WorldWideScience

Sample records for current goal covers

  1. Wave plus current over a ripple-covered bed

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fredsøe, Jørgen; Andersen, Ken Haste; Sumer, B. Mutlu

    1999-01-01

    This paper concerns the combined wave and current boundary layer flow over a ripple-covered bed, The study comprises experiments as well as a numerical modelling study: the experimental part comprises laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) velocity and turbulence measurements, and a flow-visualization st......This paper concerns the combined wave and current boundary layer flow over a ripple-covered bed, The study comprises experiments as well as a numerical modelling study: the experimental part comprises laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) velocity and turbulence measurements, and a flow......-visualization study in the laboratory with ripples, 22 cm in length, and 3.5 cm in height. One wave-alone, three current-alone, and three combined waves and current tests were conducted. The wave-velocity-to-current-velocity ratio ranges from 1 to 2.4. The orbiral-amplitude-ro-ripple-length ratio (at the bed) is 0.......41. The effect of superimposing waves on a current is to displace the velocity profile to higher elevations. The velocity profiles exhibit two "logarithmic layers", one associated with the actual roughness of the bed (the actual ripple roughness), and the other with the apparent roughness induced by the waves...

  2. Sustainable Health Development Goals (SHDG): breaking down the ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The world's governments failed to achieve the Health for All 2000 goals from the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978. Although a lot of milestones have been covered since 2000, the world's governing authorities are unlikely to achieve the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which expire by the end of this year.

  3. Relationships between benthic cover, current strength, herbivory, and a fisheries closure in Glovers Reef Atoll, Belize

    Science.gov (United States)

    McClanahan, T.; Karnauskas, M.

    2011-03-01

    Benthic cover, current strengths, and fish abundance and diversity were examined on 150 lagoonal patch reefs and mapped to determine their distribution, inter-relationships, and relationship to the fisheries closure in Glovers Reef Atoll. Current strength was highest at both the northern and southern ends of the atoll and largely controlled by local wind and weakly by tidal forcing. Benthic functional group distributions varied throughout the atoll and had distinct areas of dominance. In contrast, dominance of coral species was weaker, reflecting the lost cover and zonation of Acropora, Porites, and Montastraea that were reported in the 1970s. Hard and soft corals dominated the windward rim, while the central and leeward lagoon had lower current strengths and sea grass and fleshy green algae were relatively more abundant. Brown erect algae were relatively more common in the north and calcifying green and red algae the southern ends of the atoll. Only Montastraea- Agaricia agaricites distributions were similar to reports from the 1970s with high relative dominance in the southern and northeast atoll. The central-northern zone, which was described as an Acropora zone in the 1970s, was not recognizable, and Porites porites, P. astreoides, Millepora alcicornis, and Favia fragum were the most abundant species during this survey . Hard and soft coral cover abundance declined away from the reef rim and tidal channels and was associated with fast seawater turnover and high surgeonfish abundance. Consequently, the windward rim area has retained the most original and persistent hard-soft coral and surgeonfish community and is considered a priority for future management, if the goal is to protect coral from fishing impacts.

  4. Evapotranspiration (ET) covers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rock, Steve; Myers, Bill; Fiedler, Linda

    2012-01-01

    Evapotranspiration (ET) cover systems are increasingly being used at municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, hazardous waste landfills, at industrial monofills, and at mine sites. Conventional cover systems use materials with low hydraulic permeability (barrier layers) to minimize the downward migration of water from the surface to the waste (percolation), ET cover systems use water balance components to minimize percolation. These cover systems rely on soil to capture and store precipitation until it is either transpired through vegetation or evaporated from the soil surface. Compared to conventional membrane or compacted clay cover systems, ET cover systems are expected to cost less to construct. They are often aesthetic because they employ naturalized vegetation, require less maintenance once the vegetative system is established, including eliminating mowing, and may require fewer repairs than a barrier system. All cover systems should consider the goals of the cover in terms of protectiveness, including the pathways of risk from contained material, the lifecycle of the containment system. The containment system needs to be protective of direct contact of people and animals with the waste, prevent surface and groundwater water pollution, and minimize release of airborne contaminants. While most containment strategies have been based on the dry tomb strategy of keeping waste dry, there are some sites where adding or allowing moisture to help decompose organic waste is the current plan. ET covers may work well in places where complete exclusion of precipitation is not needed. The U.S. EPA Alternative Cover Assessment Program (ACAP), USDOE, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and others have researched ET cover design and efficacy, including the history of their use, general considerations in their design, performance, monitoring, cost, current status, limitations on their use, and project specific examples. An on-line database has been developed with information

  5. Edge scour in current adjacent to stone covers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Thor Ugelvig; Sumer, B. Mutlu; Meyer, Knud Erik

    The present paper reports some early results of an experimental investigation of edge scour in currents. Two kinds of measurements are made (1) Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements of secondary currents that take place near a junction between the stone cover and the sand bed in a clear......-water experiment; and (2) scour measurements in actual scour experiment in the live-bed regime. The early results indicate that edge scour in a steady current propagating in-line with a stone layer is caused by the combined action of two effects; (1) Primary flow and (2) Secondary flow. The primary flow stirs up...... the sediment and puts into suspension, and the secondary flow carries it away from the junction between the stone layer and the sand bed, resulting in a scour hole forming adjacent to the toe of the stone layer....

  6. Early Childhood Inclusion in the United States: Goals, Current Status, and Future Directions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guralnick, Michael J.; Bruder, Mary Beth

    2016-01-01

    The current status and future directions of early childhood inclusion in the United States are discussed from the perspective of 4 key goals: access, accommodations and feasibility, developmental progress, and social integration. Recommendations are put forward to promote inclusion goals emphasizing administrative structures, personnel…

  7. Posterior α EEG Dynamics Dissociate Current from Future Goals in Working Memory-Guided Visual Search.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Vries, Ingmar E J; van Driel, Joram; Olivers, Christian N L

    2017-02-08

    Current models of visual search assume that search is guided by an active visual working memory representation of what we are currently looking for. This attentional template for currently relevant stimuli can be dissociated from accessory memory representations that are only needed prospectively, for a future task, and that should be prevented from guiding current attention. However, it remains unclear what electrophysiological mechanisms dissociate currently relevant (serving upcoming selection) from prospectively relevant memories (serving future selection). We measured EEG of 20 human subjects while they performed two consecutive visual search tasks. Before the search tasks, a cue instructed observers which item to look for first (current template) and which second (prospective template). During the delay leading up to the first search display, we found clear suppression of α band (8-14 Hz) activity in regions contralateral to remembered items, comprising both local power and interregional phase synchronization within a posterior parietal network. Importantly, these lateralization effects were stronger when the memory item was currently relevant (i.e., for the first search) compared with when it was prospectively relevant (i.e., for the second search), consistent with current templates being prioritized over future templates. In contrast, event-related potential analysis revealed that the contralateral delay activity was similar for all conditions, suggesting no difference in storage. Together, these findings support the idea that posterior α oscillations represent a state of increased processing or excitability in task-relevant cortical regions, and reflect enhanced cortical prioritization of memory representations that serve as a current selection filter. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our days are filled with looking for relevant objects while ignoring irrelevant visual information. Such visual search activity is thought to be driven by current goals activated in

  8. Goal conflicts, attainment of new goals, and well-being among managers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kehr, Hugo M

    2003-07-01

    Researchers widely understand that conflicts among goals inhibit the attainment of these goals. However, this notion comes close to tautological reasoning. To avert this problem, this study examined whether preexisting goal conflict also inhibits success in newly set goals. Using the context of management training, in which managers collectively set new goals, the study variables were assessed at 3 testing periods covering 5 months. Results indicate that goal conflicts that persevere over time were associated with inhibited attainment of new goals but not with decreased subjective well-being (SWB). Goal attainment, however, was positively related to SWB. Interactions of residual changes in goal conflict and goal attainment were associated with positive affect.

  9. 3-D direct current resistivity anisotropic modelling by goal-oriented adaptive finite element methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ren, Zhengyong; Qiu, Lewen; Tang, Jingtian; Wu, Xiaoping; Xiao, Xiao; Zhou, Zilong

    2018-01-01

    Although accurate numerical solvers for 3-D direct current (DC) isotropic resistivity models are current available even for complicated models with topography, reliable numerical solvers for the anisotropic case are still an open question. This study aims to develop a novel and optimal numerical solver for accurately calculating the DC potentials for complicated models with arbitrary anisotropic conductivity structures in the Earth. First, a secondary potential boundary value problem is derived by considering the topography and the anisotropic conductivity. Then, two a posteriori error estimators with one using the gradient-recovery technique and one measuring the discontinuity of the normal component of current density are developed for the anisotropic cases. Combing the goal-oriented and non-goal-oriented mesh refinements and these two error estimators, four different solving strategies are developed for complicated DC anisotropic forward modelling problems. A synthetic anisotropic two-layer model with analytic solutions verified the accuracy of our algorithms. A half-space model with a buried anisotropic cube and a mountain-valley model are adopted to test the convergence rates of these four solving strategies. We found that the error estimator based on the discontinuity of current density shows better performance than the gradient-recovery based a posteriori error estimator for anisotropic models with conductivity contrasts. Both error estimators working together with goal-oriented concepts can offer optimal mesh density distributions and highly accurate solutions.

  10. Sustainable Health Development Goals (SHDG): breaking down the walls.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oleribe, Obinna Ositadimma; Crossey, Mary Margaret Elizabeth; Taylor-Robinson, Simon David

    2015-01-01

    The world's governments failed to achieve the Health for All 2000 goals from the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978. Although a lot of milestones have been covered since 2000, the world's governing authorities are unlikely to achieve the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which expire by the end of this year. The inability to achieve these goals may be linked to the multiplicity of health-related directives and fragmentation of health systems in many countries. However, with the proposed 17 sustainability development goals, health has only one universal aim: to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages. Accomplishing this will require a focus on health systems (system-thinking), commonization of services and full integration of services with total dismantling of vertical programs across the world.

  11. Predicting Subsequent Task Performance From Goal Motivation and Goal Failure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura Catherine Healy

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Recent research has demonstrated that the cognitive processes associated with goal pursuit can continue to interfere with unrelated tasks when a goal is unfulfilled. Drawing from the self-regulation and goal-striving literatures, the present study explored the impact of goal failure on subsequent cognitive and physical task performance. Furthermore, we examined if the autonomous or controlled motivation underpinning goal striving moderates the responses to goal failure. Athletes (75 male, 59 female, Mage = 19.90 years, SDage = 3.50 completed a cycling trial with the goal of covering a given distance in 8 minutes. Prior to the trial, their motivation was primed using a video. During the trial they were provided with manipulated performance feedback, thus creating conditions of goal success or failure. No differences emerged in the responses to goal failure between the primed motivation or performance feedback conditions. We make recommendations for future research into how individuals can deal with failure in goal striving.

  12. Landfill Top Covers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Scheutz, Charlotte; Kjeldsen, Peter

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of the final cover of a landfill is to contain the waste and to provide for a physical separation between the waste and the environment for protection of public health. Most landfill covers are designed with the primary goal to reduce or prevent infiltration of precipitation...... into the landfill in order to minimize leachate generation. In addition the cover also has to control the release of gases produced in the landfill so the gas can be ventilated, collected and utilized, or oxidized in situ. The landfill cover should also minimize erosion and support vegetation. Finally the cover...... is landscaped in order to fit into the surrounding area/environment or meet specific plans for the final use of the landfill. To fulfill the above listed requirements landfill covers are often multicomponent systems which are placed directly on top of the waste. The top cover may be placed immediately after...

  13. Goal setting practice in chronic low back pain. What is current practice and is it affected by beliefs and attitudes?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, Tania; Refshauge, Kathryn; McAuley, James; Hübscher, Markus; Goodall, Stephen; Smith, Lorraine

    2018-01-18

    Goal setting, led by the patient, is promising as an effective treatment for the management of chronic low back pain (CLBP); however, little is known about current practice. The aims of the study were to explore (1) current goal setting practice in CLBP among physiotherapists; (2) perceived barriers to goal setting in CLBP; and (3) relationship between clinician's attitudes and beliefs and goal setting practice. A cross-sectional observational survey. The majority of respondents used goal setting with the main aim of facilitating self-management. The greatest number of goals were set with 50% therapist/50% patient involvement. The most common perceived barriers to goal setting related to time constraints and lack of skill and confidence. A higher biomedical score for treatment orientation of the therapist was associated with a lower patient involvement score. Goal setting is common practice for CLBP and is perceived as a high priority. It is more often a collaboration between therapist and patient rather than patient-led with treatment orientation of the physiotherapist a predictor of patient involvement. Education of healthcare professionals needs to include better understanding of chronic pain to orient them away from a biomedical treatment approach, as well as to enhance skills in facilitating patient involvement in goal setting.

  14. Experimental and numerical study of influence of ferromagnetic cover on critical current of BiSCCO-2223/Ag tape superconductor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vojenciak, M; Souc, J; Goemoery, F

    2009-01-01

    Samples of commercially available BiSCCO-2223/Ag tape have been partially covered by the ferromagnetic material. Improvement of the self-field critical current up to 15 % has been achieved by this procedure. A critical current of such tape strongly depends on geometric and magnetic properties of both, the superconducting tape as well as the ferromagnetic cover. Numerical simulations, based on the critical state model using commercial finite element method (FEM) code, have been performed. Properties of superconductor are characterized by anisotropic dependence of the critical current density on magnetic field as well as detail geometry of filaments. The ferromagnetic material is characterized by nonlinear magnetization curve. Nonlinear dependences of the critical current on selected parameters are shown in this work. Optimization of the cover parameters using these curves has been made. Samples with various parameters have been manufactured for the confirmation of numerical simulations results. Experimental results are in good qualitative agreement with results obtained by numerical simulations.

  15. The Structure and Application of High Level Safety Goals. A Review by the MDEP Sub-committee on Safety Goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2011-01-01

    One of the aims of MDEP is to work towards greater harmonisation of regulatory requirements. To achieve this aim, it is necessary that there is a degree of convergence on the safety goals that are required to be met by designers and operators. The term 'safety goals' is defined to cover all health and safety requirements which must be met: these may be deterministic rules and/or probabilistic targets. They should cover the safety of workers, public and the environment in line with the IAEA's Basic Safety Objective; encompassing safety in normal operation through to severe accidents. All regulators have safety goals, but these are expressed in many different ways and exercises in comparing them frequently are done at a very low level eg specific temperatures in the reactor vessel. The differences in the requirements from different regulators are difficult to resolve as the goals are derived using different principles and assumptions and are for a specific technology. Therefore MDEP set up a sub-committee to investigate a different approach. This approach was to start with the top level goals and to derive a structure and means of deriving lower tier goals that can be seen to be clearly related to the higher level ones. This approach has the potential to greatly assist in the process of harmonisation of regulatory requirements. The paper reviews the high level goals used in MDEP countries and the relevant work of international groups. From these it draws broad conclusions that the form of the framework should be an Hierarchical Structure of Safety Goals, incorporating an extended Defense-in-Depth approach. The basis concept is that the higher level safety goals can then developed, in a coherent and consistent manner, into lower level safety goals and targets that can be applied within the design and operation of reactors, with a clear connection between the different levels. This structured approach is technology-neutral and is sufficiently flexible that it can be

  16. Detection of wall thinning of carbon steel pipe covered with insulation using Pulsed Eddy Current technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Duckgun; Kishore, M. B.; Lee, D. H.

    2013-01-01

    The test sample is a ferromagnetic carbon steel pipe having different thickness, covered with a 10 cm plastic insulation laminated by 0.4 mm Al plate to simulate the pipelines in NPPs. The PEC Probe used for the wall thinning detection consists of an excitation coil and a Hall sensor. The excitation coils in the probe is driven by a rectangular bipolar current pulse and the Hall-sensor will detects the resultant field. The Hall sensor output is considered as PEC signal. Results shows that the PEC system can detect wall thinning in an insulated pipeline of the NPPs. Local wall thinning in pipelines affects the structural integrity of industries like nuclear power plants (NPPs). In the present study a pulsed eddy current (PEC) technology to detect the wall thing of carbon steel pipe covered with insulation is developed

  17. Alternating current loss reduction for rectangular busbars by covering their edges with low permeable magnetic caps

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sasada, Ichiro, E-mail: sasada@ence.kyushu-u.ac.jp [Applied Science for Electronics and Materials, Kyushu University, Kasuga (Japan)

    2014-05-07

    A method to reduce ac conductive losses in a thin rectangular busbar made of copper is presented. The method is based on a technique, which makes the distribution of the ac current in the cross section of a busbar flatter. Edges of a thin busbar are covered with low permeability magnetic thin layers as caps. The magnetic cap makes the impedance experienced by the current flowing near the edge comparatively larger so that currents cannot get crowded near the edges of a busbar. This method is numerically verified.

  18. Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP) - Safety Goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vaughan, G.J.

    2011-01-01

    One of the aims of the NEA's Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP) is to work towards greater harmonisation of regulatory requirements. To achieve this aim, it is necessary that there is a degree of convergence on the safety goals that are required to be met by designers and operators. The term 'safety goals' is defined to cover all health and safety requirements which must be met: these may be deterministic rules and/or probabilistic targets. They should cover the safety of workers, public and the environment in line with the IAEA's Basic Safety Objective; encompassing safety in normal operation through to severe accidents. MDEP is also interested in how its work can be extended to future reactors, which may use significantly different technology to the almost ubiquitous LWRs used today and in the next generation, building on the close co-operation within MDEP between the regulators who are currently engaged in constructing or carrying out design reviews on new designs. For two designs this work has involved several regulators sharing their safety assessments and in some cases issuing statements on issues that need to be addressed. Work is also progressing towards joint regulatory position statements on specific assessment areas. Harmonisation of safety goals will enhance the cooperation between regulators as further developments in design and technology occur. All regulators have safety goals, but these are expressed in many different ways and exercises in comparing them frequently are done at a very low level eg specific temperatures in the reactor vessel of a specific reactor type. The differences in the requirements from different regulators are difficult to resolve as the goals are derived using different principles and assumptions and are often for a specific technology. Therefore a different approach is being investigated, starting with the top-level safety goals and try to derive a structure and means of deriving lower tier

  19. Stability and Change in Social Goals as Related to Goal Structures and Engagement in School

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madjar, Nir

    2017-01-01

    The current studies explored (a) the extended external validity of social-goal-orientation framework; (b) the mediating role of social goals between classroom goal structures and students' engagement; and (c) whether changes in social goals can be explained by classroom goal structures and engagement. Study 1 was cross-sectional (N = 317), and…

  20. Quantum information processing and communication : Strategic report on current status, visions and goals for research in Europe

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kouwenhoven, L.; Mooij, J.E.

    2005-01-01

    e present an excerpt of the document “Quantum Information Processing and Communication: Strategic report on current status, visions and goals for research in Europe”, which has been recently published in electronic form at the website of FET (the Future and Emerging Technologies Unit of the

  1. Flow and edge scour in current adjacent to stone covers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Thor U.; Sumer, B. Mutlu; Bøgelund, Jon

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on edge scour adjacent to a stone cover laid on a sandy bed. The three-dimensional flow over the edge of the stone layer has been investigated by the use of particle image velocimetry. The flow measurements show a significant amount...... of turbulence in the primary flow near the junction between the stone layer and the sand bed and the formation of complex secondary-flow structures. The results show that the flow and the edge scour process in a steady current are governed by the size of the roughness elements and to some extent the side slope...... of the berm. The edge scour is caused by the combined action of the primary flow and the secondary flow. The primary flow stirs up the sediment and puts it into suspension, and the secondary flow carries it away from the junction between the stone layer and the sand bed, resulting in a scour hole forming...

  2. First Colombian Solar Radio Interferometer: current stage

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guevara Gómez, J. C.; Martínez Oliveros, J. C.; Calvo-Mozo, B.

    2017-10-01

    Solar radio astronomy is a fast developing research field in Colombia. Here, we present the scientific goals, specifications and current state of the First Colombian Solar Radio Interferometer consisting of two log-periodic antennas covering a frequency bandwidth op to 800 MHz. We describe the importance and benefits of its development to the radioastronomy in Latin America and its impact on the scientific community and general public.

  3. Dynamics of multiple-goal pursuit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Louro, Maria J; Pieters, Rik; Zeelenberg, Marcel

    2007-08-01

    The authors propose and test a model of multiple-goal pursuit that specifies how individuals allocate effort among multiple goals over time. The model predicts that whether individuals decide to step up effort, coast, abandon the current goal, or switch to pursue another goal is determined jointly by the emotions that flow from prior goal progress and the proximity to future goal attainment, and proximally determined by changes in expectancies about goal attainment. Results from a longitudinal diary study and 2 experiments show that positive and negative goal-related emotions can have diametrically opposing effects on goal-directed behavior, depending on the individual's proximity to goal attainment. The findings resolve contrasting predictions about the influence of positive and negative emotions in volitional behavior, critically amend the goal gradient hypothesis, and provide new insights into the dynamics and determinants of multiple-goal pursuit.

  4. Fully covered stents versus partially covered stents for palliative treatment of esophageal cancer: Is there a difference?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alonso Lárraga, J O; Flores Carmona, D Y; Hernández Guerrero, A; Ramírez Solís, M E; de la Mora Levy, J G; Sánchez Del Monte, J C

    2018-02-26

    Malignant dysphagia is difficulty swallowing resulting from esophageal obstruction due to cancer. The goal of palliative treatment is to reduce the dysphagia and improve oral dietary intake. Self-expandable metallic stents are the current treatment of choice, given that they enable the immediate restoration of oral intake. The aim of the present study was to describe the results of using totally covered and partially covered esophageal stents for palliating esophageal cancer. A retrospective study was conducted on patients with inoperable esophageal cancer treated with self-expandable metallic stents. The 2 groups formed were: group A, which consisted of patients with a fully covered self-expandable stent (SX-ELLA ® ), and group B, which was made up of patients with a partially covered self-expandable stent (Ultraflex ® ). Of the 69-patient total, 50 were included in the study. Group A had 19 men and 2 women and their mean age was 63.6 years (range 41-84). Technical success was achieved in 100% (n=21) of the cases and clinical success in 90.4% (n=19). Group B had 24 men and 5 women and their mean age was 67.5 years (range 43-92). Technical success was achieved in 100% (n=29) of the cases and clinical success in 89.6% (n=26). Complications were similar in both groups (33.3 vs. 51.7%). There was no difference between the 2 types of stent for the palliative treatment of esophageal cancer with respect to technical success, clinical success, or complications. Copyright © 2018 Asociación Mexicana de Gastroenterología. Publicado por Masson Doyma México S.A. All rights reserved.

  5. Defining safety goals. 2. Basic Consideration on Defining Safety Goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hakata, T.

    2001-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to develop basic safety goals that are rational and consistent for all nuclear facilities, including nuclear power plants and fuel cycle facilities. Basic safety goals (risk limits) by an index of radiation dose are discussed, which are based on health effects of detriment and fatality and risk levels presumably accepted by society. The contents of this paper are the personal opinions of the author. The desirable structure of safety goals is assumed to be 'basic safety goals plus specific safety goals (or supplemental safety goals) for each sort of facility, which reflects their characteristics'. The requisites of the basic safety goals must include (a) rational bases (scientific and social), (b) comprehensiveness (common to all sorts of nuclear facilities covering from normal to accidental conditions), and (c) applicability. To meet the requirements, the basic safety goals might have to be a risk profile expression by an index of radiation dose. The societal rationality is consideration of absolute risk levels (10 -6 or 10 -7 /yr) and/or relative risk factors (such as 0.1% of U.S. safety goals) that the general public accepts as tolerable. The following quantitative objectives are adopted in this study for protection of average individuals in the vicinity of a nuclear facility: 1. The additive annual radiation dose during normal operation must be -4 /yr (health detriment), 2x10 -6 /yr (latent cancer and severe hereditary effects), and 10 -7 /yr (acute fatality) from the statistics in Japan. The radiation effects on human beings are determined by recommendations of UNSCEAR (Ref. 1) and ICRP. The health effects considered are non-severe stochastic health detriment, i.e., detectable opacities of lens of eye (threshold 5 0.5 to 2 Sv), depression of hematopoiesis of bone marrow (0.5 Sv), and depression of reproductive capability (temporary sterility of testes ) (0.15 Sv). The LD 50/60 of acute fatality is ∼4 Sv, and fatalities by latent

  6. Proposed goals for radioactive waste management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bishop, W.P.; Hoos, I.R.; McGrath, P.E.; Metlay, D.S.; Stoneman, W.C.

    1978-05-01

    A special, seven member, interdisciplinary task group of consultants was established in January 1976 to propose goals for the national waste management program. This is the report of that group. The proposed goals are intended as a basis for the NRC to establish a policy by which to guide and coordinate the activities of government, business, and academic organizations whose responsibility it will be to manage radioactive wastes. The report is based on findings, interpretations and analysis by the authors who examined selected primary literature and interviewed many individuals concerned with waste management. The authors extended the scope of their inquiry and proposed goals to cover 'all technical and societal aspects necessary to an operating waste management system, rather than dealing with the regulatory process alone.' The waste management goals as developed are simple statements of principles which appear to the authors to be important conditions to insure the proper establishment and operation of a system to manage radioactive wastes.' In brief, the goals are designed to protect people and things of value in an equitable manner

  7. Pengaruh Goal Setting terhadap Performance : Tinjauan Teoritis

    OpenAIRE

    Ginting, Surya Dharma; Ariani, D. Wahyu

    2004-01-01

    This article is the conceptual view of goal setting theory and effects of goal setting on individual performance. Goal setting is recognized, and is a major theory of work motivation. Difficult goals have consistently been shown to lead to higher levels of performance than easy goals. If there is no commitment, a goal can have no motivational effect. Goals are central to current treatments of work motivation, and goal commitment is a necessary condition for difficult goals to result in higher...

  8. Goal Expectations as Predictors of Retirement Intentions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brougham, Ruby R.; Walsh, David A.

    2005-01-01

    The current study explored the contribution of personal goals to retirement decisions. A SMARTER methodology (to assess multiattribute utility) and taxonomy of human goals were used to investigate the relationship between older workers' personal goals and their retirement intentions. Two hundred and fifty-one employees of a large university,…

  9. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01)

    Science.gov (United States)

    LaMotte, Andrew E.

    2016-01-01

    This 30-meter data set represents land use and land cover for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-partition.jpg). The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (http://www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004), (see: http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp). The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping zones. A total of 68 mapping zones (see http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/browse/nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg), were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  10. Comparing Three Models of Achievement Goals: Goal Orientations, Goal Standards, and Goal Complexes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Senko, Corwin; Tropiano, Katie L.

    2016-01-01

    Achievement goal theory (Dweck, 1986) initially characterized mastery goals and performance goals as opposites in a good-bad dualism of student motivation. A later revision (Harackiewicz, Barron, & Elliot, 1998) contended that both goals can provide benefits and be pursued together. Perhaps both frameworks are correct: Their contrasting views…

  11. UMTRAP research on cover design for uranium mill tailings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rogers, V.C.; Nielson, K.K.

    1984-01-01

    As a result of the UMTRAP research on radon attenuation and tailings cover design, the basis and general procedures are available for designing covers for uranium tailings piles to meet present criteria for radon emissions. The general procedures involve assessment of the radon source strength of the tailings, definition of candidate cover materials, assessment of their moisture retention and radon diffusion properties, computing the required thicknesses of these materials, comparing costs, and evaluating long-term performance criteria. Final selection of the cover design must assure adequate long-term performance and radon retention as first priority, and keep costs to a minimum in achieving this goal

  12. Goal setting as an outcome measure: A systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hurn, Jane; Kneebone, Ian; Cropley, Mark

    2006-09-01

    Goal achievement has been considered to be an important measure of outcome by clinicians working with patients in physical and neurological rehabilitation settings. This systematic review was undertaken to examine the reliability, validity and sensitivity of goal setting and goal attainment scaling approaches when used with working age and older people. To review the reliability, validity and sensitivity of both goal setting and goal attainment scaling when employed as an outcome measure within a physical and neurological working age and older person rehabilitation environment, by examining the research literature covering the 36 years since goal-setting theory was proposed. Data sources included a computer-aided literature search of published studies examining the reliability, validity and sensitivity of goal setting/goal attainment scaling, with further references sourced from articles obtained through this process. There is strong evidence for the reliability, validity and sensitivity of goal attainment scaling. Empirical support was found for the validity of goal setting but research demonstrating its reliability and sensitivity is limited. Goal attainment scaling appears to be a sound measure for use in physical rehabilitation settings with working age and older people. Further work needs to be carried out with goal setting to establish its reliability and sensitivity as a measurement tool.

  13. Understanding Swedish dairy farmers’ view on breeding goals - ethical aspects of longevity

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Röcklinsberg, H.; Gamborg, Christian; Gjerris, Mickey

    2016-01-01

    What values underlie farmers’ choice of breeding goals? Typical dairy breeding goals cover production traits (e.g. yield, feed conversion, and lactation curve) and functional traits (e.g. leg health, fertility and calving ability). One central and multifunctional trait correlated to all these tra......What values underlie farmers’ choice of breeding goals? Typical dairy breeding goals cover production traits (e.g. yield, feed conversion, and lactation curve) and functional traits (e.g. leg health, fertility and calving ability). One central and multifunctional trait correlated to all...... these traits is longevity. Even so, dairy cows in Sweden are culled on average after only 2.4 lactations (about 4.5 years of age) i.e. before the housing and management of the heifer has paid off. Reasons for culling given in the literature include infertility, mastitis, disease or leg and claw problems......, but also problems related to resources like milking system or grazing and to management practices like herd size or pasture management. Farmers’ practice varies depending on their values or attitudes, farm size and breed, but no previous study has mapped their values underlying choice of breeding goals...

  14. Enhanced Cover Assessment Project:Soil Manipulation and Revegetation Tests

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Waugh, W. Joseph [Navarro Research and Engineering, Inc.; Albright, Dr. Bill [Desert Research Inst. (DRI), Reno, NV (United States); Benson, Dr. Craig [University of Wisconsin-Madison

    2014-02-01

    The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management is evaluating methods to enhance natural changes that are essentially converting conventional disposal cell covers for uranium mill tailings into water balance covers. Conventional covers rely on a layer of compacted clayey soil to limit exhalation of radon gas and percolation of rainwater. Water balance covers rely on a less compacted soil “sponge” to store rainwater, and on soil evaporation and plant transpiration (evapotranspiration) to remove stored water and thereby limit percolation. Over time, natural soil-forming and ecological processes are changing conventional covers by increasing hydraulic conductivity, loosening compaction, and increasing evapotranspiration. The rock armor on conventional covers creates a favorable habitat for vegetation by slowing soil evaporation, increasing soil water storage, and trapping dust and organic matter, thereby providing the water and nutrients needed for plant germination, survival, and sustainable transpiration. Goals and Objectives Our overall goal is to determine if allowing or enhancing these natural changes could improve cover performance and reduce maintenance costs over the long term. This test pad study focuses on cover soil hydrology and ecology. Companion studies are evaluating effects of natural and enhanced changes in covers on radon attenuation, erosion, and biointrusion. We constructed a test cover at the Grand Junction disposal site to evaluate soil manipulation and revegetation methods. The engineering design, construction, and properties of the test cover match the upper three layers of the nearby disposal cell cover: a 1-foot armoring of rock riprap, a 6-inch bedding layer of coarse sand and gravel, and a 2-foot protection layer of compacted fine soil. The test cover does not have a radon barrier—cover enhancement tests leave the radon barrier intact. We tested furrowing and ripping as means for creating depressions parallel to the slope

  15. MOTIVATION: Goals and Goal Setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stratton, Richard K.

    2005-01-01

    Goal setting has great impact on a team's performance. Goals enable a team to synchronize their efforts to achieve success. In this article, the author talks about goals and goal setting. This articles complements Domain 5--Teaching and Communication (p.14) and discusses one of the benchmarks listed therein: "Teach the goal setting process and…

  16. Management goals for wildlife reserves in grassveld and bushveld ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... and therefore require control. A means of measuring the success of management is outlined. Keywords: condition; cover; fire; game reserves; genetic diversity; goals; management; management strategy; nature reserves; range; reserves; soil; south africa; species composition; species diversity; veld; veld condition; wildlife ...

  17. Special study on vegetative covers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1988-11-01

    This report describes the findings of a special study on the use of vegetative covers to stabilize tailings piles for the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project. The principal rationale for using plants would be to establish a dynamic system for controlling water balance. Specifically, vegetation would be used to intercept and transpire precipitation to the atmosphere, rather than allowing water to drain into the tailings and mobilize contaminants. This would facilitate compliance with groundwater standards proposed for the UMTRA Project by the Environmental Protection Agency. The goals of the study were to evaluate the feasibility of using vegetative covers on UMTRA Project piles, define the advantages and disadvantages of vegetative covers, and develop general guidelines for their use when such use seems reasonable. The principal method for the study was to analyze and apply to the UMTRA Project the results of research programs on vegetative covers at other US Department of Energy (DOE) waste management facilities. The study also relied upon observations made of existing stabilized piles at UMTRA Project sites where natural vegetation is growing on the rock-covered surfaces. Water balance and erosion models were also used to quantify the long-term performance of vegetative covers planned for the topslopes of stabilized piles at Grand Junction and Durango, Colorado, two UMTRA Project sites where the decision was made during the course of this special study to use vegetative covers. Elements in the design and construction of the vegetative covers at these two sites are discussed in the report, with explanations of the differing features that reflect differing environmental conditions. 28 refs., 18 figs., 9 tabs

  18. How to go on with Czech uranium: does current uranium mining in the Czech Republic cover Czech nuclear power plants' needs?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Michalek, Bedrich

    2009-01-01

    The overview covers the history of uranium mining in the Czech Republic (description of the deposits and overview of their exploitation) and current needs for uranium and the status of uranium resources in the Czech Republic (uranium mining at the Rozna deposit, overview of exploitation of the deposit, uranium ore reserves, possibilities of future use of the Rozna deposit, the Brzkov and Horni Veznice deposits, and the use of mine waters as a secondary uranium source). It is concluded that in view of the current development of uses of raw materials for the power sector worldwide and increasing dependence of many countries (including the Czech Republic) on imports of such raw materials (often from politically unstable countries) it is strategically important to maintain domestic uranium mining to cover the needs of the Czech power sector. Uranium reserves and preconditions for their mining still exist in this country. (P.A.)

  19. On the Need for Rethinking Current Practice that Highlights Goal Achievement Risk in an Enterprise Context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aven, Eyvind; Aven, Terje

    2015-09-01

    This article addresses the issue of how performance and risk management can complement each other in order to enhance the management of an enterprise. Often, we see that risk management focuses on goal achievements and not the enterprise risk related to its activities in the value chain. The statement "no goal, no risk" is a common misconception. The main aim of the article is to present a normative model for describing the links between performance and risk, and to use this model to give recommendations on how to best structure and plan the management of an enterprise in situations involving risk and uncertainties. The model, which has several novel features, is based on the interaction between different types of risk management (enterprise risk management, task risk management, and personal risk management) and a structure where the enterprise risk management overrules both the task and personal risk management. To illustrate the model we use the metaphor of a ship, where the ship is loaded with cash-generating activities and has a direction over time determined by the overall strategic objectives. Compared to the current enterprise risk management practice, the model and related analysis are founded on a new perspective on risk, highlighting knowledge and uncertainties beyond probabilities. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

  20. Bernese motive and goal inventory in exercise and sport: Validation of an updated version of the questionnaire.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmid, Julia; Gut, Vanessa; Conzelmann, Achim; Sudeck, Gorden

    2018-01-01

    Target group-specific intervention strategies are often called for in order to effectively promote exercise and sport. Currently, motives and goals are rarely included systematically in the design of interventions, despite the key role they play in well-being and adherence to exercise. The Bernese motive and goal inventory (BMZI) allows an individual diagnosis of motives and goals in exercise and sport in people in middle adulthood. The purpose of the present study was to elaborate on the original BMZI and to modify the questionnaire in order to improve its psychometric properties. The study is based on data from two samples (sample A: 448 employees of companies and authorities; sample B: 853 patients of a medical rehabilitation programme). We applied confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modelling. Overall, both the original and the updated BMZI had an acceptable to good validity and a good reliability. However, the revised questionnaire had slightly better reliability. The updated BMZI consists of 23 items and covers the following motives and goals: Body/Appearance, Contact, Competition/Performance, Aesthetics, Distraction/Catharsis, Fitness and Health. It is recommended as an economical inventory for the individual diagnosis of important psychological conditions for exercise and sport.

  1. IEP goals for school-age children with speech sound disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farquharson, Kelly; Tambyraja, Sherine R; Justice, Laura M; Redle, Erin E

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of the current study was to describe the current state of practice for writing Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals for children with speech sound disorders (SSDs). IEP goals for 146 children receiving services for SSDs within public school systems across two states were coded for their dominant theoretical framework and overall quality. A dichotomous scheme was used for theoretical framework coding: cognitive-linguistic or sensory-motor. Goal quality was determined by examining 7 specific indicators outlined by an empirically tested rating tool. In total, 147 long-term and 490 short-term goals were coded. The results revealed no dominant theoretical framework for long-term goals, whereas short-term goals largely reflected a sensory-motor framework. In terms of quality, the majority of speech production goals were functional and generalizable in nature, but were not able to be easily targeted during common daily tasks or by other members of the IEP team. Short-term goals were consistently rated higher in quality domains when compared to long-term goals. The current state of practice for writing IEP goals for children with SSDs indicates that theoretical framework may be eclectic in nature and likely written to support the individual needs of children with speech sound disorders. Further investigation is warranted to determine the relations between goal quality and child outcomes. (1) Identify two predominant theoretical frameworks and discuss how they apply to IEP goal writing. (2) Discuss quality indicators as they relate to IEP goals for children with speech sound disorders. (3) Discuss the relationship between long-term goals level of quality and related theoretical frameworks. (4) Identify the areas in which business-as-usual IEP goals exhibit strong quality.

  2. Perception of future goals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ottsen, Christina L.; Berntsen, Dorthe

    The current study: a cross-cultural comparison between the Middle East and Scandinavia. Two societies that offer a unique opportunity to examine gender and cultural differences in perception of personal goals. Previous studies show that imagined future events are affected by memories of personal...

  3. Quantitative HTGR safety and forced outage goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Houghton, W.J.; Parme, L.L.; Silady, F.A.

    1985-05-01

    A key step in the successful implementation of the integrated approach is the definition of the overall plant-level goals. To be effective, the goals should provide clear statements of what is to be achieved by the plant. This can be contrasted to the current practice of providing design-prescriptive criteria which implicitly address some higher-level objective but restrict the designer's flexibility. Furthermore, the goals should be quantifiable in such a way that satisfaction of the goal can be measured. In the discussion presented, two such plant-level goals adopted for the HTGR and addressing the impact of unscheduled occurrences are described. 1 fig

  4. Methods and strategies for future reactor safety goals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arndt, Steven Andrew

    There have been significant discussions over the past few years by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS), and others as to the adequacy of the NRC safety goals for use with the next generation of nuclear power reactors to be built in the United States. The NRC, in its safety goals policy statement, has provided general qualitative safety goals and basic quantitative health objectives (QHOs) for nuclear reactors in the United States. Risk metrics such as core damage frequency (CDF) and large early release frequency (LERF) have been used as surrogates for the QHOs. In its review of the new plant licensing policy the ACRS has looked at the safety goals, as has the NRC. A number of issues have been raised including what the Commission had in mind when it drafted the safety goals and QHOs, how risk from multiple reactors at a site should be combined for evaluation, how the combination of a new and old reactor at the same site should be evaluated, what the criteria for evaluating new reactors should be, and whether new reactors should be required to be safer than current generation reactors. As part of the development and application of the NRC safety goal policy statement the Commissioners laid out the expectations for the safety of a nuclear power plant but did not address the risk associated with current multi-unit sites, potential modular reactor sites, and hybrid sites that could contain current generation reactors, new passive reactors, and/or modular reactors. The NRC safety goals and the QHOs refer to a "nuclear power plant," but do not discuss whether a "plant" refers to only a single unit or all of the units on a site. There has been much discussion on this issue recently due to the development of modular reactors. Additionally, the risk of multiple reactor accidents on the same site has been largely ignored in the probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs) done to date, and in most risk

  5. Objects Mediate Goal Integration in Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex during Action Observation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mari Hrkać

    Full Text Available Actions performed by others are mostly not observed in isolation, but embedded in sequences of actions tied together by an overarching goal. Therefore, preceding actions can modulate the observer's expectations in relation to the currently perceived action. Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC, and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG in particular, is suggested to subserve the integration of episodic as well as semantic information and memory, including action scripts. The present fMRI study investigated if activation in IFG varies with the effort to integrate expected and observed action, even when not required by the task. During an fMRI session, participants were instructed to attend to short videos of single actions and to deliver a judgment about the actor's current goal. We manipulated the strength of goal expectation induced by the preceding action, implementing the parameter "goal-relatedness" between the preceding and the currently observed action. Moreover, since objects point to the probability of certain actions, we also manipulated whether the current and the preceding action shared at least one object or not. We found an interaction between the two factors goal-relatedness and shared object: IFG activation increased the weaker the goal-relatedness between the preceding and the current action was, but only when they shared at least one object. Here, integration of successive action steps was triggered by the re-appearing (shared object but hampered by a weak goal-relatedness between the actually observed manipulation. These findings foster the recently emerging view that IFG is enhanced by goal-related conflicts during action observation.

  6. Transformational and transactional leadership and followers' achievement goals

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hamstra, M.R.W.; van Yperen, N.W.; Wisse, B.; Sassenberg, K.

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: Achievement goals, or the standards of competence employees pursue in their work, have far-reaching consequences for employee and organizational functioning. In the current research, we investigated whether employees’ achievement goals can be predicted from their supervisor’s leadership

  7. Industrial goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martin, P.

    2005-01-01

    The aim of the third seminar on pellet-clad interaction, which held at Aix en Provence (France) from 9-11 march 2004, was to draw a comprehensive picture of current understanding of pellet clad interaction and its impact on the fuel rod under the widest possible conditions. This document provides the summaries of the five sessions: opening and industrial goals, fuel material behaviour in PCI situation, cladding behaviour relevant to PCI, in-pile rod behaviour, modelling of the mechanical interaction between pellet and cladding. (A.L.B.)

  8. Landfill covers for dry environments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dwyer, S.F.

    1996-01-01

    A large-scale landfill cover field test is currently underway at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is intended to compare and document the performance of alternative landfill cover technologies of various costs and complexities for interim stabilization and/or final closure of landfills in arid and semi-arid environments. Test plots of traditional designs recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency for both RCRA Subtitle open-quote C close-quote and open-quote D close-quote regulated facilities have been constructed side-by-side with the alternative covers and will serve as baselines for comparison to these alternative covers. The alternative covers were designed specifically for dry environments. The covers will be tested under both ambient and stressed conditions. All covers have been instrumented to measure water balance variables and soil temperature. An on-site weather station records all pertinent climatological data. A key to acceptance of an alternative environmental technology is seeking regulatory acceptance and eventual permitting. The lack of acceptance by regulatory agencies is a significant barrier to development and implementation of innovative cover technologies. Much of the effort on this demonstration has been toward gaining regulatory and public acceptance

  9. Covering of the electric power service

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Unidad de Planeacion Minero Energetica, UPME

    2000-01-01

    In this article it is sought to deepen more in the topic of the covering of the electric power service, especially in the related with the mechanisms that could facilitate their amplification. In the new market outline, in the one that the participation of the agents is encouraged in all the activities of the chain of services in which the state is not direct lender of the same one, it is confused the form like a covering will be achieved that is of agreement with the goals that intend in the national plan of development and in the sub sectorial plans. Although the rules of the market one comes consolidating, the process of linking of the private capital, especially in the distribution activity, it evidences the importance of to settle down and to define responsibilities and explicit mechanisms in the topic of expansion of the covering. A first interpretation of the ruled indicates the obligation of the state of extending the covering to 100% and of assuming the projects that don't undertake the matters. This would be the reading from the traditional mentality. However, the regulation of you public services of electricity don't demand a total covering, but rather it covers to the users that have the capacity to assume, with their own resources, the efficient costs of benefit. The service will also be lent to residential users that don't have payment capacity, when there are contribution resources or fiscal resources for subsidiary

  10. Trial evaluations in comparison with the 1983 safety goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Riggs, R.; Sege, G.

    1985-06-01

    This report provides retrospective comparisons of selected generic regulatory actions to the 1983 NRC safety goals, which had been issued for evaluation during a two-year period. The issues covered are those analyzed by the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) (assisted in some cases by the Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory). The issues include auxiliary feedwater reliability, pressurized thermal shock, power-operated relief valve isolation, asymmetric blowdown loads on PWR primary systems, pool dynamic loads for BWR containments, and steam generator tube rupture. Calculated core-melt frequencies, mortality risks, and cost-benefit ratios are compared with the corresponding safety-goal quantitative design objectives. Considerations that should influence interpretation of the comparisons are discussed. Comments are included on whether and how the safety goals may have helped in the regulatory decision process and on problems encountered

  11. Mekong Land Cover Dasboard: Regional Land Cover Mointoring Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saah, D. S.; Towashiraporn, P.; Aekakkararungroj, A.; Phongsapan, K.; Triepke, J.; Maus, P.; Tenneson, K.; Cutter, P. G.; Ganz, D.; Anderson, E.

    2016-12-01

    SERVIR-Mekong, a USAID-NASA partnership, helps decision makers in the Lower Mekong Region utilize GIS and Remote Sensing information to inform climate related activities. In 2015, SERVIR-Mekong conducted a geospatial needs assessment for the Lower Mekong countries which included individual country consultations. The team found that many countries were dependent on land cover and land use maps for land resource planning, quantifying ecosystem services, including resilience to climate change, biodiversity conservation, and other critical social issues. Many of the Lower Mekong countries have developed national scale land cover maps derived in part from remote sensing products and geospatial technologies. However, updates are infrequent and classification systems do not always meet the needs of key user groups. In addition, data products stop at political boundaries and are often not accessible making the data unusable across country boundaries and with resource management partners. Many of these countries rely on global land cover products to fill the gaps of their national efforts, compromising consistency between data and policies. These gaps in national efforts can be filled by a flexible regional land cover monitoring system that is co-developed by regional partners with the specific intention of meeting national transboundary needs, for example including consistent forest definitions in transboundary watersheds. Based on these facts, key regional stakeholders identified a need for a land cover monitoring system that will produce frequent, high quality land cover maps using a consistent regional classification scheme that is compatible with national country needs. SERVIR-Mekong is currently developing a solution that leverages recent developments in remote sensing science and technology, such as Google Earth Engine (GEE), and working together with production partners to develop a system that will use a common set of input data sources to generate high

  12. Application of the artificial bee colony algorithm for solving the set covering problem.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crawford, Broderick; Soto, Ricardo; Cuesta, Rodrigo; Paredes, Fernando

    2014-01-01

    The set covering problem is a formal model for many practical optimization problems. In the set covering problem the goal is to choose a subset of the columns of minimal cost that covers every row. Here, we present a novel application of the artificial bee colony algorithm to solve the non-unicost set covering problem. The artificial bee colony algorithm is a recent swarm metaheuristic technique based on the intelligent foraging behavior of honey bees. Experimental results show that our artificial bee colony algorithm is competitive in terms of solution quality with other recent metaheuristic approaches for the set covering problem.

  13. A Goal Programming Model for the Siting of Multilevel EMS Systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1980-03-01

    Management," unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, 1971. -23- (11) Daskin , M. and E. Stern, " A Multiobjective Set Covering...GOAL PROGRAM4MING MODEL FOR THE SITING OF MULTILEVEL EMS SYSTE-ETC(U) UNM1AR 80 A CHARNES, J E STORBECK N000iA-75-C-569 WICLASSIFIED CCS-366 N...366 A GOAL PROGRAMMING MODEL FOR THE SITING OF MULTILEVEL EMS SYSTEMS by A . Charnes J. Storbeck March 1980 This project was partially supported by

  14. Motivational Profiles as a Combination of Academic Goals in Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valle, Antonio; Núñez, José Carlos; Cabanach, Ramón G.; Rodríguez, Susana; Rosário, Pedro; Inglés, Cándido J.

    2015-01-01

    The aim of the current study was to obtain information from students in higher education on different motivational profiles that resulted from the combination of three academic goals (i.e. learning goals (LG), performance-approach goals and performance-avoidance goals). Moreover, information related to the relevance of each goal within each…

  15. Alternative cover design

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1988-11-01

    The special study on Alternative Cover Designs is one of several studies initiated by the US Department of Energy (DOE) in response to the proposed US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) groundwater standards. The objective of this study is to investigate the possibility of minimizing the infiltration of precipitation through stabilized tailings piles by altering the standard design of covers currently used on the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project. Prior. to the issuance of the proposed standards, UMTRA Project piles had common design elements to meet the required criteria, the most important of which were for radon diffusion, long-term stability, erosion protection, and groundwater protection. The standard pile covers consisted of three distinct layers. From top to bottom they were: rock for erosion protection; a sand bedding layer; and the radon barrier, usually consisting of a clayey sand material, which also functioned to limit infiltration into the tailings. The piles generally had topslopes from 2 to 4 percent and sideslopes of 20 percent

  16. VT Generalized Land Cover Land Use for Champlain Basin - SAL 2001

    Data.gov (United States)

    Vermont Center for Geographic Information — (Link to Metadata) Circa 2001 land use / land cover (LULC) for the Lake Champlain Basin. The goal in creating this layer was to generate an "improved" version of...

  17. Anticipated emotions and effort allocation in weight goal striving.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nelissen, Rob M A; de Vet, Emely; Zeelenberg, Marcel

    2011-02-01

    This study aimed to investigate the influence of anticipated emotions on preventive health behaviour if specified at the level of behavioural outcomes. Consistent with predictions from a recently developed model of goal pursuit, we hypothesized that the impact of emotions on effort levels depended on the perceived proximity to the goal. Participants with weight-loss intentions were randomly selected from an Internet panel and completed questionnaires at three points in time, baseline (T1; N= 725), 2 weeks later at T2 (N= 582) and again 2 months later at T3 (N= 528). Questionnaires assessed anticipated emotions (at T1) and experienced emotions (at T2) towards goal attainment and non-attainment. Goal proximity, goal desirability, and effort levels in striving for weight loss were assessed at both T1 and T2. Current and target weights were reported at all three assessments. In line with predictions, we found that negative anticipated emotions towards goal non-attainment resulted in increased effort but only if people perceived themselves in close proximity to their goal. Effort, in turn, predicted weight loss and goal achievement. The current data bear important practical implications as they identify anticipated emotions as targets of behaviour change interventions aimed to stimulate effort in striving for broad, health-related goals like weight loss. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

  18. Is cost-covering remuneration fully booked? - Teething problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Niederhaeusern, A.

    2009-01-01

    In this interview with Michael Kaufmann, director of the SwissEnergy programme, possible strategies for the correct pricing of electricity and measures for the correction of the dissatisfactory situation now prevailing concerning the cost-covering remuneration of power from renewable sources are discussed. The pricing of electricity from various sources and the indirect costs that are at present not met by non-renewable resources are commented on. Further topics covered include suggestions for strategies for relieving the presently blocked financial promotion of renewables, the goals set for the role to be played by renewable energy in Swiss electricity production in 2030 and suggestions for future political action

  19. Goal motives and multiple-goal striving in sport and academia: A person-centered investigation of goal motives and inter-goal relations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Healy, Laura C; Ntoumanis, Nikos; Duda, Joan L

    2016-12-01

    This investigation extended the goal striving literature by examining motives for two goals being pursued simultaneously. Grounded in self-determination theory, we examined how student-athletes' motives for their sporting and academic goals were associated with inter-goal facilitation and interference. Cross-sectional survey. UK university student-athletes (n=204) identified their most important sporting and academic goals. They then rated their extrinsic, introjected, identified and intrinsic motives for these goals and completed questionnaires assessing inter-goal facilitation and interference. Using a person-centered approach via latent profile analysis, we identified three distinct profiles of goal motives. Auxiliary analyses showed that the profile with high identified motives for both goals reported greater inter-goal facilitation. Extending the previous literature, the findings demonstrate the benefits of autonomous motives when simultaneously pursing goals in sport and academia. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  20. Beyond SMART? A New Framework for Goal Setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Day, Trevor; Tosey, Paul

    2011-01-01

    This article extends currently reported theory and practice in the use of learning goals or targets with students in secondary and further education. Goal-setting and action-planning constructs are employed in personal development plans (PDPs) and personal learning plans (PLPs) and are advocated as practice within the English national policy…

  1. Conflict-triggered goal shielding: response conflicts attenuate background monitoring for prospective memory cues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goschke, Thomas; Dreisbach, Gesine

    2008-01-01

    Action control in a changing environment requires that one shield current goals from distracting information (goal shielding) and at the same time monitor the environment for potentially significant stimuli that may afford a goal switch (background monitoring). Response conflicts modulate the balance between goal shielding and background monitoring, as indicated by reduced susceptibility to interference after response conflicts. Such conflict-adaptation effects have been attributed to enhanced recruitment of cognitive control on trials following conflicts. Here we show that conflict triggers increased goal shielding on the conflict trial itself. Subjects performed a spatial compatibility task during which they had to notice rare prospective memory cues. Such cues were overlooked more often on conflict trials than on nonconflict trials, a result indicating that shielding of the current goal and inhibition of distractors were increased on the current trial when it involved a response conflict. Thus, evidence for enhanced recruitment of control following conflict may partly reflect aftereffects of goal shielding on the conflict trial itself.

  2. Achievement Goals and their Underlying Goal Motivation: Does it Matter Why Sport Participants Pursue their Goals?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrick Gaudreau

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available This study examined whether the good or bad outcomes associated with mastery-approach (MAP and performance-approach (PAP goals depend on the extent to which they are motivated by autonomous or controlled motivation. A sample of 515 undergraduate students who participated in sport completed measures of achievement goals, motivation of achievement goals, perceived goal attainment, sport satisfaction, and both positive and negative affect. Results of moderated regression analyses revealed that the positive relations of both MAP and PAP goals with perceived goal attainment were stronger for athletes pursuing these goals with high level of autonomous goal motivation. Also, the positive relations between PAP goals and both sport satisfaction and positive affect were stronger at high levels of autonomous goal motivation and controlled goal motivation. The shape of all these significant interactions was consistent with tenets of Self-Determination Theory as controlled goal motivation was negatively associated with positive affect and sport satisfaction and positively associated with negative affect. Overall, these findings demonstrated the importance of considering goal motivation in order to better understand the conditions under which achievement goals are associated with better experiential and performance outcomes in the lives of sport participants.

  3. The University's Statement of Goals. An Idea Whose Time Has Arrived.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKelvie, Brenda D.

    1986-01-01

    The need for colleges and universities to clarify goals in light of current financial constraints is discussed. The goal formulation strategies and techniques of the Institutional Goals Inventory and the Dephi technique are examined in the context of their application at the University of Ottawa. (MSE)

  4. Treatment goals of pulmonary hypertension.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    McLaughlin, Vallerie V

    2013-12-24

    With significant therapeutic advances in the field of pulmonary arterial hypertension, the need to identify clinically relevant treatment goals that correlate with long-term outcome has emerged as 1 of the most critical tasks. Current goals include achieving modified New York Heart Association functional class I or II, 6-min walk distance >380 m, normalization of right ventricular size and function on echocardiograph, a decreasing or normalization of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), and hemodynamics with right atrial pressure <8 mm Hg and cardiac index >2.5 mg\\/kg\\/min(2). However, to more effectively prognosticate in the current era of complex treatments, it is becoming clear that the "bar" needs to be set higher, with more robust and clearer delineations aimed at parameters that correlate with long-term outcome; namely, exercise capacity and right heart function. Specifically, tests that accurately and noninvasively determine right ventricular function, such as cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and BNP\\/N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, are emerging as promising indicators to serve as baseline predictors and treatment targets. Furthermore, studies focusing on outcomes have shown that no single test can reliably serve as a long-term prognostic marker and that composite treatment goals are more predictive of long-term outcome. It has been proposed that treatment goals be revised to include the following: modified New York Heart Association functional class I or II, 6-min walk distance ≥ 380 to 440 m, cardiopulmonary exercise test-measured peak oxygen consumption >15 ml\\/min\\/kg and ventilatory equivalent for carbon dioxide <45 l\\/min\\/l\\/min, BNP level toward "normal," echocardiograph and\\/or cardiac magnetic resonance imaging demonstrating normal\\/near-normal right ventricular size and function, and hemodynamics showing normalization of right ventricular function with right atrial pressure <8 mm Hg and cardiac index >2.5 to 3.0 l\\/min\\/m(2).

  5. The post-millennium development goals agenda: include 'end to all wars' as a public health goal!

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jayasinghe, Saroj

    2014-09-01

    The process of identifying global post-millennium development goals (post-MDGs) has begun in earnest. Consensus is emerging in certain areas (e.g. eliminating poverty) and conflicts and violence are recognized as key factors that retard human development. However, current discussions focus on tackling intra-state conflicts and individual-based violence and hardly mention eliminating wars as a goal. Wars create public health catastrophes. They kill, maim, displace and affect millions. Inter-state wars fuel intra-state conflicts and violence. The peace agenda should not be the monopoly of the UN Security Council, and the current consensus-building process setting the post-MDG agenda is a rallying point for the global community. The human rights approach will not suffice to eliminate wars, because few are fought to protect human rights. The development agenda should therefore commit to eliminating all wars by 2030. Targets to reduce tensions and discourage wars should be included. We should act now. © The Author(s) 2014.

  6. The contribution of goal specificity to goal achievement in collaborative goal setting for the management of asthma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Lorraine; Alles, Chehani; Lemay, Kate; Reddel, Helen; Saini, Bandana; Bosnic-Anticevich, Sinthia; Emmerton, Lynne; Stewart, Kay; Burton, Debbie; Krass, Ines; Armour, Carol

    2013-01-01

    Goal setting was investigated as part of an implementation trial of an asthma management service (PAMS) conducted in 96 Australian community pharmacies. Patients and pharmacists identified asthma-related issues of concern to the patient and collaboratively set goals to address these. Although goal setting is commonly integrated into disease state management interventions, the nature of goals, and their contribution to goal attainment and health outcomes are not well understood. To identify and describe: 1) goals set collaboratively between adult patients with asthma and their pharmacist, 2) goal specificity and goal achievement, and 3) describe the relationships between specificity, achievement, asthma control and asthma-related quality of life. Measures of goal specificity, and goal achievement were developed and applied to patient data records. Goals set were thematically analyzed into goal domains. Proportions of goals set, goals achieved and their specificity were calculated. Correlational and regression analyses were undertaken to determine the relationships between goal specificity, goal achievement, asthma control and asthma-related quality of life. Data were drawn from 498 patient records. Findings showed that patients set a wide range and number of asthma-related goals (N = 1787) and the majority (93%) were either achieved or being working toward by the end of the study. Goal achievement was positively associated with specific and moderately specific goals, but not non-specific goals. However, on closer inspection, an inconsistent pattern of relationships emerged as a function of goal domain. Findings also showed that goal setting was associated with end-of-study asthma control but not to asthma-related quality of life. Pharmacists can help patients to set achievable and specific asthma management goals, and these have the potential to directly impact health outcomes such as asthma control. Goal specificity appears to be an important feature in the

  7. Get a taste of your goals: promoting motive-goal congruence through affect-focus goal fantasy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Job, Veronika; Brandstätter, Veronika

    2009-10-01

    Studies show that motive-goal congruence is an important predictor of well-being (Baumann, Kaschel, & Kuhl, 2005; Brunstein, Schultheiss, & Grässmann, 1998). However, little is known about the factors that promote congruence between implicit motives and goals. Relying on McClelland's (1985) concept of implicit motives and the theory of fantasy realization (Oettingen, 1999), we postulated that goal fantasies focusing on motive-specific affective incentives promote motive-congruent goal setting. This hypothesis was tested in 3 experimental studies. In Study 1 (n=46) and Study 2 (n=48), participants were asked to select goals in a hypothetical scenario. In Study 3 (n=179), they rated their commitment to personal goals for their actual life situation. The results of all 3 studies supported our hypothesis that participants who focus on motive-specific affective incentives in their goal fantasies set their goals in line with their corresponding implicit motive dispositions.

  8. Planning document for the Advanced Landfill Cover Demonstration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hakonson, T.E.; Bostick, K.V.

    1994-01-01

    The Department of Energy and Department of Defense are faced with the closure of thousands of decommissioned radioactive, hazardous, and mixed waste landfills as a part of ongoing Environmental Restoration activities. Regulations on the closure of hazardous and radioactive waste landfills require the construction of a ''low-permeability'' cover over the unit to limit the migration of liquids into the underlying waste. These landfills must be maintained and monitored for 30 years to ensure that hazardous materials are not migrating from the landfill. This test plan is intended as an initial road map for planning, designing, constructing, evaluating, and documenting the Advanced Landfill Cover Demonstration (ALCD). It describes the goals/ objectives, scope, tasks, responsibilities, technical approach, and deliverables for the demonstration

  9. Impacts of Land Cover Changes on Climate over China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, L.; Frauenfeld, O. W.

    2014-12-01

    Land cover changes can influence regional climate through modifying the surface energy balance and water fluxes, and can also affect climate at large scales via changes in atmospheric general circulation. With rapid population growth and economic development, China has experienced significant land cover changes, such as deforestation, grassland degradation, and farmland expansion. In this study, the Community Earth System Model (CESM) is used to investigate the climate impacts of anthropogenic land cover changes over China. To isolate the climatic effects of land cover change, we focus on the CAM and CLM models, with prescribed climatological sea surface temperature and sea ice cover. Two experiments were performed, one with current vegetation and the other with potential vegetation. Current vegetation conditions were derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite observations, and potential vegetation over China was obtained from Ramankutty and Foley's global potential vegetation dataset. Impacts of land cover changes on surface air temperature and precipitation are assessed based on the difference of the two experiments. Results suggest that land cover changes have a cold-season cooling effect in a large region of China, but a warming effect in summer. These temperature changes can be reconciled with albedo forcing and evapotranspiration. Moreover, impacts on atmospheric circulation and the Asian Monsoon is also discussed.

  10. Esophageal achalasia: current diagnosis and treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlottmann, Francisco; Patti, Marco G

    2018-05-27

    Esophageal achalasia is a primary esophageal motility disorder of unknown origin, characterized by lack of peristalsis and by incomplete or absent relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter in response to swallowing. The goal of treatment is to eliminate the functional obstruction at the level of the gastroesophageal junction Areas covered: This comprehensive review will evaluate the current literature, illustrating the diagnostic evaluation and providing an evidence-based treatment algorithm for this disease Expert commentary: Today we have three very effective therapeutic modalities to treat patients with achalasia - pneumatic dilatation, per-oral endoscopic myotomy and laparoscopic Heller myotomy with fundoplication. Treatment should be tailored to the individual patient, in centers where a multidisciplinary approach is available. Esophageal resection should be considered as a last resort for patients who have failed prior therapeutic attempts.

  11. Current-current interaction picture for proton-proton scattering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clarke, D.J.; Lo, S.Y.

    1979-01-01

    The authors propose that color current - color current interaction is reponsible for small angle elastic proton proton scattering at asymptotic energy. Excellent fits are obtained for all data above 12 GeV/c which covers twelve orders of magnitude

  12. Selfish goals serve more fundamental social and biological goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Becker, D Vaughn; Kenrick, Douglas T

    2014-04-01

    Proximate selfish goals reflect the machinations of more fundamental goals such as self-protection and reproduction. Evolutionary life history theory allows us to make predictions about which goals are prioritized over others, which stimuli release which goals, and how the stages of cognitive processing are selectively influenced to better achieve the aims of those goals.

  13. USING PERFLUOROCARBON TRACERS FOR VERIFICATION OF CAP AND COVER SYSTEMS PERFORMANCE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    HEISER, J.; SULLIVAN, T.

    2001-01-01

    The Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management (EM) office has committed itself to an accelerated cleanup of its national facilities. The goal is to have much of the DOE legacy waste sites remediated by 2006. This includes closure of several sites (e.g., Rocky Flats and Fernald). With the increased focus on accelerated cleanup, there has been considerable concern about long-term stewardship issues in general, and verification and long-term monitoring (LTM) of caps and covers, in particular. Cap and cover systems (covers) are vital remedial options that will be extensively used in meeting these 2006 cleanup goals. Every buried waste site within the DOE complex will require some form of cover system. These covers are expected to last from 100 to 1000 years or more. The stakeholders can be expected to focus on system durability and sustained performance. DOE EM has set up a national committee of experts to develop a long-term capping (LTC) guidance document. Covers are subject to subsidence, erosion, desiccation, animal intrusion, plant root infiltration, etc., all of which will affect the overall performance of the cover. Very little is available in terms of long-term monitoring other than downstream groundwater or surface water monitoring. By its very nature, this can only indicate that failure of the cover system has already occurred and contaminants have been transported away from the site. This is unacceptable. Methods that indicate early cover failure (prior to contaminant release) or predict approaching cover failure are needed. The LTC committee has identified predictive monitoring technologies as a high priority need for DOE, both for new covers as well as existing covers. The same committee identified a Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) technology as one approach that may be capable of meeting the requirements for LTM. The Environmental Research and Technology Division (ERTD) at BNL developed a novel methodology for verifying and monitoring

  14. Rational quantitative safety goals: a summary

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Unwin, S.D.; Hayns, M.R.

    1984-08-01

    We introduce the notion of a Rational Quantitative Safety Goal. Such a goal reflects the imprecision and vagueness inherent in any reasonable notion of adequate safety and permits such vagueness to be incorporated into the formal regulatory decision-making process. A quantitative goal of the form, the parameter x, characterizing the safety level of the nuclear plant, shall not exceed the value x 0 , for example, is of a non-rational nature in that it invokes a strict binary logic in which the parameter space underlying x is cut sharply into two portions: that containing those values of x that comply with the goal and that containing those that do not. Here, we utilize an alternative form of logic which, in accordance with any intuitively reasonable notion of safety, permits a smooth transition of a safety determining parameter between the adequately safe and inadequately safe domains. Fuzzy set theory provides a suitable mathematical basis for the formulation of rational quantitative safety goals. The decision-making process proposed here is compatible with current risk assessment techniques and produces results in a transparent and useful format. Our methodology is illustrated with reference to the NUS Corporation risk assessment of the Limerick Generating Station

  15. The interaction between dietary and life goals: using goal systems theory to explore healthy diet and life goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turner-McGrievy, Gabrielle M; Wright, Julie A; Migneault, Jeffrey P; Quintiliani, Lisa; Friedman, Robert H

    2014-01-01

    Objective : To examine the types of life and dietary goals individuals report and how these goal domains interact as framed by goal systems theory. Methods : This work is a cross-sectional survey study. Measures included the incidence of common life and dietary goals and how these goals interact with and facilitate each other. Results : The results of a quantitative survey ( n  = 46 participants), which was informed by two focus groups ( n  = 17 participants), showed that participants are trying to achieve several different life (e.g. achieving financial success) and dietary goals (e.g. eating more fruits and vegetables, drinking more water, and losing weight) and that these two types of goals interact to both facilitate and conflict with each other. Having a life goal of exercising was significantly associated with healthy eating goals when compared with other life goals ( p 's goals may be linked and help to facilitate one another. Being in the maintenance phase with the goal of healthy eating was associated with participants feeling like they were more successful in their other non-diet-related health goals ( p  goals can facilitate success in achieving other goals. Conclusions : Life goals can have an impact on a person's ability to achieve and maintain dietary and other health goals. Health educators may help to facilitate long-term behavior change by examining a person's life goals as well as dietary goals.

  16. Relative Effects of Forward and Backward Planning on Goal Pursuit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Jooyoung; Lu, Fang-Chi; Hedgcock, William M

    2017-11-01

    Considerable research has shown that planning plays an important role in goal pursuit. But how does the way people plan affect goal pursuit? Research on this question is scarce. In the current research, we examined how planning the steps required for goal attainment in chronological order (i.e., forward planning) and reverse chronological order (i.e., backward planning) influences individuals' motivation for and perceptions of goal pursuit. Compared with forward planning, backward planning not only led to greater motivation, higher goal expectancy, and less time pressure but also resulted in better goal-relevant performance. We further demonstrated that this motivational effect occurred because backward planning allowed people to think of tasks required to reach their goals more clearly, especially when goals were complex to plan. These findings suggest that the way people plan matters just as much as whether or not they plan.

  17. Self-Uncertainty and the Influence of Alternative Goals on Self-Regulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Light, Alysson E; Rios, Kimberly; DeMarree, Kenneth G

    2018-01-01

    The current research examines factors that facilitate or undermine goal pursuit. Past research indicates that attempts to reduce self-uncertainty can result in increased goal motivation. We explore a critical boundary condition of this effect-the presence of alternative goals. Though self-regulatory processes usually keep interest in alternative goals in check, uncertainty reduction may undermine these self-regulatory efforts by (a) reducing conflict monitoring and (b) increasing valuation of alternative goals. As such, reminders of alternative goals will draw effort away from focal goals for self-uncertain (but not self-certain) participants. Across four studies and eight supplemental studies, using different focal goals (e.g., academic achievement, healthy eating) and alternative goals (e.g., social/emotional goals, attractiveness, indulgence), we found that alternative goal salience does not negatively influence goal-directed behavior among participants primed with self-certainty, but that reminders of alternative goals undermine goal pursuit among participants primed with self-uncertainty.

  18. Car Covers | Outdoor Covers Canada

    OpenAIRE

    Covers, Outdoor

    2018-01-01

    Protect your car from the elements with Ultimate Touch Car Cover. The multi-layer non-woven fabric is soft on the finish and offers 4 seasons all weather protection.https://outdoorcovers.ca/car-covers/

  19. Goal difficulty and openness to interpersonal goal support.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Righetti, F.; Kumashiro, M.; Campbell, S.

    2014-01-01

    When people pursue important goals, they are often surrounded by close others who could provide help and support for the achievement of these goals. The present work investigated whether people are more likely to be open to such interpersonal goal support from a romantic partner when they perceive

  20. Management Effectiveness and Land Cover Change in Dynamic Cultural Landscapes - Assessing a Central European Biosphere Reserve

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bettina Ohnesorge

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Protected areas are a central pillar of efforts to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services, but their contribution to the conservation and management of European cultural landscapes that have complex spatial-temporal dynamics is unclear. The conservation strategy of biosphere reserves aims at integrating biodiversity and ecosystem service conservation with economic development by designating zones of differing protection and use intensities. It is applied worldwide to protect and manage valuable cultural landscapes. Using the example of a German biosphere reserve, we developed a framework to assess the effectiveness of Central European reserves in meeting their land cover related management goals. Based on digital biotope maps, we defined and assessed land cover change processes that were relevant to the reserve management's goals over a period of 13 years. We then compared these changes in the reserve's core, buffer, and transition zones and in a surrounding reference area by means of a geographical information system. (Un-desirable key processes related to management aims were defined and compared for the various zones. We found that - despite an overall land cover persistence of approximately 85% across all zones - differences in land cover changes can be more prominent across zones inside the reserve than between the areas inside and outside of it. The reserve as a whole performed better than the surrounding reference area when using land cover related management goals as a benchmark. However, some highly desirable targets, such as the conversion of coniferous plantations into seminatural forests or the gain of valuable biotope types, affected larger areas in the nonprotected reference area than in the transition zone.

  1. Pro-Social Goals in Achievement Situations: Amity Goal Orientation Enhances the Positive Effects of Mastery Goal Orientation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levontin, Liat; Bardi, Anat

    2018-04-01

    Research has neglected the utility of pro-social goals within achievement situations. In this article, four studies demonstrate that amity goal orientation, promoting mutual success of oneself together with others, enhances the utility of mastery goal orientation. We demonstrate this in longitudinally predicting performance (Studies 1 and 2) and in maintaining motivation after a disappointing performance (Studies 3 and 4). The studies demonstrate the same interaction effect in academic and in work achievement contexts. Specifically, whereas amity goal orientation did not predict achievement on its own, it enhanced the positive effect of mastery goal orientation. Together, these studies establish the importance of amity goal orientation while also advancing our understanding of the effects of other achievement goal orientations. We suggest future directions in examining the utility of amity goals in other contexts.

  2. Classroom Displays as a Tool for Evaluating Young Learners’ Goal-Attainment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    aus der Wieschen, Maria Vanessa

    In Danish primary schools, each class has their own classroom in which they have (almost) all of their classes, making the walls ideal learning spaces. However, this also means that English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers have to share the classroom walls with their colleagues who teach other...... subjects in the same classroom, which limits the available EFL learning space. The present study examines in what way English teachers and young learners do (not) make meaningful use of EFL material on classroom walls as part of goal-oriented teaching and learning (læringsmålstyret undervisning. Using...... displays can be used as a tool in goal- oriented teaching and learning, in that they (1) work as a documentation of achieved and current goals for learning (læringsmål), (2) help students who have not fully achieved the past goals for learning to participate in current learning activities...

  3. The Influence of Open Goals on the Acquisition of Problem-Relevant Information

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moss, Jarrod; Kotovsky, Kenneth; Cagan, Jonathan

    2007-01-01

    There have been a number of recent findings indicating that unsolved problems, or open goals more generally, influence cognition even when the current task has no relation to the task in which the goal was originally set. It was hypothesized that open goals would influence what information entered the problem-solving process. Three studies were…

  4. Current Debates on Variability in Child Welfare Decision-Making: A Selected Literature Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emily Keddell

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available This article considers selected drivers of decision variability in child welfare decision-making and explores current debates in relation to these drivers. Covering the related influences of national orientation, risk and responsibility, inequality and poverty, evidence-based practice, constructions of abuse and its causes, domestic violence and cognitive processes, it discusses the literature in regards to how each of these influences decision variability. It situates these debates in relation to the ethical issue of variability and the equity issues that variability raises. I propose that despite the ecological complexity that drives decision variability, that improving internal (within-country decision consistency is still a valid goal. It may be that the use of annotated case examples, kind learning systems, and continued commitments to the social justice issues of inequality and individualisation can contribute to this goal.

  5. Modifications in children's goals when encountering obstacles to conflict resolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Troop-Gordon, Wendy; Asher, Steven R

    2005-01-01

    Previous studies have demonstrated that children's goals are associated with their success in peer relationships. The current study extends earlier findings by examining changes in children's goals during hypothetical conflicts. Participants were 252 children ages 9 to 12 years old (133 boys, 119 girls). As predicted, children's goals changed significantly when they encountered obstacles to conflict resolution, and these changes were predictive of their subsequent strategy choices. Both aggressive- and submissive-rejected children were more likely to evidence antisocial changes in their goals, including an increased desire to retaliate. They also showed reluctance to forego instrumental objectives. Other findings highlighted the need to investigate the combinations of goals children pursue as predictors of their strategies and the quality of their peer relationships.

  6. Teachers' goal orientations: Effects on classroom goal structures and emotions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Hui; Hall, Nathan C; Goetz, Thomas; Frenzel, Anne C

    2017-03-01

    Prior research has shown teachers' goal orientations to influence classroom goal structures (Retelsdorf et al., 2010, Learning and Instruction, 20, 30) and to also impact their emotions (Schutz et al., 2007, Emotion in education, Academic Press, Amsterdam, the Netherlands). However, empirical research evaluating possible causal ordering and mediation effects involving these variables in teachers is presently lacking. The present 6-month longitudinal study investigated the relations between varied motivational, behavioural, and emotional variables in practising teachers. More specifically, this study examined the reciprocal, longitudinal relations between teachers' achievement goals, classroom goal structures, and teaching-related emotions, as well as cumulative mediational models in which observed causal relations were evaluated. Participants were 495 practising teachers from Canada (86% female, M = 42 years). Teachers completed a web-based questionnaire at two time points assessing their instructional goals, perceived classroom goal structures, achievement emotions, and demographic items. Results from cross-lagged analyses and structural equation modelling showed teachers' achievement goals to predict their perceived classroom goal structures that, in turn, predicted their teaching-related emotions. The present results inform both Butler's (2012, Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, 726) theory on teachers' achievement goals and Frenzel's (2014, International handbook of emotions in education, Routledge, New York, NY) model of teachers' emotions in showing teachers' instructional goals to both directly predict their teaching-related emotions, as well as indirectly through the mediating effects of classroom goal structures. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

  7. Fusion Approaches for Land Cover Map Production Using High Resolution Image Time Series without Reference Data of the Corresponding Period

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benjamin Tardy

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Optical sensor time series images allow one to produce land cover maps at a large scale. The supervised classification algorithms have been shown to be the best to produce maps automatically with good accuracy. The main drawback of these methods is the need for reference data, the collection of which can introduce important production delays. Therefore, the maps are often available too late for some applications. Domain adaptation methods seem to be efficient for using past data for land cover map production. According to this idea, the main goal of this study is to propose several simple past data fusion schemes to override the current land cover map production delays. A single classifier approach and three voting rules are considered to produce maps without reference data of the corresponding period. These four approaches reach an overall accuracy of around 80% with a 17-class nomenclature using Formosat-2 image time series. A study of the impact of the number of past periods used is also done. It shows that the overall accuracy increases with the number of periods used. The proposed methods require at least two or three previous years to be used.

  8. The value and limitation of quantitative safety goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dunster, H.J.

    1982-01-01

    Some of the philosophical and practical complexities of quantitative safety goals are reviewed with examples of how the problems have been dealt with in current safety objectives in Britain and by the International Commisson on Radiological Protection. Where possible, quantitative comparisons are shown. It is concluded that progress towards quantitative safety goals should be deliberate rather than rapid and that attention should be paid to the possible implications for industries other than the nuclear power industry and countries other than the United States of America

  9. The identification of tattoo designs under cover-up tattoos using digital infrared photography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bryson, David; Wright, Jonathan; Barker, Kimberley

    2013-12-01

    This paper looks at digital infrared photography as a technique for identifying primary tattoos even if they have been covered up with additional tattoos. The study's goal was to look at a sufficient number of cover-up tattoos using infrared photography to enable the technique to be used more widely, and to attempt to elucidate the reasons for successful and unsuccessful infrared photography of primary tattoos through cover-up tattoos. Thirty-six tattoos were photographed in infrared along with colour control records. The results showed that primary tattoos could be visualized to some extent in 55.6 % of the cover-up tattoos and very well in 38.9%, this still left some 44.4% where the design of the primary tattoo could not be seen. The extent of visibility of underlying designs was found to depend on the ink colour, ink density and the extent to which the tattooist covered or incorporated the existing tattoo into the new design.

  10. Achievement goals, social goals, and motivational regulations in physical education settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cecchini Estrada, José A; González González-Mesa, Carmen; Méndez-Giménez, Antonio; Fernández-Río, Javier

    2011-02-01

    This study examined the relationship between achievement and social goals, and explored how both goals affect students' level of informed self-determination in Physical Education. Participants were 395 high school students. Three scales were used to assess achievement, social goals, and motivation. Several hierarchical regression analyses revealed that mastery-approach goals were the greatest contributors to the individuals' levels of self-determination. Achievement and social goals were found to be separate predictors of students' levels of self-determination, and this highlights the importance of separating mastery and performance goals into avoidance and approach profiles. Girls reported significantly higher values than boys on responsibility, relationship, and mastery-avoidance goals, whereas boys scored higher on performance-approach goals. Researchers could use achievement and social goals to study students' motivation and achievement in Physical Education settings.

  11. [Evaluation of pollution of an urban area by level of heavy metals in snow cover].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stepanova, N V; Khamitova, R Ia; Petrova, R S

    2003-01-01

    The goal of this study was to systematize various methodological approaches to evaluating the contamination of the snow cover with heavy metals (HM) by using Kazan, an industrial city with diversified industry, as an example. The findings suggest that it is necessary to characterize the contamination of the snow cover by the actual entrance of an element per area unit of the snow cover for a definite period of time rather than by the concentration of TM in the volume unit of snow water (mg/l), which minimizes the uncertainties with spatial and temporary snow cover variations. The index of the maximum allowable entrance, which is of practical value, may be used to objectively calibrate the pollution of the snow cover, by estimating the amount of a coming element and its toxicity.

  12. Computer-aided classification of forest cover types from small scale aerial photography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bliss, John C.; Bonnicksen, Thomas M.; Mace, Thomas H.

    1980-11-01

    The US National Park Service must map forest cover types over extensive areas in order to fulfill its goal of maintaining or reconstructing presettlement vegetation within national parks and monuments. Furthermore, such cover type maps must be updated on a regular basis to document vegetation changes. Computer-aided classification of small scale aerial photography is a promising technique for generating forest cover type maps efficiently and inexpensively. In this study, seven cover types were classified with an overall accuracy of 62 percent from a reproduction of a 1∶120,000 color infrared transparency of a conifer-hardwood forest. The results were encouraging, given the degraded quality of the photograph and the fact that features were not centered, as well as the lack of information on lens vignetting characteristics to make corrections. Suggestions are made for resolving these problems in future research and applications. In addition, it is hypothesized that the overall accuracy is artificially low because the computer-aided classification more accurately portrayed the intermixing of cover types than the hand-drawn maps to which it was compared.

  13. Thinking of you: nonconscious pursuit of interpersonal goals associated with relationship partners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fitzsimons, Gráinne M; Bargh, John A

    2003-01-01

    The mere psychological presence of relationship partners was hypothesized to trigger interpersonal goals that are then pursued nonconsciously. Qualitative data suggested that people tend to pursue different interpersonal goals within different types of relationships (e.g., mother, best friend, coworker). In several studies, priming participants' relationship representations produced goal-directed behavior (achievement, helping, understanding) in line with the previously assessed goal content of those representations. These findings support the hypothesis that interpersonal goals are component features of relationship representations and that mere activation of those representations, even in the partner's physical absence, causes the goals to become active and to guide behavior nonconsciously within the current situation.

  14. Relations between Classroom Goal Structures and Students' Goal Orientations in Mathematics Classes: When Is a Mastery Goal Structure Adaptive?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skaalvik, Einar M.; Federici, Roger A.

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to test possible interactions between mastery and performance goal structures in mathematics classrooms when predicting students' goal orientations. More specifically, we tested if the degree of performance goal structure moderated the associations between mastery goal structure and students' goal orientations.…

  15. Strategy for Meeting the Secretary of Energy and Hanford Site FY 2001 Pollution Prevention Goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    CLARK, D.E.

    2000-01-01

    The purpose of this strategy is to identify the Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 Hanford Site waste reduction, sanitary recycling and affirmative procurement goals and identify the action required to ensure that the Secretary of Energy's FY 2005 pollution prevention and the FY 2001 Hanford Site goals are met. The strategy and plan to ensure that the Secretary of Energy's routine waste reduction, recycling, cleanup/stabilization waste and affirmative procurement goals are met consists of four phases. The first phase is to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to support planning and organization. This phase involves ensuring that roles and responsibilities are identified; requirement documents are current; goals and successes are communicated; and accurate and current waste information is available. Roles and responsibilities are identified and the RL requirement documents (i.e., the Hanford Site Waste Minimization and Pollution Prevention Awareness Program Plan and Hanford Site Guide for Preparing and Maintaining Generator Group Pollution Prevention Program Documentation) will specify the Secretary of Energy's goals. Goals will be communicated formally and informally via the Hanford Reach, training sessions, meetings and correspondence. Sharing of pollution prevention successes and goal progress are encouraged at the Pollution Prevention/Waste Minimization (PZ/WMin) quarterly meetings. Existing site waste generation databases will be utilized to provide current waste generation data. The second phase of the strategy and plan is to establish and allocate goals by prime contractor (i.e. Fluor Hanford, Inc. (FH), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Bechtel Hanford Inc. (BHI), and CH2MHill Hanford Group (CHG)). This requires determining current status toward meeting the Secretary of Energy's goals; establishing the Hanford Site FY goals, and allocating waste reduction goals by prime contractor. The third phase of the strategy and plan is goal implementation. This

  16. An analysis of Navy Recruiting Command's officer goaling models

    OpenAIRE

    Senter, Robert R.

    1990-01-01

    Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. This study examines the goaling models used by the Navy Recruiting Command for the Nurse Corps and Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate (NUPOC) programs. These two programs serve as representative samples for the numerous officer recruitment programs administered by the Navy Recruiting Command. The intent of the study is to analyze and validate the accuracy of the current goaling models, to ascertain factors which could improve the accur...

  17. Goal-Driven Context-aware Service Composition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yu, Lian; Glenstrup, Arne John; Zhang, Yang

    2011-01-01

    context, user profile and computed results, are gathered by various services, and imported into an ontology based a context repository. A Goal Description Language, Context Condition/Effect are designed to describe the dynamic semantics of goal requirements and service capability. A planner is designed...... and implemented to dynamically compose services based on the current contexts, and a service runner is designed and implemented to invoke proper services based on the contexts and interactions with users.......Two important aspects are associated with service composition. One is to understand the needs and constraints for a new added-value composite service, and otherwise it would lead to an ad-hoc effort for service composition. The second is to reflect the changes of computing environment...

  18. Goal planning: a retrospective audit of rehabilitation process and outcome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duff, Jane; Evans, Matthew J; Kennedy, Paul

    2004-05-01

    To consider the effectiveness of a goal planning programme for people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and address some of the current evidence gaps in goal setting. Retrospective audit. Consecutive series of 65 newly injured SCI patients. The Needs Assessment Checklist (NAC) has been specifically developed for the SCI population, and is used to assess patient attainment in core rehabilitation areas. A 'Goal Planning Progress' form was also used to specifically detail the goal planning process. Across the 65 patients, 396 goal planning meetings were held with 6176 goals set in total. Seventy-two per cent of the goals set at the first goal planning meeting were achieved by the second meeting. The rate of achievement at subsequent meetings was 68%. Significant differences in the number of planned rehabilitation days, number of goal planning meetings, and goals set were identified between injury categories. Significant positive correlations were found between the number of goals set and achievement, as measured by the NAC, in certain rehabilitation domains. The findings of this study demonstrate that the Needs Assessment and Goal Planning framework is effective in planning SCI rehabilitation. The capacity of this goal planning system to reflect individual need has also been established. Further systematic analyses of this process could potentially lead to more efficient rehabilitation and the identification of care pathways within clinical areas.

  19. [Perceptions of classroom goal structures, personal achievement goal orientations, and learning strategies].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miki, Kaori; Yamauchi, Hirotsugu

    2005-08-01

    We examined the relations among students' perceptions of classroom goal structures (mastery and performance goal structures), students' achievement goal orientations (mastery, performance, and work-avoidance goals), and learning strategies (deep processing, surface processing and self-handicapping strategies). Participants were 323 5th and 6th grade students in elementary schools. The results from structural equation modeling indicated that perceptions of classroom mastery goal structures were associated with students' mastery goal orientations, which were in turn related positively to the deep processing strategies and academic achievement. Perceptions of classroom performance goal stractures proved associated with work avoidance-goal orientations, which were positively related to the surface processing and self-handicapping strategies. Two types of goal structures had a positive relation with students' performance goal orientations, which had significant positive effects on academic achievement. The results of this study suggest that elementary school students' perceptions of mastery goal structures are related to adaptive patterns of learning more than perceptions of performance goal structures are. The role of perceptions of classroom goal structure in promoting students' goal orientations and learning strategies is discussed.

  20. Rethinking debt sustainability in the context of the Millennium Development Goals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jan Kregel

    2007-09-01

    Full Text Available The 2005 World Summit Outcome (United Nations, General Assembly 2005b, pp. 7-8 noted that debt relief can be an important source of capital for development. Since debt relief for developing countries is currently determined by assessments of what is considered a sustainable external debt burden, it underlined the importance of debt sustainability to the efforts to achieve national development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs. It also called for the preparation and implementation in 2006 of national development strategies (NDS to achieve the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals

  1. Capacitated set-covering model considering the distance objective and dependency of alternative facilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wayan Suletra, I.; Priyandari, Yusuf; Jauhari, Wakhid A.

    2018-03-01

    We propose a new model of facility location to solve a kind of problem that belong to a class of set-covering problem using an integer programming formulation. Our model contains a single objective function, but it represents two goals. The first is to minimize the number of facilities, and the other is to minimize the total distance of customers to facilities. The first goal is a mandatory goal, and the second is an improvement goal that is very useful when alternate optimum solutions for the first goal exist. We use a big number as a weight on the first goal to force the solution algorithm to give first priority to the first goal. Besides considering capacity constraints, our model accommodates a kind of either-or constraints representing facilities dependency. The either-or constraints will prevent the solution algorithm to select two or more facilities from the same set of facility with mutually exclusive properties. A real location selection problem to locate a set of wastewater treatment facility (IPAL) in Surakarta city, Indonesia, will describe the implementation of our model. A numerical example is given using the data of that real problem.

  2. Probabilistic safety goals. Phase 3 - Status report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Holmberg, J.-E. (VTT (Finland)); Knochenhauer, M. (Relcon Scandpower AB, Sundbyberg (Sweden))

    2009-07-15

    The first phase of the project (2006) described the status, concepts and history of probabilistic safety goals for nuclear power plants. The second and third phases (2007-2008) have provided guidance related to the resolution of some of the problems identified, and resulted in a common understanding regarding the definition of safety goals. The basic aim of phase 3 (2009) has been to increase the scope and level of detail of the project, and to start preparations of a guidance document. Based on the conclusions from the previous project phases, the following issues have been covered: 1) Extension of international overview. Analysis of results from the questionnaire performed within the ongoing OECD/NEA WGRISK activity on probabilistic safety criteria, including participation in the preparation of the working report for OECD/NEA/WGRISK (to be finalised in phase 4). 2) Use of subsidiary criteria and relations between these (to be finalised in phase 4). 3) Numerical criteria when using probabilistic analyses in support of deterministic safety analysis (to be finalised in phase 4). 4) Guidance for the formulation, application and interpretation of probabilistic safety criteria (to be finalised in phase 4). (LN)

  3. Probabilistic safety goals. Phase 3 - Status report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holmberg, J.-E.; Knochenhauer, M.

    2009-07-01

    The first phase of the project (2006) described the status, concepts and history of probabilistic safety goals for nuclear power plants. The second and third phases (2007-2008) have provided guidance related to the resolution of some of the problems identified, and resulted in a common understanding regarding the definition of safety goals. The basic aim of phase 3 (2009) has been to increase the scope and level of detail of the project, and to start preparations of a guidance document. Based on the conclusions from the previous project phases, the following issues have been covered: 1) Extension of international overview. Analysis of results from the questionnaire performed within the ongoing OECD/NEA WGRISK activity on probabilistic safety criteria, including participation in the preparation of the working report for OECD/NEA/WGRISK (to be finalised in phase 4). 2) Use of subsidiary criteria and relations between these (to be finalised in phase 4). 3) Numerical criteria when using probabilistic analyses in support of deterministic safety analysis (to be finalised in phase 4). 4) Guidance for the formulation, application and interpretation of probabilistic safety criteria (to be finalised in phase 4). (LN)

  4. Comparative study of goal contents and goal characteristics between medical and business students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Soowon; Kim, Ji Eun; Lee, Jun-Young; Shin, Jongho

    2016-03-01

    Medical and business are one of the most popular majors among students, and both fields require intensive training to reach certain level of expertise. During the development of professionalism, goal can become a crucial role in psychological impetus. The purpose of this study is to compare goal contents, goal characteristics, and effect of goal characteristics on student's major satisfaction between medical and business. A total of 193 undergraduate students (97 medical students, 96 business students) answered survey questions including goal contents, goal characteristics (goal autonomy, goal attainability, social value of goal) and satisfaction on their majors. Qualitative analysis of goal contents and quantitative analysis of goal characteristics, and their effects on student major satisfaction were performed. Goal content analysis showed percentage of social concern goal was higher in medical students (25.8%) than business students (6.3%), whereas percentage of wealth goal was higher business students (24.0%) than medical students (3.1%). Among goal characteristics, goal attainability and social value of goal were higher in medical students than business students. In both groups, social value of goal was significantly predict major satisfaction. Goal contents and goal characteristics are different between medical and business students. Curriculum and educational interventions that concerning students' goal and developing programs to enhance students' social value of goal is necessary.

  5. WE-D-BRB-03: Current State of Volumetric Image Guidance for Proton Therapy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hua, C. [St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (United States)

    2016-06-15

    The goal of this session is to review the physics of proton therapy, treatment planning techniques, and the use of volumetric imaging in proton therapy. The course material covers the physics of proton interaction with matter and physical characteristics of clinical proton beams. It will provide information on proton delivery systems and beam delivery techniques for double scattering (DS), uniform scanning (US), and pencil beam scanning (PBS). The session covers the treatment planning strategies used in DS, US, and PBS for various anatomical sites, methods to address uncertainties in proton therapy and uncertainty mitigation to generate robust treatment plans. It introduces the audience to the current status of image guided proton therapy and clinical applications of CBCT for proton therapy. It outlines the importance of volumetric imaging in proton therapy. Learning Objectives: Gain knowledge in proton therapy physics, and treatment planning for proton therapy including intensity modulated proton therapy. The current state of volumetric image guidance equipment in proton therapy. Clinical applications of CBCT and its advantage over orthogonal imaging for proton therapy. B. Teo, B.K Teo had received travel funds from IBA in 2015.

  6. WE-D-BRB-03: Current State of Volumetric Image Guidance for Proton Therapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hua, C.

    2016-01-01

    The goal of this session is to review the physics of proton therapy, treatment planning techniques, and the use of volumetric imaging in proton therapy. The course material covers the physics of proton interaction with matter and physical characteristics of clinical proton beams. It will provide information on proton delivery systems and beam delivery techniques for double scattering (DS), uniform scanning (US), and pencil beam scanning (PBS). The session covers the treatment planning strategies used in DS, US, and PBS for various anatomical sites, methods to address uncertainties in proton therapy and uncertainty mitigation to generate robust treatment plans. It introduces the audience to the current status of image guided proton therapy and clinical applications of CBCT for proton therapy. It outlines the importance of volumetric imaging in proton therapy. Learning Objectives: Gain knowledge in proton therapy physics, and treatment planning for proton therapy including intensity modulated proton therapy. The current state of volumetric image guidance equipment in proton therapy. Clinical applications of CBCT and its advantage over orthogonal imaging for proton therapy. B. Teo, B.K Teo had received travel funds from IBA in 2015.

  7. Replacing fallow by cover crops: economic sustainability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gabriel, José Luis; Garrido, Alberto; Quemada, Miguel

    2013-04-01

    Replacing fallow by cover crops in intensive fertilized systems has been demonstrated as an efficient tool for reducing nitrate leaching. However, despite the evident environmental services provided and the range of agronomic benefits documented in the literature, farmers' adoption of this new technology is still limited because they are either unwilling or unable, although adoption reluctance is frequently rooted in low economic profitability, low water se efficiency or poor knowledge. Economic analyses permit a comparison between the profit that farmers obtain from agricultural products and the cost of adopting specific agricultural techniques. The goal of this study was to evaluate the economic impact of replacing the usual winter fallow with cover crops (barley (Hordeum vulgare L., cv. Vanessa), vetch (Vicia villosa L., cv. Vereda) and rapeseed (Brassica napus L., cv. Licapo)) in irrigated maize systems and variable Mediterranean weather conditions using stochastic Monte-Carlo simulations of key farms' financial performance indicators. The three scenarios studied for each cover crop were: i) just leaving the cover crop residue in the ground, ii) leaving the cover crop residue but reduce following maize fertilization according to the N available from the previous cover crop and iii) selling the cover crop residue for animal feeding. All the scenarios were compared with respect to a typical maize-fallow rotation. With observed data from six different years and in various field trials, looking for different weather conditions, probability distribution functions of maize yield, cover crop biomass production and N fertilizer saving was fitted. Based in statistical sources maize grain price, different forage prices and the cost of fertilizer were fitted to probability distribution functions too. As result, introducing a cover crop involved extra costs with respect to fallow as the initial investment, because new seed, herbicide or extra field operations. Additional

  8. Long-term funding and faithfulness to the original goal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sjoegren, G.

    1999-02-01

    The study describes long-term funding in terms of faithfulness to the original goals of the foundations. After having examined 20 different Swedish foundations three main categories of problems have appeared. The main threats to the original goals of the foundations are juridical problems, economic problems and a changing society. Fraud and embezzlement are covered by the Act (1994:1220) Concerning Foundations, but the law does not prevent unfaithfulness to the original goal of the foundation in terms of permutation. If the foundation is a private-established foundation the board has to apply for a change of the original goal to the Swedish Judicial Board for Public Lands and Funds. If the State, a municipality or a community establishes the foundation the Government can change the goal without permission of any other authority. Economic problems often strike smaller funds established by private persons, but State-established funds can also be hit by economical problems. The economic problems presented in the text are high tax levels, bad investments and problems getting donations. Both small private and large State-established foundations sometimes have to change their original goals as a result of a changing society. The goal of the foundation can be out-of-date, be against the ideology of the government party or the demography might have changed. Examples from each category are given in the text. The study is made to facilitate a description in general terms of the prospects for the Swedish nuclear funds if a final decision can not be made in the time span of 100 or 200 years. Looking back on the changes in the judicial, economical and political arenas during the last 200 years, one realizes the impossibility to foresee the changes that will occur within the next 200 years. The author's conclusion, after examined 20 foundation, is that it is impossible to establish a perfect long-term fund as we can not foresee the long-term future

  9. Long-term funding and faithfulness to the original goal

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sjoegren, G

    1999-02-01

    The study describes long-term funding in terms of faithfulness to the original goals of the foundations. After having examined 20 different Swedish foundations three main categories of problems have appeared. The main threats to the original goals of the foundations are juridical problems, economic problems and a changing society. Fraud and embezzlement are covered by the Act (1994:1220) Concerning Foundations, but the law does not prevent unfaithfulness to the original goal of the foundation in terms of permutation. If the foundation is a private-established foundation the board has to apply for a change of the original goal to the Swedish Judicial Board for Public Lands and Funds. If the State, a municipality or a community establishes the foundation the Government can change the goal without permission of any other authority. Economic problems often strike smaller funds established by private persons, but State-established funds can also be hit by economical problems. The economic problems presented in the text are high tax levels, bad investments and problems getting donations. Both small private and large State-established foundations sometimes have to change their original goals as a result of a changing society. The goal of the foundation can be out-of-date, be against the ideology of the government party or the demography might have changed. Examples from each category are given in the text. The study is made to facilitate a description in general terms of the prospects for the Swedish nuclear funds if a final decision can not be made in the time span of 100 or 200 years. Looking back on the changes in the judicial, economical and political arenas during the last 200 years, one realizes the impossibility to foresee the changes that will occur within the next 200 years. The author`s conclusion, after examined 20 foundation, is that it is impossible to establish a perfect long-term fund as we can not foresee the long-term future

  10. MDEP Position Paper - PP-STC-01 - MDEP Steering Technical Committee Position Paper on Safety Goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2011-01-01

    In considering the acceptability of a nuclear facility in relation to safety, Governments and regulatory bodies define a range of legal, mandatory requirements which are supplemented by regulatory requirements and expectations which may not have a mandatory nature. The term 'safety goals' is used to cover all health and safety requirements and expectations which must be met: these may be deterministic rules and/or probabilistic targets. They should cover the safety of workers, public and the environment in line with the IAEA's Basic Safety Objective encompassing safety in normal operation through to severe plant states. Although all regulators have safety goals, these are expressed in many different ways and exercises in comparing them frequently are done at a very low level e.g. specific temperature limits in the reactor core. The differences in the requirements from different regulators are difficult to resolve as the goals are derived using different principles and assumptions and are usually for a specific technology. Therefore the Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP) set up a sub-committee to investigate a different approach. This approach was to start with the high level safety goals and try to derive a structure and means of deriving lower level safety goals that can be seen to be clearly related to the higher level ones. The work will greatly assist in the process of harmonisation of regulatory requirements and enhance coherence and consistency between goals for different technologies. MDEP expects that higher levels of safety will be achieved in the design and operation of new reactors. MDEP strongly supports the structure of safety goals and targets, as set out in this paper, for consideration of its members and IAEA and other organisations, in moving towards international harmonisation of regulatory requirements. MDEP strongly supports the use of integrated decision-making for design evaluation and operational safety. MDEP recognises the need

  11. Long-term cover design for low-level radioactive and hazardous waste sites as applied to the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site solar evaporation ponds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stenseng, S.E.; Nixon, P.A.

    1996-01-01

    The US Department of Energy (DOE) operated five lined solar evaporation ponds (SEPs) at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS) in Jefferson County, Colorado from 1953 until 1986. The SEPs were used primarily to store and evaporate low-level radioactive and hazardous process wastes. Operation of the SEPs has resulted in contamination of the surrounding soils, and may also provide a source of groundwater contamination. The DOE proposes to close the SEPs by consolidating the contaminated material beneath an engineered cover. The primary objective of the closure of such hazardous and radioactive sites is to limit the exposure of the general public to the contaminants for time periods ranging from 100 to 10,000 years. The goal of the SEPs engineered cover is to isolate hazardous and low-level radioactive soils for a minimum of 1,000 years. Since there is currently no existing regulatory design guidance for a 1,000-year engineered cover, the proposed design of the SEPs engineered cover is based on research and testing that has been conducted for many years at various DOE facilities in the US. This paper discusses the main design theories of the proposed engineered cover for the closure of the SEPs, and how the research and test results of these other programs have been used to arrive at the final cover configuration, the material selections, the component layering, layer thicknesses, and the balance and interaction between components to establish an overall effective cover system

  12. Retirement adequacy goals for South African households | Butler ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    South African Actuarial Journal ... Household wealth–earnings ratio goals were estimated to be between 10,5 and 18,2 times annual salary depending on retirement age, household composition, income, location, age, education, household income distribution, home ownership and salary support. Considering current ...

  13. Guide for In-Place Treatment of Covered and Timber Bridges

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stan Lebow; Grant Kirker; Robert White; Terry Amburgey; H. Michael Barnes; Michael Sanders; Jeff Morrell

    2012-01-01

    Historic covered bridges and current timber bridges can be vulnerable to damage from biodeterioration or fire. This guide describes procedures for selecting and applying in-place treatments to prevent or arrest these forms of degradation. Vulnerable areas for biodeterioration in covered bridges include members contacting abutments, members near the ends of bridges...

  14. Millennium development goals: Examining Kenya constraints in achieving the eight goals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wambua Leonard Munyao

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines Kenya’s performance in achieving the famous millennium development goals. The paper provides the government and other stakeholders with proper understanding of the constraints of achieving the millennium development goals as well as reflecting the phase and the passion of the country in achieving this important development goal. The paper further seeks to stress the importance of this goal in reducing poverty in the country. The paper has cited some key factors undermining achieving of the millennium development goals in Kenya. Major recommendations that can contribute towards achieving of the millennium development goals have also been made.

  15. Evolving PBPK applications in regulatory risk assessment: current situation and future goals

    Science.gov (United States)

    The presentation includes current applications of PBPK modeling in regulatory risk assessment and discussions on conflicts between assuring consistency with experimental data in current situation and the desire for animal-free model development.

  16. Understanding teachers’ professional learning goals from their current professional concerns

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Louws, Monika L.; Meirink, Jacobiene A.; van Veen, Klaas; van Driel, Jan H.

    In the day-to-day workplace teachers direct their own learning, but little is known about what drives their decisions about what they would like to learn. These decisions are assumed to be influenced by teachers’ current professional concerns. Also, teachers in different professional life phases

  17. Covering all the bases

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Offen, G.; Shick, N.; Chang, R. (and others) [EPRI (US)

    2004-10-01

    Mercury control technologies offering sustainable performance and known applicability, impact, and cost are still in the future. Cooperative funding for long-term, full-scale tests of developed technologies and support for merging ones, promises to close this gap. The goal is to learn how to tailor mercury control technologies to the flue gas environments of individual coal-fired power plants. The article describes the current performance of mercury control technologies and discusses the research needed to support their success. 4 figs.

  18. Self-regulation of unattainable goals in suicide attempters: the relationship between goal disengagement, goal reengagement and suicidal ideation.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    O'Connor, Rory C

    2009-02-01

    There is growing interest in models of adaptive self-regulation. Recent research suggests that goal disengagement and goal reengagement (i.e., goal adjustment) are implicated in the self-regulation of emotion. This study extends the self-regulation research to investigate the utility of goal adjustment in understanding suicidal risk. To this end, two hundred adults hospitalised following a suicidal episode completed a range of clinical and psychological measures in hospital and were followed up approximately 2.5 months after discharge (Time 2). Hierarchical regression analyses showed that goal reengagement predicted suicidal ideation at Time 2. In addition, the lack of goal reengagement was especially pernicious when reported concomitantly with high disengagement. These predictive effects were independent of baseline mood, attempt status and suicidal intent. The theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

  19. Post-reform continuation of social goals

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Graniere, R.J.

    1996-01-01

    Public utility regulators are currently wrestling with the issue of how and to what extent the social goals that have grown up around traditional regulation might be continued in a restructured electric power industry. This report critically examines six mechanisms that could be used for this purpose in the wake of the introduction of competition in the generation segment. Their pros and cons are thoroughly appraised in economic terms.

  20. DESIGN, PERFORMANCE, AND SUSTAINABILITY OF ENGINEERED COVERS FOR URANIUM MILL TAILINGS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Waugh, W. Jody

    2004-04-21

    Final remedies at most uranium mill tailings sites include engineered covers designed to contain metals and radionuclides in the subsurface for hundreds of years. Early cover designs rely on compacted soil layers to limit water infiltration and release of radon, but some of these covers inadvertently created habitats for deep-rooted plants. Root intrusion and soil development increased the saturated hydraulic conductivity several orders of magnitude above design targets. These covers may require high levels of maintenance to sustain long-term performance. Relatively low precipitation, high potential evapotranspiration, and thick unsaturated soils favor long-term hydrologic isolation of buried waste at arid and semiarid sites. Later covers were designed to mimic this natural soil-water balance with the goal of sustaining performance with little or no maintenance. For example, the cover for the Monticello, Utah, Superfund site relies on a thick soil-sponge layer overlying a sand-and-gravel capillary barrier to store precipitation while plants are dormant and on native vegetation to dry the soil sponge during the growing season. Measurements of both off-site caisson lysimeters and a large 3-ha lysimeter built into the final cover show that drainage has been well below a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency target of less than 3.0 mm/yr. Our stewardship strategy combines monitoring precursors to failure, probabilistic riskbased modeling, and characterization of natural analogs to project performance of covers for a range of possible future environmental scenarios. Natural analogs are needed to understand how ecological processes will influence cover performance, processes that cannot be predicted with short-term monitoring and existing numerical models.

  1. Harvesting fertilized rye cover crop: simulated revenue, net energy, and drainage Nitrogen loss

    Science.gov (United States)

    Food and biofuel production along with global N use are expected to increase over the next few decades, which complicates the goal of reducing N loss to the environment. Including winter rye as a cover crop in corn-soybean rotations reduces N loss to drainage. A few studies suggest that harvesting r...

  2. Land Cover - Minnesota Land Cover Classification System

    Data.gov (United States)

    Minnesota Department of Natural Resources — Land cover data set based on the Minnesota Land Cover Classification System (MLCCS) coding scheme. This data was produced using a combination of aerial photograph...

  3. Sustainable covers for uranium mill tailings, USA: alternative design, performance, and renovation - 16369

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Waugh, William J.; Benson, Craig H.; Albright, William H.

    2009-01-01

    The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management is investigating alternatives to conventional cover designs for uranium mill tailings. A cover constructed in 2000 near Monticello, Utah, USA, was a redundant design with a conventional low-conductivity composite cover overlain with an alternative cover designed to mimic the natural soil water balance as measured in nearby undisturbed native soils and vegetation. To limit percolation, the alternative cover design relies on a 160-cm layer of sandy clay loam soil overlying a 40- cm sand capillary barrier for water storage, and a planting of native sagebrush steppe vegetation to seasonally release soil water through evapotranspiration (ET). Water balance monitoring within a 3.0-ha drainage lysimeter, embedded in the cover during construction, provided convincing evidence that the cover has performed well over a 9-year period (2000- 2009). The total cumulative percolation, 4.8 mm (approximately 0.5 mm yr -1 ), satisfied a regulatory goal of -1 . Most percolation can be attributed to the very wet winter and spring of 2004-2005, when soil water content exceeded the storage capacity of the cover. Diversity, percent cover, and leaf area of vegetation increased over the monitoring period. Field and laboratory evaluations several years after construction show that soil structural development, changes in soil hydraulic properties, and development of vegetation patterns have not adversely impacted cover performance. A new test facility was constructed in 2008 near Grand Junction, Colorado, USA, to evaluate low-cost methods for renovating or transforming conventional covers into more sustainable ET covers. (authors)

  4. Final covering of the Ronneburg uranium mining site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hoepfner, Uwe

    2007-01-01

    The rehabilitation of WISMUT's former Ronneburg uranium mining site involves backfilling of waste rock to the Lichtenberg open pit. The relocation project comprises about 110 million m 3 of sulphide-bearing and AMD-generating waste rock which makes it the most important and most cost-intensive single surface restoration project conducted by WISMUT at the Ronneburg site. The backfilled waste rock has to be covered on an area of about 220 ha to control water infiltration and gas diffusion. Design planning for the final cover placement which began in 2004 had to be based on a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis as well on field tests of alternative cover options which are in compliance with legal requirements. An intensive testing program concerning the vadose zone of soil covers has therefore been started in 2000. The paper presents an overview of the monitoring program and the results of the vadose zone measurements. The water of soil covers have to be predicted for extended evaluation periods. Therefore water balance simulations of single layer covers (storage and evaporation concept) taking current and future soil and climate conditions into account are performed with the HYDRUS 2D code. (author)

  5. 75 FR 54232 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request for Report of Covered Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-03

    ... Report of Covered Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Importers (Form-8947) AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service...)). Currently, the IRS is soliciting comments concerning Form-8947, Report of Covered Pharmaceutical...: Title: Report of Covered Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Importers. OMB Number: 1545-XXXX. Form Number...

  6. Career Goals in Young Adults: Personal Resources, Goal Appraisals, Attitudes, and Goal Management Strategies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haratsis, Jessica M.; Hood, Michelle; Creed, Peter A.

    2015-01-01

    We tested a model based on the dual-process framework that assessed the relationships among personal resources, career goal appraisals, career attitudes, and career goal management, which have not been previously assessed together. The model (tested on a sample of 486 young adults: 74% female, M[subscript]age = 22 years) proposed that personal…

  7. Improving snow cover mapping in forests through the use of a canopy reflectance model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klein, A.G.; Hall, D.K.; Riggs, G.A.

    1998-01-01

    MODIS, the moderate resolution imaging spectro radiometer, will be launched in 1998 as part of the first earth observing system (EOS) platform. Global maps of land surface properties, including snow cover, will be created from MODIS imagery. The MODIS snow-cover mapping algorithm that will be used to produce daily maps of global snow cover extent at 500 m resolution is currently under development. With the exception of cloud cover, the largest limitation to producing a global daily snow cover product using MODIS is the presence of a forest canopy. A Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) time-series of the southern Boreal Ecosystem–Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) study area in Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan, was used to evaluate the performance of the current MODIS snow-cover mapping algorithm in varying forest types. A snow reflectance model was used in conjunction with a canopy reflectance model (GeoSAIL) to model the reflectance of a snow-covered forest stand. Using these coupled models, the effects of varying forest type, canopy density, snow grain size and solar illumination geometry on the performance of the MODIS snow-cover mapping algorithm were investigated. Using both the TM images and the reflectance models, two changes to the current MODIS snow-cover mapping algorithm are proposed that will improve the algorithm's classification accuracy in forested areas. The improvements include using the normalized difference snow index and normalized difference vegetation index in combination to discriminate better between snow-covered and snow-free forests. A minimum albedo threshold of 10% in the visible wavelengths is also proposed. This will prevent dense forests with very low visible albedos from being classified incorrectly as snow. These two changes increase the amount of snow mapped in forests on snow-covered TM scenes, and decrease the area incorrectly identified as snow on non-snow-covered TM scenes. (author)

  8. Intrinsic motivation, performance, and the mediating role of mastery goal orientation: a test of self-determination theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cerasoli, Christopher P; Ford, Michael T

    2014-01-01

    Although intrinsic motivation has been linked repeatedly to performance and outcomes, the causal relationship between the two has remained unclear. To explain the link, this study considered the focusing influence of mastery goals. Using a three-wave panel study and hypotheses drawn from self-determination theory and achievement goal theory, the current study sought to clarify the relationships between intrinsic motivation, mastery goal orientation, and performance. Specifically, the current study hypothesized and found that mastery goals mediated (explained) the relationship between intrinsic motivation and performance.

  9. Can motto-goals outperform learning and performance goals? Influence of goal setting on performance and affect in a complex problem solving task

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miriam S. Rohe

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we bring together research on complex problem solving with that on motivational psychology about goal setting. Complex problems require motivational effort because of their inherent difficulties. Goal Setting Theory has shown with simple tasks that high, specific performance goals lead to better performance outcome than do-your-best goals. However, in complex tasks, learning goals have proven more effective than performance goals. Based on the Zurich Resource Model (Storch & Krause, 2014, so-called motto-goals (e.g., "I breathe happiness" should activate a person’s resources through positive affect. It was found that motto-goals are effective with unpleasant duties. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that motto-goals outperform learning and performance goals in the case of complex problems. A total of N = 123 subjects participated in the experiment. In dependence of their goal condition, subjects developed a personal motto, learning, or performance goal. This goal was adapted for the computer-simulated complex scenario Tailorshop, where subjects worked as managers in a small fictional company. Other than expected, there was no main effect of goal condition for the management performance. As hypothesized, motto goals led to higher positive and lower negative affect than the other two goal types. Even though positive affect decreased and negative affect increased in all three groups during Tailorshop completion, participants with motto goals reported the lowest rates of negative affect over time. Exploratory analyses investigated the role of affect in complex problem solving via mediational analyses and the influence of goal type on perceived goal attainment.

  10. Defining safety culture and the nexus between safety goals and safety culture. 4. Enhancing Safety Culture Through the Establishment of Safety Goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tateiwa, Kenji; Miyata, Koichi; Yahagi, Kimitoshi

    2001-01-01

    Safety culture is the perception of each individual and organization of a nuclear power plant that safety is the first priority, and at Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), we have been practicing it in everyday activities. On the other hand, with the demand for competitiveness of nuclear power becoming even more intense these days, we need to pursue efficient management while maintaining the safety level at the same time. Below, we discuss how to achieve compatibility between safety culture and efficient management as well as enhance safety culture. Discussion at Tepco: safety culture-nurturing activities such as the following are being implemented: 1. informing the employees of the 'Declaration of Safety Promotion' by handing out brochures and posting it on the intranet home page; 2. publishing safety culture reports covering stories on safety culture of other industry sectors, recent movements on safety culture, etc.; 3. conducting periodic questionnaires to employees to grasp how deeply safety culture is being established; 4. carrying out educational programs to learn from past cases inside and outside the nuclear industry; 5. committing to common ownership of information with the public. The current status of safety culture in Japan sometimes seems to be biased to the quest of ultimate safety; rephrasing it, there have been few discussions regarding the sufficiency of the quantitative safety level in conjunction with the safety culture. Safety culture is one of the most crucial foundations guaranteeing the plant's safety, and for example, the plant safety level evaluated by probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) could be said to be valid only on the ground that a sound and sufficient safety culture exists. Although there is no doubt that the safety culture is a fundamental and important attitude of an individual and organization that keeps safety the first priority, the safety culture in itself should not be considered an obstruction to efforts to implement

  11. A goal-oriented requirements modelling language for enterprise architecture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Quartel, Dick; Engelsman, W.; Jonkers, Henk; van Sinderen, Marten J.

    2009-01-01

    Methods for enterprise architecture, such as TOGAF, acknowledge the importance of requirements engineering in the development of enterprise architectures. Modelling support is needed to specify, document, communicate and reason about goals and requirements. Current modelling techniques for

  12. Validation of Land Cover Products Using Reliability Evaluation Methods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wenzhong Shi

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Validation of land cover products is a fundamental task prior to data applications. Current validation schemes and methods are, however, suited only for assessing classification accuracy and disregard the reliability of land cover products. The reliability evaluation of land cover products should be undertaken to provide reliable land cover information. In addition, the lack of high-quality reference data often constrains validation and affects the reliability results of land cover products. This study proposes a validation schema to evaluate the reliability of land cover products, including two methods, namely, result reliability evaluation and process reliability evaluation. Result reliability evaluation computes the reliability of land cover products using seven reliability indicators. Process reliability evaluation analyzes the reliability propagation in the data production process to obtain the reliability of land cover products. Fuzzy fault tree analysis is introduced and improved in the reliability analysis of a data production process. Research results show that the proposed reliability evaluation scheme is reasonable and can be applied to validate land cover products. Through the analysis of the seven indicators of result reliability evaluation, more information on land cover can be obtained for strategic decision-making and planning, compared with traditional accuracy assessment methods. Process reliability evaluation without the need for reference data can facilitate the validation and reflect the change trends of reliabilities to some extent.

  13. Framing the construct of life satisfaction in terms of older adults' personal goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rapkin, B D; Fischer, K

    1992-03-01

    Older adults' life satisfaction can be better understood in light of their personal goals. This study of 179 elders examined (a) how goals correlate with satisfaction, (b) whether elders maintain satisfaction by accommodating goals to past losses, and (c) how correlations between satisfaction and key predictors differ among groups with different goals. Satisfaction was related positively to social maintenance and energetic life-style goals and negatively to concerns for improvement, disengagement, stability, and reduced activity. Past losses were correlated with current goals but not with satisfaction, consistent with the notion of accommodation. A cluster analysis identified 5 patterns of goals: high demand, age prescribed, self-focused, socially engaged, and low demand. Correlations between satisfaction and other predictors differed by cluster, suggesting that the determinants of elders' satisfaction depend on personal goals.

  14. Goal-Directed and Goal-Less Imitation in Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wild, Kelly S.; Poliakoff, Ellen; Jerrison, Andrew; Gowen, Emma

    2012-01-01

    To investigate how people with Autism are affected by the presence of goals during imitation, we conducted a study to measure movement kinematics and eye movements during the imitation of goal-directed and goal-less hand movements. Our results showed that a control group imitated changes in movement kinematics and increased the level that they…

  15. Academic goals in surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bleier, Joshua I S; Kann, Brian

    2013-12-01

    The development of an academic surgical career can be an overwhelming prospect, and one that is not intuitive. Establishing a structured plan and support structure is critical to success. Starting a successful academic surgical career begins with defining one's academic goals within several broad categories: personal goals, academic goals, research goals, educational goals, and financial goals. Learning the art of self-promotion is the means by which many of these goals are achieved. It is important to realize that achieving these goals requires a delicate personal balance between work and home life, and the key ways in which to achieve success require establishment of well thought-out goals, a reliable support structure, realistic and clear expectations, and frequent re-evaluation.

  16. Eddy current testing, volume 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cecco, V.S.; Van Drunen, G.; Sharp, F.L.

    1981-11-01

    This training and reference manual was assembled to provide those involved in eddy current testing with both the fundamental principles of the technique as well as the knowledge to deal with often complicated test results. A non-rigorous approach is used to simplify complex physical phenomena. Emphasis is placed on proper choice of test frequency and interpretation. Defect detection and diagnosis receive particular attention. Design and construction of probes are covered extensively since probes play a key role in eddy current testing. The advantages and limitations of various probe types are discussed. Electromagnetic theory, instrumentation, test methods and signal analysis are covered. Simplified derivations of probe response to test parameters are presented to develop a basic understanding of eddy current behaviour. Eddy current signals are presented on impedance plane diagrams throughout the manual since this is the most common display on modern, general purpose instruments. The use of 'phase leg' in signal analysis is covered in detail. To supplement theory, practical examples are presented to develop proficiency in performing inspections, and to illustrate how basic principles are applied to diagnose real signals

  17. Majoring in Selection, and Minoring in Socialization: The Role of the College Experience in Goal Change Post-High School.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hill, Patrick L; Jackson, Joshua J; Nagy, Nicole; Nagy, Gabriel; Roberts, Brent W; Lüdtke, Oliver; Trautwein, Ulrich

    2016-04-01

    Though it is frequently assumed that the college experience can influence our life goals, this claim has been relatively understudied. The current study examined the role of goals in college major selection, as well as whether major selection influences later goal change. In addition, we examined whether a person's perceptions of his or her peers' goals influence goal setting. Using a sample of German students (Mage  = 19 years; n = 3,023 at Wave 1), we assessed life goal levels and changes from high school into college across three assessment occasions. Participants reported their current aspirations, along with the perceived goals of their peers during the college assessments. Using latent growth curve models, findings suggest that life goals upon entering college significantly predict the majors students select. However, this major selection had limited influence on later changes in life goals. Stronger effects were found with respect to perceptions of peers' goals, with students tending to change their goals to better align with their peers. The current study provides evidence that life goals are relatively stable and yet can change during the emerging adult years, in ways that demonstrate the potential influence of the college experience. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  18. Extending enterprise architecture modelling with business goals and requirements

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Engelsman, W.; Quartel, Dick; Jonkers, Henk; van Sinderen, Marten J.

    The methods for enterprise architecture (EA), such as The Open Group Architecture Framework, acknowledge the importance of requirements modelling in the development of EAs. Modelling support is needed to specify, document, communicate and reason about goals and requirements. The current modelling

  19. Error and Uncertainty in the Accuracy Assessment of Land Cover Maps

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarmento, Pedro Alexandre Reis

    Traditionally the accuracy assessment of land cover maps is performed through the comparison of these maps with a reference database, which is intended to represent the "real" land cover, being this comparison reported with the thematic accuracy measures through confusion matrixes. Although, these reference databases are also a representation of reality, containing errors due to the human uncertainty in the assignment of the land cover class that best characterizes a certain area, causing bias in the thematic accuracy measures that are reported to the end users of these maps. The main goal of this dissertation is to develop a methodology that allows the integration of human uncertainty present in reference databases in the accuracy assessment of land cover maps, and analyse the impacts that uncertainty may have in the thematic accuracy measures reported to the end users of land cover maps. The utility of the inclusion of human uncertainty in the accuracy assessment of land cover maps is investigated. Specifically we studied the utility of fuzzy sets theory, more precisely of fuzzy arithmetic, for a better understanding of human uncertainty associated to the elaboration of reference databases, and their impacts in the thematic accuracy measures that are derived from confusion matrixes. For this purpose linguistic values transformed in fuzzy intervals that address the uncertainty in the elaboration of reference databases were used to compute fuzzy confusion matrixes. The proposed methodology is illustrated using a case study in which the accuracy assessment of a land cover map for Continental Portugal derived from Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) is made. The obtained results demonstrate that the inclusion of human uncertainty in reference databases provides much more information about the quality of land cover maps, when compared with the traditional approach of accuracy assessment of land cover maps. None

  20. Heating and current drive on NSTX

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, J. R.; Batchelor, D.; Carter, M.; Hosea, J.; Ignat, D.; LeBlanc, B.; Majeski, R.; Ono, M.; Phillips, C. K.; Rogers, J. H.; Schilling, G.

    1997-04-01

    Low aspect ratio tokamaks pose interesting new challenges for heating and current drive. The NSTX (National Spherical Tokamak Experiment) device to be built at Princeton is a low aspect ratio toroidal device that has the achievement of high toroidal beta (˜45%) and non-inductive operation as two of its main research goals. To achieve these goals significant auxiliary heating and current drive systems are required. Present plans include ECH (Electron cyclotron heating) for pre-ionization and start-up assist, HHFW (high harmonic fast wave) for heating and current drive and eventually NBI (neutral beam injection) for heating, current drive and plasma rotation.

  1. Towards sustainable groundwater use: Setting long-term goals, backcasting, and managing adaptively

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gleeson, T.; Alley, W.M.; Allen, D.M.; Sophocleous, M.A.; Zhou, Y.; Taniguchi, M.; Vandersteen, J.

    2012-01-01

    The sustainability of crucial earth resources, such as groundwater, is a critical issue. We consider groundwater sustainability a value-driven process of intra- and intergenerational equity that balances the environment, society, and economy. Synthesizing hydrogeological science and current sustainability concepts, we emphasize three sustainability approaches: setting multigenerational sustainability goals, backcasting, and managing adaptively. As most aquifer problems are long-term problems, we propose that multigenerational goals (50 to 100 years) for water quantity and quality that acknowledge the connections between groundwater, surface water, and ecosystems be set for many aquifers. The goals should be set by a watershed- or aquifer-based community in an inclusive and participatory manner. Policies for shorter time horizons should be developed by backcasting, and measures implemented through adaptive management to achieve the long-term goals. Two case histories illustrate the importance and complexity of a multigenerational perspective and adaptive management. These approaches could transform aquifer depletion and contamination to more sustainable groundwater use, providing groundwater for current and future generations while protecting ecological integrity and resilience. ?? 2011, The Author(s). Ground Water ?? 2011, National Ground Water Association.

  2. Goal Definition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bjørn, Anders; Laurent, Alexis; Owsianiak, Mikołaj

    2018-01-01

    The goal definition is the first phase of an LCA and determines the purpose of a study in detail. This chapter teaches how to perform the six aspects of a goal definition: (1) Intended applications of the results, (2) Limitations due to methodological choices, (3) Decision context and reasons...... for carrying out the study, (4) Target audience , (5) Comparative studies to be disclosed to the public and (6) Commissioner of the study and other influential actors. The instructions address both the conduct and reporting of a goal definition and are largely based on the ILCD guidance document (EC...

  3. Student Perceptions of Classroom Achievement Goals as Predictors of Belonging and Content Instrumentality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, Christopher O.

    2012-01-01

    The goal of the current study was to examine the predictive relationships among a set of cognitive-motivational variables that have been found in previous studies to support academic achievement. Student perception of a classroom's achievement goal structure (classroom mastery, classroom performance-approach, classroom performance-avoidance) was…

  4. Current-to-frequency converter

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Glowacki, S W [Institute of Nuclear Research, Warsaw (Poland)

    1981-07-15

    A current-to-frequency converter covering the range from 3 x 10/sup -10/ A up to 3 x 10/sup -5/ A of the input current is described. The circuit operates with nuclear detectors featuring a high internal resistance.

  5. Motivational Goal Bracketing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nafziger, Julia; Koch, Alexander

    It is a puzzle why people often evaluate consequences of choices separately (narrow bracketing) rather than jointly (broad bracketing). We study the hypothesis that a present-biased individual, who faces two tasks, may bracket his goals narrowly for motivational reasons. Goals motivate because th...... of the tasks. Narrow goals have a stronger motivational force and thus can be optimal. In particular, if one task outcome becomes known before working on the second task, narrow bracketing is always optimal.......It is a puzzle why people often evaluate consequences of choices separately (narrow bracketing) rather than jointly (broad bracketing). We study the hypothesis that a present-biased individual, who faces two tasks, may bracket his goals narrowly for motivational reasons. Goals motivate because...

  6. Pediatric hospitalists: training, current practice, and career goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freed, Gary L; Dunham, Kelly M

    2009-03-01

    To determine the range and frequency of experiences, clinical and nonclinical roles, training, work expectations, and career plans of practicing pediatric hospitalists. Mail survey study of a national sample of 530 pediatric hospitalists of whom 67% (N = 338) were from teaching hospitals, 71% (N = 374) were from children's hospitals, 43% (N = 230) were from freestanding children's hospitals, and 69% (N = 354) were from hospitals with >or=250 beds. The response rate was 84%. The majority (54%; N = 211) had been practicing as hospitalists for at least 3 years. Most reported that the pediatric inpatient unit (94%) and inpatient consultation service (51%) were a part of their regular clinical assignment. Most did not provide service in the normal newborn nursery (58%), subspecialty inpatient service (52%), transports (85%), outpatient clinics (66%), or as part of an emergency response team (53%). Many participated in quality improvement (QI) initiatives (84%) and practice guideline development (81%). This study provides the most comprehensive information available regarding the clinical and nonclinical roles, training, work expectations, and career plans of pediatric hospitalists. However, the field is currently a moving target; there is significant flux in the hospitalist workforce and variation in the roles of these professionals in their clinical and nonclinical work environment. (c) 2009 Society of Hospital Medicine.

  7. Goals and everyday problem solving: manipulating goal preferences in young and older adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoppmann, Christiane A; Blanchard-Fields, Fredda

    2010-11-01

    In the present study, we examined the link between goal and problem-solving strategy preferences in 130 young and older adults using hypothetical family problem vignettes. At baseline, young adults preferred autonomy goals, whereas older adults preferred generative goals. Imagining an expanded future time perspective led older adults to show preferences for autonomy goals similar to those observed in young adults but did not eliminate age differences in generative goals. Autonomy goals were associated with more self-focused instrumental problem solving, whereas generative goals were related to more other-focused instrumental problem solving in the no-instruction and instruction conditions. Older adults were better at matching their strategies to their goals than young adults were. This suggests that older adults may become better at selecting their strategies in accordance with their goals. Our findings speak to a contextual approach to everyday problem solving by showing that goals are associated with the selection of problem-solving strategies.

  8. Psychological "gel" to bind individuals' goal pursuit: gratitude facilitates goal contagion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Lile; Tong, Eddie M W; Lee, Li Neng

    2014-08-01

    Past research demonstrates that gratitude affects individuals' self-regulation of behavior primarily through engendering a prosocial tendency. Based on theories proposing that gratitude plays an unique role in fostering communal relationship (e.g., Algoe, 2012), we propose that gratitude can have an incidental effect in facilitating goal contagion: automatically inferring and adopting the goal implied by a social other's behavior. This hypothesis is supported in 3 studies. In Study 1, after being exposed to the behaviors of a social target that implied either a cooperative or a competitive goal, individuals adopted the respective goal and behaved accordingly in a Resource Dilemma Task. This occurred, however, only when they were feeling gratitude and not when they were feeling joy or a neutral mood. In Study 2, after being exposed to a social target's behavior that implied the goal to make money, people feeling gratitude, as compared to those feeling pride or a neutral mood, strove for a future opportunity to earn money. Study 3 further demonstrated that individuals' goal striving behavior was mediated by a heightened level of goal activation. Finally, it was found that gratitude facilitated goal contagion only when the social target was a member of participants' own social group. Through this mechanism, gratitude, thus, seems to bind one's self-regulation with those of social others. Theoretical and practical implications of this new perspective are discussed.

  9. Baryonic sources using irreducible representations of the double-covered octahedral group

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Basak, S.; Edwards, R.; Fiebig, R.; Fleming, G.T.; Heller, U.M.; Morningstar, C.; Richards, D.; Sato, I.; Wallace, S.

    2005-01-01

    Irreducible representations (IRs) of the double-covered octahedral group are used to construct lattice source and sink operators for three-quark baryons. The goal is to achieve a good coupling to higher spin states as well as ground states. Complete sets of local and nonlocal straight-link operators are explicitly shown for isospin 1/2 and 3/2 baryons. The orthogonality relations of the IR operators are confirmed in a quenched lattice simulation

  10. Baryonic sources using irreducible representations of the double-covered octahedral group

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Basak, S.; Edwards, R.; Fiebig, R.; Fleming, G. T.; Heller, U. M.; Morningstar, C.; Richards, D.; Sato, I.; Wallace, S.

    2004-01-01

    Irreducible representations (IRs) of the double-covered octahedral group are used to construct lattice source and sink operators for three-quark baryons. The goal is to achieve a good coupling to higher spin states as well as ground states. Complete sets of local and nonlocal straight-link operators are explicitly shown for isospin 1/2 and 3/2 baryons. The orthogonality relations of the IR operators are confirmed in a quenched lattice simulation

  11. Achievement goals, self-handicapping, and performance: a 2 x 2 achievement goal perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ntoumanis, Nikos; Thøgersen-Ntoumani, Cecilie; Smith, Alison L

    2009-11-01

    Elliot and colleagues (2006) examined the effects of experimentally induced achievement goals, proposed by the trichotomous model, on self-handicapping and performance in physical education. Our study replicated and extended the work of Elliot et al. by experimentally promoting all four goals proposed by the 2 x 2 model (Elliot & McGregor, 2001), measuring the participants' own situational achievement goals, using a relatively novel task, and testing the participants in a group setting. We used a randomized experimental design with four conditions that aimed to induce one of the four goals advanced by the 2 x 2 model. The participants (n = 138) were undergraduates who engaged in a dart-throwing task. The results pertaining to self-handicapping partly replicated Elliot and colleagues' findings by showing that experimentally promoted performance-avoidance goals resulted in less practice. In contrast, the promotion of mastery-avoidance goals did not result in less practice compared with either of the approach goals. Dart-throwing performance did not differ among the four goal conditions. Personal achievement goals did not moderate the effects of experimentally induced goals on self-handicapping and performance. The extent to which mastery-avoidance goals are maladaptive is discussed, as well as the interplay between personal and experimentally induced goals.

  12. Goals and Psychological Accounting

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Koch, Alexander Karl; Nafziger, Julia

    We model how people formulate and evaluate goals to overcome self-control problems. People often attempt to regulate their behavior by evaluating goal-related outcomes separately (in narrow psychological accounts) rather than jointly (in a broad account). To explain this evidence, our theory...... of endogenous narrow or broad psychological accounts combines insights from the literatures on goals and mental accounting with models of expectations-based reference-dependent preferences. By formulating goals the individual creates expectations that induce reference points for task outcomes. These goal......-induced reference points make substandard performance psychologically painful and motivate the individual to stick to his goals. How strong the commitment to goals is depends on the type of psychological account. We provide conditions when it is optimal to evaluate goals in narrow accounts. The key intuition...

  13. Achieving universal health care coverage: Current debates in Ghana on covering those outside the formal sector

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abiiro Gilbert

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Globally, extending financial protection and equitable access to health services to those outside the formal sector employment is a major challenge for achieving universal coverage. While some favour contributory schemes, others have embraced tax-funded health service cover for those outside the formal sector. This paper critically examines the issue of how to cover those outside the formal sector through the lens of stakeholder views on the proposed one-time premium payment (OTPP policy in Ghana. Discussion Ghana in 2004 implemented a National Health Insurance Scheme, based on a contributory model where service benefits are restricted to those who contribute (with some groups exempted from contributing, as the policy direction for moving towards universal coverage. In 2008, the OTPP system was proposed as an alternative way of ensuring coverage for those outside formal sector employment. There are divergent stakeholder views with regard to the meaning of the one-time premium and how it will be financed and sustained. Our stakeholder interviews indicate that the underlying issue being debated is whether the current contributory NHIS model for those outside the formal employment sector should be maintained or whether services for this group should be tax funded. However, the advantages and disadvantages of these alternatives are not being explored in an explicit or systematic way and are obscured by the considerable confusion about the likely design of the OTPP policy. We attempt to contribute to the broader debate about how best to fund coverage for those outside the formal sector by unpacking some of these issues and pointing to the empirical evidence needed to shed even further light on appropriate funding mechanisms for universal health systems. Summary The Ghanaian debate on OTPP is related to one of the most important challenges facing low- and middle-income countries seeking to achieve a universal health care system. It

  14. Goal Orientations of General Chemistry Students via the Achievement Goal Framework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Scott E.

    2018-01-01

    The Achievement Goal Framework describes students' goal orientations as: task-based, focusing on the successful completion of the task; self-based, evaluating performance relative to one's own past performance; or other-based, evaluating performance relative to the performance of others. Goal orientations have been used to explain student success…

  15. Goal Setting in Principal Evaluation: Goal Quality and Predictors of Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sinnema, Claire E. L.; Robinson, Viviane M. J.

    2012-01-01

    This article draws on goal-setting theory to investigate the goals set by experienced principals during their performance evaluations. While most goals were about teaching and learning, they tended to be vaguely expressed and only partially achieved. Five predictors (commitment, challenge, learning, effort, and support) explained a significant…

  16. Can goal-free problems facilitating students' flexible thinking?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maulidya, Sity Rahmy; Hasanah, Rusi Ulfa; Retnowati, Endah

    2017-08-01

    Problem solving is the key of doing and also learning mathematics. It takes also the fundamental role of developing mathematical knowledge. Responding to the current reform movement in mathematics, students are expected to learn to be a flexible thinker. The ability to think flexible is challenged by the globalisation, hence influence mathematics education. A flexible thinking includes ability to apply knowledge in different contexts rather than simply use it in similar context when it is studied. Arguably problem solving activities can contribute to the development of the ability to apply skills to unfamiliar situations. Accordingly, an appropriate classroom instructional strategy must be developed. A cognitive load theory suggests that by reducing extraneous cognitive load during learning could enhance transfer learning. A goal-free problem strategy that is developed based in cognitive load theory have been showed to be effective for transfer learning. This strategy enables students to learn a large numbers of problem solving moves from a mathematics problem. The instruction in a goal-free problem directs students to `calculate as many solution as you can' rather than to calculate a single given goal. Many experiment research evident goal-free problem enhance learning. This literature review will discuss evidence goal-free problem facilitate students to solve problems flexibly and thus enhance their problem solving skills, including how its implication in the classroom.

  17. The Power of the Picture: How Narrative Film Captures Attention and Disrupts Goal Pursuit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Anna-Lisa; Shavalian, Elliot; Rube, Moshe

    2015-01-01

    Narrative transportation is described as a state of detachment that arises when one becomes immersed in the narrative of a story. Participants viewed either an intact version of an engaging 20 min film, "Bang You're Dead!," (1961) by Alfred Hitchcock (contiguous condition), or a version of the same film with scenes presented out of order (noncontiguous condition). In this latter condition, the individual scenes were intact but were presented out of chronological order. Participants were told a cover story that we were interested in the amount of gun violence depicted in films. Both groups were given the goal to remember to lift their hand every time they heard the word "gun" spoken during the film. Results revealed that participants were significantly less likely to remember to execute their goal in the contiguous condition, presumably because this narrative transported viewers' attention and thereby "hijacked" processing resources away from internal goals.

  18. National Land Cover Database (NLCD) Land Cover Collection

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior — The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) Land Cover Collection is produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC)...

  19. Next Generation Snow Cover Mapping: Can Future Hyperspectral Satellite Spectrometer Systems Improve Subpixel Snow-covered Area and Grain Size in the Sierra Nevada?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hill, R.; Calvin, W. M.; Harpold, A.

    2017-12-01

    Mountain snow storage is the dominant source of water for humans and ecosystems in western North America. Consequently, the spatial distribution of snow-covered area is fundamental to both hydrological, ecological, and climate models. Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data were collected along the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range extending from north of Lake Tahoe to south of Mt. Whitney during the 2015 and 2016 snow-covered season. The AVIRIS dataset used in this experiment consists of 224 contiguous spectral channels with wavelengths ranging 400-2500 nanometers at a 15-meter spatial pixel size. Data from the Sierras were acquired on four days: 2/24/15 during a very low snow year, 3/24/16 near maximum snow accumulation, and 5/12/16 and 5/18/16 during snow ablation and snow loss. Building on previous retrieval of subpixel snow-covered area algorithms that take into account varying grain size we present a model that analyzes multiple endmembers of varying snow grain size, vegetation, rock, and soil in segmented regions along the Sierra Nevada to determine snow-cover spatial extent, snow sub-pixel fraction, and approximate grain size. In addition, varying simulated models of the data will compare and contrast the retrieval of current snow products such as MODIS Snow-Covered Area and Grain Size (MODSCAG) and the Airborne Space Observatory (ASO). Specifically, does lower spatial resolution (MODIS), broader resolution bandwidth (MODIS), and limited spectral resolution (ASO) affect snow-cover area and grain size approximations? The implications of our findings will help refine snow mapping products for planned hyperspectral satellite spectrometer systems such as EnMAP (slated to launch in 2019), HISUI (planned for inclusion on the International Space Station in 2018), and HyspIRI (currently under consideration).

  20. Heating and current drive on NSTX

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wilson, J.R.; Batchelor, D.; Carter, M.; Hosea, J.; Ignat, D.; LeBlanc, B.; Majeski, R.; Ono, M.; Phillips, C.K.; Rogers, J.H.; Schilling, G.

    1997-01-01

    Low aspect ratio tokamaks pose interesting new challenges for heating and current drive. The NSTX (National Spherical Tokamak Experiment) device to be built at Princeton is a low aspect ratio toroidal device that has the achievement of high toroidal beta (∼45%) and non-inductive operation as two of its main research goals. To achieve these goals significant auxiliary heating and current drive systems are required. Present plans include ECH (Electron cyclotron heating) for pre-ionization and start-up assist, HHFW (high harmonic fast wave) for heating and current drive and eventually NBI (neutral beam injection) for heating, current drive and plasma rotation. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

  1. Building a Continental Scale Land Cover Monitoring Framework for Australia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thankappan, Medhavy; Lymburner, Leo; Tan, Peter; McIntyre, Alexis; Curnow, Steven; Lewis, Adam

    2012-04-01

    Land cover information is critical for national reporting and decision making in Australia. A review of information requirements for reporting on national environmental indicators identified the need for consistent land cover information to be compared against a baseline. A Dynamic Land Cover Dataset (DLCD) for Australia has been developed by Geoscience Australia and the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) recently, to provide a comprehensive and consistent land cover information baseline to enable monitoring and reporting for sustainable farming practices, water resource management, soil erosion, and forests at national and regional scales. The DLCD was produced from the analysis of Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) data at 250-metre resolution derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for the period from 2000 to 2008. The EVI time series data for each pixel was modelled as 12 coefficients based on the statistical, phenological and seasonal characteristics. The time series were then clustered in coefficients spaces and labelled using ancillary information on vegetation and land use at the catchment scale. The accuracy of the DLCD was assessed using field survey data over 25,000 locations provided by vegetation and land management agencies in State and Territory jurisdictions, and by ABARES. The DLCD is seen as the first in a series of steps to build a framework for national land cover monitoring in Australia. A robust methodology to provide annual updates to the DLCD is currently being developed at Geoscience Australia. There is also a growing demand from the user community for land cover information at better spatial resolution than currently available through the DLCD. Global land cover mapping initiatives that rely on Earth observation data offer many opportunities for national and international programs to work in concert and deliver better outcomes by streamlining efforts on development and

  2. Performance-approach and performance-avoidance classroom goals and the adoption of personal achievement goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwinger, Malte; Stiensmeier-Pelster, Joachim

    2011-12-01

    Students' perceptions of classroom goals influence their adoption of personal goals. To assess different forms of classroom goals, recent studies have favoured an overall measure of performance classroom goals, compared to a two-dimensional assessment of performance-approach and performance-avoidance classroom goals (PAVCG). This paper considered the relationship between students' perceptions of classroom goals and their endorsement of personal achievement goals. We proposed that three (instead of only two) classroom goals need to be distinguished. We aimed to provide evidence for this hypothesis by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and also by divergent associations between the respective classroom goal and students' personal goal endorsement. A total of 871 (474 female) 10th grade students from several German high schools participated in this study. Students responded to items assessing their perception of mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals in the classroom. Additionally, the students reported how much they personally pursue mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals. All items referred to German as a specific school subject. RESULTS.A CFA yielded empirical support for the proposed distinction of three (instead of only two) different kinds of classroom goals. Moreover, in hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) analyses all three classroom goals showed unique associations with students' personal goal adoption. The findings emphasized the need to distinguish performance-approach and PAVCG. Furthermore, our results suggest that multiple classroom goals have interactive effects on students' personal achievement strivings. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

  3. Operational monitoring of land-cover change using multitemporal remote sensing data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogan, John

    2005-11-01

    Land-cover change, manifested as either land-cover modification and/or conversion, can occur at all spatial scales, and changes at local scales can have profound, cumulative impacts at broader scales. The implication of operational land-cover monitoring is that researchers have access to a continuous stream of remote sensing data, with the long term goal of providing for consistent and repetitive mapping. Effective large area monitoring of land-cover (i.e., >1000 km2) can only be accomplished by using remotely sensed images as an indirect data source in land-cover change mapping and as a source for land-cover change model projections. Large area monitoring programs face several challenges: (1) choice of appropriate classification scheme/map legend over large, topographically and phenologically diverse areas; (2) issues concerning data consistency and map accuracy (i.e., calibration and validation); (3) very large data volumes; (4) time consuming data processing and interpretation. Therefore, this dissertation research broadly addresses these challenges in the context of examining state-of-the-art image pre-processing, spectral enhancement, classification, and accuracy assessment techniques to assist the California Land-cover Mapping and Monitoring Program (LCMMP). The results of this dissertation revealed that spatially varying haze can be effectively corrected from Landsat data for the purposes of change detection. The Multitemporal Spectral Mixture Analysis (MSMA) spectral enhancement technique produced more accurate land-cover maps than those derived from the Multitemporal Kauth Thomas (MKT) transformation in northern and southern California study areas. A comparison of machine learning classifiers showed that Fuzzy ARTMAP outperformed two classification tree algorithms, based on map accuracy and algorithm robustness. Variation in spatial data error (positional and thematic) was explored in relation to environmental variables using geostatistical interpolation

  4. Citizen Goals Online

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catalin Vrabie

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to give to public institution Web designers a better understanding of the citizens’ objectives when accessing a Web page. Understanding citizen online goals is critical because it gets to the heart of what the public institution website should or could “do.” Approach: The challenge for e-marketers is that for most agencies/institutions, there are likely to be multiple goals that represent the “reason why” citizens could come to the website. For example, a national theatre website might be very effective for people who have already been there, they know effectively what place is the best, who are the actors, etc. Research limitations: The nature of a public institution activity almost dictates the different types of goals that consumers have when visiting the site. It is clear that a citizen has a different goal when accessing a theatre Web page or when he’s accessing a municipality Web page. This is the biggest impediment for drawing a good conceptual model for a public institution Web page. Practical implications: there are likely to be many other goals that could lead people to visit the site, like receiving customer service or leaving a remark. Value: Since citizen online goals represent the starting point for Web design efforts (for public institutions, this article has attempted to highlight the nature and types of goals that e-marketers might consider when planning what their website should do in order to create. Findings: The goal a site visitor has when arriving at a website tends to be very action oriented. If the visitor has never visited the site before, the goal may simply be to evaluate the website and figure out what the site is and if it will help him. On the other hand, if the visitor has reached the site as the result of a directed search or is a repeat visitor, the user goal is likely to be specific and functional. If important citizen goals are not supported by the website, the public

  5. Citizen Goals Online

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catalin Vrabie

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to give to public institution Web designers a better understanding of the citizens’ objectives when accessing a Web page. Understanding citizen online goals is critical because it gets to the heart of what the public institution website should or could “do.”Approach: The challenge for e-marketers is that for most agencies/institutions, there are likely to be multiple goals that represent the “reason why” citizens could come to the website. For example, a national theatre website might be very effective for people who have already been there, they know effectively what place is the best, who are the actors, etc.Research limitations: The nature of a public institution activity almost dictates the different types of goals that consumers have when visiting the site. It is clear that a citizen has a different goal when accessing a theatre Web page or when he’s accessing a municipality Web page. This is the biggest impediment for drawing a good conceptual model for a public institution Web page.Practical implications: there are likely to be many other goals that could lead people to visit the site, like receiving customer service or leaving a remark.Value: Since citizen online goals represent the starting point for Web design efforts (for public institutions, this article has attempted to highlight the nature and types of goals that e-marketers might consider when planning what their website should do in order to create.Findings: The goal a site visitor has when arriving at a website tends to be very action oriented. If the visitor has never visited the site before, the goal may simply be to evaluate the website and figure out what the site is and if it will help him. On the other hand, if the visitor has reached the site as the result of a directed search or is a repeat visitor, the user goal is likely to be specific and functional. If important citizen goals are not supported by the website, the public

  6. Eddy current manual: v.1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cecco, V.S.; Van Drunen, G.; Sharp, F.L.

    1983-09-01

    This training and reference manual was assembled to provide those involved in eddy current testing with both the fundamental principles of the technique as well as the knowledge to deal with often complicated test results. A non-rigorous approach is used to simplify complex physical phenomena. Emphasis is placed on proper choice of test frequency and signal interpretation. Defect detection and diagnosis receive particular attention. Design and construction of probes are covered extensively since probes play a key role in eddy current testing. The advantages and limitations of various probe types are discussed. Electromagnetic theory, instrumentation, test methods and signal analysis are covered. Simplified derivations of probe response to test parameters are presented to develop a basic understanding of eddy current behaviour. Eddy current signals are presented on impedance plane diagrams throughout the manual since this is the most common display on modern, general purpose instruments. The use of Σphase lagΣ in signal analysis is covered in detail. To supplement theory, practical examples are presented to develop proficiency in performing inspections, and to illustrate how basic principles are applied to diagnose real signals

  7. Summer Flowering Cover Crops Support Wild Bees in Vineyards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Houston; Wong, Jessica S; Thorp, Robbin W; Miles, Albie F; Daane, Kent M; Altieri, Miguel A

    2018-02-08

    Agricultural expansion and intensification negatively affect pollinator populations and has led to reductions in pollination services across multiple cropping systems. As a result, growers and researchers have utilized the restoration of local and landscape habitat diversity to support pollinators, and wild bees in particular. Although a majority of studies to date have focussed on effects in pollinator-dependent crops such as almond, tomato, sunflower, and watermelon, supporting wild bees in self-pollinated crops, such as grapes, can contribute to broader conservation goals as well as provide other indirect benefits to growers. This study evaluates the influence of summer flowering cover crops and landscape diversity on the abundance and diversity of vineyard bee populations. We showed that diversity and abundance of wild bees were increased on the flowering cover crop, but were unaffected by changes in landscape diversity. These findings indicate that summer flowering cover crops can be used to support wild bees and this could be a useful strategy for grape growers interested in pollinator conservation as part of a broader farmscape sustainability agenda. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  8. Goal-Oriented Ethics: Framing the Goal-Setting Concretely

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mathew Illathuparampil

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Joseph Selling, professor emeritus from KU Leuven, Belgium, recently made a significant contribution towards ethical methodology. It is in fact a continuation of the in-house conversations that have been in vogue about methods in moral reasoning since Vatican II in the discipline called theological ethics. What is specific about Selling’s attempt is that he re-orients or reframes the evaluation of the moral event to consider human intentionality or motivation before considering human behavior or human acts. He convincingly establishes his method by a meticulous reading of Thomas Aquinas. This paper is a response to the goal-oriented ethics that he has posited. As illustrated below, this paper evaluates the goal-oriented approach as solid and sufficient. While fully endorsing this approach, this paper argues that the process of ethical goal-setting is to be framed concretely. In a concrete historical context, so that a goal-oriented approach fully serves its purpose, this paper proposes that it is to be reinforced by four supportive pillars, which are in fact assumed by Selling in his work. They are openness to human sciences, conversation among various narratives, positing a theological frame for ethical reasoning, and recourse to non-discursive reasoning.

  9. Goal conflict and goal facilitation as predictors of daily accelerometer-assessed physical activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Presseau, Justin; Tait, Richard I; Johnston, Derek W; Francis, Jill J; Sniehotta, Falko F

    2013-12-01

    To test whether perceptions of conflicting and facilitating personal goals, and actual daily time spent in their pursuit, predict accelerometer-assessed physical activity (PA). A prospective multilevel design with a daily accelerometer-based assessment of PA over 1 week was used (N = 106). Participants' personal goals were elicited using personal projects analysis. Participants then rated their personal goals in terms of how they were perceived to facilitate and conflict with their regular PA. Items assessing PA-specific intention and perceived behavioral control (PBC) were also embedded within the baseline measures. For the subsequent 7 consecutive days, participants completed a daily diary based on the day reconstruction method, indicating the time spent in daily episodes involving each of their personal goals, and wore an RT3 tri-axial accelerometer. The main outcome was accelerometer-assessed daily time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Random intercept multilevel models indicated that perceived goal facilitation, but not perceived goal conflict, predicted MVPA over and above intention and PBC. Daily time pursuing conflicting goals negatively predicted MVPA when subsequently added to the model and in so doing, attenuated the association between perceived goal facilitation and MVPA. Perceived goal facilitation predicts objectively measured PA over and above intention and PBC, but daily time spent in pursuit of conflicting personal goals provides a better account of how alternative goals relate to engaging in regular PA.

  10. Targeting LDL Cholesterol: Beyond Absolute Goals Toward Personalized Risk.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leibowitz, Morton; Cohen-Stavi, Chandra; Basu, Sanjay; Balicer, Ran D

    2017-06-01

    The aim of this study was to review and assess the evidence for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) treatment goals as presented in current guidelines for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Different sets of guidelines and clinical studies for secondary prevention have centered on lower absolute LDL-C targets [achieve greater reductions in cardiovascular risk. Population-based risk models serve as the basis for statin initiation in primary prevention. Reviews of current population risk models for primary prevention show moderate ability to discriminate [with c-statistics ranging from 0.67 to 0.77 (95% CIs from 0.62 to 0.83) for men and women] with poor calibration and overestimation of risk. Individual clinical trial data are not compelling to support specific LDL-C targets and percent reductions in secondary prevention. Increasing utilization of electronic health records and data analytics will enable the development of individualized treatment goals in both primary and secondary prevention.

  11. (Goal Number 8) in achieving the Millennium Development Goals

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In 2000, the United Nations (UN) made a Millennium Declaration that commits governments across the globe to develop the lives of the people by 2015. This declaration is known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This paper will examine the role that every government has to play in achieving the goals by focusing ...

  12. Application of probabilistic safety goals to regulation of nuclear power plants in Canada

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rzentkowski, G.; Akl, Y.; Yalaoui, S. [Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)

    2013-07-01

    In the Canadian nuclear regulatory framework, Safety Goals are formulated in addition to the deterministic design requirements and the dose acceptance criteria so that risk to the public that originates from accidents outside the design basis is considered. In principle, application of the Safety Goals ensures that the likelihood of accidents with serious radiological consequences is extremely low, and the potential radiological consequences from severe accidents are limited as far as practicable. Effectively, the Safety Goals extend the plant design envelope to include not only the capabilities of the plant to successfully cope with various plant states, but also practical measures to halt the progression of severe accidents. This paper describes the general approach to the development of the Safety Goals and their application to the existing nuclear power plants in Canada. This general approach is consistent with the currently accepted international practice and Canadian regulatory experience. The results of probabilistic safety assessments indicate that the Safety Goals meet or exceed international safety objectives due to effective implementation of the defence-in-depth principle in the reactor design and plant operation. At the same time, the application of the Safety Goals reveal that practicable measures exist to further enhance the overall level of reactor safety by focusing on severe accident prevention and mitigation. These measures are being currently implemented through refurbishment projects and feedback on operating experience. (author)

  13. IRIS Responsiveness to Generation IV Road-map Goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carelli, M.D.; Paramonov, D.V.; Petrovic, B.

    2002-01-01

    The DOE Generation IV road-map process is in its second and final year. Almost one hundred concepts submitted from all over the world have been reviewed against the Generation IV goals of resources sustainability; safety and reliability; and, economics. Advanced LWRs are taken as the reference point. IRIS (International Reactor Innovative and Secure), a 100-335 MWe integral light water reactor being developed by a vast international consortium led by Westinghouse, is one on the concepts being considered in the road-map and is perhaps the most visible representative of the concept set known as Integral Primary System Reactors (IPSR). This paper presents how IRIS satisfies the prescribed goals. The first goal of resource sustainability includes criteria like utilization of fuel resources, amount and toxicity of waste produced, environmental impact, proliferation and sabotage resistance. As a thermal reactor IRIS does not have the same fuel utilization as fast reactors. However, it has a significant flexibility in fuel cycles as it is designed to utilize either UO 2 or MOX with straight burn cycles of 4 to 10 years, depending on the fissile content. High discharge burnup and Pu recycling result in good fuel utilization and lower waste; IRIS has also attractive proliferation resistance characteristics, due to the reduced accessibility of the fuel. The safety and reliability goal include reliability, workers' exposure, robust safety features, models with well characterized uncertainty, source term and mechanisms of energy release, robust mitigation of accidents. IRIS is significantly better than advanced LWRs because of its safety by design which eliminates a variety of accidents such as LOCAs, its containment vessel coupled design which maintains the core safely covered during the accident sequences, its design simplification features such as no (or reduced) soluble boron, internal shielding and four-year refueling/maintenance interval which significantly reduce

  14. Goal based mesh adaptivity for fixed source radiation transport calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baker, C.M.J.; Buchan, A.G.; Pain, C.C.; Tollit, B.S.; Goffin, M.A.; Merton, S.R.; Warner, P.

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: ► Derives an anisotropic goal based error measure for shielding problems. ► Reduces the error in the detector response by optimizing the finite element mesh. ► Anisotropic adaptivity captures material interfaces using fewer elements than AMR. ► A new residual based on the numerical scheme chosen forms the error measure. ► The error measure also combines the forward and adjoint metrics in a novel way. - Abstract: In this paper, the application of goal based error measures for anisotropic adaptivity applied to shielding problems in which a detector is present is explored. Goal based adaptivity is important when the response of a detector is required to ensure that dose limits are adhered to. To achieve this, a dual (adjoint) problem is solved which solves the neutron transport equation in terms of the response variables, in this case the detector response. The methods presented can be applied to general finite element solvers, however, the derivation of the residuals are dependent on the underlying finite element scheme which is also discussed in this paper. Once error metrics for the forward and adjoint solutions have been formed they are combined using a novel approach. The two metrics are combined by forming the minimum ellipsoid that covers both the error metrics rather than taking the maximum ellipsoid that is contained within the metrics. Another novel approach used within this paper is the construction of the residual. The residual, used to form the goal based error metrics, is calculated from the subgrid scale correction which is inherent in the underlying spatial discretisation employed

  15. Achievement goals and interpersonal behaviour: How mastery and performance goals shape information exchange

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poortvliet, P.M.; Janssen, O.; Van Yperen, N.W.; Van de Vliert, E.

    2007-01-01

    The present research examines the impact of achievement goals on task-related information exchange. Studies 1 and 2 reveal that relative to those with mastery goals or no goal, individuals pursuing performance goals were less open in their information giving to exchange partners. Study 2 further

  16. Digital Games and the US National Research Council's Science Proficiency Goals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez-Garza, Mario; Clark, Douglas B.; Nelson, Brian C.

    2013-01-01

    This review synthesises research on digital games and science learning as it supports the goals for science proficiency outlined in the report by the US National Research Council on science education reform. The review is organised in terms of these research-based goals for science proficiency in light of their alignment with current science…

  17. Goal Neglect and Working Memory Capacity in 4- to 6-Year-Old Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marcovitch, Stuart; Boseovski, Janet J.; Knapp, Robin J.; Kane, Michael J.

    2010-01-01

    Goal neglect is the phenomenon of failing to execute the momentary demands of a task despite understanding and being able to recall the task instructions. Successful goal maintenance is more likely to occur in adults with high working memory capacity (WMC) who can keep rules mentally accessible while performing the task. The current study…

  18. An Analysis of Training Focused on Improving SMART Goal Setting for Specific Employee Groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Worden, Jeannie M.

    2014-01-01

    This quantitative study examined the proficiency of employee SMART goal setting following the intervention of employee SMART goal setting training. Current challenges in higher education substantiate the need for employees to align their performance with the mission, vision, and strategic directions of the organization. A performance management…

  19. Cover estimation and payload location using Markov random fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quach, Tu-Thach

    2014-02-01

    Payload location is an approach to find the message bits hidden in steganographic images, but not necessarily their logical order. Its success relies primarily on the accuracy of the underlying cover estimators and can be improved if more estimators are used. This paper presents an approach based on Markov random field to estimate the cover image given a stego image. It uses pairwise constraints to capture the natural two-dimensional statistics of cover images and forms a basis for more sophisticated models. Experimental results show that it is competitive against current state-of-the-art estimators and can locate payload embedded by simple LSB steganography and group-parity steganography. Furthermore, when combined with existing estimators, payload location accuracy improves significantly.

  20. Algorithmic Approaches to Finding Cover in Three-Dimensional, Virtual Environments

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Morgan, David

    2003-01-01

    .... The ability to find cover is fairly intuitive for humans, but current attempts at replicating this ability in computer simulations and video games have been either simplistic or totally missing...

  1. Mental Schemas Hamper Memory Storage of Goal-Irrelevant Information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sweegers, C C G; Coleman, G A; van Poppel, E A M; Cox, R; Talamini, L M

    2015-01-01

    Mental schemas exert top-down control on information processing, for instance by facilitating the storage of schema-related information. However, given capacity-limits and competition in neural network processing, schemas may additionally exert their effects by suppressing information with low momentary relevance. In particular, when existing schemas suffice to guide goal-directed behavior, this may actually reduce encoding of the redundant sensory input, in favor of gaining efficiency in task performance. The present experiment set out to test this schema-induced shallow encoding hypothesis. Our approach involved a memory task in which faces had to be coupled to homes. For half of the faces the responses could be guided by a pre-learned schema, for the other half of the faces such a schema was not available. Memory storage was compared between schema-congruent and schema-incongruent items. To characterize putative schema effects, memory was assessed both with regard to visual details and contextual aspects of each item. The depth of encoding was also assessed through an objective neural measure: the parietal old/new ERP effect. This ERP effect, observed between 500-800 ms post-stimulus onset, is thought to reflect the extent of recollection: the retrieval of a vivid memory, including various contextual details from the learning episode. We found that schema-congruency induced substantial impairments in item memory and even larger ones in context memory. Furthermore, the parietal old/new ERP effect indicated higher recollection for the schema-incongruent than the schema-congruent memories. The combined findings indicate that, when goals can be achieved using existing schemas, this can hinder the in-depth processing of novel input, impairing the formation of perceptually detailed and contextually rich memory traces. Taking into account both current and previous findings, we suggest that schemas can both positively and negatively bias the processing of sensory input

  2. Goal-Directed Visual Attention Drives Health Goal Priming: An Eye-Tracking Experiment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Laan, van der Laura N.; Hooge, I.T.C.; Smeets, P.A.M.

    2017-01-01

    Objective: Several lab and field experiments have shown that goal priming interventions can be highly effective in promoting healthy food choices. Less is known, however, about the mechanisms by which goal priming affects food choice. This experiment tested the hypothesis that goal priming affects

  3. Goals are not selfish.

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Hippel, William; von Hippel, Frank A

    2014-04-01

    The metaphor of selfish goals is misguided. Organisms can be considered vessels that further the interests of their genes, but not vessels that further the interests of their goals. Although goals can act at cross-purposes to each other and to longevity, such trade-offs are predicted by evolutionary theory. The metaphor of selfish goals provides no purchase on this problem.

  4. Goal-setting in clinical medicine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bradley, E H; Bogardus, S T; Tinetti, M E; Inouye, S K

    1999-07-01

    The process of setting goals for medical care in the context of chronic disease has received little attention in the medical literature, despite the importance of goal-setting in the achievement of desired outcomes. Using qualitative research methods, this paper develops a theory of goal-setting in the care of patients with dementia. The theory posits several propositions. First, goals are generated from embedded values but are distinct from values. Goals vary based on specific circumstances and alternatives whereas values are person-specific and relatively stable in the face of changing circumstances. Second, goals are hierarchical in nature, with complex mappings between general and specific goals. Third, there are a number of factors that modify the goal-setting process, by affecting the generation of goals from values or the translation of general goals to specific goals. Modifying factors related to individuals include their degree of risk-taking, perceived self-efficacy, and acceptance of the disease. Disease factors that modify the goal-setting process include the urgency and irreversibility of the medical condition. Pertinent characteristics of the patient-family-clinician interaction include the level of participation, control, and trust among patients, family members, and clinicians. The research suggests that the goal-setting process in clinical medicine is complex, and the potential for disagreements regarding goals substantial. The nature of the goal-setting process suggests that explicit discussion of goals for care may be necessary to promote effective patient-family-clinician communication and adequate care planning.

  5. Scientific goals of SCHOOLS & QUAKES

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brückl, Ewald; Köberl, Christian; Lenhardt, Wolfgang; Mertl, Stefan; Rafeiner-Magor, Walter; Stark, Angelika; Stickler, Gerald; Weber, Robert

    2015-04-01

    In many countries around the world seismometers are used in schools to broaden the knowledge in seismology in a vivid way and to take part in the observation of the current worldwide seismic activity. SCHOOLS & QUAKES is a project within the Sparkling Science program (http://www.sparklingscience.at), which not only pursues the given educational goals but also integrates scholars in seismological research permitting their own contributions. Research within SCHOOLS & QUAKES concentrates on the seismic activity of the Mürz Valley - Semmering - Vienna Basin transfer fault system in Austria because of its relatively high earthquake hazard and risk. The detection of low magnitude local earthquakes (magnitude ≤ 2), precise location of hypocenters, determination of the focal mechanisms, and correlation of hypocenters with active geological structures are the main scientific goals in this project. Furthermore, the long term build-up of tectonic stress, slip deficit and aseismic slip, and the maximum credible earthquake in this area are issues to be addressed. The scientific efforts of SCHOOLS & QUAKES build on the work of the Seismological Service of Austria at the Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG), and benefit from the findings on the lithospheric structure of the Eastern Alps gained by the CELEBRATION 2000 and ALP 2002 projects. Regional Vp and Vs-models were derived from this data covering the SCHOOLS & QUAKES target area. Within the ALPAACT project (Seismological and geodetic monitoring of ALpine-PAnnonian ACtive Tectonics) the seismic network of the target area was densified by 7 broadband und 2 short period stations. Relocations based on a 3D-velocity model and the densified seismic network yielded substantially higher spatial resolution of seismically active structures. A new method based on waveform stacking (GRA, 16, EGU2014-5722) allowed for focal mechanism solutions of low magnitude (Ml ~2.5) events. Data from 22 GNSS stations have been

  6. Motivational Goal Bracketing: An Experiment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Koch, Alexander; Nafziger, Julia

    We study in an online, real-effort experiment how the bracketing of non-binding goals affects performance in a work-leisure self-control problem. We externally induce the goal bracket - daily goals or a weekly goal - and within that bracket let subjects set goals for how much they want to work over...... a one-week period. Our theoretical model predicts (i) that weekly goals create incentives to compensate for a lower than desired performance today with the promise to work harder tomorrow, whereas daily goals exclude such excuses; (ii) that subjects with daily goals set higher goals in aggregate...... and work harder than those with weekly goals. Our data support these predictions. Surprisingly, however, when goals are combined with an externally enforced commitment that requires subjects to spend less than a minute each day on the task to get started working, performance deteriorates because of high...

  7. Land Cover

    Data.gov (United States)

    Kansas Data Access and Support Center — The Land Cover database depicts 10 general land cover classes for the State of Kansas. The database was compiled from a digital classification of Landsat Thematic...

  8. Seismic design and evaluation criteria based on target performance goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murray, R.C.; Nelson, T.A.; Kennedy, R.P.; Short, S.A.

    1994-04-01

    The Department of Energy utilizes deterministic seismic design/evaluation criteria developed to achieve probabilistic performance goals. These seismic design and evaluation criteria are intended to apply equally to the design of new facilities and to the evaluation of existing facilities. In addition, the criteria are intended to cover design and evaluation of buildings, equipment, piping, and other structures. Four separate sets of seismic design/evaluation criteria have been presented each with a different performance goal. In all these criteria, earthquake loading is selected from seismic hazard curves on a probabilistic basis but seismic response evaluation methods and acceptable behavior limits are deterministic approaches with which design engineers are familiar. For analytical evaluations, conservatism has been introduced through the use of conservative inelastic demand-capacity ratios combined with ductile detailing requirements, through the use of minimum specified material strengths and conservative code capacity equations, and through the use of a seismic scale factor. For evaluation by testing or by experience data, conservatism has been introduced through the use of an increase scale factor which is applied to the prescribed design/evaluation input motion

  9. FWCD (fast wave current drive) and ECCD (electron cyclotron current drive) experiments on DIII-D

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Prater, R.; Austin, M.; Baity, F.W.

    1994-01-01

    Fast wave current drive and electron cyclotron current drive experiments have been performed on the DIII-D tokamak as part of the advanced tokamak program. The goal of this program is to develop techniques for controlling the profile of the current density in order to access regimes of improved confinement and stability. The experiments on fast wave current drive used a four strap antenna with 90deg phasing between straps. A decoupler was used to help maintain the phasing, and feedback control of the plasma position was used to keep the resistive loading constant. RF pickup loops demonstrate that the directivity of the antenna is as expected. Plasma currents up to 0.18 MA were driven by 1.5 MW of fast wave power. Electron cyclotron current drive experiments at 60 GHz have shown 0.1 MA of plasma current driven by 1 MW of power. New fast wave and electron cyclotron heating systems are in development for DIII-D, so that the goals of the advanced tokamak program can be carried out. (author)

  10. The Use of Personal Projects Analysis to Enhance Occupational Therapy Goal Identification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mary Egan

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Client-centered occupational therapy begins with the identification of personally-relevant patient goals. This study aimed to determine whether the elicitation module of Personal Projects Analysis (PPA could help patients in an acquired brain injury day hospital program identify more meaningful goals than those identified using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM alone. Method: Ten patients completed the COPM. They rated the importance of each goal and their confidence that they could attain each goal. During the next session, using the elicitation module of PPA, they identified personal projects just prior to their brain injuries, current personal projects, and future desired personal projects. They were then invited to revise their COPM goals and re-rate them for importance and confidence. Results: Following completion of the elicitation module of PPA, seven participants changed at least one goal. Of the goals that were changed, half were revised to include the mention of another person. There were no significant changes in average goal importance or perceived attainability. Occupational therapists reported that the elicitation module of PPA helped them get to know their patients better and identify potential therapeutic occupations. Discussion: The elicitation module of PPA may help people develop goals that are more embedded in their social contexts.

  11. Understanding Teachers' Professional Learning Goals from Their Current Professional Concerns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Louws, Monika L.; Meirink, Jacobiene A.; van Veen, Klaas; van Driel, Jan H.

    2018-01-01

    In the day-to-day workplace teachers direct their own learning, but little is known about what drives their decisions about what they would like to learn. These decisions are assumed to be influenced by teachers' current professional concerns. Also, teachers in different professional life phases have different reasons for engaging in professional…

  12. "You Needed to Rehab...Families as Well": Family Members' Own Goals for Aphasia Rehabilitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howe, Tami; Davidson, Bronwyn; Worrall, Linda; Hersh, Deborah; Ferguson, Alison; Sherratt, Sue; Gilbert, Jocelyn

    2012-01-01

    Background: Aphasia affects family members in addition to the individuals with the communication disorder. In order to develop appropriate services for the relatives of people with aphasia post-stroke, their rehabilitation goals need to be identified. Aim: The aim of the current investigation was to identify the rehabilitation goals that family…

  13. Motor planning is facilitated by adopting an action's goal posture: An fMRI study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zimmermann, M.; Meulenbroek, R.G.J.; Lange, F.P. de

    2012-01-01

    Abstract: Motor planning is a hierarchical process that is typically organized around an action's goal (e.g., drinking from a cup). However, the motor plan depends not only on the goal but also on the current body state. Here, we investigated how one's own body posture interacts with planning of

  14. Self-regulation of health behavior: social psychological approaches to goal setting and goal striving.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mann, Traci; de Ridder, Denise; Fujita, Kentaro

    2013-05-01

    The goal of this article is to review and highlight the relevance of social psychological research on self-regulation for health-related theory and practice. We first review research on goal setting, or determining which goals to pursue and the criteria to determine whether one has succeeded. We discuss when and why people adopt goals, what properties of goals increase the likelihood of their attainment, and why people abandon goals. We then review research on goal striving, which includes the planning and execution of actions that lead to goal attainment, and the processes that people use to shield their goals from being disrupted by other competing goals, temptations, or distractions. We describe four types of strategies that people use when pursuing goals. We find that self-regulation entails the operation of a number of psychological mechanisms, and that there is no single solution that will help all people in all situations. We recommend a number of strategies that can help people to more effectively set and attain health-related goals. We conclude that enhancing health behavior requires a nuanced understanding and sensitivity to the varied, dynamic psychological processes involved in self-regulation, and that health is a prototypical and central domain in which to examine the relevance of these theoretical models for real behavior. We discuss the implications of this research for theory and practice in health-related domains. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

  15. Fast reactor cover gas purification - The UK position

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Thorley, A W

    1987-07-01

    The cover gas in the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) provides an inert gas blanket for both primary and secondary sodium circuits, ensures inert gas padding exists between the upper seals associated with penetrations through the reactor roof and provides argon to items of plant such as the control rods and the rotating shield and also to on line instruments such as the secondary circuit Katharometers. In order to meet these and other requirements purification of the argon cover gas is important to ensure: gas fed to purge gaps in the area of the magnetic hold device in the control rod mechanisms is not laden with sodium aerosols and reactive impurities (O{sub 2}, H{sub 2}) which could cause blocking both within the gaps and pipelines; gas phase detection systems which provide early warning of steam generator failures or oil ingress into the sodium are not affected by the presence of gaseous impurities such as H{sub 2}, CO/CO{sub 2} and CH{sub 4}; mass transfer processes involving both corrosion products and interstitial atoms cannot be sustained in the cover gas environment due to the presence of high levels of O{sub 2}, N{sub 2} and carburising gases; background levels of radioactivity (eg Xe 133) are sufficiently low to enable gas phase detection of failed fuel pins, and the primary circuit gas blanket activity is sufficiently reduced so that discharges to the atmosphere are minimised. This paper describes how the PFR cover gas purification system is coping with these various items and how current thinking regarding the design of cover gas purification systems for a Civil Demonstration Fast Reactor (CDFR), where larger gas volumes and higher levels of radioactivity may be involved, is being guided by current experience on PFR. The paper also briefly review the experimental work planned to study aerosol and caesium behaviour in cove gas environments and discusses the behaviour of those impurities such as Zn, oil and N{sub 2} which are potentially damaging if certain

  16. Fast reactor cover gas purification - The UK position

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thorley, A.W.

    1987-01-01

    The cover gas in the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) provides an inert gas blanket for both primary and secondary sodium circuits, ensures inert gas padding exists between the upper seals associated with penetrations through the reactor roof and provides argon to items of plant such as the control rods and the rotating shield and also to on line instruments such as the secondary circuit Katharometers. In order to meet these and other requirements purification of the argon cover gas is important to ensure: gas fed to purge gaps in the area of the magnetic hold device in the control rod mechanisms is not laden with sodium aerosols and reactive impurities (O 2 , H 2 ) which could cause blocking both within the gaps and pipelines; gas phase detection systems which provide early warning of steam generator failures or oil ingress into the sodium are not affected by the presence of gaseous impurities such as H 2 , CO/CO 2 and CH 4 ; mass transfer processes involving both corrosion products and interstitial atoms cannot be sustained in the cover gas environment due to the presence of high levels of O 2 , N 2 and carburising gases; background levels of radioactivity (eg Xe 133) are sufficiently low to enable gas phase detection of failed fuel pins, and the primary circuit gas blanket activity is sufficiently reduced so that discharges to the atmosphere are minimised. This paper describes how the PFR cover gas purification system is coping with these various items and how current thinking regarding the design of cover gas purification systems for a Civil Demonstration Fast Reactor (CDFR), where larger gas volumes and higher levels of radioactivity may be involved, is being guided by current experience on PFR. The paper also briefly review the experimental work planned to study aerosol and caesium behaviour in cove gas environments and discusses the behaviour of those impurities such as Zn, oil and N 2 which are potentially damaging if certain levels are exceeded in operating

  17. Fuel Savings and Aerodynamic Drag Reduction from Rail Car Covers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Storms, Bruce; Salari, Kambiz; Babb, Alex

    2008-01-01

    The potential for energy savings by reducing the aerodynamic drag of rail cars is significant. A previous study of aerodynamic drag of coal cars suggests that a 25% reduction in drag of empty cars would correspond to a 5% fuel savings for a round trip [1]. Rail statistics for the United States [2] report that approximately 5.7 billion liters of diesel fuel were consumed for coal transportation in 2002, so a 5% fuel savings would total 284 million liters. This corresponds to 2% of Class I railroad fuel consumption nationwide. As part of a DOE-sponsored study, the aerodynamic drag of scale rail cars was measured in a wind tunnel. The goal of the study was to measure the drag reduction of various rail-car cover designs. The cover designs tested yielded an average drag reduction of 43% relative to empty cars corresponding to an estimated round-trip fuel savings of 9%.

  18. Using goal orientations to understand motivation in strength training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gilson, Todd A; Chow, Graig M; Ewing, Martha E

    2008-07-01

    Despite the importance that today's athletics place on strength training, research exploring the motivation of athletes in this arena is sparse. It is known that not all athletes will use the same motivational cognitions as inspiration, and these differences can be explored through achievement goal orientations. Through questionnaire data and semistructured interviews, the present study investigated how collegiate athletes maintain high levels of motivation over a period of time during strength training and explored relationships among five goal orientations: task-orientation, self-enhancing ego-orientation, self-defeating ego-orientation, social-approval orientation, and work-avoidance orientation. Subjects (N = 133), comprising 90 men and 43 women, were current varsity collegiate athletes from 15 different sports at a major Midwestern university. In addition, using a screener survey to assess achievement goal orientations, 15 subjects from the sample group who demonstrated a stronger inclination to only one achievement goal orientation were interviewed to gain a more in-depth understanding of their motivation cognitions in strength training. Results showed that the strongest achievement goal orientations reported from all athletes were task-orientation and social-approval. Additionally, five higher-order themes (significant others, improvement, competitive demands, being stronger than others, and miscellaneous) were consistent among the interviewed athletes when describing how they stay motivated during strength training. Whereas all athletes were able to describe at least one motivational strategy they employed during strength training, the dominant achievement goal orientation of some athletes influenced their motivational strategy. By employing the T.A.R.G.E.T. model (), strength coaches can foster adaptive achievement goal orientations and thereby enhance intrinsic motivation for athletes engaging in strength training.

  19. Goal Conflict and Goal Commitment among Campus Parking Administrators in Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKinney, David R.

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which campus parking administrators in public higher education perceive they are experiencing goal conflict and the degree to which they differ in commitment to goals related to generating revenue and goals related to academics and service. The study also sought to determine the relationship…

  20. Aiming for a healthier life: a qualitative content analysis of rehabilitation goals in patients with rheumatic diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berdal, Gunnhild; Sand-Svartrud, Anne-Lene; Bø, Ingvild; Dager, Turid N; Dingsør, Anne; Eppeland, Siv G; Hagfors, Jon; Hamnes, Bente; Nielsen, Merete; Slungaard, Bente; Wigers, Sigrid H; Hagen, Kåre Birger; Dagfinrud, Hanne S; Kjeken, Ingvild

    2018-04-01

    To explore and describe rehabilitation goals of patients with rheumatic diseases during rehabilitation stays, and examine whether goal content changed from admission to discharge. Fifty-two participants were recruited from six rehabilitation centers in Norway. Goals were formulated by the participants during semi-structured goal-setting conversations with health professionals trained in motivational interviewing. An inductive qualitative content analysis was conducted to classify and quantify the expressed goals. Changes in goal content from admission to discharge were calculated as percentage differences. Goal content was explored across demographic and contextual characteristics. A total of 779 rehabilitation goals were classified into 35 categories, within nine overarching dimensions. These goals varied and covered a wide range of topics. Most common at admission were goals concerning healthy lifestyle, followed by goals concerning symptoms, managing everyday life, adaptation, disease management, social life, and knowledge. At discharge, goals about knowledge and symptoms decreased considerably, and goals about healthy lifestyle and adaptation increased. The health profession involved and patient gender influenced goal content. The rehabilitation goals of the patients with rheumatic diseases were found to be wide-ranging, with healthy lifestyle as the most prominent focus. Goal content changed between admission to, and discharge from, rehabilitation stays. Implications for rehabilitation Rehabilitation goals set by patients with rheumatic diseases most frequently concern healthy lifestyle changes, yet span a wide range of topics. Patient goals vary by gender and are influenced by the profession of the health care worker involved in the goal-setting process. To meet the diversity of patient needs, health professionals need to be aware of their potential influence on the actual goal-setting task, which may limit the range of topics patients present when they are

  1. Goal conflict and goal facilitation in community-based cardiac rehabilitation: a theory-based interview study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Presseau, Justin; Boyd, Emily; Francis, Jill J; Sniehotta, Falko F

    2015-01-01

    Theories often consider behaviors in isolation of conflicting and facilitating personal goals. We conducted interviews with 13 people in cardiac rehabilitation, investigating whether eliciting physical activity (PA) control beliefs sufficiently captures goal conflict and goal facilitation. We assessed PA, intention, and control beliefs using standard elicitation methods and then assessed goal conflict and goal facilitation. Twelve participants described conflicting, and all described facilitating, personal goals. Most goal facilitation (94%) and conflict (82%) beliefs were identified beyond the control belief elicitation. Goal facilitation and conflict are not captured in a standard control belief elicitation and may supplement single-behavior models to understand PA.

  2. Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harkin, Benjamin; Webb, Thomas L; Chang, Betty P I; Prestwich, Andrew; Conner, Mark; Kellar, Ian; Benn, Yael; Sheeran, Paschal

    2016-02-01

    Control theory and other frameworks for understanding self-regulation suggest that monitoring goal progress is a crucial process that intervenes between setting and attaining a goal, and helps to ensure that goals are translated into action. However, the impact of progress monitoring interventions on rates of behavioral performance and goal attainment has yet to be quantified. A systematic literature search identified 138 studies (N = 19,951) that randomly allocated participants to an intervention designed to promote monitoring of goal progress versus a control condition. All studies reported the effects of the treatment on (a) the frequency of progress monitoring and (b) subsequent goal attainment. A random effects model revealed that, on average, interventions were successful at increasing the frequency of monitoring goal progress (d+ = 1.98, 95% CI [1.71, 2.24]) and promoted goal attainment (d+ = 0.40, 95% CI [0.32, 0.48]). Furthermore, changes in the frequency of progress monitoring mediated the effect of the interventions on goal attainment. Moderation tests revealed that progress monitoring had larger effects on goal attainment when the outcomes were reported or made public, and when the information was physically recorded. Taken together, the findings suggest that monitoring goal progress is an effective self-regulation strategy, and that interventions that increase the frequency of progress monitoring are likely to promote behavior change. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  3. Goal setting in practice : the effects of personality and perceptions of the goal-setting process on job satisfaction and goal commitment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bipp, T.; Kleingeld, P.A.M.

    2011-01-01

    Purpose – The purpose of this study was to investigate how individual perceptions by employees of a goal-setting program and personality traits influence job satisfaction and goal commitment. Design/methodology/approach – Using the German version of Locke and Latham’s goal-setting questionnaire, 97

  4. A Millennium Learning Goal for Education Post-2015: A Question of Outcomes or Processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barrett, Angeline M.

    2011-01-01

    As the target year for the current Millennium Development Goal of universal completion of primary education approaches, three World Bank economists have proposed its replacement with a Millennium Learning Goal. This is part of a trend of increased privileging of learning outcomes. The proposal is assessed from the perspective of human rights-based…

  5. Long-range goal setting in the nuclear utility industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Beard, P.M.

    1986-01-01

    The Institute of Nuclear Power Operation's (INPO's) programs support the industry's efforts to improve performance in nuclear plant safety and reliability. The success of these programs can best be measured by the progress of the industry. As utilities focused their attention on nuclear plant performance, the Institute's goal was to make sure its programs and activities provided the best possible support for these efforts. INPO continues to coordinate an industry-wide plant performance indicator program to assist member utilities in assessing station performance. Closely related to this effort is the nuclear industry's establishment of long-range plant performance goals. The US nuclear utility industry currently sends INPO quarterly data on 28 key performance indicators. INPO analyzes these data and provides periodic reports to its members and participants. Selected highlights of INPO's Performance Indicators for the US Nuclear Utility, dated June 1986, are discussed. Throughout 1985, INPO interacted with members, participants, and three external ad hoc review groups to refine the overall performance indicators and to develop background for each unit. By April 1986, each utility had developed long-term goals for each unit. By April 1986, each utility had developed long-term goals for most of the overall indicators. These goals represent a commitment to achievement of excellence when applied to the day-to-day conduct of plant operations, and provide a framework for action

  6. Interrelationships between soil cover and plant cover depending on land use

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tiina Köster

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Interrelationships between soil cover and plant cover of normally developed (or postlithogenic mineral soils are analysed on the basis of four sampling soil groups. The four-link pedo-ecological sequence of analysed soils, rendzinas → brown soils → pseudopodzolic soils → gley-podzols, forms a representative cross section in relation to the normal mineral soils of Estonia. All groups differ substantially from each other in terms of soil properties (calcareousness, acidity, nutrition conditions, profile fabric and humus cover. The primary tasks of the research were (1 to elucidate the main pedo-ecological characteristics of the four soil groups and their suitability for plant cover, (2 to evaluate comparatively soils in terms of productivity, sustainability, biodiversity and environmental protection ability and (3 to analyse possibilities for ecologically sound matching of soil cover with suitable plant cover. On the basis of the same material, the influence of land-use change on humus cover (epipedon fabric, properties of the entire soil cover and soil–plant interrelationship were also analysed. An ecosystem approach enables us to observe particularities caused by specific properties of a soil type (species, variety in biological turnover and in the formation of biodiversity.

  7. Extending enterprise architecture modelling with business goals and requirements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Engelsman, Wilco; Quartel, Dick; Jonkers, Henk; van Sinderen, Marten

    2011-02-01

    The methods for enterprise architecture (EA), such as The Open Group Architecture Framework, acknowledge the importance of requirements modelling in the development of EAs. Modelling support is needed to specify, document, communicate and reason about goals and requirements. The current modelling techniques for EA focus on the products, services, processes and applications of an enterprise. In addition, techniques may be provided to describe structured requirements lists and use cases. Little support is available however for modelling the underlying motivation of EAs in terms of stakeholder concerns and the high-level goals that address these concerns. This article describes a language that supports the modelling of this motivation. The definition of the language is based on existing work on high-level goal and requirements modelling and is aligned with an existing standard for enterprise modelling: the ArchiMate language. Furthermore, the article illustrates how EA can benefit from analysis techniques from the requirements engineering domain.

  8. The Interplay of Reader Goals, Working Memory, and Text Structure During Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bohn-Gettler, Catherine M.; Kendeou, Panayiota

    2014-01-01

    In the current study we examined the complex interactions of instructional context, text properties, and reader characteristics during comprehension. College students were tasked with the goal of reading for study versus entertainment (instructional context) while thinking-aloud about four different expository text structures (text properties). Working memory also was assessed (reader characteristics). Reading goals and working memory interacted to influence paraphrasing and non-coherence processes when thinking aloud. Reading goals, working memory, and text structure all interacted to influence text-based inferences. Text structure also influenced knowledge-based inferences. Post-reading recall was highest for those with the instructional goal of reading for study (compared to entertainment), as well as for problem-response and compare-contrast texts (compared to descriptive and chronological texts). Implications of the findings are discussed. PMID:25018581

  9. Assessment of patient knowledge of diabetic goals, self-reported medication adherence, and goal attainment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Whitley HP

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available Background: Medication adherence is an integral aspect of disease state management for patients with chronic illnesses, including diabetes mellitus. It has been hypothesized that patients with diabetes who have poor medication adherence may have less knowledge of overall therapeutic goals and may be less likely to attain these goals. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess self-reported medication adherence, knowledge of therapeutic goals (hemoglobin A1C [A1C], low density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C] and blood pressure [BP], and goal attainment in adult patients with diabetes. Methods: A survey was created to assess medication adherence, knowledge of therapeutic goals, and goal attainment for adult patients with diabetes followed at an internal medicine or a family medicine clinic. Surveys were self-administered prior to office visits. Additional data were collected from the electronic medical record. Statistical analysis was performed. Results: A total of 149 patients were enrolled. Knowledge of therapeutic goals was reported by 14%, 34%, and 18% of survived patients for LDL-C, BP, and A1C, respectively. Forty-six percent, 37%, and 40% of patients achieved LDL-C, BP, and A1C goals, respectively. Low prescribing of cholesterol-lowering medications was an interesting secondary finding; 36% of patients not at LDL-C goal had not been prescribed a medication targeted to lower cholesterol. Forty-eight percent of patients were medication non-adherent; most frequently reported reasons for non-adherence were forgot (34% and too expensive (14%. Patients at A1C goal were more adherent than patients not at goal (p=0.025. Conclusion: The majority did not reach goals and were unknowledgeable of goals; however, most were provided prescriptions to treat these parameters. Goal parameters should be revisited often amongst multidisciplinary team members with frequent and open communications. Additionally, it is imperative that practitioners discuss

  10. Developing the "120 by 20" goal for the Global FP2020 Initiative.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Win; Druce, Nel; Bunting, Julia; Radloff, Scott; Koroma, Desmond; Gupta, Srishti; Siems, Brian; Kerrigan, Monica; Kress, Dan; Darmstadt, Gary L

    2014-03-01

    This report describes the purpose for developing a quantitative goal for the London Summit on Family Planning held in July 2012, the methodology behind its formulation, and the lessons learned in the process. The London Summit has evolved into the global initiative known as FP2020, and the goal has become "120 by 20," or reaching 120 million additional users of modern contraceptive methods by 2020 in the world's poorest countries. The success of FP2020 will first be evaluated on the basis of quantitative verification to determine that the "120 by 20" goal was reached. More important, however, is the extent to which the goal today serves as a global rallying cry to mobilize resources and leadership around current family planning programs, with a focus on voluntary family planning and quality of care, and with an emphasis on meeting girls' and women's unmet needs and their right to practice contraception. We hope this article provides greater transparency and understanding of the FP2020 goal, and that the global goal spurs annual monitoring of progress toward national goals in the world's poorest countries. © 2014 The Population Council, Inc.

  11. Punishment goals of crime victims.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orth, Uli

    2003-04-01

    Research on subjective punishment goals has focused on the perspective of third-party observers of criminal offenses and neglected the perspective of victims. This study investigates punishment goals among 174 adult crime victims (rape and nonsexual assault) for each participant's real criminal case. Scales measuring support for punishment goals are constructed by factor analysis of an 18-item list. Results show that 5 highly supported goals can be distinguished: retaliation, recognition of victim status, confirmation of societal values, victim security, and societal security. Analysis of relations between punishment goal scales and personal variables, situational variables, and demanded punishment severity corroborates the view that the punishment goals revealed can be classified according to the two independent dichotomies of moral versus instrumental goals, and micro versus macro goals.

  12. Navigation towards a goal position: from reactive to generalised learned control

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Freire da Silva, Valdinei [Laboratorio de Tecnicas Inteligentes - LTI, Escola Politecnica da Universidade de Sao Paulo, Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, trav.3, n.158, Cidade Universitaria Sao Paulo (Brazil); Selvatici, Antonio Henrique [Universidade Nove de Julho, Rua Vergueiro, 235, Sao Paulo (Brazil); Reali Costa, Anna Helena, E-mail: valdinei.freire@gmail.com, E-mail: antoniohps@uninove.br, E-mail: anna.reali@poli.usp.br [Laboratorio de Tecnicas Inteligentes - LTI, Escola Politecnica da Universidade de Sao Paulo, Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, trav.3, n.158, Cidade Universitaria Sao Paulo (Brazil)

    2011-03-01

    The task of navigating to a target position in space is a fairly common task for a mobile robot. It is desirable that this task is performed even in previously unknown environments. One reactive architecture explored before addresses this challenge by denning a hand-coded coordination of primitive behaviours, encoded by the Potential Fields method. Our first approach to improve the performance of this architecture adds a learning step to autonomously find the best way to coordinate primitive behaviours with respect to an arbitrary performance criterion. Because of the limitations presented by the Potential Fields method, especially in relation to non-convex obstacles, we are investigating the use of Relational Reinforcement Learning as a method to not only learn to act in the current environment, but also to generalise prior knowledge to the current environment in order to achieve the goal more quickly in a non-convex structured environment. We show the results of our previous efforts in reaching goal positions along with our current research on generalised approaches.

  13. Navigation towards a goal position: from reactive to generalised learned control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Freire da Silva, Valdinei; Selvatici, Antonio Henrique; Reali Costa, Anna Helena

    2011-01-01

    The task of navigating to a target position in space is a fairly common task for a mobile robot. It is desirable that this task is performed even in previously unknown environments. One reactive architecture explored before addresses this challenge by denning a hand-coded coordination of primitive behaviours, encoded by the Potential Fields method. Our first approach to improve the performance of this architecture adds a learning step to autonomously find the best way to coordinate primitive behaviours with respect to an arbitrary performance criterion. Because of the limitations presented by the Potential Fields method, especially in relation to non-convex obstacles, we are investigating the use of Relational Reinforcement Learning as a method to not only learn to act in the current environment, but also to generalise prior knowledge to the current environment in order to achieve the goal more quickly in a non-convex structured environment. We show the results of our previous efforts in reaching goal positions along with our current research on generalised approaches.

  14. Hydrograph sensitivity to estimates of map impervious cover: a WinHSPF BASINS case study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Endreny, Theodore A.; Somerlot, Christopher; Hassett, James M.

    2003-04-01

    The BASINS geographic information system hydrologic toolkit was designed to compute total maximum daily loads, which are often derived by combining water quantity estimates with pollutant concentration estimates. In this paper the BASINS toolkit PLOAD and WinHSPF sub-models are briefly described, and then a 0·45 km2 headwater watershed in the New York Croton River area is used for a case study illustrating a full WinHSPF implementation. The goal of the Croton study was to determine the sensitivity of WinHSPF hydrographs to changes in land cover map inputs. This scenario occurs when scaling the WinHSPF model from the smaller 0·45 km2 watershed to the larger 1000 km2 management basin of the entire Croton area. Methods used to test model sensitivity include first calibrating the WinHSPF hydrograph using research-monitored precipitation and discharge data together with high spatial resolution and accuracy land cover data of impervious and pervious areas, and then swapping three separate land cover files, known as GIRAS, MRLC, and DOQQ data, into the calibrated model. Research results indicated that the WinHSPF land cover swapping had peak flow sensitivity in December 2001 hydrographs between 35% underestimation and 20% overestimation, and that errors in land-cover-derived runoff ratios for storm totals and peak flows tracked with the land cover data estimates of impervious area.

  15. Silicone covered vs. Non- covered endotracheal self expandable metallic stent: An experimental study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Do, Young Soo; Lee, Byung Hee; Kim, Soo Ah; Kim, Kie Hwan; Chin, Soo Yil; Cho, Kyung Ja; Cho, Dae Soon [Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    1994-10-15

    To evaluate pathologic changes of the trachea and the lung after insertion of silicone covered and non covered Gianturco stent in the trachea of dog. Silicone covered(covered) and non covered(bare) Gianturco stent, six in each, were inserted into the tracheal lumen of six consecutive dogs. After 1-10 weeks observation, the dogs were sacrificed and their tracheas and lungs were examined grossly and histopathologically. Serial chest radiographs were performed to evaluate pneumonia and stent migration every 3-5 days. Pneumonia was observed in one of bare stent group and five of covered stent group. Stent migration was noted in three of covered stent group. In bare stent group, the epithelium of the trachea was markedly thickened by hyperplasia and stent was covered by granulation tissue from 6 weeks after stent insertion. Inflammation was focal at contact site between the stent and the trachea. In covered stent group, the epithelium was denuded at multiple areas and there were multifocal squamous metaplasia of the mucosa. Inflammatory reaction of the trachea was diffuse. Inflammatory reaction was more severe and stent migration was more frequent in covered stent group. The use of covered stent in the trachea should be studied further.

  16. Spatial Simulation Modelling of Future Forest Cover Change Scenarios in Luangprabang Province, Lao PDR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khamma Homsysavath

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Taking Luangprabang province in Lao Peoples’s Democratic Republic (PDR as an example, we simulated future forest cover changes under the business-as-usual (BAU, pessimistic and optimistic scenarios based on the Markov-cellular automata (MCA model. We computed transition probabilities from satellite-derived forest cover maps (1993 and 2000 using the Markov chains, while the “weights of evidence” technique was used to generate transition potential maps. The initial forest cover map (1993, the transition potential maps and the 1993–2000 transition probabilities were used to calibrate the model. Forest cover simulations were then performed from 1993 to 2007 at an annual time-step. The simulated forest cover map for 2007 was compared to the observed (actual forest cover map for 2007 in order to test the accuracy of the model. Following the successful calibration and validation, future forest cover changes were simulated up to 2014 under different scenarios. The MCA simulations under the BAU and pessimistic scenarios projected that current forest areas would decrease, whereas unstocked forest areas would increase in the future. Conversely, the optimistic scenario projected that current forest areas would increase in the future if strict forestry laws enforcing conservation in protected forest areas are implemented. The three simulation scenarios provide a very good case study for simulating future forest cover changes at the subnational level (Luangprabang province. Thus, the future simulated forest cover changes can possibly be used as a guideline to set reference scenarios as well as undertake REDD/REDD+ preparedness activities within the study area.

  17. Shopping the way to my goals: an analysis of purchase impact on perceived goal progress

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manuela Albornoz Gonçalves

    Full Text Available Abstract This article examines the impact of goal related purchases on goal progress perception, and whether this perception depends on the strength of association between product and goal. To test how consumers perceive the act of purchasing goal-related products, three experiments were conducted in an online setting. Participants exposed to purchasing situations perceived greater goal progress than participants exposed to usage situation or a control group. In addition, studies show that this effect is a result of strength of association between product and goal, since participants exposed to more instrumental products perceived greater goal progress than participants exposed to less instrumental products. Therefore, these studies demonstrate how consumers interpret goal related purchases, and the mechanism that influences this interpretation.

  18. Goal setting in psychotherapy: the relevance of approach and avoidance goals for treatment outcome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wollburg, Eileen; Braukhaus, Christoph

    2010-07-01

    The present study is the first aimed at investigating the influence of goal definition on treatment outcome in a sample of depressed patients. Data from 657 inpatients admitted to a psychosomatic clinic in Germany being treated in a cognitive-behavioral therapy program were analyzed. Treatment goals were identified as either approach or avoidance, and the sample was classified accordingly. Patients who identified approach goals only were placed in the approach group, and those who identified at least one avoidance goal were placed in the avoidance group. Results showed that framing goals using avoidance terms was associated with less symptomatic improvement but did not affect goal attainment. Findings from this research should be utilized in practice not only for process management such as individual treatment planning but also to control outcome quality. Furthermore, goal definition should be considered as a control variable in research on depression.

  19. Calibration and Validation of Landsat Tree Cover in the Taiga−Tundra Ecotone

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul Mannix Montesano

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Monitoring current forest characteristics in the taiga−tundra ecotone (TTE at multiple scales is critical for understanding its vulnerability to structural changes. A 30 m spatial resolution Landsat-based tree canopy cover map has been calibrated and validated in the TTE with reference tree cover data from airborne LiDAR and high resolution spaceborne images across the full range of boreal forest tree cover. This domain-specific calibration model used estimates of forest height to determine reference forest cover that best matched Landsat estimates. The model removed the systematic under-estimation of tree canopy cover >80% and indicated that Landsat estimates of tree canopy cover more closely matched canopies at least 2 m in height rather than 5 m. The validation improved estimates of uncertainty in tree canopy cover in discontinuous TTE forests for three temporal epochs (2000, 2005, and 2010 by reducing systematic errors, leading to increases in tree canopy cover uncertainty. Average pixel-level uncertainties in tree canopy cover were 29.0%, 27.1% and 31.1% for the 2000, 2005 and 2010 epochs, respectively. Maps from these calibrated data improve the uncertainty associated with Landsat tree canopy cover estimates in the discontinuous forests of the circumpolar TTE.

  20. Assigned experts with competitive goals withhold information in group decision making

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Toma, C.; Vasiljevic, D.; Oberlé, D.; Butera, F.

    2013-01-01

    Expertise assignment has been proposed to improve unshared information pooling in group decision making. The current research revises this view by hypothesizing that expertise assignment is beneficial when group members have cooperative goals, but is detrimental when group members have competitive

  1. Achievement goals affect metacognitive judgments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ikeda, Kenji; Yue, Carole L.; Murayama, Kou; Castel, Alan D.

    2017-01-01

    The present study examined the effect of achievement goals on metacognitive judgments, such as judgments of learning (JOLs) and metacomprehension judgments, and actual recall performance. We conducted five experiments manipulating the instruction of achievement goals. In each experiment, participants were instructed to adopt mastery-approach goals (i.e., develop their own mental ability through a memory task) or performance-approach goals (i.e., demonstrate their strong memory ability through getting a high score on a memory task). The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that JOLs of word pairs in the performance-approach goal condition tended to be higher than those in the mastery-approach goal condition. In contrast, cued recall performance did not differ between the two goal conditions. Experiment 3 also demonstrated that metacomprehension judgments of text passages were higher in the performance-approach goal condition than in the mastery-approach goals condition, whereas test performance did not differ between conditions. These findings suggest that achievement motivation affects metacognitive judgments during learning, even when achievement motivation does not influence actual performance. PMID:28983496

  2. Branched polynomial covering maps

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Vagn Lundsgaard

    2002-01-01

    A Weierstrass polynomial with multiple roots in certain points leads to a branched covering map. With this as the guiding example, we formally define and study the notion of a branched polynomial covering map. We shall prove that many finite covering maps are polynomial outside a discrete branch ...... set. Particular studies are made of branched polynomial covering maps arising from Riemann surfaces and from knots in the 3-sphere. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.......A Weierstrass polynomial with multiple roots in certain points leads to a branched covering map. With this as the guiding example, we formally define and study the notion of a branched polynomial covering map. We shall prove that many finite covering maps are polynomial outside a discrete branch...

  3. From goal motivation to goal progress: the mediating role of coping in the Self-Concordance Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaudreau, Patrick; Carraro, Natasha; Miranda, Dave

    2012-01-01

    The present studies examined the mediating role of self-regulatory mechanisms in the relationship between goal motivation and goal progress in the Self-Concordance Model. First, a systematic review, using meta-analytical path analysis, supported the mediating role of effort and action planning in the positive association between autonomous goal motivation and goal progress. Second, results from two additional empirical studies, using structural equation modeling, lent credence to the mediating role of coping in the relationship between goal motivation and goal progress of university students. Autonomous goal motivation was positively associated with task-oriented coping, which predicted greater goal progress during midterm exams (Study 1, N=702) and at the end of the semester in a different sample (Study 2, N=167). Controlled goal motivation was associated with greater disengagement-oriented coping (Study 1 and Study 2) and lesser use of task-oriented coping (Study 2), which reduced goal progress. These results held up after controlling for perceived stress (Study 2). Our findings highlight the importance of coping in the "inception-to-attainment" goal process because autonomous goal motivation indirectly rather than directly predicts goal progress of university students through their usage of task-oriented coping.

  4. Curricular Goals and Personal Goals in Master's Thesis Projects: Dutch Student-Supervisor Dyads

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Kleijn, Renske A. M.; Meijer, Paulien C.; Brekelmans, Mieke; Pilot, Albert

    2013-01-01

    To be effective, feedback should be goal-related. In order to better understand goal-related feedback in Master's thesis projects, the present study explores the goals of supervisors and students in supervision dyads and similarities and differences within and between these dyads. Twelve supervisors and students were interviewed, and their goals…

  5. Goal pursuit, goal adjustment, and affective well-being following lower limb amputation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coffey, Laura; Gallagher, Pamela; Desmond, Deirdre; Ryall, Nicola

    2014-05-01

    This study examined the relationships between tenacious goal pursuit (TGP), flexible goal adjustment (FGA), and affective well-being in a sample of individuals with lower limb amputations. Cross-sectional, quantitative. Ninety-eight patients recently admitted to a primary prosthetic rehabilitation programme completed measures of TGP, FGA, positive affect, and negative affect. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that TGP and FGA accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in both positive and negative affect, controlling for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. TGP was significantly positively associated with positive affect, while FGA was significantly negatively associated with negative affect. Moderated regression analyses indicated that the beneficial effect of FGA on negative affect was strongest at high levels of amputation-related pain intensity and low levels of TGP. TGP and FGA appear to influence subjective well-being in different ways, with TGP promoting the experience of positive affect and FGA buffering against negative affect. TGP and FGA may prove useful in identifying individuals at risk of poor affective outcomes following lower limb amputation and represent important targets for intervention in this patient group. What is already known on this subject? The loss of a limb has a significant impact on several important life domains. Although some individuals experience emotional distress following amputation, the majority adjust well to their limb loss, with some achieving positive change or growth as a result of their experiences. Theories of self-regulation propose that disruptions in goal attainment have negative affective consequences. The physical, social, and psychological upheaval caused by limb loss is likely to threaten the attainment of valued goals, which may leave individuals vulnerable to negative psychosocial outcomes if they do not regulate their goals in response to these challenges. According to the dual

  6. Seismic analysis - what goal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tagart, S.W.

    1978-01-01

    The seismic analysis of nuclear components is characterized today by extensive engineering computer calculations in order to satisfy both the component standard codes such as ASME III as well as federal regulations and guides. The current nuclear siesmic design procedure has envolved in a fragmented fashion and continues to change its elements as improved technology leads to changing standards and guides. The dominant trend is a monotonic increase in the overall conservation with time causing a similar trend in costs of nuclear power plants. Ironically the improvements in the state of art are feeding a process which is eroding the very incentives that attracted us to nuclear power in the first place. This paper examines the cause of this process and suggests that what is needed is a realistic goal which appropriately addresses the overall uncertainty of the seismic design process. (Auth.)

  7. Self-regulation through Goal Setting

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Koch, Alexander; Nafziger, Julia

    2011-01-01

    Goals are an important motivator. But little is known about why and how people set them. We address this issue in a model based on two stylized facts. i) Goals serve as reference points for performance. ii) Present-biased preferences create self-control problems. We show the power and limits...... of self-regulation through goals. Goals increase an individual's motivation - but only up to a certain point. And they are painful self-disciplining devices. Greater self-control problems may result in tougher goals; but for a severe present bias goals either lack motivating force, or are too painful...

  8. Predicting race performance in triathlon: the role of perfectionism, achievement goals, and personal goal setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stoeber, Joachim; Uphill, Mark A; Hotham, Sarah

    2009-04-01

    The question of how perfectionism affects performance is highly debated. Because empirical studies examining perfectionism and competitive sport performance are missing, the present research investigated how perfectionism affected race performance and what role athletes' goals played in this relationship in two prospective studies with competitive triathletes (Study 1: N = 112; Study 2: N = 321). Regression analyses showed that perfectionistic personal standards, high performance-approach goals, low performance-avoidance goals, and high personal goals predicted race performance beyond athletes' performance level. Moreover, the contrast between performance-avoidance and performance-approach goals mediated the relationship between perfectionistic personal standards and performance, whereas personal goal setting mediated the relationship between performance-approach goals and performance. The findings indicate that perfectionistic personal standards do not undermine competitive performance, but are associated with goals that help athletes achieve their best possible performance.

  9. The COGs (context, object, and goals) in multisensory processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    ten Oever, Sanne; Romei, Vincenzo; van Atteveldt, Nienke; Soto-Faraco, Salvador; Murray, Micah M; Matusz, Pawel J

    2016-05-01

    Our understanding of how perception operates in real-world environments has been substantially advanced by studying both multisensory processes and "top-down" control processes influencing sensory processing via activity from higher-order brain areas, such as attention, memory, and expectations. As the two topics have been traditionally studied separately, the mechanisms orchestrating real-world multisensory processing remain unclear. Past work has revealed that the observer's goals gate the influence of many multisensory processes on brain and behavioural responses, whereas some other multisensory processes might occur independently of these goals. Consequently, other forms of top-down control beyond goal dependence are necessary to explain the full range of multisensory effects currently reported at the brain and the cognitive level. These forms of control include sensitivity to stimulus context as well as the detection of matches (or lack thereof) between a multisensory stimulus and categorical attributes of naturalistic objects (e.g. tools, animals). In this review we discuss and integrate the existing findings that demonstrate the importance of such goal-, object- and context-based top-down control over multisensory processing. We then put forward a few principles emerging from this literature review with respect to the mechanisms underlying multisensory processing and discuss their possible broader implications.

  10. Land cover mapping of North and Central America—Global Land Cover 2000

    Science.gov (United States)

    Latifovic, Rasim; Zhu, Zhi-Liang

    2004-01-01

    The Land Cover Map of North and Central America for the year 2000 (GLC 2000-NCA), prepared by NRCan/CCRS and USGS/EROS Data Centre (EDC) as a regional component of the Global Land Cover 2000 project, is the subject of this paper. A new mapping approach for transforming satellite observations acquired by the SPOT4/VGTETATION (VGT) sensor into land cover information is outlined. The procedure includes: (1) conversion of daily data into 10-day composite; (2) post-seasonal correction and refinement of apparent surface reflectance in 10-day composite images; and (3) extraction of land cover information from the composite images. The pre-processing and mosaicking techniques developed and used in this study proved to be very effective in removing cloud contamination, BRDF effects, and noise in Short Wave Infra-Red (SWIR). The GLC 2000-NCA land cover map is provided as a regional product with 28 land cover classes based on modified Federal Geographic Data Committee/Vegetation Classification Standard (FGDC NVCS) classification system, and as part of a global product with 22 land cover classes based on Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) of the Food and Agriculture Organisation. The map was compared on both areal and per-pixel bases over North and Central America to the International Geosphere–Biosphere Programme (IGBP) global land cover classification, the University of Maryland global land cover classification (UMd) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Global land cover classification produced by Boston University (BU). There was good agreement (79%) on the spatial distribution and areal extent of forest between GLC 2000-NCA and the other maps, however, GLC 2000-NCA provides additional information on the spatial distribution of forest types. The GLC 2000-NCA map was produced at the continental level incorporating specific needs of the region.

  11. Forest Cover Mapping in Iskandar Malaysia Using Satellite Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kanniah, K. D.; Mohd Najib, N. E.; Vu, T. T.

    2016-09-01

    Malaysia is the third largest country in the world that had lost forest cover. Therefore, timely information on forest cover is required to help the government to ensure that the remaining forest resources are managed in a sustainable manner. This study aims to map and detect changes of forest cover (deforestation and disturbance) in Iskandar Malaysia region in the south of Peninsular Malaysia between years 1990 and 2010 using Landsat satellite images. The Carnegie Landsat Analysis System-Lite (CLASlite) programme was used to classify forest cover using Landsat images. This software is able to mask out clouds, cloud shadows, terrain shadows, and water bodies and atmospherically correct the images using 6S radiative transfer model. An Automated Monte Carlo Unmixing technique embedded in CLASlite was used to unmix each Landsat pixel into fractions of photosynthetic vegetation (PV), non photosynthetic vegetation (NPV) and soil surface (S). Forest and non-forest areas were produced from the fractional cover images using appropriate threshold values of PV, NPV and S. CLASlite software was found to be able to classify forest cover in Iskandar Malaysia with only a difference between 14% (1990) and 5% (2010) compared to the forest land use map produced by the Department of Agriculture, Malaysia. Nevertheless, the CLASlite automated software used in this study was found not to exclude other vegetation types especially rubber and oil palm that has similar reflectance to forest. Currently rubber and oil palm were discriminated from forest manually using land use maps. Therefore, CLASlite algorithm needs further adjustment to exclude these vegetation and classify only forest cover.

  12. Substance Abuse and Clinical Counseling Students' Characteristics and Career Goals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goodwin, Lloyd R., Jr.; Sias, Shari M.

    2007-01-01

    Students from a master's program in Substance Abuse and Clinical Counseling (SACC) at a midsize southeastern university were surveyed to determine personal characteristics and career goals. Sixty-two of the 68 students currently enrolled in the program volunteered to anonymously complete the questionnaire. The typical profile of the SACC student…

  13. Goals and organisational structure of the movement for global mental health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minas, Harry; Wright, Alexandra; Kakuma, Ritsuko

    2014-01-01

    The Movement for Global Mental Health (MGMH), established in 2008, is in a period of transition, as is the field of global mental health. The transfer of Secretariat functions from the Centre for International Mental Health to the Public Health Foundation of India was a suitable time to reflect on the goals of MGMH and on the form of organisational structure that would best serve the organisation in its efforts to achieve its goals. An online survey was sent to the 4,000 registered members of MGMH seeking the views of the membership on both the goals of MGMH and on the preferred form of organisational structure. There was near unanimous (95%) agreement with the MGMH goals as stated at the time of the survey. The current form of organisation of MGMH, a loose network of individuals and organisations registered through the MGMH website, was the least preferred (29.9%) form of organisation for the future of MGMH. More than two thirds (70.1%) of respondents would prefer a formal legal structure, with 60% of this group favouring a Charitable Organisation structure and 40% preferring an international Association structure. The response rate (7%) was too small and too skewed (predominantly academics and health professionals from high income countries) to allow any clear conclusions to be drawn from the survey. However, both the fact that responses were too few and skewed and the preferences expressed by respondents raise issues for careful consideration by the current MGMH Secretariat. The global mental health field and MGMH are in a time of transition. The move to the new secretariat is an opportunity for systematic consideration of the organisational structure and governance arrangements that will best serve the goals of MGMH.

  14. Marketing in current financial crisis

    OpenAIRE

    Mariánek, Lukáš

    2009-01-01

    The paper is describing the effects of recessions and current financial crisis on companies and their marketing. The topic covers the history of marketing throughout the world biggest recessions and describes the current marketing efforts of Czech companies under the current financial crisis. A strategical analysis with the impacts of crisis on long-term strategy planning is provided at the end of the paper.

  15. Perception in the service of goal pursuit : Motivation to attain goals enhances the perceived size of goal instrumental objects.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Veltkamp, M.; Aarts, H.; Custers, R.

    2008-01-01

    Two experiments tested the functional perception hypothesis (Bruner, 1957) according to which objects that are instrumental in attaining ones' goals are perceived to be bigger if one is motivated to attain these goals. Study 1 demonstrated that participants perceived a glass of water to be bigger

  16. The neural basis of monitoring goal progress

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yael eBenn

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The neural basis of progress monitoring has received relatively little attention compared to other sub-processes that are involved in goal directed behavior such as motor control and response inhibition. Studies of error-monitoring have identified the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC as a structure that is sensitive to conflict detection, and triggers corrective action. However, monitoring goal progress involves monitoring correct as well as erroneous events over a period of time. In the present research, 20 healthy participants underwent fMRI while playing a game that involved monitoring progress towards either a numerical or a visuo-spatial target. The findings confirmed the role of the dACC in detecting situations in which the current state may conflict with the desired state, but also revealed activations in the frontal and parietal regions, pointing to the involvement of processes such as attention and working memory in monitoring progress over time. In addition, activation of the cuneus was associated with monitoring progress towards a specific target presented in the visual modality. This is the first time that activation in this region has been linked to higher-order processing of goal-relevant information, rather than low-level anticipation of visual stimuli. Taken together, these findings identify the neural substrates involved in monitoring progress over time, and how these extend beyond activations observed in conflict and error monitoring.

  17. Goal striving, goal attainment, and well-being: adapting and testing the self-concordance model in sport.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Alison; Ntoumanis, Nikos; Duda, Joan

    2007-12-01

    Grounded in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) and the self-concordance model (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999), this study examined the motivational processes underlying goal striving in sport as well as the role of perceived coach autonomy support in the goal process. Structural equation modeling with a sample of 210 British athletes showed that autonomous goal motives positively predicted effort, which, in turn, predicted goal attainment. Goal attainment was positively linked to need satisfaction, which, in turn, predicted psychological well-being. Effort and need satisfaction were found to mediate the associations between autonomous motives and goal attainment and between attainment and well-being, respectively. Controlled motives negatively predicted well-being, and coach autonomy support positively predicted both autonomous motives and need satisfaction. Associations of autonomous motives with effort were not reducible to goal difficulty, goal specificity, or goal efficacy. These findings support the self-concordance model as a framework for further research on goal setting in sport.

  18. Can children identify and achieve goals for intervention? A randomized trial comparing two goal-setting approaches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vroland-Nordstrand, Kristina; Eliasson, Ann-Christin; Jacobsson, Helén; Johansson, Ulla; Krumlinde-Sundholm, Lena

    2016-06-01

    The efficacy of two different goal-setting approaches (children's self-identified goals and goals identified by parents) were compared on a goal-directed, task-oriented intervention. In this assessor-blinded parallel randomized trial, 34 children with disabilities (13 males, 21 females; mean age 9y, SD 1y 4mo) were randomized using concealed allocation to one of two 8-week, goal-directed, task-oriented intervention groups with different goal-setting approaches: (1) children's self-identified goals (n=18) using the Perceived Efficacy and Goal-Setting System, or (2) goals identified by parents (n=16) using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM). Participants were recruited through eight paediatric rehabilitation centres and randomized between October 2011 and May 2013. The primary outcome measure was the Goal Attainment Scaling and the secondary measure, the COPM performance scale (COPM-P). Data were collected pre- and post-intervention and at the 5-month follow-up. There was no evidence of a difference in mean characteristics at baseline between groups. There was evidence of an increase in mean goal attainment (mean T score) in both groups after intervention (child-goal group: estimated mean difference [EMD] 27.84, 95% CI 22.93-32.76; parent-goal group: EMD 21.42, 95% CI 16.16-26.67). There was no evidence of a difference in the mean T scores post-intervention between the two groups (EMD 6.42, 95% CI -0.80 to 13.65). These results were sustained at the 5-month follow-up. Children's self-identified goals are achievable to the same extent as parent-identified goals and remain stable over time. Thus children can be trusted to identify their own goals for intervention, thereby influencing their involvement in their intervention programmes. © 2015 Mac Keith Press.

  19. Effects of bryophyte and lichen cover on permafrost soil temperature at large scale

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Porada

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Bryophyte and lichen cover on the forest floor at high latitudes exerts an insulating effect on the ground. In this way, the cover decreases mean annual soil temperature and can protect permafrost soil. Climate change, however, may change bryophyte and lichen cover, with effects on the permafrost state and related carbon balance. It is, therefore, crucial to predict how the bryophyte and lichen cover will react to environmental change at the global scale. To date, current global land surface models contain only empirical representations of the bryophyte and lichen cover, which makes it impractical to predict the future state and function of bryophytes and lichens. For this reason, we integrate a process-based model of bryophyte and lichen growth into the global land surface model JSBACH (Jena Scheme for Biosphere–Atmosphere Coupling in Hamburg. The model simulates bryophyte and lichen cover on upland sites. Wetlands are not included. We take into account the dynamic nature of the thermal properties of the bryophyte and lichen cover and their relation to environmental factors. Subsequently, we compare simulations with and without bryophyte and lichen cover to quantify the insulating effect of the organisms on the soil. We find an average cooling effect of the bryophyte and lichen cover of 2.7 K on temperature in the topsoil for the region north of 50° N under the current climate. Locally, a cooling of up to 5.7 K may be reached. Moreover, we show that using a simple, empirical representation of the bryophyte and lichen cover without dynamic properties only results in an average cooling of around 0.5 K. This suggests that (a bryophytes and lichens have a significant impact on soil temperature in high-latitude ecosystems and (b a process-based description of their thermal properties is necessary for a realistic representation of the cooling effect. The advanced land surface scheme, including a dynamic bryophyte and lichen model, will

  20. Alcohol myopia and goal commitment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Timur Sevincer

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available According to alcohol-myopia theory, acute alcohol consumption leads people to disproportionally focus on the salient rather than the peripheral aspects of a situation. We summarize various studies exploring how myopic processes resulting from acute alcohol intake affect goal commitment. After consuming alcohol student participants felt strongly committed to an important personal goal even though they had low expectations of successfully attaining the goal. However, once intoxicated participants were sober again (i.e., not myopic anymore they failed to act on their goal commitment. In line with alcohol-myopia theory, strong goal commitment as a result of alcohol intake was mediated by intoxicated (vs. sober participants disproportionally focusing on the desirability rather than the feasibility of their goal. Further supporting alcohol-myopia theory, when the low feasibility of attaining a particular goal was experimentally made salient (either explicitly or implicitly by subliminal priming, intoxicated participants felt less committed than those who consumed a placebo. We discuss these effects of acute alcohol intake in the context of research on the effects of chronic alcohol consumption on goal commitment.

  1. Extending hierarchical achievement motivation models: the role of motivational needs for achievement goals and academic performance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bipp, T.; Dam, van K.

    2014-01-01

    In the current study, we investigated the role of three basic motivational needs (need for power, affiliation, achievement) as antecedents of goals within the 2 × 2 achievement goal framework, and examined their combined predictive validity with regard to academic performance in a sample of 120

  2. Extraction of land cover change information from ENVISAT-ASAR data in Chengdu Plain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Wenbo; Fan, Jinlong; Huang, Jianxi; Tian, Yichen; Zhang, Yong

    2006-10-01

    Land cover data are essential to most global change research objectives, including the assessment of current environmental conditions and the simulation of future environmental scenarios that ultimately lead to public policy development. Chinese Academy of Sciences generated a nationwide land cover database in order to carry out the quantification and spatial characterization of land use/cover changes (LUCC) in 1990s. In order to improve the reliability of the database, we will update the database anytime. But it is difficult to obtain remote sensing data to extract land cover change information in large-scale. It is hard to acquire optical remote sensing data in Chengdu plain, so the objective of this research was to evaluate multitemporal ENVISAT advanced synthetic aperture radar (ASAR) data for extracting land cover change information. Based on the fieldwork and the nationwide 1:100000 land cover database, the paper assesses several land cover changes in Chengdu plain, for example: crop to buildings, forest to buildings, and forest to bare land. The results show that ENVISAT ASAR data have great potential for the applications of extracting land cover change information.

  3. Projecting land-use and land cover change in a subtropical urban watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    John J. Lagrosa IV; Wayne C. Zipperer; Michael G. Andreu

    2018-01-01

    Urban landscapes are heterogeneous mosaics that develop via significant land-use and land cover (LULC) change. Current LULC models project future landscape patterns, but generally avoid urban landscapes due to heterogeneity. To project LULC change for an urban landscape, we parameterize an established LULC model (Dyna-CLUE) under baseline conditions (continued current...

  4. COMBINATION OF GOALS STRATEGY REGION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Denys Yu. Lapigin

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Currently the tools to identify strategicallyimportant objectives of regional development is not enough to build a developmentperspective, relying on something special,what distinguishes each region from therest. The article discusses approaches to the formation of the regional developmentstrategy, which is based on goals set by the results of the analysis of the main factors inthe development of the region. The study is based on the methodology of systems theoryand methods of strategic management. The most important results should include tools tobuild the tree of strategic objectives resultingfrom the implementation of the algorithm forconstructing planes of analysis and development of the region. The results can be used to develop a strategy for the developmentof socio-economic systems of various typesand forms.

  5. Goal-directed behaviour and instrumental devaluation: a neural system-level computational model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francesco Mannella

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Devaluation is the key experimental paradigm used to demonstrate the presence of instrumental behaviours guided by goals in mammals. We propose a neural system-level computational model to address the question of which brain mechanisms allow the current value of rewards to control instrumental actions. The model pivots on and shows the computational soundness of the hypothesis for which the internal representation of instrumental manipulanda (e.g., levers activate the representation of rewards (or `action-outcomes', e.g. foods while attributing to them a value which depends on the current internal state of the animal (e.g., satiation for some but not all foods. The model also proposes an initial hypothesis of the integrated system of key brain components supporting this process and allowing the recalled outcomes to bias action selection: (a the sub-system formed by the basolateral amygdala and insular cortex acquiring the manipulanda-outcomes associations and attributing the current value to the outcomes; (b the three basal ganglia-cortical loops selecting respectively goals, associative sensory representations, and actions; (c the cortico-cortical and striato-nigro-striatal neural pathways supporting the selection, and selection learning, of actions based on habits and goals. The model reproduces and integrates the results of different devaluation experiments carried out with control rats and rats with pre- and post-training lesions of the basolateral amygdala, the nucleus accumbens core, the prelimbic cortex, and the dorso-medial striatum. The results support the soundness of the hypotheses of the model and show its capacity to integrate, at the system-level, the operations of the key brain structures underlying devaluation. Based on its hypotheses and predictions, the model also represents an operational framework to support the design and analysis of new experiments on the motivational aspects of goal-directed behaviour.

  6. Malleability in communal goals and beliefs influences attraction to stem careers: evidence for a goal congruity perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diekman, Amanda B; Clark, Emily K; Johnston, Amanda M; Brown, Elizabeth R; Steinberg, Mia

    2011-11-01

    The goal congruity perspective posits that 2 distinct social cognitions predict attraction to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields. First, individuals may particularly value communal goals (e.g., working with or helping others), due to either chronic individual differences or the salience of these goals in particular contexts. Second, individuals hold beliefs about the activities that facilitate or impede these goals, or goal affordance stereotypes. Women's tendency to endorse communal goals more highly than do men, along with consensual stereotypes that STEM careers impede communal goals, intersect to produce disinterest in STEM careers. We provide evidence for the foundational predictions that gender differences emerge primarily on communal rather than agentic goals (Studies 1a and 3) and that goal affordance stereotypes reflect beliefs that STEM careers are relatively dissociated from communal goals (Studies 1b and 1c). Most critically, we provide causal evidence that activated communal goals decrease interest in STEM fields (Study 2) and that the potential for a STEM career to afford communal goals elicits greater positivity (Study 3). These studies thus provide a novel demonstration that understanding communal goals and goal affordance stereotypes can lend insight into attitudes toward STEM pursuits.

  7. Health transformation plan: Goals achievement in Nemazee hospital

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ali Akbar Ahmadi

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The main purpose of this study was to assess fulfillment of goals about “Health Transformation Plan (HTP of Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education” from the perspective of managers, which is as one of the most important management challenges in the Health System Reform Plan. These goals included six packages determined by the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education, the fulfillment of each of which one was evaluated separately as sub-goals in the current study. Finally, the rank of each package in comparison to other packages was determined and presented, using means rank test (Friedman test. Method: This study was conducted using a questionnaire in which comments of the senior and middle managers of Nemazee hospital were collected as the research data. Due to the fact that about one year has passed since the beginning of implementation of HTP and since there were no documented methods or questionnaires, the researcher designed a self-made questionnaire. The basis of designing the questionnaire was the set of guidelines developed for Health System Reform Plan. These guidelines include goals that a hospital should achieve during implementation of Health System Reform Plan. After sharing these goals with senior and middle managers of Nemazee hospital (as the place of research, they were converted to a questionnaire including 20 questions. The questionnaire included the goals that must be achieved in Nemazee hospital of Shiraz during the implementation of the plan. After designing the questionnaire, a preliminary test was taken to assess the reliability. Results: Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.88 showed a high rate of reliability in the above questionnaire. After the final data collection, the questionnaire was tested in a sample of 100 senior and middle managers; the results showed that about six packages were specified by the Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education. The majority of

  8. Some evidence for the usefulness of an optimal foraging theory perspective on goal conflict and goal facilitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tomasik, Martin J; Knecht, Michaela; Freund, Alexandra M

    2017-12-01

    Based on optimal foraging theory, we propose a metric that allows evaluating the goodness of goal systems, that is, systems comprising multiple goals with facilitative and conflicting interrelations. This optimal foraging theory takes into account expectancy and value, as well as opportunity costs, of foraging. Applying this approach to goal systems provides a single index of goodness of a goal system for goal striving. Three quasi-experimental studies (N = 277, N = 145, and N = 210) provide evidence for the usefulness of this approach for goal systems comprising between 3 to 10 goals. Results indicate that persons with a more optimized goal-system are more conscientious and open to new experience, are more likely to represent their goals in terms of means (i.e., adopt a process focus), and are more satisfied and engaged with their goals. Persons with a suboptimal goal system tend to switch their goals more often and thereby optimize their goal system. We discuss limitations as well as possible future directions of this approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  9. GASS: THE PARKES GALACTIC ALL-SKY SURVEY. I. SURVEY DESCRIPTION, GOALS, AND INITIAL DATA RELEASE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McClure-Griffiths, N. M.; Calabretta, M. R.; Ford, H. Alyson; Newton-McGee, K.

    2009-01-01

    The Parkes Galactic All-Sky Survey (GASS) is a survey of Galactic atomic hydrogen (H I) emission in the Southern sky covering declinations δ ≤ 1 0 using the Parkes Radio Telescope. The survey covers 2π steradians with an effective angular resolution of ∼16', at a velocity resolution of 1.0 km s -1 , and with an rms brightness temperature noise of 57 mK. GASS is the most sensitive, highest angular resolution survey of Galactic H I emission ever made in the Southern sky. In this paper, we outline the survey goals, describe the observations and data analysis, and present the first-stage data release. The data product is a single cube at full resolution, not corrected for stray radiation. Spectra from the survey and other data products are publicly available online.

  10. Goal Setting as Teacher Development Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Camp, Heather

    2017-01-01

    This article explores goal setting as a teacher development practice in higher education. It reports on a study of college teacher goal setting informed by goal setting theory. Analysis of study participants' goal setting practices and their experiences with goal pursuit offers a framework for thinking about the kinds of goals teachers might set…

  11. Opinions on Current Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 1997

    1997-01-01

    Presents eight reviews of current books, covering issues of particular interest to black educators and historians. Topics considered include slavery, college admissions and affirmative action, the marginalization of black scientists, black politics, bigotry, and higher education. (SLD)

  12. Posterior α EEG Dynamics Dissociate Current from Future Goals in Working Memory-Guided Visual Search

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Vries, I.E.J.; van Driel, J.; Olivers, C.N.L.

    2017-01-01

    Current models of visual search assume that search is guided by an active visual working memory representation of what we are currently looking for. This attentional template for currently relevant stimuli can be dissociated from accessory memory representations that are only needed prospectively,

  13. The profile of the domain walls in amorphous glass-covered microwires

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Beck, F.; Rigue, J.N. [Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Campus Cachoeira do Sul, RS (Brazil); Carara, M., E-mail: carara@smail.ufsm.br [Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS (Brazil)

    2017-08-01

    Highlights: • Glass-covered microwires with positive magnetostriction were studied. • The single domain wall dynamics was studied under different conditions. • We have evaluated the profile and shape of the moving domain walls. • The domain wall evolves from a bell shape to a parabolic one when a current is applied. - Abstract: We have studied the domain wall dynamics in Joule-annealed amorphous glass-covered microwires with positive magnetostriction in the presence of an electric current, in order to evaluate the profile and shape of the moving domain wall. Such microwires are known to present magnetic bi-stability when axially magnetized. The single domain wall dynamics was evaluated under different conditions, under an axially applied stress and an electric current. We have observed the well known increasing of the domain wall damping with the applied stress due to the increase in the magnetoelastic anisotropy and, when the current is applied, depending on the current intensity and direction, a modification on the axial domain wall damping. When the orthogonal motion of the domain wall is considered, we have observed that the associated velocity present a smaller dependence on the applied current intensity. It was observed a modification on both the domain wall shape and length. In a general way, the domain wall evolves from a bell shape to a parabolic shape as the current intensity is increased. The results were explained in terms of the change in the magnetic energy promoted by the additional Oersted field.

  14. Neural systems analysis of decision making during goal-directed navigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Penner, Marsha R; Mizumori, Sheri J Y

    2012-01-01

    The ability to make adaptive decisions during goal-directed navigation is a fundamental and highly evolved behavior that requires continual coordination of perceptions, learning and memory processes, and the planning of behaviors. Here, a neurobiological account for such coordination is provided by integrating current literatures on spatial context analysis and decision-making. This integration includes discussions of our current understanding of the role of the hippocampal system in experience-dependent navigation, how hippocampal information comes to impact midbrain and striatal decision making systems, and finally the role of the striatum in the implementation of behaviors based on recent decisions. These discussions extend across cellular to neural systems levels of analysis. Not only are key findings described, but also fundamental organizing principles within and across neural systems, as well as between neural systems functions and behavior, are emphasized. It is suggested that studying decision making during goal-directed navigation is a powerful model for studying interactive brain systems and their mediation of complex behaviors. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  15. Structural analysis of TFTR vacuum vessel bellows and bellows cover sections

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Driesen, G.

    1975-10-01

    A structural evaluation of the bellows and bellows cover sections was undertaken in order to confirm the structural integrity of these TFTR vacuum vessel components in the prescribed operating environment. The evaluations investigate component stability, stress, and deflection behavior. The products of this investigation appearing in this report include; (1) Structural verification of the vacuum bellows as currently defined in an operating environment of one atmosphere external pressure and 93 0 C (200 0 F) uniform temperature. (2) The establishment of a structurally adequate design configuration for the bellows cover section. (3) The presentation of a parametric study which indicates the effects of varying some bellows cover section parameters in order to obtain acceptable variations of this design configuration. (4) A verification of bellows and bellows cover section integrity to preclude a fatigue type failure for reactor startup and shutdown cyclic life in the design environment

  16. Reactive Goal Decomposition Hierarchies for On-Board Autonomy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartmann, L.

    2002-01-01

    faults occur and are detected the resource allocation is modified to avoid using the faulty resource. Goal decomposition hierarchies can implement variable autonomy (in which the operator chooses to command the system at a high or low level, mixed initiative planning (in which the system is able to interact with the operator, e.g, to request operator intervention when a working envelope is exceeded) and distributed control (in which, for example, multiple spacecraft cooperate to accomplish a task without a fixed master). The full paper will describe in greater detail how goal decompositions work, how they can be implemented, techniques for implementing a candidate application and the current state of the fpga implementation.

  17. Transvision: A light transmission measurement system for greenhouse covering materials

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Swinkels, G.L.A.M.

    2012-01-01

    Abstract: For determining the optical performance of greenhouse covering materials other than standard float glass the current Dutch NEN 2675 norm is no longer appropriate. The emergence of a new generation of materials (diffuse, layered) resulted in a new measuring protocol developed by TNO and

  18. Covering complete proteomes with X-ray structures: a current snapshot

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mizianty, Marcin J.; Fan, Xiao; Yan, Jing; Chalmers, Eric; Woloschuk, Christopher [University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2V4 (Canada); Joachimiak, Andrzej, E-mail: andrzejj@anl.gov [Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States); Kurgan, Lukasz, E-mail: andrzejj@anl.gov [University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2V4 (Canada)

    2014-11-01

    The current and the attainable coverage by X-ray structures of proteins and their functions on the scale of the ‘protein universe’ are estimated. A detailed analysis of the coverage across nearly 2000 proteomes from all superkingdoms of life and functional annotations is performed, with particular focus on the human proteome and the family of GPCR proteins. Structural genomics programs have developed and applied structure-determination pipelines to a wide range of protein targets, facilitating the visualization of macromolecular interactions and the understanding of their molecular and biochemical functions. The fundamental question of whether three-dimensional structures of all proteins and all functional annotations can be determined using X-ray crystallography is investigated. A first-of-its-kind large-scale analysis of crystallization propensity for all proteins encoded in 1953 fully sequenced genomes was performed. It is shown that current X-ray crystallographic knowhow combined with homology modeling can provide structures for 25% of modeling families (protein clusters for which structural models can be obtained through homology modeling), with at least one structural model produced for each Gene Ontology functional annotation. The coverage varies between superkingdoms, with 19% for eukaryotes, 35% for bacteria and 49% for archaea, and with those of viruses following the coverage values of their hosts. It is shown that the crystallization propensities of proteomes from the taxonomic superkingdoms are distinct. The use of knowledge-based target selection is shown to substantially increase the ability to produce X-ray structures. It is demonstrated that the human proteome has one of the highest attainable coverage values among eukaryotes, and GPCR membrane proteins suitable for X-ray structure determination were determined.

  19. Covering complete proteomes with X-ray structures: a current snapshot

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mizianty, Marcin J.; Fan, Xiao; Yan, Jing; Chalmers, Eric; Woloschuk, Christopher; Joachimiak, Andrzej; Kurgan, Lukasz

    2014-01-01

    The current and the attainable coverage by X-ray structures of proteins and their functions on the scale of the ‘protein universe’ are estimated. A detailed analysis of the coverage across nearly 2000 proteomes from all superkingdoms of life and functional annotations is performed, with particular focus on the human proteome and the family of GPCR proteins. Structural genomics programs have developed and applied structure-determination pipelines to a wide range of protein targets, facilitating the visualization of macromolecular interactions and the understanding of their molecular and biochemical functions. The fundamental question of whether three-dimensional structures of all proteins and all functional annotations can be determined using X-ray crystallography is investigated. A first-of-its-kind large-scale analysis of crystallization propensity for all proteins encoded in 1953 fully sequenced genomes was performed. It is shown that current X-ray crystallographic knowhow combined with homology modeling can provide structures for 25% of modeling families (protein clusters for which structural models can be obtained through homology modeling), with at least one structural model produced for each Gene Ontology functional annotation. The coverage varies between superkingdoms, with 19% for eukaryotes, 35% for bacteria and 49% for archaea, and with those of viruses following the coverage values of their hosts. It is shown that the crystallization propensities of proteomes from the taxonomic superkingdoms are distinct. The use of knowledge-based target selection is shown to substantially increase the ability to produce X-ray structures. It is demonstrated that the human proteome has one of the highest attainable coverage values among eukaryotes, and GPCR membrane proteins suitable for X-ray structure determination were determined

  20. Branched polynomial covering maps

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Vagn Lundsgaard

    1999-01-01

    A Weierstrass polynomial with multiple roots in certain points leads to a branched covering map. With this as the guiding example, we formally define and study the notion of a branched polynomial covering map. We shall prove that many finite covering maps are polynomial outside a discrete branch...... set. Particular studies are made of branched polynomial covering maps arising from Riemann surfaces and from knots in the 3-sphere....

  1. Covering Image Segmentation via Matrix X-means and J-means Clustering

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Volodymyr MASHTALIR

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available To provide tools for image understanding, non-trivial task of image segmentation is now put on a new semantic level of object detection. Internal, external and contextual region properties often can adequately represent image content but there arises field of view coverings due shape ambiguities on blurred images. Truthful image interpretation strictly depends on valid number of regions. The goal is an attempt to solve image clustering problem under fuzzy conditions of overlapping classes, more specifically, to find estimation of meaningful region number with following refining of fuzzy clustering data in matrix form.

  2. Land cover change mapping using MODIS time series to improve emissions inventories

    Science.gov (United States)

    López-Saldaña, Gerardo; Quaife, Tristan; Clifford, Debbie

    2016-04-01

    MELODIES is an FP7 funded project to develop innovative and sustainable services, based upon Open Data, for users in research, government, industry and the general public in a broad range of societal and environmental benefit areas. Understanding and quantifying land surface changes is necessary for estimating greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions, and for meeting air quality limits and targets. More sophisticated inventories methodologies for at least key emission source are needed due to policy-driven air quality directives. Quantifying land cover changes on an annual basis requires greater spatial and temporal disaggregation of input data. The main aim of this study is to develop a methodology for using Earth Observations (EO) to identify annual land surface changes that will improve emissions inventories from agriculture and land use/land use change and forestry (LULUCF) in the UK. First goal is to find the best sets of input features that describe accurately the surface dynamics. In order to identify annual and inter-annual land surface changes, a times series of surface reflectance was used to capture seasonal variability. Daily surface reflectance images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) at 500m resolution were used to invert a Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) model to create the seamless time series. Given the limited number of cloud-free observations, a BRDF climatology was used to constrain the model inversion and where no high-scientific quality observations were available at all, as a gap filler. The Land Cover Map 2007 (LC2007) produced by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) was used for training and testing purposes. A land cover product was created for 2003 to 2015 and a bayesian approach was created to identified land cover changes. We will present the results of the time series development and the first exercises when creating the land cover and land cover changes products.

  3. Mapping of land cover in Northern California with simulated HyspIRI images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, M. L.; Kilham, N. E.

    2014-12-01

    Land-cover maps are important science products needed for natural resource and ecosystem service management, biodiversity conservation planning, and assessing human-induced and natural drivers of land change. Most land-cover maps at regional to global scales are produced with remote sensing techniques applied to multispectral satellite imagery with 30-500 m pixel sizes (e.g., Landsat, MODIS). Hyperspectral, or imaging spectrometer, imagery measuring the visible to shortwave infrared regions (i.e., full range) of the spectrum have shown improved capacity to map plant species and coarser land-cover associations, yet techniques have not been widely tested at regional and greater spatial scales. The Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission is a full-range hyperspectral and thermal satellite being considered for development by NASA (hyspiri.jpl.nasa.gov). A hyperspectral satellite, such as HyspIRI, will provide detailed spectral and temporal information at global scales that could greatly improve our ability to map land cover with greater class detail and spatial and temporal accuracy than possible with conventional multispectral satellites. The broad goal of our research is to assess multi-temporal, HyspIRI-like satellite imagery for improved land cover mapping across a range of environmental and anthropogenic gradients in California. In this study, we mapped FAO Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) classes over 30,000 km2 in Northern California using multi-temporal HyspIRI imagery simulated from the AVIRIS airborne sensor. The Random Forests classification was applied to predictor variables derived from the multi-temporal hyperspectral data and accuracies were compared to that from Landsat 8 OLI. Results indicate increased mapping accuracy using HyspIRI multi-temporal imagery, particularly in discriminating different forest life-form types, such as mixed conifer and broadleaf forests and open- and closed-canopy forests.

  4. Severe hypercholesterolaemia: therapeutic goals and eligibility criteria for LDL apheresis in Europe.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Thompson, G.R.; Catapano, A.; Saheb, S.; Atassi-Dumont, M.; Barbir, M.; Eriksson, M.; Paulweber, B.; Sijbrands, E.; Stalenhoef, A.F.H.; Parhofer, K.G.

    2010-01-01

    PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Despite the use of currently available lipid-lowering therapies, a significant proportion of patients with severe hypercholesterolaemia do not reach treatment goals and consequently remain at increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). On the basis of clinical experience,

  5. Conflict Beliefs, Goals, and Behavior in Romantic Relationships during Late Adolescence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simon, Valerie A.; Kobielski, Sarah J.; Martin, Sarah

    2008-01-01

    Little is known about social cognition regarding conflict in romantic relationships during late adolescence. The current study examined beliefs, social goals, and behavioral strategies for conflict in romantic relationships and their associations with relationship quality among a sample of 494 college students. Two dimensions of conflict beliefs,…

  6. The goal(s of corporate rescue in company law: A comparative analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anthony O. Nwafor

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The concept of corporate rescue lays emphasis on corporate sustainability than liquidation. This trend in corporate legislation which featured in the United Kingdom Insolvency Act of 1986, Australian Corporations Act 2001, Indian Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions Act of 1985 (as replaced by Companies Act, 2013 and supplanted by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 has been adopted in the South African Companies Act of 2008. The goal(s of corporate rescue in some of these jurisdictions are not clearly defined. The paper examines, through a comparative analysis, the relevant statutory provisions in the United Kingdom, India, Australia and South Africa and the attendant judicial interpretations of those provisions with a view to discovering the goal(s of corporate rescue in those jurisdictions. It is argued that while under the United Kingdom and Australian statutory provisions, the administrator could pursue alternative goals of either rescuing the company or achieving better results for the creditors; the South African and Indian statutory provisions do not provide such alternatives. The seeming ancillary purpose of crafting a fair deal for the stakeholders under the South African Companies Act’s provision is not sustainable if the company as an entity cannot be rescued

  7. Teachers' Workplace Well-Being: Exploring a Process Model of Goal Orientation, Coping Behavior, Engagement, and Burnout

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Philip D.; Martin, Andrew J.; Colmar, Susan; Liem, Gregory A.

    2012-01-01

    The current research integrated components of the transactional model of stress and coping with self-worth and goal theories to examine a model where (a) teachers' goal orientation (as indicated by mastery and failure avoidance) was hypothesized to predict their teaching coping strategies (as indicated by problem- and emotion-focused coping) and…

  8. Mean species cover: a harmonized indicator of shrub cover for forest inventories

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iciar Alberdi; Sonia Condés; Ronald E. Mcroberts; Susanne Winter

    2018-01-01

    Because shrub cover is related to many forest ecosystem functions, it is one of the most relevant variables for describing these communities. Nevertheless, a harmonized indicator of shrub cover for large-scale reporting is lacking. The aims of the study were threefold: to define a shrub indicator that can be used by European countries for harmonized shrub cover...

  9. The Predictiveness of Achievement Goals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huy P. Phan

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Using the Revised Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ-R (Elliot & Murayama, 2008, we explored first-year university students’ achievement goal orientations on the premise of the 2 × 2 model. Similar to recent studies (Elliot & Murayama, 2008; Elliot & Thrash, 2010, we conceptualized a model that included both antecedent (i.e., enactive learning experience and consequence (i.e., intrinsic motivation and academic achievement of achievement goals. Two hundred seventy-seven university students (151 women, 126 men participated in the study. Structural equation modeling procedures yielded evidence that showed the predictive effects of enactive learning experience and mastery goals on intrinsic motivation. Academic achievement was influenced intrinsic motivation, performance-approach goals, and enactive learning experience. Enactive learning experience also served as an antecedent of the four achievement goal types. On the whole, evidence obtained supports the AGQ-R and contributes, theoretically, to 2 × 2 model.

  10. Teachers' Understanding of Learning Goals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Krog Skott, Charlotte; Slot, Marie Falkesgaard; Carlsen, Dorthe

    will be presented. We expect to deepen our understanding of the relations between the various parameters in the teachers' practice in relation to learning goals and goal-oriented teaching. There is conducted research on the effects of goal-oriented teaching on students' learning both internationally...

  11. Child goal setting of dietary and physical activity in a serious videogame

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Simons, M.; Baranowski, J.; Thompson, D.; Buday, R.; Abdelsamad, D.; Baranowski, T.

    2013-01-01

    To inform child obesity prevention programs, the current article identified what children thought were the most important goals, values, and perceived barriers related to healthy eating and physical activity (PA) within a serious videogame for health, “Escape from Diab” (Archimage Inc., Houston,

  12. ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS--A SYSTEMS APPROACH.

    Science.gov (United States)

    OHM, ROBERT E.

    CONTEMPORARY SYSTEMS THEORISTS HAVE PROVIDED A HELPFUL VIEW OF THE WAY GOAL-STRUCTURE MAY SHAPE ADMINISTRATIVE BEHAVIOR IN EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS. THE "TRADITIONALIST" VIEW ASSIGNED ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS THE FUNCTIONS OF FORECASTING AND PLANNING. THE "EMERGING MODEL" VIEWED GOALS AS UNDEFINED ELEMENTS REQUIRING LITTLE SYSTEMATIC TREATMENT IN A…

  13. Land-cover change detection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Xuexia; Giri, Chandra; Vogelmann, James

    2012-01-01

    Land cover is the biophysical material on the surface of the earth. Land-cover types include grass, shrubs, trees, barren, water, and man-made features. Land cover changes continuously.  The rate of change can be either dramatic and abrupt, such as the changes caused by logging, hurricanes and fire, or subtle and gradual, such as regeneration of forests and damage caused by insects (Verbesselt et al., 2001).  Previous studies have shown that land cover has changed dramatically during the past sevearal centuries and that these changes have severely affected our ecosystems (Foody, 2010; Lambin et al., 2001). Lambin and Strahlers (1994b) summarized five types of cause for land-cover changes: (1) long-term natural changes in climate conditions, (2) geomorphological and ecological processes, (3) human-induced alterations of vegetation cover and landscapes, (4) interannual climate variability, and (5) human-induced greenhouse effect.  Tools and techniques are needed to detect, describe, and predict these changes to facilitate sustainable management of natural resources.

  14. Quantifying the treatment goals of people recently diagnosed with schizophrenia using best–worst scaling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bridges JFP

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available John FP Bridges,1 Kathleen Beusterien,2 Stephan Heres,3 Pedro Such,4 Joaquín Sánchez-Covisa,5 Anna-Greta Nylander,4 Elcie Chan,6 Anne de Jong-Laird5 1Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; 2Outcomes Research Strategies in Health, Washington DC, USA; 3Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany; 4Global Medical Affairs, H. Lundbeck A/S, Valby, Denmark; 5Medical Department, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe Ltd., Wexham, UK; 6HEOR/Market Access, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe Ltd., Wexham, UK Objective: This study seeks to quantify the treatment goals of people recently diagnosed with schizophrenia and explore their impact on treatment plan.Methods: People aged 18–35 years with a confirmed diagnosis of schizophrenia within the past 5 years were surveyed in the UK, Germany, and Italy. Treatment goals were assessed via a validated best–worst scaling instrument, where participants evaluated subsets of 13 possible treatment goals identified using a balanced incomplete block design. Participants identified the most and least important goals within each task. Data were also collected on current treatment and preference for daily oral versus long-acting injectable (LAI treatment. Hierarchical Bayes was used to identify preference weights for the goals, and latent class analysis was used to identify segments of people with similar goals. The segments were compared with the current treatment and preference for oral versus LAI treatment.Results: Across 100 participants, the average age was 26 years, 75% were male and 50% were diagnosed within 2 years ago. Overall, preferences were most favorable for reduced disease symptoms, think clearly, reduced hospitalizations, reduced anxiety, and take care of self. A total of 61% preferred oral medication and 39% LAI. Two groups were identified with different treatment goals; 50% of participants

  15. The impact of goal setting and goal orientation on performance during a clerkship surgical skills training program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, Aimee K; Diesen, Diana L; Hogg, Deborah; Huerta, Sergio

    2016-02-01

    The purpose of this study was to integrate relevant goal-setting theory and to identify if trainees' goal orientations have an impact on the assigned goals-performance relationship. Trainees attended 1 of the 3 goal-training activities (do your best, performance, or learning goals) for knot tying (KT) and camera navigation (CN) during the 3rd-year clerkship rotation. Questionnaires and pretests and/or post-tests were completed. One twenty-seven 3rd-year medical students (age: 25 ± 2.6; 54% women) participated in the training program. Pretraining to post-training performance changes were significant for all groups on both tasks (P goals group (do your best: KTΔ = 2.14, CNΔ = 1.69; performance: KTΔ = 2.49, CNΔ = 2.24; learning: KTΔ = 3.04 CNΔ = 2.76). Correlations between goal orientations and improvement were examined, revealing a unique role of goal orientation for performance improvement. These data indicate that consideration of goal type and trainee goal orientation must be considered during curriculum development to maximize educational value. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Resident Self-Assessment and Learning Goal Development: Evaluation of Resident-Reported Competence and Future Goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Su-Ting T; Paterniti, Debora A; Tancredi, Daniel J; Burke, Ann E; Trimm, R Franklin; Guillot, Ann; Guralnick, Susan; Mahan, John D

    2015-01-01

    To determine incidence of learning goals by competency area and to assess which goals fall into competency areas with lower self-assessment scores. Cross-sectional analysis of existing deidentified American Academy of Pediatrics' PediaLink individualized learning plan data for the academic year 2009-2010. Residents self-assessed competencies in the 6 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competency areas and wrote learning goals. Textual responses for goals were mapped to 6 ACGME competency areas, future practice, or personal attributes. Adjusted mean differences and associations were estimated using multiple linear and logistic regression. A total of 2254 residents reported 6078 goals. Residents self-assessed their systems-based practice (51.8) and medical knowledge (53.0) competencies lowest and professionalism (68.9) and interpersonal and communication skills (62.2) highest. Residents were most likely to identify goals involving medical knowledge (70.5%) and patient care (50.5%) and least likely to write goals on systems-based practice (11.0%) and professionalism (6.9%). In logistic regression analysis adjusting for postgraduate year (PGY), gender, and degree type (MD/DO), resident-reported goal area showed no association with the learner's relative self-assessment score for that competency area. In the conditional logistic regression analysis, with each learner serving as his or her own control, senior residents (PGY2/3+s) who rated themselves relatively lower in a competency area were more likely to write a learning goal in that area than were PGY1s. Senior residents appear to develop better skills and/or motivation to explicitly turn self-assessed learning gaps into learning goals, suggesting that individualized learning plans may help improve self-regulated learning during residency. Copyright © 2015 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Imperviousness Layer Tile 3, Southwest United States: IMPV01_3

    Science.gov (United States)

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the imperviousness layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition. The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp.. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  18. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Imperviousness Layer Tile 4, Southeast United States: IMPV01_4

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wieczorek, Michael; LaMotte, Andrew E.

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the imperviousness layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition. The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp.. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  19. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Imperviousness Layer Tile 2, Northeast United States: IMPV01_2

    Science.gov (United States)

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the imperviousness layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition. The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp.. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  20. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Imperviousness Layer Tile 1, Northwest United States: IMPV01_1

    Science.gov (United States)

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the imperviousness layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition. The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp.. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  1. 8th International Conference on Multi-Objective and Goal Programming

    CERN Document Server

    Tamiz, Mehrdad; Ries, Jana

    2010-01-01

    This volume shows the state-of-the-art in both theoretical development and application of multiple objective and goal programming. Applications from the fields of supply chain management, financial portfolio selection, financial risk management, insurance, medical imaging, sustainability, nurse scheduling, project management, water resource management, and the interface with data envelopment analysis give a good reflection of current usage. A pleasing variety of techniques are used including models with fuzzy, group-decision, stochastic, interactive, and binary aspects. Additionally, two papers from the upcoming area of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms are included. The book is based on the papers of the 8th International Conference on Multi-Objective and Goal Programming (MOPGP08) which was held in Portsmouth, UK, in September 2008.

  2. A Comparison of the Goals of Studio Professors Conducting Critiques and Art Education Goals for Teaching Criticism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barrett, Terry

    1988-01-01

    Compares stated goals of studio art course professors for teaching of criticism and the goals stated in art education literature of art teacher taught criticism. States that these goals are in conflict, therefore, future art teachers are being guided by goals for criticism that are not in accord with the goals set forth in their study of art…

  3. Growth goals, maturity, and well-being.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bauer, Jack J; McAdams, Dan P

    2004-01-01

    In 2 studies (125 college students and 51 adults), 2 forms of growth goals (exploratory and intrinsic) were compared with 2 forms of personality development (social-cognitive maturity and social-emotional well-being). Participants whose narratives of major life goals emphasized conceptual exploration were especially likely to have high levels of maturity (measured as ego development; J. Loevinger, 1976), whereas those whose goals emphasized intrinsic interests (K. M. Sheldon & T. Kasser, 1995) were especially likely to have high levels of well-being. Participants who had coherent hierarchies of growth goals on the levels of major life goals and everyday goals were especially likely to have high levels of personality development. Finally, growth goals accounted for some relationships between age and personality development. Growth goals are discussed in terms of intentional self-development and specific developmental paths. (c) 2003 APA

  4. Goals and everyday problem solving: examining the link between age-related goals and problem-solving strategy use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoppmann, Christiane A; Coats, Abby Heckman; Blanchard-Fields, Fredda

    2008-07-01

    Qualitative interviews on family and financial problems from 332 adolescents, young, middle-aged, and older adults, demonstrated that developmentally relevant goals predicted problem-solving strategy use over and above problem domain. Four focal goals concerned autonomy, generativity, maintaining good relationships with others, and changing another person. We examined both self- and other-focused problem-solving strategies. Autonomy goals were associated with self-focused instrumental problem solving and generative goals were related to other-focused instrumental problem solving in family and financial problems. Goals of changing another person were related to other-focused instrumental problem solving in the family domain only. The match between goals and strategies, an indicator of problem-solving adaptiveness, showed that young individuals displayed the greatest match between autonomy goals and self-focused problem solving, whereas older adults showed a greater match between generative goals and other-focused problem solving. Findings speak to the importance of considering goals in investigations of age-related differences in everyday problem solving.

  5. Trends in Coastal Development and Land Cover Change: The Case ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    KwaZulu-Natal. Abstract—Current land cover and development in the coastal zone of KwaZulu- ... 75% by 2025 in some regions (Hinrichsen, 1995). .... Functional divisions and case study areas on the KZN coast. .... Extent of development and access via major road networks along the KZN North and South Coasts. 198.

  6. A Systematic Study of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Interactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pradhan, Prajal; Costa, Luís.; Rybski, Diego; Lucht, Wolfgang; Kropp, Jürgen P.

    2017-11-01

    Sustainable development goals (SDGs) have set the 2030 agenda to transform our world by tackling multiple challenges humankind is facing to ensure well-being, economic prosperity, and environmental protection. In contrast to conventional development agendas focusing on a restricted set of dimensions, the SDGs provide a holistic and multidimensional view on development. Hence, interactions among the SDGs may cause diverging results. To analyze the SDG interactions we systematize the identification of synergies and trade-offs using official SDG indicator data for 227 countries. A significant positive correlation between a pair of SDG indicators is classified as a synergy while a significant negative correlation is classified as a trade-off. We rank synergies and trade-offs between SDGs pairs on global and country scales in order to identify the most frequent SDG interactions. For a given SDG, positive correlations between indicator pairs were found to outweigh the negative ones in most countries. Among SDGs the positive and negative correlations between indicator pairs allowed for the identification of particular global patterns. SDG 1 (No poverty) has synergetic relationship with most of the other goals, whereas SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production) is the goal most commonly associated with trade-offs. The attainment of the SDG agenda will greatly depend on whether the identified synergies among the goals can be leveraged. In addition, the highlighted trade-offs, which constitute obstacles in achieving the SDGs, need to be negotiated and made structurally nonobstructive by deeper changes in the current strategies.

  7. A goal programming model for environmental policy analysis: Application to Spain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    San Cristóbal, José Ramón

    2012-01-01

    Sustainable development has become an important part of international and national approaches to integrate economic, environmental, social and ethical considerations so that a good quality of life can be enjoyed by current and future generations for as long as possible. However, nowadays sustainable development is threatened by industrial pollution emissions which cause serious environmental problems. Due to a lack of adequate quantitative models for environmental policy analysis, there is a strong need for analytical models in order to know the effects of environmental policies. In the present paper, a goal programming model, based on an environmental/input–output linear programming model, is developed and applied to the Spanish economy. The model combines relations between economic, energy, social and environmental effects, providing valuable information for policy-makers in order to define and examine the different goals that must be implemented to reach sustainability. - Highlights: ► In this paper a goal programming model is developed. ► The model considers environmental, energy, social and economic goals. ► The model shows the effects of a reduction in greenhouse gasses emission and energy requirements. ► The model is applied to the Spanish economy.

  8. Intensity and direction of competitive anxiety as a function of goal attainment expectation and competition goal generation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Brien, M; Hanton, S; Mellalieu, S D

    2005-12-01

    Jones's control model was adopted to investigate differences in the labelling of symptoms associated with pre-competition anxiety and self-confidence as a function of goal attainment expectation and competition goal generation. Team sport performers (N = 96) were divided into outcome, performance and process goal groups. Anxiety intensity and direction, and self-confidence were then examined as a function of goal expectancy (positive or negative) and perceived input into goal production (input or no input). MANOVA and follow-up ANOVA supported the study predictions. Specifically, participants who reported positive expectations of goal achievement and indicated some input into the goal generation process experienced the most facilitative interpretations of cognitive symptoms and greater self-confidence. The results highlight the need to consider how goals are generated when attempting to foster a sense of control and help athletes cope with the psychological demands of competition.

  9. Landspotting: collecting essential land cover information via an attractive internet game

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fritz, Steffen; McCallum, Ian; Perger, Christoph; Christian, Schill; Florian, Kraxner; Erik, Lindquist; Michael, Obersteiner

    2010-05-01

    Based on the geo-wiki.org concept of collecting land cover information via crowdsourcing, we present a novel approach on how to get the crowd involved. Internet games as well as social networks are becoming increasingly popular and the full potential is yet to be exploited. However, thus far, few if any games provide anything other than entertainment. Can an attractive philanthropic game be created which uses the crowd to collect essential information needed to help to acquire better data to improve the understanding of the earth system? Since accurate and up to date information on global land cover plays a very important role in a number of different research fields such as climate change, monitoring of tropical deforestation, land use monitoring and land-use modelling, but still shows high levels of disagreement, the game will focus on how this essential land cover calibration and validation data can be collected in areas where uncertainty is currently highest. In the current version of the land spotting game, we combine uncertainty hotspot information from three global land cover datasets (GLC, MODIS and GlobCover). With an ever increasing amount of high resolution images available on Google Earth, it is becoming increasingly possible to distinguish land cover features with a high degree of accuracy. We first direct the landspotting game community to certain hotspots of land cover uncertainty and then ask them to enter/record the type of land cover they see (for this they will be able to acquire a certain number of points), possibly uploading pictures at that location (additional points will be received). Even though the development of the game "landspotting.org" is still underway, we illustrate what the functionality will be and what features are envisaged for the near future. Landspotting.org will be designed in such a way as to challenge users to help map out the remaining areas of confusion over the globe - possibly in the form of an adventure game. Users

  10. Financial Planning with Fractional Goals

    OpenAIRE

    Goedhart, Marc; Spronk, Jaap

    1995-01-01

    textabstractWhen solving financial planning problems with multiple goals by means of multiple objective programming, the presence of fractional goals leads to technical difficulties. In this paper we present a straightforward interactive approach for solving such linear fractional programs with multiple goal variables. The approach is illustrated by means of an example in financial planning.

  11. Different Goals for Different Folks: A Cross-Cultural Study of Achievement Goals across Nine Cultures

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Ronnel B.; McInerney, Dennis M.; Nasser, Ramzi

    2017-01-01

    Goals are important predictors of key educational outcomes. However, most of the research on goal theory has been conducted in Western societies. In this study we examine how different types of goals (mastery, performance, social, and extrinsic) derived from personal investment theory are associated with key learning outcomes across nine cultural…

  12. Self-regulation through Goal Setting

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Koch, Alexander; Nafziger, Julia

    self-control problems. We show how goals permit self-regulation, but also that they are painful self-disciplining devices. Greater self-control problems therefore lead to stronger self-regulation through goals only up to a certain point. For severely present-biased preferences, the required goal...... for self-regulation is too painful and the individual rather gives up....

  13. Goal-oriëntation, goal-setting and goal-driven behavior in (minimalist) user instructions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Meij, Hans

    2007-01-01

    This paper opens with a summary of minimalist design strategies that aim to optimize user instructions. Next, it discusses three recent research efforts to further improve these strategies. The common focus in these efforts is the attention to people’s goal-related management and control of

  14. Materialistic Values and Goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kasser, Tim

    2016-01-01

    Materialism comprises a set of values and goals focused on wealth, possessions, image, and status. These aims are a fundamental aspect of the human value/goal system, standing in relative conflict with aims concerning the well-being of others, as well as one's own personal and spiritual growth. Substantial evidence shows that people who place a relatively high priority on materialistic values/goals consume more products and incur more debt, have lower-quality interpersonal relationships, act in more ecologically destructive ways, have adverse work and educational motivation, and report lower personal and physical well-being. Experimentally activating materialistic aims causes similar outcomes. Given these ills, researchers have investigated means of decreasing people's materialism. Successful interventions encourage intrinsic/self-transcendent values/goals, increase felt personal security, and/or block materialistic messages from the environment. These interventions would likely be more effective if policies were also adopted that diminished contemporary culture's focus on consumption, profit, and economic growth.

  15. Methods for converting continuous shrubland ecosystem component values to thematic National Land Cover Database classes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rigge, Matthew B.; Gass, Leila; Homer, Collin G.; Xian, George Z.

    2017-10-26

    The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) provides thematic land cover and land cover change data at 30-meter spatial resolution for the United States. Although the NLCD is considered to be the leading thematic land cover/land use product and overall classification accuracy across the NLCD is high, performance and consistency in the vast shrub and grasslands of the Western United States is lower than desired. To address these issues and fulfill the needs of stakeholders requiring more accurate rangeland data, the USGS has developed a method to quantify these areas in terms of the continuous cover of several cover components. These components include the cover of shrub, sagebrush (Artemisia spp), big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata spp.), herbaceous, annual herbaceous, litter, and bare ground, and shrub and sagebrush height. To produce maps of component cover, we collected field data that were then associated with spectral values in WorldView-2 and Landsat imagery using regression tree models. The current report outlines the procedures and results of converting these continuous cover components to three thematic NLCD classes: barren, shrubland, and grassland. To accomplish this, we developed a series of indices and conditional models using continuous cover of shrub, bare ground, herbaceous, and litter as inputs. The continuous cover data are currently available for two large regions in the Western United States. Accuracy of the “cross-walked” product was assessed relative to that of NLCD 2011 at independent validation points (n=787) across these two regions. Overall thematic accuracy of the “cross-walked” product was 0.70, compared to 0.63 for NLCD 2011. The kappa value was considerably higher for the “cross-walked” product at 0.41 compared to 0.28 for NLCD 2011. Accuracy was also evaluated relative to the values of training points (n=75,000) used in the development of the continuous cover components. Again, the “cross-walked” product outperformed NLCD

  16. 77 FR 48733 - Transitional Program for Covered Business Method Patents-Definitions of Covered Business Method...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-08-14

    ... Office 37 CFR Part 42 Transitional Program for Covered Business Method Patents--Definitions of Covered... Business Method Patents-- Definitions of Covered Business Method Patent and Technological Invention AGENCY... forth in detail the definitions of the terms ``covered business method patent'' and ``technological...

  17. The Current State and Future Directions of Organic No-Till Farming with Cover Crops in Canada, with Case Study Support

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heather M. Beach

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Eliminating regular tillage practices in agriculture has numerous ecological benefits that correspond to the intentions of organic agriculture; yet, more tillage is conducted in organic agriculture than in conventional agriculture. Organic systems face more management challenges to avoid tillage. This paper identifies factors to consider when implementing no-till practices particularly in organic agronomic and vegetable crop agriculture and describes techniques to address these factors. In some cases, future research is recommended to effectively address the current limitations. The format includes a literature review of organic no-till (OrgNT research and two case studies of Ontario organic farmers that highlight no-till challenges and practices to overcome these challenges. Cover crops require significant consideration because they are the alternative to herbicides and fertilizers to manage weeds and provide nutrients in the OrgNT system. Equipment requirements have also proven to be unique in OrgNT systems. In the future, it is recommended that researchers involve organic farmers closely in studies on no-till implementation, so that the farmers’ concerns are effectively addressed, and research is guided by possibilities recognized by the practitioners.

  18. A fully-covered stent (Alimaxx-E) for the palliation of malignant dysphagia: a prospective follow-up study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Uitdehaag, Madeleen J.; van Hooft, Jeanin E.; Verschuur, Els M. L.; Repici, Alessandro; Steyerberg, Ewout W.; Fockens, Paul; Kuipers, Ernst J.; Siersema, Peter D.

    2009-01-01

    Background: The majority of the Currently available metal stents are partially covered to reduce migration risk. However, one of the remaining issues is tissue ingrowth through the uncovered stent parts. Objective: To determine efficacy, recurrent dysphagia, and complications of a fully covered

  19. An empirical examination of negotiated goals and performance-to-goal following the introduction of an incentive bonus plan with participative goal setting

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Anderson, S.W.; Dekker, H.C.; Sedatole, K.L.

    2010-01-01

    Prior research documents performance improvements following the implementation of pay-for-performance (PFP) bonus plans. However, bonus plans typically pay for performance relative to a goal, and the manager whose performance is to be evaluated often participates in setting the goal. In these

  20. Cover systems in the Athabasca oil sands : a summary of the Green Bullet and ten years of reclamation research at Syncrude Canada Ltd.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    O' Kane, M. [O' Kane Consultants Inc., Calgary, AB (Canada)

    2010-02-15

    This PowerPoint presentation discussed the use of a dry cover system over oil sand tailings as land reclamation strategy. Dry covers can range from a single layer of earthen material to several layers of different material types, including native soils, non-reactive tailings or waste rock, geosynthetic materials, and oxygen consuming organic materials. The 3 prototype covers used in the Athabasca deposit in northern Alberta include peat, glacial till and sedge-sphagnum open bog (SSOB). The hydraulic role of the covers was described. This presentation also described how the physical reclamation works, with particular reference to how the area is contoured to ensure proper drainage. Soil and vegetation assessments are undertaken to ensure the reclamation amendments are achieving the goals of the reclamation plan. tabs., figs.

  1. Cover systems in the Athabasca oil sands : a summary of the Green Bullet and ten years of reclamation research at Syncrude Canada Ltd

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Kane, M.

    2010-01-01

    This PowerPoint presentation discussed the use of a dry cover system over oil sand tailings as land reclamation strategy. Dry covers can range from a single layer of earthen material to several layers of different material types, including native soils, non-reactive tailings or waste rock, geosynthetic materials, and oxygen consuming organic materials. The 3 prototype covers used in the Athabasca deposit in northern Alberta include peat, glacial till and sedge-sphagnum open bog (SSOB). The hydraulic role of the covers was described. This presentation also described how the physical reclamation works, with particular reference to how the area is contoured to ensure proper drainage. Soil and vegetation assessments are undertaken to ensure the reclamation amendments are achieving the goals of the reclamation plan. tabs., figs.

  2. Nonlinear 3D calculations of turbine blade impact on turbine cover

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hatala, B.; Adamik, V.; Buchar, J.

    2000-01-01

    This paper present the approach used at the VUJE institute for the evaluation of a ruptured blade impact on the current protection cover of a SKODA 220 MW turbine. Firstly, it briefly describes experiments (Hopkinson-Davies split bar facility, Taylor tests) and numerical simulations used to obtain realistic material parameters needed for the Cowper- Symonds material model that is implemented in the code LS-DYNA3D. Then, numerical simulations, by using the code, of the ruptured blade impact on various protection barriers are presented. These simulations make it possible to find an optimal solution for a new turbine protection cover. (author)

  3. Covering folded shapes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oswin Aichholzer

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Can folding a piece of paper flat make it larger? We explore whether a shape S must be scaled to cover a flat-folded copy of itself. We consider both single folds and arbitrary folds (continuous piecewise isometries \\(S\\to\\mathbb{R}^2\\. The underlying problem is motivated by computational origami, and is related to other covering and fixturing problems, such as Lebesgue's universal cover problem and force closure grasps. In addition to considering special shapes (squares, equilateral triangles, polygons and disks, we give upper and lower bounds on scale factors for single folds of convex objects and arbitrary folds of simply connected objects.

  4. Introducing land-cover and land-use changes in a climate scenario of the 21. century

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Voldoire, A.

    2005-03-01

    The main objective of this work has been to run a climate simulation of the 21. century that includes not only greenhouse gases and aerosols emitted by human activity but also land-use and land-cover changes. To achieve this goal, the integrated impact model IMAGE2.2 (developed at RIVM, The Netherlands) was used, which simulates the evolution of greenhouse gases concentrations as well as land-cover changes. This model has been coupled to the general circulation model ARPEGE/OPA provided by the CNRM. Before coupling the models, sensitivity experiments with each model have been performed to test their respective sensitivity to the forcing of the other. Ultimately, a simulation with the two models coupled together has shown that interactions between climate and vegetation are not of primary importance for century scale studies. (author)

  5. Land cover and water yield: inference problems when comparing catchments with mixed land cover

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. I. J. M. van Dijk

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Controlled experiments provide strong evidence that changing land cover (e.g. deforestation or afforestation can affect mean catchment streamflow (Q. By contrast, a similarly strong influence has not been found in studies that interpret Q from multiple catchments with mixed land cover. One possible reason is that there are methodological issues with the way in which the Budyko framework was used in the latter type studies. We examined this using Q data observed in 278 Australian catchments and by making inferences from synthetic Q data simulated by a hydrological process model (the Australian Water Resources Assessment system Landscape model. The previous contrasting findings could be reproduced. In the synthetic experiment, the land cover influence was still present but not accurately detected with the Budyko- framework. Likely sources of interpretation bias demonstrated include: (i noise in land cover, precipitation and Q data; (ii additional catchment climate characteristics more important than land cover; and (iii covariance between Q and catchment attributes. These methodological issues caution against the use of a Budyko framework to quantify a land cover influence in Q data from mixed land-cover catchments. Importantly, however, our findings do not rule out that there may also be physical processes that modify the influence of land cover in mixed land-cover catchments. Process model simulations suggested that lateral water redistribution between vegetation types and recirculation of intercepted rainfall may be important.

  6. Shared goals and development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Blomberg, Olle

    2015-01-01

    undemanding for children to engage in, and therefore has the potential to play a part in fostering their understanding of other minds. Part of the functional role of shared goals is to enable agents to choose means that are appropriate to realising a goal with others rather than individually. By offering...

  7. Non-destructive inspection using HTS-SQUID on aluminum liner covered by CFRP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hatsukade, Y.; Yotsugi, K.; Sakaguchi, Y.; Tanaka, S.

    2007-01-01

    An eddy-current-based SQUID non-destructive inspection (NDI) system to detect deep-lying cracks in multi-layer composite-Al vessels was developed taking advantage of the uncontested sensitivity of HTS-SQUID in low-frequency range. An HTS-SQUID gradiometer was mounted in a pulse tube cryocooler. A pair of differential coils with C-shaped ferrite cores was employed to induce an enhanced eddy current in an Al vessel wrapped in a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) cover. Ellipsoidal dome-shaped Al liners containing through cracks, which were made by pressure cycle tests, in the CFRP covers with total thickness of 6 mm (CFPR 3 mm, and Al 3 mm) were inspected by the system. While inducing eddy currents in the vessels with excitation fields at 100 Hz or 7 kHz, the vessels were rotated under the HTS-SQUID. Above the cracks, anomalous signals due to the cracks were clearly detected at both frequencies. These results suggested the SQUID-NDI technique would be a possible candidate for inspection of high-pressure multi-layer composite-Al vessels

  8. Non-destructive inspection using HTS-SQUID on aluminum liner covered by CFRP

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hatsukade, Y. [Toyohashi University of Technology, 1-1 Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi 441-8580 (Japan)], E-mail: hatukade@eco.tut.ac.jp; Yotsugi, K. [Toyohashi University of Technology, 1-1 Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi 441-8580 (Japan); Sakaguchi, Y. [SAMTECH Corporation, 1000-18 Enmyo-cho, Kashiwara City, Osaka 582-0027 (Japan); Tanaka, S. [Toyohashi University of Technology, 1-1 Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi 441-8580 (Japan)

    2007-10-01

    An eddy-current-based SQUID non-destructive inspection (NDI) system to detect deep-lying cracks in multi-layer composite-Al vessels was developed taking advantage of the uncontested sensitivity of HTS-SQUID in low-frequency range. An HTS-SQUID gradiometer was mounted in a pulse tube cryocooler. A pair of differential coils with C-shaped ferrite cores was employed to induce an enhanced eddy current in an Al vessel wrapped in a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) cover. Ellipsoidal dome-shaped Al liners containing through cracks, which were made by pressure cycle tests, in the CFRP covers with total thickness of 6 mm (CFPR 3 mm, and Al 3 mm) were inspected by the system. While inducing eddy currents in the vessels with excitation fields at 100 Hz or 7 kHz, the vessels were rotated under the HTS-SQUID. Above the cracks, anomalous signals due to the cracks were clearly detected at both frequencies. These results suggested the SQUID-NDI technique would be a possible candidate for inspection of high-pressure multi-layer composite-Al vessels.

  9. The Influence of Money on Goal Pursuit and Decision-Making: Understanding Money's Unique Impact on Goal Pursuit

    OpenAIRE

    Moran, Nora

    2015-01-01

    Previous research suggests that activating concepts of money and wealth can increase motivation to achieve personal goals. In this dissertation, I investigate how money affects pursuit of important personal goals, and how this motivation may be affected by goal attainability. In eight studies, I show that priming concepts of money and wealth leads individuals to pursue important personal goals to a greater degree than control groups, but only when a goal is more attainable. In contrast, when...

  10. Use of a risk-based hydrogeologic model to set remedial goals in a Puget Sound basin watershed

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pascoe, G.; Gould, L.; Martin, J.; Riley, M.; Floyd, T.

    1995-01-01

    The Port of Seattle is redeveloping industrial land for a container terminal along the southwest Seattle waterfront. Concrete, asphalt, ballast, and a landfill geomembrane will cover the site and prevent direct contact with surface soils, so remedial goals focused on groundwater contamination from subsurface soils. Groundwater at the site flows along an old stormwater drain, in a filled estuary of a small creek, to Elliott Bay. Remedial goals for a variety of organic chemicals, metals, and TPH in subsurface soils were identified to protect marine receptors in the bay and their consumers. Washington State and federal marine water quality criteria were the starting points in the risk-based model, and corresponding concentrations of chemicals in groundwater were back-calculated through a hydrogeologic model. The hydrogeologic model included a mixing zone component in the bay and dilution/attenuation factors along the groundwater transport pathway that were determined from onsite groundwater and surface water chemical concentrations. A rearranged Summers equation was then applied in a second back-calculation to determine subsurface soil concentrations corresponding to the back calculated groundwater concentrations. The equation was based on calculated aquifer flow rates for the small creek watershed and rates of infiltration through surface materials calculated for each redevelopment soil cover type by the HELP model. Results of the risk-based hydrogeologic back-calculation model indicate that, depending on soil cover type at the site, concentrations in subsurface soils of PCBs from 2 to 1,000 mg/kg and of TPH up to free phase concentration would not result in risks to marine organisms or their consumers in Elliott Bay

  11. Land Use Land Cover Change in the fringe of eThekwini ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Concerns on urban environmental quality, increasing knowledge on impacts of climate change and pursuit for sustainable development have increased the need for past, current and future knowledge on the transformation of remnant urban fringe green ecosystems. Using land-cover change modeler and a Markov chain ...

  12. Armored Geomembrane Cover Engineering

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kevin Foye

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Geomembranes are an important component of modern engineered barriers to prevent the infiltration of stormwater and runoff into contaminated soil and rock as well as waste containment facilities—a function generally described as a geomembrane cover. This paper presents a case history involving a novel implementation of a geomembrane cover system. Due to this novelty, the design engineers needed to assemble from disparate sources the design criteria for the engineering of the cover. This paper discusses the design methodologies assembled by the engineering team. This information will aid engineers designing similar cover systems as well as environmental and public health professionals selecting site improvements that involve infiltration barriers.

  13. Multiple goals, motivation and academic learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valle, Antonio; Cabanach, Ramón G; Núnez, José C; González-Pienda, Julio; Rodríguez, Susana; Piñeiro, Isabel

    2003-03-01

    The type of academic goals pursued by students is one of the most important variables in motivational research in educational contexts. Although motivational theory and research have emphasised the somewhat exclusive nature of two types of goal orientation (learning goals versus performance goals), some studies (Meece, 1994; Seifert, 1995, 1996) have shown that the two kinds of goals are relatively complementary and that it is possible for students to have multiple goals simultaneously, which guarantees some flexibility to adapt more efficaciously to various contexts and learning situations. The principal aim of this study is to determine the academic goals pursued by university students and to analyse the differences in several very significant variables related to motivation and academic learning. Participants were 609 university students (74% women and 26% men) who filled in several questionnaires about the variables under study. We used cluster analysis ('quick cluster analysis' method) to establish the different groups or clusters of individuals as a function of the three types of goals (learning goals, performance goals, and social reinforcement goals). By means of MANOVA, we determined whether the groups or clusters identified were significantly different in the variables that are relevant to motivation and academic learning. Lastly, we performed ANOVA on the variables that revealed significant effects in the previous analysis. Using cluster analysis, three groups of students with different motivational orientations were identified: a group with predominance of performance goals (Group PG: n = 230), a group with predominance of multiple goals (Group MG: n = 238), and a group with predominance of learning goals (Group LG: n = 141). Groups MG and LG attributed their success more to ability, they had higher perceived ability, they took task characteristics into account when planning which strategies to use in the learning process, they showed higher persistence

  14. Goal pursuit, goal adjustment, and affective well-being following lower limb amputation

    OpenAIRE

    Coffey, Laura; Gallagher, Pamela; Desmond, Deirdre; Ryall, Nicola

    2014-01-01

    Objectives. This study examined the relationships between tenacious goal pursuit (TGP), flexible goal adjustment (FGA), and affective well-being in a sample of individuals with lower limb amputations. Design. Cross-sectional, quantitative. Methods. Ninety-eight patients recently admitted to a primary prosthetic rehabilitation programme completed measures of TGP, FGA, positive affect, and negative affect. Results. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that TGP and FGA accounted fo...

  15. Setting goals in psychotherapy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Emiliussen, Jakob; Wagoner, Brady

    2013-01-01

    The present study is concerned with the ethical dilemmas of setting goals in therapy. The main questions that it aims to answer are: who is to set the goals for therapy and who is to decide when they have been reached? The study is based on four semi-­‐structured, phenomenological interviews...

  16. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tree Canopy Layer Tile 4, Southeast United States: CNPY01_4

    Science.gov (United States)

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the tree canopy layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition.jpg The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  17. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tree Canopy Layer Tile 2, Northeast United States: CNPY01_2

    Science.gov (United States)

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the tree canopy layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition.jpg The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  18. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tree Canopy Layer Tile 1, Northwest United States: CNPY01_1

    Science.gov (United States)

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the tree canopy layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition.jpg. The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov

  19. National Land Cover Database 2001 (NLCD01) Tree Canopy Layer Tile 3, Southwest United States: CNPY01_3

    Science.gov (United States)

    LaMotte, Andrew E.; Wieczorek, Michael

    2010-01-01

    This 30-meter resolution data set represents the tree canopy layer for the conterminous United States for the 2001 time period. The data have been arranged into four tiles to facilitate timely display and manipulation within a Geographic Information System, browse graphic: nlcd01-partition.jpg The National Land Cover Data Set for 2001 was produced through a cooperative project conducted by the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium. The MRLC Consortium is a partnership of Federal agencies (www.mrlc.gov), consisting of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). One of the primary goals of the project is to generate a current, consistent, seamless, and accurate National Land Cover Database (NLCD) circa 2001 for the United States at medium spatial resolution. For a detailed definition and discussion on MRLC and the NLCD 2001 products, refer to Homer and others (2004) and http://www.mrlc.gov/mrlc2k.asp. The NLCD 2001 was created by partitioning the United States into mapping-zones. A total of 68 mapping-zones browse graphic: nlcd01-mappingzones.jpg were delineated within the conterminous United States based on ecoregion and geographical characteristics, edge-matching features, and the size requirement of Landsat mosaics. Mapping-zones encompass the whole or parts of several states. Questions about the NLCD mapping zones can be directed to the NLCD 2001 Land Cover Mapping Team at the USGS/EROS, Sioux Falls, SD (605) 594-6151 or mrlc@usgs.gov.

  20. Modernization and unification: Strategic goals for NASA STI program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blados, W.; Cotter, Gladys A.

    1993-01-01

    Information is increasingly becoming a strategic resource in all societies and economies. The NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Program has initiated a modernization program to address the strategic importance and changing characteristics of information. This modernization effort applies new technology to current processes to provide near-term benefits to the user. At the same time, we are developing a long-term modernization strategy designed to transition the program to a multimedia, global 'library without walls.' Notwithstanding this modernization program, it is recognized that no one information center can hope to collect all the relevant data. We see information and information systems changing and becoming more international in scope. We are finding that many nations are expending resources on national systems which duplicate each other. At the same time that this duplication exists, many useful sources of aerospace information are not being collected because of resource limitations. If nations cooperate to develop an international aerospace information system, resources can be used efficiently to cover expanded sources of information. We must consider forming a coalition to collect and provide access to disparate, multidisciplinary sources of information, and to develop standardized tools for documenting and manipulating this data and information. In view of recent technological developments in information science and technology, as well as the reality of scarce resources in all nations, it is time to explore the mutually beneficial possibilities offered by cooperation and international resource sharing. International resources need to be mobilized in a coordinated manner to move us towards this goal. This paper reviews the NASA modernization program and raises for consideration new possibilities for unification of the various aerospace database efforts toward a cooperative international aerospace database initiative that can optimize the cost

  1. Achievement goals and perfectionism of high school students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Milojević Milica

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available This research has been investigating one of the most contemporary approaches of achievement motivation - Achievement Goal Theory, which uses the construct of achievement goals. The construct of achievement goals involves three types of achievement goals: mastery goals, performance approach goals and performance avoidance goals. The main goal of the research was to examine correlation between perfectionism and its aspects with particular types of achievement goals. Also, the goal was to investigate the difference concerning gender regarding the achievement goals. The sample consisted of 200 senior year high school participants. The following instruments were used: Multi-dimensional scale of perfectionism (MSP and Test of achievement goals (TCP. The research results indicate that there is significant positive correlation between: perfectionism with performance approach goals and performance avoidance goals, concern over mistakes and parental expectations with performance approach goals and performance avoidance goals, personal standards and organization with mastery goals and performance approach goals, parental criticism and doubts about action with performance avoidance goals. Significant negative correlation was found between parental criticism and mastery goals. The results concerning the second goal indicates the female subjects have higher average scores in mastery goals.

  2. MANAGEMENT EFFECTS ON GROUND COVER CLUMPINESS: SCALING FROM FIELD TO SENTINEL-2 COVER ESTIMATES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. Scarth

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Significant progress has been made in the development of cover data and derived products based on remotely sensed fractional cover information and field data across Australia, and these cover data sets are now used for quantifying and monitoring grazing land condition. The availability of a dense time-series of nearly 30 years of cover data to describe the spatial and temporal patterns in landscape changes over time can help with monitoring the effectiveness of grazing land management practice change. With the advent of higher spatial resolution data, such as that provided by the Copernicus Sentinel 2 series of satellites, we can look beyond reporting purely on cover amount and more closely at the operational monitoring and reporting on spatial arrangement of cover and its links with land condition. We collected high spatial resolution cover transects at 20 cm intervals over the Wambiana grazing trials in the Burdekin catchment in Queensland, Australia. Spatial variance analysis was used to determine the cover autocorrelation at various support intervals. Coincident Sentinel-2 imagery was collected and processed over all the sites providing imagery to link with the field data. We show that the spatial arrangement and temporal dynamics of cover are important indicators of grazing land condition for both productivity and water quality outcomes. The metrics and products derived from this research will assist land managers to prioritize investment and practice change strategies for long term sustainability and improved water quality, particularly in the Great Barrier Reef catchments.

  3. GOAL-to-HAL translation study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flanders, J. H.; Helmers, C. T.; Stanten, S. F.

    1973-01-01

    This report deals with the feasibility, problems, solutions, and mapping of a GOAL language to HAL language translator. Ground Operations Aerospace Language, or GOAL, is a test-oriented higher order language developed by the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be used in checkout and launch of the space shuttle. HAL is a structured higher order language developed by the Johnson Space Center to be used in writing the flight software for the onboard shuttle computers. Since the onboard computers will extensively support ground checkout of the space shuttle, and since these computers and the software development facilities on the ground use the HAL language as baseline, the translation of GOAL to HAL becomes significant. The issue of feasibility was examined and it was found that a GOAL to HAL translator is feasible. Special problems are identified and solutions proposed. Finally, examples of translation are provided for each category of complete GOAL statement.

  4. Safety goals for nuclear power

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fischhoff, B.

    1984-02-01

    The key policy question in managing hazardous technologies is often some variant of How safe is safe enough. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recently broached this topic by adopting safety goals defining acceptable risk levels for nuclear power plants. These goals are analyzed here with a general theory of standard setting (Fischhoff, 1983) which asks: (1) Are standards an appropriate policy tool in this case. (2) Can the Commission's safety philosophy be defended. (3) Do the operational goals capture that philosophy. The anlaysis shows the safety goals proposal to be sophisticated in some respects, incomplete in others. More generally, it points to difficulties with the concept of acceptable risk and any attempt to build policy instruments around it. Although focused on the NRC's safety goals, the present analysis is a prototype of what can be learned by similarly detailed consideration of other standards, not only for nuclear power but also for other hazardous technologies, as well as for issues unrelated to safety

  5. “One-size-fits-all”? Differentiation in destinations’ marketing goals and strategies to achieve them

    OpenAIRE

    Avraham, Eli; Ketter, Eran

    2015-01-01

    While tourism marketing literature tends to present marketing as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ process, the current study suggests various destination marketing goals. Until today, the literature mainly concentrated on analyzing marketing strategies, tactics, tools and initiatives for enhancing and perceiving tourism, while other marketing goals were neglected, such as marketing unfamiliar destinations or promoting tourism during and after tourism crises. The purpose of this study is to propose the m...

  6. Systemic consultation and goal setting

    OpenAIRE

    Carr, Alan

    1993-01-01

    Over two decades of empirical research conducted within a positivist framework has shown that goal setting is a particularly useful method for influencing task performance in occupational and industrial contexts. The conditions under which goal setting is maximally effective are now clearly established. These include situations where there is a high level of acceptance and commitment, where goals are specific and challenging, where the task is relatively simple rather than ...

  7. Alcohol myopia and goal commitment

    OpenAIRE

    Sevincer, A. Timur; Oettingen, Gabriele

    2014-01-01

    According to alcohol myopia theory, acute alcohol consumption leads people to disproportionally focus on the salient rather than the peripheral aspects of a situation. We summarize various studies exploring how myopic processes resulting from acute alcohol intake affect goal commitment. After consuming alcohol student participants felt strongly committed to an important personal goal even though they had low expectations of successfully attaining the goal. However, once intoxicated participan...

  8. From good intentions to healthy habits: towards integrated computational models of goal striving and habit formation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pirolli, Peter

    2016-08-01

    Computational models were developed in the ACT-R neurocognitive architecture to address some aspects of the dynamics of behavior change. The simulations aim to address the day-to-day goal achievement data available from mobile health systems. The models refine current psychological theories of self-efficacy, intended effort, and habit formation, and provide an account for the mechanisms by which goal personalization, implementation intentions, and remindings work.

  9. Diabetic patients' knowledge of therapeutic goals in Kuwait.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Awad, Abdelmoneim; Dalle, Hala; Enlund, Hannes

    2011-01-01

    This study was conducted to analyze patients' knowledge about therapeutic goals for diabetic patients and factors associated with good knowledge. A total of 266 diabetic patients were randomly selected from 6 diabetes clinics in Kuwait to be included in a cross-sectional patient survey. Data were collected via face-to-face structured interviews using a pretested questionnaire. Descriptive and logistic regression analysis was used in data analysis. The response rate was 93% (n = 247). The percentages [95% confidence interval (CI)] of patients who reported knowing their recent levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), blood pressure (BP), and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) were 5% (2-8), 54% (48-60), and 8% (5-11), respectively. The percentages (95% CI) of patients who admitted knowing the target goals for LDL-C, BP, HbA1c, fasting, and postprandial blood glucose levels were 3% (1-6), 49% (43-55), 6% (3-9), 62% (56-68) and 55% (49-61), respectively. Correct target goals for LDL-C, BP, HbA1c, fasting, and postprandial blood glucose levels were reported by 2% (1-4), 43% (37-49), 5% (2-8), 60% (54-66), and 47% (41-53), respectively. Those with a high education (OR = 4.76; 95% CI 2.34-9.68) and those with a family history of diabetes (OR = 3.05; 95% CI 1.50-6.19) had good knowledge about correct targets. The current findings revealed that lack of knowledge about recent levels of BP, LDL-C and HbA1c and therapeutic goals was alarmingly high, which highlights the need for the implementation of an effective multidisciplinary team approach to encourage patient education and self-care. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  10. Waste minimization and the goal of an environmentally benign plutonium processing facility: A strategic plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pillay, K.K.S.

    1994-02-01

    To maintain capabilities in nuclear weapons technologies, the Department of Energy (DOE) has to maintain a plutonium processing facility that meets all the current and emerging standards of environmental regulations. A strategic goal to transform the Plutonium Processing Facility at Los Alamos into an environmentally benign operation is identified. A variety of technologies and systems necessary to meet this goal are identified. Two initiatives now in early stages of implementation are described in some detail. A highly motivated and trained work force and a systems approach to waste minimization and pollution prevention are necessary to maintain technical capabilities, to comply with regulations, and to meet the strategic goal

  11. The GOFC-GOLD/CEOS Land Cover Harmonization and Validation Initiative: Technical Design and Implementation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herold, M.; Woodcock, C.; Stehman, S.; Nightingale, J.; Friedl, M.; Schmullius, C.

    2010-12-01

    A global effort to assess the accuracy of existing and future land cover products derived from a variety of satellite sensors over a range of spatial resolutions is being led by the Land Cover Implementation Team (LC-IT) of GOFC/GOLD (Global Observation of Land Cover Dynamics) in conjunction with the CEOS (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites) WGCV (Working Group on Calibration and Validation) LPV (Land Product Validation) subgroup. The first phase of this effort is complete and culminated in a publication of community consensus "best practices" for validation of global land cover datasets (2). The next phase is to implement the recommendations outlined in the "best practices" document. A "living database" of global randomized sample sites will form the basis of accuracy assessment for a host of global land cover products (GLC2000, MODIS land cover, GLOBCOVER, United Nation's Forest Resource Assessment (FRA2010), and the Mid-Decadal Global Land Survey. This "living dataset" will also be a community resource available for use in validation of regional or national mapping efforts using LCCS (UN FAO's Land Cover Classification System). Based on the known accuracy of existing land cover products, GOFC/GOLD will to develop and update a "best currently available" global land cover map. Individual geographic regions may be selected from different land cover products (global, national or regional), or they may be combined in various ways

  12. On approximating restricted cycle covers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Manthey, Bodo

    2008-01-01

    A cycle cover of a graph is a set of cycles such that every vertex is part of exactly one cycle. An $L$-cycle cover is a cycle cover in which the length of every cycle is in the set $L$. The weight of a cycle cover of an edge-weighted graph is the sum of the weights of its edges. We come close to

  13. Artificial neural network model for prediction of safety performance indicators goals in nuclear plants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Souto, Kelling C.; Nunes, Wallace W. [Instituto Federal de Educacao, Ciencia e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro, Nilopolis, RJ (Brazil). Lab. de Aplicacoes Computacionais; Machado, Marcelo D., E-mail: dornemd@eletronuclear.gov.b [ELETROBRAS Termonuclear S.A. (ELETRONUCLEAR), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Gerencia de Combustivel Nuclear - GCN.T

    2011-07-01

    Safety performance indicators have been developed to provide a quantitative indication of the performance and safety in various industry sectors. These indexes can provide assess to aspects ranging from production, design, and human performance up to management issues in accordance with policy, objectives and goals of the company. The use of safety performance indicators in nuclear power plants around the world is a reality. However, it is necessary to periodically set goal values. Such goals are targets relating to each of the indicators to be achieved by the plant over a predetermined period of operation. The current process of defining these goals is carried out by experts in a subjective way, based on actual data from the plant, and comparison with global indices. Artificial neural networks are computational techniques that present a mathematical model inspired by the neural structure of intelligent organisms that acquire knowledge through experience. This paper proposes an artificial neural network model aimed at predicting values of goals to be used in the evaluation of safety performance indicators for nuclear power plants. (author)

  14. Artificial neural network model for prediction of safety performance indicators goals in nuclear plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Souto, Kelling C.; Nunes, Wallace W.; Machado, Marcelo D.

    2011-01-01

    Safety performance indicators have been developed to provide a quantitative indication of the performance and safety in various industry sectors. These indexes can provide assess to aspects ranging from production, design, and human performance up to management issues in accordance with policy, objectives and goals of the company. The use of safety performance indicators in nuclear power plants around the world is a reality. However, it is necessary to periodically set goal values. Such goals are targets relating to each of the indicators to be achieved by the plant over a predetermined period of operation. The current process of defining these goals is carried out by experts in a subjective way, based on actual data from the plant, and comparison with global indices. Artificial neural networks are computational techniques that present a mathematical model inspired by the neural structure of intelligent organisms that acquire knowledge through experience. This paper proposes an artificial neural network model aimed at predicting values of goals to be used in the evaluation of safety performance indicators for nuclear power plants. (author)

  15. Essential variables help to focus sustainable development goals monitoring

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Reyers, B

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available indicators [1], each one of which relies on existing and new multiple data streams for its development (Figure 1a). Under this current proliferation logic, the process of developing an SDG monitoring system inexorably results in an ever-expanding set....sciencedirect.com Essential Sustainable Development Goal Variables Reyers et al. 99abstraction provides a degree of independence from observations, thus accommodating multiple diverse pri- mary data streams across regions and sections, as well as the flexibility to meet...

  16. APPLICATION OF GOAL SETTING THEORY

    OpenAIRE

    Yurtkoru, E. Serra; Bozkurt, Tulay; Bekta, Fatos; Ahmed, Mahir Jibril; Kola, Vehap

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to test the goal theorymodel originally developed by Locke and Latham in organizational setting inTurkey, and explain its influence on job satisfaction and affective commitment.Also mediating role of task specific strategy and moderating role ofselfefficacy are examined. Locke and Latham’s goal setting measure is adaptedto Turkish. Survey method is employed to collect data from 222 respondents fromautomotive industry. Goal setting dimensions predicted affective co...

  17. A Multi-Criteria Goal Programming Model to Analyze the Sustainable Goals of India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Srikant Gupta

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available There is an ever-growing demand for sustainable development (SD plans, in order to foster a country’s economic growth by implementing suitable policies and initiative programs for the development of the primary, the secondary and the tertiary sectors. We present a multi-criteria modeling approach using the linear programming problem (LPP framework for a simultaneous optimization of these three sectors. Furthermore, we develop a fuzzy goal programming (FGP model that provides an optimal allocation of resources by achieving future goals on the gross domestic product (GDP, the electricity consumption (EC and the greenhouse gas (GHG emissions. Furthermore, a weighted model of FGP is presented to obtain varying solutions according to the priorities set by the decision-maker for achieving future goals of GDP growth, EC and GHG emissions. The presented models provide useful insight for decision-makers when implementing strategies across different sectors. As a model country, we chose India by the year 2030. A study of economic policies and sustainable development goals (SDGs for India is finally carried out.

  18. Aiming at a Moving Target: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations in the Study of Intraindividual Goal Conflict between Personal Goals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julia Gorges

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Multiple-goal pursuit and conflict between personal life-defining goals can be considered part of everyday business in most individuals' lives. Given the potentially detrimental effects of goal conflict—for example, impaired well-being or poor performance—the literature on goal conflict is surprisingly scattered due to heterogeneous methodological approaches and technical terms. Little empirical research has addressed the conceptualization of goal conflict against the background of differing understandings from a structure-like and a process-like perspective. In the present article, we outline theoretical foundations of goal conflict from two perspectives: a structure- and a process-like perspective. Based on a comparative analysis and integration of these two perspectives, we systematically review empirical studies on goal conflict over 30 years of research. In doing so, we identify and discuss important conceptual dimensions of goal conflict, namely, goal conflict as a cognitive construct and an experiential instance, a focus on goal interrelations or on specific goal properties, and resource vs. inherent conflict, and the potential of these distinctions to further research on goal conflict. Finally, we present major challenges and pose questions that need to be addressed by future research.

  19. Aiming at a Moving Target: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations in the Study of Intraindividual Goal Conflict between Personal Goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorges, Julia; Grund, Axel

    2017-01-01

    Multiple-goal pursuit and conflict between personal life-defining goals can be considered part of everyday business in most individuals' lives. Given the potentially detrimental effects of goal conflict-for example, impaired well-being or poor performance-the literature on goal conflict is surprisingly scattered due to heterogeneous methodological approaches and technical terms. Little empirical research has addressed the conceptualization of goal conflict against the background of differing understandings from a structure-like and a process-like perspective. In the present article, we outline theoretical foundations of goal conflict from two perspectives: a structure- and a process-like perspective. Based on a comparative analysis and integration of these two perspectives, we systematically review empirical studies on goal conflict over 30 years of research. In doing so, we identify and discuss important conceptual dimensions of goal conflict, namely, goal conflict as a cognitive construct and an experiential instance, a focus on goal interrelations or on specific goal properties, and resource vs. inherent conflict, and the potential of these distinctions to further research on goal conflict. Finally, we present major challenges and pose questions that need to be addressed by future research.

  20. EroGRASS : Failure of grass cover layers at seaward and shoreward dike slopes. design, construction and performance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Verhagen, H.J.; Verheij, H.J.; Cao, T.M.; Dassanayake, D.; Roelvink, D.; Piontkowitz, T.

    2009-01-01

    A large number of the dikes in the North Sea and Baltic Sea regions are covered with grass that is exposed to hydraulic loading from waves and currents during storm surges. During previous storm surges the grass cover layers often showed large strength and remained undamaged. A clear physical

  1. [Transition from Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals from the perspective of the social determinants of health and health equity].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Urbina-Fuentes, Manue; Jasso-Gutiérrez, Luis; Schiavon-Ermani, Raffaela; Lozano, Rafael; Finkelman, Jacobo

    2017-01-01

    The United Nations Declaration of 2000 agreed on eight millennium development goals (MDGs) to be met in 2015. The results show that poverty continues through population growth and advances in both rich and poor countries are threatened by economic crises and inequities in geographic areas and population groups within countries. In a globalized world with great social and economic inequalities, from the perspective of the social determinants of health (SDH), the relevance of the new 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) is greater. Faced with the health challenges in our country to achieve SDGs, the symposium "The transition from MDGs to SDGs from the perspective of SDH and health equity" was presented at the XLIV Congress of the National Academy of Medicine. The presentations dealt with five important aspects of the transition in Mexico: background and context; the current state of the MDGs in childhood; the impact on gender equity and adolescent fertility; the health system and the theme of environmental health and were presented by Dr. Raffaela Schiavon, Jacobo Finkelman, Luis Jasso and Rafael Lozano.

  2. The Influence of Money on Goal Pursuit and Decision-Making: Understanding Money's Unique Impact on Goal Pursuit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moran, Nora

    Previous research suggests that activating concepts of money and wealth can increase motivation to achieve personal goals. In this dissertation, I investigate how money affects pursuit of important personal goals, and how this motivation may be affected by goal attainability. In eight studies, I show that priming concepts of money and wealth leads individuals to pursue important personal goals to a greater degree than control groups, but only when a goal is more attainable. In contrast, when a goal is less attainable, those primed with money will be less likely to work towards goals relative to control groups. Furthermore, I examine why money may have a detrimental effect on motivation when individuals are faced with less attainable but important goals, and argue those primed with money become more concerned with maintaining a sense of efficacy, and thus disengage from pursuit when success is less certain. Thus, this research identifies the needs made salient by activating money--validating one's abilities. Finally, I show the relevance of these findings for consumer behavior, and discuss the additional implications of this work, as well as future research directions.

  3. Saving for Success: Financial Education and Savings Goal Achievement in Individual Development Accounts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grinstead, Mary L.; Mauldin, Teresa; Sabia, Joseph J.; Koonce, Joan; Palmer, Lance

    2011-01-01

    Using microdata from the American Dream Demonstration, the current study examines factors associated with savings and savings goal achievement (indicated by a matched withdrawal) among participants of individual development account (IDA) programs. Multinomial logit results show that hours of participation in financial education programs, higher…

  4. Patient-relevant treatment goals in psoriasis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blome, Christine; Gosau, Ramona; Radtke, Marc A; Reich, Kristian; Rustenbach, Stephan J; Spehr, Christina; Thaçi, Diamant; Augustin, Matthias

    2016-03-01

    Patient-oriented care requires therapeutic decisions to agree with the patients' treatment needs and goals. This study addressed the following questions: What is important to psoriasis patients starting systemic treatment? How stable are these preferences within the first year of treatment? Are treatment goals associated with age, gender, or treatment success? The importance of treatment goals was assessed for patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis in the German Psoriasis Registry (PsoBest) at baseline (onset of a systemic treatment; n = 3066) and at a 1-year follow-up (n = 1444) using the Patient Benefit Index (PBI). Treatment success was measured with PBI global score and Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI). Patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis pursued a wide range of different goals. The most general treatment goals were rated most relevant, including skin healing and quick skin improvement (94.8/94.5 % "quite" or "very" important), confidence in the therapy (93.0 %), control over the disease (92.3 %), and a clear diagnosis and therapy (89.6 %). Further important goals related to not being in fear of the disease getting worse (84.8 %), reduction in itching (83.9 %), burning (70.6 %), and pain (60.6 %) as well as attaining a normal everyday life (78.4 %) and low treatment burden (64.2-77.9 %). Goals were mostly not associated with sex and gender. Goal importance slightly increased with treatment success. In a substantial proportion of patients (30.3-54.7 %) goal importance changed within 1 year after onset of systemic treatment. We conclude that treatment goal importance should be assessed in clinical practice on a regular basis.

  5. FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING IN SUDANESE UNIVERSITIES: GOALS, ATTITUDES, AND REALITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdel Rahim Hamid Mugaddam

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: The goals and means of language study continue in the very center of debates among specialists in language teaching/learning. Different views relating to language and its functions are reflected in two main approaches to language teaching/learning. On the one hand, language is considered to be principally instrumental, a means of communicating thought and information. One the other hand, language is viewed as an important element of human being’s thought processes, perceptions, and self-expressions; and as such, it is placed at the core of translingual and transcultural competence. This paper investigates the current situation of teaching/learning foreign languages in the Sudanese universities with special focus on the goals of teaching these languages and their role in students’ future. Goals of language teaching and students’ attitudes towards the process will be related to the job opportunities available for the students on graduation. Data for the paper have been collected using questionnaires and interviews administered to students and teachers from five language departments at Khartoum University: English, French, German, Russian, and Chinese. Questionnaires and interviews on language attitude will be administered among Four-year language majors representing the four departments. The central question the paper tries to answer is whether there is a realistic match between the goals of language teaching/learning set by policy makers and students’ interests and expectations. Results are expected to contribute to the efforts made to restructure language-in-education curriculum at university level in a way that addresses the expectations of both policy makers and students. Keywords: Foreign language teaching and learning, goals, attitude.

  6. Tougher containment design goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Farrelly, C.

    1978-01-01

    Present day LWR containment design goals are reviewed, together with their potential failure modes. Rasmussen's estimates of failure probabilities are discussed and the concept of ''delayed failure'' is seen to be a valuable safety goal for hypothetical accidents. The paper investigates the inherent coremelt resistance capability of various containment designs and suggests improvements, with special emphasis on increasing the failure delay times. (author)

  7. Ecosystem services for meeting sustainable development goals: Challenges and pathways

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huq Nazmul

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper summarizes four presentations of the session “Environment and Wellbeing: The Role of Ecosystems for Sustainable Development” at the international conference “Sustainability in the Water- Energy-Food Nexus” held on 19-20th May 2014 in Bonn, Germany. The aim of the session was to present current stresses on ecosystem services imposed by global development trajectory, potential impacts on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs and pathways to achieve SDGs. All four presentations agreed that global ecosystem services are under increasing pressure from degradation and may not be able to meet the growing Water-Energy- Food (WEF demands especially for the developing world. Three examples from Tanzania, Cambodia and Niger made attempt to understand how governance policies attributed to natural resource depletion such as forestry and common grazing. The examples showed that governance policies favoring economic development are heavily contributing to clearing up natural resource bases. As a result, there were increasing conflicts among different resource user groups. Two other presentations introduce conceptual pathways to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs under current resource stressed regime. The pathways suggested global technologies, decentralized solutions and consumption changes as the major means of achieving global sustainability and poverty eradication without any major trade-offs.

  8. Ecosystem services for meeting sustainable development goals: Challenges and pathways

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huq Nazmul

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper summarizes four presentations of the session “Environment and Wellbeing: The Role of Ecosystems for Sustainable Development” at the international conference “Sustainability in the Water- Energy-Food Nexus” held on 19-20th May 2014 in Bonn, Germany. The aim of the session was to present current stresses on ecosystem services imposed by global development trajectory, potential impacts on future Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs and pathways to achieve SDGs. All four presentations agreed that global ecosystem services are under increasing pressure from degradation and may not be able to meet the growing Water-Energy-Food (WEF demands especially for the developing world. Three examples from Tanzania, Cambodia and Niger made attempt to understand how government policies attributed to natural resource depletion such as forestry and common grazing. The examples showed that institutional policies favoring economic development contributing heavily to clearing up natural resource bases. As a result, there were increasing conflicts among different resource user groups. Two other presentations introduce conceptual pathways to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs under current resource stressed regime. The pathways suggested global technologies, decentralized solutions and consumption changes as the major means of achieving global sustainability and poverty eradication without any major trade-offs.

  9. Path-Goal Theory of Leadership

    Science.gov (United States)

    1975-04-01

    Leadership and Turnover Among Managers ," Organization Behavior and Human Performance, 10(1973), pp. 184-200; R. J. House, "A Path-Goal Theory of...of Leadership ." 6R. J. House and G. Dessler, "Path-Goal Theory of Leadership " R. M. Stqg- dill. Managers , Employees, Organization (Ohio State...of Control." 23 R. J. House, "Notes on the Path-Goal Theory of Leadership " (University of Toronto, Faculty of Management Studies, May 1974). 24 R

  10. Beam current monitors at the UNILAC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schneider, N.

    1998-01-01

    One of the most basic linac operation tools is a beam current transformer. Using outstanding materials, the latest low-noise amplifiers, and some good ideas, a universal current monitoring system has been developed and installed at the UNILAC at GSI. With a dynamic range of 112 dB, covering the low-current range down to 100 nA peak to peak at S/N=1, as well as 25 mA pulses, provided for high-current injection to the SIS synchrotron, a well-accepted diagnostic instrument could be placed at the disposal of the operaters

  11. The Relation Between Goals and Autobiographical Memory

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johannessen, Kim Berg; Rasmussen, Anne Scharling; Berntsen, Dorthe

    facilitate recall of goal congruent autobiographical memories which supports the idea of autobiographical memory facilitating goal attainment. Further, no differences between involuntary and voluntary memories with regard to frequency or characteristics of goal related content were found. Yet memories...... related to goals were rated as more central to the person's identity, life story and expectations for the future than non-goal related memories, irrespective of mode of recall. Interestingly, depression and PTSD symptoms correlated positively with the proportion of goal related memories, thereby......The present study examines involuntary (spontaneously retrieved) versus voluntary (deliberately retrieved) autobiographical memories in relation to earlier registered goals measured by the Personal Concern Inventory (Cox & Klinger, 2000). We found that the important and not yet planned goals...

  12. Effect of repeated mowing to reduce graminoid plant cover on the moss carpet at a Sphagnum farm in North America

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Guêné-Nanchen

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Sphagnum farming is defined as the sustainable production of non-decomposed Sphagnum biomass on a cyclical and renewable basis. In this article, the influence and necessity of mowing graminoid plants to optimise Sphagnum growth in Sphagnum farming basins are examined. Repeated mowing was applied to reduce graminoid plant cover at two different stages of the production cycle (one-year-old and seven-year-old Sphagnum moss carpet at the beginning of the experiment at an experimental Sphagnum farm in eastern Canada. Sphagnum growth (cover, biomass, moss layer thickness was measured after three years of mowing. In addition, a greenhouse experiment was carried out to determine whether there is a threshold for graminoid plant cover beyond which mowing becomes necessary. Sphagnum cover and biomass were not affected by repeated mowing, even if mowing reduced the cover of graminoid plants. Thus, it appears that mowing is unnecessary if the dominant vascular species is a graminoid plant such as Eriophorum angustifolium, which accumulates minimal amounts of litter. Furthermore, high cover of Eriophorum angustifolium (up to 85 % did not affect Sphagnum cover in a density-controlled greenhouse experiment. When the specific goal is Sphagnum fibre production, decisions about control of graminoid plants should be made after considering the cover, life form and litter accumulation potentials of the dominant graminoid species involved.

  13. Indirect benefits of high coral cover for non-corallivorous butterflyfishes

    KAUST Repository

    Pratchett, Morgan S.

    2014-12-23

    Extensive coral loss often leads to pronounced declines in the abundance of fishes, which are not necessarily limited to those fishes that are directly reliant on live coral for food or shelter. This study explored changes in the abundance of two non-corallivorous butterflyfish, Chaetadon auriga and Chaetodon vagabundus, during declines in coral cover at Lizard Island, northern Great Barrier Reef, caused by localised outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS). At North Reef, where COTS caused significant coral depletion, the abundance of C. auriga declined from 1995–1996 to 1997–1999, whereas abundance was unchanged at Washing Machine Reef, which was relatively unaffected by COTS. Abundance of C. vagabundus did not vary through the course of this study at either site. To better understand inter-specific differences in the responses of non-corallivorous butterflyfishes, feeding rates of C. auriga and C. vagabundus were quantified across sites with varying coral cover. Feeding rates of C. auriga were significantly and positively correlated with live coral cover. In contrast, feeding rates of C. vagabundus did not differ among sites with varying levels of live coral cover. This study shows that C. auriga is negatively affected by localised coral depletion, possibly because its prey is more abundant in coral-rich habitats. C. vagabundus, meanwhile, is generally unaffected by changes in coral cover. This study stresses the need for more detailed research in light of current and predicted declines in coral cover to elucidate specific differences in the dietary composition of C. auriga versus C. vagabundus, and the extent to which their prey is actually reliant on live coral.

  14. The goal(s) of corporate rescue in company law: A comparative analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Anthony O. Nwafor

    2017-01-01

    The concept of corporate rescue lays emphasis on corporate sustainability than liquidation. This trend in corporate legislation which featured in the United Kingdom Insolvency Act of 1986, Australian Corporations Act 2001, Indian Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act of 1985 (as replaced by Companies Act, 2013 and supplanted by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016) has been adopted in the South African Companies Act of 2008. The goal(s) of corporate rescue in some of these ju...

  15. Measuring what matters to patients: Using goal content to inform measure choice and development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacob, Jenna; Edbrooke-Childs, Julian; Law, Duncan; Wolpert, Miranda

    2017-04-01

    Personalised care requires personalised outcomes and ways of feeding back clinically useful information to clinicians and practitioners, but it is not clear how to best personalise outcome measurement and feedback using existing standardised outcome measures. The constant comparison method of grounded theory was used to compare goal themes derived from goals set at the outset of therapy for 180 children aged between 4 and 17 years, visiting eight child and adolescent mental health services, to existing standardised outcome measures used as part of common national datasets. In all, 20 out of 27 goal themes corresponded to items on at least one commonly used outcome measure. Consideration of goal themes helped to identify potential relevant outcome measures. However, there were several goal themes that were not captured by items on standardised outcome measures. These seemed to be related to existential factors such as understanding, thinking about oneself and future planning. This presents a powerful framework for how clinicians can use goals to help select a standardised outcome measure (where this is helpful) in addition to the use of a goal-based outcome measure and personalise choices. There may be areas not captured by standardised outcome measures that may be important for children and young people and which may only be currently captured in goal measurement. There is an indication that we may not be measuring what is important to children and young people. We may need to develop or look for new measures that capture these areas.

  16. Doctoral Theses from Nursing Postgraduate Programs in Brazil and their Association with the Millennium Development Goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodrigues, Rosalina Aparecida Partezani; Robazzi, Maria Lúcia do Carmo Cruz; Erdmann, Alacoque Lorenzini; Fernandes, Josicélia Dumet; de Barros, Alba Lucia Bottura Leite; Ramos, Flávia Regina Souza

    2015-01-01

    The Millennium Development Goals are centered around combatting poverty and other social evils all over the world. Thus, this study seeks to identify the Millennium Development Goals as an object of study in theses from Postgraduate Nursing Programs in Brazil scoring 5 (national excellence) and 6 or 7 (international excellence), and evaluate the association between the score for the program and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Exploratory descriptive document research. Data were collected from the Notes on Indicators/Coordination for Higher Education Personnel Improvement for the 15 Postgraduate Nursing Courses scoring between 5 and 7 in the three-year-period of 2010/2012. of the 8 Millennium Development Objectives, 6 were dealt with in the theses. There was an association (Fisher's exact test p-value=0.0059) between the distribution of the theses and the program scores in relation to the Millennium Development Objectives (p-valor=0.0347)CONCLUSION: the doctoral theses were slightly related to the Millennium Development Objectives, covering the population's economic development, health conditions and quality of life. It is recommended that Postgraduate Programs in Nursing pay closer attention to the Millennium Development Objectives.

  17. Doctoral Theses from Nursing Postgraduate Programs in Brazil and their Association with the Millennium Development Goals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rosalina Aparecida Partezani Rodrigues

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVES: The Millennium Development Goals are centered around combatting poverty and other social evils all over the world. Thus, this study seeks to identify the Millennium Development Goals as an object of study in theses from Postgraduate Nursing Programs in Brazil scoring 5 (national excellence and 6 or 7 (international excellence, and evaluate the association between the score for the program and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.METHOD: Exploratory descriptive document research. Data were collected from the Notes on Indicators/Coordination for Higher Education Personnel Improvement for the 15 Postgraduate Nursing Courses scoring between 5 and 7 in the three-year-period of 2010/2012.RESULTS: of the 8 Millennium Development Objectives, 6 were dealt with in the theses. There was an association (Fisher's exact test p-value=0.0059 between the distribution of the theses and the program scores in relation to the Millennium Development Objectives (p-valor=0.0347CONCLUSION: the doctoral theses were slightly related to the Millennium Development Objectives, covering the population's economic development, health conditions and quality of life. It is recommended that Postgraduate Programs in Nursing pay closer attention to the Millennium Development Objectives..

  18. Assessing the impact of climate variability on catchment water balance and vegetation cover

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    X. Xu

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Understanding the interactions among climate, vegetation cover and the water cycle lies at the heart of the study of watershed ecohydrology. Recently, considerable attention is being paid to the effect of climate variability on catchment water balance and also associated vegetation cover. In this paper, we investigate the general pattern of long-term water balance and vegetation cover (as reflected by fPAR among 193 study catchments in Australia through statistical analysis. We then employ the elasticity analysis approach for quantifying the effects of climate variability on hydrologic partitioning (including total, surface and subsurface runoff and on vegetation cover (including total, woody and non-woody vegetation cover. Based on the results of statistical analysis, we conclude that annual runoff (R, evapotranspiration (E and runoff coefficient (R/P increase with vegetation cover for catchments in which woody vegetation is dominant and annual precipitation is relatively high. Control of water available on annual evapotranspiration in non-woody dominated catchments is relatively stronger compared to woody dominated ones. The ratio of subsurface runoff to total runoff (Rg/R also increases with woody vegetation cover. Through the elasticity analysis of catchment runoff, it is shown that precipitation (P in current year is the most important factor affecting the change in annual total runoff (R, surface runoff (Rs and subsurface runoff (Rg. The significance of other controlling factors is in the order of annual precipitation in previous years (P−1 and P−2, which represents the net effect of soil moisture and annual mean temperature (T in current year. Change of P by +1% causes a +3.35% change of R, a +3.47% change of Rs and a +2.89% change of

  19. A Decade of Annual National Land Cover Products - the Cropland Data Layer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mueller, R.; Johnson, D. M.; Sandborn, A.; Willis, P.; Ebinger, L.; Yang, Z.; Seffrin, R.; Boryan, C. G.; Hardin, R.

    2017-12-01

    The Cropland Data Layer (CDL) is a national land cover product produced by the US Department of Agriculture/National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to assess planted crop acreage on an annual basis. The 2017 CDL product serves as the decadal anniversary for the mapping of conterminous US agriculture. The CDL is a supervised land cover classification derived from medium resolution Earth observing satellites that capture crop phenology throughout the growing season, leveraging confidentially held ground reference information from the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) as training data. The CDL currently uses ancillary geospatial data from the US Geological Survey's National Land Cover Database (NLCD), and Imperviousness and Forest Canopy layers as well as the National Elevation Dataset as training for the non-agricultural domain. Accuracy assessments are documented and released annually with metadata publication. NASS is currently reprocessing the 2008 and 2009 CDL products to 30m resolution. They were originally processed and released at 56m based on the Resourcesat-1 AWiFS sensor. Additionally, best practices learned from processing the FSA ground reference data were applied to the historical training set, providing an enhanced classification at 30m. The release of these reprocessed products in the fall of 2017, along with the 2017 CDL annual product will be discussed and will complete a decade's worth of annual 30m products. Discussions of change and trend analytics as well as partnerships with key industry stakeholders will be displayed on the evolution and improvements made to this decadal geospatial crop specific land cover product.

  20. Food consumption by young children: a function of parental feeding goals and practices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiefner-Burmeister, Allison E; Hoffmann, Debra A; Meers, Molly R; Koball, Afton M; Musher-Eizenman, Dara R

    2014-03-01

    Staggering health implications are associated with poor child diet. Given the importance of parents in impacting children's eating outcomes, the current study examined a theoretical framework in which both parental feeding goals and practices impact specific healthy and unhealthy child eating behaviors. Participants were 171 mothers of 3-6year old children who were diverse both socioeconomically and with regard to BMI. Mothers completed questionnaires via Mechanical Turk, an online workforce through Amazon.com. Structural Equation Modeling showed an adequate model fit in which Negative Feeding Practices (e.g., using food as a reward) mediated the relationship between Health-Related Feeding Goals (i.e., feeding children with health-oriented goals in mind) and Negative Eating Behaviors (e.g., consumption of candy and snacks). However, Negative Feeding Practices did not mediate the relationship between Health-Related Feeding Goals and Positive Eating Behaviors (i.e., fruits and vegetables). These findings suggest the important role of habitual food parenting practices in children's eating and have implications for parental health education programs. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. A watershed-scale goals approach to assessing and funding wastewater infrastructure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahm, Brian G; Vedachalam, Sridhar; Shen, Jerry; Woodbury, Peter B; Riha, Susan J

    2013-11-15

    Capital needs during the next twenty years for public wastewater treatment, piping, combined sewer overflow correction, and storm-water management are estimated to be approximately $300 billion for the USA. Financing these needs is a significant challenge, as Federal funding for the Clean Water Act has been reduced by 70% during the last twenty years. There is an urgent need for new approaches to assist states and other decision makers to prioritize wastewater maintenance and improvements. We present a methodology for performing an integrated quantitative watershed-scale goals assessment for sustaining wastewater infrastructure. We applied this methodology to ten watersheds of the Hudson-Mohawk basin in New York State, USA that together are home to more than 2.7 million people, cover 3.5 million hectares, and contain more than 36,000 km of streams. We assembled data on 183 POTWs treating approximately 1.5 million m(3) of wastewater per day. For each watershed, we analyzed eight metrics: Growth Capacity, Capacity Density, Soil Suitability, Violations, Tributary Length Impacted, Tributary Capital Cost, Volume Capital Cost, and Population Capital Cost. These metrics were integrated into three goals for watershed-scale management: Tributary Protection, Urban Development, and Urban-Rural Integration. Our results demonstrate that the methodology can be implemented using widely available data, although some verification of data is required. Furthermore, we demonstrate substantial differences in character, need, and the appropriateness of different management strategies among the ten watersheds. These results suggest that it is feasible to perform watershed-scale goals assessment to augment existing approaches to wastewater infrastructure analysis and planning. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Completion of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 1992-2001 Land Cover Change Retrofit Product

    Science.gov (United States)

    The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium has supported the development of two national digital land cover products: the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) 1992 and National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001. Substantial differences in imagery, legends, and methods betwe...

  3. The drive to strive: goal generation based on current needs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elisabeth A Murray

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Hungry animals are influenced by a multitude of different factors when foraging for sustenance. Much of the work on animal foraging has focused on factors relating to the amount of time and energy animals expend searching for and harvesting foods. Models that emphasize such factors have been invaluable in determining when it is beneficial for an animal to search for pastures new. When foraging, however, animals also have to determine how to direct their search. For what food should they forage? There is no point searching for more of a particular food when you are sated from eating it. Here we review work in macaques and humans that has sought to reveal the neural circuits critical for determining the subjective value of different foods and associated objects in our environment and tracking this value over time. There is mounting evidence that a network composed of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC, amygdala and medial thalamus is critical for linking objects in the environment with food value and adjusting those valuations in real time based on current biological needs. Temporal inactivation studies have revealed that the amygdala and OFC play distinct, but complementary roles in this valuation process. Such a network for determining the subjective value of different foods and, by extension, associated objects, must interact with systems that determine where and for how long to forage. Only by efficiently incorporating these two factors into their decisions will animals be able to achieve maximal fitness.

  4. Current concerns in involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memories

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johannessen, Kim Berg; Berntsen, Dorthe

    2010-01-01

    Involuntary autobiographical memories are conscious memories of personal events that come to mind with no preceding attempts at retrieval. It is often assumed that such memories are closely related to current concerns - i.e., uncompleted personal goals. Here we examined involuntary versus volunta...... concern related involuntary and voluntary memories. The findings support the view that involuntary and voluntary remembering is subject to similar motivational constraints.......Involuntary autobiographical memories are conscious memories of personal events that come to mind with no preceding attempts at retrieval. It is often assumed that such memories are closely related to current concerns - i.e., uncompleted personal goals. Here we examined involuntary versus voluntary...... (deliberately retrieved) autobiographical memories in relation to earlier registered current concerns measured by the Personal Concern Inventory (PCI; Cox & Klinger, 2000). We found no differences between involuntary and voluntary memories with regard to frequency or characteristics of current concern related...

  5. Climate Impacts of Cover Crops

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lombardozzi, D.; Wieder, W. R.; Bonan, G. B.; Morris, C. K.; Grandy, S.

    2016-12-01

    Cover crops are planted in agricultural rotation with the intention of protecting soil rather than harvest. Cover crops have numerous environmental benefits that include preventing soil erosion, increasing soil fertility, and providing weed and pest control- among others. In addition to localized environmental benefits, cover crops can have important regional or global biogeochemical impacts by increasing soil organic carbon, changing emissions of greenhouse trace gases like nitrous oxide and methane, and reducing hydrologic nitrogen losses. Cover crops may additionally affect climate by changing biogeophysical processes, like albedo and latent heat flux, though these potential changes have not yet been evaluated. Here we use the coupled Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5) - Community Land Model (CLM4.5) to test how planting cover crops in the United States may change biogeophysical fluxes and climate. We present seasonal changes in albedo, heat fluxes, evaporative partitioning, radiation, and the resulting changes in temperature. Preliminary analyses show that during seasons when cover crops are planted, latent heat flux increases and albedo decreases, changing the evaporative fraction and surface temperatures. Understanding both the biogeophysical changes caused by planting cover crops in this study and the biogeochemical changes found in other studies will give a clearer picture of the overall impacts of cover crops on climate and atmospheric chemistry, informing how this land use strategy will impact climate in the future.

  6. Carbon mapping of Argentine savannas: Using fractional tree cover to scale from field to region

    Science.gov (United States)

    González-Roglich, M.; Swenson, J. J.

    2015-12-01

    Programs which intend to maintain or enhance carbon (C) stocks in natural ecosystems are promising, but require detailed and spatially explicit C distribution models to monitor the effectiveness of management interventions. Savanna ecosystems are significant components of the global C cycle, covering about one fifth of the global land mass, but they have received less attention in C monitoring protocols. Our goal was to estimate C storage across a broad savanna ecosystem using field surveys and freely available satellite images. We first mapped tree canopies at 2.5 m resolution with a spatial subset of high resolution panchromatic images to then predict regional wall-to-wall tree percent cover using 30-m Landsat imagery and the Random Forests algorithms. We found that a model with summer and winter spectral indices from Landsat, climate and topography performed best. Using a linear relationship between C and % tree cover, we then predicted tree C stocks across the gradient of tree cover, explaining 87 % of the variability. The spatially explicit validation of the tree C model with field-measured C-stocks revealed an RMSE of 8.2 tC/ha which represented ~30% of the mean C stock for areas with tree cover, comparable to studies based on more advanced remote sensing methods, such as LiDAR and RADAR. Sample spatial distribution highly affected the performance of the RF models in predicting tree cover, raising concerns regarding the predictive capabilities of the model in areas for which training data is not present. The 50,000 km2 has ~41 Tg C, which could be released to the atmosphere if agricultural pressure intensifies in this semiarid savanna.

  7. Does Context, Practice or Competition Affect Female Athletes’ Achievement Goal Dominance, Goal Pursuit, Burnout and Motivation?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernández-Rio Javier

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available The goal of this study was to assess the effects of two different achievement sport contexts, practice and competition, on the motivational profile of professional/semi-professional athletes. Forty-eight Spanish national/international-level female athletes (basketball = 18; handball = 12; soccer = 11; volleyball = 7, mean age 25.14 ± 3.43 years, agreed to participate in the study. They completed a questionnaire, prior and after training and competition, to assess achievement goals, achievement goal dominance, goal pursuit, motivational climate, motivation, burnout and perceived recovery-exertion. Data analyses revealed that, both in practice and competition, these team-sport athletes overwhelmingly showed a strong mastery-approach achievement goal in dominance as well as in pursuit. A significant finding was that this group of national/international-level, professional/semi-professional athletes not only adopted a mastery-approach achievement goal, but they also actively pursued it. It is also remarkable that this profile remained stable at post-tests, even after a painful defeat in competition, which produced a significant negative effect on the athletes’ burnout (emotional and physical exhaustion and devaluation of sport participation and self-determined motivation. As expected, the difference between total recovery and perceived exertion significantly increased after practice and competition. National/international-level team-sport professional/semi-professional female athletes held and pursue stable mastery-approach goal dominance.

  8. Lake Michigan Diversion Accounting land cover change estimation by use of the National Land Cover Dataset and raingage network partitioning analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharpe, Jennifer B.; Soong, David T.

    2015-01-01

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Chicago District, is responsible for monitoring and computation of the quantity of Lake Michigan water diverted by the State of Illinois. As part of this effort, the USACE uses the Hydrological Simulation Program–FORTRAN (HSPF) with measured meteorological data inputs to estimate runoff from the Lake Michigan diversion special contributing areas (SCAs), the North Branch Chicago River above Niles and the Little Calumet River above South Holland gaged basins, and the Lower Des Plaines and the Calumet ungaged that historically drained to Lake Michigan. These simulated runoffs are used for estimating the total runoff component from the diverted Lake Michigan watershed, which is accountable to the total diversion by the State of Illinois. The runoff is simulated from three interpreted land cover types in the HSPF models: impervious, grass, and forest. The three land cover data types currently in use were derived from aerial photographs acquired in the early 1990s.

  9. Cookery demonstrations in GOAL supported clinics

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    stunting are high, and various micronutrient deficiencies, including those of ... the household are the underlying causes seen in GOAL- assisted areas. ... feeding. Thus, the nutrition cookery demonstration activity has come to play an important role in mother and child health activities in GOAL-supported clinics and GOAL's.

  10. GOAL Agents Instantiate Intention Logic

    OpenAIRE

    Hindriks, Koen; van der Hoek, Wiebe

    2008-01-01

    It is commonly believed there is a big gap between agent logics and computational agent frameworks. In this paper, we show that this gap is not as big as believed by showing that GOAL agents instantiate Intention Logic of Cohen and Levesque. That is, we show that GOAL agent programs can be formally related to Intention Logic.We do so by proving that the GOAL Verification Logic can be embedded into Intention Logic. It follows that (a fragment of) Intention Logic can be used t...

  11. Identity, Intimacy, Status and Sex Dating Goals as Correlates of Goal-Consistent Behavior and Satisfaction in Australian Youth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, Marguerite; Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie J.; Boislard-P., Marie-Aude

    2012-01-01

    The most common dating goals of adolescents are identity, intimacy, status and sex. In this study of Australian youth (16-30 years, N = 208), dating goals were expected to explain goal-consistent behavior in each domain. Also, goals coupled with consistent behavior were expected to be associated with greater satisfaction in each domain. Age,…

  12. Integrated learning through student goal development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, Deborah; Tschannen, Dana; Caylor, Shandra

    2013-09-01

    New strategies are emerging to promote structure and increase learning in the clinical setting. Nursing faculty designed a mechanism by which integrative learning and situated coaching could occur more readily in the clinical setting. The Clinical Goals Initiative was implemented for sophomore-, junior-, and senior-level students in their clinical practicums. Students developed weekly goals reflecting three domains of professional nursing practice. Goals were shared with faculty and staff nurse mentors at the beginning of the clinical day to help guide students and mentors with planning for learning experiences. After 6 weeks, faculty and students were surveyed to evaluate project effectiveness. Faculty indicated that goal development facilitated clinical learning by providing more student engagement, direction, and focus. Students reported that goal development allowed them to optimize clinical learning opportunities and track their growth and progress. Faculty and students indicated the goals promoted student self-learning, autonomy, and student communication with nurse mentors and faculty. Copyright 2013, SLACK Incorporated.

  13. Ready for goal setting? Process evaluation of a patient-specific goal-setting method in physiotherapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stevens, Anita; Köke, Albère; van der Weijden, Trudy; Beurskens, Anna

    2017-08-31

    Patient participation and goal setting appear to be difficult in daily physiotherapy practice, and practical methods are lacking. An existing patient-specific instrument, Patient-Specific Complaints (PSC), was therefore optimized into a new Patient Specific Goal-setting method (PSG). The aims of this study were to examine the feasibility of the PSG in daily physiotherapy practice, and to explore the potential impact of the new method. We conducted a process evaluation within a non-controlled intervention study. Community-based physiotherapists were instructed on how to work with the PSG in three group training sessions. The PSG is a six-step method embedded across the physiotherapy process, in which patients are stimulated to participate in the goal-setting process by: identifying problematic activities, prioritizing them, scoring their abilities, setting goals, planning and evaluating. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected among patients and physiotherapists by recording consultations and assessing patient files, questionnaires and written reflection reports. Data were collected from 51 physiotherapists and 218 patients, and 38 recordings and 219 patient files were analysed. The PSG steps were performed as intended, but the 'setting goals' and 'planning treatment' steps were not performed in detail. The patients and physiotherapists were positive about the method, and the physiotherapists perceived increased patient participation. They became aware of the importance of engaging patients in a dialogue, instead of focusing on gathering information. The lack of integration in the electronic patient system was a major barrier for optimal use in practice. Although the self-reported actual use of the PSG, i.e. informing and involving patients, and client-centred competences had improved, this was not completely confirmed by the objectively observed behaviour. The PSG is a feasible method and tends to have impact on increasing patient participation in the goal

  14. The Sustainable Development Goals: An Experience on Higher Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bárbara Crespo

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Sustainable development is acquiring high attendance in higher education. In fact, one of the targets for the Sustainable Development Goals announced by the United Nations in September 2015 aims to ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, thorough education on sustainable development. The current study focuses on the evaluation of individual works based on the sustainable development suggested to students in a subject of the Master’s of Thermal Engineering at the University of Vigo. In addition, a sustainable holistic rubric is presented, which was used to analyze the ability of the students to incorporate sustainability principles in their work. The rubric was based on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the associated targets of the United Nations, more specifically on the Goals 7, 8, 12, and 13. A total of 10 works were evaluated. As a general conclusion, it was found that the students generally do not consider or consider to a lower extent the economic criteria opposite to the environmental, technical, and social dimensions. The environmental sub-criterion were applied to a greater extent in the development of the works. However, the technical and social dimensions were included to a greater or lesser extent depending on the type of work developed.

  15. Safety goals for commercial nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roe, J.W.

    1988-01-01

    In its official policy statement on safety goals for the operation of nuclear power plants, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) set two qualitative goals, supported by two quantitative objectives. These goals are that (1) individual members of the public should be provided a level of protection from the consequences of nuclear power plant operation such that individuals bear no significant additional risk to life and health; and (2) societal risks to life and health from nuclear power plant operation should be comparable to or less than the risks of generating electricity by viable competing technologies and should not be a significant addition to other societal risks. As an alternative, this study proposes four quantitative safety goals for nuclear power plants. It begins with an analysis of the NRC's safety-goal development process, a key portion of which was devoted to delineating criteria for evaluating goal-development methods. Based on this analysis, recommendations for revision of the NRC's basic benchmarks for goal development are proposed. Using the revised criteria, NRC safety goals are evaluated, and the alternative safety goals are proposed. To further support these recommendations, both the NRC's goals and the proposed goals are compared with the results of three major probabilistic risk assessment studies. Finally, the potential impact of these recommendations on nuclear safety is described

  16. Illegitimacy Improves Goal Pursuit in Powerless Individuals

    OpenAIRE

    Willis , Guillermo B.; Guinote , Ana; Rodríguez-Bailón , Rosa

    2009-01-01

    Abstract The effects of power legitimacy on self-regulation during goal pursuit were examined. Study 1 focused on goal-setting and goal-striving. Specifically, it examined how much time legitimate and illegitimate powerless individuals needed to set goals, and how many means they generated to pursue these goals. Study 2 examined persistence in the face of difficulties. Consistently across these studies illegitimacy improved self-regulation in powerless individuals. Illegitimate pow...

  17. Goal-Function Tree Modeling for Systems Engineering and Fault Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Stephen B.; Breckenridge, Jonathan T.

    2013-01-01

    The draft NASA Fault Management (FM) Handbook (2012) states that Fault Management (FM) is a "part of systems engineering", and that it "demands a system-level perspective" (NASAHDBK- 1002, 7). What, exactly, is the relationship between systems engineering and FM? To NASA, systems engineering (SE) is "the art and science of developing an operable system capable of meeting requirements within often opposed constraints" (NASA/SP-2007-6105, 3). Systems engineering starts with the elucidation and development of requirements, which set the goals that the system is to achieve. To achieve these goals, the systems engineer typically defines functions, and the functions in turn are the basis for design trades to determine the best means to perform the functions. System Health Management (SHM), by contrast, defines "the capabilities of a system that preserve the system's ability to function as intended" (Johnson et al., 2011, 3). Fault Management, in turn, is the operational subset of SHM, which detects current or future failures, and takes operational measures to prevent or respond to these failures. Failure, in turn, is the "unacceptable performance of intended function." (Johnson 2011, 605) Thus the relationship of SE to FM is that SE defines the functions and the design to perform those functions to meet system goals and requirements, while FM detects the inability to perform those functions and takes action. SHM and FM are in essence "the dark side" of SE. For every function to be performed (SE), there is the possibility that it is not successfully performed (SHM); FM defines the means to operationally detect and respond to this lack of success. We can also describe this in terms of goals: for every goal to be achieved, there is the possibility that it is not achieved; FM defines the means to operationally detect and respond to this inability to achieve the goal. This brief description of relationships between SE, SHM, and FM provide hints to a modeling approach to

  18. Comparison of Hyperspectral and Multispectral Satellites for Discriminating Land Cover in Northern California

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, M. L.; Kilham, N. E.

    2015-12-01

    Land-cover maps are important science products needed for natural resource and ecosystem service management, biodiversity conservation planning, and assessing human-induced and natural drivers of land change. Most land-cover maps at regional to global scales are produced with remote sensing techniques applied to multispectral satellite imagery with 30-500 m pixel sizes (e.g., Landsat, MODIS). Hyperspectral, or imaging spectrometer, imagery measuring the visible to shortwave infrared regions (VSWIR) of the spectrum have shown impressive capacity to map plant species and coarser land-cover associations, yet techniques have not been widely tested at regional and greater spatial scales. The Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission is a VSWIR hyperspectral and thermal satellite being considered for development by NASA. The goal of this study was to assess multi-temporal, HyspIRI-like satellite imagery for improved land cover mapping relative to multispectral satellites. We mapped FAO Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) classes over 22,500 km2 in the San Francisco Bay Area, California using 30-m HyspIRI, Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 imagery simulated from data acquired by NASA's AVIRIS airborne sensor. Random Forests (RF) and Multiple-Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) classifiers were applied to the simulated images and accuracies were compared to those from real Landsat 8 images. The RF classifier was superior to MESMA, and multi-temporal data yielded higher accuracy than summer-only data. With RF, hyperspectral data had overall accuracy of 72.2% and 85.1% with full 20-class and reduced 12-class schemes, respectively. Multispectral imagery had lower accuracy. For example, simulated and real Landsat data had 7.5% and 4.6% lower accuracy than HyspIRI data with 12 classes, respectively. In summary, our results indicate increased mapping accuracy using HyspIRI multi-temporal imagery, particularly in discriminating different natural vegetation types, such as

  19. Making smart social judgments takes time: infants' recruitment of goal information when generating action predictions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krogh-Jespersen, Sheila; Woodward, Amanda L

    2014-01-01

    Previous research has shown that young infants perceive others' actions as structured by goals. One open question is whether the recruitment of this understanding when predicting others' actions imposes a cognitive challenge for young infants. The current study explored infants' ability to utilize their knowledge of others' goals to rapidly predict future behavior in complex social environments and distinguish goal-directed actions from other kinds of movements. Fifteen-month-olds (N = 40) viewed videos of an actor engaged in either a goal-directed (grasping) or an ambiguous (brushing the back of her hand) action on a Tobii eye-tracker. At test, critical elements of the scene were changed and infants' predictive fixations were examined to determine whether they relied on goal information to anticipate the actor's future behavior. Results revealed that infants reliably generated goal-based visual predictions for the grasping action, but not for the back-of-hand behavior. Moreover, response latencies were longer for goal-based predictions than for location-based predictions, suggesting that goal-based predictions are cognitively taxing. Analyses of areas of interest indicated that heightened attention to the overall scene, as opposed to specific patterns of attention, was the critical indicator of successful judgments regarding an actor's future goal-directed behavior. These findings shed light on the processes that support "smart" social behavior in infants, as it may be a challenge for young infants to use information about others' intentions to inform rapid predictions.

  20. Completion of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 1992–2001 Land Cover Change Retrofit product

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fry, J.A.; Coan, Michael; Homer, Collin G.; Meyer, Debra K.; Wickham, J.D.

    2009-01-01

    The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium has supported the development of two national digital land cover products: the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) 1992 and National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001. Substantial differences in imagery, legends, and methods between these two land cover products must be overcome in order to support direct comparison. The NLCD 1992-2001 Land Cover Change Retrofit product was developed to provide more accurate and useful land cover change data than would be possible by direct comparison of NLCD 1992 and NLCD 2001. For the change analysis method to be both national in scale and timely, implementation required production across many Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) path/rows simultaneously. To meet these requirements, a hybrid change analysis process was developed to incorporate both post-classification comparison and specialized ratio differencing change analysis techniques. At a resolution of 30 meters, the completed NLCD 1992-2001 Land Cover Change Retrofit product contains unchanged pixels from the NLCD 2001 land cover dataset that have been cross-walked to a modified Anderson Level I class code, and changed pixels labeled with a 'from-to' class code. Analysis of the results for the conterminous United States indicated that about 3 percent of the land cover dataset changed between 1992 and 2001.

  1. Does NASA's Constellation Architecture Offer Opportunities to Achieve Multiple Additional Goals in Space?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thronson, Harley; Lester, Daniel F.

    2008-01-01

    Every major NASA human spaceflight program in the last four decades has been modified to achieve goals in space not incorporated within the original design goals: the Apollo Applications Program, Skylab, Space Shuttle, and International Space Station. Several groups in the US have been identifying major future science goals, the science facilities necessary to investigate them, as well as possible roles for augmented versions of elements of NASA's Constellation program. Specifically, teams in the astronomy community have been developing concepts for very capable missions to follow the James Webb Space Telescope that could take advantage of - or require - free-space operations by astronauts and/or robots. Taking as one example, the Single-Aperture Far-InfraRed (SAFIR) telescope with a approx. 10+ m aperture proposed for operation in the 2020 timeframe. According to current NASA plans, the Ares V launch vehicle (or a variant) will be available about the same time, as will the capability to transport astronauts to the vicinity of the Moon via the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and associated systems. [As the lunar surface offers no advantages - and major disadvantages - for most major optical systems, the expensive system for landing and operating on the lunar surface is not required.] Although as currently conceived, SAFIR and other astronomical missions will operate at the Sun-Earth L2 location, it appears trivial to travel for servicing to the more accessible Earth-Moon L1,2 locations. Moreover. as the recent Orbital Express and Automated Transfer Vehicle missions have demonstrated, future robotic capabilities should offer capabilities that would (remotely) extend human presence far beyond the vicinity of the Earth. In addition to multiplying the value of NASA's architecture for future human spaceflight to achieve the goals multiple major stakeholders. if humans one day travel beyond the Earth-Moon system - say, to Mars - technologies and capabilities for operating

  2. Impacts of land cover transitions on surface temperature in China based on satellite observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yuzhen; Liang, Shunlin

    2018-02-01

    China has experienced intense land use and land cover changes during the past several decades, which have exerted significant influences on climate change. Previous studies exploring related climatic effects have focused mainly on one or two specific land use changes, or have considered all land use and land cover change types together without distinguishing their individual impacts, and few have examined the physical processes of the mechanism through which land use changes affect surface temperature. However, in this study, we considered satellite-derived data of multiple land cover changes and transitions in China. The objective was to obtain observational evidence of the climatic effects of land cover transitions in China by exploring how they affect surface temperature and to what degree they influence it through the modification of biophysical processes, with an emphasis on changes in surface albedo and evapotranspiration (ET). To achieve this goal, we quantified the changes in albedo, ET, and surface temperature in the transition areas, examined their correlations with temperature change, and calculated the contributions of different land use transitions to surface temperature change via changes in albedo and ET. Results suggested that land cover transitions from cropland to urban land increased land surface temperature (LST) during both daytime and nighttime by 0.18 and 0.01 K, respectively. Conversely, the transition of forest to cropland tended to decrease surface temperature by 0.53 K during the day and by 0.07 K at night, mainly through changes in surface albedo. Decreases in both daytime and nighttime LST were observed over regions of grassland to forest transition, corresponding to average values of 0.44 and 0.20 K, respectively, predominantly controlled by changes in ET. These results highlight the necessity to consider the individual climatic effects of different land cover transitions or conversions in climate research studies. This short

  3. EnviroInfo 2016. Environmental informatics. Stability, continuity, innovation. Current trends and future perspectives based on 30 years of history. Proceedings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wohlgemuth, Volker; Fuchs-Kittowski, Frank; Wittmann, Jochen (eds.) [Hochschule fuer Technik und Wirtschaft, Berlin (Germany)

    2016-07-01

    This book covers selected keynotes, short papers and work in progress papers of the 30th edition of the long standing and established international and interdisciplinary conference series on leading environmental information and communication technologies (Envirolnfo 2016). The conference was held in September 14 - 16, 2016 at the Hochschule fiir Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW Berlin), University of Applied Sciences. Basic topics that were covered under the central focus ''Environmental Informatics - Current trends and future perspectives based on 30 years of history'' were applications of geographical information systems, environmental modelling and simulation, risk management, material and energy flow management, climate change, tools and database applications and other aspects with regard to the main topic ICT and the environment. Due to the interdisciplinary character of environmental informatics, one important goal of this conference was to bring experts from industry, research and education together to exchange ideas and proposals for solution of urgent problems and needs in the field on environmental protection and it's IT-support. Three papers are separately analyzed for this database.

  4. Increasing patient mobility through an individualized goal-centered hospital mobility program: A quasi-experimental quality improvement project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, Lisa M; Young, Daniel; Feng, Du; Lavezza, Annette; Hiser, Stephanie; Daley, Kelly N; Hoyer, Erik H

    2018-02-27

    Hospital-acquired functional decline due to decreased mobility has negative impacts on patient outcomes. Current nurse-directed mobility programs lack a standardized approach to set achievable mobility goals. We aimed to describe implementation and outcomes from a nurse-directed patient mobility program. The quality improvement mobility program on the project unit was compared to a similar control unit providing usual care. The Johns Hopkins Mobility Goal Calculator was created to guide a daily patient mobility goal based on the level of mobility impairment. On the project unit, patient mobility increased from 5.2 to 5.8 on the Johns Hopkins Highest Level of Mobility score, mobility goal attainment went from 54.2% to 64.2%, and patients exceeding the goal went from 23.3% to 33.5%. All results were significantly higher than the control unit. An individualized, nurse-directed, patient mobility program using daily mobility goals is a successful strategy to improve daily patient mobility in the hospital. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. A water balance study of four landfill cover designs varying in slope for semiarid regions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nyhan, J.W.; Schofield, T.G.; Salazar, J.A.

    1997-01-01

    The goal of disposing of radioactive and hazardous waste in shallow landfills is to reduce risk to human health and to the environment by isolating contaminants until they no longer pose a hazard. In order to achieve this, the performance of a landfill cover design without an engineered barrier (Conventional Design) was compared with three designs containing either a hydraulic barrier (EPA Design) or a capillary barrier (Loam and Clay Loam Capillary Barrier Designs). Water balance parameters were measured since 1991 at six-hour intervals for four different landfill cover designs in 1.0- by 10.0-m plots with downhill slopes of 5, 10, 15, and 25%. Whereas runoff generally accounted for only 2-3% of the precipitation losses on these designs, similar values for evapotranspiration ranged from 86% to 91%, with increased evapotranspiration occurring with increases in slope. Consequently, interflow and seepage usually decreased with increasing slope for each landfill cover design. Seepage consisted of up to 10% of the precipitation on the Conventional Design, whereas the hydraulic barrier in the EPA Design effectively controlled seepage at all slopes, and both of the capillary designs worked effectively to eliminate seepage at the higher slopes

  6. Shaped Goals: Teaching Undergraduates the Effects of Social Stratification on the Formulation of Goals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Touzard, Giselle

    2009-01-01

    This article describes an in-class activity that helps undergraduate students to understand the effects of their socio-economic position on the formulation, pursuit, and achievement of goals. Social stratification and inequality have an initial impact on the formulation of goals. Through this exercise students will perceive the effects of having a…

  7. Performance Comparison of Cross-Like Hall Plates with Different Covering Layers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fei Lyu

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper studies the effects of the covering layers on the performance of a cross-like Hall plate. Three different structures of a cross-like Hall plate in various sizes are designed and analyzed. The Hall plate sensitivity and offset are characterized using a self-built measurement system. The effect of the P-type region over the active area on the current-related sensitivity is studied for different Hall plate designs. In addition, the correlation between the P-type covering layer and offset is analyzed. The best structure out of three designs is determined. Besides, a modified eight-resistor circuit model for the Hall plate is presented with improved accuracy by taking the offset into account.

  8. Automatic design of magazine covers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jahanian, Ali; Liu, Jerry; Tretter, Daniel R.; Lin, Qian; Damera-Venkata, Niranjan; O'Brien-Strain, Eamonn; Lee, Seungyon; Fan, Jian; Allebach, Jan P.

    2012-03-01

    In this paper, we propose a system for automatic design of magazine covers that quantifies a number of concepts from art and aesthetics. Our solution to automatic design of this type of media has been shaped by input from professional designers, magazine art directors and editorial boards, and journalists. Consequently, a number of principles in design and rules in designing magazine covers are delineated. Several techniques are derived and employed in order to quantify and implement these principles and rules in the format of a software framework. At this stage, our framework divides the task of design into three main modules: layout of magazine cover elements, choice of color for masthead and cover lines, and typography of cover lines. Feedback from professional designers on our designs suggests that our results are congruent with their intuition.

  9. Workplace Learning within Teacher Education: The Role of Job Characteristics and Goal Orientation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kyndt, Eva; Donche, Vincent; Gijbels, David; Van Petegem, Peter

    2014-01-01

    Within teacher education, it is widely recognised that internships play a major role in preparing prospective teachers. The current research examines if the learning activities students' undertake in the workplace can be explained by students' goal orientation and their perceptions of the workplace. In addition, it will be investigated…

  10. Motivational Function of Plans and Goals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sabina Alispahić

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The academic literature shows that by helping tune out distractions, goals can get individuals' to try harder, work longer, and achieve more. Goals that people set for themselves and that are devoted to attaining mastery are usually healthy. But goals imposed by others—sales targets, quarterly returns, standardized test scores—can sometimes have dangerous side effects (Pink, 2009. Because understanding action demands understanding intention, the idea of motivation is natural and readily expressed in everyday language. Cognitive mental events like goals and expectancies can function as a “spring to action”, a moving force that energizes and directs action in purposive ways (Reeve, 2005. Cognitive studies of motivation are dealing with relationship between cognition and action. Literature is indicating a few cognitive elements that can have motivational significance. The article presents the overview of theory and research about the motivational function of plans and goals, according to Goal setting theory (Locke & Latham, 1990 and Self-determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000. Suggestions for additional research are also indicated.

  11. Predicting Academic Self-Handicapping in Different Age Groups: The Role of Personal Achievement Goals and Social Goals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leondari, Angeliki; Gonida, Eleftheria

    2007-01-01

    Background: Academic self-handicapping refers to the use of impediments to successful performance on academic tasks. Previous studies have shown that it is related to personal achievement goals. A performance goal orientation is a positive predictor of self-handicapping, whereas a task goal orientation is unrelated to self-handicapping. Aims: The…

  12. A comprehensive change detection method for updating the National Land Cover Database to circa 2011

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Suming; Yang, Limin; Danielson, Patrick; Homer, Collin G.; Fry, Joyce; Xian, George

    2013-01-01

    The importance of characterizing, quantifying, and monitoring land cover, land use, and their changes has been widely recognized by global and environmental change studies. Since the early 1990s, three U.S. National Land Cover Database (NLCD) products (circa 1992, 2001, and 2006) have been released as free downloads for users. The NLCD 2006 also provides land cover change products between 2001 and 2006. To continue providing updated national land cover and change datasets, a new initiative in developing NLCD 2011 is currently underway. We present a new Comprehensive Change Detection Method (CCDM) designed as a key component for the development of NLCD 2011 and the research results from two exemplar studies. The CCDM integrates spectral-based change detection algorithms including a Multi-Index Integrated Change Analysis (MIICA) model and a novel change model called Zone, which extracts change information from two Landsat image pairs. The MIICA model is the core module of the change detection strategy and uses four spectral indices (CV, RCVMAX, dNBR, and dNDVI) to obtain the changes that occurred between two image dates. The CCDM also includes a knowledge-based system, which uses critical information on historical and current land cover conditions and trends and the likelihood of land cover change, to combine the changes from MIICA and Zone. For NLCD 2011, the improved and enhanced change products obtained from the CCDM provide critical information on location, magnitude, and direction of potential change areas and serve as a basis for further characterizing land cover changes for the nation. An accuracy assessment from the two study areas show 100% agreement between CCDM mapped no-change class with reference dataset, and 18% and 82% disagreement for the change class for WRS path/row p22r39 and p33r33, respectively. The strength of the CCDM is that the method is simple, easy to operate, widely applicable, and capable of capturing a variety of natural and

  13. The Relationship between Future Goals and Achievement Goal Orientations: An Intrinsic-Extrinsic Motivation Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jie Qi; McInerney, Dennis M.; Liem, Gregory Arief D.; Ortiga, Yasmin P.

    2010-01-01

    This research aimed to study the relationships between students' future goals (FGs) and their immediate achievement goal orientations (AGOs) among 5733 Singaporean secondary school students (M age = 14.18, SD = 1.26; 53% boys). To this end, we hypothesized that the relationships between like valenced FGs and AGOs (both intrinsic or both extrinsic)…

  14. Probabilistic Safety Goals. Phase 1 Status and Experiences in Sweden and Finland

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holmberg, Jan-Erik; Knochenhauer, Michael

    2007-02-01

    The outcome of a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) for a nuclear power plant is a combination of qualitative and quantitative results. Quantitative results are typically presented as the Core Damage Frequency (CDF) and as the frequency of an unacceptable radioactive release. In order to judge the acceptability of PSA results, criteria for the interpretation of results and the assessment of their acceptability need to be defined. Ultimately, the goals are intended to define an acceptable level of risk from the operation of a nuclear facility. However, safety goals usually have a dual function, i.e., they define an acceptable safety level, but they also have a wider and more general use as decision criteria. The exact levels of the safety goals differ between organisations and between different countries. There are also differences in the definition of the safety goal, and in the formal status of the goals, i.e., whether they are mandatory or not. In this first phase of the project, the aim has been on providing a clear description of the issue of probabilistic safety goals for nuclear power plants, to define and describe important concepts related to the definition and application of safety goals, and to describe experiences in Finland and Sweden. Based on a series of interviews and on literature reviews as well as on a limited international over-view, the project has described the history and current status of safety goals in Sweden and Finland, and elaborated on a number of issues, including the following: The status of the safety goals in view of the fact that they have been exceeded for much of the time they have been in use, as well as the possible implications of these exceedances. Safety goals as informal or mandatory limits. Strategies for handling violations of safety goals, including various graded approaches, such as ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable). Relation between safety goals defined on different levels, e.g., for core damage and for

  15. Probabilistic safety goals. Phase 1 - Status and experiences in Sweden and Finland

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holmberg, J.E.; Knochenhauer, M.

    2007-03-01

    The outcome of a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) for a nuclear power plant is a combination of qualitative and quantitative results. Quantitative results are typically presented as the Core Damage Frequency (CDF) and as the frequency of an unacceptable radioactive release. In order to judge the acceptability of PSA results, criteria for the interpretation of results and the assessment of their acceptability need to be defined. Ultimately, the goals are intended to define an acceptable level of risk from the operation of a nuclear facility. However, safety goals usually have a dual function, i.e., they define an acceptable safety level, but they also have a wider and more general use as decision criteria. The exact levels of the safety goals differ between organisations and between different countries. There are also differences in the definition of the safety goal, and in the formal status of the goals, i.e., whether they are mandatory or not. In this first phase of the project, the aim has been on providing a clear description of the issue of probabilistic safety goals for nuclear power plants, to define and describe important concepts related to the definition and application of safety goals, and to describe experiences in Finland and Sweden. Based on a series of interviews and on literature reviews as well as on a limited international over-view, the project has described the history and current status of safety goals in Sweden and Finland, and elaborated on a number of issues, including the following: 1) The status of the safety goals in view of the fact that they have been exceeded for much of the time they have been in use, as well as the possible implications of these exceedances. 2) Safety goals as informal or mandatory limits. 3) Strategies for handling violations of safety goals, including various graded approaches, such as ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable). 4) Relation between safety goals defined on different levels, e.g., for core damage

  16. Probabilistic Safety Goals. Phase 1 Status and Experiences in Sweden and Finland

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Holmberg, Jan-Erik (VTT, FI-02044 VTT (Finland)); Knochenhauer, Michael (Relcon Scandpower AB, SE-172 25 Sundbyberg (Sweden))

    2007-02-15

    The outcome of a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) for a nuclear power plant is a combination of qualitative and quantitative results. Quantitative results are typically presented as the Core Damage Frequency (CDF) and as the frequency of an unacceptable radioactive release. In order to judge the acceptability of PSA results, criteria for the interpretation of results and the assessment of their acceptability need to be defined. Ultimately, the goals are intended to define an acceptable level of risk from the operation of a nuclear facility. However, safety goals usually have a dual function, i.e., they define an acceptable safety level, but they also have a wider and more general use as decision criteria. The exact levels of the safety goals differ between organisations and between different countries. There are also differences in the definition of the safety goal, and in the formal status of the goals, i.e., whether they are mandatory or not. In this first phase of the project, the aim has been on providing a clear description of the issue of probabilistic safety goals for nuclear power plants, to define and describe important concepts related to the definition and application of safety goals, and to describe experiences in Finland and Sweden. Based on a series of interviews and on literature reviews as well as on a limited international over-view, the project has described the history and current status of safety goals in Sweden and Finland, and elaborated on a number of issues, including the following: The status of the safety goals in view of the fact that they have been exceeded for much of the time they have been in use, as well as the possible implications of these exceedances. Safety goals as informal or mandatory limits. Strategies for handling violations of safety goals, including various graded approaches, such as ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable). Relation between safety goals defined on different levels, e.g., for core damage and for

  17. Probabilistic safety goals. Phase 1 - Status and experiences in Sweden and Finland

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Holmberg, J.E. [VTT (Finland); Knochenhauer, M. [Relcon Scandpower AB (Sweden)

    2007-03-15

    The outcome of a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) for a nuclear power plant is a combination of qualitative and quantitative results. Quantitative results are typically presented as the Core Damage Frequency (CDF) and as the frequency of an unacceptable radioactive release. In order to judge the acceptability of PSA results, criteria for the interpretation of results and the assessment of their acceptability need to be defined. Ultimately, the goals are intended to define an acceptable level of risk from the operation of a nuclear facility. However, safety goals usually have a dual function, i.e., they define an acceptable safety level, but they also have a wider and more general use as decision criteria. The exact levels of the safety goals differ between organisations and between different countries. There are also differences in the definition of the safety goal, and in the formal status of the goals, i.e., whether they are mandatory or not. In this first phase of the project, the aim has been on providing a clear description of the issue of probabilistic safety goals for nuclear power plants, to define and describe important concepts related to the definition and application of safety goals, and to describe experiences in Finland and Sweden. Based on a series of interviews and on literature reviews as well as on a limited international over-view, the project has described the history and current status of safety goals in Sweden and Finland, and elaborated on a number of issues, including the following: 1) The status of the safety goals in view of the fact that they have been exceeded for much of the time they have been in use, as well as the possible implications of these exceedances. 2) Safety goals as informal or mandatory limits. 3) Strategies for handling violations of safety goals, including various graded approaches, such as ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable). 4) Relation between safety goals defined on different levels, e.g., for core damage

  18. The Concept of Goals-Driven Safeguards

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wigeland, R.; Bjornard, T.; Castle, B.

    2009-01-01

    The IAEA, NRC, and DOE regulations and requirements for safeguarding nuclear material and facilities have been reviewed and each organization's purpose, objectives, and scope are discussed in this report. Current safeguards approaches are re-examined considering technological advancements and how these developments are changing safeguards approaches used by these organizations. Additionally, the physical protection approaches required by the IAEA, NRC, and DOE were reviewed and the respective goals, objectives, and requirements are identified and summarized in this report. From these, a brief comparison is presented showing the high-level similarities among these regulatory organizations' approaches to physical protection. The regulatory documents used in this paper have been assembled into a convenient reference library called the Nuclear Safeguards and Security Reference Library. The index of that library is included in this report, and DVDs containing the full library are available.

  19. Do cover crop mixtures have the same ability to suppress weeds as competitive monoculture cover crops?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brust, Jochen

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available An increasing number of farmers use cover crop mixtures instead of monoculture cover crops to improve soil and crop quality. However, only little information is available about the weed suppression ability of cover crop mixtures. Therefore, two field experiments were conducted in Baden-Württemberg between 2010 and 2012, to compare growth and weed suppression of monoculture cover crops and cover crop mixtures. In the first experiment, heterogeneous results between yellow mustard and the cover crop mixture occurred. For further research, a field experiment was conducted in 2012 to compare monocultures of yellow mustard and hemp with three cover crop mixtures. The evaluated mixtures were: “MELO”: for soil melioration; “BETA”: includes only plant species with no close relation to main cash crops in Central Europe and “GPS”: for usage as energy substrate in spring. Yellow mustard, MELO, BETA and GPS covered 90% of the soil in less than 42 days and were able to reduce photosynthetically active radiation (PAR on soil surface by more than 96% after 52 days. Hemp covered 90% of the soil after 47 days and reduced PAR by 91% after 52 days. Eight weeks after planting, only BETA showed similar growth to yellow mustard which produced the highest dry matter. The GPS mixture had comparatively poor growth, while MELO produced similar dry matter to hemp. Yellow mustard, MELO and BETA reduced weed growth by 96% compared with a no cover crop control, while hemp and GPS reduced weeds by 85% and 79%. In spring, weed dry matter was reduced by more than 94% in plots with yellow mustard and all mixtures, while in hemp plots weeds were only reduced by 71%. The results suggest that the tested cover crop mixtures offer similar weed suppression ability until spring as the monoculture of the competitive yellow mustard.

  20. Why people stereotype affects how they stereotype: the differential influence of comprehension goals and self-enhancement goals on stereotyping.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van den Bos, Arne; Stapel, Diederik A

    2009-01-01

    In four studies, the authors examined the hypothesis that the way people stereotype is determined by the motives that instigate it. Study 1 measured and demonstrated the effectiveness of a commonly used priming technique to manipulate comprehension and self-enhancement goals. Study 2 demonstrated that why people stereotype determines how they stereotype: When a comprehension goal was salient, positive as well as negative stereotypes were applied, whereas a salient self-enhancement goal led to the application of negative but not positive stereotypes. Study 3 replicated these effects with different stereotypes. Study 4 replicated these effects and gave more insight in the consequences of goal fulfillment on stereotyping. Results indicated the fulfillment of a salient self-enhancement or comprehension goal led to the reduction of stereotyping. These effects were goal specific: Fulfillment of a self-enhancement goal decreased enhancement-driven but not comprehension-driven stereotyping; fulfillment of a comprehension goal decreased comprehension-driven but not enhancement-driven stereotyping.

  1. Gainesville's urban forest canopy cover

    Science.gov (United States)

    Francisco Escobedo; Jennifer A. Seitz; Wayne Zipperer

    2009-01-01

    Ecosystem benefits from trees are linked directly to the amount of healthy urban forest canopy cover. Urban forest cover is dynamic and changes over time due to factors such as urban development, windstorms, tree removals, and growth. The amount of a city's canopy cover depends on its land use, climate, and people's preferences. This fact sheet examines how...

  2. Police Stations, City of Wichita Police Department substation locations. Cover is derived from Emergency Facilities (scEfac) cover. Used for Public Safety map rolls. Primary attributes include station number, address, mailing city, type, and name., Published in 2008, 1:1200 (1in=100ft) scale, Sedgwick County Government.

    Data.gov (United States)

    NSGIC Local Govt | GIS Inventory — Police Stations dataset current as of 2008. City of Wichita Police Department substation locations. Cover is derived from Emergency Facilities (scEfac) cover. Used...

  3. BOOK REVIEW: The Current Comparator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petersons, Oskars

    1989-01-01

    This 120-page book is a concise, yet comprehensive, clearly-written and well-illustrated monograph that covers the subject matter from basic principles through design, construction and calibration details to the principal applications. The book will be useful, as a primer, to the uninitiated and, as a reference book to the practitioner involved with transformer-type ratio devices. The length of the book and the style of presentation will not overburden any informed reader. The described techniques and the cited references are primarily from the work at the National Research Council, Canada (NRC). Any omissions, however, are not serious with respect to coverage of the subject matter, since most of the development work has been done at NRC. The role of transformers and transformer-like devices for establishing accurate voltage and current ratios has been recognized for over half a century. Transformer techniques were much explored and developed in the fifties and sixties for accuracy levels suitable for standards laboratories. Three-winding voltage transformers were developed for scaling of impedances in connection with the calculable Thompson Lampard capacitor; three-winding current transformers or current comparators were initially explored for the calibration of current transformers and later for specialized impedance measurements. Extensive development of the current comparator and its applications has been and is still being conducted at the NRC by a team that was started and, until his retirement, led by N L Kusters. The team is now led by W J M Moore. He and P N Miljanic, the authors of this book, have had the principal roles in the development of the current comparator. It is fortunate for the field of metrology that considerabe resources and a talented group of researchers were available to do this development along with mechanisms that were available to transfer this technology to a private sector instrument manufacturer and, thus, disseminate it world wide

  4. Superconducting toroidal field coil current densities for the TFCX

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kalsi, S.S.; Hooper, R.J.

    1985-04-01

    A major goal of the Tokamak Fusion Core Experiment (TFCX) study was to minimize the size of the device and achieve lowest cost. Two key factors influencing the size of the device employing superconducting magnets are toroidal field (TF) winding current density and its nuclear heat load withstand capability. Lower winding current density requires larger radial build of the winding pack. Likewise, lower allowable nuclear heating in the winding requires larger shield thickness between the plasma and coil. In order to achieve a low-cost device, it is essential to maximize the winding's current density and nuclear heating withhstand capability. To meet the above objective, the TFCX design specification adopted as goals a nominal winding current density of 3500 A/cm 2 with 10-T peak field at the winding and peak nuclear heat load limits of 1 MW/cm 3 for the nominal design and 50 MW/cm 3 for an advanced design. This study developed justification for these current density and nuclear heat load limits

  5. Colombian public policies contributing to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals in the health sector, 2006

    OpenAIRE

    Lina M. Grisales; Libardo A. Giraldo

    2008-01-01

    During the General Assembly of the United Nations, in September 2000,189 countries (including Colombia) committed to eight objectives leading to a more human and fairer world. Such objectives are called the Millennium Development Goals (mdg) and to achieve them it is crucial to incorporate them in the action agendas of each country. The purpose of this monograph is to recognize current public policies in Colombia and Antioquia leading the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, speci...

  6. Goals and Personality in Adolescents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanz de Acedo Lizarraga, M. L.; Ugarte, M. D.; Lumbreras, M. Victoria; Sanz de Acedo Baquedano, M. T.

    2006-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of personality factors in the value allotted by adolescents to various groups of goals. For this purpose, the "Cuestionario de Personalidad Situacional, CPS" (Situational Personality Questionnaire) and the "Cuestionario de Metas para Adolescentes, CMA" (Goals for…

  7. Safety goals for future nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Todreas, Neil E.

    2001-01-01

    This talk presents technology goals developed for Generation IV nuclear energy systems that can be made available to the market by 2030 or earlier. These goals are defined in the broad areas of sustainability, safety and reliability, and economics. Sustainability goals focus on fuel utilization, waste management, and proliferation resistance. Safety and reliability goals focus on safe and reliable operation, investment protection, and essentially eliminating the need for emergency response. Economics goals focus on competitive life cycle and energy production costs and financial risk. Future reactors fall in three categories - those which are: Certified or derivatives; Designed to a reasonable extent and based on available technology; In conceptual form only with potential to most fully satisfy the GENIV goals

  8. New Goals of Sustainable Future

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arkady Ursul

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available This article investigates the process of transition from the Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs. The authors have set an objective to demonstrate that SD as a future form of development of civilization from the very beginning had a “target orientation” and from the beginning and anticipated realization and staging of the whole hierarchy of objectives needed for the establishment of an effective global governance. In the future, global development in its “anthropogenic” aspect will be to implement the goals and principles of SD, which will be updated with each new stage of the implementation of this kind of socio-natural evolution. The paper argues the position that the concept of SD should be radically transformed into a “global dimension.” Attention is drawn to the fact that Russia recognized another distant, but very important in the conceptual and theoretical perspective, global goal of “sustainable transition” — formation of the noosphere.

  9. Mapping land cover through time with the Rapid Land Cover Mapper—Documentation and user manual

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cotillon, Suzanne E.; Mathis, Melissa L.

    2017-02-15

    The Rapid Land Cover Mapper is an Esri ArcGIS® Desktop add-in, which was created as an alternative to automated or semiautomated mapping methods. Based on a manual photo interpretation technique, the tool facilitates mapping over large areas and through time, and produces time-series raster maps and associated statistics that characterize the changing landscapes. The Rapid Land Cover Mapper add-in can be used with any imagery source to map various themes (for instance, land cover, soils, or forest) at any chosen mapping resolution. The user manual contains all essential information for the user to make full use of the Rapid Land Cover Mapper add-in. This manual includes a description of the add-in functions and capabilities, and step-by-step procedures for using the add-in. The Rapid Land Cover Mapper add-in was successfully used by the U.S. Geological Survey West Africa Land Use Dynamics team to accurately map land use and land cover in 17 West African countries through time (1975, 2000, and 2013).

  10. LOFT drag-disc turbine tansducer shroud and cover weld analysis and evaluation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martinell, J.S.

    1978-01-01

    The results are presented of stress analysis and evaluation of the drag-disc turbine transducer (DTT) shroud and cover welds used in the Loss-of-Fluid Test (LOFT) facility. The analysis concerns LOFT DTTs currently installed and/or planned for use in future experiments by LOFT Experimental Measurements Branch personnel. Thermal/hydraulic conditions for Experiments L1-5 and L2-4 (for all nuclear tests) were used to predict the loads experienced by the various shroud and cover welds. The results of this analysis include minimum fatigue life for all subject welds, and Applied Mechanics Branch recommendations for improving the structural integrity of critically stressed welds

  11. Empathic curiosity: resolving goal conflicts that generate emotional distress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McEvoy, P; Baker, D; Plant, R; Hylton, K; Mansell, W

    2013-04-01

    The quality of the therapeutic alliance between therapist and client is consistently identified as a key component of cognitive behavioural interventions. However, relatively little is known about the causal mechanisms that generate the effects that are ascribed to the therapeutic alliance. This paper outlines how one such causal mechanism, empathic curiosity, may operate. The explanation is rooted in control theory, a theory that explains the link between our experiences and our goal-directed behaviour. Empathic curiosity is underpinned by the core skills of empathic listening and maintaining a curious attitude. From a control theory perspective, the value of this type of listening may be reinforced when speak to people about their salient concerns, as they perceive them in the current flow of their conscious thoughts. This can be facilitated by linking curious questions to the non-verbal disruptions in their body posture and conversational flow. The approach is illustrated using three case examples. In all three examples, the clients involved were able to reflect upon and re-organize conflicting goals that had been a source of significant emotional distress. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing.

  12. Implementation of a Goal-Based Systems Engineering Process Using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breckenridge, Jonathan T.; Johnson, Stephen B.

    2013-01-01

    Building upon the purpose, theoretical approach, and use of a Goal-Function Tree (GFT) being presented by Dr. Stephen B. Johnson, described in a related Infotech 2013 ISHM abstract titled "Goal-Function Tree Modeling for Systems Engineering and Fault Management", this paper will describe the core framework used to implement the GFTbased systems engineering process using the Systems Modeling Language (SysML). These two papers are ideally accepted and presented together in the same Infotech session. Statement of problem: SysML, as a tool, is currently not capable of implementing the theoretical approach described within the "Goal-Function Tree Modeling for Systems Engineering and Fault Management" paper cited above. More generally, SysML's current capabilities to model functional decompositions in the rigorous manner required in the GFT approach are limited. The GFT is a new Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach to the development of goals and requirements, functions, and its linkage to design. As a growing standard for systems engineering, it is important to develop methods to implement GFT in SysML. Proposed Method of Solution: Many of the central concepts of the SysML language are needed to implement a GFT for large complex systems. In the implementation of those central concepts, the following will be described in detail: changes to the nominal SysML process, model view definitions and examples, diagram definitions and examples, and detailed SysML construct and stereotype definitions.

  13. Risk and Business Goal Based Security Requirement and Countermeasure Prioritization

    OpenAIRE

    Herrmann, Andrea; Morali, A.; Etalle, Sandro; Wieringa, Roelf J.; Niedrite, Laila; Strazdina, Renate; Wangler, Benkt

    2012-01-01

    Companies are under pressure to be in control of their assets but at the same time they must operate as efficiently as possible. This means that they aim to implement “good-enough security‿ but need to be able to justify their security investment plans. Currently companies achieve this by means of checklist-based security assessments, but these methods are a way to achieve consensus without being able to provide justifications of countermeasures in terms of business goals. But such justificat...

  14. Flexible goal attribution in early mindreading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michael, John; Christensen, Wayne

    2016-03-01

    The 2-systems theory developed by Apperly and Butterfill (2009; Butterfill & Apperly, 2013) is an influential approach to explaining the success of infants and young children on implicit false-belief tasks. There is extensive empirical and theoretical work examining many aspects of this theory, but little attention has been paid to the way in which it characterizes goal attribution. We argue here that this aspect of the theory is inadequate. Butterfill and Apperly's characterization of goal attribution is designed to show how goals could be ascribed by infants without representing them as related to other psychological states, and the minimal mindreading system is supposed to operate without employing flexible semantic-executive cognitive processes. But research on infant goal attribution reveals that infants exhibit a high degree of situational awareness that is strongly suggestive of flexible semantic-executive cognitive processing, and infants appear moreover to be sensitive to interrelations between goals, preferences, and beliefs. Further, close attention to the structure of implicit mindreading tasks--for which the theory was specifically designed--indicates that flexible goal attribution is required to succeed. We conclude by suggesting 2 approaches to resolving these problems. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  15. Climate under cover

    CERN Document Server

    Takakura, Tadashi

    2002-01-01

    1.1. INTRODUCTION Plastic covering, either framed or floating, is now used worldwide to protect crops from unfavorable growing conditions, such as severe weather and insects and birds. Protected cultivation in the broad sense, including mulching, has been widely spread by the innovation of plastic films. Paper, straw, and glass were the main materials used before the era of plastics. Utilization of plastics in agriculture started in the developed countries and is now spreading to the developing countries. Early utilization of plastic was in cold regions, and plastic was mainly used for protection from the cold. Now plastic is used also for protection from wind, insects and diseases. The use of covering techniques started with a simple system such as mulching, then row covers and small tunnels were developed, and finally plastic houses. Floating mulch was an exception to this sequence: it was introduced rather recently, although it is a simple structure. New development of functional and inexpensive films trig...

  16. Benthic Cover

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Benthic cover (habitat) maps are derived from aerial imagery, underwater photos, acoustic surveys, and data gathered from sediment samples. Shallow to moderate-depth...

  17. The moderating effect of gender on ideal-weight goals and exercise dependence symptoms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cook, Brian; Hausenblas, Heather; Rossi, James

    2013-03-01

    Background and aims Exercise dependence is implicated in the development of eating disorders and muscle dysmorphic disorder. Although conceptually these disorders represent similar pathologies they largely affect different genders and result in opposite body composition, appearance, and ideal-weight goals (i.e., to gain or lose/maintain weight). Therefore, understanding individuals' ideal-weight goals related to engaging in exercise while simultaneously examining gender differences in exercise dependence symptoms may help to identify those whom may be most at-risk for eating disorders and muscle dysmorphic disorder. The purpose of our study was to examine the moderating effect of gender for exercise dependence symptoms in relation to weight gain, loss, or maintenance goals. Methods Self-reported exercise behavior and exercise dependence symptoms (i.e., Exercise Dependence Scale) were assessed in 513 undergraduate students. Results Our analysis revealed a moderating effect for gender on ideal-weight goals and a gender difference in exercise dependence symptoms. Specifically, men who were dissatisfied with their current weight reported more exercise dependence symptoms than women. Conclusions These results support a growing body of research and extend our understanding of the relationships among exercise dependence and gender specific body-focused psychiatric disorders.

  18. Pushed by Symptoms, Pulled by Values: Promotion Goals Increase Motivation in Therapeutic Tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katz, Benjamin A; Catane, Sara; Yovel, Iftah

    2016-03-01

    While many therapies focus on the reduction of disturbing symptoms, others pursue behavior consistent with personally held values. Based on regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997), reducing symptoms is a type of prevention goal while pursuing values is a promotion goal. In the current study, 123 undergraduate students elicited a negative, self-focused emotion-laden cognition. They were then randomly assigned to construe their negative thought as either (a) an impediment to valued behaviors, (b) a cause of unpleasant symptoms, or to one of two control conditions: (c) distraction or (d) no intervention. Then, participants in all groups completed a series of repetitive therapeutic tasks that targeted their elicited negative cognitions. Results showed that participants who construed treatment in terms of valued behavior promotion spent more time on a therapeutic task than all other groups. The group in the unpleasant symptom promotion condition did not differ from either control group. The motivational advantage of value promotion was not accounted for by differences in mood. The present findings suggest that clients may be better motivated through value promotion goals, as opposed to symptom prevention goals. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  19. Evaluation of the Chinese Fine Spatial Resolution Hyperspectral Satellite TianGong-1 in Urban Land-Cover Classification

    OpenAIRE

    Xueke Li; Taixia Wu; Kai Liu; Yao Li; Lifu Zhang

    2016-01-01

    The successful launch of the Chinese high spatial resolution hyperspectral satellite TianGong-1 (TG-1) opens up new possibilities for applications of remotely-sensed satellite imagery. One of the main goals of the TG-1 mission is to provide observations of surface attributes at local and landscape spatial scales to map urban land cover accurately using the hyperspectral technique. This study attempted to evaluate the TG-1 datasets for urban feature analysis, using existing data over Beijing, ...

  20. Evaluation of burial ground soil covers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fenimore, J.W.

    1976-11-01

    Solid radioactive waste burial at the Savannah River Plant between 1955 and 1972 filled a 76-acre site. Burial operations then were shifted to an adjacent site, and a program was begun to develop a land cover that would: (1) minimize soil erosion; and (2) protect the buried waste from deep-rooted plants, since radionuclides can be recycled by uptake through root systems. In anticipation of the need for a suitable soil cover, five grass species were planted on 20 plots (4 plots of each species) at the burial ground (Facility 643-G) in 1969. The grass plots were planted for evaluation of viability, root depth, and erosion protection existing under conditions of low fertility and minimum care. In addition, 16 different artificial soil covers were installed on 32 plots (each cover on two plots) to evaluate: (1) resistance of cover to deterioration from weathering; (2) resistance of cover to encroachment by deep-rooted plants; and (3) soil erosion protection provided by the cover. All test plots were observed and photographed in 1970 and in 1974. After both grass and artificial soil covers were tested five years, the following results were observed: Pensacola Bahia grass was the best of the five cover grasses tested; and fifteen of the sixteen artificial covers that were tested controlled vegetation growth and soil erosion. Photographs of the test plots will be retaken at five-year intervals for future documentation

  1. Education Service Contracting in the Philippines: Human Rights as Trumps, Goals, or Policy Talk?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baum, Donald R.

    2012-01-01

    In recent years, the goals and purposes of education within the international development discourse have shifted significantly away from education for productivity or human capital development and towards education for the fulfillment of the individual through human rights. The current global education climate provides governments with an…

  2. Optimal shortening of uniform covering arrays.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jose Torres-Jimenez

    Full Text Available Software test suites based on the concept of interaction testing are very useful for testing software components in an economical way. Test suites of this kind may be created using mathematical objects called covering arrays. A covering array, denoted by CA(N; t, k, v, is an N × k array over [Formula: see text] with the property that every N × t sub-array covers all t-tuples of [Formula: see text] at least once. Covering arrays can be used to test systems in which failures occur as a result of interactions among components or subsystems. They are often used in areas such as hardware Trojan detection, software testing, and network design. Because system testing is expensive, it is critical to reduce the amount of testing required. This paper addresses the Optimal Shortening of Covering ARrays (OSCAR problem, an optimization problem whose objective is to construct, from an existing covering array matrix of uniform level, an array with dimensions of (N - δ × (k - Δ such that the number of missing t-tuples is minimized. Two applications of the OSCAR problem are (a to produce smaller covering arrays from larger ones and (b to obtain quasi-covering arrays (covering arrays in which the number of missing t-tuples is small to be used as input to a meta-heuristic algorithm that produces covering arrays. In addition, it is proven that the OSCAR problem is NP-complete, and twelve different algorithms are proposed to solve it. An experiment was performed on 62 problem instances, and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of solving the OSCAR problem to facilitate the construction of new covering arrays.

  3. Academic Self-Handicapping and Achievement Goals: A Further Examination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Midgley, Carol; Urdan, Tim

    2001-01-01

    This study extends previous research on the relations among students' personal achievement goals, perceptions of the classroom goal structure, and reports of the use of self-handicapping strategies. Surveys, specific to the math domain, were given to 484 7th-grade students in nine middle schools. Personal performance-avoid goals positively predicted handicapping, whereas personal performance-approach goals did not. Personal task goals negatively predicted handicapping. Perceptions of a performance goal structure positively predicted handicapping, and perceptions of a task goal structure negatively predicted handicapping, independent of personal goals. Median splits used to examine multiple goal profiles revealed that students high in performance-avoid goals used handicapping more than did those low in performance-avoid goals regardless of the level of task goals. Students low in performance-avoid goals and high in task goals handicapped less than those low in both goals. Level of performance-approach goals had little effect on the relation between task goals and handicapping. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

  4. Best Dressed Test: A Study of the Covering Behavior of the Collector Urchin Tripneustes gratilla.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Morgan A Ziegenhorn

    Full Text Available Many sea urchin genera exhibit cryptic covering behaviors. One such behavior has been documented in the sea urchin Tripneustes gratilla, and previous studies have theorized that this behavior serves as protection from UV radiation. However, other hypotheses have been presented such as protection from predators or added weight to help T. gratilla resist strong currents. A field study was conducted in October-November 2015 in Moorea, French Polynesia to assess urchin covering behavior in natural habitats. The study found that urchins partially underneath rocks covered more, and with more algae, than urchins totally underneath rocks. To test if this behavior was driven by light intensity, a series of 30-minute experimental trials were run on 10 individuals in bright and dim conditions. Individuals were given red and clear plastic, and percent cover of each was recorded. These tests were repeated once fifty percent of spines had been removed from the urchin, in order to determine whether spine loss affects T. gratilla covering behavior. The study found that urchins had a distinct preference for cover that best protects them from UV radiation. Spine loss did not significantly affect urchin ability to cover, and urchins with removed spines still preferred opaque cover. Additionally, covering behavior was mapped onto a phylogeny of echinoderms to determine how it might have evolved. Understanding urchin covering behavior more fully is a step towards an understanding of the evolution of cryptic behavior across species.

  5. 49 CFR 214.515 - Overhead covers for existing on-track roadway maintenance machines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... maintenance machines. 214.515 Section 214.515 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to Transportation... Roadway Maintenance Machines and Hi-Rail Vehicles § 214.515 Overhead covers for existing on-track roadway maintenance machines. (a) For those existing on-track roadway maintenance machines either currently or...

  6. Influence of cover defects on the attenuation of radon with earthen covers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kalkwarf, D.R.; Mayer, D.W.

    1983-11-01

    Experimental and theoretical evaluations of radon flux through laboratory-scale defective soil columns are presented together with a survey of literature on the formation and prevention of defects in soil covers. This report focuses on air-filled, centimeter-scale defects that are most probable in earthen covers for attenuating radon emission from uranium-mill tailings. Examples include shirnkage and erosion cracks, erosion piping, animal burrows and air channels formed by the biodegradation of vegetation roots. Calculations based on mathematical models indicate that collections of defects which could increase the radon flux from an earthen cover by a factor of two would be easily detected by visual inspection. However, these models ignore air-turbulence in the defect and drying of the soil around the defect. Laboratory measurements showed that turbulent diffusion of radon occurred through defects as narrow as 0.3 cm when subjected to a transverse air velocity of 1 to 6 miles per hour at the surface. Both turbulence and more-rapid drying of soil can accelerate radon flux to the cover surface. Consequently, recommended methods to inhibit defect formation should be applied. 29 references, 3 figures, 5 tables

  7. Are We Meeting the Goal of Responsible Environmental Behavior: An Examination of Nature and Environmental Education Center Goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simmons, Deborah A.

    1991-01-01

    Through two surveys of nature and environmental centers throughout the United States, the author compares the centers' expressed goals with the goals of environmental education. These goals were determined by an accepted behavior model that is considered conducive to environmentally responsible behavior. (17 references) (MCO)

  8. Foam-machining tool with eddy-current transducer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Copper, W. P.

    1975-01-01

    Three-cutter machining system for foam-covered tanks incorporates eddy-current sensor. Sensor feeds signal to numerical controller which programs rotational and vertical axes of sensor travel, enabling cutterhead to profile around tank protrusions.

  9. An auto lifting device to lift manhole cover with ergonomics consideration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Draman, Wan Nur A'tiqah Wan; Majid, D. L.; Ishak, Muhammad Ikman; Rosli, M. U.; Lailina N., M.; Ismail, Ras Izzati

    2017-09-01

    The sewerage and maintenance process of manhole is important to ensure that the underground pipelines and other systems are in good condition. The manhole is covered with manhole cover to prevent people, animals or any objects fall into it. The manhole cover has one pocket which is to lock it and ensure that nobody open it. A questionnaire survey is distributed to the workers at Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur and interviews are conducted with Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) and Jabatan Perkhidmatan Pembentungan (JPP), Selangor to access the user requirements and needs for an effective manhole cover lifter. Currently, the workers used a T-hook to unlock the heavy manhole cover and lift it. However, this method affected some of the workers because they experienced back, legs, shoulders and arm injuries. The T-hook is also quite heavy and it is difficult to bring anywhere. Based on the result of questionnaire survey, four concepts are designed to create new manhole cover lifter with automated operation. The best concept is finalized by using concept screening and scoring method. The chosen concept is applied pulley chain mechanism and it is selected as the best concept because it is easy and safe to use, low cost maintenance, low time consuming and affordable price. The design of the device is suitable for Malaysian male and secured them from musculoskeletal disorder. The worker's posture is analyzed by using Rapid Upper Limb Analysis (RULA) ergonomics analysis. The stability and strength of the device is analyzed by calculation and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is used to analyze the screw cylinder.

  10. Goal conflict, goal facilitation, and health professionals' provision of physical activity advice in primary care: an exploratory prospective study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Presseau, Justin; Francis, Jill J; Campbell, Neil C; Sniehotta, Falko F

    2011-07-15

    The theory of planned behaviour has well-evidenced utility in predicting health professional behaviour, but focuses on a single behaviour isolated from the numerous potentially conflicting and facilitating goal-directed behaviours performed alongside. Goal conflict and goal facilitation may influence whether health professionals engage in guideline-recommended behaviours, and may supplement the predictive power of the theory of planned behaviour. We hypothesised that goal facilitation and goal conflict contribute to predicting primary care health professionals' provision of physical activity advice to patients with hypertension, over and above predictors of behaviour from the theory of planned behaviour. Using a prospective predictive design, at baseline we invited a random sample of 606 primary care health professionals from all primary care practices in NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside (Scotland) to complete postal questionnaires. Goal facilitation and goal conflict were measured alongside theory of planned behaviour constructs at baseline. At follow-up six months later, participants self-reported the number of patients, out of those seen in the preceding two weeks, to whom they provided physical activity advice. Forty-four primary care physicians and nurses completed measures at both time points (7.3% response rate). Goal facilitation and goal conflict improved the prediction of behaviour, accounting for substantial additional variance (5.8% and 8.4%, respectively) in behaviour over and above intention and perceived behavioural control. Health professionals' provision of physical activity advice in primary care can be predicted by perceptions about how their conflicting and facilitating goal-directed behaviours help and hinder giving advice, over and above theory of planned behaviour constructs. Incorporating features of multiple goal pursuit into the theory of planned behaviour may help to better understand health professional behaviour.

  11. Effect Of Age And Concrete Cover Thickness On Steel Reinforcement Corrosion At Splash Zone In Reinforced Concrete Hydraulic Structures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nada M. Al- Galawi

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Corrosion of reinforcing steel bars in reinforced concrete is considered as one of the biggest problems that face countries overlooking to the Arabian Gulf including Iraq. The research aims to study the effect of the corrosion of steel bars in concrete structures that are exposed to wetting and drying via waves. Reinforced concrete samples were exposed to marine simulated environment for 90 days using prepared system for this purpose. At the end of exposure period polarization test was implemented to measure the actual corrosion rate in each sample. After that the corrosion process was accelerated using impressed current technique by applying a constant electric current DC to the reinforcing bars. Depending on the corrosion current in natural conditions which was measured in polarization test periods of exposing samples to accelerated corrosion current so as to maintain virtual exposure ages of 5 and 25 years of exposure to natural corrosion were calculated. The results showed a remarkable increase in the corrosion current of steel bars in samples that had lower concrete cover thickness. The increase in the cover thickness from 20mm to 40 and 65 mm had a significant effect on reducing the corrosion current at the age of 90 days to about 70 of its original value in both cases. At the virtual exposure age of 5 years the reduction percentage in the corrosion current resulted from increasing cover thickness from 20mm to 40 and 65 mm were 43 and 79 respectively.

  12. On the nature of motivational orientations: implications of assessed goals and gender differences for motivational goal theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alonso-Tapia, Jesús; Huertas, Juan A; Ruiz, Miguel A

    2010-05-01

    In a historical revision of the achievement goal construct, Elliot (2005) recognized that there is little consensus on whether the term "goal" in "achievement goal orientations" (GO) is best represented as an "aim", as an overarching orientation encompassing several "aims", or as a combination of aims and other processes -self-regulation, etc.-. Elliot pointed also that goal theory research provides evidence for different models of GO. As there were no consensus on these issues, we decided to get evidence about the nature and structure of GO, about the role of gender differences in the configuration of such structure, and about relations between GO, expectancies, volitional processes and achievement. A total of 382 university students from different faculties of two public universities of Madrid (Spain) that voluntarily accepted to fill in a questionnaire that assessed different goals, expectancies and self-regulatory processes participated in the study. Scales reliability, confirmatory factor analyses, multiple-group analyses, and correlation and regression analyses were carried out. Results support the trichotomous model of GO, the consideration of GO as a combination of aims and other psychological processes, showed some gender differences and favour the adoption of a multiple goal perspective for explaining students' motivation.

  13. Colombian public policies contributing to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals in the health sector, 2006

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lina M. Grisales

    2008-02-01

    Full Text Available During the General Assembly of the United Nations, in September 2000,189 countries (including Colombia committed to eight objectives leading to a more human and fairer world. Such objectives are called the Millennium Development Goals (mdg and to achieve them it is crucial to incorporate them in the action agendas of each country. The purpose of this monograph is to recognize current public policies in Colombia and Antioquia leading the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, specifically those related to the reduction of mortality among children less than 5 years of age, improvement of maternal health and fighting against hiv/aids, malaria and dengue.In Colombia, Conpes 91 of 2005 is the only guideline given by the Government establishing goals and strategies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. Nevertheless, other policies, programs and projects before and even after the Millennium Statement (but without explicit purpose contribute to achieving such goals. Revision of those policies is an effort for the research project “Degree of contribution of public policies to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals related to the health sector, Antioquia, 2006”, which will evaluate the impact these guidelines have had in the achievement of the development goals in that particular sector.

  14. Criteria for achieving actinide reduction goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liljenzin, J.O.

    1996-01-01

    In order to discuss various criteria for achieving actinide reduction goals, the goals for actinide reduction must be defined themselves. In this context the term actinides is interpreted to mean plutonium and the so called ''minor actinides'' neptunium, americium and curium, but also protactinium. Some possible goals and the reasons behind these will be presented. On the basis of the suggested goals it is possible to analyze various types of devices for production of nuclear energy from uranium or thorium, such as thermal or fast reactors and accelerator driven system, with their associated fuel cycles with regard to their ability to reach the actinide reduction goals. The relation between necessary single cycle burn-up values, fuel cycle processing losses and losses to waste will be defined and discussed. Finally, an attempt is made to arrange the possible systems on order of performance with regard to their potential to reduce the actinide inventory and the actinide losses to wastes. (author). 3 refs, 3 figs, 2 tabs

  15. Parental goals and talk with toddlers

    OpenAIRE

    Rowe, Meredith Lee; Casillas, Allison

    2010-01-01

    Myriad studies support a relation between parental beliefs and behaviours. This study adds to the literature by focusing on the specific relationship between parental goals and their communication with toddlers. Do parents with different goals talk about different topics with their children? Parents’ goals for their 30-month olds were gathered using semi-structured interviews with 47 primary caregivers, whereas the topics of conversations that took place during interactio...

  16. [Snow cover pollution monitoring in Ufa].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daukaev, R A; Suleĭmanov, R A

    2008-01-01

    The paper presents the results of examining the snow cover polluted with heavy metals in the large industrial town of Ufa. The level of man-caused burden on the snow cover of the conventional parts of the town was estimated and compared upon exposure to a wide range of snow cover pollutants. The priority snow cover pollutants were identified among the test heavy metals.

  17. Setting Goals for Achievement in Physical Education Settings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baghurst, Timothy; Tapps, Tyler; Kensinger, Weston

    2015-01-01

    Goal setting has been shown to improve student performance, motivation, and task completion in academic settings. Although goal setting is utilized by many education professionals to help students set realistic and proper goals, physical educators may not be using goal setting effectively. Without incorporating all three types of goals and…

  18. Tools and approaches to operationalize the commitment to equity, gender and human rights: towards leaving no one behind in the Sustainable Development Goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zamora, Gerardo; Koller, Theadora Swift; Thomas, Rebekah; Manandhar, Mary; Lustigova, Eva; Diop, Adama; Magar, Veronica

    2018-01-01

    The objective of this article is to present specific resources developed by the World Health Organization on equity, gender and human rights in order to support Member States in operationalizing their commitment to leave no one behind in the health Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and other health-related goals and targets. The resources cover: (i) health inequality monitoring; (ii) barrier analysis using mixed methods; (iii) human rights monitoring; (iv) leaving no one behind in national and subnational health sector planning; and (v) equity, gender and human rights in national health programme reviews. Examples of the application of the tools in a range of country contexts are provided for each resource.

  19. Goals? What goals? Europeans to hear more about the world's millennium development goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bianchi, S.

    2005-01-01

    The European Union (EU) is quickly becoming the front-runner of development aid to regions in Africa and other developing countries. However, over three-quarters of EU citizens are unaware of development efforts being made on the part of the Union to Third World countries, according to a public opinion poll released by Eurobarometer. In light of the low awareness of the EU's development agenda and the United Nations's Millennium Development Goals, the EU Humanitarian Aid and Development Commission has employed a campaign to raise the level of awareness among the EU's 460 million citizens

  20. Predictors of Academic Self-Handicapping and Achievement: Examining Achievement Goals, Classroom Goal Structures, and Culture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Urdan, Tim

    2004-01-01

    The purposes of this study were to examine the predictors and achievement consequences of academic self-handicapping and to explore cultural variations in the pursuit and effects of performance goals and perceived classroom performance goal structures. Data were collected in 2 consecutive academic years from a diverse sample of high school…

  1. Goal Theory and Individual Productivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frost, Peter J.

    The paper provides a review of goal theory as articulated by Edwin Locke. The theory is evaluated in terms of laboratory and field research and its practical usefulnes is explored as a means to improving individual productivity in "real world" organizations Research findings provide support for some goal theory propositions but suggest also the…

  2. Toward a cognitive-affective model of goal-setting in rehabilitation: is self-regulation theory a key step?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siegert, Richard J; McPherson, Kathryn M; Taylor, William J

    2004-10-21

    The aim of this article is to argue that self-regulation theory might offer a useful model for clinical practice, theory-building and empirical research on goal-setting in rehabilitation. Relevant literature on goal-setting and motivation in rehabilitation is considered and some problematic issues for current practice and future research are highlighted. Carver and Scheier's self-regulation theory and its application to rehabilitation research is examined. It is argued that self-regulation theory offers a robust theoretical framework for goal-setting and one in which the salient concepts of motivation and emotion are prominent. Self-regulation theory offers a potentially useful heuristic framework for rehabilitation research.

  3. Feedback type as a moderator of the relationship between achievement goals and feedback reactions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Anseel, Frederik; Van Yperen, Nico W.; Janssen, Onne; Duyck, Wouter

    2011-01-01

    The aim of the current study is to shed new light on the inconsistent relationship between performance-approach (PAp) goals and feedback reactions by examining feedback type as a moderator. Results of a field experiment (N = 939) using a web-based work simulation task showed that the effect of

  4. Do Fitness Apps Need Text Reminders? An Experiment Testing Goal-Setting Text Message Reminders to Promote Self-Monitoring.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Shuang; Willoughby, Jessica F

    2018-01-01

    Fitness tracking apps have the potential to change unhealthy lifestyles, but users' lack of compliance is an issue. The current intervention examined the effectiveness of using goal-setting theory-based text message reminders to promote tracking activities on fitness apps. We conducted a 2-week experiment with pre- and post-tests with young adults (n = 50). Participants were randomly assigned to two groups-a goal-setting text message reminder group and a generic text message reminder group. Participants were asked to use a fitness tracking app to log physical activity and diet for the duration of the study. Participants who received goal-setting reminders logged significantly more physical activities than those who only received generic reminders. Further, participants who received goal-setting reminders liked the messages and showed significantly increased self-efficacy, awareness of personal goals, motivation, and intention to use the app. The study shows that incorporating goal-setting theory-based text message reminders can be useful to boost user compliance with self-monitoring fitness apps by reinforcing users' personal goals and enhancing cognitive factors associated with health behavior change.

  5. Provider Tools for Advance Care Planning and Goals of Care Discussions: A Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myers, Jeff; Cosby, Roxanne; Gzik, Danusia; Harle, Ingrid; Harrold, Deb; Incardona, Nadia; Walton, Tara

    2018-01-01

    Advance care planning and goals of care discussions involve the exploration of what is most important to a person, including their values and beliefs in preparation for health-care decision-making. Advance care planning conversations focus on planning for future health care, ensuring that an incapable person's wishes are known and can guide the person's substitute decision maker for future decision-making. Goals of care discussions focus on preparing for current decision-making by ensuring the person's goals guide this process. To provide evidence regarding tools and/or practices available for use by health-care providers to effectively facilitate advance care planning conversations and/or goals of care discussions. A systematic review was conducted focusing on guidelines, randomized trials, comparative studies, and noncomparative studies. Databases searched included MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the proceedings of the International Advance Care Planning Conference and the American Society of Clinical Oncology Palliative Care Symposium. Although several studies report positive findings, there is a lack of consistent patient outcome evidence to support any one clinical tool for use in advance care planning or goals of care discussions. Effective advance care planning conversations at both the population and the individual level require provider education and communication skill development, standardized and accessible documentation, quality improvement initiatives, and system-wide coordination to impact the population level. There is a need for research focused on goals of care discussions, to clarify the purpose and expected outcomes of these discussions, and to clearly differentiate goals of care from advance care planning.

  6. Goal conflict, goal facilitation, and health professionals' provision of physical activity advice in primary care: An exploratory prospective study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Campbell Neil C

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The theory of planned behaviour has well-evidenced utility in predicting health professional behaviour, but focuses on a single behaviour isolated from the numerous potentially conflicting and facilitating goal-directed behaviours performed alongside. Goal conflict and goal facilitation may influence whether health professionals engage in guideline-recommended behaviours, and may supplement the predictive power of the theory of planned behaviour. We hypothesised that goal facilitation and goal conflict contribute to predicting primary care health professionals' provision of physical activity advice to patients with hypertension, over and above predictors of behaviour from the theory of planned behaviour. Methods Using a prospective predictive design, at baseline we invited a random sample of 606 primary care health professionals from all primary care practices in NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside (Scotland to complete postal questionnaires. Goal facilitation and goal conflict were measured alongside theory of planned behaviour constructs at baseline. At follow-up six months later, participants self-reported the number of patients, out of those seen in the preceding two weeks, to whom they provided physical activity advice. Results Forty-four primary care physicians and nurses completed measures at both time points (7.3% response rate. Goal facilitation and goal conflict improved the prediction of behaviour, accounting for substantial additional variance (5.8% and 8.4%, respectively in behaviour over and above intention and perceived behavioural control. Conclusions Health professionals' provision of physical activity advice in primary care can be predicted by perceptions about how their conflicting and facilitating goal-directed behaviours help and hinder giving advice, over and above theory of planned behaviour constructs. Incorporating features of multiple goal pursuit into the theory of planned behaviour may help to better

  7. Using remote sensing imagery and GIS to identify land cover and land use within Ceahlau Massif (Romania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    GEORGE CRACU

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Using remote sensing imagery and GIS to identify land cover and land use within Ceahlău Massif (Romania. In this study we considerer land cover and land use asessment within Ceahlău Massif (Romania using satellite imagery and GIS . To achieve this goal, we used a Landsat 7 ETM + satellite image, which was processed using specialized software in analyzing satellite images and GIS software in several stages:  Downloading, importing and layer stack of all spectral bands composing satellite image;  Establishment of areas of interest for each category of land cover and land use, which were digitized on - screen and for which spectral signatures characteristics were established;  Supervised image classification using Maximum Likelihood Method;  Importing the resulting m ap (raster in GIS environment and creating the final land cover/land use map for Ceahlău Massif. In the study area we identified nine land cover/land use classes: deciduous forests, mixed forests, coniferous forests, secondary grasslands, subalpine vegeta tion, alpine meadows, agricultural land, lakes and built area. By analizing the spatial distribution of these classes, it was found that forests are the best represented class, occupying an area of 188.4 km² (56.4% of total, followed by secondary grassl and, which occupies an area of 68.2 km² (20.4% of total, lakes (26.6 km² or 7.98% of total and agricultural land (16.1 km² or 4.86%

  8. Treatment goals in psoriasis routine care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radtke, M A; Reich, K; Spehr, C; Augustin, Matthias

    2015-07-01

    The treatment goal algorithm for psoriasis, first originated in 2007, has ever since been adopted into treatment guidelines. It remained unclear how many patients have experienced the use of treatment goals in routine care and how these are perceived. The aim of the pilot study was to get first insight in the use and impact of therapeutic goals in a large cohort of patients with psoriasis in routine care. This study is a multicenter, non-interventional, cross-sectional health care study in n = 213 dermatology centers across Germany. A standardized physician and patient questionnaire was used, including demographics, disease and treatment characteristics. To evaluate patient treatment perception and satisfaction, a questionnaire (PsoSat) addressing 8 specific items was designed. Consistency and validity of the questionnaire were controlled by factor analyses and reliability tests. In total n = 1,883 patients were included for analysis (54.2% male). Mean age was 52 years, mean disease duration 19 years. In total 45.5% (n = 856) stated an improvement of psoriatic symptoms in the last 4 weeks. In patients including treatment goals, the course of psoriasis in the last 4 weeks was rated significantly better and predicted significantly higher patient satisfaction. Patients reporting periodic outcomes measurement of psoriasis treatment, also had significantly better course of disease, higher satisfaction and a lower psoriasis severity. A majority of patients experienced the use of treatment goals in practice. The association of using treatment goals with clinical outcomes and treatment satisfaction was markedly positive. These findings indicate that the use of treatment goals and outcome measurements in fact improve psoriasis management.

  9. Goals of measurement systems for international safeguards

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    de Montmollin, J.M.; Weinstock, E.V.

    1979-01-01

    The safeguards applied by the International Atomic Energy Agency are based on technical performance goals and criteria that have been developed, but not officially adopted by the Agency. The goals derive in part from the external consequences that safeguards are intended to prevent and in some cases on internal considerations of feasibility. To the extent that these goals may not be attainable, as may be the case with large-throughput bulk reprocessing plants, the Agency is placed in a difficult position. In this paper safeguards goals and criteria and their underlying rationales are critically examined. Suggestions for a more rational and workable structure of performance goals are offered

  10. Combinatorial aspects of covering arrays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Charles J. Colbourn

    2004-11-01

    Full Text Available Covering arrays generalize orthogonal arrays by requiring that t -tuples be covered, but not requiring that the appearance of t -tuples be balanced.Their uses in screening experiments has found application in software testing, hardware testing, and a variety of fields in which interactions among factors are to be identified. Here a combinatorial view of covering arrays is adopted, encompassing basic bounds, direct constructions, recursive constructions, algorithmic methods, and applications.

  11. Combined heat and power's potential to meet New York City's sustainability goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Howard, Bianca; Saba, Alexis; Gerrard, Michael; Modi, Vijay

    2014-01-01

    Combined Heat and Power (CHP) has been proven as a mature technology that can benefit both building owners and utility operators. As the economic and environmental benefits of CHP in urban centers gain recognition, regulations and policies have evolved to encourage their deployment. However, the question remains whether these policies are sufficient in helping to achieve the larger sustainability goals, such as the New York City-specific goal of incorporating 800 MW of distributed generation. In this paper, the current regulatory and policy environment for CHP is discussed. Then, an engineering analysis estimating the potential for CHP in NYC at the individual building and microgrid scale, considered a city block, is performed. This analysis indicates that over 800 MW of individual building CHP systems would qualify for the current incentives but many systems would need to undergo more cumbersome air permitting processes reducing the viable capacity to 360 MW. In addition microgrid CHP systems with multiple owners could contribute to meeting the goal even after considering air permits; however, these systems may incorporate many residential customers. The regulatory framework for microgrids with multiple owners and especially residential customers is particularly uncertain therefore additional policies would be needed to facilitate their development. - Highlights: • Estimates 1580 MW and 3042 MW CHP capacity at the building and microgrid scales. • Citywide emissions could reduce 4% at the building and 9% at the microgrid scale. • CHP microgrid systems operate at similar efficiencies while providing energy to buildings not viable for CHP. • Current regulatory and policy mechanisms would affect at least 800 MW of CHP systems. • Microgrid CHP systems may be necessary to the City's meet distributed generation goals

  12. Forest Cover Estimation in Ireland Using Radar Remote Sensing: A Comparative Analysis of Forest Cover Assessment Methodologies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Devaney, John; Barrett, Brian; Barrett, Frank; Redmond, John; O`Halloran, John

    2015-01-01

    Quantification of spatial and temporal changes in forest cover is an essential component of forest monitoring programs. Due to its cloud free capability, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an ideal source of information on forest dynamics in countries with near-constant cloud-cover. However, few studies have investigated the use of SAR for forest cover estimation in landscapes with highly sparse and fragmented forest cover. In this study, the potential use of L-band SAR for forest cover estimation in two regions (Longford and Sligo) in Ireland is investigated and compared to forest cover estimates derived from three national (Forestry2010, Prime2, National Forest Inventory), one pan-European (Forest Map 2006) and one global forest cover (Global Forest Change) product. Two machine-learning approaches (Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees) are evaluated. Both Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees classification accuracies were high (98.1–98.5%), with differences between the two classifiers being minimal (forest area and an increase in overall accuracy of SAR-derived forest cover maps. All forest cover products were evaluated using an independent validation dataset. For the Longford region, the highest overall accuracy was recorded with the Forestry2010 dataset (97.42%) whereas in Sligo, highest overall accuracy was obtained for the Prime2 dataset (97.43%), although accuracies of SAR-derived forest maps were comparable. Our findings indicate that spaceborne radar could aid inventories in regions with low levels of forest cover in fragmented landscapes. The reduced accuracies observed for the global and pan-continental forest cover maps in comparison to national and SAR-derived forest maps indicate that caution should be exercised when applying these datasets for national reporting. PMID:26262681

  13. Safety Goal, Multi-unit Risk and PSA Uncertainty

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yang, Joon-Eon [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2015-10-15

    The safety goal is an answer of each country to the question 'How safe is safe enough?'. Table 1 shows some examples of the safety goal. However, many countries including Korea do not have the official safety goal for NPPs up to now since the establishment of safety goal is not just a technical issue but a very complex socio-technical issue. In establishing the safety goal for nuclear facilities, we have to consider various factors including not only technical aspects but also social, cultural ones. Recently, Korea is trying to establish the official safety goal. In this paper, we will review the relationship between the safety goal and Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA). We will also address some important technical issues to be considered in establishing the safety goal for NPPs from PSA point of view, i.e. a multi-unit risk issue and the uncertainty of PSA. In this paper, we reviewed some issues related to the safety goal and PSA. We believe that the safety goal is to be established in Korea considering the multi-unit risk. In addition, the relationship between the safety goal and PSA should be also defined clearly since PSA is the only way to answer to the question 'How safe is safe enough?'.

  14. Practical goal programming

    CERN Document Server

    Jones, Dylan

    2010-01-01

    This book and its treatment of goal programming will help organizations meet targets and objectives. The book includes many worked-out examples and tutorial exercises, and is designed to demostrate and teach its readers good modeling practice.

  15. Threat and defense as goal regulation: from implicit goal conflict to anxious uncertainty, reactive approach motivation, and ideological extremism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nash, Kyle; McGregor, Ian; Prentice, Mike

    2011-12-01

    Four studies investigated a goal regulation view of anxious uncertainty threat (Gray & McNaughton, 2000) and ideological defense. Participants (N = 444) were randomly assigned to have achievement or relationship goals implicitly primed. The implicit goal primes were followed by randomly assigned achievement or relationship threats that have reliably caused generalized, reactive approach motivation and ideological defense in past research. The threats caused anxious uncertainty (Study 1), reactive approach motivation (Studies 2 and 3), and reactive ideological conviction (Study 4) only when threat-relevant goals had first been primed, but not when threat-irrelevant goals had first been primed. Reactive ideological conviction (Study 4) was eliminated if participants were given an opportunity to attribute their anxiety to a mundane source. Results support a goal regulation view of anxious uncertainty, threat, and defense with potential for integrating theories of defensive compensation.

  16. Covered Bridge Security Manual

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brett Phares; Terry Wipf; Ryan Sievers; Travis Hosteng

    2013-01-01

    The design, construction, and use of covered timber bridges is all but a lost art in these days of pre-stressed concrete, high-performance steel, and the significant growth both in the volume and size of vehicles. Furthermore, many of the existing covered timber bridges are preserved only because of their status on the National Registry of Historic Places or the...

  17. Probabilistic safety assessment goals in Canada

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Snell, V.G.

    1986-01-01

    CANDU safety philosphy, both in design and in licensing, has always had a strong bias towards quantitative probabilistically-based goals derived from comparative safety. Formal probabilistic safety assessment began in Canada as a design tool. The influence of this carried over later on into the definition of the deterministic safety guidelines used in CANDU licensing. Design goals were further developed which extended the consequence/frequency spectrum of 'acceptable' events, from the two points defined by the deterministic single/dual failure analysis, to a line passing through lower and higher frequencies. Since these were design tools, a complete risk summation was not necessary, allowing a cutoff at low event frequencies while preserving the identification of the most significant safety-related events. These goals gave a logical framework for making decisions on implementing design changes proposed as a result of the Probabilistic Safety Analysis. Performing this analysis became a regulatory requirement, and the design goals remained the framework under which this was submitted. Recently, there have been initiatives to incorporate more detailed probabilistic safety goals into the regulatory process in Canada. These range from far-reaching safety optimization across society, to initiatives aimed at the nuclear industry only. The effectiveness of the latter is minor at very low and very high event frequencies; at medium frequencies, a justification against expenditures per life saved in other industries should be part of the goal setting

  18. Infants Show Stability of Goal-Directed Imitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakkalou, Elena; Ellis-Davies, Kate; Fowler, Nia C.; Hilbrink, Elma E.; Gattis, Merideth

    2013-01-01

    Previous studies have reported that infants selectively reproduce observed actions and have argued that this selectivity reflects understanding of intentions and goals, or goal-directed imitation. We reasoned that if selective imitation of goal-directed actions reflects understanding of intentions, infants should demonstrate stability across…

  19. Sea-ice cover in the Nordic Seas and the sensitivity to Atlantic water temperatures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jensen, Mari F.; Nisancioglu, Kerim H.; Spall, Michael A.

    2017-04-01

    Changes in the sea-ice cover of the Nordic Seas have been proposed to play a key role for the dramatic temperature excursions associated with the Dansgaard-Oeschger events during the last glacial. However, with its proximity to the warm Atlantic water, how a sea-ice cover can persist in the Nordic Seas is not well understood. In this study, we apply an eddy-resolving configuration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model with an idealized topography to study the presence of sea ice in a Nordic Seas-like domain. We assume an infinite amount of warm Atlantic water present in the south by restoring the southern area to constant temperatures. The sea-surface temperatures are restored toward cold, atmospheric temperatures, and as a result, sea ice is present in the interior of the domain. However, the sea-ice cover in the margins of the Nordic Seas, an area with a warm, cyclonic boundary current, is sensitive to the amount of heat entering the domain, i.e., the restoring temperature in the south. When the temperature of the warm, cyclonic boundary current is high, the margins are free of sea ice and heat is released to the atmosphere. We show that with a small reduction in the temperature of the incoming Atlantic water, the Nordic Seas-like domain is fully covered in sea ice. Warm water is still entering the Nordic Seas, however, this happens at depths below a cold, fresh surface layer produced by melted sea ice. Consequently, the heat release to the atmosphere is reduced along with the eddy heat fluxes. Results suggest a threshold value in the amount of heat entering the Nordic Seas before the sea-ice cover disappears in the margins. We study the sensitivity of this threshold to changes in atmospheric temperatures and vertical diffusivity.

  20. The millennium development goals and road traffic injuries: exploring the linkages in South Asia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hyder, Adnan A; Ghaffar, Abdul

    2004-12-01

    In a major summit of the members of the United Nations (UN) in 2000, a Millennium Declaration was adopted which called for making the elimination of poverty and promotion of sustainable development a global priority. A road map was agreed upon to operationalize the declaration, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were integrated within the document. The MDGs are now increasingly being used to assess the performance of countries, institutions and the global community. WHO declares that the MDGs provide "a set of outcomes that are relevant to the development of national health policy frameworks". It also states that although MDGs do not cover all the components of public health, when broadly interpreted "the goals provide an opportunity to address important cross-cutting issues and key constraints to health". Consistent with WHO's call for a broad interpretation of the MDGs, and building on the health linkages identified by WHO, this paper explores the linkages between the MDGs and the impact of road traffic injuries (RTI). This is done in the context of South Asia, one of the poorest and populated regions of the developing world.

  1. Kalman filter for statistical monitoring of forest cover across sub-continental regions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raymond L. Czaplewski

    1991-01-01

    The Kalman filter is a multivariate generalization of the composite estimator which recursively combines a current direct estimate with a past estimate that is updated for expected change over time with a prediction model. The Kalman filter can estimate proportions of different cover types for sub-continental regions each year. A random sample of high-resolution...

  2. Optimism, Positive and Negative Affect, and Goal Adjustment Strategies: Their Relationship to Activity Patterns in Patients with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rosa Esteve

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective. Activity patterns are the product of pain and of the self-regulation of current goals in the context of pain. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between goal management strategies and activity patterns while taking into account the role of optimism/pessimism and positive/negative affect. Methods. Two hundred and thirty-seven patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain filled out questionnaires on optimism, positive and negative affect, pain intensity, and the activity patterns they employed in dealing with their pain. Questionnaires were also administered to assess their general goal management strategies: goal persistence, flexible goal adjustment, and disengagement and reengagement with goals. Results. Structural equation modelling showed that higher levels of optimism were related to persistence, flexible goal management, and commitment to new goals. These strategies were associated with higher positive affect, persistence in finishing tasks despite pain, and infrequent avoidance behaviour in the presence or anticipation of pain. Conclusions. The strategies used by the patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain to manage their life goals are related to their activity patterns.

  3. Optimism, Positive and Negative Affect, and Goal Adjustment Strategies: Their Relationship to Activity Patterns in Patients with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esteve, Rosa; López-Martínez, Alicia E; Peters, Madelon L; Serrano-Ibáñez, Elena R; Ruiz-Párraga, Gema T; Ramírez-Maestre, Carmen

    2018-01-01

    Activity patterns are the product of pain and of the self-regulation of current goals in the context of pain. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between goal management strategies and activity patterns while taking into account the role of optimism/pessimism and positive/negative affect. Two hundred and thirty-seven patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain filled out questionnaires on optimism, positive and negative affect, pain intensity, and the activity patterns they employed in dealing with their pain. Questionnaires were also administered to assess their general goal management strategies: goal persistence, flexible goal adjustment, and disengagement and reengagement with goals. Structural equation modelling showed that higher levels of optimism were related to persistence, flexible goal management, and commitment to new goals. These strategies were associated with higher positive affect, persistence in finishing tasks despite pain, and infrequent avoidance behaviour in the presence or anticipation of pain. The strategies used by the patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain to manage their life goals are related to their activity patterns.

  4. Summary of decontamination cover manufacturing experience

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ulrich, G.B.; Berry, H.W.

    1995-02-01

    Decontamination cover forming cracks and vent cup assembly leaks through the decontamination covers were early manufacturing problems. The decontamination cover total manufacturing process yield was as low as 55%. Applicable tooling and procedures were examined. All manufacturing steps from foil fabrication to final assembly leak testing were considered as possible causes or contributing factors to these problems. The following principal changes were made to correct these problems: (1) the foil annealing temperature was reduced from 1375 degrees to 1250 degrees C, (2) the decontamination cover fabrication procedure (including visual inspection for surface imperfections and elimination of superfluous operations) was improved, (3) the postforming dye penetrant inspection procedure was revised for increased sensitivity, (4) a postforming (prewelding) 1250 degrees C/1 h vacuum stress-relief operation was added, (5) a poststress relief (prewelding) decontamination cover piece-part leak test was implemented, (6) the hold-down fixture used during the decontamination cover-to-cup weld was modified, and concomitantly, and (7) the foil fabrication process was changed from the extruding and rolling of 63-mm-diam vacuum arc-remelted ingots (extrusion process) to the rolling of 19-mm-square arc-melted drop castings (drop cast process). Since these changes were incorporated, the decontamination cover total manufacturing process yield has been 91 %. Most importantly, more than 99% of the decontamination covers welded onto vent cup assemblies were acceptable. The drastic yield improvement is attributed primarily to the change in the foil annealing temperature from 1375 degrees to 1250 degrees C and secondarily to the improvements in the decontamination cover fabrication procedure

  5. Snow Cover Monitoring Using MODIS Data in Liaoning Province, Northeastern China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu Lu

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the results of snow cover monitoring studies in Liaoning Province, northeastern China, using MODIS data. Snow cover plays an important role in both the regional water balance and soil moisture properties during the early spring in northeastern China. In addition, heavy snowfalls commonly trigger hazards such as flooding, caused by rapid snow melt, or crop failure, resulting from fluctuations in soil temperature associated with changes in the snow cover. The latter is a function of both regional, or global, climatic changes, as well as fluctuations in the albedo resulting from variations in the Snow Covered Area (SCA. These impacts are crucial to human activities, especially to those living in middle-latitude areas such as Liaoning Province. Thus, SCA monitoring is currently an important tool in studies of global climate change, particularly because satellite remote sensing data provide timely and efficient snow cover information for large areas. In this study, MODIS L1B data, MODIS Daily Snow Products (MOD10A1 and MODIS 8-day Snow Products (MOD10A2 were used to monitor the SCA of Liaoning Province over the winter months of November–April, 2006–2008. The effects of cloud masking and forest masking on the snow monitoring results were also assessed. The results show that the SCA percentage derived from MODIS L1B data is relatively consistent, but slightly higher than that obtained from MODIS Snow Products. In situ data from 25 snow stations were used to assess the accuracy of snow cover monitoring from the SCA compared to the results from MODIS Snow Products. The studies found that the SCA results were more reliable than MODIS Snow Products in the study area.

  6. Sensitivity of selected landscape pattern metrics to land-cover misclassification and differences in land-cover composition

    Science.gov (United States)

    James D. Wickham; Robert V. O' Neill; Kurt H. Riitters; Timothy G. Wade; K. Bruce Jones

    1997-01-01

    Calculation of landscape metrics from land-cover data is becoming increasingly common. Some studies have shown that these measurements are sensitive to differences in land-cover composition, but none are known to have tested also their a sensitivity to land-cover misclassification. An error simulation model was written to test the sensitivity of selected land-scape...

  7. Cyclic coverings, Calabi-Yau manifolds and complex multiplication

    CERN Document Server

    Rohde, Christian

    2009-01-01

    The main goal of this book is the construction of families of Calabi-Yau 3-manifolds with dense sets of complex multiplication fibers. The new families are determined by combining and generalizing two methods. Firstly, the method of E. Viehweg and K. Zuo, who have constructed a deformation of the Fermat quintic with a dense set of CM fibers by a tower of cyclic coverings. Using this method, new families of K3 surfaces with dense sets of CM fibers and involutions are obtained. Secondly, the construction method of the Borcea-Voisin mirror family, which in the case of the author's examples yields families of Calabi-Yau 3-manifolds with dense sets of CM fibers, is also utilized. Moreover fibers with complex multiplication of these new families are also determined. This book was written for young mathematicians, physicists and also for experts who are interested in complex multiplication and varieties with complex multiplication. The reader is introduced to generic Mumford-Tate groups and Shimura data, which are a...

  8. Hope and self-regulatory goals applied to an advertising context : promoting prevention stimulates goal-directed behavior.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poels, K.; Dewitte, S.

    2008-01-01

    This article proposes the existence of two types of hope which differ in terms of self-regulatory goals: prevention hope and promotion hope. Consistent with the functional emotion approach and regulatory focus theory, we show that prevention hope generates more goal-directed behavior compared to

  9. Hope and self regulatory goals applied to an advertising context : promoting prevention stimulates goal-directed behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poels, K.; Dewitte, S.; Astregaard, S.; Dwight, M.

    2007-01-01

    This article proposes the existence of two types of hope which differ in terms of self-regulatory goals: prevention hope and promotion hope. Consistent with the functional emotion approach and regulatory focus theory, we show that prevention hope generates more goal-directed behavior compared to

  10. The cross-cutting contribution of the end of neglected tropical diseases to the sustainable development goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bangert, Mathieu; Molyneux, David H; Lindsay, Steve W; Fitzpatrick, Christopher; Engels, Dirk

    2017-04-04

    The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for an integrated response, the kind that has defined Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) efforts in the past decade.NTD interventions have the greatest relevance for SDG3, the health goal, where the focus on equity, and its commitment to reaching people in need of health services, wherever they may live and whatever their circumstances, is fundamentally aligned with the target of Universal Health Coverage. NTD interventions, however, also affect and are affected by many of the other development areas covered under the 2030 Agenda. Strategies such as mass drug administration or the programmatic integration of NTD and WASH activities (SDG6) are driven by effective global partnerships (SDG17). Intervention against the NTDs can also have an impact on poverty (SDG1) and hunger (SDG2), can improve education (SDG4), work and economic growth (SDG8), thereby reducing inequalities (SDG10). The community-led distribution of donated medicines to more than 1 billion people reinforces women's empowerment (SDG5), logistics infrastructure (SDG9) and non-discrimination against disability (SDG16). Interventions to curb mosquito-borne NTDs contribute to the goals of urban sustainability (SDG11) and resilience to climate change (SDG13), while the safe use of insecticides supports the goal of sustainable ecosystems (SDG15). Although indirectly, interventions to control water- and animal-related NTDs can facilitate the goals of small-scale fishing (SDG14) and sustainable hydroelectricity and biofuels (SDG7).NTDs proliferate in less developed areas in countries across the income spectrum, areas where large numbers of people have little or no access to adequate health care, clean water, sanitation, housing, education, transport and information. This scoping review assesses how in this context, ending the epidemic of the NTDs can impact and improve our prospects of attaining the SDGs.

  11. Effects of Goal Relations on Self-Regulated Learning in Multiple Goal Pursuits: Performance, the Self-Regulatory Process, and Task Enjoyment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Hyunjoo

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of goal relations on self-regulation in the pursuit of multiple goals, focusing on self-regulated performance, the self-regulatory process, and task enjoyment. The effect of multiple goal relations on self-regulation was explored in a set of three studies. Goal relations were divided into…

  12. Development and application of nuclear safety goals in Japan. Lessons learnt from the case of 2003 draft safety goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sugawara, Shin-etsu; Inamura, Tomoaki

    2016-01-01

    The Nuclear Safety Commission in Japan offered a detailed draft of nuclear safety goals to the public in 2003, though its position was ambiguous in nuclear safety regulation. This report shows the circumstances behind the development and application of 2003 draft safety goals based on our interviews with the experts who had been involved in making the draft. According to our interviews, they had intention to utilize safety goals for improving risk management of regulatory authority and nuclear energy industry, such as ameliorating deterministic regulations, accumulating experience of risk assessment and management, promoting related research, and communicating risks with general public. In practice, however, safety goals had functioned as a tool for emphasizing an assertion that 'nuclear power plants had already been safe enough'. We identified the following four major impediments to utilizing safety goals; 1) lack of sharing overall recognition of the importance of establishing safety goals among nuclear community, 2) excessive emphasis of internal event risks which leads to an inferior priority to tackle with the issue of external events risks, 3) adverse effect of 'tunnel-visioned incrementalism', that is, nuclear energy industrial entities are attracted their foci too much on what they have been told to do by regulators or local governments, and, 4) negative attitude to disclose the outcomes of risk assessment for fear of societal reactions. To encourage upcoming safety goals and risk management, this report provides the following points for overcoming these problems; 1) sharing insights on the reasons why nuclear community set up safety goals, 2) introducing the concept of adaptive risk management for maintaining questioning attitude, 3) conducting a periodic review of goal attainment level and also safety goals themselves from the eyes of a detached observer, and, 4) rebuilding relationship with society beginning with arguments with local stakeholders over

  13. Shifting closeness: interpersonal effects of personal goal progress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fitzsimons, Gráinne M; Fishbach, Ayelet

    2010-04-01

    In this article, we examine how the shifting motivational priority of personal goals affects relationship closeness. We hypothesize that people will draw closer to significant others who are instrumental (vs. noninstrumental) for a goal that has not been progressing well-a goal that is thus high in motivational priority. Once the goal has progressed successfully, we predict that people will cease to draw closer to instrumental others. Five studies support these predictions by showing that the impact of goal progress on reduced preference for instrumental others (Experiment 1) depends on the framing of progress as partial attainment (vs. greater commitment, Experiment 2) and the intention to balance across goals (vs. focus on one goal; Experiments 3-4). We find that moving away from instrumental others post progress is functional, in that it allows for drawing closer to those who are instrumental for alternative goals (Experiment 5).

  14. The Effects of Graphic Feedback, Goal-Setting, and Manager Praise on Customer Service Behaviors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loewy, Shannon; Bailey, Jon

    2007-01-01

    The current study used a multiple baseline design to investigate the effects of graphic feedback, goal setting, and manager praise on customer service behaviors in a large retail setting. Direct observation of customer greeting, eye contact, and smiling was used to collect data. After baseline data were collected feedback graphs were posted twice…

  15. Using the FORE-SCE model to project land-cover change in the southeastern United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sohl, Terry; Sayler, Kristi L.

    2008-01-01

    A wide variety of ecological applications require spatially explicit current and projected land-use and land-cover data. The southeastern United States has experienced massive land-use change since European settlement and continues to experience extremely high rates of forest cutting, significant urban development, and changes in agricultural land use. Forest-cover patterns and structure are projected to change dramatically in the southeastern United States in the next 50 years due to population growth and demand for wood products [Wear, D.N., Greis, J.G. (Eds.), 2002. Southern Forest Resource Assessment. General Technical Report SRS-53. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Asheville, NC, 635 pp]. Along with our climate partners, we are examining the potential effects of southeastern U.S. land-cover change on regional climate. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Land Cover Trends project is analyzing contemporary (1973-2000) land-cover change in the conterminous United States, providing ecoregion-by-ecoregion estimates of the rates of change, descriptive transition matrices, and changes in landscape metrics. The FORecasting SCEnarios of future land-cover (FORE-SCE) model used Land Cover Trends data and theoretical, statistical, and deterministic modeling techniques to project future land-cover change through 2050 for the southeastern United States. Prescriptions for future proportions of land cover for this application were provided by ecoregion-based extrapolations of historical change. Logistic regression was used to develop relationships between suspected drivers of land-cover change and land cover, resulting in the development of probability-of-occurrence surfaces for each unique land-cover type. Forest stand age was initially established with Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data and tracked through model iterations. The spatial allocation procedure placed patches of new land cover on the landscape until the scenario

  16. From Desires, Obligations and Norms to Goals

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dignum, F.P.M.; Kinny, D.; Sonenberg, L.

    2002-01-01

    Traditional models of agents based on Beliefs, Desires and Intentions usually only include either desires or goals. Therefore the process whereby goals arise from desires is given scant attention. In this paper we argue that the inclusion of both desires and goals in the same model can be

  17. Academic goals, student homework engagement, and academic achievement in Primary Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio eValle

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available There seems to be a general consensus in the literature that doing homework is beneficial for students. Thus, the current challenge is to examine the process of doing homework to find which variables may help students to complete the homework assigned. To address this goal, a path analysis model was fit. The model hypothesized that the way students engage in homework is explained by the type of academic goals set, and it explains the amount of time spend on homework, the homework time management, and the amount of homework done. Lastly, the amount of homework done is positively related to academic achievement. The model was fit using a sample of 535 Spanish students from the last three courses of elementary school (aged 9 to 13. Findings show that: (a academic achievement was positively associated with the amount of homework completed, (b the amount of homework completed was related to the homework time management, (c homework time management was associated with the approach to homework; (d and the approach to homework, like the rest of the variables of the model (except for the time spent on homework, was related to the student's academic motivation (i.e., academic goals.

  18. Differentiating Performance Approach Goals and Their Unique Effects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edwards, Ordene V.

    2014-01-01

    The study differentiates between two types of performance approach goals (competence demonstration performance approach goal and normative performance approach goal) by examining their unique effects on self-efficacy, interest, and fear of failure. Seventy-nine students completed questionnaires that measure performance approach goals,…

  19. Flux consumption, current ramp-up and current diffusion in Tore Supra non-inductive Lower Hybrid scenarios

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kazarian, F.; Litaudon, X.; Moreau, D.; Arslanbekov, R.; Hoang, G.T.; Joffrin, E.; Peysson, Y.; Allibert, J.P.; Ane, J.M.; Bremond, S.

    1995-01-01

    The main objective of the Lower Hybrid (LH) experiments performed on Tore Supra is to provide large flux savings for long pulse operation while controlling the plasma current density profile. This goal will be best achieved by applying LH wave directly during the current ramp-up phase. Experiments have been performed where a large fraction of the current is driven non-inductively during the ramp-up phase. A theoretical flux consumption scaling is presented and compared to experimental data. The time evolutions of the current density profiles are analysed with a new current diffusion code (CRONOS). In view to achieve fully non-inductive current drive discharges in a fast, systematic and reproducible way, experiments where the primary voltage is imposed have been carried out. In a complementary approach, an appropriate transformer flux feedback scheme has been also studied. (author) 6 refs.; 6 figs

  20. An Optimistic Analysis of the Means of Implementation for Sustainable Development Goals: Thinking about Goals as Means

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mark Elder

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available A key but contentious aspect of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs is the means of implementation (MOI. Many developing countries emphasize the importance of international assistance while developed countries focus more on domestic financing and the private sector. The text of the SDGs includes a broad range of MOI. However, a discussion has arisen about whether countries should prioritize some goals over others due partly to concerns that MOI may be insufficient. In contrast, this article argues for a more optimistic outlook concerning MOI and the feasibility of achieving the SDGs. First, most SDGs and targets are themselves means—or intermediate goals—contributing to the achievement of other goals. The structure of the SDGs blurs the fact that different goals have different functions, such as providing resources or enabling environments. Greater focus on the interlinkages and synergies among goals could enhance the effectiveness of implementation and reduce costs. Second, integrated planning and implementation, needed for leveraging synergies among goals, will require enhanced capacity, particularly for governance and coordination. We argue that the strengthening of such capacity is a central MOI that requires more attention since it is a precondition for the effective mobilization and deployment of other MOI. Third, although upfront investments may seem high in absolute terms, financial feasibility is realistic when considering existing global financial stocks and flows and the expected benefits.

  1. Allegheny County Land Cover Areas

    Data.gov (United States)

    Allegheny County / City of Pittsburgh / Western PA Regional Data Center — The Land Cover dataset demarcates 14 land cover types by area; such as Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Forest, Agriculture, etc. If viewing this description on...

  2. Geometric covers, graph orientations, counter games

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Berglin, Edvin

    -directed graph is dynamic (can be altered by some outside actor), some orientations may need to be reversed in order to maintain the low out-degree. We present a new algorithm that is simpler than earlier work, yet matches or outperforms the efficiency of these results with very few exceptions. Counter games...... example is Line Cover, also known as Point-Line Cover, where a set of points in a geometric space are to be covered by placing a restricted number of lines. We present new FPT algorithms for the sub-family Curve Cover (which includes Line Cover), as well as for Hyperplane Cover restricted to R 3 (i...... are a type of abstract game played over a set of counters holding values, and these values may be moved between counters according to some set of rules. Typically they are played between two players: the adversary who tries to concentrate the greatest value possible in a single counter, and the benevolent...

  3. Quantitative safety goals for the regulatory process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Joksimovic, V.; O'Donnell, L.F.

    1981-01-01

    The paper offers a brief summary of the current regulatory background in the USA, emphasizing nuclear, related to the establishment of quantitative safety goals as a way to respond to the key issue of 'how safe is safe enough'. General Atomic has taken a leading role in advocating the use of probabilistic risk assessment techniques in the regulatory process. This has led to understanding of the importance of quantitative safety goals. The approach developed by GA is discussed in the paper. It is centred around definition of quantitative safety regions. The regions were termed: design basis, safety margin or design capability and safety research. The design basis region is bounded by the frequency of 10 -4 /reactor-year and consequences of no identifiable public injury. 10 -4 /reactor-year is associated with the total projected lifetime of a commercial US nuclear power programme. Events which have a 50% chance of happening are included in the design basis region. In the safety margin region, which extends below the design basis region, protection is provided against some events whose probability of not happening during the expected course of the US nuclear power programme is within the range of 50 to 90%. Setting the lower mean frequency to this region of 10 -5 /reactor-year is equivalent to offering 90% assurance that an accident of given severity will not happen. Rare events with a mean frequency below 10 -5 can be predicted to occur. However, accidents predicted to have a probability of less than 10 -6 are 99% certain not to happen at all, and are thus not anticipated to affect public health and safety. The area between 10 -5 and 10 -6 defines the frequency portion of the safety research region. Safety goals associated with individual risk to a maximum-exposed member of public, general societal risk and property risk are proposed in the paper

  4. A Comparison of Math Cover, Copy, Compare Intervention Procedures for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morton, Reeva C; Gadke, Daniel L

    2018-03-01

    Cover, Copy, Compare (CCC) and Copy, Cover, Compare (MCCC) procedures are effective interventions for improving math fluency. However, there is a gap in literature exploring the use of these interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The purpose of the current study was to compare the use of CCC and MCCC for children with ASD using a multi-component single-case experimental design. The results showed no notable difference between the interventions. Implications and limitations, particularly surrounding experimental control, are discussed in detail.

  5. Surface current equilibria from a geometric point of view

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kaiser, R.; Salat, A.

    1993-04-01

    This paper addresses the inverse problem of the existence of surface current MHD equilibria in toroidal geometry with vanishing magnetic field inside. Inverse means that the plasma-vacuum interface rather than the external wall or conductors are given and the latter remain to be determined. This makes a reformulation of the problem possible in geometric terms: What toroidal surfaces with analytic parameterization allow a simple analytic covering by geodesics? If such a covering by geodesics (field lines) exists, their orthogonal trajectories (current lines) also form a simple covering and are described by a function satisfying a nonlinear partial differential equation of the Hamilton-Jacobi type whose coefficients are combinations of the metric elements of the surface. All known equilibria - equilibria with zero and infinite rotational transform and the symmetric ones in the case of finite rotational transform - turn out to be solutions of separable cases of that equation and allow a unified description if the toroidal surface is parametrized in the moving trihedral associated with a closed curve. Analogously to volume current equilibria, the only continuous symmetries compatible with separability are plane, helical and axial symmetry. In the nonseparable case numerical evidence is presented for cases with chaotic behaviour of geodesics, thus restricting possible equilibria for these surfaces. For weak deviation from axisymmetry KAM-type behaviour is observed, i.e. destruction of geodesic coverings with a low rational rotational transform and preservation of those with irrational rotational transform. A previous attempt to establish three-dimensional surface current equilibria on the basis of the KAM theorem is rejected as incomplete, and a complete proof of the existence of equilibria in the weakly nonaxisymmetric case, based on the twist theorem for mappings, is given. Finally, for a certain class of strong deviations from axisymmetry an analytic criterion is

  6. The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium: 20 years of development and integration of USA national land cover data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wickham, James D.; Homer, Collin G.; Vogelmann, James E.; McKerrow, Alexa; Mueller, Rick; Herold, Nate; Coluston, John

    2014-01-01

    The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium demonstrates the national benefits of USA Federal collaboration. Starting in the mid-1990s as a small group with the straightforward goal of compiling a comprehensive national Landsat dataset that could be used to meet agencies’ needs, MRLC has grown into a group of 10 USA Federal Agencies that coordinate the production of five different products, including the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), the Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP), the Cropland Data Layer (CDL), the Gap Analysis Program (GAP), and the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE). As a set, the products include almost every aspect of land cover from impervious surface to detailed crop and vegetation types to fire fuel classes. Some products can be used for land cover change assessments because they cover multiple time periods. The MRLC Consortium has become a collaborative forum, where members share research, methodological approaches, and data to produce products using established protocols, and we believe it is a model for the production of integrated land cover products at national to continental scales. We provide a brief overview of each of the main products produced by MRLC and examples of how each product has been used. We follow that with a discussion of the impact of the MRLC program and a brief overview of future plans.

  7. National Education Goals: Can We Afford Them?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guthrie, James W.

    Financial estimates for achieving the six national education goals proposed at the Charlottesville Education Summit are provided in this paper. Specific objectives under each goal, as outlined by the National Goals Panel, are assessed. A conclusion is that although the cost estimates have involved huge assumptions and sometimes wide variations,…

  8. A Goal Congruity Model of Role Entry, Engagement, and Exit: Understanding Communal Goal Processes in STEM Gender Gaps.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diekman, Amanda B; Steinberg, Mia; Brown, Elizabeth R; Belanger, Aimee L; Clark, Emily K

    2017-05-01

    The goal congruity perspective provides a theoretical framework to understand how motivational processes influence and are influenced by social roles. In particular, we invoke this framework to understand communal goal processes as proximal motivators of decisions to engage in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). STEM fields are not perceived as affording communal opportunities to work with or help others, and understanding these perceived goal affordances can inform knowledge about differences between (a) STEM and other career pathways and (b) women's and men's choices. We review the patterning of gender disparities in STEM that leads to a focus on communal goal congruity (Part I), provide evidence for the foundational logic of the perspective (Part II), and explore the implications for research and policy (Part III). Understanding and transmitting the opportunities for communal goal pursuit within STEM can reap widespread benefits for broadening and deepening participation.

  9. A season-long team-building intervention: examining the effect of team goal setting on cohesion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Senécal, Julie; Loughead, Todd M; Bloom, Gordon A

    2008-04-01

    The purpose of the current study was to determine whether the implementation of a season-long team-building intervention program using team goal setting increased perceptions of cohesion. The participants were 86 female high school basketball players from 8 teams. The teams were randomly assigned to either an experimental team goal-setting or control condition. Each participant completed the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ; Carron, Brawley, & Widmeyer, 2002; Carron, Widmeyer, & Brawley, 1985), which assessed cohesion at both the beginning and end of the season. Overall, the results revealed a significant multivariate effect, Pillai's trace F(12, 438) = 2.68, p = .002. Post hoc analyses showed that at the beginning of the season, athletes from both conditions did not differ in their perceptions of cohesion. However, at the end of the season, athletes in the team goal-setting condition held higher perceptions of cohesion than athletes in the control condition. Overall, the results indicated that team goal setting was an effective team-building tool for influencing cohesiveness in sport teams.

  10. A globally complete map of supraglacial debris cover and a new toolkit for debris cover research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herreid, Sam; Pellicciotti, Francesca

    2017-04-01

    A growing canon of literature is focused on resolving the processes and implications of debris cover on glaciers. However, this work is often confined to a handful of glaciers that were likely selected based on criteria optimizing their suitability to test a specific hypothesis or logistical ease. The role of debris cover in a glacier system is likely to not go overlooked in forthcoming research, yet the magnitude of this role at a global scale has not yet been fully described. Here, we present a map of debris cover for all glacierized regions on Earth including the Greenland Ice Sheet using 30 m Landsat data. This dataset will begin to open a wider context to the high quality, localized findings from the debris-covered glacier research community and help inform large-scale modeling efforts. A global map of debris cover also facilitates analysis attempting to isolate first order geomorphological and climate controls of supraglacial debris production. Furthering the objective of expanding the inclusion of debris cover in forthcoming research, we also present an under development suite of open-source, Python based tools. Requiring minimal and often freely available input data, we have automated the mapping of: i) debris cover, ii) ice cliffs, iii) debris cover evolution over the Landsat era and iv) glacier flow instabilities from altered debris structures. At the present time, debris extent is the only globally complete quantity but with the expanding repository of high quality global datasets and further tool development minimizing manual tasks and computational cost, we foresee all of these tools being applied globally in the near future.

  11. Tutorial on beam current monitoring

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Webber, Robert C.

    2000-01-01

    This paper is a tutorial level review covering a wide range of aspects related to charged particle beam current measurement. The tutorial begins with a look at the characteristics of the beam as a signal source, the associated electromagnetic fields, the influence of the typical accelerator environment on those fields, and the usual means of modifying and controlling that environment to facilitate beam current measurement. Short descriptions of three quite different types of current monitors are presented and a quantitative review of the classical transformer circuit is given. Recognizing that environmental noise pick-up may present a large source of error in quantitative measurements, signal handling considerations are given considerable attention using real-life examples. An example of a successful transport line beam current monitor implementation is presented and the tutorial concludes with a few comments about signal processing and current monitor calibration issues

  12. Decomposing the Current

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Tim

    The field of molecular electronics have been shown to span a huge range of properties. In an effort to extract the parameters of the system that governs these properties, a number of methods that decomposes the current have been developed. These methods function not just as tools for data...... extraction, but also serves as the foundation upon which to gain insights into the physics that governs the molecular properties. As such, the understanding of the applicability and the development of new methods to decompose the current may be a goal in it self. In this thesis we will explore some...... of these methods, and use the insights from this study to develop new methods. First, we will compare two methods that decompose the current into the transmission from a single conducting level of the molecular device, by extracting level position and broadening. In general we see that the method that relies on I...

  13. Annual land cover change mapping using MODIS time series to improve emissions inventories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    López Saldaña, G.; Quaife, T. L.; Clifford, D.

    2014-12-01

    Understanding and quantifying land surface changes is necessary for estimating greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions, and for meeting air quality limits and targets. More sophisticated inventories methodologies for at least key emission source are needed due to policy-driven air quality directives. Quantifying land cover changes on an annual basis requires greater spatial and temporal disaggregation of input data. The main aim of this study is to develop a methodology for using Earth Observations (EO) to identify annual land surface changes that will improve emissions inventories from agriculture and land use/land use change and forestry (LULUCF) in the UK. First goal is to find the best sets of input features that describe accurately the surface dynamics. In order to identify annual and inter-annual land surface changes, a times series of surface reflectance was used to capture seasonal variability. Daily surface reflectance images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) at 500m resolution were used to invert a Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) model to create the seamless time series. Given the limited number of cloud-free observations, a BRDF climatology was used to constrain the model inversion and where no high-scientific quality observations were available at all, as a gap filler. The Land Cover Map 2007 (LC2007) produced by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) was used for training and testing purposes. A prototype land cover product was created for 2006 to 2008. Several machine learning classifiers were tested as well as different sets of input features going from the BRDF parameters to spectral Albedo. We will present the results of the time series development and the first exercises when creating the prototype land cover product.

  14. The Dominant Robot: Threatening Robots Cause Psychological Reactance, Especially When They Have Incongruent Goals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roubroeks, M. A. J.; Ham, J. R. C.; Midden, C. J. H.

    Persuasive technology can take the form of a social agent that persuades people to change behavior or attitudes. However, like any persuasive technology, persuasive social agents might trigger psychological reactance, which can lead to restoration behavior. The current study investigated whether interacting with a persuasive robot can cause psychological reactance. Additionally, we investigated whether goal congruency plays a role in psychological reactance. Participants programmed a washing machine while a robot gave threatening advice. Confirming expectations, participants experienced more psychological reactance when receiving high-threatening advice compared to low-threatening advice. Moreover, when the robot gave high-threatening advice and expressed an incongruent goal, participants reported the highest level of psychological reactance (on an anger measure). Finally, high-threatening advice led to more restoration, and this relationship was partially mediated by psychological reactance. Overall, results imply that under certain circumstances persuasive technology can trigger opposite effects, especially when people have incongruent goal intentions.

  15. Normative, gain and hedonic goal frames guiding environmental behavior

    OpenAIRE

    Lindenberg, Siegwart; Steg, Linda

    2007-01-01

    This article discusses new developments about goal-dependent framing and multiple goal frames (sometimes also called "multiple motives"), which are highly relevant for understanding environmental behavior. We introduce goal-framing theory, which postulates that goals "frame" the way people process information and act upon it. Three goal frames are distinguished: a hedonic, gain, and normative goal frame. In general, multiple goals are active at any given time, which may (or may not) be compat...

  16. Reduction of front-metallization grid shading in concentrator cells through laser micro-grooved cover glass

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    García-Linares, Pablo; Voarino, Philippe; Besson, Pierre; Baudrit, Mathieu; Dominguez, César; Dellea, Olivier; Fugier, Pascal

    2015-01-01

    Concentrator solar cell front-grid metallizations are designed so that the trade-off between series resistance and shading factor (SF) is optimized for a particular irradiance. High concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) typically requires a metallic electrode pattern that covers up to 10% of the cell surface. The shading effect produced by this front electrode results in a significant reduction in short-circuit current (I SC ) and hence, in a significant efficiency loss. In this work we present a cover glass (originally meant to protect the cell surface) that is laser-grooved with a micrometric pattern that redirects the incident solar light towards interfinger regions and away from the metallic electrodes, where they would be wasted in terms of photovoltaic generation. Quantum efficiency (QE) and current (I)-voltage (V) characterization under concentration validate the proof-of-concept, showing great potential for CPV applications

  17. Reduction of front-metallization grid shading in concentrator cells through laser micro-grooved cover glass

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    García-Linares, Pablo, E-mail: pablo.garcia-linares@cea.fr; Voarino, Philippe; Besson, Pierre; Baudrit, Mathieu [CEA-LITEN, Laboratoire de Photovoltaïque à Concentration, INES, Le Bourget du Lac (France); Dominguez, César [CEA-LITEN, Laboratoire de Photovoltaïque à Concentration, INES, Le Bourget du Lac (France); Instituto de Energía Solar - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid (Spain); Dellea, Olivier; Fugier, Pascal [CEA-LITEN, Laboratoire de Surfaces Nanostructurées, Grenoble (France)

    2015-09-28

    Concentrator solar cell front-grid metallizations are designed so that the trade-off between series resistance and shading factor (SF) is optimized for a particular irradiance. High concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) typically requires a metallic electrode pattern that covers up to 10% of the cell surface. The shading effect produced by this front electrode results in a significant reduction in short-circuit current (I{sub SC}) and hence, in a significant efficiency loss. In this work we present a cover glass (originally meant to protect the cell surface) that is laser-grooved with a micrometric pattern that redirects the incident solar light towards interfinger regions and away from the metallic electrodes, where they would be wasted in terms of photovoltaic generation. Quantum efficiency (QE) and current (I)-voltage (V) characterization under concentration validate the proof-of-concept, showing great potential for CPV applications.

  18. On numerically pluricanonical cyclic coverings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kulikov, V S; Kharlamov, V M

    2014-01-01

    We investigate some properties of cyclic coverings f:Y→X (where X is a complex surface of general type) branched along smooth curves B⊂X that are numerically equivalent to a multiple of the canonical class of X. Our main results concern coverings of surfaces of general type with p g =0 and Miyaoka-Yau surfaces. In particular, such coverings provide new examples of multi-component moduli spaces of surfaces with given Chern numbers and new examples of surfaces that are not deformation equivalent to their complex conjugates

  19. IMRT treatment planning based on prioritizing prescription goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wilkens, Jan J; Alaly, James R; Zakarian, Konstantin; Thorstad, Wade L; Deasy, Joseph O

    2007-01-01

    Determining the 'best' optimization parameters in IMRT planning is typically a time-consuming trial-and-error process with no unambiguous termination point. Recently we and others proposed a goal-programming approach which better captures the desired prioritization of dosimetric goals. Here, individual prescription goals are addressed stepwise in their order of priority. In the first step, only the highest order goals are considered (target coverage and dose-limiting normal structures). In subsequent steps, the achievements of the previous steps are turned into hard constraints and lower priority goals are optimized, in turn, subject to higher priority constraints. So-called 'slip' factors were introduced to allow for slight, clinically acceptable violations of the constraints. Focusing on head and neck cases, we present several examples for this planning technique. The main advantages of the new optimization method are (i) its ability to generate plans that meet the clinical goals, as well as possible, without tuning any weighting factors or dose-volume constraints, and (ii) the ability to conveniently include more terms such as fluence map smoothness. Lower level goals can be optimized to the achievable limit without compromising higher order goals. The prioritized prescription-goal planning method allows for a more intuitive and human-time-efficient way of dealing with conflicting goals compared to the conventional trial-and-error method of varying weighting factors and dose-volume constraints

  20. Cattle breeding goals and production circumstances

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Groen, A.F.

    1989-01-01

    This thesis gives the results of a study on the relationship between cattle breeding goals and production circumstances. The relationship between breeding goals and production circumstances mostly arises from the influences of production circumstances on the economic values of