A Study of Ozone Generation by Negative Corona Discharge Through Different Plasma Chemistry Models

The Steady radial distribution of chemical species in a wire‐to‐cylinder ozone generator filled with pure oxygen has been computed by applying four different plasma chemistry models of increasing complexity. The most complete model considers ten species (e, O₂ ⁺, O₂ ^?, O₃ ^?, O^?, O₂, O₂(¹Δ_g), O₂(¹∑_g ⁺), O and O₃) and 79 reactions, including ionization by electron impact, electron attachment and detachment, electron-ion recombination, charge transfer, etc. The chemical model is coupled with the electrical model through Poisson's equation. The spatially averaged ozone density has been computed as a function of the current intensity and compared with the experimental values obtained by UV spectroscopy.     

Linguistic Knowledge, Processing Speed, and Metacognitive Knowledge in First- and Second-Language Reading Comprehension: A Componential Analysis.

The authors report results of a study into the role of components of first-language (L1; Dutch) and second-language (L2; English) reading comprehension. Differences in the contributions of components of L1 and L2 reading comprehension are analyzed, in particular processing speed in L1 and L2. Findings indicate that regression weights of the L1 and L2 components are different. Although correlations between most processing speed components and reading comprehension are substantial, there are no unique contributions to the explanation of either L1 or L2 reading comprehension when linguistic and metacognitive knowledge are accounted for. In addition, L1 reading comprehension is shown to have a large contribution to L2 reading comprehension, supporting theories of L1-L2 transfer of reading skills. Results are discussed from a developmental perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quantitative description of the microstructure–porosity of sialons and iron silicide inclusions

Sialon ceramics are a modern type of engineering ceramics with excellent mechanical, thermal and corrosion resistant properties. This paper describes the structure characterisation of porous sialon ceramics. It is possible to significantly improve the strength and crack resistance of sialon ceramics as a result of a reduction of the volume fraction of porosity.     

Positive expectations predict health after heart transplantation.

We explored the relations between positive expectations and adjustment, adherence, and health in cardiac transplant patients. Thirty-one patients and their nurse completed questionnaires before transplantation and at 3 times after surgery. As predicted, patients' self-reported positive expectations were generally associated with good mood, adjustment to the illness, and quality of life, even in patients who experienced health setbacks. High preoperative expectations predicted later adherence to a complex medical regimen. Positive expectations measured before the transplant predicted a substantial amount of the variance in the nurse's ratings of physical health 6 months after surgery, covarying for adherence behavior and preoperative health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prestressing of compression springs

A scheme of force variation during the compression of a spring in both elastic and elastic-plastic state is presented. For the elastic state it has been found that equivalent load increments occur with equivalent deflection increments. In the elastic-plastic state equivalent load increments correspond to higher deflection increments. Prestressing the spring increases the range of the elastic deformation of a spring. Equations for the determination of torsional moment during prestressing and relationships of total non-dilatational strain versus elastic strain and radii of elastic zone are also presented. The effect of characteristic spring dimensions and non-dilatational strain on spring deflection has been determined. A nomogram for the determination of the resultant equivalent strain as a function of external load, also considering residual stress distribution, has as well been elaborated.     

Performance evaluation of a biotrickling filter degrading mixtures of hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds

The removal of a mixture of painting solvents from waste air using a biofiltration process was evaluated in this project. The pollutants removed included hydrophobic (aromatic hydrocarbons) and hydrophilic (water soluble ketones and esters) compounds. A trickle bed reactor with a defined immobilized mixed culture on polyethylene Pall rings was utilized in this biodegradation study. The removal efficiencies (RE) of the individual groups of pollutants during loading experiments were determined. An increase of the aromatic hydrocarbons loading resulted in a drop of their RE_AROM with no effect on the RE value of ketones. The overloading of ketones caused a rapid drop in RE_AROM and a small drop in RE_KET. To achieve a restoration of the biocatalyst degradation properties after the increase in loading, an addition of phosphate to the aqueous medium was implemented which successfully restored the removal efficiency.     

Generating stochastic dispersed and periodic clustered textures using a composite hybrid screen.

In electrophotographic printing, a periodic clustered-dot halftone pattern is preferred for a smooth and stable result. In addition, the screen frequency should be high enough to minimize the visibility of the halftone textures and to ensure good detail rendition. However, at these frequencies, the halftone cell may contain too few pixels to provide a sufficient number of distinct gray levels. This will result in contouring and posterization. The traditional solution is to grow the clusters asynchronously within a repeating block of clusters known as a supercell. The growth of each individual cluster is governed by a microscreen. The order in which the clusters grow within the supercell is determined by a macroscreen. Typically, the macroscreen is a recursive pattern due to Bayer. In highlights and shadows, this ordering results in visible artifacts. Replacing the Bayer screen by a stochastic macroscreen eliminates these artifacts, but results in new artifacts. In this paper, we propose a new composite screen architecture that employs multiple microscreens and multiple macroscreens in the highlights and shadows. These screens are jointly designed by using the direct binary search (DBS) algorithm.     

Child negative emotionality and parenting from infancy to preschool: A meta-analytic review.

This meta-analytic review (k = 62 studies; N = 7,613 mother-child dyads) shows that effect sizes for the association between child negative emotionality and parenting were generally small and were moderated by sample and measurement characteristics. The association between more child negative emotionality and less supportive parenting was relatively strong in lower socioeconomic status families, reversed in higher socioeconomic status families, and limited to studies with relatively high percentages of participants from ethnic minorities and studies using parent report to assess negative emotionality. Higher levels of child negative emotionality were associated with more restrictive control in samples with less than 75% 1st-born children, as well as in infants and preschoolers, and in studies using parent report or composite measures to assess both negative emotionality and restrictive parenting. Finally, more child negative emotionality was associated with less inductive control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

斯芬克司住宅，赫依曾，荷兰

5座斯芬克司住宅的每一栋各容纳了14间为了充分利用地段和阳光而组织起来的公寓。建筑的体量在背向水面的方向被斜切，从而使得从湖岸和公寓所能看到的湖景不被阻隔。当人在从楼里往上走时，公寓的数目逐层递减。结果产生了一种斯芬克司式的轮廓，面向太阳的屋顶退台置于这个神话中的怪兽的脊背上。每个建筑体量的雨篷设计是不同的，从而使其独特的头部产生一种韵律感——从连接新开拓地和现有大陆的stichtse桥上看去的一条激动人心的天际线。     

Societal Safety: Concept,Borders and Dilemmas

In most industrialized countries, the end of the Cold War marked a change in focus from preparedness for war to an increasing focus on civil society's own vulnerability and safety. To meet new threats and changing risks, there is also a need for new analytical concepts. Societal safety is a concept developed in Norway during the last decade. It could be defined as: ‘The society's ability to maintain critical social functions, to protect the life and health of the citizens and to meet the citizens' basic requirements in a variety of stress situations’. It aims to be a systematic approach for understanding, mitigating and responding to social problems such as extraordinary stresses and losses, interferences in complex and mutual dependent systems, or lack of trust in vital social institutions. Future threats to society are not limited to specific sectors or areas, but stem from complex interactions amongst economic, technological, social and cultural factors. Thus, the main challenges to improve societal safety will be the ability to coordinate, organize and assign clear roles to different actors at the international, national and local levels. Societal safety has interfaces with other safety‐related areas such as national security, sustainable development, human security and incident management (handling of isolated accidents, common illness and ordinary criminal acts). Societal safety is, however, a sensitive political issue containing dilemmas and value choices that are hardly possible to perceive or solve as pure scientific problems.