Consulting psychology and the intelligence community: Toward a new support paradigm.

In 2004, Congress created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to enable the 16 independent government organizations that constitute the national intelligence mission to function as a single enterprise. The ODNI strategy to accomplish this transformation included the integration of personnel systems across these organizations. However, customary practices for obtaining and using personnel system and organizational consulting psychologists tend to undermine this goal by reinforcing existing fragmented and strategically misaligned human capital management systems. In this article, the authors describe and analyze the challenges confronting the organizational consulting field working in these settings and suggest ways in which the intelligence and consulting communities can collaborate to overcome these challenges and better serve the important mission of intelligence organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Failure strain as the key design criterion for fracture of natural fibre composites

Natural fibre composites are often considered to be problematic because of the high variability in their mechanical properties. This short communication considers the statistical variation in the two key fracture properties (strain and strength) for data obtained from tests on 785 jute technical fibres. The fibre strength does have high variability, which arises from the difficulty of determining an accurate fibre cross-sectional area (CSA). Failure strain is more consistent as this property is independent of the fibre cross-section. The authors therefore recommend that the use of failure strain as the key design criterion for natural fibre composites would expedite the adoption of these materials in the market.     

Reduction of folic acid during baking and implications for mandatory fortification of bread

A pilot scale study designed to quantify the reduction of folic acid during bread baking in Ireland was undertaken. Flour was fortified with different concentrations of folic acid and used to make four different types of commercial bread. The dispersal of folic acid in flour on a pilot scale was variable but better homogeneity would have been achieved in the final bread due to batch size and thorough mixing of the dough. Generally, the heat degradation of folic acid during baking was between 21.9% and 32.1%. Whilst the percentage degradation of folic acid in white pan loaves, white baguettes and brown soda bread were similar the result in wholemeal bread was found to be significantly higher than in other bread types tested. Taking into account all variables affecting folic acid concentration during baking, a concentration of c. 225 μg 100 g^?1 folic acid would be needed in flour to deliver commercial bread in Ireland with an average folic acid content of 120 μg 100 g^?1 in line with Government requirements.     

A three-way clusterwise multidimensional unfolding procedure for the spatial representation of context dependent preferences

Various deterministic and latent structure approaches for combining forms of multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis have been previously discussed. A new clusterwise three-way unfolding methodology for the analysis of two-way or three-way metric dominance/preference data is proposed. The purpose of this proposed methodology is to simultaneously estimate a joint space of stimuli and cluster ideal point representations, as well as the clusters themselves, such that the geometry underlying the clusterwise model renders some indication of the underlying structure in the data. In the three-way case, it is shown how multiple ideal points can represent preference change over contexts or situations. Partitions, overlapping clusters, stationary and context dependent preference representations are allowed. After a literature review of related methodological research, the technical details of the proposed three-way clusterwise spatial unfolding model are presented in terms of modeling context/situational dependent preferences (i.e., preferences for various stimuli collected over the same set of subjects over time, situation, etc.). The psychological basis for the models is provided in terms of the extensive behavioral decision theory and consumer psychology literature on contextual preferences and situational effects. An application to a data set exploring preferences for breakfast/snack food data over a number of different usage situations is then presented, followed by a discussion on future potential research directions.     

Surface evaluation of carbon fibre composites using wavelet texture analysis

Strong and lightweight fibre reinforced polymeric composites now dominate the aerospace, marine and low-volume automotive sectors. The surface finish on exterior composite panels is of critical importance for customer satisfaction. This paper describes the application of wavelet texture analysis (WTA) to the task of automatically classifying the surface finish of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) samples into two quality grades. Automatic classification was successful for all but four samples out of 14,400 classification trial configurations, representing 403,200 sample classification attempts (28 attempts per configuration). This work establishes the principle of WTA as a basis for automatic surface finish classification of composite materials.     

International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements Report 78: Prescribing, Recording and Reporting Proton-beam Therapy

Proton therapy has recently garnered a great deal of attentionin the medical and scientific literature and at internationalconferences on radiation oncology. Hardly a month goes by withoutan announcement of a new initiative to install a proton therapycentre. The main physical advantage of proton therapy is itslower exit dose, which is afforded by the finite range of theprimary proton beam. The first and most important breakthroughin this field occurred in 1946, when Robert Wilson, a youngphysicist, proposed the rationale and basic methods for thetherapy and suggested engineering approaches to beam-shapingthat are still widely used today. By 1954, Tobias and colleaguesat the University of California had administered the first treatmentof a human being with proton beams; by the 1960s, the technologicalfoundation of proton therapy was complete, and routine clinicalproton therapy was under way. Despite this early     

Crosslinking of mixtures of diglycidylether of bisphenol‐A with 1,6‐dioxaspiro[4.4] nonan‐2,7‐dione initiated by tertiary amines: III. Effect of hydroxyl groups on network formation

BACKGROUND: Blends of epoxy resin oligomers, diglycidylether of bisphenol‐A (DGEBA), and a bislactone, 1,6‐dioxaspiro[4.4]nonan‐2,7‐dione (s(γBL)), were anionically copolymerized using two tertiary amines as anionic initiators. Their curing rheology and gelation behaviour were studied to provide a more comprehensive knowledge of the curing of these previously studied systems. RESULTS: The activation energy for gelation was found to be similar to that previously measured using differential scanning calorimetry and appeared to increase in the presence of the bislactone. The reaction rate during copolymerization of DGEBA with s(γBL) was slower than DGEBA homopolymerization alone because the alkoxide attack on the epoxide is faster than the reaction of the carboxylate ion and the epoxy group. The effect of the initiator type on the gel conversion was small and was presumably due to differences in the kinetic chain length caused by amine regeneration from the quaternary amine. For the same initiator and at a constant ratio of DGEBA/s(γBL), an increase in the hydroxyl concentration of the DGEBA oligomer raised the gel conversion. For a DGEBA oligomer with low hydroxyl levels, an increase in the concentration of s(γBL) increased the gel conversion; however, for a DGEBA oligomer with high hydroxyl levels, increasing s(γBL) concentration decreased the gel conversion. CONCLUSION: These results are interpreted in terms of the effect of initiation rate and chain transfer rate on the kinetic chain length. The glass transition temperature of the gel was found to be controlled by the fraction of the aliphatic s(γBL) and the amount of plasticizing sol in the matrix. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Products of pertechnetate radiolysis in highly alkaline solution: structure of TcO2 x xH2O

The chemistry of technetium in certain high-level nuclear waste (HLW) tanks at the Hanford Site complicates the treatment and vitrification of HLW. A major problem is the presence, in certain tanks, of unidentified, lower-valent technetium species, which are difficult to remove from the waste by current separation processes. Radiolytic reduction of TcO4- in alkaline solutions containing selected organic compounds, approximating the conditions in HLW, was investigated to determine the classes of compounds that can be formed under these conditions. Insoluble TcO2 x xH2O is the primary radiolysis product with the majority of organic compounds investigated, including citrate, dibutyl phosphate, and aminopolycarboxylates. X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) measurements show that TcO2 x xH2O has a one-dimensional chain structure consisting of edge-sharing TcO6 octahedra with bridging oxide and trans water ligands. When diols, such as ethylene glycol, are present, only soluble, Tc(IV) alkoxide compounds are produced. The XAFS and UV-visible spectra of these compounds provide evidence for a binuclear structure similar to (H2EDTA)2Tc2(mu-O)2. The properties of the Tc(IV) alkoxide complexes were determined and are consistent with those observed for the soluble, lower-valent technetium complexes that complicate the treatment of HLW at the Hanford site.     

Speed and safety effect of photo radar enforcement on a highway corridor in British Columbia

This study evaluates the effect of the photo radar program on traffic speed and collisions at photo radar (PRP) influence locations (PRP location) and interleaving non-PRP locations on the Vancouver Island portion of Highway 17 (Pat Bay Highway) in British Columbia (BC). Simple before-after comparison was used to summarize the speed effect while observational before- after method was employed to estimate the safety effect. To control for regression to the mean and time effect, Empirical Bayes (EB) method with comparison groups was employed in collision analysis. The study found a 2.8-km/h reduction in mean speed and a 0.5-km/h reduction in speed standard deviation at a monitoring site 2 km south of the treatment area. Corresponding to speed reduction. the study revealed a 14%+/-11% reduction in expected collisions at the PRP locations, a 19%+/-10% reduction at the non-PRP locations, and a 16%+/-7% reduction along the study corridor as a whole. No evidence was found for a localized effect in a 2-km range of the photo radar direct influence area, over and above those at the interleaving non-PRP locations. The results support the hypothesis of a distance spillover effect--that the program not only improved safety at the PRP locations, but along the entire enforcement corridor as well. It suggests that the unpredictable nature of the deployments lead drivers to modify their behavior along the length of the corridor because they could not discern 'safe' from 'unsafe' segments.