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Concept design practices in engineering are not common across industry or academia. There are a number of well-known tools and methods acknowledged as useful in facilitating concept designing, that is, to assist idea generation, aid evaluation and final selection of one winning concept from many. Combinations of these popular concept design tools and methods provide various systematic methodologies by which practitioners propose to conduct or teach concept designing. In this paper, effective practices and trends are observed through the application of a specific concept design methodology over a range of different projects in electromechanical systems design.

The concept design methodology utilised in this study has been developed through the adoption of various tools and methods shown to be beneficial to concept designing, supported by previous positive experiences and successful utilisation associated with electromechanical systems research projects in academia. Each stage of the methodology is discussed and six case studies are presented, which are used to explore effective practices for concept designing.

Analysis of the case study data reveals the most popular criteria for the selection of concepts in electromechanical systems design, the number of selection criteria and number of initial concepts ideally required to converge on a final winning concept more efficiently, that is without the need for a more detailed second stage of selection using performance metrics.

Rarely are detailed studies undertaken in concept design, first, to address the justification for the concept design methodology adopted and, second, to show how effective practices emerge through the analysis of non-subjective data over a number of concept design projects. Although the paper uses only six case studies in electromechanical systems design, it is hoped that the approach presented promotes the possible future development of a framework for verification of concept design methodologies across different products, sectors and user groups.

The improvement of the quality of design and the reduction of failure related cost is seen as a crucial competitive requirement for UK manufacturing industry. To achieve these goals, industry must adopt current methods in support of design for quality (DFQ) for analysing potential problems and predicting quality, and integrate these effectively with the appropriate stages of their new product development process. The utilisation and success rate of these techniques in UK companies is, however, relatively low compared to those in countries such as the USA and Japan. In this paper, the fundamental concepts and key areas of opportunity in design improvement using the main DFQ support techniques are reviewed and a framework for their application and integration is presented to support concurrent product development. The typical experiences and problems concerning the application and implementation of techniques are discussed and areas where new research should be directed are touched on so that DFQ techniques may better enhance industrial practice in the achievement of high quality products.

Societies go through complex challenges in the face of the vertiginous increase in disasters, mostly produced by the effects of extreme events. The lack of capacity to deal with disasters is evident, especially in developing countries, as in the case of Peru. Under such a premise, this paper contributes to strengthening the country’s capacities, through an evaluation of national disaster resilience to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation-driven hazards caused by the El Niño disaster event between 2016 and 2017 on the Peruvian coast.

By reviewing the literature, various hazards were identified, such as heavy rainfalls and cascading hazards, such as floods and landslides. Even though risk assessments were carried out, 169 people died and essential infrastructure was severely impacted and lost. Through a 12-criteria resilience assessment framework sub-divided into sustainable development and disaster risk reduction, a diagnosis of national disaster resilience was carried out, along with a disaster risk management evaluation. Under such assessments, strategic recommendations were proposed to enhance the resilience of the country.

The lack of resilience of the country is reflected in the evaluated criteria, the most negative being the built environment due to infrastructure system’s vulnerability to hazards, and the lack of social development, despite national economic growth in Peru.

The research is extremely valuable because it bridges the knowledge gap on disaster resilience in Peru. In addition, the methodology, as well as the multi-topic assessment framework, can be used for other analyses, which are key to building greater capacity in nations around the globe.

This essay uses the sociology of race in the United States (as it pertains to the study of African Americans) as point of entry into the larger problem of what implications and impact the body of theory known as “postcolonialism” has for American sociology. It assesses how American sociology has historically dealt with what the discipline (in its less enlightened moments) called the “Negro Problem” and in its more “enlightened moments” called “the sociology of race relations.” The first half of the essay provides a sociological analysis of a hegemonic colonial institution – education – as a means of providing a partial history of how, why, and when American sociology shifted from a more “global” stance which placed the “Negro Problem” within the lager rubric of global difference and empire to a parochial sociology of “race relations” which expunged the history of colonialism from the discipline. The second half of the essay applies postcolonial literary theory to a series of texts written by the founder of the Chicago school of race relations, Robert Ezra Park, in order to document Park's shift from analyzing Black Americans within a colonial framework which saw the “Negro Problem” in America as an “aspect or phase” of the “Native Problem” in Africa to an immigration/assimilation paradigm that tenaciously avoided engaging with the fact that Black resistance to conflict in America might be articulated in global terms.

This essay tackles the Obama “phenomenon,” from his candidacy to his election, as a manifestation of the new “color-blind racism” that has characterized U.S. racial politics in the post-civil rights era. Rather than symbolizing the “end of race,” or indeed a “miracle,” Obama's election is a predictable result of contemporary U.S. electoral politics. In fact, Obama is a middle-of-the-road Democrat whose policies since taking office have been almost perfectly in line with his predecessors, especially in terms of his failure to improve the lot of blacks and other minorities. In this essay, I review the concept of color-blind racism and its application to the Obama phenomenon. I also revisit some of my past predictions for Obama's presidency and evaluate their accuracy halfway through his term. Finally, I offer suggestions for constructing a genuine social movement to push Obama and future politicians to provide real, progressive “change we can believe in.”

This chapter is based on a chapter I added for the third edition of my book, Racism without Racists. Louise Seamster, a wonderful graduate student at Duke, helped me update some material, locate new sources, and rework some sections, as well as abridge some of the many footnotes (interested readers can consult the chapter). I kept the first person to maintain the more direct and engaged tone of the original piece and because the ideas (the good, the bad, and the ugly ones) in the chapter are mine, and thus, I wish to remain entirely responsible for them.

Researcher Highlight: Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950)

Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to knowledge in the field of business by recognizing two historic entrepreneurs who played an important role in the African-American community, and by viewing their contributions through the lens of servant leadership.

The study is conducted by reviewing and synthesizing a number of writings from sources, such as history journals, newspapers and other resources.

The main finding is that two former slaves (Merrick and Herndon) practiced servant leadership in the early twentieth century as a way to create jobs and transform communities.

The contributions made by African-Americans have not been adequately covered in the literature. This paper begins to fill a noticeable void by highlighting the contributions of two former slaves who managed to become successful servant leaders within their communities.