From ultrafast to slow: Heating rate dependence of the glass transition temperature in metallic systems

When a solid crosses the glass transition, viscous flow sets in and the glass transforms into a supercooled liquid. The glass transition temperature exhibits a heating rate dependence which was previously observed to follow a Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann (VFT) equation. Here we report on a change in the heating rate dependence of the glass transition, determined by the distinct increase in the specific heat capacity, of a metallic glass. We combine standard techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry with recently developed ohmic heating techniques in order to cover seven orders of magnitude in heating rate. Contrary to previous reports, our results show that the change of the glass transition temperature cannot be described by a single VFT equation. Instead we find two distinct regimes which independently follow a VFT expression.     

Rethinking value elicitation for personal consequential decisions

The application of multiattribute decision analysis to personal consequential decision problems can be unhelpful particularly where the analysis fails to help the decision maker to discover new values, or where the decision maker is unable to visualize the experience that may result from choosing a particular course of action. We concur with James March that values are best discovered by the act of choosing and experimenting but acknowledge that the act of choice can lead to irreversible consequences. Both of these problems suggest that techniques which assist the decision maker to envisage the consequences of choice need to be developed and incorporated into the modelling process. We suggest some forms that these techniques might take. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Future‐focussed thinking: combining scenario planning with decision analysis

This paper first describes current practice in decision analysis and argues that nothing in the technique's application is likely to challenge the strategic decision maker's current worldview of the course of future events that are modelled in the decision tree. By contrast, a scenario planning intervention in an organization has the potential to increase perceived threat and thus lead to a step change in strategic decision making. Strategic decisions are made against a backcloth of the operation of psychological processes that act, it is argued, to reduce the perceived level of environmental threat and result in strategic inertia. For this reason, it is recommended that scenario planning should be adopted as a standard procedure because of its ability to challenge individual and organizational worldviews. The use of scenario planning prior to conventional decision analysis is termed as ‘future‐focussed thinking’, and parallels are drawn between the current advocated approach and that of Keeney's value‐focussed thinking. Both serve to prompt the creation of enhanced options for subsequent evaluation by conventional decision analytic techniques. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Toward a model of false recall: Experimental manipulation of encoding context and the collection of verbal reports

The likelihood of false recall in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm was shown to depend on encoding context in two experiments. When fillers had been preselected to decrease the likelihood of encoding the critical lure's semantic features, false recall was virtually eliminated. However, when the same words were presented rearranged in different presentation orders, levels of false recall that were found in earlier DRM studies (Robinson & Roediger, 1997) were replicated. The role of encoding processes in the DRM paradigm was further explored with additional participants completing the experiment while thinking aloud. During encoding of word lists, participants verbalized semantic elaboration of the critical lure while studying the word lists. A path analysis demonstrated that participants' verbalization of critical lures during encoding reliably predicted their level of false recall.     

The Sustainability Ethic: Political, Not Just Moral

Sustainable practices are commended to us both out of prudential regard for our own future and out of principled concern for the 'right to life' of endangered species, ecosystems and ways of life and for intergenerational justice among our own kind. The larger point of the 'sustainability ethic' might be more political, however. Insisting that any practice we adopt now must be sustainable into the indefinite future constitutes an institutional check preventing us from taking unfair advantage of our privileged temporal position vis-a-vis our successors.     

Coffa’s Kant and the evolution of accounts of mathematical necessity

According to Alberto Coffa in The Semantic Tradition from Kant to Carnap, Kant’s account of mathematical judgment is built on a ‘semantic swamp’. Kant’s primitive semantics led him to appeal to pure intuition in an attempt to explain mathematical necessity. The appeal to pure intuition was, on Coffa’s line, a blunder from which philosophy was forced to spend the next 150 years trying to recover. This dismal assessment of Kant’s contributions to the evolution of accounts of mathematical necessity is fundamentally backward-looking. Coffa’s account of how semantic theories of the a priori evolved out of Kant’s doctrine of pure intuition rightly emphasizes those developments, both scientific and philosophical, that collectively served to undermine the plausibility of Kant’s account. What is missing from Coffa’s story, apart from any recognition of Kant’s semantic innovations, is an attempt to appreciate Kant’s philosophical context and the distinctive perspective from which Kant viewed issues in the philosophy of mathematics. When Kant’s perspective and context are brought out, he can not only be seen to have made a genuinely progressive contribution to the development of accounts of mathematical necessity, but also to be relevant to contemporary issues in the philosophy of mathematics in underappreciated ways.     

Values Following a Major Terrorist Incident: Finnish Adolescent and Student Values Before and After September 11, 2001

The horrific terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, left an indelible mark on perceptions of security and threat across the world. This paper uses Schwartz's (1992) value circumplex model to examine value change across matched high school and university student samples in Finland, questioned before and after the World Trade Center (WTC) and associated attacks. In Study 1 ( N =419), security values of adolescents were higher the day following the WTC attacks than before, but fell back toward pre-attack levels in the subsequent two samples. In contrast, levels of stimulation were lower following the terrorist incidents. In Study 2 ( N =222), security levels of students were also higher following the WTC attacks, but again were closer to pre-attack levels in a subsequent cohort.     

Do your high potentials have potential? The impact of individual differences and designation on leader success

We propose an integrated model of leadership potential, the high‐potential designation process, and leader success that is intended to clarify the theoretical and practical relationships among these concepts. Drawing on research in the areas of social judgment and cognition, cognitive abilities, personality, leadership development, and motivation and on practice‐oriented observations and writings, we propose a process model of potential, the designation of individuals as high potential, and the antecedent and moderating variables that combine to impact success. We conclude that by using this model we can understand better the individual, social, and organizational factors that impact potential and the high‐potential identification process, and help develop more successful leaders and organizations.     

Social support in a changing Europe: an analysis of three post‐communist nations

Despite the continuing interest in social transitions among social scientists, there has been little analysis of the impact of societal change on personal relationships. One important factor in helping individuals deal with the stresses associated with rapid transitions is social support. In our first study, 450 manual workers, students and entrepreneurs in Russia, Georgia and Hungary completed structured questionnaires assessing demographic and value predictors of the perception of support availability and the support they obtained to deal with changes in their societies. In our second study, the same respondents participated in semi‐structured interviews investigating the relationship between their work lives and support networks. Our findings demonstrate the importance of culture, occupation and values for both the perception and reception of support, and underline the multifaceted manner in which different work experiences in different nations influence support networks. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.