Some Experiences with the Teaching of Decision Support Systems to Management Students

There are essentially two schools of thought regarding the function of decision support systems. One is that the main purpose is to support the decision-maker in whatever style of decision-making he or she wishes. The other is that the support, while suiting the decision-maker's individual style, must also be based on an appropriate theoretical paradigm. The work with students of decision support systems reported here suggests that the latter, normative, view is not one which comes naturally to many of the students, even when working on an example where it seemed relatively easy to incorporate. Other conclusions are also presented, relating to the choice of software for decision support system development, the process of teaching about decision support systems, and group formation.     

Infrared spectrum of ArHD: Simulation through the accurate calculation of photodissociation cross sections

The absolute values of the photodissociation cross sections and lineshapes for 29 sets of predissociative transitions of the ArHD van der Waals complex have been computed. These lineshapes are summed with the correct statistical weighting and compared with the experimentally observed spectrum of McKellar.     

Comment: 2004's fastest organic and biomolecular chemistry!

In January 2003, the Royal Society of Chemistry launched Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (OBC)--a journal promising to provide high quality research from all aspects of synthetic, physical and biomolecular organic chemistry. The journal was set to build upon the foundations laid down by its predecessor publications (J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1 and J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 2) as well as complement the subject coverage already published in prestigious general chemistry journals such as Chemical Communications and Chemical Society Reviews. Nearly two years on, just how is the programme developing and what can the community expect to see from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)?     

Templating and selection in the formation of macrocycles containing [[P(micro-NtBu)(2)](micro-NH)](n) frameworks: observation of halide ion coordination

Amination of [ClP(micro-NtBu)](2) (1) using NH(3) in THF gives the cyclophospha(III)zane dimer [H(2)NP(micro-NtBu)](2) (2), in good yield. (31)P NMR spectroscopic studies of the reaction of 1 with 2 in THF/Et(3)N show that almost quantitative formation of the cyclic tetramer [[P(micro-NtBu)](2)(micro-NH)](4) (3) occurs. The remarkable selectivity of this reaction can (in part) be attributed to pre-organisation of 1 and 2, which prefer cis arrangements in the solid state and solution. The macrocycle 3 can be isolated in yields of 58-67 % using various reaction scales. The isolation of the major by-product of the reaction (ca. 0.5-1 % of samples of 3), the pentameric, host-guest complex [[P(micro-NtBu)(2)](2)(micro-NH)](5)(HCl).2 THF] (4.2 THF), gives a strong indication of the mechanism involved. In situ (31)P NMR spectroscopic studies support a stepwise condensation mechanism in which Cl(-) ions play an important role in templating and selection of 3 and 4. Amplification of the pentameric arrangement occurs in the presence of excess LiX (X=Cl, Br, I). In addition, the cyclisation reaction is solvent- and anion-dependent. The X-ray structures of 2 and 4.2 THF are reported.     

Comment: 2004's fastest organic and biomolecular chemistry!

In January 2004, the Royal Society of Chemistry launched Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (OBC) - a journal promising to provide high quality research from all aspects of synthetic, physical and biomolecular organic chemistry. The journal was set to build upon the foundations laid down by its predecessor publications (J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1 and J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 2) as well as complement the subject coverage already published in prestigious general chemistry journals such as Chemical Communications and Chemical Society Reviews. Nearly two years on, just how is the programme developing and what can the community expect to see from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)?     

The use of baculoviruses as expression vectors

The use of recombinant baculoviruses as high level expression systems is becoming more and more popular. This review aims to provide a summary of the impact of this expression system in biochemistry and biotechnology, highlighting important advances that have been made utilizing the system. The potential of newly developed multiple baculovirus expression systems to enable the reconstruction of complex biological molecules and processes is also reviewed.     

Electron-hole coupling and the charge density wave transition in TiSe2

Angle-resolved photoemission is employed to measure the band structure of TiSe2 in order to clarify the nature of the ( 2 x 2 x 2) charge density wave transition. The results show a very small indirect gap in the normal phase transforming into a larger indirect gap at a different location in the Brillouin zone. Fermi surface topology is irrelevant in this case. Instead, electron-hole coupling together with a novel indirect Jahn-Teller effect drives the transition.     

Across-ear interference from parametrically degraded synthetic speech signals in a dichotic cocktail-party listening task

Recent results have shown that listeners attending to the quieter of two speech signals in one ear (the target ear) are highly susceptible to interference from normal or time-reversed speech signals presented in the unattended ear. However, speech-shaped noise signals have little impact on the segregation of speech in the opposite ear. This suggests that there is a fundamental difference between the across-ear interference effects of speech and nonspeech signals. In this experiment, the intelligibility and contralateral-ear masking characteristics of three synthetic speech signals with parametrically adjustable speech-like properties were examined: (1) a modulated noise-band (MNB) speech signal composed of fixed-frequency bands of envelope-modulated noise; (2) a modulated sine-band (MSB) speech signal composed of fixed-frequency amplitude-modulated sinewaves; and (3) a "sinewave speech" signal composed of sine waves tracking the first four formants of speech. In all three cases, a systematic decrease in performance in the two-talker target-ear listening task was found as the number of bands in the contralateral speech-like masker increased. These results suggest that speech-like fluctuations in the spectral envelope of a signal play an important role in determining the amount of across-ear interference that a signal will produce in a dichotic cocktail-party listening task.