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The authors respond to comments by Professor Eugene Carter concerning their paper "A Simultaneous Equation Approach to Financial Planning." They state that while matrix inversions are utilized in solving linear simultaneous equations, their own model utilizes nonlinearities that prevent the use of a straight-forward matrix inversion technique. They suggest their own model does a more effective job of portraying financial decision making than other models. They comment on the accuracy of projections for Sears-Roebuck and mention a discussion about if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should permit or require projections in equity prospecti, considering the method for making financial projections is well-developed.

PP-T0001-0-1 This paper describes the inauguration of a Computer Software section in PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY. It explains the three kinds of communications that will be published: Program Registrations, Software Abstracts, and Software Articles, either theoretical or describing working programs. Detailed instructions regarding content and format are given. In anticipation of a computerized software retrieval system for psychophysiology, it also contains coding instructions for authors so they may identify their papers by subject, organ system, machine, and language prior to submission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have undertaken to extend the capabilities of the abstracting system described by Rush, Salvador and Zamora by adding to the system a modification procedure that could be employed to make the abstracts produced by the system more acceptable to the reader. Results of this study are reported in this paper. Our purpose is to present a rationale for the modification phase of an abstracting system and to describe several modification rules whose implementation is an Initial step toward the automated production of abstracts that contain sentences written especially for the abstract. We have described several methods for improving the readability of abstracts produced by computer program. The research described in this paper was performed as a part of a larger project whose aim is the development of an operational automatic abstracting system. 18 references are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite excessive glamorizing of the role of computers in publishing, truly economical applications are beginning to emerge. Many types of directories, indexes, cumulated bibliographies, and cumulated library book catalogs can today be put through a computer in less time and at less cost than for conventional typesetting. Examples of successful applications are given, after taking up one by one the many system design decisions that must be made in the areas of input hardware, computer hardware, computer software, and output hardware. Major attention is given to the proofreading problem, because line printers are still far from ideal for producing the equivalent of galley proofs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A computer program has been written and used which simulates the several-year operation of an information system and computes estimates of the expected operating costs as well as the amount of equipment and personnel required during that time period. The program has been used for the analysis of several large systems and has proven itself to be a useful research tool for the study of systems with so many components and interrelated operations that an equivalent manual analysis would be extremely cumbersome and time consuming, and perhaps even im- practical. This paper describes this program and shows, as an example, some of the results of a simulation of two of several suggested designs for a specific information system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computer programs have been written that affect several processes of use in mechanized documentation. Encoding programs convert source material punched on a Flexowriter into the code of a Photon photocomposing machine. The encoding programs provide justification, mixed letter size and style, and format control, to meet requirements that are specified by comments which appear ahead of the text, or, identified by special quote marks, within the text. Further programs are being written to produce the Photon code for built up chemical and mathematical formulae from "linearized" input, punched on a Flexowriter, and which contains names of symbols not on the keyboard, and control codes to indicate subscript and superscript positions. Page composing programs are being written to organize one or several texts into a complicated page format whose structure is described to the computer in simple terms. Paginated document programs are being written to organize lengthy texts into codes to print sequentially numbered pages. Editing programs have been written that apply editorial instructions to verbal texts which have been stored in a computer. At present these instructions can set margins, delete, delete and close, insert, replace, exchange and indent portions of the text, run on paragraphs and start new lines, paragraphs and pages, as requested. Programs are being written to organize fragmentary information, submitted in random sequence, into catalogues, directories, dictionaries, bibliographies, listings and indexes. Considerable emphasis is placed in all this work on modern automatic coding techniques, and on the use of "stylized instruction languages," the development of which is considered to be far more important than the actual coding of the individual programs. The following paper describes the preparation of Flexowriter source material to be converted with Photon code by a digital computer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates how computer simulation techniques can be used to simulate information systems. A computer program for a small system was written in GPSS III (a special simulation language) and run in an IBM-7090 Computer. The results obtained and the types of conclusions drawn are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the article "A Simultaneous Equation Approach to Financial Planning." He states that in terms of mathematical connotations, "Simultaneous Equation" is an overstatement and that it is pretentious to call a series of equations "simultaneous" because they are accounting identities. He suggests that the authors should have compared their pro forma model with other models in more details. He states that other pro forma models allow for greater flexibility and have users specify several categories of cost separately a function of variables and fixed values.

In this paper we have discussed some of the factors to consider when making trade-offs. We have provided the description (and a program listing, in the appendix) for an interactive computer program (ICM) for obtaining indifference curves, using an extension of the MacCrimmon/Toda method. Some results have been presented to indicate that the procedure produces preference representations that correspond surprisingly well with subsequent choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem this paper deals with is the selection of an optimal study program or curriculum, tailored to an individual student, by maximizing educational potential. Educational potential in a subject area is defined as a non-linear function of the number of courses taken in the respective subject area. Parameters of the educational potential function include a type of learner parameter, a type of teaching parameter, and a subject area parameter. The latter is a function of the number of courses available in the subject area. The educational potential or learning function is based on a body of empirical data accumulated by experimental psychologists, and has the shape of a stretched-out letter S. The optimal study program is obtained by finding the maximum sum of the subject areas' educational potentials. The technique used to find this maximum sum is called dynamic programming. A computer program was written to perform the solution procedure on a digital computer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PP-T0003-0-1 The increased usage of small computers in the research laboratory has made it necessary for the individual investigator to become familiar with computer science. A survey of sources, availability, and types of information distributed about computer software was made to determine their relevance to psychophysiology. Periodicals are divided into five classes and discussed as to the assets and liabilities of some of the present indexing and source references. The desirability of increasing the accessibility of software applications to psychophysiology is noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is proposed that one way to increase the efficacy of document retrieval is to define to the computer the descriptors used to index the file. A computer program written in COMIT to implement the proposal and to facilitate testing its capabilities is described. Definitions are given to the computer as a string of terms called a "definitor," These terms, which act as "second order descriptors," are not normally those used as file descriptors. Their introduction provides a controllably broader base for link-finding and matchcounting operations by the computer. It also makes possible such things as introducing new terminology and biasing existing descriptor indexes towards special interests or languages without having to re-index the file. The program computes a "pseudometric distance" between a query and each document and prints on ordered list of those documents closer to the query than some chosen cut-off value. (Large files would probably require some preselection, such as that which would result from use of a concordance.) It then substitutes for each descriptor its definitor and repeats the above process. The result is that the subjective human judgement required to evaluate the efficacy of introducing the definitors is reduced to a statement as to which list would be considered more useful. Use of the program to date has been only as a demonstration so no conclusions can be stated other than that the demonstration results would seem to indicate that testing on a serious scale should be undertaken. (This paper is a result of work sponsored by The MITRE Corporations Educational Assistance Program.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An account is given of the usage of a new system of programs that enable the IBM 709/90 computer to generate control tapes for the Photon 5560 Unit. The input to the system may be Flexowriter material with interspersed control codes, or material that is provided on cards or tapes, or generated internally in certain other forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BASED on one of mankind's most significant technological developments, the electronic computer, data processing is a rapidly growing and already important occupation. Because it is so new, data processing is not a well-known field and has not acquired the popular stereotype that many other occupations have. Although such popular conceptions of occupations are frequently inadequate as grounds for vocational choice, the data-processing field lacks even this much reality for many people. Consequently, a measure that can be used to direct the attention of qualified persons to the data-processing field should be especially valuable in counseling, guidance, and recruiting. During 1964 and 1965, therefore, a project was conducted for the purposes of describing the vocational interests of computer programmers and developing a scoring key to measure those interests (Perry & Cannon, 1967). This paper describes the relationships of scores on the new programmer interest key and other Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) keys to measures of satisfaction and achievement among programmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a paper on "Computer Simulation of Human Thinking and Problem Solving" by Herbert A. Simon. Computer programs can be structured that utilize nonnumerical symbol manipulation procedures to accomplish tasks which, in humans, necessitate thinking and learning. These programs can be treated as theories of the corresponding human processes. These theories can be tested by a comparison of the symbolic behavior of a computer so programmed with the symbolic behavior of a human being when both are performing the same problem-solving activity.

Methods for automatic recordings of action spectra for partial reactions of photosynthesis are previously described. The present paper elaborates one of the descriptions and gives results from measurements. The method is based upon the recordings of changes in the absorption of certain dyes, which are used as electron acceptors or electron donors to photosynthetic reactions in illuminated chloroplasts or photosynthetic lamellae. By measuring the transmission changes continuously during a wavelength sweep of actinic light, which is corrected for equal numbers of light quanta at different wavelengths, an approximate integrated action spectrum of the selected partial reaction is obtained. A computer program gives the action spectrum after taking the first derivative of the curve and correcting it for changes with time in the rate of the dye reduction (oxidation) and the reverse reactions. The action spectrum for photoreduction of 2,6-dichlorophenol indophenol and cytochrome c by spinach chloroplasts has a peak at about the same wavelength as the absorption spectrum (677-680 nm). Details in the curves are observed at 650, 663, 673 and possibly at 695 nm. The action spectrum for mammalian cytochrome c oxidation by PSI particles of Anacystis nidulans has a peak at 683 nm (absorption spectrum at 679 nm). Shoulders are observed at 665, 677, 700, and 715 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about utilizing Ferranti "Pegasus" electronic digital computer to understand the basic principles of association-analysis in plant pathology. It deals with the residual statistical problems and the creation of the computer program. The article also talks about the results gathered from applying the method in its final form to four communities of increasing numbers of species. A discription of the chief features of the program is presented, including the results of the application of the increasing complexity of the four plant communities.

Symbiont is a computer-and-program system for use in research on computer-aided study. It stores, retrieves, and displays documents and parts of documents. It "semi-automates" the taking of verbatim notes. It facilitates the manipulation and intercomparison of graphs. And it conducts searches for passages of text that contain specified words or phrases. Experience with Symbiont and plans for its improvement are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new method for the description of leaf shape is presented, based on an interactive computer program for describing rosette leaves of Chondrilla juncea. In addition to the usual measures of length, breadth and area an alternative description is provided based on a coding of the boundaries of the leaves. The efficiency of the machine-assisted description is assessed and a comparison of the alternative descriptions provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problems associated with comparing pollen diagrams can be partly avoided by using a computer to draw diagrams in a standard form. A program which may be used to produce comparative diagrams is described. The input specifications and limitations and examples of the output are presented and discussed in the light of the increasing volume of pollen data which are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a paper on syntactic analysis of English by computer. Many theories of grammar have been developed which provide methods for associating some syntactic structure with a sentence of a natural language. This paper reviews those theories which have been used as a basis for a computer program to perform syntactic structuring of English sentences. Among the grammars described are--category grammars, dependency grammars, immediate constituent grammars, phrase structure grammars with discontinuous constituents, predictive grammars, string transformation grammars, and phrase structure transformational grammars. Reference is made to computer programs based on each of these grammars, and the goals and relative success of these programs are reviewed.

A major goal in undertaking the study of software reliability is to find or develop original software reliability models. These models are based either on a discrete probability distribution and on a continuous probability density distribution. In addition, a conceptual model based on the readjustment of detected errors at each significant interface point is applied. Software reliability is defined to be the probability that the applications program, together with its supervisory program, database and computing environment, will perform its intended functions at the same time when those functions are needed by the customer.

An automated system for obtaining a direct measurement of total respiratory resistanee (R[SUBT]) is presented. A polygraph and digital computer are used to filter and quantify the pressure and flow outputs of a forced oscillatory device to determine R[SUBT]. Functional descriptions of the complete hardware system and of the computer software are included. The measurement of R[SUBT] is viewed as providing a sensitive and relatively unobtrusive means for investigation of psychophysiological precipitants of subclinical variations in bronchial tone in normal Ss and in Ss suffering from obstructive bronchial disorders such as bronchial asthma. In addition, augmented sensory feedback of R[SUBT] can be utilized in investigations of S's ability to attain voluntary control of R[SUBT]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a computer program for deriving growth functions in plant growth analysis. Analysis of variance for data on the growth of a plant; Description and operation of the program; Applications of the program.

This article deals with the problems in applying the Howard (H)-functions in writing a computer program for insurance courses. Two fundamental concerns of the authors, in attempting to use the H-functions, were the limited level of earnings to which the program could be applied and the recommended levels of income related to such earnings. These problems were rooted in the use of monthly earned income (E) in each of the H-functions as a determining variable. Slight modifications were made by the authors in the total percentages of monthly income recommended for various needs, which are, admittedly, subjective. The percentages chosen, however, were designed to make the program usable at even higher income levels and to allow for the lack of any information concerning after-tax income.

The article presents a model which assists in the problem of planning in urban housing. A description of the difficulties surrounding the problem and its causes are discussed. The computer program associated with the model is discussed, including the linear programming models it utilizes. Information regarding other construction programs that may be used with the model as well as the overall usefulness of the model is discussed. Various decision-making situations in which the model may be of use are also considered.

The article presents information on literature related to the automatic stratification of descriptors. The exclusive stratification process and algorithms are defined in the paper entitled Automatic Stratification of Descriptors by David Lefkovitz. The computer program written to perform this process is coded in FORTRAN II and an object program has been produced. The Operation Manual for the IBM 7090 Exclusive Stratification Program gives a very brief description of the function that this program performs and indicates the manner in which it can be used for large scale processing of data, including such features as batch processing, manual interrupt and restart, English language or numerically coded output, and a few other printout and processing options.

The article presents information on the editing of author-produced indexing terms and phrases. A magnetic-tape thesaurus for experimental biology and a companion computer routine program were used for editing author-produced indexing terms for conference papers automatically, to give a computer-printed index with a minimum of human effort after author titles and index terms had been keypunched.

This article presents information related to a paper which describes the formats of the printouts provided by an IBM 705 computer used by eight departments of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. for their individual indexes to internally generated information and summarizes the search capabilities of the computer program. Five of these departments with smaller files use the computer only to print out inverted files for manual searching.

The article presents information on the Standard's Electronic Automatic Computer (SEAC) prepared by the U.S. Patent Office in collaboration with the National Bureau of Standards. SEAC is a machine code written to perform search operation for patent literature. In the Patent Office, literature searching forms a large part of the patent examination procedure. This enormous task concerns itself with the scanning of all the world's technical literature, including both foreign and domestic patents. The system includes a data preparation routine for the library comprising the complete disclosure file of information to be searched.

The Data and Program Library Service for the Social Sciences at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, announces the availability of a collection of computer program abstracts pertaining to software of utility to social science researchers. This effort is sponsored by the National Science Foundation as part of a project entitled "A National Program Library and Central Program Inventory Service for the Social Sciences" which was initiated in the latter part of 1969. Each abstract contains descriptive information about the computer pro gram's function, usage, source language, hardware configuration, and distribution source. The collection consists of programs primarily of a data management and statistical analysis nature, but other computing capabilities are also represented in the collection. The bulk of the program distribution sources represented in the abstract collection is comprised of university and other research computing installations. The current collection is by no means exhaustive nor complete, but it is hoped that this announcement of the availability of the collection will stimulate additions to the collection as well as aid researchers in locating specific types of computer programs.

This article reports on the authors' comments on an article by Charles O. Kroncke on insurance ratemaking. In our opinion Professor Kroncke sets the tone of his article in his opening sentence in which he states, in essence, that premiums are reasonable, adequate, and not unfairly discriminatory if they are proportional to the expected losses and expected expenses of protection. Thus, in a broad sense, proportionality premiums to expected losses and expenses is neither a sufficient nor even a necessary condition for reasonable, adequate, and equitable rates. In the second paragraph. Professor Kroncke states that the classes actually used must reflect differences in the exposure of drivers, frequency of accidents, and size of losses. Even though differences in loss expectation exist among the members of a classification, it does not necessarily follow that inequities in a legal or practical sense also exist. Such differences may exist because either the state of the art is not sufficiently developed to reveal the differences, or the costs involved in further classification refinement do not justify additional refinement. In describing the computer program utilized, the author indicates that the sample is dichotomized in a way that reduces the unexplained sum of squared deviations tha most. Nonetheless, the author has stimulated our thinking, and hopefully others, about a heretofore badly neglected area of insurance ratemaking which is the theory of classification.

This article focuses on various approaches to the problem of generating and maintaining independent, individual interest and participation in Social Insurance (SI) in the U.S. The informational problem is one of the most important factors that stands in the way of effective SI research and instruction. The problem is one of establishing more automaticity in the receipt of the rich flow of SI and related literature. This will reduce nonprofessional involvement with literature-chasing and increase the time available for the next, big problem, namely, that of reading the literature when it comes. In this very respect, the establishment of the new Social Insurance Section in the American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA) should help ameliorate the informational problem, if only through indication in the ARIA directory of the interests of the membership in the SI and other sections. The informational flow required for effective teaching and learning of complicated subjects like SI will be soluble only when an adequate information storage and retrieval system becomes available to the individual on his own grounds. Such a system should be adequately serviced with software pertaining to SI and related systems.

A semantic differential (SD) is a commonly used instrument which can be used to reliably measure attitudes toward a variety of objects or concepts. Each SD consists of a series of bipolar adjective scales on which a respondent reacts, in relation to the object or concept of interest. To interpret completed SDs, it simplifies the procedures and aids in the development of theory if the adjective scales are grouped into one or more independent clusters. The primary purpose of this study was to identify those clusters (or dimensions) applied by a user of an on-line user-oriented reference retrieval system when he reacts toward such a system. Seventy-one who used or were familiar with a working on-line reference retrieval system completed a pocket of 20 SDs, each consisting of the same 19 adjective scales. The correlations among the scales were factor analyzed. Three independent dimensions were identified. Factor I was labeled "evaluative-specific" and accounted for over 23% of the total variance. Factor II was called "desirability"; it accounted for over 17% of the total variance. And, Factor III, entitled "enormity" accounted for over 10% of the total variance. Another analysis showed the factor structure to be highly reliable. Therefore, if the derived three dimensional structure underlies users' attitudes toward a more general class of retrieval systems, then undimensional or unstructured system evaluations of users' attitudes will be simplistic and possibly misleading. ln order to construct a working semantic differential, 10 adjective scales were identified which best represented the three dimensions. Brief instructions are included which outline how to use this SD. The discussion is mainly concerned with the obtained factor structure and the need for a predictive replication of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment using a computer to assign content designators to unedited machine readable bibliographic data to create MARC records is described. Input typing conventions are briefly discussed. A computer program (Assembler Language for DOS) is being developed which analyzes unedited data according to predefined algorithms and builds MARC records. A manual simulation using 150 catalog records was done to test the computer algorithms. The results of the test in terms of accuracy and throughput compared favorably with the current MARC input system in use at the Library of Congress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses administrative and financial aspects of computers in education. Any educational institution should be involved in a real way with computers. Computing power is, or can be, readily available at relatively little cost. One can distinguish between basic accounting procedures and report generation as an aid to the administrative decision-making process. There are a growing number of computer utilities from which computer time can be obtained at reasonable cost. These utilities may also provide assistance in the development and maintenance of programs necessary to the institution.

The article discusses the evolution and development of a versatile machine-based information system. The technique of "superimposition" of keywords as a powerful device to solve the problem of matching concept components is explained, thereby securing storage economy. The article also envisages the prospect of selective dissemination of information activities independent of computer hardware, showing the potential of the system under delineation to combine organizations of related technologies into a network of information centers with considerable uniformity of processing software.

The article discusses the structure and effectiveness of "The Citation Identifier," an operational computer program for automatic identification of case citations in legal literature. The Citation Identifier scanned the full texts of 191 randomly selected decisions of U.S. Court of Appeals and located correctly 2,220 full-form citations out of a total of 2,227. The Citation Identifier operates rather rapidly. In a recent test run, the total time required to process some 400,000 running words of text was approximately 151/2 minutes. This speed could be further increased by suitable changes in the computer program.

Discusses an appraisal of the computation of statistical parameters in grain size analysis. Limitations of two computer programs used to determine statistical parameters; Significance of interporation by the use of a simple equation.

Re-interpretation of Cyrtina septosa Band (Lower Carboniferous) data from Derbyshire (England) by trend analysis reveals previously unrecognised but meaningful sedimentational patterns. Trends in geographic variation of number of shells; their disarticulation, orientation, and size; and thickness of the Band are judged to be indicative of water depth and turbulence, conditions of accumulation, and source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The computer program presented here seeks to improve estimation of statistical parameters for grain-size data by use of interpolated values. Interpolation is made by fitting a series of overlapping parabolas to the data, and follows the method of SNYDER (1961). The values are used in moment formulas to compute standard statistical measures. Skewness and kurtosis are reduced by the interpolation data, and extreme positive values of kurtosis tend to be greatly reduced. The program also picks major modes, the median, and sediment type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the Fortran program for calculation of grain-size textual parameters that was developed at the Computer Research Center of the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Compatibility of the program with an IBM 1620 data processing system having 40, 00 digits of memory card input/output; Simplicity of the program operation; Sequence of operations for calculation of the grain-size parameters.

Features RIPVAN, a computer software for sleep state scoring in human infants. Use of the software to score and analyze sleep states; Coding of electrooculography, electroencephalography, electromyography, respiratory patterns and body movements; Hardware requirements of the software.

The article advocates for the need of involving the users in applications software development. This need has arisen because although extensive software packages have been developed for such applications as statistical analysis, the user is usually required to communicate with the computer through an arbitrary system of control cards developed by computer specialists. Problems created by these origins include user acceptance of an alien operating environment and mastery of control card language.

Features HISTINT, a software for graphically displaying interpulse time interval frequencies as a function of their interval length. On-line or off-line detection of an event; Use of HISTINT to examine the variability in the rate of single motor unit discharges; Data collection.