Understanding Occupational and Skill Demand in New Jersey's Construction Industry

The construction industry is integral to New Jersey's economy, employing over 160,000 people. Nationally and in New Jersey, the construction industry is thriving, injecting billions of dollars into the state. Jobs in the industry are changing with an influx of new technology and new building materials, requiring that workers have more technical expertise than in the past. This report summarizes the skill, knowledge, and educational requirements of key construction occupations and identifies strategies for meeting the key workforce challenges facing the industry

Lessons learned from professional development workshops on using GIS to teach geography and history in the K-12 classroom

A GIS oriented professional development activity engaged social studies teachers with the importance of maps and graphics in teaching geography and history. With an introduction to ArcGIS Online and National Geographic Map Maker, the activity provided teachers with the ability to make their own maps and identify GIS materials for their classrooms. Conducting the workshop reinforced our belief in the need for considerable hands-on activity with participants allowed to work at their own pace. Pre- and post-event surveys showed positive gains regarding the teachers’ likelihood to include GIS based maps and graphics in teaching. The activity provided teachers with enough knowledge of GIS that they were ready to use the technology immediately

Understanding Occupational and Skill Demand in New Jersey's Finance Industry

The finance industry in New Jersey employs over 200,000 people. Many more workers benefit from the state's proximity to the finance industry in New York City. Jobs in the industry are evolving rapidly in response to national and global trends, such as deregulation, increasingly complex laws, and new technologies. As jobs change, skill requirements for both entry-level and incumbent workers increase. This report summarizes the skill, knowledge, and educational requirements of key finance occupations and identifies strategies for meeting the workforce challenges facing the industry

Ready for Tomorrow: Demand-Side Emerging Skills for the 21st Century

As part of the Ready for the Job demand-side skill assessment, the Heldrich Center explored emerging work skills that will affect New Jersey's workforce in the next three to five years. The Heldrich Center identified five specific areas likely to generate new skill demands: biotechnology, security, e-learning, e-commerce, and food/agribusiness. This report explores the study's findings and offers recommendations for improving education and training in New Jersey

T Pyxidis: The First Cataclysmic Variable with a Collimated Jet

We present the first observational evidence for a collimated jet in a cataclysmic variable system; the recurrent nova T Pyxidis. Optical spectra show bipolar components of H$\alpha$ with velocities $\sim 1400 km/s$, very similar to those observed in the supersoft X-ray sources and in SS 433. We argue that a key ingredient of the formation of jets in the supersoft X-ray sources and T Pyx (in addition to an accretion disk threaded by a vertical magnetic field), is the presence of nuclear burning on the surface of the white dwarf.Comment: 10 pages 2 figures to appear in ApJ Letter

Understanding Occupational and Skill Demand in New Jersey's Utilities Industry

The utilities industry provides essential electricity, gas, water and sewer, and local telephone services to residents and businesses throughout New Jersey. This report summarizes the skill, knowledge, and educational requirements of key occupations in gas, electric, water and sewer, and telephone services. It also identifies strategies for meeting the workforce challenges facing the industry

Building Skills and Alliances to Meet Demand in New Jersey's Labor Market

This summary report examines the Ready for the Job initiatve, which profiled the skill and occupational requirements of 73 occupations in New Jersey. This report highlights four cross-industry demand skills: math and technology skills, problem solving and critical skills, communication and teamwork skills, and entrepreneurship and business skills

Intrinsic dissipation in high-frequency micromechanical resonators

We report measurements of intrinsic dissipation in micron-sized suspended resonators machined from single crystals of galium arsenide and silicon. In these experiments on high-frequency micromechanical resonators, designed to understand intrinsic mechanisms of dissipation, we explore dependence of dissipation on temperature, magnetic field, frequency, and size. In contrast to most of the previous measurements of acoustic attenuation in crystalline and amorphous structures in this frequency range, ours is a resonant measurement; dissipation is measured at the natural frequencies of structural resonance, or modes of the structure associated with flexural and torsional motion. In all our samples we find a weakly temperature dependent dissipation at low temperatures. We compare and contrast our data to various probable mechanisms, including thermoelasticity, clamping, anharmonic mode-coupling, surface anisotropy and defect motion, both in bulk and on surface. The observed parametric dependencies indicate that the internal defect motion is the dominant mechanism of intrinsic dissipation in our samples

Cardiopulmonary Inflammatory Response to Meteorite Dust Exposures - Implications for Human Health on Earth and Beyond

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, the first time humans set foot on the Moon. The Apollo missions not only help answer questions related to our solar system, they also highlight many hazards associated with human space travel. One major concern is the effect of extraterrestrial dust on astronaut health. In an effort to expand upon previous work indicating lunar dust is respirable and reactive, the authors initiated an extensive study evaluating the role of a particulates innate geochemical features (e.g., bulk chemistry, internal composition, morphology, size, and reactivity) in generating adverse toxicological responses in vitro and in vivo. To allow for a broader planetary and geochemical assessment, seven samples were evaluated: six meteorites from either the Moon, Mars, or Asteroid 4 Vesta and a terrestrial basalt analogue. Even with the relatively small geochemical differences (all samples basaltic in nature), significant difference in cardiopulmonary inflammatory markers developed in both single exposure and multiple exposure studies. More specifically: 1) the single exposure studies reveal relationships between toxicity and a meteorite samples origin, its pre-ejected state (weathered versus un-weathered), and geochemical features (e.g. bulk iron content) and 2) multiple exposure studies reveal a correlation with particle derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and neutrophil infiltration. Extended human exploration will further increase the probability of inadvertent and repeated exposures to extraterrestrial dusts. This comprehensive dataset allows for not only the toxicological evaluation of extraterrestrial materials but also clarifies important correlations between geochemistry and health. The utilization of an array of extraterrestrial samples from Moon, Mars, and asteroid 4Vesta will enable the development of a geochemical based toxicological hazard model that can be used for: 1) mission planning, 2) rapid risk assessment in cases of unexpected exposures, and 3) evaluation of the efficacy of various in situ techniques in gauging surface dust toxicity. Furthermore, by better understanding the importance of geochemical features on exposure related health outcomes in space, it is possible to better understand of the deleterious nature of dust exposure on Earth