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With the rise in manufacturing jobs in the United States, companies are having a difficult time filling the job openings for skilled production workers. It takes an average of two months to fill these positions. This study is designed to introduce the fundamental concepts of manufacturing and demonstrate these concepts through hands-on simulation of the different manufacturing paradigms. The paper is the result of the authors’ participation in a six-week NSF RET program at Penn State Behrend where high school and community college educators worked together to develop curriculum for high school students. Lesson plans, handouts, and required material lists were developed and tested. Surveys conducted after the simulation experiment provided improvements for the exercise. The simulations were then implemented in high school classrooms to improve the awareness of manufacturing among high school students and develop their technical and professional skills. By understanding the evolution of manufacturing and becoming aware of the need to gain advanced skills required for today, students will be encouraged to consider pursuing careers in manufacturing. 

It has been previously reported that ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), a therapeutic bile acid, reduced risk for advanced colorectal adenoma in men but not women. Interactions between the gut microbiome and fecal bile acid composition as a factor in colorectal cancer neoplasia have been postulated but evidence is limited to small cohorts and animal studies. Using banked stool samples collected as part of a phase III randomized clinical trial of UDCA for the prevention of colorectal adenomatous polyps, we compared change in the microbiome composition after a 3‐year intervention in a subset of participants randomized to oral UDCA at 8‐10 mg/kg of body weight per day (n = 198) or placebo (n = 203). Study participants randomized to UDCA experienced compositional changes in their microbiome that were statistically more similar to other individuals in the UDCA arm than to those in the placebo arm. This reflected a UDCA‐associated shift in microbial community composition (P < 0.001), independent of sex, with no evidence of a UDCA effect on microbial richness (P > 0.05). These UDCA‐associated shifts in microbial community distance metrics from baseline to end‐of‐study were not associated with risk of any or advanced adenoma (allP > 0.05) in men or women. Separate analyses of microbial networks revealed an overrepresentation ofFaecalibacterium prausnitziiin the post‐UDCA arm and an inverse relationship betweenF prausnitziiandRuminococcus gnavus.In men who received UDCA, the overrepresentation ofF prausnitziiand underrepresentation ofR gnavuswere more prominent in those with no adenoma recurrence at follow‐up compared to men with recurrence. This relationship was not observed in women. Daily UDCA use modestly influences the relative abundance of microbial species in stool and affects the microbial network composition with suggestive evidence for sex‐specific effects of UDCA on stool microbial community composition as a modifier of colorectal adenoma risk.

 

The citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) Experiment was a new type of citizen science experiment designed to capture a time sequence of white-light coronal observations during totality from 17:16 to 18:48 UT on 2017 August 21. Using identical instruments the CATE group imaged the inner corona from 1 to 2.1 RSun with 1.″43 pixels at a cadence of 2.1 s. A slow coronal mass ejection (CME) started on the SW limb of the Sun before the total eclipse began. An analysis of CATE data from 17:22 to 17:39 UT maps the spatial distribution of coronal flow velocities from about 1.2 to 2.1 RSun, and shows the CME material accelerates from about 0 to 200 km s⁻¹across this part of the corona. This CME is observed by LASCO C2 at 3.1–13 RSun with a constant speed of 254 km s⁻¹. The CATE and LASCO observations are not fit by either constant acceleration nor spatially uniform velocity change, and so the CME acceleration mechanism must produce variable acceleration in this region of the corona.