The Role of Labour Market Information for Adjustment: International Comparisons

Labour Market Information (LMI) is a policy instrument that governments use to coordinate labour market adjustments. Many approaches are utilized in the provision of this information in OECD countries. This report examines approaches in five OECD countries (Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and Australia) in order to assess their efficiency in facilitating adjustments in labour markets. This report finds that although Canada has well developed labour market information mechanisms, further efforts should be made by the Canadian government to improve our labour market information delivery system. In particular, attempts should be made to simplify information content, improve users’ awareness, and tailor information to the needs of users, in order to ensure that our extensive information system facilitates labour market adjustments.Labour Market Information (LMI), Labour market adjustments, Delivery information, Users' awareness, International comparisons, Job search.

The inviscid compressible Goertler problem

The growth rate is studied of Goertler vortices in a compressible flow in the inviscid limit of large Goertler number. Numerical solutions are obtained for 0(1) wavenumbers. The further limits of large Mach number and large wavenumber with 0(1) Mach number are considered. It is shown that two different types of disturbance modes can appear in this problem. The first is a wall layer mode, so named as it has its eigenfunctions trapped in a thin layer away from the wall and termed a trapped layer mode for large wavenumbers and an adjustment layer mode for large Mach numbers, since then this mode has its eigenfunctions concentrated in the temperature adjustment layer. The near crossing of the modes which occurs in each of the limits mentioned is investigated

On the instability of Goertler vortices to nonlinear travelling waves

Recent theoretical work by Hall and Seddougui (1989) has shown that strongly nonlinear, high wavenumber Goertler vortices developing within a boundary layer flow are susceptible to a secondary instability which takes the form of travelling waves confined to a thin region centered at the outer edge of the vortex. The case is considered in which the secondary mode could be satisfactorily described by a linear stability theory and herein the objective is to extend this investigation of Hall and Seddougui (1989) into the nonlinear regime. It was found that at this stage not only does the secondary mode become nonlinear but it also interacts with itself so as to modify the governing equations for the primary Goertler vortex. In this case then, the vortex and the travelling wave drive each other and, indeed, the whole flow structure is described by an infinite set of coupled, nonlinear differential equations. A Stuart-Watson type of weakly nonlinear analysis of these equations is undertaken and concluded, in particular, that on this basis there exist stable flow configurations in which the travelling mode is of finite amplitude. Implications of the findings for practical situations are discussed and it is shown that the theoretical conclusions drawn here are in good qualitative agreement with available experimental observations

Nonlinear Instability of Hypersonic Flow past a Wedge

The nonlinear stability of a compressible flow past a wedge is investigated in the hypersonic limit. The analysis follows the ideas of a weakly nonlinear approach. Interest is focussed on Tollmien-Schlichting waves governed by a triple deck structure and it is found that the attached shock can profoundly affect the stability characteristics of the flow. In particular, it is shown that nonlinearity tends to have a stabilizing influence. The nonlinear evolution of the Tollmien-Schlichting mode is described in a number of asymptotic limits

Communication-Wear: User Feedback as Part of a Co-Design Process

Communication-Wear is a clothing concept that augments the mobile phone by enabling expressive messages to be exchanged remotely, by conveying a sense of touch, and presence. It proposes to synthesise conventions and cultures of fashion with those of mobile communications, where there are shared attributes in terms of communication and expression. Using garment prototypes as research probes as part of an on-going iterative co-design process, we endeavoured to mobilise participants’ tacit knowledge in order to gauge user perceptions on touch communication in a lab-based trial. The aim of this study was to determine whether established sensory associations people have with the tactile qualities of textiles could be used as signs and metaphors for experiences, moods, social interactions and gestures, related to interpersonal touch. The findings are used to inspire new design ideas for textile actuators for use in touch communication in successive iterations

The effects of suction on the nonlinear stability of the three-dimensional boundary layer above a rotating disc

There exist two types of stationary instability of the flow over a rotating disc corresponding to the upper branch, inviscid mode and the lower branch mode, which has a triple deck structure, of the neutral stability curve. A theoretical study of the linear problem and an account of the weakly nonlinear properties of the lower branch modes have been undertaken by Hall and MacKerrell respectively. Motivated by recent reports of experimental sightings of the lower branch mode and an examination of the role of suction on the linear stability properties of the flow here, the effects are studied of suction on the nonlinear disturbance described by MacKerrell. The additional analysis required in order to incorporate suction is relatively straightforward and enables the derivation of an amplitude equation which describes the evolution of the mode. For each value of the suction, a threshold value of the disturbance amplitude is obtained; modes of size greater than this threshold grow without limit as they develop away from the point of neutral stability