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Major trends in the PWB industry and the requirements from the manufacturers to reduce reject rates at the imaging and chemical process stages have demanded a new generation of dry film photoresists. Details are given of the requirements laid down by the industry, how the dry film resist manufacturers have responded, and how the improved resist technology meets these demands. These latest products are extensively available in Europe and resist improvements have been welcomed by the board manufacturers.

Employment transitions are an integral part of an individual’s career path. However, not every individual can cope with these changes. Some may not know how to mobilise their capacities in order to return to work. Consequently, various countries have devised policies aimed at supporting the unemployed, in programmes that are led by consultants. The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of career transition consultants who work for a private consulting firm. It examines how consultants perceive their role and how these perceptions influence the support they provide to beneficiaries.

In total, 20 French career transition consultants took part in the interviews. Qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews.

Ideal types of career consultants were drawn up, based on the distinction between the agent model and the community model. Depending on their perceived role, consultants set up different career transition strategies and develop different capacities among their beneficiaries.

Consultants advocate for flexible support for people seeking employment. This research aims to question the policy of distributing beneficiaries among consultants’ portfolios. In France, the approach is made without considering the beneficiary’s profile. A better approach would be to find common ground between the consultant’s profile and the beneficiary’s expectations (e.g. help with business start-up, a career plan, or psychological support). Further, the differentiation of profiles and practices opens up other research opportunities (in corporate coaching, tutoring, and vocational guidance).

From a managerial point of view, this research questions the policy of distribution of the beneficiaries in consultants’ portfolios. Indeed, in France, the approach is made a priori (without exact knowledge of the beneficiary’s profile). Yet, it seems that the approach would be more effective if consulting firms looked for common ground between the consultant’s profile and the beneficiary’s specific expectation (e.g. help with a new business start-up, the creation of a career plan, or a specific need for psychological support).

This research investigates a little known and important fact in career transition management: the heterogeneous nature of consultancy service and the capacities consultants highlight as being helpful to beneficiaries in career transition.

Fine line circuitry has become much more common in printed wiring board manufacturing during the past decade. Manufacturers are currently producing 4 or 5 conductor lines between circuits. Line definition is 100 μm line and space and high yields in manufacturing must be achieved when small land through‐holes with small annular rings are now being fabricated to meet the requirements of high density circuits by plating, hole filling and so forth. This company has found that a newly developed combination of vacuum lamination and primary imaging dry film which is suitable for small annular ring formation will offer advantages not available with current technologies. It has advantages such as more than 60 μm encapsulation of resist into through‐holes, no ten breakage when incorrect registration of phototool with 130 μm occurs and availability of 2.5 m/min lamination speed. The Hi‐VS System will make it possible to obtain higher yield in very fine line fabrication.

The purposes of this paper are to investigate the biotribological behaviour of Vitamin E-blended highly cross-linked ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (HXL-UHMWPE) under multi-directional motion by using a CUMT II artificial joint hip simulator and compare it with HXL-UHMWPE and conventional UHMWPE.

The biotribological behaviour of conventional, highly cross-linked and Vitamin E-blended highly cross-linked UHMWPE acetabular cups counterfaced with CoCrMo alloy femoral head under multi-directional motion were investigated by using CUMT-II artificial hip joint simulator for one-million walking cycles. The test environment was at 36.5 ± 0.5°C and 25 per cent bovine serum was used as lubricant. A Paul cycle load with a peak of 784 N was applied; the motion and loading were synchronized at 1 Hz.

The wear resistance of Vitamin E-blended highly cross-linked UHMWPE was significantly higher than that of highly cross-linked and conventional UHMWPE. The wear marks observed from the worn surface of UHMWPE were multi-directional, with no dominant wear direction. Only abrasion occurred on the surface of Vitamin E-blended highly cross-linked UHMWPE, while yielding and accumulated plastic flow processes occurred on the surface of conventional UHMWPE and flaking-like facture and abrasion occurred on the surface of highly cross-linked UHMWPE.

Besides the prevention of oxidative degradation, blending with Vitamin E can also reduce the incidence of fatigue crack occurred in the surface layer of HXL-UHMWPE samples. Therefore, the wear resistance of HXL-UHMWPE under multi-directional motion can be further enhanced by blending with Vitamin E.

This chapter introduces and discusses the concept of turning points from the ontological, epistemological and methodological perspectives, applying it to the de-internationalization phenomenon to exemplify its deployment. As a concept that adds to the variance and complexity of the international business and management field, the turning point is seen as a valuable unit of analysis within the research field. It is expected that this chapter will encourage a dynamic scholarly conversation about the concept of turning point and how it can aid international business researchers in the development of a generalizable international business and management theory.

The extant research on early internationalizing ventures focuses primarily on these ventures’ start-up phase or their initial internationalization. Scarce attention is paid to how these ventures grow, if at all, beyond their start-up phase or initial internationalization phase. This paper aims to explore how international new ventures transition from the internationalizing phase to the phase of being international, and whether they actually made it to that phase. Understanding whether and how these ventures reach their “made-it” point would contribute to our understanding of how early internationalization affects a venture’s survival and growth. In this, the authors draw on the dynamic capability theory of the firm.

Given the scarcity of theoretical understanding and empirical evidence in this substantive area of research, the authors adopted a multiple case study methodology for the purpose of theory building. Following an intensity sampling strategy, they purposefully selected information-rich, but not extreme two-case companies. The authors initially collected unobtrusive data in the form of running records and mass-media news reports from the inception of the case companies. They then conducted in-depth interviews with key decision makers of the case companies, namely, their co-founders and CEOs. Critical incident technique guidelines for data analysis were employed.

Grounded in data, the following constructs emerged related to value creation: strategic experimentation, gestalt tensions and legitimacy lies. Entrepreneurs experiment with and reconfigure their venture at several levels: goal (vision), decision (strategic) and behavioral (tactical) levels of the organizational gestalt to reach a threshold level of practiced activity. Entrepreneurs’ strategic experimentation efforts are fueled by tensions that exist at these three levels of the organizational gestalt. During this experimentation process, entrepreneurs may tell legitimacy lies to legitimate their ventures in the eyes of their stakeholders.

Given the instrument the authors used to explore the issues and concerns identified above, the results are limited in scope. However, a number of questions and conjectures are put forward to guide future research in this currently under-researched area of international entrepreneurship. The authors have also suggested using the concept of turning point in future research to advance the understanding of the dynamic capability view of international new ventures.

Understanding whether and how international new ventures reach their made-it points would contribute to the understanding of how early internationalization affects international new ventures’ organizational survival and growth.

The authors have put forward the concept of the made-it point to aid international entrepreneurship researchers to investigate the continued growth, evolutionary patterns and the organizational survival of international new ventures.

Several experimental and numerical studies were performed in the past to estimate buckling capacity of corroded tubular members. However, the effect of initial imperfections has not been properly considered in most of these earlier proposed formulas. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to propose an accurate analytical formula to determine the buckling capacity of patched corroded tubular members.

Tubular members with initial geometrical imperfections can be regarded as beam-columns because of the combination of axial load and bending moment. The proposed formula is derived for a rectangular corrosion patch. The proposed formula is verified with results from finite element analysis of corroded tubular members and experimental results. The formula is also applied to an existing offshore jacket structure to highlight its significance and applicability. It is found that the buckling capacity of jacket members in splash zone reduces significantly with ageing. This reduction is around 29 and 14% for the selected brace and leg member respectively, during the design life. Finally, it is concluded that corrosion reduces the buckling capacity significantly and the proposed formula can be easily applied by practicing engineers to give an accurate and slightly conservative estimate the remaining buckling capacity.

The main finding is the new formula which accurately and conservatively estimate the buckling capacity of corroded tubular members. The proposed formula considers the secondary effect of both initial geometrical imperfections and shifting of centroid because of corrosion.

The proposed new formula is unique and original in that it considers both secondary effects from geometrical imperfections, reduction of cross-section from corrosion wastage and shifting of centroid because of corrosion. Finally, it is concluded that corrosion reduces the buckling capacity significantly and the proposed formula can be easily applied by practicing engineers to conservatively estimate the remaining buckling capacity and verify if further, more advanced estimations are needed.

To propose novel predictor‐corrector time‐integration algorithms for pseudo‐dynamic testing.

The novel predictor‐corrector time‐integration algorithms are based on both the implicit and the explicit version of the generalized‐α method. In the non‐linear unforced case second‐order accuracy, stability in energy, energy decay in the high‐frequency range as well as asymptotic annihilation are distinctive properties of the generalized‐α scheme; while in the non‐linear forced case they are the limited error near the resonance in terms of frequency location and intensity of the resonant peak. The implicit generalized‐α algorithm has been implemented in a predictor‐one corrector form giving rise to the implicit IPC‐ρ_∞ method, able to avoid iterative corrections which are expensive from an experimental standpoint and load oscillations of numerical origin. Moreover, the scheme embodies a secant stiffness formula able to approximate closely the actual stiffness of a structure. Also an explicit algorithm has been implemented, the EPC‐ρ_b method, endowed with user‐controlled dissipation properties. The resulting schemes have been tested experimentally both on a two‐ and on a six‐degrees‐of‐freedom system, exploiting substructuring techniques.

The analytical findings and the tests have indicated that the proposed numerical strategies enhance the performance of the pseudo‐dynamic test (PDT) method even in an environment characterized by considerable experimental errors. Moreover, the schemes have been tested numerically on strongly non‐linear multiple‐degrees‐of‐freedom systems reproduced with the Bouc‐Wen hysteretic model, showing that the proposed algorithms reap the benefits of the parent generalized‐α methods.

Further developments envisaged for this study are the application of the IPC‐ρ_∞ method and of EPC‐ρ_b scheme to partitioned procedures for high‐speed pseudo‐dynamic testing with substructuring.

The implicit IPC‐ρ_∞ and the explicit EPC‐ρ_b methods allow a user to have defined dissipation which reduces the effects of experimental error in the PDT without needing onerous iterations.

The paper proposes novel time‐integration algorithms for pseudo‐dynamic testing. Thanks to a predictor‐corrector form of the generalized‐α method, the proposed schemes maintain a high computational efficiency and accuracy.

This research applies a quasi-experimental research method to investigate the impact of an innovative resource titled “Accounting Exercise” (teaching intervention using physical movement and lyrics) on learning motivation and performance on a group of students enrolled in a first-year undergraduate accounting course in Japan.

Five classes were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (two classes) or a control group (three classes). In the experimental group, 90 students participated in a 15-min “Accounting Exercise” at the commencement of lectures over three consecutive weeks. The remaining 133 students assigned to the control group did not participate in the Accounting Exercise.

The findings indicate that the Accounting Exercise provided stimuli in maintaining students’ learning motivation. This finding is important for entry-level students where learning motivation has the potential to influence students’ future decisions on major areas of study and career choices.

This finding is important for entry-level students where future career options are decided. This effect is also believed to contribute to reducing the declining numbers of students in accounting majors.

This chapter describes the experience of a tenured, senior professional leader (chief executive officer [CEO]) of a nonprofit human service organization. Although strongly supported by the board, she was harassed by a small group of board members and a couple of their friends (nonboard members), who insisted she take actions that would circumvent legitimate board process. Their actions would have resulted in “underground communications” and unilateral decisions. By speaking up and calling them out, the board became divided and conflicted, culminating in the resignation of the CEO. The scholarly commentary that follows the story adds a framework for explaining how important it is to maintain a moral compass, to hold fast to personal integrity, and to refuse to keep silent in the face of adversity. By sounding the alarm, the chaos and disruption exposed the plan to take power and control from the board. Being courageous may not be intentional or include actions of choice; it stems from the belief that it is the right thing to do… therefore, acting on moral courage can mitigate remorse. You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity (Epicurus).