Evaluation of anti-freeze viscosity modifier for potential external tank applications

Viscosity modifiers and gelling agents were evaluated in combination with ethylene glycol and dimethyl sulfoxide water eutectics. Pectin and agarose are found to gel these eutectics effectively in low concentration, but the anti-freeze protection afforded by these compositions is found to be marginal in simulations of the intended applications. Oxygen vent shutters and vertical metallic surfaces were simulated, with water supplied as a spray, dropwise, and by condensation from the air

Electro-optical rendezvous and docking sensors

Electro-optical sensors provide unique and critical functionality for space missions requiring rendezvous, docking, and berthing. McDonnell Douglas is developing a complete rendezvous and docking system for both manned and unmanned missions. This paper examines our sensor development and the systems and missions which benefit from rendezvous and docking sensors. Simulation results quantifying system performance improvements in key areas are given, with associated sensor performance requirements. A brief review of NASA-funded development activities and the current performance of electro-optical sensors for space applications is given. We will also describe current activities at McDonnell Douglas for a fully functional demonstration to address specific NASA mission needs

From arrest to trial : the experience of being a family member of an accused felony offender

This qualitative body of work was designed as an exploratory, instrumental, collective case study, using multiple cases to provide insight into an infrequently researched area of inquiry concerning the issue of what happens with the family members of accused felony offenders during the time period from arrest to trial. The participants interviewed were 11 individuals from 8 families, and their demographics included a representative sample of a cross-section of races, ages, gender, socio-economic status, felony charges, and family roles of offenders and interviewees. Particular variables in each of the families\u27 cases were different, but their similar experiences unified them as a representative sample of families of accused felony offenders. Analyses of the families\u27 interviews demonstrated that they had similar concerns and issues they were confronted with after the arrest event, regardless of the diversity of their demographics and criminal cases. From these similarities it became apparent that certain themes were emerging. Cross-case analyses resulted in four patterns of themes emerging from the narrative data, and the comparisons of interviews revealed the family members\u27 salient perspectives and descriptions of their experiences. The four themes were (a) immediate and future concerns, (b) systems, (c) relationships, and (d) wanting and needing help. The analyses of the data from this study supported the assumptions of McCubbin\u27s and Patterson\u27s (1983) Double ABC-X model of family crisis. Furthermore, these families of accused felony offenders also demonstrated characteristics associated with catastrophic stressors (Figley & McCubbin, 1983). These families experienced an additional factor that is embedded within the family crisis model but not attended by the catastrophe model. The family members who had not been part of the event of the arrest of the accused felon believed that their family had been stigmatized by society for being related to an accused criminal. This study challenged the concept of the family crisis theory and the characteristics of catastrophic stressors as capturing the full experience of this population of individuals

Living with a memory-impaired spouse: (Re)cognizing the experience, (re)storying support

Dementia, of which Alzheimer\u27s Disease is the most common, results in severe cognitive deterioration and the victim will become increasingly unable to manage his or her own care needs. Someone else will be required to take on responsibility for attending to these needs. If married, the person most likely to be implicated is the spouse. Research has documented that these spouses are at high risk in the caregiving role, yet are the least likely of all caregivers to utilize formal support. To date, this low use of services has been poorly understood despite concerns that without assistance, these spouses may jeopardize both their own health and well-being and the quality of care being provided to their partner. The goal of this study was to better understand the personal experience of living with a memory-impaired partner and to explore how this experience interfaced with the use of formal support services. Fourteen spouses whose partners were suffering from deteriorating cognitive disorders were interviewed between one and three times. Participants were recruited who had displayed some reluctance to utilize the formal support services that service providers had suggested might be beneficial or who had strong opinions regarding the role of formal support services in their personal experience. Understanding was generated using an in-depth, unstructured interview focused on exploring the participant\u27s ‘story’ about his or her experience in general and formal service use in particular. What clearly emerged from this study was the complexity associated with the decision to utilize services. Using participants’ personal stories, I developed a conceptual model to organize understanding. This model identifies and explicates the importance of particular discourses for positioning the meaning associated with service use. I suggest that there are prevailing ‘story-lines’ or discourses that provide a set of assumptions and beliefs that are used by the individual to construct one’s own personal understanding about one’s actions and possible choices. Specifically, I identify four story-lines which exert influence on meaning making. These include two story-lines which compete to locate the responsibility of caring on a continuum between a private and a societal responsibility. I call this continuum the site for locating the caring activities. Intersecting with this ‘site’ is another ‘site’ that positions one’s psychological orientation. This site, or continuum, has two story-lines associated with each of it\u27s endpoints; these compete to establish the importance of a sense of self that is grounded in values of self-sufficiency as opposed to relational connection. Using this conceptual model, I suggest that practically, this means that the well spouse will potentially be hearing four different story-lines for sense-making. Some of these story-lines will fit well together but others will conflict. This leads to contradictory and inconsistent ‘interpretive repertoires’ for making sense of service use. The goal then becomes to determine where an individual is positioned in the quadrant created by these intersecting ‘sites\u27 in order to assess which story-lines are most influential for assigning meaning to the use of formal service for that individual. By understanding this, service providers can begin to untangle and challenge the meanings that will be associated with service use by that individual. Moreover, examining the participant\u27s experiences using this conceptual model highlights the ways that practices associated with providing support may be propagating story-lines that are not conducive to the use of services and are oppressive to the well spouse. Strategies for promoting more responsive, and less oppressive ‘support’ are suggested

Relationship Between Financial Support and Retention of Economically Disadvantaged Students in an Undergraduate Baccalaureate Nursing Program

Retention in baccalaureate nursing programs has been a concern for administrators and educators for decades. The non-traditional students of the past have become the traditional students of the present and as such lead complex lives. The emerging group of students that requires more attention in nursing education research is the economically disadvantaged students. Economically disadvantaged students typically come to college less prepared for the rigors of higher education and are at-risk for leaving post-secondary education. Retention of economically disadvantaged students can potentially increase the diversity of the nursing workforce since many economically disadvantaged students also come from ethnically diverse background. Federally funded grant programs such as the HRSA Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students can impact the retention of economically disadvantaged students in baccalaureate nursing programs by providing much needed tuition assistance as well as monies that could also be used for child care services, rent, and basic living expenses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate selected outcomes of grant support from the Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) program on students in a baccalaureate nursing program in one Midwestern institution. The research questions for this study were: Research Question 1: After controlling for differences in demographic characteristics, is receipt of SDS financial support associated with (a) a reduction in hours worked per week, (b) an increase in study hours per week, (c) higher nursing GPA and overall GPA, and (d) higher rates of retention in and progression through to program completion in a baccalaureate nursing program? Research Question 2: After accounting for differences in demographic characteristics, to what extent and in what manner is retention and progression in a baccalaureate nursing program predicted by SDS financial support, hours worked per week, study hours per week, nursing GPA and overall GPA? This study was a quasi-experimental design utilizing secondary analysis of existing data from available university databases as well as data obtained from a questionnaire developed by the student principal investigator. The sample was 351 subjects in three groups of undergraduate pre-licensure students (SDS, pre-SDS, non-SDS) from the traditional undergraduate nursing program who met the eligibility requirements outlined by HRSA for Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students. Data analysis included descriptive and correlational statistics as well as Chi-squared and ANOVA. A significant difference among groups was found for the variable explaining the relationship between study and work hours (study to work hours). Students receiving SDS financial support on average studied nearly five more hours per week than they worked; the comparison group (pre-SDS) on average worked two more hours per week than they studied. In addition, students receiving SDS financial support had higher overall GPA and higher final nursing GPA than the other two groups. Students receiving SDS financial support had 96.3% on time program completion. Logistic regression was conducted using a combination of variables. The most parsimonious predictor of on time graduation included only the variables SDS grant status and initial GPA. Students receiving the SDS grant were 10 times more likely to graduate on time than those who did not receive the grant (CI 95%, 3.03-33.76). This study provides evidence that financial support in the form of grant funding can influence retention and program completion for economically disadvantaged undergraduate nursing students by impacting the students’ ability to study more hours per week than they work. This may be the first study to look at the impact of SDS federal grant funding and undergraduate nursing program completion. The student receiving the grant funding all progressed to the next semester and 96% completed the nursing program in the prescribed five semesters

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Group Oriented Interventions on Physical Activity for College Age Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD)

Engagement in physical activity can provide holistic social and health benefits for individuals with and without disabilities at all age levels. Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities report having limited social networks outside of immediate caregivers and family members as well as less involvement in community recreational activities. Also, this population has been identified as having increased health issues such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes due to a more sedentary lifestyle. The purpose of this dissertation was to evaluate the use of group oriented interventions for college age students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) to increase physical activity. Chapter I of this dissertation includes a discussion on of the benefits and barriers of engagement in physical activity for individuals with disabilities as well as effective practices to increase their social inclusion within society. Chapter II and III are comprised of two different single subject research designs implemented in a post-secondary education program (PSE) for college age students with I/DD to increase their level of physical activity. The first study applied a randomized interdependent group contingency and the second study analyzed the use of peer reinforcement through social media (Facebook) to increase physical activity. A discussion of the results from each study and the relevance of these results to the current literature is included in chapter IV of this dissertation.The results from these two studies were mixed between group performance and the individual outcome of each participant. A social validity questionnaire was included in both studies, which contributed supplemental findings to these two studies. Information included in this dissertation can be applied to further research that explores current barriers and inclusive practices for individuals of all ages with disabilities to pursue a healthier lifestyle

Generation of High Performing Morph Datasets

Facial recognition systems play a vital role in our everyday lives. We rely on this technology from menial tasks to issues as vital as national security. While strides have been made over the past ten years to improve facial recognition systems, morphed face images are a viable threat to the reliability of these systems. Morphed images are generated by combining the face images of two subjects. The resulting morphed face shares the likeness of the contributing subjects, confusing both humans and face verification algorithms. This vulnerability has grave consequences for facial recognition systems used on international borders or for law enforcement purposes. To detect these morph images, high-quality data must be generated to improve deep morph detectors. In this work, high-quality morph images are generated to fool these deep morph detection algorithms. This work creates some of the most challenging large-scale morphed datasets to date. This is done in three ways. First, rather than utilizing typical datasets used for face morphing found in literature, we generate morphed data from underrepresented groups of individuals to further increase the difficulty of morphs. Second, we generate morph subjects using a wavelet decomposition blending technique to generate morph images that may perform better than typical landmark morphs while creating morph images that may appear different to detectors than what is seen in literature. Third, we apply adversarial perturbation to the morph images to further increase their attack capability on morph detectors. Using these techniques, the generated morph datasets are highly successful at fooling facial recognition systems into erroneously classifying a morph as a bona fide subject

Navigating Place and Gender: A Multicontextual Critical Narrative Inquiry of Rural Trans* Student Experiences

The purpose of this critical narrative study was to understand how rural West Virginia trans* students navigate cultural norms of their rural home communities and higher education contexts. An essential part of this critical narrative was to provide rural trans* students with an avenue to share their unique experiences and give them a platform to share their voices. The resulting narratives suggested that the normative tensions rural trans* college students experience across contexts stemmed from negative regional experiences that reinforced traditional gender norms. Negative home contexts and experiences forced students to feel like they had to build walls and distance themselves emotionally when interacting in social and academic situations both leading up to and while attending college. Students shared feeling pressured to perform their gender identity to negotiate these norms and perform these identities. The institutional support that the students perceived as influencing their experiences the most was a lack of mental health supports