Wavy-ply sandwich with composite skins and crushable core for ductility and energy absorption

Conventional composite materials offer high specific stiffness and strength, but suffer from low failure strains and failure without warning. This work proposes a new design for sandwich structures with symmetrically-wavy composite skins and a crushable foam core, aiming to achieve large strains (due to unfolding of the skins) and energy absorption (due to crushing of the foam core) under tensile loading. The structure is designed by a combination of analytical modelling and finite element simulations, and the concept is demonstrated experimentally. When loaded under quasi-static tension, wavy-ply sandwich specimens with carbon–epoxy skins and optimised geometry exhibited an average failure strain of 8.6%, a specific energy dissipated of 9.4 kJ/kg, and ultimate strength of 1570 MPa. The scope for further developing the wavy-ply sandwich concept and potential applications requiring large deformations and energy absorption are discussed

Regulatory reform and labour earnings in Portuguese banking

this study exemines changes union contracts and wage structure during and after the introduction of regukatory reforms (deregulation and privatisation) in the Portuguese banking sector. The main finding is that, despite a relative wage erosion detected in the contract dada, banking workers were able to enjoy an increasing wage premium in the period 1985-2000, probably reflecting the increasing profitability of the industry and the rise in labour productivity. The evidence also shows that some specific groups benefited relatively more than others: the least skilled and educated workforce and male workers gained more from the regulatory reforms. However, this unequal sharing of the wage premium did not raise wage inequality across ownership groups in the industry.Deregulation, privatisation, wage structure, Portuguese banking industry

Towards a business model for sustainable supply chain management

Designers make decisions that ultimately impact on both the economic, environmental and social performance of the products and process, and many of these costs and impacts occur across the supply chain. This paper aims to show initials elements of a research which aims to develop an integrated business model for sustainable supply chain management in order to facilitate the business management process in terms of assessment of suppliers and collaboration addressed to the sustainable improvements across supply chain. It is noteworthy that it is an imperative in the current competitive market that companies must be able to manage their entire production chain taking into account sustainable issues as an important factor in their decision processes. Therefore, it is believed that this model can integrate and strengthen a company’s functions and assist its decision processes as well as implement improvements within its supply chain

The Impact of Privatisation on Wages: Evidence from the Portugese Banking Industry

This paper adopts a difference-in-differences estimator to examine the impact of privatisation on wages in the Portuguese banking industry for the period 1989-97. The design of the reform and the nature of dataset employed (matched employer-employee) provided a particularly important opportunity to analyse the effects of privatisation on different demographic groups, using multiple control groups, and considering the timing of the effects. The empirical evidence suggests a U-shaped relationship between wage variation and time period of restructuring, regardless of the choice of the comparison group, for those employees, either men or women, retained by privatised firms.privatisation, wages, Portugese banking industry, difference-in-difference

The impact of Privatisation on Wages: Evidence from the Portuguese Banking Industry

we present quasi-experimental estimates of the effect of privatisation on wages in the Portuguese banking sector for the period 1989-97. The design of the reform and the nature of dataset employed provide an important opportunity to analyse the effects of privatisation on different demographic groups, using multiple control groups and taking into consideration the timing of the effects. We find a positive relationship between time of restructuring and wage variation regardless the choice of the control group. Retained employees in privatised firms did experience lower wage growth rates, but only during the first two years after the ownership change. Estimates for top managers appear to contradict the theoretical predictions.privatisation, wages, Portuguese banking industry, difference-in-differences.

Slavnov and Gaudin-Korepin Formulas for Models without U(1){\rm U}(1) Symmetry: the Twisted XXX Chain

We consider the XXX spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg chain on the circle with an arbitrary twist. We characterize its spectral problem using the modified algebraic Bethe anstaz and study the scalar product between the Bethe vector and its dual. We obtain modified Slavnov and Gaudin-Korepin formulas for the model. Thus we provide a first example of such formulas for quantum integrable models without ${\rm U}(1)$ symmetry characterized by an inhomogenous Baxter T-Q equation