Synthesis of aircraft structures using integrated design and analysis methods

A systematic research is reported to develop and validate methods for structural sizing of an airframe designed with the use of composite materials and active controls. This research program includes procedures for computing aeroelastic loads, static and dynamic aeroelasticity, analysis and synthesis of active controls, and optimization techniques. Development of the methods is concerned with the most effective ways of integrating and sequencing the procedures in order to generate structural sizing and the associated active control system, which is optimal with respect to a given merit function constrained by strength and aeroelasticity requirements

Calibration of the LIGO displacement actuators via laser frequency modulation

We present a frequency modulation technique for calibration of the displacement actuators of the LIGO 4-km-long interferometric gravitational-wave detectors. With the interferometer locked in a single-arm configuration, we modulate the frequency of the laser light, creating an effective length variation that we calibrate by measuring the amplitude of the frequency modulation. By simultaneously driving the voice coil actuators that control the length of the arm cavity, we calibrate the voice coil actuation coefficient with an estimated 1-sigma uncertainty of less than one percent. This technique enables a force-free, single-step actuator calibration using a displacement fiducial that is fundamentally different from those employed in other calibration methods.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit

A Hollow History Test: Why Establishment Clause Cases Should Not Be Decided through Comparisons with Historical Practices

Some judges, scholars, and advocates have criticized the Supreme Court’s Establishment Clause jurisprudence, arguing that existing Establishment Clause tests give courts too little guidance and too much discretion, and calling on the Court to replace those tests with a test that compares challenged practices to long-standing historically accepted ones. But such a historical-practice test would be much more difficult to apply than the Court’s current jurisprudence and would engender greater confusion among lower courts than there is now. That’s because there are very few long-standing historical practices that are legitimate candidates for serving as evidence of the intent of the Establishment Clause’s framers. Only actions taken by the federal government can be relevant, because the Establishment Clause did not apply to the states when it was adopted. And only actions taken very close in time to the Clause’s adoption should be considered, because history repeatedly has shown that it takes little time after a constitutional provision is passed for governmental officials to start taking actions that violate it. Thus, in most Establishment Clause contexts, there are no federal-government actions during the relevant historical period that courts can legitimately consider for guidance. This does not mean that there should be no role for history in Establishment Clause analysis. But what is proper for courts to principally consider are the historical events that led to the Clause’s creation, not the events that occurred after the Clause was adopted. And the Supreme Court already engaged in such analysis in devising its existing Establishment Clause tests, looking at European and colonial history to understand what kinds of practices the First Amendment’s framers wanted to stop, as well as the writings of the leading thinkers behind the Establishment Clause, Madison and Jefferson. Already informed by history, the Supreme Court’s existing Establishment Clause tests well protect the values underlying the Clause, prohibiting (among other conduct) public funding of religious activity, governmental favoritism for any religion over another or for religion over nonreligion, governmental coercion to take part in religious exercise, and governmental entanglement with religion

Detection and mapping of hydrothermally altered rocks in the vicinity of the comstock lode, Virginia Range, Nevada, using enhanced LANDSAT images

The author has identified the following significant results. LANDSAT images enhanced by the band-ratioing method can be used for reconnaissance alteration mapping in moderately heavily vegetated semiarid terrain as well as in sparsely vegetated to semiarid terrain where the technique was originally developed. Significant vegetation cover in a scene, however, requires the use of MSS ratios 4/5, 4/6, and 6/7 rather than 4/5, 5/6, and 6/7, and requires careful interpretation of the results. Supplemental information suitable to vegetation identification and cover estimates, such as standard LANDSAT false-color composites and low altitude aerial photographs of selected areas is desirable

Ear Corn and Shelled Corn Diets for Finishing Cattle

Comparisons were made between ear corn and shelled corn in various types of diets for finishing cattle. These data should be considered most appropriate for heavy yearling cattle fed over a period of about 4 months

Lasalocid or Monensin Supplementation for Short Periods of Finishing

Information is needed on response to lasalocid and monensin under conditions of rapid adaptation to high-concentrate diets and short periods of finishing for heavyweight cattle. Two experiments were conducted to obtain data when feeding under these conditions