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The purpose of this paper is to apply the meshless method of fundamental solutions (MFS) to the two‐dimensional time‐dependent heat equation in order to locate an unknown internal inclusion.

The problem is formulated as an inverse geometric problem, using non‐invasive Dirichlet and Neumann exterior boundary data to find the internal boundary using a non‐linear least‐squares minimisation approach. The solver will be tested when locating a variety of internal formations.

The method implemented was proven to be both stable and reasonably accurate when data were contaminated with random noise.

Owing to limited computational time, spatial resolution of internal boundaries may be lower than some similar case investigations.

This research will have practical implications to the modelling and monitoring of crystalline deposit formations within the nuclear industry, allowing development of future designs.

Similar work has been completed in regards to the steady state heat equation, however to the best of the authors' knowledge no previous work has been completed on a time‐dependent inverse inclusion problem relating to the heat equation, using the MFS. Preliminary results presented here will have value for possible future design and monitoring within the nuclear industry

The global Covid-19 pandemic is posing considerable challenges for governments throughout the world and has and will have a significant influence on the shape of peoples social and economic life and wellbeing in the short and longer term. This opinion paper discusses the current health policy response adopted in England to control or manage the epidemic and identifies the key sociological and political influences which have shaped these policies. Drawing on the theoretical approach set out in his recent book, which emphasises the interplay of powerful structural and economic interest groups, the author will consider the influence of the key players. Government policy has tied itself to scientific and medical evidence and protecting the NHS so the key roles of the medical profession, public health scientific community and NHS management and their respective and relative powerful influences will be discussed. The government needs the support of the public if their policies are to be successful, so how have the government addressed maintaining public trust in this “crisis” and how much trust do the public have in the government and what has influenced it? The strong emphasis on social distancing and social isolation in the national government policy response to Covid-19 has placed an increasing public reliance on the traditional and social media for sources of information so how the media has framed the policy will be considered. One policy aim is for an effective vaccine and the influence of the drug industry in its development is discussed. Finally, the role of the state will be discussed and what has shaped its social and economic policies.

To investigate the links between IC and the protection of data, information and knowledge in universities, as organizations with unique knowledge-related foci and challenges.

The authors gathered insights from existing IC-related research publications to delineate key foundational aspects of IC, identify and propose links to traditional information security that impact the protection of IC. They conducted interviews with key stakeholders in Australian universities in order to validate these links.

The authors’ investigation revealed two kinds of embeddedness characterizing the organizational fabric of universities: (1) vertical and (2) horizontal, with an emphasis on the connection between these and IC-related knowledge protection within these institutions.

There is a need to acknowledge the different roles played by actors within the university and the relevance of information security to IC-related preservation.

Framing information security as an IC-related issue can help IT security managers communicate the need for knowledge security with executives in higher education, and secure funding to preserve and secure such IC-related knowledge, once its value is recognized.

This is one of the first studies to explore the connections between data and information security and the three core components of IC's knowledge security in the university context.

PUBLIC librarians have had some experience of economy in this last month at the considering of annual estimates. In many towns, unfortunately, an increase in the general rates is reported, and in all such times libraries are likely to suffer. The note we make below on Yarmouth does not show that one of the causes of the curious municipal hysteria it reveals was the burning desire to reduce the rates. That desire is in itself wholly laudable, and librarians can acquiesce in economies that do not discriminate against libraries. Our trouble is that libraries have nowhere yet been adequately financed, and reductions are more serious for them than for many departments which have never suffered from utter lack of means.

Technological advances regarding artificial intelligence (AI) are affecting the transport sector. Although fully autonomous delivery, or self-driving trucks, are not operating currently, various AI applications have become fixed components of cargo vehicles. Since many research approaches primarily concentrate on the technical aspects of assistance systems (ASs), the economic question of how to improve efficiency is seldom addressed. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to apply an efficiency analysis to measure the performance of truck drivers supplying retail stores.

For this comparative study, 90 professional truck drivers in three groups are compared with (1) trucks without AS, (2) trucks with AS that cannot be turned off and (3) trucks with AS that can be turned off. First, we build a model investigating the impact of performance expectation, effort expectation, social influence and facilitating conditions on the behavioural intention to use AS. Second, we explore the impact of truck drivers' behavioural intention on actual technology use, misuse and disuse; operationalize these constructs; and merge them with our behavioural constructs to create one econometric model.

The human–AI system was found to be the most efficient. Additionally, behavioural intention to use ASs did not lead to actual usage in the AI-alone observation group, but did in the human–AI group. Several in-depth analyses showed that the AI-alone group used AS at a higher level than the human–AI group, but manipulations through, for example, kickdowns or manual break operations led to conscious overriding of the cruise control system and, consequently, to higher diesel consumption, higher variable costs and lower efficiency of transport logistical operations.

Efficiency analysis with data envelopment analysis is, by design, limited by the applied input and output factors.

This study represents one of the first quantitative efficiency analyses of the impact of digitalization on transport performance (i.e. truck driver efficiency). Furthermore, we build an econometric model combining behavioural aspects with actual technology usage in a real application scenario.

A question of size THE Committee set up by the Minister of Education in 1957 to “consider the structure of the public library service in England and Wales, and to advise what changes, if any, should be made n the administrative arrangements, regard being had to the relation of public libraries to other libraries,” was the first such since the Kenyon Committee which reported in 1927. One of the most controversial aspects of the Roberts Committee's deliberations was the consideration of the minimum size (in terms of population) of an independent library system.

Key workers are deemed “essential” for keeping the country going while the rest of us have been resigned to the safety of our homes. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, key workers have become the exalted symbol of the pandemic; although, during pre-pandemic many of these roles were considered “low skilled” and were (and still are) low paid.

The analysis uses newspapers as data sources to discuss occupational prestige and situate it within previous theory.

This social commentary discusses how occupational prestige evolves and devolves during times of social change, and how elevated status, dependent on one's service to the country in the spirit of a “war-time” narrative, is just temporary and fleeting. Prestige is wrapped up in notions of class, income and education, and during the pandemic, “key workers” have become their own sub-group with an almost mythologised status and value, which the authors argue might take the focus away from genuine efforts to improve working conditions (e.g. access to PPE and pay rises etcetera).

The article considers the current value of key workers and how elevated levels of prestige are transitory. The enduring nature of this new status is yet to be seen. More qualitative nuanced research is required around how occupational prestige changes, evolves and devolves and more quantitative research on why and how widespread some of the critical issues might be.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

For most people, especially those with fixed incomes, household budgets have to be balanced and sometimes the balance is precarious. With price rises of foods, there is a switch to a cheaper substitute within the group, or if it is a food for which there is no real substitute, reduced purchases follow. The annual and quarterly reviews of the National Food Survey over the years have shown this to be so; with carcase meat, where one meat is highly priced, housewives switch to a cheaper joint, and this is mainly the reason for the great increase in consumption of poultry; when recently the price of butter rose sharply, there was a switch to margarine. NFS statistics did not show any lessening of consumer preference for butter, but in most households, with budgets on a tight string, margarine had to be used for many purposes for which butter had previously been used. With those foods which have no substitute, and bread (also milk) is a classic example, to keep the sum spent on the food each week about the same, the amount purchased is correspondingly reduced. Again, NFS statistics show this to be the case, a practice which has been responsible for the small annual reductions in the amount of bread consumed per person per week over the last fifteen years or so; very small, a matter of an ounce or two, but adequate to maintain the balance of price/quantity since price rises have been relatively small, if fairly frequent. This artifice to absorb small price rises will not work, however, when price rises follow on one another rapidly and together are large. Bread is a case in point.