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Powder coatings are well established as a finishing technique in the automotive component market worldwide. These coatings offer benefits such as toughness and chip resistance. As the performance demands on powder coatings have increased then powder has continually risen to the challenge. Flexible coatings are supplied for brake tubing, machinable coatings for engine blocks and a new class of advanced durability powder offering resistance to five years of Florida weathering has recently been introduced. The new class of advanced durability powders offer significant advantages over most paint finishes for exterior durability while retaining all the traditional performances and application advantages of powder coatings.

A series of projects is reported which focus on various aspects of white‐collar trade unionism, and which had to confront the theoretical limitations of some of the conventional ways of studying white‐collar trade unions.

e‐Learning has been frequently heralded as a transforming influence on global education and corporate training. Despite such rhetoric, the adoption, diffusion and exploitation of e‐Learning by educational institutions and organizations have been slower than anticipated. In this paper we attempt to examine the future of e‐learning by adopting a scenario planning approach, which formed the basis of a recent major international conference held in Edinburgh, Scotland in February 2004. We set out the background of the study, the methodology used to investigate the future(s) of e‐learning and reflect on the process and outcomes of the exercise to provide some assistance for practitioners in the field. Our general conclusions are that the scenarios have been a valuable starting point to engage in a more informed discussion of how e‐learning may transform education and training markets and the ways in which people learn over the next decade.

By adopting a social presence theory perspective, this study aims investigate the influence of perceived usefulness of live chat services and of their unique human attributes on customer attitudes, beliefs and behaviours in the context of online travel shopping.

Based on a cross-sectional survey research involving 8 travel provider websites and 631 travel consumers, this work applies structural equation modelling to analyse the data.

The results illustrate that the perceived usefulness from the communication with a human live chat assistant positively influences customer attitudes and trust towards the website as well as increasing purchase intention. The findings further illustrate the role of the human social cues conveyed by live chat facilities, namely, human warmth, human assurance, human attentiveness and human customised content in positively moderating this effect.

The study is limited to specific human attributes. Future research could investigate the role of other human characteristics as well as assess the ability of artificial intelligent powered chatbots in replicating the human elements outlined in this research.

The study provides a unique contribution to the travel literature by offering empirical insights and conceptual clarity into the usefulness of human operated live chat communication on travellers’ attitudes, trust towards the website and purchase intentions.

Video Arts, Britain's leading producer and distributor of training films, has joined forces with the life assurance company Standard Life to produce Pensions: Your Choice. Written and directed by Graeme Garden, this is a slick re‐working of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, which takes a look at the changes resulting from the new pensions legislation. James Bolam plays Ebenezer Scrooge as a young, middle‐aged and elderly man. Susie Blake is The Ghost of Birthday Present, who offers an objective guide to the options available under the new pensions rulings. The joint venture draws on the respective areas of expertise of the two partners to create an authoritative, balanced and entertaining analysis of the choice available to all employees irrespective of whether or not they are currently in a pension scheme.

The Librarians of Glasgow University since 1641 are identified, and their periods of office summarised and assessed as far as information allows. The terms of appointment in early years and pattern of town and university alternating nominations are outlined, and the gradual development of the post into that of a professional librarian in the twentieth century is illustrated.

This paper aims to showcase and critically review the value of selected pedagogies in which real-world engagements are used to enhance sustainability learning in an open, distance and e-learning (ODeL) context in the Global South. The paper considers opportunities, issues, alternatives and implementation guidelines.

The School of Ecological and Human Sustainability (University of South Africa) serves as case study, with blended and fully online learning used as examples of pedagogies. The assessment of these pedagogies uses examples of learning activities and exercises, critical reflections on feedback by lecturers and students and consideration against criteria for real-world learning.

The experiences showcased illustrate that despite challenges in ODeL, real-world engagements can be used successful as pedagogy for sustainability learning in the Global South context. Limited access to ICTs can be mitigated through mobile technologies and free and open software applications, as illustrated by the examples in this paper.

The case study approach and qualitative methodology present limitations, with focus on only two examples. However, significant depth is achieved with the assessment of these examples, while the recommendations and lessons learnt can be applied in other contexts, thus expanding on the knowledge and experience in this field.

This paper showcases innovative approaches to incorporate real-world engagements for sustainability learning in ODeL. Application of real-world engagements in ODeL in the Global South context is original and addresses the need for teaching and learning strategies responding to the digital divide and contributing to expand access to higher education and an Afrocentric discourse to best practice.