A Procedure for Nonacademic Failure of Graduate Students in Psychology.

Recently, the application of the legal concept of "due process" has been broadening. Bernard (1975) has suggested that clinical students in psychology are due a clear procedure for being judged unsuitable and dropped from their programs. At the University of Alabama, we are persuaded that these processes should also include experimental students. Certainly, there are characteristics that render people unsuitable to the profession of psychology, whether clinical or experimental. We have, therefore, adopted a procedure designed to apply at those times when faculty members feel students may be unsuitable to practice psychology: in the classroom, the laboratory, the clinic, or any other setting. This procedure is sent to students who apply to the graduate program and are under consideration for acceptance--before they commit themselves to our department. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of electron concentration on the thermodynamic properties of two alloy phases in the Al-Zn-Ag system

A reversible electrochemical cell was used to determine the thermodynamic activity of aluminum in a series of α-phase Al-Zn and Al-Zn-Ag alloys, and a dew-point technique was used to determine the thermodynamic activity of zinc in a series of ε-phase Ag-Zn-Al alloys. The compositions investigated for both systems included those at which previous authors had related the stability of the phase to electronic factors. The data are presented in the form of graphs showing the excess relative partial molal Gibbs free energy of aluminum, (Δ•G_A1 ^xs), and zinc, (Δ•G_Zn ^xs), as a function of both mole fraction(X _i ) and electron-to-atom ratio (e/a). The latter curves are interpreted to be indications that the effect of electron concentration upon alloy phase stability has been experimentally isolated. Equations are developed which predict the effects of ternary additions in these alloy systems. The rigid-band model is shown to be incapable of predicting the direction of the effect and an argument based upon electron screening of ion-ion interactions is offered. Formerly Graduate Students, Metallurgy Department, Washington State University, Pullman, Wash. This paper constituted a portion of the theses submitted by RONALD E. MILLER and JERRY L. STRAALSUND in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering Science at Washington State University.     

Effects of speaking rate and lexical status on phonetic perception.

Among the contextual factors known to play a role in segmental perception are the rate at which the speech was produced and the lexical status of the item, that is, whether it is a meaningful word of the language. In a series of experiments on the word-initial /b/p/ voicing distinction, we investigated the conditions under which these factors operate during speech processing. The results indicated that under instructions of speeded responding, listeners could, on some trials, ignore some later occurring contextual information within the word that specified rate and lexical status. Importantly, however, they could not ignore speaking rate entirely. Although they could base their decision on only the early portion of the word, when doing so they treated the word as if it were physically short—that is to say, as if there were no later occurring information specifying a slower rate. This suggests that listeners always take account of rate when identifying the voicing value of a consonant, but precisely which information within the word is used to specify rate can vary with task demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Novel deposit/spin waveguide interconnection (DSWI) technique for semiconductor integrated optics

We propose an efficient and simple optical interconnection between active semiconductor components by deposition and spin coating. The demonstration shows a low-threshold (2.0 kA/cm2) and high-coupling (81%) operation of a laser-polyimide/SiO2 slab waveguide integrated on a GaInAsP/InP chip.     

Influence of dietary iron on the dental caries incidence and growth of rats fed an experimental diet

In view of the fact that supplementation with essential nutrients improves the quality of diet NIH 2000 and enhances growth, this study was carried out to determine the effects of supplementation with a specific nutrient. Diet 2000 was supplemented with 35 ppm of FeSO4 and fed ad libitum for 40 days. Iron supplementation reverses the caries process and reduces its incidence especially in the buccal surfaces which are bathed readily by saliva. In addition, hemoglobin and hematocrit, growth and pigmentation of the incisor teeth improve significantly with supplementation. The results of this experiment suggest that the effect of diet in the caries process involves not only the sucrose component of the diet but also an essential nutrient such as iron.