Graphite formation in cast iron, phase 2

Several types of cast irons are directionally solidified aboard the KC-135 aircraft. Also, control samples are run on Earth for comparison. Some of these samples are unusable because of various mechanical problems; the analysis and the interpretation of results on the samples that are run successfully is discussed

Teaching Computer Literacy to Students in Colleges of Agriculture

Exact date of working paper unknown.The interest in computer literacy in colleges of agriculture has paralleled the development of micro computer technology. This highly accessible, relatively low cost technology seems to be particularly appropriate to the needs of typical agricultural businesses. Full appreciation of this technology, however, requires a basic understanding of the functions, abilities, and limitations of hardware and software and an ability to conceptualize problems for computer solution. These understandings and are considered to be important characteristics of computer literate individuals. Their attainment should be the primary objective of a college level computer literacy

A Computer Literacy Course for the College of Agriculture: A Survey of Student Attitudes, Evaluations and Performance

Exact date of working paper unknown.The emerging computer-based information technologies may dramatically alter agriculture and its related industries. To be adequately prepared for a future in agriculture, graduates of colleges of agriculture should have a basic understanding of capabilities and limitations of the computer. This is a report of recent experiences in a "computer literacy" course for students of agriculture. Questionnaires were administered at the beginning and end of the course to elicit student attitudes regarding the usage of computers in agriculture. Results indicate significant changes in attitudes over the quarter. At course end, students reported a higher respect for the usefulness of the computer in agriculture and their particular discipline. Beginning attitude and level of apprehension about the course were found to be significant determinants of student performance in and evaluation of the course

Masculine Traits and Depressive Symptoms in Older and Younger Men and Women

Evidence suggests that men who strongly endorse masculine traits display an atypical presentation of depression, including more externalizing symptoms (e.g., anger or substance use), but fewer typical, internalizing symptoms (e.g., depressed mood or crying). This phenomenon has not been adequately explored in older adults or women. The current study used the externalizing subscale of the Masculine Depression Scale in older and younger men and women to detect atypical symptoms. It was predicted that individuals who more strongly endorsed masculine traits would have higher scores on the measure of externalizing symptoms relative to a measure of typical depressive symptoms Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Scale. It was anticipated that results would differ by age-group but not by gender. Multigroup path analysis was used to test the hypothesis. The hypothesized path model, in which endorsement of masculine traits was associated with lower scores on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Scale and with scores on the externalizing, but not internalizing, factor of the Masculine Depression Scale, fit the data well. Results differed significantly by age-group and gender. Masculine individuals reported lower levels of typical depressive symptoms relative to externalizing symptoms, but further research is needed within age- and gender groups. Results are consistent with the gendered responding framework and suggest that current assessment tools, which tend to focus on internalizing symptoms of depression, may not detect depression in individuals who endorse masculine traits

Towards automated cost analysis, benchmarking and estimating in construction: a machine learning approach

In this paper, a novel machine learning based approach is proposed for automated cost analysis from priced bill of quantities prepared by tenders in the construction industry. The proposed approach features: 1) An effective integration of structured project-specific information with surveyor’s domain knowledge in order to model the complex interrelationships between the specifications and descriptions of an item and its trade category; 2) An effective transformation to map the original data into a 2-dimensional space to tackle issues of high dimensionality in modelling, and 3) Simply classifiers with good classification capability. Relevant comparative experimental results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach

Crystal Growth Furnace System Configuration and Planned Experiments on the Second United States Microgravity Laboratory Mission

The Crystal Growth Furnace (CGF) is currently undergoing modifications and refurbishment and is currently undergoing modifications and refurbishment and is manifested to refly on the Second United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML-2) mission scheduled for launch in September 1995. The CGF was developed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD) programs at NASA Headquarters. The refurbishment and reflight program is being managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. Funding and program support for the CGF project is provided to MSFC by the office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications at NASA Headquarters. This paper presents an overview of the CGF system configuration for the USML-2 mission, and provides a brief description of the planned on-orbit experiment operation

Electromagnetic waves in a Josephson junction in a thin film

We consider a one-dimensional Josephson junction in a superconducting film with the thickness that is much less than the London penetration depth. We treat an electromagnetic wave propagating along this tunnel contact. We show that the electrodynamics of a Josephson junction in a thin film is nonlocal if the wave length is less than the Pearl penetration depth. We find the integro-differential equation determining the phase difference between the two superconductors forming the tunnel contact. We use this equation to calculate the dispersion relation for an electromagnetic wave propagating along the Josephson junction. We find that the frequency of this wave is proportional to the square root of the wave vector if the wave length is less than the Pearl penetration depth.Comment: 12 pages, a figure is included as a uuencodeded postscript file, ReVTe