Previous studies on materials choice in automotive bodies have looked at both composite and aluminum alternatives, but have always found steel to be the most cost-effective option at the production volumes found in the overwhelming majority of vehicle models. This study finds composites to have significant economic potential when considering emerging advances in the polymer composite body-in-wh...

Productioncost isavitalperformance metric for engineering and management analysis. Despite its obvious relevance throughout the product development cycle, cost analysis has not been a focus of the design engineer. In part, this is because of some key misunderstandings of what cost is—engineers have not been trained in the techniques that tie manufacturing cost to the technical and design parame...

Heterogeneous materials consisting of different phases are ideally suited to achieve a broad spectrum of desirable bulk physical properties by combining the best features of the constituents through the strategic spatial arrangement of the different phases. Disordered hyperuniform heterogeneous materials are new, exotic amorphous matter that behave like crystals in the manner in which they supp...

The role of external involvement within Africa is not a new phenomenon by any standard; in fact, Africa’s recent political history is rife with similar examples. From the onset of colonisation, European powers have been subjugating and manipulating Africa’s people for their vast supplies of natural resources and raw materials. The Africa of today is no different, with a noticeably growing trend...

organizational challenge in the twenty-first century iscompetition due to the expensive resources that determine survival andgrowth of enterprises. the resources can be categorized as management,labor, land, capital resources and equipment. among these materials, humanresources and management have a special place. at present, competitiveadvantage in many countries is based on human resource cap...

Nuclear energy is presently the single major low-carbon electricity source in Europe and overall expected to maintain (perhaps eventually even increase) its current installed power from now 2045. Long-term operation (LTO) a reality essentially all nuclear European countries, when planning phase out. New builds are planned. Moreover, several including non-nuclear or phasing out ones, have intere...