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Following a quick survey of the resin systems commercially available, this paper focuses on the design considerations of high temperature matrices. The report examines in detail the key points of the final target properties of a resin system and, by illustrating some of the transfer mechanisms, how they relate to the matrix reinforcement and the copper environment. Based on this, the construction of a development scheme incorporating the various parameters relating structure, chemistry and properties is presented. In high temperature systems, particular emphasis is placed on fracture toughness and related effects in the case of polyimides, such as copper peel strength, delamination, cracking subsequent to drilling operations or thermal cycling. The conclusion is that the number of controllable matrix parameters is surprisingly small: Tg, CTE, K1c/G1c, modulus and elongation at break, in addition to a few others. Finally, this study shows how all of these data were collectively applied to the practical development of a new Kerimid(™). Further studies are now under way to enhance the importance of additional parameters regarding more complex phenomena such as the drilling operation.

Optimization processes and movement modeling usually require a high number of simulations. The purpose of this paper is to reduce global central processing unit (CPU) time by decreasing each evaluation time.

Remeshing the geometry at each iteration is avoided in the proposed method. The idea consists in using a fixed mesh on which functions are projected to represent geometry and supply.

Results are very promising. CPU time is reduced for three dimensional problems by almost a factor two, keeping a low relative deviation from usual methods. CPU time saving is performed by avoiding meshing step and also by a better initialization of iterative resolution. Optimization, movement modeling and transient-state simulation are very efficient and give same results as usual finite element method.

The method is restricted to simple geometry owing to the difficulty of finding spatial mathematical function describing the geometry. Moreover, a compromise between imprecision, caused by the boundary evaluation, and time saving must be found.

The method can be applied to optimize rotating machines design. Moreover, movement modeling is performed by shifting functions corresponding to moving parts.

The reason for concern is the rapid decline in loans to small enterprises which is critical to their performance, compared to large businesses following the periods of banking reformations in Nigeria. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of risk perception on bank lending behaviour to small enterprises. It also investigates the impact of government intervention, consolidation and recapitalization on the relationship between risk perception and bank lending behaviour to small enterprise.

This study empirically analysed (ordinary least square) secondary data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletins, Annual Statement of Accounts covering the period 1992–2020.

The results show that the absence of government interventions and the presence of banking reformations have statistically negative significant effect on bank lending to small enterprises. The findings challenge the argument that generally assumes risk aversion of banks towards small enterprise lending because of small enterprise’s inability to prove their credit worthiness and consequently constraining access to finance to the sector. Instead, the results and analysis from this study found theoretical support for the variation of bank behaviour in lending to small enterprises depending on the status of wealth of the financial system.

A key lesson from this study for government concerned about promoting performance of the small enterprise sector is that regulating and enforcing lending requirements on access to debt financing of the sector is necessary if constraints in access debt finance is to be eliminated. Second, while strategies such as bank consolidation, recapitalization may help strengthen and make financially robust the banking system; it places the banks in a gain position where losses looms to them than gain.

This study challenges the argument that generally assumes risk aversion of banks towards small enterprise lending as a result of inability to prove their credit worthiness and consequently constraining access to finance to the sector. Instead, the results and analysis from this study reveal a variation in lending to small enterprises and suggests that the position of the bank in relation to a reference point influences how risk is perceived by the bank and thus impacts on their risk decision-making behaviour.

This chapter reconsiders commonly held views on the ownership and management of private property, contrasting capitalist and simple property, particularly in relation to how a firm shareholder governance model has shaped society. This consideration is motivated by the scale and scope of the modern global crisis, which has combined financial, economic, social and cultural dimensions to produce world disenchantment.

By contrasting an exchange value standpoint with a use value perspective, this chapter explicates current conditions in which neither the state nor the market prevail in organising economic activity (i.e. cooperative forms of governance and community-created brand value).

This chapter offers recommendations related to formalised conditions for collective action and definitions of common guiding principles that can facilitate new expressions of the principles of coordination. Such behaviours can support the development of common resources, which then should lead to a re-appropriation of the world.

It is necessary to think of enterprises outside a company or firm context when reflecting on the end purpose and means of collective, citizen action. From a methodological standpoint, current approaches or studies that view an enterprise as an organisation, without differentiating it from a company, create a deadlock in relation to entrepreneurial collective action. The absence of a legal definition of enterprise reduces understanding and evaluations of its performance to simply the performance by a company. The implicit shift thus facilitates the assimilation of one with the other, in a funnel effect that reduces collective projects to the sole projects of capital providers.

Because forsaking society as it stands is a radical response, this historical moment makes it necessary to revisit the ideals on which modern societies build, including the philosophy of freedom for all. This utopian concept has produced an ideology that is limited by capitalist notions of private property.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for the safety performance measurement of belt conveyor systems.

A structural methodology of graph theory and matrix approach is used for developing a framework for safety performance measurement of belt conveyor systems.

The development of a framework for safety performance measurement of belt conveyor systems is essential for ensuring plant safety. For this, safety performance factors, including design and operating contextual factors of belt conveyor systems, are identified. The factors along with their interrelations are modeled using digraph. An equivalent matrix of the digraph provided safety performance function (SPF) of belt conveyor systems, leading to the development of a safety performance index (SPI).

The developed framework will enable the designers for evaluating and comparing alternative designs of conveyor systems from the safety viewpoint. The plant operators can make inferences from the SPI to identify the weak contextual factors in the plant and develop action plans for its mitigation.

The paper is novel and employs graph theory and matrix approach for safety performance measurement. The methodology helps in the quantitative evaluation of the safety performance of belt conveyor systems.

The objective of this research was to identify Facione’s six critical thinking skills using graduate students blogs as a reflection tool in the context of leadership using structured and unstructured blogs. The skills researched were (a) Interpretation, (b) Analysis, (c) Evaluation, (d) Inference,(e) Explanation, and (f) Self-Regulation (Facione, 1990). It was evident that providing students with guidelines for the purpose of blogging in the classroom was more thought evoking over the duration of the course compared to students following an open reflection. Self-Regulation and explanation were the skills used most consistently among participants. With this knowledge, how do educators encourage students to use the other four skills just as often?

In this chapter we highlight a neurodynamic approach that is showing promise as a quantitative measure of team performance.

During teamwork the rapid electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillations that emerge on the scalp were transformed into symbolic data streams which provided historical details at a second-by-second resolution of how the team perceived the evolving task and how they adjusted their dynamics to compensate for, and anticipate new task challenges. Key to this approach are the different strategies that can be used to reduce the data dimensionality, including compression, abstraction and taking advantage of the natural redundancy in biologic signals.

The framework emerging is that teams continually enter and leave organizational neurodynamic partnerships with each other, so-called metastable states, depending on the evolving task, with higher level dynamics arising from mechanisms that naturally integrate over faster microscopic dynamics.

The development of quantitative measures of the momentary dynamics of teams is anticipated to significantly influence how teams are assembled, trained, and supported. The availability of such measures will enable objective comparisons to be made across teams, training protocols, and training sites. They will lead to better understandings of how expertise is developed and how training can be modified to accelerate the path toward expertise.

The innovation of this study is the potential it raises for developing globally applicable quantitative models of team dynamics that will allow comparisons to be made across teams, tasks, and training protocols.