Automation of ac electric-traction NetWare digital protective relay operational control

The widespread use of microprocessor-based digital protective relay from various manufacturers, the expansion of the programmable protective relay terminals’ functional composition, the lack of hardware, software and algorithmic support unification, problems of electromagnetic protection necessitate consideration of the issues of digital protective relay operational control automation [1-3]. The authors believe that the attention paid by operating services to the means and methods of the AC electric-traction netware protective relay Functional check is insufficient. Monitoring the correct protection functioning in real time when it is triggered by a short circuit makes it possible to identify all types of incorrect actions of the instrument units until the failure of the entire protection as a whole. The most common failures, such as “false response” and “unnecessary operation”, are detected with a probability close to unity [4-6]. The article discusses the principles of building a system of protective relay Functional check, applicable for all types of electric-traction netware protection that are currently in operation. Logical equations are given to identify incorrect actions of protective relay.

Utilizing Odor-Adsorbed Filter Papers for Detection Canine Training and Off-Site Fire Ant Indications

The red imported fire ant (RIFA, Solenopsis invicta) is an exotic aggressive pest that is notorious for its ability to seriously harm humans and animals, cause economic loss to agriculture, and damage ecosystems. This is the first study to validate the capability of filter paper adsorption as a feasible odor bearer of RIFAs and evaluate its use in detection dog training. Two live RIFA-experienced detection dogs achieved a mean 92% positive indication rate (PIR) on RIFA-scented papers with a relatively low false response rate (0.8%). The similar accuracies in recognizing live RIFAs (96%) and scented papers (92%) suggest that a filter paper is an effective odor reservoir. After training with live RIFA and scented filter papers, both RIFA-experienced and inexperienced detection dogs successfully indicated filter papers that were scented with at least 10 RIFAs for 4 h with a high PIR (>93%) and low false response rate (2%). Detection dogs correctly recognized the filter papers scented by 10 RIFAs for 24 h with a 97.6% PIR. Even for scented samples stored at −20 °C and 4 °C for 13 weeks, the positive indication rates (PIRs) were as high as 90%. These results suggest that filter paper is an effective RIFA odor bearer, and the scent can be maintained at least 13 weeks for dog identification. After RIFA-scented paper training, detection dogs showed high (>95%) PIRs for both RIFA-scented paper and live RIFAs and also successfully performed field studies. Using filter paper as a RIFA odor bearer is an effective and economical method for detection dog training and RIFA identification.

Do Social Desirability Scales Measure Dishonesty?

Social Desirability (SD) scales are sometimes treated, by researchers, as measures of dishonesty and, by practitioners, as indicators of faking on self-report assessments in high-stakes settings, such as personnel selection. Applying SD scales to measure dishonesty or faking, however, remains a point of contention among the scientific community. This two-part study investigated if SD scales, with a True/ False response format, are valid for these purposes. Initially, 46 participants completed an SD scale and 12 personality items while under instruction to “think aloud”, that is, to verbalize all the thoughts they had. These spoken thoughts were recorded and transcribed. Next, 175 judges rated the participants’ honesty in relation to each SD item, based on the participants’ transcribed spoken thoughts and their selected response to the item. The results showed that responses keyed as “socially desirable responding” were judged as significantly less honest than those not keyed as such. However, the effect size was very small, and the socially desirable responses were still being judged as somewhat honest overall. Further, participants’ SD scale sum scores were not related to the judges’ ratings of participant honesty on the personality items. Thus, overall, SD scales appear to be a poor measure of dishonesty.

Quantity matters: The frequency of deception influences automatic memory retrieval effects

We investigated automatic retrieval of the knowledge of having lied or having told the truth to a question, depending on (a) the quality of the statement (true vs. false response) and (b) the overall proportion of (dis-)honest responses. We therefore manipulated the proportion of lies and truths being told in an oral interview. Automatic retrieval of this meta-knowledge was assessed with a categorisation task, where the probe words dishonest and honest had to be classified, while questions from the interview served as task-irrelevant prime stimuli. Results revealed an automatic retrieval of knowledge about having lied to a question only for participants who had told few lies in the interview, but not for those who had told many lies. No retrieval effects were obtained regarding questions that had been answered truthfully. These findings suggest a combined influence of quality and quantity of dishonest statements on automatic memory retrieval, thereby being in accordance with recent accounts of action control.

Interference Can Affect Response Times to False Items in Category Verification

Previous research has found faster response times in category verification tasks to false stimuli pairing highly similar coordinate concepts (“pea—bean”) than to false stimuli pairing less similar coordinate concepts (“pea—onion”). Such a finding indicates that knowledge of which concepts are coordinate to one another is represented within a semantic network. However, the finding has not been entirely consistent. One reason for that inconsistency may be that the faster retrieval of a coordinate association between highly related words is offset by hesitancy on the part of participants to make a “false” response to strongly related stimuli. To test this hypothesis, termed the relation-strength interference hypothesis, participants served in two conditions. In the Similarity condition, they judged whether pairs of words were semantically similar. In the Classification condition, they judged whether pairs of words exhibited a class-inclusion relation “pea—vegetable”) or a coordinate relation. Both conditions included both coordinate items and class-inclusion items. Latencies were longer in the Classification condition than in the Similarity condition. The increase in latency in the Classification condition relative to the Similarity condition, however, was the same for coordinate items as for class-inclusion items, a finding consistent with the relation-strength interference hypothesis.