Comparison of Staggered Grid Finite Difference Schemes for Ultrasound Simulation in Curving Composites

The optimization of ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) simulation tools for composites has the potential to reduce both individual part inspection time and overall certification time for composite parts and structures. Inspection guidance based on simulation provides increased confidence in the veracity of inspection results in addition to time reductions. This paper outlines ongoing work targeted to advance this objective through the use of finite difference (FD) simulation techniques formulated for composite structures with realistic geometries. Two staggered grid explicit FD schemes which show promise for this purpose are assessed: the Lebedev FD scheme and the rotated staggered grid (RSG) FD scheme. Algorithmic points which provide challenges for complex geometries are addressed, in particular handling of traction free surfaces and bi-material interfaces present at lamina boundaries. Code execution time estimates are performed as well to guide feasible domain sizes relative to algorithm choice and available hardware. Three test cases are simulated: a delaminated plate, a cylinder, and a triclinic lamina. These tests demonstrate that the Lebedev FD scheme needs additional work to handle inter-laminar interfaces and traction free boundaries in the presence of stair-stepping approximations. In contrast, the simple structure of the RSG unit cell makes it more straightforward to construct a 3D simulation technique for curved composite laminates

ACM/IEEE-CS information technology curriculum 2017: A status update

The IT2008 Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Technology has been showing its age, and in 2014, the ACM Education Board agreed to oversee the creation of a revision, now being referred to as IT2017. Much progress has been made, and a version 0.6 will be ready by Oct 2016. All proposed panel members are members of the IT2017 Task Group

A social networking space : a study on the productivity of Twitter in museum practice.

With the evolution of social networks and technological innovations, services such as Twitter provide a platform for increased dialogue and participation. Micro-blogging features enable individuals and organizations to communicate directly, providing a new source of individual commentary that breaks the barriers of traditional communicative paradigms. This research targets museum social networking through close examination of the history of Twitter in museums, as well as its benefits, strategies, and goals in utilizing technology to foster an authentic museum experience. Another aim of this study is to highlight the challenges and obstacles museums face in constructing a social network that positively supports its mission and respective collection. Five local and national museums are examined in addition to an in-depth analysis of the American Museum of Natural History. By expanding traditional modes of participation and effectively utilizing Twitter, each museum delivered differentiated approaches for reaching institutional success in engaging audiences

Settling the Sexual Dust: Portrayals and Restrictions of Female Sexuality in 1980s Lifestyle Magazines

This thesis explores the treatment of female sexual pleasure throughout the second half of the twentieth century, specifically through an analysis of women’s lifestyle magazines. I begin my discussion with an overview of important historical moments from the 1950s through the 1980s, highlighting their relationship to social constructs of sex and pleasure. Then, I examine the role of psychoanalysis, consumerism, and the culture of self-help. These influences created a cultural dependency on self-improvement, which lifestyle magazines relied on to maintain reader dependency. Not only did the magazines proliferate cultural sexual norms, but they had the power to determine them as well. To further support this argument, I refer to the importance of sex and marriage manuals from the 1950s to the 1970s. Ultimately, I discuss popular lifestyle magazines in the 1980s, including Cosmopolitan, Essence, and Playgirl. I analyze specific articles and determine how their conversations on sex and pleasure appropriated liberal tones of the previous decades as a way to strategically reprioritize restrictive and conservative sexual practices. I examine the treatment of race, gender, and sexual orientation within the magazines. The conversations in these magazines emphasized monogamy and heteronormativity, while also prioritizing male sexual pleasure

Reading Power: Female Sexuality, Bullying, and Power Relations in Young Adult Literature

READING POWER: FEMALE SEXUALITY, BULLYING AND POWER RELATIONS IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE CARA CRANDALL, B.S., MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS M.F.A., EMERSON COLLEGE Ed.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Denise K. Ives Over the last thirty years, American society and schools have struggled to understand and respond to bullying and harassment by young people. In that time, scholars and policy makers have worked not only to understand this phenomenon but to also create interventions that can prevent such incidents because the consequences of bullying have been shown to be so detrimental for all involved. Adult concerns with peer aggression has led to a proliferation of young adult (YA) novels that take bullying as their narrative focus. Such novels are popular among young people as part of their personal reading practices and increasingly are being integrated into English curricula in American schools for a variety of reasons. However, not only has YA literature previously not been seen as worthy for inclusion in the classroom, but also the genre has been largely ignored by literary critics. This theoretical gap is especially true of novels about bullying. In this dissertation I report findings from an analysis of seven YA novels. I completed both a narrative analysis of these novels as well as a discourse analysis using poststructural feminism and feminist critical discourse analysis. In order to understand contemporary discourses on bullying, female sexuality, and power relations within each novel, I employed modes of address as an analytic tool to identify and discuss the subject positions afforded readers within the text and how these subject positions reflect discourses at work in the real world. My findings include discourses on the problematic nature of adolescents, and female friendships in particular. My findings also explore discourses of sexuality and romantic partnership that follow a heteronormative script and depict both as dangerous for young women. I then outline implications for English language arts teachers, researchers, and adults in light of these findings with an emphasis on the critical approach needed to identity and disrupt hegemonic discourses around adolescence, female sexuality, and power

MOJAVE: Monitoring of Jets in AGN with VLBA Experiments. IV. The Parent Luminosity Function of Radio-Loud Blazars

(Abridged) We use a complete sample of active galactic nuclei (AGN) selected on the basis of relativistically beamed 15 GHz radio flux density to derive the parent radio luminosity function (RLF) of bright radio-selected blazar cores. We use a maximum likelihood method to fit a beamed RLF to the observed data and thereby recover the parameters of the intrinsic (unbeamed) RLF. We analyze two subsamples of the MOJAVE sample: the first contains only objects of known FR II class, with a total of 103 sources, and the second subsample adds 24 objects of uncertain FR class for a total of 127 sources. Both subsamples exclude four known FR I radio galaxies and two gigahertz-peaked spectrum sources. We obtain good fits to both subsamples using a single power law intrinsic RLF with pure density evolution function. We find that a previously reported break in the observed MOJAVE RLF actually arises from using incomplete bins (because of the luminosity cutoff) across a steep and strongly evolving RLF, and does not reflect a break in the intrinsic RLF. The derived space density of the parent population of the FR II sources from the MOJAVE sample (with L>1.3e25 W/Hz) is approximately 1600/Gpc^3.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures and 2 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Changes: classification of sources based on radio morphology instead of optical classes; added the parameters of the RLF of the FR II sources; added more explanations; added a table listing the sample sources; added 2 extra figures related to the observed break in the RLF; updated reference

Antiviral Immune Responses to Invertebrate Iridescent Virus 6 in Drosophila

The innate immune system is a critical first line of defense against invading pathogens. Innate immunity directly detects pathogens, sets up an appropriate adaptive response, and can directly kill pathogens. Drosophila may lack an adaptive immune response, but have a robust innate immune system with a variety of defense effector mechanisms. While the responses to bacteria, fungi, and RNA viruses have been well characterized, not much is known about the response to DNA viruses. My studies have set out to characterize the Drosophila immune response to a DNA virus, utilizing the large dsDNA virus, Invertebrate Iridescent Virus 6 (IIV-6). IIV-6 infection causes shortened lifespan, and in later stages of infection, flies present with abdominal swelling and iridescent blue color. Our objectives were to identify pathways flies use to protect themselves from IIV-6 infection, determine how this protection is mediated, and to identify any immune inhibitors that IIV-6 uses to suppress innate immune signaling. I have found that IIV-6 strongly up-regulates a class of stress proteins with unknown function, termed Turandots, after infection in vivo or in vitro. This induction is dependent upon viral replication, requires JAK-STAT activation, and activation of p38b MAPK. In addition, the unpaireds, which function as JAK-STAT ligands, are upregulated after IIV-6 infection in a p38b-dependent manner. Together, this data suggests that p38b activation leads to production of unpaired cytokines and activation of JAK-STAT signaling to induce Turandots. I have also found that IIV-6 infected cells secrete protective factors. This response is induced within 12 hours of IIV-6 infection, exosome-mediated, and provides robust protection to naive cells challenged with an mCherry-expressing strain of IIV-6. Additionally, IIV-6 inhibits two major immune responses in Drosophila, the IMD and Toll pathways. Stimulation of IIV-6 infected Drosophila S2* cells with either IMD or Toll stimulators results in very poor antimicrobial peptide responses. Yet, IMD and Relish are still cleaved upon stimulation in IIV-6 infected cells, indicating that the block is downstream. In support of this finding, IIV-6 infected flies respond very poorly to infection with the enterobacteria Erwinia carotovora carotovora compared to mock-injected flies

IT2017 Report: Implementing A Competency-Based Information Technology Program (Panel)

ACMand IEEE have developed a computing curriculum report titled Information Technology Curricular 2017: Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Technology, also known as IT2017 [4]. The development of this report has received content contributions from industry and academia through surveys as well as many international conferences and workshops. Open online publication of the report became available in fall of 2017. In this special session, �ve members of the IT2017 executive committee will present a digest of the content of the report, describe the proposed IT curricular framework, and facilitate open and vigorous discussion of the report\u27s guidelines for developing new information technology programs or enhancing existing ones. The novelty of the report is its focus on industry-informed competencies that IT graduates should have to meet the growing demands of a changing technological world in the next decade. The experience should provide a better understanding of IT in a modern age