Cluster Interpretation of Properties of Alternating Parity Bands in Heavy Nuclei

The properties of the states of the alternating parity bands in actinides, Ba, Ce and Nd isotopes are analyzed within a cluster model. The model is based on the assumption that cluster type shapes are produced by the collective motion of the nuclear system in the mass asymmetry coordinate. The calculated spin dependences of the parity splitting and of the electric multipole transition moments are in agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figure

Evidence that both nitric oxide (NO) and a non-NO hyperpolarizing factor elicit NANC nerve-mediated relaxation in the rat isolated anococcygeus

1. Responses to electrical field stimulation (EFS; 0.5–10 Hz, 0.2 ms duration, supramaximal voltage for 20 s) of non-adrenergic, non-cholinergic, (NANC) nerves were obtained in preparations of rat anococcygeus pre-contracted with titrated concentrations of phenylephrine (0.1–1 μM) to ∼40% of their maximum contraction to phenylephrine (F(max)) regardless of drug treatment. 2. With this set level of active force, NANC nerve stimulation resulted in relaxations that were maximal (peak relaxation) at 0.5–1 Hz, abolished by tetrodotoxin (1 μM) but only minimally blocked by the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor, N(G)-nitro-L-arginine, (L-NOARG; 100 μM). Furthermore, the nitric oxide (NO) scavenger, oxyhaemoglobin (HbO; 30 μM) gave no further block alone or in combination with L-NOARG (100 μM). By comparison, in preparations contracted with phenylephrine to ∼70% F(max), relaxations to NANC nerve stimulation were markedly reduced or abolished by combined treatment with L-NOARG (100 μM) and HbO (30 μM). 3. Nifedipine (0.3 μM) significantly inhibited NANC nerve-mediated relaxations, which became frequency-dependent and abolished those resistant to L-NOARG (100 μM) and HbO (30 μM). 4. These data suggest that a non-NO, hyperpolarizing factor and NO both contribute to NANC nerve-mediated inhibitory responses in the rat anococcygeus. However, responses to the non-NO factor were observed only in preparations contracted sub-maximally by a nifedipine-sensitive mechanism

Towards action and power: post-enlightenment pragmatism

The prologue to the development of educational philosophy outlined recently by Kaminsky (1992) challenged me to think about an epilogue. Is philosophy of education in the 1990s dead in the water or can it contribute dynamically to issues in contemporary research, policy and practice? What I propose to do in this article is to build from Kaminsky's outline of the period 1861-1914 by considering the role of educational philosophy in the period marked by the opposite, the dismantling of modernism in the 1990s. I wish to describe the form of philosophy I see as most appropriate to us now as post-enlightenment pragmatism [pEp] and indicate, in a programmatic style, the ways in which PEP can help educational workers move towards action and power relevant to our new conditions. While this article is exploratory and polemical, the final section refers to specific empirical studies, undertaken over the last 10 years and reported in detail elsewhere that inform the assertions made in earlier sections