Evaluation of Five Conductivity Meters

Prices of conductivity meters vary widely. Here we report the response time, stability, and linearity of five meters. ConclusionsThe Hanna HI 98188 and the YSI Pro 30 are the two most expensive meters and they were the most stable. They were within 5% of the actual conductivity.The Blue Pen was consistently closer to the actual conductivity than the other two Hanna meters and at only $20 it is a cost effective meter

Marketing First Impressions: Academic Libraries Creating Partnerships and Connections at New Student Orientations

Academic libraries look for successful marketing strategies to promote positive perceptions among students. To do this, librarians need to find venues and partnerships outside the library. Florida State University Libraries discovered that participating in new student orientation networking sessions creates opportunities to generate lasting first impressions among incoming freshmen and their families. After analyzing three years of successive student and family evaluations, which measured presentation rankings and attendance, the library was able to determine the utility and effectiveness of participating in the orientation program. Related literature and an analysis of the evaluations both indicate that universities and students benefit when libraries participate in new student orientations

Expanding the parameters of academia

This paper draws on qualitative data gathered from two studies funded by the UK Leadership Foundation for Higher Education to examine the expansion of academic identities in higher education. It builds on Whitchurch’s earlier work, which focused primarily on professional staff, to suggest that the emergence of broadly based projects such as widening participation, learning support and community partnership is also impacting on academic identities. Thus, academic as well as professional staff are increasingly likely to work in multi-professional teams across a variety of constituencies, as well as with external partners, and the binary distinction between ‘academic’ and ‘non-academic’ roles and activities is no longer clear-cut. Moreover, there is evidence from the studies of an intentionality about deviations from mainstream academic career routes among respondents who could have gone either way. Consideration is therefore given to factors that influence individuals to work in more project-oriented areas, as well as to variables that affect ways in which these roles and identities develop. Finally, three models of academically oriented project activity are identified, and the implications of an expansion of academic identities are reviewed

Surface Fuel Loadings in Mulching Treatments in Colorado Coniferous Forests

Recent large-scale, severe wildfires in the western United States have prompted extensive fuel treatment programs to reduce potential wildfire size and severity. Often, unmerchantable material is mechanically masticated because removing the material is cost-prohibitive. Mastication treatments involve shredding, chopping, or chipping small trees and/or shrubs into small chunks and leaving the material on site. While it is obvious that mechanical treatments will increase surface fuel loads, few studies have addressed how treatments alter fuel particle size and quantity. We examined how mastication treatments alter the distribution of woody material size by comparing paired masticated and untreated sites in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir (Pinus ponderosa/Pseudotsuga menziesii), and 3) Pinyon pine (Pinus edulis) ecosystems 2-4 years after mechanical treatment. As expected, total woody fuel loadings increased in the treated areas of each ecosystem. However, the magnitude of the total increase differed among the ecosystems (lodgepole pine \u3e ponderosa pine \u3e pinyon-juniper). Average total woody fuel loads in the untreated areas ranged between 7 to 9 Mg/ha, but increased to 29 to 50 Mg/ha in treated areas. Large diameter fuels (\u3e7.62 cm) represent about 33 to 65% of the total woody fuel load in the untreated areas, but only about 11% of the total fuel load in the treated areas. The majority of woody fuels in treated areas were \u3c2.54 cm in diameter. Needle litter mass was similar among treatments, indicating that needles are still a component of the forest floor complex, but are mixed with other fuel types or buried. The increased surface woody fuel component in treated areas corresponds to a shift from a needle fuel bed to a compact woody/needle fuel bed. This change in the fuel bed composition and orientation will likely influence fire behavior and effects

An intelligent, free-flying robot

The ground based demonstration of the extensive extravehicular activity (EVA) Retriever, a voice-supervised, intelligent, free flying robot, is designed to evaluate the capability to retrieve objects (astronauts, equipment, and tools) which have accidentally separated from the Space Station. The major objective of the EVA Retriever Project is to design, develop, and evaluate an integrated robotic hardware and on-board software system which autonomously: (1) performs system activation and check-out; (2) searches for and acquires the target; (3) plans and executes a rendezvous while continuously tracking the target; (4) avoids stationary and moving obstacles; (5) reaches for and grapples the target; (6) returns to transfer the object; and (7) returns to base

How does breakup influence the total fusion of 6,7^{6,7}Li at the Coulomb barrier?

Total (complete + incomplete) fusion excitation functions of $^{6,7}$Li on $^{59}$Co and $^{209}$Bi targets around the Coulomb barrier are obtained using a new continuum discretized coupled channel (CDCC) method of calculating fusion. The relative importance of breakup and bound-state structure effects on total fusion is particularly investigated. The effect of breakup on fusion can be observed in the total fusion excitation function. The breakup enhances the total fusion at energies just around the barrier, whereas it hardly affects the total fusion at energies well above the barrier. The difference between the experimental total fusion cross sections for $^{6,7}$Li on $^{59}$Co is notably caused by breakup, but this is not the case for the $^{209}$Bi target.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Mycobacterium and the coat of many lipids

Pathogenic Mycobacterium reside inside vacuoles in their host macrophages. These vacuoles fail to fuse with lysosomes yet interact with early endosomes. Glycoconjugates released by the intracellular bacilli traffic through the host cell and are released through exocytosis. These molecules represent both antigens for immune recognition and modulators of immune function. The molecules play key roles in the induction and maintenance of the granuloma, a tissue response that limits bacterial spread yet ensures persistence of the infection

Big Gay Church: Religion, Religiosity, and Visual Culture

Five academics explore their performed occupations of the National Art Education Association Annual Meetings. They have annually mounted Big Gay Church (BGC) services that deconstruct and question the ways visual culture, media representations, scriptural interpretations, and religious teaching have constructed (at times harmful) depictions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ2) subjects. This essay recounts how co-authors have drawn on their multiple experiences with/in churches to play with religious rituals and narratives in ways that queerly comment on the damage or support organized religions offer LGBTQ2 students and educators

Tests of Transfer Reaction Determinations of Astrophysical S-Factors

The ${}^{16}O ({}^{3}He,d) {}^{17}F$ reaction has been used to determine asymptotic normalization coefficients for transitions to the ground and first excited states of ${}^{17}F$. The coefficients provide the normalization for the tails of the overlap functions for ${}^{17}F \to{}^{16}O + p$ and allow us to calculate the S-factors for ${}^{16}O (p,\gamma){}^{17}F$ at astrophysical energies. The calculated S-factors are compared to measurements and found to be in very good agreement. This provides the first test of this indirect method to determine astrophysical direct capture rates using transfer reactions. In addition, our results yield S(0) for capture to the ground and first excited states in $^{17}F$, without the uncertainty associated with extrapolation from higher energies.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Structural Characterization of Phosphatidyl-myo-Inositol Mannosides from Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette Gúerin by Multiple-Stage Quadrupole Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometry with Electrospray Ionization. II. Monoacyl- and Diacyl-PIMs

The multiple-stage ion-trap mass spectrometric approaches towards to the structural characterization of the monoacyl-PIM (triacylated PIM) and the diacyl-PIM (tetracylated PIM), namely, the PIM (diacylated PIM) consisting of one or two additional fatty acid substituents attached to the glycoside, respectively, were described. While the assignment and confirmation of the fatty acid substituents on the glycerol backbone can be easily achieved by the methods described in the previous article, the identity of the glycoside moiety and its acylation state can be determined by the observation of a prominent acylglycoside ion arising from cleavage of the diacylglycerol moiety ([M − H − diacylglycerol]−) in the MS2-spectra of monoacyl-PIM and diacyl-PIM. The distinction of the fatty acid substituents on the 2-O-mannoside (i.e., R3CO2H) from that on the inositol (i.e., R4CO2H) is based on the findings that the MS3-spectrum of [M − H − diacylglycerol]− contains a prominent ion arising from further loss of the fatty acid at the 2-O-mannoside (i.e., the [M − H − diacylglycerol − R3CO2H]− ion), while the ion arising from loss of the fatty acid substituent at the inositol (i.e., the [M − H − diacylglycerol − R4CO2H]− ion) is of low abundance. The fatty acyl moiety on the inositol can also be identified by the product-ion spectrum from MS4 of the [M − H − diacylglycerol − R3CO2H]− ion, which gives rise to a prominent ion corresponding to loss of R4CO2H. An [M − H − acylmannose]− ion was also observed in the MS2-spectra and, thus, the identity of the fatty acid substituent attached to 2-O-mannoside can be confirmed. The combined information obtained from the multiple-stage product-ion spectra from MS2, MS3, and MS4 permit the assignment of the complex structures of monoacyl-PIMs and diacyl-PIMs in a mixture isolated from M. bovis Bacillus Calmette Guérin