Abstract: Advocates of performanceor competency-based teacher education, state-mandated evaluation programs such as the Stull Bill in California, and teacher accountability systems all suffer to some degree from ostrichism. Ostrichism is a common disease often afflicting education. Its cause lies in a premature commitment to a particular educational movement. Behavioral symptoms include the practice of sticking one’s head into the sand when problems appear, in the hope that the problems will go away. The particular educational movement which is inducing the current epidemic of ostrichism is the commitment of educators to competency training and evaluation without the existence of empirical evidence linking teacher behavior to student outcomes in classroom settings. The Coleman report (1966) and its offshoots (Jencks, 1972; Mosteller and Moynihan, 1972) have minimized the role of the teacher in accounting for educational outcomes. These investigators claim that family background, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and the like are the major causal variables that affect between-school differences in achievement. They imply that teachers only minimally affect student achievement. Heath and Nielson (1974) reached the same conclusion in their review of the studies of teacher clarity, use of student ideas, criticism, enthusiasm, and other variables commonly accepted as skills or competencies. They concluded first that there is

Abstract: A self-referencing sensing and control apparatus which may be used advantageously in any industrial installation in which an A.C. powered device, such as the down-hole motor in a submersible pumping system or a plunger relay, is remotely located and in which it is desired (i) to monitor certain parameters, such as temperature and pressure, and/or (ii) to control certain operational functions, such as the state of flow valves and latching means, at the remote site. The power cable used to carry A.C. power to the remotely operating device is also used to carry instrumentation and control signals from local control and readout equipment to an instrumentation package installed at the remote site. The present invention comprises switching means to selectively couple and decouple one or more sensors (or control means) in the instrumentation package to and from the A.C. operating device and the power cable, thereby permitting high voltage testing of the A.C. device and cable, or other tests.

Abstract: A system of airplane instrumentation utilizing devices and procedures for dealing with wind shear on the final approach to a landing. The system is designed for use in a like manner on all approaches for landing to assure that a safe, stable speed be used during all landing approaches, and that the Pilot be apprised of the conditions his airplane is flying through at all times during the approach. The primary aim is to provide instrumentation which will aid the Pilot in achieving safe approach criteria, give him information on which to base his judgment, and eliminate accidents on the final approach due to wind shear.

Abstract: An investigation is made into the possibility of fully integrating an instrumentation amplifier in monolithic form. Of many types of instrumentation amplifiers, the one with voltage-to-current conversion appears to be most suitable for monolithic integration. For a low price per unit the number of components external to the IC must be low. A circuit configuration which requires only two external resistors to fix the amplification factor accurately is the differential-difference amplifier (DDA). This configuration possesses some particularly useful applications.

Abstract: Methods of extracorporeal circulation to permit intracardiac surgery still depend on the principles developed by John Gibbon in the early 1950s. This review traces Gibbon's early development, reviews the state of the art of instrumentation for extracorporeal circulation in the operating room today, and projects future changes in this instrumentation that will result in improvement in blood contact surfaces, automation and servo-regulation, and safety.

Abstract: The High Speed and Free Surface Water Tunnels are the principal research facilities of the Hydrodynamics Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Significant changes have been made to these facilities since their erection in 1945. This paper presents a description of these facilities, and their operating characteristics, as they exist today. Recent projects, new instrumentation, and support facilities are also described.

Abstract: Automation in the laboratory is becoming increasingly common as the scale and complexity of instrumentation and experimentation increase. Computers and electronic logic can provide data manipulation and control to match most laboratory situations, but few potential users appreciate the scope and limitations of the techniques available. A perspective is given of the range of applications of digital techniques in laboratory automation and instrumentation and some indication of current trends and the impact of recent developments in electronics.

Abstract: Microprocessors and programmable LSI circuits provide increasingly cost-effective alternatives to traditional hardwired electronic or electromechanical circuits and subsystems used in automatic control, data processing, communication, and instrumentation. The design engineer, however, must learn new skills, i.e., digital system architecture and programming, in order to take advantage of this rapidly evolving new technology. This paper describes the experience of developing an effective approach to microcomputer education for both students and practicing engineers at the University of California, Berkeley.

Abstract: The impact of laboratory digital computers as reflected by research publications is evaluated.

Abstract: A study has been carried out to determine the state-of-the-art of instrumentation which is available for process control and safety in planned demonstration and commercial scale coal gasification, liquefaction, and fluidized-bed combustion systems. The study identified available instrumentation which will perform satisfactorily in these systems and pinpointed deficiencies for which instruments must be developed. The identified deficiencies fall into the same few categories for all processes considered. These categories are presented with associated physical parameters found in the various processes studied. Development of instruments to meet these deficiencies is recommended along with development of control valves and optimal control schemes in order to assure the possibility of automatic control of the large scale coal conversion and combustion systems.

Abstract: An event-oriented, modular software system for data acquisition in nuclear physics experiments has been implemented on PDP-11 computers under the RSX-11D operating system. The system is designed to support high-speed data acquisition in a broad variety of nuclear physics experiments having multiple event types and using CAMAC instrumentation as the experimental interface. The system provides a simple, problem-oriented language for the specification of CAMAC operations to acquire data from each class of event. It provides automatic bufferinq of experimental data from the CAMAC hardware and recording on magnetic tape. Certain common utility functions are provided, especially histogram entries and plotting on on-line displays, along with associated operator control functions. The experimenter specializes the system to his needs by writing FORTRAN subroutines which specify necessary on-line analysis of data and control histogram entry. The software depends on a special event-trigger module which was designed in conjunction with the software and is used to identify the various different classes of events, to facilitate manual control and testing of an experiment, and to facilitate comnmunication between different software modules in the system.

Abstract: The centralized dual computer system philosophy has evolved as the key concept underlying the highly successful application of direct digital control in CANDU power reactors. After more than a decade, this basic philosophy bears re-examination in the light of advances in system concepts - notably distributed architectures. A number of related experimental programs, all aimed at exploring the prospects of applying distributed systems in Canadian nuclear power plants are discussed. It was realized from the outset that the successful application of distributed systems depends on the availability of a highly reliable, high capacity, low cost communications medium. Accordingly, an experimental facility has been established and experiments have been defined to address such problem areas as interprocess communications, distributed data base design and man/machine interfaces. The design of a first application to be installed at the NRU/NRX research reactors is progressing well.