Task Switching After Cerebellar Damage.

The authors of this study investigated task switching following cerebellar damage. The study group consisted of 7 children and adolescents (M age = 13.8 years) who underwent surgical removal of a benign posterior fossa tumor. They were tested at a sufficient interval after surgery (M lag = 6.13 years) for restoration of normal cognitive skills and intelligence. Although all showed normal learning of the task compared with control participants, when rapid behavioral changes were required (short preparation time), they exhibited behavioral rigidity manifested by enhanced switching cost. These results are in line with another study on serial reaction time with the same patients (A. Berger et al., in press). They have important implications for our understanding of the cognitive sequelae of early cerebellar damage as well as the involvement of the cerebellum in task switching. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life cycle environmental performance and improvement of a yogurt product delivery system

A life cycle assessment was conducted to evaluate the environmental performance of the yogurt product delivery system used by Stonyfield Farm. A life cycle model was developed which included material production, manufacturing and disposition for primary and secondary packaging, as well as the related transportation links between these stages and filling, retail and the point of consumption. Product delivery systems (PDS) that utilized 4, 6, 8 and 32 oz polypropylene (PP) cups and 2 oz linear low‐density polyethylene (LLDPE) tubes were analysed. Ten strategies for improving the environmental performance of these systems were proposed and their impacts on the total life cycle burden were analysed. The life cycle energy consumption for the 2, 4, 6, 8 and 32 oz containers was 4050, 4670, 5230, 4390 and 3620 MJ/1000 lb yogurt delivered to market, respectively. Material production of the primary packaging accounted for 58% of the life cycle energy, while Distribution 3 (yogurt delivery to distributors/retailers) alone accounted for one‐third of the life cycle total energy. The life cycle solid waste profile showed that as the container size decreased, the solid waste burden increased, from 27.3 kg (32 oz) to 42.8 kg (6 oz) per 1000 lb yogurt delivered to market. This relationship was even more pronounced for the 4 oz (47.5 kg) and 2 oz (56.2 kg) product delivery systems. The greatest potential improvements in the environmental performance of the PDS are achievable through redesigning the primary packaging and using alternative manufacturing techniques for the yogurt cups. Shifting from injection moulding to thermoforming of 32 oz container reduces the life cycle energy and solid waste by 18.6% and 19.5%, respectively, primarily due to light‐weighting. Elimination of lids for 6 oz and 8 oz containers provided similar benefits. Consumers purchasing yogurt in 32 oz instead of 6 oz containers can save 14.5% of the life cycle energy and decrease solid waste by 27.2%. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards a contingent approach of customer involvement in defence projects: An exploratory study

This paper reports the main results of an exploratory, multiple case study investigating customer involvement practices in system development projects in the Israeli defence industry. The study proposes and examines a theoretical contingency model regarding the effect of customer involvement modes on project success, moderated by project characteristics. It focuses specifically on the working mode of customers' representatives along the continuum between external supervision to full participation in project activities.     

Control of mineral wool thickness using predictive functional control

The production process of mineral wool is affected by several constantly changing factors. The ingredients for the mineral wool are melted in a furnace. The molten mineral charge exits the bottom of the furnace in a water-cooled trough and falls into a fiberization device (the centrifuge). The centrifuge forms the fibers. At this stage binders are injected to bind the fibers together. To ensure the quality of the end product (the consistent thickness) the flow of the bounded fibers must be as constant as possible. One way to ensure that is to control the speed of the conveyor belt that transports the bounded fibers from the centrifuge to the curing process. Predictive functional controller and PID controller are considered to replace an existing algorithm. Both can easily replace an existing one as they do not require any new sensor installation. All three algorithms are presented and tested on a developed plant model. The study showed that the predictive control gives better results than the existing and PID controller.     

Mechanically stabilized walls over soft clay: Geosynthetic to prevent deep-seated failures

Mechanically stabilized walls can sometimes be economically constructed over poor foundations such as a soft clay. A major design concern in such a case, however, is the stability against deep-seated failure where the potential slip surface passes through the unreinforced backfill and the clayey foundation. To attain a prescribed safety margin against deep-seated instability, a high-strength geosynthetic sheet, placed at the backfill-clay interface, can be used. The objective of this paper is to present an analysis method which enables the user to determine the required distribution of tensile resistance of the reinforcing sheet and therefore can be used as a design tool. The analysis is based on limit-equilibrium and by virtue of the mechanism used it is rigorous in the sense that no statical assumptions are utilized. Its predictions compare favorably with some conventional methods; its application, however, is easier. It is demonstrated how the analysis results can be condensed into a useful format of design charts. Since the direction of the reinforcement's tensile resistance is not known, a zone is suggested within which is the probably required distribution of this force.     

Use of cellular confinement for improved railway performance on soft subgrades

Due to extensive right-of-way, railroads are inevitably subject to poor subgrade conditions and interrupted service for significant maintenance due to excessive deformations and loss of track geometry. Geocell confinement presents itself as a possible solution for improving performance of ballasted railroad embankments over weak subgrade. To investigate the efficacy of geocell confinement on ballasted railway embankments, a set of well-instrumented, large-scale cyclic plate loading tests and numerical simulations were performed on geocell-confined ballast overlaying a weak subgrade material. The agreement of results from tests and simulations served as a basis for simulating practical track geometry and performance for various geocell configurations and subgrades using three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) analyses. The study showed that geocell reinforcement significantly decreased track settlement, decreased subgrade deformations with lower and uniform distribution of vertical stresses on subgrade and inhibited lateral deformation and serviceability under cyclic loading. These results demonstrate that geocell confinement can be an effective alternative to subsurface improvement or shorter maintenance cycles, particularly on weak subgrades.     

Within- and between-culture variation: Individual differences and the cultural logics of honor, face, and dignity cultures.

The CuPS (Culture × Person × Situation) approach attempts to jointly consider culture and individual differences, without treating either as noise and without reducing one to the other. Culture is important because it helps define psychological situations and create meaningful clusters of behavior according to particular logics. Individual differences are important because individuals vary in the extent to which they endorse or reject a culture's ideals. Further, because different cultures are organized by different logics, individual differences mean something different in each. Central to these studies are concepts of honor-related violence and individual worth as being inalienable versus socially conferred. We illustrate our argument with 2 experiments involving participants from honor, face, and dignity cultures. The studies showed that the same “type” of person who was most helpful, honest, and likely to behave with integrity in one culture was the “type” of person least likely to do so in another culture. We discuss how CuPS can provide a rudimentary but integrated approach to understanding both within- and between-culture variation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Procedural justice, stress appraisal, and athletes' attitudes.

In this study the authors examined a model in which procedural justice may serve as an external-situational resource that improves athletes' appraisals of stress and enhances their attitudes toward their team. Eighty-one Israeli male athletes were questioned on the degree of procedural justice employed on their team, how they appraised stress, and their attitudes toward their team. Results showed that higher procedural justice was associated with more positive appraisals of stress as a challenge and greater team loyalty and commitment and that the relationship of procedural justice to team commitment and loyalty was mediated by how stress is appraised. Findings integrate the cognitive-phenomenological model of stress/coping with the relational factors of the procedural justice approach and extend their validity to the field of sport. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

OPM/Web – Object-Process Methodology for Developing Web Applications

Web applications can be classified as hybrids between hypermedia and information systems. They have a relatively simple distributed architecture from the user viewpoint, but a complex dynamic architecture from the designer viewpoint. They need to respond to operation by an unlimited number of heterogeneously skilled users, address security and privacy concerns, access heterogeneous, up-to-date information sources, and exhibit dynamic behaviors that involve such processes as code transferring. Common system development methods can model some of these aspects, but none of them is sufficient to specify the large spectrum of Web application concepts and requirements. This paper introduces OPM/Web, an extension to the Object-Process Methodology (OPM) that satisfies the functional, structural and behavioral Web-based information system requirements. The main extensions of OPM/Web are adding properties of links to express requirements, such as those related to encryption; extending the zooming and unfolding facilities to increase modularity; cleanly separating declarations and instances of code to model code transferring; and adding global data integrity and control constraints to express dependence or temporal relations among (physically) separate modules. We present a case study that helps evaluate OPM/Web and compare it to an extension of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) for the Web application domain.