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Offshore structures are generally constructed as frameworks of tubular members. The tubular joints should be designed to allow the full post yield or post buckled capacity of the members. However, design guidelines for ultimate strength capacity of these joints are based exclusively upon compilations of test data for simple configurations under simple loading conditions. A methodology based upon the finite element method is presented for analytically predicting the ultimate strength of arbitrary tubular joints. Eight node, isoparametric, curved shell elements were used for the majority of the tubular joint model. Twenty node, isoparametric, solid elements were used to capture the three‐dimensional stress state at the shell intersection while fifteen node, isoparametric, wedge elements modelled the weld profile. Solid‐shell transition elements provided the connection between the three‐dimensional solid elements and the surface based shell elements. Non‐linearities were included via an elastoplastic material model with isotropic strain hardening and the updated Lagrangian approach for finite deflections and rotations. Several experimental tubular joint analyses were reproduced to validate the analytical procedure. Non‐linear finite element analysis was shown to be a practical approach for the evaluation and extension of current design procedures for tubular joints.

Classical definitions of motivation typically involve two main components: direction and activation. Motivated behavior is directed toward or away from particular stimuli (i.e., appetitive and aversive motivation). Furthermore, activational aspects of motivation refer to the observation that motivated behavior is characterized by substantial activity, vigor, persistence, and exertion of effort in both the initiation and maintenance of behavior. Although separate neural systems direct organisms toward distinct motivational stimuli (e.g., food, water, sex), there appears to be a common circuitry regulating behavioral activation and the exertion of effort. Mesolimbic dopamine is one of the brain systems mediating activational aspects of motivation and exertion of effort. This system integrates aspects of motivation and motor control functions involved in the instigation of action. Research on the neurobiology of effort has contributed to our understanding of the pathophysiology of neurological and psychiatric disorders that are characterized by motivational dysfunction.

Offers the results of an attempt to trace and characterise the origins of what is sometimes termed motivational research. Proclaims that motivational research, complementing formal market research, arises in economic conditions of competitive mass‐production associated with relative affluence and herein is an historical guide to the part played by psychology in modern marketing. Maintains that research effort prior to the introduction of motivational research was concerned with defining markets and developing survey techniques, especially in relation to sampling, questionnaire design, structured interviewing, etc. Concludes that the treatment of many matters of interest here, have had to be relatively condensed but a future article proposes to adjust this.

This paper reassesses the center-periphery relationship in light of recent developments in the international monetary system and the currency hierarchy in a geopolitical economy framework. The center-periphery relationship has historically been examined in relation to the international division of labor, the pace and diffusion of technical progress associated with it, and the pattern of consumption it embodies. As conceived by structuralists and dependentistas, it is not seen as the result of the uneven and combined development of capitalism: it does not take into account the struggle between the dominant States (center), which want to reproduce the current order and the contender States (periphery) which aim to accelerate capitalist development to reduce the unevenness, and even to undermine the imperial project of dominant states. In a geopolitical economy framework, a powerful obstacle peripheral countries face in their efforts at combined development is the international monetary system, something that the theorists of the center-periphery relationship have perhaps overlooked. Because of its subordinate position in the currency hierarchy, the periphery is subject to greater external vulnerability, greater instability of exchange and interest rates, and as a result, enjoys a more restricted policy space. In this sense, the chapter shows that, beyond macroeconomic policies, the currency hierarchy in a context of high capital mobility limits a range of developmental policies of peripheral countries, reinforcing the unevenness of world economy and constraining combined development.

Torture has been practiced for millennia, albeit the means, rationales, and objectives have changed. (For an extended discussion of torture's past, see Hajjar, 2009.) Starting in the 12th century, the rediscovery of Roman law in western Europe revived torture as an aspect of criminal legal processes, both ecclesiastical and secular. According to Edward Peters (1996, p. 41), “the inquisitorial procedure displaced the older accusatorial procedure. Instead of the confirmed and verified freeman's oath, confession was elevated to the top of the hierarchy of proofs…[T]he place of confession in legal procedure…explains the reappearance of torture in medieval and early modern law.”

To improve our understanding of the impact of organizational learning and knowledge on competitive advantage, we propose a framework that includes the constructs of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. Each of these constructs is then associated with a different type of learning. We further argue that wisdom is an important, albeit missing, construct in the knowledge‐based theory of the firm. A key to organizational wisdom is judgement and decision making, which requires an understanding of the complexity of a situation, but also requires the ability to make sense and simplify so that action can be taken. Three important drivers for the development of organizational wisdom are experience, a passion to learn, and spirituality. Processes for acquiring organizational wisdom such as transformational leadership, organizational culture and knowledge transfer are also discussed.