Grand theories of personality cannot be integrated.

Comments on the original article "A New Big Five: Fundamental Principles for an Integrative Science of Personality," by Dan P. McAdams and Jennifer L. Pals (see record 2006-03947-002). McAdams and Pals (April 2006) presented a new model to integrate the field of personality psychology. Cultural and evolutionary factors interact with an individual's basic traits, characteristic adaptations, and life narratives, which in turn are linked to roles, demands, and behaviors. The current authors welcome McAdams and Pals's (2006) model for providing a way to integrate much of the previously disparate empirical findings in personality psychology. However, the current authors also think that McAdams and Pals (2006) overstated the inclusiveness of the model, and more generally, the current authors dispute their assertion that the grand theories of personality can be integrated within a single model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of discrimination in hiring job applicants with disabilities: The role of disability type, job complexity, and public contact.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of disability type, job complexity, and public contact on hiring decisions. Design and Participants: An Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA; 1990) fact sheet and matched resumes with vocational and medical histories including chronic mental illness, developmental disability, closed head injury, and back injury were provided to 295 undergraduate business-related majors, who rated the applicants' suitability for 2 job positions and work shifts. Results: Findings indicated disparities in ratings of employability as a function of disability type. Paired comparisons yielded complementary findings, with effects of disability type and Disability Type × Job Complexity, but no effects of public contact. Conclusions: Stereotyping and discrimination in employment decisions apparently persist, more than 10 years after the ADA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alleviating convergence problems in Group Support Systems

Not all Group Support Systems are identical, as is demonstrated by their software implementations. We discuss two existing implementations of group support tools and the process models underlying them. We demonstrate that fundamental to both processes is the merging or integration of individual data. Based on this and other empirical research, the Shared Context Model (SCM) of cooperative work is adopted and we show that it supports existing processes and others. We expect that groups will find merging their work easier with the SCM. This model is presented and embedded in the architecture and implementation of four group tools. Because these tools are destined to be used by dispersed groups, synchronously or asynchronously, an object-based communication and control mechanism is incorporated. Finally, as graphics and multi-tasking have been shown to be increasingly important, the tools are implemented in Microsoft Windows for personal computers attached to local area networks.     

A simple conceptual model for predicting the dissolution of phosphate rock in soils

Laboratory experimental and literature data were integrated to develop a simple, conceptual model to describe and predict the dissolution of a reactive phosphate rock (Gafsa phosphate rock, GPR) in soils. The model showed that initial solution Ca concentration strongly influences the time required for a single application of GPR (at 30 kgP ha^?1) to dissolve. The model predicts that all of the GPR will dissolve within a year of application in an unlimed, acid (pH_w 4.5) loam. However, if the soil has previously been limed to (pH_w 5.8, and contains permanent charge only, the model predicts that only about 50% of the GPR would have dissolved by the end of the second year after application. On the other hand, if a previously limed soil ((pH_w 5.8) contains variable-charge components, the model predicts that virtually all of the GPR would have dissolved in this soil by the end of the second year after application. These results emphasise that, even in the presence of a high proton supply, solution Ca has an overriding influence on the dissolution of GPR. The faster rate of GPR dissolution in the limed soil with variable charge, compared to that in the limed soil with permanent charge only, demonstrates the ability of the variable-charge component of soil to act as a sink for some of the lime-derived Ca. According to the solubility product principle, this allows more GPR to dissolve. Because of the generally stronger buffering of soil for P than for Ca, a relatively large proportion of any P removed by leaching and plant uptake is buffered by the sorbed phase. Consequently, the influence of leaching and plant uptake on GPR dissolution is attributed primarily to the removal of the relatively less-strongly buffered Ca.     

Foucault, Habermas and Evaluation

Educational evaluation may be understood in terms of what Michel Foucault describes as 'discursive practice', yet this perspective may lead to a kind of despair if evaluation technologies are seen as no more than an expression of 'the will to power'. The issue of evaluation technologies as 'machines' is not new to the evaluation literature, as the author's autobiographical reflections on his evaluation training and experience suggest. The Foucauldian view is counterposed here with the Habermasian notion of a 'science of social action', and explorations of the potential of Habermas's ideas in educational evaluation by the author and his colleagues. It is argued that Habermas's theory of communicative action offers humane, convivial and rational resources for the further development of the theory and practice of educational evaluation.     

Rule-based supervisory control of a two-link flexible manipulator

In this paper, we propose a two level hierarchical control strategy to achieve accurate end-point position of a planar two-link flexible manipulator. The upper level consists of a feedforward rule-based supervisory controller that incorporates fuzzy logic, whereas the lower level consists of conventional controllers that combine shaft position-endpoint acceleration feedback for disturbance rejection properties and shaping of the (joint) actuator inputs to minimize the energy transferred to the flexible modes during commanded movements. The effectiveness of this hierarchical control strategy is verified by experimental results for various movements of the links, in various configurations. In particular, we illustrate how the hierarchical intelligent control strategy performs better than conventional control techniques for endpoint position control in the presence of flexure effects.     

Abrasion phenomena in twill tencel fabric

The abrasion characteristics of Tencel fabrics were evaluated by Martindale abrasion and laundering, and the breakdown mechanism of fibers was surveyed by scanning electron microscopy. The fabric was subjected to pad‐dry‐cure treatment with two different types of modified dimethyloldihydroxyethylene urea resins (Reaktant DH and Reaktant FC). Although the degree of dry abrasion varied with different resins, the damage exhibited by individual fibers differed little from untreated to resin‐treated; the major mechanism of abrasion was through friction, and the mechanism of fiber failure was multiple splitting and transverse cracking. In untreated Tencel, the characteristic feature of wet abrasion was massive fibrillation, and in crosslinked fabrics, the wet abrasion mechanism was through fiber slippage and slicing action, although in the Reaktant FC‐treated fabric, the wet abrasion mechanism was more through slicing than through fiber splitting. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 1391–1398, 2006