The effect of on/off indicator design on state confusion, preference, and response time performance, executive summary

Investigated are five designs of software-based ON/OFF indicators in a hypothetical Space Station Power System monitoring task. The hardware equivalent of the indicators used in the present study is the traditional indicator light that illuminates an ON label or an OFF label. Coding methods used to represent the active state were reverse video, color, frame, check, or reverse video with check. Display background color was also varied. Subjects made judgments concerning the state of indicators that resulted in very low error rates and high percentages of agreement across indicator designs. Response time measures for each of the five indicator designs did not differ significantly, although subjects reported that color was the best communicator. The impact of these results on indicator design is discussed

On Primordial Magnetic Fields of Electroweak Origin

We consider Vachaspati's primordial magnetic field which is generated at the electroweak phase transition. Assuming that either the gradients of the Higgs field or, alternatively, the magnetic field itself are stochastic variables with a normal distribution, we find that the resulting magnetic field has an {\em rms} value in the present-day universe which is fully consistent with what is required for the galactic dynamo mechanism.Comment: 11 pages, Latex, no figures. Preprint NBI-HE-93-3

Sludge management paradigms: impact of priority substances and priority hazardous substances

As a by-product of treatment processes, municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) generate large quantities of sludge, with sludge treatment focused on sterilisation, volume reduction and biogas production. Whilst the EU Sewage Sludge Directive sets limits on the concentrations of selected metals in sludge applied to agricultural land, the potential impact of many EU Water Framework Directive priority and priority hazardous substances (PS/PHS) on human or environmental health has yet to be fully addressed. Research presented here shows that treated sludge from five urban WWTPs experiencing differing local conditions contain a range of PS/PHS including substances whose use has been banned or heavily restricted. Concentrations reported in this study do not exceed the limit values set for the four PS/PHS currently included in the EU Sewage Sludge Directive. However, more stringent national limits are exceeded. The basis for developing and applying Predicted No Effect Concentration (PNEC) values for the application of sludge to agricultural land is still unclear. However, comparison between PS/PHS sludge concentrations and available PNEC soil values clearly indicate the need for further research. Implications and research priorities arising from these findings in terms of achieving compliance with EU Sewage Sludge and Water Framework Directives are discussed

Surround control of center adaptation in the receptive fields of frog retinal ganglion

The sensitivity and intensity-response [R (log I)] functions of the receptive field center were determined by extracellular recording from frog retinal ganglion cells. The object was to study the steady-state adapting effects of peripheral background patterns: steady annuli and spinning “windmills” of light. Steady annular backgrounds could not be shown to directly effect any change of center responsiveness, only an enhancement of late response components attributable to depression of surround sensitivity. Movement of a windmill pattern shifted R(log I) functions to higher log intensities and decreased the maximal number of spikes in the response, but did not depress the saturation level of the impulse frequency. Its action thus resembled direct light-adaptation of the center

Receptive fields of frog retinal ganglion cells : response formation and light-dark-adaptation

1. The excitatory and inhibitory receptive field mechanisms of retinal ganglion cells were studied by extracellular recording from the eyecup of Rana temporaria in order to elucidate the nature of adaptational changes in the functioning of the receptive field. 2. The responses to large stimuli were always strongly depressed relative to responses evoked by smaller spots. This was true even in the fully dark-adapted state and at the very lowest stimuli intensities. 3. Threshold measurements confirmed earlier findings, usually revealing the surround only in light-adapted states. However, in more than 10% of fully dark-adapted cells thresholds to large stimuli were significantly elevated. 4. The central summation area of the receptive field was found to shrink with light-adaptation. There was a gradual decrease in diameters, amounting to some 20-30%, from the dark-adapted, rod-determined receptive fields to the cone-determined ones. 5. Adaptation by bleaching and adaptation by backgrounds changed the effects of the surround in different ways. After a rhodopsin bleach the transition from a light-adapted to a dark-adapted situation was seen as an abrupt drop of large-stimulus thresholds at some time during adaptation. Steady backgrounds produced no such dramatic changes, but the increment threshold lines were somewhat steeper with test spots stimulated the surround than with smaller spots. 6. Although the discharge patterns generally show the strength of the surround influence, they underwent no qualitative change at the time of the drop of large-stimulus thresholds after a bleach. 7. It is suggested that the drop does not reflect a sudden reorganization of the receptive field, but is the consequence of the different ways the response to large stimuli are formed in different ranges of stimulus intensity (pre-inhibitory at high intensities, post-inhibitory at low intensities), and of gradual changes in signal dynamics