Suchergebnisse

The book uses interview and survey information from 300 of the world's leading industrial enterprises to provide an in-depth investigation of the issues relating to the internationalisation of R & D by multinational enterprises. The viewpoints of central coordinating R & D units and their overseas subsidiaries are analysed. The issues covered include the nature and funding of the work done in overseas facilities; the specialisation of roles in globalised R & D; coordination practices; sources of ideas implemented in R & D programmes and attitudes to government policies.

Motivated by the prospective uses of plastically compressible materials such as, metallic and polymeric foams, transformation toughened ceramics, toughened structural polymers etc., the present authors investigate the crack-tip radius effect on fatigue crack growth (FCG) of a mode I crack and near-tip stress-strain fields in such plastically compressible solids. These plastically compressible materials have been characterised by elastic-viscoplastic constitutive equations. Simulations are conducted for plane strain geometry with two different hardness functions: one is bilinear hardening and the other one is hardening-softening-hardening. It has been observed that plastic compressibility as well as strain softening lead to significant deviation in the amount of crack growth. It has further been revealed that the nature of FCG is appreciably affected by initial crack-tip radius. Even though it may look from outside that the increase in tip radius will lead to decrease in FCG, but the nature of FCG variation with respect to tip radius is found to be a combined effect of tip radius, plastic compressibility and work or strain softening etc.

Calls for the decolonisation of higher education in the world and South Africa in particular, has gained momentum since the student protests in 2015 and 2016. This takes place after some efforts have been made to transform and democratise the higher education landscape. Efforts made include: National Commission on Higher Education, White Paper 3 1997, The Higher Education Act of 1997 and the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) Act of 1995 which led to the creation of National Qualification Framework (NQF). The policies had promises on issues of access, equity, equality, inclusivity and social justice. After 20 years of democracy, students started to question the progress or lack thereof in the transformation of higher education in South Africa. They started to make demands for access, free education, decolonisation of the curriculum, changes in the pedagogy and epistemic practices. They also demanded the removal of certain statues on some of the campuses. The protests jolted some academics to start debating and writing about the decolonisation of higher education in South Africa. This was done by picking up different aspects that were made points of focus in terms of decolonisation. Consequently, some academics focused on the decolonisation of the curriculum, some on the higher education system whilst others focussed on teacher education. In this article, we intend to contribute to the debate by focusing on Continuing Teacher Professional Development (CTPD) that is an aspect within teacher education. The focus on CTPD was prompted by the fact that not much has been done on the decolonisation of CTPD in South Africa. Furthermore, this is a critical area, because unless teachers are empowered and reskilled to drive the decolonisation process, they may resist and ultimately render the whole process unworkable. It is based on the study that was conducted, focusing on CTPD in the teaching of physical sciences in some of the rural schools in Limpopo Province. The choice of physical sciences was because physical sciences is a gateway subject and most physics sciences teachers in Limpopo Province are based in rural areas. Generally, these schools do not have the appropriate facilities and equipment to teach physical science. Physical sciences teachers also face many challenges such as negative perception about the subject, lack of resources, limited room for professional development, poor teacher training, and inadequate support from within the school and the Provincial Department of Education.This study focussed on creativity and teacher empowerment by enabling physical sciences teachers to reflect on their implementation of science inquiry. Physical sciences teachers were empowered to be creative in handling scientific inquiry especially in the absence of the necessary scientific equipment. The study was conduct at a Higher Education Institution (HEI) in Limpopo Province where teachers, from rural schools, are specifically invited to the university for the National Science Week, which included a component of ongoing Continuing Teacher Profession Development (CPTD). During the National Science Week physical sciences teachers attend an in-service workshop on Improvisation in Science. Ninety (90) physical sciences teachers participated in this study. Data were generated by using a questionnaire and unstructured interviews. The findings of the study revealed that the success of CTPD is not so much in spending more funds in CTPD programmes, but it is in the approach that is used to prepare teachers to respond appropriately to the needs and the demands of the classroom environment. The article argues that the decolonisation process should prioritise the CTPD programmes at universities. This is due to the fact that teachers as agents of change need to be empowered and reskilled, so that they can be in the forefront of the decolonisation process. This can be achieved by adopting a transformative approach that encourages improvisation in science teaching. This approach to CPTD demands that teachers' professional development should shift from the traditional approach to an approach that empowers teachers to be able to make a meaningful contribution to the classes that they teach.

The University of the South Pacific's Regional Journalism Programme, which caters for 12 member countries1 from the Cook Islands in the east to the Solomon Islands in the west, was founded in 1994 with French Government aid. It began producing double major graduate journalists for the South Pacific from 1996. Two-thirds of the graduates live and work in Fiji. While some news media organisations in Fiji have generally recruited graduates, others have preferred to hire untrained school leavers. Parallel with draft legislation designed to turn the self-regulating Fiji Media Council into a statutory body, there have been public calls for higher media standards and more professional training and education. This article explores the career attitudes and destination of the university's 68 journalism graduates between 1996 and 2002 based on empirical data from a five-year monitoring project that started in 1998. It also examines the policies of the Fiji media industry towards graduates and education.

An inventory system for deteriorating items, with ramp-type demand rate, under two-level trade credit policy taking account of preservation technology is considered. The objective of this study is to develop a deteriorating inventory policy when the supplier provides to the retailer a permissible delay in payments, and during this credit period, the retailer accumulates the revenue and earns interest on that revenue; also the retailer invests on the preservation technology to reduce the rate of product deterioration. Shortages are allowed and partially backlogged. Sufficient conditions of the existence and uniqueness of the optimal replenishment policy are provided, and an algorithm, for its determination, is proposed. Numerical examples draw attention to the obtained results, and the sensitivity analysis of the optimal solution with respect to leading parameters of the system is carried out.

Environmental responsibility plays a significant role in the firm's agendas nowadays. In this paper, we address the environmental operations of reverse logistics. Here we developed an integrated supply chain model with coordinated production and remanufacturing due to time-dependent rates. To study the problem we consider the demand to be satisfied with newly manufactured (produced) and the remanufactured products, so there is no difference between manufactured and remanufactured items. The shortages are allowed and excess demand is backlogged as well. The returned items are collected from the end user to be remanufactured. Optimal expression is obtained for the acceptable returned quantity, maximum inventory level, production and remanufacturing scheduling period, and the total average cost. Illustrative examples, which explain the application of the theoretical results as well as their numerical verifications, are given. The sensitivity of these solutions to change in underling parameter values is also discussed.