  A rational knot or link can be put into a standard alternating format which
has horizontal and vertical twist sites (double helices). The number and type
of these twist sites are determined by terms of next-to-highest $z$-degree in
Kauffman's regular isotopy invariant $\Lambda(a,z)$. In particular, for a knot
or link with $c$ crossings, the coefficient of the $z^{c-2}$ term is equal to
the number of twist sites in its standard diagram. Furthermore, the
coefficients of the $a^{-2}z^{c-2}$ and $a^2z^{c-2}$ terms count the number of
left-turning and right-turning twist sites, respectively.
