Built Ford Tough: Masculinity, Gerald Ford\u27s Presidential Museum, and the Macho Presidential Style

In Cold War America, spanning roughly from 1945-1991, masculinity was in crisis. The rise of Communism and the Soviet Union had led to a fear of spies, infiltrators, and defectors known most commonly as the Red Scare. Americans were encouraged to be hyper vigilant in sussing out deviant behaviour. Alongside this scare came the Lavender Scare. It was suggested that homosexuals were deviant peoples and were therefore more susceptible to being turned Communist than their heterosexual counterparts. This led to a crisis of masculinity where even the smallest suggestion of femininity could lead to accusations of potential compromise, an effect felt very noticeably by politicians. It became imperative for politicians who wished to avoid slanderous and potentially career killing rumours to spread, especially if one aimed to be part of the highest office: the presidency. The impact this had was an over emphasis on a macho presidential style that impacted not only the careers of the men who served as president, but also their legacies contained inside their presidential museums. This paper aims to explore the impact of the macho presidential style in the presidential museum of Gerald Ford by comparing his life, his image, and his museum to see what factors are emphasized and to prove that these museums are biased towards the more masculine aspects of a president’s life

Plantwide Control System Design for IGCC Power Plants with CO2 Capture

In this paper, a systematic approach to design the control system of a commercial-scale integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant with CO2 capture is considered. The control system design is developed with the objective of optimizing a desired scalar function while satisfying operational and environmental constraints in the presence of measured and unmeasured disturbances. Various objective functions can be considered for the control system design such as maximization of profit, maximization of the power produced, or minimization of the auxiliary power consumed in the plant. The design of such a control system can make the IGCC plant suitable to play an active role in the smart grid era by enabling operation in the load-following mode as demand for electricity from the grid fluctuates over time. In addition, other penalty functions such as emission penalties for CO2 or other criteria pollutants can be considered in the control system design.;The control system design is performed in two stages. In the first stage, a top-down analysis is used to generate a list of controlled, manipulated, and disturbance variables considering a scalar operational objective and other process constraints. In this section, innovative methods devised for primary and secondary controlled variable selection will be discussed.Exploiting these results, the second stage uses a bottom-up approach for simultaneous design of the control structure and the controllers. In this section, a novel means of control structure design has been proposed.;In this research, the proposed two-stage control system design approach is applied to the IGCC\u27s acid gas removal (AGR) process which uses the physical solvent Selexol(TM) to selectively remove CO2 and H2S from the shifted syngas. Aspen Plus DynamicsRTM is used to develop the AGR process model while MATLABRTM is used to perform the control system design. This work has shown the proposed design procedure for plantwide control yields an optimal control structure. Additionally, the methods proposed in this work for primary and secondary controlled variable selection yield controlled variables which balance economic and control performance. Finally, the method proposed for control structure design has been found to yield a control structure that balance the control performance with controller complexity

Optimal CH-47 and C-130 Workload Balance

The Air Force can save thousands of dollars by reducing the number of blade hours on the CH-47 through finding an optimal mixture of CH-47s and C-130s to conduct current operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Ultimately these savings will relieve maintenance operations for the CH-47 and lengthen the lifespan of the CH-47 airframe. Moreover, incorporating C-130s into the operations will reduce cargo transit time from supply depots. This study looks at the involvement of the C-130 in CH-47 airlift operations to reduce CH-47 usage and increase supply efficiency. The research focus is narrowed to current airlift operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in the CENTCOM theater of operation. A mathematical representation of current CH-47 operations augmented with C-130s is the foundation of this research. Particularly, these operations in CENTCOM\u27s area of operations are formulated as linear transportation problems using network mathematics. The uniqueness this research offers entails modified scenarios of the transportation problem solved as an optimization model. AMC requires additional constraints to be augmented with the basic transportation linear model that pushes this application in new areas. In addition, the uncommon layout of supply depots to the specified receiving airfields in Afghanistan and Iraq provide an altogether new kind of transportation problem

Exploring Irrational Numbers with TI-Nspire™

This article describes some activities for approximating irrational numbers with partial sums of infinite series that have been used with preservice elementary teachers and adapted for the TI-Nspire™. The idea for the article came from an 8th grader's question about how people knew the correct digits of π. Before discussing irrational numbers, some examples of rational numbers approximated by an infinite series are given. Information using the TI-Nspire™ to facilitate student understanding, including keystrokes is presented. This is followed by a discussion of approximating π using one of Euler's well-known series. Finally, there is also a discussion of the limitations of technology in displaying decimal approximations beyond the number of significant digits stored in the Nspire

Occurrence and implicatons of biological network evolution following polyploidy

The mapping and comparison of biological networks allows for analysis to understand forces of evolution. Here, we synthesize information about polyploidy, or whole genome duplication, and its effects on network rewiring. Network changes may have lead to the diversity and survival of some lineages of life, and by understanding network evolution, we may discover patterns that explain how organisms evolve. Specifically, we focus on the consequences of polyploidy on flowering time. Our work aids those studying different aspects of polyploidy to see a bigger picture of how it contributes to evolutionary change and important features that may be involved in cancer. Future studies of biological networks will help improve models of disease and biological processes to make better crops for food, fuel, fiber, and pharmaceuticals

A Comparison Of Running Economy Across Seven Carbon-Plated Racing Shoes

Running economy is defined as the oxygen consumption (VO2) or energy cost required to run at a given speed. It is a key determinant of performance, as improved economy allows a runner to run faster at the same physiological intensity. Advancements in running shoe technology, particularly in the Nike Vaporfly, have been shown to improve running economy. Other brands have now also developed new, advanced shoes with a carbon-fiber plate and thicker, new midsole foams. However, none of these new shoes have been compared to the Vaporfly. PURPOSE: Compare the effects of 7 different carbon-plated shoes and 1 traditional racing shoe on running economy. METHODS: Seven carbon-plated shoes: Hoka Rocket X (Hoka RX), Saucony Endorphin Pro (Saucony EP), Nike Alphafly (Nike AF), Asics Metaspeed Sky (Asics MS), Nike Vaporfly 2 (Nike VF2), New Balance RC Elite (New Bal RC), Brooks Hyperion Elite 2 (Brooks HE2), and 1 traditional shoe: Asics Hyperspeed (Asics HS) were tested in 12 male runners (5k best: 16.0 ± 0.7 min) on two visits. Shoes were tested in a random sequence over 8 x 5-minute trials (16 km‧hr-1; 5-minute rest between trials) on visit 1, and in the reverse/mirrored order for visit 2. Metabolic and running mechanics data were collected and averaged across visits. A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compare dependent variables across shoe conditions along with follow-up pairwise comparisons. RESULTS: VO2 (ml‧kg-1‧min-1; % change from Asics HS) was significantly different across shoes. Hoka RX (51.67 ± 2.07; -0.08 ± 1.04%) and Brooks HE2 (51.42 ± 1.72; -0.53 ± 0.90%) did not differ from Asics HS (51.71 ± 2.02). While Saucony EP (50.93 ± 1.82; -1.48 ± 0.72%) and New Bal RC (50.99 ± 1.83; -1.37 ± 0.78%) were statistically better than Asics HS, they were inferior to Nike AF (50.13 ± 1.86; -3.03 ± 1.48%), Nike VF2 (50.29 ± 1.72; -2.72 ± 1.02%), and Asics MS (50.39 ± 1.71; -2.52 ± 1.08%). In terms of running mechanics, statistically significant differences were limited. However, cadence (steps‧min-1) was significantly lower in the Nike AF (174.6 ± 10.4) than the Asics HS (176.5 ± 10.3). CONCLUSION: While some of the shoes tested improved running economy relative to the traditional racing shoe, only Nike AF and Asics MS matched the previously established Nike VF2. From these data, it appears the running shoe market as a whole has not caught up to the advantages conferred by the Nike VF2

Moving to Digital Learning and Teaching

The webinar was organised for the members of the BALEAP community, the official Accreditation Body that supports the professional development of those involved in learning, teaching, scholarship and research in English for Academic Purposes (EAP). The webinar aimed to engage the EAP community in a discussion about moving to remote learning and teaching in response to the Coronavirus and to share useful tips and ideas on appropriate technologies and activities that can be used when teaching EAP remotely, such as MS Teams, Zoom, Google and Office 365 Forms, online quizzes, video sessions with students and effective monitoring of students engagement with some advice, tips and questions and answers. The speakers were: Jolanta Hudson who represented the University of Glasgow, Dustin Hosseini who represented Lancaster University and Gareth Jones who repressed Coventry University. The webinar was hosted in the spirit of cooperation. It did not constitute official sector or institutional guidance

Astronomical imaging: The theory of everything

We are developing automated systems to provide homogeneous calibration meta-data for heterogeneous imaging data, using the pixel content of the image alone where necessary. Standardized and complete calibration meta-data permit generative modeling: A good model of the sky through wavelength and time--that is, a model of the positions, motions, spectra, and variability of all stellar sources, plus an intensity map of all cosmological sources--could synthesize or generate any astronomical image ever taken at any time with any equipment in any configuration. We argue that the best-fit or highest likelihood model of the data is also the best possible astronomical catalog constructed from those data. A generative model or catalog of this form is the best possible platform for automated discovery, because it is capable of identifying informative failures of the model in new data at the pixel level, or as statistical anomalies in the joint distribution of residuals from many images. It is also, in some sense, an astronomer's "theory of everything".Comment: a talk given at "Classification and Discovery in Large Astronomical Surveys", Ringberg Castle, 2008-10-1