American Literatures Prior to 1865

This work was created as part of the University Libraries’ Open Educational Resources Initiative at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. A web version of this text can be found at https://umsystem.pressbooks.pub/alpt1865/. This anthology of American Literatures Prior to 1865, is organized chronologically into four units, focusing on Colonial Literature, Literature of Native American Perspectives and Discovery, Literature of Nineteenth Century Reform, and Literature of the New Nation. It includes introductions to the many authors included to enhance the reader\u27s contextual understanding of the chosen texts. This anthology is essential reading for any student or scholar of Early American literature

Book Review: \u3cem\u3eThe Great God Baseball\u3c/em\u3e

The stated goals of this book are both evangelical and scholarly as Hye seeks to convince his readers, including the casual and non-baseball varieties, to pick up the nine books in his lineup. He also seeks to fill some of the gaps in sport literature scholarship and have his book serve as an agent for the intellectual, spiritual, and emotional renewal offered by the great game and literature of baseball (12)

Surface and Buried Landmine Scene Generation and Validation Using the Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Image Generation Model

Detection and neutralization of surface-laid and buried landmines has been a slow and dangerous endeavor for military forces and humanitarian organizations throughout the world. In an effort to make the process faster and safer, scientists have begun to exploit the ever-evolving passive electro-optical realm, both from a broadband perspective and a multi or hyperspectral perspective. Carried with this exploitation is the development of mine detection algorithms that take advantage of spectral features exhibited by mine targets, only available in a multi or hyperspectral data set. Difficulty in algorithm development arises from a lack of robust data, which is needed to appropriately test the validity of an algorithm’s results. This paper discusses the development of synthetic data using the Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Image Generation (DIRSIG) model. A synthetic landmine scene has been modeled after data collected at a US Army arid testing site by the University of Hawaii’s Airborne Hyperspectral Imager (AHI). The synthetic data has been created and validated to represent the surrogate minefield thermally, spatially, spectrally, and temporally over the 7.9 to 11.5 micron region using 70 bands of data. Validation of the scene has been accomplished by direct comparison to the AHI truth data using qualitative band to band visual analysis, Rank Order Correlation comparison, Principle Components dimensionality analysis, and an evaluation of the R(x) algorithm’s performance. This paper discusses landmine detection phenomenology, describes the steps taken to build the scene, modeling methods utilized to overcome input parameter limitations, and compares the synthetic scene to truth data

Laser Mobile Mapping Standards and Applications in Transportation

This report describes the work that was done to support the development of a chapter for the INDOT Survey Manual on Mobile Mapping. The work includes experiments that were done, data that was collected, analysis that was carried out, and conclusions that were drawn about accuracy of Mobile Terrestrial Laser Scanning (MTLS) systems. The resulting Manual chapter, located in the appendix, defines standards and procedures for preparing, collecting, editing, delivering, exploiting, and archiving electronic mapping data that is created for Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). The purpose of the standards and procedures within this manual is to obtain statewide uniformity within the INDOT combined Aerial/Ground Survey process, to establish and maintain MTLS Standards for INDOT and contracted consultants, and allow for all of the project data to be effectively managed from conception to completion. These standards apply to all projects delivered to INDOT by contracted consulting firms, or exchanged internally within INDOT or between state agencies. The standards and procedures are the result of mobile terrestrial laser scanning surveys of two test sites - one urban and one freeway - created for this project. After establishing reference control points on the sites, each site was surveyed by four mobile terrestrial laser scanning vendors. The results from the vendor data over the test sites, in addition to information in published literature, are the basis for the specifications manual. The proposed chapter for the Survey Manual is in Appendix E of this report

American Literatures After 1865

This work was created as part of the University Libraries’ Open Educational Resources Initiative at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. A web version of this text can be found at https://umsystem.pressbooks.pub/ala1865/. This book is an anthology of American Literatures After 1865, a new revision of the open educational resource entitled Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present. It contains works that have been newly introduced to the public domain and provides direct links to reading materials that can be borrowed for free from Archive.org

Dip coating process: Silicon sheet growth development for the large-area silicon sheet task of the low-cost silicon solar array project

The technical and economic feasibility of producing solar cell quality sheet silicon by dip-coating one surface of carbonized ceramic substrates with a thin layer of large grain polycrystalline silicon was investigated. The dip-coating methods studied were directed toward a minimum cost process with the ultimate objective of producing solar cells with a conversion efficiency of 10% or greater. The technique shows excellent promise for low cost, labor-saving, scale-up potentialities and would provide an end product of sheet silicon with a rigid and strong supportive backing. An experimental dip-coating facility was designed and constructed, several substrates were successfully dip-coated with areas as large as 25 sq cm and thicknesses of 12 micron to 250 micron. There appears to be no serious limitation on the area of a substrate that could be coated. Of the various substrate materials dip-coated, mullite appears to best satisfy the requirement of the program. An inexpensive process was developed for producing mullite in the desired geometry

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Pharmacy Teaching at a Midwestern University

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic severely impacted higher education institutions. In March 2020, the North Dakota State University School of Pharmacy notified faculty and students that the remainder of the semester would be taught using remote learning. The study objective is to determine how the change from the traditional classroom to remote learning impacted students and faculty. Pharmacy students were surveyed to ascertain how the transition to remote learning have impacted their learning. Additionally, faculty were surveyed using a semi-structured interview to assess their instructional efforts. The student survey findings identify several challenges impacting instruction, including online exam-taking and balancing time constraints. Faculty survey responses collected include themes of decreased student engagement, technology use and access, and transitions in the learning environment. Curriculum areas facing significant challenges during the pandemic include hands-on laboratory skills and experiential education which required multiple changes. Despite the challenges, faculty made the teaching transitions that they might not have otherwise tried. Assessing the impact of remote learning will continue to be important as the pandemic continues

The assessment of usability of electronic shopping: A heuristic evaluation

Today there are thousands of electronic shops accessible via the Web. Some provide user-friendly features whilst others seem not to consider usability factors at all. Yet, it is critical that the electronic shopping interface is user-friendly so as to help users to obtain their desired results. This study applied heuristic evaluation to examine the usability of current electronic shopping. In particular, it focused on four UK-based supermarkets offering electronic services: including ASDA, Iceland, Sainsbury, and Tesco. The evaluation consists of two stages: a free-flow inspection and a task-based inspection. The results indicate that the most significant and common usability problems have been found to lie within the areas of ‘User Control and Freedom’ and ‘Help and Documentation’. The findings of this study are applied to develop a set of usability guidelines to support the future design of effective interfaces for electronic shopping

High quality protein microarray using in situ protein purification

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the postgenomic era, high throughput protein expression and protein microarray technologies have progressed markedly permitting screening of therapeutic reagents and discovery of novel protein functions. Hexa-histidine is one of the most commonly used fusion tags for protein expression due to its small size and convenient purification via immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC). This purification process has been adapted to the protein microarray format, but the quality of <it>in situ </it>His-tagged protein purification on slides has not been systematically evaluated. We established methods to determine the level of purification of such proteins on metal chelate-modified slide surfaces. Optimized <it>in situ </it>purification of His-tagged recombinant proteins has the potential to become the new gold standard for cost-effective generation of high-quality and high-density protein microarrays.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two slide surfaces were examined, chelated Cu²⁺slides suspended on a polyethylene glycol (PEG) coating and chelated Ni²⁺slides immobilized on a support without PEG coating. Using PEG-coated chelated Cu²⁺slides, consistently higher purities of recombinant proteins were measured. An optimized wash buffer (PBST) composed of 10 mM phosphate buffer, 2.7 mM KCl, 140 mM NaCl and 0.05% Tween 20, pH 7.4, further improved protein purity levels. Using <it>Escherichia coli </it>cell lysates expressing 90 recombinant <it>Streptococcus pneumoniae </it>proteins, 73 proteins were successfully immobilized, and 66 proteins were <it>in situ </it>purified with greater than 90% purity. We identified several antigens among the <it>in situ</it>-purified proteins via assays with anti-<it>S. pneumoniae </it>rabbit antibodies and a human patient antiserum, as a demonstration project of large scale microarray-based immunoproteomics profiling. The methodology is compatible with higher throughput formats of <it>in vivo </it>protein expression, eliminates the need for resin-based purification and circumvents protein solubility and denaturation problems caused by buffer exchange steps and freeze-thaw cycles, which are associated with resin-based purification, intermittent protein storage and deposition on microarrays.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>An optimized platform for <it>in situ </it>protein purification on microarray slides using His-tagged recombinant proteins is a desirable tool for the screening of novel protein functions and protein-protein interactions. In the context of immunoproteomics, such protein microarrays are complimentary to approaches using non-recombinant methods to discover and characterize bacterial antigens.</p

Intergenerational Service Learning Program Improves Aging Knowledge and Expectations and Reduces Ageism in Younger Adults

This article discusses a study which evaluated the effects of an intergenerational service-learning exergaming program for older adults on younger adults’ aging knowledge, expectations, and perceptions. Eighteen college students (ages 19-26 years) served as trainers for an 8-week exergaming physical activity program for older adults (12 contact hours). Questionnaires assessing aging knowledge, ageist attitudes and aging expectations were completed at Weeks 1, 8, and 25 (follow-up); program evaluations were completed at Weeks 8 and 25. Significant improvement from Week 1 to Week 25 was found for: Aging knowledge scores (