Search results

A parameter has been identified that can be used to calculate a joint's bond‐line thicknesses. This was successfully represented by a fourth order polynomial expression and has been used to predict the volume of adhesive required to precisely fill structural joints of unknown bond‐line thickness. This technology was further used to automatically control adhesive injection into pre‐assembled vehicle structural joints for use in an automated production environment. This has great advantage over adhesive application prior to joint assembly as the adhesive remains in the joint rather than contaminating the adherend surface and the bond‐line remains filled. This will be of benefit to the automotive industry. The method is adaptable and can be re‐programmed to cope with a number of applications.

The traditional use of fieldbus is discussed. Examples of novel applications enabled by fieldbus are introduced. Work on temporary fieldbus connectivity that allows more robust and simple tool change mechanisms is then described.

This paper reviews current and proposed fieldbus standards that affect Europe. Relevant technologies and the formation of standards are shown. The initial goal of a single global standard and the recognition of a number of emerging de facto standards are discussed, as is the potential future standardisation of fieldbus technology.

Improvements in both robot manufacture and robot controller technology have resulted in greater robot accuracy. A trial has been conducted to highlight the improvements brought by this evolution. By measuring the accuracy of the velocity profiles of two generations of the Fanuc Hexapod robot (the Flextool), these evolutionary developments are illustrated. The results from the trial show that although both generations of robot exhibit good accuracy, the later robot is superior both in terms of mechanical design and in controller processing capability.

Standards have restricted the use of networks and programmable electronics in safety‐related applications. New standards have released technology to enable improvements in safety and ensure developments take place within an overall safety framework. Best practice in the additional protocol enhancements required is discussed. The installation of a safety‐related fieldbus, replacing conventional hardwiring in a machine safety system is used to illustrate the potential of the technology. The use of fieldbus in safety‐related applications is shown to reduce complexity and enhance functionality, whilst enabling significantly reduced ownership cost.

The theory of planned behavior (TPB) and place image have both been the foci of studies in understanding one’s intentional visit behavior in leisure research. Few studies, however, have ever attempted to differentiate the roles of attitude and image in predicting visitors’ intentional behaviors. This study is designed to fulfill this gap by examining the two concepts together in the context of responsible casino gaming. Based on the TPB and the concept of place image, a predicting model of visitor’s intentional behavior was posited and tested, based on a survey dataset collected in an American Midwest city. This study concluded that visitor’s attitude and perception of place image both play significant and distinctive roles in predicting visitor’s intentional behavior, and such perceptual discrepancies between attitude and image should be reflected and highlighted in leisure and marketing. Implications of this study in terms of leisure marketing are discussed.

Youth political engagement is often ignored and downplayed by adults, who often embrace a youth deficit model. The youth deficit model downplays the voices and unique experiences of youth in favor of adult-led and adult-centered experiences. Like other historical deficit models, the youth deficit model also provides permission to adults to speak for or about youth, even when not asked to speak for them. We refer to this powerful construction of youth interests by adults as mediation. Fortunately, online advocacy could offer an unmediated route to political engagement for youth as digital natives. Using a unique dataset, we investigate whether online protest spaces offer an unmediated experience for youth to learn about and engage in political protest. However, we find that youth engagement, and especially unmediated youth engagement, is rare among advocacy digital spaces, though it varies by movement, SMO-affiliation, and age groups. Based on our findings, we argue that, rather than youth being primarily responsible for any alleged disengagement, the lack of online spaces offering opportunities for youth to take ownership of their own engagement likely discourages youth from participating in traditional political advocacy and renders the level of youth engagement an admirable accomplishment of young people.

This article looks at the attitudes and perceptions that young offenders have of dental health and services prior to and during their time at a Young Offenders’ Institution in the North East of England. The recent incorporation of prison health services into National Health Service (NHS) structures and funding arrangements brings with it statutory responsibilities concerning the amount and equivalence of health care in and out of prison settings. It also requires evaluation of services in comparable ways. Prison health in general and prison dental health in particular have previously been isolated from mainstream NHS health care in terms of both practice and research. The results from this study highlight the need for those responsible for dental health services at all penal institutions to examine the levels of provision they provide and how the perspectives of this marginalized and vulnerable group can be taken into account in the planning and improvement of services.

It has been noted for some time now that the field of technology as an area of work, has been, and continues to be gender imbalanced and gender stratified This persistent trend has led to a growing body of theorisation and to the (re‐) evaluations of the inter relationship between gender and technology. It is beyond the scope of this article to review the rich theoretical work on gender and technol ogy, and instead the “essentialist” and “constructivist” approaches are briefly discussed here, since they offer a useful frame work within which to look at the case study policy of this article. This policy, as will be shown in the following sections, adopts an “essentialist” stance by seeing women’s under‐representation as resulting from gendered technologies and the obduracy of masculine values associated with technology, and by focusing on girls’ interests as distinct from those of boys. It adopts at the same time a “constructivist” approach through the strategy’s ability to reshape technology through girls’/women’s wider appropriation and use of technology, whereby technology is seen as socially constructed . Before exploring this dualism in more detail, it is helpful to develop a little the theoretical foundations of essentialism and constructivism.