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An expert gives a tutorial guide to optoelectronics measurement practice in industrial production.

Contrasts the stability of Hong Kong’s currency with the fall of other Asian currencies during the 1997‐1998 crisis and asks whether a Hong Kong‐style currency board could help other Asian countries. Discusses the underlying causes of the crisis and compares it with the currency crises of the European Monetary System (1992‐1993) and Mexico (1994‐1995). Considers the advantages and disadvantages of a currency board but concludes that most Asian countries have insufficient foreign reserves, wage/price flexibility or prosperity to benefit from having one.

This study aims to investigate whether consumers and small businesses can transition from disposable to reusable coffee cups, using a community social marketing intervention, led by a Social Purpose Organisation.

An emergent case study approach using multiple sources of data developed an in-depth, multifaceted, real-world context evaluation of the intervention. The methodology draws on citizen science “messy” data collection involving multiple, fragmented sources.

Moving from single-use cups to reusables requires collective commitment by retailers, consumers and policymakers, despite the many incentives and penalties applied to incentivise behaviour change. Difficult post-COVID economics, austerity and infrastructure gaps are undermining both reusable acceptance and interim solutions to our dependence upon disposables.

Although the non-traditional methodology rendered gaps and omissions in the data, the citizen science was democratising and inclusive for the community.

Our practical contribution evaluates a whole community intervention setting to encourage reusable cups, integrating multiple stakeholders, in a non-controllable, non-experimental environment in contrast to previous research. This paper demonstrates how small community grants can foster impactful collaborative partnerships between an SPO and researchers, facilitate knowledge-exchange beyond the initial remit and provide a catalyst for possible future impact and outcomes.

To assess the impact at both the outcome and the process level of the intervention, we use Pawson and Tilley’s realist evaluation theory – the Context Mechanism Outcome framework. The methodological contribution demonstrates the process of citizen science “messy” data collection, likely to feature more frequently in future social science research addressing climate change and sustainability challenges.

Discusses the growth of inter‐firm logistics networks. Inter‐firm network denotes a complex arrangement of reciprocal, cooperative rather than competitive, relationships between legally independent but economically interdependent firms. Asserts that the organisation of the inter‐firm logistics network is influenced by the organisation of the network itself. Analyses the respective requirements of the inter‐organisational logistics system. Focuses on the question of which specific logistics‐related capabilities firms operating in production networks have to develop depending on the respective network type. Presents a qualitative study of a production network of a German car manufacturer to identify organisational capabilities and describe possible systemic development.

This chapter explores how the irruption of plastic materials in contemporary society, in the same way that it facilitated a wide range of human activities, eventually degenerated into a global danger through the contamination of rivers and seas, damaging the human food chain. In doing so, the historical background of this situation has been outlined. Moreover, the countries and areas at present that have polluting plastic substances and those that can be most easily recycled is highlighted. It should be noted that it is precisely in the area of recyclability where most hopes have been placed to counteract plastic contamination aimed at avoiding single-use plastic products. Subsequently, the different positions adopted by the members of society on this problem have been described and, by way of example, the state of the situation in a specific country, Spain, has been summarised.

This paper aims to focus on the assessment of the ability of computer models with imperfect functional forms and uncertain input parameters to represent reality.

In this assessment, both the agreement between a model’s predictions and available experiments and the robustness of this agreement to uncertainty have been evaluated. The concept of satisfying boundaries to represent input parameter sets that yield model predictions with acceptable fidelity to observed experiments has been introduced.

Satisfying boundaries provide several useful indicators for model assessment, and when calculated for varying fidelity thresholds and input parameter uncertainties, reveal the trade-off between the robustness to uncertainty in model parameters, the threshold for satisfactory fidelity and the probability of satisfying the given fidelity threshold. Using a controlled case-study example, important modeling decisions such as acceptable level of uncertainty, fidelity requirements and resource allocation for additional experiments are shown.

Traditional methods of model assessment are solely based on fidelity to experiments, leading to a single parameter set that is considered fidelity-optimal, which essentially represents the values which yield the optimal compensation between various sources of errors and uncertainties. Rather than maximizing fidelity, this study advocates for basing model assessment on the model’s ability to satisfy a required fidelity (or error tolerance). Evaluating the trade-off between error tolerance, parameter uncertainty and probability of satisfying this predefined error threshold provides us with a powerful tool for model assessment and resource allocation.

The adverse effect of plastic pollution on the tourism industry is one of the emerging research areas in the field of sustainable tourism over the past years. However, there is a lack of discussion on this issue in the academic platforms. Considering this, in this chapter, a scientometric analysis of 110 academic publications from the Web of Science (WoS) between 1999 and 2021 related to plastic pollution and tourism is presented. A bibliometric analysis using CiteSpace was utilised to analyse the data to present the keyword timezone, collaboration network and co-citation network. The analysis shows that the publications in this field have increased rapidly, and it has become an emerging and interdisciplinary research topic. Scholars from Australia, Spain, Brazil and China have published most on the topic. The Chinese Academy of Science with four articles is the largest contributor in this field among other institutions. Moreover, citizen science is found to be a new keyword coming up in recent years, and human health is one of the major concerns. The findings from this study provide valuable insights for the academicians and policy makers in understanding the issue.

Efforts to promote equity in mathematics education are becoming more widespread. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics elevated its position on equity from one of societal need to one of six guiding principles required to ensure excellence in mathematics education. I investigate how efforts to promote educational equity in mathematics education are informed by democratic views. In particular, I examine the intersection of course taking, equity, mathematics, and democracy in the context of a case study conducted in one high school mathematics department. This case study was conducted over one academic year, and data included a focus survey, interviews, field notes from department meetings and class observations, and school documents. In this study, I investigated the curricular redesign process undertaken by one high school mathematics department addressing high failure rates in low-level courses disproportionately enrolled with students of color designed to increase access to more advanced mathematics courses. I discuss how those changes impacted access, influenced equity, and aligned with democratic aims and their relationship to mathematics education.