Initial Training Period Research Articles

Response of ventilatory muscles of the rat to endurance training.

The effect of endurance training on the oxidative and glycolytic potentials of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles of rats has been studied. Training consisted of treadmill running (28 m/min, 60 min/day, 5 days/wk) for periods ranging from 8-26 weeks. Exercise of similar duration and intensity produced a glycogen depletion in the diaphragm and intercostal muscles of nontrained rats. Oxidative potential was estimated from the activity of the mitochondrial marker enzyme succinate dehydrogenase (SDH). The activities of phosphorylase (PHOS), hexokinase (HK), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were determined as well as the distribution of the LDH isozymes. SDH activity averaged 44 (42-51) and 17 (10-22)% (P less than 0.0l) greater in the plantaris and diaphragm muscles, respectively, after 8-12 weeks of endurance running as compared to the sedentary animals. There was no change in the SDH activity of the intercostal muscles or in the activities of the glycolytic enzymes. There was also no change in the distribution of the isozymes of LDH. Extending the duration of the training program to 26 weeks did not produce any additional alteration in the magnitude of the adaptation observed after the initial training period. Comparative studies of different types of muscles demonstrated that the diaphragm, although having a fiber composition somewhat similar to that of a fast-twitch skeletal muscle, has a metabolic profile that is intermediate between pure slow twitch skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle.

Self-Recovering Equalization and Carrier Tracking in Two-Dimensional Data Communication Systems

Conventional equalization and carrier recovery algorithms for minimizing mean-square error in digital communication systems generally require an initial training period during which a known data sequence is transmitted and properly synchronized at the receiver. This paper solves the general problem of adaptive channel equalization without resorting to a known training sequence or to conditions of limited distortion. The criterion for equalizer adaptation is the minimization of a new class of nonconvex cost functions which are shown to characterize intersymbol interference independently of carrier phase and of the data symbol constellation used in the transmission system. Equalizer convergence does not require carrier recovery, so that carrier phase tracking can be carried out at the equalizer output in a decision-directed mode. The convergence properties of the self-recovering algorithms are analyzed mathematically and confirmed by computer simulation.

A Videotape Approach to Teaching Interpretation of Amerind Signs

American Indian (Amerind) sign has been used as an alternative or augmentative communication system with members of several clinical populations including adults who have oral verbal apraxia ( 3 ) and nonverbal mentally retarded children (2). While many of the signs in this system are interpretable by untrained observers (particularly those related to basic needs), others have to be taught to persons in a useis environment (home or institution). An approach to providing this training that should require very little time from clinicians is having such persons view a videotape on which the signs are demonstrated, one or more times. This study was intended to assess the effectiveness of such an approach. Ten persons viewed the 193-sign Amerind Video Dictionmy ( 1 ) twice. Four were males and six were females. They ranged in age from 14 to 51 yr. (mean was 25 yr.). None had previous training in manual communication. They represented a variety of occupations including sales, bartending, hairdressing, teaching (preschool), and general office work. The time interval separating the two viewings of the Dictionary was less than one hour for five subjects and of two to four days for the others. Each subject was asked to identify the 193 signs in the Dictionary three times (with the sound turned off so that he or she would not hear the meanings of the signs). They were presented in a different random order each time. Test 1 was administered prior to the first training session to view the Dictionary; Test 2 after the second one; and Test 3 two to three weeks after Test 2. The number of correct identifications on each test was determined for each subject. All 1 0 subjects improved in their ability to understand Amerind signs. The number of signs they identified correctly before viewing the Dictionary ranged from 96 to 115 (mean was 105). Immediately following the second viewing of the Dictionary the number correct ranged from 156 to 186 (mean was 175). The difference between these two sets of scores was significant at the 0.01 level ( 8 = -17.39, d f = 18) . Two to three weeks post-viewing the number of signs identified correctly ranged from 136 to 170 ( M was 157). The difference between this set of scores and the second was significant at the 0.01 level ( t = 3.03, d f = 18) . Though there was some regression, the subjects' abilities to identify signs correctly were still significantly better than they had been on the pretest ( t = 12.67, d f = 18) . These findings suggest that the families of users of Amerind sign and others with whom they communicate can be taught to interpret a high percentage of these signs by viewing a videotape dictionary several times. Since there was some regression, it probably would be desirable to have such persons view the dictionary periodically after the initial training period, particularly if they are not interpreting the signs daily that are demonstrated in it.

Treatment of severe tinnitus with biofeedback training.

Tinnitus has long been a problem which has plagued patients with otologic problems. We have been using biofeedback as a method of treatment for patients with severe debilitating type tinnitus. Most of the patients had sensori-neural type hearing impairment while a few had conductive hearing loss and normal hearing. The patients were given 10-12 one hour sessions of biofeedback training. They have been followed from 6 to 12 months after this initial training period. Over half of thondition. A few of the patients were dramatically improved while none are worse. Biofeedback has been shown to be an excellent method of treatment for patients with severe tinnitus.

Use of a cross-over design in testing short-term methylphenidate effects on avoidance conditioning.

90 albino rats, equally divided between the sexes, were divided into groups which received dosages of 4.5 mg/kg, 13.5 mg/kg of methylphenidate and equal volume of distilled water for a total of 8 days. After the initial training period a third of the subjects continued with the same administration while the remaining two-thirds of the animals received the other two dosage combinations. Short-term administration of methylphenidate (Ritalin) facilitated learning as measured by avoidance conditioning. The cross-over design presents advantages over other experimental designs in assessing a variety of possible drug effects. No relationship was obtained between dosage level and response acquisition. However, a linear dose-response relationship was obtained on activity level.

Clinical evaluation of amalgam restorations

The good reproducibility of a clinical evaluation system for restorations was confirmed, but the system was not considered suitable for detection of minor differences between amalgam restorations. A modified system for evaluation was therefore developed. It was based on the same principles but included more characteristics. The modified system was evaluated in practice on 246 amalgam restorations. The level of agreement between two examiners reached about 70% after an initial training period. The results demonstrate the need for calibration of examiners and the importance of a detailed definition of criteria.

Overnight decrement in maze performance of mice running for food reward.

Mice were run in a T-maze for food reward, to investigate possible effects of deprivation level on “overnight decrement,” i.e., worse performance on the first trial of a given day than on the last trial of either the previous or the same day. Following an initial training period, each mouse received a series of massed trials on 22 consecutive days. On half of these days, the mice were deprived of food in their home cages; on the other half, they were not deprived. Overnight decrement was substantial only when the mice were not deprived. These results have important implications concerning the comparability of positively reinforcing brain stimulation and more conventional rewards.

Behavioral contrast in pigeons learning an auditory discrimination

After an initial period of nondifferential training, 14 pigeons were trained on a go/no-go discrimination between different click frequencies. Keypeck responses during the positive stimulus were reinforced with food on a 1-min variable interval schedule, whereas responses during the negative stimulus were extinguished and prolonged the negative stimulus for 30 sec (correction procedure). Response rates in the positive stimulus increased during discrimination training in all subjects. A control group given extended nondifferential training had significantly lower response rates and contrast ratios. The results are inconsistent with a simple autoshaping theory of behavioral contrast.

A training mode adaptive quantizer

A quantizer that must accommodate a wide range of signal powers would ordinarily require a large number of output levels compared to a quantizer of signals with known power. In this paper a quantizlng scheme is described for situations in which the signal power is unknown a priori but remains constant for the duration of a communication. The required number of levels is reduced because the quantizer amplitude range is adjusted during an initial training period to the value appropriate to the current signal power. At each sample time during the training period, the amplitude range is adjusted by a multiplicative quantity that depends on the most recent quantized output and upon the time elapsed since the onset of training. Assuming independent identically distributed inputs, it is shown that the quantizer range converges to a fixed multiple of the rms value of the input. The ratio of final range to rms input is a unique function of the multipliers, and a formula is presented that allows a designer to choose multipliers that result in any desired range-to-signal ratio. For each final ratio, there are many sets of multipliers, and formulas are derived that indicate, for a limited training period, the tradeoff between the accuracy of the quantizer range and the size of the set of signal powers to which the quantizer can adapt. Computer simulations illustrate the effects of particular multiplier sequences.

BEHAVIORAL CONTRAST WITH MULTIPLE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE STIMULI ON A CONTINUUM1

After an initial period of nondifferential training, six pigeons were trained on a go/no-go discrimination involving 12 line tilts from vertical clockwise to horizontal. Responses to the first six tilts (positive stimuli) were reinforced on a variable-interval one-minute schedule, whereas responses to the other six tilts (negative stimuli) were extinguished. During the first several discrimination sessions, the highest response rate was typically to one of the positive stimuli that was relatively close to the negative stimuli or at an intermediate distance, rather than to one of the positive stimuli most distant from the negative stimuli. This effect decreased with extended training up to 50 or 80 sessions.

Development And Utilization of Engineers In an Oil Company

Abstract The efficient development and utilization of the individual engineer is one of the most vital tasks facing an oil company. Development of the young engineer starts with the training program and continues throughout his career. The training program seldom really trains an engineer, but it should show him what engineers do, what is expected of them and how they fit into the company. The first five to ten years of professional experience is the basis of all future technical and managerial growth. It is of extreme importance that the young engineer be exposed to a wide variety of assignments under a number of supervisors in a variety of locations during the initial period. The rapid development of technology has tended to produce specialized groups within engineering departments. It is essential that these departments be made to interact with other engineering groups and with nontechnical personnel. INTRODUCTION OIL COMPANIES are dependent on their engineering departments for most of their plans, programs, studies and reviews. Engineers also contribute many of the creative ideas that make a company grow. In same companies, they handle most of the field supervision. In order to be able to make these important contributions, young engineers need to go through some period of initial training. They must be allowed to develop their full potential and their must also be effective organized. This paper discusses, what can be reasonably expected from an engineering training program. Engineering development, after the initial training period, is discussed and a program is suggested that will allow the engineer to develop fully. Current organization trends are reviewed and suggestions made that will make the best use of an engineer's special talents and training. ENGINEERING TRAINING Twenty years ago, the young man graduating in engineering had a very clear idea of what he wanted the wanted a job! The present-day graduate is quite a bit more discerning the may not have a clear idea of the exact type of engineering work he wants to do, but he has definite ideas on other aspects of his future employment. Most young engineers are looking for a technically stimulating job; they also want to see that they are making a real contribution. Many have ideas that they want to work into supervisory or management jobs at an early date. What is the best way to utilize this pool of talent that is itching to be put to work? Most of the larger companies have a training program for graduate engineers. Probably the main thing in common is that programs are either being started, changed or discontinued. Most training programs are conceived as a means to train the engineer in the specialized techniques used by petroleum engineers. In practice, this is impossible in any reasonable period of time. At best, the training program acquaints the young engineer with what people do in the engineering department and how the engineering department relates to the company.

Succession with an Ally

Sixty simulated business organizations were established in the laboratory for the purpose of examining comparatively the effects of succession with and without an ally. In the first experiment, the manager alone was transferred to a new and identical organization after undergoing an initial training period in which he acquired managerial experience. In this situation, the manager was a single outsider confronted with an entirely new staff and organization experience. In the second experiment also, the manager was transferred to a new organization. However, in this case he was permitted to select one of his assistant managers, an ally, to accompany him on his new assignment. This study was concerned with the consequences of the latter type of succession for staff relationships and, in particular, interaction patterns, the consultation process, and subgroup formation.

Operant drinking of alcohol on a rate-contingent ratio schedule of reinforcement

Seven rats were trained to drink 10 per cent ethanol from a drinkometer in order to obtain a condensed milk reinforcement. Reinforcements were programmed on a Rate Contingent Ration schedule in which only responses (licks) occuring at a predetermined rate counted towards the required ratio of 64. All rats drank ethanol for milk reinforcement during 45 daily, hour-long sessions, despite the fact that no animal was food deprived. When 10 per cent ethanol was substituted for milk reinforcement, all rats continued to drink alcohol for alcohol for 10 days. However, six of the animals showed a significant decrease in the mean number of reinforcements earned per day. Milk reinforcements were made available for a subsequent period of 10 days, but only one of the seven animals earned as many reinforcements per day as during the initial training period. Alcohol was available in the home cage during each of these three conditions. During the final phase of the experiment, alcohol was removed from the home cage and in the operant conditioning sessions, alcohol was once again substituted for milk reinforcements. Although each animal persisted in drinking some alcohol for alcohol for a period of 20 days, the mean number of alcohol ‘reinforcements’ earned each day was not significantly different from the number earned when alcohol was also available in the home cage. These data indicate that despite prolonged exposure to alcohol, rats did not develop tolerance or dependence upon alcohol. Since tolerance and dependency are the major pharmacological criteria for defining addiction, we conclude that the drinking patterns observed in this experiment are best described as preference drinking.

Manifest Anxiety and Transfer of Complex Learning

In a previous study (Sassenrath, 1963) Ss who were high or low on the Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) and also on the Test Anxiety Questionnaire (TAQ) were compared on concept learning without awareness (LWA) in a 2 MAS by 2 TAQ factorial design in the craining and periods. In the training period Low TAQ Groups ( a ) require fewer trials to criterion, ( b ) fixate less on correct responses prior to awareness and (c ) show more accelerated LWA than High TAQ Groups. In the test or period Low TAQ and High MAS Groups require significantly fewer trials to criterion than High TAQ and Low MAS Groups. However, the results during are very pronounced for the TAQ but unpronounced for the MAS. This previous srudy ( a ) found only the one result due to MAS, ( b ) assumed from even earlier studies (Sassenrath, 1959, 1962) that transfer of learning would occur, and ( c ) selected Ss on the basis of their TAQ as well as MAS scores. Therefore, it appears that another atrack should be made on the influence of MAS as a drive (D) on transfer when a partially correct learning set is dominant at the end of the initial training period. As before (Sassenrath, 1963), the theoretical analysis indicates that in training the low MAS Ss should require fewer trials to criterion, while in rransfer the high MAS Ss should require fewer trials to criterion. Method.-The MAS was administered along with the TAQ in a counterbalanced design to 77 men and 125 women who were upperclassmen and graduate students in ed~~cation at the University of California, Berkeley. Three groups of 20 Ss each were selected as low ( 1-5), medium (12-14) or high (21-38) scorers on the MAS. The TAQ scores for these three groups ranged from 0 to 23, 3 to 31, and 14 to 30, respectively. Ten Ss in each of the three MAS groups were given initial craining on a task while the remainder were not. All 60 Ss were then given the transfer task. Thus the experiment was a 3 MAS by 2 training (experimental and control) treatments factorial design in the transfer period. A complete description of the tasks, procedure, and instructions may be found in the previous srudy (Sassenrath, 1963). Re~z4lts.-In the training period the mean numbers of blocks of trials to at least a partially correct verbalization of the concept were 7.2, 6.5 and 9.3, respectively, for the low, medium and high MAS groups. An analysis of variance indicates that the means are not significantly different (I: = 1.24, df = 2/27,

Learning of leg position by the ventral nerve cord in headless insects

When a suspended headless large insect (cockroach or locust) is arranged so that the leg receives a regularly repeated electric shock for all the time that the foot falls below a particular position, there is a progressive change in the animal’s behaviour over a period of about half an hour. The animal at first receives many shocks but progressively raises its leg for longer and longer intervals, with the result that fewer shocks are received. A second animal is arranged in series with the first, and receives the same shocks but in this animal they are not related to a particular position of the foot. Therefore, the second animal cannot associate the shocks with the position of the foot at the moment when they are received, in the way that the first has an opportunity to do. After an initial training period of 40 to 45 min the two animals are disconnected and reconnected in parallel to the stimulator so that each now separately receives a shock when its leg falls below a critical position. When retested in this way the first animals of each pair receive less shocks than do the second animals, especially at the start of the retest before the second animal of the pair has had an opportunity to make an association in the course of the retest. Similar results are obtained when the animals are trained on one leg and retested on another leg on a different segment. The conclusion is that in the absence of a brain the ventral ganglia are able to associate a position of the leg with a repeated punishment by electric shock.