The personal development planning cycle.

This Learning and CPD sheet is designed to pull together into a framework many of the activities that have already been published. It should also help anyone planning to go for audit of their CPD or who have been requested to submit for audit. There are a number of different ways of viewing the Personal Development Planning (PDP) or CPD cycle; the one covered here is just one example and shouldn't be seen as the only way of looking at PDP. For a greater range of activities, look at the book "Skills for Success: The Personal Development Planning Handbook" by Cottrell and the companion website

Automatic control of a helicopter with a hanging load

An autopilot logic is designed here for controlling a helicopter with a hanging load. A 16th order model for the system is decoupled into four subsystems: (1) a second order system for yawing motion, (2) a second order system for vertical motion, (3) a sixth order system for longitudinal motion, and (4) a sixth order system for lateral motion. A measuring scheme, which could be used in remote areas, is developed and filters are designed to estimate the state variables from these measurements. The autopilot can be used to move the load over short distances without retracting the cables. This is done by automatically shifting the autopilot modes from position-hold (hover) to acceleration-hold to velocity-hold (cruise) to deceleration-hold to velocity-hold (near hover) to position-hold (hover). Use of such an autopilot might save considerable turnaround time. The Sikorsky S-61 helicopter is chosen as an example vehicle. The performance of the controlled system is studied in the presence of longitudinal and lateral winds

Smoothing for time-varying systems using measurements containing colored noise

Optimal smoother derived for linear time-varying systems using measurements containing colored noise by means of calculus of variation

Diversity and ecology of host-seeking mosquitoes in irrigated agro-ecosystems of Clay County, Nebraska

In the United States, Nebraska has the third highest incidence of human West Nile virus (WNV). Since WNV was first detected in the state in 2002, 3,422 confirmed cases and 57 deaths have been reported. Irrigated agro-ecosystems, which have been associated with elevated WNV incidences in other states, are prevalent in Nebraska. The objectives of this investigation were to 1) characterize mosquito abundance and diversity in irrigated agro-ecosystems, and 2) evaluate associations of two primary vectors of WNV, Culex tarsalis and Culex pipiens, with irrigation methods (sprinkler vs. surface) and crop type (corn vs. soybean). Investigations were conducted at South Central Agricultural Laboratory (SCAL) and privately owned operations in Clay County, Nebraska. A total of 349,847 mosquitoes were collected during 2012 and 2013, representing 14 species and seven genera. The three most abundant species were Aedes vexans (53.7%), Culex tarsalis (37.6%) and Culex pipiens (2.4%). Other mosquitoes included Anopheles punctipennis, Anopheles quadrimaculatus, Coquillettidia perturbans, Culiseta impatiens, Culiseta inornata, Ochlerotatus dorsalis, Ochlerotatus sollicitans, Ochlerotatus trivittatus, Psorophora ciliata , Psorophora columbiae, and Psorophora cyanescens. At SCAL, Culex abundance did not significantly differ between crop (P=0.11) or irrigation (P=0.98) types, but did significantly differ between years (P=Culex mosquito abundance in corn fields in 2012 (mean= 52.45, P=0.0053); center pivot irrigated corn fields collected 52.5% fewer Culex mosquitoes than furrow surface irrigated corn fields. Field management practice differences, proximity of alternative larval developmental sites to study areas, and drought conditions during the study period potentially affected mosquito diversity and abundance. Continued surveillance during years with average or above average precipitation is recommended to adequately characterize adult mosquito populations in these systems. Advisor: Roberto Cortiña

The separate computation of arcs for optimal flight paths with state variable inequality constraints

Computation of arcs for optimal flight paths with state variable inequality constraint

Nonlinear asteroseismology of RR Lyrae

The observations of the Kepler space telescope revealed that fundamental-mode RR Lyrae stars may show various radial overtones. The presence of multiple radial modes may allow us to conduct nonlinear asteroseismology: comparison of mode amplitudes and frequency shifts between observations and models. Here we report the detection of three radial modes in the star RR Lyr, the eponym of the class, using the Kepler short cadence data: besides the fundamental mode, both the first and the ninth overtones can be derived from the data set. RR Lyrae shows period doubling, but switches occasionally to a state where a pattern of six pulsation cycles repeats instead of two. We found hydrodynamic models that show the same three modes and the period-six state, allowing for comparison with the observations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Interrogating Boundaries against Animals and Machines: Human Speciesism in British Newspapers

Humans favor and venerate their ingroups, while disregarding outgroups to the degree of dehumanizing them. We explore the social construction of such boundaries and its associated speciesism toward two nonhuman outgroups: animals and machines. For this, we analyzed UK newspaper coverages of the binaries Human–Animal and Human–Machine between 1995 and 2010. We quantified if and how tolerance toward ambiguous concepts that challenge and expand definitions of humanness (e.g., nonhuman primates, cyborgs) varied across time as well as with journalist gender, political leaning, and expertise. In this analysis, the ca. 1100 individual journalists stood as proxies for the British public and therefore as a human-ingroup subset. We found more tolerance toward intermediaries in broadsheet newspapers, females, and subject experts, as opposed to tabloids, males, and subject novices. Moreover, ambiguity tolerance hit a low during the year 2000, likely due to Western sociopolitical turbulence—potentially including wider societal stress over the landmark millennium year itself—attesting that ingroups become more closed during stressful times. Compared with the plasticity of the Human–Animal dichotomy, the Human–Machine binary was more rigid, indicating that the relative novelty of IT developments triggers increased caution and anxiety. Our research suggests that cognitive mechanisms facilitating human-ingroup protection are deep-rooted, albeit malleable according to changing socioeconomic conditions

Environmental and genetic influences on neurocognitive development: the importance of multiple methodologies and time-dependent intervention

Genetic mutations and environmental factors dynamically influence gene expression and developmental trajectories at the neural, cognitive, and behavioral levels. The examples in this article cover different periods of neurocognitive development—early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood—and focus on studies in which researchers have used a variety of methodologies to illustrate the early effects of socioeconomic status and stress on brain function, as well as how allelic differences explain why some individuals respond to intervention and others do not. These studies highlight how similar behaviors can be driven by different underlying neural processes and show how a neurocomputational model of early development can account for neurodevelopmental syndromes, such as autism spectrum disorders, with novel implications for intervention. Finally, these studies illustrate the importance of the timing of environmental and genetic factors on development, consistent with our view that phenotypes are emergent, not predetermined

Synthesis and characterization of amorphous astrominerals

Abstract only availableAsymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars are the main contributors of solid material (dust) to the interstellar medium. The dust forms as gas escaping from the star cools and condenses to form a circumstellar dust shell. Around oxygen-rich stars, most of the dust particles are silicates, but important questions remain about which minerals are formed and whether the grains are crystalline or amorphous (glassy). Dust grains that form below the glass transition temperature (Tg) of a particular mineral should be amorphous, while those that form much above Tg should be crystalline. The most refractory silicates predicted to form are members of the Melilite group of minerals, whose end-members are Gehlenite (Ca2Al2SiO7), Sodium Melilite (CaNaAlSi2O7) and Åkermanite (Ca2MgSiO7). Synthetic glasses corresponding to these end-member compositions were synthesized from oxide and carbonate powders by melting in Pt crucibles in a muffle furnace at temperatures up to 1650˚C. The viscosity of the melts was measured by the parallel-plate technique in the temperature range 655 to 900˚C, over the viscosity range 2x107 to 91012 Pa s. The viscosity-temperature data were interpolated to determine Tg for each glass, taken to be the temperature at which the viscosity is 1012 Pa s. Two naturally occurring mineral samples, of åkermanite and gehlenite, were also melted. At higher temperatures and lower viscosities than about 108 Pa s, crystallization is expected to be rapid relative to the timescale of cooling in circumstellar dust shells. Our experimentally determined glass transition temperatures therefore provide constraints on the nature (crystalline vs amorphous) of several refractory astrominerals predicted to be found in these shells. Future studies of these glasses will include infrared spectroscopy, in order to better interpret astronomical spectra and test for the presence of amorphous dust with these compositions. The results will be used to test competing models for circumstellar dust formation.Missouri Academy at Northwest Missouri State Universit