Editorial : union strategies and worker engagement with new forms of work and employment

For the UK government, management and some trade union organisations, the idea behind the concept of the high-performance workplace(HPW)is that it can deliver comparative advantage because it enables firms to deliver increased performance on the basis of socially consensual management practices. There are two aspects to the broad picture of what is meant by socially consensual management practices

Collective narratives and politics in the contemporary study of work : the new management practices debate

In this article we explore the question of how as sociologists of work we might research those who constitute the substance of our labour process. We approach this question through an examination of the New Management Practices debate, principally in the labour movement where a distinctive and critical view of NMP developed in the late 1980s. Second, we argue that there is a link between this debate and the wider politics of labour process discussion both within and beyond the labour movement which has witnessed a shift away from an earlier engagement with worker interventions. In response we suggest the need to re-evaluate the nature of academic engagement with labour thus reanimating a closer engagement with labour-in-work and collective worker narratives

A decision support methodology for process in the loop optimisation

Experimental optimisation with hardware-in-the-loop is a common procedure in engineering, particularly in cases where accurate modelling is not possible. A common methodology to support experimental search is to use one of the many gradient descent methods. However, even sophisticated and proven methodologies such as Simulated Annealing (SA) can be significantly challenged in the presence of significant noise. This paper introduces a decision support methodology based upon Response Surfaces (RS), which supplements experimental management based on variable neighbourhood search, and is shown to be highly effective in directing experiments in the presence of significant signal to noise (S-N) ratio and complex combinatorial functions. The methodology is developed on a 3-dimensional surface with multiple local-minima and large basin of attraction, and high S-N ratio. Finally, the method is applied to a real-life automotive experimental application

Small carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Leiodidae: Cholevinae) from burrows of Geomys and Thomomys pocket gophers (Rodentia: Geomyidae) in the United States

The cholevine beetles inhabiting burrows of Geomys and Thomomys pocket gophers (Rodentia: Geomyidae) are reviewed. Catops geomysi n. sp. and Ptomaphagus geomysi n. sp. are described. Both of these species and Ptomaphagus schwarzi Hatch appear to be regular and obligate inhabitants of Geomys burrows b~t are not host specific. Nemadus hornii Hatch, Sciodrepoides watsoni horn ian us (Blanchard), Catops s~mplex Say, Ptomaphagus cavernicola Schwarz, Ptomaphagus consobrinus (LeConte), Ptomaphagus fisus Horn, and Ptomaphagus texanus Horn were less frequently collected and are probably facultative inhabitants of Geomys burrows, as well as nests or dens of other small mammals. Ptomaphagus nevadicus Horn is an inhabitant of ~)Urrows of Thomomys pocket gophers in western North America. A key to the species of Ptomaphagus III the southeastern Gulf Coastal Plain, from non-cave habitats, is provided to aid in their identification

Shop-floor bargaining and the struggle for job control in the British automobile and aerospace industries 1950-1982

In the UK automobile and aerospace industries, the struggle over job control and rewards for labour expended in the production process was particularly intense in the period of steady economic growth, high and stable employment, and low inflation, following the Second World War. This struggle reached its zenith during a phase of increasing output in the 1950s and early 1960s. By the late 1960s, however, as wages and unemployment began to rise and the rate of growth slowed there was a discernible shift in management industrial relations strategy and efforts by government to curb the authority and influence of shop-stewards. Despite disparities both between and within these respective industries, particularly the higher skill levels required by the aerospace sector, common experiences of the transformation of labour conditions of work are noticeable. In mapping some key historical struggles of automobile and aerospace workers against management forms of authority and control, it should be possible to distinguish the critical dynamics prevalent in both industries. Knowledge of the trajectory of labour relations and the pattern and character of conflict is critical to understanding and accounting for continuity and change in the social relations of production

Robust transceiver design for MIMO relay systems with tomlinson harashima precoding

In this paper we consider a robust transceiver design for two hop non-regenerative multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay networks with imperfect channel state information (CSI). The transceiver consists of Tomlinson Harashima Pre-coding (THP) at the source with a linear precoder at the relay and linear equalisation at the destination. Under the assumption that each node in the network can acquire statistical knowledge of the channel in the form of a channel mean and estimation error covariance, we optimise the processors to minimise the expected arithmetic mean square error (MSE) subject to transmission power constraints at the source and relay. Simulation results demonstrate the robustness of the proposed transceiver design to channel estimation errors

On-line multiobjective automatic control system generation by evolutionary algorithms

Evolutionary algorithms are applied to the on- line generation of servo-motor control systems. In this paper, the evolving population of controllers is evaluated at run-time via hardware in the loop, rather than on a simulated model. Disturbances are also introduced at run-time in order to pro- duce robust performance. Multiobjective optimisation of both PI and Fuzzy Logic controllers is considered. Finally an on-line implementation of Genetic Programming is presented based around the Simulink standard blockset. The on-line designed controllers are shown to be robust to both system noise and ex- ternal disturbances while still demonstrating excellent steady- state and dvnamic characteristics

ZF DFE transceiver design for MIMO relay systems with direct source-destination link

In this paper we consider a non-linear transceiver design for non-regenerative multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay networks where a direct link exists between the source and destination. Our system utilises linear processors at the source and relay as well as a zero-forcing (ZF) decision feedback equaliser (DFE) at the receiver. Under the assumption that full channel state information (CSI) is available the precoding and equaliser matrices are designed to minimise the arithmetic mean square error (MSE) whilst meeting transmit power constraints at the source and destination. The source, relay, and destination processors are provided in closed form solution. In the absence of the direct link our design particularises to a previous ZF DFE solution and as such can be viewed as a generalisation of an existing work. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution through simulation and show that it outperforms existing techniques in terms of bit error ratio (BER)

Tomlinson Harashima precoding design for non-regenerative MIMO relay networks

In this paper we consider the design of minimum mean square error (MMSE) transceivers for non-regenerative multiple input multiple output (MIMO) relay systems. Our design utilises Tomlinson Harashima precoding (THP) at the source along with linear processors in each stage of the network. Assuming full channel state information (CSI) is available at each node in the network the various processors are jointly optimised to minimise the system arithmetic mean square error (MSE) whilst abiding by average power constraints at both the source and relay terminals in the network. Simulations show that the proposed schemes outperform existing methods in terms of bit error ratio (BER)

A review of one-step fluorescent cyanoacrylate techniques

A review of recent research in the use of one-step fluorescent cyanoacrylate techniques is presented. Advantages and disadvantages of such techniques in comparison to two-step processes are discussed. Further studies and new experimental data are presented to aid this review: three one-step cyanoacrylate products (Lumicyano, PolyCyano UV and PECA Multiband) containing a fluorescent dye were tested to evaluate their effectiveness in developing latent fingermarks on polyethylene bags by means of a pseudo operational trial. The results were compared to the traditional two-step process of cyanoacrylate fuming followed by staining with ethanol-based basic yellow 40 (BY40). The study was conducted using sequential treatments of an initial fuming cycle, a second cycle and finally BY40 staining. LumicyanoTM and PolyCyano UV performed similarly before BY40 staining, with both providing good contrast and visibility under fluorescence. PECA Multiband, however, did not develop as many fingermarks and proved to be problematic for the fuming cabinet. Subsequent BY40 staining of fingermarks developed by all three one-step processes enabled the visualisation of new fingermarks