Team H&H RC Baja: Chassis & Suspension

An RC car needed to be created to meet set requirements to compete in the annual American Society of Mechanical Engineers RC Baja Competition. Students of the Mechanical Engineering Department of Central Washington University developed an RC car that has working suspension/ chassis size to hold a all components of a working RC car with a floating rear end. This RC car needed to meet set requirements to compete in the annual American Society of Mechanical Engineers RC Baja Competition. The requirements relative to the suspension/chassis is that the RC car must not exceed a weight of 10lb, must not exceed 500 dollars in cost, survive a 1.5ft drop landing flat, and withstand a 506.72N force on the front end during the impact test. To achieve these requirements the team completed material matrices, 24 analysis calculations, and worked together to create a device that achieved both partners parameters. The devices main assembly was broken into sub-assemblies that required parts to be machined using processes such as milling, drilling, and plasma cutting. The principal engineer and Bill Hedlund combined all completed sub-assemblies to finalize the RC Car. After completing construction, tests were completed to decide if the car was ready to compete in the event. After completing the tests, results showed that the car has not exceeded a 10lb max weight, the total cost of the project is 418 dollars, the car sustained the 1.5ft drop and impact of 506.72N tests without the suspension deflecting .5 inches

Managing risks in juvenile justice

The determination of risk assessment is an important technique of the new penology in its search for more efficient and effective ways to handle offenders. The current study examines the validity of a risk assessment instrument and its ability to predict recidivism among a sample of 133 male and female juvenile offenders in one of Iowa\u27s eight judicial districts. The study instrument was a risk assessment tool utilized by juvenile court officers at the dispositional stage of juvenile court case processing. The results indicate that the study instrument is statistically valid and provides a 34.2 percent improvement over chance in the prediction of recidivism. This finding contradicts previous research that cautioned against using an instrument that was validated at one stage of juvenile court case processing at another stage. In addition, it was found that leaving the variable sex in the risk assessment model and making adjustments in the risk categories for females, resulted in higher mean cost rating scores than when treating females the same as males or when scoring males as if they were females;Results from a path analysis indicated that the number of re-referrals to juvenile court was predicted directly by the completion of sanctions and the length of non-recidivism, but there was no direct association found between the risk assessment score and the number of re-referrals to juvenile court. There was also no relationship found between the juvenile court ordered disposition and the number of re-referrals. The reduced models for males and females showed that there were both similarities and differences by sex in the prediction of recidivism. The primary difference by sex that was found was that the juvenile court officer\u27s recommendations and the juvenile court ordered disposition had no association with the number of re-referrals for females, while an indirect association was found to exist for males. In other words, the intrusiveness of the disposition had some impact on male offenders in terms of re-referral, while other factors such as the completion of sanctions and the length of non-recidivism predicted the number of re-referrals for females

The Economics of Spruce Budworm Outbreaks in the Lake States: An Overview

Economic effects of spruce budworm outbreaks in the Lake States were examined. The recent outbreak caused spruce and fir mortality on 420 thousand ha (I.OS million acres) of commercial forest land in the Lake States. Two models of Lake States spruce-fir markets were developed. A Static Economic Model established the nature of the Lake States spruce-fir market and a Comparative Static Model examined changes brought about by spruce budworm outbreaks. Outbreaks result in short-run supply shifts which probably decrease total revenue to stumpage owners but do not affect demand. The magnitude of long-run impacts were dependent on developing Lake States markets and forest management techniques. Further research is necessary on the value of short-run losses to stumpage owners so that the costs of forest management can be compared with outbreak losses. Long-run shifts in demand can be facilitated by attracting new industry to the area, developing new markets for the spruce-fir resource, and demonstrating that the spruce-fir resource can provide a continuous fiber source in the future. These shifts would provide the price incentives that land managers require to undertake intensive forest management. Research on the development of new markets for the spruce-fir resource is needed. As markets develop, the long-run impacts become less severe. Technology transfer programs already exist to aid land managers in developing management strategies to increase yields of spruce-fir and minimize outbreak impact

Using Manufacturing and Design Principles and Processes to Evaluate the Feasibility and Marketability of a Wooden Disc Golf Basket

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and discuss the product development process of a new product design of the commonly used disc golf basket as was executed through the Center for Manufacturing Excellence 2022 Senior Capstone Project. This project was executed over the course of the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 University of Mississippi undergraduate semesters by a team of six, consisting of two mechanical engineering students, one finance student, and three accounting students. The end goal of the project was to develop a production plan to produce 1,000 units a month based on market demand and analyze the effectiveness and profitability to determine the feasibility of implementation. The project began with team formation and a project management plan to meet predetermined goals and deadlines while distributing tasks equally amongst team members. This was followed by process and design creation for a prototype which led to design and process changes and costs analysis, finally resulting in a production plan. Post production analysis included discussion of why and how the decisions were made along the product development process and the effects of those decisions. Hindsight analysis of the consumer market, cost implications, and additional design and process improvements led to data driven discussion of the effectiveness of a wooden disc golf basket. The authors of this thesis will discuss the ideal vs actual implementation of manufacturing and design principles in relation to this project

Modeling Bioterrorism in the Livestock Sectors of NAFTA Members

Until two years ago, most citizens of Canada, the United States and Mexico experienced terrorism as a distant reality viewed from the safety of their living rooms. Today, North Americans encounter constant reminders of the aggravation and economic costs imposed on them by the now real threat of terrorism. The United States, the most obvious target for new terrorist activity, has responded by tightening its border security with all countries including its NAFTA partners.(2) Canada and Mexico joined the NAFTA to obtain preferred and more secure access to the United States market. The increased threat of terrorist activity in North America raises three crucial questions for NAFTA members. First, how real is a bioterrorism threat? Second, how can the United States maintain access to its market for its NAFTA partners and at the same time meet its legitimate security concerns? Third, what are the potential economic effects of a bioterrorism attack on North America? While it is generally assumed that the United States would be the primary target of a terrorist attack, Canada, Mexico or all three NAFTA countries could be targeted.Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,

Atmospheric Effects from Waste Heat Transfer Associated with Cooling Lakes : Final Report

National Science Foundation NSF GI-35841published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewedOpe

Hydroxymethylation Influences on Intestinal Epithelial Cells in Health and Disease

Epigenetics describes modifications that affect gene expression that are not encoded within the DNA sequence. DNA methylation is the longest appreciated epigenetic modification and has been accepted to play a critical role in maintaining euchromatin and silencing genes. Recently, a separate and distinct covalent modification has been recognized; hydroxymethylation, which has been associated with increased gene expression as opposed to gene silencing. However, traditional methods to study DNA methylation also recognized hydroxymethylation and did not distinguish between these two distinct DNA covalent modifications. Furthermore, TET enzymes have been identified to play a critical role in active hydroxymethylation of previously methylated cytosine residues and may further result in conversion to cytosine. TET1 plays a critical role in intestinal epithelial differentiation and development, and this is also correlated with increased hydroxymethylation in terminally differentiated epithelial cells. Colon cancer, which arises from the colonic epithelium, exhibits decreased hydroxymethylation and altered gene expression

Characteristics of Five Ejector Configurations at Free-Stream Mach Numbers from 0 to 2.0

Thrust, air-handling, and base-pressure characteristics of five ejector configurations were investigated in the Lewis 8-by 6-foot wind tunnel at free-stream Mach numbers from 0 to 2.0 over ranges of primary-jet pressure ratio up to 24 and corrected secondary weight-flow ratio up to 13 percent. The ejector-shroud geometries varied from convergent to divergent. Base pressure ratio and ejector performance were interrelated by means of an exit-momentum parameter. Correlations, to at least a first approximation, with base pressure ratio, of both internal-ejector-flow separation and external-flow separation over the model boattail were shown. Furthermore, it was shown that magnitudes and exact trends in base pressure ratio depended largely, and in a complicated fashion, on ejector geometry and amount of secondary flow. External-stream effects on ejector jet thrust were determined for a typical schedule of jet-engine pressure ratios. With the exception of the ejector having the largest (1.81) shroud-exit-to primary-diameter ratio, there were no stream effects at Mach numbers from 1.5 to 2.0 and variations from quiescent-air thrust data were less than 2.5 percent at the subsonic speed investigated