High Degree Of Technical Sophistication Research Articles

Andean expressions: art and archaeology of the Recuay culture

Flourishing from A.D. 1 to 700, the Recuay inhabited lands in northern Peru just below the imposing glaciers of the highest mountain chain in the tropics. Thriving on an economy of high-altitude crops and camelid herding, they left behind finely made artworks and grand palatial buildings with an unprecedented aesthetic and a high degree of technical sophistication. In this first in-depth study of these peoples, George Lau situates the Recuay within the great diversification of cultural styles associated with the Early Intermediate Period, provides new and significant evidence to evaluate models of social complexity, and offers fresh theories about life, settlement, art, and cosmology in the high Andes.Lau crafts a nuanced social and historical model in order to evaluate the record of Recuay developments as part of a wider Andean prehistory. He analyzes the rise and decline of Recuay groups as well as their special interactions with the Andean landscape. Their coherence was expressed as shared culture, community, and corporate identity, but Lau also reveals its diversity through time and space in order to challenge the monolithic characterizations of Recuay society pervasive in the literature today.Many of the innovations in Recuay culture, revealed for the first time in this landmark volume, left a lasting impact on Andean history and continue to have relevance today. The author highlights the ways that material things intervened in ancient social and political life, rather than being merely passive reflections of historical change, to show that Recuay public art, exchange, technological innovations, warfare, and religion offer key insights into the emergence of social hierarchy and chiefly leadership and the formation, interaction, and later dissolution of large discrete polities. By presenting Recuay artifacts as fundamentally social in the sense of creating and negotiating relations among persons, places, and things, he recognizes in the complexities of the past an enduring order and intelligence that shape the contours of history.

The two Newtons and beyond J. E. Force and S. Hutton (eds.), Newton and Newtonianism: New Studies. International Archives of the History of Ideas 188. Dordrecht, Boston and London: Kluwer, 2004. Pp. xvii+246. ISBN 1-4020-1969-6. £67.00 (hardback). Rob Iliffe, Milo Keynes and Rebekah Higgitt (eds.), Early Biographies of Isaac Newton 1660–1885. Vol. 1: Eighteenth-Century Biography of Isaac Newton: The Unpublished

The focus of Newtonian scholarship has shifted over the last couple of decades. Compare any relevant collection of studies from the third quarter of the twentieth century with a recent one such as Newton and Newtonianism: New Studies (2004), edited by James Force and Sarah Hutton, and the changes leap to the eye. Newtonian studies have been traditionally concerned with Newton's writings and achievements in the fields of mechanics, optics and mathematics, and with his influence on the subsequent development of these disciplines – a line of enquiry that was nourished by the systematic study of unpublished materials in the post-war period and has reached a high degree of technical sophistication. In this perspective, the priority attributed to Newton's natural philosophy and mathematics reflects the assumption that Newtonian ‘science’ should be granted an unquestioned pre-eminence over the rest of his much varied production, as the latter contributed ‘little or nothing to our twentieth-century world’. The landmarks of post-war Newtonian scholarship thus aimed at the identification, analysis and interpretation of Newton's ‘scientific’ manuscripts, carefully separated from the rest of his densely written and sometimes enigmatic paperwork. Establishing such a demarcation certainly made sense within a historiographical practice directed primarily at the reconstruction of Newton's contribution to the making of modern science, and was sustained by the perception of an essential continuity between Newton's alleged main concerns and the practices of twentieth-century physics and mathematics.

Radiotherapy Techniques in Current Use in Sweden

A systematic assessment of radiotherapy for cancer was conducted by The Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU) in 2001. The assessment included a review of radiotherapy techniques in current use in Sweden. The following conclusions were drawn: <list id="l1" type="5"> <item>Radiotherapy demands adequate knowledge of diagnostic methods, anatomy, cancer biology and of the physical and biological properties of ionizing radiation. Well-functioning teamwork on the part of the oncologist, medical physicist and oncology nurse is important.</item><item>Radiotherapy has a high degree of technical sophistication, including the use of computers, which necessitates expert technical support.</item><item>Technical development is rapid, and since the previous report, multileaf collimators and electronic portal imaging have been introduced in the clinical routine.</item><item>The use of brachytherapy for treatment of non-gynaecological malignancies is rapidly increasing.</item><item>The need for quality assurance in all steps of the radiotherapy procedure is stressed.</item></list> A critical review of the literature on intraoperative radiotherapy is also included as an Appendix.

A simple optical microphone

In the past, a number of different working principles have been suggested for optical microphones, but many of these require a high degree of technical sophistication. Thus some suggestions are based on the interferometric principle, whilst others would utilize frequency modulation of laser light via a variable mirror (membrane) situated in the laser resonator. Light intensity modulation is a much more simple approach: A light beam emitted from an optical fiber is aimed at a reflecting membrane. The beam reflected from the membrane is captured by a second optical fiber and fed into a photodiode. Depending on the movement of the membrane, more or less light is launched into a second optical fiber. The photoelectric current of the photodiode thus expresses the movement of the membrane, and with it the sound field, as an electrical signal. As optical fibers transmit light with very few losses, the actual optoacoustic transducer can be positioned at a long distance from the light source and the photodiode. This allows problem-free use of the optoacoustic transducer in the presence of very strong electromagnetic fields (e.g., MRI). It is possible to improve upon this principle via simple modifications. The electroacoustic characteristics achieved are discussed and a model is presented.

Continuing Education Improves Professional Satisfaction and Productivity

Despite their high degree of technical sophistication, medical technologists continue to have a low level of job satisfaction and poor self-image among health care professionals. In our highly specialized Clinical Immunology Laboratory, technologies, procedures, and protocols change rapidly, necessitating a strong continuing education program. To improve interest in continuing education and job satisfaction, we designed a new program that required active participation by all members of the laboratory staff, from director to bench technologists. Each medical technologist selected a topic of current interest relevant to the laboratory, chose a faculty member for assistance in organizing the material, researched the topic, and presented a seminar to the rest of the laboratory staff. Although this required extra work, both inside and outside of the laboratory, the results were remarkable. Not only was the staff educated about such topics in clinical immunology as flow cytometry, OKT3 therapy of acute kidney transplant rejection, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody and antigen testing, but motivation improved. Aware of the effort needed to prepare a seminar, staff members were attentive and supportive during the presentations. Technologists had the opportunity to add new accomplishments to their resumes, and several persons wrote articles for the clinical laboratory newsletter or provided diagrams that became permanent illustrations in the procedure manuals. Increased productivity and efficiency observed in the laboratory proved unexpected benefits of this continuing education program. Individually, each technologist came away from his or her presentation with a sense of accomplishment. With the increased responsibility of these presentations, each technologist found professional growth, which resulted in increased job satisfaction.

Some Emerging Applications of Lasers

New laser applications are emerging in almost every field of science. Many of them show both a high degree of technical sophistication and broad practical utility. The progress being made is illustrated by specific applications in three areas: laser microchemistry, optical disk data storage, and remote sensing.

The Forest Investment Decision in a Time of Change

INCREASED capital expenditure by investors to intensify forest management is abetted by advances in harvesting techniques and utilization technology, but threatened by a growing concern for the natural environment. The take-off stage for forest investments is near. Domestically, industrial wood consumption appears to be on the verge of a sharp increase. The United States may soon become a net exporter of wood products. Concurrently the forest land base for timber production is shrinking. Increased investment is also favored by reductions in the risk of loss and greater accuracy in predicting the outcome of investments. Because of the extensive area of below par stands, investments will be common in timber stand improvement and type conversion. Timber stand improvement is attractive to investors because the cash outlay is minimal, the payoff period is short, and the rate of return is high. Type conversion, by contrast, requires a high cash outlay and has a long waiting period. Because of the high cost, high degree of technical sophistication, or both, these practices are sensitive to changing external factors. Some changes make investments more attractive. The advent of tree-length logging and largescale substitution of capital for labor in harvesting increase the unit value of stumpage and give managed stands a marketing advantage. Product value was increased by the breakthroughs in peeling southern pine for plywood and in pulping sawdust. Also, the adoption of high-speed, in-line sawing systems enhance labor productivity. Furthermore, the product possibilities of small logs has been expanded by the development of end and edge gluing for fabricating boards and overlays to upgrade them. Environmental concerns, on the contrary, could make forest practices more costly and difficult to execute and less effective. Prohibitions against chemical methods of cull tree and brush control could force the use of less efficient me-