Women and AIDS-related concerns: Roles for psychologists in helping the worried well.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has important implications for the practice of psychology. As the epidemic continues, the role of behavior change and psychosocial factors in the spread and transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections assumes increasing significance. Psychologists, as behavior change experts, have a special and challenging role to play in educating the public, particularly women, about AIDS. This article examines AIDS- and HIV-related concerns in women with a focus on the personal dilemmas for the practicing psychologist, problems in health behavior advocacy, and methods and pitfalls in modifying sexual behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The advanced electric reactor: A new technology for hazardous waste destruction

The Advanced Electric Reactor (AER) is a new kind of device intended for the destruction of hazardous wastes. It is capable of a wide range of operating conditions for treatment of solid, liquid or gaseous feed materials. This paper describes the AER, and gives the results of a series of tests on PCBs and CCl₄, as well as of leaching tests on feed and treated materials. The advantages offered by the AER are discussed, and future applications are described.     

An evaluation of the DAWN-B light scattering unit from wyatt technology: Suggested calibration,normalization, and clarification procedures

Proper normalization, calibration, and sample clarification procedures for use with the Wyatt Technology DAWN-B laser light scattering photometer are described. The utility of the proposed methods is confirmed by comparing results obtained on the solution properties of polystyrene standards in three different solvents (toluene, tetrahydrofuran, and methyl ethyl ketone) with results from the literature and generated using a Chromatix KMX-6 low-angle light scattering photometer. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Long endurance fatigue performance of bonded structural joints

Resin bonded joints are being used for a variety of applications in highway bridges. Such uses involve operation under different combinations of dead and live loading plus weathering. This paper is concerned with the fatigue performance of steel-to-steel lap joints for endurances of up to 10⁸ cycles. The effects on fatigue performance of curing temperature and operating temperature have been examined and work in progress to investigate effects of weathering is described. Special attention is given to performances at long endurances and low stresses relevant to traffic loading during service.     

Sustainability Assessment of Urban Water Distribution Systems

A methodology is presented for determining sustainability indices for pressure and water age in water distribution systems (WDSs). These sustainability indices are based upon performance criteria including reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability. Pressure and water age are determined for a WDS as a function of operation time using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency EPANET model. The values of pressure and water age are used to determine reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability performance criteria, which are then combined into the nodal sustainability indices for water age and pressure. In addition, the sustainability index (SI) computations are performed for zones to define the SI for water age and SI for pressure. A combined SI calculation is performed to produce an overall sustainability score for the entire zone in the water distribution network. The proposed methodology can be used to monitor the sustainability of existing WDSs and to help define alternative solutions including changes in pump operation and modifications to WDS to increase the sustainability.     

Carbonaceous characteristics of atmospheric particulate matter in Hong Kong

To determine the characteristic of carbonaceous species in atmospheric particles in Hong Kong, PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 samples were collected using high volume (hi-vol.) air samplers from November 2000 to February 2001. The organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) were analyzed by the selective thermal manganese dioxide oxidation (TMO) method. The ratios of PM_2.5/PM₁₀ mass ratios were 0.61, 0.78 and 0.53 for particulate matter collected at PolyU station (PolyU, near a major traffic corridor), Kwun Tong station (KT, mixed residential/commercial/industrial) and the Hok Tsui background station (HT), respectively. These results indicate that the PM_2.5 concentrations constitute the majority of the PM₁₀ concentrations, especially in urban and industrial areas of Hong Kong. The average concentrations at the three sites ranged from 73.11 to 83.52 μg/m³ for PM₁₀ and from 42.37 to 57.38 μg/m³ for PM_2.5. The highest daily mass concentrations of PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 were 125.89 μg/m³ and 116.89 μg/m³ at KT, respectively. The correlation between PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 was high at KT and HT (r>0.9, P<0.01). This means that the sources of PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 may be the same at both sites. The highest mean concentration of OC (12.02 μg/m³) and EC (6.86 μg/m³) in PM₁₀ was found at the PolyU among the three sites. For PM_2.5, the highest mean concentration of OC (10.16 μg/m³) was at KT while the highest mean concentration of EC (7.95 μg/m³) was at PolyU. However, the background concentrations at HT were higher than another background area, Kosan, Korea. Transportation of pollutants from the Asian continent may be responsible for the elevations of EC+OC at the remote site. More than 74% of the EC and more than 79% of the OC were found in the PM_2.5 fraction at the three sampling locations. At PolyU station, PM_2.5 consisted of 18.18% OC and 11.16% EC while 17.70% OC and 8.81% EC were found in KT station. Thus OC and EC are major constituents of aerosols in Hong Kong. OC/EC ratios for PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 were less than 2 at PolyU and KT stations while the ratio exceeded 3 at HT background station. This indicates that OC measured in the urban area may be emitted directly as a primary aerosol.