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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Geopolitics Of Rare Earth Elements, Bert Chapman Oct 2017

Geopolitics Of Rare Earth Elements, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Rare earth elements (REE) contain unique chemical physical properties such as lanthamum, are found in small concentrations, need extensive precise properties to separate, and are critical components of modern technologies such as laser guidance systems, personal electronics such as IPhones, satellites, and military weapons systems as varied as Virginia-class fast attack submarines, DDG-51 Aegis destroyers, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and precision guided munitions. The U.S. has some rare earth resources, but is heavily dependent on access to them from countries as varied as Afghanistan, Bolivia, and China. Losing access to these resources would have significant adverse economic, military, and …


The Effect Of A Computing-Focused Linked-Courses Learning Community On Minority And Female Students, Amber Settle, James Doyle, Theresa Steinbach Sep 2017

The Effect Of A Computing-Focused Linked-Courses Learning Community On Minority And Female Students, Amber Settle, James Doyle, Theresa Steinbach

Amber Settle

While enrollments in computing degrees and courses have grown rapidly in the past decade, both female and minority male students remain underrepresented in computing programs. This makes recruitment and retention of these populations a continuing concern. Affinity for a major is connected to student retention, and learning communities have proven effective for this purpose. We present an evaluation of a three-year linked-courses learning community in which we measure pre- to post-quarter changes in student attitudes and resource utilization. We find that participants in the learning community are significantly more likely to report being a part of a group of programmers …


Fracture Toughness Measurement For Aluminium 6061-T6 Using Notched Round Bars, Alan K. Hellier, P. P. Chaphalkar, B. G. Prusty Jan 2017

Fracture Toughness Measurement For Aluminium 6061-T6 Using Notched Round Bars, Alan K. Hellier, P. P. Chaphalkar, B. G. Prusty

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Current standard testing methods for determining plane strain fracture toughness (KIc), such as ASTM E399 and ASTM E1820, require a prior estimate of KIc, plus the specimens are large, involve a lot of machining and need fatigue pre-cracking. There is therefore a desire to develop new testing techniques which are simple, as well as cost and time effective. While the use of tensile notched round bars (NRB) test pieces is not novel, dating back to a conference paper by Brown in 1975, relatively few authors have so far attempted this.


Railway Turnout Failure Mode Analysis, H. Li, M. Carkagis, Alan K. Hellier, H. Zhu, J. Mcleod, S. Pannila Jan 2017

Railway Turnout Failure Mode Analysis, H. Li, M. Carkagis, Alan K. Hellier, H. Zhu, J. Mcleod, S. Pannila

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

A section of New South Wales’ railways rail turnout was removed, since testing revealed that it had become defective and no longer fit-for-purpose (see photos). The University of Wollongong was commissioned to investigate the failure mode of the track section, and to provide a detailed report on the material composition, heat treatment, surface finish, wear and any material defects. Since the turnout is over 25 years old, there are no test certificates or other quality assurance documents available for review.