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To substantially reduce the risk of alien invasive species moving to new geographic areas, phytosanitary treatment of wood packaging materials (WPM) in compliance with the International Standard of Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 (ISPM-15) is required by trading partners. Approved treatments include conventional heating, methyl bromide and sulfuryl fluoride fumigation, and dielectric heating (DH). The DH standard was officially adopted in 2013 but has not been practiced commercially due primarily to insufficient operational validation at commercial scale. In 2022, we converted our 50-kW radio frequency (RF) unit with a 1,200-board foot capacity from an oscillator electromagnetic field power generator to a solid-state power supply, which allows for selective power input adjustments during treatment; we also switched from a five-plate to a three-plate winged electrode system to improve heating uniformity. Each loading cycle can treat sufficient material to build ~94 standard Grocery Manufacturers Association pallets. Our research team characterized the dielectric heating pattern and options for monitoring wood temperatures over a wide-ranging test matrix of WPM that varied by wood species, dimension, moisture content, and loading configuration. We found that this upgraded RF system markedly reduced treatment times and improved heating uniformity, allowing us to develop methods that can be used to verify compliance with ISPM-15 for improved technology transfer to industry. We also discuss the operational cost of RF treatment and make general cost comparisons to conventional heat treatment for WPM., Invasive species are one of the major causes of global ecological and economic impacts on importing countries through inadvertent introduction during international trade (Olson 2006). In the United States alone, [...]

Tyler Gun Works completed a custom sixgun that'll surely rock sixgunners' worlds far and wide. Head honcho and owner Bobby Tyler wanted to build a one-of-a-kind gun exhibiting the skills [...]

APRIL 17, 2024 On a Monday morning in April, the young women pressed themselves against the walls of a hallway spanning the length of their school. Here at the Brooklyn [...]

ONE MORNING in mid-January, Elizabeth Herrera sat down with a mother and daughter who needed to submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the document known as the FAFSA. [...]

Tim Sundles, head honcho of Buffalo Bore Ammunition, has supplied test ammo to me for years while patiently answering all the questions from my prying mind. He is indeed knowledgeable, [...]

In the morning, I left Merry Sunshine and traveled to El Santuario on the way to Christ in the Desert. Later in my journey I hitchhiked to visit my brother [...]

Ellen Hopkins is the most banned author in Iowa, with nearly 20 of her books being removed from school districts in the state a total of 289 times, according to [...]

EVERYONE saw the wrecking ball coming. It loomed over higher education for decades, poised to demolish a specific set of ideas about educational equity and the benefits of racial diversity. [...]

The idea was simple. After all, they're the best kind. Build a gun tough enough to be carried all day, in a caliber capable of performing a wide range of [...]

Sony Pictures Entertainment released a trailer for its upcoming film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us. Hoover's novel, published in 2016 by Atria, follows Lily Bloom, a florist [...]

'Brandon' is telling everyone the big corporations are ripping off the American consumer by giving less goods for the same price. Maybe the corporations are keeping the prices the same [...]

The sable is known as 'the prince of Africa' for its majestic beauty. It's a perfect moniker too. With sweeping, ringed horns, black saddle and gorgeous face, it's certainly one [...]

EACH SPRING the stress took its toll. One year, her blood pressure spiked. The next brought severe stomach problems. The following year, a panic attack sent her to the emergency [...]

CAROLINE HEINEY was sitting in her high-school history class last winter when her phone buzzed. It was an email with a curious subject line: 'Your Direct Admission to Montclair State [...]

The use of thermal analysis as a tool for the real-time chemistry control of carbon and silicon in ductile base iron is very important for seamless melt productivity by avoiding [...]

Lever loonies are rejoicing over the wonderful job Ruger is doing with the Marlin line of lever guns. Overall, these rifles are slimmer, smoother and more accurate than their New [...]

Deep within the bowels of the World Wide Web is a picture showing Albert Einstein's desk taken the day he died. Covered with pamphlets, books, legal pads and a host [...]

Wanna' know what really gets my goat? It also raises my dander and just plain annoys me! It's when someone asks the overused, cliche question--'if you could only have one [...]

Fifteen years ago, while doing field research in a parish transformed by immigration from Mexico, I asked Anglo parishioners what they thought about the changes in their community. One middle-aged [...]

I've always loved Ruger guns. Who doesn't? Imagine my surprise when I heard Ruger purchased Marlin, my second-favorite gun brand! Now I'd have the perfect one-two combo for one-stop shopping! [...]

TED SPENCER still looks back. No one who lives through a grueling legal saga defined by questions about race, equity, and the Constitution could ever board up the windows to [...]

In the May 1929 issue of American Rifleman, Elmer Keith wrote his famous dissertation, 'The Last Word.' In it, Keith describes the virtues of his famous #5 sixgun, a custom [...]

HOME ECONOMICS Allan, Louisa & Shuki Rosenboim. Very Good Salads: Middle-Eastern Salads and Plates for Sharing. Smith Street. Oct. 2022.192p. ISBN 9781922417862. COOKING Since 2016, Allan and Rosenheim's wildly popular [...]

Cookbooks continue to fly off the shelves. Our inaugural look at this high-circulating subject reveals that baking titles remain the strongest subset, only increasing in popularity. Books that combine cooking [...]

The only unfortunate thing about the winner of this year's Foley Poetry Contest, 'The Patron Saint of Sliding Glass Doors,' is that when I read the title, I immediately thought [...]

Today show co-host and book lover Jenna Bush Hager is launching a podcast focusing on author interviews, Today.com reports. The podcast is called Read With Jenna, which is also the [...]

What drives the decisions of the more than 2 million freshmen who enroll each fall? CHOOSING A COLLEGE is an act of selfdetermination, the first big opportunity to shape one's [...]

The International Standard of Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 (ISPM-15) requires signatory countries of the International Plant Protection Convention to use approved treatment methods on wood packaging materials used in international trade to significantly reduce the risk of spreading alien species. One of the approved methods utilizes dielectric heating (DH) to raise the temperature in the wood to 60[degrees]C through the profile of the workload for 1 minute to eradicate pests. To improve the uniform distribution of heat within a wood workload using radio frequency, a form of DH, we tested the use of a wool blanket as a thermal insulation material for wood pallet components. Three species commonly used in the pallet industry--yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.), northern red oak {Quercus rubra L.), and eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.)--of low moisture content were used to generate matched sets of stringer samples. Internal wood temperatures were monitored continuously during treatment to comply with the ISPM-15 schedule. Applying a wool (keratin) insulation blanket increased the rate of heating, improved heating uniformity throughout the workload, and reduced moisture loss compared to uninsulated controls for some wood species, but not all. These findings were most significant for pallet materials with higher moisture content and more permeability (white pine and yellow poplar). By reducing treatment time, power consumption costs can be reduced using wool insulation when implementing the ISPM-15 DH treatment schedule., Introduction Dielectric heating (DH) methods using electromagnetic field (EMF) energy applied by microwaves or radio frequency (RF) have been approved for several years as more rapid sanitation methods for solid [...]

Hearing the name Kobus, pronounced 'Qwi-biss,' grabbed my attention. Anyone having such a colorful name surely lived an adventurous life. I was in South Africa and my host was talking [...]

Nothing is 'funner' than a day shooting a carbine lever gun. Doing so brings back the excitement and enthusiasm you had as a kid from watching John Wayne or Chuck [...]

AS GLOBAL POPULATIONS GROW and age, demand is increasing for all sorts of medical devices, from wearable fitness and condition monitors to lightweight and easy-to-use therapeutic and drug delivery devices. [...]

You never know who you're going to bump into at the Whittington Center outside Raton, NM. Imagine my surprise and eagerness when I spotted Phil Shoemaker. I've read Phil's exploits [...]

AbstractTransient mitigation for nuclear power plants is essential for safe operation. The fourth industrial revolution brings with it the potential for data-based predictive maintenance and identifying remaining time of life for degrading components. An improvement to predictive maintenance would be to address continued operation with faulty components between the time of identification and eventual replacement. The ability to perform data analysis and contemporary digital control systems allows for data-driven control system actions. A methodology is developed herein to train a neural network that can map desired system performance and current plant component capability to control system settings. Simulations of plant transients were recorded and used to train a neural network. This neural network was tested with different target performance goals. The results show that the trained neural network recommended settings that affected the control system response so as to meet the target performance goals.

The article focuses on the National Eucharistic Congress held in Indianapolis, which emphasized the "real presence" of Christ in the Eucharist through various events and expressions of faith. Topics include the congress's large-scale revival efforts and its significant impact on Catholic unity, the range of educational and worship activities presented, and the marketplace showcasing Catholic organizations and initiatives promoting faith-based living.

Amidst a national youth mental health crisis, comprehensive school mental health systems offer an opportunity to promote positive mental health for all students. To advance health equity, schools benefit from a culturally responsive, antiracist, and equitable (CARE) framework to address the youth mental health crisis. This article describes how to integrate CARE practices within a multi-tiered system of support for mental health in schools. The strategies align with a trauma-informed approach and aim to enhance the capacity of comprehensive school mental health systems to promote positive mental health and well-being for all students.

This article explores the innovative katsina art of Hopi carvers Aaron Fredericks and Shawn Deel. The authors argue that Fredericks and Deel are introducing a new style called "traditional/realism" to the field. The article provides historical context on the various styles of Hopi katsina art and offers biographical information on Fredericks and Deel, highlighting their artistic backgrounds and influences. It concludes by showcasing some of their notable works and discussing their use of materials and techniques. Additionally, the article focuses on Shawn Deel's unique carving style, which combines traditional and contemporary elements, and highlights his use of natural pigments, real feathers, and handmade jewelry to create realistic and detailed katsinam. [Extracted from the article]

In response to decreasing numbers of individuals entering into nephrology fellowships, the American Society of Nephrology launched Kidney Tutored Research and Education for Kidney Scholars (TREKS) to stimulate interest in nephrology among medical students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. The program combines a 1-week intensive exposure to kidney physiology with a longitudinal mentorship program at the participants' home institutions. Ten years in, an analysis was conducted to assess its effectiveness. We surveyed participants to assess their opinions regarding nephrology before and after the course and followed them longitudinally to determine their career choices. TREKS applicants who were not selected to participate were used as a comparison group. Three hundred eighty-one people participated in the program, and 242 completed the survey. After TREKS, both medical students and graduate students showed increased interest in nephrology, with rank scores of 5.6±0.2 before to 7.5±0.1 after the course for medical students (mean±SD, n=189, P= 0.001) and 7.3±0.3 to 8.7±0.3 (n=53, P= 0.001) for graduate students. In long-term follow-up, TREKS medical students chose a nephrology pipeline residency at a higher rate than medical students overall (57% versus 31%, P= 0.01) and TREKS applicants who did not participate (47% versus 31%, P= 0.04). Nephrology fellowship rates for these groups exceeded the general population but did not significantly differ between TREKS participants and applicants. Doctor of Philosophy students and postdoctoral TREKS participants had a higher rate of participation in nephrology research compared with TREKS applicants (66% versus 30%, P= 0.01). In summary, the American Society of Nephrology Kidney TREKS program has demonstrated that it can increase interest in nephrology in the short term and increase the number of individuals going into nephrology careers. This long-term effect is most evident in Doctor of Philosophy students and postdoctoral participants. Further study is needed to assess the impact of TREKS on enrollment in nephrology fellowship programs.

Scintillator detectors are an integral component of radiation detection systems for a variety of applications such as medical imaging, accelerator diagnostics, and space science. Typically, a scintillator detector’s response is characterized using gamma sources to understand the detection response to different types of radiation, including charged particle detection. However, there exists a nonlinearity of the amount of light produced from an incident gamma ray of specific energy and the light produced from an incident charged particle of the same energy. This important effect, known as quenching, must be accounted for to interpret energies from charged particles incident on detectors. In this article, we present results of quenching parameterization for two types of cerium-doped inorganic scintillators, Y2SiO5:Ce (YSO:Ce) and Gd3Al2Ga3O12:Ce (GAGG:Ce). We measured the light output from incident proton energies from 1 to 25 MeV using a 3-MV tandem accelerator and two reactions: Au(p,p)Au and 3He(d,p)⁴He. Using gamma-ray sources to calibrate the detectors, we compared the measured electron-equivalent energy versus the incident energy expected. Using an adaptation of the Birks semi-empirical formula, we extracted the Birks parameter (kB) to understand quenching. For one of the GAGG:Ce samples, the kB parameter of 0.0072 [g cm-2 MeV-1] is comparable to a similar study where the value of kB was 0.0065 [g cm-2 MeV-1]. For YSO:Ce, no other kB values were found in the literature. Three different types of GAGG:Ce were used to collect measurements of kB as a function of dopant concentration.

Byline: BY AMANDA HOOVER ILLUSTRATION BY MAR�A MEDEM CROWDED HOUSE Startups are buying properties and wooing first-time real estate investors to purchase shares. The scheme could spell trouble for both [...]

Colleen Hoover is defending the casting of It Ends With Us, the film adaptation of her blockbuster 2016 novel, People magazine reports. At Book Bonanza, her annual literary fair in [...]

Bike riding is a rite of passage for many kids. After all, nearly everyone remembers the first time they were able to balance themselves on a bicycle without any assistance. [...]

Ductile iron nodularity is critical to its quality, but nodularity determination by metallographic analysis can be problematic. The widespread practice of estimating nodularity via a comparator chart is highly subjective [...]

Imagine heading to the indoor range with your no-frills buddy. Nothings better than a day of shooting, right? Your buddy's a down-to-earth, jeans and plaid flannel shirt kind of guy [...]

Today, if Charles Reade is remembered at all, it is primarily as a novelist; he is, however, forgotten as a dramatist who at times achieved great theatrical success. The fact [...]

I knew the grin all too well and it usually led to trouble for me. He knows I'm hooked, before ever presenting the bait. That's how it is with Bobby [...]

The Education Wars: A Citizen's Guide and Defense Manual. By Jennifer C. Berkshire and Jack Schneider. July 2024. 192p. New Press, $24.99 (9781620978542); e-book (9781620978719). 370. Public schools, long accepted [...]

If We Ever Get There. By Laura Barrow. June 2024. 332p. Amazon/Lake Union, paper, $16.99 (9781662519048); e-book (9781662519055). Effie's carefully built world fractures when her unfaithful husband asks for a […]

The Book of Thorns. By Hester Fox. Apr. 2024. 304p. Graydon, paper, $18.99 (9781525812019); e-book (9780369747938). Two sisters, unaware of each other, live very different lives though united by the [...]

Make College Your Superpower: It's Not Where You Go, It's What You Know. By Anna Esaki-Smith. Apr. 2024. 240p. Rowman & Littlefield, $30 (9781538184103); e-book (9781538184110). 378.1. Many college guides [...]