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A review of some of the progress made in lift jet installations is presented in this paper. At the heart of it all is the low cost lightweight RB162 second generation lift jet which is simple and makes extensive use of glass reinforced plastics. Examples of plastic components are shown. The higher thrust/weight and thrust/volume ratio of a third generation lift jet are revealed. The weight of installed features is of comparable importance to the weight of the basic engine. Installed weight has been reduced over three lift jet generations, more than keeping pace with the improvements in basic engine thrust/weight ratio. Weight breakdowns are given for the V.T.O.L. equipment in a fighter‐type aircraft representative of all three generations. Progress on lift intake and exhaust jet deflectors is shown with reference to specific examples. Ground erosion is briefly discussed and shown to be greatly reduced by multiple nozzles and the rolling take‐off technique. Progress being made on some of the problems associated with installing eight lift jets in a V.T.O.L. strike aircraft is briefly discussed with reference to maintenance and instrumentation.

The evolution of large fan engines in the late 1960s brought major advances in the technology and operating economics of engines for large transport aircraft. Today, engines of this type account for well over half the world sales (by value) of commercial aero‐engines.

Corporate planners rarely incorporate political analysis into the planning process in the same systematic way that they include traditional business factors. Nevertheless, top management knows that politics can affect the bottom line. Reaching a delicate compromise solution within the corporation between labor and management, for example, can mean the difference between growth or decay. Influencing a trade association to adopt a helpful policy or to provide a valuable service to an individual corporation can create new business opportunities. Securing tax breaks from local or state governments or more liberal environmental regulations from the Federal Government can have a profound impact on business costs.

The aero gas turbine has been in commercial service now for a little over 30 years. Pioneering experience on the Dart/Viscount and Ghost/ Comet led to transatlantic commercial turbojet operation in late 1958—just over a quarter of a century ago. Over this period of time, the fuel usage per seat mile for typical long range operation has been reduced by no less than two‐thirds (Figure 1).

Among the top management issues covered in this section are: leadership to promote change; issues of corporate culture; effective international strategy; environmental leadership; investment in Eastern Europe; and developing “world‐class” manufacturing strategy.

The Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Union provides another element to cross-border cooperation by allowing Member States to fulfill their 2020 renewable energy sources (RES) targets by implementing joint projects in third countries through the cooperation mechanisms. The purpose of this paper is to assess the country risk, to support bilateral cooperation for RES electricity generation projects.

A multicriteria decision support methodology has been developed taking into account three evaluation parameters, namely, the investment framework, the social conditions and the energy and technological status. An additive value model has been constructed, and the UTilitès Additives (UTA) – UTA* (UTASTAR) disaggregation method has been implemented to infer the criteria weights. The obtained ranking of alternatives has been subjected to robustness analysis, and finally the proposed methodology has been applied to five North Africa countries, so as to draw key results.

The pilot application of the methodological approach proposed and the model developed was fully compatible with the decision maker’s ranking on a set of fictitious countries and facilitated the assessment of a country’s current situation with regards to its investment, social conditions and energy and technological status. The results regarding the five North African countries examined, indicated the country’s investment framework as the most important factor, from foreign investors’ perspective, affecting a country’s suitability for the implementation of RES projects through a cooperation mechanism and Morocco, as well as Tunisia as the countries with the most suitable conditions for a successful implementation of such projects.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, there are only very few studies trying to assess opportunities and risks emerging from the implementation of joint projects between European and third countries in the field of electricity generation from RES. There are even less studies using (UTASTAR) method on real-world decision-making problems, and almost none are dedicated to energy sector-related problems.

As part of the portable product interconnects characterisation programme, the present investigation was conducted to determine the attachment integrity and long‐term reliability of Thin small Outline package (TSOP) solder joints. Accelerated thermal cycling combined with analytical modelling was used to evaluate the reliability for credit card sized DRAM memory cards. The measured solder joint fatigue lifetimes varied from 645 to 830 thermal cycles for TSOP‐II and I components, respectively. The modelling results corroborated the empirical findings. The solder joint thermal fatigue data were used to predict the card reliability under operating field conditions. The cards were found to be reliable for their intended use environment.

This article aims to explore coronary care unit (CCU) extubation structures, processes and outcomes. There were 13 unplanned-extubation cases (UE) among 251 intubated patients (5.2 per cent) in a cardiologist-led CCU in 2008. Seven did not require re-intubation, implying possible earlier extubation. A quality improvement project was undertaken with a goal to eliminate CCU UE within 12 months.

Using the clinical practice improvement (CPI) method, the most significant root causes were missing sedation/analgesia protocol, no ventilator weaning protocol and absent respiratory therapist during the CCU morning rounds. Non-physician directed sedation/analgesia and ventilation weaning protocols were created and put on trial in Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles before formal implementation. Arrangements were made to allocate a respiratory therapist to the CCU daily for morning rounds.

For 12 months after fully implementing the interventions, UE incidence dropped from 5.2 per cent to 0.9 per cent (p=0.006). There were no adverse outcomes, re-intubation and/or readmission to CCU within 48 hours.

Through a multi-disciplinary CPI approach, adopting non-physician directed protocols has successfully streamlined and improved airway management in mechanically ventilated patients in a cardiologist-led CCU.

There is little published data on improving intubated patient care in cardiologist-led CCUs. Previous studies centered on intensive care units managed by critical care specialists.