Variational Pattern Research Articles

The Taxonomic Relationship between Proboscidea louisianica and Proboscidea fragrans (Martyniaceae)

The Taxonomic Relationship between Proboscidea louisianica and Proboscidea fragrans (Martyniaceae)

Sidereal-day variation in spontaneous activity of the mouse, Mus musculus.

1. Spontaneous motor activity of twelve adult male Swiss white mice was monitored for the year June 1, 1965 through May 31, 1966, in Evanston, Illinois. The mice were maintained in natural illumination in the laboratory. 2. A mean sidereal-day activity pattern was disclosed. This comprised a unimodal variation with a maximum occurring at sidereal midnight (hour 0) and a minimum at the 12th hour. The range of the cycle was 40% of the mean. It is postulated that the sidereal variational pattern reflects biological responsiveness to the mean sidereal-day fluctuations in the geoelectromagnetic field. 3. The presence of an annual pattern of spontaneous motor activity is postulated to be the result, in at least some measure, of the systematically altering phase-relationships between the 24-hour solar-day and the 23-hour 56-minutes sidereal-day as the sidereal-day makes it passage across the solar-day to be completed exactly in one year's period. 4. The significance of a sidereal-day periodicity to nocturnally migrating organisms is postulated.

Fracture-Flow Relationships for A533B Pressure Vessel Steel

The large scatter emerging from KIc measurements for heavy walled pressure vessel steels is examined in view of new data for A533B. Extensive plastic flow data at −220 deg F and 80 deg F has revealed a marked, and apparently harmonic, flow strength variation repeated at strain rate intervals in ratio of about 20. The tension skewed path over these ridges is related to the KIc behavior, for which a corresponding variational pattern with loading rate K˙ is observed. The variational pattern, or rate spectrum effect, is large compared to the average speed sensitivity of KIc, suggesting that transition temperatures values could be measured at a more moderate, though rapid, loading rate to avoid the inertial ringing effects of impact.

Geographic Variation and Distribution of the Long-Tailed Group of the Glossy Snake, Arizona Elegans Kennicott

Geographic variation and distribution of the five forms of the long- tailed group of the snake genus Arizona are discussed. The recognition of a new form of Arizona elegans in northeastern Mexico necessitates a nomenclatural change for the populations in Texas and Northeastern Mexico. The validity of the subspecies blanchardi Klauber is established. Additional specimens have broadened the known variational and distributional pattern of A. e. expolita Klauber. Klauber (1946) designated the long-tailed group of Arizona elegans Kennicott as those subspecies whose tail length averaged 14.9 per cent or more of total length and the short-tailed group as those whose tail length averaged 13.9 per cent or less. The present study was initiated by a collection of 14 individuals of Arizona elegans from eastern Texas, which appeared to deviate from the normal variational pattern given by Klauber, the latest reviser of the genus. As the research ex- panded it became necessary to include all subspecies of the long-tailed group to determine the extent of individual and geographic variation. I wish to express my appreciation to William B. Davis for his criti- cal reading of the manuscript and for helpful suggestions. I also wish to thank the following persons for the privilege of examining speci- mens of Arizona elegans in their care: W. Frank Blair, University of