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Japanese Americans comprise multiple generations, with a first wave of immigrants entering the United States in the 1800s. The current generation of Japanese American descendants today includes over five generations. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the ethnic identity of fourth- and fifth-generation Japanese American adults. Forty participants were interviewed as part of a larger study and deemed exempt by institutional review board. Results indicate that ethnic identity for multigenerational Japanese American adults is complex, with factors that include the impact of historical and intergenerational ties to World War II, continuance of family and cultural traditions, and identity as American but perceived as “forever foreigner.” Family counselor recommendations include considering historical background of Asian American and minority groups, rethinking educational curriculum through transformative social and emotional learning.

Background: Measurement accuracy has been assessed for many different blood glucose monitoring systems (BGMS) over the years by different study groups. However, the choice of the comparison measurement procedure may impact the apparent level of accuracy found in such studies. Materials and Methods: Measurement accuracy of 18 different BGMS was assessed in a setting based on ISO 15197 using two different comparison methods in parallel: a glucose oxidase (GOD)-based and a hexokinase (HK)-based method. Accuracy limits of ISO 15197 were applied, and additional analyses were performed, including bias, linear regression, and mean absolute relative difference (MARD) to assess the impact of possible differences between comparison methods on the apparent level of accuracy. Results: While ≈80% of BGMS met the accuracy criteria of ISO 15197 when compared with the respective manufacturers’ reference measurement procedure, only two-thirds did so against both comparison methods. The mean relative bias ranged from −6.6% to +5.7% for the analysis against the GOD-based method and from −11.1% to +1.3% for the analysis against the HK-based method, whereas MARD results ranged from 3.7% to 9.8% and from 2.3% to 10.5%, respectively. Results of regression analysis showed slopes between 0.85 and 1.08 (GOD-based method) and between 0.81 and 1.01 (HK-based method). Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that there are systematic differences between the reference measurement procedures used for BGMS calibration as well as for system accuracy assessment. Because of the potential impact on therapy of patients with diabetes resulting from these differences, further steps toward harmonization of the measurement procedures’ results are important.

The current generation of college student activism led by racially minoritized students has called for direct actions, tangible outcomes, and greater institutional accountability for creating and sustaining campus environments that are both more diverse and more inclusive. Institutional rhetoric that focuses on diversity and inclusion has not resulted in tangible campus transformations as incidents of racial macroaggressions against minoritized faculty, staff, and students continue. This chapter proposes eight policy proposals and ten recommendations for campus leaders to enact transformational leadership to facilitate equity and justice in institutional structures, processes, and practices.

How widespread is the downtown resurgence among the current generation of young adults 25 to 34 years old, often referred to as the Millennials? Answering the question, this article provides a detailed analysis of the past, current, and future geographic population distribution, focusing on the young adults. It first documents the demographic shifts from 1990 to 2015 by distance from the central business districts (CBDs) of the 50 largest U.S. metros. The results of the intrametropolitan analysis reconcile the back-to-the-city thesis with sustained suburban growth, explaining how the two sides have reached different conclusions. Then this article empirically examines the generational residential patterns using a multinomial logistic regression, suggesting the generational characteristics of the Millennials, at least partially, explain their inclination to choose city center over suburbs. The simulations based on the model estimates indicate that ongoing demographic shifts might contribute to more population growth in urban centers over the next two decades.

There has been a growing global focus on student learning outcomes. Research has also shown that the current generation in higher education has significantly different learning characteristics than its predecessors. It then becomes essential to understand this generation’s learning attributes that can provide useful guidance in designing teaching pedagogies for this generation. We specifically study goal orientation, learning affectivity, competition and trust in this generation. The findings indicate that this generation significantly differs from the previous generation on the attributes of trust and competition. Gen Y was found to be more competitive and less trusting than Gen X.

This article defends the right that Palestinians have to return to the territory governed by Israel. However, it does not defend the duty on Israel to permit return. Whether there is such a duty depends on whether the economic, social and security costs override that right. In order to defend the right of return, it is shown both that the current generation of Palestinians retain a significant interest in return, and that insofar as their interests are diminished, their rights are not diminished proportionally. The interests of Jewish Israelis in excluding the Palestinians are then considered. Their rights of self-determination, it is argued, do not powerfully favour excluding the Palestinians. The economic, social and security costs may do so. Overall, I conclude that either the Israel should grant return to the Palestinians or it should properly acknowledge the right of return and respond appropriately through a powerful effort to compensate and resettle them.

In the ever-changing business environment and fluctuating expectations of current generation from its employer, employer branding has become an important tool for organizations to establish themselves as the employer of choice amongst prospective employees. It is serving as the strategic tool for all the sectors to attract and retain the right pool of employees to gain strategic advantage and edge over competitors. The purpose of this article is to identify the dimensions of employer branding and its impact on the formation of anticipatory psychological contract (APC) and final intent of a candidate to join an organization. Using the qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews from final year students of MCA and B.Tech., it provides an insight into how various dimensions of employer branding lead to the formation of APC and generates the final intent among the candidates to join an organization. It comprehensively analyzes the relationship between all three constructs, employer branding, APC and a candidate’s intent to join an organization in the form of a conceptual framework. The result reflects the direct relationship between employer branding and a candidate’s intent to join an organization and indirect relationship with APC as a mediator between the two. It also demonstrates the direct relationship between employer branding and APC. Managerial implications of the study are also discussed.

The active and healthy ageing measure reported here is calculated for the 28 European Union countries, with a specific focus on the current generation of older people and by using the latest data from multiple surveys. It covers diverse aspects of active and healthy ageing, by measuring older people’s contribution with respect to not just employment but also their unpaid familial, social and cultural contributions and their independent, healthy and secure living. The article presents the first-of-its-kind quantitative measure of active and healthy ageing in the literature on active and healthy ageing which hitherto has focused largely on concepts, definitions and public policy strategies. In this pursuit, an important contribution of this measure, referred to as the Active Ageing Index (‘AAI’), is that it also captures how countries differ with respect to capacity and enabling environments for active and healthy ageing. The AAI offers a breakdown not just by four domains of active and healthy ageing but also by gender. Key findings are that Sweden comes at the top of the country ranking, followed closely by Denmark, the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands and Ireland. The four southern European countries (Italy, Portugal, Spain and Malta) are middle-ranked countries. Greece and many of the Central European countries are at the bottom, highlighting much greater untapped potentials of active and healthy ageing among older people in these countries and a need for greater policy efforts. Women fare worse than men in most countries, identifying a need for an emphasis on reducing gender disparity in experiences of active and healthy ageing. The AAI tool developed has the potential to identify the social policy mechanisms behind the differential achievements of active and healthy ageing, for example, what active and healthy ageing strategies have driven top performers, and in what respect the bottom-ranked countries have lagged behind.

The current generation of hip resurfacing consists of a metal-on-metal ball and monoblock socket of minimal thickness. Although results in certain patient subgroups have been excellent at up to 15 years of follow-up, other subgroups have had poor results. The hard-on-hard bearing is susceptible to edge-loading conditions and may produce excessive metallic debris; furthermore, other patients have had allergic reactions to the metal byproducts. In both situations, there can be clinical failures from adverse local tissue reactions. As such, the role of hip resurfacing has diminished over the last decade because of these issues. Developing the next generation hip resurfacing is essential to address these problems, and there are multiple design considerations in doing so. The choice of materials will be of prime concern, with the decision to use a hard-on-soft or hard-on-hard articulation. The dimensions of the resurfacing implant also pose a challenge, because of the requirement to preserve the bone. Fixation of the implant is another area of interest, in order to maximize implant longevity.

The article examines the conditions of production and recognition of scientific cinema in Brazil by comparing three distinct moments and contexts: the first moment takes place in the nineteenth century, and it is related to the contribution of a Brazilian astronomer otherwise little known to Brazilian film scholars, the second addresses Benedito Junqueira Duarte’s voluminous mid-twentieth-century filmography, and the third moment documents recent scientific film experiences within ultra high resolution movies transmitted over photonic networks. Future trajectories for aesthetic concerns and practical issues such as the archiving of ultra high definition cinema are usefully informed by these histories of scientific cinema, even as a current generation of multidisciplinary teams including scientists, filmmakers, computer scientists, and network engineers reinvent, rediscover, and necessarily expand the scientific cinema toward concerns of real time collaboration and teaching.

This contribution examines the different concepts known as social informatics that have historically been separate. The paradigm that is preferred worldwide (based on Kling) is well described and often promoted, with a strong base both in the USA and Europe. This article, however, introduces lesser-known paradigms (based on Sokolov and later Ursul) that originated in the era of the USSR and have so far been employed chiefly in post-Soviet countries, including Russia. These paradigms have been neglected in English-written scientific literature, mainly because of the limited number of articles available in English. Other approaches are also introduced and related, which were historically named or classified as social informatics (American, British, Norwegian, Slovenian, German and Japanese). The present article introduces and further discusses the origin, historical development and basic methodological grounding of these approaches. All the approaches are then discussed and their differences as well as their similarities are pointed out. The aim is to create connections across the current generation of researchers, which includes the formation and conceptualization of different approaches and an exploration of possible areas for future cooperation.

The voluminous literature on intergenerational transmission often engages with the transmission of poverty and poor educational attainment. This article reviews and questions the assumptions made within this literature. In particular, the paper seeks to engage with the central importance of the embodied experience of lived history and its transmission through generations. In understanding this, the article uses the work of psychoanalysts Davoine and Gaudilliere, Bracha Ettinger, and Felix Guattari, all of whom deal, in different ways, with affective transmission through bodies, in locations, and in history. In using this work to understand classed transmission, the paper suggests a number of possible routes to understanding from the past and from the embodied present of the current generation. In order to produce a complex account which does not pathologise the experience of the previous generation (usually the mother), this experience needs to be both re-theorised and placed in history.

Background Exclusion of macroprolactinaemia, a well-recognised interference, as the cause of hyperprolactinaemia is essential to avoid potential misdiagnosis and mismanagement of patients. We have derived gender-specific serum total and post-polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation monomeric reference ranges for the recently re-standardised Abbott Architect prolactin assay. Methods Prolactin was measured in serum samples obtained from males ( n = 49) and females ( n = 52) using the current Abbott Architect immunoassay pre- and post-PEG precipitation. Gender-specific reference ranges were derived for total and monomeric (post-PEG) prolactin. Routine patients’ samples ( n = 175) with a serum total prolactin >700 mIU/L were screened for macroprolactinaemia to assess classification compared with our previous post-PEG precipitation percentage recovery-based approach. Results Reference ranges for serum total prolactin were 58–419 mIU/L (male) and 63–561 mIU/L (female). Male and female monomeric prolactin reference ranges were 32–309 mIU/L and 39–422 mIU/L, respectively. Mean (SD) post-PEG percentage recovery of the IS 84/500 prolactin standard was 80 (2.3)%. Of 175 patients’ samples screened for macroprolactinaemia, 149 had monomeric prolactin concentrations (median monomeric prolactin = 1035 mIU/L; median recovery = 83%) above the gender-specific reference range. Monomeric prolactin concentrations (median monomeric prolactin = 162 mIU/L; median recovery = 20%) in the remaining 26 were within the reference ranges. One patient classified as macroprolactin positive and another classified as macroprolactin negative would not have been identified as such using the previous recovery-based approach. Conclusions The use of post-PEG monomeric reference ranges not only identifies hyperprolactinaemia due solely to macroprolactinaemia but has the added advantage of identifying patients who have simultaneous true monomeric hyperprolactinaemia and elevated concentrations of macroprolactin.

Situational awareness in rescue operations can be provided by teams of autonomous mobile robots. Human operators are required to teleoperate the current generation of mobile robots for such applications; however, teleoperation is increasingly difficult as the number of robots is expanded. As the number of robots is increased, each robot may also interfere with one another and eventually decrease mapping performance. As presented here, through careful consideration of robot team coordination and exploration strategy, large numbers of mobile robots can be allocated to accomplish the mapping task more quickly and accurately. We present both the coordination and exploration strategies and present results from experiments in simulation as well as with up to nine mobile platforms.

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of recent relational trends in Poland. Based on the clinical, theoretical, and empirical literature, the overview addresses both attitudinal (e.g., focus on individual need fulfillment and gender equality) and behavioral (e.g., timing of first intercourse and living arrangements) factors. The literature review is divided into four categories: (a) leaving home; (b) intimate relationships; (c) love, sexuality, and fertility; and (d) economics, work, and gender. Although some contrasts to prior generations are noted, the overview focuses primarily on relational trends among the current generation of Polish young adults.

The implementation of education policies requiring the turnaround of persistently low-achieving schools has demanded reforms that will not only improve achievement, but also deliver results in a short period of time. To meet such demands, Jefferson County Public Schools educators implemented Project Proficiency (PP). Results from state-administered mathematics tests demonstrated that all participating schools reported substantial increases in student proficiency. We examined the impact of PP on the performance of students, who met dropout predictive criteria established by Balfanz, Herzog, and MacIver. Study results suggested that PP students at risk of dropout realized meaningful and statistically significant achievement gains.

Ventricular assist devices provide therapeutic options for patients with severe heart failure who have exhausted available medical therapies. With restoration of organ perfusion with ventricular assist devices, the heart failure resolves and quality of life and functional status improve. The current generation of continuous-flow devices present novel challenges to the clinical assessment of patients by substantially reducing or nearly eliminating any palpable pulse. Patients therefore generally have inadequate arterial pulsatility for most noninvasive monitoring devices such as pulse oximeters or automated blood pressure cuffs to work accurately. This article describes the function of continuous-flow devices and how this function affects common monitoring options, as well as how to clinically assess recipients of continuous-flow devices to promptly identify those whose condition may be deteriorating or who may be receiving inadequate perfusion.

Over the last decade, the development of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) has received significant attention through technology competitions, such as the DARPA Grand Challenges, where an unmanned vehicle autonomously navigated across a desert or through semiurban roads. Although this marked a significant step forward in autonomous navigation, the current generation of UGVs are only capable of operating in controlled environments where the dynamics of a scene are well-understood. For example in both of the DARPA Grand Challenges, the participants were given detailed maps and the environment was carefully controlled during the competition. The next generation of UGVs will need to operate in uncontrolled environments where the terrain and infrastructure is uncertain and humans could be present. This paper discusses the challenges and current developments in the areas of sensing, localisation and planning to realise the next generation of UGVs.

Children of current generation needs to be cherished and nurtured as per future perspectives. Teachers’ own broad context of values put immense influence for value inculcation in students. The present study aims to analyze the perception of Indian and Western teacher trainees about values and the result drawn that Honesty, responsibility, respect for all and equality values have been most frequently cited by both Indian and Western trainees. On cultural issues category, Indian trainees preferred environmental issue while their counterparts to economic climate issue. Assembly and discussion, using good example and reward, have been suggested as useful teaching strategies for value inculcation by both groups of trainees.

Discrimination against specific ethnic groups transcends the boundary of current generation and perpetuates across future generations as well. This is manifested as low Intergenerational Mobility in terms of both Education and Occupation in developing countries in general, and among specific ethnic groups within those countries in particular. The present paper examines the extent of intergenerational mobility in both educational and occupational attainments for diverse ethnic groups in India to understand the inertia of discrimination prevalent. Results indicate strong intergenerational stickiness in both educational achievement and occupational distribution among the scheduled castes and tribes who have been discriminated against historically. Occupational mobility is lower than educational mobility indicating that educational progress is not being transformed to occupational improvement and brings up the possibility of discrimination in the labour market. This also brings to fore the fact that historical discrimination and social exclusion have had a long run effect and the inertia is quite strong.

The objective of this discussion panel is to approach the teen driver distraction issue from the driver life-style point of view. As revealed in various focus groups and surveys, multi-tasking is “just what they do,” and what they have grown up doing. How (if at all) is the current generation of young drivers distinct in terms of multi-tasking? What are the implications and how might we deal with this? The approach here is to provide a multi-disciplinary panel that offers a range of expertise and perspectives on studying these issues. Each of five panelists will present a brief perspective of the problem from the point of view of their expertise. This will be followed by an open discussion period.

This article analyses Mary Kelly’s Love Songs, 2005—07, which was exhibited in 2007 at Documenta 12. The series of artworks addresses the political and ideological legacies of early Anglo-US feminism through the perspectives of two generations of women. Drawing on oral and photographic archives, as well as historical re-enactments, Kelly indicates how her work does not simply record a feminist legacy but, rather, keenly intervenes in the process. I propose that this intervention is an ethical one. Drawing on Luce Irigaray’s writings on the maternal gift, I demonstrate how Kelly’s project may be understood to enact an ethical relationality that I find is fundamental for thinking about the vexing issue of feminist intergenerationality. I conclude that while Love Songs maps no specific course of action, nor indicates exactly why or how a current generation of feminists should proceed, it nonetheless generates a space in which to imagine the radical futurity of the maternal gift.

This article presents a framework for understanding and revitalizing the important role of conceptual articles in the development of knowledge in the marketing discipline. An analysis of 30 years (1978–2007) of publishing data from major marketing journals indicates that conceptual articles are declining, despite repeated calls for more emphasis on this form of scholarship. The sharpest decline has occurred in Journal of Marketing (JM), with much of the shift occurring over the past decade. Many substantive areas remain largely unexplored in conceptual articles. Over this 30-year period, conceptual articles published in JM have disproportionately more citations relative to their numbers, attesting to the importance of their role in knowledge development. Addressing the decline of conceptual articles and restoring their synergistic balance with other forms of scholarship will require concerted efforts on several interrelated fronts: the current generation of scholars; doctoral programs and students; journals, reviewers, and review process; and promotion, tenure, and incentive systems.

The graphic novel provides an attractive medium to communicate business concepts with a number of characteristics that may aid student learning in a more effective manner than traditional textbooks. The authors provide an overview of the graphic novel format and use McLuhan’s research on “hot” versus “cool” media as a theoretical base that highlights how and why this format can be a useful tool to present management content relevant for the current generation of business students. The authors provide examples of how the graphic novel medium could be applied to business concepts and conclude with an agenda for future empirical research.

Since the first implantation of a left ventricular assist system (LVAS) 45 years ago, LVAS therapy has emerged as a viable option for the treatment of advanced heart failure. The current generation of LVASs in clinical evaluation has design features enabling longer and more reliable support durations. We describe the operating characteristics of the DuraHeart™ LVAS (Terumo Heart, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI). The DuraHeart™ LVAS is a magnetically-levitated centrifugal pump that began a FDA-approved clinical trial for evaluation of bridge to transplant indication in July of 2008. Magnetic levitation of the spinning-pump impeller is hypothesized to improve long-term mechanical reliability and biological compatibility of the pump. Other design features make the DuraHeart™ LVAS particularly suited for implantation without cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). A description of the implant procedure for the first six American implants of the DuraHeart™ LVAS both on-CPB and off-CPB, including CPB techniques employed, are discussed. While it is still very early in the DuraHeart™ LVAS experience, the initial outcomes of the first six patient implants would suggest that the device is a safe and effective LVAS.

The current generation of baby boomers is aging differently than previous generations. The activism of the 60's generation is morphing into an experience of active retirement. This article suggests that as Christian educators consider characteristics of the baby boomers, the lenses of calling/vocation and wisdom be used to guide our thinking about spiritual formation for this generation.

The recent emergence of new media, or better, new communication technologies, has afforded substantial commentary regarding societal effects, the latest chapter in a decades-old trend that rises and falls with each new communication technology. Whereas this article does not deny that the current generation of communication technologies differs from predecessors, it argues against the need for wholesale changes in theory to understand the effects of these technologies. New communication technologies do not fundamentally alter the theoretical bounds of human interaction; such interaction continues to be governed by basic human tendencies. What is perhaps most interesting about these new technologies is their ability to provide new or previously rare contexts for information expression and engagement. This article reviews two sets of rival hypotheses investigated in light of new communication technologies: proposals regarding social isolation effects versus connection effects, and ideas about whether new technologies lead to group integration or group polarization.

The current generation of young adults will be greatly affected by Alzheimer's disease(AD), but little is known about their attitudes toward persons with Alzheimer's disease. The current study assessed attitudes about Alzheimer's disease in young adults with varying levels of contact with the disease. It was hypothesized that participants who had a high level of contact with someone with Alzheimer's disease previously, in the form of a close relationship, would report more positive attitudes than participants with a low level of contact or no contact. Results revealed that participants who had a high level of contact with persons with AD were more willing to make personal sacrifices for Alzheimer's disease than those who had no contact. Younger persons may realize a greater need to support persons with Alzheimer's disease if they have been personally affected by the disease through a close relationship.

The present research investigated secular trends in narcissism and self-enhancement over the past three decades. Despite recent claims about the impact of the “self-esteem movement” on the current generation of young people, we found no evidence that college students' scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory increased from the 1980s through 2007 (N = 26,867), although we did find small changes in specific facets of narcissism. Similarly, we found no evidence that high school students' level of self-enhancement, defined by the discrepancy between their perceived intelligence and their actual academic achievements, increased from 1976 to 2006 (N = 410,527). These results cast doubt on the belief that today's young people have increasingly inflated impressions of themselves compared with previous generations.

Farm tourism enterprises combine the commercial constraints of regional tourism, the nonfinancial features of family businesses, and the inheritance issues of family farms. They have theoretical significance in regional tourism geography and economics, family tourism business dynamics, and rural diversification. We examined motivations of farm tourism operators throughout Australia using both qualitative and quantitative methods. In contrast to Europe and the United States, social motivations are marginally more important overall than economic motivations. For most operators, however, both are important; and different motivations are dominant for different types of farm landholders and at different stages in farm, family, and business lifecycles. For some families, tourism is a critical component of income streams to keep the current generation on the family property and provide opportunities for succeeding generations. For others it combines social opportunities with retirement income. Tourism, agricultural, or rural initiatives, including farm tourism, need to incorporate this diversity.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) assumes that state-mandated tests provide useful information to school administrators and teachers. However, interviews with administrators and teachers suggest that Minnesota's tests, which are representative of the current generation of state-mandated tests, fail to provide useful information to administrators and teachers about areas that need attention. The use of a single level of difficulty causes harmful stress and provides measurements of poor quality for many students. Computer-adaptive tests are a practical alternative, provide more useful information, reduce stress among students, and address four major concerns that teachers have about testing. This alternative could strengthen the link between testing and improved educational outcomes and improve the chances that NCLB will have a positive impact. However, current federal policy prohibits the use of computer-adaptive tests for accountability purposes. This article provides specific recommendations that potentially could address four critical concerns about current state-mandated tests.

Survivorship of total joint arthroplasty depends on the durability of fixation and durability of articulation. The metal-on-polyethylene articular couple has been the most widely used. Polyethylene wear (and the associated cytochemical events that culminate in osteolysis) has been identified as a major factor adversely influencing the durability of joint replacement. This stimulated the orthopaedic community to explore the possibility of using alternative bearings with lower wear rates.Hard-on-hard bearings have been shown to be associated with reduced wear. Metal-on-metal bearings have wear rates that are 20-100 times lower than metal on conventional polyethylene. However, patients with metal-on-metal articulations have increased levels of cobalt and chromium in the serum and urine, and this has raised concerns about toxicity, mutagenesis, and hypersensitivity. At this stage there is no epidemiological evidence to suggest that the risk of carcinogenesis is anything more than theoretical.Successful long-term results have been reported with the cast cobalt-chromium metal-on-metal couples of the mid-1960s. Tissues retrieved at revision of these implants did not show the giant-cell inflammatory response associated with polyethylene particles. Several researchers have reported excellent mid-term results with the current generation of high-precision metal-on-metal bearings.

Most currently available ROC analysis software programs have not been updated within the last decade or longer. Due to the age of many of these applications they usually do not include graphical user interfaces. Those applications which have graphical user interfaces are not always compatible with current generation operating systems and technology. Through the use of usability design principles ROC-Estimator was developed to address these current limitations of functioning ROC analysis software.

The rapidly changing nature of the workplace and the composition of the current generation of students call for new paradigms for delivering business education. Teaching, once largely a teacher-centered, product-based activity, is becoming increasingly student centered and process based. However, this approach raises significant problems for students, faculty members, clients, and institutions. The authors use an example of an interdisciplinary exercise in which students from both marketing and entrepreneurship courses were paired to develop marketing plans for small-business owners. Students derived significant benefits from this process-focused experience, such as development of skills in creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, and so on. The authors highlight issues that must be addressed and a range of solutions in order to facilitate this paradigm shift in ways that benefit all of those involved.

The current generation of NCHRP Report 350-compliant guardrail terminals all use wooden breakaway posts in the terminal section. The first two end posts are typically breakaway cable terminal posts inserted into steel foundation tubes that are joined with a ground strut to provide the anchorage capacity. Wood is readily available and inexpensive, but it also has many drawbacks. The quality of the wood and the associated breaking forces vary widely. The strength of a wooden post is affected by many factors, including post size, ring density, knot location and size, cracks and checks, species, and moisture content. Results are presented of an effort to design and develop steel breakaway posts for guardrail terminals. The breakaway steel post system described has been successfully tested for use in a tangent terminal. The post exhibited consistent strength for redirection impacts and failed at very low loads during head-on impacts. The breakaway steel post actually improved the redirective performance of the SKT-350 during a 2020-kg (4,450-lb) pickup truck impact at the beginning of the length of need. These breakaway steel posts have been shown to meet NCHRP Report 350 performance criteria and should provide highway agencies with an alternative where wood posts are unacceptable.

Images of the great influenza pandemics of the past are replete with crowded hospitals the size of aircraft hangars, along with armed guards protecting healthcare workers (HCWs). It is hardly something of which the current generation have any direct memory. These images are more like fiction than recent history, but the vision of a UK pandemic in our near future is not fantasy. Scenarios of more than a million sick, infected patients with mortalities varying from 25-50% have been produced, and it is not surprising that the WHO states on its website that “economic and social disruption will be severe and that large numbers of deaths will occur.” The arrival of such a pandemic will produce ethical challenges to the way that health care is delivered and managed in the UK, of the sort not seen for decades. One does not have to envision an apocalyptic event to realise how problematical managing a pandemic would be. This government has trumpeted, for good reason, a health service that is designed to respond to individual needs and demands, and we enjoy a society that has become accustomed to an individually focused healthcare system. Even conservative modelling suggests that during a pandemic there would be 14 million infected patients in the UK.1 A proportion of these will require hospitalisation and a proportion of those hospitalised will compete for scarce intensive care beds. If a pandemic occurs, the fact that ICU beds will be scarce is certain. 2

Conceptions of the transition to adulthood were examined using data from 346 college students aged 18-23 and 140 21 - to 28-year-olds. Participants indicated the characteristics necessary for a person to be considered an adult on a questionnaire containing 40 possible criteria. In both studies, the top criteria endorsed emphasized aspects of individualism, including “accept responsibility for the consequences of your actions,”“decide on own beliefs and values independently of parents or other influences,” and “establish a relationship with parents as an equal adult.” In contrast, role transitions typically associated with research on the transition to adulthood, such as finishing education, entering the labor force, marriage, and parenthood, were rejected as criteria for adulthood by a large majority in both studies. The results suggest that the current generation of young people in American society conceptualizes the transition to adulthood in intangible, gradual, psychological, and individualistic terms.

Physiological, subjective and mission effectiveness measures were evaluated to test their relative sensitivity and diagnosticity to pilot workload in a part-mission simulation. Two different radar displays were evaluated in an air-to-air simulated scenario using an advanced horizontal situation format display vs the conventional radar display. Data were recorded during the ingress and engagement portions of the mission. The engagement segments were associated with higher subjective workload estimates, smaller cardiac IBIs, fewer eye blinks and shorter duration eye blinks. The new display was associated with shorter duration eye blinks than the current generation display. None of the other measures were associated with statistically significant changes due to display type.

A set of programs, gathered from major Argonne computer users, was run on the current generation of supercomputers: the CRAY X-MP-4 is a consistently strong performer over a wide range of problems. The Fujitsu and Hitachi computers excel on highly vectorized programs and offer an attractive opportunity to sites with IBM-compatible computers.

Industrial robots are automation, but with a difference. Other machine tools are extensions of human capabilities, while robots are seen mainly as substitutes for human workers. Robots will find most of their industrial applications during the next decade or two in the metal-working sectors, where they will begin to displace semiskilled machine operatives in medium to large batch production operations. They cannot substitute for skilled machinists or other workers doing nonroutine jobs, or specialized, dedicated hard automation used in mass production. The current generation of robots, lacking sensory data processing and interpretation capabilities, can potentially replace up to 1.3 million manufacturing jobs. The next generation, with crude vision or tactile senses; will potentially displace about 3 million more. However, only relatively large firms can profitably utilize many robots at present; it may be 20 years or more before these usage rates are achieved in practice. A shift from stand-alone machine tools, to manufacturing cells consisting of several machine tools served by a robot and controlled by a computer, will accelerate the practical use of robots in the 1990s.

The US Army Human Engineering Laboratory has initiated a series of field experiments to determine the weaknesses of current generation materiel in the Army inventory. These tests are called Systems Performance Tests and were begun in 1969. Their objectives were (a) to determine the actual performance of our present generation weapon systems in the field using appropriate troops in their operation, (b) to isolate the source of error in weapon systems performance, and (c) to seek methods to reduce the largest sources of human error and, thereby, make these systems more effective. Systems performance tests have been conducted in the area of armor, artillery, aviation, and infantry systems. In addition to the aforementioned tests, future systems performance tests will be expanded to include mortars and helicopter/armor engagements.