Showing papers by "University of Massachusetts Boston published in 1989"

Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective

Abstract: This study deals with the linguistic study of texts as a way of understanding how language functions in its immensely varied range of social contexts. The authors adopt a functional approach to language, in which the different registers or functional varieties of a language are explained by reference to the different contexts in which they occur. Their analysis reveals how, on the one hand, each text is unique, while on the other, the way a text is organized and the kinds of coherence it displays are closely related to the place and the value that it has in its social and cultural environment.

Research Methods in Occupational Epidemiology

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Characterizing the workplace environment 3. Overview of study designs 4. Precision and validity in study design 5. Cohort studies 6. Case-control studies 7. Cross-sectional and repeated measure studies 8. Occupational health surveillance 9. Advanced statistical analysis 10. Exposure and dose modelling 11. Special applications of occupational epidemiology

Insight in schizophrenia. Its relationship to acute psychopathology.

Abstract: The relationship between insight and acute psychopathology was explored in a group of 52 acutely psychotic, schizophrenic patients. A measure of insight, reflecting patients' recognition of their illness and need for care, was validated against ratings from a semistructured interview and against ass

Insight and the clinical outcome of schizophrenic patients.

Abstract: At the time of discharge from their index hospitalizations, 52 schizophrenic patients initially admitted for acute psychotic episodes were assessed on an Insight and Treatment Attitudes Questionnaire. When these patients were followed up 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years later, adequate information on their clinical courses and outcomes was available in 46 cases. A global assessment of aftercare environment was made in each case, reflecting the degree to which individuals other than the patient were helpfully invested in maintaining the patient in treatment, whether these individuals were in the patient's living or treatment situations. Five factual outcome variables were also assessed: a) compliance with treatment 30 days after discharge; b) long-term compliance; c) whether or not patients were readmitted; d) readmissions per year; and e) percent of time spent in the hospital. As expected, aftercare environment was significantly related to outcome (p = .039). The overall relationship between insight and the outcome variables closely approached statistical significance (p = .053). Patients with more insight were significantly less likely to be readmitted over the course of follow-up. There was a trend for patients with more insight to be compliant with treatment 30 days after discharge. No significant interaction between aftercare environment and insight was found, suggesting that insight may influence outcome independently of aftercare environment.

Trial by fire: understanding the design requirements for agents in complex environments

Abstract: Phoenix is a real-time, adaptive planner that manages forest fires in a simulated environment. Alternatively, Phoenix is a search for functional relationships between the designs of agents, their behaviors, and the environments in which they work. In fact, both characterizations are appropriate and together exemplify a research methodology that emphasizes complex, dynamic environments and complete, autonomous agents. Within the Phoenix system, we empirically explore the constraints the environment places on the design of intelligent agents. This article describes the underlying methodology and illustrates the architecture and behavior of Phoenix agents.

Experiments on mixing due to chaotic advection in a cavity

Abstract: Chaotic mixing of fluids in slow flows is ubiquitous but incompletely understood. However, relatively simple experiments provide a wealth of information regarding mixing mechanisms and indicate the need for complementary theoretical developments in dynamical systems. In this work we presnt a versatile cavity flow apparatus, capable of producing a variety of two-dimensional velocity fields, and use it to conduct a detailed experimental study of mixing in low-Reynolds-number flows. Since the goal is detailed understanding, only two time-periodic co-rotating flows induced by wall motions are considered: one continuous and the other discontinuous. Both types of flows produce exponential growth of intermaterial area, as expected from chaotic flows, and a mixture of islands and chaotic regions. A procedure for identifying periodic points and determining their movements is presented as well as how to make meaningful comparisons between periodic flows. We observe that periodic points move very much as a planetary system; planets (hyperbolic points) have moons (elliptic points) with twice the period of the planets; furthermore the spatial arrangement of periodic points becomes symmetric at regular time intervals. Detailed analyses reveal complex behaviour: birth, bifurcation, and collapse of islands; formation and periodic motion of coherent structures, such as islands and large-scale folds. However, the richness and complexity of the results obtained indicate that these two-dimensional time-periodic systems are far from completely understood and that other wall motions might deserve a similar level of scrutiny.

Issues of Identity Development Among Asian‐American Lesbians and Gay Men

Abstract: This study examined the factors that affect an Asian-American individual's choice of identification with Asian-American and lesbian or gay identity. Nineteen Asian-American lesbians and 16 Asian-American gay men belonging to Asian-American lesbian or gay organizations answered survey questionnaires. Results indicated that most of the respondents identified more strongly with their lesbian or gay identities than with their Asian-American identities; however, most indicated that acknowledgment of both aspects of identity was preferred. Other situational factors, including disclosure of lesbian or gay identity to family and to the Asian-American community, as well as discrimination because of sexual orientation, race, and gender, were examined in regard to identity development.

Poly(A) shortening accompanies the activation of translation of five mRNAs during spermiogenesis in the mouse.

Abstract: I have compared the quantity and the length of the poly(A) tracts of five haploid-expressed mRNAs in the polysomal and nonpolysomal fractions of round and elongating spermatids in mice: transition proteins 1 and 2, protamines 1 and 2, and an unidentified mRNA of about 1050 bases. Postmitochondrial supernatants of highly enriched populations of round and elongating spermatids (early and late haploid spermatogenic cells) were sedimented on sucrose gradients, and the size and amount of each mRNA in gradient fractions were analyzed in Northern blots. In round spermatids, all five mRNAs are restricted to the postpolysomal fractions, but in elongating spermatids about 30–40% of each mRNA is associated with the polysomes. The distribution of these mRNAs in sucrose gradients suggests that all five mRNAs are stored in a translationally repressed state in round and early elongating spermatids, and that they become translationally active in middle and late elongating spermatids. The translationally repressed forms of all five mRNAs are long and homogenous in size, whereas the polysomal forms are shorter and more heterogenous due to shortening of their poly(A) tracts. The relationship between translational activity and poly(A) size exemplified by these five mRNAs may be typical of mRNAs which are translationally repressed in round spermatids and translationally active in elongating spermatids.

Interstellar SiO as a tracer of high-temperature chemistry

Abstract: A search for the J = 2-1 transition toward both hot and cold molecular gas is reported. SiO was observed toward all sources with kinetic temperatures greater than or equal to 30 K. No SiO was detected toward the dark clouds TMC-1, L134 N, and B335. The abundances of SiO relative to HCN and the SiO/H2 ratios are determined. A linear relation between the natural log of the SiO concentration and 1/Tk is found, suggesting that species formation involves a chemically specific process with an activation barrier of about 90 K. It is concluded that the formation of SiO is linked to the local gas kinetic temperature, rather than the oxygen abundance.

Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform

Abstract: Abstract Several identifiable approaches to the integration of ethnic content into the curriculum have evolved since the 1960s, The Contributions Approach to in tegration is one of the most frequently used and is often used extensively during the first phase of an ethnic revival movement. This approach is characterized by the addition of ethnic heroes into the curriculum that are selected using criteria similar to those used to select mainstream heroes for inclusion into the curriculum. The mainstream curriculum remains unchanged in terms of its basic structure, goals, and salient characteristics. Recommended Citation Banks, James A. (1989) \"Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform,\" Trotter Review: Vol. 3 : Iss. 3 , Article 5. Available at: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/trotter_review/vol3/iss3/5  Download

Alien Winds: The Reeducation of America's Indochinese Refugees

Abstract: U American personnel working in the Philippine Refugee Processing Center (PRPC) no longer live in buildings made of asbestos: After some protest, virtually all of them have been moved to asbestos-free concrete dormitories. But most of their Filipino counterparts and all of the camps' thousands of Indochinese refugees continue to live in asbestos housing despite massive documentation of its hazards, its pervasiveness, and recommendations for its removal.

Barriers to Bicycle Helmet Use Among Children: Results of Focus Groups With Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Graders

Abstract: As a preliminary step in the development of a school-based educational intervention to promote bicycle helmet use among children, focus group encounters were conducted with fourth, fifth, and sixth graders at three elementary schools in the Boston, Mass, area. Analysis of transcripts of encounter tape recordings indicated that (1) the prevalence of helmet ownership and use was low, (2) children were concerned that helmet use would invite derision from their peers, and (3) children tended to respect other children who wore helmets. We concluded that focus groups can be useful in conceptualizing health education interventions and suggest that school-based peer-led bicycle helmet programs may be effective in developing normative change toward helmet use among elementary schoolchildren.

Complexation of carboxylic acids and anions by alpha and beta cyclodextrins

Abstract: A pH potentiometric method is used to measure complex formation constants of aqueous alpha- and/or beta-cyclodextrin with several carboxylic acids and carboxylate anions: butyric acid/butyrate; valeric acid/valerate; hexanoic acid/hexanoate; octanoic acid/octanoate; decanoic acid/decanoate; cyclohexanecarboxylic acid/cyclohexanecarboxylate and benzoic acid/benzoate. Standard enthalpies and entropies of complex formation are calculated from the temperature dependencies of the equilibrium constants. These thermodynamic parameters of the alpha-cyclodextrin complexes largely conform to a correlation based on complexes with other substrate species previously reported. Both standard enthalpies and entropies of formation of beta-cyclodextrin complexes are found to be more positive than the corresponding complexes of alpha-cyclodextrin with the same substrates. These observations lead to insights into the bonding mechanism of cyclodextrin complexation.

Shock chemistry in the molecular clouds associated with SNR IC 443

Abstract: Observations of several interstellar molecules toward the highly perturbed B and G clouds associated with SNR IC 443 are reported. The results suggest that hot and dense material is present in the SNR, and that shocks are present in both regions. The HCO(+) abundance is shown to be a few times greater that found in cold quiescent gas, in contradiction with previous results. The SO, CS, CN, and NH3 abundances are similar to those found in cold dark clouds.

Mouse transition protein 1 is translationally regulated during the postmeiotic stages of spermatogenesis.

Abstract: Transition protein 1 (TP1) is a small basic nuclear protein that functions in chromatin condensation during spermatogenesis in mammals. Here, recently identified cDNA clones encoding mouse transition protein 1(mTP1) were used to characterize the expression of the mTP1 mRNA during spermatogenesis. Southern blot analysis demonstrates that there is a single copy of the gene for transition protein 1 in the mouse genome. Northern blot analysis demonstrates that mTP1 mRNA is a polyadenylated mRNA approximately 600 bases long, which is first detected at the round spermatid stage of spermatogenesis. mTP1 mRNA is not detectable in poly(A)+ RNAs isolated from mouse brain, kidney, liver, or thigh muscle. mTP1 mRNA is translationally regulated in that it is first detected in round spermatids, but no protein product is detectable until approximately 3 days later in elongating spermatids. In total cellular RNA isolated from stages in which mTP1 is synthesized, the mTP1 mRNA is present as a heterogeneous class of mRNAs that vary in size from about 480 to 600 bases. The shortened, heterogeneous mTP1 mRNAs are found in the polysome region of sucrose gradients, while the longer, more homogeneous mTP1 mRNAs are present in the postmonosomal fractions.

Income and Appraised Values: A Reexamination of the FRC Returns Data

Abstract: This paper compares the income of those office properties that are included in the FRC index, with the appraised values that are used to determine the index's appreciation component. We find that the appraised value of the portfolio was a constant multiple of its current income, over the 1978–1988 period. This seems at odds with what modern valuation theory would suggest, since both nominal interest rates and several measures of real rates varied widely over the sample. An alternate interpretation of our results is that the appraised values were based on a set of expectations about future income growth, that turned out over the period, to be continually at odds with respect to actual income.

Complexation of adamantane-ammonium substrates by beta-cyclodextrin and its O -methylated derivatives

Abstract: A spectrophotometric method is used to determine formation constants of complexes ofβ-cyclodextrin, the 2,6-di-O-methylated and 2,3,6-tri-O-methylated derivatives ofβ-cyclodextrin as hosts with adamantan-1-ylammonium, adamantan-2-ylammonium and adamantan-1-ylmethylammonium as substrate species. The spectrophotometric method uses methyl orange anion and acid forms as indicator species. Complexes of the cyclodextrins with these species are determined as well as with the adamantane derivatives. Standard enthalpies and entropies of formation of all complexes are calculated from the temperature variation of the equilibrium constants.β-Cyclodextrin and its 2,6-O-methyl derivative have comparable complex strengths with adamantaneammonium substrates and these strengths are about two orders of magnitude stronger than the corresponding complexes of the permethylated derivative. Thermodynamic parameters are interpreted in terms of differing intramolecular properties of the cyclodextrin complexes.

On the Idea of Permanence

Abstract: This essay explores the changing understanding archivists have had of the idea of permanence as it applies to the records in their custody. Though it seems to be an absolute, archivists have in fact used this word to denote very different ideas and concepts, ranging from permanence of the information in documents to permanence of the physical objects themselves. Today, archivists are increasingly reluctant to employ the idea at all, and the essay concludes with some speculations about the future of archives without permanence.

Topic development, syntax, and social class

Abstract: A conclusion of 20 years’ research into social class differences in speech is that working‐class speakers make greater use of pronouns as compared to nouns and use fewer subordinate constructions than do middle‐class speakers. These syntactic findings have been linked, in the work of Basil Bernstein and others, to hypothesized differences in class‐based language orientations or “codes.” The present study uses data from adolescent discussion groups to argue that social class differences in syntax result instead from differences in the conversational styles of working‐class and middle‐class speakers. Contrasting styles of topic development are documented: a working‐class approach which makes use of anaphoric reference and ellipses across speaker turns, and a middle‐class approach which identifies topics with full NP's in each new speaker's turn. These approaches to topic development are first tied to differences in the group's turn‐taking styles and are then related to observed patterns of pronominal refere...

Analysis of impingement mixing-reaction data: use of a lamellar model to generate fluid mixing information

Abstract: L'etude theorique (modelisation) et experimentale est menee pour deux reactions successives de couplage azoique ayant une cinetique connue. On suit l'evolution de la selectivite en fonction du nombre de Reynolds

The Dichotic Rhyme Task - Results In Split-brain Patients

Abstract: Monosyllabic rhyme words were dichotically presented to normal and complete split-brain subjects. In the normal adult population, only one of the words in the dichotic condition was identified. Hence, normal performance was about 50%, with a small but significant right-ear advantage. The split-brain patients yielded the expected marked left deficit, as seen on other dichotic speech tests, and demonstrated a right-ear enhancement, producing a large interear difference. This right-ear enhancement on the dichotic rhyme task (DRT) may suggest a release from central auditory competition in the left hemisphere. The dichotic rhyme task's normative data results and sensitivity to lack of callosal transmission make it worthy of further clinical and basic research.

Influence of carotenoid deficiency on visual sensitivity, visual pigment and P-face particles of photoreceptor membrane in the moth Manduca sexta

Abstract: 1 Several larval diets (Table 1) were developed for rearing the tobacco hornworm mothManduca sexta in an effort to control the synthesis of adult visual pigments (generically, ‘rhodopsins’) through the availability of their chromophore, retinaldehyde or, more likely, 3-hydroxyretinaldehyde 2 Rhodopsin was measured in difference spectra from detergent extracts of adult retinas Opsin was identified and measured on SDS gels after electrophoretic separation of retinal proteins reduced with cyanoborohydride to convert rhodopsin to fluorescent N-retinyl opsin The density of P-face particles in photoreceptor membranes was measured in freeze-fracture preparations Visual sensitivity of compound eyes was measured from the electroretinogram (ERG) 3 One diet containing corn meal and soy flour, rich sources of potential carotenoid precursors of the chromophore, producedfortified animals with the highest level of rhodopsin: 60 pM/retina The addition of spinach leaves to the fortified diet did not increase the amount of rhodopsin A second diet containing wheat germ producedintermediate moths with about 25% of the visual pigment of the fortified group A third diet containing potato starch and lacking all sources of carotenoids except for a small amount of yeast produceddeprived animals whose visual pigment could not be measured but must have been less than 06 pM/retina (Fig 1B) 4 A band at 35–38 kDa on SDS gels prepared from cyanoborohydride-reduced extracts of fortified retinas was identified as n-retinyl opsin from its intense fluorescence The fluorescence of the band was less intense in preparations from intermediate retinas No fluorescence was detected in preparations of deprived retinas However, this relatively insensitive assay would not allow detection of rhodopsin levels less than 6 pM/retina When the gels were stained for protein, the density of the 35 kDa band from intermediate and deprived retinas was about 45% and 6%, respectively, of that from fortified retinas Thus the relative density of the band from preparations of deprived retinas is about 6 times greater than the estimated maximum amount of rhodopsin present in extracts Either there is excess opsin in the deprived retinas, or another minor protein runs at the same position on the gel as opsin (Fig 2) 5 P-face particle densities of rhabdomeric membrane ranged from 104/μm2 in the fortified animals to 4×103/μm2 in intermediate animals to 5×102/μm2 in deprived moths (Figs 3, 4 and Table 2) 6 The sensitivity of the intermediate and deprived animals averaged 55% and 006%, respectively, of that of the fortified animals (Fig 1 A) Measurement of the ERG proved to be the simplest and most sensitive method for measuring visual impairment If sensitivity remains linear with rhodopsin content at low concentrations, deprived retinas contain about 004 pM of rhodopsin 7 Visual sensitivity increased by 10 to 40-fold following the addition ofβ-carotene or xanthophyll to the deprived diet Addition of either retinol or retinal did not significantly increase sensitivity (Fig 1A)

Prototyping techniques for different problem contexts

Abstract: Rapid prototyping and other experimental techniques are playing an increasingly important role in software development. Some common issues that concern their adoption are identifying the place in a system's life cycle where they may be appropriate, and selecting which tools to use. This paper presents a model of different problem types, suggesting that a fit must be found between the nature of the problem at hand and the features associated with available techniques. Emphasis is placed on the fact that most commercial tools are suitable for only certain problem types.Some areas of further development are highlighted and implications concerning human-computer interaction discussed.

The physical environment and the care of Alzheimer's patients: an experiential survey of Massachusetts' Alzheimer's units

Abstract: During 1987, the Commonwealth ofMassachusetts approved the construction of eight nursing home units for the care of individuals with Alzheimer's disease. By 1992 these eight facilities will be built or existing spaces will be extensively renovated to meet the environmental needs of this special population. In designing these facilities we can learn from the experiences of the handful of existing nursing home units that have been serving an Alzheimer's population for the last few years without benefit of special state funding or approvals. The eight existing facilities which were surveyed for this study seven nursing homes and one day care center (see Table One), were not extensively designed or renovated to serve Alzheimer's patients. Mosthad minor modifications such as repainting, done on the existing premises. The purpose of this study is to assist in the transfer of information from the existing facilities to those about to be built, and to others that may follow.