Physical capital and its consequences for fitness workers in Queensland

Sexual, social and employment success have been linked to the physical capital drawn from having aesthetic attributes of the socially idealised body. In certain workplace settings, such as health and fitness centres, the body becomes a mainstream commodity with physical capital affording the fitness worker a high degree of distinction and adoration as well as employment opportunities. The employment relationship is shaped by 'lookism', with both the employer and employee taking advantage of the fitness worker's idealised form. The worker's physical capital provides a walking billboard advertising the employer's products and services, while exposure to comparison and adoration provides a heightened sense of self-worth, distinction and celebrity. Fitness workers appear to be prepared to ignore poor employment conditions or trade-off standard entitlements for the alternative rewards that their physical capital brings.

Scheduling a flow-shop with combined buffer conditions

In this paper, No-Wait, No-Buffer, Limited-Buffer, and Infinite-Buffer conditions for the flow-shop problem (FSP) have been investigated. These four different buffer conditions have been combined to generate a new class of scheduling problem, which is significant for modelling many real-world scheduling problems. A new heuristic algorithm is developed to solve this strongly NP-hard problem. Detailed numerical implementations have been analysed and promising results have been achieved.

China's new Creative Clusters : Governance, Human Capital and Investment

Recognising that creativity is a major driving force in the post-industrial economy, the Chinese government has recently established a range of "creative clusters" – industrial parks devoted to media industries, and arts districts – in order to promote the development of the creative industries. This book examines these new creative clusters, outlining their nature and purpose, and assessing their effectiveness. Drawing on case studies of a range of cluster models, and comparing them with international examples, the book demonstrates that creativity, both in China and internationally, is in fact a process of fitting new ideas to existing patterns, models and formats. It shows how large and exceptionally impressive creative clusters have been successfully established, but raises the important questions of whether profit or culture is the driving force, and of whether the bringing together of independent-minded, creative people, entrepreneurial businessmen, preferential policies and foreign investment may in time lead to unintended changes in social and political attitudes in China, including a weakening of state bureaucratic power. An important contribution to the existing literature on the subject, this book will be of great interest to scholars of urban studies, cultural geography, cultural economics and Asian studies.

The role of social and human capital among nascent entrepreneurs

This study examines nascent entrepreneurship by comparing individuals engaged in nascent activities (n=380) with a control group (n=608), after screening a sample from the general population (n=30,427). The study then follows the developmental process of nascent entrepreneurs for 18 months. Bridging and bonding social capital, consisting of both strong and weak ties, was a robust predictor for nascent entrepreneurs, as well as for advancing through the start-up process. With regard to outcomes like first sale or showing a profit, only one aspect of social capital, viz. being a member of a business network, had a statistically significant positive effect. The study supports human capital in predicting entry into nascent entrepreneurship, but only weakly for carrying the start-up process towards successful completion.

New exact solutions for Hele-Shaw flow in doubly connected regions

Radial Hele-Shaw flows are treated analytically using conformal mapping techniques. The geometry of interest has a doubly-connected annular region of viscous fluid surrounding an inviscid bubble that is either expanding or contracting due to a pressure difference caused by injection or suction of the inviscid fluid. The zero-surface-tension problem is ill-posed for both bubble expansion and contraction, as both scenarios involve viscous fluid displacing inviscid fluid. Exact solutions are derived by tracking the location of singularities and critical points in the analytic continuation of the mapping function. We show that by treating the critical points, it is easy to observe finite-time blow-up, and the evolution equations may be written in exact form using complex residues. We present solutions that start with cusps on one interface and end with cusps on the other, as well as solutions that have the bubble contracting to a point. For the latter solutions, the bubble approaches an ellipse in shape at extinction.

Double diffusive magneto-convection fluid flow in a strong cross magnetic field with uniform surface heat and mass flux

In this study, magnetohydrodynamic natural convection boundary layer flow of an electrically conducting and viscous incompressible fluid along a heated vertical flat plate with uniform heat and mass flux in the presence of strong cross magnetic field has been investigated. For smooth integrations the boundary layer equations are transformed in to a convenient dimensionless form by using stream function formulation as well as the free variable formulation. The nonsimilar parabolic partial differential equations are integrated numerically for Pr ≪1 that is appropriate for liquid metals against the local Hartmann parameter ξ . Further, asymptotic solutions are obtained near the leading edge using regular perturbation method for smaller values of ξ . Solutions for values of ξ ≫ 1 are also obtained by employing the matched asymptotic technique. The results obtained for small, large and all ξ regimes are examined in terms of shear stress, τw, rate of heat transfer, qw, and rate of mass transfer, mw, for important physical parameter. Attention has been given to the influence of Schmidt number, Sc, buoyancy ratio parameter, N and local Hartmann parameter, ξ on velocity, temperature and concentration distributions and noted that velocity and temperature of the fluid achieve their asymptotic profiles for Sc ≥ 10:0.

A preliminary study into the environmental and economic consequences of a sugar factory depithing operation

Bagasse stockpile operations have the potential to lead to adverse environmental and social impacts. Dust releases can cause occupational health and safety concerns for factory workers and dust emissions impact on the surrounding community. Preliminary modelling showed that bagasse depithing would likely reduce the environmental risks, particularly dust emissions, associated with large scale bagasse stockpiling operations. Dust emission properties were measured and used for dispersion modelling with favourable outcomes. Modelling showed a 70% reduction in peak ground level concentrations of PM10 dust (particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 µm) from operations on depithed bagasse stockpiles compared to similar operations on stockpiles of whole bagasse. However, the costs of a depithing operation at a sugar factory were estimated to be approximately $2.1 million in capital expenditure to process 100,000 t/y of bagasse and operating costs were approximately $200,000 p.a. The total capital cost for a 10,000 t/y operation was approximately $1.6 million. The cost of depithing based on a discounted cash flow analysis was $5.50 per tonne of bagasse for the 100,000 t/y scenario. This may make depithing prohibitively expensive in many situations if installed exclusively as a dust control measure.

XBRL : the future of financial reporting and a catalyst for capital market development

There has never been a better time to strengthen financial reporting in Fiji. With increased interest shown by prospective companies in capital market participation, the pressing problems in the public sector reporting and accountability and global emphasis on the increasing need to strengthen the corporate governance structure, this is perhaps the opportune time to consider the potential of XBRL.

Mixed convection flow of micropolar fluid in an open ended arc-shape cavity

Numerical simulations for mixed convection of micropolar fluid in an open ended arc-shape cavity have been carried out in this study. Computation is performed using the Alternate Direct Implicit (ADI) method together with the Successive Over Relaxation (SOR) technique for the solution of governing partial differential equations. The flow phenomenon is examined for a range of values of Rayleigh number, 102 ≤ Ra ≤ 106, Prandtl number, 7 ≤ Pr ≤ 50, and Reynolds number, 10 ≤ Re ≤ 100. The study is mainly focused on how the micropolar fluid parameters affect the fluid properties in the flow domain. It was found that despite the reduction of flow in the core region, the heat transfer rate increases, whereas the skin friction and microrotation decrease with the increase in the vortex viscosity parameter, Δ.

Water–rock interactions : an investigation of the relationships between mineralogy and groundwater composition and flow in a subtropical basalt aquifer

A holistic study of the composition of the basalt groundwaters of the Atherton Tablelands region in Queensland, Australia was undertaken to elucidate possible mechanisms for the evolution of these very low salinity, silica- and bicarbonate-rich groundwaters. It is proposed that aluminosilicate mineral weathering is the major contributing process to the overall composition of the basalt groundwaters. The groundwaters approach equilibrium with respect to the primary minerals with increasing pH and are mostly in equilibrium with the major secondary minerals (kaolinite and smectite), and other secondary phases such as goethite, hematite, and gibbsite, which are common accessory minerals in the Atherton basalts. The mineralogy of the basalt rocks, which has been examined using X-ray diffraction and whole rock geochemistry methods, supports the proposed model for the hydrogeochemical evolution of these groundwaters: precipitation + CO 2 (atmospheric + soil) + pyroxene + feldspars + olivine yields H 4SiO 4, HCO 3 -, Mg 2+, Na +, Ca 2+ + kaolinite and smectite clays + amorphous or crystalline silica + accessory minerals (hematite, goethite, gibbsite, carbonates, zeolites, and pyrite). The variations in the mineralogical content of these basalts also provide insights into the controls on groundwater storage and movement in this aquifer system. The fresh and weathered vesicular basalts are considered to be important in terms of zones of groundwater occurrence, while the fractures in the massive basalt are important pathways for groundwater movement.

Prandtl number scaling of natural convection of the flow on an inclined at plate due to uniform surface heat flux

A new scaling analysis has been performed for the unsteady natural convection boundary layer under a downward facing inclined plate with uniform heat flux. The development of the thermal or viscous boundary layers may be classified into three distinct stages including an early stage, a transitional stage and a steady stage, which can be clearly identified in the analytical as well as numerical results. Earlier scaling shows that the existing scaling laws of the boundary layer thickness, velocity and steady state time scales for the natural convection flow on a heated plate of uniform heat flux provide a very poor prediction of the Prandtl number dependency. However, those scalings performed very well with Rayleigh number and aspect ratio dependency. In this study, a modifed Prandtl number scaling has been developed using a triple-layer integral approach for Pr > 1. It is seen that in comparison to the direct numerical simulations, the new scaling performs considerably better than the previous scaling.