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A tailored graphical user interface (GUI) for finite element analysis, fully integrated into Microsoft Windows 3.1, has been developed. The current application is the simulation of flat sheet extrusion of thermoplastics, but many of the features would be common to a wide range of finite element analyses. Microsoft’s C/C++ Professional Development System 7.0, including the Software Development Kit 3.1 (SDK), has been used as the programming tool for the GUI. The interface is based on the Common User Access Advanced Interface Design Guide, which is part of the IBM Systems Application Architecture Library, and The Windows Interface: An Application Design Guide, which is part of the SDK. A memory handling technique is proposed to break the imposed 64 KB data segmentation. Connected finite element calculation routines are written in Fortran and compiled by the Salford FTN77/x86 32‐bit compiler. The protected mode interface of the Fortran compiler allows direct access by the GUI, and allows the computation to run as a 32‐bit background application, without memory limitations, in the multitasking environment. Finite element routines are supported by pre‐ and post‐processors comprising mesh generation, post‐processing for derived results, and graphical displays. A convenient contouring algorithm is proposed to generate contoured plots of nodal quantities in the form of iso‐lines or iso‐fields.

In this article, the fifth in a series on microcomputer software for information storage and retrieval, test results of seven programs are presented and various properties and qualities of these programs are discussed. In this instalment of the series we discuss programs for information storage and retrieval which are primarily characterised by the properties of personal information managers (PIMs), hypertext programs, or best match and ranking retrieval systems. The programs reviewed in this issue are the personal information managers 3by5/RediReference, askSam, Dayflo Tracker, and Ize; Personal Librarian uses best match and ranking; the hypertext programs are Folio Views and the HyperKRS/HyperCard combination (askSam, Ize and Personal Librarian boast hypertext features as well). HyperKRS/HyperCard is only available for the Apple Macintosh. All other programs run under MS‐DOS; versions of Personal Librarian also run under Windows and some other systems. For each of the seven programs about 100 facts and test results are tabulated. The programs are also discussed individually.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful tool to determine the environmental performance of materials and products. The purpose of this paper is to undertake the LCA of double-glazed aluminium-clad timber windows in order to determine their environmental performance.

The scope of the LCA study covers the production and the use of windows over a 30-year life span. The LCA exercise has been carried out by auditing the materials and processes involved in the making of the windows. Windows production facilities were visited to investigate the respective quantities and embodied energy of the major constituting materials, i.e. timber, aluminium, glass, infill gases and auxiliary components. The main processes involved, i.e. powder coating of aluminium cladding profiles, glazing unit production and window assembly, were also examined. SimaPro software was used to calculate the environmental impacts associated with the windows for three types of glazing infills: Argon (Ar), Krypton (Kr) and Xenon (Xe).

Embodied energy of a standard sized (1.2 m×1.2 m) double-glazed aluminium-clad timber window is found to be 899, 1,402 and 5,400 MJ for Argon (Ar), Krypton (Kr) and Xenon (Xe) infill gases, respectively. It is also found that an Argon-filled window can lose 95,130 kWh of energy resulting into over 37,000 kg of CO₂ emissions.

Besides carrying value for research community, the findings of this study can help the building and construction industry adopt windows that are energy-efficient and environmentally less burdensome. It can also help the concerned legislative bodied.

A former Microsoft insider believes that Microsoft prevails not because of its ability to innovate but because of its capacity for covering all the bases.

The aim is to holistically assess the environmental performance of windows and analyse how their design and characteristics contribute to the overall performance of the building/space. This study focuses on the performance of windows in patient rooms hosting less mobile people.

This study investigates the life cycle environmental impacts of different glazing types, window frames and fire safety doors at the product level. This article also presents a building-integrated environmental analysis of patient rooms that considers the multiple functionalities of windows by incorporating dynamic energy analysis, comfort and daylighting performance with a life cycle assessment (LCA) study.

The results indicate that the amount of flat glass is the main contributor to the environmental impacts of the glazing units. As for the patient rooms, global warming shows the most significant contribution to the environmental costs, followed by human toxicity, particulate matter formation and eutrophication. The key drivers for these impacts are production processes and operational energy use. This study highlights the significance of evaluating a wide range of criteria for assessing the performance of windows.

An integrated assessment approach is used to investigate the influence of windows on environmental performance by considering the link between window/design parameters and their effects on energy use/costs, daylighting, comfort and environmental impacts. The embodied impacts of different building elements and the influence of various design parameters on environmental performance are assessed and compared. The environmental costs are expressed as an external environmental cost (euro).

The presented work contributes to research in the field of advanced man-machine interaction and to research in the field of formalisation and verification of complex systems. This work was motivated by the need to provide a detailed and well understandable formal description of embedded brain reading (eBR). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The paper first introduces eBR and points out its main features. Next, a general model for eBR is developed to describe the overall architecture, integral parts and dependencies between those parts. The model is developed and presented in a formal structured form that allows for application of optimisation as well as verification techniques.

The paper demonstrates using implementations that the application of the formal model allows to check for completeness and correctness to detect errors in implementation, which were invisible without formalising eBR. In summary, the presented work contributes a formal model for a complex system and shows that such a formal model can improve the overall system's functionality.

For future work, the results support the application of formal modelling and verification techniques at the system level and the development of methods to prove for correctness and completeness of complex systems during their development.

The paper describes for the first time eBR and presents a formal model for it. It illustrates how an error-prone approach like BR can be applied safely by embedding it into the control of a real system and by applying mechanisms that control for its correct function.

This paper aims to test the extent to which downward bias due to a floating-point exception in probability of informed trading (PIN) estimates obtained using the Easley, Hvidkjaer and O’Hara (EHO; 2002) method is remedied using the Yan and Zhang (YZ; 2012) method. The paper also aims to test the sample-size sensitivity of EHO PIN and identify PIN determinants for acquirers and targets in the biotech sector.

EHO and YZ PIN performances are compared for US biotech acquirers and targets around their mergers and acquisition (M&A) announcements. The sampling method of Kryzanowski and Lazrak (2007) is used to assess sample-size sensitivity of announcement window EHO PIN estimates. Cross-sectional regressions are estimated to identify PIN determinants.

EHO and YZ PIN are not significantly different. EHO PIN exhibits significant sample-size sensitivity. Information leakage prior to M&A announcements is strongly affected by some firm characteristics. Significant determinants of PIN behavior around M&A announcements include insider and institutional holdings and research and development (R&D) expense.

Findings imply that PIN partially reflects the activities of insiders and other informed investors about takeover intentions. Subsequent research can examine PIN behavior around pre-announcement rumors for M&As in the same or other industries and for potential targets that are peers of the M&A targets.

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate in the empirical finance literature on whether PIN measures informed trading by examining its behavior and the importance of some methodological issues associated with its use in examining market behavior around M&A announcements.

Last year's AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management) Show in Chicago broke all records with 25,879 visitors (20,490 in San Francisco, 1989), and 247 exhibitors (204 in 1989). For the first time, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Hewlett‐Packard and Sun Microsystems attended the show.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the questions: What challenges do students face in an information commons and how does roving reference help?.

The author recounts her work roving in her community college information commons and supplements this with an analysis of 1,500 records from her detailed reference log that compares roving reference results with conventional references and with reference questions as a whole.

Her autoethnography and data reveal that roving substantially increases the number of reference encounters. In addition, her data sheds light on students’ struggles with common, productivity software, academic packages and malfunctioning hardware. More importantly, these findings show that roving reference data identify problems that librarians, as stakeholders, can solve.

Roving reference in a community college information commons brings students in one library into sharper focus. Roving reference increases the number of reference encounters and the reach of reference service. It also exposes a use-based digital divide that calls for collaboration in the long run and increased point-of-need service immediately.

Even data that points to digital divides, hardware issues or other shortcomings and offers empirical evidence of problems for which library staff, unlike student workers, can find long-term solutions. This study shows that it is possible to gather rich and extensive data with minimal personnel and off-the-shelf software.

A college degree is vital to social mobility and easing inequality. Fluency with academic technology and information is necessary for completing college. Roving reference means more opportunities to teach information and computer fluency at point of need and more opportunities for librarian stakeholders to find and remove obstacles to student learning.

This is one of the few, recent studies, autoethnographic or otherwise, on roving reference in a community college library’s information commons.