Analysis of U.S. Senate Web Sites For Disability Accessibility

U.S. federal government web sites have increased significantly the level of services and information offered to various internal and external stakeholders. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 amended Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which complemented the intent and aims of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). As a result, federal agencies and departments were mandated to provide disabled stakeholders with access to key information from federal web sites. However, since this enactment, some federal web sites still do not meet fully the legal requirements to accommodate users with disabilities. Additionally, web sites of members of the U.S. Congress technically do not fall under regulation. Without regulation, non-adherence to accessibility standards by congressional web sites may result in poor or ineffective utilization by citizen consumers or other stakeholders with disabilities. The purpose of this study is to examine the accessibility statistics for a pseudo-random sample of 50 web sites of U.S. Senators. The main web page of each site was evaluated with an online web site analysis software tool – Truwex. Three factors were used to gauge the level of accessibility: criteria based on Section 508, WCAG 1.0 standards, and WCAG 2.0 standards. Results suggest that the vast majority of the U.S. Senate web sites do not meet the federal legal guidelines that otherwise are imposed on other U.S. governmental agencies and departments. Many of the sites contain consistent patterns of non-compliance, and some minor changes could result in increased accessibility for disabled stakeholders

Similarity Measure Development for Case-Based Reasoning- A Data-driven Approach

In this paper, we demonstrate a data-driven methodology for modelling the local similarity measures of various attributes in a dataset. We analyse the spread in the numerical attributes and estimate their distribution using polynomial function to showcase an approach for deriving strong initial value ranges of numerical attributes and use a non-overlapping distribution for categorical attributes such that the entire similarity range [0,1] is utilized. We use an open source dataset for demonstrating modelling and development of the similarity measures and will present a case-based reasoning (CBR) system that can be used to search for the most relevant similar cases

Pathogenicity of Septoria aquilina Isolated from Black Hills Bracken

Septoria aquilina, a pathogenic fungus isolated from Pteridium aquilinum growing in the Black Hills was studied from 1991-1995. S. aquilina sprayed at 8,000 conidia/ml on transplanted fronds followed by high humidity caused severe necrosis seven days after inoculation and disease severity increased until fronds died. Severe necrosis also developed from inoculations at 4,000 and 2,000 conidia/ml. Less severe symptoms developed from inoculations at 1,000 conidia/ml. Inoculations at 4,000 conidia/ml not followed by high humidity caused less necrosis than inoculations at the same concentration with high humidity. Inoculations at 4,000, 2,000, and 1,000 conidia/ml on fronds grown from spores caused similar levels of necrosis as inoculations on transplanted fronds. Necrotic epidermal and mesophyll cells were observed in pinnules. In rachises, portions of cortex, endodermis, xylem, and phloem showed abnormal cells or cell destruction. Hyphae were observed infrequently and only in the epidermis and mesophyll of pinnules. S. aquiline is a candidate for field evaluation as a biocontrol agent

Life History of Elsinoe panici

Elsinoe panici Tiffany and Mathre is widespread on native Panicum virgatum L. in Iowa. In June Sphaceloma (imperfect stage) conidia develop from acervuli on overwintered stromata of wind-dispersed leaf litter and culms. Germ cubes penetrate between epidermal cells of young leaves, and 2 wk later tiny yellowish, subepidermal stromata are visible. Secondary conidia develop from acervuli on these stromata within 2 wk and are spread to adjacent leaves. Stromata become black, raised, shiny, ovoid-elongate patches, composed of thick-walled pseudoparenchymatous cells. Chlorosis or necrosis does not develop around the stromata. Stromata are visible on all leaves throughout the season. Acervuli, appearing as white spots in black stromata, open by irregular tears in the epidermis. Ascostromata develop on lower leaves infrequently from late July into September. They are tan-bronze, raised, ovoid-elongate, softer, and more loosely structured than stromata. Asci mature at different times. Ascospores are discharged from the bitunicate asci and germinate directly by budding or by germ tubes

Ground Shake Test of the Boeing Model 360 Helicopter Airframe

Boeing Helicopters, together with other U.S. Helicopter manufacturers, is engaged in a finite element applications program designed to emplace in the U.S. a superior capability to utilize finite element analysis models in support of helicopter airframe structurel design. This program was given the acronym DAMVIBS (Design Analysis Methods for VIBrationS). The test plan is reviewed and results are presented for a shake test of the Boeing Model 360 helicopter. Results of the test will serve as the basis for validation of a finite element vibration model of the helicopter

A 10 kpc Scale Seyfert Galaxy Outflow: HST/COS Observations of IRAS F22456-5125

We present analysis of the UV-spectrum of the low-z AGN IRAS-F22456-5125 obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The spectrum reveals six main kinematic components, spanning a range of velocities of up to 800 km s-1, which for the first time are observed in troughs associated with CII, CIV, NV, SiII, SiIII, SiIV and SIV. We also obtain data on the OVI troughs, which we compare to those available from an earlier FUSE epoch. Column densities measured from these ions allow us to derive a well-constrained photoionization solution for each outflow component. Two of these kinematic components show troughs associated with transitions from excited states of SiII\ and CII. The number density inferred from these troughs, in combination with the deduced ioinization parameter, allows us to determine the distance to these outflow components from the central source. We find these components to be at a distance of ~ 10 kpc. The distances and the number densities derived are consistent with the outflow being part of a galactic wind.Comment: 52 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ March 25, 201

The Inter-Mammary Sticky Roll: A Novel Technique for Securing a Doppler Ultrasonic Probe to the Precordium for Venous Air Embolism Detection.

Venous air embolism is a devastating and potentially life-threatening complication that can occur during neurosurgical procedures. We report the development and use of the "inter-mammary sticky roll," a technique to reliably secure a precordial Doppler ultrasonic probe to the chest wall during neurosurgical cases that require lateral decubitus positioning. We have found that this noninvasive technique is safe, and effectively facilitates a constant Doppler signal with no additional risk to the patient

One dimensional chain of quantum molecule motors as a mathematical physics model for muscle fibre

A quantum chain model of many molecule motors is proposed as a mathematical physics theory on the microscopic modeling of classical force-velocity relation and tension transients of muscle fibre. We proposed quantum many-particle Hamiltonian to predict the force-velocity relation for the slow release of muscle fibre which has no empirical relation yet, it is much more complicate than hyperbolic relation. Using the same Hamiltonian, we predicted the mathematical force-velocity relation when the muscle is stimulated by alternative electric current. The discrepancy between input electric frequency and the muscle oscillation frequency has a physical understanding by Doppler effect in this quantum chain model. Further more, we apply quantum physics phenomena to explore the tension time course of cardiac muscle and insect flight muscle. Most of the experimental tension transients curves found their correspondence in the theoretical output of quantum two-level and three-level model. Mathematically modeling electric stimulus as photons exciting a quantum three-level particle reproduced most tension transient curves of water bug Lethocerus Maximus.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, Arguments are adde

Dynamic Singularities in Cooperative Exclusion

We investigate cooperative exclusion, in which the particle velocity can be an increasing function of the density. Within a hydrodynamic theory, an initial density upsteps and downsteps can evolve into: (a) shock waves, (b) continuous compression or rarefaction waves, or (c) a mixture of shocks and continuous waves. These unusual phenomena arise because of an inflection point in the current versus density relation. This anomaly leads to a group velocity that can either be an increasing or a decreasing function of the density on either side of these wave singularities.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 2 column revtex 4-1 format; version 2: substantially rewritten and put in IOP format, mail results unchanged; version 3: minor changes, final version for publication in JSTA