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This monograph presents a summary and analysis of case study reports on three highly used tuition assistance programs. The programs are those of the Education Fund of District Council 37 of AFSCME; Polaroid Corporation's Tuition Assistance Plan; and the Education Opportunities Plan of Kimberly-Clark Corporation. The case studies describe the historical background and design of the programs, how they function and are accessed, how well they meet the purposes of users and sponsors, and what factors seem to account for worker use rates well above the national norms of 4-5 percent of those eligible. Discussed are the main features of these three highly diverse tuition assistance programs; the elements common to all three programs and their operating environments, as well as salient differences; requirements for and limits to the broader implementation of the promising practices and support arrangements contained in these programs; and an informed assessment of what the experience of these programs tell about the role tuition aid can play in meeting education and training needs of workers and employers. (KC)

Representing a group effort by the author and the National Manpower Institute, the prospectus focuses on ways to improve the integration of the traditionally separate world of work and education--ways to break up the "time traps" of education for youth, and work for adults. It especially speaks for the 16-19 year old population, working women, workers needing training or retraining, minority group members, and people over 60. Part 1, Youth, discusses the 20 percent youth unemployment rate, the mismatch of competency development and available jobs, and the necessity of "infusing" liberal arts and vocational education. Part 2, The Career Years, explores work in light of improving the quality of life, not merely expanding the Gross National Product, and perceives the imminence of the revolution against the injustices toward older people. Part 3, The Prospect, grapples with the economic and political questions involved in instituting education-work policy. Some features of the proposed change strategy include: establishment of Community Education-Work Councils and a Work Institute, an Occupational Outlook and Career Information reporting system of national/local information, increased career counseling, youth community work/service programs, unemployment insurance law revision, and elimination of age structures on public education. (EA)

Infrared Heterodyne spectroscopy is a very attractive method for combining high frequency with high spatial resolution. At frequency resolutions R > 105 the sensitivity of heterodyne observations becomes comparable or even superior to direct detection methods. This is particularly of interest for detailed investigations of the cold interstellar gas for example. Important species like CH4, C2H2, or H2 can be observed which are not detectable in the radio-wave regime. With tuneable Quantum Cascade lasers we have demonstrated that mid-IR heterodyne spectroscopy can be a very powerful method for astronomy. For antenna arrays heterodyne detection has particular advantages, since the losses for the distribution of the received signal into the many baselines in a multi-telescope arrangement are avoided. In addition, other losses like those in optical delay-lines do also not occur [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sulfur amino acids cysteine and methionine function in many basic and essential processes of life. For cysteine this includes structural, catalytic, regulatory and metabolic functions. The special redox chemistry of sulfur and the thiol group in particular proved to be a versatile tool during evolution, not the least in electron transport processes in association with iron. Plants are primary producers and carry out assimilatory sulfate reduction to first synthesize cysteine that subsequently forms the backbone for methionine formation. This reaction sequence seems to be conserved in all phototrophic organisms. The position of cysteine biosynthesis between assimilation of inorganic sulfate and metabolization of organic sulfide makes it a prime target for coordination of both complex processes. It is thus a mediator between supply and demand in sulfur metabolism of a cell. Much attention has been paid to cysteine biosynthesis in plants, while less is known about the pathway in algae, cyanobacteria and purple bacteria. Recent evidence indicates that the two enzymes of cysteine synthesis, serine acetyltransferase and O-acetylserine-(thiol)-lyase are highly conserved between these groups and, at least in plants, form a reversible protein complex. This so-called cysteine synthase complex has been suggested to act as sensor for sulfide in cells and to be part of a regulatory loop that maintains cysteine homeostasis between sulfate reduction and cysteine consumption. Kinetic studies of the properties of the enzymes together with structural modelling of the proteins in the cysteine synthase complex as well studies using transgenic plants strongly support this unique regulatory system in plants. The degradation of cysteine is still an under-investigated subject. Possible alternative routes of thiol transfer and sulfide release are compiled here and discussed with respect to their putative functions in S-transfer reactions, cysteine degradation, detoxification reactions and iron-sulfur cluster biosynthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When conducting complex neurosurgical interventions on the brain, surgeons are often assisted by planning systems and neuronavigation. To position the instruments in relation to the preoperatively acquired image datasets, rigid registration between the coordination systems of the patient and the corresponding diagnostic images is performed using fiducial markers or screws attached to the patient's head. In this work a registration-framework was implemented, which allows the easy integration of different point based registration algorithms as well as the estimation of registration accuracy. To perform the registration, two algorithms were implemented and tested using simulation as well as real world measurements. The target registration error (TRE) is predicted by a method introduced from Fitzpatrick. Two different approaches were implemented and both achieve better results than the RMS Error ("Root Mean Square") widely used in clinical applications. To provide the surgeon with an intuitive understanding of the accuracy, a graphical representation of the estimator was developed and integrated into the existing MOPS 3D planning system. Additionally an iterative marker selection method was developed for identifying markers which would contribute to a higher registration error. The described registration framework is developed in C++ using MS Visual Studio and is easy to integrate in different medical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel approach for a combined homogenization and registration technique. Medical image data is often disturbed by inhomogeneities from staining, illumination or attenuation. State-of-the-art approaches tackle homogenization and registration separately. Our new method attacks both troublemakers simultaneously. It is modeled as a minimization problem of a functional consisting of a distance measure and regularizers for the displacement field and the grayscale correction term. The simultaneous homogenization and registration enables an automatic correction of gray values and improves the local contrast. The combined approach takes slightly more computing time for an optimization step as compared to the non-combined scheme and so is much faster than sequential methods. We tested the performance both on academic and real life data. It turned out, that the combined approach enhances image quality, especially the visibility of slightly differentiable structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on multi-group multi-criteria decision making problems for oil spill contingency management are in their infancy. This paper presents a second order fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) model to resolve decision-making problem in the area of contingency management after environmental disasters. To assess the performance of different oil combat strategies FCE allows the utilization of lexical information, consideration of ecological and socio-economic criteria and involvement of a variety of stakeholders. On the other hand, the approach can be validated by using internal and external checks, which refer to sensitivity tests regarding its internal setups and comparisons with other methods, respectively. Through a case study based on the Pallas oil spill occurred in German North-Sea 1998, it is demonstrated that this approach has wide application potential in the field of integrated coastal zone management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The molecular engineering of recombinant plasmid DNA clones containing the full-length and replication-competent feline foamy (retro)virus (FFV) proviral genome is described. The methods used to combine subgenomic FFV DNA fragments can be applied to other retrovirus genomes, resulting in full-length, bacterially cloned retroviruses. In addition, techniques used to determine the replication competence of the cloned viral genomes are described. Alternative technologies (not described here) are also discussed, together with the application of cloned genomes in modern molecular virology; for example, in functional genetic studies or as starting material for retrovirus vector development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays application systems are modeled in object-oriented design languages like the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Although workflow management has to deal with such environments, typically propriatory modeling languages are used. We try to remedy the use of separate languages by proposing an extension of the UML to allow workflow modeling, thereby providing a seamless integration of workflow functionality in object-oriented application systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sketching the beam layout of the Cologne Tunable Heterodyne Infrared Spectrometer (THIS), the basic principle of operation of a heterodyne receiver is illustrated in Fig. 1 [1,2]. A local oscillator (LO) is precisely locked to a frequency close to the observing wavelength by the resonance of a Fabry-Perot diplexer, which itself is stabilised to a resonance of a special HeNe laser. The LO radiation with its known frequency is then superimposed onto the signal of the observed science source (or hot or cold calibration sources) and both get mixed via a HgCdTe (MCT) detector, what generates a beat frequency (intermediate frequency; IF) at a much lower (and therefore easier to process) frequency of about 1 GHz. This broadband low frequency signal, which still contains all the spectral information of the science source, can then be analysed using common broadband Acousto Optical Spectrometers (AOS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]