Summary of Research

The Center for High Technology's journey to the competition named For Inspiration of Science and Technology, or FIRST began on Monday December 16, 1996 when there was a meeting with officials and engineers to discuss the FIRST competition. The task was to research, design, and construct a robot to take inner tubes from- designated places or the human player and place the inner tubes on a goal during a two minute period. The goal had nine branches and a place on the top for the inner tubes and was later described as looking like a giant coat hanger. The human player, who could either hand the robot inner tubes or could throw the inner tubes on the goal, had to stand in a certain area during the competition and could only move in a certain parameter. The playing field which was described by the rules, was a carpeted, hexagon shaped area and allowed each team to have one side between them. Around the perimeter were the stations for the robot, the robot's controller, and the other human player

Modelling soil erosion and transport in the Burrishoole catchment, Newport, Co. Mayo, Ireland

The Burrishoole catchment is situated in County Mayo, on the northwest coast of the Republic of Ireland. Much of the catchment is covered by blanket peat that, in many areas, has become heavily eroded in recent years. This is thought to be due, primarily, to the adverse effects of forestry and agricultural activities in the area. Such activities include ploughing, drainage, the planting and harvesting of trees, and sheep farming, all of which are potentially damaging to such a sensitive landscape if not managed carefully. This article examines the sediment yield and hydrology of the Burrishoole catchment. Flow and sediment concentrations were measured at 8-hourly intervals from 5 February 2001 to 8 November 2001 with an automatic sampler and separate flow gauge, and hourly averages were recorded between 4 July 2002 and 6 September 2002 using an automatic river monitoring system [ARMS]. The authors describe the GIS-based model of soil erosion and transport that was applied to the Burrishoole catchment during this study. The results of these analyses were compared, in a qualitative manner, with the aerial photography available for the Burrishoole catchment to see whether areas that were predicted to contribute large proportions of eroded material to the drainage network corresponded with areas where peat erosion could be identified through photo-interpretation

Step-by-Step Canonical Quantum Gravity -- Part I: Ashtekar's New Variables

Canonical quantum gravity was first developed by Abhay Ashtekar, Lee Smolin, Carlo Rovelli and their collaborators in the late 1980s. It was a major breakthrough that successfully brought Einstein's theory of General Relativity (GR) into a Yang-Mills-type gauge theory. A new era of quantum gravity research has since started, and with decades of continued efforts from a relatively small community, the area now known as Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) has flourished, making it a promising theory of quantum gravity. Due to its incredibly high level of complexity, many technical details were left out in introductory texts on LQG. In particular, resources that are appropriate to the undergraduate level are extremely limited. Consequently, there exists a huge gap between the knowledge base of an undergraduate physics major and the necessary readiness to carry out LQG research. In an effort to fill this gap, we aim to develop a pedagogical user guide that provides a step-by-step walk-through of canonical quantum gravity, without compromising necessary technical details. We hope that our attempt will bring more exposure to undergraduates on the exciting early developments of canonical quantum gravity, and provide them with the necessary foundation to explore active research fields such as black hole thermodynamics, Wheeler-DeWitt equation, and so on. This work will also serve as a solid base for anyone hoping to pursue further study in LQG at a higher level

Optimising the analysis of transcript data using high density oligonucleotide arrays and genomic DNA-based probe selection

Background: Affymetrix GeneChip arrays are widely used for transcriptomic studies in a diverse range of species. Each gene is represented on a GeneChip array by a probe-set, consisting of up to 16 probe-pairs. Signal intensities across probe-pairs within a probe-set vary in part due to different physical hybridisation characteristics of individual probes with their target labelled transcripts. We have previously developed a technique to study the transcriptomes of heterologous species based on hybridising genomic DNA (gDNA) to a GeneChip array designed for a different species, and subsequently using only those probes with good homology. Results: Here we have investigated the effects of hybridising homologous species gDNA to study the transcriptomes of species for which the arrays have been designed. Genomic DNA from Arabidopsis thaliana and rice (Oryza sativa) were hybridised to the Affymetrix Arabidopsis ATH1 and Rice Genome GeneChip arrays respectively. Probe selection based on gDNA hybridisation intensity increased the number of genes identified as significantly differentially expressed in two published studies of Arabidopsis development, and optimised the analysis of technical replicates obtained from pooled samples of RNA from rice. Conclusion: This mixed physical and bioinformatics approach can be used to optimise estimates of gene expression when using GeneChip arrays

Analysis of a risk based model for the growth of AIDS infection

Several models for the spread of AIDS within a homosexual community have been proposed that incorporate biased mixing of different risk groups. A simple model is presented that captures many of the features of these more complex models. Analytical expressions are derived for the time to the state of maximum infection (SMI) in a particular risk group, the proportion infected at SMI, and the number of infected individuals as the group approaches SMI. These results agree qualitatively with numerical simulations of the model

The Ursinus Weekly, February 18, 1918

Founders\u27 Day a most enjoyable occasion • Winter meeting of the Board of Directors • Peer Gynt recital crowning event • Zwinglian prize essay: War and education • Literary societies • Scrubs are again defeated • William H. Yoch, ex-18, dies at Camp Meade • On the campus • Varsity easily disposes of Moravianhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/2550/thumbnail.jp

Evidence for Early Literacy Intervention: The Impacts of Reading Recovery

Research increasingly links low literacy levels in the early grades with a range of poor outcomes; for instance, students who read below grade level at the end of third grade are about four times less likely than their higher-achieving peers to graduate from high school (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2010, 2011; Balfanz, Bridgeland, Bruce & Fox, 2012). In a four-year study, researchers from the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) at the University of Pennsylvania and the Center for Research on Education and Social Policy (CRESP) at the University of Delaware examined the effectiveness of Reading Recovery—a widely used 1st grade literacy program—at helping struggling early readers catch up. The study’s findings offer promise for intensive early literacy intervention