Effect of processing on fracture toughness of silicon carbide as determined by Vickers indentations

Several alpha-SiC materials were processed by hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) and by sintering an alpha-SiC powder containing boron and carbon. Several beta-SiC materials were processed by HIPing a beta-SiC powder with boron and carbon additions. The fracture toughnesses K(sub 1c) of these beta- and alpha-SiC materials were estimated from measurements of Vickers indentations. The three formulas used to estimate K(sub 1c) from the indentation fracture patterns resulted in three ranges of K(sub 1c) estimates. Furthermore, each formula measured the effects of processing differently. All three estimates indicated that fine-grained HIPed alpha-SiC has a higher K(sub 1c) than coarsed-grained sintered alpha-SiC. Hot isostatically pressed beta-SiC, which had an ultrafine grain structure, exhibited a K(sub 1c) comparable to that of HIPed alpha-SiC

Taking the Pulse of Communication Across the Curriculum: A View from the Trenches

The article describes the status of the communication across the curriculum (CXC) movement from the perspectives of CXC directors across the U.S. as of May 2001. The participants in this study provide a breadth of information about the daily life of communication across the curriculum programs nationwide. Results of this study indicate the pulse of the movement is strong, yet there are still areas for growth. Increasingly, higher education scholars, faculty in other disciplines, and members of the public are calling for communication instruction and presenting new challenges for directors and scholars to address. If CXC programs are to be sustained over time and succeed in the next 25 years, it is critical that those involved in the movement take seriously the needs of our audiences. CXC programs must do more than repeat basic course material--they must consider the important genres, norms, and evaluative criteria that face their target disciplines so they can supplement general instruction with that which is more relevant to disciplinary classrooms. The focus on discipline-specific resources also opens doors for scholarly inquiry that, quite simply, needs to be done in a sophisticated, programmatic way

Sapphire Shop

The sapphire shop business is an extension of John Tollison\u27s lifelong avocation towards gemstones in general and sapphires in particular. It is a blend of both decisions concerning the expanding financial strains of the business, with two alternative sources of funds to be analyzed and evaluated, and personal household decisions concerning the entrepreneur\u27s family. Either financial source will expand the firm\u27s ability to purchase additional inventory of gemstones, a key component to growth in sales, profits, and cash flows. However, there are limits to Mr. Tollison\u27s ability to continue these growth initiatives without giving up his day job. If this decision is made in the affirmative, his household income stream will be reduced, just a few years before college costs will need to be met

Beyond Content, Deeper than Delivery: What Critique Feedback Reveals about Communication Expectations in Design Education

In design education, the critique is a communication event in which students present their design and critics provide feedback. Presumably, the feedback gives the students information about their progress on the design. Yet critic feedback also serves a socializing function—providing students information about what it means to communicate well in the design education context. Using a qualitative research methodology, this study explores what critic feedback reflects about expected communication competencies in design studios. Results suggest that communication competence in this setting involves interaction management, demonstration of design evolution, transparent advocacy of intent, explanation of visuals, and the staging of the performance—all of which imply a communicative identity for students that is tethered to the content and delivery of the presentation, but has implications beyond the content and delivery to the broader disciplinary culture. Implications of this study provide insight for faculty and students involved in pedagogical spaces in which feedback plays an important role in the instructional process—suggesting its potential for shaping disciplinary identities, relationships, and social contexts

Performance incentives : an investment in human capital

This report will outline the current status of performance management, pay for performance options, and SCDOC's approach to incentive pay programs

Gorillas and economic development: A study of pro-poor conservation and tourism in central Africa

National Parks worldwide are beginning to participate in "pro-poor" policies, a strategy aimed at using tourism revenue to reduce poverty through policies that create opportunity and offer benefits to local communities. This study examines four parks in Africa that specialize in gorilla-based tourism. Pro-poor policies of each park are discussed in the context of country and park history. Ugandan poverty rates are then compared based on proximity to national parks. The results indicate that lower poverty rates exist near national parks than in rural control groups; however, no causal link can be established between pro-poor policies and reduced poverty in these areas

The Impact of Immersive Virtual Reality on Procedural Pain in Children and Adolescents

Children commonly undergo uncomfortable and often times painful procedures, including those that may not be perceived as painful to adults (Çelikol, Büyük, & Yıldızlar, 2019). It is important to note when a child\u27s pain is poorly managed, it causes adverse effects related to their well-being and reduces their ability to cope effectively with pain in the future (Gates et al., 2020). Virtual reality (VR) has been used in a multimodal approached to manage acute pain in adults, but there is little research related to its use in treating procedural pain in children and adolescents. This thesis reviewed the published research on the use of immersive VR on procedural pain in children and adolescents. A total of nine studies were analyzed and included in this literature review and all of them included VR as a distraction intervention during a procedure for children or adolescents. The procedures included three venipunctures, one intravenous injection, one venous cannulation, one dental filling or tooth extraction, one nasal endoscopy, one vascular access, and one burn dressing change. All studies measured and compared the reported pain levels of the participants using VR as well as participants who did not use VR. The results obtained from the nine studies provided evidence to support the use of immersive VR in children and adolescents while they undergo a painful procedure. To more accurately generalize the results of these studies and confidently say immersive VR can be used to decrease procedural pain, there is a need for more research containing larger sample sizes, standardized pain measurement, and increased variety of procedures. The databases searched for this literature review includes CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Medline, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and APA PsycINFO. The key search terms included virtual reality and procedure and pain and childhood or adolescent

Mixed Reality Prototype Device Showcase: Using Smart Glasses to Enhance Language Access

While the use of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters and real-time captioning significantly increases deaf individuals’ ability to participate in a wide variety of functions, there are some limitations. The major problem is that current ways of providing communication and information access to deaf people require them to split their attention between the visual focus of the specific content and the interpreter/captioning display. At any given point in time, deaf people are forced to decide what explanation to miss with subsequent effects on topic comprehension and perceptions of the interaction and environments

Technical oral presentations: knowledge and practices among technical students

Oral presentation is one of the challenging tasks faced by most tertiary level students. For technical students, they have no exception in delivering technical oral presentations (TOPs) at the end of each course offered according to their fields of expertise. Realising the fact that these students should have been exposed well with integral requirements of TOP, it is essential to find out the students’ knowledge and practices on this type of presentation beforehand. Thus, this paper does not only aim to explore the respondents’ overall feedback on TOP, but also to find out the respondents’ experiences in conducting TOP. A random survey was therefore conducted and 130 students of Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, specialised in different technical fields were selected to be the participants. A questionnaire consisted of 20 items which required them to reflect on their knowledge and experiences regarding TOP were utilised to reveal results for this research. In addition, the reflections of their experiences revealed their awareness and mistakes made during their own TOP. It is hoped that these results helped to raise awareness among technical educators about the problems occurred among their students, so that suitable guidelines and best practices can be adapted into their teaching and learning process