Modeling and control design of a wind tunnel model support

The 12-Foot Pressure Wind Tunnel at Ames Research Center is being restored. A major part of the restoration is the complete redesign of the aircraft model supports and their associated control systems. An accurate trajectory control servo system capable of positioning a model (with no measurable overshoot) is needed. Extremely small errors in scaled-model pitch angle can increase airline fuel costs for the final aircraft configuration by millions of dollars. In order to make a mechanism sufficiently accurate in pitch, a detailed structural and control-system model must be created and then simulated on a digital computer. The model must contain linear representations of the mechanical system, including masses, springs, and damping in order to determine system modes. Electrical components, both analog and digital, linear and nonlinear must also be simulated. The model of the entire closed-loop system must then be tuned to control the modes of the flexible model-support structure. The development of a system model, the control modal analysis, and the control-system design are discussed

Energy Efficient Engine Program Advanced Turbofan Nacelle Definition Study

Advanced, low drag, nacelle configurations were defined for some of the more promising propulsion systems identified in the earlier Benefit/Cost Study, to assess the benefits associated with these advanced technology nacelles and formulate programs for developing these nacelles and low volume thrust reversers/spoilers to a state of technology readiness in the early 1990's. The study results established the design feasibility of advanced technology, slim line nacelles applicable to advanced technology, high bypass ratio turbofan engines. Design feasibility was also established for two low volume thrust reverse/spoiler concepts that meet or exceed the required effectiveness for these engines. These nacelle and thrust reverse/spoiler designs were shown to be applicable in engines with takeoff thrust sizes ranging from 24,000 to 60,000 pounds. The reduced weight, drag, and cost of the advanced technology nacelle installations relative to current technology nacelles offer a mission fuel burn savings ranging from 3.0 to 4.5 percent and direct operating cost plus interest improvements from 1.6 to 2.2 percent

Evidence-Based Education Program to Reduce Nurse Manager Burnout

Nurse managers face numerous challenges and stressors in their daily practice. The support services offered to managers to facilitate coping in stressful situations vary among employers and may be ineffective depending on the stressors faced. Implementation of evidence-based best practices may positively impact nurse managers\u27 ability to manage stress. The purpose of this project was to develop an evidence-based stress reduction education program to empower nurse managers to handle work-related stressors and reduce burnout. The primary theory used to inform this project was the job demands-resource model, which explains how job demands and resources have multiple effects on job stress, ultimately impacting a worker\u27s level of engagement. Sources of evidence included peer-reviewed journals, evidence-based studies, and published documents or programs. Education was synthesized based upon evidence obtained during the literature review. Consistent with the evidence, topics covered in the education were; nurse manager-initiated methods of stress reduction, methods of modifying a workplace environment to decrease stress, nurse manager peer support, senior leadership involvement in nurse manager stress reduction, and the inclusion of future leader development as a stress management method. The focused learning objectives were nurse manager specific, measurable, and supportive of an adult learner. The social change impacted by this project will be derived from fostering a nurse managers ability to better cope with stressful situations, thus enhancing their role as a nursing leader

Integration of Paralympic Athletes into Athletics Canada

This paper explores the integration of Paralympic athletes into Athletics Canada. Highlighting the charitable foundation of sport for the disabled as well as the issue of classification, this paper offers insight into the habitus of Paralympic athletics as a key factor influencing this integration process. Integration is conceptualized on a continuum of compliance where true integration is the goal and segregation is frowned upon. Using ethnographic data collected in participant observation roles as an athlete, administrator, and journalist, the paper illuminates the success of the Paralympics in capturing the imagination of the Canadian public. At the same time, the process of integration within Athletics Canada has been less than successful because the achievement of athletes with disabilities is not as valued, by those who administer the sport, as those of their "able" counterparts. To this end the integration process within Athletic Canada appears to be stuck at the uncomfortable point of accommodation, which means that a truly integrated sport system is still a goal to be achieved.Ce document examine l’intégration des athlètes paralympiques à Athlétisme Canada. Ce document, qui fait ressortir l’oeuvre de charité que constitue le sport pour les personnes handicapées ainsi que la question du classement, présente un aperçu de l’habitus de l’athlétisme paralympique comme facteur clé de ce processus d’intégration. L’intégration est conçue comme un continuum de conformité où la véritable intégration est l’objectif et la ségrégation est mal acceptée. Au moyen de données ethnographiques qu’il a recueillies à titre d’observateur comme athlète, administrateur et journaliste, l’auteur de l’étude démontre le succès qu’ont remporté les paralympiques en faisant appel à l’imagination du public canadien. Par ailleurs, le processus d’intégration à Athlétisme Canada n’a pas été un aussi grand succès parce que les réalisations des athlètes handicapés ne sont pas valorisées par les administrateurs du sport, comme celles de leurs homologues non handicapés. À cette fin, le processus d’intégration au sein d’Athlétisme Canada semble se limiter à une certaine tolérance; par conséquent, l’objectif d’un système sportif vraiment intégré n’est pas encore atteint

Athlete, anthropologist and advocate: moving towards a lifeworld where difference is celebrated

This paper is a call to scholars working within the sport studies researching the Paralympic communitas, to embrace the use of reflexive ethnography. The nature of ethnographic research places the social scientist in a privileged position. On the one hand there is a need to transfer knowledge to the academic community but on the other this should not occur as a result of the exploitation of the people under investigation. Using a reflexive historical ethnographic vignette as a starting point this paper highlights how our past embodied interactions, with the lifeworld can impact upon the shape and colour of the lens in which we view it. Ultimately this paper argues that by adopting a phenomenological stance we can gain a better understanding of the degree to our body as a vessel for data collection can enhance our understand of the cultural milieu surrounding the Paralympic movement

Implicit and explicit attitudinal consequences of false autobiographical memories and beliefs

Previous research has reliably demonstrated that people can form false memories or beliefs of certain events from their personal past, and that these false memories and beliefs can have effects on attitudes and behaviour. When someone forms a false memory or belief of a positive/negative experience relating to a specific attitude object, they tend to change their attitude (and sometimes their behaviour) towards that attitude object accordingly. The research presented in this thesis attempted to build on past research by determining whether false memories and beliefs reliably elicited explicit attitude change across a range of attitudinal domains, whether they affected implicit attitudes as well as explicit attitudes, and whether certain individual difference variables and phenomenological characteristics of false memories had an influence on explicit or implicit attitudinal effects. It was consistently found that false memories and beliefs of a positive experience regarding an attitude object resulted in participants reporting significantly more preferential explicit attitudes towards that attitude object. Tentative evidence was found that false memories may be sufficient to affect implicit attitudes, but false beliefs may not. Results highlighted the potential influence of certain phenomenological characteristics of false memories on attitude change, but found limited evidence to suggest any influence of individual difference factors. The predictions and results of these experiments were considered within the context of theoretical frameworks of social cognition

Infrared behaviour of QCD observables

The perturbation series created through the method of Feynman diagrams can be used to calculate experimental quantities to a good level of accuracy in many cases. The method of obtaining such a series and relating it to an observable for a QFT such as QCD is outlined. This is followed by an introduction into some of the complications of QFT's such as renormalisation, which leads to scale dependence for dimensionless quantities, and the factorial growth of perturbation series. The problem, due to the Landau pole, of defining the QCD perturbation series for the ratio Re+e- in the infrared is approached through a contour improved or analytic perturbation theory (CIPT or APT) series. For a fixed-order truncation such a series will smoothly freeze to the value 2/6 where b = (33- 2Nf)/6 is the first beta function coefficient. This is extended to considering all-orders perturbation theory through Borel summation which is used to evaluate the series factorial growth. This, along with the non-perturbative operator product expansion (OPE), is shown to be well-defined and finite for all values of the energy scale. The perturbative component again freezes to 2/b. A phenomenological comparison with low energy data is performed using a smeared Re+e- and a good agreement is found. A similar approach is developed for the ratio Rr. This case has an added complication due to a non-freezing ambiguous term that arises when one tries to perform CIPT/APT. The apparent ambiguity is fixed through Borel summation. A comparison with experimental data allows the QCD parameter Λ-MS to be evaluated for three flavours of quark, with the result Λ-MS = 382±1820 MeV obtained from a fixed-order calculation and Λ-MS = 340+12-13 MeV from an all-orders calculation

Cyborg and supercrip: the paralympics technology and the (dis)empowerment of disabled athletes

Over the last two decades the Paralympic Games have gained a high public profile. As a result there has been an ever increasing commercial marketplace for aerodynamic and feather light racing (wheel)chairs as well as biomechanically and ergonomically responsive prostheses that have helped create a legion of cyborg bodies that is manifest in the image of the sporting supercrip. Mobility devices that enhance performance have also created a divide between different impairment groups and also amongst ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ nations. This article highlights the development of a technocentric ideology within the Paralympic Movement that has led to the cyborgification of some Paralympic bodies. It questions whether the advances in technology are actually empowering disabled athletes