Effects of deployment on committed relationships: relationship satisfaction of partners of regular and reservist Army soldiers

Having a partner as a part of the military induces a level of great stress. There is an absence of literature focusing on the unique circumstances that Reservist and National Guard soldiers and their families face with deployment. This project aimed to explore the unique challenges of part-time military families, looking specifically into how partners of reservist military and regular military soldiers significantly differ in their description of the deployment experience and relational/marital satisfaction, as well as if deployment experience factors or certain demographic characteristics of partners of soldiers predict reported rates of marital satisfaction. A snowballing method to recruit participants was used in which participants accessed an internet-based survey, which consisted of demographics, deployment information, and contact during deployment, and the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS). Dyadic adjustment of regular army and reservist partners revealed a minor difference of relational cohesion based on partner\u27s military affiliation. Differences in reported martial satisfaction were also found to be influenced by age and the interaction of age and partner\u27s military affiliation. Partners of regular army soldiers also indicated having a greater number of resources available for support during deployment and utilizing a greater number of methods to maintain contact during deployment. Qualitative analysis of participants\u27 descriptions of challenges and recommendations suggested parenting and childcare to be the most common challenge among regular and reservist components. Partners of regular army soldiers also appeared to frequently specify the need for social supports to be military affiliated. Limitations and contributions of findings are also discussed

Emma Goldman and Birth Control: Honest Goals or Ulterior Motives?

Emma Goldman proved herself to be a powerful force on American society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For many years, the activist had the uncanny ability to seize the mass consciousness of America and never let go. Though she was often criticized, even reviled during her career as an anarchist, her reputation became rehabilitated over the years. Today, few people recall the Red Emma of long ago, a persona that many Americans scoffed at. Instead, she has become an icon and folk hero for many people, perhaps because the American public has finally seen and understood her many contributions to society. One of those important contributions made by Emma Goldman was her ardent support of the birth control movement between the years 1914 to 1916, crucial years in which the American public began to embrace the possibility and need for birth control in American society. Without doubt, Emma Goldman played a pivotal role in this movement. This paper puts forth the proposition that Emma Goldman saw birth control as a means of gaining an audience for her greater ideas of anarchism

Math 1113 Precalculus Emporium: A Multi-Institutional Online Pre-Calculus Course

One stumbling block for students considering becoming a STEM major has been introductory math courses. A new, innovative precalculus course being developed and delivered by five USG institutions may provide a solution. MATH 1113e Precalculus Emporium combines lessons learned from the Math Emporium model pioneered at Virginia Tech with elements of MOOC delivery to create a highly interactive and support rich online course model. While the pilot debuted in January 2014 with students and faculty from five institutions, the larger vision is for the course to become available for all USG institutions in the near future

STEM Enhancement Programs: The National Context

We present findings from a review of the scholarly literature and Web survey that were undertaken to develop a catalogue of STEM enhancement programs. Our research revealed that 42 states have developed such programs, 30 of which focus specifically on P-16 STEM education. This session will discuss our findings and report on other programs comparable to the USG STEM Initiative

The Transport History of Alluvial Fan Sediment Inferred From Multiple Geochronometers

We present a multi-chronometer approach to refine the age of an alluvial fan and to infer sediment transport and deposition history in the Anza Borrego Desert region of Southern California. We measure in situ produced cosmogenic carbon-14 (14C) from boulders on the fan surface and infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) ages from single feldspar grains within the alluvium. Our new IRSL age [5.3 ± 0.5 ka (±1σ)] is in excellent agreement with existing uranium-series [U-series; 5.3 ± 0.2 (±2σ)] ages of pedogenic carbonates. The IRSL and U-series ages show that in situ 14C measurements [6.6 ± 1.1 ka (±1σ)] from boulders contain inherited nuclides from prior exposure in the upstream catchment, much like measurements of the longer-lived nuclide, beryllium-10 (10Be). However, in situ 14C ages are closer to the preferred ages inferred from IRSL and U-series and with less scatter than comparative 10Be ages. Our data demonstrate that a multi-geochronometer approach will produce ages of alluvial fan surfaces with the greatest degree of confidence. We then apply the paired 14C and 10Be concentrations to infer the prior exposure and storage duration of the sampled boulders of 3.1 ± 3.2 and 4.6 ± 2.3 Kyr, respectively. A mixture model analysis of the single grain IRSL ages suggests bimodal storage durations prior to remobilization with peaks at ca. 2 and 10 Kyr. We demonstrate that cosmogenic nuclide inheritance and single grain IRSL equivalent dose distributions can provide additional information regarding sediment transport history prior to deposition on the alluvial fan

USG MATH 1113 Emporium: Insights from an Online Precalculus Course

The USG MATH 1113 Precalculus Emporium is a project to develop and implement an online, rigorous learning experience to improve student success with the additional goal of greater affordability. Based on initial experiences from Spring 2014, the MATH 1113 Precalculus Emporium was revised and continued in Fall 2014. This second pilot of the course involved a number of key revisions: - Online course orientation materials (overview of instructional technologies, academic honesty policies, time management plan, and orientation quiz), - Revised instructional model based involving a team of graduate teaching assistants, - Module balancing with a shift from four to five course assessments, - Revised weekly pacing and structure, - Additional video content and emphasis on online study halls. In this presentation aimed at postsecondary faculty in mathematics and online instructors, we discuss these revisions. We preview further developments, including a comprehensive online supplemental instruction program for Spring 2015

Where the Cathedrals and Bazaars Are: An Index of Open Source Software Activity and Potential

This article presents a framework to measure activity and potential for open source software development and use at a country level. The framework draws on interviews with experts in the open source software industry and numerous existing studies in the literature to identify relevant indicators. Several indices of diverse variable lists and weighting and aggregation methods were developed and tested for robustness. The results provide a first step toward more systematically understanding the current state of open source software internationally

Experimental demonstration of digital predistortion for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing-radio over fibre links near laser resonance

Radio over fibre (RoF), an enabling technology for distribution of wireless broadband service signals through analogue optical links, suffers from non-linear distortion. Digital predistortion has been demonstrated as an effective approach to overcome the RoF non-linearity. However, questions remain as to how the approach performs close to laser resonance, a region of significant dynamic non-linearity, and how resilient the approach is to changes in input signal and link operating conditions. In this work, the performance of a digital predistortion approach is studied for directly modulated orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing RoF links operating from 2.47 to 3.7 GHz. It extends previous works to higher frequencies, and to higher quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) levels. In addition, the resilience of the predistortion approach to changes in modulation level of QAM schemes, and average power levels are investigated, and a novel predistortion training approach is proposed and demonstrated. Both memoryless and memory polynomial predistorter models, and a simple off-line least-squares-based identification method, are used, with excellent performance improvements demonstrated up to 3.0 GHz