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This paper aims to propose a boundary element analysis of two-dimensional linear elasticity problems by a new expanding element interpolation method.

The expanding element is made up based on a traditional discontinuous element by adding virtual nodes along the perimeter of the element. The internal nodes of the original discontinuous element are referred to as source nodes and its shape function as raw shape function. The shape functions of the expanding element constructed on both source nodes and virtual nodes are referred as fine shape functions. Boundary variables are interpolated by the fine shape functions, while the boundary integral equations are collocated on source nodes.

The expanding element inherits the advantages of both the continuous and discontinuous elements while overcomes their disadvantages. The polynomial order of fine shape functions of the expanding elements increases by two compared with their corresponding raw shape functions, while the expanding elements still keep independence to each other as the original discontinuous elements. This feature makes the expanding elements able to naturally and accurately interpolate both continuous and discontinuous fields.

Numerical examples are presented to verify the proposed method. Results have demonstrated that the accuracy, efficiency and convergence rate of the expanding element method.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a solution for designing a metadata scheme for multi-type manuscripts based on a comparison of various existing metadata schemes.

The diversity of manuscript types is analysed. Descriptive scheme based on machine-readable MARC and metadata specifications-based descriptive scheme are compared. User tasks and resource features are analysed. Several challenges are posed and resolved through the design and establishment of a metadata scheme for the T.D. Lee Archives Online.

Clarify an approach for developing a metadata scheme for multi-type manuscripts.

From a multi-type perspective, this study designs a metadata scheme, establishes the element set and expands elements by studying a typical practice case. Useful suggestions for libraries, archives and museums are provided.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for better understanding leadership development experiences by melding the existential‐phenomenological (E‐P) perspective with the leadership literature.

This study used questionnaires to elicit leadership development experiences. A sample of US Army officers provided 117 unique experiences. Various computational methods were used to empirically determine the essential elements and structure of these experiences.

The results provide support for the proposition that beneficial experiences were rated higher than non‐beneficial experiences on five elements: challenge, self‐efficacy, sociality, relevance, and reflectivity. Four of the five elements were represented by two components: an interpersonal component (sociality and relevance), and an intrapersonal component (self‐efficacy and challenge). A fifth element, reflectivity, was related to, but distinct from, both components. Reflectivity may bridge or connect the intrapersonal and the interpersonal components.

The research was limited to a sample of US Army officers. Future research should seek to replicate the findings in larger and more diverse samples, for example, the private sector. These efforts are currently planned.

The conceptual framework and method for understanding experiences that facilitate leadership development can be used by any organization. The present framework and findings are consistent with other approaches to leadership development (e.g. the competency approach).

This study used a unique and tractable approach for understanding leadership development experiences. The elements and structure of beneficial experiences were empirically determined using a number of computational methods; heretofore, this has not been done.

Flight, even under the most routine conditions, sets high standards of quality for all materials employed. Specifications for aviation fuels have never been obtainable without careful compromise between conflicting requirements, and present developments towards flight at higher altitudes and higher speeds accentuate existing problems and reveal new ones. This article attempts to review the known major problems arising with aviation fuels under these conditions of severity, and to indicate a number of practicable solutions.

The incremental radial forging process employs several tens or hundreds of incremental local strokes, so that the entire process is difficult to analyze due to large computation time and large computer memory. The objective of this work is to propose a new numerical scheme of the finite element method, automatic expansion of domain (AED), to reduce computation time and computer memory. In the AED scheme, an effective analysis domain in each local forging step is defined and then the domain is automatically expanded in accordance with the repeated process. In order to verify the validity of the criterion for the AED scheme and the applicability of the AED scheme, two‐dimensional incremental plane‐strain forging process is first analyzed using the proposed scheme with various criteria and full domain. In addition, three‐dimensional incremental radial forging process is analyzed to verify the applicability of the proposed scheme to a practical incremental forging process.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss key elements of lean supply (LS) in light of core concepts in the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group (IMP) perspective.

First, the authors examine the literature on LS and identify and discuss important characteristics and key elements of LS. Second, the authors present key concepts in the IMP Perspective, in particular the dyad versus network levels, and the ARA model, capturing activities, resources, and actors. Third, the authors cross-fertilize the concepts from these two streams of research.

The authors identify 12 key LS elements. Relating these to core IMP frameworks, they identify areas of LS that can be expanded. First, the authors found that key elements in LS mainly focus on the dyadic level and that the network level is addressed to a much lesser extent and primarily captures serial “chain” connections among relationships. Second, it was found that key elements in LS predominantly focus on the activity layer and pay much less attention to resources and actors.

The authors suggest that LS theory and practice can benefit from taking a network perspective, and by paying more attention to resource and actor concepts and issues. The study is purely theoretical.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies combine LS and the IMP perspective. The authors add to LS by elaborating how 12 key elements in LS can be expanded.

Describes a number of rule interpreters, each of which is represented as a set of production rules which can be executed as an ordinary ruleset in the ELEKTRA system. The interpreters override the default behaviour of the ELEKTRA interpreter: the default behaviour is forward‐chaining; shows how to implement backward‐chaining and content‐directed control. Some of the interpreters described are capable of interpreting themselves. Shows that ELEKTRA is powerful enough to support a wide variety of different interpreters without requiring any changes to its code. None of the interpreters requires additional system code in order to work: ELEKTRA provides all of the facilities used by the rulesets as part of its standard library. Provides additional evidence of the enormous power of reflective systems and of ELEKTRA in particular.

The rapid development of Extensible Markup Language (XML) from a mere data exchange format to a universal syntax for encoding domain specific information increases the need of new query languages specifically visualized to address the characteristics of XML. Such languages should be able not only to extract information from XML documents, but also to apply powerful restructuring operators, based on a well‐defined semantics. Moreover, XML queries should be natural to write and understand, as also end‐users are expected to access the large XML information bases supporting their businesses. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new graphical query language for XML (GQLX) for querying and restructuring XML data.

The methodology emphasizes on GQLX's development, which is based on G‐XML data model syntax to express a wide variety of XML queries, ranging from simple selection to expressive data transformations involving grouping, aggregation and sorting. GQLX has an operational semantics based on the annotated XML, which serves to express queries and data trees in the form of XML. The paper also presents an algorithm to achieve the matching between data and query trees after translating them into annotated XML.

Developed and demonstrated were: a G‐XML syntax; annotated XML for the semantic operations and a matching algorithm.

The future research work on this language lies in expanding it to include recursion and nested queries.

The algorithms/approaches proposed can be implemented to enhance the performance of the XML query language.

The proposed work integrates various novel techniques for XML query syntax/semantic into a single language with a suitable matching algorithm.