Pattern of alliance and outcome in short-term individual psychotherapy.

Pattern of change in the therapeutic alliance across time-limited, 20-session individual psychotherapy was investigated with the procedure of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) in 2 samples of 32 psychiatric outpatients each (aged 21–53 yrs), those with low and those with high quality of object relations (QOR). Significant variation in the pattern of change in the therapeutic alliance was found within each sample. For low-QOR patients, a direct relationship was found between increasing therapist-rated alliance and favorable outcome. Pattern of change was more important than average level. For high-QOR patients, there was no evidence of a direct relationship between pattern of change and outcome. However, there was considerable evidence of a direct relationship between average level and favorable outcome. The use of HLM provided a new perspective to understanding alliance–outcome relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optical and interfacial electronic properties of diamond-like carbon films

We have been preparing hard semitransparent carbon films on oriented polished crystal wafers of silicon, indium phosphide and gallium arsenide, as well as on KBr and quartz. Properties of the films were determined using IR and visible absorption spectroscopy, ellipsometry, conductance-capacitance spectroscopy and α particle-proton recoil spectroscopy. Preparation techniques include r.f. plasma decomposition of methane (and other hydrocarbons), ion beam sputtering and dual-ion-beam sputter deposition. Optical energy band gaps as large as 2.7 eV and extinction coefficients lower than 0.1 at long wavelengths are found. Electronic state densities at the interface with silicon as low as 10¹⁰ states eV^-1 cm^-2 were found.     

Modeling Groundwater Flow and Seawater Intrusion in the Coastal Aquifer of Wadi Ham,UAE

Groundwater pumping from Kalbha and Fujairah coastal aquifer of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has increased significantly during the last two decades to meet the agriculture water demands. Due to the lack of natural replenishment from rainfall and the excessive pumping, groundwater levels have declined significantly causing an intrusion of seawater in the coastal aquifer of Wadi Ham. As a result, many pumping wells in the coastal zone have been terminated and a number of farms have been abandoned. In this paper, MODFLOW was used to simulate the groundwater flow and assess the seawater intrusion in the coastal aquifer of Wadi Ham. The model was calibrated against a five-year dataset of historical groundwater levels and validated against another eleven-year dataset. The effects of pumping on groundwater levels and seawater intrusion were investigated. Results showed that reducing the pumping from Khalbha well field will help to reduce the seawater intrusion into the southeastern part of the aquifer. Under the current groundwater pumping rates, the seawater will continue to migrate inland.     

Efficacy of different irrigant protocols and application systems on sealer penetration using a stepwise CLSM analysis

This study compared several irrigation protocols and application systems for sealer penetration into dentinal tubules. Single‐rooted‐human teeth were divided into 5 experimental groups (n = 15) and a control group (n = 5), according to final irrigation protocols: standard needle irrigation (SNI); Vibringe; Vibringe + NaviTip FX (Vibringe NFX); Endo Spray (ES); and passive‐ultrasonic‐irrigation (PUI). Following obturation of the root canals, the percentage of the sealer penetration was measured at different depths using stepwise CLSM analysis. The sealer penetration in the experimental groups was significantly higher than the control group at all levels (p < .05). No significant differences were observed between Vibringe and SNI or Vibringe NFX, ES, and PUI at all depths (p > .05). The Vibringe NFX, ES, and PUI groups allowed deeper sealer penetration than SNI at 100, 250, and 500 μm levels (p < .05). The irrigant activation, the needle design, and the application form (syringe or spray) may impact the quality of the seal that is achieved with root canal filling.     

Structural and redox features of La0.7Bi0.3Mn1−xCoxO3 nanoperovskites for ethane combustion and CO oxidation

In this work, structural and catalytic properties of La_0.7Bi_0.3Mn_1?xCo_xO₃ nanocatalysts with x=0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, and 1.00 prepared by citrate method are investigated. The structural characterization using X'Pert package and Fullprof program is an evidence for structural phase transition. The values of refined unit cell volume obtained from the Rietveld analysis show decreasing and increasing tendencies for values of x≤0.5 and x>0.5, respectively. The catalytic performance tests of the catalysts show that the samples x=0.00 and 0.25 have lower temperature of CO oxidation and C₂H₆ combustion, respectively.     

A 125 GHz millimeter-wave phase lock loop with improved VCO and injection-locked frequency divider in 65 nm CMOS process

In this paper, a CMOS mm-wave phase locked loop (PLL) with improved voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) and injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) at operational harmonic frequency 125 GHz is presented. The VCO structure uses the bulk effective and MOS varactor capacitor to adjust parasitic capacitor of the cross coupled pair. It obtains 2th harmonic frequency with 24% tuning range (110–140 GHz) by applying?±?1.2 V input voltage variation. The divide-by-4 ILFD circuit uses a cross coupled VCO with three injection transistors acting in linear and nonlinear regions. The frequency dividers such as divided-by-4 ILFD, subsequent current mode logic (CML) and true single phase clock (TSPC) as divider chain with ratio 1/256 are used to synthesize frequency 244 MHz which is compared to reference frequency, 244 MHz in the PLL. Simulation results of the proposed PLL circuit are obtained after extracting post layout (with total chip size of 0.29 mm²) in 65 nm CMOS standard technology and @ 1.2 V power supply voltage. The obtained results confirm theoretical relations and indicate that the proposed circuit has good figure of merit (FoM), and higher tuning range and lower die area than the recent designs.

     

Flexibility and hydrodynamic properties of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) in non-ideal solvents

At 298.15K, intrinsic viscosity [] has been measured for poly (vinylpyrrolidone), PVP, samples of different relative molar masses M in pure water and eight different binary solvents. These solvents were water/acetone mixtures having different volume fractions of acetone (ACT). The solvation power of these mixtures showed a cosolvancy effect. The maximum solvation power was found for the mixture containing 0.2 volume fraction of ACT. The value of K=74×10^-3 dm³kg^-1 was utilized for calculating the unperturbed dimensions, u.d., steric factor, , the characteristic ratio, C, and the persistence length, a_p. Values of 0.666 A^o, 2.28, 10.38 and 8.76 A^o, respectively, were obtained for PVP in theta-solvent. The calculated values of the effective radius (R_e), effective unit length (b) and the effective hydrodynamic radius of monomeric unit (r_o) showed the complete impermeability of polymer molecules. Some errors in the polymer handbook and CRC, water-soluble synthetic polymers, were demonstrated with its logical corrections.     

Studies on the influence of iodide ions on the synergistic inhibition of the corrosion of mild steel in an acidic solution

The synergistic action caused by iodide ions on the corrosion inhibition of mild steel in 0.5 M H₂S0₄ in the presence of dicyclohexylamine (DCHA) has been investigated using potentiodynamic polarization, linear polarization and a.c. impedance techniques. DCHA inhibits the corrosion of mild steel in 0.5 m H₂SO₄ even at lower concentrations. The inhibition efficiency decreases with increase in the concentration of the amine. The addition of iodide ions enhances the inhibition efficiency to a considerable extent. The adsorption of this compound is also found to obey Langmuir's adsorption isotherm, thereby indicating that the main process of inhibition is by adsorption. The increase in surface coverage values in the presence of iodide ions indicates that DCHA forms an insoluble complex at lower amine concentrations by undergoing a joint adsorption. The synergism parameter (S) is defined and calculated both from inhibition efficiency and surface coverage values. This parameter in the case of DCHA is found to be more than unity, indicating that the enhanced inhibition efficiency caused by the addition of iodide ions is only due to synergism and there is a definite contribution from the inhibitor molecule. Thus, DCHA is then adsorbed by coulombic attraction on the metal surface where the I^– is already chemisorbed and thus reduces the corrosion rate.     

Modeling of volume and surface area of apple from their geometric characteristics and artificial neural network

Geometric parameters and physical properties of agricultural products are widely used in designing and manufacturing of harvesting devices. These features are highly useful for drying and sorting processes. This can lead to determine the major and minor diameters in this regard. As such, the current study applied machine vision, and image processing technology to identify the major and minor diameters of the Golden Delicious apple. Through applying apple diameters, the actual surface area and real volume of apples were measured by peeling method and water displacement method, respectively. Finally, mathematical modeling, and feed-forward artificial neural network allowed for estimation of the surface area and volume of Golden Delicious apple. The results revealed that the correlation coefficient (R²) of the mathematical model, for the volume and surface area were 0.9394 and 0.9291, respectively. In the neural network, R²-values for the volume and surface area in the most appropriate topology were 0.99991 and 0.99995, respectively. Moreover, study findings indicate that predicting the volume and surface area of fruit can be determined better using artificial neural network than using mathematical model. The proposed artificial neural network procedure applied in this study even minimized the complex calculations for estimating volume and surface area of fruit.