Teaching Design to Freshmen: Style and Content

This paper describe a freshman course in engineering design that stresses the open-ended and ill-structured nature of design in a project-based context. The projects are chosen in part for their social context and utility. The projects are supplemented by lectures on design methodology and other topics related to engineering practice. Among the deliverables required of the students are proposals, progress reports, and written and oral presentations—the latter to an external design jury as part of a design competition.     

A broad line n.m.r. study of oriented poly(vinylidene fluoride)

Broadline nuclear magnetic resonance measurements have been carried out for the proton resonance in oriented poly(vinylidene fluoride). The spectra in general show two component lines with distinctly different line widths. The broad component shows a high degree of molecular orientation and can be satisfactorily assigned to the crystalline regions of the polymer. The narrow component corresponds to an oriented non crystalline phase which is sufficiently constrained to allow motion about the chain axis only. An appreciable decrease in the value of the rigid mass fraction was observed in both of the samples over the temperature range examined. Our calculations indicate that this could play an important role in the temperature dependence of the pyroelectric response of this material.     

Uncooled DBR laser directly Modulated at 3.125 gb/s as athermal transmitter for low-cost WDM systems

An uncooled three-section tunable distributed Bragg reflector laser is demonstrated as an athermal transmitter for low-cost uncooled wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) systems with tight channel spacing. A /spl plusmn/0.02-nm thermal wavelength drift is achieved under continuous-wave operation up to 70/spl deg/C. Dynamic sidemode suppression ratio of greater than 35 dB is consistently obtained under 3.125-Gb/s direct modulation over a 20/spl deg/C-70/spl deg/C temperature range, with wavelength variation of as low as /spl plusmn/0.2 nm. This indicates that more than an order of magnitude reduction in coarse WDM channel spacing is possible using this source.     

Contamination of facial memory through exposure to misleading composite pictures.

In Exp I, 46 male and 51 female undergraduates witnessed a filmed incident and later described the target. Results show that Ss who observed a composite containing misleading information (either incorrect hair or an added moustache) were significantly more likely to misreport hairstyle and the presence of a moustache than those who did not. In Exp II, 210 17–65 yr old Ss observed a filmed incident and were tested for their recall and recognition of the target either immediately or after delays of 2 or 7 days. Significant bias, consistent with the content of the misleading composite, was present for both cued recall and choice of mug shot in a photo spread. The effect did not increase over delay but was greater when the composite was seen just prior to recall than immediately after the incident. Implications concerning interference with the memory of the witness who produced the composite and for other witnesses exposed to the misleading composite are discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Development of Color Categories in Two Languages: A Longitudinal Study.

This study unites investigations into the linguistic relativity of color categories with research on children's category acquisition. Naming, comprehension, and memory for colors were tracked in 2 populations over a 3-year period. Children from a seminomadic equatorial African culture, whose language contains 5 color terms, were compared with a group of English children. Despite differences in visual environment, language, and education, they showed similar patterns of term acquisition. Both groups acquired color vocabulary slowly and with great individual variation. Those knowing no color terms made recognition errors based on perceptual distance, and the influence of naming on memory increased with age. An initial perceptually driven color continuum appears to be progressively organized into sets appropriate to each culture and language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A site selection model for high technology manufacturing firms in the United States

This article offers a quantitative model for site selection by high technology manufacturing firms. In the past, site selection studies have usually been qualitative in nature, and very subjective. This is an attempt to introduce a more objective quantitative approach. The site selection factors most important to high technology manufacturing firms were identified, ranked and weighted based on a US Joint Economic Committe survey of such firms. The eight most important factors were: the availability of technical and professional workers, labor costs, tax climate, academic institutions, cost of living, transportation for people, and access to markets. Demographic data on these factors were collected and analyzed for 32 developing high technology areas in the United States. By using the quantitative model, a score was developed for each area, allowing them to be ranked as R & D manufacturing environments. This model should prove a useful tool for both regional planners and high-tech companies seeking to relocate.     

The L5178Y/tk+/- mouse lymphoma specific gene and chromosomal mutation assay a phase III report of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Gene-Tox Program

The L5178Y/tk+/- (-)3.7.2C mouse lymphoma assay (MLA) which detects mutations affecting the heterozygous thymidine kinase (tk) locus is capable of responding to chemicals acting as clastogens as well as point mutagens. Improvements in the assay to enhance detection of this spectrum of genetic events are summarized, and criteria for evaluating the data are defined. Using these criteria, the Phase III Work Group reviewed and evaluated literature containing MLA results published from 1976 through 1993. The data base included 602 chemicals of which 343 were evaluated as positive, 44 negative, 18 equivocal, 54 apparently inappropriate for evaluation in this test system with the published protocols, and 142 that were inadequately tested, and thus a definitive call could not be made. The overall performance of the assay is summarized by chemical class, and the outcome of testing 260 chemicals in the MLA is compared with Gene-Tox and National Toxicology Program evaluations of rodent carcinogenesis bioassay results for the same chemicals. Based on the Work Group's evaluation of published MLA data for chemicals that were considered adequately tested, it is concluded that for most chemicals the L5178Y/tk+/- mouse lymphoma assay is eminently well suited for genotoxicity testing and for predicting the potential for carcinogenicity.     

Fracture mechanics of oilseed rape pods

The basic theory of linear elastic fracture mechanics was applied to the fracture of pods from six genetic lines of oilseed rape (Brassica napus). An experiment was designed to allow the energetics of the fracture process to be accurately determined. The work of fracture, toughness and fracture toughness of five experimental varieties and one common commercial variety (Apex) were measured. The values for the toughness (0.006–0.271 kJ m-2) and fracture toughness (0.026–0.233 MN m-3/2) obtained from each line were distinct from each other but broadly similar to those of other brittle materials. The toughness and fracture toughness of Apex were approximately midway between the lowest and highest values measured. This result indicates that there is scope for improving the fracture resistance of oilseed rape crops so as to reduce seed loss before and during harvest. The approach described would be useful in selecting fracture-resistant genetic lines to help to develop such crops. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Bovine petechial fever (Ondiri disease)

This paper describes an efficient computer method for generating three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasonic speckle patterns for sector scans of an annular array with dynamic focusing in both transmit and receive. Assuming random scatterers in an attenuating medium, the system synthesizes the waveform for each scan line using echo data received at all annular elements of the transducer when short pulses are transmitted by one annulus after another. The amount of echo data needed to synthesize one waveform is tremendously reduced by reducing the 3-D distributions of scatterers to line distributions and by representing scatterers on a small line segment by a single equivalent scatterer taking into account the two-way travel time differences. Furthermore, by a judicious 3-D arrangement of the scatterer lines and scan lines, it is possible to synthesize the waveform for a new scan line with negligible computation overhead. The waveforms of the scan lines are detected to obtain a B-mode image or speckle patterns. The patterns obtained on several differently-oriented image planes showed a good statistical agreement with experimentally obtained patterns.