Search results

THE highest strength wrought aluminium alloys currently available are based on the aluminium‐zinc‐magnesium‐copper system, and such alloys offer considerable potential for weight savings in airframe structures. However, these alloys have presented problems in service, arising from deficiencies in fracture toughness and fatigue crack propagation resistance together with a susceptibility to exfoliation corrosion and stress‐corrosion, which have led to restrictions being placed on their use by individual aircraft companies and by procurement authorities in a number of countries. This situation has led to the wide‐spread use in the UK and continental Europe of lower strength alloys of the aluminium‐copper‐magnesium‐silicon type, even though significant weight penalties are incurred in the process. There has been a more general acceptance of the high strength aluminium‐zinc‐magnesium‐copper alloys in the USA, where problems associated with their use have been partially alleviated by a willingness to replace components at short intervals, but even so during recent years a trend has developed there towards the use of lower strength versions of these alloys in attempts to improve airframe durability and reliability.

Zinc‐Containing Duralumins: Earlier Restricted Use The zinc‐containing duralumins have been around for quite a long time now. However, it is only within the past two decades or so that they have played a major role in aircraft construction, their design use having been restricted by certain aircraft companies because of occasional unpredictable service performance. Accepting the fact that some of the earlier, high strength, aluminium‐zinc alloys had a marked susceptibility to stress corrosion, and that some structural failures were directly attributed to this, it is now an established fact that some real and concrete progress has been achieved in reducing this susceptibility and the status of the modern variants of these alloys, when used for aircraft design purposes, is no longer a question of doubt. The informative article “New High Strength Aluminium Alloy”, by H. A. Holl published in Aircraft Engineering, January 1975, records significant progress in this direction. It covers the successful, sponsored development of 7010, high strength, aluminium‐zinc alloy, by the British Ministry of Defence.

The unequal distribution of economic activities, transposed in economic, social and territorial disparities is the general characteristic of the European economy. Gaps increased in the context of European Union (EU) enlargement towards Eastern and Central Europe and of the economic crisis, thus bringing new differentiations among member states’ economies. The main aim of the chapter is to emphasise the centre-periphery differentiations in the European economy, by using a composite index of peripherality, in order to better understand the determinants of growth and convergence in Central and Eastern European countries and to reach normative conclusions for increasing Cohesion Policy (CP) effectiveness. The first part of the chapter provides a short overview of the main theories and models of the peripherality analysis and the relationships between the centre and the periphery, in order to find out how this analysis relates to the research in the field. The second part provides a comparative analysis of the evolution of European economies during 2003–2014, in order to find out whether the EU enlargement process stabilised the EU core-periphery pattern or, on the contrary, the process of core-periphery structural convergence occurred. The third part includes the suggested model of analysis (methodology, data, and main results) from a multidisciplinary perspective, underlining the centre-periphery differentiations on the two axes, North–South and West–East. The results have been interpreted in conclusions, with a focus on their relevance for the European CP challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how high-performance HR practices and person-organization fit (P-O fit) affect general human capital and turnover intention. The author introduce and test a multilevel model to measure the relationship.

A longitudinal research study was conducted using survey data collected from 456 engineers and their immediate supervisors in 31 Taiwanese high-technology companies.

The findings show: first, general human capital can positively predict turnover intention. Second, the P-O fit moderates the positive relationship between general human capital and turnover intention since the stronger the P-O fit, the weaker this relationship. Third, the P-O fit can negatively predict turnover intention. Fourth, high-performance HR practices are positively related to general human capital and weaken the relationship between general human capital and turnover intention.

Companies should ensure employees are a good match with their organizations to reduce the negative impact of the loss of talented employees on the organization. In addition, organizations should build HR systems that attract and retain outstanding employees.

This study integrates a strategic perspective and a person-environment fit perspective to understand the impact of general human capital on individual leaving attitudes. This paper contributes to the literature because, to the author’s knowledge, it is the first study to examine the effects of high-performance HR practices and P-O fit on talented employee retention.

The authors review current developments in experimental design for conjoint analysis and discrete choice models emphasizing the issue of design efficiency. Drawing on recently developed optimal paired comparison designs, theoretical as well as empirical evidence is provided that established design strategies can be improved with respect to design efficiency.

This study aims to integrate self-determination and social exchange theories to assess how the three-way interaction between human capital, perceived organizational support (POS) and future time perspective (FTP) affects turnover intention.

The study uses a sample of 586 engineers and their immediate supervisors working in Taiwanese high-technology companies to examine the hypothesized relationships.

The results indicate that human capital with a high POS has a lower turnover intention than that with a low POS. Moreover, a three-way interaction is observed between human capital, POS and FTP, indicating that human capital predicts lower turnover intention when both POS and FTP are high.

The findings suggest that managers should hire employees who have high human capital and who are predisposed to FTP and provide strong organizational support to retain outstanding manpower.

This study is one of the first to examine the interaction effects of POS and FTP on the relationship between human capital and turnover intention.

The study investigates the moderating effect of individual human capital in the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. In addition, the moderating effect of abusive supervision on moderation by individual human capital was considered.

This study used cross-sectional, self-reported data from 133 human resource specialists and their supervisors, who responded to a matching dyad survey.

The study found that human capital moderated the negative effects of job satisfaction on turnover intention. The results also verified the moderated moderating effect of abusive supervision on the interaction effect of human capital and job satisfaction on turnover intention. More specifically, the moderating effect of human capital on the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention was more pronounced when employees perceived high levels of abusive supervision.

The study developed a moderated moderation model to understand the risk of human capital and abusive supervision for an organization and provided a new perspective indicating that job satisfaction is a key determinant in retaining low-human capital employees but not high-human capital employees. Accordingly, companies may strategically choose to employ suitable employees, rather than star employees. In addition, talent management should focus beyond reward/compensation and prevent negative leadership behaviors.

The importance of well-being at all ages is well-argued theoretically and experimentally, with it having a special place during adolescence and young adulthood, largely because of its association with mental health. Thus, it is important to better understand influences affecting the well-being of Generation Z and explore plans for adequate interventions. In addition, with factors pointing to high psychological well-being among Gen Zers, there are grounds for positive expectations for this generation. This can help optimize programs to improve mental health at a young age, which has important implications for the whole life spectrum.

A plethora of research highlights the pernicious effects of English language learning demotivation on students' language learning outcomes. Therefore, to prevent students' demotivation has been a challenging task for the English language teachers. To shed fresh insight into this problem, the prime purpose of the present study was to examine the possible constituents of Pakistani university students' language learning demotivation, and how they interact with the resilience and the two personality dimensions (i.e. conscientiousness and openness to experience).

The present quantitative research study administered a questionnaire consisting of four parts to 215 undergraduate students who were enrolled in the two public universities in Quetta, the capital city of Balochistan province of Pakistan. To analyze the data, both descriptive and inferential statistics were performed with the SPSS (version 24).

The results identified both external and internal salient demotivating factors. The external factors included classroom environment, classroom learning materials, characteristics of classes, whereas lack of language learning interest and experiences of failure were the internal factors. Additionally, the results of simple linear regressions and multiple linear regressions also revealed that resilience and the two personality dimensions influenced the English language learning demotivation.

The prevalence of demotivation in the language classrooms necessitates Pakistani university English language teachers to adopt motivational teaching strategies to elicit, enhance and sustain language learners' motivation. The present study also draws the attention of the university teachers to foster students' resilience, conscientiousness and openness to prevent their language learning demotivation. The findings also implicate the ministry of education of Pakistan to equip educational institutes with language learning facilities to lower the burgeoning issue of students' language learning demotivation.

The present study provides empirical evidence regarding the interaction of resilience and personality with demotivation in the Pakistani context and contributes to the sparse existing knowledge on this issue. Additionally, the present study also establishes the knowledge that despite experiencing demotivation, language learners can regain language learning motivation through their resilience as well as behavioral patterns (i.e. being conscientious and open).

This paper stems from a study which was conducted as a means to first, find out whether there is a gap between the secondary and tertiary education levels, second identify any existing gap in Science and Technology education, and third, examine the impact of the above upon students’ creativity and innovativeness at university level. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

As such, a group of teachers and students at both secondary and tertiary levels were selected as the sample of the study. Questionnaires were administered to trained secondary school teachers and to university students. Interviews were also conducted to triangulate data. These enabled an analysis of the current situation in terms of students’ engagement/creativity/innovativeness in Science and Technology at secondary and tertiary levels.

The findings reveal a problematic situation arising with respect to beliefs and what truly prevails in the education sector at secondary and tertiary levels. This study has revealed a number of salient issues related to the gap existing between the secondary and tertiary levels of education in Mauritius, with special bearing on creativity and innovation in Science and Technology.

Only three institutions were involved, with a small sample of students, so that the findings cannot be generalised. Moreover, gender is a variable that has not been taken into consideration.

The study has proposed a number of recommendations to enable Mauritian students (at secondary and tertiary levels) to develop creativity and hopefully become innovators. This leads us to believe that the recommendations emerging from this study will be beneficial to various stakeholders who wish to understand the gap existing between secondary and tertiary education in Science and Technology education.

This study takes a case study approach adopting a mixture of interviews, surveys and observations to understand the research problems with regards to the younger generations need to be equipped with scientific and technological advances in acquiring knowledge, new sets of skills and values. Therefore, this study endeavours to document the perceptions of learners and faculty staff.