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Inventory of STS-51-F Mission Documents
Get PDFThis subseries consists of documents related to the Shuttle STS-51-F mission. The material includes mission reports, press information, flight requirement documents, and more. The material is arranged in chronological order with undated material at the end. The documents are dated from 1983 to 1985
Inventory of Shuttle/Centaur and Vandenberg Launch Site (VLS) Documents
Get PDFThis subseries contains materials outlining the integration of the Centaur upper stage vehicle as a shuttle "upper stage" to boost satellites into higher orbits, perform plane changes, and to provide escape energy for planetary probes. The Shuttle/Centaur integration never proceeded beyond the design phase. This subseries also contains materials related to the Vandenberg Launch Site (VLS). The VLS facility, based at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, was to be a launch site for the shuttle on the West Coast. Its major purpose was launch capabilities for polar orbits of defense and research satellites, which are currently unavailable from Kennedy Space Center. Construction of the VLS was begun and almost completed by 1986, but the Challenger accident stopped production of the facility and the Air Force looked for other alternatives than the shuttle for its payloads.
The documents in this collection were arranged chronologically, since they originally arrived in a haphazard order. As a result, the majority of the Shuttle/Centaur materials are found in boxes 1-4, since they date from 1980-1984. An interesting feature of this collection is that it contains STS 83-1036, Shuttle/Centaur Level II Critical Design Review. This nine book, sixteen volume document of January 16, 1984, is also the red line copy, with annotations written in red ink throughout. The majority of the VLS documents date from September to November of 1985, when three major meetings on this subject took place: 1) VLS Design Certification Review (DCR), Level II, September 5-6, 1985; 2) VLS DCR, Level II Delta, October 24, 1985; and 3) VLS DCR, Level I, November 22, 1985. The October 24, 1985 meeting materials were represented by triplicate copies in separate folders, one for Arnold Aldrich, manager of the STS program; one for Bert Jackson, who appears to have been associated with Rockwell; and one copy designated "unmarked copy." All three folders contained the exact same documents for this meeting. Mr. Jackson's copies were incorporated into the collection because they contain annotations done in purple marker. Mention must also be made concerning the document "The STS Program at Vandenberg" found in box 2, as an explanation of the VLS program. The collection ends with two folders containing photographs of demolition and construction work on the VLS project (98 and 121 photographs, respectively). Some of the photographs have comments appended on the front or back describing the picture. The construction photographs include a note from Jeff Geiger, WSMC historian, to Janet Kovacevich, JSC archivist, dated August 10, 1990. The provenance of these materials is unknown, although the photographs and perhaps some documents came from Mr. Geiger
Inventory of Orbiter Logistics Documents
No full textJohnson Space Center History Office received these documents from Jefferson Associates who was under contract to the Orbiter Project Office to maintain Orbiter records. This group consists of Rockwell Downey presentation material related to Orbiter Logistics. They were grouped in packages of either Program Review or Program Status Documents. To maintain the integrity of the collection, all documents grouped with a particular status or review document have been filed alphabetically under the review date. Although not all review/status dates included these related charts and presentation materials, they seem to have been part of the review/status proceedings with which they were included. The series is organized chronologically by review or status date and runs from 1983 through mid 1986
Inventory of STS-51-C to STS-51-J Mission Documents
No full textThis box contains documents from STS-51-C and STS-51-J missions. Mission documents will always include mission reports and press kits, and may include other documentation including mission photos, press conference transcripts, press releases and more. This subseries consists of 1/2 linear feet of documents dated from 1984 through 1986. Documents are arranged numerically by mission (not chronologically or as flown) and within each mission documents are arranged chronologically
Influence of Freshwater Inflow in the Brazos River Estuary
No full textThe influence of freshwater inflow on estuarine ecology is a topic that receives a lot of attention due to estuaries acting as medians to oceanic and freshwater environments. Freshwater inflow has varying effects depending on the morphology of the estuary, and the Brazos River is one of only three rivers in Texas with a riverine estuary that discharges directly into the Gulf of Mexico. The Environmental Institute of Houston (EIH) has been collecting data to categorize the ecology and hydrology within the estuary since 2012 when the Brazos Basin and Bay Area Stakeholder Committee (BBASC) formally addressed the need for research assessing the impacts of freshwater inflow. Project objectives included: (1) Describing the temporal variation in hydrology in the lower Brazos River, (2) evaluating the relationships between nekton community, freshwater inflow, seasonality and water quality using graphical and statistical methods, (3) characterizing nekton abundance, diversity, and community composition, (4) identifying focal species for different sites, flow tiers and seasons, and (5) identifying any future research needs. Data acquired from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) gage #08116650 was used in order to assess the normal trends of variation in discharge (cfs), as well as determine if data utilized far upstream from the estuary could be used to accurately predict discharge and water quality downstream. Automated monitoring loggers were used to collect long-term data for salinity (psu), temperature (°C), dissolved oxygen (DO) (mg/L), and depth (m) beginning in 2014 in order to create predictive models from daily average discharge. The results indicated that discharge in the Brazos River does exhibit predictable seasonal patterns of increased flow during the spring and reduced flow during the summer, yet still exhibits a huge degree of variation within seasons and between years. The Brazos River is also subject to extreme flow conditions at an increasing rate despite having an average annual discharge of only 7,400 cfs. The regression analysis from the automated loggers and USGS discharge data indicates that salinity and water depth are strongly correlated to flow and react in the form of exponential decay and sigmoidal growth respectively. Temperature proved to not be significantly correlated with flow, but multiple linear regression analysis with DO data demonstrated a complex relationship with flow and temperature. Two-way ANOVAs were used to determine if variations in water quality variables- temperature, salinity, DO, pH, turbidity (NTU), thalweg depth (m), and Secchi disk transparency (m) could be explained by sites, TCEQ flow tiers, or an interaction between both. The results showed that all variables exhibited significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) between flow tiers and sites- the only exception being temperature. The only two variables tested with a significant interaction effect between flow tier and site were salinity and pH. Principal component analysis was also used to determine whether season, flow tier, or spatial differences could explain the variability in water quality between samples. The results indicated that season is the primary driver of variability due to temperature having the highest eigenvector coefficients for each principal component calculated for surface and bottom profile. Pearson correlation analysis was also used to determine how water quality could be used to predict nekton community diversity. Salinity proved to be the most significantly correlated to nekton communities sampled using both an otter trawl and beam trawl. Nekton community metrics in the form of total catch, species richness, Shannon-Wiener diversity, Shannon evenness, Margalef Richness and catch per unit effort (CPUE) were subjected to nonparametric tests in order to test for significant differences between season, site, and flow tier. The results indicated the larval fish community sampled with the beam trawl near the shore was significantly affected by season, while spatial differences and flow tier explained the variation in nekton communities sampled mid-channel with the otter trawl. The results of this study corroborate many of the conclusions drawn from earlier studies on the ecology of the lower Brazos, as well as provide additional evidence of the highly dynamic nature of the Brazos estuary, while also providing further justification for continued and expanded research
Examining the Role of Social Media as an Educational Tool Among Pre-Service Teachers
No full textThe purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the role of social media as an educational tool for teacher development among pre-service teachers. One hundred twenty-five pre-service teachers, from a four-year medium sized, suburban public university located in southeast Texas, participated in an online survey. Data collected with the Teachers’ Use of Social Media Survey and interviews revealed the social media tools used most often by Texas pre-service teachers, the perceived effectiveness, and how social media is being used for teacher development. Overall, participants reported social media as being an effective tool to assist with preparing them for their future classrooms. Findings indicated that Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube were the most popular tools and were frequently used to find resources and lesson ideas
Application of MALDI-TOF MS for multiple source tracking from sewage and septic tanks along with identification of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic Escherichia coli
No full textThe intensity of extreme flooding events, driven by tropical cyclones and sea-level rise, may increase dramatically this century. These extreme weather events can spread untreated sewage from wastewater treatment plants and onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS, septic tanks), which creates a possibility of outbreaks of water-borne diseases. Human waste represents a particular threat because it is laden with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In particular, bacteria in waters that appear to be contaminated with human waste show a high level of resistance to the antibiotic polymyxin. To assess the risk of disease spread, managers need tools to track the source of this contamination. Escherichia coli (E. coli) is widely used as a fecal indicator bacteria (FIB). Elevated levels of this FIB suggest microbial contamination but not the source. Commonly used microbial source tracking tools, are time-consuming and expensive. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is time and cost-effective way to identify bacteria. This proteomics method can distinguish strains of bacterial species but has not yet been widely used for microbial source tracking.
In this study, E. coli strains were isolated from wastewater treatment plants and a sample composited from OWTSs. For comparison, a library of isolates was also generated from seal scat and dog feces. Isolates were then identified by MALDI-TOF MS, and cluster analysis was performed of mass spectra to determine if this technique could differentiate the sources of these FIB. To get knowledge on E. coli resistance towards antibiotics, a disc diffusion assay was implemented to screen representative isolates for sensitivity to broad spectrum antibiotics, and polymyxin B. Colistin resistance was checked by PCR using primers mcr-1, mcr-2, and mcr-3. MALDI-TOF MS distinguished E. coli strains isolated from sewage and OWTSs from E. coli isolated from animal sources. Antibiotic resistance assays indicated that E. coli strains isolated from all sources were resistant to ampicillin, streptomycin, and gentamicin. Bacteria isolated from sewage and OWTS showed resistance to colistin and polymyxin B. This suggests that MALDI-TOF MS could be applied to track the sources of fecal contamination of waterways. This could improve risk assessment and point to mitigation strategies
Inventory of Shuttle Approach and Landing Test (ALT) Documents
No full textThis subseries consists of documents collected from various sources and related to the Shuttle Approach and Landing Test (ALT). The documents consist of manuals, plans, procedures, requirements, checklists and reports from the ALT. Document dates range from 1973 to 1978 and the subseries is arranged chronologically
A Mixed-Method Study of the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic On U.S. Students’ Educational Attainment
Get PDFIn this case study, we implemented a quantitative and sentiment analysis of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education, physical, and mental health of college students in the United States. As students are the future workforce of society and play a significant role in the future prosperity of a country, appropriate measures should be taken to minimize the impacts of adverse events on their education and health. As compared to natural disasters, health disasters could have more psychological impacts leading to stress and anxiety, as reflected in their educational performance. This study is based on survey data from students at the University of Houston at Clear Lake. The survey consists of twenty-three questions that ask the students about their experiences during the pandemic of COVID-19. Based on the analyzed data, UHCL students’ attainment is impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The average GPAs of participants show a decreasing trend from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020 and mental health issues might lead to such problems as lacking behind the study. Increased levels of anxiety and nervousness are the most significant influencers on student achievement during the pandemic of COVID-19
“You Didn’t Call My Name!” Barriers that Prevent Marginalized Black Families from Accessing and Utilizing Early Childhood Intervention Services
No full textThe purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore the perceived barriers
preventing Black families from accessing (completing the intake process) and utilizing
(following through with the support) early childhood intervention services. Data was
collected from a purposeful sample of Black families who did and did not access Early
Intervention Services (ECI) and medical or educational professionals who are Black,
Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and primarily serve the same population.
Parental, medical, and educational professionals’ perception of the barriers were
measured using the Barriers to Access and Utilize Early Childhood Intervention Services
Inventory (BAUECISI). Survey results were analyzed using frequencies, percentages,
independent t-tests, Chi-squared test of independence, one-way Analysis of Variance
(ANOVA), and logistic regression.
On the quest to understand and inquire into the experience of participants’ living
story, narrative inquiry through playback was used to capture the embodiment of being
doubly buffooned—Black and disabled from early childhood. A fusion in qualitative
research and the arts was used. Narrative inquiry uniquely situates the relational aspect
between the researcher and participants as collaborators in the process where both see
themselves in the practice of each living, telling, retelling, and reliving stories. Notably, a
narrative inquiry is fixtured in the simultaneous interactions of three commonplaces—
temporality (attention to the past, present, and future of the place, things, and events),
sociality (interrelatedness of the researcher and participants, and where the condition in
which the story unfolds) and place (the physical and topography boundaries) (Clandinin
& Huber, in press). Interviews provided data from parental (did and did not access ECI)
and professional views to note the diverging and converging perspectives when accessing
and utilizing ECI services. Taking caution not to reduce the story to a list of themes,
instead metaphors and schematics emerged to reflect the complexity and
multifacetedness of being a story