39 research outputs found
Characterization of the Atmospheric Electrical Environment Near a Corona Ion-Emitting Source
Get PDFPresence of high concentrations of corona ions in any air environment cause changes in the earth’s natural dc e-field; while their interaction with airborne aerosols produce charged particles. The charged particles and ions are dispersed by wind, and depending on the prevailing meteorology, their presence can be observed several hundreds of meters from the ion source. This paper presents a study characterizing the electrical environment of a strong substantially-constant source of corona ions (a high voltage electricity substation). Results of the study showed that corona ion and particle charge concentrations as well as their associated effect on the vertical dc e-field perturbations decreased with distance from the emitting source. Mean particle charge concentration in the air environment of the ion emitting source (-1750 ± 745 ions cm-3) was three times higher than that of an urban outdoor air and seventeen times that of a mechanically ventilated room. Statistical investigation of possible associations between parameters showed strong associations (R2 = 74%, P<0.05) between particle charge and ion concentration; and 54% correlation between particle charge and magnitude of the vertical dc e-field (mean value of -285 ± 51 V m-1). Although a source of ambient electrical charge, the electricity substation was not a significant generator of aerosol particles within the size range (0.02 to 1 μm) examined in this study
Manifestation of incompleteness in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as reduced functionality and extended activity beyond task completion
Get PDFCopyright 2011 Zor et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background: This study focused on hypotheses regarding the source of incompleteness in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). For this, we had to document the behavioral manifestation of incompleteness in compulsive rituals, predicting that an exaggerated focus on acts that are appropriate for the task will support the hypothesis on heightened responsibility/perfectionism. In contrast, activity past the expected terminal act for the motor task would support the "stop signal deficiency" hypothesis. Methodology and Principal Findings: We employed video-telemetry to analyze 39 motor OCD rituals and compared each with a similar task performed by a non-OCD individual, in order to objectively and explicitly determine the functional end of the activity. We found that 75% of OCD rituals comprised a "tail ," which is a section that follows the functional end of the task that the patients ascribed to their activity. The other 25% tailless rituals comprised a relatively high number and higher rate of repetition of non-functional acts. Thus, in rituals with tail, incompleteness was manifested by the mere presence of the tail whereas in tailless rituals, incompleteness was manifested by the reduced functionality of the task due to an inflated execution and repetition of non-functional acts. Conclusions: The prevalence of activity after the functional end ("tail") and the elevated non-functionality in OCD motor rituals support the "lack of stop signal" theories as the underlying mechanism in OCD. Furthermore, the presence and content of the tail might have a therapeutic potential in cognitive-behavior therapy.Peer reviewe
