Relationship of job characteristics to job involvement, satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation.

Administered questionnaires to 291 scientists working in research and development laboratories. Results of a factor analysis indicate that job-involvement attitudes, higher order need-satisfaction attitudes, and intrinsic-motivation attitudes should be thought of as separate and distinct kinds of attitudes toward a job. These 3 types of attitudes related differentially to job design factors and to job behavior. Satisfaction proved to be related to such job characteristics as the amount of control the job allowed the holder and the degree to which it is seen to be relevant to the holder's valued abilities. Satisfaction was not related to either self-rated effort or performance. Job involvement, like satisfaction, bore a significant relationship to certain job characteristics; unlike satisfaction, however, involvement was positively related to self-rated effort. Intrinsic motivation was less strongly related to the job characterisitcs measured, but was more strongly related to both effort and performance than was either satisfaction or involvement. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A screening inventory for assessing psychiatric impairment in children 6 to 18.

Administered a structured questionnaire to a cross-sectional sample of 1,034 mothers and a welfare sample of 1,000 mothers of 6-18 yr olds in New York City. One or more psychiatrists rated each of the children on a 5-point scale of total psychiatric impairment. Factor analysis of the questionnaire items of child behavior yielded 18 factors. The 7 factors with the highest correlations with total psychiatric impairment were selected for the inventory, each represented by 5 items. The correlation of the total 35-item score and total psychiatric impairment was .82. The screening inventory significantly and substantially improved over chance in assigning children to impairment statuses in the cross-sectional sample and the sample used for cross-validation, the welfare sample. Correlations of the total score with child's treatment status and a direct clinical examination rating were expectedly low. In its present form, the instrument is recommended only for comparisons of different child and adolescent groups. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Craze fibril formation and breakdown

As crazes grow in areal extent they also increase in width. The areal growth involves craze tip advance which has been shown to occur by the Taylor meniscus instability. Craze widening, at least for air crazes, occurs by drawing more fibrillar material from the craze-bulk polymer interfaces at essentially constant extension ratio. Simple arguments will be given to predict the scale of the fibrillation in terms of the stress S at the craze tip and interfaces and an effective polymer surface energy (Γ) where: which assumes that all entangled chain crossing the surface are broken [γ represents the van-der-Waals (intermolecular) surface energy, d is the entanglement mesh size, v_E is the entanglement density, and U_b is the energy required to break a single backbone bond]. These arguments also give the rate of fibrillation as a function of S, a nominal plastic resistance σ_y and Γ and can explain the fact that the stress for crazing increases relative to that for shear deformation as the entanglement density of the polymer is increased. The geometrically necessary entanglement loss (either by scission as assumed above or by disentanglement- at temperatures just below T_g) that accompanies fibril formation has important consequences for fibril stability. The probability p that a given entangled chain is lost can be computed from simple geometrical considerations knowing the fibril diameter D, its extension ratio λ and the mesh size d; p increases rapidly as Dλ^½ becomes comparable to or less than d. These concepts can be tested in blends of high molecular weight polymer with chains of the same polymer that are too short to entangle.     

Assessing the conversational behaviour of psychiatric patients: Reliability and validity of the Verbal Report Form (VRF).

Two studies investigated the reliability and validity of a new behavioral rating scale, the Verbal Report Form (VRF), which measures brief unstructured verbal interactions of chronic mental patients. In Study 1, 6 individuals familiar with the VRF rated 12 videotaped segments (differing in length) of chronic schizophrenic patients. Results indicate that a 2-min time segment was necessary to accurately assess conversational behavior (mean rater agreement = .76). In Study 2, 15 raters (5 psychologists, 5 psychiatric technicians, and 5 nonprofessionals) rated 15 2-min video-tapes of verbal behavior (5 hospitalized patients, 5 board and care residents, and 5 normals). Results of an analysis of variance suggest that the VRF could significantly discriminate among the 3 contrasting groups using the number of inappropriate responses rated. Results are discussed in terms of differences between raters and difference in the discriminability of the categories of the VRF. (1 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Involvement of residues 296-299 in the enzymatic activity of tissue-type plasminogen activator

The tetra-alanine substitution variant KHRR 296–299 AAAAof tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) was previously shownto have enhanced fibrin specificity and enhanced activity inthe presence of fibrin compared with the wild-type form of themolecule. The structural requirements for these alterationsin enzymatic activity were investigated by constructing severalamino acid substitution variants at each of the positions from296 to 299 and evaluating their activities under a variety ofconditions. Effects on plasminogen activator activity were commonamong the point mutants at positions 296–299; nearly allhad a phenotype similar to the KHRR 296–299 AAAA variant.The greatest effects on enzymatic function were found with multiplesubstitution variants, but some single charge reversals andproline substitutions had substantial effects. The enhancedfibrin specificity of KHRR 296–299 AAAA t-PA results inless fibrinogenolysis than seen with wild-type t-PA. Approximatelyfour times greater concentration of KHRR 296–299 AAAAcompared with wild-type t-PA was required to consume 50% ofthe fibrinogen in human plasma.     

Unifying model for associative thickener influences on waterborne coatings: II. Competitive adsorption of nonionic surfactants and HEUR thickeners on titanium dioxide pretreated with inorganic stabilizers and organic oligomeric dispersants

Size exclusion chromatography in tandem with UV absorbance of the surfactant is used to separate and quantify the amount of nonionic surfactant and model hydrophobically modified ethoxylated urethane (HEUR) thickeners adsorbed on different organic oligomeric polyacid, metal oxide-treated TiO₂ surfaces. The isoelectric point imposed on TiO₂ by the metal oxide surface treatment determines the amount of organic dispersant adsorbed. The size of the α-olefin on the maleic acid dispersant is also important in the adsorption of the dispersant. The size of the α-olefin on the organic acid dispersant, in turn, determines the amount of surfactant and HEUR thickener adsorbed. The surfactant, unlike the HEUR thickener, exhibits a dependence on the metal oxide treatment in neutral media, independent in several aspects of the amount of organic dispersant adsorbed. The adsorption dependence of HEUR thickeners and nonionic surfactant on the hydrophobe size of the HEUR is discussed. Presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology, on October 23, 1996 in Chicago, IL Polymers and Coatings Dept., Dunbar Hall, Fargo, ND 58105. Chestnut Run, Building 709, Wilmington, DE 19898.     

A multiple objective decision theoretic approach to one-machine scheduling problems

This paper presents a decision theoretic approach for treating one machine scheduling problems with multiple objectives. We encode value tradeoffs over performance criteria such as flow times, tardiness and the number of jobs tardy in a multriattribute value function. We then present an implicit enumeration procedure for finding preferred job processing sequences. Two illustrative examples and some computational experience are given at the end.     

Compensatory education: Effective or ineffective?

Measured the effectiveness of a college level compensatory program for Black disadvantaged students relative to aspiration, motivation, and academic levels as compared to advantaged students at the University of Detroit. Ss were 169 undergraduates, 98% of whom were Black; controls were 152 predominantly White undergraduates. Ss had lower levels of aspiration, motivation, and academic achievement in each year of college. However, the disadvantaged group reduced the gap between initial disparities on the criterion measures for the independent variables measured when compared to the control group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological aspects of aeronautical flight simulation.

Presents a review and discussion of ground-based aeronautical flight simulators. Topics discussed include simulator cockpits, visual scene attachments, visual attachment fidelity, simulator motion and motion system fidelity, computer systems, the use of flight simulators in psychological research, and the validity of simulators. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)