Masters Theses in the Pure and Applied Sciences was first conceived, published, and disseminated by the Center for Information and Numerical Data Analysis and Synthesis (CINDAS)* at Purdue University in 1957, starting its coverage of theses with the academic year 1955. Beginning with Volume 13, the printing and dis semination phases of the activity were transferred to University Microfilms/Xerox of Ann Arbor, Michigan, with the though that such an arrangement would be more beneficial to the academic and general scientific and technical community. After five years of this joint undertaking we had concluded that it was in the interest of all concerned if the printing and distribution of the volumes were handled by an international publishing house to assure improved service and broader dissemi nation. Hence, starting with Volume 18, Masters Theses in the Pure and Applied Sciences has been disseminated on a worldwide basis by Plenum Publishing Corporation of New York, and in the same year the coverage was broadened to include Canadian universities. All back issues can also be ordered from Plenum. We have reported in Volume 37 (thesis year 1992) a total of 12,549 thesis titles from 25 Canadian and 153 United States universities. We are sure that this broader base for these titles reported will greatly enhance the value of this impor tant annual reference work. While Volume 37 reports theses submitted in 1992, on occasion, certain uni versities do report theses submitted in previous years but not reported at the time.

This research program was based on laboratory and field studies. All work was limited to the use of a 10-mesh crumb rubber in the dry process. An evaluation of the asphalt-rubber interactions indicated that there should be a reasonable level of interaction between the crumb rubber and the asphalt cement selected for the project. A suggested criterion for defining an acceptable level of interaction would be to establish a minimum viscosity of 15 Poise (Brookfield viscosity) for a neat asphalt cement modified with 20% crumb rubber. When designing a crumb rubber modified mixture, the aggregate gradation should be substantially gapped. The target gradation used in the construction of the Babbit, Minnesota test sections should be adjusted for crumb rubber gradations volumetrically; generally, 1 gram of crumb rubber occupies the same volume as 3 grams of aggregate for a given sieve size. The optimum asphalt content for crumb rubber mixtures should be based on air voids from 1.5 to 3%.

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 719: Calibration of Rutting Models for Structural and Mix Design highlights proposed revisions to the Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) and software to incorporate three alternative rut-depth prediction models that rely on repeated load (triaxial) permanent deformation or constant height testing to provide the requisite input data.