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WHEN the open access method of lending books was first introduced on safe‐guarded lines at Clerkenwell, over twelve years ago, a considerable amount of dolorous prophecy was set free, which sometimes formed rather depressing reading for those responsible for the experiment. As time went on, it became clear that many of the prophets based their vaticinations on imperfect knowledge of the actual arrangements in use, and it was then only a simple matter of allowing complete play to one's sense of humour, while the comedy of errors proceeded. One imaginative prophet pictured the time when painstaking librarians would be supplanted by a uniformed janitor, who would assume the functions of librarian, by the easy process of supervising the filtration of readers through a turnstile, like sheep through a hurdle. Another equally resourceful Quidnunc saw in his mind's eye, all the riff‐raff of London, filing through the little Clerkenwell wicket, like a Cup‐tie crowd at the Crystal Palace, without introduction, guarantee, or slightest degree of responsibility. Probably it was only a humorist, and not a prophet, who forsaw the introduction of weighing machines at both entrance and exit wickets, as a means of preventing wholesale thefts. These, and many other absurd misconceptions of the actual mechanical arrangements employed to overcome various anticipated difficulties, formed a considerable proportion of the prophetic utterances which advertised the open access system in its early days.

Agile methods have proven successful in increasing customer satisfaction and decreasing time and cost to market under uncertain conditions. Key characteristics of agile methods are lean, flexibility and highly iterative development with a strong emphasis on stakeholder involvement. Today construction firms in general and small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular are surviving in a drastic competitive environment in which they are facing more and more challenges. Additional innovation is needed in the construction sector, with increased participation from more competitive SMEs. The main purpose of this paper is to present a model to prioritize available management systems to help SMEs address the challenge of today's market competition more effectively.

The research methodology used is that of interpretative case study and grounded theory based on a strong empirical foundation, on which new theoretical insight into knowledge management as an autonomous action is developed. The paper looks at ways by which SMEs are managed, based on the empirical data collected from 12 case studies. It presents the empirical findings drawn from the case studies. Finally, the adoption of agile methods is subjectively assessed as to its potential contribution for improving the business processes of small and medium construction firms.

It is assessed that agile methods offers considerable potential for application in construction SMEs and that there are significant hurdles to its adoption in the actual phase. Should these be overcome, agile methods offers benefits well beyond any individual company.

Construction firms need to be aware of the advantages of new management paradigms and practices. The analysis shows that SMEs in the construction sector have to internalize agile values into their business processes to reap the benefits of agile methods. It also reveals that existing practices show some kind of agile flavours.

Agile principles and methods are explored, including: philosophy, values, practices and benefits. The management approaches used by construction SMEs are analyzed and discussed. The paper presents recommendations and insights for enhancing the performance and efficiency of SMEs by adopting agile values in their business processes.

To provide a selective bibliography for researchers working with bulk material forming (specifically the forging, rolling, extrusion and drawing processes) with sources which can help them to be up‐to‐date.

A range of published (1996‐2005) works, which aims to provide theoretical as well as practical information on the material processing namely bulk material forming. Bulk deformation processes used in practice change the shape of the workpiece by plastic deformations under forces applied by tools and dies.

Provides information about each source, indicating what can be found there. Listed references contain journal papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations on the subject.

It is an exhaustive list of papers (1,693 references are listed) but some papers may be omitted. The emphasis is to present papers written in English language. Sheet material forming processes are not included.

A very useful source of information for theoretical and practical researchers in computational material forming as well as in academia or for those who have recently obtained a position in this field.

There are not many bibliographies published in this field of engineering. This paper offers help to experts and individuals interested in computational analyses and simulations of material forming processes.

WHEN these words will be read, those who do so will know the worst—and the best—that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has done to them. We, not having a crystal ball, nor much faith in such, are thereby handicapped for we must write only days before the speech is given.

In a previous article we have called attention to the danger of eating tinned and bottled vegetables which have been coloured by the addition of salts of copper and we have urged upon the public that no such preparations should be purchased without an adequate guarantee that they are free from copper compounds. Copper poisoning, however, is not the only danger to which consumers of preserved foods are liable. Judging from the reports of cases of irritant poisoning which appear with somewhat alarming frequency in the daily press, and from the information which we have been at pains to obtain, there can be no question that the occurrence of a large number of these cases is to be attributed to the ingestion of tinned foods which has been improperly prepared or kept. It is not to be supposed that the numerous cases of illness which have been ascribed to the use of tinned foods were all cases of metallic poisoning brought about by the action of the contents of the tins upon the metal and solder of the latter. The evidence available does not show that a majority of the cases could be put down to this cause alone; but it must be admitted that the evidence is in most instances of an unsatisfactory and inconclusive character. It has become a somewhat too common custom to put forward the view that so‐called “ptomaine” poisoning is the cause of the mischief; and this upon very insufficient evidence. While there is no doubt that the presence in tinned goods of some poisonous products of decomposition or organic change very frequently gives rise to dangerous illness, so little is known of the chemical nature and of the physiological effects of “ptomaines” that to obtain conclusive evidence is in all cases most difficult, and in many, if not in most, quite impossible. A study of the subject leads to the conclusion that both ptomaine poisoning and metallic poisoning—also of an obscure kind—have, either separately or in conjunction, produced the effects from time to time reported. In view of the many outbreaks of illness, and especially, of course, of the deaths which have been attributed to the eating of bad tinned foods it is of the utmost importance that some more stringent control than that which can be said to exist at present should be exercised over the preparation and sale of tinned goods. In Holland some two or three years ago, in consequence partly of the fact that, after eating tinned food, about seventy soldiers were attacked by severe illness at the Dutch manœuvres, the attention of the Government was drawn to the matter by Drs. VAN HAMEL ROOS and HARMENS, who advocated the use of enamel for coating tins. It appears that an enamel of special manufacture is now extensively used in Holland by the manfacturers of the better qualities of tinned food, and that the use of such enamelled tins is insisted upon for naval and military stores. This is a course which might with great advantage be followed in this country. While absolute safety may not be attainable, adequate steps should be taken to prevent the use of damaged, inferior or improper materials, to enforce cleanliness, and to ensure the adoption of some better system of canning.

In a Northern city, which claims to have more than 12,000 Commonwealth immigrants, mostly of Asian origin—Pakistanis and Indians, an increasing number of whom have been joined by their wives and families, there was instituted in 1965 a routine examination of their children before school entry, later extended to children of immigrant origin already in the schools. This examination extended to haemoglobin estimation, tuberculin‐testing and, equally important, examination of the stools for pathogens and parasitic ova. 419 entrants were examined in the first half of 1965 and 898 pupils. Parental co‐operation must have been excellent, as parents all agreed, without exception, to the special examination, although to some extent, there might have been considered legal authority in the current School Health Service (Medical Inspection) Regulations made under the Education Act, 1944. We are not aware of any report of intestinal pathogens, but helminth infestations were reported (Archer D. M., Bamford F. N., and Lees E., Helminth Infestations in Immigrant Children, 1965, Brit. Med. J., 2, 1517), from which it appears 18·6% carried five types of worm, of which the commonest was hookworm. It would be fair to assume that helminth infestation, indicating as it does, exposure to food infections, water‐borne disease and environment generally, is an index of gastro‐intestinal infection and the presence of pathogens, including the carrier state.

The Milk and Cream Standards Committee, of which Lord WENLOCK is Chairman, have commenced to take evidence, and at the outset have been met by the difficulty which must necessarily attach to the fixing of a legal standard for most food products. The problem, which is applicable also to other food materials, is to fix a standard for milk, cream and butter which shall be fair and just both to the producer and the consumer. The variation in the composition of these and other food products is well known to be such that, while standards may be arrived at which will make for the protection of the public against the supply of grossly‐adulterated articles, standards which shall insure the supply of articles of good quality cannot possibly be established by legal enactments. If the Committee has not yet arrived at this conclusion we can safely predict that they will be compelled to do so. A legal standard must necessarily be the lowest which can possibly be established, in order to avoid doing injustice to producers and vendors. The labours of the Committee will no doubt have a good effect in certain directions, but they cannot result in affording protection and support to the vendor of superior products as against the vendor of inferior ones and as against the vendor of products which are brought down by adulteration to the lowest legal limits. Neither the labours of this committee nor of any similar committee appointed in the future can result in the establishment of standards which will give a guarantee to the consumer that he is receiving a product which has not been tampered with and which is of high, or even of fair, quality.

The purpose of this paper is to develop multi-physics computational model for the conventional gas metal arc welding (GMAW) joining process has been improved with respect to its predictive capabilities regarding the spatial distribution of the mechanical properties (strength, in particular) within the weld.

The improved GMAW process model is next applied to the case of butt-welding of MIL A46100 (a prototypical high-hardness armor-grade martensitic steel) workpieces using filler-metal electrodes made of the same material. A critical assessment is conducted of the basic foundation of the model, including its five modules, each dedicated to handling a specific aspect of the GMAW process, i.e.: first, electro-dynamics of the welding-gun; second, radiation/convection controlled heat transfer from the electric arc to the workpiece and mass transfer from the filler-metal consumable electrode to the weld; third, prediction of the temporal evolution and the spatial distribution of thermal and mechanical fields within the weld region during the GMAW joining process; fourth, the resulting temporal evolution and spatial distribution of the material microstructure throughout the weld region; and fifth, spatial distribution of the as-welded material mechanical properties.

The predictions of the improved GMAW process model pertaining to the spatial distribution of the material microstructure and properties within the MIL A46100 butt-weld are found to be consistent with general expectations and prior observations.

To explain microstructure/property relationships within different portions of the weld, advanced physical-metallurgy concepts and principles are identified, and their governing equations parameterized and applied within a post-processing data-reduction procedure.

We publish elsewhere a report of the judgment delivered by Mr. LOVELAND‐LOVELAND, K.C., Chairman of the County of London Sessions, in the case of the Kensington Borough Council versus Bugg. The termination of this case has been called a “compromise” by some of the trade journals, and it is well to point out that it was nothing of the kind. When a conviction is confirmed in a higher court, and when proceedings are stayed upon an undertaking being given by the defendants that they will do what they were proceeded against for not doing, the description of such circumstances by the term “compromise” is ridiculous—particularly when a judgment is accompanied by remarks so decisive and uncompromising as those which were made by the learned Chairman in reference to this case. The suggestion that the case should bo brought to a conclusion in the manner indicated came from the Bench, who were evidently perfectly satisfied as to the meaning which attaches to the word “Cornflour,” and the course suggested was obviously intended merely to save the time of the Court; while the fact that the defendants submitted to the terms imposed without oven attempting to bring forward such evidence as they might have been able to get to support their position, is in itself amply sufficient to show that their advisers had appreciated the weakness of their case. There has been the usual outery in the trade journals about the sufferings of the innocent tradesman, and about “interference with the liberties of manufacturers.” In the whole history of the administration of the Food Acts in this country there are hardly any instances of prosecutions for the sale of an article under a name which is properly applicable to another, in which such outcries have not been raised. Such outcries may, however, be taken as blessings in disguise, since they mainly serve to emphasise the facts and to educate the public. The term “Cornflour” is well known to have originated from the expression “Indian Corn Flour,” and it unquestionably has a specific meaning which is not applicable to either of the two words of which the term is made up. Originally, perhaps, the term “Indian Corn Flour” may have meant the actual meal of Indian Corn or Maize, but, by the usage of more than forty years the term “ Cornflour” means the prepared starch of Maize. No doubt it has been honestly thought by some that in view of this fact any starch might bo described as “Cornflour,” but such a position is quite untenable There is no argument which can bo adduced in support of the contention that rice starch may bo described as Cornflour, which cannot also be brought forward in support of a statement that any starch whatever may be sold as Cornflour. The absurdity of this position is so obvious that it is needless to discuss it. The starches obtained from different sources are different in physical characters, in structure, and in other respects. For these reasons they are differently acted upon by the digestive juices. Moreover different starch preparations exhibit differences which are due to the presence of minute amounts of special flavouring substances derived from the raw material; and these differences it is most important to consider since they often give to an article certain characters which are required by the purchaser. A number of instances in point could be brought forward. It is no more permissible to substitute rice starch for maize starch than it is to substitute potato starch for arrowroot starch, and, for reasons which are perfectly well known and always acted upon in the medical profession, a medical man who orders a patient to be fed on a particular starch food, such as cornflour, would strongly and rightly object—particularly in certain cases —to the substitution of another starch preparation for that which he had ordered. The matter has been settled in such a way and with so strong an expression of opinion on the part of the tribunal which dealt with it, that we think it unnecessary to discuss it further.

As our readers are well aware THE BRITISH FOOD JOURNAL has invariably supported any legitimate effort having for its object the improvement, in one form or another, of the national food supply, and so long as the methods adopted are fair and above‐board this journal will continue to support such efforts by whomsoever they may be made. Fair and proper methods, however, are not always adopted, and a circular has recently been forwarded to us which affords an illustration of the fact.