Effect of Al-Zr clusters on the thermal stability of Cu-Zr-rich Cu-Zr-Al bulk metallic glasses

The Gibbs free energy of formation, ?G^a, of the amorphous phase of Cu–Zr-rich Cu–Zr–Al bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) has been calculated over a broad composition region to re-evaluate their thermal stability, based on the efficient cluster packing model. It is found that Al–Zr clusters have an important effect on the thermal stability of the Cu–Zr–Al BMGs with the same Cu/Zr content ratio. The crystallisation of the BMGs involves crystallisation of both Al–Zr and Cu–Zr clusters. The results could be useful for predicting the thermal stability and understanding the underlying mechanism of crystallisation of multicomponent metallic glasses.     

Intention stability assessed using residual change scores moderates the intention-behaviour association: a prospective cohort study

Intention stability is considered to be one of the key pre-requisites for a strong association between intention and behaviour. It has been claimed, however, that studies examining the moderating impact of intention stability may be invalid, as they have relied on statistically inferior methods. Residual change scores have been suggested as a more appropriate method of measuring change (or lack thereof) in constructs. The aim of the current study, therefore, is to test whether intention stability, calculated using residual change scores, moderates the intention-physical activity behaviour association. A total of 163 participants (124 women, 39 men) completed questionnaires online at three time points separated by 14 day intervals. The moderating impact of intention stability was assessed using multiple linear regression followed up using simple slope analyses to identify the direction of any effect. The interaction of intention and intention stability was found to significantly improve the overall model fit. Intentions had a stronger positive association with behaviour when intentions were more stable than when they were more unstable. However, sensitivity analyses revealed that the association was not robust and reduced to non-significant with the removal of potential multivariate outliers. Future research should use residual change scores as the preferred method of assessing intention stability.     

Reliability of implicit self‐esteem measures revisited

This study investigated the internal consistencies and temporal stabilities of different implicit self‐esteem measures. Participants (N = 101) responded twice—with a time lag of 4 weeks—to five different tasks: the Implicit Association Test (IAT), the Brief Implicit Association Test (BIAT), the Affective Priming Task (APT), the Identification‐Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (ID‐EAST) and the Name‐Letter Task (NLT). As expected, the highest reliability coefficients were obtained for the self‐esteem IAT. Importantly, the internal consistencies and the temporal stabilities of the APT, the ID‐EAST, and the NLT were substantially improved by using material, structural, and analytic innovations. In particular, the use of the adaptive response‐window procedure for the APT, the computation of error scores for the ID‐EAST, and the computation of a double corrected scoring algorithm for the NLT yielded reliability coefficients comparable to those of the established IAT. Implications for the indirect assessment of self‐esteem are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Temporal stability of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity: Test-retest data over five weeks

Recently Lewis, Cruise, and Mc Guckin (2005) have reported on the test-retest reliability of the 7-item version of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity; however, their study was limited. The present aim was to evaluate the temporal stability of both the 24- and 7-item versions of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity over a five-week period among a sample of 114 Irish undergraduate university students. Data demonstrated that stability across the two administrations was very high for both the 24- (r = .95) and 7-item (r = .94) versions. These data support the short-term test-retest reliability of both the 24- and 7-item versions of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity.     

Feasibility and Stability in Normative Political Philosophy: The Case of Liberal Nationalism

Arguments from stability for liberal nationalism rely on considerations about conditions for the feasibility or stability of liberal political ideals and factual claims about the circumstances under which these conditions are fulfilled in order to argue for nationalist conclusions. Such reliance on factual claims has been criticised by among others G. A. Cohen in other contexts as ideological reifications of social reality. In order to assess whether arguments from stability within liberal nationalism, especially as formulated by David Miller, are vulnerable to a comparable critique, the rationale for their reliance on factual claims is discussed on the basis of a number of concerns in John Rawls’s political liberalism. The concern with stability in liberal nationalism differs from stability in Rawls’s work, mainly because of the stronger non-ideal or ‘realist’ focus of the former. In so far as the ‘realism’ of arguments from stability for liberal nationalism is recognized, they are not vulnerable to the reification charge. But if the arguments are construed as realist, this at the same time makes for other tensions within liberal nationalism.     

Development of postural stability limits: Anteroposterior and mediolateral postural adjustment mechanisms do not follow the same maturation process

There is increasing evidence that indicates a critical transition period for the maturation of postural control from the ages of 6–7 years. Some studies suggest that this transitional period may be explained by a change from a ballistic toward a sensory strategy, but the cause remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the transition period on dynamic postural control in a natural self-initiated leaning task under different sensory conditions. We evaluated the center of pressure (COP) displacement during maximum leaning in four directions (forward, backward, rightward, leftward) under three sensory conditions (eyes open, eyes closed and eyes closed standing on a foam). Three groups were tested: young children (4 years old), older children (8–10 years old) and adults (21–42 years old). The maximum COP excursion along the anteroposterior and mediolateral axes and the COP amplitude were analyzed. Young children showed smaller maximum anteroposterior and mediolateral COP excursion than other groups. Older children also exhibited a significantly smaller maximum excursion along the mediolateral direction but performed similar to adults along the anteroposterior direction. In a similar manner, the analysis of the COP amplitude did not indicate any differences between the groups along the anteroposterior axis. In contrast, along the mediolateral axis, the results showed developmental differences. Furthermore, the effect of sensory conditions was similar across the children's groups. Our results suggest an important plasticity period for the maturation of postural control mechanisms. Notably, our findings support the idea that the postural mechanisms controlling the anteroposterior axis reach maturity before the mechanisms involved in controlling the mediolateral axis.     

A Measure of the Stability of Activities in a Family Environment

The Stability of Activities in the Family Environment (SAFE) measure was developed to assess aspects of the construct of family stability. An earlier version of the SAFE was revised to improve its psychometric properties and better elaborate the construct that underlies the measure. College students completed the revised SAFE and other measures of family functioning with respect to their families of origin and measures of current adjustment. Findings support the reliability, internal consistency, and factor structure of the SAFE. It is suggested that the results of the factor analyses and findings that different aspects of family stability demonstrated different patterns of relationships to indices of family functioning, are consistent with the presumption guiding the development of the SAFE that families achieve stability in diverse ways. The validity of the SAFE was further supported by its relationship to measures of current self-esteem and depression.     

论动态稳定

目前,人类认识在两方面取得了共识：一方面,认识到了可持续发展的意义．另一方面,认识到了可持续发展与稳定的关系,并提出稳定是压倒一切的主题。现在的问题是,对稳定主要是从平衡方面去理解：经济稳定就是经济平衡,自然稳定就是生态平衡等。实际上这仍然是一种静态的稳定,这种平衡的稳定是没有活力的,因而是同进化和发展的目标正相矛盾的。本文则指出,具有活力的稳定是一种非平衡的稳定,其在本质上是一种动态稳定,其同进化和发展的目标正相一致。