Moving on and moving up: The experience of households who resell public sector dwellings

The long‐term consequences of the sale of public sector dwellings to sitting tenants are under‐researched; in particular, the experience of tenant purchasers in the housing market subsequent to purchase is little known. This paper reports research designed to fill this gap in knowledge. Over 200 tenants who had bought their dwelling from the Scottish Special Housing Association and subsequently resold on the open market were traced using the Register fo Sasines and the Land Register and interviewed. Most had made considerable capital gains on resale and had used some of the realised capital to trade up in the housing market. They were, on average, slightly more affluent and younger than sitting tenant purchasers generally; they represented a group of households who were privileged within the public sector through living as tenants in the best stock and who were enabled by the Right to Buy to convert that good luck into hard cash and move into mainstream owner occupation. This good luck compounded the advantaged position vis‐à‐vis other tenants that they enjoyed in the labour market.     

FRACTURE ASSESSMENT FOR SECONDARY LOADS

The fracture assessment of structures subjected to secondary loading systems was studied by FEM-analysis of a few illustrative two-dimensional examples. The first example is an edge-cracked plate with a thermal gradient. The FEM-calculations revealed that a purely elastic analysis yielded J-values that are in most cases considerably more conservative than the ones calculated from an elastic-plastic analysis. The results were further compared with different engineering type non-linear estimates. As a second example a crack emanating from a semi-circular notch in a rectangular plate was chosen. The plate was subjected to uniaxial tension along its boundaries. It turned out that for the cases considered the J-values were fairly close to those elastically predicted.     

Parental caregiving and child externalizing behavior in nonclinical samples: A meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis of 47 studies was used to shed light on inconsistencies in the concurrent association between parental caregiving and child externalizing behavior. Parent–child associations were strongest when the measure of caregiving relied on observations or interviews, as opposed to questionnaires, and when the measure tapped combinations of parent behaviors (patterns), as opposed to single behaviors. Stronger parent–child associations were also found for older than for younger children, and for mothers than for fathers. Finally, externalizing was more strongly linked to parental caregiving for boys than for girls, especially among preadolescents and their mothers. The meta-analysis helps account for inconsistencies in findings across previous studies and supports theories emphasizing reciprocity of parent and child behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Faking behavior and gender differences on a new personality research instrument.

Faking behavior was studied by comparing the personality profiles of 161 job applicants (motivated to be hired) with those of a control group of 73 graduate and undergraduate business students (motivated to obtain personal information for their own enlightenment). 44% of the Ss were female. Both groups were instructed to describe themselves honestly while completing the Self-Perception Test. Applicants did "fake good," scoring significantly higher on 10 of 11 scales; variance was significantly lower among applicants on 7 scales. Gender differences, consistent with cultural stereotypes, occurred on 5 scales. Overall profile shapes were virtually identical for student and applicant groups, suggesting that faking may not have dramatically altered the essence of the personality constructs. The scales of the test were found to have high reliability. Scale independence is discussed in relation to the 5-factor model of personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bridge design with reserve and residual reliability constraints

System reliability is evolving as an important design method for selecting components and topology. It should be used to investigate the original intact structure behavior as well as providing sufficient reserve capacity under likely accident and damage scenarios. Highway bridges are an area of special concern since effort to optimize the cost of construction may not provide adequate redundant capacity. The paper describes an example in which a typical girder bridge structure is optimized (both size and girder spacing) to achieve target system performance. System reliability constraints are imposed on the behavior of the intact structure under highway loads. Also, residual system reliability constraints are imposed to control safety under specified accident scenarios corresponding to damage and “lost” members due to corrosion, fatigue, fire or accidental collisions. An optimal design framework for controlling safety under all these life cycle situations is thus provided.     

Physical Simulation of Thermally Induced Martensite Formation from Retained Austenite in TRIP Steels

The present work analyses the total free energy of the material during the martensitic transformation. A general expression for the martensite fraction as a function of temperature is derived, assuming that the nonchemical free energyis proportional to th     

Probabilistic cell modelling of cleavage fracture

Various aspects on probabilistic modelling of cleavage fracture are discussed. The investigation involves consideration of a unit cell with an explicitly modelled void. The results from this model are compared with results for the case when the void content is accounted for in the sense of a Gurson-Tvergaard law. It is found that explicit modelling of the void can give substantially different results for the fracture probability. The effect depends on the exponent in the assumed Weibull distribution, the threshold stress, the constraint conditions and the hardening of the material. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.