Underwater Soldier

The goal of my honors project was to research, learn and challenge myself to hand build an approximation of an almost life size figurative sculpture of a Terracotta Soldier that would be a foundation for the regeneration of coral. Previously, my ceramic endeavors had not included pieces this large of size, nor one of a figure. I began creating abstract coral pieces because of my strong belief in advocating against the destruction of the coral ecosystem in part due to the effects of global warming. My project is an effort to illustrate this theme and also gave me an opportunity to explore my Chinese heritage. While at the National Clay Conference in Pennsylvania, in March, I discovered new techniques and methods in building figural sculpture and I felt I could apply those methods to my Honors Project. Using buff stoneware clay, I first tried to create the figure out of one inch thick rolled slabs. However, that was not as easy as the demonstration made it look. So, I switched to the technique that I previously had learned which was coiled hand building. I researched to learn more about how to build the soldier and to make it look as realistic as possible. The coral was easier to create. Using a pneumatic extruder, I was able to extrude coils and hand build the coral pieces. Next, I planned to attach them to the soldier by slipping and scoring, which is using more wet clay to bind each piece together. I allowed the soldier and the coral to completely dry and painted it with watered down Iron Oxide to give it a reddish terracotta color. I preheated the bone dry soldier in a kiln for 24 hours at 200 degrees fahrenheit. before firing it to cone 1, 2,079 degrees fahrenheit. I made a lava glaze recipe that mimics a coral-like texture and fired the coral to a cone 6 firing, 2,232 degrees fahrenheit . The Honors Project gave me the opportunity to realize that building figural sculptures is the greatest challenge I have faced in my ceramics studies. My concept of building with slabs was not successful because they were not strong enough to support the other parts of the soldier during the building process. Using coils and hand building each layer was more successful. I ended up deciding not to attach the coral and instead I had him sit in a reef of coral because the coral looked very odd growing off the soldier. I had some difficulties during the firing process, parts happened to break in the kiln, so I had to fix the front of the armor on the soldier by using epoxy and Bondo, a body filler, to patch the holes. This project taught me which techniques did not work and I learned what could be successful when my initial attempts failed and, eventually, I was able to reach my final goal. From this project I also discovered a lot about the real Terracotta Soldiers, such as how they were were built. They were essentially built in many separate sections and then later assembled together. Since this project didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted, I would like to try to recreate another piece this large in size and try to avoid it breaking in the kiln

Design and preliminary tests of a blade tip air mass injection system for vortex modification and possible noise reduction on a full-scale helicopter rotor

Full-scale tests were conducted on the Langley helicopter rotor test facility as part of a study to evaluate the effectiveness of a turbulent blade tip air mass injection system in alleviating the impulsive noise (blade slap) caused by blade-vortex interaction. Although blade-slap conditions could not be induced during these tests, qualitative results from flow visualization studies using smoke showed that the differential velocity between the jet velocity and the rotor tip speed was a primary parameter controlling the vortex modification

Differential effects and temporal course of attentional and motivational training on excessive drinking

Background. Two cognitive-motivational variables that help to solidify drinkers’ intentions to drink are their alcohol attentional bias and their maladaptive motivation. Objective. The Alcohol Attention Control Training Programme (AACTP) was designed to rectify the former, and the Life Enhancement and Advancement Programme (LEAP) was designed to rectify the latter. Method. The present study used a factorial design to compare the individual and combined effects of the two interventions on mean weekly drinking and atypical weekly drinking of 148 harmful drinkers (49% males, mean age = 28.8 years). A variety of other cognitivemotivational and demographic measures were also taken at baseline, and the drinking measures were reassessed at post-treatment and 3 and 6 months later. Results. In comparison to LEAP, the effects of AACTP were less enduring. Combining AACTP and LEAP had few incremental benefits. Conclusions. These results suggest that AACTP would be more effective for achieving short-term reductions in drinking, whereas LEAP would be more effective for alleviating problematic drinking

Kinetics of echinostoma caproni (trematoda: echinostomatidae) antigens in feces and serum of experimentally infected hamsters and rats

This study reports on the kinetics of antibody production to Echinostoma caproni and the dynamics of antigens in feces and sera in 2 experimental hosts (hamsters and rats) that display different degrees of susceptibility with this echinostome. Echinostoma caproni produced chronic infections in hamsters, whereas rats lost the infection at 49–56 days postinfection (DPI). Hamsters developed higher antibody responses than rats, probably in relation to different intestinal absorptions of worm antigens in each host species. The levels of coproantigens were indicative of the course of infection in each host. Positive coproantigen levels were detected at 1–2 DPI in both hosts, and the values remained positive until the end of the experiment in hamsters; in rats, the coproantigen levels reverted to negative values, coinciding with the loss of infection. High levels of circulating antigens were detected in hamsters from 21 DPI to the end of the study. In contrast, low levels of E. caproni seroantigens were detected in rats only. These observations may reflect the differences in local inflammatory responses induced by E. caproni in each host species.Toledo Navarro, Rafael, [email protected] ; Espert Fernandez, Ana M., [email protected] ; Marcilla Diaz, Antonio, [email protected] ; Esteban Sanchis, Jose Guillermo, [email protected]

Proof-of-Concept of Real-World Quantum Key Distribution with Quantum Frames

We propose and experimentally investigate a fibre-based quantum key distribution system, which employs polarization qubits encoded into faint laser pulses. As a novel feature, it allows sending of classical framing information via sequences of strong laser pulses that precede the quantum data. This allows synchronization, sender and receiver identification, and compensation of time-varying birefringence in the communication channel. In addition, this method also provides a platform to communicate implementation specific information such as encoding and protocol in view of future optical quantum networks. Furthermore, we report on our current effort to develop high-rate error correction.Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures, 4 table

Setback distances as a conservation tool in wildlife-human interactions : testing their efficacy for birds affected by vehicles on open-coast sandy beaches

In some wilderness areas, wildlife encounter vehicles disrupt their behaviour and habitat use. Changing driver behaviour has been proposed where bans on vehicle use are politically unpalatable, but the efficacy of vehicle setbacks and reduced speeds remains largely untested. We characterised bird-vehicle encounters in terms of driver behaviour and the disturbance caused to birds, and tested whether spatial buffers or lower speeds reduced bird escape responses on open beaches. Focal observations showed that: i) most drivers did not create sizeable buffers between their vehicles and birds; ii) bird disturbance was frequent; and iii) predictors of probability of flushing (escape) were setback distance and vehicle type (buses flushed birds at higher rates than cars). Experiments demonstrated that substantial reductions in bird escape responses required buffers to be wide (> 25 m) and vehicle speeds to be slow (< 30 km h-1). Setback distances can reduce impacts on wildlife, provided that they are carefully designed and derived from empirical evidence. No speed or distance combination we tested, however, eliminated bird responses. Thus, while buffers reduce response rates, they are likely to be much less effective than vehicle-free zones (i.e. beach closures), and rely on changes to current driver behaviou