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This article explores how public librarians understand and perform the democratic mission of public libraries in times of political and social turbulence and critically discusses the idea of public libraries as meeting places.

Five group interviews conducted with public librarians in southern Sweden are analyzed using a typology of four perspectives on democracy.

Two perspectives on democracy are commonly represented: social-liberal democracy, focusing on libraries as promoters of equality and deliberative democracy, focusing on the library as a place for rational deliberation. Two professional dilemmas in particular present challenges to librarians: how to handle undemocratic voices and how to be a library for all.

The analysis points to a need for rethinking the idea of the meeting place and offers a rare example of an empirically based argument for the benefits of plural agonistics for analyzing and strengthening the democratic role of public libraries.

This paper presents a new roll‐to‐roll (R‐R) production system modified for fine line patterning of flexible printed circuits (FPCs) using the subtractive method. The R‐R system is especially suited to production of FPCs because the material used—copper‐clad laminate (CCU—can be handled as it is rolled. Consideration has been given to methods and materials in designing the machines. They are now operating successfully and are used in single‐sided flexible circuit manufacture. A liquid photosensitive etch resist and a collimated light source are recommended for the system and several factors necessary for achieving R‐R working conditions are discussed. Judging from the experimental results of these systems, using narrower width materials with chemical surface preparation is an effective technique for improving the yield rate. The selection of a liquid photoresist is not so common in the case of rigid printed circuit boards because of the difficulty of the coating process. On the other hand, in the case of flexible PCBs, it is successful not only in terms of resolution characteristics but also of productivity under several different types of coating conditions. It should be noted that use of the conventional subtractive method in the printed circuit field is still advantageous as some semiconductor technologies are applicable.

During the 1950‐1979 period, the governments of Central America often pursued “cheap‐food” policies. A general‐equilibrium model is employed to show how these policies contributed to the resource‐allocation patterns observed in the region during this period. The model also shows how cheap‐food policies contributed to the observed shift in the functional distribution of income from wages to rents and profits. An empirical test verifies the contribution of bean‐pricing policy to the shift in land resources away from food crops in Costa Rica, and the causes behind the relaxation of cheap‐food policies in the 1980s are discussed.

This paper aims to study the electrochemical corrosion performance of ultrafine-grained (UFG) Cu bulk in 0.5 M NaCl solution.

UFG Cu bulk were prepared by impacting at −196°C and following heat treatment. The electrochemical corrosion behaviors of coarse-grained (CG), impacted and subsequently annealed at 190°C Cu bulks were studied.

All the bulks displayed typical active-passive-transpassive behaviors (dual passive films without stable passive regions). The resistance to corrosion of impacted Cu bulk was notably superior to that of CG Cu bulk, and subsequently annealing further improved its corrosion resistance.

Except for mechanical properties, corrosion performance has been considered to be one of the most important aspects in bulk UFG metallic materials research for the prospective engineering applications.

Cryogenic impacting could effectively reduce grain size of CG Cu bulk to UFG scale and induce high density dislocation. Subsequent annealing resulted in a further decrease of grain size even to nanoscale, as well as nanometer twins. The grain refinement, high density dislocation and annealing twins effectively enhance the passivation capability, resulting in an increase in the corrosion resistance.

Aims to provide a theoretical basis for, and overview of, self‐evaluation as a beneficial practice. Discusses six issues: (1) types of entrepreneurial organizations and metaphors which may be used to think about them; (2) how self‐evaluation is usefully seen as a learning process; (3) common problems which trigger learning by organizations; (4) Self‐Evaluation and Effectiveness Review Model (SEER) as a proposed learning process; (5) how learning can help firms to overcome problems and improve members′ effective performance; and (6) the utility of the SEER concept in a world with variable national management cultures. Hopes to persuade an influential entrepreneur of the need to plan a process which will network members′ learning for the benefit of their organization.

The purpose of this study is to explain the discipline of political economy in terms of the theory of conflict and conflict resolution on social matters. Such a theory arises substantively from the generalized and unique methodological worldview of unity of knowledge found in the Islamic epistemological case.

This paper simply uses this epistemic background without dwelling in details of the Islamic methodological worldview of unity of knowledge. Among the central social issues examined in this paper is that of preservation of peace in terms of pressing issues that complement with the concept of well-being.

The imminent study of political economy of socioeconomic development and United Nations Declaration of Human Rights is explained as a broader concept of peace as organic relational balance between the good and true pursuits of life in terms of common global well-being. Within this purview, analytical examination is made of various theoretical precepts. Within the same goal of peaceful coexistence and global conflict resolution, the official stand of Malaysia in global peace is enunciated.

The paper conveys a critical conceptual idea to debate the scope and approach of political economy of peace, development and law matters. The results of the approach used in this study constitute a major contribution of this paper to scholarship in general and acts as a critique of developmental thought of political economy of peace and law.

Investigates the enigmatic phenomenon of information from the two major perspectives of modern cybernetics: the negentropic and the evolutionary. Discusses the meaning of this phenomenon, considering it, ultimately, as the means of combating entropy within cybernetic or control systems which create or receive, process, stock, and use information, eventually with the purpose of regulating their matter‐energy fluxes necessary for struggling against inner entropy. Discusses the sense of information as relating to thermodynamical entropy in a philosophical manner and not in some formal (mathematical) language.

What do we mean by the term ‘megatrend’? A megatrend is a prominent feature of global politico‐economic change brought about by or against the recent thrust of capitalist globalization. A megatrend is also a pattern of thinking and action that is entrenched in a certain perception of historical change and capital‐worker ownership relationships. A megatrend is thus seen as a pattern of change that will profoundly impress the future of mankind in its relationship with others and with the full gamut of the ecological domain including markets and institutions (Heilbroner & Milberg, 1996). In this paper, the study of megatrends will also encompass the hidden forces that will powerfully influence, profoundly change and guide that momentum of change to an objective globalization in the future, even as the growthmanship agenda of global capitalism breathes its last in a post‐modern age.

This paper aims to review the mechanical characteristics of the robotic mechanisms developed for ultrasound examinations. This will help to extract those mechanical features which together can produce a design with superior functionality.

Following an introduction regarding ultrasound examination, this paper discusses the concept of robotic ultrasound imaging and classifies the mechanisms in terms of their power trains used for robotic and haptic devices which assist physicians to perform ultrasound imaging on patients. A set of mechanical characteristics which together can generate a superior design is also presented.

The present paper shows that the robotic devices developed so far can perform ultrasound examinations. Each design with its own advantageous characteristics, and their simultaneous implementation in a new design, will create a robotic device with improved performance.

This paper provides a detailed review of the developments of the robotic systems for ultrasound examinations and some guidelines for new designs with improved functionality.

To consider aspects of a theory of systemic construction by discussing two concepts which will assist in our understanding of the surrounding world which it is considered is made of both systemic and non‐systemic entities.

Considers how these entities (metasystem, network, transitron etc.) can be conceived and defined. Systemic frames notions are presented and examples of systems given. Discusses the historic use of the word “system” and systemic thinking and its varieties.

Discovered that on the basis of these concepts, an understanding of the surrounding world can be achieved which is not homogeneous but made of both systemic and non‐systemic entities. These can change when certain systemic properties are reached as well as in their specific degrees in their limitations and paradoxes.

Introduces an original approach to the life support system by proposing concepts that are discussed and defined and that will provide cyberneticians and systemists with a revised view of systemic thinking.