Off-Campus Instruction Via Video Tape

The Continuing Education Via Video Tape Program presents Iowa State University graduate and advanced undergraduate courses to off-campus people at or near their place of employment solely by means of video tapes. Course offerings are primarily in engineering; some non-engineering courses have been and will be taped and shown

The Ursinus Weekly, December 5, 1902

Immensee • On co-education • School of Theology notes • Oratorical Union meets • Elocution department • Notes • Schaff anniversary • Audubon Science Club • Alumni notes • Among the collegeshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/3066/thumbnail.jp

The Ursinus Weekly, May 8, 1903

A plea for pure sport • Audubon Science Club • Baseball • The farmer • YMCA • Valley Forge • Chorus concert • Dr. Crawford speaks • Philadelphia letter • Alumni Association of Ursinus College • Society noteshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/3086/thumbnail.jp

The Ursinus Weekly, February 20, 1903

Tennyson\u27s social and political views • The Secret of Number 58 • Grand success • Society notes • Football souvenir calendar • Zwinglian declamation contest • Christian constancy • Philadelphia letter • Alumni notes • Lebanon Valley alumni • Professor Kline\u27s addresshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/3075/thumbnail.jp

The Ursinus Weekly, December 12, 1902

Impressions of the football season • A football player\u27s view • Football spirit • Football review • Blenheim • Defects of football • Financial statement • Clubs reorganize • Societies • YMCAhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/3067/thumbnail.jp

Mercury Concentrations in Tropical Resident and Migrant Songbirds on Hispaniola

Despite growing concerns over mercury (Hg) exposure to humans and wildlife on a global scale, little is known about Hg bioaccumulation in the New World tropics. From 2005 to 2011, we monitored Hg concentrations in blood of nine avian species occupying a geographic range of tropical wet broadleaf sites on the island of Hispaniola, including eight passerines (two Nearctic- Neotropical migrant and six resident species) and one top order predatory accipiter. Invertivorous songbirds were further differentiated by foraging guild, with six species of groundforagers and two species of foliage-gleaners. Blood Hg concentrations were orders of magnitude higher in birds sampled in central and southern cloud forest sites (1000 – 1800 m elevation) than in northern and northeastern rainforest sites (50 – 500 m elevation), with migratory and resident species both showing 2 – 20 X greater blood Hg concentrations in cloud forests than in rainforests. Within cloud forest sites, ground-foraging species had higher Hg concentrations than foliage-gleaning species. Top order predatory sharp-shinned hawks (Accipiter striatus) had the highest blood Hg concentrations among all species, suggesting that Hg biomagnification is occurring in terrestrial forests of Hispaniola. Two migrant songbird species overwintering on the island had higher blood Hg concentrations than have been recorded on their North American breeding grounds. Future studies should seek to elucidate sources of variation in atmospheric Hg deposition on Hispaniola and to quantify the dynamics of Hg cycling in tropical forest ecosystems, which may differ in important ways from patterns documented in temperate forest ecosystems

Does the worsening galactic cosmic radiation environment observed by CRaTER preclude future manned deep space exploration?

Abstract The Sun and its solar wind are currently exhibiting extremely low densities and magnetic field strengths, representing states that have never been observed during the space age. The highly abnormal solar activity between cycles 23 and 24 has caused the longest solar minimum in over 80 years and continues into the unusually small solar maximum of cycle 24. As a result of the remarkably weak solar activity, we have also observed the highest fluxes of galactic cosmic rays in the space age and relatively small solar energetic particle events. We use observations from the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to examine the implications of these highly unusual solar conditions for human space exploration. We show that while these conditions are not a show stopper for long-duration missions (e.g., to the Moon, an asteroid, or Mars), galactic cosmic ray radiation remains a significant and worsening factor that limits mission durations. While solar energetic particle events in cycle 24 present some hazard, the accumulated doses for astronauts behind 10 g/cm2 shielding are well below current dose limits. Galactic cosmic radiation presents a more significant challenge: the time to 3% risk of exposure-induced death (REID) in interplanetary space was less than 400 days for a 30 year old male and less than 300 days for a 30 year old female in the last cycle 23–24 minimum. The time to 3% REID is estimated to be ∼20% lower in the coming cycle 24–25 minimum. If the heliospheric magnetic field continues to weaken over time, as is likely, then allowable mission durations will decrease correspondingly. Thus, we estimate exposures in extreme solar minimum conditions and the corresponding effects on allowable durations

Degradation of Teflon(tm) FEP Following Charged Particle Radiation and Rapid Thermal Cycling

During the Second Servicing Mission (SM2) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) severe degradation was observed on the outer layer of the thermal control blankets. Astronaut observations and photographs revealed large cracks in the metallized Teflon' FEP (fluorinated ethylene propylene), the outer layer of the multi-layer insulation (MLI), in many locations around the telescope. In an effort to understand what elements of the space environment might cause such damage, pristine Teflon(registered trademark) FEP was tested for durability to radiation and thermal cycling. Specimens were subjected to electron and proton fluences comparable to those experienced by HST and were subsequently thermal cycled in a custom-built rapid thermal cycle chamber. Tensile tests of the specimens showed that radiation followed by thermal cycling significantly reduced the ultimate strength and elongation of Teflon(registered trademark) FEP

Surface Biology & Geology Pathfinder Data Analysis Pipeline

NASA's future global orbital mission, currently in development as the Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) Designated Observable study, will acquire relatively high resolution solar-reflected spectroscopy and thermal infrared observations. Innovative processes must be utilized for handling the high volume of data anticipated to be collected, which is anticipated to exceed 100 terabytes/day, greater than NASA's total extant airborne hyperspectral data collection. Collecting, processing/re-processing, disseminating, and exploiting this volume of data presents new challenges. To begin addressing them, NASA is drawing upon the expertise developed from its astrophysics programs to address Earth science and applications. Specifically, NASA is adapting the science processing operations technology developed for the Kepler and TESS planet-hunting missions for imaging spectroscopy data processing. This technology development has been the foundation for the remarkable scientific successes of Kepler and TESS. The Kepler/TESS data processing technology provides a scalable architecture for robust, repeatable, and replicable science and application products while enabling the Earth science community to develop, test, and implement new algorithms. Our effort to leverage this existing capability has begun by ingesting data and applying workflows from the EO-1/Hyperion 17-year mission archive that provides globally sampled visible through shortwave infrared spectra that are representative of SBG data types and volumes. This pathfinding data processing system will help define the solutions to processing SBG data volumes and will enable the scientific community to interact with the data and processing pipeline to create new science products