The NASA firefighter's breathing system program

The research is reported in the development of a firefighter's breathing system (FBS) to satisfy the operational requirements of fire departments while remaining within their cost constraints. System definition for the FBS is discussed, and the program status is reported. It is concluded that the most difficult problem in the FBS Program is the achievement of widespread fire department acceptance of the system

The Rachel Carson Letters and the Making of Silent Spring

Environment, conservation, green, and kindred movements look back to Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring as a milestone. The impact of the book, including on government, industry, and civil society, was immediate and substantial, and has been extensively described; however, the provenance of the book has been less thoroughly examined. Using Carson’s personal correspondence, this paper reveals that the primary source for Carson’s book was the extensive evidence and contacts compiled by two biodynamic farmers, Marjorie Spock and Mary T. Richards, of Long Island, New York. Their evidence was compiled for a suite of legal actions (1957-1960) against the U.S. Government and that contested the aerial spraying of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). During Rudolf Steiner’s lifetime, Spock and Richards both studied at Steiner’s Goetheanum, the headquarters of Anthroposophy, located in Dornach, Switzerland. Spock and Richards were prominent U.S. anthroposophists, and established a biodynamic farm under the tutelage of the leading biodynamics exponent of the time, Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer. When their property was under threat from a government program of DDT spraying, they brought their case, eventually lost it, in the process spent US$100,000, and compiled the evidence that they then shared with Carson, who used it, and their extensive contacts and the trial transcripts, as the primary input for Silent Spring. Carson attributed to Spock, Richards, and Pfeiffer, no credit whatsoever in her book. As a consequence, the organics movement has not received the recognition, that is its due, as the primary impulse for Silent Spring, and it is, itself, unaware of this provenance

Preliminary catalog of pictures taken on the lunar surface during the Apollo 16 mission

A catalog of all pictures taken from the lunar module or the lunar surface during the Apollo 16 lunar stay is presented. The tabulations are arranged for the following specific uses: (1) given the number of a particular frame, find its location in the sequence of lunar surface activity, the station from which it was taken and the subject matter of the picture; (2) given a particular location or activity within the sequence of lunar surface activity, find the pictures taken at that time and their subject matter; and (3) given a sample number from the voice transcript listed, find the designation assigned to the same sample by the lunar receiving laboratory

A Preliminary Blooms Taxonomy Assessment Of End-Of-Chapter Problems In Business School Textbooks

This article examines textbook problems used in a sampling of some of the most common core courses found in schools of business to ascertain what level of learning, as defined by Blooms Taxonomy, is required to provide a correct answer. A set of working definitions based on Blooms Taxonomy (Bloom & Krathwohl, 1956) was developed for the six different levels of the taxonomy. Because the course credit model relies so heavily on textbooks, the end of chapter problems for a leading text book in eight traditional business disciplines were evaluated. The initial findings indicate that the vast majority of end of chapter problems examined only required students to function at Level 1 (Knowledge) or Level 2 (Comprehension). While preliminary in nature, these data suggest the need for the use of other methods to challenge the student to think on higher cognitive levels

Implementing the Five-A Model of technical refinement: Key roles of the sport psychologist

There is increasing evidence for the significant contribution provided by sport psychologists within applied coaching environments. However, this rarely considers their skills/knowledge being applied when refining athletes’ already learned and well-established motor skills. Therefore, this paper focuses on how a sport psychologist might assist a coach and athlete to implement long-term permanent and pressure proof refinements. It highlights key contributions at each stage of the Five-A Model—designed to deliver these important outcomes—providing both psychomotor and psychosocial input to the support delivery. By employing these recommendations, sport psychologists can make multiple positive contributions to completion of this challenging task

The enigma of facial asymmetry:is there a gender specific pattern of facedness?

Although facial symmetry correlates with facial attractiveness, human faces are often far from symmetrical with one side frequently being larger than the other (Kowner, 1998). Smith (2000) reported that male and female faces were asymmetrical in opposite directions, with males having a larger area on the left side compared to the right side, and females having a larger right side compared to the left side. The present study attempted to replicate and extend this finding. Two databases of facial images from Stirling and St Andrews Universities, consisting of 180 and 122 faces respectively, and a third set of 62 faces collected at Abertay University, were used to examine Smith's findings. Smith's unique method of calculating the size of each hemiface was applied to each set. For the Stirling and St Andrews sets a computer program did this automatically and for the Abertay set it was done manually. No significant overall effect of gender on facial area asymmetry was found. However, the St Andrews sample demonstrated a similar effect to that found by Smith, with females having a significantly larger mean area of right hemiface and males having a larger left hemiface. In addition, for the Abertay faces handedness had a significant effect on facial asymmetry with right-handers having a larger left side of the face. These findings give limited support for Smith's results but also suggest that finding such an asymmetry may depend on some as yet unidentified factors inherent in some methods of image collection

Initial Tectonic Deformation of Hemipelagic Sediment at the Leading Edge of the Japan Convergent Margin

Diatomaceous mudstones at depth under the deep sea terrace and the trench inner slope off Japan have been variably affected by tectonic stress. Veins, healed fractures, and microfaults occur at all sites except the shallow Site 435 on the upper trench inner slope and Site 436 on the Pacific Plate. Veins, fractures, and faults occur in cores from below 620 meters (lower to middle Miocene) in the landward sites (438 and 439) on the deep sea terrace, and are probably related to normal faulting seen in seismic records. The depth to "consolidated" sediment and to the first occurrence of veins and healed fractures shallows progressively toward the trench. The intensity of deformation also appears to increase seaward. However, no sediments younger than upper Pliocene are deformed. Open fractures may exist in situ at Sites 434 and 441 at levels between about 150 and 500 meters sub-bottom. The Japan Transect sediments—in contrast to deposits in the zone of initial deformation at other convergent margins though highly deformed, are not highly overconsolidated. However, sediment at depth in the trench inner slope sites is overconsolidated relative to that at the same depth in the landward reference site. None of the deformed Japan margin sediments recovered at Legs 56 and 57 sites originated by accretion of oceanic plate material—also in contrast to sediments at some of the margins previously studied. We suggest that tectonic stress related to convergence has been communicated to the slope sediments on the trench inner slope, either continuously or periodically, causing rapid tectonic dewatering and inducing fracturing and faulting. If episodic, the latest of these deformational periods may have occurred during the late Pliocene. The faults and fractures are either rehealed by continued overburden pressure (sediment loading) or may remain open at shallower levels. Fracturing and dewatering of semiconsolidated sediment beneath an unconsolidated but impermeable mud veneer may cause overpressured zones at depths of 200 to 500 meters. These overpressured zones possibly locally reduce shear strength and cause downslope mass movement of sediment, even on low-angle slopes on the trench inner slope

The Transformation of Sediment Into Rock : Insights From IODP Site U1352, Canterbury Basin, New Zealand

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank the crew of the RV JOIDES Resolution for professional seamanship, excellent drilling, and the scientific support on board. GHB and SCG thank the Australia–New Zealand IODP Consortium (ANZIC), and KMM thanks the Consortium for Ocean Leadership U.S. Science Support Program for partly funding this work. Thanks also to funding agencies of the respective authors, and Mark Lawrence (GNS Science) and Cam Nelson (University of Waikato) for their thoughtful comments on an earlier draft. Karsten Kroeger (GNS Science) helped by providing compaction data for New Zealand basins, and Michelle Kominz (Western Michigan University) provided data on which Figure 8 was developed. Further improvements were the result of thoughtful detailed reviews by Gemma Barrie, Bill Heins, Stan Paxton, Associate Editor Joe Macquaker, and Editor Leslie Melim.Peer reviewedPostprin

Navigation Doppler Lidar for Autonomous Ground, Aerial, and Space Vehicles

A Doppler lidar instrument has been developed and demonstrated for providing critical vector velocity and altitude/range data for autonomous precision navigation. Utilizing advanced component technologies, this lidar can be adapted to different types of vehicles