Development of a Microsoft Excel Based Uav Propeller Design and Analysis Tool

QPROP/QMIL were developed by Professor Mark Drela at MIT for use in designing propellers and windmills for various flow conditions. These tools have been used by other graduate students with varying degrees of success, however there has not been a formal comparison of the QPROP results to experimental wind tunnel data. The goals of this thesis are to provide a software tool to assist in operating QPROP and QMIL in order to design UAV propellers for the Minimum Induced Loss (MIL) condition for a given flight condition and to perform a comparison of QPROP results to experimental wind tunnel results.A Microsoft Excel based Visual Basic tool (PROPDES) was developed and utilized to automate the use of QPROP and QMIL. Verification of PROPDES is presented to show that it does not adversely change the QPROP/QMIL results. PROPDES is then used to attempt to validate QPROP�s prediction methods and QMIL�s design capabilities by running various test cases for ranges of RPM, velocity, diameter, and number of blades that are typical for small UAV propellers. The QPROP predictions are then compared to published wind tunnel data and the results are discussed. Finally, improvements are made to allow multiple iterations of QMIL to be used for the design case as well as including an APC chord and beta distribution for use when QMIL fails to provide an output. The PROPDES designs are compared to commercially available propellers to show that PRODES designed propellers are able to obtain much better performance characteristics than commercially available propellers for the particular design condition.Mechanical & Aerospace Engineerin

Evolution of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Data and Information System (EOSDIS)

One of the strategic goals of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is to "Develop a balanced overall program of science, exploration, and aeronautics consistent with the redirection of the human spaceflight program to focus on exploration". An important sub-goal of this goal is to "Study Earth from space to advance scientific understanding and meet societal needs." NASA meets this subgoal in partnership with other U.S. agencies and international organizations through its Earth science program. A major component of NASA s Earth science program is the Earth Observing System (EOS). The EOS program was started in 1990 with the primary purpose of modeling global climate change. This program consists of a set of space-borne instruments, science teams, and a data system. The instruments are designed to obtain highly accurate, frequent and global measurements of geophysical properties of land, oceans and atmosphere. The science teams are responsible for designing the instruments as well as scientific algorithms to derive information from the instrument measurements. The data system, called the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS), produces data products using those algorithms as well as archives and distributes such products. The first of the EOS instruments were launched in November 1997 on the Japanese satellite called the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and the last, on the U.S. satellite Aura, were launched in July 2004. The instrument science teams have been active since the inception of the program in 1990 and have participation from Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom and U.S. The development of EOSDIS was initiated in 1990, and this data system has been serving the user community since 1994. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the history and evolution of EOSDIS since its beginnings to the present and indicate how it continues to evolve into the future. this chapter is organized as follows. Sect. 7.2 provides a discussion of EOSDIS, its elements and their functions. Sect. 7.3 provides details regarding the move towards more distributed systems for supporting both the core and community needs to be served by NASA Earth science data systems. Sect. 7.4 discusses the use of standards and interfaces and their importance in EOSDIS. Sect. 7.5 provides details about the EOSDIS Evolution Study. Sect. 7.6 presents the implementation of the EOSDIS Evolution plan. Sect. 7.7 briefly outlines the progress that the implementation has made towards the 2015 Vision, followed by a summary in Sect. 7.8

Los eventos contextuales asociados a la ocurrencia de las conductas problemáticas en entornos escolares

Las conductas problemáticas que presentan las personas con discapacidad intelectual (DI) influyen negativamente en su calidad de vida. Los principios derivados del análisis conductual aplicado subrayan la relación existente entre dichas conductas y el entorno donde se desarrollan. Este estudio explora aquellas variables de antecedentes relacionadas con la ocurrencia de las conductas problemáticas que presentan los alumnos de primaria de una escuela de educación especial mediante un instrumento de evaluación funcional indirecta: el “Inventario de Evaluación del Contexto”. Un total de 17 alumnos participaron en el estudio en el que se evaluaron 25 conductas problemáticas. Los resultados identifican las variables “sociales/culturales” y las de la “naturaleza de la tarea o la actividad” como aquellas más asociadas a la ocurrencia de las conductas problemáticas. Finalmente, se discuten los resultados del artículo en relación a sus implicaciones prácticas y de cara a futuras investigaciones, subrayando la importancia de la prevención y la creación de entornos educativos universales

Normalizing Deviants: Notes on the De-Stigma Trend

This article explores destigmatization discourses in the United States in the early 21st century, as social and political strategies and as narrative social movements unto themselves. We argue that the first decades of the new century see a trend of marginalized actors across many categories, including queer marriage, drugs, (discreditable) mental illness and (discredited) other areas of identity and disability, make narrative attempts to neutralize their “deviant” identities. We argue that de-stigmatization has occurred through the successful use of medicalization and assimilation framing of de-stigma discourses. Assimilationist frames increase “liberal” emphasis on actionable outcomes of de-stigma, like cultural access (i.e. inclusion, visibility, representation), and legal justice for marginalized people. Some assimilationist discourse endeavors to situate stigmatized identities inside of conformist frames, while (fewer and less visible) others resist dominant frames of acceptability. Contested assimilation and radical leftist de-stigmatization, as well as re-stigma discourses are also discussed

Histone H2A ubiquitination resulting from Brap loss of function connects multiple aging hallmarks and accelerates neurodegeneration

Aging is an intricate process characterized by multiple hallmarks including stem cell exhaustion, genome instability, epigenome alteration, impaired proteostasis, and cellular senescence. Whereas each of these traits is detrimental at the cellular level, it remains unclear how they are interconnected to cause systemic organ deterioration. Here we show that abrogating Brap, a BRCA1-associated protein essential for neurogenesis, results in persistent DNA double-strand breaks and elevation of histone H2A mono- and poly-ubiquitination (H2Aub). These defects extend to cellular senescence and proteasome-mediated histone H2A proteolysis with alterations in cells' proteomic and epigenetic states. Brap deletion in the mouse brain causes neuroinflammation, impaired proteostasis, accelerated neurodegeneration, and substantially shortened the lifespan. We further show the elevation of H2Aub also occurs in human brain tissues with Alzheimer's disease. These data together suggest that chromatin aberrations mediated by H2Aub may act as a nexus of multiple aging hallmarks and promote tissue-wide degeneration

Common Genetic Variants, Acting Additively, Are a Major Source of Risk for Autism

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are early onset neurodevelopmental syndromes typified by impairments in reciprocal social interaction and communication, accompanied by restricted and repetitive behaviors. While rare and especially de novo genetic variation are known to affect liability, whether common genetic polymorphism plays a substantial role is an open question and the relative contribution of genes and environment is contentious. It is probable that the relative contributions of rare and common variation, as well as environment, differs between ASD families having only a single affected individual (simplex) versus multiplex families who have two or more affected individuals. Methods: By using quantitative genetics techniques and the contrast of ASD subjects to controls, we estimate what portion of liability can be explained by additive genetic effects, known as narrow-sense heritability. We evaluate relatives of ASD subjects using the same methods to evaluate the assumptions of the additive model and partition families by simplex/multiplex status to determine how heritability changes with status. Results: By analyzing common variation throughout the genome, we show that common genetic polymorphism exerts substantial additive genetic effects on ASD liability and that simplex/multiplex family status has an impact on the identified composition of that risk. As a fraction of the total variation in liability, the estimated narrow-sense heritability exceeds 60% for ASD individuals from multiplex families and is approximately 40% for simplex families. By analyzing parents, unaffected siblings and alleles not transmitted from parents to their affected children, we conclude that the data for simplex ASD families follow the expectation for additive models closely. The data from multiplex families deviate somewhat from an additive model, possibly due to parental assortative mating. Conclusions: Our results, when viewed in the context of results from genome-wide association studies, demonstrate that a myriad of common variants of very small effect impacts ASD liability

Common genetic variants, acting additively, are a major source of risk for autism

Abstract Background Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are early onset neurodevelopmental syndromes typified by impairments in reciprocal social interaction and communication, accompanied by restricted and repetitive behaviors. While rare and especially de novo genetic variation are known to affect liability, whether common genetic polymorphism plays a substantial role is an open question and the relative contribution of genes and environment is contentious. It is probable that the relative contributions of rare and common variation, as well as environment, differs between ASD families having only a single affected individual (simplex) versus multiplex families who have two or more affected individuals. Methods By using quantitative genetics techniques and the contrast of ASD subjects to controls, we estimate what portion of liability can be explained by additive genetic effects, known as narrow-sense heritability. We evaluate relatives of ASD subjects using the same methods to evaluate the assumptions of the additive model and partition families by simplex/multiplex status to determine how heritability changes with status. Results By analyzing common variation throughout the genome, we show that common genetic polymorphism exerts substantial additive genetic effects on ASD liability and that simplex/multiplex family status has an impact on the identified composition of that risk. As a fraction of the total variation in liability, the estimated narrow-sense heritability exceeds 60% for ASD individuals from multiplex families and is approximately 40% for simplex families. By analyzing parents, unaffected siblings and alleles not transmitted from parents to their affected children, we conclude that the data for simplex ASD families follow the expectation for additive models closely. The data from multiplex families deviate somewhat from an additive model, possibly due to parental assortative mating. Conclusions Our results, when viewed in the context of results from genome-wide association studies, demonstrate that a myriad of common variants of very small effect impacts ASD liability.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112370/1/13229_2012_Article_55.pd