The Cucamonga Middle School web page: Using parent input to redesign an existing school web page

This project focused on the enhancement of an existing school web page. Schools have jumped on the bandwagon in record numbers in the past couple of years publishing web pages about their schools. Cucamonga Middle School is no exception, having first published a web site in 1995. Utilizing information gathered from a survey, the author/webmaster created a redesign of the existing school webpage. The wants and needs of parents, as noted in the survey were the driving force behind the redesign

Methods for Inactivating PEDV in Hog Trailers

Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) was first described in England in 1971 in growing pigs and the causative agent, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), was identified in 1978. The virus spread to the rest of Europe where it caused outbreaks of diarrhea and significant losses throughout the 1970s and 1980s. PEDV is considered endemic to Europe today, but does not cause widespread significant disease. In parts of Asia outbreaks were recognized first in 1982 and have continued to occur since. In May of 2013 PEDV was identified in swine for the first time in the United States. The virus has caused severe diarrhea in sows and piglets, with near 100% mortality in piglets across a wide geographical area of the United States. Genetic analysis of PEDV isolates from affected farms in the US found the virus to be 99% genetically similar to isolates from China, but efforts to determine the source of entry to the United States have been unsuccessful

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOBLOLLY PINE SMALL CLEAR SPECIMENS AND DIMENSION LUMBER TESTED IN STATIC BENDING

Prior to the 1980s the allowable stresses for lumber in North America were derived from testing of small clear specimens but the procedures changed because these models were found to be inaccurate.  Nevertheless, small clear testing continues to be used around the world for allowable stress determinations and in studies that examine forest management impacts on wood quality.  Using small clears and nondestructive technologies is advantageous because of the ease of obtaining and testing small clear specimens compared to lumber.  The objective of this study was to compare the mechanical properties in bending of small clear specimens with lumber specimens for loblolly pine.  Eight hundred and forty-one pieces of lumber in the No. 1 to No. 3 grades and 2×4 to 2×10 sizes were collected from a forest-thru-mill study and tested in static bending.  A small clear specimen (25 x 25 x 410 mm) was prepared from each piece of lumber and tested in static bending.  The effect of growth ring orientation was explored and overall samples tested on the radial or rift face did a better job of explaining the variation in lumber than samples tested on the tangential face; however, the relationships were generally poor for the modulus of elasticity (MOE) (R2 = 0.22) and modulus of rupture (MOR) (R2 = 0.11) pooled data.  A lumber-based multiple regression model explained 44% and 37% of the variability for MOE and MOR, respectively; whereas a stand-based multiple regression model explained 41% and 29% of the variability for MOE and MOR, respectively

Effects of lithium on electrical activity and potassium ion distribution in the vertebrate central nervous system

Three different regions of the vertebrate central nervous system maintained in vitro (frog spinal cord, guinea pig olfactory cortex and hippocampus) have been used to investigate how Li+ influences membrane potential, membrane resistance, action potentials, synaptic potentials and the transmembrane K+-distribution of neurons and glial cells. In view of the therapeutic action of Li+ in manicdepressive disease, a special effort was made to determine the threshold concentration for the actions of Li+ on the parameters described above. It was observed that Li+ induced a membrane depolarization of both neurons and glial cells, a decrease of action potential amplitudes, a facilitation of monosynaptic excitatory postsynaptic potentials and a depression of polysynaptic reflexes. The membrane resistance of neurons was not altered. Li+ also induced an elevation of the free extracellular potassium concentration and a decrease of the free intracellular potassium concentration. Furthermore, in the presence of Li+ a slowing of the recovery of the membrane potential of neurons and glial cells, and of the extracellular potassium concentration after repetitive synaptic stimulation was observed. The threshold concentrations for the effects of Li+ were below 5 mmol/l in the frog spinal cord and below 2 mmol/l in the guinea pig olfactory cortex and hippocampus. The basic mechanism underlying the action of Li+ may be an interaction with the transport-function of the Na+/K+ pump

A New Alkali-Silica Reaction (ASR) Mitigation Technology - Part I: Comparing with Li, Ca, Al Salts, and Densified Silica Fume

Alkali-silica reaction (ASR) is a major concrete durability problem. The occurrence of ASR results in significant maintenance and reconstruction costs to concrete infrastructures all over the world. Ever since Stanton (1940) discovered the expansive characteristics of ASR in 1940, there has been much speculation as to the cause and actual mechanism of expansion. Current market solutions are not always sustainable, such as hauling non-reactive aggregates or fly ash from long distance; or use of Li-based chemical admixture that is facing challenge of raw material‘s availability. The current article will present a patent pending technology which provides a commercial solution for mitigating the ASR. The ASR mitigating effect of this technology is compared with lithium, calcium, and aluminum salts, and densified silica fume

Dynamically linking influenza virus infection kinetics, lung injury, inflammation, and disease severity

Influenza viruses cause a significant amount of morbidity and mortality. Understanding host immune control efficacy and how different factors influence lung injury and disease severity are critical. We established and validated dynamical connections between viral loads, infected cells, CD

SDSS J1254+0846: A Binary Quasar Caught in the Act of Merging

We present the first luminous, spatially resolved binary quasar that clearly inhabits an ongoing galaxy merger. SDSS J125455.09+084653.9 and SDSS J125454.87+084652.1 (SDSS J1254+0846 hereafter) are two luminous z=0.44 radio quiet quasars, with a radial velocity difference of just 215 km/s, separated on the sky by 21 kpc in a disturbed host galaxy merger showing obvious tidal tails. The pair was targeted as part of a complete sample of binary quasar candidates with small transverse separations drawn from SDSS DR6 photometry. We present follow-up optical imaging which shows broad, symmetrical tidal arm features spanning some 75 kpc at the quasars' redshift. Numerical modeling suggests that the system consists of two massive disk galaxies prograde to their mutual orbit, caught during the first passage of an active merger. This demonstrates rapid black hole growth during the early stages of a merger between galaxies with pre-existing bulges. Neither of the two luminous nuclei show significant instrinsic absorption by gas or dust in our optical or X-ray observations, illustrating that not all merging quasars will be in an obscured, ultraluminous phase. We find that the Eddington ratio for the fainter component B is rather normal, while for the A component L/LEdd is quite (>3sigma) high compared to quasars of similar luminosity and redshift, possibly evidence for strong merger-triggered accretion. More such mergers should be identifiable at higher redshifts using binary quasars as tracers.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted to the Astrophysical Journal for the February 2010 - 20 v710 issue. Latest version corrects author lis

Ursinus College Student-Managed Investment Fund Prospectus, Fall 2018

This prospectus contains a performance summary for previous stocks and endowment funds as well as strategy and analysis for the following new stocks in the managed fund: American Woodmark Corporation, Comtech Telecommunications Corp. and LGL Group, Inc

AMI observations of unmatched Planck ERCSC LFI sources at 15.75 GHz

The Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue includes 26 sources with no obvious matches in other radio catalogues (of primarily extragalactic sources). Here we present observations made with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager Small Array (AMI SA) at 15.75 GHz of the eight of the unmatched sources at declination > +10 degrees. Of the eight, four are detected and are associated with known objects. The other four are not detected with the AMI SA, and are thought to be spurious.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 4 table