A Comparative Study of the Hardening Effects of Various Fixatives, Dehydrating, Clearing, and Embedding Agents

One of the problems commonly encountered in the preparation of tissue for histological studies is the tendency for it to become excessively hardened before sectioning with a rotary microtome. The purpose of the investigation was to discover by as objective a means as possible not only the hardening effects of various agents on tissues, but also the influence of the time element. The approach to this problem has been to test the hardness of the tissue with a standard penetration needle after each step in the various techniques used

Building for the Long Term

Endowed professorships support the work of select faculty -- and help to attract talented new professors

The Effect of Trait and State Disgust on Fear of God and Sin

There is a growing literature suggesting disgust plays a major role in religiosity. However, the relationships between specific domains of disgust sensitivity and general religious fundamentalism or religious scrupulosity remains unknown and a lack of experimental data prevents the drawing of causal inferences about the potential effects of disgust on religiosity. Two studies are reported that examined the relationship between specific types of disgust sensitivity (i.e., pathogen, sexual, and moral disgust) and specific religious beliefs (i.e., fear of sin and fear of God). In the first study it was found that sexual disgust and pathogen disgust were significantly correlated with fear of sin and fear of God, respectively. In the second study the experimental induction of disgust led to greater fear of sin but not to the fear of God. These findings suggest that pathogen and sexual disgust sensitivities may serve as effective mechanisms for inflated scrupulosity. Taken together the outcomes from both studies converge on a greater understanding of the 'Human Behavioral Immune System' model that can account for social behavior with the evolution of adaptive benefit and perhaps more importantly highlights the possible drivers of specific religious behavior

Report about the collaboration between UITS/Research Technologies at Indiana University and the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing at Technische Universität Dresden, Germany (2011-2012)

This report lists the activities and outcomes for July 2011-June 2012 of the collaboration between Research Technologies, a division of University Information Technology Services at Indiana University (IU), and the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH) at Technische Universität Dresden.This material is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0910812 to Indiana University for "FutureGrid: An Experimental, High-Performance Grid Test-bed." Partners in the FutureGrid project include San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego, University of Chicago, University of Florida, University of Southern California, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, University of Texas at Austin, Purdue University, University of Virginia, and T-U Dresden. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF

Effects of Implementing a Formative Assessment Initiative

This dissertation supports the work of Black and Wiliam (1998), who demonstrated that when teachers effectively utilize formative assessment strategies, student learning increases significantly. However, the researchers also found a “poverty of practice” among teachers, in that few fully understood how to effectively implement formative assessment in the classroom. This qualitative case study examined a series of voluntary workshops offered at one public middle school designed to address this poverty of practice. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews. The researcher used constant comparative analysis to discover patterns in the data for the following four research questions: (1) What role did a professional learning community structure play in shaping participants’ perceived effectiveness of a voluntary formative assessment initiative? (2) How did this initiative affect participants’ perceptions of their knowledge of formative assessment and differentiation strategies? (3) How did it affect participants’ perceptions of their abilities to teach others about formative assessment and differentiated instruction? (4) How did it affect school-wide use of classroom-level strategies? Results indicated that teacher participants experienced a growth in their capacity to use and teach others various formative assessment strategies, and even nonparticipating teachers reported greater use of formative assessment in their own Participants and non-participating teachers perceived little growth in the area of differentiation of instruction, which contradicted some administrator perceptions. The workshops’ contemplative, collegial, professional learning community structure also shaped participants’ experience in important ways. Implications for stakeholder practice and further research are discussed

Simulated Service and Stress Corrosion Cracking Testing for Friction Stir Welded Spun Form Domes

Damage tolerance testing development was required to help qualify a new spin forming dome fabrication process for the Ares 1 program at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). One challenge of the testing was due to the compound curvature of the dome. The testing was developed on a sub-scale dome with a diameter of approximately 40 inches. The simulated service testing performed was based on the EQTP1102 Rev L 2195 Aluminum Lot Acceptance Simulated Service Test and Analysis Procedure generated by Lockheed Martin for the Space Shuttle External Fuel Tank. This testing is performed on a specimen with an induced flaw of elliptical shape generated by Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) and subsequent fatigue cycling for crack propagation to a predetermined length and depth. The specimen is then loaded in tension at a constant rate of displacement at room temperature until fracture occurs while recording load and strain. An identical specimen with a similar flaw is then proof tested at room temperature to imminent failure based on the critical offset strain achieved by the previous fracture test. If the specimen survives the proof, it is then subjected to cryogenic cycling with loads that are a percentage of the proof load performed at room temperature. If all cryogenic cycles are successful, the specimen is loaded in tension to failure at the end of the test. This standard was generated for flat plate, so a method of translating this to a specimen of compound curvature was required. This was accomplished by fabricating a fixture that maintained the curvature of the specimen rigidly with the exception of approximately one-half inch in the center of the specimen containing the induced flaw. This in conjunction with placing the center of the specimen in the center of the load train allowed for successful testing with a minimal amount of bending introduced into the system. Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) tests were performed using the typical double beam assembly and with 4-point loaded specimens under alternate immersion conditions in a 3.5% NaCl environment for 90 days. In addition, experiments were conducted to determine the threshold stress intensity factor for SCC (K1SCC) of Al-Li 2195 which to our knowledge has not been determined previously. The successful simulated service and stress corrosion testing helped to provide confidence to continue to Ares 1 scale dome fabrication