Showing papers by "University of Huddersfield published in 1980"

Cultural variation in probabilistic thinking: alternative ways of dealing with uncertainty*

Abstract: This study reviews research on cultural differences in “probabilistic thinking” and presents some intra- and inter-cultural findings. Strong differences are shown to exist between people raised under Asian and British cultures on measures of this ability. These differences were found to out-weigh any influence of subculture, religion, occupation, arts/science orientation and sex. Generally, Asians were found to adopt a less finely differentiated view of uncertainty both numerically and verbally than did the British sample. Numerical probabilities assessed by the Asians were more extreme and less realistic than those assessed by the British sample. Possible antecedents of these differences are outlined, and cultural differences in probabilistic thinking are shown to be compatible with decryptions of cultural differences in business decision making. It is argued that there are qualitative cultural differences in ways of dealing with uncertainty.

Online computer control of pH in an industrial process

Abstract: The paper reports on a collaborative, university/industry project to investigate the contribution which modern control technology can make to a difficult industrial problem: pH control. A digital computer was interfaced for online neutralisation of effluent from a full-scale production process. The investigation consisted of trials, some of them extended, using the computer to control neutralisation according to various algorithms and to monitor performance, and of simulation studies. Algorithms investigated include p.i.d., self-tuning control, and optimal-k-step-ahead (o.k.) adaptive control. The paper summarises work to date which leads to the conclusion that an online digital computer can contribute substantially to pH control and that o.k. control is a promising candidate for general-purpose feedback within a configuration of combined feedbadk, feeciforwardancilineansation

Tractor engine air supply means

Abstract: Agricultural tractors usually have an intake for the engine air supply disposed above the hood. This contributes to the noise reaching the driver. To reduce the noise level the intake is situated near the front of the hood, which is displaceable from an operative position covering the engine, and communicates with the front end of longitudinally extending air supply ducting secured to the hood. The engine has at least one air cleaner mounted on it beneath and towards the rear of the hood, and an exit hole in the ducting communicates, when the hood is in its operative position, with the inlet of the or each air cleaner via a resilient sealing ring.

Some aspects of the teaching and learning of nursing.

Abstract: The argument on which this paper is based is that the activities of teaching and learning nursing draw on a number of disciplines and fields of knowledge. To support this argument, elements in the process of teaching and learning in nursing are set out and each one is analysed and discussed. The elements so analysed are later put together to give a synthesis of the intended outcomes of the process of nursing education. The paper is supported with an extensive bibliography.

Reservoir for a vehicle power steering system

Abstract: In a power steering system, for a vehicle, including a reservoir, an engine-driven pump, a double-acting hydraulic piston-and-cylinder assembly and a steering-wheel-operated hydrostatic steering unit which can function as a manually-operated emergency steering pump, sufficient oil for emergency operation of the hydrostatic steering unit must be retained in the system if the connection between the outlet of the engine-driven pump and the inlet of the hydrostatic steering unit should fracture. The reservoir accordingly comprises an outer casing adapted to breath air at its upper end and having an outlet at its lower end adapted to communicate with the inlet of the engine-driven pump, and an inner casing having a port at its lower end adapted to communicate with a port of the hydrostatic steering unit and an oil outlet at its upper end communicating with the interior of the outer casing.

Survival of Transitional Cell Carcinima Casesf in 2 Yorkshire Centres

Abstract: Summary— The survival of all cases of bladder cancer presenting in residents of the Huddersfield and Bradford Health Districts has been computed. Cases arising in the 2 districts have been contrasted using a sequential log rank survival method and an excess of deaths in early stage tumours is noted to have occured in Huddersfield. The reasons for this are discussed.

Advertising Budgeting — How Industrial Goods Companies Decide

Abstract: A number of studies have attempted to determine the methods used in setting advertising budgets of industrial goods firms. In 1965, a survey the British engineering industry revealed that 29 per cent of firms had no known basis for the calculation, 39 per cent used a fixed sum unrelated to sales, 28 per cent related their expenditure to the previous year's sales or the following year's anticipated sales, while 4 per cent used other methods. Three years later, research based upon 250 subscribers to the Industrial Advertising and Marketing Journal discovered that 71 per cent of respondents based their decision upon the percentage of sales techniques and a further 15 per cent used the affordable method. In 1975, a survey which covered essentially medium sized consumer and non‐consumer companies confirmed that the percentage of sales techniques were the main methods used, accounting for 46 per cent of these non‐consumer firms replying. Subsequently, however, a survey conducted into promotional activity in Britain revealed that the objective‐task method had gained ground and was the main method used in 38 per cent of firms selling industrial products in their sample.

Comparison of methods used for determining base spreading resistance

Abstract: A study of the many methods used for measuring base spreading resistance, rbb' has shown that some of them are inaccurate or unfeasible when applied to planar transistors. Methods investigated cover the d.c.to microwave frequency range and include coherent and incoherent signal measurements. Comparisons are also made of measured and theoretical values for several types of device. The thermal-noise method appears best because of its accuaracy and wide applicability.

The West Riding Screening Six Years On

Abstract: Summary In 1973 the former West Riding Authority attempted to screen all children of top infant age for educational and related handicaps. The present study followed up six years later all the children identified by that screening who now live within the boundaries of the Kirklees Authority. The effectiveness of the screening was evaluated against three criteria — reading age at 13‐plus, referral to the School Psychological Service and placement in special education, with particular attention being given to the ratios of ‘false‐positives’ and ‘false‐negatives’ for the chosen criteria. It is concluded that, while screening procedures using this kind of model do identify a more handicapped group, their error rates for both ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ are so high as to render them ineffective.

Educating teachers of nursing: a survey of the opinions of students

Abstract: In this paper an account of an opinion survey is reported, which was carried out in order to determine how student teachers of nursing rated aspects of their course. The opinion survey included questions on pedagogical and education studies, teaching practice, research methods, statistics, related science and supporting studies. In the last section the method of course assessment is evaluated. Finally there is a discussion about the implications and limitations of the survey.

Washer and hydro-extractors

Abstract: A washer or hydro-extractor comprising a cylindrical basket adapted to be rotated about its longitudinal axis for liquid extracting operations on wet material placed therein. A plurality of rigid flaps within the basket are selectably pivotable about respective axes extending longitudinally of the basket. The flaps normally lie substantially flat against the inner cylindrical surface of the basket. A respective cam follower is rigidly coupled to each flap via a respective crank arm. In order to selectably pivot the flaps for stripping caked material from the inner surface of the basket, a stripper cam is selectably displaceable into a position in which it engages the cam followers of those flaps which, at any instant during stripping, lie in what is, at that time, the upper part of the basket, whereby the latter flaps are pivoted from their normal positions for effecting stripping.

Tractor ballast weight assemblies

Abstract: Tractors often have front ballast weights to counter-balance rear-mounted implements. These weights are usually contiguous parallel cast plates disposed in longitudinal vertical planes. Transversely aligned recesses are often provided in the front edges of the plates to form a towing mouth, and complementary semi-cylindrical grooves in the side faces of the plates form cylindrical holes intersecting the towing mouth, one such hole containing a hitch pin. Side loading is transmitted back to the weakest section of those weights carrying the hitch pin; and the hitch pin is a loose fit in its hole because the latter is formed by cast grooves. To avoid these disadvantages, the grooves are omitted and a clevis fitted partially within the recesses is clamped to the tractor frame by bolts passing through longitudinal holes in the respective weights and has upper and lower jaws with vertically aligned machined holes for the hitch pin.

A survey of inquiries received at Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic Library

Abstract: Results are reported of a survey of all inquiries received at Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic Library during one week. Analysis was designed to show whether enough—and appropriate— staff were available in relation to the population served. The rate of inquiry work was assessed and the type of inquiry was compared for different service points. Subject and general inquiry staff answered a proportion (20 per cent) of general and subject inquiries respectively. Some 10 per cent of inquiries took more than five minutes to answer. Comparison was made with a previous survey and showed a growth in volume and some change in the nature of inquiries.

Transactional Analysis An Aid to Effective Communications

Abstract: Central to TA is the notion that every person has three identifiable parts (ego states) to his personality: a Parent, an Adult, and a Child. An ego state is simply a characteristic set of related attitudes and behaviours that are readily recognised by ourselves and others in the things we say and in the manner (viz. tone of voice, body gestures and postures) in which they are said. An individual's personality can be diagrammatically represented as in Figure I below.

Lower link draft sensing system on tractor

Abstract: Tractor hydraulic power lift mechanisms may have automatic draft control signals fed back to them from lower link draft force sensing systems. One such system has two bowed rearwardly-extending leaf springs anchored to the tractor frame at their front ends, two laterally-spaced arms pivoted at their upper ends to the tractor frame and at their lower ends to the rear ends of the respective springs, a cross-bar universally supported by the lower ends of the respective arms and having two attachment points laterally offset from said arms to which the front ends of respective lower hitch links are universally connectible, and linkage for deriving a control signal from the fore and aft displacement of the mid-point of the cross-bar. However, the cross-bar is stressed in bending to the detriment of the control signal accuracy. To avoid this, a summating bar is universally connected between said arms and the control signal derived from a point on the unstressed summating bar.

Managing the Manpower Aspects of Applying Micro-Electronics Technology.

Abstract: The last decade has witnessed the appearance of a new form of information technology created by advances in the field of micro‐electronics. The microprocessor and its related devices are, in fact, only the latest of a series of technological developments based largely on earlier scientific discoveries made in solid state physics. The essence of the micro‐electronic “revolution” lies in the fact that it has made commercially available computers which are significantly smaller, cheaper and more reliable than their predecessors. In its package a microprocessor occupies about one‐five‐thousandths of the space occupied by a comparable central processing unit of a 1960 machine. A similar reduction in price and power consumption has also taken place. While the mean fail time is now measured in years rather than hours.

Tractor power lift mechanism

Abstract: The control mechanism of a tractor hydraulic power lift has a known manually adjustable flow control valve (18, 27, 28,31,30,33,32) for regulating the rate of lowering an implement. However, when the valve is so adjusted that a heavy ground-working implement is lowered to ground level at a rate slow enough not to cause damage, the implement is then very slow to penetrate the ground to the desired working depth. A manually operable overriding mechanism (15,14,35,36,34) preferably actuated by the main hand lever (16) of the power lift mechanism is therefore provided to enable the valve to be moved temporarily into its fully open position and allowed to return to its adjusted position. The overriding mechanism is operated as the implement reaches ground level and released when it reaches its working depth.

Dogmatism Scores of Polytechnic Teachers in South India

Abstract: Summary.-Incidental to a curriculum evaluation project in south India, polytechnic lecturers obtained extraordinarily high scores on Rokeach's dogmatism scale. It is hypothesized that this may be related to the revered position of teachers in India As plrt of a programme of research in south India into the attitudes of polytechnic teachers to an innovation in the engineering curriculum (Benett, 1978), dogmatism was measured on Rokeach's D scale (Rokeach, 1960). Reported levels of dogmatism across different countries (Rokezch, 1960; Voth, 1965, Drakeford, 1969; Smithers, 1970; MCLeish & Park, 1973) generally fall in the range 125 to 170. Something of this order was expected from the sample of Indian polytechnic teachers, but, in fact, a considerably higher mean value was obtained. It seems useful therefore to report briefly on our findings. The dogmatism scale was administered in person to male polytechnic teachers in the state of Tam11 Nadu at four regional centres where they were assembled. All those artending, 839; of the total group, completed the measure. A further sample was obtained by rna~l~ng questionnaires to the three other states of south India, Mysore, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh. As expected the response rate was lower here; 54 replies were received representing 40% of the people approached. The mean levels of dogmatism obtained were very high. 'For the 80 Tamil Nadu

Auto-resetting interrupter for use with 11 kV triggered spark gaps

Abstract: Automatically resetting interrupters are necessary for interruption of the power-frequency currents following flashover of 11 kV triggered spark gaps, installed on overhead lines having no auto-reclosing facilities, in order to prevent sustained consumer outages. Development is described of a single-contact solenoid-operated interrupter with an oil-immersed armature designed to meet the requirement of fast operation and slow reset. Single-phase currents at voltages up to 3-4kV were interrupted successfully, with and without the triggered gap in series. (A triggered gap was found to have some interruption capability itself). The principle of interruption of current, at high voltage, by employing the same current in a solenoid is verified. High-pressure hydrogen generated by the arc is the chief arc-extinction agent. The internal pressure required to interrupt current at 6.35 kV is estimated to be several hundred kilotorr. Further development could result in an interrupter which meets the specification for application to the 11 kV system.