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Control Behaviour (control + behaviour)
Selected AbstractsFLOX® Steam Reforming for PEM Fuel Cell Systems,FUEL CELLS, Issue 4 2004H.-P. Schmid Abstract Primary energy savings and CO2 reduction is one of the key motivations for the use of fuel cell systems in the energy sector. A benchmark of domestic cogeneration by PEMFC with existing large scale power production systems such as combined steam-gas turbine cycle, clearly reveals that only fuel cell systems optimising overall energy efficiency (>,85%) and electrical efficiencies (>,35%) show significant primary energy savings, about 10%, compared with the best competing technology. In this context, fuel processing technology plays a dominant role. A comparison of autothermal and steam reforming concepts in a PEMFC system shows inherent advantages in terms of efficiency at low complexity for the latter. The main reason for this is that steam reforming allows for the straightforward and effective use of the anode-off gas energy in the reformer burner. Consequently, practical electrical system efficiencies over 40% seem to be achievable, most likely by steam reformers. FLOX®-steam reforming technology has reached a high state of maturity, offering diverse advantages including: compact design, stable anode off-gas usage, high efficiency, as well as simple control behaviour. Scaling of the concept is straightforward and offers an opportunity for efficient adaptation to smaller (1,kW) and larger (50,kW) units. [source] Child,parent and child,peer interaction: Observational similarities and differences at age sevenINFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2005Marleen H. Gerrits Abstract According to Russell et al. (Developmental Rev 1998; 18: 313) child,parent interaction could contain horizontal qualities, similar to child,peer interactions. To study this, child,parent and child,peer play interactions were compared on several observed horizontal and vertical characteristics in 55 7-year-old children interacting with their mother, father, and a classmate, respectively. Characteristics on which the interactions were compared were shared positive emotions, total control behaviour, balance of control, simultaneous play, mutual responsiveness, and discord. Significant differences between observed child,parent and child,peer interactions were found. Horizontal as well as vertical qualities were found in both types of interaction. The child,parent interaction consisted primarily of mutual responsiveness (i.e. a horizontal quality), and total control, whereas in the child,peer interaction balance of control, shared positive emotions, simultaneous play, and discords were most often found. No main effect of peer preference or gender was found. However, several interaction effects of context with gender and peer preference were found. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Mental health nurses: De facto policeINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 4 2007Jacklin E. Fisher ABSTRACT:, This paper examines the consequences for nursing staff and patients when police bring to hospital a person they assess to have a mental illness who exhibits violent or criminal behaviour. In particular, the impact on the nurse,patient relationship and the occupational health and safety of patients and staff is explored. Tensions between the conflicting roles for nurses of controlling the behaviour of this small minority of patients, while providing care and therapy, are examined within the context of health policy, bed shortages, and staffing problems. Recent Australian government and non-government reports are examined to assess the capacity of current health services in the State of New South Wales, to adequately and safely control behaviour while also provide therapeutic care for patients who are seeking help for their mental illness and emotional distress. [source] The nature and influence of motivation within the MOA framework: implications for social marketingINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 4 2006Wayne Binney Social marketers acknowledge that to achieve optimum programme outcomes, identification and targeting of the non-conforming cohort is paramount. This article discusses the application of the social marketing framework, motivation, opportunity and ability (MOA) with a particular focus on the motivation aspect of the model. Motivation is considered from the perspectives of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Previously, the degree or level of motivation has been used in the operationalisation of the motivation construct, while in this paper the type of motivation is used as the basis for the construct. The construct is then applied to an environmental land management study, namely a rabbit control programme. Specifically, the aims of this paper were to further develop the MOA constructs, with a particular focus on motivation, including intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, to develop an understanding of the factors that are associated with ineffective behaviour and to develop a model to predict effective/ineffective control behaviour. Scales were developed to enable a study of the relationship between the MOA constructs, including intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and the respondents control behaviour. Data were collected from a random sample of 566 respondents who were involved in the control programme. Using ANOVA and MANOVA techniques, significant differences were found between those landholders that exhibited effective control and ineffective control with regard to all MOA constructs. A multinomial logit (MNL) regression model was then developed to predict behaviour. This model showed that ability and intrinsic motivation were significant predictors of behaviour. The estimated model was able to predict recalcitrant landholders with 98% accuracy. The results of this study therefore provide a significant contribution to social marketing as it is the recalcitrant cohort that social marketers wish to understand and whose behaviour they frequently attempt to rectify in order to achieve stated social and/or environmental objectives. The implications for related social market theory, policy development and environmental management programmes are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Improving glycaemic control self-efficacy and glycaemic control behaviour in Chinese patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus: randomised controlled trialJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 3-4 2010Qifang Shi Aims and objectives., To examine the effect of a hospital-based clinic intervention on glycaemic control self-efficacy and glycaemic control behaviour of Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Background., Self-efficacy expectations are related to self-management of diabetes and, in conjunction with environmental support, are better predictors of behaviour than are knowledge and skills. Enhancing self-efficacy in patients with DM has been shown to have a positive effect on behavioural change and positively influence long-term glycaemic control. Design., A randomised controlled trial study consisting of two-group pretest-post-test. Methods., One hundred and fifty-seven patients with type 2 DM were randomly divided into two groups: (1) the experimental group (77 patients) receiving one-month hospital-based clinic intervention and (2) the control group (80 patients) receiving usual care. Data collection instruments used in this study were Diabetes Management Self-Efficacy Scale and Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities Measure. Outcomes were determined by changes in glycaemic control self-efficacy and glycaemic control behaviour of patients with type 2 DM. Results., The findings revealed that the experimental group showed statistically significant improvement in glycaemic control self-efficacy and glycaemic control behaviour immediately and four months after the intervention (F = 26·888, df = 1, 155, p < 0·05 and F = 18·619, df = 1, 155, p < 0·05, respectively). Conclusions., One-month hospital-based clinic intervention could be useful in improving glycaemic control self-efficacy and glycaemic control behaviour. Relevance to clinical practice., Nurses can learn and use the sources of self-efficacy to enhance patients' self-efficacy on their glycaemic control in clinical care. The health education is most important in nursing care and should be considered while organising the hospital-based clinic intervention. [source] A Short Note About Energy-Efficiency Performance of Thermally Coupled Distillation SequencesTHE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Issue 1 2006Juan Gabriel Segovia-Hernández Abstract In this work, we present a comparative study of the energy-efficiency performance between conventional distillation sequences and thermally coupled distillation arrangements (TCDS) for the separation of ternary mixtures of hydrocarbons under the action of feedback control loops. The influence of the relative ease of separation of the feed mixture and its composition was analyzed. The feedback analysis was conducted through servo tests with individual changes in the set points for each of the three product streams. Standard PI controllers were used for each loop. The results show an apparent trend regarding the sequence with a better dynamic performance. Generally, TCDS options performed better for the control of the extreme components of the ternary mixture (A and C), while the conventional sequences offered a better dynamic behaviour for the control of the intermediate component (B). The only case in which there was a dominant structure for all control loops was when the feed contained low amounts of the intermediate component and the mixture had similar relative volatilities. The Petlyuk column provided the optimal choice in such case, which contradicts the general expectations regarding its control behaviour. In addition, the energy demands during the dynamic responses were significantly lower than those observed for the other distillation sequences. TCDS options, therefore, are not only more energy efficient than the conventional sequences, but there are cases in which they also offer better feedback control properties. On présente dans ce travail une étude comparative de la performance d'efficacité d'énergétique entre les séquences de distillation conventionnelles et les configurations de distillation couplées thermiquement (TCDS) pour la séparation de mélanges ternaires d'hydrocarbures sous l'action de boucles de contrôle d'asservissement. L'influence de la facilité relative de séparation du mélange d'alimentation et de sa composition est analysée. L'analyse de rétroalimentation est réalisée grâce à des tests d'asservissement avec des changements individuels dans les points de consigne pour chacun des trois courants de produits. Des contrôleurs PI standards ont été utilisés pour chaque boucle. Les résultats montrent une tendance apparente pour la séquence ayant une meilleure performance dynamique. Généralement, les options TCDS sont meilleures pour le contrôle des composantes extrêmes du mélange ternaire (A et C), tandis que les séquences conventionnelles offrent un meilleur contrôle dynamique pour le contrôle de la composante intermédiaire (B). Le seul cas où il y a une structure dominante pour toutes les boucles de contrôle, c'est lorsque l'alimentation contenant de faibles quantités de la composante intermédiaire et le mélange ont la même volatilité relative. La colonne Petlyuk est le choix optimal dans un tel cas, ce qui contredit les attentes générales concernant son comportement de contrôle. En outre, les demandes d'énergie pendant les réponses dynamiques sont significativement plus faibles que celles observées pour les autres séquences de distillation. Ainsi, non seulement les options TCDS sont plus efficaces que les séquences conventionnelles, mais il y a des cas où elles offrent également de meilleures propriétés de contrôle d'asservissement. [source] Dieting and desire for weight loss among adolescents in Denmark: a questionnaire surveyEUROPEAN EATING DISORDERS REVIEW, Issue 5 2002Mette Waaddegaard Abstract Objective: To report on the first study in Denmark of the prevalence of dieting and other weight-loss behaviours among adolescents. Method: A cross-sectional study of 2094 pupils from grade 8,12, aged 14,21 years, throughout Denmark. The pupils responded to a self-administered 49-item questionnaire, which was constructed by an Expert Committee in the Danish National Board of Health. Results: The prevalence of dieting and other weight-loss behaviours were comparable to results from other countries, particularly from the Nordic countries. Dieting was dependent on BMI and sex and did not increase with age. However, the desire for weight loss increased with age for both sexes and body dissatisfaction became more extreme with age. Many boys desired a weight gain instead of a weight loss. Discussion: Dieting and other weight control behaviours increased with increasing BMI. However, most dieting and wish for weight loss was not justified by obesity but seemed to depend on a perception of being overweight. The need for identifying adolescents with at-risk behaviour related to eating disorders is emphasized. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. [source] Automatic and controlled processes in behavioural control: Implications for personality psychologyEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 5 2010Philip J. Corr Abstract This paper highlights a number of unresolved theoretical issues that, it is argued, continue to impede the construction of a viable model of behavioural control in personality psychology. It is contended that, in order to integrate motivation, emotion, cognition and conscious experience within a coherent framework, two major issues need to be recognised: (a) the relationship between automatic (reflexive) and controlled (reflective) processing and (b) the lateness of controlled processing (including the generation of conscious awareness),phenomenally, such processing seems to ,control' behaviour, but experimentally it can be shown to postdate the behaviour it represents. The implications of these two major issues are outlined, centred on the need to integrate theoretical perspectives within personality psychology, as well as the greater unification of personality psychology with general psychology. A model of behavioural control is sketched, formulated around the concept of the behavioural inhibition system (BIS), which accounts for: (a) why certain stimuli are extracted for controlled processing (i.e. those that are not ,going to plan', as detected by an error mechanism) and (b) the function of controlled processing (including conscious awareness) in terms of adjusting the cybernetic weights of automatic processes (which are always in control of immediate behaviour) which, then, influence future automatically controlled behaviour. The relevance of this model is illustrated in relation to a number of topics in personality psychology, as well related issues of free-will and difficult-to-control behaviours. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||