Review of The study of personality: A book of readings.

Reviews the book, The Study of Personality (see record 1955-03665-000). The book is a collection of readings, consisting mainly of papers that have previously appeared in journals. The three sections of the book deal, respectively, with theory, methods, and problems. The editor's emphasis, though, is mainly methodological, and even the section dealing with theory stresses principles of theory construction rather than attempts to formulate a single logically consistent theory of personality. The reviewer feels that this collection of readings should fill the need for supplementary reading in a graduate level course dealing with nomothetic approaches to the investigation of personality, or as a supplement to a course in the theory of personality when either the instructor or a good textbook contributes a single consistent theoretical point of view. Psychologists and other social scientists will find it useful as a review of significant and more or less familiar material that should not be allowed to become lost in seldom consulted back issues of the journals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sur la dégradation thermique du polychlorure de vinyle. VI. Etapes initiales—etude générale préliminaire

A differential conductimetric apparatus allowing the continuous titration of HCl carried by a stream of gas with a limit sensitivity of 40 nanograms is described and applied to study the initial steps of poly(vinyl chloride) thermal degradation. The powdered sample is placed in a quartz cell which may be closed and detached and placed at a chosen time interval in a reflexion diffuse UV spectrometer. The dehydrochlorination process begins just above T_g; the isotherms under argon show, after a variable time, a steady state with a zero order and an activation energy of 22 kcal. For a dehydrochlorination ratio (DR) less than 1000 ppm, the shape of the UV visible spectrum does not depend on the DR, and for the same DR it does not depend on the degradation temperature. A plot of the reflectance ratio versus the DR shows a coloration process in two steps: a rapid step followed by a slower step. The phenomenon, which does not depend on the physical state of the sample, tends to disappear if the amount of polymer is lowered and if the rate of flow of the gas is increased. It suggests that the HCl formed upon the dehydrochlorination process remains partly dissolved in the polymer. Further proof of the dissolution of HCl in the polymer is given, and a through method of titration is proposed. It is suggested that the initial steps of the dehydrochlorination follows an ionic mechanism, and might be partially reversible and diffusion controlled, although the autocatalysis which involves a rather high dehydrochlorination ratio and the presence of a large amount of dissolved HCl might initiate the radical process.     

Congener-specific accumulation and food chain transfer of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in two arctic food chains

Congener-specific accumulation and prey to predator transfer of 22 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were assessed in polar cod, ringed seal, polar bear, and beluga whale. Although the concentrations found were relatively low, these results show that PBDEs have reached the Arctic. PBDE congeners 47, 99, and 100 were dominant in all species studied. The pattern in ringed seal was somewhat simpler than in polar cod, with PBDE 47 accounting for more than 90% of the total PBDEs. In contrast, beluga whales, feeding on prey similar to that of ringed seals, showed higher PBDE levels and a more complex PBDE pattern than ringed seals. In contrast, polar bears contained only PBDE 47 in relatively small amounts. These differences in levels and patterns are likely due to species-specific differences in PBDE metabolism and accumulation. The metabolic index suggested that PBDEs 47 and 99 accumulate to the same magnitude as PCB 153 (PCB = polychlorinated biphenyl) in ringed seals and beluga whales. In contrast to beluga whales, ringed seals can metabolize PBDE 100 to some extent. Polar bears are seemingly capable of metabolizing virtually all PBDEs and are therefore unsuitable as indicators for PBDE contamination in the environment.     

A study of recombination centers related to As-Sb nanoclusters in low-temperature grown gallium arsenide

Electronic traps in “low-temperature” GaAs (LT-GaAs) grown at 150°C were studied. The As-Sb clusters appearing in this material after annealing were located in a plane that contained a single Sb monolayer formed during growth. The diameter of the clusters was as large as 20 nm. For the purpose of measurement, Au-n-GaAs Schottky barriers were used, in which, for certain bias voltages, the space charge region enclosed the narrow LT-GaAs layer containing the plane of clusters. The bias-voltage dependence of the structure capacitance indicates that the majority of the electrons in this layer are captured by traps, whose energy level lies ～0.5 eV below the bottom of the conduction band. The energy density of states at this energy is 10¹⁴ cm^?2 eV^?1, which sharply decreases towards the midgap. The existence of traps with activation energies of ～0.5 eV for the thermal emission of electrons is confirmed by deep-level transient spectroscopy. The magnitude of the electroncapture cross section determined by this method is in the range 5 × 10^?14?1 × 10^?12 cm². It is assumed that traps of this type are related to large As-Sb clusters.     

Trail Pheromone of Myrmicine Ant Pristomyrmex pungens

The myrmicine ant Pristomyrmex pungens marks recruitment trails with poison gland secretions. The effective trail pheromone compound is 6-n-pentyl-2-pyrone. Poison gland components were identified by means of gas chromatographic coupled mass spectrometry. The biological activity was examined in trail-following experiments as well as in gas chromatographic coupled electroantennograms. In addition to 6-n-pentyl-2-pyrone, a number of monoterpenes were found in the poison gland secretion, i.e., α-pinene, camphene, β-pinene, myrcene, α-phellandrene, α-terpinene, and limonene. The terpenoid compounds increased the trail-following response only slightly when offered together with 6-n-pentyl-2-pyrone. In contrast to the latter component, synthetic monoterpenes elicited no orientation behavior in trail-following bioassays.     

Damage-free tribochemical polishing of diamond at room temperature: a finishing technology

Polished surfaces are characterized by a geometric shape and a surface finish, the latter being defined by surface roughness (smoothness) and subsurface damage. In general, mechanically polished surfaces have a high geometric precision and are optically smooth, but they are subjected to surface and subsurface damage. Tribochemical polishing gives smooth surfaces and damage-free subsurfaces, but the surface geometric precision is often poor at the submicron level. Diamond is the hardest material known, and the standard polishing technique for such hard materials is mechanical polishing, causing surface and subsurface damage. In this paper a novel method of tribochemical polishing of natural and synthetic monocrystalline diamond at room temperature is described, which gives very smooth surfaces of, at least, (100) planes, free from surface and subsurface damage within the instrumental detection limits. Such diamond surfaces are van der Waals bondable to other materials. With this novel technology only low material removal rates can be achieved. Therefore, it is mostly adapted as a finishing technique. The described polishing technology can be applied to other (hard) materials as well.     

Role of endotoxins and bile acids in the pathogenesis of septic circulatory shock

It has long been known that the toxic effects of endotoxins under experimental conditions can be induced only when they are administered parenterally. However, in naturally occurring enteroendotoxemic diseases (e. g. septic and intestinal ischemic shocks) the endotoxins--which are produced by gram negative members of intestinal flora-, absorb from the intestinal tract to the blood circulation and can elicit pathological processes. It is an important distinction between natural and experimental endotoxin shock. If the common bile duct of rats were chronically cannulated a significant amount of perorally administered endotoxin was absorbed into the blood. This endotoxin shock can be prevented by bile acids. The physiological surfactants, the bile acids, are important facts in the defense of macroorganisms against endotoxins (physico-chemical defense). The production and passage of bile acids depend from the function of liver and the cholecystokinine (CCK) synthesis of small intestine wall. If the bile (bile acid) content of the intestinal canal decreases the endotoxin can translocate to the body and elicits toxic symptoms. So most important parts of defense against endotoxins in natural conditions are the CCK and bile acids. The consequence of damage of liver (place of bile acid synthesis) or small intestine (place of CCK synthesis) is the absorption of endotoxins.     

Production of 11C in Fullerene Cages: Short Half-Life Tracers

¹¹C “raditfullerenes” C_n1¹¹C (n = 60, 70, 76 to 84) have been produced, purified by high performance liquid chromatography, and characterized using optical absorption spectroscopy and an ultrasensitive coincidence counting technique for radioactivity measurement. The first successful direct labelling of the higher fullerenes C_n-1¹¹C (n = 76 to 84), in addition to C₅₉¹¹C and C₆₉¹¹C, suggests that well characterized ¹¹C radiofullerenes of various sizes could find possible applications as tracers in fluid flow systems (both biological and physical) and in porosity characterization of nanoscale membranes.     

Nonlinear parametric instability of antisymmetrically laminated angle-ply plates

Parametric instability of antisymmetrically laminated angle-ply rectangular plates is considered in this paper. The boundaries of instability domains are determined using linear theory. Then the frequency-amplitude relationship of the nonlinear parametric vibration within the instability domains is obtained using an asymptotic method.