Prediction of physical workload in reduced gravity environments

The background, development, and application of a methodology to predict human energy expenditure and physical workload in low gravity environments, such as a Lunar or Martian base, is described. Based on a validated model to predict energy expenditures in Earth-based industrial jobs, the model relies on an elemental analysis of the proposed job. Because the job itself need not physically exist, many alternative job designs may be compared in their physical workload. The feasibility of using the model for prediction of low gravity work was evaluated by lowering body and load weights, while maintaining basal energy expenditure. Comparison of model results was made both with simulated low gravity energy expenditure studies and with reported Apollo 14 Lunar EVA expenditure. Prediction accuracy was very good for walking and for cart pulling on slopes less than 15 deg, but the model underpredicted the most difficult work conditions. This model was applied to example core sampling and facility construction jobs, as presently conceptualized for a Lunar or Martian base. Resultant energy expenditures and suggested work-rest cycles were well within the range of moderate work difficulty. Future model development requirements were also discussed

Exchange Rates and Local Labor Markets

We document the consequences of real exchange rate movements for the employment, hours, and hourly earnings of workers in manufacturing industries across individual states. Exchange rates have statistically significant wage and employment implications in these local labor markets. The importance and size of these dollar-induced effects vary considerably across industries and are more pronounced in some U.S. regions. In addition to the importance of exchange rate shocks, we confirm prior research results showing that relatively strong local conditions drive up wage in local industries, while anticipated future (positive) local shocks reduce current wages.

The First Hundred Years of the Bureau of Labor Statistics

[Excerpt] This volume reports on the first century of a government agency whose founders hoped that, by publishing facts about economic conditions, the agency would help end strife between capital and labor. The Bureau\u27s early work included studies of depressions, tariffs, immigrants, and alcoholism and many assignments to investigate and mediate disputes between labor and management. Most of these functions- especially those involving formulation of policy- passed on to other agencies. The Bureau today remains one of the Nation\u27s principal economic factfinders. In writing the book, Drs. Goldberg and Moye had full freedom to interpret events in accordance with their judgments as historians, without conformance to an official view of institutional history. Given the perspective made possible by passing years, the authors offer broader evaluations of the Bureau\u27s early history than of contemporary events

HOW HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS MAKE SENSE OF AND INSTRUCT WITH NARRATIVE FILM IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM

Although English teachers have integrated narrative film into their classroom instruction for over a century, the medium remains highly vulnerable to suspicion of its pedagogic value. While film has become ubiquitous in the English classroom, training for teachers in instructing with the medium remains nearly non-existent. This has led to the regular misuse of film as a time-filler, babysitter, reward, or mere break for student and teacher, alike. Such malpractice has only reinforced skepticism of film’s instructional value in the classroom despite the ample scholarly literature supporting its inherently cognitive nature and literary and linguistic likeness. Though film has been codified in the English Language Arts standards, none offer best-practice teaching methods. Therefore, this dissertation investigated how high school English teachers in central New York make sense of and instruct with narrative film in the classroom. Twelve high school English teachers from five school districts participated in this study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, direct observations, and document analysis and was informed by a multi-layered theoretical lens consisting of structuralism and its related offshoots, as well as schema theory and critical pedagogy. The results of this study revealed that these teachers understood film as another narrative form of text, with the same active learning potential as printed literature when employed purposefully, and with particular benefit for struggling and marginalized students. Effective practices, as participants understood them, took three distinct pathways, relating to what the teacher does in the classroom while film plays, and through centering instruction on either what or how film communicates. Participants saw the power of the visuals in film as particularly effective for teaching plays, for helping students critically examine their world and themselves, and for teaching skills related to evidence-based writing, analysis of literary techniques, and the Common Core Regents exam and state standards by transferring student understanding from the screen to the printed page

Raven v. Deukmejian: A Modern Guide to the Voter Initiative Process and State Constitutional Independence

This Casenote examines the decision of Raven v. Deukmejian, decided in 1990 by the California Supreme Court. This decision held that a voters\u27 initiative measure, which purported to vest all judicial interpretive power as to fundamental criminal defense rights, amounted to a revision of the state Constitution. The author discusses the impact and implications of this decision. Namely, the author finds that the decision will have an impact on the way future courts review constitutional challenges to the initiative process. The Casenote also discusses the reaffirmation of the court\u27s position on state constitutional independence. The author concludes that the California Supreme Court will not give up its constitutional right to interpret the state constitution, and will not act as a rubber stamp for the federal courts

Probing Late Neutrino Mass Properties with Supernova Neutrinos

Models of late-time neutrino mass generation contain new interactions of the cosmic background neutrinos with supernova relic neutrinos (SRNs) through exchange of the on-shell light boson, leading to significant modification of the differential SRN flux observed at earth. We consider Abelian U(1) model for generating neutrino masses at low scales and we show that there is a large parameter space in this model for which the changes induced in the flux by the exchange of the light bosons might allow one to distinguish between neutrinos being Majorana or Dirac particles, the type of neutrino mass hierarchy (normal or inverted or quasi-degenerate), and could also possibly determine the absolute values of the neutrino masses. Measurements of the presence of these effects would be possible at the next-generation water Cerenkov detectors enriched with Gadolinium, or a large 100 kton liquid argon detector.Comment: 29 pages latex, 15 figures included. Version to be published in Phys. Rev. D., added discussion of signal detection for water Cerenkov and liquid argon detectors, and discussion of non-adiabatic vs adiabatic neutrino evolution, new figures added, references updated. Results unchange