Kleinberg Navigation in Fractal Small World Networks

We study the Kleinberg problem of navigation in Small World networks when the underlying lattice is a fractal consisting of N>>1 nodes. Our extensive numerical simulations confirm the prediction that most efficient navigation is attained when the length r of long-range links is taken from the distribution P(r)~r^{-alpha}, where alpha=d_f, the fractal dimension of the underlying lattice. We find finite-size corrections to the exponent alpha, proportional to 1/(ln N)^2

Novice Teachers\u27 Experiences of Success in a Mentoring Relationship at the Secondary Level

Many new teachers in the United States leave the profession within 3 to 5 years of service. School district leaders often fall short in their efforts to efficiently mentor novice teachers and examine the novice teachers\u27 perspectives of effective mentoring relationships. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine novice teachers\u27 mentoring relationships during the critical first year. The conceptual framework was Bandura\u27s self-efficacy theory, a tenet of which is that people believe in their ability to attain certain goals if they possess self-efficacy. The guiding research questions focused on what roles mentoring relationships play in the first year of teaching, what their impacts are on novice teachers remaining in the profession, and how the choice of mentor affects the outcome of the mentoring relationship. A purposeful homogenous sample of 6 Grade 9 and 10 novice teachers who were also involved in mentoring relationships with experienced teachers was used. Data were collected through semi structured interviews and a group observation during an administrative support meeting for new teachers. Relationship and social code analysis of data followed an open coding process to identify categories and themes. The key findings were that participants rely on professional and emotional support; however, age and path of certification dictated mentoring needs. A positive mentoring relationship inspired novice teachers in the study to become mentors themselves. Study findings were the basis for the creation of a staff development for veteran teachers who are chosen as mentors. This study may bring about positive social change by bringing awareness of what makes a productive mentoring relationship, which in turn may positively affect student achievement through teacher retention. Many new teachers in the United States leave the profession within 3 to 5 years of service. School district leaders often fall short in their efforts to efficiently mentor novice teachers and examine the novice teachers\u27 perspectives of effective mentoring relationships. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine novice teachers\u27 mentoring relationships during the critical first year. The conceptual framework was Bandura\u27s self-efficacy theory, a tenet of which is that people believe in their ability to attain certain goals if they possess self-efficacy. The guiding research questions focused on what roles mentoring relationships play in the first year of teaching, what their impacts are on novice teachers remaining in the profession, and how the choice of mentor affects the outcome of the mentoring relationship. A purposeful homogenous sample of 6 Grade 9 and 10 novice teachers who were also involved in mentoring relationships with experienced teachers was used. Data were collected through semi structured interviews and a group observation during an administrative support meeting for new teachers. Relationship and social code analysis of data followed an open coding process to identify categories and themes. The key findings were that participants rely on professional and emotional support; however, age and path of certification dictated mentoring needs. A positive mentoring relationship inspired novice teachers in the study to become mentors themselves. Study findings were the basis for the creation of a staff development for veteran teachers who are chosen as mentors. This study may bring about positive social change by bringing awareness of what makes a productive mentoring relationship, which in turn may positively affect student achievement through teacher retention

Influence of Muscle Strength on Mobility in Critically Ill Adult Patients on Mechanical Ventilation

Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting are prone to develop muscle weakness and the causes are multi-factorial. Muscle strength in adult, critically ill patients on mechanical ventilation decreases with immobility. The influence of muscle strength on different muscle groups and its influence on progressive mobility in the adult, critically ill patient on mechanical ventilation has not been examined. Identifying muscle strength in this patient population can benefit overall muscle health and minimize muscle deconditioning through a progressive mobility plan. The objective of this dissertation was to describe muscle strength in different muscle groups and to describe the influence of muscle strength on mobility in critically ill adult patients on mechanical ventilation (MV). Fifty ICU patients were enrolled in this descriptive, cross sectional study. Abdominal core, bilateral hand grip and extremity strength was measured using three measurement tools. Mobility was measured using the following scale: 0=lying in bed; 1=sitting on edge of bed; 2=sitting on edge of bed to standing; 3=walking to bedside chair and 4=walking \u3e7 feet from the standing position. Predictors of mobility were examined using stepwise regression. Abdominal core, bilateral hand grip and extremity strength demonstrated statistically significant relationships with all variables. Extremity strength accounted for 82% of the variance in mobility and was the sole predictor (β=0.903; F=212.9; p=0.000). Future research addressing the outcomes of implementing a mobility protocol in this patient population and prioritizing when such a protocol should be implemented would be beneficial to ongoing plans to decrease MV, ICU and hospital days. Muscle strength tests implemented at the bedside are crucial to implementing a progressive mobility plan for critically ill adults while they are on MV therapy

One dimensional shear motions in fluid saturated porous media

An analytic solution is presented for shear motions in a binary mixture of a chemically inert, isothermal, elastic isotropic solid and elastic fluid subject to a sinusoidally varying solid displacement on one boundary and free of tractions on the other. It is demonstrated that the retention of inertial terms, and the resulting resonance phenomenon, can cause solid displacements in the interior of the region orders of magnitude greater than the exciting solid displacement on the boundary. Displacement spectra are presented for certain well known porous media

Soil mechanics surface sampler

A lunar surface sampler essentially identical to that operated from Surveyor 3 was mounted on Surveyor 7 and performed flawlessly on the moon throughout a range of operating temperatures from +180°F to −167°F. The motor current was sampled during lunar bearing and trenching tests, and these data, together with preflight calibrations enabled us to calculate the forces involved in these tests. After minimal lunar surface testing, the surface sampler was employed to release the sensor head of the α-scattering instrument, which had jammed in its background position. Subsequently, the sensor head was relocated to analyze a rock and, still later, to analyze some subsurface lunar material. The mechanical tests of the surface in the vicinity of Tycho indicated that the surface behaved in a manner that was quantitatively similar to the behavior of the material close to Surveyor 3, but the surface near Tycho appeared qualitatively to be more deformable and less brittle. A rock was weighed and found to have a density between 2.4 and 3.1 g/cm^3 (earth basis). Another rock was broken by a moderately hard blow from the sampler. The soil varied in depth from 1 to at least several inches over underlying rock fragments near Surveyor 7. Little adhesion of lunar soil to the mirror surface of the α-scattering experiment sensor head was observed over a 24-hour period

Measurements at low energies of the polarization-transfer coefficient Kyy' for the reaction 3H(p,n)3He at 0 degrees

Measurements of the transverse polarization coefficient Kyy' for the reaction 3H(p,n)3He are reported for outgoing neutron energies of 1.94, 5.21, and 5.81 MeV. This reaction is important both as a source of polarized neutrons for nuclear physics experiments, and as a test of theoretical descriptions of the nuclear four-body system. Comparison is made to previous measurements, confirming the 3H(p,n)3He reaction can be used as a polarized neutron source with the polarization known to an accuracy of approximately 5%. Comparison to R-matrix theory suggests that the sign of the 3F3 phase-shift parameter is incorrect. Changing the sign of this parameter dramatically improves the agreement between theory and experiment.Comment: 12 pages, RevTeX, 5 eps figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Preparation and characterization of micro-bore wall-coated open-tubular capillaries with low phase ratios for fast-gas chromatography–mass spectrometry: Application to ignitable liquids and fire debris

Fast Gas Chromatography (GC) allows for analysis times that are a fraction of those seen in traditional capillary GC. Key modifications in fast GC include using narrow, highly efficient columns that can resolve mixtures using a shorter column length. Hence, a typical fast GC column has an inner diameter of 100–180 μm. However, to maintain phase ratios that are consistent with typical GC columns, the film thickness of fast GC stationary phases are also low (e.g., 0.1–0.18 μm). Unfortunately, decreased film thickness leads to columns with very low sample capacity and asymmetric peaks for analytes that are not sufficiently dilute. This paper describes micro-bore (50 μm i.d.) capillary columns with thick films (1.25 μm), and low phase ratios (10). These columns have greater sample capacity yet also achieve minimum plate heights as low as 110 μm. Hence, separation efficiency is much higher than would be obtained using standard GC columns. The capillary columns were prepared in-house using a simple static-coating procedure and their plate counts were determined under isothermal conditions. The columns were then evaluated using temperature programming for fast GC–MS analysis of ignitable liquids and their residues on fire debris exemplars. Temperature ramps of up to 75 °C min−1 could be used and separations of ignitable liquids such as gasoline, E85 fuel, and lighter fluid (a medium petroleum distillate) were complete within 3 min. Lastly, simulated fire debris consisting of ignitable liquids burned on carpeting were extracted using passive headspace absorption-elution and the residues successfully classified