The North Carolina A and T State University Student Space Shuttle Program

Inspired into being in 1979 by the late astronaut, Dr. Ronald McNair, the primary goal of this student centered program is to perform two experiments, Arthopod Development Study and Crystal Growth Study. Since 1979, 78 different students representing 12 majors have participated in every phase of development of the payload -- from coming up with the original ideas to final fabrication and testing. Students have also been involved in many extra activities such as presenting their results at annual meetings and hosting tours of our lab for local schools. The program has received extensive outside support in the form of funds, technical assistance and donated parts. The payload, made primarily out of aluminum, consists of a central column structure, a battery box, a crystal growth box, an arthropod development box, four control circuit boxes, and a thermograph box. The battery box contains 24, Eveready 6V, Alkaline batteries. The thermograph box contains 3 Ryan TempMentors. Fabrication of the payload is essentially complete and a complete testing program has been initiated

WILLS-EXECUTION AND REVOCATION OF DUPLICATE WILLS

Testatrix executed three identical copies of her will. Counsel advised her that in the event she should desire to make a new will she must destroy both copies of the will in her possession and he would \u27definitely destroy the copy\u27 which he retained.\u27\u27 Thereafter, testatrix destroyed one of the two copies retained by her and struck out an objectionable devise in the other copy. Testatrix made no attempt to alter or destroy the third copy, although she was in temporary possession of it at a later date. The legatee (plaintiff) was successful in setting aside the decree of final settlement of the decedent\u27s estate according to the laws of intestacy, and he secured an order that the altered copy of the will be probated. The administratrix (defendant) appealed, alleging the court erred in not finding a revocation. Held, affirmed. Roberts v. Fisher, (Ind. App. 1951) 98 N.E. (2d) 215, rehearing denied 98 N.E. (2d) 918

Producer attitudes toward adjustment of milk production in the Kansas city milkshed

The research was carried out under Department of Agricultural Economics project 330, Milk Supply Response--P. [2].Digitized 2007 AES.Includes bibliographical references

How to Control Potato Scab

Potato growers in Iowa who have seen scab cut the quality and marketable yields of their potato crop year after year, can prevent serious scab infection by treating potato soil with sulfur. This especially applies to commercial potato production in northern Iowa. Home growers may find the sulfur treatment useful, too

From the Outside Looking In: Employers’ Views of the Basic Course

This essay is designed to connect specific communication skills desired by employers in industry to basic course concepts. While communication is often identified as one of the most important skills for graduates seeking employment, this broad view makes it nearly impossible for basic course directors and instructors to design their pedagogy to satisfy students’ future needs. This manuscript examines a part of the 2014 Basic Course Conference where industry leaders were invited to present what they felt to be the most important communication skills and knowledge in employees and then engaged in a discussion with the attending basic course directors to clarify which specific communication skills they desired most. This study ties those communication skills and knowledge to concepts common to the basic course identified in the 2014 document produced by the National Communication Association Core Competencies for Introductory Communication Courses Task Force on the role of communication in general education, as well as the most recent Basic Communication Course Survey from 2010

The Invaluable Nature of Speech Evaluation Training for New Basic Course Instructors

Recent reforms in higher education recognize the centrality of communication in general education programs (e.g., Association of American Colleges and Universities, American Association of State Colleges and Universities, LEAP, Common Core State Standards). As oral communication knowledge and skills are becoming recognized as integral to general education programs across the country, many basic course directors are finding themselves in the position of offering multiple sections of the course taught by multiple instructors. Additionally, basic course directors find themselves with the responsibility of providing clear measures of what they do and how well they do it. Because oral communication assessment is key to remaining integral to general education (Allen, 2002), basic course directors must provide instructor training on how to fairly and consistently evaluate student performances. But before this training can take place, basic course directors need to have an evaluation system in place that is fair, consistent, and reflective of actual student performance. There are several challenges to speech evaluation that warrant such a process. This essay will address those challenges and propose a systematic evaluation process that can serve as an impetus to instructor training in this area

Laser Shearographic Inspection for Debonds in Sprayed On Foam Insulation (SOFI)

Preliminary results of shearographic inspections of the test panels simulating the Space Shuttle's external tank (ET) spray on foam insulation (SOFI) are presented. Debonding of SOFI may introduce flight debris that may damage the orbiter's thermal protection system (TPS) exposing the orbiter (as well as the ET) to thermal loading. It is estimated that 90 percent of the TPS damage on the orbiter's 'belly' results from debonded SOFI during ascent. A series of test panels were fabricated, with programmed debonds of different geometries and sizes, to determine the sensitivity of shearography as a function of debond size, SOFI thickness,'and vacuum excitation. Results show that a Probability of Detection (POD) of 0.95 or better can be expected for debonds with a diameter equal to the SOFI thickness as less than 0.4-psi pressure reduction. More testing will be required to validate the laser shearography imaging process for certifying its use in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of Space Shuttle space flight components

Instructional Discussion: The Most Important Area of Training for New Basic Course Instructors

In order to determine the most important concept to teach new basic course instructors, it is important to know what we want students to be able to do as a result of the basic course and what teaching method will best reach that outcome. One main goal of the basic course is to teach students to communicate orally and give them practice doing so. This can be accomplished through what Muller (2014) defines as instructional discussion, or “an instructional interaction where teachers and students engage together in an exploration of problems, ideas, and questions in ways that incorporate the knowledge of all participants to generate a collective wisdom or understanding that would not have emerged without the interaction” (p. 326). This definition illustrates the importance of engagement and interaction, both important goals within the basic communication course. Additionally, instructional discussion highlights the central role of communication in the teaching and learning process. Thus, it is imperative that training programs for basic course instructors address how to plan, facilitate, and assess an instructional discussion as well as teach students how to engage in the process

Functional generalized additive models

We introduce the functional generalized additive model (FGAM), a novel regression model for association studies between a scalar response and a functional predictor. We model the link-transformed mean response as the integral with respect to t of F{X(t), t} where F(·, ·) is an unknown regression function and X(t) is a functional covariate. Rather than having an additive model in a finite number of principal components as by Müller and Yao (2008), our model incorporates the functional predictor directly and thus our model can be viewed as the natural functional extension of generalized additive models. We estimate F(·, ·) using tensor-product B-splines with roughness penalties. A pointwise quantile transformation of the functional predictor is also considered to ensure each tensor-product B-spline has observed data on its support. The methods are evaluated using simulated data and their predictive performance is compared with other competing scalar-on-function regression alternatives. We illustrate the usefulness of our approach through an application to brain tractography, where X(t) is a signal from diffusion tensor imaging at position, t, along a tract in the brain. In one example, the response is disease-status (case or control) and in a second example, it is the score on a cognitive test. The FGAM is implemented in R in the refund package. There are additional supplementary materials available online. © 2013 American Statistical Association, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and Interface Foundation of North America