Review of Rationality and Relativism.

Reviews the book, Rationality and Relativism edited by Martin Hollis and Steven Lukes (1982). The reviewer asserts that the rationality with which relativism is contrasted in the title is that of the Enlightenment, "with its belief in universal laws of human nature and in an all-embracing scientific method for accumulating truths, its distrust of subjectivity and arbitrariness and its serene belief in intellectual and moral progress and in the link between them." The book is clearly slanted to the concerns of social anthropology proves, however, to be advantageous for the psychologist who is likely to be bothered more by theoretical than by cultural relativism. This book is a very important, timely, and eminently readable collection of articles by some of the most esteemed scholars currently working in the philosophy of the social sciences. The book should, for obvious reasons, be required reading for psychologists engaged in theoretical practice. As well, it provides valuable interdisciplinary perspectives on many problems of special interest to cognitive and social psychologists. But, above all, it gives a wealth of effective ammunition to all psychologists who are determined actively to resist the dry-rot of relativism and to restore a more promising foundation to their science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychotherapy and Personality Change.

Reviews the book, Psychotherapy and Personality Change by Carl R. Rogers and Rosalind F. Dymond (eds.) (1954). This volume, with twelve authors, edited by Carl Rogers and Rosalind Dymond, constitutes essentially a progress report on the large-scale research program in psychotherapy which has been under way at the Counseling Center of the University of Chicago for more than four years. It presents findings to date on outcomes and process of the client-centered or nondirective approach to psychotherapy. The book is divided into four parts, Part I presenting the context and the basic design of the research, Part II describing a series of separate investigations bearing on the various hypotheses, and Part III giving what the authors call an "objective analysis" of the therapy of two single cases, one "successful" and the other "unsuccessful," and attempting to relate each of them to the findings of the major studies reported in Part II. Part IV is called an "Overview" and poses many stiff questions for the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychologists Caught: A Psychologic of Psychology.

Reviews the book, Psychologists Caught: A Psychologic of Psychology by Lewis Wolfgang Brandt (1982). This book is about metapsychology, the psychology or psycho-logic, of psychologies. Its basic question is: What determines the particular psychology, theory and method, that a psychologist advocates and practices? Consistent with his emphasis on individual psychohistory, Brandt begins his book with an autobiographical chapter explaining how he personally came to reject American behaviourism and to embrace a phenomenological-Gestalt form of psychoanalysis. This work will be found most interesting and liked best by those, who, like Brandt, have a relativistic bent of mind, who are persuaded that Hume and Kant discovered the natural limits of philosophical thought, who read Hayek and Feyerabend with approbation, or who just enjoy vigorous intellectual discussion for its own sake. Behaviourists and other "technical" psychologists will probably not like it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mononuclear Cu-O2 complexes: geometries, spectroscopic properties, electronic structures, and reactivity

Using interwoven experimental and theoretical methods, detailed studies of several structurally defined 1:1 Cu-O 2 complexes have provided important fundamental chemical information useful for understanding the nature of intermediates involved in aerobic oxidations in synthetic and enzymatic copper-mediated catalysis. In particular, these studies have shed new light on the factors that influence the mode of O 2 coordination (end-on vs side-on) and the electronic structure, which can vary between Cu(II)-superoxo and Cu(III)-peroxo extremes.     

Mitigating cyanobacterial blooms: how effective are ‘effective microorganisms’?

This study examined the effects of ‘Effective Microorganisms (EM)’ on the growth of cyanobacteria, and their ability to terminate cyanobacterial blooms. The EM was tested in the form of ‘mudballs’ or ‘Bokashi‐balls’, and as a suspension (EM‐A) in laboratory experiments. No growth inhibition was observed for a laboratory strain of Microcystis aeruginosa and for M. aeruginosa from the field at the recommended dosage of 1 EM‐mudball per square‐metre (≈0.1–0.3 g L^?1). Cyanobacteria were inhibited only at very high concentrations (5–10 g L^?1 cyanobacteria), and a bloom was reduced, being attributed to the high amount of clay and high water turbidity. For these high dosage treatments, the dissolved oxygen concentration dropped initially to very low levels, with longer incubation indicating that nutrients were released from the material. The EM‐A suspension appeared ineffective in hampering cyanobacterial growths at recommended usage concentrations. EM‐mudballs released phosphate (160 μg P g^?1) and metals (aluminium, copper, traces of lead and lanthanum). The results of this study did not support the hypothesis that EM are effective in preventing cyanobacterial proliferation or in terminating blooms, thereby suggesting lake restoration by ‘Effective Microorganisms’ is not a convincing eutrophication control option.     

Empirical Evidence for A‐Site Order in Perovskites

Models for composition–structure relationships are useful in both the lab and industry, yet few exist for perovskites‐containing extrinsic defects or cation ordering. In this work, an empirical model is used to predict the existence of A‐site cation ordering. Specifically, four compositions in the Na_(1?3x)/2La_(1+x)/2TiO₃ system (x = 0.0, 0.0533, 0.1733 and 0.225) were synthesized using a conventional solid‐state mixed‐oxide method. The structure of the x = 0 end‐member (Na_0.5La_0.5TiO₃) has been reported in various space groups, but always with a random distribution of Na⁺ and La³⁺ on the A site; however, empirical modeling suggests that it is not only ordered but also that a small volume increase accompanies the ordering process. While no evidence of long‐range A‐site ordering is observed in this composition via X‐ray or neutron diffraction, electron‐diffraction data indicate short‐range ordering of Na⁺ and La³⁺ ions, with the degree of cation ordering decreasing (but the scale of ordered domains and degree of vacancy ordering generally increasing) with increasing x. First‐principles calculations via density functional theory support both conclusions that short‐range ordering in Na_0.5La_0.5TiO₃ is stable and that it results in a volume increase with respect to the disordered analog. A similar analysis has been conducted for the Li_(1?3x)/2La_(1+x)/2TiO₃ and Na_(1?3x)/2La_(1+x)/2(Mg_0.5W_0.5)O₃ solid solutions. These systems provide additional validation of the accuracy and versatility of the empirical modeling method used.