X-33 Base Region Thermal Protection System Design Study

The X-33 is an advanced technology demonstrator for validating critical technologies and systems required for an operational Single-Stage-to-Orbit (SSTO) Reusuable Launch Vehicle (RLV). Currently under development by a unique contractor/government team led by Lockheed- Martin Skunk Works (LMSW), and managed by Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), the X-33 will be the prototype of the first new launch system developed by the United States since the advent of the space shuttle. This paper documents a design trade study of the X-33 base region thermal protection system (TPS). Two candidate designs were evaluated for thermal performance and weight. The first candidate was a fully reusable metallic TPS using Inconel honeycomb panels insulated with high temperature fibrous insulation, while the second was an ablator/insulator sprayed on the metallic skin of the vehicle. The TPS configurations and insulation thickness requirements were determined for the predicted main engine plume heating environments and base region entry aerothermal environments. In addition to thermal analysis of the design concepts, sensitivity studies were performed to investigate the effect of variations in key parameters of the base TPS analysis

Cyberdemons: Regulating a Truly World-Wide Web

In the decade leading up to the twenty-first century, the number of Internet-related legal disputes grew exponentially. This growth continues into the new millennium, introducing old problems in a new context. For instance, in the field of copyright, Eric Eldred, the operator of a website dedicated to posting literary works already in the public domain, challenged the Copyright Term Extension Act ( CTEA ). The CTEA blocked his plans to post works copyrighted in 1923, works which under the previous statute would have entered the public domain in 1999. Looking to trademark law, the field has become obsessed of late with providing a quick and easy way for trademark holders to regain domain names from cybersquatters without paying them off. In the First Amendment arena, the Internet continues to present challenges to the concept of a community standard of decency in obscenity jurisprudence. The Ninth Circuit recently pushed the boundaries of jurisdictional law, in an interesting example of the courts keeping pace with the times, when it ruled that plaintiffs could deliver service of process by e-mail when the defendant resides outside the country, if the plaintiff obtains a court order allowing service of process by e-mail under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(f)(3). Amid these decisions, Stuart Biegel attempts to craft a model of when and how regulators should go about attempting to bring order to the perceived anarchy of cyberspace. Biegel begins by noting the commonly accepted notion that no one is in charge of the Internet (p. 3), then goes on to debunk this notion by listing a number of agencies and groups that attempt to exert some level of control over the Net and Netizens. He then compares perceptions of Internet regulation to popular notions of the law in the American Old West, demonstrating how both differ significantly from reality

Extraskeletal Effects of Vitamin D: Potential Impact on WV Disease Morbidity and Mortality

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient and a secosteroid hormone that regulates many physiologic processes beyond calcium and bone homeostasis. These extraskeletal effects are impacted by the circulating levels of the storage form of vitamin D, 25-hydroxyvitamin D3. Levels of vitamin D can be detected after completing a simple 25(OH)D blood test. Vitamin D deficiency (\u3c 30 ng/mL) is associated with a higher risk of many chronic diseases including, but not limited to, fourteen types of cancers, type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, and asthma. This article explores the association between vitamin D deficiency and the burden of chronic diseases in West Virginia

Physical Education in West Virginia Schools: Are We Doing Enough to Generate Peak Bone Mass and Promote Skeletal Health?

Peak bone mass (PBM) is attained at 25-35 years of age, followed by a lifelong decline in bone strength. The most rapid increase in bone mass occurs between the ages of 12-17. Daily school physical education (PE) programs have been shown to produce measurable increases in PBM, but are not federally mandated. Increases in PBM can decrease the lifelong risk of osteoporosis and fractures; critical for West Virginia prevention programs. Nationally only 1 in 6 schools require PE three days per week, with 4% of elementary schools, 8% of middle schools and 2% of high schools providing daily PE. In 2005, West Virginia passed the Healthy Lifestyles Act that returned physical education to the K-12 curriculum. This law requires only one credit of PE from grades 9-12 and provides only 35% of the recommended PE for grades K-12. This article highlights the relationship of PE to PBM and discusses the potential impact on West Virginia skeletal health

Smartphone Medical Applications Useful for the Rural Practitioner

Like other similarly situated rural states, West Virginia’s patients and practitioners often experience access barriers to current medical expertise for multiple disciplines. This article was generated to help bridge this gap and highlights the best-rated mobile medical applications (Apps) for smartphone use. From finding drug interactions and dosing schedules to discussing patients in HIPAA-compliant formats, Apps are becoming integral to the practice of 21st Century medicine. The increased use of these Apps by physicians-in-training and established practitioners highlights the shift from reliance upon the medical library to the easy to use mobile-based technology platforms. This article provides our practitioners, physician extenders, medical trainees, and office staff a guide to access and assess the utility of some of the best rated medical and HIPAA compliant Apps

Vitamin D Deficiency: At Risk Patient Populations and Potential Drug Interactions

Vitamin D is known to play an essential role in calcium homeostasis; however, excessive amounts can have harmful effects. Calcium and vitamin D levels are known to be influenced by drug interactions and pathology ranging from of cancer to cardiovascular disease. Vitamin D supplementation has become widespread, and it is important for clinicians to understand the way that certain conditions and medications interact with vitamin D and calcium homeostasis. The purpose of this review is to outline the benefits and adverse effects of vitamin D and how its levels are affected by certain pathologic and pharmacologic interactions

Lady Gaga as (dis)simulacrum of monstrosity

Lady Gaga’s celebrity DNA revolves around the notion of monstrosity, an extensively researched concept in postmodern cultural studies. The analysis that is offered in this paper is largely informed by Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of monstrosity, as well as by their approach to the study of sign-systems that was deployed in A Thousand Plateaus. By drawing on biographical and archival visual data, with a focus on the relatively underexplored live show, an elucidation is afforded of what is really monstrous about Lady Gaga. The main argument put forward is that monstrosity as sign seeks to appropriate the horizon of unlimited semiosis as radical alterity and openness to signifying possibilities. In this context it is held that Gaga effectively delimits her unique semioscape; however, any claims to monstrosity are undercut by the inherent limits of a representationalist approach in sufficiently engulfing this concept. Gaga is monstrous for her community insofar as she demands of her fans to project their semiosic horizon onto her as a simulacrum of infinite semiosis. However, this simulacrum may only be evinced in a feigned manner as a (dis)simulacrum. The analysis of imagery from seminal live shows during 2011–2012 shows that Gaga’s presumed monstrosity is more akin to hyperdifferentiation as simultaneous employment of heterogeneous and potentially dissonant inter pares cultural representations. The article concludes with a problematisation of audience effects in the light of Gaga’s adoption of a schematic and post-representationalist strategy in the event of her strategy’s emulation by competitive artists

Cyberdemons: Regulating a Truly World-Wide Web

In the decade leading up to the twenty-first century, the number of Internet-related legal disputes grew exponentially. This growth continues into the new millennium, introducing old problems in a new context. For instance, in the field of copyright, Eric Eldred, the operator of a website dedicated to posting literary works already in the public domain, challenged the Copyright Term Extension Act ( CTEA ). The CTEA blocked his plans to post works copyrighted in 1923, works which under the previous statute would have entered the public domain in 1999. Looking to trademark law, the field has become obsessed of late with providing a quick and easy way for trademark holders to regain domain names from cybersquatters without paying them off. In the First Amendment arena, the Internet continues to present challenges to the concept of a community standard of decency in obscenity jurisprudence. The Ninth Circuit recently pushed the boundaries of jurisdictional law, in an interesting example of the courts keeping pace with the times, when it ruled that plaintiffs could deliver service of process by e-mail when the defendant resides outside the country, if the plaintiff obtains a court order allowing service of process by e-mail under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(f)(3). Amid these decisions, Stuart Biegel attempts to craft a model of when and how regulators should go about attempting to bring order to the perceived anarchy of cyberspace. Biegel begins by noting the commonly accepted notion that no one is in charge of the Internet (p. 3), then goes on to debunk this notion by listing a number of agencies and groups that attempt to exert some level of control over the Net and Netizens. He then compares perceptions of Internet regulation to popular notions of the law in the American Old West, demonstrating how both differ significantly from reality

Analytical and Numerical Solutions for Transient Forced Convection in Fluid with Vanishing Prandtl Number

The analytical solution of transient heat transfer from incompressible laminar boundary layer flows over a curved surface when the Prandtl number is zero was attempted by Soliman and Chambre (1969) using Fourier transforms and the method of characteristics. The same problem was addressed by Biasi (1971) using the von Karman-Pohlhausen intergral method. A conceptual error in both papers was detected by Sucec (1978) and was found to cause significant error in the formulation of the response function for wall heat flux and wall temperature, as well as the temperature distribution in the fluid. In correcting the earlier works, Sucec unfortunately, due to a slight oversight, obtained an erroneous solution for the time-varying wall heat flux. Because the papers considered by those investigators represent a class of important transient forced convective heat transfer problems involving liquid metals, it is believed that the problem warrants further investigation and rectification