Search results

Numerical modelling is used to predict the thermal behaviour of embedded passive components in multi‐layer PCBs. A three‐signal layer PCB, containing embedded resistors of dimensions 0.3 6 0.3mm and thickness 0.1μm, is used to generate thermal design rules that can be applied to a wide range of PCB structures containing embedded passive components. A software package using the design rules can then make fast predictions on the thermal behaviour of heat‐generating components inside such structures.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore perceptions of the impact of program participation on parenting styles and behavioral changes using observations and in-depth semi-structured interviews with Black and Coloured staff and mothers at a community-based organization (CBO) in the Western Cape Province (WCP) in South Africa (SA). Purposive sampling was utilized in this research via the CBO and narratives from a total of twenty-three (twelve mothers and eleven staff) interviews form the basis of this manuscript. Data was collected between January – February 2017 and was analyzed through the phenomenological and inductive thematic analysis approach. The staff interviews revealed that child abandonment and neglect and the abuse of women are the two main environmental contextual factors that impact program participation. According to staff, improved self-esteem and positive life changes were identified as successful outcomes of participant involvement. The parent interviews provided examples of emotional issues such as domestic abuse and personal issues with alcohol and drugs as individual factors that impact their program participation. Changes in parenting styles was identified as successful outcomes among parent participants. The goal of this study was to provide much-needed insight into this community by presenting a variety of voices, specifically Black and Coloured men and women, that are underreported in the literature. Findings from this research adds to the knowledge of community-based parenting programs (CBPPs) for low-income and underserved populations in SA and internationally.

The embedding of passive components such as resistors, capacitors and inductors within printed circuit boards (PCBs) is motivated, to a large extent, by the desire for increased miniaturisation of electronic goods. However, resistors and, to a lesser extent, inductors are heat generating devices, and the temperature developed within PCBs as the result of the operation of embedded passives is a significant aspect of the design of a multilayer PCB. Here we investigate, by simulation, temperature fields associated with operation of embedded resistors. It is shown that for board dimensions less than 2cm × 2cm temperatures achieved are higher than those associated with larger boards having identical structures and identical resistor heat generation. Detailed simulations are used to investigate the sensitivity of the temperature rises associated with embedded resistors to copper track coverage and to thermal coupling of the PCB to ambient on its upper and lower surfaces. The implications of these findings are discussed both in the context of the design of real PCBs and in the context of thermal simulation.

Safeguarding people who have sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) requires not only knowledge of safeguarding practice and procedures, but also the implications of a brain injury. This paper provides an introduction to the nature and impact of TBI upon individuals and their families. Drawing on anonymised case material and practice experience, it explores how the sequelae of TBI, in particular cognitive, emotional and behavioural changes can produce potential safeguarding issues. The person with TBI's potential vulnerability to different forms of abuse is then considered and the relevance of the legislative framework explored. The paper then summarises key points for safeguarding practice in this complex field. It concludes by emphasising that gaining knowledge of how TBI impacts on individuals and their families is essential to understand their risk of abuse. In doing so, it also highlights that simplistic dichotomies between victim and perpetrator can ignore the complexity of the interactions in which safeguarding occurs.

This study aims to develop an innovative actuator for improving the performance of future aircraft, by adapting the airfoil shape according to the flight conditions. The flap’s camber of a civil regional transportation aircraft’s trailing edge actuated and morphed with the use of shape memory alloys (SMA) actuator technology, instead of the conventional split flap mechanism is studied.

For the flap’s members sizing an efficient methodology is utilised based on finite element (FE) stress analysis combined to analytically formulated design criteria. A mechanical simulation within an FE approach simulated the performance of the moving rib, integrating both aerodynamic loads and SMA phenomenology, implementing Lagouda’s constitutive model. Aim of this numerical simulation is to provide guidelines for further development of the flap. A three-dimensional assembly of the flap is constructed to produce manufacturing drawing and to ensure that during its morphing no interference between the members occurrs. Eventually, the manufactured flap is integrated on a test rig and the experimental characterisations under no and static loads, and dynamic excitation are performed.

Experimental results showed that the rib’s SMA mechanism can adequate function under load providing satisfactory morphing capabilities.

The investigated approach is an internal into the flap mechanism based on the shape memory effect of thin wires. In the developed mechanism, SMA wires are attached to the wing structure, where they function as actuating elements.

An estimate is made of the connectivity of a mammalian neuron, i.e., the number of other neurons to or from which an average neuron directly connects. The value derived is about 10. Some functional implications of the value of the connectivity are considered, particularly mental illness, epilepsy, and intelligence. The “length” and “width”, in terms of neurons, of a functional neural channel are discussed.

Despite the burgeoning research on mass incarceration, women are rarely its focus. Racialised women, whose rates of incarceration have increased more rapidly than other groups, are at the best marginal within much of this literature. Within juvenile justice systems, racialised girls and young women are also disproportionately criminalised and remain markedly over-represented but are often overlooked. The absence of racialised women and girls from dominant accounts of punishment and incarceration is a matter of epistemological, ethical and political concern. Intersectionality offers one means to treat racialised women and girls as focal points for research and advocacy directed towards a reduction in criminalisation and incarceration. While intersectionality does not determine how the knowledge produced is deployed, recognising those who have been unrecognised is a necessary first step in striving to bring about positive change through praxis. Flawed mainstream accounts are unlikely to generate strategies that are well-aligned with the needs and interests of those who remain largely invisible.

The experimental parliamentary subsidy on knights' fees and freehold incomes from lands and rents of 1431 was the only English direct lay tax of the Middle Ages which broke down. As such, this subsidy has a clear historiographical significance, yet previous scholars have tended to overlook it on the grounds that parliament's annulment act of 1432 mandated the destruction of all fiscal administrative evidence. Many county assessments from 1431–1432 do, however, survive and are examined for the first time in this article as part of a detailed assessment of the fiscal and administrative context of the knights' fees and incomes tax. This impost constituted a royal response to excess expenditures associated with Henry VI's “Coronation Expedition” of 1429–1431, the scale of which marked a decisive break from the fiscal-military strategy of the 1420s. Widespread confusion regarding whether taxpayers ought to pay the feudal or the non-feudal component of the 1431 subsidy characterized its botched administration. Industrial scale under-assessment, moreover, emerged as a serious problem. Officials' attempts to provide a measure of fiscal compensation by unlawfully double-assessing many taxpayers served to increase administrative confusion and resulted in parliament's annulment act of 1432. This had serious consequences for the crown's finances, since the regime was saddled with budgetary and debt problems which would ultimately undermine the solvency of the Lancastrian state.

There are still many different theoretical approaches and practical interpretations about what an integrated report is. Starting from this premise, the overall purpose of this chapter is to critically analyze the relationship between integrated reporting (IR) and social/sustainability disclosure. Indeed, although some scholars considered IR as a tool to improve the sustainability approach of the companies allowing to disclose more relevant social information, others are more critical about the potentiality of IR to improve social disclosure. Therefore, the general research question is: Is there a natural link between IR and social disclosure (true love) or is the IR a practice to “normalize” the social disclosure and accounting (forced marriage)?

In the attempt to provide a preliminary answer to the research question, the chapter analyzes what is the approach of three categories: (1) academics; (2) soft-regulators; and (3) companies. From the methodological point of view, a mixed method of analysis has been adopted.

From the analysis of the three different points of view, IR can be considered as a “contested concept” because of the heterogeneous and sometimes conflicting interpretations and implementation that are done on this type of report. This leads to relevant theoretical and practical implications.