Nonlinear response of undrained clay to footings

An analytical study of the static response of a homogeneous undrained clay stratum to footing loads is presented. Clay is modeled as a linear elastic-perfectly plastic material with the von Mises yield condition and associated flow rule. The effect of large deformations on the response of the clay is included in the analysis. Numerical results are obtained within the framework of the finite element method and a step-by-step integration procedure. In particular a single, strip surface footing bearing on a finite stratum of undrained clay is considered. The footing is assumed to be rigid and the interface between the footing and soil may be either smooth or rough. The base of the soil stratum is rigid and perfectly rough. A plane strain condition is assumed. Load-displacement curves, stress distributions, zones of yielding and velocity fields are presented. It was found that for a rough footing bearing on a undrained clay, the mode of failure corresponds to the so-called Prandtl velocity field. For a smooth footing, however, the failure mechanism appears to be a combination of the Hill and Prandtl type velocity fields.     

Shock intensity and the Kamin effect in one- and two-way avoidance.

Describes 2 experiments with 144 and 162 male hooded rats. Response decrements as a function of the intersession interval occurred in both 1- and 2-way active avoidance conditioning. Percentage avoidances were a positive function of shock intensity in 1-way avoidance and a negative function of intensity in 2-way avoidance. The magnitude of the performance decrement was a function of shock intensity in 1-way avoidance, with the largest decrement at the lowest shock intensity. The magnitude of the performance decrement was unaffected by shock intensity in 2-way avoidance. The shape of the intersession-interval function was apparently unaffected by shock intensity in both types of active avoidance. (French summary) (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specification as a Product for Export

The translation of a specification into a foreign language is often unsatisfactory. The factors contributing to this are discussed. Some are avoidable; others can only be attenuated. Some rules are suggested which, if applied when the document is first written, will reduce the risk of errors later.     

The existential psychotherapy of phobias.

Describes the existential psychotherapy of phobic patients. The failure of much contemporary psychotherapy is based in an insufficient psychology of the phobic process. The phobic mechanism is intentional and derives from the focused awareness patients have of their own vulnerability in a certain situation and an attempt to preempt the situation by the creation of a mythology that permits a degree of control and a concomitant loss of awareness of the experience to be avoided. The psychotherapy of phobic patients is comprised of 5 stages. Patients must be assured as to the correctness, integrity, and limited effect of their anxiety. They then come to see the intentionality and integrity in their phobic structures and subsequently recognize their power over the process should they be willing to restructure their way of being in the world. The 4th step occurs with the reclamation of the specific knowledge and feelings that patients have attempted to render unconscious. The final stage is the constant attentiveness to the interpersonal process and the suffering and survival of the primary difficulty. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward in-cylinder absorption tomography in a production engine

Design requirements for an 8000 frame/s dual-wavelength ratiometric chemical species tomography system, intended for hydrocarbon vapor imaging in one cylinder of a standard automobile engine, are examined. The design process is guided by spectroscopic measurements on iso-octane and by comprehensive results from laboratory phantoms and research engines, including results on temporal resolution performance. Novel image reconstruction techniques, necessary for this application, are presented. Recent progress toward implementation, including details of the optical access arrangement employed and signal-to-noise issues, is described. We present first cross-cylinder IR absorption measurements from a reduced channel-count (nontomographic) system and discuss the prospects for imaging.     

Adsorbed metal ions as stabilizers for the thermal degradation of polyacrylamide

The thermal degradation of polyacrylamide has been studied in the presence of various metal ions using thermogravimetry. The thermal decomposition of the polymer in general occurs at higher temperatures in the presence of metal ions than with the pure polymer. Empirical measures of the stabilizing effect of the metal ions have been made by determining the temperatures of 12% and 50% decomposition, and the integral procedural decomposition temperature (IPDT). For main group metal ions, the stabilizing effect, as measured by the difference in ipdt between polymer-metal complex and copolymer, was inversely proportional to the radius of the metal ion, suggesting that the strength of the complex between the ion and polymer is important in determining stability. Transition metal ions, in contrast, showed no simple dependence of stabilizing effect on ionic radius, but showed, instead, a dependence upon the ligand field stabilization energy.