The Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit (V2Suit) for space habitation and exploration

The “Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit (V2Suit) for Space Habitation and Exploration” is a novel system concept that provides a platform for integrating sensors and actuators with daily astronaut intravehicular activities to improve health and performance, while reducing the mass and volume of the physiologic adaptation countermeasure systems, as well as the required exercise time during long-duration space exploration missions. The V2Suit system leverages wearable kinematic monitoring technology and uses inertial measurement units (IMUs) and control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) within miniaturized modules placed on body segments to provide a “viscous resistance” during movements against a specified direction of “down”—initially as a countermeasure to the sensorimotor adaptation performance decrements that manifest themselves while living and working in microgravity and during gravitational transitions during long-duration spaceflight, including post-flight recovery and rehabilitation. Several aspects of the V2Suit system concept were explored and simulated prior to developing a brassboard prototype for technology demonstration. This included a system architecture for identifying the key components and their interconnects, initial identification of key human-system integration challenges, development of a simulation architecture for CMG selection and parameter sizing, and the detailed mechanical design and fabrication of a module. The brassboard prototype demonstrates closed-loop control from “down” initialization through CMG actuation, and provides a research platform for human performance evaluations to mitigate sensorimotor adaptation, as well as a tool for determining the performance requirements when used as a musculoskeletal deconditioning countermeasure. This type of countermeasure system also has Earth benefits, particularly in gait or movement stabilization and rehabilitation.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Innovative Advanced Concepts Grant NNX11AR25G)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Innovative Advanced Concepts Grant NNX12AQ58G

Gender Pay Gaps in the Former Soviet Union: A Review of the Evidence

The goal of this paper is to examine the patterns and movements of the gender pay gaps in the countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU) and to place them in the context of advanced economies. We survey over 30 publications and conduct a meta-analysis of this literature. Gender pay gaps in the region are considerable and above the levels observed in advanced economies. Similar to advanced economies, industrial and occupational segregation widens the gaps in the FSU countries, whereas gender differences in educational attainment tend to shrink them. However, a much higher proportion of the gaps remain unexplained, pointing toward the role of unobserved gender differences related to actual and perceived productivity. Over the last 25 years, the gaps contracted in most FSU countries, primarily due to the reduction in the unexplained portion. Underlying the contraction at the mean are different movements in the gap across the pay distribution. Although the glass-ceiling effect has diminished in some FSU countries, it has persisted in others. We investigate the reasons underlying these findings and argue that the developments in the FSU region shed new light on our understanding of the gender pay gaps

School Surveillance, Control, and Resistance in the United Kingdom

This chapter outlines the development of the current socio-political context within which U.K. schools experience surveillance and implement their security and disciplinary procedures. Schools are suggested to have developed their approaches to social control against a background of neoliberalism and audit culture. This involves the marketisation of much of the school system through an ‘academisation’ process; linked to this is an increased surveillance of teachers and students through datafication, CCTV and other digital means. Another form of surveillance- biopolitical control in schools- shows itself through the traditionalisation of gendered school uniform and the increasing pathologisation of the behaviour of ethnic minorities

Good work, Amelia Bedelia

Hettinga Student Bookshttps://mosaic.messiah.edu/artistsbooks/1314/thumbnail.jp