Rorschach and TAT indices of homosexuality in overt homosexuals, neurotics, and normal males.

Rorschach and TAT protocols of 20 male overt homosexuals, 20 male neurotics, and 20 normal male students were compared in order to determine whether proposed homosexual signs were discriminative. The homosexual group gave a significantly greater mean number of the Rorschach and TAT signs than did either nonhomosexual group. "Within the homosexual group, correlation between the number of Rorschach signs and number of TAT signs produced by each S proved significant, serving as a check on the validity of both schemes and indicating the consistency of these 2 diverse measures of homosexuality." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-concept, mother concept, and food aversions in emotionally disturbed and normal children.

Self-concept was measured via an adjective check list and a self-rating task (child asked to compare himself to others on traits); mother-child relationship was inferred from responses to specific cards of the Blacky test and a story completion test; food aversion was measured from a food preference list. In general, the self-concept and mother-concept were related and there was an inverse relation between these and food aversion. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4FF09D. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Operator work design and robotics system performance: A serendipitous field study.

The effect of increased operator control on the performance of a robotics line was examined. The introduction of a new payment system led operators to assume more responsibility for fault management. Data covering 101 shifts before and 127 shifts after the change showed a progressive improvement in system uptime. As predicted, initial gains were attributable to a quicker response to operating faults, shown by a reduction in downtime per incident; later additional gains were attributable to fault prevention. The implications of the findings for both theory and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recent developments in the buckling and nonlinear analysis of thin-walled structural members

This paper describes recent work performed at the University of Sydney to develop buckling and nonlinear analyses of thin-walled structural members undergoing local, distortional and overall buckling. The analyses are based on the finite strip method of structural analysis and include elastic and inelastic buckling and the full nonlinear response with both post-local buckling and plasticity. Two variations of the finite strip method have been used, these being the semi-analytical and spline finite strip methods. A nonlinear beam-column analysis based on the influence coefficient method for including the local buckling behaviour in the overall member response is also described.

The analytical methods are compared with tests performed at the University of Sydney on cold-formed rectangular hollow sections, welded I-sections, welded channel sections and cold-formed channel sections. Spatial plastic collapse mechanismsdeveloped for the welded sections described above are also compared with the post-ultimate response of the test sections.     

Fatigue Behavior of Composite-Reinforced Glulam Bridge Girders

While composite-reinforced glulam beams have been used in several bridge demonstration projects, knowledge of their fatigue behavior is quite limited. In this study, the response of full- and partial-length fiberglass composite-reinforced glulam beams under fatigue cycling followed by quasi-static bending to failure is examined. To mimic anticipated in-service conditions, a hygrothermal cycling regime was developed that replicates the effective stress history of a 50-year service life with a 55-day period in a moisture-controlled kiln. In addition, some of the beams had initial delaminations introduced between the reinforcing and the wood similar to those observed in field investigations of reinforced glulam bridge girders. For the partial-length reinforced beams, reinforcing with both confined and unconfined ends was considered. The results of the postfatigue tests to failure were compared with the expected strength. In addition, the stiffness of the beams was monitored during the fatigue cycling. It was found that, with the exception of the unconfined, partial-length reinforced beams, all specimens had a residual strength that compared favorably with the expected strength. Further, neither the preconditioning nor the fatigue cycling had an appreciable impact on the stiffness of the reinforced beams. The unconfined, partial-length reinforced beams did not perform well under fatigue loading and do not seem to be a viable alternative for use as reinforced glulam bridge girders.     

Shedding some light on catching in the dark: Perceptual mechanisms for catching fly balls.

To catch a lofted ball, a catcher must pick up information that guides locomotion to where the ball will land. The acceleration of tangent of the elevation angle of the ball (AT) has received empirical support as a possible source of this information. Little, however, has been said about how the information is detected. Do catchers fixate on a stationary point, or do they track the ball with their gaze? Experiment 1 revealed that catchers use eye and head movements to track the ball. This means that if AT is picked up retinally, it must be done by means of background motion. Alternatively, AT could be picked up by extraretinal mechanisms, such as the vestibular and proprioceptive systems. In Experiment 2, catchers reliably ran to intercept luminous fly balls in the dark, that is, in absence of a visual background, under both binocular and monocular viewing conditions. This indicates that the optical information is not detected by a retinal mechanism alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)