Siphonaptera from mammals in Alaska. Supplement IV. Revised check list for southeastern Alaska

The annotated check list grew to 15 taxa with the addition of <i>Opisodasys vesperalis</i> (Jordan) and <i>Chaetopsylla setosa</i> Rothschild, both new for Alaska: <i>Tarsopsylla octodecimdentata coloradensis</i> (Baker), new for southeastern Alaska; and an <i>Oropsylla</i> sp. Nine species of wild mammals and the domestic cat are reported as hosts of fleas in southeastern Alaska for the first time, increasing the total number of mammalian hosts to 25 identified species. Seventy new records for 10 islands and the mainland are combined with published records in a distribution table. Morphological variations in the posterior margin of sternum VII of females of <i>Monopsyllus ciliatus protinus</i> (Jordan) and distinguishing characters of three other taxa are illustrated

Modulations in Multi-Periodic Blue Variables in the LMC

As shown by Mennickent, et al(2003), a subset of the blue variable stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud exhibit brightness variability of small amplitude in the period range 2.4 to 16 days as well as larger amplitude variability with periods of 140 to 600 days, with a remarkably tight relation between the long and the short periods. Our re-examination of these objects has led to the discovery of additional variability. The Fourier spectra of 11 of their 30 objects have 3 or 4 peaks above the noise level and a linear relation of the form f_a = 2(f_b - f_L) among three of the frequencies. An explanation of this relation requires an interplay between the binary motion and that of a third object. The two frequency relations together with the Fourier amplitude ratios pose a challenging modeling problem.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Astrophysical Journal (in press

Book Reviews

Book Reviews Poverty in America by RALPH SELIGMAN and ASOKE BASU Social Development: Conceptual, Methodological and Policy Issues by JOHN F. JONES and RAMA S. PANDEY Single Rooms: Stories of an Urban Subculture by ELLIE WINBERG and TOM WILSON The States of Welfare: A Comparative Analysis of Social Policy by JOAN HIGGIN

Turnabout Time: Public Higher Education in the Commonwealth

Stay the course? Steady as she goes is the wrong prescription for charting the future of public higher education in the Commonwealth. A major course correction is in order if the coalition vital to the system\u27s well-being is to hang together and be strengthened. With sharply divergent views being held by the public at large, political and business leaders, faculties and students--all groups essential to continuing educational progress--mutual accommodations and adjustments are the order of the day. Major changes in finance, institutional missions, curricula, and academic standards for faculty and students alike are imperatives. The classic academic model that has shaped the structure, content, and direction of American higher education for a century and a half--the research university--is no longer sufficient to meet today\u27s economic and social needs in Massachusetts. In some respects it may no longer be necessary. Discovering, defining, and putting in place a new model that commands the support of the key coalition and fits the character of the times should be our overriding aim. Aspiring to a dated model--to be a world-class university--may lift spirits but the ambition lacks content. Specifically, the new priorities for most of the public colleges and universities are to put teaching first, to take service to community and economic development seriously, to focus research investments programmatically, and to be prepared to move increasingly to a technologically-intensive rather than a labor-intensive enterprise. Making this course correction--this turnabout--will require change in the way the state finances education, in the organization and structure of the programs and the curricula offered, in the technology developed, in the criteria applied to evaluate and reward faculty, in the standards used to judge student progress, and in the patterns of collaboration among the public campuses and between the public campuses and those in the private sector

The Written Description Requirement

It is now well accepted that this provision of the 1952 Patent Act (Patent Act) includes a written description requirement that is separate and distinct from the enablement requirement. Thus, a specification may enable one of ordinary skill to make or use a claimed invention, but still not adequately describe the invention in a way that the public knows that the inventor was in possession of the claimed invention at the time of filing the application. For example, a patent specification that discloses various patterns of eight wooden shingles, does not necessarily provide written description for a claim amendment that recites “at least six shingles,” even though the specification would enable one so inclined to construct a panel of at least six wooden shingles. However, it was not entirely clear from the language of the Patent Act itself that there was a written description requirement separate and distinct from the enablement requirement. The well-accepted understanding that these are separate and distinct requirements flows from judicial decisions, and not the text of the Patent Act itself

Density Range of Compression-Molded Polypropylene-Wood Composites

Wood and polypropylene fibers were mixed together in various proportions and compression-molded to boards of various specific gravities. The full theoretical specific gravity range could not be obtained even when the boards were cooled in the press. Voids surrounding the wood fibers possibly were due to the shrinkage of the wood fiber following pressing. Bending and tension properties were influenced more by the compression of the wood fibers than by the percentage of wood fiber addition