Honors Internationalization at Washington State University: A Comprehensive Experience

The interconnected nature of the world economy, including the need for international cooperation in science, politics, the environment, justice, and all aspects of social development, is the reality in which higher education—and not least educational programs catering to the best and brightest—find themselves. The impact of globalization on the United States continues undiminished, and accordingly, honors programs must equip their students with the critical skills and practical knowledge needed to succeed in this global environment to the benefit of themselves, their local and national communities, and the world at large. The fundamental nexus driving the Washington State University (WSU) Honors College is the realization of the importance for honors undergraduates of global citizenship as they prepare to live in and engage with a complex, integrated world. According to international education scholar Hans de Wit, higher education has always been “international”; for example, travelers throughout the Middle Ages sought “learning, friends and leisure” in university cities (5). After World War II, however, the passage of the Fulbright Act, designed to “[foster] bilateral relationships in which citizens and governments of other countries work with the U.S.,” marked the beginning of intentional internationalization on college campuses throughout the U.S., and WSU was a part of that trend (“History”). Before 1950, then Washington State College (WSC) offered a smattering of courses with international content. The first course, which was on international trade, appeared in the 1910 catalog, and a course on international law followed in 1911. After World War I, a few more courses with international content populated subsequent catalogs, but it was not until the availability of Fulbright awards in the 1950s that WSC became more institutionally attentive to its role in international education. Although the first international student advisor was named in 1954, a formalized Office of International Programs was not established to “administer and coordinate international programs undertaken by the university to strengthen its perspective and role in international affairs” until 1966 (Washington State University Bulletin)

Klipsun Magazine, 2007 - June

I started thinking about this note the minute I became Editor-in-Chief, but here I am, minutes before deadline not knowing what to write. An elite group of people has come before me and they all seemed to have something profound to say. So, I went where I always go when I need inspiration — my friends. The most eloquent person I know, had this quote from the movie “Serendipity” on his Facebook profile: “The Greeks didn’t write obituaries. They only ask one question after a man died: ‘Did he have passion?’” This sparked my interest. In the beginning, it didn’t seem we had a common thread to the stories in this issue, but looking at them now, passion runs through these tales of extraor- dinary people and amazing adventures. It doesn’t matter where your passion lies; it just matters if you have it or not. Whether your passion lies in sports, entertaining, academics or people it doesn’t matter. All that’s important is finding something you love that you can do with the people who mean the most in your life. With the end of my college experience looming, I can’t figure out where the time has gone. I have spent four years with some incredible people by my side. My passions have grown from what they were when I was a bright-eyed freshman. They now lie in my friends, family and my experiences. These passions will follow me wherever life takes me next. Enjoy these stories of other people’s passions and then go out and discover your own.https://cedar.wwu.edu/klipsun_magazine/1115/thumbnail.jp

Klipsun Magazine, 2007, Volume 37, Issue 07 - August

Summertime is a favorite season for so many, but with college over, it takes on an entirely different meaning to me and many others in my same position. Now it means 18 years of education is over. Hot days are spent trapped inside a cubicle glued to a computer screen instead of basking in the sun. Long summer nights are no longer an option now that I am up at 6, and moving back to Bellingham in September is not on my calendar anymore. Nothing will ever compare to these past four years. My only regret is that I never really enjoyed Bellingham and all it has to offer until my last year. My hope is that these stories will inspire you to enjoy Bellingham and your time here a little more than I did. This issue will challenge you to look at Bellingham in a different way. Explore the Puget Sound alongside Tanya, go kite flying with Megan in the park, hop aboard Mora with Isaac and laugh as Bradley shares a few of the lessons professors can never teach. Take your copy and drive along State Street, turn right at Boulevard Park, lie out on the grass and read the stories. I read so many stories over the quarter at that park and I hope you enjoy it as well. After reading, my challenge to you is this: go try something new. Remember, college doesn’t last forever, summers will soon just be a memory and your time in Bellingham is not long. Enjoy the stories and enjoy the rest of summer!https://cedar.wwu.edu/klipsun_magazine/1241/thumbnail.jp

Recent Developments in Smart Adaptive Structures for Solar Sailcraft

The "Smart Adaptive Structures for Solar Sailcraft" development activity at MSFC has investigated issues associated with understanding how to model and scale the subsystem and multi-body system dynamics of a gossamer solar sailcraft with the objective of designing sailcraft attitude control systems. This research and development activity addressed three key tasks that leveraged existing facilities and core competencies of MSFC to investigate dynamics and control issues of solar sails. Key aspects of this effort included modeling and testing of a 30 m deployable boom; modeling of the multi-body system dynamics of a gossamer sailcraft; investigation of control-structures interaction for gossamer sailcraft; and development and experimental demonstration of adaptive control technologies to mitigate control-structures interaction

Managing structural uncertainty in health economic decision models: a discrepancy approach

Healthcare resource allocation decisions are commonly informed by computer model predictions of population mean costs and health effects. It is common to quantify the uncertainty in the prediction due to uncertain model inputs, but methods for quantifying uncertainty due to inadequacies in model structure are less well developed. We introduce an example of a model that aims to predict the costs and health effects of a physical activity promoting intervention. Our goal is to develop a framework in which we can manage our uncertainty about the costs and health effects due to deficiencies in the model structure. We describe the concept of `model discrepancy': the difference between the model evaluated at its true inputs, and the true costs and health effects. We then propose a method for quantifying discrepancy based on decomposing the cost-effectiveness model into a series of sub-functions, and considering potential error at each sub-function. We use a variance based sensitivity analysis to locate important sources of discrepancy within the model in order to guide model refinement. The resulting improved model is judged to contain less structural error, and the distribution on the model output better reflects our true uncertainty about the costs and effects of the intervention

A Wearable Wrist Band-Type System for Multimodal Biometrics Integrated with Multispectral Skin Photomatrix and Electrocardiogram Sensors

Multimodal biometrics are promising for providing a strong security level for personal authentication, yet the implementation of a multimodal biometric system for practical usage need to meet such criteria that multimodal biometric signals should be easy to acquire but not easily compromised. We developed a wearable wrist band integrated with multispectral skin photomatrix (MSP) and electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors to improve the issues of collectability, performance and circumvention of multimodal biometric authentication. The band was designed to ensure collectability by sensing both MSP and ECG easily and to achieve high authentication performance with low computation, efficient memory usage, and relatively fast response. Acquisition of MSP and ECG using contact-based sensors could also prevent remote access to personal data. Personal authentication with multimodal biometrics using the integrated wearable wrist band was evaluated in 150 subjects and resulted in 0.2% equal error rate ( EER ) and 100% detection probability at 1% FAR (false acceptance rate) ( PD.1 ), which is comparable to other state-of-the-art multimodal biometrics. An additional investigation with a separate MSP sensor, which enhanced contact with the skin, along with ECG reached 0.1% EER and 100% PD.1 , showing a great potential of our in-house wearable band for practical applications. The results of this study demonstrate that our newly developed wearable wrist band may provide a reliable and easy-to-use multimodal biometric solution for personal authentication

Reliability Based Factors of Safety for VIV Fatigue Using NDP Riser High Mode VIV Tests

Understanding the level of conservatism in a riser system design for vortex-induced vibration (VIV) fatigue is an important issue for operators. This study represents a demonstration of the calibration methodology to derive consistent values for the Factor of Safety (FoS). The exercise is performed here based on medium scale VIV data and utilizing the most commonly used VIV prediction software by industry. The results emphasize the need for (i) a coherent approach to estimate the FoS to be used and (ii) monitoring/measurement of software improvements as this may increase risk of failure if the influence of such improvements on the FoS is not quantified.DeepStar (Consortium) (DeepStar Phase IX

Spontaneous Lead Breakage in Implanted Spinal Cord Stimulation Systems

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has become an established clinical option for treatment of refractory chronic pain. Current hardware and implantation techniques for SCS are already highly developed and continuously improving; however, equipment failures over the course of long-term treatment are still encountered in a relatively high proportion of the cases treated with it. Percutaneous SCS leads seem to be particularly prone to dislocation and insulation failures. We describe our experience of lead breakage in the inserted spinal cord stimulator to a complex regional pain syndrome patient who obtained satisfactory pain relief after the revision of SCS

Acute Viral Myopericarditis Presenting as a Transient Effusive-Constrictive Pericarditis Caused by Coinfection with Coxsackieviruses A4 and B3

Acute myopericarditis is usually caused by viral infections, and the most common cause of viral myopericarditis is coxsackieviruses. Diagnosis of myopericarditis is made based on clinical manifestations of myocardial (such as myocardial dysfunction and elevated serum cardiac enzyme levels) and pericardial (such as inflammatory pericardial effusion) involvement. Although endomyocardial biopsy is the gold standard for the confirmation of viral infection, serologic tests can be helpful. Conservative management is the mainstay of treatment in acute myopericarditis. We report here a case of a 24-year-old man with acute myopericarditis who presented with transient effusive-constrictive pericarditis. Echocardiography showed transient pericardial effusion with constrictive physiology and global regional wall motion abnormalities of the left ventricle. The patient also had an elevated serum troponin I level. A computed tomogram of the chest showed pericardial and pleural effusion, which resolved after 2 weeks of supportive treatment. Serologic testing revealed coxsackievirus A4 and B3 coinfection. The patient received conservative medical treatment, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and he recovered completely with no complications

Energy Landscape and Global Optimization for a Frustrated Model Protein

The three-color (BLN) 69-residue model protein was designed to exhibit frustrated folding. We investigate the energy landscape of this protein using disconnectivity graphs and compare it to a Go model, which is designed to reduce the frustration by removing all non-native attractive interactions. Finding the global minimum on a frustrated energy landscape is a good test of global optimization techniques, and we present calculations evaluating the performance of basin-hopping and genetic algorithms for this system.Comparisons are made with the widely studied 46-residue BLN protein.We show that the energy landscape of the 69-residue BLN protein contains several deep funnels, each of which corresponds to a different β-barrel structure