Microstructural and mechanical property changes with aging of Mo-41Re and Mo-47.5Re alloys

The changes in microstructure and mechanical properties of Mo-41Re and Mo-47.5Re alloys were investigated following 1100 h thermal aging at 1098, 1248 and 1398 K. The electrical resistivity, hardness and tensile properties of the alloys were measured both before and after aging, along with the alloy microstructures though investigation by optical and electron microscopy techniques. The Mo-41Re alloy retained a single-phase solid solution microstructure following 1100 h aging at all temperatures, exhibiting no signs of precipitation, despite measurable changes in resistivity and hardness in the 1098 K aged material. Annealing Mo-47.5Re for 1 h at 1773 K resulted in a two-phase αMo + σ structure, with subsequent aging at 1398 K producing a further precipitation of the σ phase along the grain boundaries. This resulted in increases in resistivity, hardness and tensile strength with a corresponding reduction in ductility. Aging Mo-47.5Re at 1098 and 1248 K led to the development of the χ phase along grain boundaries, resulting in decreased resistivity and increased hardness and tensile strength while showing no loss in ductility relative to the as-annealed material.     

Business owners' action planning and its relationship to business success in three African countries.

A model of business success was developed with motivational resources (locus of control, self-efficacy, achievement motivation, and self-reported personal initiative) and cognitive resources (cognitive ability and human capital) as independent variables, business owners' elaborate and proactive planning as a mediator, and business size and growth as dependent variables. Three studies with a total of 408 African micro and small-scale business owners were conducted in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. Structural equation analyses partially supported the hypotheses on the importance of psychological planning by the business owners. Elaborate and proactive planning was substantially related to business size and to an external evaluation of business success and was a (partial) mediator for the relationship between cognitive resources and business success. The model carries important implications for selection, training, and coaching of business owners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Creativity: Theories and themes: Research, development, and practice.

Reviews the book, Creativity: Theories and themes: Research, development, and practice by Mark A. Runco (see record 2007-00543-000). This book consists of 11 chapters with the following titles: "Cognition and Creativity," "Developmental Trends and Influences on Creativity," "Biological Perspectives on Creativity," "Health and Clinical Perspectives," "Social, Attributional, and Organizational Perspectives," "Educational Perspectives," "History and Historiometry," "Culture and Creativity," "Personality and Motivation," "Enhancement and the Fulfillment of Potential," and "Conclusion: What Creativity Is and What It Is Not." Beyond this all-encompassing content, the volume is crammed with illustrations and with all those "boxes" that are so characteristic of introductory textbooks in psychology. Each chapter also begins with appropriate quotations and a didactic "Advanced Organizer." Finally, Runco closes with 63 pages of references and a 15-page subject index. The reviewer has one major complaint: Runco seems to have adopted an "open the floodgates" approach that sometimes results in the almost willy nilly insertion of ideas and material. One consequence of this tendency is that the illustrations and boxes are at times less useful than they ought to be. Another repercussion of Runco's leave-nothing-out approach is that it occasionally leads to the presentation of ideas with minimal if any discussion or commentary. The reviewer does assert though, that for someone in the market for a text for use in an introductory creativity course, a book that is wide-ranging and most current, Runco's Creativity is a good choice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Finance, Policy and Industrial Dynamics—The Rise of Co-productions in the Film Industry

This paper explores the growing phenomenon of international co-productions in the film industry. We argue that the rise of co-productions is part of a wider narrative of financial and institutional innovation shaping industrial organization in the film industry. This narrative centres on film finance as a central risk distribution mechanism, and discusses how changes in film support policy, increased tax competition, the search for finance and an abundance of inflowing capital are increasingly driving industrial dynamics in the film industry.     

Desire for euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide in palliative cancer care.

Objective: To investigate the attitudes of terminally ill individuals toward the legalization of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and to identify those who would personally desire such a death. Design: In the Canadian National Palliative Care Survey, semistructured interviews were administered to 379 patients who were receiving palliative care for cancer. Patients who expressed a desire for physician-hastened death were followed prospectively. Main Outcome Measures: Attitudes toward the legalization of euthanasia or PAS were determined, as was the personal interest in receiving a hastened death. Demographic and clinical characteristics were also recorded, including a 22-item structured interview of symptoms and concerns. Results: There were 238 participants (62.8%) who believed that euthanasia and/or PAS should be legalized, and 151 (39.8%) who would consider making a future request for a physician-hastened death. However, only 22 (5.8%) reported that, if legally permissible, they would initiate such a request right away, in their current situations. This desire for hastened death was associated with lower religiosity (p = .010), reduced functional status (p = .024), a diagnosis of major depression (p     

Performance analysis of b-bit digital receivers for TR-UWB systems with inter-pulse interference

An ultra-wideband (UWB) transmitted reference (TR) system transmits an un-modulated pulse and a delayed modulated pulse pair. Then, a correlation receiver uses the former to demodulate the latter. Because of the long spread of a typical UWB channel, time delay between the two pulses is preferable to be larger than the channel delay spread for reduced noise at the receiver. However, for bandwidth efficiency, that delay should be made small, resulting in inter-pulse interference at the receiver. In this paper, digital receivers are constructed for TR-UWB systems including inter-pulse interference. A typical mean matching technique, appropriate for both PPM and PAM schemes, is implemented digitally to obtain a good template for symbol detection. Joint estimation and detection performance of this family of digital receivers, using finite number of bits in analog-to-digital conversion and finite noisy observations, is analyzed. Closed form results are derived and verified by computer simulations. In addition, the effect of time offset between the reference pulse and information carrying pulse is studied. Overlap of the two pulses does not incur noticeable performance degradation. The proposed analytical framework can be applied to study detection performance of other related digital receivers not covered in this paper     

EXPERIMENTAL IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ARTIFICIAL IMMUNE SYSTEM ON A ROBOTIC MANIPULATOR

An artificial immune system (AIS) has been used to realize robust control of a robotic manipulator. The AIS recognizes “self” and “non-self” operation of a closed-loop system, where self is defined as a condition where controller gains are appropriate for a given manipulator configuration. As configuration changes occur, the changing performance of the system indicates a transition to non-self. When non-self operation is first detected, the corresponding dynamic response is defined as a receptor and a genetic algorithm (GA) is called to optimize the controller for the new configuration. A library of receptors is built as additional configuration changes are experienced. For subsequent self to non-self transitions, new and recorded receptors are compared. In the event of a high correlation between the receptors, previously determined controller gains are implemented without calling the GA. The system is agile and robust and can recognize and respond to recognized receptors within a single reference step.     

Water Diversion Conflicts in China: A Hierarchical Perspective

To address China’s large population and uneven distribution of water storage, the South-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP) aims at transferring water from the Yangtze River (Changjiang) Basin to the North China Plain. This project is being implemented over three different routes, referred to as the Eastern, Central, and Western routes, each of which is giving rise to strategic conflicts. In this paper, the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution (GMCR) is used to systematically investigate these conflicts and obtain strategic insights into them. The Chinese Central Government is involved in each conflict, together with local decision makers, making the entire conflict hierarchical. The conflict is analyzed both as an overall graph model and as three local conflicts, and the resulting equilibria are compared. The Central Government’s preferences, which can be fully elaborated in the single or overall model, account for the differences in equilibria between the overall model and the three local models. The Central Government, which utilizes different strategies in planning, modifying, and building these routes, may be able to control the overall project as it wishes, thereby reaching separate agreements with the relevant decision makers along each route.     

Using hyperspectral data to quantify water-quality parameters in the Wabash River and its tributaries,Indiana

A hand-held spectrometer was used to collect above-water spectral measurements for measuring optically active water-quality characteristics of the Wabash River and its tributaries in Indiana. Water sampling was undertaken concurrent with spectral measurements to estimate concentrations of chlorophyll (chl) and total suspended solids (TSS). A method for removing sky and Sun glint from field spectra for turbid inland waters was developed and tested. Empirical models were then developed using the corrected field spectra and in situ chl and TSS data. A subset of the field measurements was used for model development and the rest for model validation. Spectral characteristics indicative of waters dominated by different inherent optical properties (IOPs) were identified and used as the basis of selecting bands for empirical model development. It was found that the ratio of the reflectance peak at the red edge (704 nm) with the local minimum caused by chl absorption at 677 nm was a strong predictor of chl concentrations (coefficient of determination (R²) = 0.95). The reflectance peak at 704 nm was also a good predictor for TSS estimation (R² = 0.75). In addition, we also found that reflectance within the near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths (700–890 nm) all showed a strong correlation (0.85–0.91) with TSS concentrations and generated robust models. Results suggest that hyperspectral information provided by field spectrometer can be used to distinguish and quantify water-quality parameters under complex IOP conditions.