A History of the Utah State University Elementary Teacher Education Laboratory School

The Utah State University has had a university controlled elementary teacher education laboratory school since 1928. In that year, the University, then the Utah Agricultural College, leased the Whittier School from the Logan City Board of Education. The Whittier continued to be used until the summer of 1957 when the newly constructed Edith Bowen Laboratory School became the center of elementary teacher education

The use of laser scanning as a method for measuring stairways following an accident

Copyright: 2015 Survey Review Ltd.MORE OpenChoice: Open Access ArticleStairs present significant potential for harm to their users. A fall on stairs, particularly in descent, often leads to serious injury or even death. The authors have been involved in the investigation of many workplace stair accidents. Proper forensic investigation into the cause of a stair accident has often found the incident to be wholly or partly caused by poor stair design. In order to establish the relationship between the stair design and a given fall, an onsite survey has to be conducted, determining the rises and goings along with other key dimensions. The Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), Buxton, UK, regularly undertake this type of survey using a digital inclinometer, a steel rule and a tape measure. Laser scanning is an emerging technique that is now accessible to the surveyor to complement or replace traditional approaches. The laser scanner and associated software produces a dense point survey in 3D, allowing dimensional analysis of the features. The authors used both traditional and laser scanning techniques to study the scenes of two fatal stair falls. The analysis presented allows the suitability of laser scanning for stair-fall investigation to be considered. Identification and classification of errors are needed in order to consider if the error is acceptable or can be mitigated. Laser scanners are impressive instruments providing data from which can be used to create a virtual 3D environment that can be used to reconstruct and explain an event and contributing factors. The use of both survey methods currently provides the investigator with complimentary data that allows accurate measurements to be presented in the context of the three-dimensional environment.European Social Fund (ESF

Articular cartilage collagen: an irreplaceable framework?

Adult articular cartilage by dry weight is two-thirds collagen. The collagen has a unique molecular phenotype. The nascent type II collagen fibril is a heteropolymer, with collagen IX molecules covalently linked to the surface and collagen XI forming the filamentous template of the fibril as a whole. The functions of collagens IX and XI in the heteropolymer are far from clear but, evidently, they are critically important since mutations in COLIX and COLXI genes can result in chondrodysplasia syndromes. Here we review what is known of the collagen assembly and present new evidence that collagen type III becomes covalently added to the polymeric fabric of adult human articular cartilage, perhaps as part of a matrix repair or remodelling process

A non-linear optimal estimation inverse method for radio occultation measurements of temperature, humidity and surface pressure

An optimal estimation inverse method is presented which can be used to retrieve simultaneously vertical profiles of temperature and specific humidity, in addition to surface pressure, from satellite-to-satellite radio occultation observations of the Earth's atmosphere. The method is a non-linear, maximum {\it a posteriori} technique which can accommodate most aspects of the real radio occultation problem and is found to be stable and to converge rapidly in most cases. The optimal estimation inverse method has two distinct advantages over the analytic inverse method in that it accounts for some of the effects of horizontal gradients and is able to retrieve optimally temperature and humidity simultaneously from the observations. It is also able to account for observation noise and other sources of error. Combined, these advantages ensure a realistic retrieval of atmospheric quantities. A complete error analysis emerges naturally from the optimal estimation theory, allowing a full characterisation of the solution. Using this analysis a quality control scheme is implemented which allows anomalous retrieval conditions to be recognised and removed, thus preventing gross retrieval errors. The inverse method presented in this paper has been implemented for bending angle measurements derived from GPS/MET radio occultation observations of the Earth. Preliminary results from simulated data suggest that these observations have the potential to improve NWP model analyses significantly throughout their vertical range.Comment: 18 (jgr journal) pages, 7 figure

Factors influencing engineering students for choosing techno-entrepreneurship as a career: An implication for better learning

Techno-entrepreneurship is critical to the growth of society as a useful technique for overcoming youth unemployment. However, the growth of techno-entrepreneurship has been limited with the end outcome being less than satisfying. Hence, the purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence the possibility of choosing techno-entrepreneurship as a profession among engineering students in the Philippines. There were 200 engineering students selected by stratified random sampling and the significance of the factors was then determined using Pearson correlation analysis. Based on the findings, students’ likelihood of choosing techno-entrepreneurship as a career was not influenced by their equipment availability but by their e-commerce experience, geographical location, and internet ability. This implies the need for academic personnel and instructors teaching techno-entrepreneurship courses to guarantee students have relevant technopreneur knowledge, skills, and competencies that value students’ creativity and innovation to encourage techno-entrepreneurship as a profession

Hysteresis Between Coral Reef Calcification and the Seawater Aragonite Saturation State

Some predictions of how ocean acidification (OA) will affect coral reefs assume a linear functional relationship between the ambient seawater aragonite saturation state (Ωa) and net ecosystem calcification (NEC). We quantified NEC in a healthy coral reef lagoon in the Great Barrier Reef during different times of the day. Our observations revealed a diel hysteresis pattern in the NEC versus Ωa relationship, with peak NEC rates occurring before the Ωa peak and relatively steady nighttime NEC in spite of variable Ωa. Net ecosystem production had stronger correlations with NEC than light, temperature, nutrients, pH, and Ωa. The observed hysteresis may represent an overlooked challenge for predicting the effects of OA on coral reefs. If widespread, the hysteresis could prevent the use of a linear extrapolation to determine critical Ωa threshold levels required to shift coral reefs from a net calcifying to a net dissolving state

Groundwater and Porewater as Major Sources of Alkalinity to a Fringing Coral Reef Lagoon (Muri Lagoon, Cook Islands)

To better predict how ocean acidification will affect coral reefs, it is important to understand how biogeochemical cycles on reefs alter carbonate chemistry over various temporal and spatial scales. This study quantifies the contribution of shallow porewater exchange (as quantified from advective chamber incubations) and fresh groundwater discharge (as traced by 222Rn) to total alkalinity (TA) dynamics on a fringing coral reef lagoon along the southern Pacific island of Rarotonga over a tidal and diel cycle. Benthic alkalinity fluxes were affected by the advective circulation of water through permeable sediments, with net daily flux rates of carbonate alkalinity ranging from −1.55 to 7.76 mmol m−2 d−1, depending on the advection rate. Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) was a source of TA to the lagoon, with the highest flux rates measured at low tide, and an average daily TA flux of 1080 mmol m−2 d−1 at the sampling site. Both sources of TA were important on a reef-wide basis, although SGD acted solely as a delivery mechanism of TA to the lagoon, while porewater advection was either a sink or source of TA dependent on the time of day. This study describes overlooked sources of TA to coral reef ecosystems that can potentially alter water column carbonate chemistry. We suggest that porewater and groundwater fluxes of TA should be taken into account in ocean acidification models in order to properly address changing carbonate chemistry within coral reef ecosystems

Assessment of the ergogenic effect of caffeine supplementation on mood, anticipation timing, and muscular strength in older adults

The effect of caffeine to promote improvements in mood, cognition, and exercise performance has been well established in young and athletic adults. However, little is known about whether such nutritional ergogenic aids are effective in enhancing psychological well-being, physiological or cognitive performance in older adults. This study assesses the ergogenic effect of caffeine on mood, perceptual-motor coupling, and muscular strength in an older human population. Following a familiarization session, 12 apparently healthy volunteers (nine females and three males; 69 ± 6 years) completed two laboratory visits. "Pre ingestion" trials of mood state Brunel Mood State Inventory (BRUMS) and coincidence anticipation performance (Bassin anticipation timer) at slow (3 mph) and fast (8 mph) stimulus speeds were completed on both visits. Using a randomized, double-blind, cross-over design, participants consumed either caffeine (3 mg/kg body mass) or a placebo. Sixty minutes postingestion participants repeated the trials before completing a set of 10 consecutive repetitions of maximal knee extension using isokinetic dynamometry. Rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was assessed following the fifth and final repetition. Caffeine ingestion significantly improved mood state scores for vigor by 17% (P = 0.009) and reduced absolute error by 35% (P = 0.045) during coincidence anticipation assessment at 8 mph compared to placebo. There were no other significant effects. Caffeine ingestion failed to augment maximal voluntary contraction of the knee extensors and RPE did not prove to be significantly different to from placebo (P > 0.33 in each case). Acute caffeine ingestion may not be an effective ergogenic aid for improving muscular strength in older adults but could possibly be used as a nutrition supplement for enhancing mood and improving cognitive performance in daily living tasks where interceptive timing skills are required

Optimizing DNA Extraction Methods for Nanopore Sequencing of Neisseria gonorrhoeae Directly from Urine Samples

Empirical gonorrhea treatment at initial diagnosis reduces onward transmission. However, increasing resistance to multiple antibiotics may necessitate waiting for culture-based diagnostics to select an effective treatment. There is a need for same-day culture-free diagnostics that identify infection and detect antimicrobial resistance. We investigated if Nanopore sequencing can detect sufficient Neisseria gonorrhoeae DNA to reconstruct whole genomes directly from urine samples. We used N. gonorrhoeae-spiked urine samples and samples from gonorrhea infections to determine optimal DNA extraction methods that maximize the amount of N. gonorrhoeae DNA sequenced while minimizing contaminating host DNA. In simulated infections, the Qiagen UCP pathogen mini kit provided the highest ratio of N. gonorrhoeae to human DNA and the most consistent results. Depletion of human DNA with saponin increased N. gonorrhoeae yields in simulated infections but decreased yields in clinical samples. In 10 urine samples from men with symptomatic urethral gonorrhea, ≥92.8% coverage of an N. gonorrhoeae reference genome was achieved in all samples, with ≥93.8% coverage breath at ≥10-fold depth in 7 (70%) samples. In simulated infections, if ≥104 CFU/ml of N. gonorrhoeae was present, sequencing of the large majority of the genome was frequently achieved. N. gonorrhoeae could also be detected from urine in cobas PCR medium tubes and from urethral swabs and in the presence of simulated Chlamydia coinfection. Using Nanopore sequencing of urine samples from men with urethral gonorrhea, sufficient data can be obtained to reconstruct whole genomes in the majority of samples without the need for culture