High speed air pneumatic wind shield wiping design

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2005.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 28).In this creative design process a number of designs were constructed, implemented and tested in order to assess the feasibility of using high speed to create a curtain to repel the rain from the automobile windshield instead of using the traditional wiper blades. The primary two methods tested used a compression system and a blower system that allowed the air to flow upward and parallel to the windshield. Both of the applications showed potential especially when coupled with a hydrophobic coating covering the windshield. The design using the high-speed squirrel cage blowers was implemented on an actual car in which it revealed positive results, which will be further assessed for patenting potential.by Moses A. Heyward.S.B

Numerical arc segmentation algorithm for a radio conference: A software tool for communication satellite systems planning

The Numerical Arc Segmentation Algorithm for a Radio Conference (NASARC) provides a method of generating predetermined arc segments for use in the development of an allotment planning procedure to be carried out at the 1988 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) on the Use of the Geostationary Satellite Orbit and the Planning of Space Services Utilizing It. Through careful selection of the predetermined arc (PDA) for each administration, flexibility can be increased in terms of choice of system technical characteristics and specific orbit location while reducing the need for coordination among administrations. The NASARC software determines pairwise compatibility between all possible service areas at discrete arc locations. NASARC then exhaustively enumerates groups of administrations whose satellites can be closely located in orbit, and finds the arc segment over which each such compatible group exists. From the set of all possible compatible groupings, groups and their associated arc segments are selected using a heuristic procedure such that a PDA is identified for each administration. Various aspects of the NASARC concept and how the software accomplishes specific features of allotment planning are discussed

Numerical Arc Segmentation Algorithm for a Radio Conference (NASARC), version 4.0: User's manual

The information in the NASARC (Version 4.0) Technical Manual (NASA-TM-101453) and NASARC (Version 4.0) User's Manual (NASA-TM-101454) relates to the state of Numerical Arc Segmentation Algorithm for a Radio Conference (NASARC) software development through November 1, 1988. The Technical Manual describes the NASARC concept and the algorithms used to implement the concept. The User's Manual provides information on computer system considerations, installation instructions, description of input files, and program operation instructions. Significant revisions were incorporated in the Version 4.0 software over prior versions. These revisions have further enhanced the modeling capabilities of the NASARC procedure and provide improved arrangements of predetermined arcs within the geostationary orbit. Array dimensions within the software were structured to fit within the currently available 12-megabyte memory capacity of the International Frequency Registration Board (IFRB) computer facility. A piecewise approach to predetermined arc generation in NASARC (Version 4.) allows worldwide planning problem scenarios to be accommodated within computer run time and memory constraints with enhanced likelihood and ease of solution

Numerical arc segmentation algorithm for a radio conference-NASARC (version 2.0) technical manual

The information contained in the NASARC (Version 2.0) Technical Manual (NASA TM-100160) and NASARC (Version 2.0) User's Manual (NASA TM-100161) relates to the state of NASARC software development through October 16, 1987. The Technical Manual describes the Numerical Arc Segmentation Algorithm for a Radio Conference (NASARC) concept and the algorithms used to implement the concept. The User's Manual provides information on computer system considerations, installation instructions, description of input files, and program operating instructions. Significant revisions have been incorporated in the Version 2.0 software. These revisions have enhanced the modeling capabilities of the NASARC procedure while greatly reducing the computer run time and memory requirements. Array dimensions within the software have been structured to fit within the currently available 6-megabyte memory capacity of the International Frequency Registration Board (IFRB) computer facility. A piecewise approach to predetermined arc generation in NASARC (Version 2.0) allows worldwide scenarios to be accommodated within these memory constraints while at the same time effecting an overall reduction in computer run time

Numerical Arc Segmentation Algorithm for a Radio Conference-NASARC (version 4.0) technical manual

The information contained in the NASARC (Version 4.0) Technical Manual and NASARC (Version 4.0) User's Manual relates to the Numerical Arc Segmentation Algorithm for a Radio Conference (NASARC) software development through November 1, 1988. The Technical Manual describes the NASARC concept and the algorithms used to implement the concept. The User's Manual provides information on computer system considerations, installation instructions, description of input files, and program operation instructions. Significant revisions were incorporated in the Version 4.0 software over prior versions. These revisions have further enhanced the modeling capabilities of the NASARC procedure and provide improved arrangements of predetermined arcs within the geostationary orbits. Array dimensions within the software were structured to fit within the currently available 12 megabyte memory capacity of the International Frequency Registration Board (IFRB) computer facility. A piecewise approach to predetermined arc generation in NASARC (Version 4.0) allows worldwide planning problem scenarios to be accommodated within computer run time and memory constraints with enhanced likelihood and ease of solution

Racial Becoming: How Agentic (Self-Initiated) Encounter Events Inform Racial Identity Refinement

Racial identity literature has typically focused on identity formation through a series of stages. It also has centered how the experience of negative encounter events informs racial identity formation. With the advent of new genealogical and genomic technology, it is imperative to expand the focus of identity literatures to include encounter events, which participants elect to experience (i.e. self-initiated or agentic encounter events). By using this frame, identity processes become fluid and informed by individual life experiences. In the context of this study, direct to consumer genetic ancestry tests (DTC-GAT) are operationalized as a self-initiated encounter event. Participants were enrolled in an arts-in-education program that connects self-identified Black Americans with their ancestral roots through theater and genetic ancestry tests. The study uses a series of methods: theater performance; critical identity maps; modified life narrative interviews; participant observation; and group interviews to understand how agentic encounter events inform understandings of the self and others. Each of the eight participants took a genetic ancestry test to determine their country of origin. Over the course of three weeks, participants explored their personal histories, while creating theater pieces reflective of their hopes and experiences. Subsequent interviews highlighted how participants internalized the genetic test results in varying ways. Results indicated that similar themes related to self-determination, identity formation, confronting ancestral traumas, concerns about future steps, respect, and feelings of belongingness reverberated across interviews. Overall, this research opens the possibility of integrating new information generated by genetic ancestry tests into an ever-evolving and dynamic self, creating new avenues for exploration within critical social psychology

Offender records retention analysis

The purpose of this project is to review the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services' procedure for the retention and retrieval of offender records

What We Not Finna Do: Respectfully Collaborating with Skinfolk and Kinfolk in Black Feminist Participatory Action Research

In this article, we (Black community social psychologists and community organizers with over 40 years of collaborative research experience) share the successes and challenges of using Black Feminist Participatory Action Research to actualize The Community Engaged Research Academy (CERA). CERA was a two-year multi-method project (utilizing community dialogues, focus groups, surveys, PhotoVoice, body mapping, and space mapping) aimed at teaching Bronx patients the language and ethics of research. CERA did not merely teach research methods for its own sake. It redressed research and schooling as sites of trauma and humiliation for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) persons by nurturing the capacity of participants to develop research projects without researchers. We scrutinize the missteps and accomplishments of the CERA project to offer a tangible example of what attending to racial justice in community psychological inquiry looks like from all facets. Our imagined audience of readers is composed of burgeoning and veteran Black community psychologists, members of community-based organizations, and members of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). We write to this audience mindful that analyzing what went wrong, and right would be instructive to academicians and practitioners, about how to ethically and respectfully collaborate with skinfolk and kinfolk. We start by interweaving a brief engagement in critical reflexivity about our prior experiences with Black participatory research as next generation Black scholars/organizers, which grounds our theoretical framework. We move to a discussion of community-academic partnerships (CAPs) within Black communities, where our engagement with the scholarship that has influenced our work refuses the traditional structure of a literature review. Historically, CAPs between Black professionals (researchers, doctors, nurses, educators, social workers, etc.) and Black communities have not always begun or ended well (Brown, 2017; 2019; Chilisa, 2009; Freimuth et al., 2001; Guishard et al, 2005; Guishard, 2009; 2015; Heyward, 2019; Jordan et al., 2001; Smith & Guishard, 2017; Suarez-Balcazar, Harper, & Lewis, 2005). Too often, the epistemes, theories, methodologies, and approaches to community engagement Black community psychologists learn, from largely whitestream institutions, are imbued with scientific racism, are extractive, and some likely with exploitative intentions. This past work has done more harm than good and has made our kinfolk distrustful of us and our intentions. We share our confrontations with ways of being, we had to leave behind and adopt to accomplish the CERA project. Some of the lessons we learned included centering Black community psychology, embracing critical race praxis, naming sacred moments that were excluded from the purview of research, and honoring the complex stories Black patients shared with us with hermeneutics of love (Guishard, 2016; hooks, 2001a; hooks, 2001b; Laura, 2013). We move to analyzing moments within the Community Engaged Research Academy that taught us much about the importance of healing-centered engagement. We offer: unwaveringly committing to loving all and not some Black folx, checking your professional humility before you wreck the project, being of service before making an ask, developing community agreements, articulating refusals, shared decision making, returning findings quickly, and shared ownership of the products of our research as ethical levers to readers. It is important to note that in addition to being evaluated by our institution’s IRBs, the CERA project was also constantly evaluated by members of a local community-based IRB. The Bronx Community Research Review Board (The BxCRRB) ethically assessed the extent to which we attended to the project’s focus and remained accountable to Black and Brown Bronx patients. We conclude by sharing the community agreements, template for our research presentations, and an evaluation tool we developed, with the BxCRRB, with hopes that they: 1) will expand and build upon critical race community psychological interventions, 2) can be reused and remixed by other CAPs between Black community psychologists and Black communities

What We Not Finna Do: Respectfully Collaborating with Skinfolk and Kinfolk in Black Feminist Participatory Action Research

In this article, we (Black community social psychologists and community organizers with over 40 years of collaborative research experience) share the successes and challenges of using Black Feminist Participatory Action Research to actualize The Community Engaged Research Academy (CERA). CERA was a two-year multi-method project (utilizing community dialogues, focus groups, surveys, PhotoVoice, body mapping, and space mapping) aimed at teaching Bronx patients the language and ethics of research. CERA did not merely teach research methods for its own sake. It redressed research and schooling as sites of trauma and humiliation for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) persons by nurturing the capacity of participants to develop research projects without researchers. We scrutinize the missteps and accomplishments of the CERA project to offer a tangible example of what attending to racial justice in community psychological inquiry looks like from all facets. Our imagined audience of readers is composed of burgeoning and veteran Black community psychologists, members of community-based organizations, and members of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). We write to this audience mindful that analyzing what went wrong, and right would be instructive to academicians and practitioners, about how to ethically and respectfully collaborate with skinfolk and kinfolk. We start by interweaving a brief engagement in critical reflexivity about our prior experiences with Black participatory research as next generation Black scholars/organizers, which grounds our theoretical framework. We move to a discussion of community-academic partnerships (CAPs) within Black communities, where our engagement with the scholarship that has influenced our work refuses the traditional structure of a literature review. Historically, CAPs between Black professionals (researchers, doctors, nurses, educators, social workers, etc.) and Black communities have not always begun or ended well (Brown, 2017; 2019; Chilisa, 2009; Freimuth et al., 2001; Guishard et al, 2005; Guishard, 2009; 2015; Heyward, 2019; Jordan et al., 2001; Smith & Guishard, 2017; Suarez-Balcazar, Harper, & Lewis, 2005). Too often, the epistemes, theories, methodologies, and approaches to community engagement Black community psychologists learn, from largely whitestream institutions, are imbued with scientific racism, are extractive, and some likely with exploitative intentions. This past work has done more harm than good and has made our kinfolk distrustful of us and our intentions. We share our confrontations with ways of being, we had to leave behind and adopt to accomplish the CERA project. Some of the lessons we learned included centering Black community psychology, embracing critical race praxis, naming sacred moments that were excluded from the purview of research, and honoring the complex stories Black patients shared with us with hermeneutics of love (Guishard, 2016; hooks, 2001a; hooks, 2001b; Laura, 2013). We move to analyzing moments within the Community Engaged Research Academy that taught us much about the importance of healing-centered engagement. We offer: unwaveringly committing to loving all and not some Black folx, checking your professional humility before you wreck the project, being of service before making an ask, developing community agreements, articulating refusals, shared decision making, returning findings quickly, and shared ownership of the products of our research as ethical levers to readers. It is important to note that in addition to being evaluated by our institution’s IRBs, the CERA project was also constantly evaluated by members of a local community-based IRB. The Bronx Community Research Review Board (The BxCRRB) ethically assessed the extent to which we attended to the project’s focus and remained accountable to Black and Brown Bronx patients. We conclude by sharing the community agreements, template for our research presentations, and an evaluation tool we developed, with the BxCRRB, with hopes that they: 1) will expand and build upon critical race community psychological interventions, 2) can be reused and remixed by other CAPs between Black community psychologists and Black communities

Predicting the points of interaction of small molecules in the NF-κB pathway

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The similarity property principle has been used extensively in drug discovery to identify small compounds that interact with specific drug targets. Here we show it can be applied to identify the interactions of small molecules within the NF-κB signalling pathway.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Clusters that contain compounds with a predominant interaction within the pathway were created, which were then used to predict the interaction of compounds not included in the clustering analysis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The technique successfully predicted the points of interactions of compounds that are known to interact with the NF-κB pathway. The method was also shown to be successful when compounds for which the interaction points were unknown were included in the clustering analysis.</p