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Metal-based additive manufacturing is a relatively new technology used to fabricate metal objects within an entirely digital workflow. However, only a small number of different metals are proven for this process. This is partly due to the need to find a new set of parameters which can be used to successfully build an object for every new alloy investigated. There are dozens of variables which contribute to a successful set of parameters and process parameter optimisation is currently a manual process which relies on human judgement.

Here, the authors demonstrate the application of machine learning as an alternative method to determine this set of process parameters, the subject of this test is the processing of pure copper in a laser powder bed fusion printer. Data in the form of optical images were collected over the course of traditional parameter optimisation. These images were segmented and fed into a convolutional autoencoder and then clustered to find the clusters which best represented a high-quality result. The clusters were manually scored according to their quality and the results applied to the original set of parameters.

It was found that the machine-learned clustering and subsequent scoring reflected many of the observations which were found in the traditional parameter optimisation process.

This exercise, as well as demonstrating the effectiveness of the ML approach, indicates an opportunity to fully automate the approach to process optimisation by applying labels to the data, hence, an approach that could also potentially be suited for on-the-fly process optimisation.

The automatic visual inspection of glassware is a challenging and potentially rewarding field of study. It is possible to detect a wide range of glassware defects and profiles automatically. This article reviews these possibilities and justifies the view that automated visual inspection systems will be increasingly used in glassware inspection tasks.

SO THE Nissan Company of Kyoto has laid the foundation stone of its factory in Sunderland. An era, perhaps a new era in the history of the British Motorcar Industry is really on the way.

THE new library building has been open for six months now. It is pleasantly situated in an area of new buildings, and occupies a prominent island site just on the edge of the shopping centre. The old library was in the middle of a shopping area, and it has been interesting to note that our removal from that site has had a more considerable effect on the traffic pattern than one would have thought.

Aims to explore aspects of employee relations in firms included within The Sunday Times list of the UK's “Best Small Companies to Work For”, focusing in particular on the use of high performance work systems (HPWS), and the way they impact upon performance in these businesses.

The research is based upon a postal survey supplemented by detailed face‐to‐face interviews with CEOs in 60 per cent of the ranked firms.

The SMEs studied are found to be highly successful in terms of sales and employment growth. Our analysis suggests that the common explanation for enhanced business performance in terms of HPWS (coherent bundles of human resource management practices that function synergistically and thus have more effect than might be expected from the sum of the parts) is a valid but partial. The bundles employed in these businesses are synergetic, but the enhanced outcomes produced need to be understood in terms of the system as a whole, not just the more concrete practices that are normally considered.

While there is a need to explore further some of the findings through larger scale qualitative research, we contend that the deeper understanding of HPWS emerging from this approach is important to the formation of effective policy in relation to the small business sector.

It is suggested that the cultures, values and norms established within the businesses are necessarily part of the system and that they play a fundamental role in shaping, empowering and reproducing the practices used.

This paper aims to examine some of the broader social consequences of enabling digital rights management. The authors suggest that the current, mainstream orientation of digital rights management systems could have the effect of shifting certain public powers into the invisible hands of private control. Focusing on two central features of digital rights management ‐ their surveillance function and their ability to unbundle copyrights into discrete and custom‐made products ‐ the authors conclude that a promulgation of the current use of digital rights management has the potential to seriously undermine our fundamental public commitments to personal privacy and freedom of expression.