Search

In order to understand both developmental and proximal contributors to self-forgiveness, we examined the simultaneous effects of childhood adversity (i.e. unpredictability and harshness) and current experiences of divine forgiveness on self-forgiveness in young adulthood across two studies. As expected, childhood unpredictability was negatively, and divine forgiveness was positively associated with self-forgiveness in both Study 1 (N = 439) and Study 2 (N = 441). Childhood harshness was not associated with self-forgiveness. In Study 2, we found that self-control mediates the relationships between childhood unpredictability and self-forgiveness and between divine forgiveness and self-forgiveness. Results suggest that childhood unpredictability undermines, whereas divine forgiveness bolsters self-forgiveness by weakening and shoring up regulatory resources, respectively. Limitations and future directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to alter the mass of energetically consumptive organs in response to seasonal variation in nutritional access has been demonstrated in several species from temperate climates, but less so from other climate zones. We predicted that adult striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) from the Succulent Karoo semi-desert in South Africa have lower organ masses during the hot summer dry season with low food availability (n = 28) when compared to the food-rich wet season (n = 25) as a possible adaptation to reduced energy expenditure. Food availability in the wet season was more than twice than that of the dry season. Body mass was positively correlated with most organ masses considered, except for the spleen. Mandible length, as a non-plastic measure of body size, was positively correlated with the mass of heart and stomach. Relative to body mass and to mandible length, kidneys and the small intestine were heavier in the wet season than during the dry season in both sexes. Liver masses were greater in females (but smaller in males) during the wet season, possibly due to increased female reproductive investment during this season. Both sexes had relatively heavier brains (by 9.6% on average) during the wet season than during the dry season, which is the first indication of the Dehnel phenomenon in a rodent, in a subtropical climate, and in the southern hemisphere. Future studies will have to test whether this change in brain size is reversible. Having relatively smaller brains during the dry season could be a mechanism to reduce energy consumption. In conclusion, our study indicates that striped mice may save energy during the food restricted dry season by reducing energetically expensive organ masses, including brain mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Experiences during development help to explain behavior expression in adulthood. Aims: In this study, we explored how unpredictability and harshness experienced during childhood may have impacted the occurrence of reproductive milestones in adulthood and the expression of fundamental motives related to self-protection, disease avoidance, mate seeking, mate retention, and kin care (children/family) during the pandemic. Methods: This was an exploratory study with 438 participants. Through the administration of online questionnaires, participants were assessed and categorized based on their childhood experiences, resulting in three groups: low unpredictability, high unpredictability with family support, and high unpredictability without family support. Results: We found that family support experienced during childhood predicts a slow life-history strategy. This involves an emphasis on growth and parenting eorts at the expense reproduction and was relevant even for participants who faced financial unpredictability. During the pandemic, we also observed that mate retention and kin care (family) motives were predominant among individuals who had greater family support during childhood. Discussion: Overall, the findings suggest that unpredictability experienced during childhood is crucial for the development of life-history strategies and the manifestation of fundamental motives in adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionExperiences during development help to explain behavior expression in adulthood.AimsIn this study, we explored how unpredictability and harshness experienced during childhood may have impacted the occurrence of reproductive milestones in adulthood and the expression of fundamental motives related to self-protection, disease avoidance, mate seeking, mate retention, and kin care (children/family) during the pandemic.MethodsThis was an exploratory study with 438 participants. Through the administration of online questionnaires, participants were assessed and categorized based on their childhood experiences, resulting in three groups: low unpredictability, high unpredictability with family support, and high unpredictability without family support.ResultsWe found that family support experienced during childhood predicts a slow life-history strategy. This involves an emphasis on growth and parenting efforts at the expense reproduction and was relevant even for participants who faced financial unpredictability. During the pandemic, we also observed that mate retention and kin care (family) motives were predominant among individuals who had greater family support during childhood.DiscussionOverall, the findings suggest that unpredictability experienced during childhood is crucial for the development of life-history strategies and the manifestation of fundamental motives in adulthood.

Egyptian Barki sheep’s wool was subjectively graded and sorted according to handle grade of harshness trait into three categories: soft wool (SW), medium wool (MW) and harsh wool (HW) in addition to the fourth category as a wool left without grading or sorting for comparison; non-sorted wool (NW). Each category was separately mechanically manufactured into woolen yarns of nominal count 6/2 metric. Representative samples of raw wool and yarns after spinning were taken from each category for characteristics measurements. Sorting system significantly affected (P<0.05) staple length and highly significant (P<0.01) affected staple crimps frequency, staple strength, loose wool bulk and resilience, fiber diameter, fine fibers percentage, coarse fibers percentage, hetero-type fibers percentage, kemp fibers percentage, medullated fibers percentage, medullation index and prickle factors. Sorting system had a highly significant (P<0.01) effects on yarn count, yarn twisting, yarn strength, yarn elongation, yarn tenacity, coefficient of variation of yarn mass (CVm%) and thin places. The differences in irregularity of the yarn mass (Um%) were significant (P<0.05). Correlations among wool traits and among yarn characteristics were estimated. The results indicated the importance of separating the soft handle wool part of Barki fleeces which may be used in apparel textiles blends. Such procedure will partially save foreign currency utilized to import fine wool, as well as increased the uniformity of the rest of fleeces and their suitability to carpet manufacture that required harsher wool fibers. Therefore, breeders’ incomes will increase due to the increase in price of wool. This would result in increased the interest of sheep breeding and wool improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iris Haimov,1 Ohad Szepsenwol,2,&ast; Ami Cohen1,&ast; 1The Center for Psychobiological Research and The Department of Psychology, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Yezreel Valley, Israel; 2The Center for Psychobiological Research and The Department of Education and Educational Counseling, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Yezreel Valley, Israel&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Iris Haimov, The Center for Psychobiological Research and The Department of Psychology, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Yezreel Valley, Israel, Email i_haimov@yvc.ac.ilPurpose: Studies point to a persistent effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on sleep quality and mental health, including anxiety. Exposure to stressors during childhood increases the susceptibility to anxiety in later life. Given the negative effects of anxiety on sleep quality, the present study aimed to examine the associations between various childhood stressors and poor sleep quality of adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether these associations are mediated by COVID-19-related anxiety.Participants and Methods: A total of 586 participants aged 18– 40 (mean age 27.53± 6.48 years, 301 females) were recruited to take part in an online survey conducted in Israel between February 7 and 15, 2021, during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed questionnaires assessing retrospectively adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), childhood harshness (indexed separately by exposure to morbidity and mortality and low socioeconomic status, SES), and childhood unpredictability. COVID-19-related anxiety was assessed using two items. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and insomnia symptoms with the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). Participants were asked to complete the ISI concerning two time points: (a) retrospectively, before the COVID-19 outbreak, and (b) currently, during the pandemic.Results: Path analysis indicated that poor sleep quality (PSQI) was directly and indirectly (through COVID-19-related anxiety) predicted by the number of ACEs and childhood morbidity-mortality exposure, directly predicted by childhood low SES, and indirectly predicted by childhood unpredictability. Insomnia symptoms increase (ISI) was indirectly predicted by the number of ACEs, childhood morbidity-mortality exposure, and childhood unpredictability.Conclusion: ACEs as well as harsh and unpredictable childhood environments are predictive of poorer sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19-related anxiety mediates the effects of childhood stressors (other than low SES) on sleep. These findings may have clinical implications relevant to stressful periods in general.Keywords: childhood environments, harshness, unpredictability, stressful periods, sleep efficiency

This study proposes a technique to reduce vehicle longitudinal vibration at surface input without worsening the shock feeling at projection rideover by combining a suspension model with elastic principal axes and a tire longitudinal force model even when the suspension longitudinal rigidity is low. Furthermore, by considering the coupling with the suspension member and the differential gear, and by using the actual tire input characteristics measured in the drum projection test, it is shown that it is possible to reduce vehicle longitudinal vibration at projection ride-over. The intended effects of the numerical simulation were also confirmed by actual driving tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that some abilities might be enhanced by adversity is gaining traction. Adaptation-based approaches have uncovered a few specific abilities enhanced by particular adversity exposures. Yet, for a field to grow, we must not dig too deep, too soon. In this paper, we complement confirmatory research with principled exploration. We draw on two insights from adaptation-based research: 1) enhanced performance manifests within individuals, and 2) reduced and enhanced performance can co-occur. Although commonly assumed, relative performance differences are rarely tested. To quantify them, we need a wide variety of ability measures. However, rather than using adaptive logic to predict which abilities are enhanced or reduced, we develop statistical criteria to identify three data patterns: reduced, enhanced, and intact performance. With these criteria, we analyzed data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to investigate how adversity shapes within-person performance across 10 abilities in a cognitive and achievement battery. Our goals are to document adversity-shaped cognitive performance patterns, identify drivers of reduced performance, identify sets of "intact" abilities, and discover new enhanced abilities. We believe principled exploration with clear criteria can help break new theoretical and empirical ground, remap old territory, and advance theory development.

Background: Callous‐unemotional (CU) traits are associated with chronic and escalating trajectories of antisocial behavior. Extant etiologic studies suggest that heritability estimates for CU traits vary substantially, while also pointing to an environmental association between parenting and CU traits. Methods: We used twin modeling to estimate additive genetic (A), shared environmental (C), and nonshared environmental (E) influences on CU traits, measured with the Inventory of Callous‐Unemotional Traits (ICU) and its subscales. Our sample included 600 twin pairs (age 6–11, 230 monozygotic) from neighborhoods with above‐average levels of family poverty, a risk factor for antisocial behavior. We examined the extent to which correlations between parenting, measured via parent and child report on the Parental Environment Questionnaire, and CU traits reflected genetic versus environmental factors. Then, we tested whether parenting moderated the heritability of CU traits. Results: In the context of lower‐income neighborhoods, CU traits were moderately to highly heritable (A = 54%) with similar moderate‐to‐high nonshared environmental influences (E = 46%). Bivariate models revealed that associations between CU traits and warm parenting were genetic (rA =.22) and environmental (rE =.19) in origin, whereas associations between CU traits and harsh parenting were largely genetic in origin (rA =.70). The heritability of CU traits decreased with increasing parental warmth and decreasing harshness. Conclusions: Callous‐unemotional traits are both genetic and environmental in origin during middle childhood, but genetic influences are moderated by parenting quality. Parenting may be an important target for interventions, particularly among youth with greater genetic risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are impulsive behaviors an adaptive response to living in harsh or unpredictable environments? Formal models help address this question by providing cost–benefit analyses across a broad range of environmental conditions, but their various results have not been systematically integrated. Here, we survey models from diverse disciplines including psychology, biology, economics, and management to develop a conceptual framework of impulsivity. Using this framework, we integrated results from 30 models to review whether impulsivity is adaptive across a range of environmental conditions. We focus on information impulsivity, that is, acting without considering consequences, and temporal impulsivity, that is, the tendency to pick sooner outcomes over later ones. Results show that both types are adaptive when individuals are close to a critical threshold (e.g., bankruptcy), resources are predictable, or interruptions are common. When resources are scarce, impulsivity can be adaptive or maladaptive, depending on the type and degree of scarcity. Information impulsivity is also adaptive when environments do not change over time or change very often (but maladaptive in between), or if local resource patches have similar properties, reducing the need to gather further information. Temporal impulsivity is adaptive when environments do not change over time and when local resource patches differ. Our review shows theoreticians how ideas from different disciplines are connected, affords formal modelers to see similarities and differences between their own models and those of others, and informs researchers about which empirical predictions generalize across a broad range of environmental conditions and which ones do not. To end, we provide concrete recommendations for future empirical studies. Public Significance Statement: We review and synthesize findings from 30 formal models from diverse disciplines to evaluate whether impulsive behaviors are adaptive or maladaptive in harsh or unpredictable environments. We focus on information impulsivity, acting without considering consequences, and temporal impulsivity, choosing sooner outcomes over later ones. Our synthesis provides six broad conclusions on the adaptive value of information and temporal impulsivity in different environmental conditions. We also provide recommendations for future research on environmental influences on impulsive behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driving over rising and falling edges on roads and pavements, rails, manhole covers, or transverse joints can influence the driving impression regarding the driver’s perception of vibrations and acoustics. To be able to describe this, objective parameters are used to make the subjective ride comfort measurable and scalable. Previous studies have already contributed to the investigation of the subjective perception regarding the interaction of vibrations and acoustics. However, the results were individual. Aimed at improving the quality of objective analysis methods, driving maneuvers were performed in a real vehicle to investigate the interaction of vibrations and acoustics due to transient road excitations. For this purpose, a sound reproduction system was used, which could provide the acoustic environment for the driver to adapt to while driving. With this method, subjective ratings by varying vibrations and acoustics were collected and with reference to objective parameters statistically evaluated. The results showed that both tactile and audible vibrations under transient influences had no significant interactive effects on the driver’s perception.

The environment has pervasive impacts on human development, and two key environmental conditions – harshness and unpredictability – are proposed to be instrumental in tuning development. This study examined (1) how harsh and unpredictable environments related to immune and clinical outcomes in the context of childhood asthma, and (2) whether there were independent associations of harshness and unpredictability with these outcomes. Participants were 290 youth physician-diagnosed with asthma. Harshness was assessed with youth-reported exposure to violence and neighborhood-level murder rate. Unpredictability was assessed with parent reports of family structural changes. Youth also completed measures of asthma control as well as asthma quality of life and provided blood samples to assess immune profiles, including in vitro cytokine responses to challenge and sensitivity to inhibitory signals from glucocorticoids. Results indicated that harshness was associated with more pronounced pro-inflammatory cytokine production following challenge and less sensitivity to the inhibitory properties of glucocorticoids. Furthermore, youth exposed to harsher environments reported less asthma control and poorer quality of life. All associations with harshness persisted when controlling for unpredictability. No associations between unpredictability and outcomes were found. These findings suggest that relative to unpredictability, harshness may be a more consistent correlate of asthma-relevant immune and clinical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential susceptibility theory stipulates that individuals vary in their susceptibility to environmental effects, often implying that the same individuals differ in the same way in their susceptibility to different environmental exposures. The latter point is addressed herein by evaluating the extent to which early-life harshness and unpredictability affect mother's psychological well-being and parenting, as well as their adolescent's life-history strategy, as reflected in number of sexual partners by age 15 years, drawing on data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Results indicated that mothers whose well-being and parenting proved more susceptible to harshness also proved somewhat more susceptible to environmental unpredictability, with the same being true of adolescent sexual behavior. Nevertheless, findings caution against overgeneralizing sample-level findings to all individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Electroplating & Finishing is the property of Electroplating & Finishing Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We review the three prevailing approaches—specificity, cumulative risk, and dimensional models—to conceptualizing the developmental consequences of early-life adversity and address fundamental problems with the characterization of these frameworks in a recent Perspectives on Psychological Science piece by Smith and Pollak. We respond to concerns raised by Smith and Pollak about dimensional models of early experience and highlight the value of these models for studying the developmental consequences of early-life adversity. Basic dimensions of adversity proposed in existing models include threat/harshness, deprivation, and unpredictability. These models identify core dimensions of early experience that cut across the categorical exposures that have been the focus of specificity and cumulative risk approaches (e.g., abuse, institutional rearing, chronic poverty); delineate aspects of early experience that are likely to influence brain and behavioral development; afford hypotheses about adaptive and maladaptive responses to different dimensions of adversity; and articulate specific mechanisms through which these dimensions exert their influences, conceptualizing experience-driven plasticity within an evolutionary-developmental framework. In doing so, dimensional models advance specific falsifiable hypotheses, grounded in neurodevelopmental and evolutionary principles, that are supported by accumulating evidence and provide fertile ground for empirical studies on early-life adversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bedtime procrastination is a serious threat to youths' sleep quality and physical and mental health. It is affected by various psychological and physiological factors, but few studies focused on the impact and internal mechanism of childhood experience on bedtime procrastination in adulthood from the evolutionary and developmental perspective. This study aims to explore the distal factors of bedtime procrastination among young people, that is, the association between childhood environmental risk (harshness and unpredictability) and bedtime procrastination, as well as the mediating roles of life history (LH) strategy and sense of control. By convenience sampling, 453 Chinese college students aged 16 to 24 (55.2 % males, M age = 21.21 years) completed questionnaires regarding demographics, childhood environmental harshness (from neighborhood, school, and family), and unpredictability (parental divorce, household moves, and parental employment changes), LH strategy, sense of control, and bedtime procrastination. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis model. The results showed that childhood environmental harshness and unpredictability were both positively associated with bedtime procrastination. Sense of control had a partial mediating role between harshness and bedtime procrastination (B = 0.02, 95%CI = [0.004, 0.042]), and between unpredictability and bedtime procrastination (B = 0.01, 95%CI = [0.002, 0.031]), respectively. LH strategy and sense of control had a serial mediating role between harshness and bedtime procrastination (B = 0.04, 95%CI = [0.010, 0.074]), and between unpredictability and bedtime procrastination (B = 0.01, 95%CI = [0.003, 0.029]), respectively. The findings suggest that childhood environmental harshness and unpredictability are potential predictors of youths' bedtime procrastination. Young people can reduce bedtime procrastination problems by slowing LH strategies and improving their sense of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many policies hinge on determining whether someone's situation is due to luck or choice. In political philosophy, this prevalence is mirrored by luck egalitarian theories. But overemphasizing the distinction between luck and choice will lead to tensions with the value of moral agency, on which the distinction is grounded. Here, we argue that the two most common contemporary critiques of luck egalitarianism, holding it to be harsh and disrespectful are best understood as illustrating exactly this tension. Elaborating on this conflict, we argue that it should lead us to modify how luck and choice are used in theories of justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolutionary social scientists have argued that impulsive behavior is adaptive in harsh and unpredictable conditions. Is this true? This paper presents a mathematical model that computes the optimal level of impulsivity in environments varying in harshness and unpredictability. We focus on information impulsivity, i.e., choosing to act without gathering or considering information about the consequences of one's actions. We explore two notions of harshness: the mean level of resources (e.g., food) and the mean level of extrinsic events (e.g., being the victim of a random attack). We explore three notions of unpredictability: variation in resources, variation in extrinsic events, and the interruption risk (the chance that a resource becomes unavailable). We also explore interactions between harshness and unpredictability. Our general model suggests four broad conclusions. First, impulsive behavior is not always adaptive in harsh and unpredictable conditions; rather, this depends on the exact definitions of harshness, unpredictability, and impulsivity. Second, impulsive behavior may be adaptive in environments in which the quality of resources is low or high, but is less likely to be adaptive when their quality is moderate. Third, impulsive behavior may be adaptive when resource encounters are likely to be interrupted. Fourth, extrinsic events have only a limited effect on whether impulsive behavior is adaptive. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research, consider limitations, and suggest future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using psychosocial acceleration theory, this multimethod, multi-reporter study examines how early adversity adaptively shapes the development of a self-regulation construct: effortful control. Investigation of links between early life harshness and unpredictability and the development of effortful control could facilitate a nuanced understanding of early environmental effects on cognitive and social development. Using the Building Strong Families national longitudinal data set, aspects of early environmental harshness and early environmental unpredictability were tested as unique predictors of effortful control at age 3 using multiple regression. Early harshness variables were financial harshness, mothers' and fathers' observed parenting, mothers' and fathers' reported use of harsh discipline, and harsh neighborhood conditions. Early unpredictability was measured by number of paternal transitions. Cues of harshness, specifically observed unresponsive parenting, observed harsh parenting, and neighborhood harshness, did significantly negatively predict effortful control. Paternal transitions also significantly predicted effortful control, but in the opposite (i.e., positive) direction. The results corroborate previous research linking quality of parenting to the development of children's effortful control and place it within an evolutionary-developmental theoretical framework. Further, the results suggest that neighborhood harshness may also direct developmental trajectories of effortful control in young children, though the mechanisms through which this occurs are still unclear. This is the first study to explicitly investigate effortful control development in early childhood within the harshness and unpredictability framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents certain considerations related to noise, vibration and harshness issues on modern motor vehicles. The first, practical aspect was used toward structuring of the acquired knowledge and relationships, required for proper problem diagnosis. On the other hand, advanced signal analyses are considered. The influence on human body is processed and certain noise and vibration analyzers are presented. This synergy of scientific and applicative approach represents a basis for further research related to this important automotive branch.

Steadily increasing power demands are linked with the ongoing process of electrifying the powertrain for dominant and pure electric vehicles. Fulfilling those requirements can be achieved by a multiphase approach which is implemented with a six-phase machine with buried permanent magnets. Besides the new modelling aspects, new control possibilities arise such as controlling the current harmonics individually using vector space decomposition (VSD) methods. Here, this method is used to influence the noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) maintaining the working point in torque and speed. A reduction up to 22 dB of the main acoustic order in the significant speed range was achieved.

This paper addresses the cascading design method of NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) performance between an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and suppliers. The increasing trend toward electric vehicles requires the exploring of cascading design method, because of the easiness of the assembly of the electric vehicles. However, there are difficulties for the cascading design of NVH performance to overcome the coupling problem among each subsystem. It is generally difficult to divide key evaluation characteristics of a whole structure to individual characteristics of each subsystem because of the coupling resonance. In this paper, cascading design method which utilizes the MMC (Mutual Mean Compliance) was proposed. The MMC is used as an index to meet the final NVH target levels of a whole structure. Then, the MMC is cascaded to each subsystem or component. Finally, the cascaded MMC is achieved by improving individual MMCs of each separate subsystem, while being careful about the resonance of a whole structure caused by strong coupling. In the paper, it is shown that the recalculation of MMCs after subsystem’s structural modification is feasible using FBS (Frequency response function Based Sub-structuring). In addition, MMC based cascading design method using FBS was defined and organized as a procedure. The method was also verified by a numerical case study.

Introduction: Experiences during development help to explain behavior expression in adulthood., Aims: In this study, we explored how unpredictability and harshness experienced during childhood may have impacted the occurrence of reproductive milestones in adulthood and the expression of fundamental motives related to self-protection, disease avoidance, mate seeking, mate retention, and kin care (children/family) during the pandemic., Methods: This was an exploratory study with 438 participants. Through the administration of online questionnaires, participants were assessed and categorized based on their childhood experiences, resulting in three groups: low unpredictability, high unpredictability with family support, and high unpredictability without family support., Results: We found that family support experienced during childhood predicts a slow life-history strategy. This involves an emphasis on growth and parenting efforts at the expense reproduction and was relevant even for participants who faced financial unpredictability. During the pandemic, we also observed that mate retention and kin care (family) motives were predominant among individuals who had greater family support during childhood., Discussion: Overall, the findings suggest that unpredictability experienced during childhood is crucial for the development of life-history strategies and the manifestation of fundamental motives in adulthood., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Tasso and Castro.)

Steadily increasing power demands are linked with the ongoing process of electrifying the powertrain for dominant and pure electric vehicles. Fulfilling those requirements can be achieved by a multiphase approach which is implemented with a six-phase machine with buried permanent magnets. Besides the new modelling aspects, new control possibilities arise such as controlling the current harmonics individually using vector space decomposition (VSD) methods. Here, this method is used to influence the noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) maintaining the working point in torque and speed. A reduction up to 22 dB of the main acoustic order in the significant speed range was achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical models for vibro-acoustic analyses of complex mechanical systems are becoming more and more popular, in particular in the field of virtual product development. Therefore, reliable, comprehensive, and validated modeling methodologies remain crucial. However, system characteristics such as elasticities of the drive train components and nonlinear characteristics can lead to complex, and costly numerical models with a huge number of degrees of freedom. This may raise not only the need for novel and reasonable modeling strategies, but also exacerbates validation process, due to the wide scope in terms of operating conditions. In practice, structure-borne noise signals, for example, from accelerometers, are often used for the validation of mechanical systems. By choice of a sufficient number of measurement points, the interpretation becomes more complex. A lot of vibration response curves then need to be compared and interpreted over a wide operating range. In general, the interpretation focuses on deviations in quality and quantity. In this paper, to overcome these mentioned challenges, a validation methodology is proposed allowing a fast and transparent check of a number of captured signals. Therefore, it is shown how the original information can be reduced in a meaningful manner, making it possible to run a fast and accurate validation. The method is demonstrated on a real application with high mechanical complexity and it is shown that the chosen parameters are reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High altitude glacier-fed streams are harsh environments inhabiting specialized invertebrate communities. Most research on biotic aspects in glacier-fed streams have focused on the simple relationship between presence/absence of species and prevailing environmental conditions, whereas functional strategies and potentials of glacial stream specialists have been hardly investigated so far. Using new and recent datasets from our investigations in the European Alps, we now demonstrate distinct functional properties of invertebrates that typically dominate glacier-fed streams and show significant relationships with declining glacier cover in alpine stream catchments. In particular, we present and argue about cause-effect relationships between glacier cover in the catchment and temperature, community structure, diversity, feeding strategies, early life development, body mass, and growth of invertebrates. By concentrating on key taxa in glacial and non-glacial alpine streams, the relevance of distinct adaptations in these functional components becomes evident. This clearly demonstrates that further studies of functional characteristics are essential for the understanding of peculiar diversity patterns, successful traits and their plasticity, evolutionary triggered species adaptions, and flexibilities.

The article addresses the question of how sufficiency for the imprudent may be ensured. Imprudent conduct includes both spectacular acts such as jumping from heights into water, and everyday acts and omissions such as neglecting to fasten one's seat-belt. We argue that to avoid thoroughly bad or insufficient situations, one must pay attention to an important and often neglected concern of avoiding insouciance. The latter tells us not to stand idly by when people are about to act in ways that may irrevocably land them in insufficient situations. The policies and actions needed to avoid insouciance are most plausibly justified on paternalistic grounds; in fact, they cannot be justified nonpaternalistically. Although controversial, we argue that paternalistic interventions are often justifiable in the service of preserving sufficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]