Rethinking the validity of psychological assessment.

Comments on S. Messick's (see record 1996-10004-001) paper on the validity of psychological assessment. The author discusses the indeterminacy of construct validity, the overzealous scuttling of criterion-relevant validity, the drift away from measure-centered validity, and the need for reestablishing multiple forms of validity. The comments are aimed at combating an air of complacency fostered by the introduction and mounting elaboration of the concept of construct validation. The author concludes that the intractability of psychological measurement needs to be confronted more directly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Policy Analysis, Peer Reviewed: Evaluation of Bioaccumulation Factors in Regulating Metals

Regulations.     

The computer — a new tool for visual art

The article points out some new possibilities for using computers as an instrument for visual art, especially stressing the mathematical method of picture synthesis. It is illustrated with results of recent computer art by Herbert W. Franke and Horst Helbig.     

Scale Transition in Steel-Concrete Interaction. II:?Applications

The proposed mode of consideration of the steel-concrete interaction (Part I) is applied to real-life engineering structures. Two structures recently investigated numerically at Vienna University of Technology are considered: (1) the reinforced concrete (RC) cooling tower III Ptolema?s SES (Greece) and (2) a part of the shotcrete tunnel lining installed at the Lainzer tunnel (Austria). In both examples, the uniaxial fracture criterion used in Part I is replaced by the maximum stress (Rankine) criterion. Together with the Drucker-Prager criterion, which is used for the simulation of compressive failure of concrete/shotcrete, it defines the space of admissible stress states in the framework of multisurface plasticity. For the simulation of early-age fracture of shotcrete, consideration of the steel-concrete interaction presented in Part I of this paper is extended towards young shotcrete. Similar to the benchmark problem investigated in Part I of this paper, several analyses with different degrees of consideration of the steel-concrete interaction are performed. The obtained results give insight into the influence of the steel-concrete interaction on the load-carrying behavior of the investigated structures.     

SuperDense Quantum Teleportation

Recent advances in experimental technique make SuperDense Teleportation (SDT) possible only now, ten years after my first proposal at an ISI Torino summer conference on Quantum Computing. The effect uses remote state preparation to send more state-specifying parameters per bit than ordinary quantum teleportation (QT) can transmit. The SDT uses a maximally entangled state to teleport the relative phases of an n-dimensional state with equal amplitudes on every standard basis vector. For n greater than or equal to 3, the SDT sends more of these state-specifying parameters than QT. In the limit of large n the ratio is 2 to 1, hence the nomenclature by analogy with Super Dense Coding. Alice’s measurements and Bob’s transformations are far simpler than their corresponding operations in QT. The roles of Charles who chooses the state and Diana who deploys it are different than in QT. My discussion includes a brief review of the progress and possibilities of realization for several different experimental approaches around the world. This paper is the write-up of my remarks at the Festschrift conference for Anton Zeilinger, for many years a close collaborator in the Hampshire College NSF grant continuing our work with Mike Horne and Danny Greenberger started under Cliff Shull at MIT in the late 20th century.     

Poetry I: Teaching verse with CAI

The teaching of literature through CAI raises problems of both a linguistic and instructional nature; student involvement and creativity in studying literature, and especially poetry, is difficult to build into a computer-based lesson. We have confronted these difficulties in the lessonPoetry I, which introduces undergraduates to basic concepts of poetic verse in a design using screen display, speech synthesis, and verse processing to maximize interactivity and student involvement.The lesson contains instructional modules which include the student's composition of a limerick. Computational processing of the limerick's text enables the program to offer guidance as the student composes and revises the verse and gains first-hand experience with metrical language. The significant problems inherent in processing verse are addressed by adapting Digital Equipment Corporation's DECTalk speech synthesizer as an engine converting natural language verse text into accessible strings of phonemic symbols. Although the verse processor cannot scan verse, it can interpret DECTalk's symbols reliably enough to successfully stimulate students' thinking about their verse compositions.Preliminary responses to the program have been favorable and demonstrate its effectiveness in involving students more deeply in learning about poetic verse. This suggests that the techniques of verse processing prototyped inPoetry I might be usefully extended to other types of verse and levels of study.W. Webster Newbold is an Assistant Professor of English at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA, who has recently served as English Department Computer Coordinator. His research interests include computer-assisted instruction and computer-based composition.Herbert F. W Stahlke is a Professor of English, specializing in linguistics, and currently serves as Associate Director for Academic Computing, Ball State University Computing Services. His research interests include computer-assisted instruction, natural language processing, and lexical databases.     

Isolation and enzymatic fragmentation of the coeliac-active gliadin peptide CT-1

Summary Investigations on the structure/toxicity relationships of gliadin peptides were continued with the coeliac-active gliadin peptide CT-1, which is derived from the N-terminal portion (residues 3–24 of the amino acid sequence) of-gliadins [this journal (1986) 182:115–117]. CT-1 was produced by chymotryptic digestion and reversed-phase (RP) HPLC from the peptide fraction G3 [this journal (1992) 194:1–6] and digested with the proteases endoproteinase Glu-C, pancreatin, papain and thermolysin. The fragment peptids were separated by preparative RP-HPLC and characterized by amino acid analysis. On the basis of the specifity of the enzymes for CT-1 and the toxic effect of enzymatic hydrolysates of gliadin described in the literature, the significance of partial sequences, in particular of the sequence -Pro-Ser-Gln-Gln-Gln-Pro- for the coeliac-toxicity effect, is discussed.

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Isolierung und enzymatische Fragmentierung des coeliakieaktiven Gliadinpeptids CT-1

Zusammenfassung Die Untersuchungen über die Zusammenhänge zwischen der Struktur von Gliadinpeptiden und ihrer Toxizität wurden mit dem coeliakieaktiven Gliadinpeptid CT-1 fortgesetzt, das aus dem N-terminalen Bereich (Positionen 3–24 der Aminosäuresequenz) von-Gliadinen stammt [diese Zeitschrift (1986) 182:115–117]. CT-1 wurde aus der Peptidfraktion G3 [diese Zeitschrift (1992) 194:1–6] durch chymotryptische Partialhydrolyse und Umkehrphasen-HPLC gewonnen und mit den Proteasen Endoproteinase Glu-C, Pankreatin, Papain und Thermolysin umgesetzt. Die entstandenen Fragmentpeptide wurden durch präparative Umkehrphasen-HPLC getrennt und durch Aminosäurenanalyse charakterisiert. Anhand der Spezifität der Enzyme gegenüber CT-1 und der aus der Literatur bekannten toxischen Wirkung von enzymatischen Gliadinhydrolysaten wird die Bedeutung einzelner Sequenzabschnitte, insbesondere der Sequenz-Pro-Ser-Gln-Gln-Gln-Pro-, für die coeliakiespezifische Wirkung diskutiert.

     

Coeliac activity of the gliadin peptides CT-1 and CT-2

Summary The coeliac active peptide B 3142, which has been isolated from a peptic-tryptic digest of gliadin [1] and which consists of 53 amino-acid sequences [2], was partially hydrolyzed with -chymotrypsin. The two fragment peptides CT-1 (positions 1–22 of B 3142) and CT-2 (positions 23–53) were separated by high-performance liquid chromatography on octadecyl silica gel and purified by gel filtration on Biogel P2. The examination in the organ-culture test including 18 coeliac patients on normal diet and 7 control persons have shown that the toxicity is preserved after the chymotryptic treatment and that the peptides B 3142, CT-1 and CT-2 do not significantly differ from one another according to their coeliac-specific effect.

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Coeliakieaktivitat der Gliadinpeptide CT-1 und CT-2

Zusammenfassung Das coeliakieaktive Peptid B 3142, das aus einem peptisch-tryptischen Partialhydrolysat von Gliadin gewonnen wurde [1] und aus einer Sequenz von 53 Aminosäureresten besteht [2], wurde mit -Chymotrypsin partiell hydrolysiert. Die beiden Fragment-peptide CT-1 (Positionen 1–22 von B 3142) und CT-2 (Positionen 23–53) wurden durch Hochdruckflüssig-keitschromatographie an Octadecyl-Kieselgel aufgetrennt und an Biogel P2 gereinigt. Die Prüfung im Organkultur-Test unter Einbeziehung von 18 Coeliakie-patienten unter Normalkost und von 7 Kontrollpersonen zeigte, daß die Toxizität nach chymotryptischer Spaltung erhalten bleibt, und daß sich die Peptide B 3142, CT-1 und CT-2 in ihrer coeliakiespezifischen Wirkung nicht wesentlich unterscheiden.

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Supported by a grant from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. We gratefully acknowledge the excellent assistance given by Mrs. U. Schützler and Ms. B. Mosler     

A rapid method for the preparation of ganglioside Glac2 (GD3)

A method is described for the preparation of ganglioside G_lac2 [(II³(NeuAc)₂-LacCer, GD3] from cream of bovine milk using liquid-phase extraction with methanol or ethanol followed by anion exchange chromatography. The method is rapid and inexpensive; 1 kg cream, centrifuged from 14–15 L of bovine milk, yields approximately 70 mg of pure ganglioside G_lac2. The sialic acid constituent of ganglioside G_lac2 isolated from bovine milk cream consists solely of theN-acetylneuraminic acid derivative. The major components of its ceramide consist of octadecasphing-4-enine and the 22∶0 (behenic acid) and 23∶0 fatty acids. Short hand notations for gangliosides are according to Wiegandt (Ref. 1). G_lac2, (II³(NeuAc)₂-LacCer) is NeuAcα,8NeuAcα,-3Galβ,4Glcβ,1Cer; G_tet1, (II³NeuAc-Gg₄Cer) is Gal\,3GalNAcβ,-4(NeuAcα,3)Galβ,4Glcβ,1Cer.