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The Self‐Rated Scale for Obsessive‐Compulsive Disorder is an objective 35‐item questionnaire that measures the severity of obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD). Scale construction employed both rational and empirical item‐selection procedures and utilized the responses of 127 diagnosed obsessive‐compulsive subjects. A cross‐validation study that used 40 obsessive‐compulsive subjects found high internal consistency and significant correlations between the new scale and two clinician‐rated measures of OCD. Principal components analysis of the combined subject sample (167 obsessive‐compulsive subjects) identified four orthogonal components: distressing thoughts, rituals, perfection, and fear of contamination. In conclusion, the Self‐Rated Scale for Obsessive‐Compulsive Disorder appears to be a comprehensive, easy‐to‐use, and psychometrically sound instrument for measuring severity of OCD.

As adaptable as polymeric materials are in their many applications to our daily lives, the need exists to tailor the polymer surfaces to provide even more flexibility in regard to their uses. Plasma treatments offer an unprecedented spectrum of possible surface modifications to enhance polymers, ranging from simple topographical changes to creation of surface chemistries and coatings that are radically different from the bulk polymer. Furthermore plasma treatments are environmentally friendly and economical in regard to their use of materials.Plasma processing can be classified into at least four categories that often overlap. These are the following: (1) surface preparation by breakdown of surface oils and loose contaminates, (2) etching of new topographies, (3) surface activation by creation or grafting of new functional groups or chemically reactive, excited metastable species on the surface, and (4) deposition of monolithic, adherent surface coatings by polymerization of monomeric species on the surface. Key features of these processes will be briefly discussed, with a rudimentary introduction to the chemistries involved, as well as examples. Focus is placed on capacitively coupled radio-frequency (rf) plasmas (see Figure 1 in the article by Lieberman et al. in this issue of MRS Bulletin) since they are most commonly used in polymer treatment.

The virtues of chemical inertness and low surface energy which make polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) a valuable engineering polymer also account for the difticulty in achieving structural adhesive bonds. While plasma surface treatment has proven to be the most effective means of maximizing strength and permanence of adhesive bonds with the most inert of engineering polymers, a simple plasma treatment has proven elusive for PTFE. The following studies evaluate two very different plasma processes, activation and deposition, as a means to achieve reliable and high-strength structural adhesive bonds. Sodium naphthaleneetched PTFE is used as a control. Presented are ESCA data which support a theory that improvement is limited by a weakened boundary layer of the h F E .