interested in regional indicators. The present paper shows possible implications of the sampling designs on CI outcomes with the focus on comparative studies.

To find out the optimum heat treatments to recover the microstructural changes of stainless steel alloys.

A total of four alloys were used in this study: two duplex stainless steel (DSS) alloys type 2304 and 2205, super DSS (SDSS) type 2507 and austenitic stainless steel alloy type 316 L. The alloys were heated to different temperatures, 750, 850, 950 and 1,050°C, for three different times, 10 min, 1 and 4 h.

The microstructural investigations showed that 2205 and 2507 behaved similarly in recovering their microstructures, especially in terms of the ferrite:austenite ratio within specific heat treatments and changing the hardness values. The results indicated that the microstructure of both alloys started to change above 750°C, the largest changes were shown at 850 and 950°C as the lowest ferrite content (FC%) was recorded at 850°C for both alloys. However, the microstructures of both alloys started to recover at 1,050°C. The reduction in the hardness values was attributed to the formation of new ferrite grains, free of residual stresses. On the other hand, the microstructure of the alloy type 2304 was stable and did not show large changes due to the applied heat treatments, similarly for austenitic alloy except showing chromium (Cr) carbide precipitation.

Finding the exact heat treatments, temperature and time to recover the microstructural changes of DSS alloys.

In recent years, fire accidents in engineering structures have often been reported worldwide, leading to a severe risk to life and property safety. The present study is carried out to evaluate the performance of Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) and fly ash–blended laterized mortars at elevated temperatures.

This test program includes the replacement of natural river sand with lateritic fine aggregates (lateritic FA) in terms of 0, 50 and 100%. Also, the ordinary Portland cement (OPC) was replaced with fly ash and GGBS in terms of 10, 20, 30% and 20, 40 and 60%, respectively, for producing blended mortars.

This paper presents results related to the determination of residual compressive strengths of lateritic fine aggregates-based cement mortars with part replacement of cement by fly ash and GGBS exposed to elevated temperatures. The effect of elevated temperatures on the physical and mechanical properties was evaluated with the help of microstructure studies and the quantification of hydration products.

A sustainable cement mortar was produced by replacing natural river sand with lateritic fine aggregates. The thermal strength deterioration features were assessed by exposing the control specimens and lateritic fine aggregates-based cement mortars to elevated temperatures. Changes in the mechanical properties were evaluated through a quantitative microstructure study using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. The phase change of hydration products after exposure to elevated temperatures was qualitatively analyzed by greyscale thresholding of SEM images using Image J software.

In this paper we talk about complex matrix quaternions (biquaternions) and we deal with some abstract methods in mathematical complex matrix analysis.

We introduce and investigate the complex space HC consisting of all 2 × 2 complex matrices of the form ξ=z1+iw1z2+iw2−z‾2−iw‾2z‾1+iw‾1, (z1,w1,z2,w2)∈C4.

We develop on HC a new matrix holomorphic structure for which we provide the fundamental operational calculus properties.

We give sufficient and necessary conditions in terms of Cauchy–Riemann type quaternionic differential equations for holomorphicity of a function of one complex matrix variable ξ∈HC. In particular, we show that we have a lot of holomorphic functions of one matrix quaternion variable.

The present experimental investigation attempts to study the behaviour of hybrid fibre-reinforced self-compacting concrete (HFSCC) subjected to elevated temperature. The purpose of this study is to find out the performance of hybrid fibres of 0.5 per cent by volume of concrete (out of which 75 per cent are steel fibres and 25 per cent, polypropylene fibres). Reinforced beams were casted and tested for the flexural load-carrying capacity, and comparisons were made with the load-carrying capacity of reinforced beams without the inclusion of fibres.

The study includes 60 concrete cubes of 150 mm and 60 beams of 150 × 150 × 1,100 mm reinforced with minimum tension reinforcement according to IS 456-2000. The specimens were subjected to elevated temperature from 100°C to 500°C with an interval of 100°C for 2 h. The residual compressive strength and the load-carrying capacity of beams for 5-mm deflection were measured. Parameters such as load at first crack, width and length of cracks developed on the beam during the application of load were also studied.

The result shows that for self-compacting concrete without fibres (SCCWOF), there is a gain in compressive strength between 200°C and 300°C, beyond which the strength decreases. For HFSCC, the gain in strength is between 300°C and 400°C, and thereafter the strength gets reduced. The load-carrying capacity of beams reduces with an increase in temperature. An increase in load-carrying capacity (up to 40.7 per cent) for HFSCC beams is observed when compared to SCCWOF beams at 500°C.

Better performance was observed with the usage of fibres when the specimens were subjected to elevated temperatures.

This paper aims to correct the existing mixed integer programming (MIP) model proposed by Yadav et al. (2019) [“Bi-objective optimization for sustainable supply chain network design in omnichannel.”, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 30 No. 6, pp. 972–986].

This paper first presents a counterexample to show that the existing MIP model is incorrect and then proposes an improved mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model for the considered problem. Last, a numerical experiment is conducted to test our improved MILP model.

This paper demonstrates that the formulations of the facility capacity constraints and the product flow balance constraints in the existing MIP model are incorrect and incomplete. Due to this reason, infeasible solutions could be identified as feasible ones by the existing MIP model. Hence, the optimal solution obtained with the existing MIP model could be infeasible. A counter-example is used to verify our observations. Computational results verify the effectiveness of our improved MILP model.

This paper gives a complete and correct formulation of the facility capacity constraints and the product flow balance constraints, and conducts other improvements on the existing MIP model. The improved MILP model can be easily implemented and would help companies to have more effective distribution networks under the omnichannel environment.

The paper aims to provide new observations about static strain ageing in aluminium (Al) alloys which are widely used in structural applications.

The present work aims to provide theoretical and practical information to industries or researchers who may be interested in the effect of static strain ageing on mechanical properties of Al alloys. The data are sorted into the following sections: introduction, materials and experimental procedure, results and discussion and conclusions.

Tensile strength, proof strength (0.2 per cent) and percentage elongation measurement were used to investigate the effect of strain ageing on the mechanical properties. Wear tests were performed by sliding the pin specimens, which were prepared from as-received, solution heat-treated, deformed and undeformed specimens after ageing, on high-speed tool steel (64 HRC). It is concluded that the variations in ageing time improved the strength and wear resistance of the 6063 Al alloy; however, a plastically deformed solution-treated alloy has higher strength and wear resistance than undeformed specimens for different ageing times at 180°C.

A very useful source of information for industries using or planning to produce Al alloys.

This paper fulfils an identified resource need and offers practical help to the industries.

The purpose of the paper is to study the effect of elevated temperature on load carrying capacity of reinforced self compacting concrete beams and the performance of deteriorated beams after retrofitting by GFRP sheets. The reinforced beams which were exposed to sustained elevated temperature and tested for flexural load-carrying capacity. Further deteriorated beams (exposed from 500°C to 800°C) were re-strengthened by adopting retrofitting with GFRP sheets.

The investigation includes the concrete specimens, i.e. cubes of 150 mm, cylinders of size 150 mm dia with 300 mm height and beams of 150 × 150 × 1,100 mm, reinforced with minimum tension reinforcement according to IS 456–2000. The specimens were subjected to elevated temperature from 300°C to 800°C with an interval of 100°C for 2 h. The residual compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, load at first crack of beams and load-carrying capacity of beams for 5-mm deflection were measured before and after retrofitting.

The result shows that there is a gain in residual compressive strength at 300°C and beyond which it decreases. The modulus of elasticity, load at first crack and load-carrying capacity of beams reduces continuously with an increase in temperature. The decrease in load-carrying capacity of beams is observed from 27.55% and up to 38.77% between the temperature range of 500°C–800°C and after the retrofitting of distressed beams, the load carrying capacity increases up to 24.48%.

Better performance was observed with retrofitting by GFRP sheets when the specimens were distressed due to elevated temperatures.