Effect of composition and processing on the nutritive value of some leguminous seeds

Leguminous seeds are potential protein sources with variable nutritive value because of their amino acid pattern. Their nutritive value may be affected by some nonprotein components: tannins, poorly digestible carbohydrates and antinutritional factors. Some deleterious effects may be avoided by different technological processes developed to eliminate or inactivate the indesirable compounds. Unfortunately, the processes may themselves result in a decrease of the nutritive value of the proteins by making their amino acids unavailable to the animal organism. We studied some of these effects in field beans, soybeans, lupines and peas, using digestibility and growth trials with rats. The samples were used as sole proteins in balanced diets and supplemented with synthetic amino acids to meet the requirements. The significance of differences in apparent digestibilities was estimated from the amino acid composition on the feces using two calculation procedures described previously. These techniques were developed to assess the relative part of the undigestible food and of the intestinal bacteria in the feces. The growth of the animals was compared to a control group eating a fish meal diet. The free amino acids in blood and muscle were estimated in order to emphasize some amino acid unavailability.     

The value of the VaNTH Engineering Research Center

This article summaries some of the project-level assessment and evaluation activities that have been used to assess the value added for innovations that incorporate learning science principles and learning technology underlying the HPL model proposed by Bransford et al. [1]. Based on a counterfactual model of causal analysis, VaNTH investigators have been encouraged to use experimental and quasi-experimental research designs to estimate the "value added" for their innovations. Although some studies have been undertaken with little difficulty, practical constraints have resulted in the need to allow quasi-experimental designs to emerge over time and institutions. By applying the logic, principles, and criteria of a counterfactual causal model, as opposed to a "cookbook" application of designs and statistical procedures, VaNTH investigators have begun to develop a firm knowledge base about the relative effectiveness of their HPL-inspired innovations. The overall effects and differences among studies are being investigated through the use of a statistical technique known as meta-analysis. This article demonstrates that it is possible to assess and evaluate, in a quantitative way, the relative effects of educational innovations in engineering courses. It also demonstrates, albeit in a preliminary fashion, that a broader assessment of the HPL model underlying VaNTH can be undertaken by systematically looking across studies within VaNTH. By implication, the knowledge gained about engineering education from A&E efforts within VaNTH should be much greater than the sum of its parts.     

Self-aligned chemically assisted ion-beam-etched GaAs/(Al,Ga)Asturning mirrors for photonic applications

It is shown that totally reflecting turning mirrors can be fabricated in GaAs/(Al,Ga)As graded-index separate-confinement-heterostructure single-quantum-well (GRIN-SCH SQW) material using Ti metal masking and Cl₂ chemically assisted ion-beam-etching (CAIBE). Combined with ridge waveguides, these techniques have been used to make turning-mirror cleaved-facet lasers that have acceptable external slope efficiencies with a modest estimated increase in threshold current. Scanning electron microscope examination of the mirrors indicates some residual roughness attributed to the edge definition of the deposited titanium film. The mirror loss is estimated to be 68% for these particular turning mirrors. These components, which continue to be developed and improved, are being applied to increasingly sophisticated and demanding photonic programs     

Burning intensity of commercial samples of plastics

A novel way of expressing burning intensity has been derived from burning rate data by varying ambient oxygen and applying additional heat flux to the burning samples.     

Psychology and society: The challenge of change.

Argues that, during the last 15 yrs, a culmination of trends dating from World War II has produced a new configuration of the American economy, occupational and educational structure, and scientific and technical knowledge base. These social and economic trends have provided psychology with 2 identifiable opportunities: (a) expansion of psychology's role in providing clinical services and (b) enlargement of the range of social concerns to which psychological knowledge is applied. Data about psychologists' training, employment, and activities during the last 15 yrs, however, indicate a divided response to the broader social trends. On the one hand, the traditional service provider specialties have enjoyed growth, especially in nonacademic settings. Research specialties, on the other hand, have shown only modest expansion into nonacademic settings despite the contracting market in academia. Graduate programs in the research specialties have only recently begun to devote significant attention to training students for applied research and nonacademic career roles. If that effort continues, the 1980's may witness a growth of the applied research specialties that may rival the growth of the service provider specialties during the 1970's. (85 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Membership opinions about APA: A recent snapshot.

A 1986 survey of 2,100 American Psychological Association (APA) members, to which 78% responded, showed that members belonged to APA for varied reasons and that scientists, scientist-practitioners, and practitioners shared few common rationales for maintaining their membership. Most members belonged to other organizations in addition to APA, and less than 50% of those chose APA as their most important organizational membership. Whereas the APA Monitor and APA journals received a strong endorsement from respondents, the publication of Psychology Today was clearly controversial. The cost and size of the convention also were sources of dissatisfaction. Recommended changes in convention format included scheduling more keynote addresses and establishing area-specific conventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ultrawide-band coherent processing

In this paper, we develop an approach for estimating the ultrawide-band (UWB) radar signature of a target by using sparse subband measurements. First, we determine the parameters of an appropriate signal model that best fits the measured data. Next, the fitted signal model is used to interpolate between and extrapolate outside of the measurement subbands. Standard pulse-compression methods are then applied to provide superresolved range profiles of the target. The algorithm can automatically compensate for lack of mutual coherence between the radar subbands, providing the potential for UWB processing of real-world radar data collected by separate wide-band radars, because the processing preserves the phase distribution across the measured and estimated subbands, extended coherent processing can be applied to the UWB compressed radar pulses to generate superresolved radar images of the target. Applications of this approach to static test range and field data show promising results     

The design of the Boost interval arithmetic library

We present the design of the Boost interval arithmetic library, a C++$++$ library designed to handle mathematical intervals efficiently and in a generic way. Interval computations are an essential tool for reliable computing. Increasingly a number of mathematical proofs have relied on global optimization problems solved using branch-and-bound algorithms with interval computations; it is therefore extremely important to have a mathematically correct implementation of interval arithmetic. Various implementations exist with diverse semantics. Our design is unique in that it uses policies to specify three independent variable behaviors: rounding, checking, and comparisons. As a result, with the proper policies, our interval library is able to emulate almost any of the specialized libraries available for interval arithmetic, without any loss of performance nor sacrificing the ease of use. This library is openly available at www.boost.org.     

A generic lazy evaluation scheme for exact geometric computations

We present a generic C++ design to perform exact geometric computations efficiently using lazy evaluations. Exact geometric computations are critical for the robustness of geometric algorithms. Their efficiency is also important for many applications, hence the need for delaying the costly exact computations at run time until they are actually needed, if at all. Our approach is generic and extensible in the sense that it is possible to make it a library that users can apply to their own geometric objects and primitives. It involves techniques such as generic functor-adaptors, static and dynamic polymorphism, reference counting for the management of directed acyclic graphs, and exception handling for triggering exact computations when needed. It also relies on multi-precision arithmetic as well as interval arithmetic. We apply our approach to the whole geometry kernel of Cgal.     

Impedance boundary conditions for finite planar and curved frequency selective surfaces

We consider the time-harmonic electromagnetic scattering problem from a finite planar or curved, infinitesimally thin, frequency selective surface (FSS), the periodic unit cells of which are constituted, exclusively, by electric conductors and free-space. In order to avoid the meshing of these cells, the problem is solved by employing an integral equation formulation in conjunction with approximate impedance boundary conditions (IBC) prescribed on the sheet that models the FSS. The impedance in the IBC is derived from the exact reflection coefficient calculated, for the fundamental Floquet mode, on the infinite planar FSS illuminated by a plane-wave at a given incidence. When the FSS is curved, and/or the direction of the incident wave is unknown, higher order IBCs are proposed that are valid in a large angular range and can be implemented in a standard method of moments formulation. Also, a simple technique is presented that allows to reproduce the radiating Floquet modes in the scattered field even though those are not accounted for in these IBCs. Their numerical efficiencies are evaluated for a curved strip grating translationally invariant along one direction. Finally, we present an alternative approach where the impedance is approximated by its truncated Fourier series, that considerably enhances the accuracy of the results at the cost, however, of a denser mesh of the sheet.