A portable absorbed dose measuring instrument with gamma discrimination

The characteristics of an electronic instrument for measuring the radiation dose absorbed by tissues are presented. The detector is a sphere of tissue-equivalent plastic with a single wire located on a diameter of the sphere. The electronic circuits and method of operation of the detector are described. Advantages are the small size and easy portability plus ability to selectively measure neutron and gamma plus neutron events

Stanford automatic photogrammetry research

A feasibility study on the problem of computer automated aerial/orbital photogrammetry is documented. The techniques investigated were based on correlation matching of small areas in digitized pairs of stereo images taken from high altitude or planetary orbit, with the objective of deriving a 3-dimensional model for the surface of a planet

Developmental Change in English-Learning Children’s Interpretations of Salient Pitch Contours in Word Learning

To efficiently recognize words, children learning an intonational language like English should avoid interpreting pitch-contour variation as signaling lexical contrast, despite the relevance of pitch at other levels of structure. Thus far, the developmental time-course with which English-learning children rule out pitch as a contrastive feature has been incompletely characterized. Prior studies have tested diverse lexical contrasts and have not tested beyond 30 months. To specify the developmental trajectory over a broader age range, we extended a prior study (Quam & Swingley, 2010), in which 30-month-olds and adults disregarded pitch changes, but attended to vowel changes, in newly learned words. Using the same phonological contrasts, we tested 3- to 5-year-olds, 24-month-olds, and 18-month-olds. The older two groups were tested using the language-guided-looking method. The oldest group attended to vowels but not pitch. Surprisingly, 24-month-olds ignored not just pitch but sometimes vowels as well—conflicting with prior findings of phonological constraint at 24 months. The youngest group was tested using the Switch habituation method, half with additional phonetic variability in training. Eighteen-month-olds learned both pitch-contrasted and vowel-contrasted words, whether or not additional variability was present. Thus, native-language phonological constraint was not evidenced prior to 30 months (Quam & Swingley, 2010). Given the surprising insensitivity to mispronunciations at 24 months, we tested 24-month-olds in two additional experiments, which are reported in Supplemental Materials. Experiment S1 tested 24-month-olds in the low-variability condition of the Switch procedure used at 18 months, finding that—in contrast to 18-month-olds—24-month-olds did not detect switches to the trained word-object pairings when the switches involved either a pitch change or a vowel change. Experiment S2 again used Switch habituation training, but tested children in a language-guided looking test instead of a Switch test (Yoshida, Fennell, Swingley, & Werker, 2009). Again, 24-month-olds showed no evidence of detecting subtle differences in word pronunciations. The data from all five experiments (1, 2, 3, S1, S2) are included in the data files in the interests of transparency. Data: https://doi.org//10.15760/sphr-data.0

Take off your jewelry: A ‘simple’ approach to LibGuides design

1. Take off your jewelry: A “simple” approach to LibGuides design ! “Ornamentation is like jewelry. ! Put on all of your best, then take most of it off.” ! K.K. Merker, literary publisher ! Tammi Owens, Emerging Services Librarian! Allison Quam, Reference Librarian! Winona State University! Subjects landing page.! Research Hub landing page.! Course guides landing page.! •  Keep it simple: design continuity, oneclick database navigation, single-page layouts, no dropdowns, no search boxes! •  Make it scannable: place important information in upper right corner, pull eye across page with right-side photos! •  Control cognitive overload: use white space, fewer than 15 links per page, single row of fewer than 6 tabs! •  Resist librarian-ing: use plain language, fewer words, just-in-time resources ! Film Studies subject guide.! LibGuides design team! Tammi Owens, [email protected]! Allison Quam, [email protected]! H. Vernon Leighton, [email protected]! NURS 354 course guide.! WSU Research Hub

Data From: Developmental Change in English-Learning Children’s Interpretations of Salient Pitch Contours in Word Learning

To efficiently recognize words, children learning an intonational language like English should avoid interpreting pitch-contour variation as signaling lexical contrast, despite the relevance of pitch at other levels of structure. Thus far, the developmental time-course with which English-learning children rule out pitch as a contrastive feature has been incompletely characterized. Prior studies have tested diverse lexical contrasts and have not tested beyond 30 months. To specify the developmental trajectory over a broader age range, we extended a prior study (Quam & Swingley, 2010), in which 30-month-olds and adults disregarded pitch changes, but attended to vowel changes, in newly learned words. Using the same phonological contrasts, we tested 3- to 5-year-olds, 24-month-olds, and 18-month-olds. The older two groups were tested using the language-guided-looking method. The oldest group attended to vowels but not pitch. Surprisingly, 24-month-olds ignored not just pitch but sometimes vowels as well—conflicting with prior findings of phonological constraint at 24 months. The youngest group was tested using the Switch habituation method, half with additional phonetic variability in training. Eighteen-month-olds learned both pitch-contrasted and vowel-contrasted words, whether or not additional variability was present. Thus, native-language phonological constraint was not evidenced prior to 30 months (Quam & Swingley, 2010). Given the surprising insensitivity to mispronunciations at 24 months, we tested 24-month-olds in two additional experiments, which are reported in Supplemental Materials. Experiment S1 tested 24-month-olds in the low-variability condition of the Switch procedure used at 18 months, finding that—in contrast to 18-month-olds—24-month-olds did not detect switches to the trained word-object pairings when the switches involved either a pitch change or a vowel change. Experiment S2 again used Switch habituation training, but tested children in a language-guided looking test instead of a Switch test (Yoshida, Fennell, Swingley, & Werker, 2009). Again, 24-month-olds showed no evidence of detecting subtle differences in word pronunciations. The data from all five experiments (1, 2, 3, S1, S2) are included in the data files in the interests of transparency

Aerial Radiation Detection

An airborne system designed for the detection of radioactive sources on the soil surface from an aircraft normally senses gamma rays emitted by the source. Gamma rays have the longest path length (least attenuation) through the air of any of the common radioactive emissions and will thus permit source detection at large distances. A secondary benefit from gamma rays detection if that nearly all radioactive isotopes can be identified by the spectrum of gammas emitted. Major gaseous emissions from fuel processing plants emit gammas that may be detected and identified. Some types of special nuclear material also emit neutrons which are also useful for detection at a distance

Enabling Analytics in the Cloud for Earth Science Data

The purpose of this workshop was to hold interactive discussions where providers, users, and other stakeholders could explore the convergence of three main elements in the rapidly developing world of technology: Big Data, Cloud Computing, and Analytics, [for earth science data]

ODISEES: Ontology-Driven Interactive Search Environment for Earth Sciences

This paper discusses the Ontology-driven Interactive Search Environment for Earth Sciences (ODISEES) project currently being developed to aid researchers attempting to find usable data among an overabundance of closely related data. ODISEES' ontological structure relies on a modular, adaptable concept modeling approach, which allows the domain to be modeled more or less as it is without worrying about terminology or external requirements. In the model, variables are individually assigned semantic content based on the characteristics of the measurements they represent, allowing intuitive discovery and comparison of data without requiring the user to sift through large numbers of data sets and variables to find the desired information

Interactions between the Somali Current eddies during the summer monsoon: insights from a numerical study

International audienceThree hindcast simulations of the global ocean circulation differing by resolution (1/4 or 1/12°) or parametrization or atmospheric forcing are used to describe the interactions between the large anticyclonic eddies generated by the Somali Current system during the Southwest Monsoon. The present investigation of the Somalian coherent eddy structures allows us to identify the origin and the subsequent development of the cyclones flanked upon the Great Whirl (GW) previously identified by Beal and Dono-hue (2013) in satellite observations and to establish that similar cyclones are also flanked upon the Southern Gyre (SG). These cyclones are identified as potential actors in mixing water masses within the large eddies and offshore the coast of Somalia. All three simulations bring to light that during the period when the Southwest Monsoon is well established, the SG moves northward along the Somali coast and encounters the GW. The interaction between the SG and the GW is a collision without merging, in a way that has not been described in observations up to now. During the collision the GW is pushed to the east of Socotra Island, sheds several smaller patches of anticyclonic vorticity, and often reforms into the Socotra Eddy, thus proposing a formation mechanism for that eddy. During this process the GW gives up its place to the SG. This process is robust throughout the three simulations

I’m a Librarian, Captain, Not a Developer! – Teaming Up with University IT for Creative Web Solutions

Winona State University, Krueger Library, Summer 2013. Time for a library website reboot. We wanted our online presence to be user-focused, simple, and elegant. Our dilemma? No developers on staff at our library. Our vision was galaxies ahead of our tools and knowledge. We turned to our university Web Communications and Web Development teams to boldly go where the library website had not gone before. At first, we educated each other. Librarians learned about the university’s web systems, and developers learned about library systems. Then we met weekly to share our ideas as a team, identifying and overcoming obstacles together along the way. And we made it so, as Krueger Library’s new library website rolled out in July 2014. In this discussion session, attendees will hear from all sides of the table as the project managers, developers, and librarians explain how we collaborated to produce a forward-thinking, sleek, responsive site. Join us as the panelists discuss the greatest stumbling blocks and biggest wins. The discussion will include use cases for local and common tools, such as MnPALS Discover and LibGuides. We will share timelines, site architecture, code snippets, and, perhaps most importantly, plans for future projects together