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As a first step towards objective evaluation of garment appearance, the present work considered seams on three‐dimensional surfaces which simulate actual garment surfaces. The geometric profiles of the 3‐D seams were scanned using a laser scanner. 1‐D and 2‐D digital filters were applied to obtain pucker signals from the geometric profiles by removing “high frequency” components due to fabric surface texture and “low frequency” components due to garment silhouette and drape. The advantages and disadvantages of the 1‐D and 2‐D digital filters are compared. Four physical parameters are examined to see their relevance to the subjective pucker grade. It was found that log(σ²), i.e. the logarithm of the variance of the heights of pucker signals, is the best set of physical parameters for the objective evaluation of seam pucker. In addition, latest attempts at capturing and analyzing 3D garment image using a Cyberware laser scanner and Surfacer software are reported.

Career preparedness is critical to successfully transitioning from college to a full-time work environment. Being prepared means students have the technical and non-technical skills to help an organization meet its strategic goals. In many instances, students lack the requisite career competencies and collaborative skills. This study proposes designing an instructor-led, career-driven quasi-virtual internship to address this issue and improve students’ preparedness and teamwork.

Our research integrates and expands the four-step processes outlined in instructional and course redesign theories, including analysis, design and development, implementation and evaluation. In the evaluation phase, a survey is used to collect data, and natural language processing is applied to identify the emerging themes. The sample included 104 undergraduate students enrolled in an information systems degree program, which resulted in a digital corpus of 40,744 words for analysis.

Results indicate that the implementation of instructor-led quasi-virtual internships offered a comprehensive career experience comparable to an onsite or virtual company-sponsored internship in five notable areas: (1) application of technical knowledge, (2) critical thinking, (3) time management, (4) application of IT project management and (5) collaborative skills.

Our study only evaluated participants in our treatment group. Future research should examine the differences between students who complete sponsored versus instructor-led quasi-virtual internships. Researchers can add a control group of students who receive a theoretically based capstone course. Future research can simulate randomized controlled trials (RCT) (Chalmers et al., 1981) to measure the effectiveness of quasi-virtual internships. A benefit of this research is that an open-ended survey allows for collecting rich, multifaceted primary data. The second limitation is that the study included only single-item questions. Future authors can create and validate a survey instrument based on the themes and concepts emanating from our investigation. For example, they can operationalize team dynamics and career preparedness using a reflective model in which the underlying construct drives the indicators, requiring multiple items to examine each construct (Coltman et al., 2008). Third, the sample size in the study was relatively small. We can increase the sample size using a time-series dataset with multiple measurement periods. The fourth limitation is context; this study was conducted at a public university; other institutions may have varied teaching approaches, student demographics and resources. By expanding our study using a multi-site approach (Ballantyne et al., 2012), we can increase cross-sectional sample sizes and improve the generalizability of the study’s results.

This study provides several practical insights for educators by examining quasi-virtual internships. Academic institutions that want to offer internships but struggle to establish industry partners can implement the quasi-internship model as an alternative approach. The study highlights that students gain critical insight into their future careers during these internships by being familiar with industry concepts and tools. We also provide insights into engaging students in “meaningful collaboration.” We suggest the instructor provide some time during the class sessions for group work to improve coordination and introduce industry-level tools that provide a more applied approach to IS education.

The National Survey of College Internships (NSCI) 2021 indicates that underrepresented and first-generation students were less likely to participate in internships. Our research may positively impact diverse communities since the quasi-virtual internship allows all students to participate once they are enrolled in a capstone class.

To our knowledge, this study is the first to utilize latent semantic analysis to analyze students’ feedback to improve course design, career preparedness and team dynamics.

Plasma spray coating technologies are capable of depositing a wide range of compositions without significantly heating the substrate. The objective is to characterise plasma sprayed metallic coatings on a Fe‐based superalloy.

NiCrAlY, Ni‐20Cr, Ni3Al and Stellite‐6 metallic coatings were deposited on a Fe‐based superalloy (32Ni‐21Cr‐0.3Al‐0.3Ti‐1.5Mn‐1.0Si‐0.1C‐Bal Fe) by the shrouded plasma spray process. The coatings were characterised in relation to coating thickness, porosity, microhardness and microstructure. The high temperature oxidation behaviour of the coatings was investigated in brief. The techniques used in the present investigation include metallography, XRD and SEM/EDAX.

All the coatings exhibited a lamellar structure with distinctive boundaries along with the presence of some porosity and oxide inclusions. The microhardness of the coatings was observed to vary with the distance from the coating‐substrate interface. The St‐6 coating had the maximum microhardness, whereas the lowest hardness was exhibited by the Ni3Al coating. The phases revealed by XRD of the coatings confirmed the formation of solid solutions, whereas EDAX analysis of the as‐sprayed coatings confirmed the presence of basic elements of the coating powders. So far as high temperature oxidation behaviour is concerned, all of the coatings followed the parabolic rate law and resulted in the formation of protective oxide scales on the substrate superalloy.

The plasma spray process provides the possibility of developing coatings of Ni3Al as well as commercial available NiCrAlY, Ni‐20Cr and St‐6 powders on Fe‐based superalloy Superfer 800H

The aim of the present study is to consider the influence of the tensile behavior of fabric and sewing thread on the seam appearance.

In this study, the formation of seam puckering on two elastic and normal woven fabrics was explored. In order to prepare samples, various sewing threads were applied. Test specimens were sewn under five different thread tension levels. Then the appearance of samples was evaluated subjectively to determine their seam puckering grade before and after the laundering process.

The obtained outcomes of this study present that although sewing thread tension increment decreases the seam pucker ranking in the similar sewing condition, elastic fabrics have a greater seam pucker grade compared to the normal fabric due to the fabric extension and contraction during sewing and after sewing process, respectively. In addition, the elastic strain of the sewing thread is the key factor that determined sewing thread's tendency to make seam puckering. Moreover, the laundry process due to the relaxation of the sewing thread decreases the seam pucker grade.

The consistency of the tensile property of fabric and sewing thread is a crucial parameter in improving the seam appearance and obtaining a smooth seam.

1916, the most difficult year in the history of the library movement, has passed not without some satisfaction to library workers. The war dominated everything, and in its atmosphere most intellectual movements have paused somewhat so far as practical activities were concerned. At the end of the financial year in March, the voice of the Philistine was prominent and strident, and many reductions were made in the rate grants to public libraries. Few, however, did more than cripple their activities, and on the whole a fair measure of public sanity prevailed. In the circumstances the wider progress of the library movement has been small, but there has been progress. Unostentatiously, but systematically, the Carnegie Trustees have urged rural library schemes upon several county councils, and have made grants to urban libraries for new buildings, the erection of which, however, they have required to be postponed until the peace. The tercentenary of Shakespeare found librarians and library authorities awake and interested, and much good work was done. Towards the end of the year commercial libraries were discussed with remarkable unanimity in most of the great cities, and actually materialised in the fine experiment at Glasgow described in our last issue. In so far as librarians are concerned, the year has been eventful for the calling away of nearly all remaining men of military age. In connection with this the military authorities in many districts have shown a complete indifference to the intellectual requirements of the people. It is difficult to say how many library workers are now with the Colours, but six hundred would be a very conservative estimate. Some, alas, of the most promising men in the profession have fallen. An endeavour is being made by the Library Assistants' Association to preserve a record of all who have gone forth for the Empire. Naturally, library appointments have been few, and most of those that have been made have been of a temporary nature. On the literary side, too, librarianship has been practically sterile in this country. The book by Messrs. Gower, Jast and Topley, on photographic record work is a remarkable exception, but is not entirely a book of library methodology. America has not produced very much, but we noted a useful book by Mr. Arthur L. Bailey on library bookbinding, which appeared in the middle of the year. Throughout the year the Library Association has pursued a policy of masterly inactivity, and has missed most of the opportunities for constructive schemes which war time has offered. Its general meetings were abandoned in London, its Council has met irregularly, and it has eluded practically every problem which it ought to have faced. We have been consistently critical of this state of affairs, but we still believe in the Library Association, and our criticism, however trenchant, has not been to destroy but to revivify and accelerate. We do not think that librarians can do without the Association, and in all our attacks upon its stagnation we have kept this view clearly before us. The President of the Association, while condoning the suspension of the general meetings, has generously filled the gap made by their omission with the interesting reunions at the Royal Society of Medicine. Hope of better things has been raised by the belated establishment of the Technical Libraries Committee, to which we look for a forward and aggressive policy. The Library Assistants' Association has wisely refused to follow the example of its seniors. The few monthly meetings it has held have been intensely practical and focussed upon the problems of the hour. We hope they will continue in spite of the increased railway fares which in the new year have added difficulty to travelling. The establishment of the North Central Library Association provided an immensely important part of England with a means of creating and circulating library opinion. This brief chronique of the doings of the year leaves us hopeful if not contented. Financial and staff problems are likely to increase while the war endures, but having surmounted these and our other difficulties thus far, we look forward with confidence to similar success.

CAMBRIDGE did not disappoint the expectations of the more than one thousand persons who attended the conference. The organization worked without a creak in its machinery, thanks to the work of Mr. W. A. Fenton, the Honorary Local Secretary, and his distinguished committee; the hospitality was liberal; the excursions well chosen and successful. As for the papers and addresses, which, after all, are the official reason for conferences, even if there was little that was epoch‐making, they were interesting, sometimes provocative, and almost invariably stimulating. Most of us returned to our libraries inspired and encouraged with the undoubted vitality of the library movement as manifested at Cambridge.

Middle October finds most libraries well settled into their winter work, and this winter will probably be the most unusual in the history of the public library movement, while it will not be without its problems for every other description of library. Present indications lead us to believe that there will be no falling‐off of the demands of the civilian population; our libraries are crowded in the earlier part of the evenings, and unless some catastrophe intervenes of which we have at present no anticipation, this demand is not likely to fall much lower. Apart from their book work, some libraries may find it necessary to shear away their extension work in the shape of lectures and similar activities, mainly, of course, because of shortage of labour, but also because of the darkness of the streets at night. This latter difficulty is being met by some by moving the time of the lectures forward, and we think the plan has much to commend it. We hope, wherever they can, that librarians will maintain as many as possible of these activities “that show,” since they will keep the libraries before the public at a time when they are likely to be thought comparatively unimportant. There should be no acquiescence in the notion that libraries are luxuries, and that they have not a part of quiet but immense importance to play in the immediate future.

The decision of the Council of the Library Association not to hold a Conference this year will surprise only those who are not satisfied with the present progress of the library movement in this country. If we ventured to judge by the absence of complaints at this decision our conclusion would necessarily be that by far the greater number of librarians are thus satisfied. It is only when a comprehensive glance at the whole movement is taken that doubts arise in our mind that we should like to see resolved. We are to rest in acquiescent contentment with the present silence and apparent inactivity. Other bodies, probably possessed of less wisdom—professional associations, trades unions, and similar organizations—are meeting with a certain eagerness and enthusiasm which, in the circumstances, must be rather bewildering to our placid Council.