A "common-language" version of the California Child Q-Set for personality assessment.

The California Q-Set (CCQ), a unique instrument used by professional observers to assess children's personalities, has contributed important information about the nature of personality development. Language-simplifying modifications are introduced to the items in the original CCQ for this assessment procedure to be used with a wide range of nonprofessional observers (e.g., parents with little formal education). Reliability and validity assessments show that the "common-language" version of the CCQ can be used with laypersons to yield reliable, valid, and valuable information about the links between personality functioning and problems in adaptive functioning in diverse populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applying a hybrid artificial immune systems to the job shop scheduling problem

In today’s economy, manufacturing sectors are challenged by high costs, low revenues. As part of the managerial activities, scheduling plays an important role in optimizing cost, revenue, profit, time, and efficiency by optimization of available resources. The objective of this research is to evaluate the existing artificial immune system (AIS) principles, models, and applications, and to develop an algorithm applicable to job shop scheduling problems. The developed algorithm was based on the theories of the positive selection algorithm and the clonal selection principle. To test the algorithm, ten job shop scheduling problems were evaluated using the new AIS model. To validate the results, the same job scheduling problems were evaluated using a genetic algorithm (GA) model. The results of the two evaluations were compared against each other using the dimensions of optimality and robustness. The testing revealed that the AIS model was slightly less competitive than the GA model in the optimality test but beat the GA in robustness. Another key finding was that the robustness of the model increased as the best solutions produced by the model were closer to the known optimal.     

Comparison of two types of forest disturbance using multitemporal Landsat TM/ETM+ imagery and field vegetation data

Forest disturbances influence many landscape processes, including changes in microclimate, hydrology, and soil erosion. We analyzed the spectral response and temporal progress of two types of disturbances of spruce forest (bark beetle outbreak and clear-cuts) in the central part of Šumava Mountains at the border between the Czech Republic and Germany, Central Europe. The bark beetle (Ips typographus [L.]) outbreak in this region in the last 20 years resulted in regional-scale spruce forest decay. Clear-cutting was done here to prevent further bark-beetle propagation in the buffer zones.The aim of the study is to identify the differences in spectral response between the two types of forest disturbances and their temporal dynamics. General trends were analyzed throughout the study area, with sampled disturbance areas selected to assess the relationship between field vegetation data and their spectral response. Thirteen Landsat TM/ETM+ scenes from 1985 to 2007 were used for the assessment. The following spectral indices were estimated: NDMI, Tasseled Cap (Brightness, Greenness, Wetness), DI, and DI′. The DI′, Wetness, and Brightness indices show the highest sensitivity to forest disturbance for both disturbance types (clear-cuts and bark beetle outbreak). The multitemporal analysis distinguished three different stages of development. The highest spectral differences between the clear-cuts and the bark beetle disturbances were found in the period between 1996 and 2004 with increased levels of forest disturbance (repeated measures ANOVA, Scheffé post hoc test; p ≤ 0.05). Clear-cut disturbance resulted in significantly higher spectral differences from the original forest and occurred as a more discrete event in comparison to bark beetle outbreak.     

Choice of excipients for gelly-like pulp prepared ex tempore “on a spoon”– “placebo” and with sartans

Abstract

Context: To ensure safe oral administration, pediatric patients require an appropriate dosage form to be swallowed without relevant difficulties. Ex tempore hydrated powders, forming viscous pulp “on a spoon”, have recently gained much interest as pediatric formulations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the viscosity-increasing substances and disintegrants, alone or in mixtures, as excipients suitable for preparing such formulations, with candesartan and valsartan chosen as model active substances.

Methods: The mixtures of excipients were prepared in the form of powders, granules or lyophilizates, which were evaluated in terms of their ability to form a homogenous mass after hydration with a small amount of water. The best compositions were tested with candesartan cilexetil and valsartan (2% and 10% w/w, respectively). Performed studies include macroscopic, organoleptic and microscopic observations, as well as a textural analysis, determination of gelation time and rheological measurements.

Results: Mixtures of guar gum, lactose and one of the disintegrants (F-Melt M, Prosolv 50, Prosolv Easy, Lycatab, Pharmaburst, Pearlitol) demonstrated the best properties. With regard to drug-incorporating formulations, granules were evaluated as the most satisfying form, while the functional properties of lyophilized formulations were poor.

Conclusion: Granules with candesartan cilexetil (2%) were found to be the most promising for further development.     

Electrical properties of modified‐grafted polypropylene

The electrical properties of polypropylene (PP), grafted polypropylene (PP‐g‐PVP), and modified‐grafted PVP with α‐cyano‐β‐(2‐thienyl) crotononitrile were investigated. Also, the electrical characteristic of the modified‐grafted PVP subjected to γ‐irradiation (60 kGy) was studied. The results show that the σ of trunk polymer undergoing different degree of grafting generally increases as function of the grafting yield. The grafting yield between 64.1 and 149% resulted in a progressive decrease in ΔE_σ value. Inclusion of sulfur‐containing substrate in different films, having various grafting yields, leads to both increase and decrease in σ values. A significant increase in σ values is observed upon inclusion of sulfur‐containing substrate having maximum grafting yield (149%). These changes are accompanied by fluctuation in σ values. The exposure of sulfur‐containing substrate in grafting film to a dose of 60 kGy results in a significant decrease in ΔE_σ values for the films undergoing a grafting yield between 64.1 and 149%. The observed changes in ΔE_σ of different films investigated could be attributed mainly to corresponding changes in σ values. The observed improvement in electrical properties is mainly because of possible increase in concentration of charge carrier and/or their mobilities. The scanning electron micrographs of some selected films show significant changes in the morphology of the films investigated due to changing the grafting yield, inclusion of sulfur‐containing substrate, and exposure to γ‐irradiation. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 3797–3803, 2007     

Silica nanofluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery in sandstone rocks

Enhanced oil recovery is proposed as a solution for declining oil production. One of the advanced trends in the petroleum industry is the application of nanotechnology for enhanced oil recovery. Silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) are believed to have the ability to improve oil production, while being environmentally friendly and of natural composition to sandstone oil reservoirs.In our work, we investigated the effect of silica nanoparticles flooding on the amount of oil recovered. Experiments were carried using commercial silica of approximately 20 nm in size. We used sandstone cores in the core flooding experiments. For one of the cores tertiary recovery is applied where brine imbibition was followed by nanofluid imbibition. While in the other cores secondary recovery was applied where primary drainage is directly followed by nanofluid imbibition. We investigated the effect of concentration of nanofluid on recovery; in addition, residual oil saturation was obtained to get the displacement efficiency. Silica nanofluid of concentration 0.01 wt%, 0.05 wt%, 0.1 wt% and 0.5 wt% were studied.The recovery factor improved with increasing the silica nanofluid concentration until optimum concentration was reached. The maximum oil recovery was achieved at optimum silica nanoparticles concentration of 0.1 wt%. The ultimate recovery of initial oil in place increased by 13.28% when using tertiary flooding of silica nanofluid compared to the recovery achieved by water flooding alone. Based on our experimental study, permeability impairment was investigated by studying the silica nanoparticles concentration, and the silica nanofluid injection rate. The permeability was measured before and after nanofluid injection. This helped us to understand the behavior of the silica nanoparticles in porous media. Results showed that silica nanofluid flooding is a potential tertiary enhanced oil recovery method after water flooding has ceased.     

Crystallographically selective nanopatterning of graphene on SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript>

Graphene has many advantageous properties, but its lack of an electronic band gap makes this two-dimensional material impractical for many nanoelectronic applications, for example, field-effect transistors. This problem can be circumvented by opening up a confinement-induced gap, through the patterning of graphene into ribbons having widths of a few nanometres. The electronic properties of such ribbons depend on both their size and the crystallographic orientation of the ribbon edges. Therefore, etching processes that are able to differentiate between the zigzag and armchair type edge terminations of graphene are highly sought after. In this contribution we show that such an anisotropic, dry etching reaction is possible and we use it to obtain graphene ribbons with zigzag edges. We demonstrate that the starting positions for the carbon removal reaction can be tailored at will with precision.     

Modeling Clutter from Bosnian and Puerto Rican Rough Ground Surfaces for GPR Subsurface Sensing Applications Using the SDFMM

The Steepest Descent Fast Multipole Method (SDFMM) is used to analyze the distorting effect of random rough ground surfaces on scattered and transmitted electromagnetic waves. Two well-measured loamy soils: Bosnian and Puerto Rican clay loam are investigated, each with a variety of surface roughness. This study is important in understanding the effects of different soil properties and is meant to be an a priori phase of investigating scattering from buried targets under the rough ground. In this work, we investigated the scattering from rough soil ground without buried objects. The SDFMM is an integral equation-based fast algorithm that is well suited for two-dimensional penetrable rough surfaces (3-D scattering) in the frequency domain. The scattered and transmitted near electric field of an incident Gaussian beam are calculated at different locations above and below the mean plane of the dielectric rough interface. The receiver locations above are chosen to simulate GPR measurement protocols. The obtained numerical results show that the scattered field undergoes more distortion than the transmitted field from both soil types. Moreover, the transmitted fields into the higher dielectric constant Puerto Rican soil experience more distortion than those transmitted into Bosnian soil.