Satellite and ground radiotracking of elk

Radiotracking and monitoring of free-living animals in natural environments is providing an effective new technique for acquiring information on biological processes, including animal orientation and navigation. To test the practicability of extending the technique by using satellite systems for tracking animals, a female elk was instrumented with an electronic collar. It contained both the Interrogation Recording Location System (IRLS) transponder and a Craighead-Varney ground-tracking transmitter. The elk was successfully tracked and monitored by satellite during month of April 1970. This was the first time an animal had been tracked by satellite on the surface of the earth

Monitoring wood decay in poles by the vibroacoustic method

Despite recent advances in the development of new materials, wood continues to be used globally for the support of overhead cable networks used by telecommunications and electrical utility companies. As a natural material, wood is subject to decay and will eventually fail, causing disruption to services and danger to public and company personnel. The traditional method of testing poles for decay involves hitting them with a hammer and listening to the sound that results. However, evidence suggests that a large number of poles are replaced unnecessarily and a significant number of poles continue to fail unexpectedly in service. Therefore, a more accurate method for assessing the structural integrity of wooden poles is required. The underlying physical principles behind the 'pole tester's approach' have been identified and used in the development of a decay meter to enable objective monitoring of decay in wooden poles

Grizzly bear habitat analysis. Section 2: Evaluation of grizzly bear food plants, food categories and habitat

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

The Application of a Cylindrical-spherical Floating Ring Bearing as a Device to Control Stability of Turbogenerators

The development of a new device to control stability of turbogenerators is described. The device comprises a floating ring installed between the journal and bearing housing of a fluid film bearing. The journal and the inner surface of the ring are cylindrical while the outer surface of the ring and bearing surface are spherical providing axial location of the ring and self-alignment of the bearing. The employment of this device would lead to a consistent machine performance. System stability may be controlled by changing a number of bearing and floating ring parameters. This device also offers an additional advantage of having a very low frictional characteristic. A feasibility study was carried out to investigate the suitability of the new device to turbogenerator applications. Both theoretical analysis and experimental observations were carried out. Initial results suggest that the new floating ring device is a competitive alternative to other conventional arrangements

Design, development and mechanization of a precision deployable truss with optimized structural efficiency for spaceborne applications

A deployable mast concept which meets the weight, size and stability requirements for a feed support structure for offset antennas up to 100 meters in diameter is discussed. A triangulated truss configuration, the use of tapered tubes which exhibit a high strength-to-weight ratio, and low CTE graphite-epoxy material are seen to provide an efficient, lightweight and stable truss suitable for an antenna feed support. A low stowage ratio of 30:1 is achieved through a unique preloaded hinge located at the center of each longeron and an autonomous deployment cage with a drive mechanism. Initial analysis and proof of concept hardware validated the basic mechanism and design assumptions and provided a basis for further investigation. The concept can readily accept variations in member size and thus lends itself to optimization for other potential uses where a stiff, lightweight deployable truss is needed

Party Booby Trap

Thomson & Craighead present their first fragrance Apocalypse (2016) in Party Booby Trap, the duo’s second solo show at Carroll / Fletcher. The scent will be showcased alongside a series of major new works inspired by sources ranging from nuclear waste to self-help literature and genetics. The late 20th century saw one of the most significant scientific advances to date, with the first mapping of a human genome (an individual’s complete DNA set) by the international Human Genome Project. It took thirteen years and twenty universities to reference over three billion base pairs of nucleotides (DNA molecules) that compose one single genome. This process has inspired Thomson & Craighead’s Stutterer (2014), a video installation the artists describe as a “poetry machine.” There are four types of DNA: adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine, commonly referred to as A, C, G, and T. The artists seized the creative opportunity afforded by the combination of a sequence of letters and a crucial tranche of recent history. The time it took to complete the Human Genome Project spanned the liberation of Nelson Mandela in 1990 and the fall of Baghdad to the allied military coalition in 2003. Supported by the Wellcome Trust, Stutterer (2014) pairs each letter of the first human genome with a word beginning with the same letter, spoken in television footage from the period. The result is a televisual portrait of an era which encompassed not only the First and the Second Gulf Wars, but also the collapse of the Soviet Union, the deaths of Yitzhak Rabin and Princess Diana, the first cloned sheep Dolly, the launch of Viagra and the shootings at Columbine High School. In October 2002, then-President George W. Bush declared that Iraq was in possession of chemical and biological weapons which “threatened America and the world” – an allegation which is now widely acknowledged as one of the main triggers for the Second Gulf War (2003-11). “Confronting the threat posed by Iraq,” he said, “is crucial to winning the War on Terror.” Thomson & Craighead’s print the war on terror (2016) plays with the phrase in a series of Oulipo-esque anagrams: “the rot narrower”, “tarot hewn error”, “rare tower thorn.” Made with a type-writer on a white sheet of paper like a piece of experimental poetry, these hint at the absurdity of the chain of events that led to the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians in less than a decade. Multi-coloured balloons bearing the names of military operations from “Desert Storm” to “Urgent Fury” crowd the floor. These innocuous presences – absent-mindedly kicked about by visitors as they progress through the exhibition – function as gentle reminders of the pervasive nature of warfare. On a TV screen, some women dutifully pop the balloons after a corporate party, as if trying to contain a reality that could overwhelm them. Created in collaboration with perfumer Euan McCall, the fragrance Apocalypse combines the scents of olfactory elements described in The Book of Revelation, including burnt flesh, incense and blood. Presented in a velvet-lined box, it turns a central tenet of the Western imaginary, and a canonical representation of End Times, into a luxury, limited edition item. At once highly desirable and sickening, the piece is the product of a time in which both consumerism and politics feed on fear, mysticism and fallacies of all stripes. With the series of posters Common Era (2016), Thomson & Craighead gather a collection of predictions for the end of the world: from Nostradamus – who famously declared that all would be over in 1999 – to Canadian philosopher John A. Leslie, who more optimistically estimated it would be by the year 11120. The soft palette and hand-made feel of these text pieces stands in stark contrast with their sensationalist content. They almost recall the mindfulness colouring books that topped the best-selling charts in 2015. While broadcasting collective anxiety about the destruction of humanity and “the world as we know it,” they bring the viewers towards something much more intimate, to do with personal angst and the quest for happiness. Help Yourself and A Temporary Index (both 2016), articulate this push-and-pull between concern for the common good and individual fulfilment. The first piece combines found digital video material, originally designed to prevent the on-screen accumulation of dead pixels, and a series of self-improvement tapes. Viewers can navigate them – going from, say, “how to attract money” to “weight loss” or, “sales motivation” by plugging headphones into different sockets. Meanwhile, on a large free-standing screen, A Temporary Index gives, in seconds, the estimated time it will take for sites storing entombed radioactive waste to be safe again for humans. These range from a few decades to a million years. The numbers are presented vertically and doubled up, standing like totems. Thus abstracted, they are almost as incomprehensible as the durations they represent. Party Booby Trap (the title is a palindrome, like most of Thomson & Craighead’s exhibition titles) splices these temporalities: the deep time of nuclear decay and apocalyptic visions is put side by side with the dizzying brevity of the human lifespan (or a political career). The exhibition harks back to a seminal religious text, and links it to belief systems of all kinds, arguably including democracy, science and art itself

Goodbody, Barbara oral history interview

Barbara (Morris) Goodbody was born in Muncie, Indiana in 1936. Her father, Robert Melvin Morris, was from a Democratic Kentucky family, and a career naval officer. Her mother, Adelia Ball Morris, was from a Republican Indiana family. Barbara attended many schools growing up, as the family moved often. She attended Mt. Vernon College for one year, then graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in Literature. She worked in the press office during Muskie’s 1972 presidential run

Early Term Infant Care: Hospital Utilization and Breastfeeding Practices

Early term infants (ETI), with gestational ages from 37 to 38 weeks, have higher morbidity and mortality rates when compared with later term infant counterparts born at 39 to 41 weeks. Although this newly identified term infant subcategory is gaining attention, the immediate and long term health outcomes and care needs of ETI remain largely unexplored. The purpose of this research project was to examine the current research documenting ETI health and explore care practices that are currently utilized to promote ETI health. The original research study describes care practices used to promote health for ETIs born in Louisiana in 2004 and examines their care in the early postpartum period. The Conceptual Model for Late Preterm Infant Care was used as the framework to examine care. The research design was retrospective descriptive and care experiences were examined through secondary data analysis utilizing Louisiana\u27s Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (LaPRAMS) questionnaire for 2004

Promoting Cultural Heritage without Much Cash in the Cache: A Case for Geocaching

On May 3rd 2000, one day after the United States Department of Defense disabled Selective Availability Scrambling on its Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, a container with a logbook was placed outside of Portland, Oregon and its GPS coordinates were posted to an online satellite newsgroup. By May 6th, 2000 the cache had been visited twice and logged once. This was the beginning of Geocaching, a rapidly growing sport/game in which players attempt to find small boxes hidden in public places with the assistance of a GPS device and a few written clues. Geocaching is unique in that is a combination of the virtual community, physical place, and real world artifact. The experience isn’t about being in virtual space, however, it uses virtual space to launch an experience in the actual physical world (Severi 2003). Geocaching for Cultural Heritage framework is presented and the potential of Geocaching to promote tourism and Cultural Heritage is discussed. Geocaching can provide Cultural Heritage organizations, who often have limited budgets and lack technical staff, with a method to: (1) increase revenue and (2) provide value added services with minimal investment or technical training