Iowa\u27s Self-trained Paleontologists

Charles Wachsmuth (1829- 1896), merchant, Frank Springer (1848-1927), attorney, and Burnice Beane (1879- 1966), farmer, all made significant contributions in their studies of Iowa crinoids, although none of the three completed formal courses in geology or paleontology. Herbert Belanski was a young man, just starting to make major contributions to Iowa geology and paleontology, when he died in 1919. Belanski possessed only a high school degree, but he was recognized as an expert on Devonian paleontology. His collections from the Lime Creek and Shell Rock formations are noteworthy. At the time of his death, Belanski served as a curator in the Geology Department at the University of Iowa. A later curator at Iowa, Carlyle Campbell, was an enthusiastic amateur, self-taught as far as paleontology was concerned. Prominent among current workers is Harrell Strimple. Recently retired as research associate and curator at the University of Iowa, Strimple is author of some 300 papers on crinoids and contributor to the authoritative Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Although Strimple never completed formal college course work in geology or paleontology, he has achieved international recognition for his research and publications on fossil echinoderms. Strimple developed an interest in geology and paleontology as a youth. This interest was stimulated by contacts with L. R. Laudon in 1935. From 1933 to 1959, Strimple was employed as an accountant and pursued paleontological work on a part-time basis, publishing his first paper in 1938. Since 1959, he has devoted full-time to paleontological work. The contributions of other self-trained workers to Iowa geology are reviewed, including the work of Calvin Levorson, Arthur Gerk, and Amel Priest

EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF MITIGATION MATERIALS FOR BLAST INDUCED TBI

The objective of this experimental study is to compare the effects of various materials obstructing the flow of a blast wave and the ability of the given material to reduce the damage caused by the blast. Several methods of energy transfer in blast wave flows are known or expected including: material interfaces with impedance mismatches, density changes in a given material, internal shearing, and particle fracture. The theory applied to this research is that the greatest energy transfer within the obstructing material will yield the greatest mitigation effects to the blast. Sample configurations of foam were varied to introduce material interfaces and filler materials with varying densities and impedances (liquids and powders). The samples were loaded according to a small scale blast produced by an explosive driven shock tube housing gram-range charges. The transmitted blast profiles were analyzed for variations in impulse characteristics and frequency components as compared to standard free field profiles. The results showed a rounding effect of the transmitted blast profile for all samples with the effects of the low density fillers surpassing all others tested.United States. Office of Naval Research (N00014-08-1-0261