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If you use a personal computer, you probably use more than one program and you probably use some programs more often than others. If your personal computer is an IBM PC or compatible, you have probably become confused when starting to use a new program or one you have not used recently. The author completes a baker's dozen of “Common Sense Personal Computing” articles with a somewhat lighthearted look at a fairly serious problem — how programs frustrate occasional users, make life interesting for power users and trap unwary users of all sorts. He discusses odd and inconsistent uses of keystrokes, overuse of function and special keys, and problems in identifying functions and keystrokes.

In this study, the authors introduce a solvability of special type of Langevin differential equations (LDEs) in virtue of geometric function theory. The analytic solutions of the LDEs are considered by utilizing the Caratheodory functions joining the subordination concept. A class of Caratheodory functions involving special functions gives the upper bound solution.

The methodology is based on the geometric function theory.

The authors present a new analytic function for a class of complex LDEs.

The authors introduced a new class of complex differential equation, presented a new technique to indicate the analytic solution and used some special functions.

Contends that economic activities constitute a fundamental field of activity of human society. States that polarity between economy and society means these extremes cannot be realized because new syntheses – generally accepted for a shorter or longer – period have to be found again and again. Differentiates between areas of utilisation as part of life and the economy as a supply system ending with the withdrawal of objects, does not exclude the fact that it draws on desires, experiences, and users' problems of good direction. Confirms that economy as a field of human activity is organised as a combine of individual economic subjects/optional organisational formed by these subjects regarding preparation of means and supply of objects. Draws on the use of figures using matrixes to explain various functions in major and partial functions and discusses related terms in depth, with regard to marketing. Chronicles that results were more complicated than could be expected from the topic, but that it remains to be clarified where the specialization marketing has a functional‐systematic place.

In order to gain a thorough understanding of the aims of special library training in the Netherlands as designed after the second world war, it is first of all necessary to obtain some idea of the special library situation in that country.

THE DC‐10 era is effecting subtle changes in the maintenance procedures. The basic objectives of maintaining safe equipment at a reasonable cost have not changed. The means of achieving the objectives are changing. Digital equipment, which has so much to offer in terms of reliability, capability, and cost, will require a new degree of sophistication on the part of maintenance people and equipment. Digital circuits operate on the basis of information transfer at a high cyclic rate. The control of this data transfer is the function of special purpose digital computers. Although the computer has cither serial or parallel arithmetic organisation, the output information is in a serial digital format at a reasonably high output rate. These system characteristics have resulted in maintenance people requiring a new type of electronics knowledge — the ability to work with digital logic diagrams, computer organisation and computer programs. The performance data cannot be readily evaluated by voltage measurements or analog traces on an XY recorder as has been accomplished in the past. At the same time that the equipment is becoming more difficult to understand and test, manual testing is becoming more lengthy and, in some respects, tedious because of the digital mechanisation of the functions. Airlines will not be able to afford to use their skilled maintenance technicians for routine tasks. They will be better utilised for troubleshooting problems. As a result, the relatively unsophisticated test benches of the past are becoming obsolete and are being replaced by either sophisticated manual test equipment or sophisticated automatic test equipment.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the new dependences of cycles to failure for a given initial crack length upon the stress amplitude in the linear fracture approach. The anticipated unified propagation function describes the infinitesimal crack-length growths per increasing number of load cycles, supposing that the load ratio remains constant over the load history. Two unification functions with different number of fitting parameters are proposed. On one hand, the closed-form analytical solutions facilitate the universal fitting of the constants of the fatigue law over all stages of fatigue. On the other hand, the closed-form solution eases the application of the fatigue law, because the solution of nonlinear differential equation turns out to be dispensable. The main advantage of the proposed functions is the possibility of having closed-form analytical solutions for the unified crack growth law. Moreover, the mean stress dependence is the immediate consequence of the proposed law. The corresponding formulas for crack length over the number of cycles are derived.

In this paper, the method of representation of crack propagation functions through appropriate elementary functions is employed. The choice of the elementary functions is motivated by the phenomenological data and covers a broad region of possible parameters. With the introduced crack propagation functions, differential equations describing the crack propagation are solved rigorously.

The resulting closed-form solutions allow the evaluation of crack propagation histories on one hand, and the effects of stress ratio on crack propagation on the other hand. The explicit formulas for crack length over the number of cycles are derived.

In this paper, linear fracture mechanics approach is assumed.

Shortening of evaluation time for fatigue crack growth. Simplification of the computer codes due to the elimination of solution of differential equation. Standardization of experiments for crack growth.

This paper introduces the closed-form analytical expression for crack length over number of cycles. The new function that expresses the damage growth per cycle is also introduced. This function allows closed-form analytical solution for crack length. The solution expresses the number of cycles to failure as the function of the initial size of the crack and eliminates the solution of the nonlinear ordinary differential equation of the first order. The different common expressions, which account for the influence of the stress ratio, are immediately applicable.

The purpose of this article is to investigate data, information and knowledge in regional innovation networks. Emphasis has been put recently on regional innovation systems, where various actors are involved in innovative processes. The article responds to the need to study matters related to knowledge management and information quality in such environments.

Regional innovation networks and data, information and knowledge as well as research on them are discussed at a theoretical level. An existing innovation network of the Lahti region, Finland, was utilised as a pilot environment when building the knowledge management framework that is introduced. The framework is based on established knowledge management literature and practice.

The results confirm that the aspects of data, information and knowledge need to be addressed systematically in regional innovation networks. They are intertwined with knowledge management and network management. The knowledge management framework introduced incorporates, apart from information quality considerations, future‐oriented self‐transcending knowledge as well as knowledge vision and knowledge assets. Considerations of absorptive capacity and information brokerage in the regional knowledge environment are emphasised.

The limitations of the framework will be assessed in future studies. This will also improve understanding of practical implications. Research implications are related to data, information and knowledge quality – as well as absorptive capacity between the two subsystems of the regional innovation system.

The article combines in a novel way research fields that have previously barely been combined – information quality, knowledge management and regional innovation networks. It provides new insights into a societally important theme and shows possible avenues of further research.

The focus of this paper is on virtual working and the ultramobile – contingent – workforce in a Nordic welfare economy. The institutional frameworks for virtual working are investigated and analysed. Danish legal frameworks and collective bargaining arrangements are shown to provide substantial opportunities for flexibility, which benefits small and medium‐sized enterprises in particular. Since the early 1990s, temp and recruiting agency activity has somewhat widened in scope and scale, in accordance with a general deregulation of this labour market service. Restrictions that still exist in many European countries have been abolished in Denmark, but other forces counteract a rapid development of the agency sector. The Internet is opening up new opportunities for a flexibilisation of work by expanding geographical and organisational limits and lowering search and promotion costs. Finally, the paper also discusses the new “meta” organisations, the aim of which is the social protection of virtual workers in an increasingly competitive, globalised and individualised world.

Organizational structures of account management systems are one of the most interesting and controversial parts of account management systems, because of the variety of organizational options that are available. The main focus is on the organization of account management systems and particularly on the decisions that have to be made in the design of the system. Fifteen so‐called decision topics, each representing a major decision in the process of designing an account management system, are selected. The decisions are mainly based on the matching of the working paper “Organizing the account force” of Shapiro and Moriarty with case study field research. In a table, a cross‐reference has been made of the cases and the 15 decision topics selected. Furthermore, a model is presented that can be used as a guide for companies that are planning to implement an account management system or want to improve their account management system further.

Offshoring has been studied widely in the literature on strategic management and international business. However, apart from its consideration as an administrative activity, scant attention has been paid to the offshoring of the human resource (HR) function. Research in this regard has instead focussed on outsourcing (Reichel and Lazarova, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to achieve a better understanding of companies’ decisions to offshore HR activities. It adapts the outsourcing model of Baron and Kreps (1999) by including the HR offshoring phenomenon and a dynamic perspective.

While the analysis is mostly conceptual, the authors ground the author’s arguments in offshoring data from the Offshoring Research Network, to explore whether the drivers for offshoring HR differ from the drivers for offshoring other administrative activities. The idiosyncrasy of the HR function is supported by the authors’ exploratory analysis and also by the descriptive case of a multinational and its experience with offshoring.

A coevolutionary model is proposed for understanding the behaviour of companies offshoring their HR activities. This study contends that companies should address their decision to offshore HR activities from a dynamic perspective, being aware of three processes that are in constant change: the evolution of the HR function, the evolution of service providers, and the evolution of offshoring decisions.

This study seeks to make a threefold contribution to the international business, strategy, and HR management disciplines.