Aqueous-Solution pH Scales

The parallel existence of two forms of pH scale is considered, which is unique for the international metrological community. The basic advantages and shortcomings are considered for the multireference NIST scale and the single-reference BSI one.     

An a priori assessment of the number of measuring devices and their locations in an experimental evaluation of the efficiency of a cryogenic plant

Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 11, pp. 42–44, November, 1992.     

Cocaine Exposure Is Associated With Subtle Compromises of Infants' and Mothers' Social-Emotional Behavior and Dyadic Features of Their Interaction in the Face-to-Face Still-Face Paradigm.

Prenatal cocaine and opiate exposure are thought to subtly compromise social and emotional development. The authors observed a large sample of 236 cocaine-exposed and 459 nonexposed infants (49 were opiate exposed and 646 nonexposed) with their mothers in the face-to-face still-face paradigm. Infant and maternal behaviors were microanalytically coded. No opiate-exposure effects were detected. However, mothers of cocaine-exposed infants showed more negative engagement than other mothers. The cocaine-exposed dyads also showed higher overall levels of mismatched engagement states than other dyads, including more negative engagement when the infants were in states of neutral engagement. Infants exposed to heavier levels of cocaine showed more passive-withdrawn negative engagement and engaged in more negative affective matching with their mothers than other infants. Although effect sizes were small, cocaine exposure, especially heavy cocaine exposure, was associated with subtly negative interchanges, which may have a cumulative impact on infants' later development and their relationships with their mothers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal characteristics measured prenatally are predictive of ratings of temperamental "difficulty" on the Carey Infant Temperament Questionnaire.

In several recent reports, the Carey Infant Temperament Questionnaire has been criticized as a measure of infant temperament. Instead, the dimensions of temperament and the diagnostic categories (i.e., "easy" vs. "difficult" temperament) derived from maternal responses to the questionnaire items have been associated with maternal demographic and personality characteristics and with maternal child-rearing attitudes assessed before the birth of the infant. In this article, results of previous research are reconsidered in light of suggestions and criticisms offered by several temperament researchers. In two new studies the revision of the Infant Temperament Questionnaire (ITQ) was used to assess infant temperament, and personality and/or attitudinal data from the mother were obtained prenatally. Results were consistent across all studies. Prenatally assessed characteristics of the mother, especially anxiety, significantly distinguish mothers whose responses to the ITQ items result in diagnosis of temperamental difficulty for their infants from those whose infants are diagnosed as temperamentally easy during the first 8 months of life. The data suggest that both the original and revised Carey infant temperament scales fail discriminant validity tests and are therefore of only limited use in identifying temperamentally difficult infants. (67 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)