Vocational training in the use of new technologies for people with disabilities

Following a brief review of the literature, details are given of an in-depth evaluation of a computer training centre called Microjob. This facility set out to integrate computer training, vocational guidance, functional assessment, placement in employment and post-placement support into a single service delivery package. In this paper the facility's outcome record is examined in relation to targets set for it, consideration is given to the special needs of home-based trainees, and specific difficulties faced by the project (including an inefficient management structure, inadequate staff training and a poor level of awareness of clients' special needs) are discussed.     

Pit formation in relation to the etching of aluminium in chloride solutions

The pitting potential,E _p , has been determined by steady-state and linear potential sweep methods.E _p is is shown to be a logarithmic function of the chloride concentration; the form of the function yields information about the equilibria between electrode and electrolyte species atE _p . Values of the enthalpy of activation for the pitting process have been determined by measuring the rate of pit propagation at constant driving potential at a series of temperatures. An ‘ad hoc’ interpretation of the data has been avoided and an attempt made to present the results using a more theoretical approach.     

Ultrasonic Reflectivity Imaging in Three Dimensions: Exact Inverse Scattering Solutions for Plane, Cylindrical, and Spherical Apertures

The problem of reconstructing the reflectivity of a three-dimensional medium with density and compressibility variations is examined. For the special case of continuous-wave (CW) insonification, exact inversion formulas have recently been reported for recovering an unknown scattering parameter from scattering measurements. In this work, exact solutions, or inversion formulas, are obtained for the general case of arbitrary broad-band insonification where the incident wave is assumed to be a spherically diverging broad-bandwidth pulse of arbitrary shape. Solutions are derived under the assumption that the scattering is sufficiently weak for the Born approximation to hold. Exact inversion formulas are obtained for three aperture geometries: a plane, cylindrical, or spherical recording surface enclosing the scattering region. Under most practical conditions, the process of back projection and coherent summation over spherical surfaces in image space, without prior filtering, is shown to provide a close approximation to the exact inversion procedure. Finally, in the case of the spherical geometry, the mathematical equivalence between the three-dimensional inverse Radon transform and the far-field approximation to the exact solution is demonstrated.     

The formation and structure of suspension-polymerized styrene–divinylbenzene copolymers

Porous polymers were prepared by suspension copolymerization of styrene/divinylbenzene in various ratios together with various quantities of diluents, both solvating and nonsolvating. Parallel bulk polymerizations were made to detect the onset of gelation and phase separation. The dry polymeric beads were examined by a range of techniques: apparent densities; mercury porosimetry; nitrogen sorption/desorption isotherms, vapor sorption, equilibrium swelling, and electron microscopy. The properties of the porous polymers are discussed in terms of phase separation during polymerization consequent on either an unfavorable polymer–solvent interaction or a microsyneresis.     

The relations of maternal and social environments to late adolescents' materialistic and prosocial values.

Organismic theories and recent research suggest that environments that do not support growth and self-expression are associated with valuing financial success relatively more than affiliation, community feeling, and self-acceptance. This prediction was investigated in a heterogenous sample of 18-yr-olds using a variety of methods and informants. Teenagers who rated the importance of financial success aspirations relatively high compared to other values were found to have mothers who were less nurturant. Further, materially oriented teenagers grew up in less advantageous socioeconomic circumstances and were raised by mothers who especially valued the teens' financial success. Discussion focuses on explicating the different ways values are acquired. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religiosity/spirituality and health: A critical review of the evidence for biological pathways.

The authors review evidence regarding the biological processes that may link religiosity/spirituality to health. A growing body of observational evidence supports the hypothesis that links religiosity/spirituality to physiological processes. Although much of the earliest evidence came from cross-sectional studies with questionable generalizability and potential confounding, more recent research, with more representative samples and multivariate analysis, provides stronger evidence linking Judeo-Christian religious practices to blood pressure and immune function. The strongest evidence comes from randomized interventional trials reporting the beneficial physiological impact of meditation (primarily transcendental meditation). Overall, available evidence is generally consistent with the hypothesis that religiosity/spirituality is linked to health related physiological processes--including cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and immune function--although more solid evidence is needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Synthetic chloroplasts

The principal function of the chloroplast is to capture solar quanta and to store them in some stable form. We are in the process of trying to construct a totally synthetic system that would simulate some of the reactions of the two photosystems which occur in natural chloroplasts. These synthetic chloroplasts will not resemble the natural entitity in detailed construction, as they will contain no protein.     

The reaction of dimethyldichlorosilane with polyorganosiloxanes derived from pseudowollastonite

The interaction of dimethyidichlorosilane with polyorganosiloxanes prepared by the trimethylsilylation of mineral silicates is catalysed by ferric chloride hexahydrate and results in the formation of higher molecular weight polyorganosiloxanes and also trimethylchlorosilane. The nature of the products and particularly the molecular weight depends on the relative amounts of reactants. It is also shown that during the course of the reaction a substantial proportion of the ferric chloride is reduced to ferrous.