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The EPOC neuroheadset is a commercially available device that allows game players to control a computer using their facial expressions or their thoughts. This paper aims to examine whether it has the potential to be used as an input for assistive technology (AT) devices.

Two experiments were conducted. In the first, 12 non‐impaired subjects used the neuroheadset to control a computer with their facial expressions. They also used a simple system of two head switches for comparison. In the second experiment, three non‐impaired subjects were trained to use the neuroheadset to control a computer with their thoughts.

In the first experiment, the neuroheadset was slower and less accurate than the head switches (p<0.05), and was also harder to use. It is unlikely to be preferred to existing methods of accessing AT for those that retain a small amount of head movement. In the second experiment, by the end of the week, all three subjects achieved accuracy rates greater than chance.

All subjects were non‐impaired, and the sample size in the second experiment was small. Further research should concentrate on the second experiment, using larger sample sizes and impaired subjects.

The EPOC neuroheadset is substantially cheaper than similar specialist devices, and has the potential to allow those with no voluntary muscle control to access AT with their thoughts.

The results of these two experiments show that the Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset can be used as an interface for non‐impaired users to transfer information to a computer, which could in turn be used to control AT.

This paper explores the advertising strategy of crockery importers and dealers in relationship to their origins and backgrounds. This is a departure from earlier ceramic-history literature which tended to focus on the Staffordshire producers, with limited awareness on how the identity of importers and dealers influenced what products were sold, and their individual approaches to marketing.

Within a context of historical marketing research, this paper analyses newspaper advertising and commentary. It combines an examination of marketing practices with a wider consideration of the cultural identities of ceramic importers and dealers. The digitalization of historical records, combined with sophisticated search engines, makes it more feasible to examine a broader range of sources. Thus, modern research methods can enhance our understanding of production and demand and reveal how marketing strategy was diverse.

Awareness on how advertising was influenced by the backgrounds and socio-political views of importers and dealers demonstrates ways in which Anglo-American ceramic trade could be far more market-led. More significantly, marketing approaches were not necessarily responding to American demand, but rather that importers could engage in commissioning goods which reflected their own views on politics, religion or slavery.

Examining the advertising of importers demonstrates the complex relationship between production and ceramic demand. This paper opens up debates as to how far the advertising of other merchandise in the USA shows evidence of taking a more individual approach by the 19th century.

This research discusses the financial perspective of Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), in general, and identifies the level of dependency and diversification of revenues, in particular. The Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) was used as an indicator for calculating the concentration of the income for each NGO. The main sources of income reported were donations, government grants, financial income, service provision, sales and other incomes. The sample of case studies analyzed are Centre for Advanced Studies of Social and Environmental Promotion (CASSEP), Federation of Bodies for Social and Educational Assistance (FBSEA), Ecological Research Institute (ERI) and Amazon Environmental Research Institute (AERI). These organizations have been used as case studies (Yin, 2019) because they received resources from the Amazon Fund in Brazil for at least one year during the research period of 2014–2018. The composition of the revenue for this period was analyzed according to the Procedures Manual for the Third Sector published by the Federal Accounting Council of the Brazilian Accounting Foundation (FAC-BAF) and by the Association of Attorneys and Promoters of Justice of Foundations and Organizations of Social Interest from Brazil. These NGOs had low revenue diversification in the research period, so there was a high dependence on resources from international organizations, predominantly from countries in Europe. The joint analysis of the two main revenue sources – government grants and grants – substantially raises the level of dependency. As results of the empirical analysis, it can be seen that CASSEP had the highest revenue collection in the research period. This NGO maintained a high dependence and concentration of resources in all years analyzed, which points to the need of revenue diversification. This research concludes with comments on instances of competition to receive resources between NGO, which lead to an inefficient allocation of resources to all NGO. Also, it discusses the effects of COVID-19 on revenues of the NGO analyzed, as well as the recent corruption scandals in Brazil, but it is only one research that demands more study to be generalized.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges of measuring fraud in overseas aid.

The research is based on 21 semi-structured interviews with key persons working in the delivery of aid in both the public and voluntary sectors. It uses the UK Department for International Development as a case study to applying more accurate measures of fraud.

This paper shows there are significant challenges to using fraud loss measurement to gauge fraud in overseas aid. However, it argues that, along with other types of measures, it could be used in areas of expenditure in overseas governments and charities to measure aid. Given the high risk of such aid to fraud, it argues helping to develop capacity to reduce aid, of which measuring the size of the problem is an important part; this could be considered as aid in its own right.

The researchers were not able to visit high-risk countries for fraud to examine in the local context views on the challenges of measuring fraud.

The paper offers insights on the challenges to accurately measuring fraud in an overseas context, which will be useful to policy-makers in this context.

Given the importance of as much aid as possible reaching recipients, it offers an important contribution to helping to reduce losses in this important area.

There has been very little consideration of how to measure fraud in the overseas aid context, with most effort aimed at corruption, which poses some of the same challenges, as well as some very different challenges.

The purpose of this study is to review the existing fatigue and vibration-based structural health monitoring techniques and highlight the advantages of combining both approaches.

Fatigue monitoring requires a fatigue model of the material, the stresses at specific points of the structure, a cycle counting technique and a fatigue damage criterion. Firstly, this paper reviews existing structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques, addresses their principal classifications and presents the main characteristics of each technique, with a particular emphasis on modal-based methodologies. Automated modal analysis, damage detection and localisation techniques are also reviewed. Fatigue monitoring is an SHM technique which evaluate the structural fatigue damage in real time. Stress estimation techniques and damage accumulation models based on the S-N field and the Miner rule are also reviewed in this paper.

A vast amount of research has been carried out in the field of SHM. The literature about fatigue calculation, fatigue testing, fatigue modelling and remaining fatigue life is also extensive. However, the number of publications related to monitor the fatigue process is scarce. A methodology to perform real-time structural fatigue monitoring, in both time and frequency domains, is presented.

Fatigue monitoring can be combined (applied simultaneously) with other vibration-based SHM techniques, which might significantly increase the reliability of the monitoring techniques.

Nowadays, the determination of the acoustic radiation of electric machines is of particular interest, because legal regulations restrict the maximum audible noise radiated by technical devices such as electrical machinery. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the electromagnetic excited structure‐borne sound and air‐borne noise of an AC servo drive.

This paper presents the required steps for the multiphysics acoustic simulation of electrical machines to evaluate its noise behaviour. This numerical approach starts with the electromagnetic force‐wave simulation. The computation by a structure dynamic model determines the deformation of the mechanical structure due to the force‐waves. The final step of the simulation approach consists of the computation of the acoustic radiation.

For the electromagnetic simulation analytical and numerical methods are combined to gain some acceleration of the entire multiphysics simulation approach. This combination offers additionally a detailed understanding of the noise generation mechanism in electrical machines.

Particular attention is paid to the structural‐dynamic model. Modelling of microstructures, such as the laminated iron core or insulated coils, is memory and computational expensive. A systematic material homogenisation technique, based on experimental‐ and numerical modal analyses, yields a higher accuracy at lower computational costs when compared to standard numerical approaches. The presented multiphysics simulation is validated by measurements. The methods are presented by means of a case study.

Different solution methods, using finite element method in continuous and discrete frequency domain, are compared with each other in order to find the most appropriate method for the estimation of steady state vibrations in linear structural and mechanical problems. The purpose of this paper is to describe the procedures.

The continuous and some relevant discrete frequency domain solution methods are compared by an analytical investigation as well as by the numerical examination of a simple model. Finally, results for a more relevant example using finite elements are presented.

It is shown that the steady state computation using the continuous frequency domain system description delivers the exact solution for a given system.

Based on the presented results, the use of continuous frequency domain system description is recommendable in most cases.