Perceived consequences of risky behaviors: Adults and adolescents.

Adult and adolescent Ss were asked to list possible consequences of either accepting or declining opportunities to engage in various potentially risky behaviors (e.g., drinking and driving, skipping school to go to a mall). Response patterns were quite similar for these adults and adolescents, indicating shared beliefs about the possibilities. Although taking and avoiding a risk are logically complementary actions, they did not prove to be psychologically complementary. Other comparisons showed systematic differences in the consequences produced for 1-time and regular (or repeated) versions of the same behaviors, as well as open-ended and closed-ended response modes. These results are discussed in terms of their methodological implications for studying risk perceptions, their practical implications for influencing adolescents' risk behaviors, and their theoretical implications for understanding intellectual development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Numerical modelling of the structural behaviour of thin-walled cast magnesium components using a through-process approach

A through-process methodology for numerical simulations of the structural behaviour of thin-walled cast magnesium components is presented. The methodology consists of casting process simulations using MAGMAsoft, mapping of data from the process simulation onto a FE-mesh (shell elements) and numerical simulations using the explicit FE-code LS-DYNA. In this work, generic High Pressure Die Cast (HPDC) AM60 components have been studied using axial crushing, 3-point bending and 4-point bending tests. The experimental data are applied to obtain a validated methodology for finite element modelling of thin-walled cast components subjected to quasi-static loading. The cast magnesium alloy is modelled using a user-defined material model consisting of an elastic–plastic model based on a modified J2-flow theory and the Cockcroft–Latham fracture criterion. The fracture criterion is coupled with an element erosion algorithm available in LS-DYNA. The constitutive model and fracture criterion are calibrated both with data from material tests and data from the process simulation using MAGMAsoft.     

Societal Safety: Concept,Borders and Dilemmas

In most industrialized countries, the end of the Cold War marked a change in focus from preparedness for war to an increasing focus on civil society's own vulnerability and safety. To meet new threats and changing risks, there is also a need for new analytical concepts. Societal safety is a concept developed in Norway during the last decade. It could be defined as: ‘The society's ability to maintain critical social functions, to protect the life and health of the citizens and to meet the citizens' basic requirements in a variety of stress situations’. It aims to be a systematic approach for understanding, mitigating and responding to social problems such as extraordinary stresses and losses, interferences in complex and mutual dependent systems, or lack of trust in vital social institutions. Future threats to society are not limited to specific sectors or areas, but stem from complex interactions amongst economic, technological, social and cultural factors. Thus, the main challenges to improve societal safety will be the ability to coordinate, organize and assign clear roles to different actors at the international, national and local levels. Societal safety has interfaces with other safety‐related areas such as national security, sustainable development, human security and incident management (handling of isolated accidents, common illness and ordinary criminal acts). Societal safety is, however, a sensitive political issue containing dilemmas and value choices that are hardly possible to perceive or solve as pure scientific problems.     

Coarsening Investigations of Precipitates in PM Tool Steel Grades: an Effect of Nitrogen

We present experimental and theoretical comparisons of the coarsening rate for the MX (X?=?C, N or C?+?N) precipitate in five different tool steel grades produced by Powder Metallurgy (PM). The alloys contain different amounts of nitrogen and carbon; ranging from high carbon/low nitrogen to high nitrogen/low carbon. Common for the grades is a high amount of precipitate forming alloying elements resulting in a high fraction of hard phase. Experimentally we have found out that the nitrogen rich precipitates coarsen slower, both for higher and lower carbon content, than the carbon rich precipitates. Coarsening simulations are performed utilizing the DICTRA software and an agreement between calculations and measurements can be concluded.     

Stereospecificity of premature human infant lingual lipase

The lingual lipase in gastric aspirates from premature infants was found to be partially stereospecific forsn-3 esters of synthetic enantiometric triacylglycerols containing 18∶1 and 16∶0. Thesn-3 ester was hydrolyzed about 4 times faster than the acid at thesn-1 position with no difference in rates between 18∶1 and 16∶0. Thesn-2 was also hydrolyzed to some extent. Scientific contribution no. 949, Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Ct 06268.     

Coke formation during cracking of hydrocarbons. I. The effect of pre-sulphiding on coke formation on a nickel-chromium-iron alloy under steam cracking conditions

Studies have been carried out on the effect of pre-sulphiding a nickel-chromium-iron alloy on coke formation under steam cracking conditions. Pre-sulphiding has no great effect on the gaseous product spectrum as long as some sulphur is present, but the coking rate is dependent on the amount of sulphur pre-deposited. Small amounts of sulphur reduce the coke formation, but the coking rate increases with increasing amounts of pre-deposited sulphur. As the sulphur content increases still further, coke formation passes through a maximum. A tentative explanation of these observations is advanced in terms of the effect of metal sulphides on the established mechanism of coke formation. Initial sulphiding is suggested to increase grain boundary penetration by coke and to result in the accumulation of iron sulphide on the surface. Eventually this may act to seal off grain boundaries, thereby inhibiting further coke formation.     

Technological change as a trade-off between social construction and technological paradigms

The theory of social construction of technology (SCOT) and the theory of technological paradigms (TTP) are normally regarded as competing or even incompatible perspectives on technological change. In this paper, we show how and when the perspectives are complementary by comparing how the theories conceptualise technology development, understand stakeholders, and determine driving forces for technological change. When stakeholders have different relations to the innovation process, and when the outcome of the innovation process is open, we argue that the two theories could be complementary tools for analysing the process. When using SCOT and TTP as complementary analytical tools, it becomes easier to understand and design innovation processes in which different stakeholders are attached to roles where they are able to contribute in the most productive ways.     

A multiagent framework for coordinated parallel problem solving

Today’s organizations, under increasing pressure on the effectiveness and the increasing need for dealing with complex tasks beyond a single individual’s capabilities, need technological support in managing complex tasks that involve highly distributed and heterogeneous information sources and several actors. This paper describes CoPSF, a multiagent system middle-ware that simplifies the development of coordinated problem solving applications while ensuring standard compliance through a set of system services and agents. CoPSF hosts and serves multiple concurrent teams of problem solving contributing both to the limitation of communication overheads and to the reduction of redundant work across teams and organizations. The framework employs (i) an interleaved task decomposition and allocation approach, (ii) a mechanism for coordination of agents’ work, and (iii) a mechanism that enables synergy between parallel teams.