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THE improvement in the British standard of living is generally desired. Politicians have not only subscribed to that ideal but some of them have indicated the rate at which we should advance. There are, however, certain trends in the country's economic life which must be reversed if we are to make any progress in that direction.

Labor is the largest single cost contributor in agriculture. Accurate estimation of labor requirements is, thus, a key to cost reduction. Work measurement is the professional discipline for this type of estimations, in the industrial engineering domain. Horticulture, however, lays a substantial barrier to work and, thus, to work measurement. Till harvesting, its products – fruits/flowers, are in fixed positions, and for all tasks the workers have to arrive at the plant. The purpose of this paper is to develop, test and analyze a system to perform horticultural work study in agricultural environments in order to accurately estimate the required amount of labor for each activity and to improve productivity.

In this paper, the development of an advanced system for work study on a hand-held computer (HHC) platform for horticultural work measurement is presented and an experimental study was conducted. The methodology consists of characteristics of the system platform including hardware, interface and software, development of a dedicated measuring software, a controlled experiment in agricultural environment and a statistical analysis.

The study shows that a single surveyor who uses traditional tools is subject to measurement errors, which can be reduced only with the assistance of a second surveyor. The study further shows that the HHC platform enables to avoid this second surveyor – a single surveyor who uses the HHC platform performs as accurate as two surveyors who use traditional tools. Of course, being computers, the HHC platform maintains the advantage of error free data transfer, in practically negligible time.

This paper presents a unique approach to perform work study in agricultural environment and contributes to minimize the errors accumulated in the process and the manpower required to perform the measurements.

The similarity measurement of time series is an important research in time series detection, which is a basic work of time series clustering, anomaly discovery, prediction and many other data mining problems. The purpose of this paper is to design a new similarity measurement algorithm to improve the performance of the original similarity measurement algorithm. The subsequence morphological information is taken into account by the proposed algorithm, and time series is represented by a pattern, so the similarity measurement algorithm is more accurate.

Following some previous researches on similarity measurement, an improved method is presented. This new method combines morphological representation and dynamic time warping (DTW) technique to measure the similarities of time series. After the segmentation of time series data into segments, three parameter values of median, point number and slope are introduced into the improved distance measurement formula. The effectiveness of the morphological weighted DTW algorithm (MW-DTW) is demonstrated by the example of momentum wheel data of an aircraft attitude control system.

The improved method is insensitive to the distortion and expansion of time axis and can be used to detect the morphological changes of time series data. Simulation results confirm that this method proposed in this paper has a high accuracy of similarity measurement.

This improved method has been used to solve the problem of similarity measurement in time series, which is widely emerged in different fields of science and engineering, such as the field of control, measurement, monitoring, process signal processing and economic analysis.

In the similarity measurement of time series, the distance between sequences is often used as the only detection index. The results of similarity measurement should not be affected by the longitudinal or transverse stretching and translation changes of the sequence, so it is necessary to incorporate the morphological changes of the sequence into similarity measurement. The MW-DTW is more suitable for the actual situation. At the same time, the MW-DTW algorithm reduces the computational complexity by transforming the computational object to subsequences.

There is currently a great deal of attention in psychometric and statistical methods on ensuring measurement invariance when examining measures across time or populations. When measurement invariance is established, changes in scores over time or across groups can be attributed to changes in the construct rather than changes in reaction to or interpretation of the measurement instrument. When measurement in not invariant, it is possible that measured differences are due to the measurement instrument itself and not to the underlying phenomenon of interest. This chapter discusses the importance of establishing measurement invariance specifically in postsecondary settings, where it is anticipated that individuals' perspectives will change over time as a function of their higher education experiences. Using examples from several measures commonly used in higher education research, the concepts and processes underlying tests of measurement invariance are explained and analyses are interpreted using data from a US-based longitudinal study on bioscience PhD students. These measures include sense of belonging over time and across groups, mental well-being over time, and perceived mentorship quality over time. The chapter ends with a discussion about the implications of longitudinal and group measurement invariance as an important conceptual property for moving forward equitable, reproducible, and generalizable quantitative research in higher education. Invariance methods may further be relevant for addressing criticisms about quantitative analyses being biased toward majority populations that have been discussed by critical theorists engaging quantitative research strategies.

In these days of total quality management, business process re‐engineering, etc. it is easy to forget tried and tested approaches to productivity and performance measurement and improvement. Work measurement, for example, has been around for many years but still can be extremely effective in informing us of the working times, and delays, inherent in different ways of carrying out work.

Sediment measurement is usually accessible on a periodic or distinct basis. The measurement of sediment (suspended and bedload), especially in the field, is vital in keeping essential data of sediment transport and deposition. Various techniques for measuring sediment have been used over time each with its merits and demerits. The techniques discussed in this paper for suspended sediment include bottle, acoustic, pump, laser diffraction, nuclear and optical. Other techniques for bedload measurement are; River bedload trap (RBT), CSU/FU bedload trap, Helley–Smith, Polish Hydrological Services (PIHM) device, pit and trough, vortex tube, radioactive traces and bedload–surrogate technologies. However, the choice of technique depends on multiple factors ranging from budget constraint, availability of equipment, manpower and data requirement. The purpose of this paper is to present valuable information on selected techniques used in sediment measurement, to aid researchers/practitioners in the choice of sediment measurement technique.

This paper presents a general review of selected field techniques used in sediment measurement (suspended and bedload). Each techniques mode of operation, merits and demerits are discussed.

This paper highlights that each technique has its peculiar merits and demerits. However, two techniques are generally preferred over others; the bottle sampling and the Helley–Smith sampler for measuring suspended and bedload sediment. This is because the applicability of these techniques is quite widespread and time-tested.

This review paper provides an in-depth description and comparison of selected existing field sediment measurement techniques. The objective is to ease decision-making about the choice of technique, as well as to identify the suitability and applicability of the chosen technique.

The temporality of performance measurement systems has been claimed to affect actors’ time orientation, such as that of listed company managers. The purpose of this paper is to explore this view.

The study uses constructivist data gathered from executives in one listed and one non-listed company.

The study shows that the research on performance measurement is based on a linear-quantitative view on time that assumes that humans orient towards the future from one point, the present; this view excludes other time-related constructs, particularly the past, and highlights a choice between the short term and the long term, idealising the long term. It is shown that the performance measurement of non-listed company executives is constructed through past-based, present-based and future-based rationalities: executives acknowledge the past as a basis for present and future performance, present actions as shaping future performance and future plans and performance targets as bases for present actions. Listed company executives’ performance measurement is constructed predominantly through the present-based time rationality.

“The orientation from the present” and the “short” and “long terms” could be enhanced with time rationalities.

The evaluation periods within performance measurement systems do not determine the time orientations of the actors subjected to those systems; time rationalities could be considered when designing such systems.

The paper provides a novel view on performance measurement and time.

Supply chain (SC) performance measurement – the process of qualifying the efficiency and effectiveness of the SC. The purpose of this paper is to create a SC measurement framework for manufacturing industry, define which data should be measured and verify the measurement framework in the case company’s SC.

There is a review of the current understanding of supply chain management and literature related to SC performance measurement and the study creates a framework for SC measurement. This research is qualitative case study research.

This study presents the main theoretical framework of SC performance measurement. The key elements for the measurement framework were defined as time, profitability, order book analysis and managerial analysis. The measurement framework is tested by measuring case SC performance.

In the study, a performance measurement framework was created for the needs of manufacturing industry. Suggestions for future research are multiple case study in different manufacturing industry areas and positivistic-based SC performance research.

The measurement framework in this study offers guidelines for measuring the SC in manufacturing industry but the measurement framework could be used in different areas of industry as well.

The SC performance measurement framework is tested and a valid framework for SC performance measurement in manufacturing industry.

This paper aims to deal with the formulation of the technological principle for precise positioning using global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) in railway engineering during construction and maintenance of a railway line and its spatial position. Solution of optimal route is based on finding the shortest Hamiltonian path in the graph method with additional conditions in nodes.

The core of the algorithm is a dynamic data structure which is based on events list. The optimization of field measurement solves the time demands and brings economic effectiveness.

The technology enables to determine the precise position with absolute difference limit from 10 to 15 mm within GNSS CZEPOS permanent network in the territory of Czech Republic.

Technology is the result of applied research.

This technology innovates the current procedure of geodetic control network determination used by Railway Infrastructure Administration (state organization) in Czech Republic.

The event means measurement at a given track point and time for a specified duration of observation. The algorithm was realized in Borland Delphi. The optimization of field measurement solves its time demands and increases economic effectiveness. The technology enables precise position determination with absolute difference limit from 10 to 15 mm within GNSS CZEPOS permanent network in the territory of Czech Republic. It has been verified in field selected electrified and non-electrified railway lines.

The purpose of this paper shows the effect of hot and humid weather conditions (HHWCs) on workers that has resulted in considerable loss in the construction industry, especially during the hottest periods due to decline in worker productivity (WP). Until the last few decades, there is very limited research on construction WP in HHWCs. Nevertheless, these studies have sparked interests on seeking for the most appropriate methods to assess the impact of HHWCs on construction workers.

This paper begins by reviewing the current measuring methods on WP in HHWCs, follows by presenting the potential impact of HHWCs on WP. The paper highlights the methodological deficiencies, which consequently provides a platform for scholars and practitioners to direct future research to resolve the significant productivity loss due to global warming. This paper highlights the need to identify the limitations and advantages of the current methods to formulate a framework of new approaches to measure the WP in HHWCs.

Results show that the methods used in providing real-time response on the effects of HHWCs on WP in construction at project, task and crew levels are limited. An integration of nonintrusive real-time monitoring system and local weather measurement with real-time data synchronisation and analysis is required to produce suitable information to determine worker health- and safety-related decisions in HHWCs.

The comprehensive literature review makes an original contribution to WP measurements filed in HHWCs in the construction industry. Results of this review provide researchers and practitioners with an insight into challenges associated with the measurements methods and solving practical site measurements issues. The findings will also enable the researchers and practitioners to bridge the identified research gaps in this research field and enhance the ability to provide accurate measures in HHWCs. The proposed research framework may promote potential improvements in the productivity measurements methods, which support researchers and practitioners in developing new innovative methods in HHWCs with the integration of the most recent monitoring technologies.