Impacts of new technologies on media usage and social behaviour in domestic environments

Technological infrastructure at home is changing continuously and is becoming increasingly interconnected. Media devices, including the TV set, provide access to the Internet and offer manifold opportunities to consume media on demand. Additionally, personal devices, such as smartphones, also enable flexible consumption and sharing of media. Questions about how these technologies change the user's media usage and how these changes affect the social structure of a household, however, remain largely unanswered. In order to gain insight into the adoption of new technologies into daily routines, we explored these changes in respect of people's media usage in a qualitative long-term Living Lab study. We will present findings regarding personal routines, flexible integration of new devices into existing practices, influences on households as social systems and related issues in device access and collective use. We will highlight potentials and conflicts regarding device shifts and roles; restrictions in device access; social influences in the living room; and individual changes in media consumption.     

Decomposition of sec-butyl acetate on charcoal

The decomposition of sec-butyl acetate on de-ashed 20-to 30-mesh coconut-shell charcoal (1500 m²/g) was studied in a fixed bed reactor in the temperature range 300–375°C, and at partial pressures of 1 atm. and 0.29 atm. The ester decomposed principally to n-butene and acetic acid, and only small amounts of other products were found. The ratio of 1-butene to 2-butene was about 1:1, very close to that observed for thermal decomposition of the ester but far removed from the equilibrium butene ratio. The butene selectivity was independent of conversion. The rate of reaction followed the rate equation r = kA P_E/1 + AP_E This expression corresponds to surface reaction on one site being rate controlling. The activation energy of rate constant k was 32.7 kcal/mole, compared to 46.6 kcal/mole for the gas-phase reaction. The temperature dependence of adsorption constant A showed a heat adsorption of 12 kcal/mole. Gas chromatographic measurements confirmed this value and also showed that ester is the principal adsor-bate on the charcoal.     

Undercooling,Freezing Point Depression,and Ice Nucleation of Soil Water

Certain aspects of the phenomena of undercooling and ice nucleation in soils are discussed with respect to recently established properties of phase boundary water in soils. Nucleation temperature as a function of water content is given for representative clays. In view of the fact that silicate surfaces seem always to be separated from ice by an interfacial layer of unfrozen, liquid like water a new concept of heterogeneous nucleation is outlined. It is proposed that ice nucleation occurs in the undercooled interfacial water layer at some distance removed from the particle surfaces. This concept, in effect, suggests that heterogeneous nucleation (nucleation of ice due to the influence of a substrate) in all its essential aspects may be only a special case of homogeneous nucleation (no substrate present) of water.     

Removal of fatty soil from glass by surfactants and surfactant-builder compositions

Previous papers have reported radiotagged fatty soil removal from glass either by solvents or by aqueous solutions of sodium tripolyphosphate and other builders. This paper provies soil-removal data for aqueous systems of both pure and built surfactant compositions of the nonionic and alkylbenzene sulfonate types. In general, nonionics are the most effective detergents for the system fatty soil/glass; the 10-mole ethylene oxide adduct products show peak soil-removal. Nonionic surfactants appear most effective for soil removal when used in baths closely approaching their cloud-points. Though modification of hydrophobe by EO addition can affect cloud point, peak soil-removal effectiveness seems to be controlled by hydrophobe selection. Highest soil removal for the alkylbenzene series occurred with the longer alkyl chain (pentadecyl). Admixture of surfactant and sodium tripolyphosphate provided synergistic compositions with certain 10-EO surfactants. Building of anionics markedly improved soil removal over the pure material but seldom exceeded the removal by STP alone. Presented at 34th fall meeting, American Oil Chemists' Society, New York, October 17–19, 1960.     

Archival Appraisal and the Digital Record: Applying Past Tradition for Future Practice

The digital revolution has changed the daily work of archivists. As a result, archivists have refined their analog practices and initiated new ones to accommodate the unique information creation and access needs of users. While limitless storage and technological obsolescence may be surmountable challenges, appraisal continues to be a necessary component of this preservation enterprise. Macro-appraisal—a top-down functional assessment of an organization’s high-level decision making that defines the enduring value of specific bodies of documentary evidence of these creative or administrative processes—is used to facilitate the management of diverse bodies of born-digital records in archives and special collections.     

Addressing agent loss in vehicle formations and sensor networks

In this paper, we address the problem of agent loss in vehicle formations and sensor networks via two separate approaches: (1) perform a ‘self‐repair’ operation in the event of agent loss to recover desirable information architecture properties or (2) introduce robustness into the information architecture a priori such that agent loss does not destroy desirable properties. We model the information architecture as a graph G(V, E), where V is a set of vertices representing the agents and E is a set of edges representing information flow amongst the agents. We focus on two properties of the graph called rigidity and global rigidity, which are required for formation shape maintenance and sensor network self‐localization, respectively. For the self‐repair approach, we show that while previous results permit local repair involving only neighbours of the lost agent, the repair cannot always be implemented using only local information. We present new results that can be applied to make the local repair using only local information. We describe implementation and illustrate with algorithms and examples. For the robustness approach, we investigate the structure of graphs with the property that rigidity or global rigidity is preserved after removing any single vertex (we call the property as 2‐vertex‐rigidity or 2‐vertex‐global‐rigidity, respectively). Information architectures with such properties would allow formation shape maintenance or self‐localization to be performed even in the event of agent failure. We review a characterization of a class of 2‐vertex‐rigidity and develop a separate class, making significant strides towards a complete characterization. We also present a characterization of a class of 2‐vertex‐global‐rigidity. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From research to practice: the effects of the jointly sponsored dissemination of an arthritis self-care nursing intervention

Various educational programs have been developed and found to be effective in the self-management of arthritis. This study reexamined the effectiveness of one such program, "Bone Up On Arthritis" (BUOA), when the program was delivered by a community-based service organization to a sample of persons (N = 154) who differed widely in disease type and demographic characteristics. Arthritis Foundation staff implemented BUOA at four national sites; data were collected and analyzed by University of Michigan nurse researchers. Investigators found improved scores on all outcome measures (self-care behavior, helplessness, pain, dysfunction, and depression). These findings suggest that "Bone Up" is an effective nursing intervention in multiple organizational and community environments and for diverse patient populations.     

The role of latent and active failures in workplace slips, trips and falls: an information processing approach

The vast majority of the published workplace slips, trips and falls (STF) literature is exceedingly narrow in its focus and often ignores wider systems issues in workplace STF aetiology. There is little recognition within the published literature of the importance of latent failures or the upstream organisational and cultural contexts within which workplace STF occur. This is unfortunate, as a systems approach to workplace STF analysis, that is inclusive of latent design and work organisation factors that often shape worker behaviour patterns related to STF risk (e.g. rushing, risk taking), is fundamental to the development of effective prevention measures. The aims of this paper are to provide an understanding of workplace STF causation that is cognisant of the potential role of both active and latent failures in STF causation. The paper presents an ergonomics model for workplace STF analysis that highlights information processing in STF aetiology, the STF incident process and the interaction between latent and active failures in STF causation. The paper draws upon ergonomics research conducted in a range of occupational contexts to illustrate the key features of the model as it applies to workplace STF. Implications of the model for analysis and prevention of STF are discussed.     

The impact of process standardization on business process outsourcing success

What is the impact of business process standardization on business process outsourcing (BPO) success? This paper argues that there is a direct impact of process standardization on BPO success, due to production cost economies, and also an indirect effect via improved contractual and relational governance resulting from better monitoring opportunities and facilitated communication and coordination. This threefold impact of standardization on BPO success is empirically confirmed using data from 335 BPO ventures in 215 German banks.     

The transient response of ZrO2 oxygen sensors to step changes in gas composition

The transient voltage response of ZrO₂ oxygen sensors was examined following step changes in gas composition. The experiments were performed on a laboratory flow reactor at 600° C. Composition changes between (a) 100% and (b) 1% O₂ in N₂ produced response curves whose symmetry varied between composition steps (a) from low-to-high oxygen and (b) from high-to-low oxygen. This difference is due to the logarithmic dependence of sensor voltage on oxygen partial pressure. Corresponding oxygen partial pressure-time curves, derived from experimental voltage via the Nernst equation, are symmetric with respect to the direction of composition changes. Abrupt transitions are found in voltage-time curves at 600° C following step changes of reactive gases; e.g. from O₂/N₂ mixtures to CO/N₂, H₂/N₂ or D₂/N₂ mixtures. These voltage-steps represent transitions in stoichiometry of the surface boundary layer on the ZrO₂ sensor. Delay times before the transition also reflect reaction stoichiometry. Response times with O₂/CO, O₂/H₂ and O₂/D₂ follow trends predicted by the kinetic theory of gases. A limited number of experiments were performed to examine the relationships between sensor response and sensor catalytic activity. Poorer oxidation catalytic activity parallels slower response characteristics.