Editorial

Citation

Haupt, T.C. (2011), "Editorial", Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Vol. 9 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt.2011.34309aaa.002

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Volume 9, Issue 1

The first issue of Volume 9 of the Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology contains papers on an alternative current (AC) power conversion unit, safety performance of the Cypriot manufacturing sector, adaptive reuse strategies in buildings, custom-built low cost thermal vacuum chambers, testing very-large-scale integration (VLSI) interconnects, the workplace as a writing-practice research site and the use of numerical methods in tunnel engineering.

In the first paper, Dhandapani Kirubakaran and Sathi Rama Reddy discuss the use of an AC power converter suitable and acceptable for cost-effective HF induction heating applications using insulated gate bipolar transistors. They argue that this approach can extend the soft-switching operation ranges and improve power conversion efficiency at low power settings.

Georgios Boustras, Romaios Bratskas, Vasileios Tokakis and Andreas Efstathiades describe the safety performance of the Cypriot manufacturing sector. They examined the views and perceptions of safety managers with the actual performance in their organizations and concluded that while the safety situation in the sector was at a relatively good level, there was room for improvement. Additionally, they argue that the introduction of a quality assurance system in an environment of largely family-owned businesses would lead to enhanced relationships with customers and suppliers, leading in turn to increased sales and increased market share.

In the next paper, Peter Love provides a comprehensive review of the factors influencing the decision to adopt an adaptive reuse strategy in buildings. Given the increasing shift to building reuse and adaptation, he argues that this review could provide the building blocks for further research in this contemporary and contentious area.

Sanjay Jayaram and Eliu Gonzalez describe the design and construction of a custom-built low-cost thermal vacuum chamber (TVC) for spacecraft environmental testing and verification. They suggest that the TVC could successfully be used to simulate the thermal and vacuum conditions of space similar to the conditions experienced by a picosatellite or nanosatellite in low earth orbit. Further, they conclude that the design and construction of similar test-equipment would be more beneficial than investing in expensive commercially available alternatives.

Brajesh Kumar Kaushik, Devendra Kumar Sharma and R.K. Sharma evaluate different approaches to testing VLSI interconnects. They found through their testing approach that the effects of interconnect on signal integrity, power dissipation and delay emerge significantly in deep sub-micron technology. They argue for efforts to increasingly analyze and develop test methods for cross-talk, delay and power dissipation in current technology with solutions to minimize their effects.

In the penultimate paper, Marcelle Harran supports the notion that the workplace as a writing-practice research site is a complex setting as every piece of writing is the product of a social context and the multiple traditions on which it draws as well as the “socio-economic relations among the participants in its production”. This engineering study is located within the understanding that literacy is always situated within specific social practices, which shape and are shaped by the social actions undertaken in response to recurrent dominant practices within discourse communities. Arguably, for engineers to become producers and possible changers of social languages and genres, they need to be actively involved in the discourse dialogue by changing, contesting and pushing discourse boundaries through dialogic feedback practices and supervisor-peer negotiations.

Vahed Ghiasi, Husaini Omar, Bujang B. Kim Huat, Ratnasamy Muniandy and Zainuddin b. Md. Yusoff in the final paper, introduce numerical methods in tunnel engineering and their capabilities to indicate the fracture and failure in all kinds of tunneling methods such as NATM, TBM and Cut-Cover. They argue that since some factors such as settlement and deformation are not completely predictable in rock and soil surrounding the tunnel, using numerical modeling is a very economical and capable method in predicting the behavior of tunnel structures in various complicated conditions of loading. Further, another benefit of using numerical simulation is in the colorful illustrations predicting the tunnel behavior before, during, and after construction and operation.

Special thanks to each of the contributing authors and reviewers for their contribution to the papers in this particular issue.

Theo C. Haupt