HEALTH: Helping Employees Alter Life Through Health

To create a healthier and happier company environment and network as a whole. Our employees will become more focused and goal-oriented driven. The overall morale of the company will be higher, leading Biss Enterprises to even more success

The Effects of Combined Compression and Aging on the Properties of Glassy Polycarbonate

Physical aging and plastic flow are known to cause changes in the properties of glassy polycarbonate (PC). Although the individual effects of physical aging and plastic flow have been studied, the combined mechanical and thermal effects have yet to be evaluated for PC at large plastic strains. This work is the first characterization of the combined effects in PC of large plastic flow followed by thermal (physical) aging. To conduct this study, samples were prepared with different extents of plastic compressive strain, up to approximately 50% engineering strain, followed by thermal aging up to 135 °C, with various aging times up to 6000 hours. These samples were then studied by conducting Charpy impact, quasi-static single-edge notched bending (SENB), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and temperature-modulated DSC (TMDSC) tests. The main content of this thesis is the description of the experimental setup and its evaluation, and a preliminary study of the results. The Charpy impact, quasistatic SENB, DSC, DMA, and TMDSC results are the first for PC at large plastic flow in the glassy state followed by physical aging. Charpy impact and quasi-static SENB tests provide information about crack initiation and propagation, and were conducted on PC to study the effect on failure of plastic flow followed by physical aging. For these tests, samples were cut with two orientations relative to the axis of the initial compression, labeled as TA and TT samples. The first letter denotes that the sample is cut with its long axis oriented transversely (T) to the axis of compression and the second letter denotes the direction of crack propagation, either axial (A) or transverse (T) to the axis of compression. Even though preliminary, this study shows a distinct anisotropic characteristic to the sample response during failure, with a measurable effect from both plastic deformation and from physical aging. As expected, the Charpy impact results show that plastic compression increases the toughness while physical aging has a large effect in increasing the brittleness. The quasi-static SENB tests provide more detailed information, yet provide similar results. DSC tests were performed on PC samples with plastic compressions up to 40% engineering strain followed by physical aging at 105 °C, 125 °C, and 135 °C for aging times up to 6000 hours, 700 hours, and 300 hours, respectively. A LabView program was developed to calculate the relevant thermal parameters for these tests, which has been adopted in the laboratory for studying all DSC results. The results for the samples aged at 125 °C are presented in detail, showing the effect of both plastic compression and thermal aging on a number of measures of the glass transition. Even though, in general, the effect of physical aging in uncompressed and compressed samples show similar trends, plastic deformation did effect the short and long term aging differently. DMA and TMDSC tests were also performed on a large number of samples, but are only briefly discussed in this thesis. The goal of this preliminary work was to establish the effect of plastic deformation followed by thermal aging, particularly for large plastic deformations. The work suggests that in some measurements there is a clear difference between the small and large plastically deformed samples, but that other measurements are not affected by plastic flow at all. In particular, there is a substantial anisotropic effect on fracture properties, which might be considered one of the most important results of this work

Potential transgenic routes to increase tree biomass

AbstractBiomass is a prime target for genetic engineering in forestry because increased biomass yield will benefit most downstream applications such as timber, fiber, pulp, paper, and bioenergy production. Transgenesis can increase biomass by improving resource acquisition and product utilization and by enhancing competitive ability for solar energy, water, and mineral nutrients. Transgenes that affect juvenility, winter dormancy, and flowering have been shown to influence biomass as well. Transgenic approaches have increased yield potential by mitigating the adverse effects of prevailing stress factors in the environment. Simultaneous introduction of multiple genes for resistance to various stress factors into trees may help forest trees cope with multiple or changing environments. We propose multi-trait engineering for tree crops, simultaneously deploying multiple independent genes to address a set of genetically uncorrelated traits that are important for crop improvement. This strategy increases the probability of unpredictable (synergistic or detrimental) interactions that may substantially affect the overall phenotype and its long-term performance. The very limited ability to predict the physiological processes that may be impacted by such a strategy requires vigilance and care during implementation. Hence, we recommend close monitoring of the resultant transgenic genotypes in multi-year, multi-location field trials

Monte Carlo Simulations of the Analysis of Variance for Discrete Data

Statistic

A preferred vision for administering elementary schools : a reflective essay

Why is it that some people give up the relative security and comfort of working with children in the classroom to join the principalship? Why do these same people choose to leave an area where they are the perceived expert in their field for an area where one\u27s decisions are constantly questioned and criticized by those he or she works for and with? These are difficult questions to answer and in a rational sense, there are not a lot of logical responses for why some individuals decide to devote the effort necessary to understand and achieve the position of the principalship. As Houston (1994) notes, most of the easy problems have been solved before they get to the administrator, and any problems that do get to the administrator and are solved are often thankless and unappreciated

Investigation of Cloud Properties and Atmospheric Profiles with MODIS

The WINter Cloud Experiment (WINCE) was directed and supported by personnel from the University of Wisconsin in January and February. Data sets of good quality were collected by the MODIS Airborne Simulator (MAS) and other instruments on the NASA ER2; they will be used to develop and validate cloud detection and cloud property retrievals over winter scenes (especially over snow). Software development focused on utilities needed for all of the UW product executables; preparations for Version 2 software deliveries were almost completed. A significant effort was made, in cooperation with SBRS and MCST, in characterizing and understanding MODIS PFM thermal infrared performance; crosstalk in the longwave infrared channels continues to get considerable attention

Investigation of Cloud Properties and Atmospheric Profiles with Modis

A major milestone was accomplished with the delivery of all five University of Wisconsin MODIS Level 2 science production software packages to the Science Data Support Team (SDST) for integration. These deliveries were the culmination of months of design and testing, with most of the work focused on tasks peripheral to the actual science contained in the code. LTW hosted a MODIS infrared calibration workshop in September. Considerable progress has been made by MCST, with help from LTW, in refining the calibration algorithm, and in identifying and characterization outstanding problems. Work continues on characterizing the effects of non-blackbody earth surfaces on atmospheric profile retrievals and modeling radiative transfer through cirrus clouds

Investigation of cloud properties and atmospheric stability with MODIS

The last half year was spent in preparing Version 1 software for delivery, and culminated in transfer of the Level 2 cloud mask production software to the SDST in April. A simulated MODIS test data set with good radiometric integrity was produced using MAS data for a clear ocean scene. ER-2 flight support and MAS data processing were provided by CIMSS personnel during the Apr-May 96 SUCCESS field campaign in Salina, Kansas. Improvements have been made in the absolute calibration of the MAS, including better characterization of the spectral response for all 50 channels. Plans were laid out for validating and testing the MODIS calibration techniques; these plans were further refined during a UW calibration meeting with MCST

Daily MODIS 500 m Reflectance Anisotropy Direct Broadcast (DB) Products for Monitoring Vegetation Phenology Dynamics

Land surface vegetation phenology is an efficient bio-indicator for monitoring ecosystem variation in response to changes in climatic factors. The primary objective of the current article is to examine the utility of the daily MODIS 500 m reflectance anisotropy direct broadcast (DB) product for monitoring the evolution of vegetation phenological trends over selected crop, orchard, and forest regions. Although numerous model-fitted satellite data have been widely used to assess the spatio-temporal distribution of land surface phenological patterns to understand phenological process and phenomena, current efforts to investigate the details of phenological trends, especially for natural phenological variations that occur on short time scales, are less well served by remote sensing challenges and lack of anisotropy correction in satellite data sources. The daily MODIS 500 m reflectance anisotropy product is employed to retrieve daily vegetation indices (VI) of a 1 year period for an almond orchard in California and for a winter wheat field in northeast China, as well as a 2 year period for a deciduous forest region in New Hampshire, USA. Compared with the ground records from these regions, the VI trajectories derived from the cloud-free and atmospherically corrected MODIS Nadir BRDF (bidirectional reflectance distribution function) adjusted reflectance (NBAR) capture not only the detailed footprint and principal attributes of the phenological events (such as flowering and blooming) but also the substantial inter-annual variability. This study demonstrates the utility of the daily 500 m MODIS reflectance anisotropy DB product to provide daily VI for monitoring and detecting changes of the natural vegetation phenology as exemplified by study regions comprising winter wheat, almond trees, and deciduous forest