Rural soldiers continue to account for disproportionately high share of U.S. casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan

When the nation goes to war, all Americans are expected to make sacrifices. Today\u27s rural Americans, however, have fewer job opportunities within their communities, and are joining the military at higher rates. In turn, rural communities are facing military losses in disproportionate numbers to their urban counterparts

Composite seal for turbomachinery

A gas path seal suitable for use with a turbine engine or compressor is provided. A shroud wearable or abradable by the abrasion of the rotor blades of the turbine or compressor protects the rotor blades. A compliant backing surrounds the shroud. The backing may be made of corrugated sheets or the like with adjacent layers having off-set corrugations, with axes of the folds parallel to the rotor axis. The sheets may be bonded together at points of contact by brazing, welding or the like. In another embodiment a compliant material is covered with a thin ductile layer. A mounting fixture surrounds the backing

Songlines and Navigation in Wardaman and other Australian Aboriginal Cultures

We discuss the songlines and navigation of the Wardaman people, and place them in context by comparing them with corresponding practices in other Australian Aboriginal language groups, using previously unpublished information and also information drawn from the literature. Songlines are effectively oral maps of the landscape, enabling the transmission of oral navigational skills in cultures that do not have a written language. In many cases, songlines on the earth are mirrored by songlines in the sky, enabling the sky to be used as a navigational tool, both by using it as a compass, and by using it as a mnemonicComment: accepted by JAH

U.S. rural soldiers account for a disproportionately high share of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan

A study by the Carsey Institute found that among U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, those who are from rural America are dying at a higher rate than those soldiers who are from cities and suburbs. According to U.S. Department of Defense records, rural youth enlist in the military at a higher rate than urban and suburban youth and in all but eight states, soldiers from rural areas make up a disproportionately high share of the casualties

Wear of seal materials used in aircraft propulsion systems

The various types of seal locations in a gas turbine engine are described, and the significance of wear to each type is reviewed. Starting with positive contact shaft seals, existing material selection guidelines are reviewed, and the existing PV (contact pressure X sliding velocity) criteria for selecting seal materials are discussed, along with the theoretical background for these criteria. Examples of wear mechanisms observed to operate in positive contact seals are shown. Design features that can extend the operating capabilities of positive contact seals, including pressure balancing and incorporation of hydrodynamic lift are briefly discussed. It is concluded that, despite the benefits arising from these design features, improved positive contact seal materials from the standpoint of wear, erosion and oxidation resistance will be necessary for further improvements in seal performance and durability, and to meet stringent future challenges

hp-Version discontinuous Galerkin methods with interior penalty for partial differential equations with nonnegative characteristic form.

In this paper we consider the a posteriori and a priori analysis of hp-discontinuous Galerkin interior penalty methods for second-order partial differential equations with nonnegative characteristic form. In particular, we discuss the question of error estimation for linear target functionals, such as the outflow flux and the local average of the solution. Based on our a posteriori error bound we design and implement the corresponding adaptive algorithm to ensure reliable and efficient control of the error in the prescribed functional to within a given tolerance. This involves exploiting both local polynomial-degree variation and local mesh subdivision. The theoretical results are illustrated by a series of numerical experiments

Characteristics and performance of settlement programs : a review

The studies and cases reviewed by the authors suggest that settlement programs are too often designed on the assumption that all settlers will or can succeed. This had led to too much centralized administration and rigid designs, rather than reliance on decentralized approaches, flexibility in implementation, support for spontaneous settlement, and reliance on the settler's own investment capacity. Collective forms of crop production have not worked. Cropland is best allocated to individual families whose land rights must be clearly defined as ownership or long-term leases. Farm sizes must be flexibly adjusted to skills, the availability of family labor, and the families'capital ownership. Settlers should therefore be allowed to sell or rent the land to other beneficiaries. If poor settlers are to benefit or succeed, settlement cannot be based on credit finance but must include grants. Paternalistic constraints on the choice of crops or technologies, marketing, or participation in the labor force have usually not been enforceable or have had negative effects.Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Urban Housing,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Housing&Human Habitats

Caddo Ceramics from an Early 18th Century Spanish Mission in East Texas: Mission San Jose de los Nasonis (41RK200)

Mission San Jose de los Nasonis (4JRK200) and two contemporaneous Nasoni Caddo sites (41RK191 and 41RK197) were located by Mr. Bill Young more than 25 years ago in the southern part of Rusk County, Texas after the general area of the site had been cleared of timber. The mission site covers ca. 6.6 acres of an upland ridge along a small tributary to the Angelina River; the ridge projects into the Angelina River floodplain. The topographic setting of Mission San Jose conforms in all particulars to the settings of other known mission sites established among the Caddo: small hills adjacent to a floodplain, next to a stream, with the hills lower extensions of more extensive upland areas. Corbin also notes that these missions were located within the area of the local dispersed Caddoan village, none of the locations are places suited to support the Indian-based community that the Spanish hoped to entice to the location. This mission was established as one of six different missions by the Spanish in 1716 during their second attempt (the first being in 1690-1691) to establish a religious and political presence among the Caddo peoples in East Texas, specifically to minister to the Nasoni Caddo living in the area. Mission San Jose de los Nasonis ·was formally established on July 10, 1716. Father Espinosa and Captain Don Domingo Ramon, the leader of the expedition, had noted that there were many Hasinai Caddo ranchos in the general area along with arroyos of water and good places for settlement. Both Nasoni and Nacono Caddo were then living in this area of the Angelina river. Mr. Young made those collections available for study in 2006, and this article is a summary of the Caddo ceramics in the Mission Nasonis collections. In 1990, Dr. James E. Corbin of Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) and Dr. Kathleen Gilmore of the University of North Texas conducted limited excavations in Area A at the mission site, but these excavations have never been published. More than 930 Caddo ceramic sherds were recovered in that work, and are curated at SFASU; the separate analysis of these ceramic artifacts is underway