QuickLET : a web-based tool for estimating pollutant loads in a watershed

textWeb-based modeling tools for estimating pollutant loads in watersheds are few in literature. Those that are available for public access often require domain expertise, making them relevant mostly among environmental researchers. Aside from intensive efforts required to gather enormous amount of data, the complexity of the modeling tools themselves hinder their application among non-technical users. Consequently, environmental decision makers often rely on outside consultants to perform watershed assessments for them. This report presents the Quick Load Estimating Tool (QuickLET), a Web-based tool for estimating pollutant loads in watersheds across the contiguous US. QuickLET empowers users to visualize the effects of land use patterns, cultivated crops, and conservation practices through graphical representation. QuickLET implements an export coefficient approach for predicting the pollutant loads resulting in significant simplification of the estimating process.Computational Science, Engineering, and Mathematic

Launching a Resident-Driven Initiative: Community Change for Youth Development (CCYD) from Site-Selection through Early Implementation

Since the early 1990s, there have been a number of efforts to create community-wide youth development initiatives with coherent management and implementation. The Community Change for Youth Development demonstration represents P/PV's effort to create an initiative that improves the outcomes of adolescents, 12 to 20 years old, living in impoverished communities. P/PV's goal for CCYD was to be broader in scope than any single program, yet limited enough to be operationally feasible, and universal enough that it could be applied in almost any community. This report documents our early experience with CCYD from building a framework for the initiative based on key elements of sustainable and targeted social change to mobilization and implementation. It also provides an early assessment of CCYD's progress and provides clues to its potential usefulness

Pattern Recognition Control Design

Spacecraft control algorithms must know the expected vehicle response to any command to the available control effectors, such as reaction thrusters or torque devices. Spacecraft control system design approaches have traditionally relied on the estimated vehicle mass properties to determine the desired force and moment, as well as knowledge of the effector performance to efficiently control the spacecraft. A pattern recognition approach was used to investigate the relationship between the control effector commands and spacecraft responses. Instead of supplying the approximated vehicle properties and the thruster performance characteristics, a database of information relating the thruster ring commands and the desired vehicle response was used for closed-loop control. A Monte Carlo simulation data set of the spacecraft dynamic response to effector commands was analyzed to establish the influence a command has on the behavior of the spacecraft. A tool developed at NASA Johnson Space Center to analyze flight dynamics Monte Carlo data sets through pattern recognition methods was used to perform this analysis. Once a comprehensive data set relating spacecraft responses with commands was established, it was used in place of traditional control methods and gains set. This pattern recognition approach was compared with traditional control algorithms to determine the potential benefits and uses

Morpheus Lander Roll Control System and Wind Modeling

The Morpheus prototype lander is a testbed capable of vertical takeoff and landing developed by NASA Johnson Space Center to assess advanced space technologies. Morpheus completed a series of flight tests at Kennedy Space Center to demonstrate autonomous landing and hazard avoidance for future exploration missions. As a prototype vehicle being tested in Earth's atmosphere, Morpheus requires a robust roll control system to counteract aerodynamic forces. This paper describes the control algorithm designed that commands jet firing and delay times based on roll orientation. Design, analysis, and testing are supported using a high fidelity, 6 degree-of-freedom simulation of vehicle dynamics. This paper also details the wind profiles generated using historical wind data, which are necessary to validate the roll control system in the simulation environment. In preparation for Morpheus testing, the wind model was expanded to create day-of-flight wind profiles based on data delivered by Kennedy Space Center. After the test campaign, a comparison of flight and simulation performance was completed to provide additional model validation

Summary Cultural Competency Initiative in the Greater Kansas City Region 2009-2013

The Cultural Competency Initiative (CCI) was designed and launched by the REACH Healthcare Foundation to increase the understanding and practice of cultural competency within nonprofit health and human service organizations in the foundation's six-county service area, with the ultimate goal of reducing disparities in health among poor and minority populations. This report provide a summary of the CCI and the lessons learned from 2009 through 2013. This summary is based on three formal evaluation reports prepared by the evaluator of the initiative, review of initiative meeting minutes and other documents, and interviews with the evaluator, the technical assistance provider, the funders, Steering Committee members and grantees

Seeker Free-Flying Inspector GNC System Overview

Seeker is an ultra-low cost approach to highly automated extravehicular inspection of crewed or uncrewed spacecraft that has been designed and built in-house at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). The first version of Seeker is intended to be an incremental development towards an advanced inspection capability. This effort builds on past free-flying inspector development efforts such as the Autonomous Extravehicular Activity Robotic Camera Sprint (AERCam Sprint) and Mini AERCam. Seeker was funded as an International Space Station (ISS) "X-by" Project, which required delivery of the vehicle approximately one year after authority to proceed and within the budget of $1.8 million. Seeker will fly onboard the NG-11 Cygnus mission in 2019 and will deploy after Cygnus' primary mission is completed. Seeker will perform inspection-like maneuvers within 50 meters of the target vehicle (Cygnus) and then dispose itself. The Seeker Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) system is composed entirely of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and space-rated COTS items, an inertial-relative Multiplicative Extended Kalman Filter (MEKF), point-to-point guidance (with various additional modes such as stationkeeping), proportional-integral translational control, phase plane rotational control, and a state machine for automated mission moding with minimal ground input

Mapping stem rust resistance genes in ‘Kingbird’

Master of ScienceDepartment of Plant PathologyWilliam BockusRobert BowdenStem rust, caused by the fungus Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, has historically been one of the most important diseases of wheat. Although losses have been much reduced in the last fifty years, new highly virulent races of the pathogen have recently emerged in East Africa. These new races are virulent on nearly all of the currently deployed resistance genes and therefore pose a serious threat to global wheat production. The spring wheat variety ‘Kingbird’ is thought to contain multiple quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that provide durable, adult-plant resistance against wheat stem rust. Stem rust-susceptible Kansas winter wheat line ‘KS05HW14’ was backcrossed to Kingbird and 379 recombinant lines were advanced to BC₁F₅ and then increased for testing. The lines were screened for stem rust resistance in the greenhouse and field in Kansas and in the field in Kenya over multiple years. We identified 16,237 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with the Wheat 90K iSelect SNP Chip assay. After filtering for marker quality, linkage maps were constructed for each wheat chromosome. Composite interval mapping and multiple-QTL mapping identified seven QTLs on chromosome arms 2BL, 2DS, 3BS, 3BSc, 5DL, 7BL, and 7DS. Six QTLs were inherited from Kingbird and one QTL on 7BL was inherited from KS05HW14. The location of the QTL on 2BL is approximately at locus Sr9, 3BS is at Sr2, 3BSc is at Sr12, and 7DS is at Lr34/Yr18/Sr57. Although no QTL was found on 1BL, the presence of resistance gene Lr46/Yr29/Sr58 on 1BL in both parents was indicated by the gene-specific marker csLV46. QTLs on 2DS and 5DL may be related to photoperiod or vernalization genes. Pairwise interactions were only observed with race QFCSC, most notably occurring with QTLs 2BL and 3BSc. These results confirm that there are multiple QTLs present in Kingbird. Ultimately, the identification of the QTLs that make Kingbird resistant will aid in the understanding of durable, non-race-specific resistance to stem rust of wheat

The Plain Talk Planning Year: Mobilizing Communities to Change. A Report Prepared for The Annie E. Casey Foundation

The Annie E. Casey Foundations Plain Talk initiative seeks to address the problems of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among a communitys youth by organizing and mobilizing community residents to change the attitudes and practices of the community and service providers. The Plain Talk approach is built from the belief in community empowerment and the use of consensus-building to make decisions and negotiate with social service institutions. This report documents the experiences of the six sites -- Atlanta, Hartford, Indianapolis, New Orleans, San Diego and Seattle -- during their planning year of the initiative

Trusted to teach: An ethnographic account of 'artisanal teachers' in a progressive high school

In a progressive learning environment, teachers know each student well and have the professional latitude to design curricula that encourage students to grow as individual learners and as members of a community. In the current educational climate of common curricula, standardized testing, and school ranking, most schools cannot afford to provide teachers that latitude. This ethnographic study draws from literature on progressive pedagogy, comprehensive school reform, and workplace learning to understand how one small, independent, progressive, urban high school is structured to encourage teachers and administrators to collaborate with one another, foster personal relationships with students, and strive for equity in education by cultivating a student body that reflects the diversity of the city in which it is located. To conduct this yearlong study at the Castanea School, I employed ethnography as a methodological framework to explore: 1) how the teachers and administrators understand and practice progressive schooling; 2) how the school's structural supports guide teachers and administrators to enact their progressive pedagogy; and 3) how educators negotiate collaborative partnerships to sustain their commitment to the 10 Common Principles of the Coalition of Essential Schools, a national comprehensive school reform movement that Castanea joined in 1988. The findings of the study uncover the complex nature of collaborative partnerships between teachers and administrators as they design academically rigorous curricula that: 1) align with progressive pedagogy; 2) meet the students' diverse needs; and 3) prepare students to understand and advocate for their own learning needs. These findings highlight that teachers at Castanea feel trusted to teach. Furthermore, they identify as "artisanal teachers," which they define as someone who: 1) has ownership of their teaching, curriculum, thinking; 2) mobilizes progressive pedagogy for authenticity in teaching and learning; 3) meets students' needs; 4) cultivates trust and positive intent; and 5) infuses learning with critical and analytical thinking.Ph.D., Educational Leadership and Management -- Drexel University, 201

First Things First: Creating the Conditions and Capacity for Community-Wide Reform in an Urban School District

Documents the strategies and activities of the First Things First initiative from the preparatory phase of the initiative through the first year of implementation in Kansas City and reports on its early results