Adaptive Exercise Equipment

This document outlines the senior design project carried out by a team of mechanical engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The task is to design adapted exercise equipment for the non-profit organization, Achievement House. The objective of this Final Design Review is to document the final design, manufacturing plan, design verification plan, and project management plan. In addition, this document includes previously presented information on the project background, objectives, and concept design. The background and objective sections document various forms of customer research and include the project goals developed by the athletes and fitness instructors of Achievement House. This section has been updated to reflect new data involving athlete height, arm span, and wheelchair dimensions. The concept design section has been updated to reflect a singular combined apparatus, as recommended by our sponsor. The final design section outlines the final design of our project, including material selection, drawings, cost analysis, and safety considerations. The manufacturing plan section includes the steps we will take to verify our design through prototyping. The project management section outlines the next steps that must be taken in order to complete the project in the future

Evaluation of maize (Zea mays L) inbred lines for yield component traits and kernel morphology

The economical production of the seed of any hybrid maize (Zea mays L) variety is dependent on the parental characteristics of the inbred line used as the seed parent. Grain yield, thousand-kernel weight, ear length and kernel morphology are traits that are important in determining the suitability of an inbred line for use as a seed parent in a seed production field. In 2009, replicated field trials at Janesville, WI and Stanton, MN included 27 maize inbred lines obtained from the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station in Ames, IA. Inbred line evaluations included measurements of grain yield, thousand-kernel weight, and ear length. Separation of the harvested seed into the different size classifications based on kernel morphology allowed further characterization of inbred lines. Significant differences existed among inbred lines for grain yield, thousand-kernel weight, ear length and kernel morphology. Among this group of inbred lines, ear length appeared to make a greater contribution to grain yield than thousand-kernel weight. Correlation analysis indicated that a strong negative relationship exists between kernel morphology types classified as “large rounds” and “medium flats”, with the latter group being the more desirable of the two. The results of this study suggest that plant breeders may want to consider evaluating inbred parents for their kernel morphology before beginning a breeding project or before selecting an inbred to serve as the seed parent in a production field

QTL Mapping of Combining Ability and Heterosis of Agronomic Traits in Rice Backcross Recombinant Inbred Lines and Hybrid Crosses

BACKGROUND: Combining ability effects are very effective genetic parameters in deciding the next phase of breeding programs. Although some breeding strategies on the basis of evaluating combining ability have been utilized extensively in hybrid breeding, little is known about the genetic basis of combining ability. Combining ability is a complex trait that is controlled by polygenes. With the advent and development of molecular markers, it is feasible to evaluate the genetic bases of combining ability and heterosis of elite rice hybrids through QTL analysis. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present study, we first developed a QTL-mapping method for dissecting combining ability and heterosis of agronomic traits. With three testcross populations and a BCRIL population in rice, biometric and QTL analyses were conducted for ten agronomic traits. The significance of general combining ability and special combining ability for most of the traits indicated the importance of both additive and non-additive effects on expression levels. A large number of additive effect QTLs associated with performance per se of BCRIL and general combining ability, and dominant effect QTLs associated with special combining ability and heterosis were identified for the ten traits. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The combining ability of agronomic traits could be analyzed by the QTL mapping method. The characteristics revealed by the QTLs for combining ability of agronomic traits were similar with those by multitudinous QTLs for agronomic traits with performance per se of BCRIL. Several QTLs (1-6 in this study) were identified for each trait for combining ability. It demonstrated that some of the QTLs were pleiotropic or linked tightly with each other. The identification of QTLs responsible for combining ability and heterosis in the present study provides valuable information for dissecting genetic basis of combining ability

The Politics of Sourcing: A Study of Journalistic Practices in the Blogosphere

Digital media lowers barriers to entry and has the ability to renegotiate traditional news-making power structures. However, it remains to be seen whether or not the people that use tools like blogs actually challenge those frameworks. Offline reporters predominantly use government officials as sources while online journalists and newspaper institutions typically cite their own pages and posts. In order to understand whether or not journalistic norms are challenged in the blogosphere, we look at the sourcing practices of a diverse group of 40 bloggers. Specifically, we sample 400 blogposts that discussed global warming between 2004 and May of 2007. Operationalizing hyperlinks as sources, we then code the 3264 hyperlinks in these posts. Results indicate that government sources are linked to the least. Instead, bloggers tend to link to the online versions of traditional news media as well as to other blogs. However, we find that bloggers also link to miscellaneous and civic sources such as academics and non-profit organizations about one-quarter of the time, somewhat challenging the dominance of government and traditional media. We conclude that blogging on non-traditional topics may subvert who gets heard in an online world, but further research is needed on this topic

Ákvörðun árslauna við óvenjulegar aðstæður sbr. 2. mgr. 7. gr. skaðabótalaga nr. 50/1993, með áherslu á erlenda aðila sem hafa nýhafið störf hér á landi

Þegar að tjónþoli verður fyrir líkamstjóni er að mörgu að huga hvað varðar ákvörðun skaðabóta. Valdi líkamstjónið varanlegri skerðingu á getu hans til þess að afla vinnutekna á hann rétt á skaðabótum fyrir þá varanlegu örorku sbr. 5.-9. gr. skaðabótalaga nr. 50/1993. Bætur fyrir varanlega örorku tjónþola eru metnar til fjárhæðar á grundvelli þriggja stærða, þ.e. örorkustigs, árslauna og margfeldisstuðuls. Viðfangsefni þessarar ritgerðar er ein af þessum þremur stærðum, en nánar tiltekið verður fjallað um ákvörðun árslauna við óvenjulegar aðstæður sbr. 2. mgr. 7. gr. skaðabótalaga nr. 50/1993, með áherslu á erlenda aðila sem hafa nýhafið störf hér á landi. Farið verður yfir skilyrði fyrir beitingu þeirrar undantekningarheimildar, hvenær aðstæður slíkra tjónþola teljast vera óvenjulegar í skilningi ákvæðisins og til hvaða atriða er litið þegar árslaun þeirra eru ákvörðuð. Meginviðfangsefni ritgerðarinnar er ákvörðun árslauna erlendra aðila sem hafa nýhafið störf á Íslandi. Tekin verður almenn umfjöllun um innflytjendur hér á landi en svo vikið að helstu atriðum sem hafa þýðingu við ákvörðun árslauna hjá þessum aðilum. Vikið verður að nýlegri dómaframkvæmd um efnið þar sem dómar Hæstaréttar, Landsréttar og héraðsdómstóla verða reifaðir og ályktanir dregnar af þeim um gildandi rétt. Þá verður stuttlega vikið að dönskum rétti og hann borinn saman við þann íslenska og í síðasta kafla verður svo greint frá helstu niðurstöðum höfundar um viðfangsefnið

Factors Affecting the Speed and Dissemination of Technology Transferred from the Federal Laboratories

Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy 2011This paper describes a study of the current state of affairs in technology transfer and commercialization at the U.S. federal intramural laboratories.The study began with a literature review that informed the approach to discussions with technology transfer personnel at federal agencies and laboratories, which served as the primary mode of data collection. Discussions were held with stakeholders from 12 agencies and 28 laboratories as well as over 30 other organizations.This paper identifies six factors that interviewees stated were affecting the speed and dissemination of technologies from federal laboratories to the private sector.Where applicable, comparisons to past literature on federal laboratory technology transfer are made. The paper also presents the issues around defining and measuring technology transfer success at the federal laboratories, strategies that laboratories are currently employing that may be useful for others to implement, and it ends with a discussion of areas in need of further study.Department of Commerc