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a new movement of great importance to the training officer In the current search for increased efficiency no aspect is of greater importance than the search for quicker methods of writing. In recent years a demand has grown for some system of shorthand writing which will be easy to learn and efficient in use. It is an essential part of this new movement that this quicker writing facility is required not only by the shorthand clerk but also by busy executives and others not formerly seen as requiring this facility. Such a situation calls for some very flexible system of shorthand writing which can be adapted to individual needs. The following three articles look into new developments in this field. In the first article Mr B W Canning first examines the place of CLASSIC PITMAN SHORTHAND in any total system and introduces Pitman's own new version of easy‐to‐learn shorthand known as PITMANSCRIPT, which is just about to be released. In the second article Mr W G Smith records his experience with another system known as TEELINE which has shown how great the demand is for some easy‐to‐learn system. In the third article Mr A C Pendlebury describes recent work carried out in the field of selection for shorthand clerks.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of renewable energy on the power supply chain and to study whether the renewable generator or the power grid that purchases power from the power spot market is better when the actual generation of renewable energy is insufficient. The authors want to compare and analyze the different power supply chain operation modes and discuss the optimal mode selection for renewable energy generator and power grid in different situations.

This paper studies the grid-led price competition game in the power supply chain, in which the power grid as a leader decides the price of transmission and distribution, and generators determine the power grid price. The renewable energy power generator and the traditional energy power generator conduct a price competition game; on the other hand, the power grid and power generators conduct Stackelberg games. The authors analyze the power supply of single power generator and two power generators, respectively, and research on the situation that the renewable energy cannot be fully recharged when the actual power generation is insufficient.

The study finds that both renewable and traditional power grid prices decline as price sensitivity coefficient of demand and installed capacity of renewable energy generators increase. Power grid premium decreases as the price sensitivity coefficient of demand increases, but rises as the installed capacity of renewable energy generator increases. When there is a shortage of power, if the installed capacity of renewable energy is relatively small and price sensitivity coefficient of demand is relatively large, the grid purchases the power from power spot market and shares cost with renewable energy generators, leading to higher expected profits of the renewable energy generators. On the contrary, the renewable energy generators prefer to make up power shortage themselves. For the power grid, purchasing the power by the renewable energy generators when there is a power shortage can bring more utility to the power grid when the installed capacity of renewable energy is lower and the demand price sensitivity coefficient is higher. When the installed capacity of renewable energy is high and the price sensitivity coefficient of demand is moderate, or the installed capacity of renewable energy is moderate and the demand price sensitivity coefficient is high, a generator that simultaneously possesses two kinds of energy source will bring more utility to the power grid. If the installed capacity of renewable energy and the demand price sensitivity coefficient both are small or the installed capacity of renewable energy and the price sensitivity coefficient of demand both are large, the power grid prefers to purchase the power by itself when there is a power shortage.

The goal of our paper analysis is to explore the implications of the theoretical model and address the series of research questions regarding the impact of the renewable energy on the power supply chain. The results of this study have key implications for reality. This paper sheds light on the power supply chain operation mode selection, which can potentially be used for the renewable energy generators to choose their operating mode and can also help traditional energy generators and power grid enterprises maximize their utility. This paper also has some references for the government to formulate the corresponding renewable energy development policy.

This paper studies the power operation mode under the uncertainty of supply and demand, and compares the advantages and disadvantages of renewable energy generator that makes up the shortage or the power grid purchases the power from power spot market then shares cost with the renewable energy generator. This paper analyzes the power grid-led coordination problem in a power supply chain, compares and analyzes the price competition game model of single power generator and dual power generators, and compares the different risk preferences of power grid.

The ubiquitous typewriter is certainly the office machine we could not do without. Every year in the UK at least a quarter of a million people learn some way or another to type. How many of these go on to become livelihood‐earning typists we cannot say for sure, but by the records of examining bodies the figure can hardly be fewer than 100 000. Even so, the supply of competent, trained typists does not meet the continually rising demand. Are there ways in which productivity could be raised, so as to bring supply nearer to meeting demand? Four possible approaches to this consideration may be the machine; the typist and the typing; the input; the supply of trained typists. The last of these has so many social, economic and political ramifications that it is discarded to await the results of more research.

The number of people who, one way or another, continue to learn how to operate a typewriter is undoubtedly rising every year. For one person who will learn it as a livelihood‐earning skill, there are four or five who acquire some measure of ability in order to use the typewriter for their own social or semi‐professional purposes — club secretaries, business men, journalists, police, clerks, local government officers, civil servants, medical receptionists, authors, and so on, in addition to the ‘average man’ — or, more usually, the ‘average woman’ — who uses it solely for personal purposes.

LIBRARIES have come impressively into the public picture in the past year or two, and seldom with more effect than when Their Majesties the King and Queen opened the new Central Reference Library at Manchester on July 17th. In a time, which is nearly the end of a great depression, that the city which probably felt the depression more than any in the Kingdom should have proceeded with the building of a vast store‐house of learning is a fact of great social significance and a happy augury for libraries as a whole. His Majesty the King has been most felicitous in providing what we may call “slogans” for libraries. It will be remembered that in connection with the opening of the National Central Library, he suggested that it was a “University which all may join and which none need ever leave” —words which should be written in imperishable letters upon that library and be printed upon its stationery for ever. As Mr. J. D. Stewart said at the annual meeting of the National Central Library, it was a slogan which every public library would like to appropriate. At Manchester, His Majesty gave us another. He said: “To our urban population open libraries are as essential to health of mind, as open spaces to health of body.” This will be at the disposal of all of us for use. It is a wonderful thing that Manchester in these times has been able to provide a building costing £450,000 embodying all that is modern and all that is attractive in the design of libraries. The architect, Mr. Vincent Harris, and the successive librarians, Mr. Jast and Mr. Nowell, are to be congratulated upon the crown of their work.

The paper formulates a bi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming model, aimed at minimizing the total labor hours and the workload unfairness for the multi-skilled worker assignment problem in Seru production system (SPS).

Three approaches, namely epsilon-constraint method, non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm 2 (NSGA-II) and improved strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA2), are designed for solving the problem.

Numerous experiments are performed to assess the applicability of the proposed model and evaluate the performance of algorithms. The merged Pareto-fronts obtained from both NSGA-II and SPEA2 were proposed as final solutions to provide useful information for decision-makers.

SPS has the flexibility to respond to the changing demand for small amount production of multiple varieties products. Assigning cross-trained workers to obtain flexibility has emerged as a major concern for the implementation of SPS. Most enterprises focus solely on measures of production efficiency, such as minimizing the total throughput time. Solutions based on optimizing efficiency measures alone can be unacceptable by workers who have high proficiency levels when they are achieved at the expense of the workers taking more workload. Therefore, study the tradeoff between production efficiency and fairness in the multi-skilled worker assignment problem is very important for SPS.

The study investigates a new mixed-integer programming model to optimize worker-to-seru assignment, batch-to-seru assignment and task-to-worker assignment in SPS. In order to solve the proposed problem, three problem-specific solution approaches are proposed.

Different leadership styles are used to make innovations in organizations. So, a sound system of social exchanges has always been a need in this dynamic and technological world to challenge organizational problems. Drawing on the social exchange theory, this study aims to empirically investigate the mediating relationship of a set of social exchanges, e.g. leader-member exchange (L.M.X.), knowledge sharing behavior (K.S.B.) and voice behavior (V.B.), between transformational leadership (T.L) and innovative work behavior (I.W.B). Particularly, it explores the best social exchange behavior between T.L and I.W.B that plays a highly constructive role in the innovativeness of the hospitality industry in Pakistan.

The study targeted 403 frontline employees from hotels situated near Swat Valley, Pakistan. The study used a quantitative approach by using a convenient sampling technique. Structural equation modeling was run by using Smart partial least square 3.3.3 to test the proposed model.

The research supported that T.L significantly influenced I.W.B via a L.M.X., K.S.B. and V.B. T.L did not directly and significantly influence I.W.B so, there were full mediations between T.L and I.W.B. Specifically, knowledge-sharing behavior played a highly constructive role in innovativeness.

The study targeted frontline employees from one place, Swat valley; however, data collection from different tourist places may generalize the results based on social exchanges and innovative behavior. A dyadic interaction between top-level and middle-level management may closely trace the innovative ideas among the employees.

The study found knowledge sharing to be a highly effective mechanism that supports employee innovation more than a L.M.X. and V.B. As a result, the managers should establish a sound system of knowledge sharing, which means a knowledge economy so that employees innovativeness can be boosted and promoted.

The present study was the first study in the hotel industry of Pakistan that reveals a highly effective mediating mechanism: K.S.B., which exists with T.L to increase workers’ innovativeness highly.

Contract Manufacturers (CM, factory) can cultivate factory brand products by imitating Original Equipment Manufacturers' (OEM, brand owner) National Brand products, and compete with OEM through the online retailer, that is, factory encroachment. In practice, few consumers can identify the quality of those two products in the online market. Implementing blockchain technology (BTI) can help all consumers identify product quality but may change the operation decisions and incur implementation costs. This study aims to explore how will the BTI strategies affect participants' operation performance under the factory encroachment and delve into the decisions regarding NB product quality and CM encroachment.

This study constructs a three-level outsourcing supply chain comprising one contract manufacturer (CM, factory), one original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and one online retailer. By utilizing the Stackelberg game, the authors first compared the results between two strategic decisions of BTI and no-BTI by online retailers under the factory encroachment scenario. Then, the NB product quality decision and the CM's encroachment decision are also investigated.

BTI strategy can benefit all participants (triple win), which both occurs in exogenous and endogenous quality cases, and the triple win area will expand (shrink) as the BTI cost decreases (increases). In addition, the OEM will improve product quality to confront competition from the CM, and the OEM may not always benefit from the BTI, it depends on the maturity of the market. Interestingly, BTI could improve the consumer surplus when the proportion of novice consumers is low. Finally, this study also investigates the extended case that CM always encroaches into the market whether the online retailer choose BTI or not, which hurts OEM's profit and decreases the product quality.

This study sheds light on the strategic decisions of online retailers' BTI regarding supply chain members' profits, consumer surplus and social welfare under factory encroachment. It also demonstrates that the BTI strategy, under different quality decisions (endogenous and exogenous), can be more profitable for chain members and consumers.

Reinforced S-shape bellows are novel metal bellows with high pressure resistance. Displacement compensation ability is a key index in the design of metal bellows. Axial-tension-compression deformation and bending deformation are two typical displacement compensation forms. Thus, analysis of axial and bending stiffness is important in structure design.

In this study, theory analytics of axial tension and compression stiffness of reinforced S-shaped bellows structure is derived, and the load-displacement relationship during axial deformation is obtained by correcting the geometric parameters of waveform during axial tension and compression deformations. On the basis of them, the relationships of bending stiffness with axial tensile and compression stiffness under the action of bending loading are constructed, and thus, the theory analytics of bending stiffness is realized for S-shaped bellows.

This theory analytics is verified by comparing the results of theory analytics with those of numerical simulation for a few typical examples. An investigation on the axial and bending non-linear mechanical behaviors of multi-layer-reinforced S-shaped bellows was also carried out by numerical simulation and experiment, and the experimental results verified the reliability of the analysis method.

It is found that non-linearity behavior occurs greatly during the first loading course of reinforced S-shaped bellows, and the structure is strain-strengthened due to plastic deformation; however, stable stiffness characteristic is exhibited during the succeeding cyclic-loading course.

This paper aims to identify the conditions under which encroachment is a viable strategy for a manufacturer to gain competitive advantage and achieve higher profitability in the presence of the store-brand.

This paper proposes game-theoretic models in a two-echelon supply chain consisting of a manufacturer (him) and a retailer (her), in which he distributes his national brand through the retailer, and endogenously determines whether to establish a new direct sales channel to sell the national brand when the retailer introduces her store-brand.

Analytical results show that the bar for the manufacturer to encroach the end market in the presence of the store-brand is always higher than that for him to encroach in the absence of the store-brand. Although incurring channel competition, encroaching with the national brand in the presence of the retailer's store-brand can lead to either a win-lose or win-win result for the manufacturer and the retailer. Numerical studies claim that, higher brand substitution can push down the retailer's enthusiasm to introduce her new brand. Counterintuitively, when the retailer introduces her store-brand, higher brand substitution does not necessarily push up the manufacturer's enthusiasm to respond with national-brand encroachment. When consumer preferences for the two brands are heterogeneous, a higher consumer preference for the retailer's store-brand results in the retailer's higher enthusiasm to introduce her store-brand and the manufacturer's lower enthusiasm to encroach with his national brand.

This study can help researchers to better understand the retailer's store-brand introduction, manufacturer encroachment and their interaction theoretically, and further provide decision support for enterprises to choose brand and channel strategies in practice.