REGIONAL DRAINWATER MANAGEMENT: SOURCE CONTROL, AGROFORESTRY, AND EVAPORATION PONDS

Source control is one way to address salinity and drainage problems in irrigated agriculture, and reuse of drainage flows on salt-tolerant crops or trees in agroforestry production is another. A regional model of agricultural production with drainwater reuse and disposal is developed. Deep percolation flows are controlled through choice of crop areas, irrigation systems, and applied-water quantities. Crop drainwater may by reused in agroforestry production, and residual emissions are disposed of in an evaporation pond. A significant role for both source control and reuse is found. Sensitivity to various cost and revenue parameters is also analyzed.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Facebook: The Alienation from Oneself

We live in the Age of Information: a time when technology has advanced in speed and the number of ways people can communicate has increased. Social media is one such advancement; this thesis will focus specifically on the consequences of the site Facebook. The mission statement of the Facebook company is “to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” While Facebook serves as a document of its users’ lives, through its unique process of documentation, Facebook alienates the user from the image of herself that she intended to create. This thesis uses the works of theorists like Gregory Bateson and Walter Benjamin to demonstrate how communication on Facebook lacks part of the necessary unconscious aspects of communication, and therefore users cannot fully understand each other, despite a strong face-to-face connection. The thesis also explores how the Facebook algorithm utilizes personal information about the user in order to shape individual profiles, a job that the user assumes to have sole control over. Karl Marx’s theory of alienation is then applied to explain how users have been commodified in an alienating and barbaric process

Schema Avoidance and Social Norm Application in Changing Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action Programs

The interpretation and implementation of affirmative action policies (AAPs) has had the effect of creating beliefs and attitudes concerning these policies that vary with personal experience, race, gender, and other factors. Since attitudes toward AAPs have been found to be especially difficult to change, it is important to understand attitudes and how to change them. Following Ajzen\u27s (1991, 2005) Theory of Planned Behavior, two hypotheses were tested: first, the avoidance of schema activation (i.e., by assessing attitudes toward AAPs without calling them affirmative action ) results in more positive attitudes toward the goals and ideals of those policies, and second, for those without any firmly held beliefs concerning AAPs, the presence or absence of a social norm example will influence attitudes in the direction provided by the example. This study of 298 undergraduate students showed a significant relationship between attitudes toward AAPs (measured with two separate dependent variables: a semantic differential and a measure of justice) and presence or absence of the words affirmative action. Results were mixed in the presence or absence of a social norm model, with significant results only seen in the groups where the term affirmative action was not used. These results suggest that attitudes toward affirmative action can be influenced by avoiding schema activation and that providing a positive norm model is ineffective in changing attitudes when the term affirmative action is used. Correlations were also found between attitudes towards AAPs and measures of knowledge of AAPs, as well as participants\u27 intention to take some kind of action regarding AAPs

The Experience Of Knowledge Workers In Remote Environments During The COVID-19 Pandemic

When regional quarantine restrictions were rapidly implemented in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, knowledge workers were forced to vacate their traditional shared office spaces and transition to remote work environments. This unprecedented mass exodus from traditional in-person physical workplaces was facilitated by existing and new software and technology that allowed workers to remain connected and working. This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences and perceptions of knowledge workers who experienced this transition to a full-time remote work environment. The study also examined how knowledge workers perceived work performance relative to their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 18 knowledge workers in the New England region of the United States to document their feelings and experiences and to offer a “snapshot” of shared perspectives. Five themes emerged from the data: navigating connectivity gaps and remote communication challenges; isolation and technological barriers contrasting with freedom and flexibility; the intersection of remote work and family dynamics; navigating remote work environments; and collaboration, leadership, and communication in remote teams. The findings showed that knowledge workers preferred a hybrid approach, one that allows for in-person professional interactions and flexibility to work remotely when needed due to personal commitments or preferences. Effective communication was the most common challenge encountered by study participants, and maintaining professional relationships was strained in remote environments. Benefits included increased time spent with family, the perception of improved levels of productivity, and less time spent commuting. Keywords: remote work, work from home, knowledge workers in remote work environments, hybrid work environments, challenges in remote work environments, benefits of remote work environments, lived experience of remote workers during the COVID-19 pandemi

Lie series for celestial mechanics, accelerators, satellite stabilization and optimization

Lie series applications to celestial mechanics, accelerators, satellite orbits, and optimizatio

Photovoltaic system test facility electromagnetic interference measurements

Field strength measurements on a single row of panels indicates that the operational mode of the array as configured presents no radiated EMI problems. Only one relatively significant frequency band near 200 kHz showed any degree of intensity (9 muV/m including a background level of 5 muV/m). The level was measured very near the array (at 20 ft distance) while Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations limit spurious emissions to 15 muV/m at 1,000 ft. No field strength readings could be obtained even at 35 ft distant

Fractional Chern insulator edges and layer-resolved lattice contacts

Fractional Chern insulators (FCIs) realized in fractional quantum Hall systems subject to a periodic potential are topological phases of matter for which space group symmetries play an important role. In particular, lattice dislocations in an FCI can host topology-altering non-Abelian topological defects, known as genons. Genons are of particular interest for their potential application to topological quantum computing. In this work, we study FCI edges and how they can be used to detect genons. We find that translation symmetry can impose a quantized momentum difference between the edge electrons of a partially-filled Chern band. We propose {\it layer-resolved lattice contacts}, which utilize this momentum difference to selectively contact a particular FCI edge electron. The relative current between FCI edge electrons can then be used to detect the presence of genons in the bulk FCI. Recent experiments have demonstrated graphene is a viable platform to study FCI physics. We describe how the lattice contacts proposed here could be implemented in graphene subject to an artificial lattice, thereby outlining a path forward for experimental dectection of non-Abelian topological defects.Comment: 5+7 pages, 10 figures, v2: modified figure

Dynamic Childbirth Simulator for Teaching Maternity Patient Care

A programmable patient simulator for teaching maternity patient care includes a life size manikin with a pelvis, vaginal canal, uterus, placenta, umbilical cord, and a fetal doll from which heart sounds are emitted. A programmable electro-pneumatic system controls the simulated uterine contractions, position of the uterus, rupture of membranes, expulsion of fetal doll, and fetal heart rate during labor and delivery sequence. The invention described herein was made in the course of work under a grant or award from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare

Dynamic Childbirth Simulator for Teaching Maternity Patient Care

A programmable patient simulator for teaching maternity patient care includes a life size manikin with a pelvis, vaginal canal, uterus, placenta, umbilical cord, and a fetal doll from which heart sounds are emitted. A programmable electro-pneumatic system controls the simulated uterine contractions, position of the uterus, rupture of membranes, expulsion of fetal doll, and fetal heart rate during labor and delivery sequence. The invention described herein was made in the course of work under a grant or award from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare

Validation of Spectral Analysis as a Noninvasive Tool to Assess Autonomic Regulation of Cardiovascular Function

A major focus of our program has been to develop a sensitive noninvasive procedure to quantify early weightlessness-induced changes in cardiovascular function or potential dysfunction. Forty studies of healthy young volunteers (10 men and 10 women, each studied twice) were conducted to determine changes in the sympatho-vagal balance of autonomic control of cardiovascular regulation during graded headward and footward blood volume shifts. Changes in sympatho-vagal balance were classified by changes in the mean levels and spectral content of cardiovascular variables and verified by changes in circulating levels of catecholamines and pancreatic polypeptide. Possible shifts in intra/extravascular fluid were assessed from changes in hematocrit and plasma mass density while changes in the stimulus to regulate plasma volume were determined from Plasma Renin Activity (PRA). Autonomic blockade was used to unmask the relative contribution of sympathetic and parasympathetic efferent influences in response to 10 min each of 0, 20 and 40 mmHg Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) and 15 and 30 mmHg Positive Pressure (LBPP). The combination of muscarinic blockade with graded LBNP and LBPP was used to evoke graded increases and decreases in sympathetic activity without parasympathetic contributions. The combination of beta blockade with graded LBNP and LBPP was used to produce graded increases and decreases in parasympathetic activity without beta sympathetic contributions. Finally, a combination of both beta and muscarinic blockades with LBNP and LBPP was used to determine the contribution from other, primarily alpha adrenergic, sources. Mean values, spectral analyses and time frequency analysis of R-R interval (HR), Arterial Pressure (AP), peripheral blood flow (RF), Stroke Volume (SV) and peripheral resistance (TPR) were performed for all phases of the study. Skin blood Flow (SF) was also measured in other studies and similarly analyzed. Spectra were examined for changes in three frequency regions (low 0.006 - 0.005 Hz (LF), mid 0.05 - 0.15 Hz (W), and high 0.15 - 0.45 Hz (EF)). The primary objective of the study was to indicate which changes in the mean values and/or spectra of cardiovascular variables consistently correlated with changes in sympatho-vagal balance in response to headward and footward fluid shifts. A secondaey objective was to quantify the vascular and extravascular fluid shifts evoked by LBNP and LBPP. The principal hypothesis being tested was that headward fluid shifts would evoke an increase in parasympathetic activity and footward fluid shifts would evoke an increase in sympathetic activity both of which would be detected by spectral analysis and verified by circulating hormones. Hematocrit (HCT), plasma mass density and plasma renin activity increased with muscarinic blockade and with LBNP, a response indicative of a plasma shift to extravascular spaces. Beta blockade alone or after muscarinic blockade had no effect on HCT or plasma mass density. With respect to intravascular fluid volume distribution, LBNP and LBPP produced sufficient upper body vascular fluid shifts to evoke appropriate autonomic regulatory responses