Thermal monitoring, measurement, and control system for a Volatile Condensable Materials (VCM) test apparatus

A thermal monitoring and control concept is described for a volatile condensable materials (VCM) test apparatus where electric resistance heaters are employed. The technique is computer based, but requires only proportioning ON/OFF relay control signals supplied through a programmable scanner and simple quadrac power controllers. System uniqueness is derived from automatic temperature measurements and the averaging of these measurements in discrete overlapping temperature zones. Overall control tolerance proves to be better than + or - 0.5 C from room ambient temperature to 150 C. Using precisely calibrated thermocouples, the method provides excellent temperature control of a small copper VCM heating plate at 125 + or - 0.2 C over a 24 hr test period. For purposes of unattended operation, the programmable computer/controller provides a continual data printout of system operation. Real time operator command is also provided for, as is automatic shutdown of the system and operator alarm in the event of malfunction

Mechanical strain induces growth of vascular smooth muscle cells via autocrine action of PDGF.

The effect of cyclic mechanical strain on growth of neonatal rat vascular smooth muscle (VSM) cells were examined. Cells were grown on silicone elastomer plates subjected to cyclic strain (60 cycle/min) by application of a vacuum under the plates. A 48 h exposure to mechanical strain increased the basal rate of thymidine incorporation by threefold and increased cell number by 40% compared with cells grown on stationary rubber plates. Strain also increased the rate of thymidine incorporation in response to alpha-thrombin (from 15- to 33-fold), but not to PDGF. As determined by thymidine autoradiography, strain alone induced a fourfold increase in labeled nuclei at the periphery of dishes, where strain is maximal, and a 2-3-fold increase at the center of dishes. Strain appeared to induce the production of an autocrine growth factor(s), since conditioned medium from cells subjected to strain induced a fourfold increase in DNA synthesis in control cells. Western blots of medium conditioned on the cells subjected to strain indicate that the cells secrete both AA and BB forms of PDGF in response to strain. Northern blots of total cell RNA from cells exposed to strain for 24 h show increased steady-state level of mRNA for PDGF-A. Lastly, polyclonal antibodies to the AA form of PDGF reduced by 75% the mitogenic effect of strain and polyclonal antibodies to AB-PDGF reduced mitogenicity by 50%. Antibodies to bFGF did not significantly reduce the strain-induced thymidine incorporation. Thus, the mechanism of strain-induced growth appears to involve the intermediary action of secreted PDGF

シェイクスピアとコロニアリズム

平成12年度第一回研究座談

Analogical Problem Solving: An Exploratory Analysis of the Facilitating Effects of Type of Training, Analog Type, and Level of Expertise on Spontaneous Transfer

Research on analogical problem solving has delineated several factors that impact one\u27s ability to spontaneously generate a correct solution strategy to a target problem. These factors include, but are not limited to, type of analogy provided to subjects (i.e., partial versus complete), the level of isomorphism between analogies and target problems, and the solver\u27s level of analogical problem-solving expertise Recently, researchers have begun to focus on providing solvers with direct instruction on analogical problem-solving processes and strategies in an effort to augment analogical problem-solving ability. The most common type of instruction (i.e., teacher-generated) involves providing direct instruction on problem-solving processes and strategies without input from the solver. A second type of instruction (i.e., learner-generated) that has gained some attention in the literature but has not yet been tested in the realm of analogical problem solving involves learners actively participating in developing analogical problem-solving strategies while being guided by the instructor. Using an experimental design. the present study examined the differential effects of type of analogue (i.e., partial versus complete), level of expertise (i.e., novice versus expert). and type of training (teacher-generated, learner-generated, or no training) on spontaneous generation of correct solution strategies to two target problems. Findings indicate that solvers. regardless of training group or ability level. were better able to solve the target problem to the complete analogies than the target problem to the partial analogies. x2 (1, N = 116) = 18, p \u3c .001; d = .85. Moreover, there was no advantage for expert solvers to participate in problem-solving training. However. when examining novice solvers. findings indicate that direct instruction on problem-solving processes and strategies resulted in better performance when solving the partial analogy than did no instruction (d = .61). Also, active participation in the learning process resulted in better performance when solving the partial analogy than did no instruction (d = .80). Limitations of the study, implications for educators, and recommendations for future studies are provided

IX. Hue difference and flicker photometer speed

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Analogical Problem Solving: The Differential Impact of Type of Training, Amount of Practice, and Type of Analogy On Spontaneous Transfer

Research on analogical problem solving has delineated several factors that impact one\u27s ability to spontaneously generate a correct solution strategy to a target problem. These factors include, but are not limited to, type of analogy provided to subjects (i.e., partial versus complete), the level of analogical problem-solving expertise, and the absence of or type of analogical problem-solving training (i.e., teacher-generated or learner-generated) provided to learners. Recently, researchers have begun to focus on providing solvers with multiple practice opportunities and extending these opportunities over a systematically distributed period of time. When combined with analogical problem-solving training, these factors will augment the learner\u27s ability to spontaneously generate a correct solution strategy to both complete and partial target problems. Using an experimental design, the present study examined the differential effects of type of analogue (partial versus complete), type of training (teacher-generated, learner-generated, or no training), and length of training (condensed versus extended) on novice learners\u27 ability to spontaneously generate correct solution strategies to two target problems. Findings indicate that, on the complete target problem, regardless of training group membership, no effect over control group participants was found. Partial target problem results indicate a slight advantage for participating in the learner-generated extended training group over no training. Also on the partial target problem, a moderate advantage was found for participating in the learner-generated extended training group over the condensed training. Limitations of the study, implications for educators, and recommendations for future studies are provided

A photo-micrographic device

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Reconciling while Tolerating Disagreement in Collaborative Data Sharing

In many data sharing settings, such as within the biological and biomedical communities, global data consistency is not always attainable: different sites\u27 data may be dirty, uncertain, or even controversial. Collaborators are willing to share their data, and in many cases they also want to selectively import data from others - but must occasionally diverge when they disagree about uncertain or controversial facts or values. For this reason, traditional data sharing and data integration approaches are not applicable, since they require a globally \emph{consistent} data instance. Additionally, many of these approaches do not allow participants to make updates; if they do, concurrency control algorithms or inconsistency repair techniques must be used to ensure a consistent view of the data for all users. In this paper, we develop and present a fully decentralized model of collaborative data sharing, in which participants publish their data on an ad hoc basis and simultaneously reconcile updates with those published by others. Individual updates are associated with provenance information, and each participant accepts only updates with a sufficient authority ranking, meaning that each participant may have a different (though conceptually overlapping) data instance. We define a consistency semantics for database instances under this model of disagreement, present algorithms that perform reconciliation for distributed clusters of participants, and demonstrate their ability to handle typical update and conflict loads in settings involving the sharing of curated data

A New Design of Flicker Photometer for Laboratory Colored Light Photometry

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New two-sided bound on the isotropic Lorentz-violating parameter of modified Maxwell theory

There is a unique Lorentz-violating modification of the Maxwell theory of photons, which maintains gauge invariance, CPT, and renormalizability. Restricting the modified-Maxwell theory to the isotropic sector and adding a standard spin-one-half Dirac particle p^\pm with minimal coupling to the nonstandard photon \widetilde{\gamma}, the resulting modified-quantum-electrodynamics model involves a single dimensionless "deformation parameter," \widetilde{\kappa}_{tr}. The exact tree-level decay rates for two processes have been calculated: vacuum Cherenkov radiation p^\pm \to p^\pm \widetilde{\gamma} for the case of positive \widetilde{\kappa}_{tr} and photon decay \widetilde{\gamma} \to p^+ p^- for the case of negative \widetilde{\kappa}_{tr}. From the inferred absence of these decays for a particular high-quality ultrahigh-energy-cosmic-ray event detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory and an excess of TeV gamma-ray events observed by the High Energy Stereoscopic System telescopes, a two-sided bound on \widetilde{\kappa}_{tr} is obtained, which improves by eight orders of magnitude upon the best direct laboratory bound. The implications of this result are briefly discussed.Comment: 18 pages, v5: published version in preprint styl