Picture the Music: Performing Arts Library Planning with Photo Elicitation

Photo elicitation, a form of ethnographic journaling, provided insights into university music and dance student needs in library and campus spaces and services. In this case study, subjects took a photo for each of twenty prompts related to their daily lives as students and performing artists, then discussed their own photos in a one-hour individual interview. Researchers qualitatively analyzed the gathered data. This article reports findings related to: discovering and obtaining music and dance works, study spaces and sound levels, forces of habit and the implications for student library use, and library-related findings regarding practice rooms and classrooms

UMKC Conservatory Students and Their Work: Research Findings

The initiative for UMKC’s Downtown Campus for the Arts presents a unique opportunity for radical change in Conservatory and Conservatory library spaces and services. To inform planning of the new campus and its library, a UMKC research team harnessed ethnographic methods to research UMKC Conservatory student needs. Ethnographic methods facilitate holistic examination of numerous aspects of the studied population by using open-ended tools to gather qualitative data

New Peak Moisture Design Data in the 1997 ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals

Chapter 26 of the 1997 edition of the Handbook of Fundamentals published by ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers) contains climatic design data that has been completely revised, recalculated and expanded. Designers of air conditioning systems for hot and humid climates will be pleased to note that, for the first time, the chapter contains values for peak moisture conditions. This is in sharp contrast to older editions, which contained only the average moisture during periods of peak dry bulb temperatures. The new data show that using earlier, temperature-based data for humidity design underestimates the true peak moisture loads by 30 to 50% depending on the humidity control level in the space. This paper explains the new data elements and suggests some of its potential implications for engineers designing air conditioning systems for hot and humid climates

Slow acid production by butter cultures

Butter cultures sometimes fail to develop acid at a normal rate, and such slow growth has probably been encountered wherever butter cultures are used. One characteristic of certain types of abnormally slow growth in butter cultures is the sudden manner in which the defect often occurs. A culture may appear satisfactory at the time it is used for inoculation and then fail to bring about the desired changes in the product being manufactured. Such an occurrence greatly interferes with general plant routine. If additional time is allowed for the formation of acid, a defective product may result. Sometimes acid development is so slow and the defects in the product being manufactured so serious that the finished material is unsalable. There are various causes of slow acid production by butter cultures. Some of these are easily determined by investigation of the methods used in propagation or by direct microscopic examination of the cultures. In other cases such methods fail to disclose the cause or causes of the abnormally slow growth, and the rather unusual aspects of such cases have motivated the work herein reported

Small General Aviation Airport Emergency Preparedness and the Perceived Risks of Very Light Jet Operations

Advances in aircraft design have facilitated to the development of relatively low cost, high performance, light weight jet aircraft known as very light jets (VLJs). The Federal Aviation Administration\u27s prediction of 4,500 VLJs flying by 2016 suggests that this concept may become a major contributing factor for gridlock in the National Airspace System WAS) (Robinson and Planzer, 2005). With this added burden, the need for effective emergency response at general aviation airports will continue to increase. This study investigated the level of emergency response preparedness of small general aviation airports in the state of Indiana that may service very light jets and measured attitudes of airport managers regarding the perceived risks of VLJ operations. Findings suggest that airport managers believe smaller airports are prepared to handle the growth in VLJ traffic and generally are not concerned with increasing the level of emergency response planning. This study concludes with recommendations for emergency enhancements at smaller airports not certified under Part 139

Desiccants: Benefits for the Second Century of Air-Conditioning

Desiccant technology now stands where mechanical cooling stood in the 1930's. Desiccant systems have been used by industrial engineers to achieve productivity and energy benefits which far outweigh their installed cost. Now, with lower cost desiccant components, commercial buildings are using desiccant systems because they provide benefits beyond those of air cooling technology alone. In many ways, the rise of desiccant systems is parallel to the 80-year-old transition from fan-only cooling to mechanical cooling. Mechanical cooling did not reduce the need for fans and blowers. Likewise, desiccant technology may not reduce the need for mechanical cooling. And just as mechanical cooling adds cost to a fan-only system, desiccant equipment can sometimes cost more than mechanical cooling. But just as cooling coils add functionality to a ventilation system, desiccant systems provide benefits which are beyond the reach of mechanical cooling systems. Specifically, desiccant systems can provide: Total control of humidity, independent of temperature. Dew points below the practical limits of cooling technology. Humidity control in cold environments and cold air streams. Lower operating cost Lower peak electrical demand. Ability to use low-cost thermal energy to control both humidity and temperature. Dry duct systems in accordance with ASHRAE Standard 62, avoiding microbial and fungal growth associated with sick building syndrome

Frailsafe: from conception to national breakthrough collaborative

The number of people aged over 60 years worldwide is projected to rise from 605 million in 2000 to almost 2 billion by 2050, while those over 80 years will quadruple to 395 million. Two-thirds of UK acute hospital admissions are over 65, the highest consultation rate in general practice is in those aged 85-89 and the average age of elective surgical patients is increasing. Adjusting medical systems to meet the demographic imperative has been recognised by the World Health Organisation to be the next global healthcare priority and is a key feature of discussions on policy, health services structures, workforce reconfiguration and frontline care delivery

Relaxation Dynamics in See-Saw Shaped Dy(III) Single-Molecule Magnets

Utilizing a terphenyl bisanilide ligand, two Dy(III) compounds [K(DME)n][LArDy(X)2] (LAr = {C6H4[(2,6-iPrC6H3)NC6H4]2}2−), X = Cl (1) and X = I (2) were synthesized. The ligand imposes an unusual see-saw shaped molecular geometry leading to a coordinatively unsaturated metal complex with near-linear N–Dy–N (avg. 159.9° for 1 and avg. 160.4° for 2) angles. These compounds exhibit single-molecule magnet (SMM) behavior with significant uniaxial magnetic anisotropy as a result of the transverse coordination of the bisanilide ligand which yields high energy barriers to magnetic spin reversal of Ueff = 1334 K/927 cm−1 (1) and 1278 K/888 cm−1 (2) in zero field. Ab initio calculations reveal that the dominant crystal field of the bisanilide ligand controls the orientation of the main magnetic axis which runs nearly parallel to the N–Dy–N bonds, despite the identity of the halide ligand. Analysis of the relaxation dynamics reveals a ca. 14-fold decrease in the rate of quantum tunneling of the magnetisation when X = I (2). Most notably, the relaxation times were on average 5.6× longer at zero field when the heavier group 17 congener was employed. However, no direct evidence of a heavy atom effect on the Orbach relaxation was obtained as the height of the barrier is defined by the dominant bisanilide ligand.<br/

Retrospective analysis of the quality of reports by author-suggested and non-author-suggested reviewers in journals operating on open or single-blind peer review models.

OBJECTIVES: To assess whether reports from reviewers recommended by authors show a bias in quality and recommendation for editorial decision, compared with reviewers suggested by other parties, and whether reviewer reports for journals operating on open or single-blind peer review models differ with regard to report quality and reviewer recommendations. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of the quality of reviewer reports using an established Review Quality Instrument, and analysis of reviewer recommendations and author satisfaction surveys. SETTING: BioMed Central biology and medical journals. BMC Infectious Diseases and BMC Microbiology are similar in size, rejection rates, impact factors and editorial processes, but the former uses open peer review while the latter uses single-blind peer review. The Journal of Inflammation has operated under both peer review models. SAMPLE: Two hundred reviewer reports submitted to BMC Infectious Diseases, 200 reviewer reports submitted to BMC Microbiology and 400 reviewer reports submitted to the Journal of Inflammation. RESULTS: For each journal, author-suggested reviewers provided reports of comparable quality to non-author-suggested reviewers, but were significantly more likely to recommend acceptance, irrespective of the peer review model (p<0.0001 for BMC Infectious Diseases, BMC Microbiology and the Journal of Inflammation). For BMC Infectious Diseases, the overall quality of reviewer reports measured by the Review Quality Instrument was 5% higher than for BMC Microbiology (p=0.042). For the Journal of Inflammation, the quality of reports was the same irrespective of the peer review model used. CONCLUSIONS: Reviewers suggested by authors provide reports of comparable quality to non-author-suggested reviewers, but are significantly more likely to recommend acceptance. Open peer review reports for BMC Infectious Diseases were of higher quality than single-blind reports for BMC Microbiology. There was no difference in quality of peer review in the Journal of Inflammation under open peer review compared with single blind

Simplified Analytical Model for Simulation of Boiling Water Reactors

A digital computer program FLARE was developed for calculating the core reactivity and power distributions in the Big Rock Point Reactor. The calculations are restricted to a relatively coarse mesh, but good agreement was obtained in comparisons with operating data from the Kahl reactor. (D.L.C.