The glass fibre-polymer interface: II—Work of fracture and shear stresses

Pull-out experiments have been carried out on single production fibres under carefully controlled conditions. Four parameters were determined. The interfacial yield stresses, of about 9–14 MPa, were very much smaller than the shear strengths of the bulk polymers in the case of an epoxy, whether post-cured or not, and a non-post-cured polyester. Values for the work of fracture of the interface varied from 140 to 300 Jm^?2, and again were less than those of the polymer. Interface failure sometimes took place in the epoxy rather than at the fibre surface, whereas with the polyester it always took place at the fibre surface. After interface failure, pull-out was governed by friction, with maximum shear stresses of 7–10 MPa for polyester, and 21–34 MPa for epoxy, the higher values being obtained for the post-cured resins. Average frictional shear stresses were sometimes less than a half of the maximum shear stress, indicating that the fibre Poisson's shrinkage was playing an important role in the pull-out process. A silicone release agent reduced the frictional shear stresses to 2·5 MPa, with both resins.     

Does whom you work with matter? Effects of referent group gender and age composition on managers' compensation.

Much research has examined gender and age effects on compensation, concluding that a wage gap exists favoring men and negative stereotypes against older workers persist. Although the effect of an employee's gender or age has been widely studied, little work has examined the impact of the demographic characteristics of a focal employee's immediate referent groups (e.g., subordinates, peers, or supervisors) on pay. The effect of the gender and age composition of a focal manager's subordinates, peers, and supervisor on the manager's compensation levels was investigated in a sample of 2,178 managers across a wide range of organizations and functional areas. After controlling for a number of human capital variables, results indicated that not only does a wage gap favoring men exist, but also managerial pay is lower when managers' referent groups are largely female, when subordinates are outside the prime age group, and when peers and supervisors are younger. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of fibre alignment on composite strength: II. The strength of angle-ply laminates

Experiments have been carried out on relatively wide angle-ply laminate samples with very short gauge lengths. These proved to be very much stronger than samples tested in earlier work, and which form the basis for our present design with these materials. It is highly likely that the early results for strength were more indicative of edge effects than true laminate strength. This is confirmed by data from tests on pressurized tubes. A review of the literature on this shows that such tests produced results which can be an order of magnitude higher than the early laminate tests. Thus our design calculations could well be severely underestimating the potential strength of angle-ply laminates. This may be having serious consequences for the aerospace industry, through the use of design criteria for strength which may be too conservative. Single-fibre experiments may pave the way for more realistic estimates of angle-ply laminate strengths. These indicate that a simple one-third power rule can be used to estimate the potential strength. However, this is purely ad hoc at present, and needs to be put on a firmer footing through both theoretical and experimental studies. Furthermore, if this approach is adopted, edge effects will still have to be allowed for, and estimated on the basis of the aspect ratio of the part.     

The effect of matrix stresses on fibre pull-out forces

A pull-out test was developed to measure the bond strengths and frictional forces between steel wires, and polycarbonate and epoxy matrices when the matrix was under tensile stress. Some debonding occurred due to the matrix stress. Despite this, the nominal bond strength, in the polycarbonate case, increased with increasing matrix applied stress. When the pull-out force had caused complete debonding, sliding under approximately constant friction coefficient,, occurred. The value of for steel sliding in polycarbonate was 0.6, and for epoxy it was 0.19. The values were reduced to 0.12 and 0.10 respectively when the steel was coated with a fluorocarbon release agent. The normal stresses at the interface, in the absence of any applied stresses, were found to be about 7 MN m^–2 in the polycarbonate, and 3.0 MN m^–2 in the epoxy case. It was observed that the frictional forces due to these residual stresses could be less than one third of those generated by the applied stresses on the matrix. Thus residual stresses are not as important for fibre reinforcement as are matrix Poisson's shrinkage stresses.     

Assessing Positive and Negative Changes in the Aftermath of Adversity: Psychometric Evaluation of the Changes in Outlook Questionnaire.

The Changes in Outlook Questionnaire (CiOQ; S. Joseph, R. Williams, & W. Yule, 1993) is a 26-item self-report measure that was designed to assess positive and negative changes in the aftermath of adversity. This article had 3 aims: 1st, to investigate the factor structure of the CiOQ; 2nd, to test for internal consistency reliability and convergent and discriminant validity; and, 3rd, to investigate the association between positive and negative changes in outlook, posttraumatic stress, and psychological distress. Three studies are reported. Study 1 provides evidence that positive and negative changes are statistically separable and that the 2-factor model is a better fit than the 1-factor model. Studies 2 and 3 provide evidence for internal consistency reliability, convergent and discriminant validity of the CiOQ, and its associations with posttraumatic stress and psychological distress. In conclusion, the CiOQ has much promise for research on responses to stressful and traumatic events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping With Stereotype Threat: Denial as an Impression Management Strategy.

Four experiments tested the hypothesis that people who are concerned with impression management cope with stereotype threat through denial. Consistent with this hypothesis, temporary employees threatened by a stereotype of incompetence (Study 1) and hostel-dwelling older adults (Study 2) were more likely to deny incompetence if they were high in impression management. African Americans (Study 3) showed a similar pattern of denying cognitive incompetence, which emerged primarily when they were interviewed by a White experimenter and had attended a predominantly Black high school. In Study 4, White students who expected to take an IQ test and were threatened by a stereotype of being less intelligent than Asians were more likely to deny that intelligence is important if they were high in impression management. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors influencing quantities of sugars and organic acids in blackcurrant concentrates

 Use of endogenous non-volatile flavour components, i. e. sugars and organic acids, in fruit juice products is desirable. A study of 133 blackcurrant concentrates from three seasons examined variation in sugars and acids arising from storage of fruit at freezing or sub-ambient temperature, seasonal differences, geographical origin and choice of conventional thermal-evaporative or freeze concentration technology. Compared with freeze concentrates, conventional concentrates had significantly higher contents of total sugars and acids, notably malic acid, and higher fructose/glucose, lower malic/citric acid and similar sugar/acid ratios. Concentrates from frozen fruit generally had smaller amounts of fructose, total sugars and fructose/glucose ratios than those from fresh fruit, as well as less citric, ascorbic and total acids and lower sugar/acid ratios. Principal component analysis of 40 randomly chosen concentrates showed that variance is dominated by differences in fructose, total sugars and ascorbic acid contents and sugar/acid ratios. Geographical origin and concentration technology were major sources of variance but changes in post-production sub-ambient storage could not be excluded. Received: 4 July 1997 /  Revised version: 14 October 1997