Public Opinion in Perspective: Wisconsin's Mind on Education

Outlines survey findings on Wisconsin residents' views on the quality of public schools and reforms including increased spending, accountability, vouchers, charter schools, online education, and merit pay, compared with Milwaukee and national surveys

Composite Flexible Blanket Insulation

Composite flexible multilayer insulation systems (MLI) were evaluated for thermal performance and compared with the currently used fibrous silica (baseline) insulation system. The systems described are multilayer insulations consisting of alternating layers of metal foil and scrim ceramic cloth or vacuum metallized polymeric films quilted together using ceramic thread. A silicon carbide thread for use in the quilting and the method of making it are also described. These systems are useful in providing lightweight insulation for a variety of uses, particularly on the surface of aerospace vehicles subject to very high temperatures during flight

Additive factors and stages of mental processes in task networks.

To perform a task a subject executes mental processes. An experimental manipulation, such as a change in stimulus intensity, is said to selectively influence a process if it changes the duration of that process leaving other process durations unchanged. For random process durations a definition of a factor selectively influencing a process by increments is given in terms of stochastic dominance (also called “the usual stochastic order”. A technique for analyzing reaction times, Sternberg\u27s Additive Factor Method, assumes all the processes are in series. When all processes are in series, each process is called a stage. With the Additive Factor Method, if two experimental factors selectively influence two different stages by increments, the factors will have additive effects on reaction time. An assumption of the Additive Factor Method is that if two experimental factors interact, then they influence the same stage. We consider sets of processes in which some pairs of processes are sequential and some are concurrent (i. e., the processes are partially ordered). We propose a natural definition of a stage for such sets of processes. For partially ordered processes, with our definition of a stage, if two experimental factors selectively influence two different processes by increments, each within a different stage, then the factors have additive effects. If each process selectively influenced by increments is in the same stage, then an interaction is possible, although not inevitable

Work and energy in inertial and non inertial reference frames

It is usual in introductory courses of mechanics to develop the work and energy formalism from Newton's laws. On the other hand, literature analyzes the way in which forces transform under a change of reference frame. Notwithstanding, no analogous study is done for the way in which work and energy transform under those changes of reference frames. We analyze the behavior of energy and work under such transformations and show explicitly the expected invariance of the formalism under Galilean transformations for one particle and a system of particles. The case of non inertial systems is also analyzed and the fictitious works are characterized. In particular, we show that the total fictitious work in the center of mass system vanishes even if the center of mass defines a non inertial frame. Finally, some subtleties that arise from the formalism are illustrated by examples.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. LaTeX2e. Part of the approach has been changed but results are unaltered. Version to appear im American Journal of Physic

Digital demodulator-correlator

An apparatus for demodulation and correlation of a code modulated 10 MHz signal is presented. The apparatus is comprised of a sample and hold analog-to-digital converter synchronized by a frequency coherent 40 MHz pulse to obtain four evenly spaced samples of each of the signal. Each sample is added or subtracted to or from one of four accumulators to or from the separate sums. The correlation functions are then computed. As a further feature of the invention, multipliers are each multiplied by a squarewave chopper signal having a period that is long relative to the period of the received signal to foreclose contamination of the received signal by leakage from either of the other two terms of the multipliers

Communications Biophysics

Contains reports on two research projects

Stochastic PERT networks as models of cognition: Derivation of the mean, variance, and distribution of reaction time using Order-of-Processing (OP) diagrams

It is frequently assumed that the mental activity which leads to a given response is made up of separable components or processes. One or more of the processes are assumed to contribute to the time required to respond. Computation of the mean, variance, and distribution of the reaction time is relatively straightforward when all processes are arranged in series or parallel. However, such is not the case when the processes have complex arrangements. A solution to a useful special case of the above problem is proposed. Specifically, it is shown that simple computations yield closed form expressions for the mean, variance, and distribution of reaction time when the processes can be arranged in a stochastic PERT network and when the durations of individual processes are sums of mutually independent, exponentially distributed random variables. The method of solution relies on the construction of an Order-of-Processing (OP) diagram from the original PERT network representation of behavior.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25195/1/0000634.pd