Factors associated with statutory consortium effectiveness : a case study of one Virginia consortium for continuing higher education

The purpose of this study was to determine if a statutory higher education consortium possesses the attributes generally associated with effective voluntary higher education consortia. Also, the research attempted to discover if there are other attributes which would contribute to the effectiveness of statutory higher education consortia.;A review of the literature on voluntary consortia revealed that voluntary higher education consortia regarded as effective generally (1) have clear, concise goals; (2) have an open, two-way communication system; (3) are supported by the presidents of the member institutions; (4) engage in incremental planning; (5) have an effective administrator/director; and (6) are perceived as useful by the members.;Using case study methodology, one Virginia Consortium for Continuing Higher Education was examined to determine if the effectiveness attributes of voluntary consortia were present in this statutory higher education consortium and to determine if other attributes might also be essential for statutory consortium effectiveness. Interviews were held with the key people associated with the consortium under study. Consortium documents located at each interview site were examined. The data were evaluated through triangulation techniques.;This statutory consortium did have a clear, concise mission and did have an open, two-way communication system. Presidential support was found to be limited and the consortium\u27s usefulness to its members are restricted to secondary factors. The consortium leadership was viewed as effective although within a more narrow conception of leadership than that generally found in an effective voluntary consortium. Finally, evidence indicated that the consortium had no incremental planning process.;This research suggests that, to encourage the effectiveness of a statutory higher education consortium, the establishing agency should insure that several criteria are satisfied: (1) institutions must want to cooperate, (2) the reasons for cooperation must be clear, (3) incentives for cooperation must be provided, (4) all members must share equitably in the cooperative endeavor, (5) communication must be open and two-way, (6) the member institution presidents must support the consortium, (7) a planning process must be put in place, (8) the consortium administrator must be an effective leader, and (9) the external population the consortium plans to serve must be encouraged to use the consortium\u27s services

A helicoidal transfer matrix model for inhomogeneous DNA melting

An inhomogeneous helicoidal nearest-neighbor model with continuous degrees of freedom is shown to predict the same DNA melting properties as traditional long-range Ising models, for free DNA molecules in solution, as well as superhelically stressed DNA with a fixed linking number constraint. Without loss of accuracy, the continuous degrees of freedom can be discretized using a minimal number of discretization points, yielding an effective transfer matrix model of modest dimension (d=36). The resulting algorithms to compute DNA melting profiles are both simple and efficient.Comment: v3: Matlab toolbox included with source file; article unchanged, 12 pages, 11 figures, RevTe

The GSFC scientific data storage problem

Scientific data storage problems of telemetry tape

Exons, introns and DNA thermodynamics

The genes of eukaryotes are characterized by protein coding fragments, the exons, interrupted by introns, i.e. stretches of DNA which do not carry any useful information for the protein synthesis. We have analyzed the melting behavior of randomly selected human cDNA sequences obtained from the genomic DNA by removing all introns. A clear correspondence is observed between exons and melting domains. This finding may provide new insights in the physical mechanisms underlying the evolution of genes.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figures - Final version as published. See also Phys. Rev. Focus 15, story 1

Helix or Coil? Fate of a Melting Heteropolymer

We determine the probability that a partially melted heteropolymer at the melting temperature will either melt completely or return to a helix state. This system is equivalent to the splitting probability for a diffusing particle on a finite interval that moves according to the Sinai model. When the initial fraction of melted polymer is f, the melting probability fluctuates between different realizations of monomer sequences on the polymer. For a fixed value of f, the melting probability distribution changes from unimodal to a bimodal as the strength of the disorder is increased.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Dynamics of a bubble formed in double stranded DNA

We study the fluctuational dynamics of a tagged base-pair in double stranded DNA. We calculate the drift force which acts on the tagged base-pair using a potential model that describes interactions at base pairs level and use it to construct a Fokker-Planck equation.The calculated displacement autocorrelation function is found to be in very good agreement with the experimental result of Altan-Bonnet {\it et. al.} Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 90}, 138101 (2003) over the entire time range of measurement. We calculate the most probable displacements which predominately contribute to the autocorrelation function and the half-time history of these displacements.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Indefinitely Oscillating Martingales

We construct a class of nonnegative martingale processes that oscillate indefinitely with high probability. For these processes, we state a uniform rate of the number of oscillations and show that this rate is asymptotically close to the theoretical upper bound. These bounds on probability and expectation of the number of upcrossings are compared to classical bounds from the martingale literature. We discuss two applications. First, our results imply that the limit of the minimum description length operator may not exist. Second, we give bounds on how often one can change one's belief in a given hypothesis when observing a stream of data.Comment: ALT 2014, extended technical repor

Propfan Test Assessment (PTA)

The objectives of the Propfan Test Assessment (PTA) Program were to validate in flight the structural integrity of large-scale propfan blades and to measure noise characteristics of the propfan in both near and far fields. All program objectives were met or exceeded, on schedule and under budget. A Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation GII aircraft was modified to provide a testbed for the 2.74m (9 ft) diameter Hamilton Standard SR-7 propfan which was driven by a 4475 kw (600 shp) turboshaft engine mounted on the left-hand wing of the aircraft. Flight research tests were performed for 20 combinations of speed and altitude within a flight envelope that extended to Mach numbers of 0.85 and altitudes of 12,192m (40,000 ft). Propfan blade stress, near-field noise on aircraft surfaces, and cabin noise were recorded. Primary variables were propfan power and tip speed, and the nacelle tilt angle. Extensive low altitude far-field noise tests were made to measure flyover and sideline noise and the lateral attenuation of noise. In coopertion with the FAA, tests were also made of flyover noise for the aircraft at 6100m (20,000 ft) and 10,668m (35,000 ft). A final series of tests were flown to evaluate an advanced cabin wall noise treatment that was produced under a separate program by NASA-Langley Research Center