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A single-domain multi-phase model is developed for macrosegregation and shrinkage pipe formation in castings, as functions of buoyancy- and shrinkage-induced flow. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using a volume of fluid (VOF) method, both the air/liquid and air/solid interfaces are tracked during shrinkage pipe formation. A set of mixture advection-diffusion equations are derived and solved for velocity, temperature, composition, and phase field evolution. The fluid mechanics of the model are verified using a transient ditch drainage problem.

Results showing the interaction of macrosegregation and pipe formation are presented for two alloys under faster and slower cooling conditions.

This model provides a comprehensive tool to investigate relationships between the developing composition distribution and shrinkage pipe formation.

The purpose of this chapter is to assess the importance of individual social capital characteristics in determining wages, both directly through their valuation by employers and indirectly through their impact on individual occupational choice. We find that a person’s level of sociability and care for others works through both channels to explain wage differences between social and nonsocial occupations. Additionally, expected wages in each occupation type are found to be at least as important as a person’s level of social capital in choosing a social occupation. We make use of restricted 2000 Decennial Census and 2000 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey.

Medical uncertainty is recognized as a critical issue in the sociology of diagnosis and medical sociology more generally, but a neglected focus of this concern is the question of patient decision making. Using a mixed methods approach that draws upon autoethnographic accounts and third-party interviews, we aim to illuminate the dilemmas of patient decision making in the face of uncertainty. How do patients and supportive caregivers go about navigating this state of affairs? What types of patient–doctor/healthcare professional relationships hinder or enhance effective patient decision making? These are the themes we explore in this study by following patients through the sequence of experiencing symptoms, seeking a diagnosis, evaluating treatment protocols, and receiving treatments. In general, three genres of culturally available narratives are revealed in the data: strategic, technoluxe, and unbearable health narratives.

Experts respond to the same incentives as people in other areas of human action, and in the same ways. This insight is a truism: Experts are ordinary people, not otherworld creatures. The disciplined pursuit of this common sense observation helps us to reach conclusions about experts that might be surprising or counterintuitive.

Nuclear weapons confront us as the challenge of our times. To understand the special psychological and moral issues raised by nuclear arsenals and their use, we must first grasp the special nature of these weapons. In a recent book on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the authors highlighted a fact which often escapes public attention; namely, nuclear weapons, many times more powerful than the 12.5 kiloton uranium bomb and the 22 kiloton plutonium bomb dropped respectively on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are qualitatively different from conventional explosives.

The prevention through design (PtD) initiative places a duty on designers to originate designs that are inherently safe for construction, maintenance, occupation and demolition. In the UK, legislation has been introduced creating a new statutory role called the principal designer (PD) to ensure that PtD occurs during the design process. To realize this objective, PDs under the regulations must have appropriate skills, knowledge and experience (SKE) of occupational safety and health risks as they relate to construction products. However, there is a paucity of knowledge, in the extant literature and in practice, regarding what specifically constitutes PDs’ SKE of PtD and how to measure the same.

The study undertook a systematic review of meanings of SKE and carried out content analyses to provide robust conceptualizations of the constructs SKE. This underpinned the development of nomological networks to operationalize the constructs SKE in respect of PDs’ ability to ensure PtD.

PDs’ SKE of PtD are presented as multidimensional constructs that can be operationalized at different levels of specificity in three theoretical models.

The models indicated in this study can assist project clients to clarify the PtD SKE of prospective PDs in the procurement process. Correspondingly, PDs can look to these frameworks to identify their SKE gaps and take steps to address them.

This study contributes to the PtD literature by providing theoretical frameworks to clarify the PtD SKE of PDs. The study provides a basis for future research to empirically test the attributes of these as they relate to PDs’ competence to ensure PtD.

Much has been written about trade deal opportunities after Brexit (e.g. Minford et al., 2017; Singham and Tylecote, 2018) but much less about envisaged “supply side mechanisms” that would translate a Brexit shock into improved UK competitive performance. Indications as to the supply side mechanisms involved can be found in some pro-Brexit writings and speeches and revolve around cutting regulation and reducing taxation, to spur innovation entrepreneurship. The authors contend that these measures align to a broad set of policy measures associated with Economic Shock Therapy, the Laffer Curve and the associated “Washington Consensus” (Williamson, 2005). The authors are looking to stimulate a conversation around whether these measures are most likely to stimulate entrepreneurial innovation and growth. The authors open by contrasting these concepts to growth equilibrium dynamics drawn from Wicksell, Keynes and Schumpeter – and by implication dynamic Walrasian General Equilibrium – to pose the question, is entrepreneur-led growth best led via slashing regulations and taxes or by focussing on correcting existing market failures? The purpose of this paper is to promote controversy and debate as to which “supply side measures” are most effective in enabling entrepreneurial growth.

The authors briefly review the pro-Brexiteer economic framework and relate this to broader Economic Shock Therapy and Laffer Curve concepts; how these have been applied and how some argue they can become “supply side” enablers in a positive Brexit innovation and entrepreneurship transformation. By drawing upon fundamental economic relationships such as Wicksell’s (1898) “Natural Rate of Interest”, the authors highlight the importance of information asymmetry and regulatory distortion in financial markets, resulting in some entrepreneurs (and associated innovations) failing to receive the capital their project merit. The authors pose the question, whether Shock Therapy, Laffer Curve type tax cuts and any Brexit “bonfire of regulation” will raise entrepreneurial growth and success.

Both Shock Therapy and Laffer Curve inspired tax cuts have a patchy record of success, despite notable achievements in post-1991 Poland. The authors stress entrepreneurs drive innovation and growth, and a key support to them requires correcting “access to finance” market failures. It is questionable if Economic Shocks contribute anything to resolving this fundamental problem.

The authors open the supply side debate on anticipated “Brexit Transformation” in the context of long standing (some maybe long forgotten) theoretical understandings, thereby posing the question as to whether potential Brexit-related deregulation, tax cuts and “Economic Shock” therapy are likely to raise entrepreneurial competitive advantage and success rates. Market failure in financial market support for small firm growth and innovation needs are highlighted. Arguably, economic growth and innovation would be better sustained by addressing these failures, than introducing the “unknowns” and risks associated with a substantial Economic Shock.

This study aims to investigate the impact of remote auditing on audit quality and explore the moderating role of both the client’s and the audit firm’s technology readiness in this interaction.

Data was collected through a questionnaire survey distributed to 360 audit professionals in Jordan, resulting in 208 valid responses. The data was analysed using SmartPLS – structural equation modelling.

The results showed that remote auditing significantly and positively affect audit quality. This study found that the technology readiness of both the audit firm and the client greatly influences audit quality. Notably, the technology readiness of the client positively enhances the relationship between remote auditing and audit quality, while the technology readiness of the audit firm does not play such a role.

The findings are of value to policymakers in terms of the positive impact of remote auditing on audit quality, and the role of technology readiness in this regard. In particular, they allow policymakers and regulators of audit profession to make informed and relevant decisions pertaining to the adoption of remote auditing. The findings also indicate the significance for audit firms and business institutions to pay special attention to developing their technology capabilities to keep abreast of rapid technology advancements, ensuring the maximum benefits for auditing profession, thereby enhancing their efficiency and effectiveness.

The importance of this study lies in its unique contribution to bridging the research gap related to understanding the pivotal role of technology readiness in enhancing the relationship between the use of remote auditing and the achievement of high audit quality.

In laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing, spatter particles are ejected from the melt pool and can be detrimental to material performance and powder recycling. Quantifying spatter generation with respect to processing conditions is a step toward mitigating spatter and better understanding the phenomenon. This paper reveals process insights of spatter phenomena by automatically annotating spatter particles in high-speed video observations using machine learning.

A high-speed camera was used to observe the L-PBF process while varying laser power, laser scan speed and scan strategy on a constant geometry on an EOSM290 using Ti-6Al-4V powder. Two separate convolutional neural networks were trained to segment and track spatter particles in captured high-speed videos for spatter characterization.

Spatter generation and ejection angle significantly differ between keyhole and conduction mode melting. High laser powers lead to large ejections at the beginning of scan lines. Slow and fast build rates produce more spatter than moderate build rates at constant energy density. Scan strategies with more scan vectors lead to more spatter. The presence of powder significantly increases the amount of spatter generated during the process.

With the ability to automatically annotate a large volume of high-speed video data sets with high accuracy, an experimental design of observed parameter changes reveals quantitively stark changes in spatter morphology that can aid process development to mitigate spatter occurrence and impacts on material performance.