The Development of an Automated Program for the Optimal Design of Bulk Cushioning Systems

This paper presents an automated approach to the design of bulk cushioning systems. The developed code can be utilized in package and shipping container design, and other impact absorption applications. A model of impact response is developed and its validity demonstrated through statistical testing. The model is then used as the objective program for a sequential search procedure that searches out the best cushion design.     

A live recombinant avirulent oral Salmonella vaccine expressing pneumococcal surface protein A induces protective responses against Streptococcus pneumoniae

A live oral recombinant Salmonella vaccine strain expressing pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA) was developed. The strain was attenuated with Deltacya Deltacrp mutations. Stable expression of PspA was achieved by the use of the balanced-lethal vector-host system, which employs an asd deletion in the host chromosome to impose an obligate requirement for diaminopimelic acid. The chromosomal Deltaasd mutation was complemented by a plasmid vector possessing the asd+ gene. A portion of the pspA gene from Streptococcus pneumoniae Rx1 was cloned onto a multicopy Asd+ vector. After oral immunization, the recombinant Salmonella-PspA vaccine strain colonized the Peyer's patches, spleens, and livers of BALB/cByJ and CBA/N mice and stimulated humoral and mucosal antibody responses. Oral immunization of outbred New Zealand White rabbits with the recombinant Salmonella strain induced significant anti-PspA immunoglobulin G titers in serum and vaginal secretions. Polyclonal sera from orally immunized mice detected PspA on the S. pneumoniae cell surface as revealed by immunofluorescence. Oral immunization of BALB/cJ mice with the PspA-producing Salmonella strain elicited antibody to PspA and resistance to challenge by the mouse-virulent human clinical isolate S. pneumoniae WU2. Immune sera from orally immunized mice conferred passive protection against otherwise lethal intraperitoneal or intravascular challenge with strain WU2.     

Human resources development for communications in the Third World

This article summarizes Third World prospects for the development of human resources in communication programs. The discussion examines the structural causes of high demand for development of human resources. Also studied are pressures that stem from the dense populations in the regions, the cultural and linguistic diversity faced by their peoples, and the global media explosion. The shortage of suitable staff for communication programs has become chronic in most non-industrialized regions, making human resource development a high priority for media and other information services.     

Biographical constructs for predicting employee suitability.

The use of background investigation data in personnel screening is reviewed. Background investigations are routinely conducted on persons seeking positions of trust in law enforcement, the nuclear power industry, and military and civilian occupations requiring government-issued security clearances. The application of background investigation information in personnel screening differs in many important ways from biodata applications developed by psychologists. In this article, these differences are reviewed, and the construct and criterion-related validity of a survey-based measure are examined. This measure taps content domains typically explored in background investigations. Seven background factors were identified. The background scales showed acceptable reliability, informative interscale relationships, and useful levels of criterion-related validity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analytic investigation of cognitive ability in employment interview evaluations: Moderating characteristics and implications for incremental validity.

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the extent to which employment interview evaluations reflect cognitive ability. A meta-analysis of 49 studies found a corrected mean correlation of .40 between interview ratings and ability test scores, suggesting that on average about 16% of the variance in interview constructs represents cognitive ability. Analysis of several design characteristics that could moderate the relationship between interview scores and ability suggested that (a) the correlation with ability tends to decrease as the level of structure increases; (b) the type of questions asked can have considerable influence on the magnitude of the correlation with ability; (c) the reflection of ability in the ratings tends to increase when ability test scores are made available to interviewers; and (d) the correlation with ability generally is higher for low-complexity jobs. Moreover, results suggest that interview ratings that correlate higher with cognitive ability tend to be better predictors of job performance. Implications for incremental validity are discussed, and recommendations for selection strategies are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning with analogy and elaborative interrogation.

Previous work has found that embedding analogy in a text improves accurate inferencing, but at the expense of factual learning of newly learned scientific concepts. This study explored the possibility of eliminating the decrease in factual learning by combining analogy with key-word highlighting, pictorial schematics, or elaborative interrogation. Schematics had no effect on either factual or inference learning. Combining key-word highlighting with analogy increased factual learning to levels comparable with those found in the literal-text conditions. Elaborative interrogation produced robust gains in both factual and inference learning, regardless of whether the technique was combined with analogy. These results represent an extension of the situations in which elaborative interrogation produces potent learning benefits and emphasizes its potential over alternative instructional methods. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associative tolerance to nicotine analgesia in the rat: Tail-flick and hot-plate tests.

Previous assessments of associative nicotine tolerance may have confounded associative effects with novelty-induced stress effects, instrumental learning effects, or both. That is, subjects were tested in novel environments, allowed to practice the test response, or both during the tolerance development phase. In the first study, 32 male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected with various doses of nicotine and tested for nociception in the tail-flick and hot-plate tests to assess nicotine's analgesic effects. In the second study, 35 rats received nicotine explicitly paired or unpaired with a distinctive test context. All animals were equally preexposed to the test environment, and none had the opportunity to practice the test response. Paired rats developed greater nicotine tolerance than unpaired rats. This context-dependent (associative) tolerance effect was found with both tail-flick and hot-plate tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of Operator Stance on Pushing and Pulling Tasks

A considerable amount of research has been done to determine the magnitudes of forces man can exert on loads. However, very little has been done to determine the optimum configurations an operator should assume in front of a load to be most effective. This paper presents the methodology and results of an investigation concerning these skeletal configurations and selects an optimum for pushing as well as pulling of loads. In addition, a biomechanical analysis of the forces and torques developed at various joints is included.     

Transport properties of gaseous ions over a wide energy range. Part III

This paper updates and extends in scope our two previous papers entitled “Transport Properties of Gaseous Ions over a Wide Energy Range.” The references to the earlier publications (referred to as “Part I” and “Part II”) are I, H. W. Ellis, R. Y. Pai, E. W. McDaniel, E. A. Mason, and L. A. Viehland,Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables17, 177–210 (1976); and II, H. W. Ellis, E. W. McDaniel, D. L. Albritton, L. A. Viehland, S. L. Lin, and E. A. Mason,Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables22, 179–217 (1978). Parts I and II contained compilations of experimental data on ionic mobilities and diffusion coefficients (both longitudinal and transverse) for ions in neutral gases (almost exclusively at room temperature) in an externally applied field. The data were tabulated as a function of the ionic energy parameter E/N, where E is the electric field intensity and N is the number density of the gas. The coverage of the literature extended up to about August 1978. The criteria for selection of the mobility and diffusion data were (1) the measurements must cover a reasonably wide range of E/N, (2) the identity of the ions must be well established, and (3) the accuracy of the data must be good. Recent important development in the transport theory of gaseous ions were outlined, and utilized to derive quantities from the experimental data that are useful in various applications.The present paper (Part III) extends all aspects of Parts I and II into 1983. In addition, here we compile zero-field mobilities as a function of the gas temperature, zero-field mobilities at fixed gas temperatures, and ratios of the transverse diffusion coefficient to the mobility as a function of E/N. In this compilation we include some experimental data obtained without mass spectrometric selection of the ions, but only in cases where there is little or no uncertainty about the identity of the ions and no confusion related to ion-molecule reactions on the part of the drifting ions.