Discovery of Pulsed X-ray Emission from the SMC Transient RX J0117.6-7330

We report on the detection of pulsed, broad-band, X-ray emission from the transient source RX J0117.6-7330. The pulse period of 22 seconds is detected by the ROSAT/PSPC instrument in a 1992 Sep 30 - Oct 2 observation and by the CGRO/BATSE instrument during the same epoch. Hard X-ray pulsations are detectable by BATSE for approximately 100 days surrounding the ROSAT observation (1992 Aug 28 - Dec 8). The total directly measured X-ray luminosity during the ROSAT observation is 1.0E38 (d/60 kpc)^2 ergs s-1. The pulse frequency increases rapidly during the outburst, with a peak spin-up rate of 1.2E-10 Hz s-1 and a total frequency change 1.8%. The pulsed percentage is 11.3% from 0.1-2.5 keV, increasing to at least 78% in the 20-70 keV band. These results establish RX J0117.6-7330 as a transient Be binary system.Comment: 17 pages, Latex, aasms, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

A Multi-Theory Approach to Managing Knowledge Assets: The Case of Complex Professional Human Service Organizations

A multi-theory framework is offered for guiding managerial decision making in complex professional human service organizations; a growing segment of the economy for which the ability to proactively and dynamically manage knowledge assets is naturally critical to performance. Following a call for greater theoretical integration, this framework synthesizes essential and complimentary elements of three theoretical domains. It combines Transaction Economics’ focus on the appropriate procurement of knowledge assets, with Knowledge Management’s focus on how to dynamically unleash the potential of those assets, and Contingency Thinking’s focus on how to structurally harness and direct that potential. Two key “bridging constructs” emerge offering useful insights both for theory and practice: 1) learning systems as a key element of functional design for managing knowledge assets, and 2) learning costs as a key factor in managing the economic structure of knowledge assets. We apply our integrated framework to two professional human services sectors – business education and health service delivery– and discuss broader implications for research and practice

Focused Group Interviews as an Innovative Quanti- Qualitative Methodology (QQM ): Integrating Quantitative Elements into a Qualitative Methodology

There is a sharp divide between quantitative and qualitative methodologies in the social sciences. We investigate an innovative way to bridge this gap that incorporates quantitative techniques into a qualitative method, the “quanti-qualitative method” (QQM). Specifically, our research utilized small survey questionnaires and experiment-like activities as part of the question rout e in a series of five focused group interviews on nutrition education. We show how these quantitative-type activities fit naturally with our question route and contributed to testing the hypotheses within the context of the five important characteristics of focused group interviews. The innovative use of QQM in focused group interviews makes data analysis easier and more transparent and permits collection of richer, more multifaceted data in a cost-effective fashion

Letter from L. H. Boothe

Letter concerning the college choir at Utah Agricultural College

Long-term source monitoring with BATSE

The uncollimated Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) large area detectors (LADs) are well suited to nearly continuous monitoring of the stronger hard x-ray sources, and time series analysis for pulsars. An overview of the analysis techniques presently being applied to the data are discussed, including representative observations of the Crab Nebula, Crab pulsar, and summaries of the sources detected to data. Results of a search for variability in the Crab Pulsar pulse profile are presented

The Burst and Transient Source Experiment Earth Occultation Technique

An Earth orbiting detector sensitive to gamma ray photons will see step-like occultation features in its counting rate when a gamma ray point source crosses the Earth's limb. This is due to the change in atmospheric attenuation of the gamma rays along the line of sight. In an uncollimated detector, these occultation features can be used to locate and monitor astrophysical sources provided their signals can be individually separated from the detector background. We show that the Earth occultation technique applied to the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) is a viable and flexible all-sky monitor in the low energy gamma ray and hard X-ray energy range (20 keV - 1 MeV). The method is an alternative to more sophisticated photon imaging devices for astronomy, and can serve well as a cost-effective science capability for monitoring the high energy sky. Here we describe the Earth occultation technique for locating new sources and for measuring source intensity and spectra without the use of complex background models. Examples of transform imaging, step searches, spectra, and light curves are presented. Systematic uncertainties due to source confusion, detector response, and contamination from rapid background fluctuations are discussed and analyzed for their effect on intensity measurements. A sky location-dependent average systematic error is derived as a function of galactic coordinates. The sensitivity of the technique is derived as a function of incident photon energy and also as a function of angle between the source and the normal to the detector entrance window. Occultations of the Crab Nebula by the Moon are used to calibrate Earth occultation flux measurements independent of possible atmospheric scattering effects.Comment: 39 pages, 24 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement