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The use of clay brickwork masonry as a cladding on framed building structures is reviewed and the problems with the modern form of construction for brickwork cladding highlighted. The potential for developing simpler, improved forms of cladding, in which free vertical movement of the brickwork is restrained, is discussed. Preliminary results are presented of an ongoing programme of research to investigate the performance of clay brickwork under conditions of vertical restraint, involving the construction and monitoring of full‐scale brickwork test panels on a multi‐storey concrete frame.

Motivation significantly influences learning and memory. While a long history of research has focused on simple forms of associative learning, such as Pavlovian conditioning, recent research is beginning to characterize how motivation influences episodic memory. In this chapter we synthesize findings across behavioral, cognitive, and educational neuroscience to characterize motivation’s influence on memory. We provide evidence that neural systems underlying motivation, namely the mesolimbic dopamine system, interact with and facilitate activity within systems underlying episodic memory, centered on the medial temporal lobes. We focus on two mechanisms of episodic memory enhancement: encoding and consolidation. Together, the reviewed research supports an adaptive model of memory in which an individual’s motivational state (i.e., learning under states of reward or punishment) shapes the nature of memory representations in service of future goals. The impact of motivation on learning and memory, therefore, has very clear implications for and applications to educational settings.

In this study, the effect of Friction Stir Welding on a 6061 aluminium alloy reinforced with 20% of alumina particles metal matrix composite was analysed. The sheets were joined by employing a tool rotating speed of 700 RPM and a welding speed of 250 mm/min. The optical and scanning electron microscopy observations performed on the different zones of FSW joints cross section revealed the different structures of the nugget, the thermo‐mechanical affected zone and the heat affected zones thanks to the difference in reinforcing particles dimensions as a consequence of friction process. After FSW the material was aged in a 3.5% NaCl solution for 1, 10 and 90 days. The aim of this work is to apply thermoelastic stress analysis to the study of crack formation and propagation of friction stir welded MMC sheets, during cyclic fatigue tests. Fatigue tests were carried out under the axial total stress‐amplitude control mode with R=omin/omax = 0.1 using a resonant electro‐mechanical testing machine (TESTRONICTM 50 25 KN by RUMUL (SUI)). All the mechanical tests were performed on as‐FSW and aged samples up to failure. The TSA measurement system allowed the crack evolution to be observed in real‐time during fatigue cycles and stress fields to be derived on the specimens from the temperature variation measured.

We propose that institutional actors do not just ceremonially comply with the cultural values in their environment, as institutional theorists have suggested. Instead, we argue that institutional actors can use conflicting cultural values as tools to further their interests and, in doing so, affect significant social problems and cause unanticipated changes in their core goals and policies. To present support for that proposition, we describe an epidemic of work disability that occurred in the Netherlands between 1967 and 1988. The epidemic is examined in light of conflicting Dutch cultural conceptions of the meaning of work and the meaning of economic security in the welfare state. The behavior of key institutional actors, including the government, medical institutions, employers, and labor unions, is examined to identify their roles in the epidemic. We assert that, by pursuing its own interests while upholding Dutch cultural values, each institutional actor produced conditions in which the work disability epidemic could occur.

The aim of the present paper was the study of mechanical and microstructural behaviour of 6061/Al2O3/20p metal matrix composite sheets joined by Friction Stir Welding. The material was welded into the form of sheets of 7 mm thickness after T6 treatment and was tested in tension and fatigue at room temperature. The mechanical behaviour of the material was found to depend strongly on the particles fracture across the weld. The tensile properties in longitudinal direction resulted higher respect to the transversal ones. The fatigue endurance (S‐N) curve of the welds was obtained by using a resonant electro‐mechanical testing machine under constant loading control up to 250 Hz sine wave loading. The cyclic fatigue tests were conducted in the axial total stress‐amplitude control mode with min max R = σ / σ The microstructure resulting from the FSW process was studied by employing optical and scanning electron microscopy.

This study aims to examine factors affecting restaurant customers’ intention to use near field communication (NFC)-based mobile payment (MP) technology. More specifically, based on the valence theory, this paper examined the impacts of users’ negative valence (perceived risk and privacy concern) and positive valence (utilitarian value and convenience) perceptions toward their NFC-MP technology acceptance. Furthermore, the impacts of individual difference variables (smartphone affinity and compatibility) on users’ negative and positive valences and on their behavioral intentions were analyzed.

A self-administered online questionnaire was used to collect the data of the study from 412 restaurant customers. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to validate the measurement model. To test the hypothesized model, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used.

The study findings demonstrated that privacy concern, utilitarian value and convenience significantly affected individuals’ NFC-MP technology acceptance. In addition, compatibility significantly influenced negative and positive valance constructs and smartphone affinity had a positive impact on positive valance constructs only.

This study provides valuable practical implications for restaurant operators and hospitality technology vendors in the context of mobile payment systems.

This study successfully extended the valence framework by adding individual difference constructs to it.

Maintenance management information technology (MMIT) systems have existed for some 40 years. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the advancement of these systems and compares the development of MMIT with other corporate information technology (IT) systems.

This paper is a literature study of 97 scientific papers within the topic of MMIT in the period 1988 to 2003. Additional readings have been made in books covering MMIT.

The paper finds that the focus of MMIT has changed in several aspects during the 40 years that have been investigated; from technology to use; from maintenance function to maintenance as an integrated part of the business; from supporting reactive maintenance to proactive maintenance; and from operative to strategic maintenance considerations. Advancements in MMIT have in general followed the development of corporate IT.

Further studies to cover application‐specific development, for instance the use of decision support systems within maintenance management and to cover literature after 2003, are of interest.

Knowledge about the development of MMIT adds to the understanding of today's computer applications for maintenance management, which is crucial for every maintenance manager using or purchasing MMIT. The findings could be used as a means to identify the future trends of MMIT, as well as possibilities and problems with the new technology, tools, techniques and methods.

Papers dealing with the development of maintenance management IT are scarce and this paper represents the first full review of MMIT so far.

To understand the meaning of a sentence, humans can focus on important words in the sentence, which reflects our eyes staying on each word in different gaze time or times. Thus, some studies utilize eye-tracking values to optimize the attention mechanism in deep learning models. But these studies lack to explain the rationality of this approach. Whether the attention mechanism possesses this feature of human reading needs to be explored.

The authors conducted experiments on a sentiment classification task. Firstly, they obtained eye-tracking values from two open-source eye-tracking corpora to describe the feature of human reading. Then, the machine attention values of each sentence were learned from a sentiment classification model. Finally, a comparison was conducted to analyze machine attention values and eye-tracking values.

Through experiments, the authors found the attention mechanism can focus on important words, such as adjectives, adverbs and sentiment words, which are valuable for judging the sentiment of sentences on the sentiment classification task. It possesses the feature of human reading, focusing on important words in sentences when reading. Due to the insufficient learning of the attention mechanism, some words are wrongly focused. The eye-tracking values can help the attention mechanism correct this error and improve the model performance.

Our research not only provides a reasonable explanation for the study of using eye-tracking values to optimize the attention mechanism but also provides new inspiration for the interpretability of attention mechanism.

This paper aims to assess the Jos Plateau Tin-mining region as an abandoned mine area being used for housing development with a view to make recommendations.

Utilising secondary data, which maps out ten different locations in the region, this paper highlights the level of radioactive substances (X-ray, beta and gamma rays) and the presence of heavy metals in the environment, abandoned mines, home for the people as well as housing development within a derelict region. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with heads of selected settlement within the Jos Plateau Tin-mining region.

Subsequent analysis shows that the radioactive substances exceed the international standards and therefore have a serious impact on the health of the local population who reside in the affected area. This is particularly significant as people use the contaminated soil as a basic material for their homes as well as farming and food production.

With overpopulation of neighbouring city and rising house prices, an increasing number of people have moved to the Tin-mining areas often without any knowledge about the perils of contaminated soil. At the same time, the planning authority has no presence in the affected area, as it falls outside its jurisdiction.

However, there is an urgent need to address this problem and prevent people from moving to this area, otherwise this would become a serious long-term human catastrophe.

Drawing from international experience, the paper argues that it is possible to develop housing in former Tin-mining areas but require careful remediation and engagement by the public and private sector.

The discussion in this paper makes a case for appropriate physical planning measure as people build their homes on the abandoned Tin-mining areas, with the presences of heavy metals and radioactive substances which are dangerous to human health where the governments have not made provision to address the problem. It is a bridge linking a previous paper on the environment and now consideration on housing/home which together form part of an ongoing PhD research “A potential application of spatial planning in Jos, Nigeria”.