Toilet Paper Roll Research Articles

Musings of a New-Again Teacher

AS I WRITE this column, Halloween remains two weeks away. But our third-grade classroom is already filled to overflowing with black-and- orange paper chains, bats and vampires and witches galore, and jack-o'- lanterns drawn in every imaginable shape and size. We still have to make scarecrows, stuffed paper people dressed in Halloween costumes; a frightening door mural; and individually carved jack-o'-lanterns. There are also many scare stories to be written, laminated, and framed. And, of course, there is the party. Plans for the best Halloween party ever are constantly developed and revised. I note that each evolution includes large amounts of sugar and increasingly elaborate costumes. Now, I'm an experienced teacher. I know there is surprising joy in orange-and-black chains and bats made of toilet paper rolls. I know the sparkle in a child's eye and the sense of power in her voice when she creates a new variation on the standard decorative fare. I know that the patience of Job is required to get through the holiday roller coaster that is October, November, and December. I've taught preservice teachers about it. I've mused with practicing teachers about it. But living what I know, or what I think I know, is quite different from memories, notions, and theories. I hadn't begun a new school year with children since 1985. So I was unbelievably hyper -- actually more like a madwoman -- when that big first day finally came. I wanted to do every single thing possible to make sure our day was successful. I had gotten rid of the teacher's desk, added a carpet for morning meetings, and found enough tables to set up five centers. I had done all I could. I was worried and excited when the first child crossed the threshold into the space we would share for 180 days. This room is really colorful, Saffie said. What do you think of that? I asked. sometimes I think too much color can overwhelm you. But this is balanced. My feet began to melt under me. Well, I said, about if we start out like this, and if the color doesn't work for us we can change it? She agreed. I noticed my palms were sweating. Even with the confidence-shaking beginning, I've had a pretty successful first quarter. With Saffie's guidance, our class has morphed into a comfortable living and working space. The walls are filled with children's work, our systems and expectations have become articulated, and the children can make good choices about how learning will take place. They are finally beginning to understand that they can have fun and learn, something that took a surprising amount of work to attain and requires constant attention to maintain. As for me, I have managed to find the teachers' rest room. My feet have stopped aching all day. I've learned to use the laminating machine without catching my shirt in the rollers (if you have seen the Three Stooges, you can probably visualize that experience). I can, most of the time, use the computerized attendance system. I understand the field trip policy and the different roles the administrators play. The lesson plans are killing me. They take hours, and the week's plan must be turned in each Monday morning. I can usually follow Monday's plan and make only minor alterations for Tuesday. But by Wednesday I have learned so much more about what the children need that alterations and shifts make the plans written the previous Saturday seem irrelevant. And there are still things I just don't get about school. For example, the lines! Who in this world came up with the idea the children should walk in straight, single-file lines everywhere they go? It just goes against nature. But in our school it is important, so we try. In that trying, I often feel like a sheepdog herding my little flock to music or art or recess and everywhere else, barking if they get out of line, nipping at their heels to keep them together. …

Creating a Mathematical Theory of Computer Networks

1. ORIGINS It all began with a comic book! At the age of 6, I was reading a Superman comic at my apartment in Manhattan when, in the centerfold, I found plans for building a crystal radio. To do so, I needed my father’s used razor blade, a piece of pencil lead, an empty toilet paper roll, and some wire, all of which I had no trouble obtaining. In addition, I needed an earphone, which I promptly appropriated from a public telephone booth. The one remaining part was something called a “variable capacitor.” For this, I convinced my mother to take me on the subway down to Canal Street, the center for radio electronics. Upon arrival to one of the shops, I boldly walked up to the clerk and proudly asked to purchase a variable capacitor, whereupon the clerk replied with, “what size do you want?” This blew my cover, and I confessed that I not only had no idea what size, but I also had no idea what the part was for in the first place. After

Selecting an accessory device with a metered-dose inhaler: variable influence of accessory devices on fine particle dose, throat deposition, and drug delivery with asynchronous actuation from a metered-dose inhaler.

Accessory devices reduce common problems with metered-dose inhalers (MDIs), namely high oropharyngeal deposition of aerosol and incoordination between actuation and inhalation by the patient. The objective of this study was to systematically compare the performance of various accessory devices in vitro. MDIs were tested alone or in combination with four spacers (Toilet paper roll, Ellipse, Optihaler, Myst Assist) and five holding chambers (Aerochamber, Optichamber, Aerosol Cloud Enhancer, Medispacer, and Inspirease). An Anderson cascade impactor was used to measure aerosol mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) and fine particle dose (MMAD < 4.7 microm). In separate experiments, the influence of asynchronous MDI actuation on drug delivery was determined with a simulated spontaneous breathing model. Compared with the MDI alone, all of the accessory devices reduced aerosol MMAD and increased lung-throat ratio (fine particle dose/throat impaction; p < 0.05 for both parameters). The fine particle dose of albuterol was 40% higher with the Ellipse (p < 0.01), was equivalent with the Toilet Paper Roll, Aerochamber, Optichamber, and Medispacer, and was 33-56% lower with the Optihaler, Myst Assist, Aerosol Cloud Enhancer, and Inspirease (p < 0.03). MDI actuation in synchrony with inspiration produced highest drug delivery; when MDI actuation occurred 1-sec before inspiration or during exhalation, decrease in drug delivery with holding chambers (10-40% reduction) was less than that with spacers (40-90% reduction). Accessory device selection is complicated by variability in performance between devices, and in the performance of each device in different clinical settings. In vitro characterization of a MDI and accessory device could guide appropriate device selection in various clinical settings.

My Anamorphoses: Types That Produce Three Kinds of Images in Circular Cylindrical Mirrors

The distorted, sometimes unrecognizable images that are seen in curved mirrors once aroused my curiosity and engaged my attention. I wondered, for example, how one could make a distorted picture on a flat surface that when held before a curved mirror would produce a realistic image in the mirror. What line constructions on the surface could enable one to make such a picture? I had no idea that once having satisfied my curiosity the constructions would engage my attention further. I did not realize that there were subtle aesthetic aspects that could be produced. Then, in 1970, I happened to be looking at David Bergamini's book Mathematics, a well-illustrated book written for lay readers in the LIFE Science Library series [1]. What caught my attention was the illustration on page 100 showing a photograph of an 18th-century painting held horizontally. Resting on the painting is what appears to be a short length of a circular stove pipe (with its central axis vertical). The external surface of the cylinder is a mirror. What is remarkable is that the painting shows three highly distorted figures. But, viewed in the circular cylindrical mirror, the scene with the three figures is realistic, with no distortion. Such a picture is called an anamorphosis and Bergamini wrote in the note beneath the reproduction, 'Secrets of the technique are unknown'. On reading this sentence, I immediately decided to rediscover how an anamorphosis could be constructed. (I was to learn later that techniques for making anamorphoses were not secret and that Jurgis Baltrusaitis wrote books on the subject reproducing some of the constructions employed, namely those of J. F. Niceron and of Le P. Du Breuil [2]. The second book by Baltrusaitis on the same subject has just now been called to my attention [3]. My ignorance added a sense of magic to my rediscovery. The first cylindrical mirror I used consisted of shiny thin brass sheet, of the kind children use to decorate pine trees in Sweden at Christmastime, which I glued to a cardboard cylinder that had served once as the core of a roll of toilet paper. My next mirror was more sophisticated. It was a carefully cut out, turned and polished copper tube that I had chromium-plated. Then I made mirrors from glass tubing that I silvered inside. But the glass tubes were not precisely circular, and double images were produced by

Density of Colonies and Spatial Distribution of Foraging Territories of the Desert Subterranean Termite, Heterotermes aureus (Snyder) 123

Density of colonies together with size and spatial distribution of foraging territories of the subterranean termite, Heterotermes aureus (Snyder), were determined on a 1600-m2 bait sampling grid in a shrub-invaded desert grassland on the Santa Rita Experimental Range S of Tucson, Arizona. Bait units (toilet paper rolls) attacked on the first wk of the 52-wk study and those with large, mean weekly forager counts were considered as colony foci. Lateral spread of colony boundaries was followed weekly. After one year H. aureus had attacked 22.8% of the bait units. Colony density was estimated at 190A/ha, mean territory contained 12.5 m2 and mean number of individuals/colony was speculated to be 22,632.

Foraging Ecology and Relative Importance of Subterranean Termites in Chihuahuan Desert Ecosystems

Foraging activity of subterranean termites was studied on grids of artificial food units (toilet paper rolls) and on natural foods on the surface using belt transects. Preferred forage items were portions of Yucca elata logs and cattle dung which provided large surface area contact with the soil. Foraging at the surface occurred at soil temperatures >3–5°C at 15 cm depth and at soil moisture tensions between 0 and minus 140 bars. Estimated foraging group densities were 440/ha and 61/ha for 2 areas. Differences in foraging group densities were related to soil texture and depth above the caliche. Mid-summer field determined consumption rates were 7.9±2.8 and 1.2±0.04 kg/ha on the 2 study areas. We concluded that termites account for the consumption of ca. 50% of the production in creosotebush and mesquite-yucca grassland communities in the Chihuahuan desert.