Surface Erosion and Sedimentation Associated with Forest Land Use in Interior Alaska

Completion reportThe magnitude of sheet-rill erosion associated with various landscape manipulations is presented. The Universal Soil Loss Equation's usefulness for predicting annual sheet-rill erosion within interior Alaska is confirmed. Investigations of sheet-rill erosion indicate that removing the trees from forested areas with only minor ground cover disturbance did not increase erosion. Removing the ground cover, however, increased erosion 18 times above that on forested areas. Erosion is substantially reduced when disturbed areas are covered with straw mulch and fertilizer. Comparison of the actual erosion and the quantity of erosion predicted with the Universal Soil Loss Equation indicates that the equation overestimates annual erosion by an average of 21 percent. It overestimates individual storm erosion by an average of 174 percent. Data are also presented concerning sheet-rill erosion in a permafrost trail, distribution of the rainfall erosion index, and suggested cover and management factor values.This work was supported by the Institute of Northern Forestry, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, USDA. The Institute of Water Resources, University of Alaska, provided facilities for this research

Development and performance of IR detectors in the 1.5 to 2.4 micrometer region that operate at 240 K

High performance 1.5 to 2.4 micrometers (Hg,Cd)Te photodetectors for operating at 240 K or above are discussed. The detailed characterization of the detector with respect to detector temperature and background flux led to a development of an empirical model for minority carrier trapping. The concept of detective time constant is presented and successfully demonstrated by the four detectors delivered on this contract. An alternative approach is presented with the use of photovoltaic (Hg,Cd)Te detectors

Why Trade Associations Matter: Exploring Function, Meaning, and Influence

We explore the organizational characteristics of trade associations (TAs) and suggest theoretical approaches for undertaking research into or involving TAs in management and organization studies. Through emphasizing the role of TAs within and between industries and at the interface of business and society, we consider how TAs generate meaning and influence

National Space Transportation Systems Program mission report

The STS 41-C National Space Transportation Systems Program Mission Report contains a summary of the major activities and accomplishments of the eleventh Shuttle flight and fifth flight of the OV-099 vehicle, Challenger. Also summarized are the significant problems that occurred during STS 41-C, and a problem tracking list that is a complete list of all problems that occurred during the flight. The major objectives of flight STS 41-C were to successfully deploy the LDEF (long duration exposure facility) and retrieve, repair and redeploy the SMM (Solar Maximum Mission) spacecraft, and perform functions of IMAX and Cinema 360 cameras

Parents\u27 perceptions of children\u27s attitude of the heritage language through intergenerational reading in the L1

Cultural diversity is not a new concept for the United States. In recent years a demographic shift has taken place so that the language minority has become the majority in many urban schools. Educational researchers actively seek innovative ways to acculturate new arrivals into North America. They observed that one way to strengthen acculturation is by affirming the heritage languages and cultures. This study involved three educated Afghan-Minnesotan parents reading heritage storybooks to their children at home. Through promoting heritage literacy, I hypothesized that an intergenerational reading program would enhance children\u27s attitude and behavior toward heritage language and culture while they acculturate to North American culture. The results of the study indicated that parents\u27 attitudes regarding Dari transmission were pivotal to the success of the intergenerational family-centered reading program. Parents with higher positive attitudes towards Dari transmission and frequent contact with relatives living in non-English speaking countries had more success in Dari transmission than those whose attitudes were less positive. Additional factors were the children\u27s readiness to learn Dari and their individual responses to the family-centered reading program. Ongoing research is needed to understand participants\u27 expectations and to select appropriate material taking into consideration language dialect, orthography, reading material, and educational method. Future studies are needed on how Dari oral skills and literacy are traditionally transmitted in Afghanistan. Another question is whether involving parents in material development workshops could facilitate parents taking ownership in Dari intergenerational reading

Two quantum Simpson's paradoxes

The so-called Simpson's "paradox", or Yule-Simpson (YS) effect, occurs in classical statistics when the correlations that are present among different sets of samples are reversed if the sets are combined together, thus ignoring one or more lurking variables. Here we illustrate the occurrence of two analogue effects in quantum measurements. The first, which we term quantum-classical YS effect, may occur with quantum limited measurements and with lurking variables coming from the mixing of states, whereas the second, here referred to as quantum-quantum YS effect, may take place when coherent superpositions of quantum states are allowed. By analyzing quantum measurements on low dimensional systems (qubits and qutrits), we show that the two effects may occur independently, and that the quantum-quantum YS effect is more likely to occur than the corresponding quantum-classical one. We also found that there exist classes of superposition states for which the quantum-classical YS effect cannot occur for any measurement and, at the same time, the quantum-quantum YS effect takes place in a consistent fraction of the possible measurement settings. The occurrence of the effect in the presence of partial coherence is discussed as well as its possible implications for quantum hypothesis testing.Comment: published versio

Does e-learning policy drive change in Higher Education?: A case study relating models of organisational change to e-learning implementation

Due to the heightened competition introduced by the potential global market and the need for structural changes within organisations delivering e-content, e-learning policy is beginning to take on a more significant role within the context of educational policy per se. For this reason, it is becoming increasingly important to establish what effect such policies have and how they are achieved. This paper addresses this question, illustrating five ways in which change is understood (Fordist, evolutionary, ecological, community of practice and discourse-oriented) and then using this range of perspectives to explore how e-learning policy drives change (both organisational and pedagogic) within a selected higher education institution. The implications of this case are then discussed, and both methodological and pragmatic conclusions are drawn, considering the relative insights offered by the models and ways in which change around e-learning might be supported or promoted

Better, Faster, Stronger: Outcomes of a Language Sample Transcription and Coding Training Study

Although language sample analysis (LSA) is considered an important tool for high-quality child language assessment, surveys have found that its use is quite limited by school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Two of the reasons often cited are limited time and limited expertise (Kemp & Klee, 1997; Pavelko et al., 2016). This study aims to evaluate the outcomes of a language sample training program on SLP students’ accuracy, efficiency, and confidence with language sample transcription and coding. Upper-division SLP undergraduates and graduate students participated in a self-paced language sample training and practice program. Participants completed online language transcription and coding training and practiced transcribing 7-10 narrative child language samples. After each one, they entered information into the quiz tool in the university’s online learning management system and received automated, individualized, and specific feedback. The accuracy and time needed for the language transcriptions were recorded and analyzed. The results indicated that the participants significantly increased their accuracy and reduced the time needed for transcription and coding. They also reported a significant increase in their confidence level with language sample transcription. The results suggest that increased training and practice opportunities that involve specific feedback will better prepare new clinicians to use language sample analysis in clinical practice

Experimental techniques for ductile damage characterisation

Ductile damage in metallic materials is caused by the nucleation, growth and coalesce of voids and micro-cracks in the metal matrix when it is subjected to plastic strain. A considerable number of models have been proposed to represent ductile failure focusing on the ultimate failure conditions; however, only some of them study in detail the whole damage accumulation process. The aim of this work is to review experimental techniques developed by various authors to measure the accumulation of ductile damage under tensile loads. The measurement methods reviewed include: stiffness degradation, indentation, microstructure analysis, ultrasonic waves propagation, X-ray tomography and electrical potential drop. Stiffness degradation and indentation techniques have been tested on stainless steel 304L hourglass-shaped samples. A special interest is placed in the Continuum Damage Mechanics approach (CDM) as its equations incorporate macroscopic parameters that can represent directly the damage accumulation measured in the experiments. The other main objective lies in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each technique for the assessment of materials subjected to different strain-rate and temperature conditions