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A new hybrid substrate technology for power electronic applications has been characterised by thermal resistance and mechanical stress measurements. The new substrate utilises thermal spray technology for deposition of dielectric layer and electrical conductors. The results are compared with the more established technology of alumina substrates with direct copper bonding (DCB) metallisation. Silicon test chips for thermal resistance and mechanical stress measurement were used for the characterisation. The experimental results were compared with finite element analysis and a reasonable agreement was found.

The Center for Industrial Research (SI), the University of Oslo (UiO) and a group of Norwegian companies have collaborated between 1990 and 1992 in the research programme ‘Industrial Microelectronics’ with a total cost of 30 MNOK. The programme was sponsored by the Norwegian Scientific and Industrial Research Council (NTNF) as one of the twin programmes constituting a national research initiative in microelectronics. The motivation for the programme is the recognition of microelectronics as a key technology commanding the performance and market success of many of the electronics systems from the Norwegian electronics industry towards the year 2000. The main objective is to stimulate industrial innovation by developing, transferring and exploiting knowledge and methods based upon advanced microelectronics. Focused activities are silicon sensor technology, combined analogue/digital design of application‐specific integrated circuits, large scale instrumentation, sensor packaging and thermal management of electronic systems. SI is focusing on applied research, UiO on education, and collaborating Norwegian companies are using the results in their own R&D projects. It is anticipated that the research results will be fully industrialised within 3–5 years. The programme is co‐ordinated with other Norwegian government‐sponsored research activities as well as European research programmes based on microelectronics. The programme is organised in projects and monitored with a set of milestones strongly indicating the achievement of successful industrial innovation, research results of international standing and high‐quality education of key personnel for the industry. Several successful examples of the research results are highlighted: Design and process methodology for double‐sided microstrip silicon radiation sensors for detection of high energy elementary particles, silicon‐to‐silicon and silicon‐to‐thin film anodic bonding processes for sensor fabrication, combined analogue/digital application‐specific integrated circuits for front‐end instrumentation applications, packaging of radiation sensors and thermal management of electronic systems by evaporation cooling. It is concluded that the programme has successfully achieved results in harmony with the objective.

Learning at the local level is an important contributor to safe and resilient communities. The purpose of this article is therefore to explore what motivates municipalities in Norway to learn from disasters and how they learn from them. This purpose has been fulfilled by (1) addressing the process of learning from disasters occurring within municipalities, and (2) learning from disasters in other municipalities, in particular from the terrorist incidents that occurred in Oslo on 22 July 2011.

An interview study was conducted of individuals responsible for municipal emergency preparedness.

Unwanted events that occur outside municipal borders only trigger learning processes if they are geographically proximate. Events occurring within the geographical borders of the municipality represent greater potential for learning than those occurring outside its borders. Availability of resources for municipal civil protection activities is another factor that has an impact on learning.

The local level plays a key role in generating and maintaining adequate civil protection and emergency preparedness in society. Although the literature on learning from disasters is extensive, learning processes at the local level have been given little attention. This article thus contributes to the existing body of knowledge by studying learning processes following disasters at the local level.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Keyes’ (2007) model of mental health, the presence (flourishing) or absence (languishing) of social, emotional and psychological wellbeing, in the context of drug and alcohol misuse and the frequency and pattern of community participation (engaging in society).

Participants were 1,815 individuals (70 per cent male) who entered residential substance misuse treatment provided by The Salvation Army. Questionnaires were completed at intake assessments with The Salvation Army staff. The data were compared with population norms of community participation utilising t-tests, while multiple linear regression was used to examine continuous mental health.

Although participants have lower levels of community participation compared to Australian population norms, those participants who were experiencing flourishing mental health had higher rates of community participation than Australian norms. Keeping in touch with friends and family was the most common form of participation. Informal social connectedness and civic engagement were the strongest predictors of mental health over and above more traditional substance use outcomes such as cravings.

This is one of the first studies to describe the relationships between community participation, substance use and mental health in participants seeking treatment for substance misuse. Despite having a drug or alcohol addiction requiring treatment, those participants with flourishing mental health have higher levels of community participation than community norms. Furthermore, community participation predicts mental health. This offers promise for interventions that increase community participation but further research using longitudinal designs is needed to replicate and clarify the direction of these relationships.

Whilst performance management (PM) is one human resource practice that is of importance for the company, research in international setting is still in its infancy. This paper focuses on global PM (GPM) in multinational enterprises. The aim is to present advances in the PM research framework, give managerial suggestions and find out future needs and trends for research.

The approach is to analyze the literature in the research field. Will the transfer of PM be localized or standardized? Diffusion deals with how social institutions are spread from one society to another through certain channels over time and among members of a social system. In this paper, the framework is drawn on institutional theory, the institutional impact of the degree of success or barriers to GPM.

In the findings of GPM research, the following perspectives were found: tool and process perspective, expatriates (a specific target group perspective), cultural perspective, standardization perspective and comparative perspective.

GPM enables the evaluation and development of the individual as well as organizational effectiveness for multinational companies. Balance between local responsiveness and global integration in subsidiaries is needed.

There is a need to study GPM further. The PM process is similar for domestic and international market, but the difference is in the implementation because it is far more complex in global companies with more issues to consider.

The paper aims to systematically review research that analyzes satisfaction with electronic reference services, paying particular attention to how user satisfaction is measured. The application and value of evidence‐based methodologies for library and information science (LIS) research are explored.

Database searches identified research concerned with electronic reference. Articles with a variable of user satisfaction were extracted and subjected to a critical appraisal. The remaining research was analyzed for similarities, differences, and consistency.

A wide variety of methods are used to measure user satisfaction. There was almost no overlap in specific questions considered although there were some similarities in methodologies used. The results of this analysis show a lack of standardization in LIS research on this topic.

There may be some bias in the selection of research in that the reviewers were only able to obtain published findings. The lack of consistency in reporting results further limited the articles eligible for review and precluded a meta‐analysis.

By synthesizing the research conducted on this topic, practicing librarians should be able to see patterns in user satisfaction with electronic reference, and become aware of common pitfalls in undertaking user satisfaction assessment. Those conducting or planning LIS research will be able to identify the characteristics of sound research and thorough reporting of results.

Systematic review is an underutilized methodology in LIS research. As evidence‐based librarianship gains traction, it will become a more important tool for LIS researchers. The synthesis and analysis of previous research bring together disparate findings and show patterns and/or differences in providing these services, and brings into focus the lack of consistency in LIS research on this topic.

Social movements are sites of knowledge production. Green criminologists are interested in activism both as an informal response to environmental harms/crimes and in their explorations of the possibility of activist green criminology. In this chapter, the author calls attention to a related issue – the significance of knowledge produced in social movements. Drawing on her study of the resistance movements against hydropower in Turkey, the author discusses how movement knowledge can contribute to green criminology in relation to the (i) complexity of harm and victimisation; (ii) politics of knowledge in identifying harm; and (iii) limits of formal processes in preventing harm. The author concludes by highlighting the importance of recognising activists as subjects who produce knowledge, in academic engagement with activism.

The purpose of this chapter is to review how well walking interventions have increased and sustained walking, and to provide suggestions for improving future walking interventions. A scoping review was conducted of walking interventions for adults that emphasised walking as a primary intervention strategy and/or included a walking outcome measure. Interventions conducted at the individual, community, and policy levels between 1990 and 2015 were included, with greater emphasis on recent interventions. Walking tends to increase early in interventions and then gradually declines. Results suggest that increased walking, and environmental-change activities to support walking are more likely to be sustained when they are immediately followed by greater economic benefits/time-savings, social approval, and/or physical/emotional well-being. Adaptive interventions that adjust intervention procedures to match dynamically changing environmental circumstances also hold promise for sustaining increased walking. Interventions that incorporate automated technology, durable built environment changes, and civic engagement, may increase cost-efficiency. Variations in outcome measures, study duration, seasons, participant characteristics, and possible measurement reactivity preclude causal inferences about the differential effectiveness of specific intervention procedures for increasing and sustaining walking. This review synthesises the effects of diverse walking interventions on increasing and sustaining walking over a 25-year period. Suggestions are provided to guide future development of more effective, sustainable walking interventions at the population level.