What you find is not always what you fix—How other aspects than causes of accidents decide recommendations for remedial actions

In accident investigation, the ideal is often to follow the principle “what-you-find-is-what-you-fix”, an ideal reflecting that the investigation should be a rational process of first identifying causes, and then implement remedial actions to fix them. Previous research has however identified cognitive and political biases leading away from this ideal. Somewhat surprisingly, however, the same factors that often are highlighted in modern accident models are not perceived in a recursive manner to reflect how they influence the process of accident investigation in itself. Those factors are more extensive than the cognitive and political biases that are often highlighted in theory. Our purpose in this study was to reveal constraints affecting accident investigation practices that lead the investigation towards or away from the ideal of “what-you-find-is-what-you-fix”. We conducted a qualitative interview study with 22 accident investigators from different domains in Sweden. We found a wide range of factors that led investigations away from the ideal, most which more resembled factors involved in organizational accidents, rather than reflecting flawed thinking. One particular limitation of investigation was that many investigations stop the analysis at the level of “preventable causes”, the level where remedies that were currently practical to implement could be found. This could potentially limit the usefulness of using investigations to get a view on the “big picture” of causes of accidents as a basis for further remedial actions.     

Concept study of a new method for drying dishware in a heat pump dishwasher

In a heat pump dishwasher, the whole dishwasher with the cabinet, dishware and process water is the heat sink, while a water tank, whose contents will freeze, is the heat source. The aim of the experimental concept study presented here was to evaluate a new drying method for a heat pump dishwasher. In this method, the drying of the dishware occurs as a fan circulates humid air in a closed system in which the water on the dishware evaporates inside the warm dishwasher cabinet and then condenses on a cold surface of the frozen water tank. The evaluation of drying performance was based on the European standard EN50242, which considers visible water drops left on the dishware after a completed dishwashing cycle. The results showed that this new closed drying method was more energy efficient compared to an existing open drying method and that the drying start temperature and the drying time had a significant effect on the drying performance. Its lower electricity consumption and the fact that it does not vent humid air into the kitchen give this heat pump dishwasher a competitive advantage over dishwashers using an open drying method.     

Project managers and career models: An exploratory comparative study

Prior research has paid little attention to the careers and career models of project managers. This is troublesome for at least two reasons. First, project managers are becoming an increasingly important category of managers and today they constitute a major part of many organizations' leadership capability. Second, traditional literature on careers generally does not address project-based careers as a specific case in point, although this kind of career is unique in the sense that it is based on temporary assignments and lack of formal positions. The research presented in this paper identifies and explains patterns of similarities and differences among applied career models in ten large, mature project-intensive firms in Sweden. The paper identifies a number of factors that seem to be critical for the design of career models for project managers, including the number of levels, the complexity of assignments, and the degree of formal requirements. The paper also outlines two archetypes of career models applied by the firms under study: the competence strategy model and the talent management model.     

Domain and requirements for a wearable-based doping control system

In Germany, over 7000 professional athletes from different sport sectors must undergo regular doping controls. As is the case with many other nations, Germany relies upon a system recommended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to coordinate and initiate these controls. Known as the Anti-Doping Admission and Administration System, or ADAMS for short, the system requires athletes to submit their future regular whereabouts via browser, up to three months in advance. This allows the Doping Control Officer (DCO) to be able to locate the athlete without prior notice. The flip side, however, is that, since its introduction in 2007, ADAMS has not only been severely criticized by athletes themselves for its lack of usability, but has also come under attack by data-privacy experts accusing this system of breaching multiple data privacy laws.     

Mechanical and tribological properties of polymer-derived Si/C/N sub-millimetre thick miniaturized components fabricated by direct casting

The utilization of silicon-based polymers as a source of amorphous non-oxide ceramics obtained upon pyrolytic treatment of them is increasingly gaining attention in research and is currently expanding into the field of commercial products. This work is focused on the near-net shaped fabrication, mechanical and tribological properties of a polymer-derived Si/C/N system.Small sub-millimetre thick ceramic test discs and bars were fabricated by casting of polysilazane and/or polycarbosilane precursor mixtures into elastomeric polydimethylsiloxane forms, thermal cross-linking and subsequent pyrolysis. Additional carbon was introduced on the molecular level using triphenylvinylsilane as the precursor, its cross-linking with the polymers via hydrosilylation prohibits phase separation of graphite within the amorphous matrix. The characteristic strength of nearly 700 MPa along with stable low friction coefficients in sliding against similar polymer-derived ceramics testifies to their potential in micro electro mechanical system applications.     

Confirmation bias in sequential information search after preliminary decisions: An expansion of dissonance theoretical research on selective exposure to information.

Research on selective exposure to information consistently shows that after having made a decision, people prefer supporting over conflicting information. However, in all of these experiments participants were given an overview of all available pieces of information, selected them simultaneously, and did not process the requested information during the selection phase. In the present research the authors show that an even stronger preference for supporting information arises if information is presented and processed sequentially instead of simultaneously (Experiment 1), and they demonstrate that this stronger confirmation bias is due to sequential presentation and not to sequential processing of information (Experiment 2). The authors provide evidence that the increase in confirmation bias under sequential presentation is caused by heightened commitment due to the participants' increased focusing on their decision (Experiments 3 and 4). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A novel multiobjective optimization algorithm based on bacterial chemotaxis

In this article a novel algorithm based on the chemotaxis process of Echerichia coli is developed to solve multiobjective optimization problems. The algorithm uses fast nondominated sorting procedure, communication between the colony members and a simple chemotactical strategy to change the bacterial positions in order to explore the search space to find several optimal solutions. The proposed algorithm is validated using 11 benchmark problems and implementing three different performance measures to compare its performance with the NSGA-II genetic algorithm and with the particle swarm-based algorithm NSPSO.     

Boundary Conditions and Estimates for the Steady Stokes Equations on Staggered Grids

We consider the steady state Stokes equations, describing low speed flow and derive estimates of the solution for various types of boundary conditions. We formulate the boundary conditions in a new way, such that the boundary value problem becomes non-singular. By using a difference approximation on a staggered grid we are able to derive a non-singular approximation in a direct way. Furthermore, we derive the same type of estimates as for the continuous case. Numerical experiments confirm the theoretical results.