Search results

Examines and reviews the roles of the principal types of consumer information services – these are: those which offer comparative testing; labelling; and quality certification in the interests of consumers. Proposes that the purpose here is to analyse points of intersect and interaction between the three types of consumer information programmes and to discuss the extent to which they may lend themselves to integration within an overall consumer information system. Sums up that consumer information programmes themselves thrive in systems where there is a perpetual interplay of competition and co‐operation, independence and co‐ordination.

THE trend of design in the modern aeroplane has been toward improved performance realised through external cleanness. It is apparent that the number of essential units comprising a modern aeroplane is nearly a minimum at the present stage of the art, and it appears also that the possibilities of further striking reductions in the drag of these units, due to change in form or shape either individually or in combination, are not great.

The purpose of this paper is to present a laboratory accelerated periodic immersion wet/dry cyclic corrosion test, reflecting the alternate wet/dry process during the atmospheric exposure of metallic materials, which can be applied to evaluate the atmospheric corrosion resistance (ACR) of weathering steels in a very short period.

This test method uses 0.01 M sodium bisulfite aqueous solution with pH 4.4 as the immersion medium, simulating the notable characteristics of sulfur dioxide pollutant in industrially polluted atmospheres. During the test process, the tested specimens are immersed into the solution for 12 minutes, immediately followed by the subsequent drying process for 48 minutes, and such alternate process consists of a cyclic period, i.e. 1 hour. As a result of this procedure, a relative corrosion rate is defined to determine the ACR. To determine a preferred test period, different test periods including 72 and 200 hours were compared.

Compared with several other commonly used test methods, it was confirmed that the relative ACR of various steels can be determined after testing for only 72 hours. The constituent of the corrosion products, i.e. the rust layer, was consistent with that formed after long-term exposure in a typical outdoor atmospheric environment.

The test method enables comparative testing for ranking the ACR of weathering steel during the development of new weathering steels.

New product concept screening, i.e., selecting a few viable innovative concepts from numerous candidates, involves high stakes and is complicated and resource intensive. Over the years, there has been heated debate about the relative merit of monadic (sequential) tests vs that of preference-based paired comparisons. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study proposes the Generalizability Theory as a framework to assess and compare the performance of traditional monadic test with the Adaptive Concept Screening (ACS) in terms of their testing results and psychometric quality.

Using 50 yogurt concepts and two independent groups of respondents, the results indicate that ACS requires a significant smaller sample of respondents to achieve a necessary minimum G coefficient for decision making. Moreover, ACS offers a more discriminating and reliable solution for early stage concept screening as manifested by a higher G coefficient and greater percentage of variance due to the selected concepts given the same sampling design.

The results lend strong support to ACS as a more cost-effective method for screening new product concepts and the Generalizability Theory as a systematic framework for assessing concept testing methods.

This study adopts the Generalizability Theory framework to assess the validity of new product concept screening method.

States that the emergence of a formalised new product development can be attributed to the needs of companies in the capitalist system for maintaining a competitive advantage in their operating markets. Describes the process as one of innovation defined as:‘the technical, industrial and commercial steps that lead to the marketing of new manufactured products'. Belies the complexity of the function:’to describe new product development as difficult is probably a mammoth understatement'. Intends to illuminate the theory and practice of this process. Concludes that a flexible approach and an open mind are the most important requirements for successful application.

Multiattribute ratings of country‐image are commonly obtained to study the influence of country‐of‐origin on product preference and purchase decisions. Usually, such ratings are obtained for products made in different countries in order to make comparisons across countries. However, recent research evidence indicates that, when individual respondents rate multiple entities (e.g., multiple countries), the ratings of a particular country can be affected by the other “contextual” countries included in the questionnaire. The purpose of this study is to examine, via a controlled experiment, the issue of measurement context effects in the measurement of country images. The hypotheses tested concern the stability of attribute‐based and entity‐based country image scaling and potential methods of reducing the vulnerability of multi‐entity scaling to entity context ‐‐ the use of an anchor entity and an insulator question set to increase country image measurement stability.

Corrosion studies have been conducted at the National Bureau of Standards for many years and are now combined in the Corrosion Section of the Metallurgy Division. Originally interest was concentrated on laboratory and field tests of the comparative corrosion of ferrous and non‐ferrous metals in various environments, and of the efficiency of protective coatings. At present, the programme is concerned more with studies of the basic principles and theories of the corrosion of metals than with comparative tests; the only test programmes that are active today are those sponsored by other Government agencies or by technical associations. Researches in progress are concerned with the corrosion of metals in service underground, and in marine and other environments, and with basic considerations of the corrosion of metals in various environments, with and without applied stress. These will be discussed in approximately the order in which the investigations were initiated.

Orthopaedic implants, such as intervertebral disc endoprostheses (IDEs) are difficult to manufacture by means of conventional methods because of their complex shape. However, technologies developed in recent years, such as selective laser melting, could simplify this process. Although this method is attractive in both manufacturing and rapid prototyping of IDEs, little is known about their tribological performance. The functional aim of the work is to conduct a tribological evaluation of the ASTM F75 alloy after selective laser melting process and to investigate the viability of the technology in IDE design. The research aim was an explanation of the wear mechanism of bearing surfaces with respect to the reference material.

In this paper, the tribological test results of a lumbar IDE prototype fabricated by selective laser melting and forging is presented and compared. The endoprostheses were fabricated from commercially available ASTM F75 powder using a selective laser melting device. As a reference material, a forged ASTM F1537 LC alloy was used. Comparative wear and friction tests were carried out with the use of a unique spine simulator.

The obtained results confirm the viability of the selective laser technology in endoprosthesis design. Unfortunately, poorer tribological wear resistance of endoprostheses produced by means of selective laser melting (SLM) technology compared with that of the reference material calls into question the possibility of using these technologies in the manufacturing process of endoprosthesis' components exposed to tribological wear.

This paper presents the friction and wear behaviour of the lumbar IDE prototype. The tests were carried out in motion and loading conditions close to those we observe in the lumbar spine.

In 2006, Kyrgyzstan entered the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) competition and the results were very poor, with it securing the last position among all participating countries. However, to date, there are no in-depth studies examining the results and the impact of the PISA test on the quality of secondary education in Kyrgyzstan. This chapter attempts to fill this gap. The study was conducted in post-Soviet Central Asian education context where standardized tests are only emerging and what their far-reaching implications are not yet known. The data were collected using semistructured interviews and document analysis. Respondents to semistructured interviews included representatives of government, education officials, specialists from the independent testing center, representatives of international development organizations, university professors, school administrators and teachers, community members, and students. The study showed that the poor results of PISA 2006 awakened many policymakers, education officials, and educators about the current state of the country's education. However, the findings of the study also showed that the lessons and implications were not analyzed systematically and, as a result, rather fragmented and less coordinated efforts and initiatives were undertaken.

While Fairthorne may not have been the first person to recognize it, certainly, for this author, Fairthorne was the first to make explicit the fundamental problems of information retrieval systems, namely the clash between OBNA and ABNO (Only‐But‐Not‐All and All‐But‐Not‐Only). Although it was not until 1958 that the terms occur in Fairthorne's writings, the concept had been discussed in many meetings of the AGARD Documentation Panel and elsewhere. Originally it was considered that to meet these two requirements, it might be necessary to have two separate systems, and the test of the UNITERM system in 1954 was based on the hypothesis that a ‘Marshalling’ system (e.g. U.D.C.) was fundamentally different from a ‘Retrieval’ system (e.g. UNITERM). While the idea persisted in this form for some time, it gradually evolved into the inverse relationship of recall and precision, which is to say that while it is possible to obtain, of the relevant documents, All‐But‐Not‐Only, or alternatively to obtain Only‐But‐Not‐All, it is not possible to obtain All and Only.