Factors explaining why people join, remain in, or leave a scholarly society: The Canadian Psychological Association.

Both theory and subject matter experts were used to generate items for a survey designed to increase understanding of why psychologists join, remain in, or leave the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA). The subject matter experts included current, former, and nonmember psychologists. 2,200 questionnaires were distributed by e-mail, and 275 were sent by surface mail. The response rates were 20% and 29% for e-mail and surface mail, respectively. Principal components analysis of the survey items resulted in 5 factors: outcomes, advocacy, organizational justice, annual convention, and professional recognition. Discriminant function analysis results showed that, on the basis of these factors, the authors were able to correctly classify respondents as current vs former members, and current vs never been members. Current members, former members, and psychologists who never joined CPA were found to differ significantly on their rating of most factors. The factors relevant for retaining members differ from those that attract psychologists to join CPA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dilute-gas properties of the monatomic gases and their mixtures from the MSK potential

The three-parameter MSK potential is used to calculate the dilute-gas properties of the monatomic gases and their mixtures. The parameters are fitted to data of the second virial coefficient and the Joule-Thomson coefficient; the calculations of all other thermophysical properties are predictions. For mixtures, universal combination rules for the potential parameters are used. It is shown that a consistent representation of the gas data of the monatomic systems is possible.     

Analyzing Enterprise Resource Planning System Implementation Success Factors in the Engineering–Construction Industry

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems offer many benefits to the engineering–construction industry. Many construction firms recognize the benefits of ERP system implementation; however, they still hesitate to adopt these systems due to high cost, uncertainties, and risks. This study identifies and analyzes critical factors that need to be considered to ensure successful ERP system implementation in the construction industry. First, this paper identifies the factors associated with the success and failure of ERP systems, and provides indicators to evaluate the success of such systems. Then, the paper develops an information system success model to analyze the relationships between factors and success indicators. Finally, the paper provides recommendations for successful ERP systems based on the analysis. The derived success factors should help senior managers in construction firms make better decisions and improve their business value by implementing the most effective EPR systems.     

General purpose software for probability computations—A virtual machine approach

The application of probability techniques in structural engineering has seen ample development in the last decade. Yet, the software used for engineering probability computations often lacks generality. The functional needs to be satisfied by general purpose software for engineering applications of probability methods are presented. An analysis of these needs suggests a software design philosophy based on the concept of a software virtual machine for probability computations. The virtual machine architecture and software design are explained. An example problem, in seismic risk analysis, solved with software based on this design is described.     

Review of small specimen test techniques for irradiation testing

Small specimen test technology has evolved out of the necessity to develop and monitor materials proposed for or used in nuclear power generation systems. Development of materials for improved cladding and in-core structures for fission reactors and assessment of core materials and pressure vessel steels already under irradiation necessitated the use of specimens which fit into existing irradiation space or which could be extracted from irradiated structures, such as cladding or ducts. Interest in simulating neutron irradiation by light and heavy ion irradiation led to the development of thin foil and wire geometry specimens. Further, interest in developing materials for fusion reactors has added additional constraints on specimen sizes associated with available irradiation volumes in existing and proposed high-energy neutron irradiation facilities. Consequently, a wide array of specimen geometries and test techniques has now been developed. It is the purpose of this paper to review these techniques and examine their status, problems, and potential for future applications. This paper is based on a presentation made in the symposium “Irradiation-Enhanced Materials Science and Engineering” presented as part of the ASM INTERNATIONAL 75th Anniversary celebration at the 1988 World Materials Congress in Chicago, IL, September 25–29, 1988, under the auspices of the Nuclear Materials Committee of TMS-AIME and ASM-MSD.     

Comparing Modeling Predictions of Aluminum Edge Dislocations: Semidiscrete Variational Peierls–Nabarro Versus Atomistics

Multiple computational methods for modeling dislocations are implemented within a high-throughput calculation framework allowing for rigorous investigations comparing the methodologies. Focusing on aluminum edge dislocations, 21 classical aluminum interatomic potentials are used to directly model dislocation core structures using molecular dynamics and to provide input data for solving the semidiscrete variational Peierls–Nabarro dislocation model. The predicted dislocation core spreading obtained from both computational methods shows similar trends across the potentials. Additionally, tests are done to rigorously determine if a recent correction to the Peierls–Nabarro model results in better agreement with the atomistic calculations.     

Global‐view coefficients: a data management solution for parallel quantum Monte Carlo applications

Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) applications perform simulation with respect to an initial state of the quantum mechanical system, which is often captured by using a cubic B‐spline basis. This representation is stored as a read‐only table of coefficients and accesses to the table are generated at random as part of the Monte Carlo simulation. Current QMC applications, such as QWalk and QMCPACK, replicate this table at every process or node, which limits scalability because increasing the number of processors does not enable larger systems to be run. We present a partitioned global address space approach to transparently managing this data using Global Arrays in a manner that allows the memory of multiple nodes to be aggregated. We develop an automated data management system that significantly reduces communication overheads, enabling new capabilities for QMC codes. Experimental results with QWalk and QMCPACK demonstrate the effectiveness of the data management system. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiobjective invasive weed optimization: Application to analysis of Pareto improvement models in electricity markets

This paper presents a proposal for multiobjective Invasive Weed Optimization (IWO) based on nondominated sorting of the solutions. IWO is an ecologically inspired stochastic optimization algorithm which has shown successful results for global optimization. In the present work, performance of the proposed nondominated sorting IWO (NSIWO) algorithm is evaluated through a number of well-known benchmarks for multiobjective optimization. The simulation results of the test problems show that this algorithm is comparable with other multiobjective evolutionary algorithms and is also capable of finding better spread of solutions in some cases. Next, the proposed algorithm is employed to study the Pareto improvement model in two complex electricity markets. First, the Pareto improvement solution set is obtained for a three-player oligopolistic electricity market with a nonlinear demand function. Then, the IEEE 30-bus power system with transmission constraints is considered, and the Pareto improvement solutions are found for the model with deterministic cost functions. In addition, NSIWO algorithm is used to analyze this system with stochastic cost data in a risk management problem which maximizes the expected total profit but minimizes the profit risk in the market.     

Spirobifluorene Dimers: Understanding How The Molecular Assemblies Drive The Electronic Properties

Spirobifluorene (SBF) is one of the most important scaffolds used in the design of organic semi-conductors (OSCs) for electronics. In recent years, among all the structures developed for these applications, SBF dimers have been highlighted due to their great potential in thermally activated delayed fluorescence and in phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes. Attaching two SBF units generate 10 dimers, each possessing its own structural specificity, which in turn drives its electronic properties. These ten SBF dimers are gathered herein. Understanding how the molecular assembly determines the electronic properties has been one of the pillars of organic electronics. This is the goal of this article. As positional isomerism is a key tool to design OSCs, defining the design guidelines for the SBF scaffold appears of interest for the future of this building block. Herein, the importance of the two main parameters involved in the electrochemical and photophysical properties, namely the nature of the phenyl linkages and the steric congestion between the two SBF units is discussed. The combination of these two parameters drives the electronic properties but their respective weight is different as a function of the regioisomer involved or of the property considered (frontier orbitals energy level, absorption, fluorescence, phosphorescence).     

Is it possible to disregard obsolete requirements? a family of experiments in software effort estimation

Requirements Engineering - Expert judgement is a common method for software effort estimations in practice today. Estimators are often shown extra obsolete requirements together with the real ones...