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This study aims to compare the marginal fit, flexural strength and hardness for a ceramic premolar that is constructed using dental computer aided machining (CAM) and three-dimensional slurry printing (3DSP).

Dental CAM and 3DSP are used to fabricate a premolar model. To reduce the fabrication time for 3DSP, a new composition of solvent-free slurry is proposed. Before it is fabricated, the dimensions of the green body for the premolar model are enlarged to account for the shrinkage ratio. A two-stage sintering process ensures accurate final dimensions for the premolar model. The surface morphology of the green body and the sintered premolars that are produced using the two methods is then determined using scanning electronic microscopy. The sintered premolars are seated on a stone model to determine the marginal gap using an optical microscope. The hardness and the flexural strength are also measured for the purpose of comparison.

The developed solvent-free slurry for 3DSP can be used to produce a premolar green body without micro-cracks or delamination. The maximal marginal gap for the sintered premolar parts that are constructed using the green bodies from dental CAM is 98.9 µm and that from 3DSP is 72 µm. Both methods produce a highly dense zirconia premolar using the same sintering conditions. The hardness value for the dental CAM group is 1238.8 HV, which is slightly higher than that for the 3DSP group (1189.4 HV) because there is a difference in the pre-processing of the initial ceramic materials. However, the flexural strength for 3DSP is 716.76 MPa, which is less than the requirement for clinical use.

This study verifies that 3DSP can be used to fabricate a zirconia dental restoration device that is as good as the one that is produced using the dental CAM system and which has a marginal gap that is smaller than the threshold value. The resulting premolar restoration devices that are produced by sintering the green bodies that are produced using 3DSP and dental CAM under the same conditions have a similar hardness value, which is four times greater than that of enamel. The flexural strength of 3DSP does not meet the requirement for clinical use.

Who started it we will never know. But from the birth of newspapers, advertisers realised that the third party endorsement of apparently independent editorial reporting delivered their message more cheaply – and arguably more credibly – than paid advertising. Thus in the 17th century the publicist was born to service “the fellow who cannot lye sufficiently himself [who] gets one of these to do’t for him”. Any history of public relations is a running commentary on the techniques used to deliver third party endorsement as the media has evolved: from Ivy Lee’s simple packaging of information approach, through Bernays’ “engineering consent”, to today’s use of bloggers on the web or the more sophisticated “journo lobbying”, it is a record of how practitioners deliver public relations’ unique selling proposition, the plausible deniability which is third party endorsement.

Today, Japanese housing manufacturers compete to produce net zero-energy-cost houses that are usually equipped with some renewable energy technologies-e.g. a solar photovoltaic electric power generating system, a CO2 refrigerant heat-pump water heater and a combined heat and power system. Interestingly, the manufacturers tend to install these costly renewable technologies as standard equipment rather than options. To initiate and maintenance the sales of their environmentally-friendly houses, the manufacturers bring into effect their quality-oriented production and user-oriented communication approaches. The manufacturers' way to commercialise their industrialised housing to some extent reflects their high cost-performance marketing strategy. This paper somewhat reflects the learning outcomes of the Zero-carbon PV Mass Custom Home Technical Mission to Japan that the first author organised in 2006 and 2007. It is aimed at identifying the manufacturers' essential commercialisation strategies being applied for the niche-marketing of their net zero-energy-cost housing.

Drawing upon resource-based view (RBV) and attribution theoretical lenses, this chapter provides a paradigm for examining the interplay among environmental investment towards green innovation, environmental disclosure as well as firm performance using the structural equation modelling (SEM) methodology. This chapter demonstrate a growing environmental awareness among stakeholders of the relevance of environmental performance to share value. It is also suggested that the mediating power of environmental disclosure between environmental investment and firm value as well as incremental goodwill is crucial. The findings of this chapter provide critical implications for several stakeholders that if environmental performance is hypothesised to affect the firm's value, companies may take proactive measures to avert potential environmental-related violations. Besides, investors may trade based on the evidence as to how firm value and its goodwill from acquisition will be affected by news of its environmental performance.

Evaluates changes in the welfare system in Sweden, the UK and the USA over a decade, basing arguments on the divergence of economic globalization and domestic forces. Presents brief economic snapshots of each country, stating quite categorically that the welfare state is an impediment to capitalist profit‐making, hence all three nations have retrenched welfare systems in the hope of remaining globally economically competitive. Lays the responsibility for retrenchment firmly at the door of conservative political parties. Takes into account public opinion, national institutional structures, multiculturalism and class issues. Explores domestic structures of accumulation (DSA) and refers to changes in the international economy, particularly the Bretton Woods system (Pax Americana), and notes how the economic health of nations mirrors that of the US. Investigates the roles of multinationals and direct foreign investment in the global economy, returning to how economic policy affects the welfare state. Points out the changes made to the welfare state through privatization, decentralization and modification of public sector financing. Concludes that the main result has been an increase in earnings inequality and poverty.

Although the negative consequences of conflict in work settings have long been recognized, it is only in recent years that researchers have examined its positive effects, and the majority of this research has been conducted at the group level. This paper aims to examine the positive effects of conflict on individual work behaviors by differentiating between task and relationship conflicts, as well as the moderating influence of two contextual variables.

A survey was conducted with 166 pairs of supervisors and subordinates in China.

Results supported the hypotheses that task conflict is positively related to both innovative behaviors and knowledge sharing behaviors while relationship conflict is negatively related to both individual‐directed organizational citizenship and knowledge sharing behaviors. Support for innovation and reward system for relationship‐building functioned as contextual factors to moderate the relationships between task and relationship conflicts and the workplace behaviors studied.

The hypotheses proposed and most of the findings are original.

For many years, the banking industry has required close supervision owing to its central yet delicate role in economic life. In a short time, the business has moved from a local, country‐based jurisdiction to a global arena, on a massive scale. This development has forced regulation to adopt an international perspective, to keep in step with the commercial developments. This paper analyses this move from local to global regulation of banking, finding that the efforts seem to be reactive rather than proactive. In addition, the regulatory endeavours have become enmeshed in international economic competition, and sophisticated regulatory arbitrage is being conducted on a global playing field. Thus, regulatory objectives and standards are being increasingly compromised or subverted. Paradoxically, just as the banking business is becoming increasingly risky and scandalous, regulation is becoming weaker, posing serious challenges to the future of the world economy and society.

Attempts to establish a decision‐making model by which multinational enterprises (MNEs) front‐end financial target can be evaluated and determined. Explains and defines the financial range. Identifies their strategic concerns in order to do this. Continues by exploring the pattern of front‐end financial target variation and the process of its determination, constructing an international joint venture investment supply‐demand model. Elaborates upon how contingency factors in international operations exert direct impact on this matter and gives some considerations for future research.

ORIGINS THE Department of Aeronautical Engineer‐ing at The Queen's University was founded primarily to stimulate the flow of local talent into the aircraft industry of Northern Ireland. With the transfer of the whole of the resources of Short Brothers and Harland to Belfast in 1947 and their subsequent development, the aircraft industry had come to represent a considerable fraction of the engineering effort of the Province. It was thus to be expected that the only University in Northern Ireland should concern itself with the special needs of this exacting branch of engineering. The University had long had a School of Engineering forming part of a Faculty of Applied Science and Technology. The engineering disciplines were civil, mechanical and electrical, and the mechanical courses in particular had been adapted to some extent to meet aeronautical needs. But it was only natural that there remained a demand for a separate department, providing a degree course devised specifically for aeronautical engineers. In the event the Department of Aeronautical Engineering was established in 1956, after close consultation with Short Brothers and Harland, who have given it both generous support and willing co‐operation ever since.