Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 327)

This bibliography lists 127 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during August, 1989. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance

Engineering Data Compendium. Human Perception and Performance, Volume 1

The concept underlying the Engineering Data Compendium was the product an R and D program (Integrated Perceptual Information for Designers project) aimed at facilitating the application of basic research findings in human performance to the design of military crew systems. The principal objective was to develop a workable strategy for: (1) identifying and distilling information of potential value to system design from existing research literature, and (2) presenting this technical information in a way that would aid its accessibility, interpretability, and applicability by system designers. The present four volumes of the Engineering Data Compendium represent the first implementation of this strategy. This is Volume 1, which contains sections on Visual Acquisition of Information, Auditory Acquisition of Information, and Acquisition of Information by Other Senses

Spatial Aspects of Metaphors for Information: Implications for Polycentric System Design

This dissertation presents three innovations that suggest an alternative approach to structuring information systems: a multidimensional heuristic workspace, a resonance metaphor for information, and a question-centered approach to structuring information relations. Motivated by the need for space to establish a question-centered learning environment, a heuristic workspace has been designed. Both the question-centered approach to information system design and the workspace have been conceived with the resonance metaphor in mind. This research stemmed from a set of questions aimed at learning how spatial concepts and related factors including geography may play a role in information sharing and public information access. In early stages of this work these concepts and relationships were explored through qualitative analysis of interviews centered on local small group and community users of geospatial data. Evaluation of the interviews led to the conclusion that spatial concepts are pervasive in our language, and they apply equally to phenomena that would be considered physical and geographic as they do to cognitive and social domains. Rather than deriving metaphorically from the physical world to the human, spatial concepts are native to all dimensions of human life. This revised view of the metaphors of space was accompanied by a critical evaluation of the prevailing metaphors for information processes, the conduit and pathway metaphors, which led to the emergence of an alternative, resonance metaphor. Whereas the dominant metaphors emphasized information as object and the movement of objects and people through networks and other limitless information spaces, the resonance metaphor suggests the existence of multiple centers in dynamic proximity relationships. This pointed toward the creation of a space for autonomous problem solving that might be related to other spaces through proximity relationships. It is suggested that a spatial approach involving discrete, discontinuous structures may serve as an alternative to approaches involving movement and transportation. The federation of multiple autonomous problem-solving spaces, toward goals such as establishing communities of questioners, has become an objective of this work. Future work will aim at accomplishing this federation, most likely by means of the IS0 Topic Maps standard or similar semantic networking strategies

Keeping visual-auditory associations in mind: The impact of detail and meaningfulness on crossmodal working memory load

Complex objects have been found to take up more visual working memory---as measured by lowered change-detection accuracy with such stimuli---than simple colored shapes (Treisman, 2006; Xu, 2002). While verbal working memory studies have similarly shown reduced apparent capacity for longer words (Baddeley, 2007), other research has demonstrated that features contributing to object categorization and recognizability can help visual working memory capacity (Olsson & Poom, 2005; Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2004). Until very recently, no measures of crossmodal working memory capacity had been proposed, even though crossmodal associations are part of the fabric of learning, from classical conditioning to calculus. The working memory load of a range of complex crossmodal (visual--auditory) objects was measured here in a sequence of experiments adapting classic visual change detection procedures (Vogel et al., 2001). The adapted method involves rapid sequential presentation of objects, each comprising a sound and an image, with a test object appearing after a 1-second delay. Application of this method shed light on the working memory impact of two sources of complexity, featural detail and object meaningfulness. Displaying the test object in a previously unused location---in this case, the center of the screen---resulted in lower change-detection performance compared to placement in its original location. Test location interacted with the role of different image types (gray and colored shapes, drawings, and photos). Image type showed no consistent pattern of influence on working memory capacity when test objects appeared in their original locations; when shown in an alternate location, crossmodal associations involving more-detailed images were more accurately recalled. Independent of test location, more-complex animal sounds provided better crossmodal change detection performance than abstract tones. An association measure showed consistently higher numbers of associations for representational images than abstract ones. Observers\u27 response bias was lower for meaningful images, but their change-detection accuracy did not differ by image meaningfulness. The results obtained with this novel crossmodal working memory measure demonstrate that perceptual detail contributes to effective crossmodal working memory capacity for sounds and for abstract and realistic images

Chemical heterogeneity of glaciofluvial deposits: Outcrop study and implications for reactive transport

Spatial variations in the reactive properties of geologic systems and their influence on contaminant transport are poorly understood. Consequently, an outcrop study was conducted in a glaciofluvial deposit in Deerfield, New Hampshire in order to: (1) identify the sediment properties controlling heavy metal adsorption, (2) evaluate the extent to which geologic information can be used to characterize their spatial variation, and (3) assess the impact of spatial variations on heavy metal transport. Four hundred seventy-six, spatially-located sediment samples were collected from an eight square meter vertical exposure of outwash sands and gravels. Lithologic facies were mapped on outcrop photographs. Sample color, permeability, porosity, grain size, surface area, lead (Pb2+) sorption, carbon content, magnetic mineral content, and dithionite citrate-extractable iron, manganese, and aluminum content were measured in the laboratory. Fifty-seven percent of the variation in Pb2+ sorption can be explained by a linear combination of sediment permeability and extractable iron, manganese, and aluminum, indicating that Pb2+ sorption is controlled by (hydr)oxide grain coatings. Reactive surface area, estimated from sample grain size and (hydr)oxide mass together with observations of grain coating morphology and numerical abundance, accounts for 65 percent of the sorption variation. Three sorption-related properties: permeability, extractable iron, and extractable manganese are strongly related to sediment facies and/or color and thus can be mapped over a wide range of spatial scales. Differences in the geometries of iron and manganese enrichment, petrographic observations, and SEM-EDS analyses indicate the grain coatings originated from the post-depositional weathering of biotite and garnet, coupled with local, redox-driven redistribution of the liberated iron and manganese. Numerical simulations show that spatial variations in (hydr)oxide grain coatings increase plume mobility and dispersion when the spatial scale of the heterogeneity is similar to the scale of the problem. Overall, the outcrop study findings suggest that Pb2+ partition coefficients can be estimated from relatively simple and inexpensive measurements of permeability and dithionite-citrate extractable metals. The results further suggest that information regarding sediment facies and color can help produce more efficient and geologically realistic descriptions of chemical heterogeneity

Clergy & Police a Semiotic Analysis of Clergy on Patrol

The Clergy On Patrol (COP) program is a collaboration between the Norfolk Police Department and community faith leaders of the Norfolk Urban Renewal Center. This study analyzed themes and patterns in the communicative relationship between police and clergy members, using a semiotic approach and the scholarship of intergroup communication. Additionally, an added secondary analysis of media coverage helped focus the results of the study using themes. This thesis merged the two semiotic analyses to examine a style of community policing that has lacked a closer eye. This thesis guided itself by the argument that clergy-police collaborative programs structure themselves around the assumption that faith-based organizations (FBOs) will provide community connection. Further, it is the assumption, by media and other agencies, that the presence of faith leaders taking part in police engagements is a positive method of rectifying issues of trust and miscommunication between community and law enforcement. A primary focus of this study serves to highlight this assumption in media texts, which contrasts with perceptions of participating members within the COP program in Norfolk. The study further argues the aspirational goals of the program outshine its current development, while still highlighting positive aspects of these programs. Guided by themes and principles in media communication studies, this thesis attempted to determine common communication problems hindering the collaborative efforts of clergy and police. Through the semiotic analyses, the result of this study found that COP and other programs framed a positive relationship between clergy and police. This relationship, like any, revealed to be less cohesive then speculated in the media. However, the accounts of clergy reaffirm a positive impact on the community despite a lack of empirical evidence. There is an even greater need to determine new ways of community engagement that may aid in reconnecting our men and women in uniform with their communities

We\u27re asking you to show up : accountability as rhetorical practice for queer, feminist, and racial justice allyship.

In this threatening political climate, many are asking how to advocate for social justice across axes of difference, such as in coalitional movements working for queer, feminist, and racially just futures. Rhetoric and composition scholarship, especially cultural rhetorics, has long studied the activist practices of specific communities, but cross-community allyship remains undertheorized. This dissertation responds to these public and scholarly exigencies by more deeply exploring the complexities of positionality, privilege, and oppression that accompany advocacy across differences. The project explores the rhetorical dimensions of allyship in complexly networked, contemporary digital social justice messaging, focusing on centering racial justice in queer and feminist activism in order to advance an antiracist approach to studying intersectional activist rhetorics. This dissertation forwards scholarship on allyship in social justice through advancing a rhetorical methodology grounded in accountability. I argue that allyship is a rhetorical process that requires awareness of context and positionality, and the work of developing allies’ activist rhetorical awareness must foreground accountability to vulnerable communities. The analytical strategies I advance derive from Black Feminist and queer of color activist community practices: asking to whom and for what a particular rhetorical action is accountable; centering those most vulnerable in a particular context while making critical connections to intersecting, systemic oppressions; and foregrounding impact over intention as a way to trace rhetorical circulation with a focus on understanding the potential consequences of specific actions for communities most vulnerable in a given context. These strategies are inherently rhetorical, requiring awareness of context, position, and audience, in addition to emerging aspects of rhetoric such as circulation. By unpacking the rhetorical dimensions of activist strategies, this project advances a methodological frame for antiracist social justice allyship

Camera Clubs and Fine Art Photography: Distinguishing Between Art and Amateur Activity

This research examines a medium of symbolic communication--photography--to understand how the social context of the use of that medium shapes its social meaning. Camera club photography is compared with photographic activity which is institutionally legitimized as art, in order to elucidate how art world legitimization shapes the nature of photographic activity. The distinctive featues of art as a communicational system, as manifested in photography, are described. A variety of research methods were employed. Data on camera club activities were gathered through participant-observation over a three year period. Observations of art photography activities such as exhibit openings and conferences were conducted. Interviews augmented observational data: 10 camera club members and 19 art photographers make up the interview sample. Pertinent documents were analyzed as well. Art and camera club photographic activities diverge. Art photography is highly personal and concentrates on representations of artists\u27 ideas. Successful artists contribute innovations to the field. Art photographs do not convey easily interpretable meanings. Successful work is described as mysterious and interpretations involve viewers\u27 own personal reactions to ambiguous content. Conversely camera club photographs are direct, their content straightforward. Camera clubs carry on the pictorialist tradition in photography, updated with borrowings from commercial portraiture, nature and travel photography. Camera club photographers demonstrate their competence through skillful reproduction of the camera club aesthetic code. Innovation and personal self-expression are devalued. Art photography has been constructed in contradistinction to all other uses of the medium. The accessibility of photographic technology to amateurs and professionasl alike, and the ease with which competence in the medium may be attained are inverted in art photography. Art photography transforms this democratic medium into a pursuit requiring special criteria for admission. The relationship between camera club and fine art photography may be described in terms of folklorists\u27 distinctions between folk art and fine art. While innovation attends art world legitimization, the club context frames amateur photography as a traditional activity, maintaining aesthetic values distinct from the art world. Both highly skillful uses of the medium, the social contexts of camera club and fine art photography shape the social meaning of these activities