Search results

THE question could well be asked as to why load controlled high strain fatigue tests should be performed, particularly when so much of the current research employs strain control? The answer is simple: a load controlled high strain fatigue environment was discovered, and a test programme subsequently initiated to provide data that could be applied to future designs. Besides, what more realistic way of testing is there? Fundamentally, most structures, or elements thereof, sense load only during a working life; strain is merely a resulting effect.

Numbers of worthy people are no doubt nursing themselves in the fond and foolish belief that when the Food Bill has received the Royal assent, and becomes law, the manufacture and sale of adulterated and sophisticated products will, to all intents and purposes, be suppressed, and that the Public Analyst and the Inspector will be able to report the existence of almost universal purity and virtue. This optimistic feeling will not be shared by the traders and manufacturers who have suffered from the effects of unfair and dishonest competition, nor by those whose knowledge and experience of the existing law enables them to gauge the probable value of the new one with some approach to accuracy. The measure has satisfied nobody, and can satisfy nobody but those whose nefarious practices it is intended to check, and who can fully appreciate the value, to them, of patchwork and superficial legislation. We have repeatedly pointed out that repressive legislation, however stringent and however well applied, can never give the public that which the public, in theory, should receive—namely, complete protection and adequate guarantee,—nor to the honest trader the full support and encouragement to which he is entitled. But, in spite of the defects and ineffectualities necessarily attaching to legislation of this nature, a strong Government could without much difficulty have produced a far more effective, and therefore more valuable law than that which, after so long an incubation, is to be added to the statute‐book.

Agency Theory is normally used to explain the relationship between the managers of a corporation and its owners, or shareholders, and to legitimate the payment of share options, and other remuneration mechanisms, to those managers on the basis that this will align the interests of the managers of a corporation with those of its owners. The paper aims to argue that this outworn legitimation is not just based on a bankrupt theory but is actually deleterious to corporate performance, managerial behaviour and the relationship between managers, shareholders and other stakeholders.

The approach is to examine the behaviour of the managers of The Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies (“Shell”) as they have continued to reinterpret accounting regulations, reclassify oil reserves and re‐report past and probable/possible future performance of the company.

The argument is predicated in the assertion that in the relationship between owners and managers of such a corporation there are actually no principals and therefore there can be no agents. Furthermore, the rewards structure developed from the theory provides a motivation for managerial misrepresentation leading to a situation in which principles are defunct. The Social Contract between all stakeholders to a corporation has been reinvigorated as a basis for sustainable performance, with consequent implications for the behaviour of all parties to the contract.

The paper illustrates that evidence abounds showing that corporations do not have any sense of social responsibility and do not feel constrained by any kind of ethical code, no matter what their corporate literature states, but that there are an increasing number of stakeholders to organisations who are demanding accountability – and forcing corporations to respond accordingly.

This paper aims to report how one can assess the transient stability of a power system by using stacked auto-encoders.

The proposed algorithm works in a power system equipped with the wide area measurement system. To be more exact, it needs pre- and post-disturbance values of frequency sent from phasor measurement units.

The authors have investigated the performance of the proposed method. Going through details, the authors have simulated many contingencies, and then have predicted the transient stability in each of which by using the proposed algorithm.

The results demonstrate that the algorithm is fast, and it has acceptable performance under different circumstances including the change of system topology and failures of telecommunication channels.

This paper aims to examine the state of knowledge of performance measurement in facilities management, in particular regarding the concepts underlying benchmarking in relation to its ability to drive innovation in the industry.

An evaluation of the key issues surrounding performance measurement and the effective application of benchmarking systems are examined, exploring the possibility of applying a benchmarking technique to measure facilities performance.

The paper suggests that a fully developed performance measurement solution via effective benchmarking can deliver as a business tool in facilities management (FM), whilst acting as a driver in the innovation process.

With the nature of performance measurement having changed over the past few decades, the paper acts as a catalyst to how performance measurement systems and techniques operate within FM and stimulate innovation.

By adopting the notion of innovation to performance measurement, the paper highlights new areas of thought to facilities management and how performance measurement is strategically applied to the industry.