WWJP: Where Would Jesus Publish?

Christians seek to follow the teachings of Jesus in every aspect of our lives. For academics who publish and librarians who purchase and license publications, where articles are published is important. The debates over scholarly communication, the future of publishing, and the impact of Web 2.0 technologies influence how information content is released, accessed, and archived. Therefore, by discussing Open Access publishing, traditional publishing, and new media content distribution with parallel references to the life and teachings of Jesus, as drawn from Scripture, we Christians can more faithful apply our Biblical viewpoint to our role in the publishing process

Spatial transformations of diffusion tensor magnetic resonance images

The authors address the problem of applying spatial transformations (or “image warps”) to diffusion tensor magnetic resonance images. The orientational information that these images contain must be handled appropriately when they are transformed spatially during image registration. The authors present solutions for global transformations of three-dimensional images up to 12-parameter affine complexity and indicate how their methods can be extended for higher order transformations. Several approaches are presented and tested using synthetic data. One method, the preservation of principal direction algorithm, which takes into account shearing, stretching and rigid rotation, is shown to be the most effective. Additional registration experiments are performed on human brain data obtained from a single subject, whose head was imaged in three different orientations within the scanner. All of the authors' methods improve the consistency between registered and target images over naive warping algorithms

Project Technical Report MSC/TRW Task KM-205 - SLP OWS Control System Digital Simulation Requirements

Digital simulation of AAP orbital workshop pointing control system and thrust attitude control system

Optimization of a Novel Barnes Maze Protocol for Assessing Antioxidant Treatment Of Traumatic Brain Injury

Current preclinical research into traumatic brain injury focuses heavily upon cellular and molecular testing to determine the effects of injury and potential benefits of neuroprotective treatments. While this may be a useful method, some argue that an increased focus on behavioral testing could lead to better clinical translation as these assays assess the longer term, downstream effects from a brain injury. The most characterized behavioral tests used in traumatic brain injury research are the spatial learning and memory paradigms, Morris Water Maze and Barnes Maze. The Morris Water Maze is the most used of theses paradigms and relies on spatial cues and a platform for the escape from the water to measure spatial learning and memory but has a downside in the endogenous anxiety because of the necessity of swimming. Additionally, previous work with the Morris Water Maze showed issues in finding large differences between injured and uninjured mice. The Barnes Maze offers an alternative to the Morris Water Maze without the added stress caused by forced swimming by instead relying on bright lights to encourage rodents into the dark escape area. Here, a novel shortened Barnes Maze protocol has been developed and optimized to improve upon a traditional Barnes Maze protocol in detecting differences between healthy and injured rodents. Additionally, this protocol is used to assess the efficacy of a novel antioxidant nanoparticle treatment. Through this testing, additional knowledge regarding the ability and limitations of this experimental procedure are found as well as further knowledge into the benefits shown by a neuroprotective treatment. Advisor: Forrest Kievi

Development of optical data processing techniques applicable to detection and study of meteor trails

Development of coherent optical data processing techniques applicable to detection of meteor trails and examination of propertie

An Exploratory Study of Client Culture, Meat Perceptions, Social Climate, and Information Preferences in Northwest Indiana Food Pantries

Food insecurity has been an increasingly important, and troubling, issue across the nation and world in the last 20 years. Definitions of food insecurity vary, but the core idea is that food insecure people are unable to acquire enough food to have a healthy life. Lack of dependable access to healthy food can lead to additional concerns. Visiting hunger-relief organizations is one of the primary coping strategies used by the food insecure. In the U.S., approximately 46.5 million individuals, or 17.5 million households – more than 14 percent of the population – used the hunger-relief network Feeding America in 2013. This network includes food banks and food pantries, and individuals using these organizations are referred to as food pantry clients. Few studies have focused on food insecurity at the individual client and individual pantry level. The current exploratory research was designed to explore client culture, client perceptions of meat quality and packaging, social climate of pantries, and information preferences in a selected community of northwest Indiana food pantries. Specifically, the research objectives were to: 1) describe the culture of food pantry clients, especially clients’ values and perceptions towards meat in the diet and meat donated to pantries; 2) describe the social climate of selected food pantries; and 3) investigate food pantry client preferences for receiving information about food and learning food preparation techniques. The study used two theoretical perspectives, social cognitive theory and means-end chain theory, to investigate how and why clients make decisions about food. Three sources of qualitative data, client interviews, pantry director interviews, and pantry observations, were collected and analyzed. Findings revealed that, when planning a meal, clients valued good health, children’s futures, and feeding themselves and their family. Most clients perceived meat to be important in their diets, and preferred chicken or beef to other meats. On average, they perceived the meat and meat packaging received through pantries to be adequate to good. Clients communicated a preference for more information on foods available at pantries. They also expressed a reliance on pantries, but the reliance involved a number of complex nuances. Recommendations for the selected food bank, food pantries, and future research include: 1) the need to define protein in the context of agency, 2) the need to examine context-dependent agency in the realm of pantries and available food choices, and 3) the need to critically examine avenues for information sharing

Consistency of pacing and metabolic responses during 2000-m rowing ergometry

PURPOSE: This study investigated the pacing strategy adopted and the consistency of performance and related physiological parameters across three 2000-m rowing-ergometer tests. METHODS: Fourteen male well-trained rowers took part in the study. Each participant performed three 2000-m rowing-ergometer tests interspersed by 3-7 d. Throughout the trials, respiratory exchange and heart rate were recorded and power output and stroke rate were analyzed over each 500 m of the test. At the completion of the trial, assessments of blood lactate and rating of perceived exertion were measured. RESULTS: Ergometer performance was unchanged across the 3 trials; however, pacing strategy changed from trial 1, which featured a higher starting power output and more progressive decrease in power, to trials 2 and 3, which were characterized by a more conservative start and an end spurt with increased power output during the final 500 m. Mean typical error (TE; %) across the three 2000-m trials was 2.4%, and variability was low to moderate for all assessed physiological variables (TE range = 1.4-5.1%) with the exception of peak lactate (TE = 11.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Performance and physiological responses during 2000-m rowing ergometry were found to be consistent over 3 trials. The variations observed in pacing strategy between trial 1 and trials 2 and 3 suggest that a habituation trial is required before an intervention study and that participants move from a positive to a reverse-J-shaped strategy, which may partly explain conflicting reports in the pacing strategy exhibited during 2000-m rowing-ergometer trials

Protein phosphatases and their potential implications in neuroprotective processes

Abstract.: Several neurological disorders such as stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and epilepsy result from excitotoxic events and are accompanied by neuronal cell death. These processes engage multiple signalling pathways and recruit numerous molecular components, in particular several families of protein kinases and protein phosphatases. While many investigations have examined the importance of protein kinases in excitotoxicity, protein phosphatases have not been well studied in this context. However, recent advances in understanding the functions of protein phosphatases have suggested that they may play a neuroprotective role. In this review, we summarize some of the recent findings that illustrate the pleiotropic and complex functions of tyrosine and serine/threonine protein phosphatases in the cascade of events leading to neuronal cell death, and highlight their potential intervention in limiting the extent of neuronal deat

Development of systems and techniques for landing an aircraft using onboard television

A flight program was conducted to develop a landing technique with which a pilot could consistently and safely land a remotely piloted research vehicle (RPRV) without outside visual reference except through television. Otherwise, instrumentation was standard. Such factors as the selection of video parameters, the pilot's understanding of the television presentation, the pilot's ground cockpit environment, and the operational procedures for landing were considered. About 30 landings were necessary for a pilot to become sufficiently familiar and competent with the test aircraft to make powered approaches and landings with outside visual references only through television. When steep approaches and landings were made by remote control, the pilot's workload was extremely high. The test aircraft was used as a simulator for the F-15 RPRV, and as such was considered to be essential to the success of landing the F-15 RPRV

Enterprise Budgets for Livestock Businesses that Use National Forest Grazing Land

Cow-calf and sheep enterprise inputs, production, costs, and returns are estimated for ranches with Forest Service grazing permits using 1982 as a base year. Budgets represent different cow and sheep herd sizes in National Forests and national Grasslands of United States.Beef cows, sheep costs and returns, Federal rangeland, Livestock Production/Industries,