Search results

This paper presents a boundary element method (BEM) based on a subdomain approach for the solution of non‐Newtonian fluid flow problems which include thermal effects and viscous dissipation. The volume integral arising from non‐linear terms is converted into equivalent boundary integrals by the multi‐domain dual reciprocity method (MD‐DRM) in each subdomain. Augmented thin plate splines interpolation functions are used for the approximation of field variables. The iterative numerical formulation is achieved by viewing the material as divided into small elements and on each of them the integral representation formulae for the velocity and temperature are applied and discretised using linear boundary elements. The final system of non‐linear algebraic equations is solved by a modified Newton's method. The numerical examples include non‐Newtonian problems with viscous dissipation, temperature‐dependent viscosity and natural convection due to bouyancy forces.

Accrediting boards and employers agree that there is a growing need for engineering leadership training. The aforementioned recognized, soft skills training is still an incipient initiative in the engineering discipline. This paper aims to summarize the implementation of the Engineering Leadership Program at the School of Engineering, where the implementation process uses the model for learning and teaching proposed by Reyes and Zarama, 1998b, as a strategy to embody engineering leadership capabilities. The best practices in regard to the capabilities that promote engineering leadership are discussed. The final remarks highlight the relevance of the active student roles in the development of the Engineering Leadership Program.

The author describes the implementation of the Engineering Leadership Program using Reyes and Zarama’s process of embodying distinctions.

The use of systemic models for teaching and learning in the implementation of Engineering Leadership Programs helps facilitate leadership competencies in students. The implementation of “engineering leadership” as complementary activity in the engineering curriculum demonstrated individual and program advantages – in comparison to solely modifying the current engineering curriculum.

This work enhances the understanding of how engineering schools can design activities to promote engineering leadership in former engineers as is requested by international accreditation boards and by engineering employers.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an economic production quantity (EPQ) inventory model considering imperfect items and probabilistic demand for a two-echelon supply chain. The production process is imperfect and the imperfect quality items are removed from the lot size. The demand rate of the inventory system is random and follows an exponential probability density function and the demand of the retailers is depending on the initiatives of the sales team.

Two approaches are examined. In the non-collaborative approach, any member of the supply chain can be the leader and takes decisions to optimize the profits, and in the collaborative system, all members make joint decisions about the production, supply, sales and inventory to optimize the profits of the supply chain members. The calculus approach is applied to find the maximum profit related to the members of the supply chain.

A numerical example is presented to illustrate the performance of the EPQ model. The results show that collaborative approach generates greater profits to the supply chain and the market’s demand represents the variable behavior and uncertainty that is generated in the replenishment of a supply chain.

The new and major contributions of this research are: the inventory model considers demand for products is random variable which follows an exponential probability distribution function and it also depends on the initiatives of sales teams, the imperfect production system generates defective items, different cycle time are considered in manufacturer and retailers and collaborative and non-collaborative approaches are also studied.

In this paper, a novel boundary element formulation for the deformation of a viscous 2D‐planar cylindrical geometry, immersed in a different viscous fluid and moving towards a rigid wall, is proposed for moderate Reynolds number, considering surface tension effects. The boundary integral formulation for Stokes flow inside and outside the geometry is represented in terms of a combined distribution of a single‐layer and a double‐layer potential of Green functions over the geometry surface. Additionally, non‐linear terms describing effects absent in pure Stokes flow, such as the time derivative of the velocity and inertia, are included. These effects lead to the appearance of domain integrals. Traditional dual reciprocity is applied in order to approximate these domain integrals by a series of particular solutions which are then transformed into boundary integrals. Augmented thin‐plate splines, i.e. r²log(r), plus three additional linear terms from a Pascal triangle expansion were chosen for the dual reciprocity approximation. In order to avoid the discretization of the rigid wall, and using the fact that the velocity on the wall must vanish due to the no‐slip condition, the fundamental solution was modified with a combination of image singularities including an image Stokeslet, a potential dipole and a Stokes‐doublet.

Employee performance and job satisfaction are crucial factors that influence organizational success, particularly in the insurance industry. The advent of data-driven approaches has led to the emergence of Employee-Performance Data Management (EPDM) practices, which play a pivotal role in shaping employee outcomes. This study, with its clear focus on the impact of EPDM on job satisfaction within the insurance sector, aims to provide an understanding of this relationship, employing a positivist perspective grounded in existing theories.

The primary objective of this research is to investigate the influence of EPDM variables, such as data integration, technology integration, and ethical considerations, on job satisfaction among employees in the insurance industry.

We adopted a causal-comparative research design. This design allowed us to discern the cause-and-effect relationships among the variables under study. We collected data through structured questionnaires, ensuring a diverse sample of 415 employees across various job roles within the insurance sector. Our analytical framework encompassed multiple regression analysis, f-tests, t-tests, and calculations of means and standard deviations, all of which were used to rigorously assess the data.

Our study's findings have significant implications for the insurance industry. We found that aspects of EPDM variables, including data integration, technology integration, and ethical consideration, have a profound impact on job satisfaction. These results underscore the critical role of effective data management in enhancing employee outcomes. They also highlight the need for insurance companies to invest in robust data management strategies, potentially leading to improved job satisfaction and enhanced organizational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to study using thermoelectric module to harvest the waste heat from spindle units of machine tools and drive wireless sensors stable, thermal structure design and optimization of the thermoelectric module.

In this paper, mesh-free-based method, rather than the standard finite element method, is used to analyze the thermal behavior of the thermoelectric modules with different structure. After that, experiments are done to obtain the real power output performance of those modules and evaluate the performance of driving a wireless sensor with those modules.

The paper provides that the difference in geometry structure can cause apparent change in surface temperature of heat-conducting plate, and the optimized thermoelectric module could increase the output voltage by about 7 per cent compared with the one without optimization.

It is found that the structure changing of the thermoelectric module is not the only way to increase the harvesting power, so a high efficiency power manage system is needed to be studied in the future.

The paper includes implications for the development of self-powered wireless sensors in the spindle unit for machine tool monitoring.

The paper develops models of thermoelectric modules with different structures on a rotating spindle, and tests the performance of driving wireless sensors with those thermoelectric modules.

The growing concern with the rapid evolution in adopting emerging technologies in the real estate industry to enhance performance is a threat to conventional practice. The paper aims to examine the latent influence of digital-based technology on employees toward improving organizational performance.

The study employed an exploratory research design. The study sampled 132 real estate firms in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study adopts a random sampling method, and only 87 questionnaires were retrieved and found suitable for analysis. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The study perceived that the adoption of digital-based tools enhances employee creativity and usage, work ethics, decision-making skills, behaviors and traits toward business performance. Furthermore, firm culture, training and development, assessment of employee productivity metrics, the firm’s expectations and strategic technology applications are significant factors that impact employee decisions to drive organizational performance.

The study has an implication for the real estate industry in a achieving technology-based performance system by involving employees’ in attaining overall organizational business objectives.

The paper is relevant because it examines the empirical study of the influence of digital technologies in enhancing employee performance with the goal of enhancing the organization’s competitiveness while maintaining flexible approaches to withstand future business risk and uncertainty.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are fundamental to the socioeconomic development of a country or region. They directly contribute to increasing employment generation and improving income distribution. Despite the importance of SMEs, there are still opportunities for developing works that support and guide SMEs to use digital technologies, especially to digitalize their customer service. Therefore, this work aims to propose drivers containing recommendations for developing and improving the digitalization of customer service in SMEs.

This work uses a qualitative approach to systematize the main SMEs' characteristics and identify the boosting elements of the digitalization of customer service in the scientific literature. To this end, the authors conducted a content analysis of the most influential empirical and theoretical articles on the theme published from 2016 to 2021 in the Scopus database.

This work identified 38 boosting elements of the digitalization of customer service based on the scientific literature. These elements were grouped into six drivers for developing and improving the digitalization of customer service. The drivers contain recommendations that were adapted for SMEs according to their characteristics and based on the experience of the authors of this work.

This work contributes to promoting socioeconomic development, providing important solutions for managers and owners of SMEs to improve their customer service. The proposed drivers support and encourage the use of digital technologies for developing and improving customer service, overcoming the challenges of digitalization in these companies. Thus, SMEs will be able to increase the satisfaction of their customers and improve their competitiveness.

This paper aims to contribute to adaptation research by devising a systematic method for examining the challenges in mainstreaming climate change adaptation (CCA) into local land use planning. It argues that mainstreaming operationalization necessitates a methodology that focuses on the challenges in applying the approach and an analytical framework that can examine the mainstreaming process from an institutional perspective.

This paper applied triangulation by data method (i.e. document review, interview, survey and key informant consultations) and incorporated the scorecard approach in developing the four-stage mixed methodology. It used a modified Institutional Analysis and Development framework as primary analytical guide and applied the case study methodology for structure and focus in relation to data collection activities.

This paper devised the four-stage mixed methodology and successfully applied it in examining the challenges in mainstreaming CCA into local land use planning in Albay, Philippines. Using the methodology, this paper developed 20 quantitative “mainstreaming indicators” and generated qualitative analyses to assess the state of play of the challenges in local mainstreaming of CCA. Results suggest that mainstreaming challenges exist within a certain spectrum, with one end composed of barriers to, and the other, opportunities for CCA. Furthermore, the challenges occur at varying degrees of severity depending on the conditions that surround them.

This paper is limited to illustrating the process involved in developing the four-stage mixed methodology and presents only a brief discussion of the quantitative and qualitative results.

Although the methodology is at its initial stages of development, it generated results that can help analysts, planners and decision-makers: determine the nature of the challenges in mainstreaming CCA, thereby understand the mainstreaming process; prioritize the mainstreaming challenges to address; and design strategies that will maximize the use of limited resources (i.e. utilizing the opportunities to overcome the existing barriers), among others.

The four-stage mixed methodology was developed to aid analysts, planners and decision-makers determine the state-of-play of the challenges in mainstreaming CCA and make informed decisions in overcoming these challenges. Thus, the mixed method can be a useful tool in advancing the operationalization of the mainstreaming approach.

Although there is a large body of literature available on the foundations of workplace learning (WPL), little is known about designated research methods that systematically combine intervention, design and learning at work. The purpose of this study is to propose action design research as an alternative method for organizing WPL in general and facilitating pedagogically rich activities in particular.

This research used a case study approach to focus the action design research method and exemplify its utility through two case studies that emphasize WPL in general and how the method can be used to facilitate pedagogically rich activities in particular.

The results of the case studies indicate that the action design research method had a significantly positive effect on organizing WPL in organizations systematically, as well as creating a narrative that structures the research process and its outcomes.

The findings help scholars that are in need of organizing WPL research in a systematic way. The findings do also help practitioners in organizations to solve real-world problems and develop new knowledge jointly together with scholars. Consequently, the findings contribute to the existing literature by exemplifying how to facilitate pedagogically rich activities and disseminate the outcomes of doing so in a formalized way.