Connecting People, Places, and Pollinators: A Year-long Classroom and Community Collaboration in Portland, Oregon

This unique project at Portland State University (PSU) has been revolutionizing undergraduate community-based learning (CBL) efforts since the collaboration started in 2012. This case study involves a deep look into a year-long CBL effort involving three university instructors, two undergraduate student fellows from PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions (ISS), Green Lents, a neighborhood-based nonprofit, and approximately seventy-five undergraduate students

Studies on Silicic Acid Gels: Measurements on Surface Tension During Setting

In this paper, results will be presented to show the change in surface tension during gelation of silicic acid solution. This research was undertaken with the belief that the change in surface tension during gelation might give further insight into the process of gel formation

Automatic selection of audio compression for spoken commands

Voice commands are commonly used for interaction with virtual assistant applications provided via user devices such as smart speakers, appliances, smartphones, etc. When a user provides permission, some voice-enabled applications upload the user’s speech data to a server using lossless compression to enable server-based recognition of the user command. The lossless nature of the transmission can take up significant network resources and receiving a response from the server can take a significant amount of time when the user has a slow network connection. This disclosure provides techniques that enable faster transmission for server-side processing of user speech data while retaining recognition quality. Allowing loss in the transmitted audio reduces the resources required for speech data transmission. To ensure that there is no loss of quality, the user’s environment is evaluated with user permission, to determine whether lossy transmission is feasible for the particular user speech

Ideas and Symbolic Scenes in the Works of E.M. Forster

A study of the interrelationship of E.M. Fosters ideas as presented in his five novels, his two volumes of collected essays, and his treatise on the novel

Antiproton catalyzed microfission/fusion propulsion

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) utilizing an antiproton catalyzed hybrid fission/fusion target is discussed as a potential energy source for interplanetary propulsion. A proof-of-principle experiment underway at Phillips Laboratory, Kirtland AFB and antiproton trapping experiments at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, are presented. The ICAN propulsion concept is described and results of performance analyses are reviewed. Future work to further define the ICAN concept is outlined

An antiproton driver for ICF propulsion

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) utilizing an anitprotoncatalyzed target is discussed as a possible source of propulsion for rapid interplanetary manned space missions. The relevant compression, ignition, and thrust mechanisms are presented. Progress on an experiment presently in progress at the Phillips Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, NM to demonstrate proof-of-principle is reviewed

Eureka and beyond: mining's impact on African urbanisation

This collection brings separate literatures on mining and urbanisation together at a time when both artisanal and large-scale mining are expanding in many African economies. While much has been written about contestation over land and mineral rights, the impact of mining on settlement, notably its catalytic and fluctuating effects on migration and urban growth, has been largely ignored. African nation-states’ urbanisation trends have shown considerable variation over the past half century. The current surge in ‘new’ mining countries and the slow-down in ‘old’ mining countries are generating some remarkable settlement patterns and welfare outcomes. Presently, the African continent is a laboratory of national mining experiences. This special issue on African mining and urbanisation encompasses a wide cross-section of country case studies: beginning with the historical experiences of mining in Southern Africa (South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe), followed by more recent mineralizing trends in comparatively new mineral-producing countries (Tanzania) and an established West African gold producer (Ghana), before turning to the influence of conflict minerals (Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone)

Intravesical Treatments of Bladder Cancer: Review

For bladder cancer, intravesical chemo/immunotherapy is widely used as adjuvant therapies after surgical transurethal resection, while systemic therapy is typically reserved for higher stage, muscle-invading, or metastatic diseases. The goal of intravesical therapy is to eradicate existing or residual tumors through direct cytoablation or immunostimulation. The unique properties of the urinary bladder render it a fertile ground for evaluating additional novel experimental approaches to regional therapy, including iontophoresis/electrophoresis, local hyperthermia, co-administration of permeation enhancers, bioadhesive carriers, magnetic-targeted particles and gene therapy. Furthermore, due to its unique anatomical properties, the drug concentration-time profiles in various layers of bladder tissues during and after intravesical therapy can be described by mathematical models comprised of drug disposition and transport kinetic parameters. The drug delivery data, in turn, can be combined with the effective drug exposure to infer treatment efficacy and thereby assists the selection of optimal regimens. To our knowledge, intravesical therapy of bladder cancer represents the first example where computational pharmacological approach was used to design, and successfully predicted the outcome of, a randomized phase III trial (using mitomycin C). This review summarizes the pharmacological principles and the current status of intravesical therapy, and the application of computation to optimize the drug delivery to target sites and the treatment efficacy