A biased view of liberal bias.

Comments on the article by R. E. Redding (see record 2001-00465-001) which discusses pluralism and sociopolitical diversity in psychology. Redding argues that those with liberal political views dominate the field of psychology and that, as a result, conservative viewpoints are underrepresented in empirical research. To support this argument, Redding reports the results of a content analysis of American Psychologist articles which indicates that 97% of the articles reflected a liberal agenda, compared with 3% that reflected a conservatist agenda. The current authors highlight problems with this analysis and present results of their own content analysis which resulted in contrasting data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fabrication of multiple wavelength lasers in GaAs-AlGaAs structuresusing a one-step spatially controlled quantum-well intermixing technique

We have applied a new technique, based on impurity-free vacancy diffusion, to control the degree of intermixing across a wafer. Bandgap tuned lasers were fabricated using this technique. Five distinguishable lasing wavelengths were observed from five selected intermixed regions on a single chip. These lasers showed no significant change in transparency current, internal quantum efficiency or internal propagation loss, which indicates that the material quality was not degraded after intermixing     

FOCUS ON EFFECTIVENESS

Efficiency is one-half of the formula for productivity that American IS managers are most familiar with. The other half of the productivity issue is effectiveness. Japanese companies emphasize effectiveness to achieve impressive results. This column explores the difference in productivity between East and West.     

Velocity profiles of the exit region of molten polyethylene extrudates

The objective of the work described herein is the experimental investigation of the velocity field of polymer melts flowing through a capillary in the regons of flow prior to and after the capillary exit. The fluids studied are branched polyethylene melts in steady laminar isothermal flow. The technique employed for the determination of the Eulerian velocity profiles is one that utilizes phototomicrogroaphy of the reflected light from tracer particles dispersed in the flowing medium. Axial acceleration of the fluid elements just before the capillary exit was observed. It was found that this accelearation is more pronounced in melts of low bulk viscosity. This observation region, non-viscometric. The translation of the velocity profiles of the fluids studied, from one resembling a parabola to that of “plug” flow, involves inflection points with minima in the velocity vector v (r, z). These minima appear near the surface of the extrudates and can not be accounted for by an existing theory. It was also found that the density of the viscoelastic fluids studied is a function of the axial position, in the region of flow investigated. The density decreases before the exit and, before it reaches an equilibuiu value at an axial position downstream equal to one or two diameters, increases beyond that value upon exit. This phenomenon is attributed to an “overshoot” in the process fo elastic recoil of the high polymer melts fron a strained structure to a random one.     

The Evolution of Dextrins During the Mashing and Fermentation of All‐malt Whisky Production

The production of malt whisky involves the mashing of barley malt, followed by the fermentation of the resulting wort without further treatment. While this process has many parallels to the production of an all‐malt beer, one of the main differentiating steps during substrate preparation is the inclusion of a boiling step for the wort in the production of beer. Other than the destructive action of the boiling process on microorganisms, the boiling also destroys all malt enzyme activity. Since a typical whisky wash is not boiled it carries through a certain proportion of microbial activity associated with the malt, but more importantly it retains some enzyme activity that has been activated during the malting and mashing processes. The changes in sugars and dextrins during both mashing and fermentation of the resulting wash were investigated. Evidence of the continuous amylolytic activity during an unboiled, all‐malt wash fermentation is shown; while no ongoing amylolytic activity could be deduced during the fermentation of a boiled all‐malt wort. Furthermore, the data suggests that the amylolytic activity during mashing and fermentation are different with regards to α‐amylase action linked to its multiple‐attack action pattern as a function of substrate conformation, temperature, and effectiveness of potential hydrolytic events.