Explosive component acceptance tester using laser interferometer technology

Acceptance testing of explosive components requires a reliable and simple to use testing method that can discern less than optimal performance. For hot-wire detonators, traditional techniques use dent blocks or photographic diagnostic methods. More complicated approaches are avoided because of their inherent problems with setup and maintenance. A recently developed tester is based on using a laser interferometer to measure the velocity of flying plates accelerated by explosively actuated detonators. Unlike ordinary interferometers that monitor displacement of the test article, this device measures velocity directly and is commonly used with non-spectral surfaces. Most often referred to as the VISAR technique (Velocity Interferometer System for Any Reflecting Surface), it has become the most widely-accepted choice for accurate measurement of velocity in the range greater than 1 mm/micro-s. Traditional VISAR devices require extensive setup and adjustment and therefore are unacceptable in a production-testing environment. This paper describes a new VISAR approach which requires virtually no adjustments, yet provides data with accuracy comparable to the more complicated systems. The device, termed the Fixed-Cavity VISAR, is currently being developed to serve as a product verification tool for hot-wire detonators and slappers. An extensive data acquisition and analysis computer code was also created to automate the manipulation of raw data into final results

Athletics donors\u27 preferences for an athletics director\u27s leadership characteristics and behaviors

NCAA Division-IA intercollegiate athletics has become a big business with equally big expenses. Today’s intercollegiate athletics departments are feeling the state budget cuts, the strain to maximize donor support in order to balance the budget, and the challenge of chasing the ongoing goal of providing the best student athlete experience possible to young men and women across the country. It is absolutely critical today for intercollegiate athletics departments to run successful fundraising campaigns. Leadership has been shown to be one of the most significant factors in the successful development efforts of an intercollegiate athletics department. Research has shown that when athletics departments use the traditional top-down approach to leadership that is not inclusive of all involved, the department’s finances suffer. Therefore, finding alternative leadership styles to enhance development efforts is more critical than ever. In theory, the transformational leadership style offers many of the qualities needed for athletics directors to run successful financial campaigns; however, there is minimal research on the leadership characteristics needed to sustain successful development and fundraising initiatives. Therefore, the primary research questions asked in this study pertain to how various leadership styles, and the transformational leadership style in particular, affect a donor’s willingness to contribute to a university’s athletics department. To address these questions, a correlational research design using survey questions was designed to ask donors to respond to questions pertaining to an Athletic Director’s (AD) behavior, philosophy, and actions. The donors were asked to rate on a scale of 1-5 whether they preferred a stated characteristic or behavior. In addition to this set of questions pertaining to leadership styles, donors were asked seven demographic questions and an additional question to determine the relationship between a donor\u27s inclination to support the program and his or her preference for transformational leadership characteristics in the AD\u27s leadership style. The responses to the survey questions and their relationship to the demographic data were analyzed. A strong preference was found by the seven different donor constituencies for an AD utilizing a transformational leadership style. In addition, the analysis revealed an overwhelming response that donors who shared similar values with an athletic director who used a transformational leadership style were more inclined to continue contributing to the athletics program

Young Professional ESOL Learners Confront Competing Demands of Social Media and ESP

English language learners from non-English speaking nations are confronting an increasingly challenging environment as they try to develop language skills to meet the competing demands of contemporary social media on one hand and those of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) on the other.  Social media’s explosion onto the global scene has created the need for non-English speakers to in effect learn two diverging contextual and communication patterns within what is supposed to be a common language. English, at least a form of English, dominates social media communications on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and a whole host of abbreviated format international social media platforms.  Moreover, these platforms have developed communications mechanisms that do not even conform to normally accepted, conversational patterns of spoken or written English. The English of some social media platforms is informal, littered with special and unique abbreviations, grammarless, decidedly unstructured and abruptly short.  The vocabulary is explicitly simple in most cases, consisting mostly of one and two syllable words. The introduction of the “emoji” graphics (now totaling over 2600 according to Unicode Standard, the emoji lexicographer) has added image elements to the phonetic root language vocabulary. The near total lack of punctuation, further complicates the process of learning to communicate effectively to other than a select audience or specific groups of people. ICT (Information and Communication Technology) tools are growing in use in education and in language teaching in particular, with Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) becoming widely used to facilitate vocabulary and structural grammar development among English Language Learners (ELLs) at all levels.  It has been noted that blogs and other web-based tools have significantly enhanced writing and reading skills.The young non-native English speaking professional is simultaneously confronted with the increasing need to acquire skills in one or more forms of ESP, be it academic, occupational or both, to be a competitive member of the global economy.  Simultaneously, the informal elements of social media ignore these demands and focus on a casual and frequently unconstrained set of language behaviors. The results of this study indicate that English for Speakers of Other languages (ESOL) students, particularly those developing ESP skills, are confronting what could logically be construed as two languages carrying the same name.  This presentation and accompanying methodology explores the details and implications of this emerging phenomenon and is addressed by supporting materials, data and recommendations addressing the challenges of diverging language pathways between social media and English for specific purposes

Information communication technology: powering up and creating a culture of innovation for 21st century language education

The contemporary language educator must be focused on rich and high quality experiences for 21st century language learners. Education is rapidly evolving in the digital age with direct application in the classroom for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. The way that we teach is changing by necessity and by design, and innovative teaching and methodologies are essential for the success of students. An arsenal of digital tools is literally at our fingertips for all levels of instruction, and educators must tackle the latest technology and digital learning opportunities as quickly as they emerge, to stay current with their students, if nothing else. In the sections to follow, we explore five of the technologies which we believe every educator must understand to remain current, not only with their peers, but with their increasingly technologically savvy students. These five:  laptops and tablets; mobile learning devices, i.e. smart phones; rapidly deployed software and “apps”; gaming systems; and social media, are already being employed in many learning environments. We argue that for the sake of currency, if nothing else, all educators must not just learn, but master all five of these to be effective in the contemporary learning world of the future. We conclude with a section on expertise and online teaching and learning as this has emerged as a significant instructional wave of the future

Targeting apoptosis for optical imaging of infection

PURPOSE: Infection is ubiquitous and a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The most reliable method for localizing infection requires radiolabeling autologous white blood cells ex vivo. A compound that can be injected directly into a patient and can selectively image infectious foci will eliminate the drawbacks. The resolution of infection is associated with neutrophil apoptosis and necrosis presenting phosphatidylserine (PS) on the neutrophil outer leaflet. Targeting PS with intravenous administration of a PS-specific, near-infrared (NIR) fluorophore will permit localization of infectious foci by optical imaging. METHODS: Bacterial infection and sterile inflammation were induced in separate groups (n = 5) of mice. PS was targeted with a NIR fluorophore, PSVue(®)794 (2.7 pmol). Imaging was performed (ex = 730 nm, em = 830 nm) using Kodak Multispectral FX-Pro system. The contralateral normal thigh served as an individualized control. Confocal microscopy of normal and apoptotic neutrophils and bacteria confirmed PS specificity. RESULTS: Lesions, with a 10-s image acquisition, were unequivocally visible at 5 min post-injection. At 3 h post-injection, the lesion to background intensity ratios in the foci of infection (6.6 ± 0.2) were greater than those in inflammation (3.2 ± 0.5). Image fusions confirmed anatomical locations of the lesions. Confocal microscopy determined the fluorophore specificity for PS. CONCLUSIONS: Targeting PS presented on the outer leaflet of apoptotic or necrotic neutrophils as well as gram-positive microorganism with PS-specific NIR fluorophore provides a sensitive means of imaging infection. Literature indicates that NIR fluorophores can be detected 7-14 cm deep in tissue. This observation together with the excellent results and the continued development of versatile imaging devices could make optical imaging a simple, specific, and rapid modality for imaging infection

Fine Sands in East-Central Iowa

General information on fine sand near the Iowan drift border in east-central Iowa is available in previous work (5) on soils and geologic deposits. Since little detailed work on engineering and geological properties has been done on these sands, the Iowa Engineering Experiment Station is now making such a study. The objectives of the first phase of the. study are: (1) to determine the occurrence of sand deposits considered economically workable for engineering usage and, (2) to determine properties and property variations of the sands. This report covers the occurrence, method of sampling, field description, classification, and particle size analysis of the sands included in the east-central Iowa study

Atypical periosteal osteoid osteoma: a case report

Osteoid osteoma is a benign osteoblastic tumor usually seen in adolescent and young males. In the paediatric age group, since the history may be difficult to elicit, there are often problems in early diagnosis. The author reports an unusual presentation of osteoid osteoma in a ten-year-old girl, which could not be diagnosed by conventional X-rays and CT scan

In vitro prediction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon bioavailability of 14 different incidentally ingested soils in juvenile swine

Predicting mammalian bioavailability of PAH mixtures from in vitro bioaccessibility results has proven to be an elusive goal. In an attempt to improve in vitro predictions of PAH soil bioavailability we investigated how energetic input influences PAH bioaccessibility by using a high and low energetic shaking method. Co-inertia analysis (COIA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were also used to examine PAH-PAH interactions during ingestion. PAH bioaccessibility was determined from 14 historically contaminated soils using the fed organic estimation of the human simulation test (FOREhST) with inclusion of a silicone rod as a sorption sink and compared to bioavailability estimates from the juvenile swine model. Shaking method significantly affected PAH bioaccessibility in the FOREhST model, with PAH desorption from the high energy FOREhST almost an order of magnitude greater compared to the low energy FOREhST. PAH-PAH interactions significantly influenced PAH bioavailability and when these interactions were used in a linear model, the model predicted benzo(a)anthracene bioavailability with an slope of 1 and r2 of 0.66 and for benzo(a)pyrene bioavailability has a slope of 1 and r2 of 0.65. Lastly, to confirm the effects as determined by COIA and SEM, we spiked low levels of benzo(a)anthracene into historically contaminated soils, and observed a significant increase in benzo(a)pyrene bioaccessibility. By accounting for PAH interactions, and reducing the energetics of in vitro extractions, we were able to use bioaccessibility to predict bioavailability across 14 historically contaminated soils. Our work suggests that future work on PAH bioavailability and bioaccessibility should focus on the dynamics of how the matrix of PAHs present in the soil interact with mammalian systems. Such interactions should not only include the chemical interactions discussed here but also the interactions of PAH mixtures with mammalian uptake systems

Are Canadian General Internal Medicine training program graduates well prepared for their future careers?

BACKGROUND: At a time of increased need and demand for general internists in Canada, the attractiveness of generalist careers (including general internal medicine, GIM) has been falling as evidenced by the low number of residents choosing this specialty. One hypothesis for the lack of interest in a generalist career is lack of comfort with the skills needed to practice after training, and the mismatch between the tertiary care, inpatient training environment and "real life". This project was designed to determine perceived effectiveness of training for 10 years of graduates of Canadian GIM programs to assist in the development of curriculum and objectives for general internists that will meet the needs of graduates and ultimately society. METHODS: Mailed survey designed to explore perceived importance of training for and preparation for various aspects of Canadian GIM practice. After extensive piloting of the survey, including a pilot survey of two universities to improve the questionnaire, all graduates of the 16 universities over the previous ten years were surveyed. RESULTS: Gaps (difference between importance and preparation) were demonstrated in many of the CanMEDS 2000/2005(® )competencies. Medical problems of pregnancy, perioperative care, pain management, chronic care, ambulatory care and community GIM rotations were the medical expert areas with the largest gaps. Exposure to procedural skills was perceived to be lacking. Some procedural skills valued as important for current GIM trainees and performed frequently (example ambulatory ECG interpretation) had low preparation ratings by trainees. Other areas of perceived discrepancy between training and practice included: manager role (set up of an office), health advocate (counseling for prevention, for example smoking cessation), and professional (end of life issues, ethics). CONCLUSION: Graduates of Canadian GIM training programs over the last ten years have identified perceived gaps between training and important areas for practice. They have identified competencies that should be emphasized in Canadian GIM programs. Ongoing review of graduate's perceptions of training programs as it applies to their current practice is important to ensure ongoing appropriateness of training programs. This information will be used to strengthen GIM training programs in Canada