A Shifting Landscape: A Decade of Change in American Attitudes about Same-Sex Marriage and LGBT Issues

This national survey of more than 4,500 Americans finds that support for allowing gay and lesbian people to legally wed has jumped 21 percentage points over the last decade, from 32 percent in 2003 to 53 percent in 2013, transforming the American religious landscape in the process

New Advances in Forming Functional Ceramics for Micro Devices

Micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) are finding uses in an increasing number of diverse applications. Currently the fabrication techniques used to produce such MEMS devices are primarily based on 2-D processing of thin films. The challenges faced by producing more complex structures (e.g. high aspect ratio, spans, and multi-material structures) require the development of new processing techniques. Potential solutions to these challenges based on low temperature processing of functional ceramics, selective chemical patterning, and micro-moulding are presented to show that it is possible to create complex functional ceramic structures which incorporate non-ceramic conducting and support structures. The capabilities of both techniques are compared and the relative advantages of each explored

The NASA Earth Research-2 (ER-2) Aircraft: A Flying Laboratory for Earth Science Studies

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, has two Lockheed Martin Corporation (Bethesda, Maryland) Earth Research-2 (ER2) aircraft that serve as high-altitude and long-range flying laboratories. The ER-2 aircraft has been successfully utilized to conduct scientific studies of stratospheric and tropospheric chemistry, land-use mapping, disaster assessment, preliminary testing and calibration and validation of satellite sensors. The research missions for the ER-2 aircraft are planned, implemented, and managed by the Dryden Flight Research Center Science Mission Directorate. Maintenance and instrument payload integration is conducted by Dryden personnel. The ER-2 aircraft provides experimenters with a wide array of payload accommodations areas with suitable environment control with required electrical and mechanical interfaces. Missions may be flown out of Dryden or from remote bases worldwide, according to research requirements. The NASA ER-2 aircraft is utilized by a variety of customers, including U.S. Government agencies, civilian organizations, universities, and state governments. The combination of the ER-2 aircraft s range, endurance, altitude, payload power, payload volume and payload weight capabilities complemented by a trained maintenance and operations team provides an excellent and unique platform system to the science community and other customers

Performance of an Electro-Hydrostatic Actuator on the F-18 Systems Research Aircraft

An electro-hydrostatic actuator was evaluated at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. The primary goal of testing this actuator system was the flight demonstration of power-by-wire technology on a primary flight control surface. The electro-hydrostatic actuator uses an electric motor to drive a hydraulic pump and relies on local hydraulics for force transmission. This actuator replaced the F-18 standard left aileron actuator on the F-18 Systems Research Aircraft and was evaluated throughout the Systems Research Aircraft flight envelope. As of July 24, 1997 the electro-hydrostatic actuator had accumulated 23.5 hours of flight time. This paper presents the electro-hydrostatic actuator system configuration and component description, ground and flight test plans, ground and flight test results, and lessons learned. This actuator performs as well as the standard actuator and has more load capability than required by aileron actuator specifications of McDonnell- Douglas Aircraft, St. Louis, Missouri. The electro-hydrostatic actuator system passed all of its ground tests with the exception of one power-off test during unloaded dynamic cycling

Active zone self-similarity of fractal sierpinski antenna verified using infra-red thermograms

The surface current distribution of a Sierpinski fractal antenna shows a self-similar behaviour determined by the self-similar properties of its geometry. The application of infra-red thermography to electromagnetic near field detection allows the experimental verification of the active region scaling of a fractal antenna operating at different bands.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Segmentation of the Visiting Friends and Relatives Travel Market

The visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel market is a significant segment of the tourism industry, accounting for 76% of all trips to Illinois in 1991. This study determined the demographic, geographic, and psychographic characteristics and the benefits sought by those visiting friends and relatives in a Central Illinois Community. A self-administered questionnaire was sent to a systematic random sample of 660 inquirers to the local Convention and Visitors Bureau. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the following: (a) mode of transportation; (b) number of trips and length of stay; (c) demographic profile; (d) economic impact; and (e) impact of local university. The results of the study defined three VFR travel market segments, two of which closely resembled market segments profiled by Plog

Early Pleistocene hominins in europe: the sites of Barranco León and Fuente Nueva-3 (Orce, Spain)

The Early Pleistocene (Late Villafranchian) sites of Orce, placed in the northeastern sector of the Guadix-Baza Basin (Granada, southeastern Spain), are key to the study of the first human settlements in the European subcontinent. Evidence of human presence and anthropic activity has been found at two sites, Barranco Leon and Fuente Nueva-3. In this sedimentary basin, the hominins inhabited a mild environment rich in vegetation, which provided all resources necessary for their living, including the presence of a lake with a permanent water sheet fed by thermal springs and abundant ungulate carcasses. However, these animal resources were also focus of attention for scavenging carnivores. In Barranco León, with a chronology of 1.4 Ma, and slightly older than Fuente Nueva-3, 1.3 Ma, a deciduous tooth of Homo sp. has been unearthed in 2002 [1] and a huge assemblage of Oldowan (i. e. Mode 1) tools, made in flint and limestones, have been recovered in both localities. In addition, evidences of human modification are frequents on the bone surfaces, as cut-marks, resulting from disarticulation, defleshing and evisceration activities, and percussion marks that evidence bone fracturing for accessing marrow contents. Cut marks are mostly present on large ungulates limb bones, although a number of axial elements, as rib and vertebrae fragments, show cut marked surfaces. Percussion evidences are located almost exclusively in appendicular elements. Carnivores activities are present too, and are focused, as cut marks, on limb bones. These modifications were mostly originated by the giant, short-faced hyena of African origin Pachycrocuta brevirostris, althought the study of the fossil bones from the last four dig seasons evidence the presence of tooth marks from other carnivores of smaller body size. In any case, anthropic activity predominates in both, Barranco León and Fuente Nueva-3, which suggest a secondary access of carnivores to these areas. However, the upper archaeological level of Fuente Nueva-3, which has provided 150 coprolites and several tooth remains of P. brevirostris, is an exception to the pattern of competitive exclusion depicted above for hominins and scavenging carnivores. Taphonomic analysis of ungulate postcranial remains preserved in this level has shown increased carnivoran activity, thus evidencing a possible competition for ungulate carcasses between Homo and Pachycrocuta This work has been done in the framework of the contract Exp. B090678SV18BC funded and authorized by Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía, and the project P11-HUM-7248 by Junta deAndalucía References:[1] Toro-Moyano, I, Martínez-Navarro, B., Agustí, J., Souday, C., Bermúdez De Castro, J.M., Martinón-Torres, M., Fajardo, B., Duval, M., Falguères, C., Oms, O., Parés, J.M., Anadón, P., Julià, R., García-Aguilar, J.M., Moigne, A.-M., Espigares, M.P., Ros-Montoya, S., Palmqvist, P., 2013. The oldest human fossil in Europe, from Orce (Spain). Journal of Human Evolution, 65, 1-9.[2] Espigares, M.P., Martínez-Navarro, B., Palmqvist, P., Ros-Montoya, S., Toro, I., Agustí, J. Sala, R., 2013. Homo vs. Pachycrocuta: Earliest evidence of competition for an elephant carcass between scavengers at Fuente Nueva-3 (Orce, Spain). Quaternary International. 295, 113 -125.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech