Microgravity research in NASA ground-based facilities

An overview of reduced gravity research performed in NASA ground-based facilities sponsored by the Microgravity Science and Applications Program of the NASA Office of Space Science and Applications is presented. A brief description and summary of the operations and capabilities of each of these facilities along with an overview of the historical usage of them is included. The goals and program elements of the Microgravity Science and Applications programs are described and the specific programs that utilize the low gravity facilities are identified. Results from two particular investigations in combustion (flame spread over solid fuels) and fluid physics (gas-liquid flows at microgravity conditions) are presented

Communications payload concepts for geostationary facilities

Summarized and compared are the major results of two NASA sponsored studies that defined potential communication payload concepts to meet the satellite traffic forecast for the turn of the century for the continental US and Region 2 of the International Telecommunications Union. The studies were performed by the Ford Aerospace and Communications Corporation and RCA Astro-Electronics (now GE-RCA Astro-Space Division). Future scenarios of aggregations of communications services are presented. Payload concepts are developed and defined in detail for nine of the scenarios. Payload costs and critical technologies per payload are also presented. Finally the payload concepts are compared and the findings of the reports are discussed

Collaborating with a Dead Man: The Cultural Politics of Ahmed Yerima’s Otaelo

Several contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare address important, as well as ongoing, socio-cultural and political situations in their various societies. While this approach suggests collaboration with Shakespeare rather than contesting of the colonial political and cultural hegemony that the English Bard privileges, it also underlines the influence that Shakespeare has on the writers and cultures with which he has been in contact. From the perspective of collaboration with Shakespeare through Othello, this essay examines Ahmed Yerima’s Otaelo, which dramatizes the debilitating and tragic effects of the Osu practice among the Igbo people of southeast Nigeria and emphasizes the play’s strong echoes of other plays by Shakespeare, including Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, and Titus Andronicus. Yerima’s play underlines how adaptation makes it possible to view the relationship between an older writer and a young (or new) one in the context of both influence and collaboration

A Polylectal Approach to the Study of Phonological Interference in Yoruba English

This paper sets out to discuss the factors within the learner and the environment that contribute to faulty speech performance of Yoruba learners of English. In doing this, samples of students' speeches from three major dialect groups within the Yoruba speech community were examined with a view to identifying the ethnic-based realizations of some English sound segments. The three dialect groups are Oyo, Onko and Ekiti.Attention is focused on the segmental aspects of the phonological problems of Yoruba learners of English looking at some of the sound segments on which earlier contrastive linguists have made several comments. With the polylectal approach used in this work, the paper has identified so me errors of generalized statements such as (a) all Yoruba speakers of English, irrespective of their linguistic background, make similar substitutions for the problematic sounds in English (b) the absence of certain sounds in Yoruba always causes problems for Yoruba speakers of English.This paper has proved that even in the area of bilingual problems on which it concentrates, classical contrastive analysis, based on monolectal comparison, has not been effective enough as a guide to the interference errors because some of the problems predicted never materialize. tt is also discovered that it only isolates and petrifies such potential problems without necessary integration and without practical reference to real language learning situation

El Don del Sacrificio Pascual

En el fondo del artículo está la pregunta: ¿cómo presentar hoy la doctrina del Concilio de Trento sobre el Sacrificio de la santa Misa? Esto supone aclarar primero la noción de sacrificio y recalcar la novedad del único sacrificio de Jesucristo. Luego hay que abordar la noción de don, ya que el sacrificio de Cristo conlleva necesariamente esta dimensión. En esta clave el tema se trata en las siguientes dimensiones: la relación Cenáculo-Cruz; la resurrección como complemento del Sacrificio; la dimensión personal del sacrificio de Cristo; ¿el sacrificio o misterio pascual?; la Eucaristía y el sacerdocio; lo esencial de la santa Misa; el culto eucarístico

Capabilities and constraints of NASA's ground-based reduced gravity facilities

The ground-based reduced gravity facilities of NASA have been utilized to support numerous investigations addressing various processes and phenomina in several disciplines for the past 30 years. These facilities, which include drop towers, drop tubes, aircraft, and sounding rockets are able to provide a low gravity environment (gravitational levels that range from 10(exp -2)g to 10(exp -6)g) by creating a free fall or semi-free fall condition where the force of gravity on an experiment is offset by its linear acceleration during the 'fall' (drop or parabola). The low gravity condition obtained on the ground is the same as that of an orbiting spacecraft which is in a state of perpetual free fall. The gravitational levels and associated duration times associated with the full spectrum of reduced gravity facilities including spaced-based facilities are summarized. Even though ground-based facilities offer a relatively short experiment time, this available test time has been found to be sufficient to advance the scientific understanding of many phenomena and to provide meaningful hardware tests during the flight experiment development process. Also, since experiments can be quickly repeated in these facilities, multistep phenomena that have longer characteristic times associated with them can sometimes be examined in a step-by-step process. There is a large body of literature which has reported the study results achieved through using reduced-gravity data obtained from the facilities

Correlates of Nigerian Polytechnic Students’ Self-Communication in Study Reading

The primary responsibility of a student is to study if he is to attain the high standard in his course. The University of Manchester (2001) released a student’s study reading plan which requested them to engage in one study activity or the other everyday including weekends. One effective way to exhibit and demonstrate such intensive study reading exercise is through the practice of self-communication. Using Ruesch and Bateson’s (2016) seven traits of intrapersonal communication, this study investigated students’ display of self-communication traits before and during examination. The Self Communication Questionnaire was administered on four hundred randomly selected students from four polytechnics. Results showed lower practice of, an insignificant correlation of, and a significant difference between, self communication displays associated with study reading before and during examination (r=.46; t(399)=-6.851; p<.05) . The study concluded that students delayed study reading till examinations were imminent and recommended that students’ study reading practices must be regulated and monitored at institutional level to assist students in effective time management in an environment full of co- and extra- curricular distractions. Keywords: Study reading, self communication, intrapersonal communication DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/9-1-0

Sociology of HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Nigeria

This paper examines the complex nexuses that exist between sociological enterprise and knowledge of various intricacies that surround HIV/AIDS pandemic in Nigerian societies, more importantly on how to have deep and clearer understanding of those factors that are responsible for hyper-geometric rate of HIV transmission in the country. Three distinct sociological theories were adopted in the paper and it was demonstrated that HIV/AIDS pandemic is not only a medical problem but also it is a socio-cultural, economic and developmental problem in Nigeria. On the basis of this revelation, it has been recommended that government at different levels, policy makers, programme designers and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) working on how to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS pandemic in Nigeria should work within the socio-cultural, economic and development context of the country. This is one major way on how to achieve success in battle against HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country. Keywords: Sociology, Socio-cultural, Economics, Development, Sexuality, HIV/AIDS, Nigeria

Female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual functioning of married women in Oworonshoki Community, Lagos State, Nigeria

This article examines the nexus between Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and three thematic/fundamental areas of women sexual functioning in the study location. These thematic areas are women’s sexual desire/initiation, sexual activity and sexual satisfaction/enjoyment. To achieve the objectives of the study, a cross-sectional survey research method was adopted and 350 questionnaires were administered among ever married women. Elicited data were analyzed with the aids of quantitative analytical techniques. Findings of the study reveal that FGM hampered effective and efficient sexual functioning of the women in the study location as circumcised women reported defective sexuality and sexual dysfunctional. Based on these findings, it has been recommended that both state and non-state actors working in the areas of women’s reproductive health should develop appropriate intervention programmes to reduce/eradicate the practice of FGM in the study location. This will invariably help the married women to reach orgasm during sexual intercourse

Maternal Age at First Birth and Childhood Mortality in Yoruba Society: The Case of Osun State, Nigeria

This paper examines the nexus between maternal age at first birth and level of childhood mortality most especially within the socio-economic structure of Yoruba society in Nigeria. The understanding of this relationship is of direct relevance to governments and non-State actors working on child health with the aim to achieve the stated MDGs goal and its associated targets. To achieve the objective of the study, quantitative data were generated from 1,000 women in one of the six Yoruba speaking States in Nigeria: Osun State. A multi-stage random sampling technique was adopted to select the respondents, while percentages, means, standard deviation, Pearson chi square, t-test, analysis of variance and post hoc test of homogeneous were adopted to analyze generated data. Findings of the study show significant relationships between maternal age at first birth and childhood mortality level within the socio-demographic characteristics of women (such as place of residence, current age, occupational status, educational level, marital status, form of marriage and number of children ever born). Specifically, women who had their first birth below age 20 years exhibit significant higher number of childhood mortality in comparison with women who had their first birth by age 20 years and above at P<0.01 most especially when the later were at similar categories to the former. Thus, age at first birth is a strong determinant of relatively high childhood mortality level in the study area. Consequently, it is imperative for government and non-State actors working on child health in the region to develop appropriate policies and programmes that will address and inhibit early age at first birth in order to reduce significantly the level of childhood mortality in Yoruba society of Nigeria. Key words: Childhood Mortality, Maternal Age at First Birth, Yoruba society, Osun State, Nigeri