梁之歌

北地里,千宅万户的屋梁受尽风欺雪压犹自温柔地抱着一团小小的燕巢。这是最温情的守候。人世间,千秋万代的屋梁穷尽一生之力,默默擎起身下各异的居所。这是最无私的担当。可古往今来,自喻有情的世人皆赞梁间燕,梁     

Narrative empathy.

Therapeutic empathy is described as an active narrative process, in which the therapist attempts to construe and express the inner emotional logic of the client's problem patterns. The empathic narrative is contrasted to the external narrative, which describes the client from the outside and the client's behavior as making sense from the point of view of the theory rather than from that of the client's. The criterion of an empathic narrative is that it elicits from the client the response "That's me!" The external narrative, in distinction, fails to elicit this self-recognition. The persistent rejection of the therapist's formulations by the client and the ensuing state of therapeutic impasse is interpreted as being often due to the therapist's assumption that the client should accept an external narrative as if it were an empathic one. When such a situation develops, the therapist may overcome the impasse by acknowledging the externality of the previous therapeutic narrative and proposing a potentially empathic one in its stead. Three case examples of a 49-yr-old married woman, a teenage girl, and 28-yr-old single male are presented to demonstrate narrative empathy within the therapeutic context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The strength, elongation and toughness of fresh and weathered bituminous roofing membranes

The author describes in detail, complete with diagrams and test data, the procedures adopted and results obtained. The main problem involving the elongation of the membranes is the large difference between the elongation of the polyester-fibre-based modified bituminous membranes, and the elongation of the glass-fibre-based oxidized bitumen membranes.     

Efficacy of lodoxamide 0.1% versus N-acetyl aspartyl glutamic acid 6% ophthalmic solutions in patients with vernal keratoconjunctivitis

The purpose of this study was to investigate environmental lead exposure in the general Taiwanese population. A total of 8828 Taiwanese adults selected by a multistage sampling method were investigated. Characteristics of the participants were ascertained by questionnaire and 10 ml venous blood was drawn by public health nurses. The blood specimens were distributed to six laboratories for blood lead level (BLL) measurement. A quality control program was applied during the analysis of the BLLs in order to improve precision and accuracy. The arithmetic mean BLL of the 8828 Taiwanese adults was 7.70 +/- 5.23 micrograms/dl, with a maximal level of 69.1 micrograms/dl. The median was 6.5 micrograms/dl and the 90th percentile was 14.0 micrograms/dl. After logarithmic transformation, the geometric mean was 1.84 +/- 0.67 microgram/dl. This study also found that elevated BLLs were associated with certain personal characteristics, i.e., gender, ethnic group, and education level; life-style factors, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, Chinese herbal drug consumption, milk consumption, and sources of drinking water; residential location, i.e., level of urbanization; and occupational history of lead exposure. However, age, floor level of residence, distance from house to road, and betel nut consumption were not associated with elevated BLLs. These results showed that BLLs in the Taiwanese population were not higher than those in developed and developing countries. Most of the influencing factors were also found in other studies; however, local factors such as ethnic group, Chinese herbal drug consumption, and sources of drinking water are important considerations in Taiwan when examining ways to prevent overexposure to lead in the general population.     

Hard iron boride (Fe2B) on 99.97 wt% pure iron

Some properties such as hardness and fracture toughness of boride formed on the 99.97 wt% pure iron were investigated. Boronizing was carried out in a solid medium, consisting of Ekabor powders of 5% B₄C as donor, 5% KBF₄ as an activator and 90% SiC as diluent at 800 °C for 2, 4 and 8 h. The dominant phase formed on the substrate was found to be Fe₂B that had a finger-like shape morphology. The hardness of boride on the 99.97% pure iron was over 1700HVN, while the hardness of pure iron was about 130HVN. It was found that the fracture toughness of boride formed on surfaces of 99.97% pure iron, depending on the process time, ranged from 3.59 to 3.83 MPa m^1/2. Depending on process time and temperature, the depth of the boride layer ranges from 22 to 43 μm, leading to a diffusion-controlled process.     

Short-term psychotherapy and the rise of the life-sketch.

The life-sketch is a highly condensed psychobiography designed to focus and shorten therapy that has recently emerged at different points across the spectrum of therapeutic approaches. It reflects a growing view of psychotherapy as a re-narration of the client's life story. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Lowry test: A simple status-free measure of intellectual ability.

The validity of an intelligence test is discussed. "The Lowry Reasoning Test Combination has been found to be relatively free of social status bias and to measure intellectual function. It is easily administered and simply scored and does not depend upon a high level of verbal ability. Variance in concept difficulty is obtained by altering combinations of constructs while keeping the verbal material on a uniformly simple level. Whereever such a discriminative and effective selection device is needed the present writers would recommend that the Lowry test be tried." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Study on chemical composition and biological activities of essential oil and extract from Salvia pisidica

In this study, total contents of phenolic, flavanol and flavonol, antioxidant activities and antimicrobial activities of the Turkish endemic Salvia pisidica Boiss. & Heldr. ex Bentham (Lamiaceae) extract and essential oil were assessed in vitro. Total phenolic, flavanol and flavonol contents in the extract were 54.57 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g, 16.70 mg catechine equivalents (CE)/g and 18.19 mg rutin equivalents (RE)/g, respectively. Antioxidant activities (IC₅₀ value) of the extract and essential oil were determined as 4.88 and 6.41 mg/mL by DPPH assay, respectively. 31 compounds were determined in the essential oil using GC-MS and the major compounds (%) were camphor (23.76), sabinol (19.2), α-thujone (14.2) and eucalyptol (1.8-cineole) (5.8).The antimicrobial activity of the methanolic extract and the essential oil against 13 bacterial and two yeast strains was determined. The extract (concentration 5 g/100 ml or 10 g/100 ml) was effective against most of the strains tested, yet not against Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Aeromonas hydrophila and the two yeast strains tested. The essential oil (2 g/100 ml) showed an antimicrobial effect against all the gram (+) bacteria tested, against Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but was not effective against all gram (−) bacteria and Candida albicans. These results show that S.piscidica essential oil and extract could be considered as a natural alternative to traditional food preservatives and be used to enhance food safety and shelf life.     

Laser cutting of 7050 Al alloy reinforced with Al2O3 and B4C composites

In the present study, laser cutting of 7050 aluminum alloy sheets reinforced with Al₂O₃ and B₄C particles are carried out. The cut geometry is examined using scanning electron microscope and the optical microscope. The lump parameter analysis technique is used to formulate and determine the kerf width size. The predictions for kerf width are compared with experimental data. The percentage kerf width size variation along the cut edges is determined and the influence of the laser power level and duty cycle of the laser pulses on the percentage kerf width size variation is examined. It is found that 7050 aluminum alloy reinforced with 20% Al₂O₃ composite results in relatively large kerf width size as compared to its counter parts that corresponding to 7050 aluminum alloy reinforced with 20% B₄C composite. The kerf width size predicted agreed with the experimental data for both composites.