Real-time pair-feeding of animals

Automatic pair-feeding system was developed which immediately dispenses same amount of food to control animal as has been consumed by experimental animal that has free access to food. System consists of: master feeding system; slave feeding station; and control mechanism. Technique performs real time pair-feeding without attendant time lag

Automatic real-time pair-feeding system for animals

A pair feeding method and apparatus are provided for experimental animals wherein the amount of food consumed is immediately delivered to a normal or control animal so that there is a qualitative, quantitative and chronological correctness in the pair feeding of the two animals. This feeding mechanism delivers precisely measured amounts of food to a feeder. Circuitry is provided between master and slave feeders so that there is virtually no chance of a malfunction of the feeding apparatus, causing erratic results. Recording equipment is also provided so that an hourly record is kept of food delivery

Tilings of Annular Region

We present our summer research on mathematical tiling. We classified which rectangular annular regions are tileable by the set of T and skew tretrominoes. We present a partial proof of this result, and discuss some of the context for this problem

Competitive Tiling

Competitive tiling consists of two players, a tile set, a region, and a non-negative integer d. Alice and Bob, our two players, alternate placing tiles on the untiled squares of the region. They play until no more tiles can be placed. Alice wins if at most d squares are untiled at the end of the game, and Bob wins if more than d squares are untiled. For given regions and tile sets we are interested in the smallest value of d such that Alice has a winning strategy. We call this the game tiling number. In this project, we focus on finding the game tiling number for the game played with dominoes on 2 x n rectangles, modified 2 x n rectangles, and rectangular annular regions

EXAFS of a tetragonally compressed Cu(II) compound

EXAFS has been used to show that at room temperature in KCuAlF6, the copper(II) centre is in a distorted tetragonally compressed octahedral environment. The bond lengths determined (1.88 (x2), 2.12 (x4) Angstrom) are in good agreement with the X-ray crystal structure

The effects of experimenter-participant interaction qualities in a goal-oriented nonintentional precognition task

Several recent studies, inspired by psi theories such as Stanford’s psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR) model, have employed a tacit precognition protocol to test the notion that extrasensory perception may be nonintentional. After remarkable initial success, outcomes have been more inconsistent. One possible reason for the observed variability in results is that the studies were conducted by different experimenters. The current study therefore addressed a number of dimensions regarding participants’ interaction with either a male or female experimenter. 52 participants took part in 12 nonintentional precognition trials and a positive or negative outcome task contingent on their performance. The total number of precognitive hits was marginally above mean chance expectation but failed to reach statistical significance. There were significant positive correlations between participants’ precognition scores and their ratings of the positivity of their interaction with the experimenter, their rapport with the experimenter, and their level of relaxation. There were also notable differences between the two experimenters with respect to the relationships between their participant-experimenter interaction ratings and participants’ tacit precognition scores; all correlations were in the predicted direction for the female experimenter, but in the opposite direction for the male experimenter

Climatology of Rossby wave breaking along the subtropical tropopause

ABSTRACT Ten years of global analyses from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts are used to investigate the temporal and spatial distributions of Rossby wave breaking (RWB) at 350 K along the tropopause, herein defined by the Ϯ1.5 potential vorticity (PV) unit (10 Ϫ6 K m 2 s Ϫ1 kg Ϫ1 ) contours. Though many studies acknowledge RWB as an important contributor to the complex of mixing processes in the atmosphere, there exists no prior climatological study of its distribution near the tropopause. As in previous studies, RWB is identified in the global analyses by southward directed PV gradients. At 350 K, RWB along the tropopause occurs preferentially during summer over the midoceans, in relative proximity to the planetary-scale high pressure systems in the subtropics. Isentropic trajectories at 350 K show that outflow from the tops of these subtropical highs directly participates in RWB over the adjacent, downstream oceanic regions. Two regions are highlighted in this study: the North Pacific during boreal summer and the South Atlantic during austral summer. Synoptic maps of breaking Rossby waves in these regions are provided to reveal the acute tropopause folding in the meridional plane, which characteristically accompanies RWB. The rich interaction between the tropical flow and the extratropical westerly current exhibited by these cases suggests that the subtropical highs serve as important agents in the coupling between the tropical troposphere and the extratropical stratosphere. As expected from theoretical considerations, the locations where RWB occurs most frequently, known as ''surf zones,'' are shown to coexist with regionally weak time-mean wind speeds and horizontal gradients of PV at 350 K

The relationship between lability and performance at intentional and non-intentional versions of an implicit PMIR-type psi task

A number of theories of psi such as Stanford’s Psi-mediated Instrumental Response (PMIR) model suggest psi can function without a person’s awareness, and that their intent to exhibit psi may be counterproductive. However, few parapsychological studies have directly compared participants’ performance at intentional and non-intentional versions of equivalent tasks. This study sought to address this issue whilst exploring the role of lability, suggested by Stanford to be predictive of a person’s propensity to respond to extrasensory stimuli. Fifty participants took part in both intentional and non-intentional versions of a 10-trial, binary, forced choice precognition task. A contingent outcome task system involving positive pictures as reward for hit trials and negative pictures as punishment for miss trials was administered on a trial-by-trial basis. Participants scored marginally fewer hits than the mean chance expectation in both versions of the task, with no tangible difference in their performance between tasks. Furthermore, no relationship was found between the number of precognitive hits they achieved and their scores on a composite psychometric measure of lability, nor its constituent elements. However, participants’ expectations that their luck could aid their performance, as well as their emotional reactivity, were positively related to their tacit psi scores