Subject mechanical reinforcement

It is not clear whether this deviation from optimality is found in human behavior. Controlled experiments with human subjects are difficult. Also, the human capacity for conscious choice and the complexity of human affairs tend to reduce the importance of purely mechanical reinforcement. Yet to the extent that human behavior is shaped by reinforcement, as suggested by some earlier examples, similar effects may be expected. 

Performance of plastics , W. Brostow Hanser Gardner Pubis (1999) ISBN 1569902771. Comprehensively covers the behavior of the most important polymer materials. Subject areas range from Computer Simulations of Mechanical Behavior to Reliability and Durability of aircraft structures made of fiber-reinforced hydrocarbons. 

Some subsequent discussion on compound 3 followed our original paper on this subject (N. Masciocchi, M. Bergamo, A. Sironi, Comments on the elusive crystal structure of 4-iodo-4 -nitrobiphenyl Chem. Comm, 1998,1347-1348 J. Hulliger, P. J. Langley, On intrinsic and extrinsic defect-forming mechanisms determining the disordered structure of 4-iodo-4 -nitrobi-phenyl Chem Comm, 1998, 2557-2558), but these papers, which describe the effects of small amounts of 4,4 -dinitrobiphenyl impurity in 3, only reinforce the idea of structures based on N02—I synthons. 

This argument, combined with that of chapter IV, suggests that optimal adaptation will be an exception rather than the rule. In general, neither subjective nor objective mechanisms can be trusted to make people do what it is in their interest to do. Rational choice is often indeterminate and cannot be counted on to yield optimal behavior, even assuming that people get rid of their tendencies to behave irrationally. Selection processes work too slowly to produce behavior that is optimally adapted to a rapidly changing environment. The next chapter suggests that the mechanism of reinforcement is no more likely to force optimal behavior. 

In spite of their long history, reinforcement mechanisms and elastic properties of elastomers remain the subject of numerous experimental investigations 111 116>, but... 

---