The effects of goal difficulty on physiological arousal, cognition, and task performance.

Conducted 2 laboratory experiments with 117 undergraduates to examine (1) the effect of assigned goal difficulty on arousal (self-report and heart rate), cognition (perceived norm, self-efficacy strength, and personal goal), and behavioral (task performance) measures and (2) the role of heart rate as a mediator of the goal-difficulty–performance relation. All Ss performed a task requiring cognitive and physical responses. Results of both experiments demonstrate that assigned goal difficulty affected heart rate, cognition, and task performance and that heart rate change was positively related to the cognitive and behavioral measures. Regression analyses suggested that a cognitive–affective mechanism may mediate the goal-difficulty–performance relation. Discussion is focused on the theoretical and practical implications of integrating an arousal concept within goal-setting theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A connectionist implementation of the theory of planned behavior: Association of beliefs with exercise intention.

The theory of planned behavior suggests attitudes are a product of salient beliefs. This study examined whether aggregating salient beliefs was plausible within a more biologically centered information-processing environment. A neural network was used to examine associations among beliefs relating to exercise intention. Data on intentions and behavioral, normative, and control beliefs from 114 respondents were used to train (by error backpropagation) a neural network to associate beliefs with intention. The R2 between the network's estimated and self-reported intention was .66. The network's representation comprised 6 belief profiles associated with high, moderate, or low behavioral intention. The neural network accommodated complex relationships among beliefs and belief-intention associations and indicated how high-level constructs such as attitudes may be viewed as the best fit (compromise state) between aroused beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Polaroid's waste reduction programme

Over the last few years, Polaroid has been actively trying to reduce the amount of waste produced at its sites. In this article, Ian McKeown looks at the measures taken at the UK site in Scotland to achieve this aim.     

Failure mode analysis for a hazardous waste clean-up manipulator

This paper describes the application of Fault Tree Analysis to the design phase of a robot manipulator for hazardous waste retrieval. The robot is to be deployed in single-shell under-ground storage tanks at the US Department of Energy (DOE) site in Hanford, Washington. These tanks contain a variety of highly radioactive waste types, necessitating extremely safe and reliable manipulator operation. Based on preliminary design drawings of this long-reach manipulator, fault trees were constructed for several critical failure scenarios. Analysis of the trees revealed a number of ways to improve the safety and reliability of the manipulator design. This paper presents a summary of the fault tree analysis, with a discussion of the applicability of qualitative and quantitative fault tree methods to hazardous waste robotics.     

Sidechain liquid crystal polymers

Research has continued in the field sidechain liquid crystal polymers over recent years, but it is becoming clearer that this research is being directed away from the traditional technology areas of electro-optic devices and researchers are developing new and exciting applications for this novel state of matter.