Animal Behavior: Who Will Croak Next?

A recent study with the predatory bat Trachops cirrhosus has shown the importance for this species of social learning about novel prey using auditory, rather than visual or olfactory, cues

Food Habits of Dabbling Ducks During Fall Migration in a Prairie Pothole System, Heron Lake, Minnesota

We conducted an analysis of dabbling duck food habits in the fall of 2002 and 2003 in the Heron Lake system. Gizzard contents of hunter-harvested birds were analyzed using the percent aggregate volume method to determine what food items were consumed and in what quantity. Curltop Ladysthumb (Polygonum lapathifolium) was the food item consumed most often (82.2%) and in the greatest volume (34.2 ml). Sago Pondweed (Stuckenia pectinata) was the only food item of which multiple plant parts were consumed. However, the seeds and tubers only comprised 1.27 and 0.07 of the total aggregate percent

Discovering and Recovering the Nineteenth-Century Journals of Martha E. McMillan in an American Women Writer’s Course: A Collaborative Digital Recovery Project

The following essay tells a story about an undergraduate American Women Writer\u27s course, the University archives, a nineteenth-century journal, and a Digital Recovery project. The essay explains that the story of undergraduates and their work to discover and to recover a primary text within the context of a single course could not have happened without collaboration. Because our story is a story of collaboration, I cannot tell it alone. I am Michelle Wood, an Associate Professor of English who teaches American Literature. During spring semester 2015, I collaborated with Lynn Brock, the Dean of Library Sciences, to create an archival recovery project for a course entitled American Women Writers. Together we will tell our story

Discovering and Recovering the Nineteenth-Century Journals of Martha E. McMillan in an American Women Writer’s Course: A Collaborative Digital Recovery Project

The following essay tells a story about an undergraduate American Women Writer\u27s course, the University archives, a nineteenth-century journal, and a Digital Recovery project. The essay explains that the story of undergraduates and their work to discover and to recover a primary text within the context of a single course could not have happened without collaboration. Because our story is a story of collaboration, I cannot tell it alone. I am Michelle Wood, an Associate Professor of English who teaches American Literature. During spring semester 2015, I collaborated with Lynn Brock, the Dean of Library Sciences, to create an archival recovery project for a course entitled American Women Writers. Together we will tell our story

Micro-scale Artificial Weave Generation Capabilities for Thermal Protection System Material Modeling

Thermal Protection System (TPS) modeling requires accurate representation and prediction of the thermomechanical behavior of ablative materials. State-of-the-art TPS materials such as Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) have a proven flight record and demonstrate exceptional capabilities for handling extreme aerothermal heating conditions. The constant push for lightweight materials that are flexible in their design and performance, and hence allow for a wide range of mission profiles, has led NASA over the past years to develop its Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET). HEEET is based primarily on a dual layer woven carbon fiber architecture and the technology has successfully been tested in arc-jet facilities. These recent developments have sparked interest in the accurate micro-scale modeling of composite weave architectures, to predict the structural response of macro-scale heatshields upon atmospheric entry. This effort can be extended to incorporate in-depth failure mechanics analyses as a result of local thermal gradients or high-velocity particle impact