Experimental evaluation of small-scale erectable truss hardware

To aid in the prediction of the dynamic behavior of the space station, a one-tenth scale dynamic test model is to be constructed of commercially available, small scale truss hardware. Tests have been performed to determine the axial stiffness characteristics and failure loads of the truss joint. A parametric study has shown that the stiffness of the joint increases as the attachment bolt torque value is increased. Furthermore, at torque values equal to or higher than 250 in-lbs, hysteresis in the load-deflection curve is essentially eliminated. Also, the joint stiffness remained relatively constant between specimens. The effective stiffness of a joint subassembly tested is 76 percent that of the strut. Tensile and compressive failure occurred in the region of the bonded plug, with lower failure loads corresponding to compressive loadings

The People’s University of the Air: St. Francis Xavier University Extension, Social Christianity, and the Creation of CJFX

Broadcast historians have identified government regulations restricting the ownership of broadcast licenses and programming by religious groups as having successfully limited the influence of religion on the public airwaves in Canada. Evidence for such claims has been derived primarily from the examination of the archives of the CBC and not from private broadcasters, who were far more numerous in Canada. In Antigonish, Nova Scotia, the priest-professors at St. Francis Xavier University established a private radio station, CJFX, which effectively allowed them to propagate the principles of Catholic social teaching to large listenership (suggesting that religious groups were quite creative in their use of media).Des historiens de la radiotélévision ont déterminé que des règlements du gouvernement qui limitaient la propriété des licences de radiodiffusion et la programmation par des groupes religieux ont réussi à restreindre l’influence de la religion sur les ondes publiques au Canada. De telles affirmations s’appuient sur des preuves tirées principalement de l’examen des archives de Radio-Canada et non de diffuseurs privés, qui étaient beaucoup plus nombreux au Canada. À Antigonish, en Nouvelle-Écosse, les prêtres-professeurs de la St.  Francis Xavier University créèrent une station de radio privée, CJFX, qui leur permit dans les faits de propager les principes des enseignements sociaux catholiques à un vaste auditoire (ce qui porte à croire que les groupes religieux faisaient un usage plutôt créatif des médias)

Census 2010 and Human Services and Community Development

Census 2010 and Human Services and Community Development, Planning & Action, The Center for Community Solutions, Vol. 63, No. 2 (March), 2010, pp 1-4

The De-Greening of the Irish : Toronto’s Irish‑Catholic Press, Imperialism, and the Forging of a New Identity, 1887-1914

Traditionally Canadian and American historians have assumed thai Irish Catholics in urban centres constituted highly resistant subcultures in the face of a dominantProtestant majority. In Canada, scholars have stated that these Irish-Catholic subcultures kept themselves isolated, socially and religiously, from the Anglo- Protestant society around them. Between 1890 and 1918, however, the Irish Catholics of Toronto underwent significant social, ideological, and economic changes that hastened their integration into Toronto society. By World War One, Irish Catholics were dispersed in all of Toronto's neighbourhoods; they permeated the city's occupational structure at all levels; and they intermarried with Protestants at an unprecedented rate. These changes were greatly influenced by Canadian-born generations of Irish-Catholic clergy and laity.This paper argues that these social, ideological, and emotional realignments were confirmed and articulated most clearly in the city's Catholic press. Editors drew up new lines of loyally for Catholics and embraced the notion of an autonomous Canadian nation within the British Empire. What developed was a sense of English-speaking Catholic Canadian identity which included a love of the British Crown, allegiance to the Empire, and a duty to participate in Canadian nation-building. In the process, a sense of Irish identity declined as new generations of Catholics chose to contextualize their Catholicism in a Canadian cultural milieu. The press expressed a variant of the imperial-nationalist theme, which blended devout Catholicism with a theory of imperial “interdependence.” This maturation of a new identity facilitated Catholic participation in the First World War and underscored an English-speaking Catholic effort to evangelize and anglicize “new” Catholic Canadians. By the end of the war, Toronto's Irish Catholics were imbued with zealous Canadian patriotism, complemented, in part, by their greater social integration into the city's mainstream.En histoire canadienne et américaine, on a toujours affirmé que les Irlandais catholiques constituaient une sous-culture, qui s'opposait fermement à la majorité protestante.Pour le Canada, on a soutenu que les Irlandais catholiques s'étaient isolés de la communauté protestante par une barrière sociale et religieuse. Pourtant, entre 1890 et 1918, à Toronto, d'importants changements dans leurs activités et leur mentalité ont accéléré leur intégration sociale. Quand s'est déclarée la Première guerre mondiale, les Irlandais catholiques étaient dispersés dans tous les quartiers de Toronto; ils avaient pris leur place dans tous les milieux et à tous les niveaux; leurs mariages avec les protestantsavaient atteint un taux sans précédent. A l'origine de ces changements, il y avait l'influence des générations d'Irlandais catholiques, prêtres et laïques, nés au Canada.Notre article soutient que la presse catholique de Toronto confirmait et soutenait ces changements sociaux, idéologiques et viscéraux des Irlandais catholiques. Elle proposait une nouvelle définition du loyalisme et adoptait l'idée dun Canada autonome dans l'Empire britannique. En conséquence, il s'est développé dans la communauté catholique de langue anglaise une nouvelle identité, qui comprenait l'attachement à la Couronne britannique, l'appartenance à l'Empire et l'obligation de participer à l'établissement d'une nation canadienne. C'est ainsi que l'identité irlandaise s'est estompée graduellement, au rythme où les nouvelles générations choisissaient d'adapter leur catholicisme à la culture canadienne. La presse présentait une variante de la thématique impérialisme-nationalisme en associant le catholicisme fervent à « l'interdépendance » impériale. L'avènement d'une nouvelle identité a favorisé la participation des catholiques à la guerre et maximisé l'effort des catholiques anglophones pour évangéliser et angliciser les « nouveaux » Canadiens catholiques.À la fin de la guerre, il y avait chez les Irlandais catholiques de Toronto un patriotisme apostolique qui s'expliquait, en partie, par leur intégration sociale

Real-Time Detection of Optical Transients with RAPTOR

Fast variability of optical objects is an interesting though poorly explored subject in modern astronomy. Real-time data processing and identification of transient celestial events in the images is very important for such study as it allows rapid follow-up with more sensitive instruments. We discuss an approach which we have developed for the RAPTOR project, a pioneering closed-loop system combining real-time transient detection with rapid follow-up. RAPTOR's data processing pipeline is able to identify and localize an optical transient within seconds after the observation. The testing we performed so far have been confirming the effectiveness of our method for the optical transient detection. The software pipeline we have developed for RAPTOR can easily be applied to the data from other experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, to appear in SPIE proceedings vol. 484

Evaluating a pass/fail grading model in first year undergraduate computing.

This Innovative Practice Full Paper investigates the implications of implementing a Pass/Fail marking scheme within the undergraduate curriculum, specifically across first year computing modules in a Scottish Higher Education Institution. The motivation for this implementation was to ease stress and pressure on students entering higher education, which became particularly relevant following the COVID-19 pandemic. The study reports on the results of a survey that gathered feedback from Stage 1 and Stage 2 students who experienced the Pass/Fail implementation, and results shows that students generally appreciate the Pass/Fail model, although for many, the benefits only become apparent once they are exposed to alternative grading models. A number of recommendations are made for the implementation of similar marking schemes within computing in Higher Education curricula

Cognitive factors mediating situation awareness

The six experiments reported in this thesis tested Endsley's (1995) three level theory of perception, comprehension and projection in SA alongside relevant cognitive theories, using a driving hazard perception test (HPT) of both hazard recognition and hazard anticipation as the main dependent measures. Experiments 1 and 2 tested the effects of training and expertise on the HPT, revealing a positive association between hazard anticipation and both SA training and expertise. Experiment 2 revealed a potentially complex relationship between expertise and recognition and anticipation. The effects of training Endsley's (1995) perception and comprehension levels of SA did not appear to be additive as predicted by that theory. Experiments 3 and 4 tested the effects of concurrent freeze probes and real time SA probes on the HPT. This revealed a negative effect of interruption and a positive effect of reorientation (revealing the rationale of the task) associated with the use of a freeze probe, in terms of hazard anticipation. Furthermore, these two effects appear to be mutually cancelling. It was also found that notification of forthcoming online probes does not ameliorate the negative effects of those interruptions in terms of hazard anticipation. Experiments 5 and 6 tested the effects of working memory interference in terms of visual-spatial, phonological and episodic buffer processing on the two HPT measures. This revealed more deleterious effects on hazard recognition associated with visual-spatial and episodic buffer interference than with phonological interference. It is argued that in terms of SA related visual processing during driving Milner and Goodale's (1992) dual pathway theory appears to have more explanatory power than Endsley's (1995) theory of SA

Estimating survival of precocial chicks during the prefledging period using a catch-curve analysis and count-based age-class data

ABSTRACT: Estimating reproductive success for birds with pre-cocial young can be difficult because chicks leave nests soon after hatching and individuals or broods can be difficult to track. Researchers often turn to estimating survival during the pre-fledging period and, though effective, mark-recapture based approaches are not always feasible due to cost, time, and animal welfare concerns. Using a threatened population of Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus) that breeds along the Missouri River, we present an approach for estimating chick survival during the pre-fledging period using long-term (1993–2005), count-based, age-class data. We used a modified catch-curve analysis, and data collected during three 5-day sampling periods near the middle of the breeding season. The approach has several ecological and statistical assumptions and our analyses were designed to minimize the probability of violating those assumptions. For example, limiting the sampling periods to only 5 days gave reasonable assurance that population size was stable during the sampling period. Annual daily survival estimates ranged from 0.825 (SD = 0.03) to 0.931 (0.02) depending on year and sampling period, with these estimates assuming constant survival during the pre-fledging period and no change in the age structure of the population. The average probability of survival to fledging ranged from 0.126 to 0.188. Our results are similar to other published estimates for this species in similar habitats. This method of estimating chick survival may be useful for a variety of pre-cocial bird species when mark-recapture methods are not feasible and only count-based age class data are available. RESUMEN. La estimaci´on de la supervivencia de polluelos precociales durante el periodo pre-volant´on usando un an´alisis de curva de captura y datos con clases de edades basados en conteos Estimar el ´exito reproductivo de aves con polluelos precociales puede ser dif´ıcil debido a que los polluelos dejan el nido poco despu´es de eclosionar y los individuos o nidadas pueden ser dif´ıciles de seguir. Los investigadores a menudo estiman la supervivencia durante el periodo pre-volant´on y aunque son efectivos, los m´etodos de marcaje y recaptura no son siempre factibles por razones del costo, tiempo y bienestar del animal. Usando una poblaci´on amenazada de Charadrius melodus que se reproduce sobre el R´ıo Missouri, presentamos un m´etodo para estimar la supervivencia de polluelos durante el periodo pre-volant´on usando datos de largo plazo (1993–2005) con clases de edades, basados en conteos. Utilizamos un an´alisis de curva de captura modificada y datos colectados durante tres periodos de muestreo de cinco d´ıas cada uno, cerca del medio de la ´epoca reproductiva. Este m´etodo tiene algunos supuestos ecol´ogicos y estad´ısticos y nuestros an´alisis fueron dise˜nados para minimizar la probabilidad de violar dichos supuestos. Por ejemplo, limitando los periodos de muestreo a solo cinco d´ıas dio el resultado razonable de que el tama˜no de la poblaci´on fue estable durante el periodo de muestreo. Las estimaciones de la supervivencia diaria anual variaron entre 0.825 (DE = 0.03) y 0.931 (0.02), dependiendo del a˜no y periodo de muestreo. Estas estimaciones dependieron de la suposici´on de una supervivencia constante durante el periodo pre-volant´on y de ning´un cambio en la estructura de la edad de la poblaci´on. El promedio de la probabilidad de supervivencia en la etapa pre-volant´on vari´o desde 0.126 hasta 0.188. Nuestros resultados son similares a otras estimaciones publicadas para esta especie en h´abitats similares. Este m´etodo de estimar la supervivencia de los polluelos podr´ıa ser ´util para una variedad de especies de aves precociales cuando los m´etodos de marcaje y recaptura no son factibles y cuando solo est´an disponibles datos con clases de edades basados en conteos