Till the Ductile Anchor Hold: Towards Space Settlements in the 21st Century.

Humans are restless explorers. For 99% of humanity s time on Earth, we have been nomadic wanderers, not farmers, warriors, factory workers, developers, or NASA employees. Only recently--for only a few thousand years--have most humans been tied to the land as many are now. But as more and more of us live in information societies and some indeed in dream societies where our identity derives from the knowledge we share and the image we project, and not from the property we own or the manual work we do, the time may be coming when we should break free from the land, and roam once again. But beware: the reality of Man and Woman the Explorer has a very dark side as well. Many people where I live view the recent experience of Man on the Move as a history of theft, murder, racism, exploitation, and genocide. So we need to be very careful if we say that space exploration is only natural for humans, since the experience has not been very uplifting and noble for most recipients of the exploring of others. But such warnings are not new. Humans have been alerting each other to the dangers of change and novelty from the very beginning: Who and what is this

Working Group Reports and Presentations: Earth 3.0.

We affirm the principle that a viable human space exploration program must be conducted hand-in-hand with a comprehensive scientific research program that incorporates both the physical and life sciences and that continues to protect and extend understanding of our home planet. Without advances in life science, we will be incapable of devising self-sustaining extraterrestrial habitats, and we will struggle to survive on the only living planet we know. Without advances in the physical sciences, we limit our ability to imagine new technologies for space travel and to understand the nature of the universe we explore. Scientific advances expand the boundaries of humanity s dreams

Integal futures based on the paradigm approach

The study discusses the interpretation of integral futures in the context of paradigm. The dynamic matrix model of futures paradigm has been developed for carrying out meta-analysis of futures. As a result of meta-analysis integral futures and its new paradigms are defined by way of reconstructing futures paradigm history as responses to changing societal needs and through the outcomes of dynamic and comparative analysis of futures paradigms. The study sets the argument that integral futures: a) is entering a new phase in development of futures that responses to societal demands for sustainability, democratic participation and continuous knowledge production and integration, b) it is the phase of cooperation building between theoretical and practical futures, c) it is the complementary development of co-evolutionary and participatory paradigms, d) it unfolds further research perspectives for futures

The Impact of Genetic Disease on the Family: Examining the Relationship Between Psychological Well-Being, Social Support, and Spirituality in Unaffected Carriers of Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy

The current research was undertaken to explore the psychological well-being of mothers and siblings of an individual with vision loss symptoms due to Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy and whether perceived social support and spiritual involvement and beliefs served as protective factors as these family members coped with their child or sibling acquiring a disability. One hundred seventeen participants, 65 mothers and 52 siblings completed a Demographic Questionnaire, the Outcome Questionnaire-45, the Impact of Event Scale, the Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support via an online internet survey. The data revealed that both mothers and siblings experienced higher levels of psychological stress than a normative sample and siblings experienced significantly higher levels of interpersonal problems and social role dysfunction than a normative sample. The results also showed that mothers of children with vision loss due to LHON showed significantly lower levels of psychological stress as levels of perceived social support from family and a significant other increased and siblings of a person with vision loss due to LHON showed significantly lower levels of psychological stress, interpersonal problems, and social role dysfunction with higher levels of perceived social support from family. Implications and suggestions for future research are presented

Preparation and validation of reading materials for grade three

Abstract onlyThis study was to prepare and validate six reading materials for grade three with emphasis on word recognition and comprehension skills. These materials were also made to serve as supplementary reading materials of the basal readers for grade three pupils of the District of Dingle, Division of Iloilo. Pupils' interests, the objectives of reading in grade three, and content area in which reading skills in English is used were considered in the preparation of the materials. Numbers were assigned to the selections instead of titles because one of the skills to be tested was choosing the best title for a selection. The first two, were stories for pure entertainment, the next two were transitional stories with Science or Mathematics content, and the last two were informational essays with Science content. The six reading selections were each accompanied by a ten-item test exercises to test the skills for getting word meanings, noting details, getting the main idea and choosing the title for a selection. A cloze test was also prepared to further test the readability of the reading selections. This study sought to answer the following questions: 1. What kind of stories are interesting to grade three pupils? 2. Are the materials prepared by the researcher readable? 3. Are the exercises developed to test the comprehension of the reading selections valid and reliable? A sample of fifty nine pupils chosen at random from one central school and three barrio schools in the District of Dingle, Iloilo, took the cloze test to determine the readability of the selections. Another sample of fifty nine pupils chosen at random from one central school and another three barrio schools in the District of Dingle, Iloilo, took the silent reading test. The data were taken from the six reading materials based on pupils’ interests and preferences together with the silent reading exercises, and the cloze test which were pre pared by the researcher. For evaluating the validity of the reading selections, appraisals of peers and reading experts were used, and for the test items, the index of difficulty and discriminative power of the test items were determined through item analysis. For determining the reliability of the test items, the Kuder-Richard Formula 20 was used. Findings showed that the materials were within the reading interests of the grade three pupils, with the result of the reading interest inventory being used by the researcher as basis in the preparation of the materials. All the six reading materials were readable as revealed by their length, vocabulary load, number of words and sentences, and as shown by the result of the cloze test where 82 per cent of the grade three pupils were in their independent reading level. The silent reading exercises that go with the selections were valid as indicated by the result of item analysis which showed that out of sixty items, fifty-three items were good, three items were poor and were eventually revised, and four items were marginal. These four marginal items were further validated through the use of the point biserial coefficient of correlation (rpbi). Three items showed acceptable power; One item was revised. Most of the reading exercises that accompanied the selections were reliable as indicated by their internal consistency of .56 to .70. The following recommendations were given: 1. The reading interest inventory used in this study be used by grade throe teachers to guide them in their choice of reading materials for the intended grade level. 2. The items in the test exercises which were found to be poor should be revised. 3. A word list for grades one to six be compiled for the use of the teachers preparing the materials for Western Visayas Schools. 4. For further research, the reading materials be tried out again under better conditions to get better index of their reliability.Includes bibliographical referencesMaster of Arts in Educatio

Social Justice: Pushing Past Boundaries in Graduate Training

This article explores definitions and integration of social justice in graduate training in counseling and psychology. We examine both the professional literature and our own process in pushing past curricular and administrative boundaries by establishing an extra- or co-curricular component to graduate training that supports the further infusion of social justice principles in graduate training. We conclude with a call for further dialogue and action

Comments about "Earth 3.0"

Dr. Christopher P. McKay, Planetary Scientist with the Space Science Division of NASA Ames. Chris received his Ph.D. in AstroGeophysics from the University of Colorado in 1982 and has been a research scientist with the NASA Ames Research Center since that time. His current research focuses on the evolution of the solar system and the origin of life. He is also actively involved in planning for future Mars missions including human exploration. Chris been involved in research in Mars-like environments on Earth, traveling to the Antarctic dry valleys, Siberia, the Canadian Arctic, and the Atacama desert to study life in these Mars-like environments. His was a co-I on the Titan Huygen s probe in 2005, the Mars Phoenix lander mission for 2007, and the Mars Science Lander mission for 2009

The Design Development of Solar Box Cooker on Wheels as an Alternative for Philippine Rural Households

Cooking accounts for a significant share of the worldwide energy consumption issue. Solar box cookers are a good alternative in mitigating fossil fuels and biomass use, especially for tropical developing nations like the Philippines. Still, their broad acceptance is limited by their high dependence on sufficient sunlight for better performance. Thus, this research aims to develop a thermal-efficient, portable solar box cooker with sand-sensible heat storage materials, coconut coir (Cocos nucifera) agricultural waste insulators, and locally sourced building materials. The designed and constructed cooker was evaluated using three thermal performance tests: the Stagnation Temperature test from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the Cooking Power test from the American Societal of Agricultural Engineer (ASAE) Standards, and a rice cooking test. Data obtained from the three-day trials of each test were used to determine the first figure of merit (F1), the single measure of performance (Ps(50)), and its ability to cook 300 g of NFA rice with 500 mL of water, respectively. It was found that the cooker achieved an F1 of 0.06 Km2/w, a Ps(50) of 6.651 W, and cooked rice for one-third of the tests. Obtained experimental findings showed that the device is marked as a Grade-B solar cooker. Results indicated that the solar box cooker is capable of pasteurizing water and cooking rice