Driver irritation and aggressive behaviour

A sample of 98 drivers responded to a Swedish version of the UK Driving Anger Scale [UK DAS; [Lajunen, T., Parker, D., Stradling, S.G., 1998. Dimensions of driver anger, aggressive and highway code violations and their mediation by safety orientation in UK drivers. Transport. Res. Part F 1, 107–121]. The results indicated that the Swedish version, like the British original, measures three sources of driver irritation: “progress impeded”, “reckless driving”, and “direct hostility”. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the relationships between the three sources of self-reported driver irritation, aggressive actions, speed, sex, age, and annual mileage. The models suggested a positive relationship between the amount of driver irritation and frequency of aggressive actions for all three sources of irritation. Female drivers tended to become more irritated than male drivers, while the male drivers tended to act aggressively more often. Surprisingly, drivers who reported that they enjoy fast speeds did not become more irritated than slower drivers when obstructed. The important conclusions are that experienced irritation often leads to openly aggressively actions, and that expression of aggressive behaviours may be a cause of other drivers’ feeling of irritation.     

Rents, Rights N'Rhythm: Cooperation, Conflict and Capabilities in the Music Industry

The need for better informed copyright policy and management is a huge problem because of the enormous and growing size and scope of the creative industries. In this paper we challenge the prevailing thinking dominating the theoretical literature on the economics of copyrights. By integrating the very real effect of cooperation (strategic interaction and creative interdependence) and conflict (asymmetric relationships in terms of interests, financial dominance, power and capabilities) throughout the economic system in generating value and appropriating rent from music copyrights, we argue how prevailing theory on copyright can be improved by integrating it into a framework of New Institutional Economics. Focus is on the interplay between (i) the “institutional environment” (or “rules of the game”) with respect to the regulation of copyrights underpinned by the economic rationales; and (ii) the “institutions of governance” (or the “play of the game”) with respect to the specific institutional mechanisms in organizing the creation and distribution of value and revenue from music copyrights, and with respect to royalty management.     

Mechanism of conductance switching: An optical investigation

Electronic conductance switching in devices based on thin films of an organic molecule has been studied. Switching between two conducting states has been induced by voltage pulse, while the states have been probed by optical and electrical measurements simultaneously. In situ optical measurements showed that electroreduction of molecules led to conductance switching and appearance of high-conducting state in the device. We could “write” or “erase” a state by applying electrical pulse and “read” it by measuring electronic absorbance and conductivity. The “write” and “read” processes have been carried out for many cycles to exhibit a correspondence between conductance switching and electrochromism.     

A mechanistic model for the influence of stress ratio on the LEFM fatigue crack growth behavior of metals and alloys—I. Crack-ductile materials

Concentrating on local behavior of a highly stressed zone ahead of the crack tip, a recent mechanistic approach to analyse LEFM fatigue crack growth behavior in three stages at stress ratio R = 0 is extended here to include the effect of a positive stress ratio. This paper is limited to analysing primarily the stages I and II of “crack-ductile” materials, characterised by a purely “reversed shear” (or ductile “striation”) growth mechanism in stage II. It is shown that in these materials stage I is R-sensitive and stage II is insensitive, and these can, without invoking crack closure arguments, be rationalised alternatively by considering the dominance of a K_max-controlled “Submicroscopic Cleavage” and a ΔK-controlled “ reversed shear ” fracture mechanism, respectively. Assuming Paris type power relations to hold, a predictive model is developed that contains separate growth equations with R-effect for stages I and II and shows the existence of a characteristic “master shear-curve” and a “moving pivot-point” on this curve for a class of materials. Good agreement was found between quantitatively predicted growth curves at selected R-values and a relatively large volume of available experimental data for low strength steels, aluminum alloys and titanium alloys. Besides providing more physical explanations for the observed growth behavior, the model may also be useful as a convenient alternative to crack closure for obtaining fairly accurate and conservative estimates of fatigue life for design applications.     

A fast procedure for computing the total system cost of an appointment schedule for medical and kindred facilities

Scheduling outpatients and medical operation rooms has the following structure: Nusers are given appointment times to use a facility, the duration required by the facility to service each user is stochastic. The system incurs a “user idle cost” if a user arriving at the appointed time finds the facility still engaged by preceding users, while a “facility idle cost” is incurred if the facility becomes free before the next user arrives. We develop an accurate procedure to compute the expected total system costs for any given appointment schedule. Compared to earlier related procedures, ours is much faster and can handle larger problems as well as very general service-time distributions. We then show that this fast computation procedure enables one to determine easily the “lowest-cost appointment schedule” for any given “job” (i.e., “user”) sequence. This in turn will enable one to search for the optimal job sequence that has the best “lowest-cost appointment schedule”.     

Green energy?

The UK gets nearly all its energy from the fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas etc.) and nuclear power, approximately 15% being consumed in the form of electricity. It is now well known that the burning of fossil fuels is accompanied by atmospheric pollution in the form of acid rain, ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect. Renewable energy sources, e.g. wind, solar, tidal, wave, hydroelectric and geothermal power do not at present contribute significantly to the UK energy supply and are also accompanied by adverse effects on the environment. The best hope for meeting future energy needs may lie in containing energy consumption, increased generation efficiency and an expanded nuclear power programme. The author discusses the problems of acid rain and the greenhouse effect and describes several forms of renewable energy: wind energy, solar energy, tidal power, wave power, hydroelectricity, biomass geothermal power and nuclear power     

Qualitative Ordinal Scales: The Concept of Ordinal Range

Many practical problems of quality control involve the use of ordinal scales. Questionnaires planned to collect judgments on qualitative or linguistic scales, whose levels are terms such as “good,” “bad,” “medium,” etc., are extensively used both in evaluating service quality and in visual controls for manufacturing industry. In an ordinal environment, the concept of distance between two generic levels of the same scale is not defined. Therefore, a population (universe) of judgments cannot be described using “traditional” statistical distributions since they are based on the notion of distance. The concept of “distribution shape” cannot be defined as well. In this article, we introduce a new statistical entity, the so-called ordinal distribution, to describe a population of judgments expressed on an ordinal scale. We also discuss which of the traditional location and dispersion measures can be used in this context and we briefly analyze some of their properties. A new dispersion measure, the ordinal range, as an extension of the cardinal range to ordinal scales, is then proposed. A practical application in the field of quality is developed throughout the article.     

A novel gamma-ray imaging concept using “edge-on” microchannel plate detector

The “edge-on” illuminated microchannel plate (MCP) position-sensitive detector (PSD) is used for gamma-ray imaging for the first time. The superior position resolution of the MCP is combined with high detection efficiency due to the “edge-on” illumination mode. The results of imaging a 15 μCi ¹³⁷Cs source (662 keV quantum energy) are presented.     

Wind energy

From its rebirth in the early 1980s, the rate of development of wind energy has been dramatic. Today, other than hydropower, it is the most important of the renewable sources of power. The UK Government and the EU Commission have adopted targets for renewable energy generation of 10 and 12% of consumption, respectively. Much of this, by necessity, must be met by wind energy. The US Department of Energy has set a goal of 6% of electricity supply from wind energy by 2020. For this potential to be fully realized, several aspects, related to public acceptance, and technical issues, related to the expected increase in penetration on the electricity network and the current drive towards larger wind turbines, need to be resolved. Nevertheless, these challenges will be met and wind energy will, very likely, become increasingly important over the next two decades. An overview of the technology is presented.     

Performance aspects of mains connected small-scale wind turbines

Small-scale wind turbines are seen as potentially playing an important part in the future UK electricity generation mix. As such it is important that the necessary turbine and generator systems are well matched in order to maximise power output and energy capture. A turbulent wind model is described that is suitable for use with small-scale wind turbines. The model is used along with models of the turbine, generator and power conversion system to study potential problems that can exist with incorrect turbine design. The wind model is verified by comparison with measured data while the generator and power converter model are verified by laboratory test. A small 2.5 kW, `H' bladed vertical axis wind turbine is then studied to examine the effect that different blade sections may have in turbulent winds. A symmetrical blade section is seen to cause potential stall problems while these are avoided by the use of a cambered blade section     

Attitudes of commercial motor vehicle drivers towards safety belts

Despite the fact that Hawaii has one of the highest seat belt use rates for passenger vehicles in the United States, and has had a mandatory seat belt use law since the 1980s, studies have shown that commercial motor vehicles (CMV) seat belt use rates are low. To better understand this phenomenon, a comprehensive survey of commercial vehicle drivers was conducted in Hawaii to ascertain attitudes and self-reported behaviors regarding seat belt use. A total of 791 drivers responded to a written questionnaire implemented at weigh stations and distributed to various trucking firms and transport centers. Approximately 67% reported that they use seat belts “always” when driving a CMV (commercial motor vehicle), yet when asked how often do other CMV drivers use seat belts, only 31% responded “always.” Interestingly, 86% of these same drivers reported that they use seat belts “always” when driving a personal vehicle. The major reason cited for non-use of belts was “frequent stops/inconvenience” (29%), and “not safety conscious” (23%). Notably, the self-reported use of safety belts is highest among operators of vans (88% said “always”), followed by buses (87% said “always”) and lowest among truck drivers (only 60% said “always”). In this paper, some of the differences between self-reported users and non-users are explored and a multivariate logit model was developed to predict the odds of belt use as a function of various factors.     

Mechanical relaxation in glasses

The basic properties of glasses and the characteristics of mechanical relaxation in glasses were briefly reviewed, and then our studies concerned were presented. Experimental methods adopted were viscosity, internal friction, ultrasonic attenuation, and Brillouin scattering measurements. The specimens used were several kinds of inorganic, organic, and metallic glasses. The measurements were mainly carried out from the room temperature up to the glass transition temperature, and the relaxation time was determined as a function of temperature. The “double relaxation” composed of two Arrhenius-type relaxations was observed in many materials. In both relaxations, the “compensation effect” showing a correlation of the pre-exponential factor and the activation energy was observed. These results were explained by considering the “complex relaxation” due to cooperative motions of atoms or group of atoms. Values of activation energy near the glass transition determined by the various experimental methods were compared with each other.     

Energy Accounting: A New Field Develops

Energy is an important component of the total productivity question and since its costs have been increasing faster than the rate of inflation, its importance is growing over time. As with most productivity measurement, energy productivity is difficult to monitor due to lack of metering and lack of data on “standard energy costs.” Also, manufacturers differ greatly in their energy use profile due to such variables as location, weather, number of people, product, manufacturing intensity, and a host of others. This paper examines energy productivity monitoring and control measurement systems. Standard “one-shot” efficiency measures are examined and then some unique ideas and more sophisticated computer programs (BLAST and DOE II) for calculating standard energy costs are presented and discussed.     

Improvement of Heater Surface Flatness and Uniformity of TiN Film Deposition

The deposition rate and the thickness uniformity of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) titanium nitride films depend on wafer temperatures. The heater surface conditions, such as flatness, roughness, and surface imperfections, can greatly affect heat transfer efficiency from the heater surface to the wafer, and the process performance. Because heater surface imperfections or “hot spots” that caused poor uniformity had to be eliminated, the origin of “hot spots” was identified by a detailed study of heater surface profiles. A better visualization of “hot spots” could be obtained by comparing wafer-chucking patterns with deposition patterns. Thus, the time needed to locate “hot spots” could be shortened. The manufacturing process was revised to prevent “hot spots” and improve heater performance.     

Effects of wrap thickness and ply configuration on composite-confined concrete cylinders

The behavior of small-scale fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) wrapped concrete cylinders under uniaxial compressive loading was investigated through nonlinear finite element analysis. Two parameters were considered for this numerical study: the FRP wrap thickness, and the ply configuration. Performances of numerical models with “hoop-angle-hoop” and “angle-hoop-angle” ply configurations were compared, where the terms “hoop” and “angle” indicate that wraps were oriented at an angle of 0° and 45° in reference to circumferential direction, respectively. The finite element analysis results showed substantial increase in the axial compressive strength and ductility of the FRP confined concrete cylinders as compared to the unconfined ones. The cylinders with “hoop-angle-hoop” ply configuration in general exhibited higher axial stress and strain capacities as compared to the cylinders with the “angle-hoop-angle” ply configuration. The increase in wrap thickness also resulted in enhancement of axial strength and ductility of the concrete cylinders.     

Combining cost-based and rule-based knowledge in complex resource allocation problems

A major challenge in the formulation of optimization models for large-scale, complex operational problems is that some data are impossible or uneconomical to collect, producing a cost model that suffers from incomplete information. As a result, even an optimal solution may be “wrong” in the sense that it is solving the wrong problem. In many operational settings, knowledgeable experts will already know, at least approximately, how a model should behave, and can express this knowledge in the form of low dimensional patterns: “high powered locomotives should pull intermodal trains” (because they need to move quickly) or “loaded C-141s should not be flown into Saudi Arabia” (for maintenance reasons). Unlike the literature on inverse optimization which uses observed actions to train the parameters of a cost model, we used exogenous patterns to guide the behavior of a model using a proximal point term that penalizes deviations from these patterns. Under the assumption that the patterns are derived from rational behaviors, we establish the conditions under which incorporating patterns will reduce actual costs rather than just the engineered costs. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated in a controlled, laboratory setting using data from a major railroad.     

Foundations for offshore wind turbines

An important engineering challenge of today, and a vital one for the future, is to develop and harvest alternative sources of energy. This is a firm priority in the UK, with the government setting a target of 10% of electricity from renewable sources by 2010. A component central to this commitment will be to harvest electrical power from the vast energy reserves offshore, through wind turbines or current or wave power generators. The most mature of these technologies is that of wind, as much technology transfer can be gained from onshore experience. Onshore wind farms, although supplying 'green energy', tend to provoke some objections on aesthetic grounds. These objections can be countered by locating the turbines offshore, where it will also be possible to install larger capacity turbines, thus maximizing the potential of each wind farm location. This paper explores some civil-engineering problems encountered for offshore wind turbines. A critical component is the connection of the structure to the ground, and in particular how the load applied to the structure is transferred safely to the surrounding soil. We review previous work on the design of offshore foundations, and then present some simple design calculations for sizing foundations and structures appropriate to the wind-turbine problem. We examine the deficiencies in the current design approaches, and the research currently under way to overcome these deficiencies. Designs must be improved so that these alternative energy sources can compete economically with traditional energy suppliers.     

The use of energy windowing to discriminate SNM from NORM in radiation portal monitors

Energy windowing is an algorithmic alarm method that can be applied to plastic scintillator-based radiation portal monitor (RPM) systems to improve operational sensitivity to certain threat sources while reducing the alarm rates from naturally occurring radioactive material. Various implementations of energy windowing have been tested and documented by industry and at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and are available in commercial RPMs built by several manufacturers. Moreover, energy windowing is being used in many deployed RPMs to reduce nuisance alarms and improve operational sensitivity during the screening of cargo. This paper describes energy windowing algorithms and demonstrates how these algorithms succeed when applied to “controlled” experimental measurements and “real world” vehicle traffic data.     

Scaling flow fields from the impact of thin plates

A dimensional analysis is performed to obtain velocity scaling relationships for the perforation of thin plates. The approach used is an extension of Dienes and Walsh's “late-stage equivalence” and Holsapple and Schmidt's “coupling parameter” concepts, used to simplify velocity scaling of impact phenomena. The coupling parameter C for plate perforation, is shown to have the form C=dU^μδ^ν for the perforation of thick plates and the form C=dU^μδ^ν f(t/d) for the perforation of thin plates (d is the projectile diameter, t is the plate thickness, U is the impact velocity and δ is the projectile density). It is shown that μ=1/2 for momentum scaling and μ=1 for energy scaling, however, from scaled hydrocode output it is found that, for aluminum impacting aluminum, the value of μ is equal to 0.83±0.03, which is neither energy nor momentum scaling. It is also shown that velocity scaling of thick plate perforation, using the same materials in the model and prototype and the same t/d, is not possible. An example of velocity scaling hydrocode output is given where the radial particle velocity wave profiles from the model calculation at U=55.6km/s and t/d=0.675 are similar to those from the prototype calculation with U=100km/s and t/d=1.08.     

Mesh adaptation using a four-noded quadrilateral plate bending element

This paper uses a four-noded quadrilateral Reissner-Mindlin plate bending element for mesh adaptation. To overcome the problems of “locking” in the thin plate limit and zero energy modes the transverse shear strains are not evaluated from the displacements and rotations but are separately interpolated. The element is used in a hierarchical mesh adaptation which uses a node-averaging-based energy norm error estimator. Several examples illustrate the use of the adaptive algorithm.