Furthering Entomological Outreach and Education for High School Aged Students with Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches

This project was designed and conducted as an entomological educational outreach program for high school students. I was given access to an environmental science class at Kaiserslautern High School (KHS) under the guidance and supervision of a licensed teacher. Environmental Science is an elective class that fulfills the course requirement at the school for a science course with a laboratory component. I was given three groups of students, and I taught four classes to each of these groups. Each class had students in their freshman, sophomore, and junior years. During these class periods, I composed a food preference experiment that involved Madagascar hissing cockroaches (MHCs). This experiment drew heavily on my own experiences during my studies (i.e., ENTO 115 at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln). This project aimed to increase entomological education at this school. Lastly, I highlighted the use of technology in the classroom to better assist the instructor. My name is Robert Guy Lefevre, and I am currently in my 17th year of active-duty service in the United States Army. I have served as an artilleryman, a transportation coordinator, and a bandsman. I am currently serving as a guitarist in the U.S. Army Europe Band and Chorus garrisoned at Sembach, Germany, and I am currently a Staff Sergeant. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in History from California State University at San Bernardino. I was accepted into the Master of Science in Entomology program at UNL in 2015. I can attest that crossing over from the arts side to the science side of campus was a particularly arduous undertaking. In this paper, I further expand on how my experiences as a soldier and an academic greatly facilitated my connection with the students in such a short timeframe. My sponsor teacher was Ms. Nancy Hoehn. Ms. Hoehn holds a Bachelor of Science in Food Science from Purdue University and a Master of Arts in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma. She is credentialed in Texas as a licensed physical science teacher and is currently employed by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) as an environmental science and physics teacher. Ms. Hoehn has been recognized as a National Geographic Certified Educator, a NASA Solar System Ambassador Master Teacher, and is a Google Certified Educator (Level 1). It cannot be expressed how her experience and education aided this project, particularly her Google certification. Kaiserslautern High School is a secondary education facility that is in the Kaiserslautern military community. It is located on the United States Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz, Vogelweh. Vogelweh, as it is colloquially known, serves the greater Ramstein Airbase community. This area of Germany has approximately 30,000 American uniformed personnel and their families. Kaiserslautern High School is one of two DoDEA high schools. Kaiserslautern High School has a student body population of approximately 550 students. It is the newest school to be built in the DoDEA Europe area

Variation in sport participation, fitness and motor coordination with socioeconomic status among Flemish children

Socioeconomic status (SES) is often indicated as a factor that influences physical activity and associated health outcomes. This study examined the relationship between SES and sport participation, morphology, fitness and motor coordination in a sample of 1955 Flemish children 6-11 years of age. Gender, age and SES-specific values for morphologic dimensions, amount and type of sport participation and fitness and motor coordination tests were compared. SES was positively and significantly associated with sport participation and sports club membership in both sexes. Although differences were not consistently significant, morphologic dimensions and tests of fitness and motor coordination showed a trend in favor of children from higher SES. The results suggest that public and local authorities should consider providing equal opportunities for children in all social strata and especially those in the lower SES to experience the beneficial effects of sport participation through which they can enhance levels of physical fitness and motor coordination

Note sur deux cas originaux de charbon bactéridien en Haute-Volta

Deux cas de charbon bactéridien ont été observés en Haute-Volta sur des antilopes élevées en captivité. Les auteurs qui n'ont pu préciser le mode de contamination émettent l'hypothèse d'une origine alimentaire probable de cette contaminatio

Automatic detection of optical signatures within and around floating Tonga - Fiji pumice rafts using MODIS, VIIRS, and OLCI Satellite Sensors

An underwater volcanic eruption off the Vava’u island group in Tonga on 7 August 2019 resulted in the creation of floating pumice on the ocean’s surface extending over an area of 150 km2. The pumice’s far-reaching effects from its origin in the Tonga region to Fiji and the methods of automatic detection using satellite imagery are described, making it possible to track the westward drift of the pumice raft over 43 days. Level 2 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), Sentinel-3 Ocean and Land Color Instrument (OLCI), and Sentinel-3 Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) imagery of sea surface temperature, chlorophyll-a concentration, quasi-surface (i.e., Rayleigh-corrected) reflectance, and remote sensing reflectance were used to distinguish consolidated and fragmented rafts as well as discolored and mesotrophic waters. The rafts were detected by a 1 to 3.5 °C enhancement in the MODIS-derived “sea surface temperature” due to the emissivity difference of the raft material. Large plumes of discolored waters, characterized by higher satellite reflectance/backscattering of particles in the blue than surrounding waters (and corresponding to either submersed pumice or associated white minerals), were associated with the rafts. The discolored waters had relatively lower chlorophyll-a concentration, but this was artificial, resulting from the higher blue/red reflectance ratio caused by the reflective pumice particles. Mesotrophic waters were scarce in the region of the pumice rafts, presumably due to the absence of phytoplanktonic response to a silicium-rich pumice environment in these tropical oligotrophic environments. As beach accumulations around Pacific islands surrounded by coral shoals are a recurrent phenomenon that finds its origin far east in the ocean along the Tongan trench, monitoring the events from space, as demonstrated for the 7 August 2019 eruption, might help mitigate their potential economic impacts

Results from the Advance Power Technology Experiment on the Starshine 3 Satellite

The Starshine 3 satellite was put into orbit on September 30, 2001 as part of the Kodiak Star mission. Starshine 3’s primary mission is to measure the atmospheric density of the thermosphere and serve as a learning outreach tool for primary and secondary school age children. Starshine 3 also carries a power technology experiment. Starshine 3 has a small, 1 Watt power system using state-of-the-art components. Eight small clusters of solar cells are distributed across the surface. Each cluster consists of a 6-cell string of 2 cm x 2 cm, GaInP/GaAs/Ge, triple-junction solar cells. These cells have twice the power-to-area ratio as traditional silicon solar cells and 25% more power than GaAs cells. Starshine 3 also carries novel integrated microelectronic power supplies (IMPS). The idea behind an IMPS unit is to allow greater flexibility in circuit design with a power source not tied to a central bus. Each IPS is used to provide 50 microwatts of continuous power throughout the mission. Early results show that this design can be used to provide continuous power under very adverse operating conditions

Les mycobactéries d'origine animale isolées au Centre Muraz de 1965 à 1968. Techniques d'isolement et d'identification. Résultats

Les auteurs indiquent les techniques qu'ils ont utilisées pour les prélèvements, l'isolement et l'identification des mycobactéries. Ils exposent les résultats obtenus concernant les examens directs, les cultures et l'identification des mycobactéries isolées. Parmi les 639 prélèvements reçus au laboratoire, 298 cultures furent positives et 250 souches purent être identifiées. Mycobacterium bovis est l'agent le plus fréquemment rencontré: 89,6 p. 100 des cas. Mycobacterium tuberculosis a cependant été isolé dans 5,2 p. 100 des cas et des mycobactéries atypiques dans 5,2 p. 100 des cas également. Aucune souche de Nocardia farcinica n'a été isolée. Les auteurs concluent en faisant part de leur intention d'entreprendre une étude bactériologique dans les régions sahéliennes d'élevage où des enquêtes tuberculiniques récentes ont montré que des liens devaient exister entre tuberculoses humaine et bovin

Detectors and cryostat design for the SuMIRe Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS)

We describe the conceptual design of the camera cryostats, detectors, and detector readout electronics for the SuMIRe Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) being developed for the Subaru telescope. The SuMIRe PFS will consist of four identical spectrographs, each receiving 600 fibers from a 2400 fiber robotic positioner at the prime focus. Each spectrograph will have three channels covering wavelength ranges 3800 {\AA} - 6700 {\AA}, 6500 {\AA} - 10000 {\AA}, and 9700 {\AA} - 13000 {\AA}, with the dispersed light being imaged in each channel by a f/1.10 vacuum Schmidt camera. In the blue and red channels a pair of Hamamatsu 2K x 4K edge-buttable CCDs with 15 um pixels are used to form a 4K x 4K array. For the IR channel, the new Teledyne 4K x 4K, 15 um pixel, mercury-cadmium-telluride sensor with substrate removed for short-wavelength response and a 1.7 um cutoff will be used. Identical detector geometry and a nearly identical optical design allow for a common cryostat design with the only notable difference being the need for a cold radiation shield in the IR camera to mitigate thermal background. This paper describes the details of the cryostat design and cooling scheme, relevant thermal considerations and analysis, and discusses the detectors and detector readout electronics