Achievement motivation orientation and psychological/interpersonal well-being in male recreational and elite cricket players : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

The present study examined differences between a convenience sample of elite (n=55) and recreational (n=31) cricketers in achievement motivation orientation, psychological well-being, relationship satisfaction and general attitudes and feelings to the game. Major findings were that (a) Elite athletes scored higher on both competitiveness and win orientation. (b) There was no significant difference between groups on psychological well-being. (c) There was no significant difference in relationship satisfaction between groups. Qualitative data from two open-ended questions indicated that for 40% of elite players, relationship sacrifices were the worst aspect of playing at elite level. (d) Elite cricketers scored significantly higher on commitment to cricket, achievement needs, competitive anxiety, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, and lower on fun/stimulation needs. (e) For elite players the best things about playing were the challenge, comradeship and win-oriented achievement, while the worst aspects were relationship sacrifices, travel, and career/financial sacrifices. For the recreational group, the best aspects were comradeship (83%) and enjoyment, and the worst aspects were overcompetitive players, cheating or incompetent umpires and rain

Comparison of 4-ball and 5-ball rolling contact fatigue tests on lubricated Si3N4/steel contact

Accelerated four-ball and five-ball rolling tests were performed on HIPed Si3N4 ball samples (rough lapped with surface roughness value Ra0.08 μm and Rq0.118 μm) in fully lubricated condition. The contact load and the stress cycles per minute for four-ball rolling and five-ball rolling tests were maintained the same. The rolling track appearances of five-ball tests reveal severe sliding occurred. In one case, the opposite arc cracks were generated all over the two sides of the rolling track, and this could not be explained by simplified kinematics model. The failure mechanisms were discussed, which suggest the sliding on the two sides of the track was in the opposite direction

Low Timing Jitter Detector for Gigahertz Quantum Key Distribution

A superconducting single-photon detector based on a niobium nitride nanowire is demonstrated in an optical-fibre-based quantum key distribution test bed operating at a clock rate of 3.3 GHz and a transmission wavelength of 850 nm. The low jitter of the detector leads to significant reduction in the estimated quantum bit error rate and a resultant improvement in the secrecy efficiency compared to previous estimates made by use of silicon single-photon avalanche detectors.Comment: 11 pages, including 2 figure

A novel eccentric lapping machine for finishing advanced ceramic balls

Advanced ceramic balls are used extensively in hybrid precision ball bearings and show advantages in high speed, high temperature, high load and hostile environment. Finishing these balls with high quality, good efficiency and low cost is critical to their widespread application. A brief review of the methods for finishing ceramic balls is presented. The design of a novel eccentric lapping machine for finishing advanced ceramic balls is described. The kinematics of eccentric lapping is analysed and discussed, the symbolic expressions for the ball spin angular speed, omega (b), ball spin angle, beta, and ball circulation angular speed, omega (c), are derived and numerical solutions are plotted. Two kinds of hot isostatically pressed (HIPed) silicon nitride ball blanks (13.25-13.50 mm in diameter) were lapped and polished to 12.700 mm using this machine. A maximum material removal rate of 68 mum/h was achieved at the lapping step, which is much higher than by the traditional concentric lapping method. The polished ball surface roughness, R-a, value is 0.003 mum, and the ball roundness is 0.08-0.09 mum, which is above grade 5 and close to grade 3 of the precision bearing ball specification. This machine can be used as a prototype to develop a larger-scale machine for production