BYU Rocketry: 2018 IREC & Spaceport America Cup

BYU Rocketry will compete in the 2018 Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition at the 2nd Annual Spaceport America Cup in Las Cruces, NM by building an 8 foot High Power rocket to send an 8.8 lb. CubeSat payload 10,000 ft. above ground level. Over 100 collegiate teams from around the world will compete

The Effects of Video Self-Modeling on the Decoding Skills of Children at Risk for Reading Disabilities

Ten first grade students who had responded poorly to a Tier 2 reading intervention in a response to intervention (RTI) model received an intervention of video self-modeling to improve decoding skills and sight word recognition. Students were video recorded blending and segmenting decodable words and reading sight words. Videos were edited and viewed a minimum of four times per week. Data were collected twice per week using curriculum-based measures. A single subject multiple baseline across participants design was used. Results indicated an increase in decoding skills and sight word recognition for all participants. A 2-week posttest maintenance assessment showed retention or increases for 70 percent of participants. Results from the study offer promise for a specific intervention that may reach particular students who respond poorly to Tier 2 reading instruction. © 2013 The Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children

Exercise in Space: Human Skeletal Muscle After 6 Months Aboard the International Space Station

The aim of this investigation was to document the exercise program used by crewmembers (n = 9; 45 +/- 2 yr) while aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for 6 mo and examine its effectiveness for preserving calf muscle characteristics. Before and after spaceflight, we assessed calf muscle volume (MRI), static and dynamic calf muscle performance, and muscle fiber types (gastrocnemius and soleus). While on the ISS, crewmembers had access to a running treadmill, cycle ergometer, and resistance exercise device. The exercise regimen varied among the crewmembers with aerobic exercise performed ~5 h/wk at a moderate intensity and resistance exercise performed 3–6 days/wk incorporating multiple lower leg exercises. Calf muscle volume decreased (P \u3c 0.05) 13 +/- 2% with greater (P \u3c 0.05) atrophy of the soleus (-15 +/- 2%) compared with the gastrocnemius (-10 +/- 2%). Peak power was 32% lower (P \u3c 0.05) after spaceflight. Force-velocity characteristics were reduced (P \u3c 0.05) -20 to -29% across the velocity spectrum. There was a 12–17% shift in myosin heavy chain (MHC) phenotype of the gastrocnemius and soleus with a decrease (P \u3c 0.05) in MHC I fibers and a redistribution among the faster phenotypes. These data show a reduction in calf muscle mass and performance along with a slow-tofast fiber type transition in the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles, which are all qualities associated with unloading in humans. Future long-duration space missions should modify the current ISS exercise prescription and/or hardware to better preserve human skeletal muscle mass and function, thereby reducing the risk imposed to crewmembers

Prolonged space flight-induced alterations in the structure and function of human skeletal muscle fibres

The primary goal of this study was to determine the effects of prolonged space flight (∼180 days) on the structure and function of slow and fast fibres in human skeletal muscle. Biopsies were obtained from the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles of nine International Space Station crew members ∼45 days pre- and on landing day (R+0) post-flight. The main findings were that prolonged weightlessness produced substantial loss of fibre mass, force and power with the hierarchy of the effects being soleus type I > soleus type II > gastrocnemius type I > gastrocnemius type II. Structurally, the quantitatively most important adaptation was fibre atrophy, which averaged 20% in the soleus type I fibres (98 to 79 μm diameter). Atrophy was the main contributor to the loss of peak force (P0), which for the soleus type I fibre declined 35% from 0.86 to 0.56 mN. The percentage decrease in fibre diameter was correlated with the initial pre-flight fibre size (r = 0.87), inversely with the amount of treadmill running (r = 0.68), and was associated with an increase in thin filament density (r = 0.92). The latter correlated with reduced maximal velocity (V0) (r = −0.51), and is likely to have contributed to the 21 and 18% decline in V0 in the soleus and gastrocnemius type I fibres. Peak power was depressed in all fibre types with the greatest loss (∼55%) in the soleus. An obvious conclusion is that the exercise countermeasures employed were incapable of providing the high intensity needed to adequately protect fibre and muscle mass, and that the crew's ability to perform strenuous exercise might be seriously compromised. Our results highlight the need to study new exercise programmes on the ISS that employ high resistance and contractions over a wide range of motion to mimic the range occurring in Earth's 1 g environment

Using DNA metabarcoding to investigate honey bee foraging reveals limited flower use despite high floral availability

Understanding which flowers honey bees (Apis mellifera) use for forage can help us to provide suitable plants for healthy honey bee colonies. Accordingly, honey DNA metabarcoding provides a valuable tool for investigating pollen and nectar collection. We investigated early season (April and May) floral choice by honey bees provided with a very high diversity of flowering plants within the National Botanic Garden of Wales. There was a close correspondence between the phenology of flowering and the detection of plants within the honey. Within the study area there were 437 genera of plants in flower during April and May, but only 11% of these were used. Thirty-nine plant taxa were recorded from three hives but only ten at greater than 1%. All three colonies used the same core set of native or near-native plants, typically found in hedgerows and woodlands. The major plants were supplemented with a range of horticultural species, with more variation in plant choice between the honey bee colonies. We conclude that during the spring, honey bees need access to native hedgerows and woodlands to provide major plants for foraging. Gardens provide supplementary flowers that may increase the nutritional diversity of the honey bee diet