Absolute Discharge Research Articles

A rate of rise controller for automatic water samplers

Water samples withdrawn automatically from a stream should be spaced so that the time interval between them is short when solute concentrations are most variable. A sampling schedule which achieves this goal is defined, and a control device which incorporates the required logic is described. The schedule results in samples being taken at a frequency which increases in direct proportion to the rate of change of water level, and the sampling interval is independent of absolute discharge. This controller may be added to automatic water samplers. It features ease of construction, low power consumption, variable sensitivity and low cost.

Correlations between aerodynamic output, electrical activity in the indirect flight muscles and wing positions of bees flying in a servomechanically controlled wind tunnel

1) Bees hanging on an aerodynamic two component balance were placed in front of a laminar wind tunnel. They controlled the wind velocity in the tunnel through a servo-mechanism that held the wind velocity to exactly the opposite of the flight speed, thus selecting lift and thrust freely. The parameters lift, wind velocity, occurrence of action potentials in the indirect dorsoventral flight muscles (DV) and indirect dorsolongitudinal flight muscles (DL) and body temperature were measured. The correlations were analysed (Fig. 1). 2) The lift is positively correlated to the body angle (angle between body length axis and wind tunnel length axis), the flight speed is negatively correlated to the body angle (Fig. 2). 3) Action potential frequencies in both muscle groups exhibit a strong positive correlation to the lift (Fig. 3). Changes in action potential frequencies and lift run parallel with a delay of less than 200 msec (limitation imposed by measuring system). Different motor units in a given muscle have different absolute discharge frequencies (Fig. 4). 4) A pronounced synchronization between wingbeats and action potentials in the indirect dorsoventral muscles can always be found. 5) Randomly triggered photographic pictures show the wings most frequently at the lower turning point. Exposures that were triggered by action potentials in the dorsoventral indirect flight muscles display this wing position significantly more frequently (Fig. 5).

Multi‐directional sensitivity of statocyst receptor cells of the opisthobranch gastropodAplysia limacina

The electrical activity in the static nerves of Aplysia limacina was studied in relation to the spatial orientation of the animal. Each sense cell shows a multi‐directional sensitivity. Hence, it responds during full‐circle rotations about all horizontal axes but only within a limited angular range. The statocyst receptor cells are found to be gravity receptors only, and their electrical behaviour suggests that main information about the spatial orientation of Aplysia is contained in the pattern of responding cells, i.e. which of the 13 cells are active at any one time, and not in their absolute discharge frequencies. Furthermore, evidence is given to a similar function of the statocysts of opisthobranch and pulmonate gastropods.

Asthenosphere motion recorded by the ocean floor south of Iceland

On the sea floor south of Iceland, V-shaped basement features symmetrical about the spreading axis, converge southward, crossing progressively younger isochrons. This relationship between basement ridges and crustal isochrons suggests asthenosphere flow, at least under the spreading axis, away from the Iceland ‘hot spot’ (mantle plume). Two conditions necessary for the hypothesis that such plume flow derives the crustal plates are apparently met here: (1) Flow rate, under the Reykjanes Ridge, is about 20 cm/yr, an order of magnitude greater than spreading rate. (2) There is a rough correlation between basalt discharge rate and spreading rate. Absolute plume discharge is of the order 10 to 100 km 3/yr, from which no more than 0.5 km 3/yr basaltic crust is produced. Discrimination between limiting models of predominantly pipe flow (under and along the ridge axis) and radial flow may depend on rates of apparent downstream flow deceleration.

Group treatment of conditionally discharged patients in a mental health clinic.

Current literature has explored the possibilities of the use of the group approach to the treatment of state hospital patients who have been discharged to a mental health clinic for outpatient care. This paper deals with a method employed by a psychiatric team in the management of such patients. The rationale for the use of the group approach took a number of factors into account: 1) It is felt by some that a one-to-one relationship is particularly threatening for more severely ill patients. The group approach reduces the intensity of this relationship. 2) Some patients with ego weakness tend to acquire strength by identification with the group. 3) Patients in our groups are seen for a longer period of time than would normally be allotted to them during the brief, stereotyped, drug renewal interviews that usually constitute patient aftercare. 4) The group interaction offers a more variegated sampling of behavior on which to base clinical appraisals. 5) Seeing patients in groups is felt to be more efficient than seeing the same number of patients individually. A psychiatric team used an approach employing an initial orientation meeting for an experimental sample of 45 conditionally discharged patients and their relatives, followed by monthly group treatment sessions for the patients. This experimental sample was compared with a control sample of 45 patients who did not receive group treatment, seen during the same time period and matched for age, sex, race, marital status and diagnosis. The results of our study were obtained by comparing these two groups of patients for the following variables: return to hospital, significant at .05 level; receiving of absolute discharge, significant at .01 level; number of clinic contacts, significant at .01 level; mean number of months out of hospital, trend; chronicity, trend; employment after a year, not significant; receipt of medication, not significant. We feel, therefore, that the findings of this study show that the group approach bears wider application in improving outpatient programs for an ever-increasing population of ex-hospital patients.

British Food Journal Volume 67 Issue 9 1965

Since the widespread finding by public analysts of penicillin in milk as the result of the treatment of bovine mastitis, it could only be a matter of time before there were prosecutions under Sect. 2, Food and Drugs Act, 1955. In this issue we report a successful case at Leeds, in which the defendant was convicted and fined. In our July issue (p. 98) we also reported a case brought by the Milk Marketing Board, where the defendant was given an absolute discharge, but although this was the first reported case in England and Wales, the complaint was laid earlier at Leeds, so the distinction of being the first food and drugs authority in the country to test the decision of whether or not penicillin traces in milk constitutes an offence rests with Leeds. The amount present—0.06 I.U. per ml.—was much lower than analysts have often reported, but on medical grounds, the possibility of hypersensitivity reactions and the development of antibiotic‐resistant types of organisms, comparison of amounts present in samples is a refinement not particularly relevant. Another important point about the prosecution at Leeds is that the authority was prepared to prove toxicity and to fight the case on these grounds, with expert witnesses lined up for the purpose. A plea of not guilty obviated the necessity of this. The defence naively suggested that the choice was either penicillin traces or the pathological products of mastitis in the milk, but in truth, it is neither. A purchaser expects genuine milk, pure and of the quality demanded