Symptom changes associated with improvement in schizophrenia.

The present study shows that global, clinical judgments of improvement can be predicted by a linear combination of various elements of symptom reduction. This runs counter to the contention of Meehl (1950) that configural, nonlinear combinations are necessary to account for clinical judgment. Of some pragmatic value is the fact that the prediction equation can form the basis of a composite improvement score whose elements of symptom reduction are weighted according to their relationship to the clinically face-valid rating of improvement. This composite is shown to be highly consistent between various drug treatments and between study samples on the same drug treatment. Moreover, it is shown to be a more sensitive discriminator between drug- and placebo-treated patients. The composite is offered as a more sensitive measure of improvement in acute schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Locus of lesion in defective color association.

The relationship between locus of lesion and color association among aphasics was investigated in 2 separate and distinct studies. Data were obtained at different medical centers, with different examiners, different means of screening for color blindness, different procedures for assessment of color amnesia, and with different computerized tomography (CT) imaging equipment and interpreters. Nevertheless, each showed that color association defects were associated with posterior perisylvian lesions and basal ganglia lesions in the left hemisphere. At the same time, both studies also showed that extensive posterior perisylvian lesions and basal ganglia lesions did not inevitably cause defects in color association. Implications of the findings for impaired color association and hemispheric cerebral dominance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Large single crystals of gallium selenide: growing, doping by In and characterization

Gallium selenide is a material with great potential for nonlinear optical applications, due to its many attractive properties, including a broad low-loss transmittance (from 0.65 to 18 μm) and a large nonlinear coefficient. However, its current application is limited due to difficulties with its growth, and poor mechanical properties. Our current research has a threefold purpose. First, this work is intended to investigate the feasability of growing large, optical quality single crystal boules of GaSe; second, to investigate the impact of isovalent indium doping on the mechanical, electrophysical, and optical properties of GaSe, and third, to determine the concentration of In which is optimal for purposes of facilitating the practical implementation of GaSe in nonlinear devices.     

Local melting in Al-Mg-Zn-alloys

The internal melting of several Al-Mg-Zn-alloys has been studied by rapid upquenching in a salt bath of specimens slowly cooled at a rate of 2 °C/h down to 375 °C. The melting reaction was studied metallographically in the light- and electron-scanning microscope, and local concentrations were measured in the microprobe. Local melting of both the equilibrium phasesT and η was observed to occur. There were, however, essential differences between the melting kinetics for the two phases. While theT-phase particles melted spontaneously at temperatures at or above the invariant temperature, 489 °C, and after some period of time at lower temperatures, the η-phase particles either melted spontaneously at or above the invariant temperature,T - 475 °C, or dissolved into the matrix at temperatures below 475 °C. This difference in behavior can be accounted for if the α(Al)-η section is not a quasi-binary section. The industrial implications of the internal melting in these alloys are discussed and compared to the same reaction in the Al-Mg-Si alloys. A model is developed in the Appendix to quantify the different behaviors of these two classes of alloys.     

On the application of the shrinking core model to liquid—solid reactions

It is shown that the pseudo steady state approximation in the application of the shrinking core model to liquid—solid reactions is valid even when the ratio of liquid reactant concentration to molar density of the solid is high. In this case the pseudo steady state approximation neglects both the accumulation term and the convective mass transfer term in the mass balance. The respective errors thus introduced have different signs and largely cancel each other. It is also shown that the experimental analysis of liquid—solid reactions can be simplified by a suitable design of batchwise experiments, which also increases the accuracy in parameter estimation.     

Rinsing of Textiles

The rinsing of textiles after wet treatments is treated as a transport phenomenon. Diffusion and flow cause levelling between internal and external solutions. A levelling factor is introduced and its relation to diffusion shown. Counter–current rinsing is treated theoretically. Experimental results are used to demonstrate the influence of flow. The practical use of rinsing theory in various respects is discussed, and its economic value indicated.     

Precipitation in an Al-1.78 wt % Hf alloy after rapid solidification

A metallographic study has been made of an Al-1.78 wt % Hf alloy after rapid solidification, and after high temperature annealing of the as-cast alloy. After solidification, Hf stays in supersaturated solid solution with a rather inhomogeneous distribution. On annealing, spheres and dendrites of an intermediate Al₃Hf phase withLI ₂ structure, and perfectly coherent with the matrix, are formed. The spheres form by a continuous, the dendrite by a discontinuous precipitation reaction. After continued annealing theLI ₂ structure is replaced by a laminated structure ofLI ₂ andDO₂₂, whereDO₂₂ is the equilibrium structure of Al₃Hf. The precipitation reactions in the systems Al-Hf and Al-Zr are compared.     

Balancing mixed-model assembly lines: a computational evaluation of objectives to smoothen workload

Mixed-model assembly lines are widely used in a range of production settings, such as the final assembly of the automotive and electronics industries, where they are applied to mass-produce standardised commodities. One of the greatest challenges when installing and reconfiguring these lines is the vast product variety modern mixed-model assembly lines have to cope with. Traditionally, product variety is bypassed during mid-term assembly line balancing by applying a joint precedence graph, which represents an (artificial) average model and serves as the input data for a single model assembly line balancing procedure. However, this procedure might lead to considerable variations in the station times, so that serious sequencing problems emerge and work overload threatens. To avoid these difficulties, different extensions of assembly line balancing for workload smoothing, i.e. horizontal balancing, have been introduced in the literature. This paper presents a multitude of known and yet unknown objectives for workload smoothing and systematically tests these measures in a comprehensive computational study. The results suggest that workload smoothing is an essential task in mixed-model assembly lines and that some (of the newly introduced) objectives are superior to others.     

The assembly line balancing and scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times: problem extension, model formulation and efficient heuristics

Assembly line balancing problems (ALBP) consist of distributing the total workload for manufacturing any unit of the products to be assembled among the work stations along a manufacturing line as used in the automotive or the electronics industries. Usually, theory assumes that, within each station, tasks can be executed in an arbitrary precedence-feasible sequence without changing station times. In practice, however, the task sequence may influence the station time considerably as sequence-dependent setups (e.g., walking distances, tool changes) have to be considered. Including this aspect leads to a joint balancing and scheduling problem, which we call SUALBSP (setup assembly line balancing and scheduling problem). In this paper, we modify the problem by modeling setups more realistically, give a new, more compact mathematical model formulation and develop effective heuristic solution procedures. Computational experiments based on existing and new data sets indicate that the new procedures outperform formerly proposed heuristics. They are able to solve problem instances of real-world size with small deviations from optimality in computation times short enough to be accepted in real-world decision support systems.     

Investigating the Effect of Slag on Decarburization in an AOD Converter Using a Fundamental Model

A high‐temperature thermodynamics model has been coupled with a fundamental mathematical model describing the fluid flow, where boundary conditions were chosen based on data for an industrial AOD converter. Using this model, the effect of both slag phases (a liquid part and a solid part) on the decarburization was studied. More specifically, the separation of chromium oxide to liquid slag as well as the effect of the amount of rigid top slag (solid)on the decarburization was investigated. The liquid slag was considered with respect to the uptake of chromium oxide, while the rigid top slag was only considered with respect to the increase of the metallostatic pressure in the steel melt. The results suggest that separation of chromium oxide to liquid slag results in a decreased decarburization rate. The same conclusion can be drawn with respect to the amount of solid top slag.