Aspects of personality and depression

Fifty consecutive patients suffering from primary depressiv illness, but excluding those who had a distinct episode of mania, were rated for the presence and degree of certain symptomatology, especially agitation and retardation. They were also divided into two groups (‘early’ and ‘late’ onset), according to whether their first-ever attack of depressive illness had occurred before the age of 45. After they had recovered from their illness, aspects of personality were assessed on a battery of self-rating personality tests. There was no evidence from this study that any of the personality traits measured was in any way significantly related to any of the clinical features of the illness.

Presenting information in tables

In spite of the variety of circumstances in which tabulated information is used, little has been known about the relative effectiveness of different formats. But it has recently been found that some types of table are incomprehensible to many people, and that aspects of presentation which were intended to help the user can in fact turn out to be a handicap. This paper surveys our present knowledge about the optimal design of tabulated information.

Effect of temperature and gas velocity on dry-heat destruction rate of bacterial spores

Spores of Bacillus subtilis were dried in vacuo for use in dry-heat thermal destruction tests. Survivor curve tests were conducted in a specifically designed dry-heat oven. This oven provided accurate temperature control and permitted air or nitrogen to be passed over the spores during the lethal treatment. Experiments were carried out at various flow rates of the two gases (air and nitrogen) and various temperatures, and the data were expressed as survivor curves from which the decimal reduction time (D value) was obtained. Linear regression analysis methods were used to compute the slope of the survivor curves. The results indicated that as the flow rate of gas is increased, the effect of temperature on the destruction rate of the spores is lessened, the z value becoming very large. It is believed that the higher flow rates of dry gas cause greater dehydration of the spores and that spore moisture loss is one of the major factors in determining the dry-heat thermal destruction rate of bacterial spores.