V/STOL flight control functionality research to improve handling qualities in the jetborne and semi-jetborne flight regimes

Since the 1950\u27s, several nations have attempted to build Vertical and Short Takeoff and Landing (V/STOL) jet fighter aircraft in a variety of configurations. One of the greatest challenges of each design team was in designing and implementing a flight control system that reduced pilot workload to an acceptable level during the transition from conventional flight to fully jetborne flight. Not all the ideas worked, and even the more successful aircraft were difficult and dangerous to fly. Pilot workload of the only currently operated V/STOL attack fighter design, the Harrier, was reduced by installing limited authority augmented flight controls to increase aircraft stability, but still it remains more difficult to fly than conventional aircraft. The United States Marine Corps (USMC) and the United Kingdom\u27s Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy (RN) have decided to replace their aging Harrier fleet of aircraft with an affordable next generation Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL) strike fighter. All three services require the new STOVL aircraft to possess vast improvements in handling qualities over the Harrier. This thesis examines the solutions to reduce the excessive workload associated with V/STOL flight. In this thesis, specific comments on individual evaluated mode effects on handling qualities will be addressed, while deficiencies due to individual inceptor mechanical characteristics will be minimized. The analysis and solutions are based on the author\u27s research, extensive Harrier flight time, and recent V/STOL flight test experience. The coupling of a highly augmented digital flight control system with STOVL task optimized, blended control response types controlled by an intuitive flight control inceptor scheme would greatly improve the handling qualities of an advanced STOVL strike fighter. The preferred inceptor scheme includes a left inceptor, a right center inceptor with an attitude trim switch and a thumbwheel, and control pedals. During STOVL operations, the recommended response type blended flight control design includes: sideslip command blended into yaw rate command on the control pedals, flightpath command blended into height rate command on the left inceptor, roll rate command with attitude hold blended into roll attitude command with natural ground referenced lateral acceleration coupling on the right inceptor lateral axis with crosswind compensation, flightpath command blended into pitch attitude command with augmented natural ground referenced longitudinal acceleration coupling on the right inceptor longitudinal axis, pitch and roll attitude right inceptor trim switch for use in the slow speed flight region, Translational Rate Command sub-mode option with the right inceptor, and flightpath referenced acceleration command blended into ground referenced acceleration command on the right inceptor located thumbwheel with speed hold detent. Implementation of the above concepts would greatly improve handling qualities in the STOVL flight regime. It has been decided that there is an advantage for the next generation of strike fighter to have a STOVL flight capability, but without increased operational cost or risk. To insure these requirements are satisfied, the aircraft contractors and military must use the existing technologies available to vastly reduce the pilot workload over past and current V/STOL aircraft designs

Wonder Woman: Classical Hero, Modern Superheroine, and Feminist Figure

Wonder Woman, an Amazonian princess and superheroine who has been inspiring women since her comic debut in 1941. From her origins to the villains she faces, Wonder Woman’s stories and character are wrapped up in allusions to famous myths and figures of Greek and Roman literature. In my Senior Inquiry, I investigate Wonder Woman’s Classical connections and compare the ancient portrayal of Amazonian women to their portrayal in the comics and the recent films Wonder Woman (2017) and Justice League (2017). Also, in my Senior Inquiry, I analyze Dr. William Marston’s complicated and problematic feminist views which inspired his creation of Wonder Woman

Architectural/Environmental Handbook for Extraterrestrial Design

Handbook on environmental and space utilization criteria for design of extraterrestrial manned spacecraft and shelter

Vaginal cuff recurrence after radical cystectomy: an under - studied site of bladder cancer relapse

Vaginal cuff recurrence of tumor following radical cystectomy is a rare site of disease recurrence, however it has never been specifically studied. The aim of the study is to evaluate incidence, risk factors, and long-term oncologic outcomes of vaginal cuff recurrence in a cohort of female patients treated with radical cystectomy for invasive urothelial carcinoma of the bladder

To grow or to buy : food staples and cultural identity in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes

In this era of free trade and globalization, food is traveling greater and greater distances to its consumers. This is causing small farms and small farmers all over the world to protest as their livelihood is being undercut by cheap agricultural commodities from outside their communities. In the Ecuadorian Andes, these protests are becoming well organized and are having an influence on the national government and its policies. This thesis seeks to answer questions about the role outside food staples play in the daily life of the Cañari of the Southern Ecuadorian Andes, the factors that are influencing the decisions made by households on what to eat, about how much control the community has over what is bought and sold in its local markets and about where this control comes from and how it is being used to improve the livelihood of the community. My research shows that food staples from outside of the indigenous communities that form TUCAYTA have become an important part of the diet of Cañari families that are not able to or choose not to meet their subsistence needs through what my Cañari informants consider their 'traditional methods.' The major causes for the lack of ability or desire to feed their families with crops cultivated on their own plots of land generally came from a lack of access to sufficient land to meet their families need, a lack of labor-power to cultivate the land they had access to and/or a perceived lack of need to grow their own food as remittances from family members overseas were enough to meet the food needs of their families. While in general, communities do not have much control over what is bought and sold in the local markets, the indigenous political movement pachacutik is attempting to change this. Pachacutik has been involved in protests that aim to put the demands of indigenous communities into the forefront of many political debates happening in the capital. These protests come in the form of blocking major transportation arteries to disrupt the flow of fresh foods from rural areas to the urban centers. In effect, the power of these protests comes from the control indigenous communities have over the domestic food supply

Off-Duty Concepts for Long Duration Space Missions

Leisure time preferences were surveyed in three populations which are potential sources of future spacecrew candidates: test pilots, military pilots and aerospace engineers and scientists. A questionnaire designed to provide rating scale measures of preferences for various types of spacecraft recreational equipment items, leisure time activity categories, content within activity categories, and various .kinds of snack items was administered to the samples from the three populations. The results indicated that leisure time preferences in the three populations were quite similar. Representative spacecraft off-duty concepts for long duration space missions and possible engineering constraints are discussed

Key-Region-Based UAV Visual Navigation

Visual navigation has recently seen significant developments with the rise in autonomous navigation. Keypoint-based mapping and localization has served as a reliable localization method for many applications, but the push to run more applications on less expensive hardware becomes extremely limiting. In this paper, we present a novel approach for visual geolocalization and navigation that improves landmark detection reliability while reducing reference map complexity. Similar to prior techniques, we use the process of point based matching schemes to solve for the image-to-map transform. The critical difference is that we use object detection to identify key-regions instead of keypoints. During an initial flight key-regions are mapped into an identity dictionary with their geolocations and few-shot learning encoded descriptors. Then on subsequent flights, key-regions are detected and matched using the identity dictionary for re-identification. Using the identified vehicles as key-regions, the results show that the proposed key-region based localization produces GPS like localization while maintaining a higher resilience to image noise compared to keypoint-based techniques

Effect of Level of Urology Training on Gleason Score and Prostate Volume Estimation Agreement between Transrectal Ultrasound Guided Biopsy and Radical Prostatectomy Specimen

Introduction Transrectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsy may be performed by operators with various levels of training. Little is known about the impact of training level on biopsy results. We evaluated the effect of training level on the accuracy of transrectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsy findings. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 500 consecutive patients who underwent transrectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsy and subsequent radical prostatectomy. Transrectal ultrasound operators were stratified based on level of training as junior, senior, chief, fellow or staff. Linear regression was performed to analyze the effect of training level on volume estimates. A weighted Kappa statistic evaluated agreement between biopsy and pathological Gleason scores while an adjusted cumulative logistic regression model analyzed the effects of training level. Results A total of 482 patients were included in the final analysis. Transrectal ultrasound guided biopsy was performed by staff in 78 (16%) patients, by fellows in 18 (4%), chief residents in 48 (10%), senior residents in 126 (26%) and junior residents in 212 (44%). There was no significant difference between transrectal ultrasound and radical prostatectomy specimen volume estimates among the training levels. Level of training was not significantly associated with pathological features, including Gleason score, primary Gleason grade, highest single Gleason grade and estimated tumor volume. Study limitations include the retrospective design and the variability among members of the same group. Conclusions Agreement between biopsy and pathological Gleason scores is high for all levels of training. Training level has no impact on prostate volume estimations or the prediction of pathological features