IBM JCL made easy by means of ISPF dialog application

An interactive cathode ray tube (CRT) terminal application has been developed which automatically generates the job control language (JCL) and submits NASTRAN batch jobs at an IBM mainframe installation. The relevant parameters for each NASTRAN batch job are stored in a table. Once a table entry is defined, the corresponding NASTRAN batch job may be submitted as often as desired with a minimum of keystrokes. For most users, there is no need for any knowledge of JCL

Assessing the Influence of Interseeded Cover Crops on Beneficial Arthropod Abundance in a Northeastern Agroecosystem

Conservation agriculture approaches are gaining traction as the planet’s food system grapples with climate change, oil depletion, and rampant environmental degradation (Palm et al., 2014). Cover cropping is an integral practice of conservation agriculture. Ground dwelling arthropods play an important role in agroecosystems, providing ecosystem services including seed predation and nutrient cycling. Because the relationship between cover crops and arthropod abundance are likely influenced by management conditions, I investigated arthropod abundance in a field interseeded with cover crops on a research farm in Maine, United States. Interseeding is an emerging practice in the northeastern United States, with potential to address the barriers to more typical cover cropping. Such barriers are primarily economic and ecological in nature. For example, it can be difficult to achieve sufficient biomass when cover crops are planted late in the growing season, diminishing potential ecosystem service benefits. The influence of interseeded cover crops on beneficial arthropods has not been researched in this bioregion. In this study, arthropods were sampled using pitfall traps three times during the 2023 fall growing season. I sampled from plots that were either cover-cropped or not cover-cropped (the latter being the control treatment), with 4 replicates per treatment. Harpalus rufipes DeGeer (Coleoptera: Carabidae) was the most abundant groups sampled, with members of the Gryllus genus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) also highly abundant. H. rufipes and G. species are granivorous, providing seed predation services to regulate weed seedbanks. No significant difference in abundance or diversity was found between treatments, though other conditions observed in the experiment likely influenced this outcome. A moderate positive linear relationship was found between canopy cover, which included both cover crops and weeds, and arthropod abundance. Both cover crops and weeds provide habitat for beneficial arthropods. Suitable habitat was less available when intercrop space was left bare. These findings show that cover crops provide the valuable habitat for beneficial arthropods, without the management complications and yield losses associated with high weed pressure. The findings prompt further research on the myriad factors influencing beneficial arthropod abundance in agroecological systems

Technology and industrial competitiveness in developing countries

Technological change engages our attention. I suspect that even those who believe themselves to be essentially ignorant about technology - and perhaps not very interested in it - nevertheless experience,. from time to time, a sense of wonder at the extraordinary things which new technologies are able to do. Perhaps we are as bewitched by technology, and nearly as convinced of its omnipotence as were the Europeans of the last years of the nineteenth century

Administrative Law—Review of Administrative Action by Extraordinary Writ

In State ex rel. Cosmopolis Consol. School Dist. No. 99 v. Bruno, a school district having no high school sought review of the procedure under which its pro-rata contribution to the building program of a neighboring high school district had been determined. The supreme court held that review by extraordinary writ was proper, and two aspects of its decision merit attention because of their implications concerning review of administrative action generally. First, although the district had proceeded under a writ of certiorari, which is by statute restricted to the review of judicial functions, the supreme court in deciding that review was proper gave no consideration to whether the challenged administrative action was judicial or non-judicial in nature. Secondly, reviewability was said to extend to allegedly arbitrary and capricious conduct by the officials, as well as to the legality of the procedure under the controlling statute

Mechanical restitution in isolated human myocardium: A study of underlying mechanisms and myocardial hypertrophy

The phenomenon of mechanical restitution is investigated in isolated strips of human, guinea-pig and ferret ventricular myocardium. Species differences, together with the effects of interventions known to influence the cellular handling of calcium, provide some insight into the mechanisms underlying mechanical restitution. Mechanical restitution in human myocardium is described by three exponential processes; two recovery and one decay. The data presented support the hypothesis that the faster of the two recovery phases represents a combination of recovery of releasable calcium by the sarcoplasmic reticulum and reactivation of the slow inward current. Decay would seem to be a function of trans-sarcolemmal ionic gradients. Hypertrophic human myocardium exhibits a slowed recovery phase of restitution. The data is compatible with the hypothesis that the sarcoplasmic reticulum of hypertrophic human myocardium has a reduced rate of uptake and an increased capacity for calcium. The time course of mechanical restitution provides a possible explanation for a cellular mechanism of pulsus alternans