Enhanced flammability of polyurethane foam

Tests indicate that different brands of polyurethane foam will exhibit different burning characteristics when coated with a polystyrene sealer.     

Microbial attack of nitrocellulose

This is a study dealing with the use of a microorganism for partial denitration of the surface of nitrocellulose-based small arms propellants, in order to gain burning rate control. An organism, Aspergillus fumigatus, was found to grow on pyroxylin suspended in a nitrogen deficient, carbon-containing nutrient medium. No growth was observed under the same conditions when carbon was absent. This would indicate that the organism utilized nitrogen from nitrocellulose without attacking the carbon backbone. Further, mechanism studies indicated that the organism did not utilize the nitrogen directly from nitrocellulose, but rather relied on a hydrolysis reaction for a source of nitrogen.     

Image Enhancement of Conventional Transverse-Axial Tomograms

An image processing system for image enhancement of conventional transverse axial tomography (TAT) is described. Conventional TAT means a tomography system in which the X-ray source and X-ray film move in a circular arc about the long axis of the patient, which is a different technique from computerized tomography. In the image processing system described, the original X-ray tomograms are digitized, high-pass filtered, and displayed on a TV monitor. The results of processing several clinical tomograms are shown, and definite improvements in the observed information are noted. The basic technique should be equally applicable to other conventional tomography systems, e.g., linear tomography or hypocycloidal tomography.     

Performance evaluation of asynchronous,modular systems

A theoretical foundation is presented for a practical method of evaluating the expected performance of asynchronous, modular systems. Five basic types of asynchronous control modules are defined, which can be easily implemented using combinatorial logic. These modules can be used to control the execution of digital computations; and the result is a high degree of concurrency with true “speed-independence” (i.e. the correct operation of the system is not dependent on any relative timing assumptions). For such digital computations, methods are presented for estimating the expected execution time and throughput rate. Both deterministic and probabilistic models of computations are considered. For some restricted classes of computations, exact analytical solutions for the execution time are derived and for the general case, upper and lower bounds on the expected execution time are given.     

Pastoral counseling students and secular counseling students: A comparison.

Considers that many counseling authorities are convinced that the clergyman's religious beliefs and values make him more dogmatic toward and less accepting of the client than are secular counselors. To test this contention, 90 secular counseling students and 58 pastoral counseling students were administered the Inventory of Religious Belief, the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale, and the Test of Counselor Attitudes. Group responses were analyzed with t tests and Mann-Whitney U statistics. Although pastoral counseling students had stronger Christian religious beliefs and less nondogmatic openness and flexibility of belief, they responded at a higher level of client acceptance than secular counseling students. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selecting alabama waterway industrial sites for public development

Described is a numerical screening procedure to be used as an aid in determining which sites fronting on Alabama waterways should receive priority in the allocation of public development funds. The presented modeling procedure is an adaptation of a method for the evaluation of waterfront industrial site potential developed by the Regional Economic Development Center (REDC) at Memphis State University. Reasons for the revisions of the REDC effort are explained. In addition, model use procedures are introduced.     

Forced-choice preferences and response latency.

24 males made 66 paired comparisons of 12 stimuli, indicating their preferences on a keyboard and basing their judgments on esthetic considerations. Results indicate a systematic relationship between overt expressions of preference and the time required to indicate this choice on the keyboard. The most preferred stimuli yielded the shortest latencies, while the least preferred stimuli yielded the longest latencies. The present procedure tended to yield a somewhat more linear relationship than did the previous studies employing different conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)