The dark side of self- and social perception: Black uniforms and aggression in professional sports.

Black is viewed as the color of evil and death in virtually all cultures. With this association in mind, we were interested in whether a cue as subtle as the color of a person's clothing might have a significant impact on his or her behavior. To test this possibility, we examined whether professional football and ice hockey teams that wear black uniforms are more aggressive than those that wear nonblack uniforms. An analysis of the penalty records of the National Football League and the National Hockey League indicates that teams with black uniforms in both sports ranked near the top of their leagues in penalties throughout the period of study. On those occasions when a team switched from nonblack to black uniforms, the switch was accompanied by an immediate increase in penalties. The results of two laboratory experiments indicate that this finding can be attributed to both social perception and self-perception processes—that is, to the biased judgments of referees and to the increased aggressiveness of the players themselves. Our discussion focuses on the theoretical implications of these data for an understanding of the variable, or "situated," nature of the self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Iterated defect correction for differential equations part I: theoretical results

Computing - Iterated Defect Correction (IDeC) is a technique for improving successively an approximate solution of a given problemFy=0. One of the most important fields of application of this...     

The Electrohydrodynamic Origin of Turbulence in Electrostatic Precipitators

The functioning of an electrostatic precipitator in the light of previous studies on various regimes of electroconvection in both parallel and divergent electric fields is examined. Coupling between velocity and charge density fluctuations for both ions and charged particles is discussed. It is shown that for a certain diameter range of the particles, their nondimensional mobility parameter takes values similar to those characterizing ions in liquids. An experimental simulation using insulating liquids is proposed.     

Dimensions of teacher behavior.

Modified the Leadership Opinion Questionnaire for use in a school context. A stratified random sample of 1,500 teachers was chosen to complete the questionnaire anonymously. Of the 1,500 questionnaires mailed, 544 were returned. Analysis of the response indicated that 3 factors could be used to describe variation in responses. These factors were labeled Consideration, Initiating Structure, and Rigidity–Flexibility. Factor scores were shown to be affected differentially by level of grade assignment and experience. The impact of situational factors on the development of teacher orientations is discussed. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determination of soya proteins in food using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay procedure

Classical immunoanalytical techniques are based on native antigens and their precipitation with specific antibodies: they are not very appropriate for the investigation of processed denatured mixtures. This report describes an immunoassay based on the more recent but well-established enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) procedure, which in this case is specific for soya proteins that have been solubilised in urea and then ?renatured’? by removing or diluting the denaturant. Levels of soya protein 100 g^?1 total protein (nominally 100%) were determined with 34 commercial soya products, using a standard reference antigen. Normal expected levels were observed with flours (average 107%) and isolates (108%), while results with concentrates (82%) and texturates (79%) were somewhat lower. Some specialised products gave little or no response, presumably because they are hydrolysed. Meat, milk, egg, wheat and field bean proteins displayed negligible interference. These preliminary results suggest that the ELISA procedure will provide a convenient general method for the qualitative characterisation and quantitative estimation of individual proteins in food products even after severe processing; it seems more attractive than many other methods reported. Immunoassay is capable of large numbers of inexpensive but sophisticated determinations of specific food components. The food analyst should regard ELISA (for the determination in situ of specific antigens in mixtures) as a powerful technique complementary to classical chromatographic and electrophoretic methods which depend on separation before determination.     

Great Lakes Beginning-of-Month Water Levels and Monthly Rates of Change of Storage

Time series of beginning-of-month water levels and rates of change of lake storage were determined for each of the Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair for 1941-1975 period. The Thiessen polygon procedure was used to compute the beginning-of-month levels because it provides more representative over-all lake levels than straight averaging and requires minimum subjectivity. The effect of crustal movement on the rate of change of lake storage was investigated and found to be negligible. A gage density analysis showed good agreement between various size gage networks with the maximum deviation between networks decreasing with increasing gage density. Thiessen polygon weighting factors are presented for the current gage networks to enable future extension of the time series.     

Recovery of valuable metals from acid mine drainage by selective titration

Acid solutions associated with the non-ferrous metal mining industry contain economically significant amounts of heavy metals including Al, Cu, Zn, Mn and Mg. These metals are usually rendered non-recoverable by the conventional neutralization treatment technologies used to create environmentally acceptable discharge. Acid solutions which are generated as the result of the mining of a porphyry Cu deposit were subjected to laboratory scale titration sequences. When these base titrations involve appropriate initial additions of an oxidizing agent and the sulfide ion, better than 85% of the dissolved metals are sequentially separated from the solution in distinct pH regimes. These precipitates include the sulfides of Cu and Zn and the hydroxides of Fe, Al, Mn and Mg. The possibility of using specific conductance and ionic strength of the solution as a means of determining appropriate endpoints in the titration sequence is discussed. These sequential metal separations provide a means for the recovery of a substantial amount of the cost of generating an environmentally acceptable discharge.     

Accident proneness: A conceptual analysis

The concept of accident proneness has had a long and controversial history. An attempt is made both to demonstrate the nature of this controversy and to investigate the reasons for its occurrence. Two factors are identified. One is the conceptual confusion surrounding the meaning of the concept. This is accounted for by the fact that accident proneness is defined by exclusion. The second factor is the repetitive use of statistical techniques which have been shown to be equivocal. An alternative approach to individual differences in accident involvement is advocated. This approach cuts through the conceptual confusion and is less susceptible to the criticisms which have been levelled against the traditional statistical techniques.     

The volatiles of off-flavoured unblanched green peas (Pisum sativum)

Volatile extracts of moderately off-flavoured frozen peas, prepared by vacuum sublimation followed by concentration of the sublimate by low temperature vacuum distillation, were examined by gas chromatography, silica gel chromatography and combined gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The constituents identified included alcohols (29), carbonyls (31), esters (12), hydrocarbons (19), terpenes (6) and 3-alkyl-2-methoxypyrazines (3). Olfactory monitoring of the gas chromatographic column effluent indicated that most of the strong odours were associated with alkanals, alk-2-enals, alka-2,4- and 2,6-dienals, octa-3,5-dien-2-ones, 3-alkyl-2-methoxypyrazines and hexanol. However, no compound which, by itself, could account for the “hay-like” off-flavour of peas was evident. The off-flavour is considered to be complex and composed largely of the more odorous unsaturated carbonyls derived from the enzymic breakdown of the unsaturated pea lipids. The volatiles of pea shells similarly examined were found to contain many of the compounds present in peas.     

The Segregated Storage Problem: Some Properties and an Effective Heuristic

The segregated storage problem is formulated as an integer programming problem. Some special cases are shown to reduce to ordinary assignment problems. A special property of the integer formulation is used to develop a new heuristic procedure which produces near optimal solutions and which can be used as a tight bound in branch and bound procedures. Computational comparisons with heuristics proposed by other authors indicate this method to be superior in solving large problems.