Investigation of social influence theory's conception of client resistance.

Expert and referent power bases and influence attempts were crossed with levels of trustworthiness to explore the effects of perceived counselor illegitimacy and power base influence attempt incongruence in a counseling analog. 134 undergraduates viewed 1 of 8 videotaped simulated counseling interviews. Each completed the Counselor Rating Form, a recall test, and 2 behavioral intention checklists. Behavioral compliance with the counselor's suggestions was also determined. Data offer support for the social influence theory: Ss' expectations of others' instrumental behavior were lower for those who viewed illegitimate counselors. Ss' expectations for their own behavior were greater after referent influence attempts. Ss' expectations for both others' and their own behavior were lower for those who viewed legitimate counselors whose power base and influence attempt were incongruent than for those who viewed legitimate couselors using congruent attempts. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stochastic response of offshore towers to random sea waves and strong motion earthquakes

Presented is a stochastic method of analysis of offshore towers subjected separately to random sea waves and to strong motion earthquakes. The Pierson-Moskowitz wave height spectrum is used along with linear wave theory to define a stationary random sea state as caused by wind generated surface waves. A zero mean ergodic Gaussian process of finite duration is used to characterize horizontal ground acceleration caused by strong motion earthquakes. For each type of loading, full fluid structure interaction effects are included in stochastic analysis. Numerical results for 4 representative deep water towers having heights of 475, 675, 875 and 1,075 feet are presented. Particular emphasis is placed on the maximum or extreme values of total transverse shear and total overturning moment versus elevation above the base of each tower. The results of the earthquake analysis are compared with corresponding design code values and the role of ductility is briefly discussed.     

Silicon shadow mask fabrication for patterned metal deposition with microscale dimensions using a novel corner compensation scheme

Pattern deposition of metals with controlled and microscale dimensions can be a challenging task if traditional photolithography is not a practical option. This is a particularly valid concern for the case of certain polymer substrates, which are gaining in importance in the microelectronics and related industries. Therefore, a novel design and process flow for batch fabricating low cost reusable silicon shadow masks was developed. Of note was the corner compensation scheme employed to avoid over-etching of the convex corners in the design. These shadow masks enabled deposition of metals or other suitable materials with feature sizes ranging from approximately 3 to 250 μm and were successfully utilized to form patterned metal heater lines and pads on various samples. The heaters, required for conducting thermal conductivity measurements of the underlying films/substrates using the three omega (3ω) method, showed resistance–temperature linearity, confirming theoretical estimates to within 0.2%. Moreover, the room temperature thermal conductivity of an amorphous SiO₂ film as well as a polyaniline thick film were measured, further validating the deposition through shadow mask technique.     

Orientation of the BSCCO films prepared by low-pressure single-aerosol source metallorganic chemical vapour deposition

Thin films (0.7–0.8 μm) of Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_x were deposited by low-pressure metallorganic chemical vapour deposition with a single aerosol source. The influence of the deposition parameters on the orientation of the films was studied. It was established that low deposition rate, high deposition temperature and the presence of the liquid phase resulted in films with predominant c-orientation.     

The differences in human cumulative irritation responses to positive and negative irritant controls from three geographical locations

A retrospective analysis was conducted to evaluate whether studies from three geographically diverse locations have similar response profiles to the positive and negative controls in a standard 14‐day cumulative irritation study. The positive irritant control (0.1% sodium lauryl sulphate) and the negative control (0.9% sodium chloride, saline) data from seventeen 14‐day cumulative irritation studies were reviewed. The studies were compiled from three locations representing dry/hot, humid/hot, and dry/cold environments (Scottsdale, Arizona; St Petersburg, Florida; and Winnipeg, Manitoba, respectively). Irritation scores were generated by trained skin graders from a total of 442 subjects studied between 1999 and 2005. Cumulative irritation scores were reviewed and compared between study locations. The irritation scores for the positive and negative controls were not significantly different between locations. Temperature and relative humidity variation did not correlate significantly with overall irritation. However, the dryer climate (i.e. negative or low dew point) had a tendency to induce a higher overall irritation level for both positive and negative controls.     

FMR study of surface and isothermal annealing effects in amorphous Fe80B20−x C x and Fe82 B18−y Ge y alloys

Alterations in the bulk (surface) magnetic properties of amorphous Fe₈₀ B_20?x C _x (0 5x ? 10) and Fe₈₂ B_18?y Ge _y (0 ?y ? 6) alloys, caused by isothermal annealing (mechanical polishing) of the alloy ribbons at a temperature T _A = 0.5T _cr (whereT _cr is the crystallization temperature) for various lengths of time,t _a, ranging from 0 to 240 min, have been studied by measuring the corresponding changes in the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) linewidth, AHPP, and resonance field,H _res. Polishing induces significant changes in bothH _res and ΔH _pp but leaves their composition dependence practically unaltered. By comparison, isothermal annealing has no influence onH _res for ali the investigated alloy compositions whereas it affects ΔH _pp to different extents depending on the alloy composition. Physical implications of these results are discussed in terms of the effect of surface and annealing treatments on various contributions toH _res and AHPP in the glassy alloys in question.     

Design-Space Exploration for Block-Processing Based Temporal Partitioning of Run-Time Reconfigurable Systems

The reconfiguration capability of modern FPGA devices can be utilized to execute an application by partitioning it into multiple segments such that each segment is executed one after the other on the device. This division of an application into multiple reconfigurable segments is called temporal partitioning. We present an automated temporal partitioning technique for acyclic behavior level task graphs. To be effective, any behavior-level partitioning method should ensure that each temporal partition meets the underlying resource constraints. For this, a knowledge of the implementation cost of each task on the hardware should be known. Since multiple implementations of a task that differ in area and delay are possible, we perform design-space exploration to choose the best implementation of a task from among the available implementations.To overcome the high reconfiguration overhead of the current day FPGA devices, we propose integration of the temporal partitioning and design space exploration methodology with block-processing. Block-processing is used to process multiple blocks of data on each temporal partition so as to amortize the reconfiguration time. We focus on applications that can be represented as task graphs that have to be executed many times over a large set of input data. We have integrated block-processing in the temporal partitioning framework so that it also influences the design point selection for each task. However, this does not exclude usage of our system for designs for which block-processing is not possible. For both block-processing and non block-processing designs our algorithm selects the best possible design point to minimize the execution time of the design.We present an ILP-based methodology for the integrated temporal partitioning, design space exploration and block-processing technique that is solved to optimality for small sized design problems and in an iterative constraint satisfaction approach for large sized design problems. We demonstrate with extensive experimental results for the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and random graphs the validity of our approach.     

Amyloid-β Inspired Short Peptide Amphiphile Facilitates Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles as Potential Antibacterial Agents

An amyloid-β inspired biocompatible short peptide amphiphile (sPA) molecule was used for controlled and targeted delivery of bioactive silver nanoparticles via transforming sPA nanostructures. Such sPA-AgNPs hybrid structures can be further used to develop antibacterial materials to combat emerging bacterial resistance. Due to the excellent antibacterial activity of silver, the growth of clinically relevant bacteria was inhibited in the presence of AgNPs-sPA hybrids. Bacterial tests demonstrated that the high biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity of the designed sPA allow it to work as a model drug delivery agent. It therefore shows great potential in locally addressing bacterial infections. The results of our study suggest that these nanodevices have the potential to trap and then engage in the facile delivery of their chemical payload at the target site, thereby working as potential delivery materials. This system has potential therapeutic value for the treatment of microbiota triggered progression of neurodegenerative diseases.     

Human platelets contain a novel 47 kDa thiol-oxidase having affinity for genomic sterol-regulatory sequence

The present study provides evidence to support that human platelets possess a 47 kDa dual functional molecule having thiol-oxidase activity as well as high affinity for the SRE sequence in the human genome. On the basis of these as well as earlier results, we propose that Receptor 'Ck' dependent regulation of this dual functional 47 kDa molecule may provide a mechanism for the maintenance of cellular cholesterol homeostasis. Further, this mechanism may also explain the molecular basis of cholesterol-feedback lesion observed under premalignant conditions.