Search results

To investigate the feasibility of using single/multi variable optimisation techniques with vibration measurements in solving the inverse crack identification problem.

The finite element method is used to solve the forward crack problem with a special nodal crack force approach. The multi‐variable optimisation approach is reduced to a much more efficient single‐variable one by decoupling the physical variables in the problem.

It is shown that, for the crack identification problem, global optimisation algorithms perform much better than other algorithms relying heavily on objective function gradients. Simultaneous identification of crack size and location proved to be difficult. Decoupling of the physical variable is introduced and proved to provide efficient results with single‐variable optimisation algorithms.

Need for improving the reliability and accuracy of the procedure for smaller crack sizes. Need for developing and investigation more rigorous and robust multi‐variable optimisation algorithm.

Any information about approximate crack size and location provides significant aid in the maintenance and online monitoring of rotating equipment.

The paper offers practical approach and procedure for online monitoring and crack identification of slow rotating equipment.

The Cyprus conflict is a classical case of protracted ethnic conflict with very obvious and important international dimensions. It is one of the major unresolved inter national conflicts, which for decades attracts the attention of the international community. The involvement of many countries and international organizations in the Cyprus conflict demonstrates the importance and seriousness of the conflict. During the last decades the conflict has cost a lot both for the Greek Cypriots and for the Turkish Cypriots. It claimed a lot of lives and caused serious economic damages and psychological destruction. The conflict began in the 1950s, erupted violently with blood shed at the end of 1963,and culminated in 1974 with the interventions of Greece and Turkey that led to the island’s current de facto division as the Greek Cypriot South and Turkish Cypriot North. Over the past 40 years many states have came out with various initiatives and have proposed various approaches for final settlement of the conflict. It also has been addressed by dozens of UN Security Council resolutions but all these have proved to be futile so far.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

Presents a special issue, enlisting the help of the author’s students and colleagues, focusing on age, sex, colour and disability discrimination in America. Breaks the evidence down into manageable chunks, covering: age discrimination in the workplace; discrimination against African‐Americans; sex discrimination in the workplace; same sex sexual harassment; how to investigate and prove disability discrimination; sexual harassment in the military; when the main US job‐discrimination law applies to small companies; how to investigate and prove racial discrimination; developments concerning race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; developments concerning discrimination against workers with HIV or AIDS; developments concerning discrimination based on refusal of family care leave; developments concerning discrimination against gay or lesbian employees; developments concerning discrimination based on colour; how to investigate and prove discrimination concerning based on colour; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; using statistics in employment discrimination cases; race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning gender discrimination in the workplace; discrimination in Japanese organizations in America; discrimination in the entertainment industry; discrimination in the utility industry; understanding and effectively managing national origin discrimination; how to investigate and prove hiring discrimination based on colour; and, finally, how to investigate sexual harassment in the workplace.

This paper proposes to evaluate the heart of the concept of citizenship of the European Union: namely, freedom of movement and residence. The evolution of citizenship, from its inception in the Maastricht Treaty, as a political concept will be treated. Freedom of movement and residence, with its rights and limitations, historically and legally accrued to economically active persons. Non‐economically ac tive per sons have been given rights in secondary legislation to move and to reside subject to specified conditions and limitations. The jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, in accordance with which the link with economic in dependence and the freedom to move and reside has been broken, will be critically appraised. Resort to the principle of non discrimination on grounds of nationality in Article 12 of the European Community Treaty, read in conjunction with the citizenship provisions in Articles 17 and 18 EC, has resulted in legal rights for nationals of European Union Member States who are lawfully resident in, and who do not become an unreasonable burden on, the host Member State. Enforceable at the suit of individuals, EU citizenship has given rise to social advantages for non‐economic actors. Citizenship has become a legal source of rights be yond those agreed to by the Member States, the legitimacy for which lies with the degree of financial solidarity accorded under the principle of non‐discrimination and the level of integration of a particular EU citizen into the society of the host Member State. The need to establish a real link and the proportionate legitimate interests of the Member State are limits to citizenship as a source of rights. Nevertheless, it is the intention of this paper to examine the potential for citizenship to transform the polity of the European Union, from one based on economic and social rights, to one based on fundamental rights.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

From earliest times the land and all it produced to feed and sustain those who dwelt on it was mankind's greatest asset. From the Biblical “land of milk and honey”, down through history to the “country of farmers” visualised by the American colonists when they severed the links with the mother country, those who had all their needs met by the land were blessed — they still are! The inevitable change brought about by the fast‐growing populations caused them to turn to industry; Britain introduced the “machine age” to the world; the USA the concept of mass production — and the troubles and problems of man increased to the present chaos of to‐day. There remained areas which depended on an agri‐economy — the granary countries, as the vast open spaces of pre‐War Russia; now the great plains of North America, to supply grain for the bread of the peoples of the dense industrial conurbations, which no longer produced anything like enough to feed themselves.

Polymethacrylates are distinguished by transparency as well as by chemical and mechanical resistivity. This overview of the current status of the thermoplastic methacrylate solid resins discusses synthesis, production processes, binder characteristics, and major areas of application.

Gives an in depth view of the strategies pursued by the world’s leading chief executive officers in an attempt to provide guidance to new chief executives of today. Considers the marketing strategies employed, together with the organizational structures used and looks at the universal concepts that can be applied to any product. Uses anecdotal evidence to formulate a number of theories which can be used to compare your company with the best in the world. Presents initial survival strategies and then looks at ways companies can broaden their boundaries through manipulation and choice. Covers a huge variety of case studies and examples together with a substantial question and answer section.

Globalisation is generally defined as the “denationalisation of clusters of political, economic, and social activities” that destabilize the ability of the sovereign State to control activities on its territory, due to the rising need to find solutions for universal problems, like the pollution of the environment, on an international level. Globalisation is a complex, forceful legal and social process that take place within an integrated whole with out regard to geographical boundaries. Globalisation thus differs from international activities, which arise between and among States, and it differs from multinational activities that occur in more than one nation‐State. This does not mean that countries are not involved in the sociolegal dynamics that those transboundary process trigger. In a sense, the movements triggered by global processes promote greater economic interdependence among countries. Globalisation can be traced back to the depression preceding World War II and globalisation at that time included spreading of the capitalist economic system as a means of getting access to extended markets. The first step was to create sufficient export surplus to maintain full employment in the capitalist world and secondly establishing a globalized economy where the planet would be united in peace and wealth. The idea of interdependence among quite separate and distinct countries is a very important part of talks on globalisation and a significant side of today’s global political economy.