Advanced extravehicular protective system Interim report, 1 Jul. 1970 - 31 May 1971

Regenerable portable life support systems concepts for EVA use in 1980 and technology assessmen

Lessons In and Out of School

What are we saying to children when we leave the creativity to others in a visual environment, infused with “attitude”, snobbery, acquisitiveness and Pollyanna innocence? We’re saying that we approve this message. Visual arts teach media literacy in an atmosphere that implicitly uses vices to secure attention. School experiences cannot compete. Parents and teachers, pleading incompetence, pass undiscerning choices to the next generation. Educational illustration typically amounts to copy-machine ready, poorly drawn, saccharin cartoons. Standards exemplified by the likes of Szyk, Holling and others lie hidden on the shelves. Dismay and consternation over the failure to plumb the depths of humor and insight defer to the powerful convenience of the copy machine. Saturation in media environments indoctrinates and disarms our ability to think through opinions and compulsions. Flexible resemblance works in the small world of painted images and in large media environments that conflate sentiment with material goods and milestones with products for purchase. Developing the ability to discern the attributes of our visual world as well as learning that we can express ourselves artistically allows us to fulfill an important aspect of our destiny as human beings. I focus on producing artwork in watercolor, an antiquated medium. My studies began before the advent of digital media and before word of painting’s irrelevance spread to my Midwestern art school

Threat expert system technology advisor

A prototype expert system was developed to determine the feasibility of using expert system technology to enhance the performance and survivability of helicopter pilots in a combat threat environment while flying NOE (Nap of the Earth) missions. The basis for the concept is the potential of using an Expert System Advisor to reduce the extreme overloading of the pilot who flies NOE mission below treetop level at approximately 40 knots while performing several other functions. The ultimate goal is to develop a Threat Expert System Advisor which provides threat information and advice that are better than even a highly experienced copilot. The results clearly show that the NOE pilot needs all the help in decision aiding and threat situation awareness that he can get. It clearly shows that heuristics are important and that an expert system for combat NOE helicopter missions can be of great help to the pilot in complex threat situations and in making decisions

Careers of their own: Role-identity negotiation among Air Force officers' wives.

The purpose of this study is to explore how a military officer's wife, one foot on each meandering path, might navigate simultaneously her careerist and traditional wife roles. Specifically, this study asks the following: In their own words, how do Air Force officer wives define "career"? How does the military lifestyle impact the careers of these women? What obstacles and opportunities do they perceive? By what adaptive processes might career-oriented Air Force officer wives achieve both career satisfaction and commitment to their traditional military role? Finally, what does it mean to be a careerist-traditional wife, and how do such career trajectories proceed over time and multiple relocations?Drawing on a symbolic interactionist perspective and on respondents' personal definitions of "career, " this research details the strategies, innovations, and explorations some career-seeking wives have employed over the course of their affiliations with the military. Data include 93 preliminary survey responses and 15 in-depth, oral life history interviews gathered from Air Force officer wives. Each interview respondent claims a careerist identity, participates in traditional military activities, and has experience living overseas. Each semi-structured, retrospective interview, then, explores the career trajectory of the respondent, the contextual obstacles and opportunities she perceives, the behavioral strategies and cognitive adjustments she employs, and the individualized identity meanings she attaches to her self-defined role. Analysis explores the military lifestyle as it is perceived by these careerist-traditional wives, the behavioral and cognitive adaptations they undertake, and the implications of their recollections. Substantive findings outline strategies for career-seeking spouses and suggest some future directions for advisement, policy, and research. Theoretical implications support and expand the principles of sociological identity control theory. Specifically, the experiences of these women indicate that individuals act to verify identity meanings not only through behavioral adjustments but through cognitive and definitional adjustments as well. As such, this research extends identity control theory. It clarifies both how role-identity definitions change over time at the individual level and, in the interactionist perspective, how those meanings are behaviorally negotiated at the social level, cumulatively affecting normative change