Process characterisation of hot-carrier-induced β degradation in bipolar transistors for BiCMOS

This paper investigates the effect of various process parameters on the variation in forward current gain lifetime caused by hot carrier generation of BiCMOS bipolar transistors. Statistical process control and statistical designed experiments were used in this evaluation. The device lifetime in reverse bias operation was calculated from the forward current gain. Various process parameters were examined in this work, i.e., the intrinsic base implant dose and energy, selective collector implant dose, collector plug dose, spacer etch ratio, overetch thickness of nitride spacer and emitter poly etch time. It was deduced that high current gain lifetime can be obtained with high base implant doses, high base implant energies, long bulk nitride etch times and short emitter poly etch times.     

Experiment in managing sociopathic behaviour disorders

A ward catering for both sexes admitted patients with aggressive suicidal, or otherwise disturbed behaviour for observation and treatment until decisions could be made about their long-term needs. Patients were referred from the police, special hospitals, and the courts and some were transferred from other wards in the hospital. A third of the first 100 patients were admitted for forensic reasons. Twelve inmates were discharged to long-term accommodation for disturbed patients. The ward was intended to provide fairly short-term accommodation, though no time limits were set, and it was run as a medium secure unit. The ward was run by 16-18 nurses with support from medical teams, occupational therapists, and clinical psychologists. It has secured its status as a special unit within the hospital and will continue with the active support of the hospital staff.     

Schizophrenic thought disorders and impaired perspective.

Hypothesized that impaired perspective on the idiosyncracy of their own behavior is a central factor in the speech and thought pathology of schizophrenics and bizarre patients. 30 schizophrenic and 29 nonschizophrenic patients (mean age 25 yrs) rated the typicalness of their own and other patients' responses to proverbs. An index of perspective was calculated by correlating these ratings with trained judges' ratings of the idiosyncracy of the responses. Perspective on patients' own responses was significantly lower among schizophrenics and bizarre patients than among nonschizophrenics and nonbizarre patients. Poorer perspective occurred in patients' ratings of their own responses than in their ratings of other patients' responses. Results suggest that (a) loss of global perspective concerning the idiosyncracy of one's own verbalizations is closely associated with a tendency toward disordered speech. (b) Somewhat impaired perspective on what behavior is socially appropriate is common to all types of disturbed patients but is more severe in schizophrenics. (c) The impairment in schizophrenics is selective, involving difficulty in maintaining perspective on their own behavior, with better perspective when assessing others' behavior. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting outcome in schizophrenics and nonschizophrenics of both sexes: The Zigler-Phillips Social Competence Scale.

Studied the predictive utility of the Zigler-Phillips Social Competence Scale in relation to major aspects of outcome among 297 young, nonchronic schizophrenic (SCZ) and nonschizophrenic (NSCZ) patients (mean age 22.8 yrs) using Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III). It was found that SCZs showed less prehospital social competence in comparison to NSCZs. Also, the Zigler-Phillips scale predicted overall outcome for SCZs and showed some, but less, efficacy in predicting outcome among various types of NSCZ patients. The predictive utility of the Social Competence Scale was similar for SCZ men and for SCZ women, and the scale predicted work functioning for 3 of 4 RDC diagnostic groups but failed to predict social functioning for any of the diagnostic groups. Overall findings suggest that both symptoms pathognomonic of schizophrenia and prior developmental level play major roles in posthospital adjustment. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of pharmaceutical underutilization: a study of insurance drug claims data

From 1989 to 1992, a longitudinal study of the relationships between different tick species and domestic ungulates in the transmission and amplification of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus was undertaken in the Bandia area in Senegal where the presence of the virus had been reported previously. An epizootic occurred in 1991-1992 and 22 strains of CCHF virus were isolated from Hyalomma marginatum rufipes Koch, Amblyomma variegatum (F.), Rhipicephalus guilhoni Morel & Vassiliades, and R. evertsi evertsi Neumann ticks collected from cattle and goats. No human cases were reported. Transmission of CCHF virus in the area involves a complicated pattern including many tick species and hosts. Amplicons of the S fragment (536 bp) of the CCHF genome of 12 isolates from the study were obtained by polymerase chain reaction and analyzed by restriction-length fragment polymorphism. Three different genotypes of CCHF virus were identified and present during the epizootic. One genotype was recovered from A. variegatum, R. guilhoni, and R. e. evertsi and 2 genotypes were isolated from H. m. rufipes.     

Neuropsychological dysfunction and clinical outcome in psychiatric disorders: a two-year follow-up study

The presence of neuropsychological disturbances in schizophrenia and mood disorders raises the question that cognitive impairments might contribute to poor outcome. This report examines changes in neuropsychological performance from hospitalization to a 2-year follow-up evaluation in relation to psychosocial outcome. Findings indicated that unfavorable clinical outcome is associated with marginal changes in neuropsychological performance, whereas good outcome status is associated with neuropsychological improvement. Neuropsychological improvement may thus require a stable period of favorable psychosocial recovery, in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, as well as major mood disorder syndromes.     

Boundary disturbances in schizophrenia.

Studied 4 types of index associated with the concept of "boundary" with 171 psychiatric inpatients who were tested with the Rorschach and independently assessed on other aspects of psychopathology (e.g., measures of depersonalization, stimulus overinclusion, and derealization). Contaminations and fabulized combinations were correlated with indices of pathology from Rorschach and with other psychopathology measures. Penetration scores were related to some indices of psychopathology, while barrier scores were unrelated to pathology. Contaminations were more frequent in schizophrenics than in any other diagnostic group. Fabulized combinations were more frequent among schizophrenics and latent schizophrenics than in depressives. Penetration responses were less frequent in depressives than in any other group. Support was found for the hypothesis that schizophrenics give certain types of responses considered indicative of boundary disturbance such as contamination responses. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral overinclusion as a prognostic index in schizophrenic disorders.

Studied the relationship between behavioral overinclusion (number of objects sorted on the Object Sorting Test) at the acute stage and posthospital adjustment. Results for 79 psychiatric inpatients show that (a) schizophrenics did not differ significantly from nonschizophrenics on behavioral overinclusion during the acute or posthospital phases, (b) correlations between behavioral overinclusion at the acute vs posthospital phases were significant for all diagnostic groups, and (c) correlations between behavioral overinclusion at the acute stage and posthospital adjustment were nonsignificant. Data indicate equivocal results on hypotheses about the prognostic utility of behavioral overinclusion, suggest that behavioral overinclusion is not primarily a function of the acute stage, and question the use of behavioral overinclusion as an important index of schizophrenic thought disorders. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implications from psychological testing for theoretical formulations of folie à deux.

The persent paper attempted to focus upon theoretical aspects of several psychosocial factors hypothesized to be of importance in folie à deux. Data obtained from an extensive battery of psychological tests given to 2 brothers with identical world reconstruction fantasies were used to examine, critically, previously published statements concerning the role of the prepsychotic personality, interdependence, identification, and dominance-submission. Hypotheses related to the similarity of the prepsychotic personality and the role of interdependence in folie à deux were supported, to some extent, by careful analysis of the psychological test results. The evidence indicated that in the present case identification is a mutual rather than a 1-way process. Previous postulations regarding dominance-submission could not be supported within their usual theoretical content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Locus of control in psychiatric patients.

Administered the Internal-External (I-E) scale to 128 acute psychiatric inpatients during their 1st and 7th wk. of hospitalization. Ss' scores at Wk. 1 were within the average range found for nonpatient samples. Schizophrenics were more external than nonschizophrenics (p