Evaluation methods for improving CAL materials

The main objective of the study was to develop systematic methods for improving CAL materials by comparing the five coursewares which were produced by independent authors and related to high school mathematics, science and engineering. Various kinds of evaluation were undertaken before, immediately before, during and immediately after CAL implementation; e.g. evaluators check on the drafts for courseware; evaluators check on the problems encountered in each frame while studying at the terminals; the readiness, pre- and post-tests; an anxiety scale; questionnaires for assessing any difficulties with learning in each chapter and each course; the course test; an image scale, an attitude scale and a line-connecting type of content analysis. Each courseware was evaluated and compared with others on the basis of the data analysis of tests and questionnaires as well as the learning history records, e.g., total learning duration, total number of passed frames, frequency of use of function keys, actual transitive path graph, actual average branch ratio, relative entropy in each frame and the index of educational effectiveness. A number of important evaluation items were selected by factor analysis. Finally an evaluation package instrument for improving CAL courseware were developed.     

Additional evidence for hydrophobic bond formation in the adsorption of sulfanilamide on bio-gel beads

Of 127 patients with primary neoplasms of the scrotal wall 10 had a solitary leiomyoma arising from the tunica dartos. These benign asymptomatic lesions occur in middle-age white men and are often incorrectly diagnosed. Simple surgical excision is curative. The 11th case is described because of the malignant course that followed irradiation. A cell arising from single smooth muscle cells within the corium is proposed as the cell of origin.     

Synthesis of a high pressure phase of FePO4

A CrVO₄ type FePO₄ polymorph with a=5.227, b=7.770 and $\text{c}\text{=6.322}\text{A}\text{?}$ has been synthesized at 50 kb and 900° C. The density is 3.90 g/cc, and increase of 22.6% over the quartz modification. The results of magnetic and Mossbauer effect measurements indicate that iron ions are in the high spin trivalent state in both phases. The quadrupole splitting of 1.90 mm/sec for Fe³⁺ of the high pressure phase is much larger than the 0.60 mm/sec for low pressure phase.     

Surgical therapy in a case of congenital mitral valve insufficiency]

Using sheep erythrocytes (SRBC) as the antigen, two subpopulations of spleen antigen-binding lymphocytes could be distinguished by a marked difference in the susceptibility of their receptors to trypsin. In unimmunized animals, 30% of the antigen-binding cells were trypsin-resistant, whereas at 5 days after immunization, 80-90% were trypsin-resistant, indicating an increase of about 50-fold in trypsin-resistant antigen-binding cells per spleen. In contrast, trypsin-sensitive cells per spleen were only 4-fold higher on day 5 than before immunization. The rise in % trypsin sensitivity preceded the increase in rosettes per spleen, implying that immunization produced a preferential increase in trypsin-resistant antigen binding cells partly by converting sensitive cells to resistant cells. After the 5th day, the trypsin sensitivity of antigen-binding cells slowly returned toward the unimmunized level, but a booster injection of SRBC restored trypsin resistance. Trypsin resistance was not lost in the presence of sodium azide or protein synthesis inhibitors. But a slightly increased trypsin susceptibility was conferred by 2-deoxyglucose, implying that glycolysis or the glycosylation of protein may be involved in maintaining trypsin resistance.     

Hormonal regulation in cardiac function--endocrine, paracrine, autocrine

The vasoactive peptide hormones, such as endothelin, renin-angiotensin, and endothelium-derived relaxing factor, have traditionally been viewed as an endocrine system. Recent data demonstrate that their genes and their products are expressed at many local tissue sites. The concept that multiple tissues synthesis peptides has changed out understanding of the physiology of peptide hormone, and this indicated that the autocrine and paracrine system may be important in the regulation of local tissue functions in addition to the circulation endocrine system. Patients with congestive heart failure had markedly higher circulating endothelin-1 level than normal subjects, associated with an activated renin-angiotensin system. Endothelium-dependent vasodilation is attenuated in patients with heart failure. This impaired local vasodilation may contribute to abnormalities in vasoconstriction that are characteristic of heart failure.     

Focusing characteristics of a wide-striped laser diode integratedwith a microlens

We developed a wide-striped laser diode integrated with a microlens that provides good focusing characteristics through a small focusing spot. We calculated and demonstrated that a 60-μm-wide core and a 1.9-μm-high ridge is the best structure for fundamental index-guiding mode oscillation of a wide-striped laser diode. We integrated a wide-striped laser diode with the developed microlens in the Fresnel diffraction held, and demonstrated that a device with a 60-μm-wide core has a minimum focusing spot width of 2.0 μm in the horizontal direction. Also, we estimated the wavefront in the Fresnel diffraction field from the working distance error of a lens designed for a collimated incident beam, and showed that the working distance error, focusing spot width, and sidelobe can be improved by this estimated wavefront