2,817 research outputs found
Is That All? A Review of The National Environmental Policy Act, an Agenda for the Future, by Lynton Keith Caldwell
Peer-Led Team Learning in Introductory Biology and Chemistry Courses: A Parallel Approach
Peer-Led Team Learning has been in use in Introductory Biology and Introductory Chemistry since Fall 1999 at the University of Portland. lts effect on improved conceptual understanding, retention of students, and improvement in study skills will be discussed. An ancillary, but no less important benefit in the development of interest in science teaching among the peer leaders, is also addressed
Two New Genera of Hemisarcoptidae (Acari: Astigmata) From the Huron Mountains of Northern Michigan
Two new genera and species of Hemisarcoptidae, Superioropus huronmontanus and Huronopus michiganensis are described from deutonymphs phoretic on ichneumonid wasps from the Huron Mountains, Marquette County, Michigan
Acute drug effects on habitual and non-habitual responding in crossed high alcohol preferring mice
RATIONALE:
Drug reward plays a central role in acquiring drug-seeking behavior. However, subjects may continue using drugs despite negative consequences because self-administration becomes habitual, and divorced from outcome values. Although a history of drug and alcohol use expedite habit acquisition, and in spite of the fact that self-administration leads to intoxication, the acute effects of drugs on habitual responding are not well understood.
OBJECTIVES:
We sought to observe how acute ethanol and amphetamine affect the balance between habitual and goal-directed behavior, as measured by a fluid-reinforced operant conditioning task.
METHODS:
Selectively bred crossed high-alcohol-preferring (cHAP) mice were trained on an operant conditioning task reinforced on a variable interval schedule with 1% banana solution, which was subsequently devalued via LiCl pairing in half the animals. Ethanol (1.0 g/kg), amphetamine (2.0 mg/kg), or saline was administered prior to a post-devaluation test.
RESULTS:
Overall, mice showed habitual behavior, but when divided into high- or low-responding groups based on training response rates, saline-treated, low-responding animals devalued, while saline-treated high-responding animals did not. Furthermore, amphetamine elicited devaluation even in high-responding animals, while ethanol prevented devaluation even in low-responding animals.
CONCLUSIONS:
These data show that ethanol shifts animals toward behaving habitually. This may illuminate why alcohol-intoxicated individuals display impaired judgment about the relative merits of drinking, and potentially serve as a mechanism by which intoxicated subjects resume previously devalued behaviors, such as comorbid drug use. These findings also show that high variable interval response rates facilitate a shift from goal-directed to habitual behavior
A superconducting qubit with Purcell protection and tunable coupling
We present a superconducting qubit for the circuit quantum electrodynamics
architecture that has a tunable coupling strength g. We show that this coupling
strength can be tuned from zero to values that are comparable with other
superconducting qubits. At g = 0 the qubit is in a decoherence free subspace
with respect to spontaneous emission induced by the Purcell effect. Furthermore
we show that in the decoherence free subspace the state of the qubit can still
be measured by either a dispersive shift on the resonance frequency of the
resonator or by a cycling-type measurement.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Hot-bench simulation of the active flexible wing wind-tunnel model
Two simulations, one batch and one real-time, of an aeroelastically-scaled wind-tunnel model were developed. The wind-tunnel model was a full-span, free-to-roll model of an advanced fighter concept. The batch simulation was used to generate and verify the real-time simulation and to test candidate control laws prior to implementation. The real-time simulation supported hot-bench testing of a digital controller, which was developed to actively control the elastic deformation of the wind-tunnel model. Time scaling was required for hot-bench testing. The wind-tunnel model, the mathematical models for the simulations, the techniques employed to reduce the hot-bench time-scale factors, and the verification procedures are described
Theoretical three-and four-axis gimbal robot wrists
In high-performance flight simulations, a four-axis gimbal system allows all possible rotations with acceptable gimbal angle rates while it avoids the so-callled 'gimbal lock' that occurs when gimbal rotational axes are colinear. In this paper, pertinent equations (including quaternions) are assembled for a hypothetical robot wrist, functionally equivalent to this four-axis gimbal system, and also for a true three-axis gimbal robot wrist. These equations are used to simulate the rotation of a robot hand by the robot wrist in response to operator rotational velocity commands to the robot hand. Near gimbal lock (wrist singularity), excessive rotational rates occur. Scaling the rates, which is necessary for the three-gimbal robot wrist to prevent rate limiting, introduces an undesirable time delay in the robot hand rotation with respect to the commanded rotation. However, the merit of the four-gimbal robot wrist is that the fourth gimbal angle keeps the robot wrist away from the singularity so that the robot hand moves exactly as commanded. It appears that in a 'worst-type' maneuver of the robot hand, the fourth gimbal angle can be defined so that none of the gimbal angle rates exceed about twice the commanded rates
- …