Thenext Generation Research Articles

The Next Step for AF&PA/ASCE 16-95: Performance-Based Design of Wood Structures

The concept of improving building performance has, for all prac-tical purposes, always existed at what might be deemed the soci-etal level. If engineered systems do not perform as society andusers deem acceptable, these systems do not continue to be con-structed and are eliminated over time. The inadequate systems arereplaced by improved ones whose performance is expected to bemore acceptable to the stakeholders and to society. In moderntimes this evolution manifests itself as revisions and updates toprescriptive design codes, which typically are anywhere from oneto seven years apart.The impetus to formalize performance-based design PBDhas its roots in Housing and Urban Development’s “OperationBreakthrough” of the 1970s NBSIR 1977 whose goal was toenable product innovation via industry. However, the wood indus-try, particularly home building, did not fully embrace innovationsfor increased performance since they often resulted in highercosts. Subsequently, these higher costs were not tolerated by themarketplace and thus the innovations were not implemented. Arecent Structural Engineering Institute SEI special project en-titled “Keeping Pace with ASCE 7” examined the reliability in-dexes inherent in the ASCE16-95 standard ASCE 1996; Bulleit2006 . The ASCE 16-95 committee of the SEI of the AmericanSociety of Civil Engineers ASCE has the option to move be-yond load and resistance factor design LRFD and spearhead thenext generation of standards for wood design, specifically aperformance-based standard. Following the aforementioned SEIspecial project, the SEI/ASCE committee on Reliability-basedDesign of Wood Structures embarked on a two-year specialproject entitled “The Next Step for AFP 2 continued occupancy; 3injury/life safety; 4 general structural integrity; and 5 manage-able loss/damage. Each discussion will address the hazard char-acterization, performance descriptors that align with the fiveperformance levels, model complexity required for analysis, de-sign procedure verification, and how these performance-basedanalyses can be extended to design. This discussion order is sum-marized in Fig. 1.Performance-based design has been defined in a variety ofways, including an engineering approach based on: 1 specificperformance objectives and safety goals of building occupants,owners, and the public; 2 probabilistic or deterministic evalua-tion of hazards; and 3 quantitative evaluation of design alterna-tives against performance objectives. However, PBD does notprescribe a specific technical solution Ellingwood 1998 . Perhapsa more practical definition, related to seismic design, is that givenby Nathan Gould of ABS Consulting: “PBSD Performance-Based Seismic Design is the seismic design methodology of thefuture. It allows the design team to work together to determine theappropriate levels of ground motion and performance objectives

Beyond the gridlock [From the Editor

Whether we're talking about the "smart grid" or the "intelligent grid" or, as we have chosen to call our issue, "the-next generation grid," the electric grid of the future is a subject that's certainly on the front burner. The topic attracted attention during the recent U.S. election campaign, and statements by President Obama suggest the issue will become a priority during his presidency, even in these troubled economic times.

Interoperable CNC System for Turning Operations

The changing economic climate has made global manufacturing a growing reality over the last decade, forcing companies from east and west and all over the world to collaborate beyond geographic boundaries in the design, manufacture and assemble of products. The ISO10303 and ISO14649 Standards (STEP and STEP-NC) have been developed to introduce interoperability into manufacturing enterprises so as to meet the challenge of responding to production on demand. This paper describes and illustrates a STEP compliant CAD/CAPP/CAM System for the manufacture of rotational parts on CNC turning centers. The information models to support the proposed system together with the data models defined in the ISO14649 standard used to create the NC programs are also described. A structured view of a STEP compliant CAD/CAPP/CAM system framework supporting the next generation of intelligent CNC controllers for turn/mill component manufacture is provided. Finally a proposed computational environment for a STEP-NC compliant system for turning operations (SCSTO) is described. SCSTO is the experimental part of the research supported by the specification of information models and constructed using a structured methodology and object-oriented methods. SCSTO was developed to generate a Part 21 file based on machining features to support the interactive generation of process plans utilizing feature extraction. A case study component has been developed to prove the concept for using the milling and turning parts of ISO14649 to provide a turn-mill CAD/CAPP/CAM environment.

The Simulation Cycle: Combining Games, Simulations, Engineering and Science Using StarLogo TNG

StarLogo The Next Generation ( TNG) enables secondary school students and teachers to model decentralized systems through agent-based programming. TNG's inclusion of a three-dimensional graphical environment provides the capacity to create games and simulation models with a first-person perspective. The authors theorize that student learning of complex systems and simulations can be motivated and improved by transforming simulation models of complex systems phenomena (specifically this study examines systems including epidemics and Newtonian motion) into games. Through this transformation students interact with the model in new ways and increase their learning of both specific content knowledge and general processes such as inquiry, problem solving and creative thinking. During this study several methods for connecting the simulations to game dynamics were tried, ranging from student-created games, to altering existing games, to students playing premade games. This article presents the results of research data from two years of curriculum development and piloting in northern Massachusetts science classrooms to demonstrate the successes and challenges of integrating simulations and games. This article also explores the results of these interventions in terms of ease of implementation, student motivation and student learning.

NATURAL SELECTION AND MATING CONSTRAINTS WITH GENETIC ALGORITHMS

In this paper, we are modelling a situation in an evolutionary popu-lation where a genetically inherited feature is part of a distributionof probabilities that gives it low expectations to be present in thenext generation, for example, recessive features.

More than a Zit Remedy: Degrassi’s Power Then and Now

Like most of the authors represented in this anthology, I grew up Degrassi. I entered junior high school in 1987 along with the unpolished and diverse Degrassi clan, some of whom had also starred in the show’s precursor, The Kids of Degrassi Street. I made the transition to high school with them and commiserated in the excitement and anxiety of graduation with the airing of School ’s Out, the television movie that capped off that particular chapter of Canadian television history (summed up as Degrassi Classic). Nearly a decade later the Degrassi franchise, arguably one of Canada’s most successful and influential television series, was resurrected as Degrassi: The Next Generation (TNG). With professional actors and more polished production values, the program (currently in its sixth season) breaks with the stripped-down appearance of Degrassi Classic, yet continues on in the Degrassi tradition of presenting television to youth that speaks to them in a voice authentically their own.

Pitch Woman and Other Stories: Oral Traditions of Coquelle Thompson, Upper Coquille Athabaskan Indian by William Seaburg, Elizabeth D. Jacobs

people but, as the authors point out, Chinook knew that these things took time. "He said his honest recollections,written down, eventually could overthrow the Huntington Treaty.People remember the acts and works of theirheroes, and tribal storytellers keep the issues alive and vibrant in the minds of old and young alike. In thisway, today's disappointments can become the triumphs of thenext generation" (p. 52). Another ofmy favoritechapters deals with "The Skeptic: Tom Yallup, Indian Scientist." Yallup had a knack foranalytical acuteness that called into question thewisdom of scientific knowledge concerning salmon and salmon population enhancement long before the scientific community began to question the statusquo. Traditional knowledge concerning salmon runshas the advantage of generations of observation and intimateexperience.Yallup instinctively knew thatdams were bad, fish lad ders and other conveyanceswould neverwork, andwestern European science did not have the solutions needed to save theColumbia River salmon. Yallup knew, for example, that fish counting at Bonneville Dam was inaccurate. As early as 1950,he questioned the ethics and reliabilityoffish counting.He pointed out that fish counters often could not tellthedifference between a steelhead and a coho, thatfish fell back andwere counted twice,thatfishcounters counted shadows, and that no accurate counts could bemade, especially since countswere not done at night. Fiftyyears later, the scientific community discovered these same flaws via the scientific method. Only now arewe begin ning to recognize the important contributions traditional ecological knowledge canmake to thewestern scientifictradition. Space does not allow me to discuss other chapters in thisbook. Each has its merits and each is an interestingstory in itself. As in any book, a few shortcomings exist. Although discussed in a chapter called "the traders," David Sohappy certainlydeserves a chapter of his own. He is legendary in thehistory of the Columbia River salmon controversy,especially in the legal arena. Each chapter has a state ment on Indian law stated as a "Rule of Law," which tounfamiliar readersmight be taken as an actual canon of Indian law instead of the sarcastic statementon legal interpretationthat itactually is.There are a fewminor errors of factand theoccasional flippant comments are sometimes annoying.Despite these shortcom ings,the work ishighly recommended forthose interested in Indian law,fishing rights,and the Columbia River and is awelcome addition to the numerous works on these subjects. Daniel L. Boxberger WesternWashington University,Bellingham PITCH WOMAN ANDOTHER STORIES: ORALTRADITIONS OF COQUELLE THOMPSON, UPPER COQUILLE ATHABASKAN INDIAN by William Seaburg collected byElizabethD. Jacobs University ofNebraska Press, Lincoln, 2007. Illustrations, photographs, maps, tables, notes, bibliography, index. 309 pages. $39.95 cloth. In this book,William Seaburg presents both history and biographies of previous ethno linguists inOregon, as well as how his own work intersectedwith that of Elizabeth Derr Jacobs during the 1970s. Seaburg begins with a biographical sketch of Coquelle Thompson and then offers a narrative interview with Jacobs,providing details of her life with Mel ville Jacobs.Seaburg thenbegins analyzing the work of the Jacobses and JohnPeabody Har rington,all ofwhom worked with Thompson. Thereafter is supplied a standard ethnological "cultural sketch"of theCoquille Indians, dis cussions of various styles of presenting oral histories, and an analysis of problems with recording medium ? including examples from the interactionsbetween Harrington and Jack Marr (p. 31).One story,"Pitch Woman," is completely analyzed, and thebulk of thebook 490 OHQ vol. 108, no. 3 contains presentations of forty-six other stories fromThompson and otherNative storytellers, some never before published. This scholarly work is well placed within the canon ofwork on Oregon Indians,Northwest Coast ethnohistory,and Native oral histories ingeneral. Seaburg employs an easy stylethat avoids heavy scholarly jargonwhile using lin guistic terms appropriately in some sections. One issue tonote immediately is that most of the sources of the "cultural sketch" are over seventy years old. In addition, there are no references to contemporary Coquille Native interpretations of theirown cultureand society. Therefore, the sketch presented is dubiously accurate in a way similar tomany early ethno logical narratives,which were writtenwithout regard to theperspectives of the Native peoples they sought to represent. This book will become an essential volume and reference work to add to any library, per sonal or public, ofNorthwest Coast Indigenous anthropology or ethnohistory Tribal scholars will appreciate its references to...

Electronic arts game design program at USC CNTV

ELECTRONIC ARTS ANNOUNCES MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR GIFT TO USC SCHOOL OF CINEMA-TELEVISION'S INTERACTIVE MEDIA DIVISIONFunds Will Expand School's Global Leadership in Computer Game Research and EducationPress release belowELECTRONIC ARTS ANNOUNCES MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR GIFT TO USC SCHOOL OF CINEMA-TELEVISION'S INTERACTIVE MEDIA DIVISIONFunds Will Expand School's Global Leadership in Computer Game Research and EducationFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEREDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 22, 2004, 2004 - Electronic Arts (EA) (Nasdaq: ERTS) announced today that it has made a multi-million dollar donation to the USC School of Cinema-Television (USC-CNTV) to advance interactive media education and create a launch pad for the next generation of interactive entertainment. The contribution, part of EA's global educational and talent development effort, will fund two new facets of USC-CNTV's Division of Interactive Media: the Electronic Arts Interactive Entertainment Program and the Electronic Arts Endowed Faculty Chair. The EA Interactive Entertainment Program is a 3-year Master of Fine Arts degree program. The program will help forward USC-CNTV's goal to educate the next generation of high-level gaming design and visionary thinkers in what will be one of the 21st Century's primary entertainment media."The School's rich storytelling tradition and long-standing commitment to technological experimentation make it an ideal partner for EA," said Don Mattrick, President, Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios. "This is an excellent opportunity for EA to invest in the future of the industry by providing today's students with the skills and knowledge they will need to push technology and entertainment forward." Mattrick, the newest appointee to the School's Board of Councilors, will be part of a high-profile team - the ranks of which include entertainment giants Jeffrey Katzenberg, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Wells, and Robert Zemeckis - that will work to ensure that interactive media studies at USC continues to move confidently in the direction of growth and innovation."This gift clearly demonstrates EA's commitment to expanding the frontiers of game design, and to developing a well rounded, highly skilled, and forward-thinking talent base overall," said Elizabeth M. Daley, Dean, USC School of Cinema-Television. "The School's position as an international academic leader is further solidified by its relationship with the world's number-one interactive entertainment developer - a partnership that will set new standards of excellence in a field that is truly changing global culture."The EA gift will fuel the growth of the School's Interactive Media Division's gaming component, and enable the Division, headed by Scott Fisher, to define and expand this nascent, multi-faceted field. With the aid of these funds, the School will grow its efforts to graduate students who are visionary thinkers, but who also have a deep understanding of the crafts and skills required to produce quality content for a diverse media array. Specifically, the Electronic Arts Interactive Entertainment Program will spawn the creation of a curriculum and research lab to explore the boundaries of interactive entertainment and to study the emerging discipline of game development. The gift will enable the creation of an intra-USC gaming community that will bring together creative and technical expertise in cinema-television, the arts, and technical sciences, and will provide students with invaluable real-world experience through internships and work-study programs at EA, including its newest Los Angeles campus.The Electronic Arts Chair will enable the Division to meet the intensifying demand for talented game developers who are solidly grounded in story and content. The endowed funds to support faculty specializing in game development elevates the field into the ranks of other professions, such as law and engineering, worthy of scholarly study and specialized training."It's astonishing how quickly games have become an essential part of the entertainment arts, and there is no better place than USC to nurture the creative and conceptual thinkers who will take the medium to places we can only imagine," said USC alumnus George Lucas, a longtime supporter of the School of Cinema-Television, the founder of game-design studio LucasArts and the filmmaker behind the Star Wars series. "USC is a major force in cinema education, and thanks to Electronic Arts, it can become a leader in interactive arts education as well.""To create the next generation of entertainment, we need the next generation of talent," said Rusty Rueff, Executive Vice President of Human Resources, Electronic Arts. "Melding storytelling, art, music, game design, and technology has become so complex that it is imperative for tomorrow's designers and producers to acquire an education with both depth and breadth in order to achieve success in our ever-growing industry.""Our new development studio in Playa Del Rey and this investment reflect EA's long term commitment to Los Angeles and Southern California," said John Batter, Vice President and General Manager, Electronic Arts Los Angeles. "We are proud to be expanding our presence within the region by fostering creativity through education and by stimulating current and future growth within the entertainment industry."

Electric dipole moments of fundamental particles

Electric dipole moments (EDM) are at the fore-front of search for physics beyond the standard model. Thenext generation searches promise to improve by several orders of magnitude the current EDM sensitivity levels.

Neutrino oscillations: status, prospects and opportunities at a neutrinofactory

We review the current status of neutrinooscillations after 1258 days ofSuper-Kamiokande, assess their futureprospects over the next 10 years as thenext generation of experiments comeon-line, and discuss the longer-termopportunities presented by a neutrinofactory. We also give an introduction tothe see-saw mechanism and its applicationto atmospheric and solar neutrinos.

Relating to Internet 'Audiences'

Relating to Internet 'Audiences'

Microcosm TNG: a framework for distributed open hypermedia

Increased amounts of information and users' rising demands for advanced link services pose strong challenges to distributed hypermedia systems. Novel presentation facilities, nontextual digital media, personalization of content and structures, and many more techniques often require complex processing and thus imply new interaction styles. Microcosm TNG (The Next Generation), which is a framework for distributed open hypermedia, offers new mechanisms for desktop and Internet integration. It also promotes a modular approach to authoring hypermedia resources.

Female competition in mate choice decreases fitness in flies (Drosophila pseudoobscura) from Colombia

Ever since Falconer (1960) discussed how additivegenetic variance for fitness rapidly decreases both theoreticaland empirical interpretations have shown that there is a lowparent-offspring correlation for fitness (Maynard-Smith,1978). Williams (1975) discussel with his characteristicintellectual power that under equilibrium genetic variationaffecting fitness should not be heritable. Williams’ Sisypheangenotype terminology (instead of Dobzhansky’s (1964a)genetic elite) signifies that low heritability of reproductivesuccess or viability would be instrumental in dropping themost fit genotypes down into the range of mediocrity in thenext generation. Thus, a female does not produce fitteroffspring by mating with an above average male (Maynard-Smith, 1978) or by mating several times (Bateman, 1948).More recently other reportes (Partridge, 1980) have foundthat when females choose there mate, their offspring aremore successfully competitive. Our results (Table I) partiallyagree with those of Partridge.Females from the progeny of a mass culture withthree original isofemale lines (10, 11 and 41 freshlybrought from nature) were placed to oviposit and to growprogeny. From an abundant progeny, three randomlypicked groups (A, B, and C) were established in vials.Group A consisted of ten virgin females, randomly chosenfrom the original mass culture mentioned above, crossedto a single male, also randomly chosen out of isofemaleline 10 from Oicata, Colombia. Group B consisted of avirgin female, randomly chosen from the same originalmass culture, and a single male, also randomly chosenfrom males of the isofemale line 10 made into a massculture. In group C, groups of 10 pregnant females fromthe mass culture were allowed to oviposit in vials. Threedifferent comparisons were made. The offspring of groupA compared with the offspring of group C was A, C. Thecomparison was made by taking first instar larvae fromeggs laid by females from group A (no choice, tenfemales) and first instar larvae from eggs laid by femalesfrom group C (choice, 10 females) and competing eachset of larvae against and equal number of larvae bearingthe recessive mutation vermilion (eye color) from a D.pseudoobscura stock made exclusively for this experiment.In group B, the offspring of a single adult virginfemale taken from the mass culture from Oicata and matedsingly to a male, also taken at random from the isofemalestock 10, were compared with offspring of inseminatedfemales collected from the mass culture (this is B, C). Aswith A, C, comparison B, C, was made by taking first ins-tar larvae from eggs laid by females from group B (nochoice, one female) and first instar larvae from eggs laidby females from group C and competing each set of larvaeagainst an equal number of larvae bearing the recessivemutation vermilion.The offspring of group A, compared with theoffspring of group B was A, B. The comparison was madeby taking first instar larvae laid by females from group A(no choice, 10 females) and first instar larvae from eggslaid by females from group B (no choice, one female) andcompeting each set of larvae against an equal number oflarvae bearing the recessive mutation vermilion from a D.pseudoobscura stock.Each group (A, B and C) consisted of 10 replicates.Two experiments were performed, one with 400 larvae onewith 300 larvae. In the 400-larva experiment each set of200 larvae from each group A, B and C were placed with200 larvae of the recessive mutant vermilion. For the 300-larva experiment, each set of 150 larvae from each groupA, B and C were placed with 150 larvae of the recessivemutant vermilion.Larvae were allowed to compete in plastic vials,which contained the same food medium (banana-agar-propionic acid medium) as that used in the mass culturefrom Oicata. The number of wild type and vermilion fliesemerging from each vial was recorded. We endeavored tohave the larvae compete under conditions similar to thoseencountered by larvae in the original mass culture fromOicata. As far as we know food, temperature, CO

Star Trek Fandom as a Religious Phenomenon

This essay is an ethnographic exploration of Star Trek fandorn. Rather than the more common textual analyses of the program, this article examines the history and practice of the fans themselves, on computer networks, at consentions and in tourism, in UStarJleet fan clubs and in fan literature. All these fan activities canstruct and add to the altemative universe of Star Trek while also connecting it with the present. At a time when scholars are finding religion in nonconventional locations, I argue that Star Trek fandan is one of these locations. Star Trek fandorn involves a sacralization of elements of our culture, along with the fonnation of communities with regularized practices that include a canon and a hierarchy. Star TrekfarXn is also associated with a popular stigma, givingfans a sense of persecution and identity common to active religious groups. Star Trek (ST) is a phenomenon unlike any other. Now over 25 years old, it originated when the original Star Trek television series was threatened with cancellation after its first year. Fans immediately sprang into action with a letter-writing campaign to keep it going (Trimble 1983). When it finally was canceled after its third year, the show went into syndication, and ironically, that is when the fandom phenomenon really started to take off.l The first convention was in New York in 1972. A centralized fan clearinghouse organization, the Welcommittee, was established in 1972 to introduce fans to ST (Van Hise 1990; Bacon-Smith 1992). At this time, noncommercial fan magazines (fanzines) were already being written; and books, manuals, and novels were published. Efforts to revive ST broadcasts in some form continued. An animated series was produced from 1973-1974, and in 1979 the first of the six (at present) ST movies was released. In 1987 Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) was pro