Educational Camps and Their Effects on Female Perceptions of Technology Programs

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of Cheering in the Classroom, a four-day program designed purposefully to increase female awareness and perceptions of technology fields. The camp included discipline-based activities from the 13 different programs of study based in technology. The camp targeted high school cheerleaders and dancers, allowing them the opportunity to engage in hands-on-activities and competitions using new technology that was directly related to the cheerleading or dance. Each activity allowed the participants to see how technology can be used to understand and improve cheerleading/dance activities. The study compared participant’s perceptions of the Cheering in the Classroom camp to the perceptions of the TEAM (Technology Expanding All Minds) camp. Data were collected with the use of a Lyket-type scale through pre and post surveys. Responses from the survey calculated participants’ awareness and perceptions of technology to determine the effectiveness of the Cheering in the Classroom camp. Results of the study indicated that the cheering in the classroom camp had a more positive influence on participants perceptions of technology, leading the researcher to believe that building recruitment initiatives based upon participant personal interests can aid in positive perceptions of technology and technological careers

Adherence to Nutrition and Physical Activity Cancer Prevention Guidelines and Development of Colorectal Adenoma.

Adherence to the American Cancer Society's (ACS) Nutrition and Physical Activity Cancer Prevention Guidelines is associated with reductions in overall cancer incidence and mortality, including site-specific cancers such as colorectal cancer. We examined the relationship between baseline adherence to the ACS guidelines and (1) baseline adenoma characteristics and (2) odds of recurrent colorectal adenomas over 3 years of follow-up. Cross-sectional and prospective analyses with a pooled sample of participants from the Wheat Bran Fiber (n = 503) and Ursodeoxycholic Acid (n = 854) trials were performed. A cumulative adherence score was constructed using baseline self-reported data regarding body size, diet, physical activity and alcohol consumption. Multivariable logistic regression demonstrated significantly reduced odds of having three or more adenomas at baseline for moderately adherent (odds ratio [OR] = 0.67, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.46⁻0.99) and highly adherent (OR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.31⁻0.81) participants compared to low adherers (p-trend = 0.005). Conversely, guideline adherence was not associated with development of recurrent colorectal adenoma (moderate adherence OR = 1.16, 95% CI: 0.85⁻1.59, high adherence OR = 1.23, 95% CI: 0.85⁻1.79)

Attempted DNA extraction from a Rancho La Brea Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi): prospects for ancient DNA from asphalt deposits.

Fossil-bearing asphalt deposits are an understudied and potentially significant source of ancient DNA. Previous attempts to extract DNA from skeletons preserved at the Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, California, have proven unsuccessful, but it is unclear whether this is due to a lack of endogenous DNA, or if the problem is caused by asphalt-mediated inhibition. In an attempt to test these hypotheses, a recently recovered Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) skeleton with an unusual pattern of asphalt impregnation was studied. Ultimately, none of the bone samples tested successfully amplified M. columbi DNA. Our work suggests that reagents typically used to remove asphalt from ancient samples also inhibit DNA extraction. Ultimately, we conclude that the probability of recovering ancient DNA from fossils in asphalt deposits is strongly (perhaps fatally) hindered by the organic compounds that permeate the bones and that at the Rancho La Brea tar pits, environmental conditions might not have been ideal for the general preservation of genetic material

Effect of Loops on the Vibrational Spectrum of Percolation Network

We study the effects of adding loops to a critical percolation cluster on the diffusional, and equivalently, (scalar) elastic properties of the fractal network. From the numerical calculations of the eigenspectrum of the transition probability matrix, we find that the spectral dimension $d_s$ and the walk dimension $d_w$ change suddenly as soon as the floppy ends of a critical percolation cluster are connected together to form relatively large loops, and that the additional inclusion of successively smaller loops only change these exponents little if at all. This suggests that there is a new universality class associated with the loop-enhanced percolation problem.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, HLRZ 107/9

Low-Loss All-Optical Zeno Switch in a Microdisk Cavity Using EIT

We present theoretical results of a low-loss all-optical switch based on electromagnetically induced transparency and the classical Zeno effect in a microdisk resonator. We show that a control beam can modify the atomic absorption of the evanescent field which suppresses the cavity field buildup and alters the path of a weak signal beam. We predict more than 35 dB of switching contrast with less than 0.1 dB loss using just 2 micro-Watts of control-beam power for signal beams with less than single photon intensities inside the cavity.Comment: Updated with new references, corrected Eq 2a, and added introductory text. 7 pages, 5 figures, 3 table

Fiber-Cavity-Based Optomechanical Device

We describe an optomechanical device consisting of a fiber-based optical cavity containing a silicon nitiride membrane. In comparison with typical free-space cavities, the fiber-cavity's small mode size (10 {\mu}m waist, 80 {\mu}m length) allows the use of smaller, lighter membranes and increases the cavity-membrane linear coupling to 3 GHz/nm and quadratic coupling to 20 GHz/nm^2. This device is also intrinsically fiber-coupled and uses glass ferrules for passive alignment. These improvements will greatly simplify the use of optomechanical systems, particularly in cryogenic settings. At room temperature, we expect these devices to be able to detect the shot noise of radiation pressure.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; the following article has been submitted to Applied Physics Letter

Floppy modes and the free energy: Rigidity and connectivity percolation on Bethe Lattices

We show that negative of the number of floppy modes behaves as a free energy for both connectivity and rigidity percolation, and we illustrate this result using Bethe lattices. The rigidity transition on Bethe lattices is found to be first order at a bond concentration close to that predicted by Maxwell constraint counting. We calculate the probability of a bond being on the infinite cluster and also on the overconstrained part of the infinite cluster, and show how a specific heat can be defined as the second derivative of the free energy. We demonstrate that the Bethe lattice solution is equivalent to that of the random bond model, where points are joined randomly (with equal probability at all length scales) to have a given coordination, and then subsequently bonds are randomly removed.Comment: RevTeX 11 pages + epsfig embedded figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.