A survey of laser lightning rod techniques

The work done to create a laser lightning rod (LLR) is discussed. Some ongoing research which has the potential for achieving an operational laser lightning rod for use in the protection of missile launch sites, launch vehicles, and other property is discussed. Because of the ease with which a laser beam can be steered into any cloud overhead, an LLR could be used to ascertain if there exists enough charge in the clouds to discharge to the ground as triggered lightning. This leads to the possibility of using LLRs to test clouds prior to launching missiles through the clouds or prior to flying aircraft through the clouds. LLRs could also be used to probe and discharge clouds before or during any hazardous ground operations. Thus, an operational LLR may be able to both detect such sub-critical electrical fields and effectively neutralize them

The weld-brazing metal joining process

Superior mechanical properties were obtained in metal joints weld-brazed between faying surfaces. Weld-braze applications and advantages are listed

Weld-brazing - a new joining process

A joining process designated weld brazing which combines resistance spot welding and brazing has been developed. Resistance spot welding is used to position and align the parts as well as to establish a suitable faying surface gap for brazing. Fabrication is then completed by capillary flow of the braze alloy into the joint. The process has been used successfully to fabricate Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy joints using 3003 aluminum braze alloy. Test results obtained on single overlap and hat-stiffened structural specimens show that weld brazed joints are superior in tensile shear, stress rupture, fatigue, and buckling than joint fabricated by spotwelding or brazing. Another attractive feature of the process is that the brazed joints is hermetically sealed by the braze material

Touching plantation memories : tourists and docents at the museum

Plantations are one of the long-standing symbols of the U.S. South. Today, almost four hundred former plantation sites are museums. Over the last fifteen years a sustained, critical consideration of how slavery is remembered at these sites has developed in the academic literature. Geographers have argued that remembering slavery at these sites is geographic not only because most of these sites are in the South, but also because the public spatializes memory in certain ways at these historic places. To date, much of the memory literature about plantation museums focuses on the roles of these museums and their staff in remembering, forgetting, minimizing, and misrepresenting plantation slavery. While tourists have not been ignored, less information has been developed about how they participate in remembering the past at historic sites associated with the plantation and slavery. Through their presence, written and spoken comments and questions, and other actions tourists influence the social process of remembering plantation slavery. To understand some of the ways that tourists shape how slavery is connected to the memory of a place, I analyzed postcards and participated in house tours with other tourists. I learned that while there are often efforts on the part of local stakeholders to frame a site’s connection to slavery in certain ways, visitors often transform these associations. In some cases, the associations between a place and slavery are shaped, in other cases, tourists participate in marginalizing the memory of enslaved people. Whether by postcard, things said or even the things within a plantation museum that they touch, tourists try to connect themselves to the past. The connections that visitors make are part of the process of remembering the past. Understanding tourists better is an important step towards a fuller remembering of slavery at historic sites like plantation house museums

Defining the Role of School Personnel Directors in Urban School Divisions of the Commonwealth of Virginia

The purpose of this study was to identify disparities between perceptions of the public school personnel director\u27s role by both personnel directors and superintendents. The study was limited to personnel directors and superintendents employed by urban school divisions in Virginia. The study sought to identify (1) disparities between perceptions by personnel directors of their ideal role versus their actual role, (2) disparities between perceptions of personnel directors and superintendents of the personnel director\u27s actual role, and (3) disparities between perceptions by public school division superintendents of the personnel directors ideal role versus the actual role. A role analysis questionnaire was developed from current literature describing functions of personnel directors in both public and private sectors. Validity and reliability were tested through a pilot study of urban school divisions in Georgia. The questionnaire was revised and mailed to superintendents and personnel directors of each of the twenty-nine urban school divisions in Virginia. Twenty-two usable returns were received from each group representing a usable return rate of 75.9 percent. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques were utilized to examine the responses. Scheffe post-hoc tests were employed to make mean comparisons when significant F ratios were achieved. The analysis indicated a significant difference between the ideal role conception and actual role experience of personnel directors, as perceived by both personnel directors and superintendents. Both groups perceived that personnel directors\u27 ideal roles held more responsibilities than their actual roles in analyzing jobs and positions, training employees, providing staff development activities, solving problems, establishing quality of life programs, implementing odd-hour scheduling of employees, allowing employees to work at home, and helping administrators. Personnel directors perceived greater responsibilities in their actual roles regarding training, staff developments, job/position analysis, and disciplinary procedures than did superintendents. The findings suggest that standard guidelines for school personnel administrators would alleviate some of the role conflict and role ambiguity experienced by school personnel administrators