Failure analysis of engineering systems with preventive maintenance and failure interactions

Optimal operation and maintenance of engineering systems heavily rely on the accurate prediction of their failures. Most engineering systems, especially mechanical systems, are susceptible to failure interactions. These failure interactions can be estimated for repairable engineering systems when determining optimal maintenance strategies for these systems. An extended Split System Approach is developed in this paper. The technique is based on the Split System Approach and a model for interactive failures. The approach was applied to simulated data. The results indicate that failure interactions will increase the hazard of newly repaired components. The intervals of preventive maintenance actions of a system with failure interactions, will become shorter compared with scenarios where failure interactions do not exist.

Young Children and the Environment : Early Learning for Sustainability

This world-first text book on early childhood edcuation for sustainabilty tackles one of the biggest contemporary issues of our times - the changing environmment - and demonstrates how early education can contribute to sustainable living. An essential text for students in early childhood teacher education and a practcial resource for child care practitioners and primary school teachers, it is designed to promote edcuation for sustainabilty from birth to eight years. the text refers to national and international initiatives such as 'sustainable Schools', 'Child Friendly Cities' and 'Health Promoting Schools' and explores their existing and potential links with early childhood education. Groundbreaking content draws on recent literature in the areas of organisational, educational and cultural chnage, and environmental sustainabilty. Specific chapters explore ethical challenges and the use of ICT to advance learning. Case studies and vignettes exemplify leadership in practice and 'provocations' are integrated throughout to inspire new ways of thinking about the environment, the wider world, young children and the transformative power of early edcuation.

Load on osseointegrated fixation of a transfemoral amputee during a fall : loading, descent, impact and recovery analysis

Falling represents a health risk for lower limb amputees fitted with an osseointegrated fixation mainly because of the potential damage to the fixation. The purpose of this study was to characterise a real forward fall that occurred inadvertently to a transfemoral amputee fitted with an osseointegrated fixation while attending a gait measurement session to assess the load applied on the residuum. The objective was to analyse the load applied on the fixation with an emphasis on the sequence of events, the pattern and the magnitude of the forces and moments. The load was measured directly at 200 Hz using a six-channel transducer. Complementary video footage was also studied. The fall was divided into four phases: loading (240 ms), descent (620 ms), impact (365 ms) and recovery (2495 ms). The main impact forces and moments occurred 870 ms and 915 ms after the heel contact, and corresponded to 133 %BW and 17 %BWm, or 1.2 and 11.2 times the maximum forces and moments applied during the previous steps of the participant, respectively. This study provided key information to engineers and clinicians facing the challenge to design equipment, and rehabilitation and exercise programs to restore safely the locomotion of lower limb amputees.

Campylobacter jejuni and campylobacter coli genotyping by high-resolution melting analysis of a flaA fragment

The highly variable flagellin-encoding flaA gene has long been used for genotyping Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli. High-resolution melting (HRM) analysis is emerging as an efficient and robust method for discriminating DNA sequence variants. The objective of this study was to apply HRM analysis to flaA-based genotyping. The initial aim was to identify a suitable flaA fragment. It was found that the PCR primers commonly used to amplify the flaA short variable repeat (SVR) yielded a mixed PCR product unsuitable for HRM analysis. However, a PCR primer set composed of the upstream primer used to amplify the fragment used for flaA restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis and the downstream primer used for flaA SVR amplification generated a very pure PCR product, and this primer set was used for the remainder of the study. Eighty-seven C. jejuni and 15 C. coli isolates were analyzed by flaA HRM and also partial flaA sequencing. There were 47 flaA sequence variants, and all were resolved by HRM analysis. The isolates used had previously also been genotyped using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), binary markers, CRISPR HRM, and flaA RFLP. flaAHRManalysis provided resolving power multiplicative to the SNPs, binary markers, and CRISPR HRM and largely concordant with the flaA RFLP. It was concluded that HRM analysis is a promising approach to genotyping based on highly variable genes.

An analysis of cyclists crashes to identify ITS-based intervention

Cycling provides a number of health and environmental benefits. However, cyclists are more likely to suffer serious injury or be killed in traffic accidents than car drivers and the estimated cost of crashes in Australia is $1.25AU billion per year. Current interventions to reduce bicycle crashes include compulsory helmet use, media campaigns, and the provision of cycling lanes, as well as road user education and training. It is difficult to assess the effectiveness of current interventions as there is no accurate measure of cyclist exposure in South East Queensland (SEQ). This paper analyses cyclist crash characteristics in Queensland with the view to identifying appropriate Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) based intervention to reduce cyclist injury and death. The inappropriateness of some ITS interventions to improve cyclist safety is highlighted and a set of ITS interventions are identified, based on Queensland crash data 2002-2006.

The planning of airport regions and National Aviation Policy Issues and challenges in the Australian experience 2008-2009

The planning of airports has long been contentious because of their localisation of negative impacts. The globalisation, commercialisation and deregulation of the aviation industry has unleashed powerful new economic forces both on and offairport. Over the last two decades, many airports have evolved into airport cities located at the heart of the wider aerotropolis region. This shifts the appropriate scale of planning analysis towards broader regional concerns. However,governments have been slow to respond and airport planning usually remains poorly integrated with local, city and regional planning imperatives. The Australian experience exemplifies the divide. The privatization of major Australian airports from 1996 has seen billions of dollars spent on new airside and landside infrastructure but with little oversight from local and state authorities because the ultimate authority for on-airport development is the Federal Minister for Transport. Consequently, there have been growing tensions in many major airport regions between the private airport lessee and the broader community, exacerbated by both the building of highly conspicuous non-aeronautical developments and growing airport area congestion. This paper examines the urban planning content of Australia’s national aviation policy review (2008-09) with reference to current and potential opportunities for all-of-region collaboration in the planning process.

Power system stability analysis based on descriptive study of electrical indices

In a power network, when a propagation energy wave caused by a disturbance hits a weak link, a reflection is appeared and some of energy is transferred across the link. In this work, an analytical descriptive methodology is proposed to study the dynamical stability of a large scale power system. For this purpose, the measured electrical indices (angle, or voltage/frequency) following a fault in different points among the network are used, and the behaviors of the propagated waves through the lines, nodes and buses are studied. This work addresses a new tool for power system stability analysis based on a descriptive study of electrical measurements. The proposed methodology is also useful to detect the contingency condition and synthesis of an effective emergency control scheme.

A regulatory analysis of international climate change regulation

The political challenges impeding the negotiation of a comprehensive multilateral agreement on international climate change have received a great deal of attention. A question that has gone somewhat overlooked is what essential components an effective regulatory scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should contain. The objective of this article is to examine the regulatory architecture of current international arrangements relating to global climate change regulation. A systematic analysis of the structure, substantive composition, and administrative characteristics of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol is undertaken. The analytical standard against which the agreements are examined is whether current international regulatory arrangements satisfy the basic requirements of regulatory coherence. The analysis identifies how the present scheme consists of a complex institutional structure that lacks a substantive regulatory core. The implications of the absence of functional and effective mechanisms to govern greenhouse gas emission reductions are considered in relation to the principles of good regulatory design. This, in turn, provides useful insights into how a better regulatory scheme might be designed.

Strategic information systems research : an archival analysis

The Journal of Strategic Information Systems (JSIS) has been an international outlet for Information Systems research that focuses on strategic issues since 1991. This paper reports on an analysis of the research published in JSIS to date. The paper presents a preliminary classification system for research topics related to Strategic Information Systems into which all 316 JSIS research papers as at end 2009 are classified. Discussion on changing emphases in topics over time is provided, in the context of the editorial philosophy of the journal. The paper seeks to stimulate discussion on future directions for research in Strategic Information Systems.

Demographic category membership and leadership in small groups : a social identity analysis

Developing the social identity theory of leadership (e.g., [Hogg, M. A. (2001). A social identity theory of leadership. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 184–200]), an experiment (N=257) tested the hypothesis that as group members identify more strongly with their group (salience) their evaluations of leadership effectiveness become more strongly influenced by the extent to which their demographic stereotype-based impressions of their leader match the norm of the group (prototypicality). Participants, with more or less traditional gender attitudes (orientation), were members, under high or low group salience conditions (salience), of non-interactive laboratory groups that had “instrumental” or “expressive” group norms (norm), and a male or female leader (leader gender). As predicted, these four variables interacted significantly to affect perceptions of leadership effectiveness. Reconfiguration of the eight conditions formed by orientation, norm and leader gender produced a single prototypicality variable. Irrespective of participant gender, prototypical leaders were considered more effective in high then low salience groups, and in high salience groups prototypical leaders were more effective than less prototypical leaders. Alternative explanations based on status characteristics and role incongruity theory do not account well for the findings. Implications of these results for the glass ceiling effect and for a wider social identity analysis of the impact of demographic group membership on leadership in small groups are discussed.

Critical discourse analysis and political economy of communication : understanding the new corporate order

This article uses critical discourse analysis to analyse material shifts in the political economy of communications. It examines texts of major corporations to describe four key changes in political economy: (1) the separation of ownership from control; (2) the separation of business from industry; (3) the separation of accountability from responsibility; and (4) the subjugation of ‘going concerns’ by overriding concerns. The authors argue that this amounts to a political economic shift from traditional concepts of ‘capitalism’ to a new ‘corporatism’ in which the relationships between public and private, state and individual interests have become redefined and obscured through new discourse strategies. They conclude that the present financial and regulatory ‘crisis’ cannot be adequately resolved without a new analytic framework for examining the relationships between corporation, discourse and political economy.

Indoor environment sustainability of residential industrial housing in Malaysia

The importance of sustainable development has been internationally recognized and the principles have been widely used as an impetus for promoting housing sustainability. In the situation of mixed-use urban development in close proximity to heavy industrial areas in Malaysia, rising incomes are developing hand in hand with higher expectations for better and more sustainable housing designs. Negative environmental impacts due current deficiency in Malaysia’s approach to the implementation of sustainable development principles can be seen in this case study of the Pasir Gudang Industrial Area in Malaysia. This study aimed to highlight the level of residents’ satisfaction with living near the industrial area, and to relate their awareness of the relevance of sustainable principles with indoor environmental conditions, which found that the residents’ has limited understanding of the environmental problems in their indoor living conditions and in their neighborhoods. This study has suggested that proactive and integrated involvement by housing authorities from all levels of government in Malaysia should be encouraged in order to rationalise the approaches to develop better planning solutions for such mixed-used urban developments. This initiative should then encourage housing vendors to provide innovative ‘smart’ technological changes to their projects and so, to achieve a new direction in sustainable housing development.

Employee work motivation and discretionary work effort

The focus of this thesis is discretionary work effort, that is, work effort that is voluntary, is above and beyond what is minimally required or normally expected to avoid reprimand or dismissal, and is organisationally functional. Discretionary work effort is an important construct because it is known to affect individual performance as well as organisational efficiency and effectiveness. To optimise organisational performance and ensure their long term competitiveness and sustainability, firms need to be able to induce their employees to work at or near their peak level. To work at or near their peak level, individuals must be willing to supply discretionary work effort. Thus, managers need to understand the determinants of discretionary work effort. Nonetheless, despite many years of scholarly investigation across multiple disciplines, considerable debate still exists concerning why some individuals supply only minimal work effort whilst others expend effort well above and beyond what is minimally required of them (Le. they supply discretionary work effort). Even though it is well recognised that discretionary work effort is important for promoting organisational performance and effectiveness, many authors claim that too little is being done by managers to increase the discretionary work effort of their employees. In this research, I have adopted a multi-disciplinary approach towards investigating the role of monetary and non-monetary work environment characteristics in determining discretionary work effort. My central research questions were "What non-monetary work environment characteristics do employees perceive as perks (perquisites) and irks (irksome work environment characteristics)?" and "How do perks, irks and monetary rewards relate to an employee's level of discretionary work effort?" My research took a unique approach in addressing these research questions. By bringing together the economics and organisational behaviour (OB) literatures, I identified problems with the current definition and conceptualisations of the discretionary work effort construct. I then developed and empirically tested a more concise and theoretically-based definition and conceptualisation of this construct. In doing so, I disaggregated discretionary work effort to include three facets - time, intensity and direction - and empirically assessed if different classes of work environment characteristics have a differential pattern of relationships with these facets. This analysis involved a new application of a multi-disciplinary framework of human behaviour as a tool for classifying work environment characteristics and the facets of discretionary work effort. To test my model of discretionary work effort, I used a public sector context in which there has been limited systematic empirical research into work motivation. The program of research undertaken involved three separate but interrelated studies using mixed methods. Data on perks, irks, monetary rewards and discretionary work effort were gathered from employees in 12 organisations in the local government sector in Western Australia. Non-monetary work environment characteristics that should be associated with discretionary work effort were initially identified through a review of the literature. Then, a qualitative study explored what work behaviours public sector employees perceive as discretionary and what perks and irks were associated with high and low levels of discretionary work effort. Next, a quantitative study developed measures of these perks and irks. A Q-sorttype procedure and exploratory factor analysis were used to develop the perks and irks measures. Finally, a second quantitative study tested the relationships amongst perks, irks, monetary rewards and discretionary work effort. Confirmatory factor analysis was firstly used to confirm the factor structure of the measurement models. Correlation analysis, regression analysis and effect-size correlation analysis were used to test the hypothesised relationships in the proposed model of discretionary work effort. The findings confirmed five hypothesised non-monetary work environment characteristics as common perks and two of three hypothesised non-monetary work environment characteristics as common irks. Importantly, they showed that perks, irks and monetary rewards are differentially related to the different facets of discretionary work effort. The convergent and discriminant validities of the perks and irks constructs as well as the time, intensity and direction facets of discretionary work effort were generally confirmed by the research findings. This research advances the literature in several ways: (i) it draws on the Economics and OB literatures to redefine and reconceptualise the discretionary work effort construct to provide greater definitional clarity and a more complete conceptualisation of this important construct; (ii) it builds on prior research to create a more comprehensive set of perks and irks for which measures are developed; (iii) it develops and empirically tests a new motivational model of discretionary work effort that enhances our understanding of the nature and functioning of perks and irks and advances our ability to predict discretionary work effort; and (iv) it fills a substantial gap in the literature on public sector work motivation by revealing what work behaviours public sector employees perceive as discretionary and what work environment characteristics are associated with their supply of discretionary work effort. Importantly, by disaggregating discretionary work effort this research provides greater detail on how perks, irks and monetary rewards are related to the different facets of discretionary work effort. Thus, from a theoretical perspective this research also demonstrates the conceptual meaningfulness and empirical utility of investigating the different facets of discretionary work effort separately. From a practical perspective, identifying work environment factors that are associated with discretionary work effort enhances managers' capacity to tap this valuable resource. This research indicates that to maximise the potential of their human resources, managers need to address perks, irks and monetary rewards. It suggests three different mechanisms through which managers might influence discretionary work effort and points to the importance of training for both managers and non-managers in cultivating positive interpersonal relationships.

What shapes player performance in soccer? Empirical findings from a panel analysis

In this article, we investigate the pay-performance relationship of soccer players using individual data from eight seasons of the German soccer league Bundesliga. We find a nonlinear pay-performance relationship, indicating that salary does indeed affect individual performance. The results further show that player performance is affected not only by absolute income level but also by relative income position. An additional analysis of the performance impact of team effects provides evidence of a direct impact of team-mate attributes on individual player performance.

An analysis of the determinants of job satisfaction when individuals' baseline satisfaction levels may differ.

A growing literature seeks to explain differences in individuals' self-reported satisfaction with their jobs. The evidence so far has mainly been based on cross-sectional data and when panel data have been used, individual unobserved heterogeneity has been modelled as an ordered probit model with random effects. This article makes use of longitudinal data for Denmark, taken from the waves 1995-1999 of the European Community Household Panel, and estimates fixed effects ordered logit models using the estimation methods proposed by Ferrer-i-Carbonel and Frijters (2004) and Das and van Soest (1999). For comparison and testing purposes a random effects ordered probit is also estimated. Estimations are carried out separately on the samples of men and women for individuals' overall satisfaction with the jobs they hold. We find that using the fixed effects approach (that clearly rejects the random effects specification), considerably reduces the number of key explanatory variables. The impact of central economic factors is the same as in previous studies, though. Moreover, the determinants of job satisfaction differ considerably between the genders, in particular once individual fixed effects are allowed for.