Confessions of a textbook writer.

Describes the genesis of the author's introductory psychology text, Understanding Human Behavior. His first mentor, Karl Dallenbach, emphasized the importance of "humanizing" the introductory course by telling the students anecdotes about psychology and psychologists. Many of these stories appear in the text. Other colleagues taught the author how to make "the facts" of psychology memorable through careful organization, integration, and clearly defined terms. The author suggests such pedagogical devices are necessary for efficient learning—in part because the 2 brain hemispheres may process information in different ways. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Least weight structures for threshold frequencies in a seismic environment

Conventional component seismic design procedures fall into two categories: a table of component forces (which often result in grossly conservative or grossly underdesigned structures); or sophisticated computer analyses using detailed models which undergo dynamic time-history force simulations. Aerospace engineers have designed many component structures to a minimal-fundamental, or “threshold” frequency specification. Although it does not appear as generally applicable for ground-supported “base structures”, the design of substructures for earthquake induced forces can similarly adopt such specifications. For example, radio towers, water tanks, electrical gear, etc., which are supported by larger structures will be subjected to the filtered natural frequencies of the “base structure” regardless of the earthquake spectrum. By knowing approximate amplification factors for the principal contributing frequencies (and corresponding base-excitation levels) of its “base structure”, a substructure specification for the (1) dynamic amplification factor, (2) arbitrary safety-factor and (3) threshold design frequency can be determined. This paper describes adjustment of a structure's fundamental frequency to a prescribed minimum level by a modified Rayleigh method which simultaneously converges to the fundamental mode while being proportioned accordingly to a fully-stressed optimum design.     

Chromatographic studies on oxidative and thermal fatty acid dimers

A chromatographic study was carried out to investigate the nature of polymeric products in edible oils. Dimers from low-temp oxidation of methyl linoleate were compared with thermal dimers from high-temp polymerization of conjugated methyl linoleate. The distilled dimers were subjected to liquid-partition chromatographic separations on silicic acid columns as methyl esters, as free acids, and as methyl esters prepared by saponification and reesterification. Chromatographically isolated dimer fractions were also rechromatographed before and after each treatment. When thermal dimer esters are saponified and reesterified, chromatographic recoveries are quantitative, and the expected changes in polarity result; whereas, with oxidative dimer esters, gross changes in polarity occur. Chromatographic separations of dimer esters or their acids fractionate into distinct areas of increasing polarity. Presented at the AOCS Meeting, New Orleans, 1964. Honorable Mention, Bond Award Competition. A laboratory of the No. Utiliz. Res. & Dev. Div., ARS, USDA.     

Partial hydrogenation and winterization of soybean oil

Soybean oil was hydrogenated under selective and nonselective conditions to give products with iodine values (I.V.) ranging from 85-115. The products were crystallized at 8C and examined for yield, stability, and fatty acid composition of the winterized oil. Changes in fatty acid composition, formation oftrans acids, and yield of winterized oil are approximately linear with the degree of hydrogenation. Stearine fractions, which are 15-20 I.V. units lower than winterized oil, were further crystallized in solvents to yield liquid oils and hard stearines. Presented at AOCS meeting, Toronto, Canada, October 1962 A laboratory of the No. Utiliz. Res. and Dev. Div., ARS, USDA     

HTS transformers

The paper elucidates on some of the potential systems benefits and provides an update of progress in major high-temperature superconductor (HTS) transformer development programs worldwide. It begins with background sections on earlier low-temperature-superconductor (LTS) transformer developments and on transformer losses and efficiencies and their influence on total owning costs (TOC) as one of the major drivers that may determine the success and broad acceptance of HTS transformers for power applications     

Structure of unsaturated vegetable oil glycerides: Direct calculation from fatty acid composition

Composition and structure of unsaturated glycerides of vegetable oils can be calculated directly from the fatty acid composition of the oil. Fatty acid distribution on the 2 position as normally determined by lipase hydrolysis is calculated from the composition of the whole oil by applying the following three rules in their respective order: Saturated fatty acids and those with chain length greater than 18 carbons are first distributed equally and randomly on the 1 and 3 position of the glycerol moiety; oleic and linolenic acids are treated equally, or as a unit, and distributed equally and randomly on all three glyceride positions with any excess from the 1 and 3 position being added to the 2 position; and all remaining positions are filled by linoleic acid. Remarkably good agreement between the calculated and experimentally determined fatty acid distributions is shown for soybean, linseed, safflower and many other vegetable oils whose compositions are reported in the literature. An association between oleic and linolenic acid within the glyceride structure of some vegetable oils is evident. Presented in part at the T. P. Hilditch Symposium Annual Meeting AOCS, Houston, Texas, 1965. No. Utiliz. Res. Dev. Div., ARS, USDA.     

The effect of 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors on benign prostatic hyperplasia

The prevalence of BPH is high in elderly men with more than 60% of patients over the age of 60 experiencing some form of prostatism. Balancing the superior benefit of TUR/P are the small but significant risks and complications of surgery and the high cost of the procedure. The WHO guidelines recommend finasteride or alpha-blockers as treatment options for men with bothersome symptoms. Finasteride therapy reduces the volume of the hyperplastic prostate gland by more than 20%, improves the urinary flow rate and the symptoms associated with bladder outlet obstruction. Although statistically significant, results obtained with finasteride are just slightly better than placebo and TUR/P still offers the greatest improvement of symptoms. Finasteride is well tolerated and adverse events are rare. However, it decreases serum PSA (prostate specific antigen) by 50%, suggesting careful monitoring and exclusion of prostate cancer before initiation and during therapy. Current research is focusing on developing new 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors (type I and II) using polyunsaturated fatty acids and nonsteroidal inhibitors. Given the multifactorial nature of BPH, further clinical trials combining 5-alpha-reductors inhibitors and 5-alpha-receptor blockers are still needed.     

On-line and memory-based aspects of individual and group target judgments.

Ss were given instruction sets to induce either on-line or memory-based processing while reading behavioral statements about individual and group targets. Impression-set instructions induced on-line judgments, and comprehensibility-set (comp) instructions induced memory-based judgments regardless of target type. More important, with nondirective instructions (memory set), natural differences in processing information about individuals and groups were observed, with more on-line judgments for individuals. As expected, illusory correlations between minority targets and infrequent behaviors (a memory-based product) emerged with comp instructions (which induced memory-based judgments for both target types) and in the memory-set condition for group targets only. These data provide insights into the differences in impression formation for groups and individuals and furnish direct evidence of the processes responsible for illusory correlations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Weak criticisms and selective evidence: Reply to Blanton et al. (2009).

We respond to a critique by H. Blanton et al. (see record 2009-06703-001), challenging our previous work demonstrating that an Implicit Association Test designed to assess implicit prejudice reliably predicts intergroup discrimination (see record 2001-11532-008). We outline 3 flawed aspects of the critique. First, we note that claims that an outlier should be eliminated from the original data set are unfounded, and even with the elimination of this outlier, the conclusions of our original work are still strongly supported by the data. Second, we explain that concerns about interjudge reliability are specious and that considerable data support the validity of the judges’ observations reported in our original study. Third, we note that claims of a disconnect between Implicit Association Test scores (argued to show negative bias against Blacks) and behavioral measures (argued to show pro-Black bias) are inappropriate because they neglect the relativistic nature of the key measures. Implications for the relation between implicit attitudes and behavior, for the law, and for future work on implicit attitudes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)