Water and Sanitation: A Study of Deserted IDP Camps in Lapul Sub-county

This paper sets out to discover how access to water and sanitation has changed overtime for the residents of deserted satellite IDP camps in Lapul sub-county, Northern Uganda. Throughout the period of conflict in the region until today, residents of this region have struggled to gain adequate access to water and sanitation. Qualitative field research was carried out over a period of eleven days, with six interviews and three focus groups held to gain information on how access to water and sanitation has changed overtime for the displaced. Methods of Rapid Rural Appraisal and Direct Observation were applied to make assessments of the camp environment. Restricted time limited the ability to produce a comprehensive report, and the communities interviewed were chosen to represent the larger population of rural displaced in Northern Uganda. Other limitations to research included the prevalence of alcoholism as a side effect of war, and the language barrier between the interviewer and the residents. It was concluded that access to water and sanitation is currently decreasing for many of the rural displaced. Although greater access was provided in camps, overcrowding prevented IDPs from obtaining adequate amounts of water. When moved to satellite camps, international humanitarian aid provided greater access, but the boreholes put in place are now broken down and the pit latrines have filled up. Without adequate money, tools, or management to fix these systems, many are returning to collecting unprotected water sources and to using unsanitary means of human waste disposal. Coordinated efforts between the government, NGOs, Community Based Organizations, and local leaders are needed to address this growing problem

Intentional Web Presence: 10 SEO Strategies Every Academic Needs to Know

A little over a year ago The Chronicle of Higher Education published a piece titled Creating Your Web Presence: A Primer for Academics. We were excited to see some of the strategies Miriam Posner recommended for academics wanting to create and maintain a web presence. We had been doing many of the things Posner recommended, as well as a number of others. Thus, in many ways this article builds on Posner\u27s piece but argues that faculty should be taking even more steps to build, maintain, and ensure that others can find their presence on the web

An Overview of Advanced Elastomeric Seal Development and Testing Capabilities at NASA Glenn Research Center

NASA is developing advanced space-rated elastomeric seals to support future space exploration missions to low Earth orbit, the Moon, near Earth asteroids, and other destinations. This includes seals for a new docking system and vehicle hatches. These seals must exhibit extremely low leak rates to ensure that astronauts have sufficient breathable air for extended missions. Seal compression loads must be below prescribed limits so as not to overload the mechanisms that compress them, and seal adhesion forces must be low to allow the sealed interface to be separated when required (e.g., during undocking or hatch opening). NASA Glenn Research Center has developed a number of unique test fixtures to measure the leak rates and compression and adhesion loads of candidate seal designs under simulated thermal, vacuum, and engagement conditions. Tests can be performed on fullscale seals with diameters on the order of 50 in., subscale seals that are about 12 in. in diameter, and smaller specimens such as O-rings. Test conditions include temperatures ranging from -238 to 662degF (-150 to 350degC), operational pressure gradients, and seal-on-seal or seal-on-flange mating configurations. Nominal and off-nominal conditions (e.g., incomplete seal compression) can also be simulated. This paper describes the main design features and capabilities of each type of test apparatus and provides an overview of advanced seal development activities at NASA Glenn

Social Presence and Online Discussions: A Mixed Method Investigation

Researchers have been investigating social presence in online learning for decades. However, despite this continued research, questions remain about the nature and development of social presence. The purpose of this mixed method exploratory case study was to investigate how social presence is established in online discussion forums in an asynchronous online course. The results suggest that social presence is more complicated than previously thought. In particular, situational variable such as group size, instructional task, and previous relationships influence how social presence is established and maintained in online courses. In the following paper, we report the results of our inquiry and the implications for further research and practice

What Was Your Best Learning Experience? Our Story About Using Stories to Solve Instructional Problems

“Theory? What does this have to do with anything we’re doing?” Sound familiar? Students may not always verbalize this, but they often think it, especially in courses where the emphasis is on the development of technical skills and the application of those skills to the building of products. Presenting theory in a way that is relevant and engaging can be challenging under these circumstances. This article describes how we addressed this challenge by involving students in an analysis of their “best learning experiences” stories, and then helped them apply their discoveries to the products they built

Tweeting the Night Away: Using Twitter to Enhance Social Presence

To be truly effective, online learning must facilitate the social process of learning. This involves providing space and opportunities for students and faculty to engage in social activities. Although learning management systems offer several tools that support social learning and student engagement, the scope, structure, and functionality of those tools can inhibit and restrain just-in-time social connections and interactions. In this teaching tip, we describe our use of Twitter to encourage free-flowing just-in-time interactions and how these interactions can enhance social presence in online courses. We then describe instructional benefits of Twitter, and conclude with guidelines for incorporating Twitter in online courses

Getting Graphic About Infographics: Design Lessons Learned from Popular Infographics

People learn and remember more efficiently and effectively through the use of text and visuals than through text alone. Infographics are one way of presenting complex and dense informational content in a way that supports cognitive processing, learning, and future recognition and recollection. But the power of infographics is that they are a way of delivering the maximum amount of content in the least amount of space while still being precise and clear; because they are visual presentations as opposed to oral or text presentations, they can quickly tell a story, show relationships, and reveal structure. The following paper reports on an exploration of top 20 “liked” infographics on a popular infographic sharing website in an effort to better understand what makes an effective infographic in order to better prepare graduate students as consumers and designers of infographics. The paper concludes with recommendations and strategies on how educators might leverage the power of infographics in their classrooms

Online Educators’ Recommendations for Teaching Online: Crowdsourcing in Action

Over the years, online educators have learned a great deal about what works and doesn’t work when designing and facilitating online courses. During the past few years, we have used crowdsourcing to invite experienced online educators to share their recommendations for teaching online. In this article, we describe our use of crowdsourcing to curate a robust list of online-teaching recommendations, present the recommendations experienced online educators have shared with us, share the themes resulting from our analysis, describe how the themes align with the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model, and discuss how adhering to the crowdsourced recommendations may enhance the design and facilitation of online courses

High temperature seal for large structural movements

A high temperature sealing system is operative to seal an interface between adjacent hot structures and to minimize parasitic flow between such structures that move relative to one another in-plane or out-of-plane. The sealing system may be used to seal thrust-directing ramp structures of a reusable launch vehicle and includes a channel and a plurality of movable segmented sealing elements. Adjacent ramp structures include edge walls which extend within the channel. The sealing elements are positioned along the sides of the channel and are biased to engage with the inner surfaces of the ramp structures. The segmented sealing elements are movable to correspond to the contour of the thrust-directing ramp structures. The sealing system is operative to prevent high temperature thrust gases that flow along the ramp structures from infiltrating into the interior of the vehicle

Control Surface Seals Investigated for Re- Entry Vehicles

Re-entry vehicles generally use control surfaces (e.g., rudders, body flaps, and elevons) to steer or guide them as they pass into and through the Earth s atmosphere. High temperature seals are required around control surfaces both along hinge lines and in areas where control surface edges seal against the vehicle body to limit hot gas ingestion and the transfer of heat to underlying low-temperature structures. Working with the NASA Johnson Space Center, the Seals Team at the NASA Glenn Research Center completed a series of tests on the baseline seal design for the rudder/fin control surface interfaces of the X-38 vehicle. This seal application was chosen as a case study to evaluate a currently available control surface seal design for applications in future re-entry vehicles. The structures of the rudder/fin assembly and its associated seals are shown in the following illustration