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Acoustic sensors based on the well‐known relation between sound velocity and mean molecular mass are suggested for the determination of small concentrations of “pollutants”, such as CO₂, in air. The theoretical basis for high resolution is outlined, and a basic design is presented, together with experimental results. Sound velocity is measured continuously at high resolution in an oscillator controlled by the acoustic transit time between a transmitter/receiver pair operating in the 40kHz range. The static error band is better than +/‐3 per cent of full scale, response time less than two minutes, and short‐term resolutions of 0.3 ppm rms, and 3 ppm rms have been obtained in terms of frequency and CO₂ concentration, respectively.

The rapid advances in recent years made within the field of fibre optics and opto‐electronics open up new opportunities within many areas.

This paper studies the efficacy of using moving average technical trading rules with currencies of emerging economies. If technical trading rules are successful, they can become a risk management tool for multinational firms and investors in emerging markets. Typical risk management tools such as forwards, futures, and options are not sufficiently active in emerging currency markets. In this paper we use four Variable Length Moving Average (VMA) trading models and compare them to a simple buy and hold strategy. Results support the effectiveness of our trading models, which imply the presence of strong serial correlation among currency returns for emerging markets. As a result, the predictability of future currency prices will allow investors to create effective hedges in the often volatile emerging markets.

Optical fibre sensors are finding wide applications in biotechnology and medicine, as a European specialist explains.

Just like the market which has its bulls and its bears, investments has its fundamentalists crowd and its technicians crowd. The academic finance profession must wake up and realize that investing is no longer driven solely by fundamental and statistical analysis. While as a profession we believe in and teach the fundamental investment subjects such as CAPM or EMH, we also realize the need to examine ways to explain the 80 per cent of the variability of stock returns not explained by the fundamentals. In addition to the fundamental investment subjects an increased exposure to both behavioral finance and the psychology of financial markets is absolutely necessary to increase the understanding of how and why stocks move. Just as the bulls need the bears, fundamentalists need technicians. Behavioral finance, crowd psychology, and the psychology of financial markets are the underpinnings of technical analysis. Western technical analysis predates CAPM and EMH by decades, if not more, tracing its roots back to Charles Dow founder of Dow Jones.

Advanced devices and fabrication methods dominated the second Eurosensors conference held in The Netherlands in November 1988. Rory Chase reports.

There are various temperature measuring systems presented in the literature and on the market today. Over the past number of years a range of luminescent‐based optical fibre sensors have been reported and developed which include fluorescence and optical scattering. These temperature sensors incorporate materials that emit wavelength shifted light when excited by an optical source. The majority of commercially available systems are based on fluorescent properties.Design/methodology/approach – Many published journal articles and conference papers were investigated and existing temperature sensors in the market were examined.Findings – In optical thermometry, the light is used to carry temperature information. In many cases optical fibres are used to transmit and receive this light. Optical fibres are immune to electromagnetic interference and are small in size, which allows them to make very localized measurements. A temperature sensitive material forms a sensor and the subsequent optical data are transmitted via optical fibres to electronic detection systems. Two keys areas were investigated namely fluorescence based temperature sensors and temperature sensors involving optical scattering.Originality/value – An overview of optical fibre temperature sensors based on luminescence is presented. This review provides a summary of optical temperature sensors, old and new which exist in today's world of sensing.

For many years, facility and real estate executives have focused on reducing workplace costs as the primary way to add value to their organisations. They have implemented a variety of measures over time to improve traditional facility metrics such as cost per person, cost per seat and area per person. As global businesses contend with a bewildering array of challenges such as the uncertain world economy, unstable and often plunging stock market values, terrorism and war, however, the search for leverage in every aspect of the organisation is relentless. More is being demanded, especially from workplace assets. The good news is that much more is possible. The concept of ‘workplace’ is being redefined to keep pace with changes in organisations, employees, technology, environmental sensitivity, culture and the nature of work itself. As the approach to workplace becomes more people‐centric and less place‐centric, what emerges is a new possibility for the workplace to be utilised as a strategic business tool. People are the key to business performance; the workplace can enable and catalyse people and the work they do. This paper deals with the process for linking workplace to business performance, key tools, innovative ways of measuring this linkage, and examples of the value a variety of organisations are achieving through their innovative workplace strategies. The paper is intended to provide real estate executives and facility managers with greater perspective on the contribution that the workplace can make to achieving business objectives. It will also explore ways of incorporating adaptability and flexibility into the design aspect of workplace strategies to achieve maximum velocity and return on investment. As organisations struggle to adapt to current business conditions, a high‐performance workplace is no longer simply a desirable long‐term goal; it may well be a key to survival.

This paper aims to explore consumer experiences of spiritual value and investigates whether it is distinct from ethical value within a large and growing private sector health-care setting. Understanding consumers’ experiences of spiritual value versus ethical value has important implications for corporate social responsibility as increasingly, consumers want their spiritual needs met.

The research adopts an exploratory case study approach using in-depth interviews with 16 consumers who use complementary and alternative medicine health-care services. Drawing on consumer value frameworks, a thematic analysis identified dimensions of spiritual and ethical values co-created during their consumption experiences.

From a consumer’s perspective, spiritual value is distinct from ethical value. The key finding is that participants talked about spiritual value predominantly in reactive terms (apprehending, appreciating, admiring or responding), whereas ethical value was referred to as active (taking action).

This paper enhances the understanding of spiritual value and provides evidence that people want their spiritual needs met in a private health-care context. Furthermore, this study provides insights into the consumption experience of spiritual value that can be considered, with further research, in other health-care and service contexts.

This paper offers a new view on corporate social responsibility by taking a consumer’s perspective, and identifying that consumer experiences of spiritual value are important and distinct from ethical value.