Experimental Performance of a Solar Air Collector with a Perforated Back Plate in New Zealand

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A Study of a Mini-drift GEM Tracking Detector

A GEM tracking detector with an extended drift region has been studied as part of an effort to develop new tracking detectors for future experiments at RHIC and for the Electron Ion Collider that is being planned for BNL or JLAB. The detector consists of a triple GEM stack with a small drift region that was operated in a mini TPC type configuration. Both the position and arrival time of the charge deposited in the drift region were measured on the readout plane which allowed the reconstruction of a short vector for the track traversing the chamber. The resulting position and angle information from the vector could then be used to improve the position resolution of the detector for larger angle tracks, which deteriorates rapidly with increasing angle for conventional GEM tracking detectors using only charge centroid information. Two types of readout planes were studied. One was a COMPASS style readout plane with 400 micron pitch XY strips and the other consisted of 2x10mm2 chevron pads. The detector was studied in test beams at Fermilab and CERN, along with additional measurements in the lab, in order to determine its position and angular resolution for incident track angles up to 45 degrees. Several algorithms were studied for reconstructing the vector using the position and timing information in order to optimize the position and angular resolution of the detector for the different readout planes. Applications for large angle tracking detectors at RHIC and EIC are also discussed.Comment: Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Scienc

Prevalence and severity of dental caries among American Indian and Alaska Native preschool children

Objectives: To describe the Indian Health Service (IHS) oral health surveillance system and the oral health status of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children aged 1‐5 years. Methods: A stratified probability sample of IHS/tribal sites was selected. Children were screened by trained examiners at community‐based locations including medical clinics, Head Start, preschools, kindergarten, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Data collection was limited to the primary dentition and included number of teeth present plus number of teeth with cavitated lesions, restorations, and extracted because of decay. Number of molars with sealants and urgency of need for dental care data were also obtained. Statistical analyses were performed with SAS (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Sample weights were used to produce population estimates based on selection probabilities. Results: A total of 8,461 AI/AN children 12‐71 months of age were screened at 63 IHS/tribal sites, approximately 7 percent of the estimated IHS user population of the same age. Overall, 54 percent of the children had decay experience, 39 percent had untreated decay, 7 percent had primary molar sealants, 36 percent needed early or urgent dental care, and 6 percent needed urgent dental care. The mean of decayed, missing, or filled teeth was 3.5 (95 percent confidence interval, 3.1‐3.9). The prevalence of decay experience increased with age; 21 percent of 1‐year‐olds and 75 percent of 5‐year‐olds had a history of caries. When stratified by IHS area, there were substantial differences in the oral health of preschool children. Conclusions: The results confirm that in the United States, AI/AN children served by IHS/tribal programs are one of the racial/ethnic groups at highest risk of caries.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93514/1/j.1752-7325.2012.00331.x.pd

Four Comic One-Act Plays

These fast-paced comedies have been collected to be performed together as one entertaining show. All rooted in farce comedy, each explores the frustrating, exasperating, and fun-to-watch situations that happen to people in various social settings. The five short plays are “An Unwilling Martyr,” which presents an overburdened man dealing with ludicrous chores and obligations; “The Anniversary,” which takes a look at frenetic scenes at a bank; “The Wedding,” which depicts a social setting where the mother-of-the-bride causes some awkward but hilarious gaffes; “The Bear,” where a widow unable to pay her rent turns the tables on her landlord; and “The Proposal,” where a suitor winds up in a battle over property. The production will feature Russian music and dancing in a colorful and exciting show set in the social world of the 1890s.https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/theatre_productions/1048/thumbnail.jp

The Integral Fast Reactor concept: Today's hope for tomorrow's electrical energy needs

Acid rain and the greenhouse effect are getting more attention as their impacts on the environment become evident around the world. Substantial evidence indicates that fossil fuel combustion for electrical energy production activities is a key cause of those problems. A change in electrical energy production policy is essential to a stable, healthy environment. That change is inevitable, it's just a matter of when and at what cost. Vision now, instead of reaction later, both in technological development and public perception, will help to limit the costs of change. The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) is a visionary concept developed by Argonne National Laboratory that involves electrical energy production through fissioning of heavy metals by fast neutrons in a reactor cooled by liquid sodium. Physical characteristics of the coolant and fuel give the reactor impressive characteristics of inherent and passive safety. Spent fuel is pyrochemically reprocessed and returned to the reactor in the IFR's closed fuel cycle. Advantages in waste management are realized, and the reactor has the potential for breeding, i.e., producing as much or more fuel than it uses. This paper describes the IFR concept and shows how it is today's hope for tomorrow's electrical energy needs. 14 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab

Silent Sky

Henrietta Leavitt is excited to land a job at the prestigious Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s. Once on the job, she soon realizes she was not hired to be an astronomer, but to serve with a group of female “computers” who merely chart the stars for a man who thinks women are not worthy to be astronomers. Henrietta persists in making her mark within the astronomical society, but finds as she measures the light and distance of stars that she must also take measure of her life on Earth. As a result, she has to choose between her dedication to science, her family, or the possibility of love. Based on the true story of 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, the play explores a woman’s place in society during a time of immense scientific discoveries, when women’s ideas were dismissed and credited to men in the field. Leavitt’s story changes the way we see and understand both the glory of the heavens and our purpose on the Earth.https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/theatre_productions/1049/thumbnail.jp

The Comedy of Errors

This earliest of Shakespeare’s comedies is set in the ancient Greek town of Ephesus, where two sets of brothers had been separated in infancy during a tragic shipwreck long ago. Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio arrive in town, not knowing that it is the home of Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant, Dromio. Ephesian law forbids anyone from Syracuse to come into the town, and if caught doing so, will be put to death unless able to pay an enormous ransom. Egeon, father of the Antipholus twins, convinces the ruler of Ephesus to give him one day to find his long lost son. He is granted the time, and comic misadventures unfold as themes of mistaken identity, romantic disasters, false accusations and confusion take place. The befuddlement of the characters is even more fun for the audience to watch since we can tell the twins apart, but the characters cannot!https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/theatre_productions/1044/thumbnail.jp

The Beams Are Creaking

The inspiring, powerful, true story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who defied the Nazis and ultimately led an assassination attempt against Hitler. Part political thriller, part love story, and leavened with moments of humor, it is filled with a compassion that reaffirms one’s faith in man.https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/theatre_productions/1052/thumbnail.jp

Saturation of absorption in p

A time-resolved measurement on the recovery of saturation in p-Ge was performed with picosecond CO{sub 2} laser pulses. It was directly confirmed that the relaxation of hole excitation in p-Ge was faster than 40 psec and that this type of measurement can provide additional temporal information on picosecond pulses