To Do or to Have? That Is the Question.

Do experiences make people happier than material possessions? In two surveys, respondents from various demographic groups indicated that experiential purchases-those made with the primary intention of acquiring a life experience--made them happier than material purchases. In a follow-up laboratory experiment, participants experienced more positive feelings after pondering an experiential purchase than after pondering a material purchase. In another experiment, participants were more likely to anticipate that experiences would make them happier than material possessions after adopting a temporally distant, versus a temporally proximate, perspective. The discussion focuses on evidence that experiences make people happier because they are more open to positive reinterpretations, are a more meaningful part of one's identity, and contribute more to successful social relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

健康黄河的内涵及其指标

本文从河流的自然和社会属性角度，基于健康河流的概念阐述了河流生命、河流健康的科学内涵，认为河流健康是人们对河流生命存在状态的描述，健康的河流是河流的社会功能与自然功能能够取得平衡的河流。河流的健康应包括连续的河川径流、通畅安全的水沙通道、良好的水质、良性运行的河流生态系统和一定的供水能力。利用黄河1956～2004年实测资料，论证了表征健康黄河标志的低限流量、河道最大排洪能力、平滩流量、滩地横比降、水质类别、湿地规模、水生生物、供水能力等指示因子的阈值范围。     

Durability of polymeric glazing materials for solar applications

The economic viability of solar collector systems for domestic hot water (DHW) generation is strongly linked to the cost of such systems. Installation and hardware costs must be reduced by 50% to allow significant market penetration. An attractive approach to cost reduction is to replace glass and metal parts with less expensive, lighter weight polymeric components. Weight reduction decreases the cost of shipping, handling, and installation. The use of polymeric materials also allows the benefits and cost savings associated with well established manufacturing processes, along with savings associated with improved fastening, reduced part count, and overall assembly refinements. A key challenge is to maintain adequate system performance and assure requisite durability for extended lifetimes. Results of preliminary and ongoing screening tests for a large number of candidate polymeric glazing materials are presented. Based on these results, two specific glazings with moderate and poor weathering stability are selected to demonstrate how a service lifetime methodology can be applied to accurately predict the optical performance of these materials during in-service use. A summary is given for data obtained by outdoor exposure and indoor testing of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and high temperature modified polycarbonate copolymer (coPC) materials, and an initial risk analysis is given for the two materials. Screening tests and analyses for service lifetime prediction are discussed. A methodology that provides a way to derive correlations between degradation experienced by materials exposed to controlled accelerated laboratory exposure conditions and materials exposed to in-service conditions is given, and a validation is presented for the methodology based upon durability test results for PVC and coPC.     

Longitudinal analysis of the relationship between symptoms and quality of life in veterans treated for posttraumatic stress disorder.

This study examined how change in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms relates to change in quality of life. The sample consisted of 325 male Vietnam veterans with chronic PTSD who participated in a randomized trial of group psychotherapy. Latent growth modeling was used to test for synchronous effects of PTSD symptom change on psychosocial and physical health-related quality of life within the same time period and lagged effects of initial PTSD symptom change on later change in quality of life. PTSD symptoms were associated with reduced quality of life before treatment. There were synchronous effects of symptom change on change in quality of life but no significant lagged effects. Results indicate the importance of measuring quality of life in future investigations of PTSD treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessment of service exposed boiler tubes

Boiler tubes in power plants have finite life because of prolonged exposure to high temperature, stress and aggressive environment. Service-exposed platen superheater and reheater tubes (148,900 h) made of 2.25Cr-1 Mo steels in a 120 MW boiler of a thermal power plant were evaluated for remnant life. The investigation included hot tensile tests, hardness measurement, dimensional measurement, microscopy and creep tests. Experimentally determined yield and ultimate tensile strength, and estimated 10,000–100,000 h rupture strength in the temperature range 520–580 °C, exhibited a decreasing trend with increasing temperature. Microstructural study did not reveal any significant degradation in terms of creep cavities, cracks, graphitization, etc. Analysis of tensile and stress rupture data revealed that although there was degradation of the tubes due to prolonged service exposure in terms of the ultimate tensile strength values, stress rupture plots showed that the service exposed superheater and reheater tubes could remain in service for a length of more than 10 years at the operating hoop stress of 40 MPa/540 °C, provided no localised damage in the form of cracks or dents develop.     

Lifetime and ageing management of nuclear power plants: A brief overview of some light water reactor component ageing degradation problems and ways of mitigation

The susceptibility and tendency for nuclear power plant (NPP) components to undergo changes in their mechanical and physical properties in the course of the NPP lifetime is generally termed as “ageing”. The light water reactor (LWR) nuclear environment is not a begnign one; it is characterized not only by fast neutrons, which can degrade metallic structures, but also relatively high temperatures of coolant water (around 300°C) which may contain impurities (e.g. sulphate, chloride, peroxides) which can cause corrosion. The hydrodynamical conditions of the coolant in steam generators, for example, can cause thermal fatigue, erosion and corrosion; suspended particulate matter can accelerate erosion processes which can lead to wall thinning and lowering of safety margins. Ageing is, therefore, a very complex mixture of factors concerned with materials, temperatures, times of exposure to environments which vary with time and with respect to chemical composition and flow charactertistics.

The paper describes a few ageing phenomena which can be considered important due to their impact on nuclear safety issues; their influence on economic aspects (availability) of NPP is outlined. Mitigation measures for NPP component ageing problems are given together with recommendations for addressing such issues in NPP now and in the future.     

船体水上防锈漆体系加速试验方法研究

根据船舶水线漆和船壳漆的使用环境和主要破坏因素，设计了一套以盐雾－人工加速老化（紫外光／冷凝）交替暴露和带人造缺陷样板的加速暴露试验方法为主，结合海水冲刷、附着力等主要力学性能测定的试验方案。对８种国内外船体水上部份防锈漆体系的性能进行综合评定，其结果采用数字量化评分。试验结果表明，该试验方法可在相当短的时间内对各类船体水上防锈漆体系的综合性能作出正确的评定。     

高应力水平下滚动轴承疲劳寿命试验研究

通过在三种不同的强化负荷下进行深沟球轴承疲劳寿命试验，并与常规试验一组结果对比。结果表明，适当地加大滚动轴承疲劳寿命试验负荷，可以大大缩短试验时间，而疲劳寿命依然服从Ｗｅｉｂｕｌ分布，且与常规试验结果基本一致，同时疲劳破坏的形式仍是表面下萌生裂纹，然后扩展至表面形成剥落。     

传感器可靠性技术—传感器可靠性特征量

介绍已知试验数据如何计算可靠性特征量的点估计和区间估计     

Theoretical and experimental evaluation of the limit state of transit gas pipelines having corrosion defects

The limit carrying capacity of gas pipelines having corrosion defects were evaluated by means of an improved FEM analysis, together with the ANSI/ASME defect judgement and an experimental verification. When compared with our past presentation at the proceedings of the CAPE'93 Colloquium (dealing with reproduced defects), this paper evaluates the remaining lifetime of a pipeline having natural faults. The new improved analysis includes geometrical nonlinearities leading to a modification of limit state parameters and thus matching better with actuality. This presented work was initiated by the firm of Trans-Gas in Prague after having had a pipeline inspected proving some parts of it as being heavily corroded. The task in hand was to determine the remaining pipeline lifetime with the view to at least a two-year period.