Sigma Gamma Epsilon Quality Chapter Awards

The Quality Chapter Award for Sigma Gamma Epsilon was established to recognize chapters for achieving excellence by providing a quality program to its members. Qualifying criteria for the award are provided, and chapters receiving this award for the 2012-2013 academic year are profiled

43rd Biennial Convention and Centennial Celebration The University of Kansas: March 27-29, 2015

Sigma Gamma Epsilon, the national honor society in the Earth Sciences, held its 43rd Biennial Convention on the campus of the University of Kansas March 27-29, 2015 in conjunction with its centennial celebration. Alpha Chapter, Sigma Gamma Epsilon’s first chapter, hosted the events. During the convention, Dr. Anthony Walton of the Department of Geology at KU led a half-day field excursion on the Pennsylvanian Stratigraphy of Douglas County, Kansas: Glacioeustatically Modulated Cyclic Deposition on a Remarkably Smooth Shelf. This report provides a summary of the deliberations and actions of the participants at the convention and highlights of the field trip and centennial celebration

Airboat Use and Disturbance of Floating Mat Fen Wetlands in Interior Alaska, U.S.A.

The use of airboats is expanding in Alaska, particularly in the interior. This study describes the nature, magnitude, and distribution of disturbance caused by airboat trails over floating mat fen wetlands in the Tanana Flats near Fairbanks, Alaska. Airphoto interpretation showed over 300 km of airboat trails by 1995, with a 15% expansion of the trail system since 1989. Field sampling was done at 30 trail and adjacent control sites along this trail system to assess changes in hydrology, soils, and vegetation. Water velocities in the trails at two-thirds of the sites were at least an order of magnitude greater than velocities of less than 1.5 cm/sec in the control areas. On average, 30 cm of the 0.5-0.75 m thick floating mat has been removed or eroded by airboat traffic at the sampling locations. Nearly all emergent floating mat vegetation has been destroyed (5% cover remaining on average) so that the trails resemble a highly visible open water stream channel 2-3 m wide through the floating mats. Although the recovery and regrowth potential of floating mats in trails is high, recovery is unlikely in trails with continuing use.En Alaska, l'utilisation des hydroglisseurs est à la hausse, surtout à l'intérieur des terres. Cette étude décrit la nature, l'amplitude et la distribution des perturbations causées par le sillage des hydroglisseurs sur les zones humides de vasières à mattes flottantes situées dans les plaines marécageuses de Tanana près de Fairbanks (en Alaska). L'interprétation de photos a montré que, en 1995, les sillages d'hydroglisseurs s'étendaient sur plus de 300 km, ce qui correspond à une augmentation de 15 p. cent du réseau depuis 1989. On a procédé à un échantillonnage sur le terrain à 30 emplacements de sillages et aires témoins adjacentes le long du réseau en vue d'évaluer les changements dans l'hydrologie, les sols et la végétation. Dans deux tiers des emplacements, la vitesse de l'eau dans les sillages était d'au moins un ordre de grandeur supérieure aux vitesses de moins de 1,5 cm/sec dans les zones témoins. Aux endroits d'échantillonnage, 30 cm en moyenne de la matte flottante épaisse de 0,5 à 0,75 m a été enlevée ou érodée par la circulation de l'hydroglisseur. Presque toute la végétation de la matte flottante émergée a été détruite (il reste en moyenne 5 p. cent du couvert) de sorte que les sillages sont très visibles et forment un chenal d'eau ouverte de 2 à 3 m de large à travers les mattes flottantes. Bien que le potentiel de recouvrement et de repousse des mattes flottantes dans les sillages soit élevé, il est peu probable que ce recouvrement ait lieu dans les sillages qui sont utilisés de façon continue

Polygenic risk for schizophrenia and season of birth within the UK Biobank cohort

Background: There is strong evidence that people born in winter and in spring have a small increased risk of schizophrenia. As this ‘season of birth’ effect underpins some of the most influential hypotheses concerning potentially modifiable risk exposures, it is important to exclude other possible explanations for the phenomenon. Methods: Here we sought to determine whether the season of birth effect reflects gene-environment confounding rather than a pathogenic process indexing environmental exposure. We directly measured, in 136 538 participants from the UK Biobank (UKBB), the burdens of common schizophrenia risk alleles and of copy number variants known to increase the risk for the disorder, and tested whether these were correlated with a season of birth. Results: Neither genetic measure was associated with season or month of birth within the UKBB sample. Conclusions: As our study was highly powered to detect small effects, we conclude that the season of birth effect in schizophrenia reflects a true pathogenic effect of environmental exposure

Medical student attitudes to mental health and psychiatry: the use of a patient-experience short film

Background: Medical student attitudes to mental illness are significantly influenced by their undergraduate educational experience. Medical education therefore has a key role to play in challenging the stigma associated with mental illness. We developed a short educational film aimed at challenging stigmatising attitudes to mental illness and explored its effects on undergraduate medical student attitudes. We hypothesised that levels of stigmatising attitudes in medical students would reduce after students viewed the educational film. Method: We used a validated scale (Mental Illness: Clinician Attitudes, MICA) to examine undergraduate medical student attitudes to mental illness at two time points - prior to (T1) and following (T2) viewing the short film. The film focused on patient experiences and was designed to highlight personal experiences of mental illness. Results: 92 students completed the MICA before the film and 73 students at both time points. Having a personal history of mental illness was associated with less stigmatising attitudes (t=2.4, df=87, p=0.019). Stigma scores were reduced following the film viewing (t=7.101, df=72, p<0.001). Discussion: This study suggests that patient experience films, used as educational tools, can challenge student perceptions of mental illness and lead to a reduction in stigmatising attitudes, at least in the short term. Future studies are required to examine the longer-term effects of such educational interventions in terms of student perceptions and attitudes towards mental health and psychiatry

Configuration development study of the X-24C hypersonic research airplane

Bottom line results were made of a three-phase study to determine the feasibility of designing, building, and operating, and maintaining an air-launched high performance aircraft capable of cruising at speeds up to Mach 8 for short durations. The results show that Lockalloy heat-sink structure affords the capability for a 'work-horse' vehicle which can serve as an excellent platform for this research. It was further concluded that the performance of a blended wing body configuration surpassed that of a lifting body design for typical X-24C missions. The cost of a two vehicle program, less engines, B-52 modification and contractor support after delivery, can be kept within $70M (in Jan. 1976 dollars)

The impact of two coupled cirrus microphysics-radiation parameterizations on the temperature and specific humidity biases in the tropical tropopause layer in a climate model

The impact of two different coupled cirrus microphysics-radiation parameterizations on the zonally averaged temperature and humidity biases in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) of a Met Office climate model configuration is assessed. One parameterization is based on a linear coupling between a model prognostic variable, the ice mass mixing ratio, qi, and the integral optical properties. The second is based on the integral optical properties being parameterized as functions of qi and temperature, Tc, where the mass coefficients (i.e. scattering and extinction) are parameterized as nonlinear functions of the ratio between qi and Tc. The cirrus microphysics parameterization is based on a moment estimation parameterization of the particle size distribution (PSD), which relates the mass moment (i.e. second moment if mass is proportional to size raised to the power of 2 ) of the PSD to all other PSD moments through the magnitude of the second moment and Tc. This same microphysics PSD parameterization is applied to calculate the integral optical properties used in both radiation parameterizations and, thus, ensures PSD and mass consistency between the cirrus microphysics and radiation schemes. In this paper, the temperature-non-dependent and temperature-dependent parameterizations are shown to increase and decrease the zonally averaged temperature biases in the TTL by about 1 K, respectively. The temperature-dependent radiation parameterization is further demonstrated to have a positive impact on the specific humidity biases in the TTL, as well as decreasing the shortwave and longwave biases in the cloudy radiative effect. The temperature-dependent radiation parameterization is shown to be more consistent with TTL and global radiation observations