Educational Operations Four Days a Week

Four day work weeks have been employed by industry, state agencies, and recently by higher education. The generally perceived benefit of the four day work week is reduced energy costs. These costs savings include more efficient building operations and less energy consumption driving to a facility. The generally perceived negative impact of four day operations, particularly of state agencies, is a decreased level of service. How much energy would be saved and could the level of service be maintained in a higher educational environment by switching from five to four day weeks? This study occurs at a regional university within an Industrial and Engineering Technology department that has exclusive use of a building. The department contains seven degree programs ranging from TAC-ABET programs to non-accredited technical degree programs. During the study period all classes and laboratories were scheduled Monday through Thursday. Staff only worked Monday through Thursday. Faculty but not students could gain access to the building on Fridays. The objective of this paper is to study the costs, benefits, and educational impacts of changing the five day academic and building availability week to four days a week. The paper will present the costs savings and the results of a survey of stakeholders collected during one academic quarter. The results of the energy costs are presented in tabular form and the results of the survey are presented in graphical form. The data and conclusions are expected to help decision makers make informed decisions when contemplating an alternative work schedule for higher education

Machine Design Lab: Using Automotive Transmission Examples to Reinforce Understanding of Gear Train Analysis

In studying mechanical gear train analysis, some students struggle with relatively simple gear design concepts, and virtually all have difficulty with the complexities of planetary gear sets. This paper describes two labs developed for an undergraduate senior level machine design course. One lab uses a three-speed manual synchromesh transmission with parts of the case cut away to demonstrate the operation of the gears, shifting mechanism, bearings, and other aspects of the design. Students then count teeth and analyze the gear ratios using standard gear train analysis methods. The other lab uses a 1924 Ford Model T planetary transmission to observe how planetary gears can create two forward speeds and reverse from constant rotation of the engine. The students analyze the planetary gear set using relative velocity analysis, and the planetary gear set is used to gain insight into basic principles of modern automatic transmissions. The two labs give students hands-on learning experience that clarifies difficult concepts and teaches students basic principles of gear train design, operation, and analysis

Development and Evaluation of a Simulation System Based Upon Standard Pedestrian Thoroughfare Methodologies

This study was undertaken to determine whether existing simulation and modeling systems could be used to analyze and model pedestrian traffic flows. The study incorporates the Highway Capacity Manual 2000 (HCM) (Transportation Research Board, National Research Council [TRB], 2000a) methodologies into a ProModel simulation and then compares and contrasts the results of the HCM calculations with the ProModel simulation

Measuring the Impact of Internships on Design using a Materials Activity

Our research question focused on how previous student experience, like a job internship, affects an ability to demonstrate engineering design skills. Principal student experience focused on prior industrial experience (e.g. internships), but also included annual project participation (e.g. ASME Design Challenge Teams). The scope of this effort included the creation and application of a design activity, resulting in documents that were evaluated with a metric. The activity focused on the effect of material selection and analysis with regard to ‘design performance’. Creating these activities, and using them to assess design skills is the novel aspect of this effort. Two classes (one in MET - Mechanical Engineering Technology, and one in EET -Electronics Engineering Technology) performed the design activity. The ET professors facilitated the activity during a normal class period. After the activity, the professors independently evaluated the team documents using a design metric (e.g. RADD – Requirements, Analysis, Documentation, Drawings). A correlation was found between previous internship experience and an increased ability to design and document this skill. This correlation appeared in both MET and EET disciplines. There were consistent results between the faculty members, using the RADD metric. A conclusion from this work is that participation in internships as an undergraduate positively contributes to students\u27 design abilities

Riparian Plant Litter Quality Increases With Latitude

Plant litter represents a major basal resource in streams, where its decomposition is partly regulated by litter traits. Litter-trait variation may determine the latitudinal gradient in decomposition in streams, which is mainly microbial in the tropics and detritivore-mediated at high latitudes. However, this hypothesis remains untested, as we lack information on large-scale trait variation for riparian litter. Variation cannot easily be inferred from existing leaf-trait databases, since nutrient resorption can cause traits of litter and green leaves to diverge. Here we present the first global-scale assessment of riparian litter quality by determining latitudinal variation (spanning 107°) in litter traits (nutrient concentrations; physical and chemical defences) of 151 species from 24 regions and their relationships with environmental factors and phylogeny. We hypothesized that litter quality would increase with latitude (despite variation within regions) and traits would be correlated to produce ‘syndromes’ resulting from phylogeny and environmental variation. We found lower litter quality and higher nitrogen:phosphorus ratios in the tropics. Traits were linked but showed no phylogenetic signal, suggesting that syndromes were environmentally determined. Poorer litter quality and greater phosphorus limitation towards the equator may restrict detritivore-mediated decomposition, contributing to the predominance of microbial decomposers in tropical streams

Riparian plant litter quality increases with latitude

Plant litter represents a major basal resource in streams, where its decomposition is partly regulated by litter traits. Litter-trait variation may determine the latitudinal gradient in decomposition in streams, which is mainly microbial in the tropics and detritivore-mediated at high latitudes. However, this hypothesis remains untested, as we lack information on large-scale trait variation for riparian litter. Variation cannot easily be inferred from existing leaf-trait databases, since nutrient resorption can cause traits of litter and green leaves to diverge. Here we present the first global-scale assessment of riparian litter quality by determining latitudinal variation (spanning 107 degrees) in litter traits (nutrient concentrations; physical and chemical defences) of 151 species from 24 regions and their relationships with environmental factors and phylogeny. We hypothesized that litter quality would increase with latitude (despite variation within regions) and traits would be correlated to produce 'syndromes' resulting from phylogeny and environmental variation. We found lower litter quality and higher nitrogen: phosphorus ratios in the tropics. Traits were linked but showed no phylogenetic signal, suggesting that syndromes were environmentally determined. Poorer litter quality and greater phosphorus limitation towards the equator may restrict detritivore-mediated decomposition, contributing to the predominance of microbial decomposers in tropical streams.We thank the many assistants who helped with field work (Ana Chara-Serna, Francisco Correa-Araneda, Juliana Franca, Lina Giraldo, Stephanie Harper, Samuel Kariuki, Sylvain Lamothe, Lily Ng, Marcus Schindler, etc.), Cristina Grela Docal for helping with leaf chemical analyses, and Fernando Hiraldo (former director of EBD-CSIC) for his support. The study was funded by start-up funds from the Donana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC, Spain) and from Ikerbasque to LB, the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) strategic project ID/MAR/04292/2013 granted to MARE (Portugal), the 'BIOFUNCTION' project (CGL2014-52779-P) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and FEDER to LB and J. Pozo, and Basque Government funds (IT302-10) to J. Pozo

Antiplatelet therapy with aspirin, clopidogrel, and dipyridamole versus clopidogrel alone or aspirin and dipyridamole in patients with acute cerebral ischaemia (TARDIS): a randomised, open-label, phase 3 superiority trial

Background: Intensive antiplatelet therapy with three agents might be more effective than guideline treatment for preventing recurrent events in patients with acute cerebral ischaemia. We aimed to compare the safety and efficacy of intensive antiplatelet therapy (combined aspirin, clopidogrel, and dipyridamole) with that of guideline-based antiplatelet therapy. Methods: We did an international, prospective, randomised, open-label, blinded-endpoint trial in adult participants with ischaemic stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) within 48 h of onset. Participants were assigned in a 1:1 ratio using computer randomisation to receive loading doses and then 30 days of intensive antiplatelet therapy (combined aspirin 75 mg, clopidogrel 75 mg, and dipyridamole 200 mg twice daily) or guideline-based therapy (comprising either clopidogrel alone or combined aspirin and dipyridamole). Randomisation was stratified by country and index event, and minimised with prognostic baseline factors, medication use, time to randomisation, stroke-related factors, and thrombolysis. The ordinal primary outcome was the combined incidence and severity of any recurrent stroke (ischaemic or haemorrhagic; assessed using the modified Rankin Scale) or TIA within 90 days, as assessed by central telephone follow-up with masking to treatment assignment, and analysed by intention to treat. This trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry, number ISRCTN47823388. Findings: 3096 participants (1556 in the intensive antiplatelet therapy group, 1540 in the guideline antiplatelet therapy group) were recruited from 106 hospitals in four countries between April 7, 2009, and March 18, 2016. The trial was stopped early on the recommendation of the data monitoring committee. The incidence and severity of recurrent stroke or TIA did not differ between intensive and guideline therapy (93 [6%] participants vs 105 [7%]; adjusted common odds ratio [cOR] 0·90, 95% CI 0·67–1·20, p=0·47). By contrast, intensive antiplatelet therapy was associated with more, and more severe, bleeding (adjusted cOR 2·54, 95% CI 2·05–3·16, p<0·0001). Interpretation: Among patients with recent cerebral ischaemia, intensive antiplatelet therapy did not reduce the incidence and severity of recurrent stroke or TIA, but did significantly increase the risk of major bleeding. Triple antiplatelet therapy should not be used in routine clinical practice

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio