Sport is king: an investigation into local media coverage of women's sport in the UK East Midlands

There has been a recent interest in research into national media coverage of female sport, particularly single events, but on-going sporting activities by women are rarely reported. This paper attempts to examine this subject at the local level, looking in general at women’s sport and in particular at women’s football in the East Midlands region of the UK. Quantitative methods were used to survey local newspapers and radio stations and interviews were carried out with a range of people relevant to the field of study. The topic of sports media is framed here with reference to research into masculinities and a socialist feminist approach is used to address problems. The data showed there was a significant and on-going imbalance in the amount of coverage and even some signs of a decline in women’s football reporting, in spite of a national resurgence of the sport itself. The authors try to account for this and suggest further areas of future study

The Ultimate Halo Mass in a LCDM Universe

In the far future of an accelerating LCDM cosmology, the cosmic web of large-scale structure consists of a set of increasingly isolated halos in dynamical equilibrium. We examine the approach of collisionless dark matter to hydrostatic equilibrium using a large N-body simulation evolved to scale factor a = 100, well beyond the vacuum--matter equality epoch, a_eq ~ 0.75, and 53/h Gyr into the future for a concordance model universe (Omega_m ~ 0.3, Omega_Lambda ~ 0.7). The radial phase-space structure of halos -- characterized at a < a_eq by a pair of zero-velocity surfaces that bracket a dynamically active accretion region -- simplifies at a > 10 a_eq when these surfaces merge to create a single zero-velocity surface, clearly defining the halo outer boundary, rhalo, and its enclosed mass, mhalo. This boundary approaches a fixed physical size encompassing a mean interior density ~ 5 times the critical density, similar to the turnaround value in a classical Einstein-deSitter model. We relate mhalo to other scales currently used to define halo mass (m200, mvir, m180b) and find that m200 is approximately half of the total asymptotic cluster mass, while m180b follows the evolution of the inner zero velocity surface for a < 2 but becomes much larger than the total bound mass for a > 3. The radial density profile of all bound halo material is well fit by a truncated Hernquist profile. An NFW profile provides a somewhat better fit interior to r200 but is much too shallow in the range r200 < r < rhalo.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to MNRAS letter

Design of a candidate flutter suppression control law for DAST ARW-2

A control law is developed to suppress symmetric flutter for a mathematical model of an aeroelastic research vehicle. An implementable control law is attained by including modified LQC (Linear Quadratic Gaussian) design techniques, controller order reduction, and gain scheduling. An alternate (complementary) design approach is illustrated for one flight condition wherein nongradient-based constrained optimization techniques are applied to maximize controller robustness

Control law design to meet constraints using SYNPAC-synthesis package for active controls

Major features of SYNPAC (Synthesis Package for Active Controls) are described. SYNPAC employs constrained optimization techniques which allow explicit inclusion of design criteria (constraints) in the control law design process. Interrelationships are indicated between this constrained optimization approach, classical and linear quadratic Gaussian design techniques. Results are presented that were obtained by applying SYNPAC to the design of a combined stability augmentation/gust load alleviation control law for the DAST ARW-2

Fitting aerodynamic forces in the Laplace domain: An application of a nonlinear nongradient technique to multilevel constrained optimization

A technique which employs both linear and nonlinear methods in a multilevel optimization structure to best approximate generalized unsteady aerodynamic forces for arbitrary motion is described. Optimum selection of free parameters is made in a rational function approximation of the aerodynamic forces in the Laplace domain such that a best fit is obtained, in a least squares sense, to tabular data for purely oscillatory motion. The multilevel structure and the corresponding formulation of the objective models are presented which separate the reduction of the fit error into linear and nonlinear problems, thus enabling the use of linear methods where practical. Certain equality and inequality constraints that may be imposed are identified; a brief description of the nongradient, nonlinear optimizer which is used is given; and results which illustrate application of the method are presented

Application of optimization techniques to the design of a flutter suppression control law for the DAST ARW-2

The design of a candidate flutter suppression (FS) control law for the symmetric degrees of freedom for the DAST ARW-2 aircraft is discussed. The results illustrate the application of several currently employed control law design techniques. Subsequent designs, obtained as the mathematical model of the ARW-2 is updated, are expected to employ similar methods and to provide a control law whose performance will be flight tested. This study represents one of the steps necessary to provide an assessment of the validity of applying current control law synthesis and analysis techniques in the design of actively controlled aircraft. Mathematical models employed in the control law design and evaluation phases are described. The control problem is specified by presenting the flutter boundary predicted for the uncontrolled aircraft and by defining objectives and constraints that the controller should satisfy. A full-order controller is obtained by using Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) techniques. The process of obtaining an implementable reduced-order controller is described. One example is also shown in which constrained optimization techniques are utilized to explicitly include robustness criteria within the design algorithm

Tools for active control system design

Efficient control law analysis and design tools which properly account for the interaction of flexible structures, unsteady aerodynamics and active controls are developed. Development, application, validation and documentation of efficient multidisciplinary computer programs for analysis and design of active control laws are also discussed