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Jos Sharp, internal communications manager, explains how global car manufacturer, General Motors, has developed an award‐winning employee motivation program.

The paper aims to present results on the friction and the wear of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and eight commercially available composites with PTFE matrix, for tests done on shoe/roller tribotester with water lubrication in open circuit. There are pointed out particular tribological processes within the superficial layers of the composites with the help of optical microscopy.

Analysing the tribological behaviour of eight grades of PTFE composites sliding in water on shoe/roller tribotester.

Good results of wear behaviour under water lubrication for all the composites. PTFE exhibits severe wear under the tested regime.

The research could support PTFE composite application for water lubricated systems.

Psychological frailty adds most to overall feelings of frailty, but is often neglected, although meaning in life is important for psychological well-being. The purpose of this paper is to explore the sources of meaning in life within psychologically frail older people.

Data (n= 16,872) generated from the Belgian Ageing Studies were collected, using the Comprehensive Frailty Assessment Instrument and the Sources of Meaning Profile (SOMP-R) instrument. Psychometric properties of the SOMP-R were explored using factor and reliability analysis and one-way-ANOVA analysis were used to asses mean differences.

Financial security, meeting basic needs and personal relations play an important role as sources of meaning in life. Moreover, the SOMP-R showed excellent psychometric properties.

Due to the cross-sectional design of this study, evolution in time and causal links could not be assessed.

The findings of this study emphasize that sources of meaning in life are relevant and can be assessed using the SOMP-R upon which individually tailored care plans can be developed. The results show that, meaning in life as such plays an important role for psychologically frail older people. As a consequence, this offers insights to support these older people. Caregivers and policymakers might therefore take these results into account. Guarantee and/or follow up a frail individual’s financial security, assessing and enabling one’s personal relationships and meeting their basic needs are very important when taking care of psychologically frail older individuals.

Besides the practical implications, the social inclusion of psychologically frail older people seems to be relevant.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the association between meaning in life and psychological frailty in later life is not yet investigated. Further the findings of this study emphasize that sources of meaning in life are relevant and can be assessed using the SOMP-R upon which individually tailored care plans can be developed.

This research aims to characterize the tribological behavior of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and PBT composites with micro glass beads (MGB) on steel, in dry conditions and on a block-on-ring tester, pointing out the influence of sliding distance and speed. The tribology of PBT and its composites is still in an early stage because this thermoplastic polyester requires accurate technological and thermal treatment.

The composites were produced by ICEFS Savinesti Romania and contain PBT grade Crastin6130NC010 (as supplied by Du Pont), 0.5 […] 1.0 per cent (weight) Relamyd B-2Nf (polyamide grade produced by ICEFS, for a better dispersion of MGB), 1 per cent (weight) black carbon for technological and tribological reasons and different micro glass beads (MGB) concentrations (10.0 and 20.0 per cent weight). Tests were done for different sliding distances (2,500, 5,000 and 7,500 m) and speeds (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 m/s) and a normal load of 5 N.

The friction coefficient and the wear parameter (as mass loss of polymeric blocks) pointed out a good tribological behavior for these composites. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images revealed particular aspects of PBT local transfer on steel. Also, 10 per cent MGB in PBT reduces wear, especially for longer distances (75,000 m) and higher speeds (0.5 and 0.75 m/s); the friction coefficient is only slightly increased up to 0.23, being less influenced by the speed and the sliding distance as compared to neat polymer.

PBT and PBT composites could become challengers for replacing materials in applications similar to tested ones. Even the neat polymer exhibits a good tribological behavior. The composites have a lower sensibility to higher speeds and sliding distances for the applied load.

The purpose of this paper is to foreground the ways in which material objects emerged as a kind of classificatory force during a visit to a local museum in rural Romania. It considers ways in which classification both influences and is influenced by the spatio-temporal assemblages of things.

Visual and textual ethnographic field data collected to document the museum tour are interpreted using a phenomenological approach. Jane Bennett’s agency of assemblage is used to contextualize these instants of interruption within the space/time arrangements of objects within the museum.

The “marginal” category of translator commentary emerged during data coding to reveal “instants of interruption.” These instants exhibited classificatory tendencies that revealed relationships between seemingly disparate elements. As such, the translator acted as a kind of third-party classificatory force that illuminated how relationships between physical assemblages of things in the world can act as a force for new knowledge production.

This paper contributes to the literature on social classification and document theory by revealing how alternative approaches to classification can open up additional avenues for research and knowledge discovery.

Decentralisation attempts that aim to increase job autonomy do not always succeed. This paper aims to study to what extent the tendency to maintain existing operational task divisions is an important explanation for this lack of success.

In total, 456 employees in 25 organisations participated in a cross-sectional intervention study. Each employee filled out a questionnaire on job autonomy both before and after the decentralisation process, in which all organisations shifted regulatory, preparatory and supportive tasks to the lowest organisational level.

This study found small, but significant, effects of decentralisation attempts on job autonomy. The size of the effects, however, depended on the way the way in which the operational tasks were divided. Simultaneously, larger effects were found for organisations which decentralised tasks and changed the way operational tasks were divided. Both findings reached the conclusion that although decentralisation attempts seemed important for increasing job autonomy, the way in which the operational tasks were divided and even changed, was at least as important for a successful decentralisation process.

After decades of research on modern sociotechnical theory, this study is the first to show that decentralisation attempts do not merely increase job autonomy. The effect of such attempts depends on the way in which operational tasks are divided in organisations.

This article introduces an emerging demographic trend, invisible residents, or retired persons who travel extensively seeking better climates during the winter. In this article, we articulate the costs and benefits these temporary residents could have on cities they visit in four areas: economic development, local government revenues, city service demands and indirect and intangible effects. We conclude that changes in city revenue structures may more closely align who uses and who pays for government services. However, the dearth of empirical evidence prohibits making strong conclusions about the relative attractiveness of this population to cities. Future research documenting this age-based phenomenon, currently estimated to include 10 million persons, is warranted as competition to attract these visitors heats up between Sunbelt cities.

This paper aims to present an analysis of several 3 D texture parameters for the entire wear scars obtained in severe regime, on a four-ball tester. The aim of this analysis is to correlate the tribological parameter as wear scar diameter to texture parameters.

Tested lubricants were rapeseed oil, rapeseed oil additivated with 1% Wt nano TiO₂ and rapeseed oil additivated with 1%Wt nano ZnO. The severe regime was applied for 1400 rpm and for loads increasing in steps of 50 N, from 500 to 900 N. Several analyzed roughness parameters (height parameters and functional ones) could be related to the evolution of a wear parameter, the wear scar diameter. Comparing the values for neat rapeseed oil and additivated variants, the texture parameters allow for evaluating if the additives protect or not the worn surfaces.

Measurements pointed out two groups of roughness parameters: one that has an evolution depending on wear scar diameter (WSD) and load (Sa, St, functional parameters) and one including Ssk that has shown no dependence on load and WSD. Also, the functional parameters Spk and Svk follow in a similar manner the wear parameter, WSD, but Sk is the least dependent on load. For the highest load, amplitude parameters such as Sa and St are following the tendency of WSD. Each lubricant has its particular correlation between wear parameters and texture quality, expressed by the help of a set of roughness parameters.

Such studies help tribologists to rank lubricants based on a combined analysis with wear parameters and texture parameters.

The results allow for evaluating new formulated lubricants.

The study on the quality on worn surfaces introduces the original idea of analyzing the entire wear scar surface (approximated by an ellipse with the axes as those experimentally measured) by the help of a set of 3 D roughness parameters.