Station Staff Research Articles

Radio as a Successful Local Storyteller in Los Angeles: A Case Study of KKBT and KPCC

This case study examines the local storytelling practices of two radio stations in Los Angeles: one a commercial hip-hop station, the other a public radio station managed by Minnesota Public Radio with a news-talk format. Interviews with station staff and direct observation of station practices provide data that reveal specific practices showing how stations can apply communication infrastructure theory in attempts to forge the connections between the media, community residents, and the local organizations that bind neighborhoods. Obstacles to sustaining these practices are noted, including commercial pressures and journalistic principles that may hinder advocacy.

94 COMPARING DIFFERENT LEVELS OF OSMOLARITY AND pH OF LACTOSE EXTENDER ON THE VIABILITY OF SPERMATOZOA IN THE BACTRIAN CAMEL (CAMELUS BACTRIANUS)

Lactose has been used widely as a semen extender for camels although in the absence of evidence illustrating its suitablility. Considering the osmolarity (316.1 ± 1.48 mOsm/kg) and pH (7.4 ± 0.03) of Bactrian camel semen (Mosaferi S et al. 2004 Theriogenology, in press), the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of osmolarity and pH of lactose extender on the viability of Bactrian camel spermatozoa. In Experiment I, with pH adjusted to 6.9, the effect of lactose concentrations of 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13% with an osmolarity of 290, 333, 350, 376, and 419 mOsm/kg, respectively, on the viability of spermatozoa was investigated. In Experiment II, with lactose fixed at 10%, the effect of extender with pH of 5.9, 6.9, 7.5, 7.9, and 8.9 on the viability of spermatozoa was examined. All extenders contained 20% egg yolk. In both experiments, semen was collected from camels with a sound history of semen quality and fertility (n = 3), using a modified artificial vagina, and divided into different treatments after mechanical removal of semen viscosity (Mosaferi et al. 2004). Progressive forward motility of spermatozoa was examined at the time of semen collection and at 4, 12, and 24 h after incubation at 4°C. Data were analyzed using the GLM procedure in SAS/STAT (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC, USA) after arcsine transformation. At the time of semen dilution, the progressive forward motility of spermatozoa was greater at osmolarity of 290 (28.5%), 333 (34%), and 350 (31%) compared to 376 (13.5%) and 419 (1%) mOsm/kg (P < 0.05). The same trend in the progressive forward motility of spermatozoa was noticed after 4 h of incubation at 4°C; although a significant decrease (P < 0.05) occurred at 290 (11%), 333 (18 %) and 350 (16%). After 12 and 24 h of incubation at 4°C, the progressive forward motility of spermatozoa was less than 10% at 333 and 350 mOsm/kg (P < 0.05). At the time of semen dilution, the progressive forward motility of spermatozoa was greater (P < 0.05) at pH 6.9 (35.5%) and 7.5 (18%) compared to pH 5.9 (0%), 7.9 (7.5%) and 8.9 (2.5%). The same trend in the progressive forward motility of spermatozoa was observed after 4 h incubation at 4°C; although, a significant decrease (P < 0.05) occurred at pH 6.9 (15%) and 7.5 (9%) at this time. After 12 h incubation at 4°C, the progressive forward motility of spermatozoa was less than 5% at pH 6.9 and 7.5 (P < 0.05). In conclusion, 10% (333 mOsm/kg) and 11% (350 mOsm/kg) lactose, at the adjusted pH of 6.9, were the most suitable concentrations of lactose extender for preserving Bactrian camel semen for less than 4 h after which the viability of spermatozoa deteriorated significantly in this extender. The authors wish to thank the director and station staff of Bactrian Camel Research Center at Jahadabad, Meshkinshahr, Ardabil, for kind provision of facilities and assistance throughout the experiment.

96 A NOVEL EXTENDER FOR PRESERVATION OF BACTRIAN CAMEL (CAMELUS BACTRIANUS) SEMEN

Lactose and Green buffer (IMV, France) are the most commonly used extenders for camel semen. The viability of Bactrian camel spermatozoa in lactose extender is reduced after 4 h of incubation at 4°C (unpublished data). Although Green buffer is used for dromedary camel semen, there are no data indicating its effectiveness for Bactrian camel semen. More recently, we reported that the osmolality and pH of Bactrian camel semen are 316.1 ± 1.48 mOsm/kg and 7.4 ± 0.03, respectively. The objective of this study was to compare three different semen extenders, to determine if a TRIS-based diluent (SHOTOR* Diluent), a completely defined diluent, can maintain cooled camel sperm as effectively as established diluents. SHOTOR Diluent consists of 2.6 g TRIS, 1.35 g citric acid, 1.2 g glucose, and 0.9 g fructose in 100 mL of deionized water, with an osmolality of 330 mOsm/kg and pH of 6.9. SHOTOR Diluent, lactose, 10% (w/v), with an osmolality of 330 mOsm/kg and pH of 6.9, and Green buffer were compared in this study. All extenders contained 20% egg yolk. Semen was collected from bulls with a sound history of semen quality and fertility (n = 3), using a modified artificial vagina, and divided equally into the different extenders (Mosaferi S et al. 2004 15th Int. Cong. Anim. Reprod. 2, 520; Mosaferi S et al. 2004 Theriogenology, in press). Progressive forward motility and percentage of live spermatozoa were examined at the time of semen collection (time 0) and after 4, 12, and 24 h of incubation at 4°C. Data were analyzed using the GLM procedure in SAS/STAT after arcsine transformation. The forward progressive motilities of spermatozoa at 0, 4, 12, and 24 h after semen collection were 65.5, 54, 44.5, and 36.5% in SHOTOR Diluent; 31, 18.5, 8.5, and 0% in 10% lactose; and 60.5, 54.5, 33, and 32.5 % in Green buffer, respectively (Table 1). The percentage of live spermatozoa at 0, 4, 12, and 24 h were 84.5, 84, 81 and 74.5% in SHOTOR Diluent; 80, 79.5, 72.5, and 56.5% in 10% lactose; 89, 82.5, 82.5, and 77.5% in Green buffer, respectively (P > 0.05). The progressive forward motility of spermatozoa did not significantly decrease by 12 h at 4°C in SHOTOR Diluent (P > 0.05; Table 1), whereas it significantly decreased after 4 h and 12 h of incubation at 4°C in Green buffer and 10% lactose, respectively (P < 0.05; Table 1). Further decrease in the progressive forward motility occurred in all extenders after 24 h at 4°C (P < 0.05; Table 1). In conclusion, SHOTOR Diluent is better than Green buffer and 10% lactose as an extender for chilled storage of Bactrian camel semen for 12 hat4°C. Table 1. The progressive forward motility of Bactrian camel spermatozoa extended in SHOTOR Diluent (1), 10% lactose (2) and Green buffer (3) at the time of semen collection (time 0) and after 4, 12, and 24 h of incubation at 4°C *Shotor means camel in the Persian language. The authors wish to thank the director and station staff of Bactrian Camel Reseach Center at Meshkinshahr, Ardabil, for providing facilities and kind assistance throughout the experiment.

The impact of time of waking and concurrent subjective stress on the cortisol response to awakening

Both time of awakening and stress are thought to influence the magnitude of the cortisol awakening response (CAR), but the relative importance of these factors is unclear. This study assessed these influences in a combined within- and between-subject design. Data were collected from 32 men and women working as station staff in the London underground railway system in three conditions: early-shift days, day-shift days, and control days. Saliva samples were obtained on waking, 30 and 60 min later, together with measures of concurrent subjective stress, sleep quality the night before, and accumulated stress at the end of the day. Participants woke up more than 3.5h earlier on average on early-shift than day-shift or control days, and cortisol levels on waking were lower in the early-shift condition. The CAR (assessed both with increases from waking to 30 min and with area under the curve measures) was greater on early-shift days. However, respondents were more stressed over the hour after waking and reported more sleep disturbance on early-shift days; when these factors were taken into account, the difference in CAR related to experimental condition was no longer significant. Comparisons were also made between individuals who started their day-shifts in the morning and afternoon. The morning shift group woke an average of 2h earlier than did the afternoon shift group, but did not differ on stress, sleep quality, or CAR. Stress assessed retrospectively at the end of the day was not associated with the CAR. We conclude that early waking, stress early in the day, and sleep disturbance often coincide, but need to be distinguished in order accurately to interpret differences in CAR magnitude.

Providing Information to Customers and Station Staff at Stations

Providing Information to Customers and Station Staff at Stations

The Suharto Regime and Its Fall Through the Eyes of the Local Media

The first part of this article elaborates on the content and media management dynamics in local newspapers and radio stations during the period leading up to the fall of the New Order in Indonesia. The latter part deals with the early reform period after the downfall of Suharto. In-depth interviews were conducted with editorial policy-makers of the newspapers and with various radio station staff members in four cities where media consumption and other data had rarely been documented. The findings in the first part reveal omnipresent political control at two levels — local and central government. Because of this control, the local media personnel acknowledge their limitations, but strove for as much freedom as possible within the system. The second part shows that in this historical context, changes are taking place in both agency and structure. Both parts support the thesis that there is an interplay between agency and structure as opposed to the instrumentalist and structuralist orthodoxies.

The transatlantic cable-an Irish perspective

One of the papers presented at the IEEE History of Telecommunications Conference in Newfoundland last July looked at the first transatlantic cables from an Irish perspective. The author has studied the local impact of the cable as a relatively poor and isolated community suddenly found itself at a hub in the worldwide telecommunications network. The paper describes the Valentia community, the cable station staff, and the cable stations at Valentia, Waterville, and Ballinskelligs.

Salary boost creates UK Science ‘Premier League’

Lord Sainsbury, the UK science minister announced the start of a scheme to attract top researchers to the UK and to halt the ongoing ‘brain drain’. The £20 m fund, in partnership with the Wolfson foundation, will allow universities to bid for ‘top-up’ funding in the region of £75 000 to be spent on salary and consumables for outstanding researchers. These funds could mean salaries in excess of £100 000 for award holders. The Association of University Teachers gave a qualified welcome to the scheme but said, ‘It does not meet the outstanding needs of research staff or attract new postgraduates into the profession. PhD students on average received £7000 a year and research staff £18 000, compared with £22 000 for London Underground station staff’. D.S.

Human cytogenetic consequences of the Chernobyl accident

The frequency of chromosomal aberrations was evaluated in more than 500 liquidators of the Chernobyl accident. The ‘sarcophagus’ builders and the dosimetrists showed the highest frequency of aberrations per 100 cells: 3.24 ± 0.25 and 3.11 ± 0.43. For Chernobyl Atomic Power Station staff members the mean frequencies of aberrations per 100 cells was 2.37 ± 0.20. The mean yields of aberrations in the other groups was between 1.31 and 1.47 per 100 cells. If the mean frequencies of aberrations are converted into equivalent whole body doses, values between 136 and 414 mGy are obtained. Especially in the group of ‘sarcophagus’ builders, the yields of aberrations varied interindividually and corresponded to equivalent whole body doses of up to about 2 Gy.

A rating system for qualification analysis with application to personal evaluation

A way to choose the best object based upon a few expert opinions and its embodiment as a rating algorithm for an end-user personnel qualification system is described. The system is tested for clerks certifying for the State Ministry and is customised for Nuclear Power Station staff evaluation. Some aspects of the system's implementation in APL are reviewed.

Preventing suicide on the London underground

A field study was carried out to investigate the possibility of preventing suicide on the London Underground. Four groups of potentially valuable measures were identified with the objectives of: (i) reducing public access to the tracks; (ii) improving surveillance by station staff; (iii) facilitating emergency stops; and (iv) reducing injury. These strategies are discussed.

Improving hogget performance through efficient management of the spring surplus

This paper examines how the spring management options of making silage or planting brassicas can change hogget performance. Research by Gore Research Station staff compared winter hogget growth on various winter forages including brassicas, Italian ryegrass, perennial pasture and silage from several pasture types over 5 years. Liveweight gains varied from 0 to 160 g/day for silage made from various pasture options. Specific brassicas or brassica plus Italian ryegrass combinations provided average gains of up to 146 g/day. The yields of forage turnips for summer and autumn use were also compared. An initial harvest of 90 days with two subsequent cuts of 30- day intervals maximised yields from the treatments examined. The combining of these spring forage management options is discussed and used to outline options which will help farmers to maximise hogget performance. Keywords: Brussica, Cichorium intybus, hoggets, liveweight gain, L&urn multiflorum, perennial pasture, sheep, silage, summer, winter

Mapping out improvement

Reflects on a new scheme at British Airways which aims to improve process management in a number of customer contact areas ‐ in this case, the “arrivals” process at Heathrow Airport. Describes the process of benchmarking the nearest competitors in order to ascertain their service levels, and British Airways′ “service fail points”, which occur where customer expectations are not met. As a result, new performance indicators and guidelines for station and ground staff are developed.

A distributed data base for real-time control/monitoring of power plants

Real-time monitoring and control of a power plant delivering 1000 MW or more power is a complex task. It involves monitoring of 10000 or so analog signals and even more two-state signals. In addition, some data is to be interchanged between the real-time systems and the off-line ones which are used by the power station staff involved in run preparation functions. The paper describes the basic hardware and software tools designed for development of the distributed data base for a new power plant in Poland, which is a pilot implementation of such data bases.

Breed Structure of Senepol Cattle

Data were collected by the Virgin Islands Beef Cattle Improvement Program and the Virgin Islands Agricultural Experiment Station staff to establish the breed structure of the Senepol cattle. Data for the analysis were limited to the two Virgin Islands Senepol breeders with the most complete and largest set of records, representing approximately 65% of the entire Senepol population. Inbreeding (F) and coancestry relationship coefficients (rAB) and the theoretical inbreeding (FT) were determined from each data set and for the combined data from both farms, for each year, ranging from 1947 to 1984 for Annaly Farms, and from 1967 to 1984 for Castle Nugent Farm. The data sets for both farms were examined for the possibility of separation into families. Actual F within the Senepol population was relatively low, averaging less than 1.00%. Some separation into families occurred within Annaly Farms' cattle. The F and FT decreased (1.6 to 0.7% and 1.0 to 0.2%, respectively) as population numbers increased. The low F was accomplished through the breeding programs and exchanges of animals between farms on the island.

Nunc Dimittis

Dean Graeme Jones, poultry geneticist of the DeKalb Corporation, died September 11, 1986 at the Sycamore Municipal Hospital in Sycamore, Illinois after an extended illness. He was born August 30, 1917 in Pine Village, Indiana where he attended high school, and then enrolled in Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. He received his B.S. degree in 1939, majoring in poultry husbandry.Jones started graduate studies at Cornell University, where he began his work in physiology and genetics of the fowl. He received an M.S. degree in 1941, and immediately began studies for a Ph.D. degree. After an interruption for World War II service in the US Navy, he received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1946.Jones joined the teaching and experiment station staffs of the South Dakota State University in 1946, where he continued his research studies in poultry physiology and genetics. His work and efforts were recognized by promotions .

The Automatic Train Control and Safety Technology of the M-BAHN Public Transit System

The new Maglev-Rapid Transit System M-Bahn is based on the requirements and Objectives of modern public transit. For this purpose new methods have been applied in the fields of propulsion, levitation and guidance technology. The processes involved require a high degree of automation for operating control which, for economical and technical reasons, will be carried out without train and station staff. These functions are taken over by integrated subsystems, which serve for automatic train operation, train control and protection and which are aided by process computers and fail-safe micro computers.The first place, where an M-Bahn system will go into service, will be Berlin. Passenger service is scheduled to begin in the first half of 1987.The development of the M-Bahn was supported by the Federal Minister for Research and Technology. The Berlin scheme has also been partly funded by the Berlin Senat.

Simulation Study of Confusion at Terminal Train Stations Caused by Earthquake Warnings

Three simulation models with different areas of application are developed in this report to predict the risk posed by the rapid return to their homes of people around terminal stations immediately after earthquake warnings issued in daytime. These are also useful tools to evaluate the effectiveness of measures to mitigate the risk. The applications of these models to several terminal stations and train lines with many passengers were carried out and the results indicate the following: 1. Around 30–40 percent of the people around terminal stations should walk home. 2. Those who intend to take trains should go to terminal stations three or four hours ahead of the time they might otherwise need. 3. Strong traffic control at passages and wicket gates should be undertaken by police officers and station staff as soon as possible. 4. It is very important to make an “earthquake diagram” and to keep it as available as possible. 5. Public officers involved in the planning for the prevention of disasters should build “information bases” at terminal stations to announce various types of information to waiting passengers after earthquake warnings have been issued. 6. Finally, public officers and managers of businesses around terminal stations should inform people for whom they are responsible, about the circumstances anticipated and the measures mentioned above.

An introduction to the pdts (pcm/dsi test set): design principles and application in the intelsat tdma/dsi system

AbstractThe operational use of TDMA in the INTELSAT system brings about an exciting major milestone in satellite telecommunications. To a certain extent, the performance of the technically complex, robust, centrally controlled TDMA/DSI system depends on the effectiveness of the alignment, maintenance and testing procedures. The wide range of disciplines encountered in such an advanced system may raise difficulties for the station staffs currently familiar with the existing FDMA network.Such problems have given rise to the birth of a conceptually new test equipment PDTS (PCM/DSI test set) to evaluate the performance of the DSI or DNI unit in a TDMA terminal. This equipment is capable of generating PCM test patterns in predetermined sequences and feeding them at the baseband channel level into the terrestrial interface of the DSI for purposes of operationally testing channel continuity, DSI assignment and cumulative BER during the test cycle. The present paper describes the general principles of PDTS as well as its operational use in the TDMA/DSI system.

Application of Partial Discharge Testing to Hydro Generator Maintenance

An improved partial discharge test to ascertain hydraulic generator winding condition, has been in use for the last 7 years. The test, which can be done by generating station staff without disrupting operation, has been applied to about 140 machines in eight North American utilities. Partial discharge testing is one of the main reasons Ontario Hydro has an exceptionally low winding replacement/major repair rate. Examples of results culled from thousands of tests are presented.. The use of the partial discharge test for planning winding maintenanGe and gauging the effectiveness of repairs is discussed.