Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Films Based on Hydroxylated Soybean Oils

Hybrid organic–inorganic films were prepared using four different hydroxylated soybean oils (HSO) or epoxidized soybean oil as organic precursor and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as inorganic precursor in a mass ratio of HSO:TEOS of 90:10. The films were macroscopically homogeneous and were characterized by swelling and extraction in solvent, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) including energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), adhesion and hardness. Their properties varied as a function of the number of OH groups present in the HSO. The best hybrid system was HSOF198/TEOS, with an OH value of 198 mg of KOH/g, which presents lower swelling coefficient, very good adhesion on aluminium surface and good hardness.     

Measurement of activation yields for platinum group elements using Bremsstrahlung radiation with end-point energies in the range 11-14 MeV

Activation yields have been measured for (γ,n) reactions of the elements Ru, Rh, Pd, Ir and Pt. Metallic foils of natural isotopic composition were irradiated using Bremsstrahlung radiation produced from an electron linear accelerator operated with electron beam energies in the range 11-14 MeV. Activation products, including both unstable ground states and metastates were measured using a high-purity germanium detector. Cross-sections were estimated from the yield data by assuming a simple two-parameter model for the shape of the cross-section with energy.     

Comparative performance analysis of PEM and solid oxide steam electrolysers

This paper presents a comprehensive overview of comparative performance characteristics of proton exchange membrane (PEM) and solid oxide steam (SOS) electrolysers based on a thermodynamic analysis. The main factors which influence electrolyser energy and exergy efficiencies were temperature, summation of overpotentials, applied voltage, and to a lesser extent pressure. It is found that anodic overpotentials make up a majority of the total overpotentials in both electrolyser types studied and therefore further development of catalysts to reduce the overpotentials was recommended.     

Lexical ambiguity and children's word recognition.

Conducted 2 experiments to examine the word recognition processes of 2nd, 4th, and 6th graders. In Exp I, 72 Ss named target words that were primed by words that had more than 1 meaning. Targets were related either to the more or less frequent sense of the ambiguous prime or were unrelated to it. Findings indicate that older Ss were more likely than younger Ss to restrict processing of ambiguous words to the most frequent meaning. While younger Ss showed approximately equal facilitation for words related to either meaning, regardless of each one's relative frequency, 6th graders apparently retrieved only the most frequent meaning. Exp II, with 36 Ss, was similar to Exp I but included neutral primes and varied the interval between presentation of prime and target. Results show that all groups showed automatic retrieval of both meanings of the ambiguous word. For 6th graders, however, this retrieval was followed by a 2nd stage, in which attention was allocated to the more frequent meaning, maintaining it, while the less frequent meaning was inhibited. Overall data indicate that older children use meaning frequency to narrow the amount of information kept active following word recognition. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empirical investigation of counselor self-talk categories.

We identified categories of counselor self-talk and explored for possible dimensions that underlie the categories. The 38 counselors conducted 25-min interviews with a female client and then completed a stimulated-recall, thought-listing exercise. Trained judges categorized the resulting 768 self-talk statements into 14 categories, with approximately 61% of the statements accounted for by the four largest categories (client-focused questions, summarizations, inferences or hypotheses, and self-instructions). A multidimensional scaling analysis identified two underlying dimensions that reflect Attending and Assessing vs Information Seeking and Integrative Understanding vs Intervention Planning. The findings are discussed in terms of counselor cognitive processing and are related to previous research on counselor intentions. Suggestions for future research are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using connectionist models to guide assessment of psycological disorder.

Connectionist models are introduced as promising tools for understanding the nature of psychological disorders and guiding their assessment. Specifically, ways in which connectionist models can guide the following aspects of the assessment process are described: understanding what constructs are relevant to assess, designing approaches to assessing these constructs, and understanding individual differences in data from assessments. Two extended examples are given based on the authors' research on cognitive aspects of depression and Alzheimer's disease. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and job performance: Test of the mediating effects of motivation among sales representatives.

Research shows consistent relations between personality and job performance. In this study the authors develop and test a model of job performance that examines the mediating effects of cognitive-motivational work orientations on the relationships between personality traits and performance in a sales job (N=164). Covariance structural analyses revealed proximal motivational variables to be influential mechanisms through which distal personality traits affect job performance. Specifically, striving for status and accomplishment mediate the effects of Extraversion and Conscientiousness on ratings of sales performance. Although Agreeableness was related to striving for communion, neither Agreeableness nor communion striving was related to success in this sales job. The importance of the proposed motivational orientations model is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Shape-driven segmentation of the arterial wall in intravascular ultrasound images

Segmentation of arterial wall boundaries from intravascular images is an important problem for many applications in the study of plaque characteristics, mechanical properties of the arterial wall, its 3-D reconstruction, and its measurements such as lumen size, lumen radius, and wall radius. We present a shape-driven approach to segmentation of the arterial wall from intravascular ultrasound images in the rectangular domain. In a properly built shape space using training data, we constrain the lumen and media-adventitia contours to a smooth, closed geometry, which increases the segmentation quality without any tradeoff with a regularizer term. In addition to a shape prior, we utilize an intensity prior through a nonparametric probability-density-based image energy, with global image measurements rather than pointwise measurements used in previous methods. Furthermore, a detection step is included to address the challenges introduced to the segmentation process by side branches and calcifications. All these features greatly enhance our segmentation method. The tests of our algorithm on a large dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.     

澳大利亚越野轮胎起重机市场

在澳大利亚资源开发的热潮中．各家起重机租赁公司争先恐后地购买越野轮眙起重机。     

JVC亏损增加关闭电视工厂

JVC美国公司的母公司为日本Victor Co.,后者近日宣布,它将会关闭位于日本和苏格兰的电视机工厂,将制造部分转移到别的领域,以此提高公司利润率。和之前报道情况不一样的是,该公司称它将会削减电视机在日本的销售数量,而且不再销售消费市场的液晶电视机型,因为它