Easing the Pain Communities Must Act to Heal Wounds of African-American Boys and Young Men

This report looks at the struggles of Black boys and young men and how pain is the root of the problem. It attempts to answer the questions, "Who Cares?", "Who Understands?", and "Who's Responsible?"

The Influence of Service Planning Decisions on Rail Transit Success or Failure, MTI Report 08-04

Some United States metropolitan areas with rail transit systems enjoy ridership and productivity success while others do not. This study examines the experiences of 11 U.S. metropolitan areas with between one million and five million persons to better understand why some areas are successful and others are not. A particular focus is the role of service planning decisions in facilitating transit success. We find that successful transit systems are those that: 1) articulate a clear, multidestination vision for regional transit; 2) rely on rail transit as the system´s backbone; 3) recognize the importance of the non-CBD travel market; 4) encourage the use of transfers to reach a wider array of destinations; 5) recognize that rail transit alone is not enough to guarantee success; and 6) recognize the importance of serving regional destinations

Heritage Language Learners and Spanish for Specific Purposes: Bridging the Gap through Community Service Learning

The growth in the number of Spanish heritage language learners in languages for specific purposes classes has been accompanied by an increase in the number and types of community service learning programs in which these students can participate to better prepare them for future employment opportunities. In spite of the increase in the number of Spanish heritage language learners in the languages for specific purposes classroom, few studies have looked at these students in this setting and even fewer have looked at the role that community service learning can play in developing these learners’ domain-specific abilities. Through an analysis of research in the areas of heritage language learners, Spanish for specific purposes, and community service learning, this article discusses strategies to effectively teach Spanish heritage language learners in language for specific purposes classes and to develop their language and cultural knowledge through community service learning. In addition, we address many of the challenges that arise when connecting Spanish heritage language learners with community partners as well as the obstacles to the integration of community service learning into the Spanish for specific purposes curriculum. The article concludes providing suggestions on how community service can be used to help Spanish heritage language learners not only see the benefits of language for specific purposes courses but also transfer their skills to other fields of study

Direct Laser Fabrication of a Gas Turbine Engine Component - Microstructure and Properties - Part I

This paper presents the development of a new technique for the production of abrasive turbine blade tips by direct laser processing. This superalloy cermet component is an integral part of the low pressure turbine sealing system in a demonstrator engine. Direct laser fabrication of this component fiom a bed a loose powder results in significant cost savings and improved performance over the currently employed production technique. The technology has been demonstrated by fabricating a prototype lot of 100 blade tips, which will be subjected to an engine test. This is the first instance of a direct fabrication method applied to the production of functional engine hardware. This research was funded by the United States Air Force contract F33615-94- C-2424 titled "Affordable Turbine Blade Tips".Mechanical Engineerin

Poly[[diaqua­bis(μ3-maleato-κ4 O 1:O 1′,O 4:O4′)dicopper(II)] trihydrate]

In the title compound, {[Cu2(C4H2O4)2(H2O)2]·3H2O}n, CuII ions with square-pyramidal coordination are bridged by exo­tri­dentate maleate dianions into [Cu2(maleate)2(H2O)2]n layers coincident with the bc crystal plane. The inter­lamellar regions contain hydrogen-bonded cyclic water hexa­mers which facilitate layer stacking into a pseudo-three-dimensional crystal structure. The water hexamers themselves are formed by the operation of crystallographic inversion centers on sets of three crystallographically distinct water molecules of hydration

An ALMA Constraint on the GSC 6214-210 B Circum-Substellar Accretion Disk Mass

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of GSC 6214-210 A and B, a solar-mass member of the 5-10 Myr Upper Scorpius association with a 15 $\pm$ 2 Mjup companion orbiting at $\approx$330 AU (2.2"). Previous photometry and spectroscopy spanning 0.3-5 $\mu$m revealed optical and thermal excess as well as strong H$\alpha$ and Pa~$\beta$ emission originating from a circum-substellar accretion disk around GSC 6214-210 B, making it the lowest mass companion with unambiguous evidence of a subdisk. Despite ALMA's unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution, neither component was detected in our 880 $\mu$m (341 GHz) continuum observations down to a 3-$\sigma$ limit of 0.22 mJy/beam. The corresponding constraints on the dust mass and total mass are <0.15 Mearth and <0.05 Mjup, respectively, or <0.003% and <0.3% of the mass of GSC 6214-210 B itself assuming a 100:1 gas-to-dust ratio and characteristic dust temperature of 10-20 K. If the host star possesses a putative circum-stellar disk then at most it is a meager 0.0015% of the primary mass, implying that giant planet formation has certainly ceased in this system. Considering these limits and its current accretion rate, GSC 6214-210 B appears to be at the end stages of assembly and is not expected to gain any appreciable mass over the next few Myr.Comment: Accepted to ApJ

Herschel/PACS View Of Disks Around Low-Mass Stars And Brown Dwarfs In The TW Hydrae Association

We conducted Herschel/PACS observations of five very low-mass stars or brown dwarfs located in the TW Hya association with the goal of characterizing the properties of disks in the low stellar mass regime. We detected all five targets at 70 mu m and 100 mu m and three targets at 160 mu m. Our observations, combined with previous photometry from 2MASS, WISE, and SCUBA-2, enabled us to construct spectral energy distributions (SEDs) with extended wavelength coverage. Using sophisticated radiative transfer models, we analyzed the observed SEDs of the five detected objects with a hybrid fitting strategy that combines the model grids and the simulated annealing algorithm and evaluated the constraints on the disk properties via the Bayesian inference method. The modeling suggests that disks around low-mass stars and brown dwarfs are generally flatter than their higher mass counterparts, but the range of disk mass extends to well below the value found in T Tauri stars, and the disk scale heights are comparable in both groups. The inferred disk properties (i.e., disk mass, flaring, and scale height) in the low stellar mass regime are consistent with previous findings from large samples of brown dwarfs and very low-mass stars. We discuss the dependence of disk properties on their host stellar parameters and find a significant correlation between the Herschel far-IR fluxes and the stellar effective temperatures, probably indicating that the scaling between the stellar and disk masses (i.e., M-disk proportional to M-star) observed mainly in low-mass stars may extend down to the brown dwarf regime.Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China BK20141046Youth Qianren Program of the National Science Foundation of ChinaNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationStrategic Priority Research Program >The Emergence of Cosmological Structures> of the Chinese Academy of Sciences XDB09000000Astronom

Mouse Model of Devil Facial Tumour Disease Establishes That an Effective Immune Response Can be Generated Against the Cancer Cells

The largest carnivorous marsupial in Australia, the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is facing extinction in the wild due to a transmissible cancer known as Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD). DFTD is a clonal cell line transmitted from host to host with 100% mortality and no known immunity. While it was first considered that low genetic diversity of the population of devils enabled the allograft transmission of DFTD recent evidence reveals that genetically diverse animals succumb to the disease. The lack of an immune response against the DFTD tumor cells may be due to a lack of immunogenicity of the tumor cells. This could facilitate transmission between devils. To test immunogenicity, mice were injected with viable DFTD cells and anti-DFTD immune responses analyzed. A range of antibody isotypes against DFTD cells was detected, indicating that as DFTD cells can induce an immune response they are immunogenic. This was supported by cytokine production, when splenocytes from mice injected with DFTD cells were cultured in vitro with DFTD cells and the supernatant analyzed. There was a significant production of IFN-γ and TNF-α following the first injection with DFTD cells and a significant production of IL-6 and IL-10 following the second injection. Splenocytes from naïve or immunized mice killed DFTD cells in in vitro cytotoxicity assays. Thus they are also targets for immunological destruction. We conclude that as an immune response can be generated against DFTD cells they would be suitable targets for a vaccine