STEM Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES): A NASA/TSGC/UTCSR High School Internship Program (Active, Experiential, and Collaborative Learning)

NASA, the Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC), and The University of Texas at Austin Center for Space Research (CSR) support the STEM Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) program which provides selected high school students with exposure to Earth and space research. Interns learn how to interpret NASA satellite data while working with scientists and engineers in their chosen topic area. This project addresses the national need to increase the number of high school students, particularly underrepresented minorities and those from under-served areas, that will pursue STEM college degrees.Cockrell School of Engineerin

Constellation Program Design Challenges as Opportunities for Educational Outreach- Lessons Learned

The Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC) and the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) Education Office both have programs that present design challenges for university senior design classes that offer great opportunities for educational outreach and workforce development. These design challenges have been identified by NASA engineers and scientists as actual design problems faced by the Constellation Program in its exploration missions and architecture. Student teams formed in their senior design class select and then work on a design challenge for one or two semesters. The senior design class follows the requirements set by their university, but it must also comply with the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) in order to meet the class academic requirements. Based on a one year fellowship at a TSGC university under the NASA Administrator's Fellowship Program (NAFP) and several years of experience, lessons learned are presented on the NASA Design Challenge Program

Weighted Min-Cut: Sequential, Cut-Query and Streaming Algorithms

Consider the following 2-respecting min-cut problem. Given a weighted graph $G$ and its spanning tree $T$, find the minimum cut among the cuts that contain at most two edges in $T$. This problem is an important subroutine in Karger's celebrated randomized near-linear-time min-cut algorithm [STOC'96]. We present a new approach for this problem which can be easily implemented in many settings, leading to the following randomized min-cut algorithms for weighted graphs. * An $O(m\frac{\log^2 n}{\log\log n} + n\log^6 n)$-time sequential algorithm: This improves Karger's $O(m \log^3 n)$ and $O(m\frac{(\log^2 n)\log (n^2/m)}{\log\log n} + n\log^6 n)$ bounds when the input graph is not extremely sparse or dense. Improvements over Karger's bounds were previously known only under a rather strong assumption that the input graph is simple [Henzinger et al. SODA'17; Ghaffari et al. SODA'20]. For unweighted graphs with parallel edges, our bound can be improved to $O(m\frac{\log^{1.5} n}{\log\log n} + n\log^6 n)$. * An algorithm requiring $\tilde O(n)$ cut queries to compute the min-cut of a weighted graph: This answers an open problem by Rubinstein et al. ITCS'18, who obtained a similar bound for simple graphs. * A streaming algorithm that requires $\tilde O(n)$ space and $O(\log n)$ passes to compute the min-cut: The only previous non-trivial exact min-cut algorithm in this setting is the 2-pass $\tilde O(n)$-space algorithm on simple graphs [Rubinstein et al., ITCS'18] (observed by Assadi et al. STOC'19). In contrast to Karger's 2-respecting min-cut algorithm which deploys sophisticated dynamic programming techniques, our approach exploits some cute structural properties so that it only needs to compute the values of $\tilde O(n)$ cuts corresponding to removing $\tilde O(n)$ pairs of tree edges, an operation that can be done quickly in many settings.Comment: Updates on this version: (1) Minor corrections in Section 5.1, 5.2; (2) Reference to newer results by GMW SOSA21 (arXiv:2008.02060v2), DEMN STOC21 (arXiv:2004.09129v2) and LMN 21 (arXiv:2102.06565v1

Agro-ecological Assessment for the Transition of the Agricultural Sector in Ukraine: Methodology and Results for Baseline Climate

Since 1991, Ukraine has been undergoing a transformation of its economic and social system to enable the transition to a market economy. There are a number of developments that have already resulted from the changes in the socio-economic environment. However the transformation of farming systems into new forms has not so far greatly improved the sustainable use of natural resources or strengthened the economic performance, so that the influence of this intervention on sustainability of farming systems in Ukraine has had more negative than positive results. Large-scale farms continue to over-exploit natural resources and new private farmers, lacking in experience, knowledge and financial resources, continue to use obsolete technologies that are economically inefficient, do not enhance productivity and may cause land degradation. All the components of the farming sector such as agricultural enterprises, household plots, and individual private farms, still remain problematic in terms of efficiency and are constrained by policies and inadequate markets. While economic conditions for agriculture have changed considerably since the beginning of the 1990s, agricultural policy in Ukraine was focused on trying to revive the production level, without the comprehensive analysis of agro-ecological conditions, internal and external markets, infrastructure, farmers' incentives etc. Rational agricultural land use is imperative in Ukraine. Existing agricultural systems are not appropriate for changing production, technological, economic or ecological realities. There is an urgent need for major policy changes in Ukraine towards rural welfare growth, sustainable agriculture and efficient land management, and establishment of agricultural market networks supported by adequate legislation. With the additional pressure of transition to a market economy, a new agricultural paradigm is required. This paper is the second in a series of three reports on Agro-ecological Assessment for the Transition of the Agricultural Sector in Ukraine. The reports aim at further elaboration of integrated strategies and policies towards maintaining the sustainability of natural resources and the environment while remaining economically viable and internationally competitive. The first report on Socio-economic analysis describes the main socio-economic features of the transition processes in the Ukrainian agricultural sector, trends in agricultural production, and changes in its farming systems and land use. This report "Land Resources and Agricultural Productivity: Methodology and Results for Base Line Climate" provides the inventory of natural (land, climatic) resources and the evaluation of biophysical limitations and potentials of the crop production in Ukraine at the national, regional and subregional levels. The third report "Climate Change Impacts on Agricultural Productivity: Methodology and Results" investigates impacts of climate change/variability on the crop production and land use change in Ukraine on national and regional scales and indicates possible ways of adaptation over the coming three decades

Organization and management of space grant programs

The 21 Space Grant Programs represent a broad range of organizational structures which operate programs ranging in size from single university organizations to organizations including up to 41 members involving a composite of industrial organizations such as state agencies, and universities. Some of the space grant awards were made to organizations already in existence with on-going programs while other awards were made to consortia newly formed for the purpose of applying to the Space Grant Program. The workshop on organization and management of Space Grant Programs provided an opportunity for directors and program representatives to discuss and compare the relative advantages and disadvantages of the various models being used. This paper offers examples of the diversity of organizations, summarizes the common concerns to be met by each organizational model, and provides a case study of the Texas Space Grant Consortium organization

How Mockups, a Key Engineering Tool, Help to Promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education

The United States ranking among the world in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is decreasing. To counteract this problem NASA has made it part of its mission to promote STEM education among the nation s youth. Mockups can serve as a great tool when promoting STEM education in America. The Orion Cockpit Working Group has created a new program called Students Shaping America s Next Space Craft (SSANS) to outfit the Medium Fidelity Orion Mockup. SSANS will challenge the students to come up with unique designs to represent the flight design hardware. There are two main types of project packages created by SSANS, those for high school students and those for university students. The high school projects will challenge wood shop, metal shop and pre-engineering classes. The university projects are created mainly for senior design projects and will require the students to perform finite element analysis. These projects will also challenge the undergraduate students in material selection and safety requirements. The SSANS program will help NASA in its mission to promote STEM education, and will help to shape our nations youth into the next generation of STEM leaders

Ribosomal Proteins RPS11 and RPS20, Two Stress-Response Markers of Glioblastoma Stem Cells, Are Novel Predictors of Poor Prognosis in Glioblastoma Patients.

Glioblastoma stem cells (GSC) co-exhibiting a tumor-initiating capacity and a radio-chemoresistant phenotype, are a compelling cell model for explaining tumor recurrence. We have previously characterized patient-derived, treatment-resistant GSC clones (TRGC) that survived radiochemotherapy. Compared to glucose-dependent, treatment-sensitive GSC clones (TSGC), TRGC exhibited reduced glucose dependence that favor the fatty acid oxidation pathway as their energy source. Using comparative genome-wide transcriptome analysis, a series of defense signatures associated with TRGC survival were identified and verified by siRNA-based gene knockdown experiments that led to loss of cell integrity. In this study, we investigate the prognostic value of defense signatures in glioblastoma (GBM) patients using gene expression analysis with Probeset Analyzer (131 GBM) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data, and protein expression with a tissue microarray (50 GBM), yielding the first TRGC-derived prognostic biomarkers for GBM patients. Ribosomal protein S11 (RPS11), RPS20, individually and together, consistently predicted poor survival of newly diagnosed primary GBM tumors when overexpressed at the RNA or protein level [RPS11: Hazard Ratio (HR) = 11.5, p<0.001; RPS20: HR = 4.5, p = 0.03; RPS11+RPS20: HR = 17.99, p = 0.001]. The prognostic significance of RPS11 and RPS20 was further supported by whole tissue section RPS11 immunostaining (27 GBM; HR = 4.05, p = 0.01) and TCGA gene expression data (578 primary GBM; RPS11: HR = 1.19, p = 0.06; RPS20: HR = 1.25, p = 0.02; RPS11+RPS20: HR = 1.43, p = 0.01). Moreover, tumors that exhibited unmethylated O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) or wild-type isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) were associated with higher RPS11 expression levels [corr (IDH1, RPS11) = 0.64, p = 0.03); [corr (MGMT, RPS11) = 0.52, p = 0.04]. These data indicate that increased expression of RPS11 and RPS20 predicts shorter patient survival. The study also suggests that TRGC are clinically relevant cells that represent resistant tumorigenic clones from patient tumors and that their properties, at least in part, are reflected in poor-prognosis GBM. The screening of TRGC signatures may represent a novel alternative strategy for identifying new prognostic biomarkers

Vibrophonocardiograph Patent

Vibrophonocardiograph comprising low weight and small volume piezoelectric microphone with amplifier having high imput impedance for high sensitivity and low frequency respons

GRACE: Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Brochure

This brochure provides details about NASA's GRACE mission. Gravity controls everything from the motion of the ocean tides to the expansion of the entire Universe. To learn more about the mysteries of gravity, the twin Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, are taking detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field. This experiment could lead to discoveries about gravity and Earth's natural systems, which could have substantial benefits for society and the world's population. Educational levels: Undergraduate lower division, Undergraduate upper division, Graduate or professional, Informal education

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© 2007 American Physical Society.Depto. de Física TeóricaFac. de Ciencias FísicasTRUEpu