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Three of the seven regional systems in Kansas report on the history and use of the open-source Koha integrated library system (ILS) in their regions.

Each of the systems wrote up their experiences and then they collaborated on sections that discussed how they work together to achieve success with this product.

Each of the systems will continue to use the Koha software, and there are a few stand-alone instances of Koha already in place in Kansas. Development and advocacy of the product will be continued by all three of the systems.

This is a rare instance of three separate consortia coming together to work on improving everyone’s experience with an open-source ILS. The authors feel that the experiences they have had with this software are of value to anyone considering making use of it.

The purpose of this paper is to formulate an algorithm for a novel damage‐coupled material law for crystalline polyethylene at finite inelastic strains followed by investigation of the influence of the aggregate representation and material parameters on the material response.

The constitutive equations are developed within the framework of continuum damage mechanics to describe crystal fragmentation caused by atomic debonding of the crystallographic planes. The material is assumed initially isotropic and homogeneous and is represented as an aggregate of randomly oriented crystals with an orthorhombic lattice. For the velocity gradient, an additive decomposition into symmetric and skew‐symmetric components is applied, where the skew‐symmetric part (spin) is decoupled from the lattice shear by means of a damage variable. Structural features such as lattice parameters and orientations, slip systems, and kinematic constraints are incorpo‐rated.

The proposed model is implemented to predict stress‐strain behaviour under uniaxial tension and damage accumulation and texture development at the different stages of deformation. In the numerical examples, the effects of the aggregate size, crystal orientations, and material parameters on the model estimates are analyzed.

The model used herein is a first attempt to analyze the influence of crystal fragmentation caused by the debonding of the crystallographic planes on the predicted mechanical behaviour and texture development of polyethylene prior to failure.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a computational procedure for a novel damage‐coupled material law for semicrystalline polyethylene. Using a damage mechanics approach, the model seeks to gain insight into the mechanical behaviour of polyethylene considering the microstructure and degradation processes occurring under uniaxial tension.

The material morphology is modelled as a collection of inclusions. Each inclusion consists of crystalline material lying in a thin lamella attached to an amorphous layer. The interface region interconnecting the two phases is the plane through which loads are carried and transferred by the tie molecules. It is assumed that the constitutive model contains complete information about the mechanical behaviour and degradation processes of each constituent. After modelling the two phases independently, the inclusion behaviour is found by applying some compatibility and equilibrium restrictions along the interface plane.

The model provides a rational representation of the damage process of the intermolecular bonds holding crystals and of the tie‐molecules connecting neighbouring crystallites. The model is also used to analyze the degree of relationship between some of the material properties and the mechanical responses.

In practice, the numerical model clearly helps to understand the influence of the different microstructure properties on the tensile mechanical behaviour of semicrystalline polyethylene – an issue of particular interest in improving material processability and product performance.

To the authors’ knowledge, a phenomenon such as microstructural degradation of polyethylene has not received much attention in the literature. The proposed model successfully captures aspects of the material behaviour considering crystal fragmentation and tie‐molecule rupture.

Agriculture—pasturage—dairy herds—milk supply are links in a chain connecting the milk consumers, that is everybody in the kingdom, with the most indispensable and widespread industry. By a liberal extension of the term pasturage we may include such items as oats, peas, beans, roots, cattle cake and oil seeds. Milk is the chief of the protective foods, and during the last forty years or so the country has become increasingly milk conscious, if we may so express the recognition of its value embodied in such terms as “an exceptionally valuable food during the whole period of growth”; “a (nearly) perfect food”; “the surest protection from nutritional deficiencies”; “the A.1 priority food of the nation”; “a keystone to national nutrition.” These expressions have been used not for rhetorical effect. They are sober statements of fact by people well qualified by interest and by experience to speak authoritatively on matters concerning the milk supply of the nation. These and the like expressions may be noted in the almost endless series of pamphlets, addresses, reports, deputations, rules, and regulations embodying the opinions of public analysts, members of the medical and veterinary professions, livestock breeders, and Government Departments. The activities of all these bodies, it need hardly be said, is to guard public health and to comply with the public need for an adequate supply of milk. By “milk,” we submit, is meant fresh, clean cow's milk drawn from a healthy animal, free from pathogenic organisms, and containing the well‐known statutory minima for fat and for solids as laid down in the Sale of Milk Regulations. These minima are somewhat higher than the old Somerset House standard which they replace, but in the opinion of many, if not most, properly informed and unprejudiced persons are lower than the figures disclosed by the many thousands of analyses made over a long series of years by public analysts in the course of their official investigations. The official standard is much in favour of the vendor whether he be dairy farmer or ordinary shop retailer. Moreover, if a prosecution be instituted for failure to comply with these very moderate standards, the evidence is only presumptive, and if the defendant in the action can satisfy the court that the milk sold was of the same quality as was that yielded by the cow the action fails. Actions for this alleged offence are brought, as everyone knows, every day in all parts of the country. Added water is the usual basis of complaint. The gravity of the offence varies from slight negligence to gross carelessness, and in too many cases to deliberate fraud. The act is simple, demanding no great intelligence on the part of the actors. Anyone perusing the accounts of police court actions relating to milk will be struck by the dreary sameness of the proceedings, which is only slightly relieved by the variety of the explanations put forward to account for the presence of the extraneous water. The explanations are not in general accepted as excuses by the bench. The results of the usual analytical procedure are strongly confirmed by the freezing point (Hortvet) test, a test whose value does not seem in some cases to be appreciated to the extent it deserves. With regard to the explanations—apart from the leaky cooler, the new boy, and so forth—there is, we understand, an increasing tendency on the part of offenders in some parts of the country to throw the blame for poor milk on insufficient quantities or qualities of rationed concentrates and other foods. It will, we suppose, be generally admitted that the times are difficult and farmers have experienced to the full the special difficulties that affect their calling. Cattle cake and oil seeds are only to be obtained it is stated in some cases in insufficient quantities. The County Agricultural authorities have been urging farmers to sow peas, beans and oats to meet, as far as that may be possible, this shortage. The small man is, as is usually the case, the hardest hit. To plough up relatively small areas for the purpose just mentioned is uneconomic, and seeds are, like everything else, much more cosily than they used to be. The Ministry of Agriculture, in a recently issued leaflet, slate that “rations in general are on a lower scale” during the 1946–47 winter than during the winter before. “Rations will be subject to adjustment consequent upon any change in the supply position.” Rations depend on milk sales. The value of a unit of ration remains at one cwt. At present one unit of protein and three units of cereal will be granted for each 105 gallons of milk in excess of 15 gallons per cow per month subject to a deduction of 60 lb. of cereal per cow per month. Supplementary allowances —that is, a ration allowance in excess of the normal ration allowance for the time being—will have to be met from a limited discretionary reserve placed at the disposal of the county committees. “It will no longer be possible” says the Ministry “to meet the farmers' needs in full.” So that in general assistance of this kind will be restricted to growers of essential crops and to cases of exceptional difficulty. As the amount of rations is limited the grounds of the applicant's request for additional rations for his stock is subjected to enquiry before such excess rations are issued. There appears to be little need for comment. The whole business is straightforward and indicates the difficulties confronting stock breeders and agricultural authorities alike, at the present time. As far as we can judge, the small dairy farmer is the chief sufferer. Out of half‐a‐dozen cows yielding milk, if one should be off colour for the time being the average yield is likely to be injuriously affected. That, of course, will not happen should the herd be a large one. One cow out of a hundred will make no difference. A complaint has been sometimes made that excess rations could not be obtained from the County agricultural authority's reserve stock. If so, the circumstances must be very exceptional. The authority is in close touch with the dairy farmers in its district, and we understand that enquiry is made quickly with a pretty full personal knowledge of the applicant. The explanations that are sometimes given by the defendant in an action to account for poor quality milk being due to insufficient or improper feed does not seem to be generally accepted by those who try the case, and with good reason.

Since the introduction of surface mounting technology (SMT), interest in solder joints has increased greatly. In this work soldered joints were examined for different kinds of components. Factors which influenced the temperature cycle most strongly were the component size and its placing on the circuit board. These factors led to significant differences in maximum temperature and cooling rate between different solder joints on one and the same circuit board. The microstructure of the solder joints could then be related to their individual cooling rates. The near ternary eutectic Sn‐Pb‐Ag solder presented large variations in microstructure for the interval of cooling rates which was investigated. Strengths of the joints are therefore expected to vary because of the relation between microstructure and strength. Dissolution of elements from metallised coatings can also influence markedly the structures and properties in the solder joints.

The aim of this paper is to examine open access ready reference suites.

The paper discusses various reference sources represented in the open access domain of the web.

The paper finds that, in spite of the variety of open access reference suites mentioned, it is still advisable to be on the lookout for new developments, as some highly relevant sources are not available in any of them, especially some of the best open access subject encyclopaedias in the sciences and social sciences.

The paper provides useful reviews of various open access reference sources.

Microstructure-sensitive design (MSD), for optimal performance of engineering components that are sensitive to material anisotropy, has largely been confined to the realm of theory. The purpose of this paper is to insert the MSD framework into a finite element environment in order to arrive at a practical tool for improved selection and design of materials for critical engineering situations.

This study applies the recently developed Hybrid Bishop-Hill (HBH) model to map the yield surface of anisotropic oxygen free electronic copper. Combining this information with the detailed local stresses determined via finite element analysis (FEA), a “configurational yield stress” is determined for the entire component. By varying the material choice/processing conditions and selecting the directionality of anisotropy, an optimal configuration is found.

The paper provides a new FEA-based framework for MSD for yield-limited situations. The approach identified optimal directionality and processing configurations for three engineering situations that are particularly sensitive to material anisotropy.

The microstructure design space for this study is limited to a selection of eight copper materials produced by a range of processing methods, but is generalizable to many materials that exhibit anisotropic behavior.

The introduction of MSD methodology into a finite element environment is a first step toward a comprehensive designer toolkit for exploiting the anisotropy of general materials (such as metals) in a way that is routinely undertaken in the world of fiber-based composite materials. While the gains are not as sizeable (due to the less-extreme anisotropy), in many applications they may be extremely important.