NASA Micro-g NExT Challenge: Sample Container Dispensing Device

This Final Design Review (FDR) report outlines a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo senior design project developing a sample container dispensing device for NASA Johnson Space Center’s Micro-g NExT design challenge, a competition for university students. NASA aims to bring the first woman and next man to the moon through the Artemis missions beginning in 2024. The Micro-g NExT 2021 challenges focus on developing equipment which will support the Artemis mission, where Astronauts will conduct extensive geological sampling to further the scientific understanding of the moon. Our team designed, built, and tested a device that holds sample bags as they are being filled during lunar surface extravehicular activity (EVA) operations. Through participation in the design challenge, the resulting sample container dispensing device will be tested in NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab, with the potential to become the baseline design for the actual mission hardware. This document begins with our Background research conducted thus far to establish the problem definition. The Objectives section discusses the scope of the project, followed by the Conceptual Design section which details the process utilized to determine the design direction. This progresses to the Final Design chapter, describing the prototype as built. Implementation and testing of the design is discussed in the Manufacturing Plan and Design Verification sections. Lastly, the Project Management section provides an overview of the project development as well as resources utilized throughout. This report is supplemented by appendices including additional visuals, matrices, analyses, and more

Will a Good Citizen Actively Support Organizational Change? Investigation of Psychological Processes Underlying Active Change Support

The present study investigated motivational factors of employees active change support (ACS). It also investigated good citizens response to the change by highlighting convergence and divergence of motivational factors between ACS and traditional extra-role behavior. The findings based on 166 staff responses and 346 supervisor assessments in a hospital that recently implemented a sharedgovernance structure suggest that active change support is a result of an active thinking process that involves perception of potential benefit from change but not necessarily the consequence of conventional predictors of extra-role behaviors (i.e., positive attitudes). The findings also suggest that good citizens are not necessarily the supporters of organizational change and that in actuality they confront motivational dilemma especially when they hold high quality relationship with their employer because they are reluctant to challenge the status quo

A Psychosocial Resource Impairment Model Explaining Partner Violence and Distress: Moderating Role of Income

This study examines the role of income in a psychosocial resource impairment model that explains partner violence and distress. Using data from a nationally representative sample, we test whether psychosocial resources of social support and self-esteem operate differently in four income groups (poor, working -poor, middle and upper-income). Structural equation modeling shows that among women considered working-poor, low self-esteem is relevant for the process through which violence becomes linked to distress. Women of upper-income appear distinct with negative interactions serving as sole mediator of violence and distress. Other findings indicate impaired support may mediate the violence and distress relation for women, regardless of income. Overall, income partially moderates the impact of partner violence on distress, suggesting social contexts should be considered when examining the effects of violence

Are online behaviors damaging our in-person connections? Passive versus active social media use on romantic relationships

Social media has been extensively researched, and its impact on well-being is becoming more clear. What is less clear, however, is the role of social media on romantic relationships, with the few existing studies finding mixed results. In an attempt to reconcile these discrepancies, the current study explored types of social media use (i.e., active use and passive use) as moderators between frequency of social media use and relationship health (i.e., relationship satisfaction and commitment). Participants were 432 adults in a romantic relationship for at least three months. Results showed that women who passively use social media at moderate to high levels exhibited negative associations between hours per day of social media use and relationship satisfaction, and hours per day of social media use and commitment. On the other hand, active use may ameliorate the negative association between hours per day of social media use and relationship health for both women and men. Specifically, men and women reporting low levels of active use exhibited a stronger negative association between hours per day of social media use and relationship health than those who reported moderate levels of active use. Additionally, there was no association between hours per day of social media use and relationship health for men and women reporting high levels of active use. Implications of these findings are discussed, as well as future directions based on these findings

Perceived Stigma of Poverty and Depression: Examination of Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Mediators

This study examines the perceived stigma of poverty by assessing individuals\u27 negative feelings about being poor (internalized stigma), and their beliefs about whether others treat them as stigmatized (experienced stigma). In a combined sample of low-income women (N = 210), we tested a dual-pathway model to explain how these perceived stigma dimensions are related to depression among the impoverished. We proposed that interpersonal (i.e., impaired support availability and heightened fear of support request rejection) and infrapersonal factors (i.e., impaired self-esteem) differentially mediate the relationship of internalized and experienced poverty stigma with depression. Structural equation modeling partially supported the model: internalized stigma and depression were partially mediated by self-esteem and fear of rejection, while experienced stigma was related to depression through fear of rejection only. In other words, internalized and experienced perceived stigma activate separate and similar mechanisms to influence depression among the poor

The impact of support network substitution on low-income women's health: Are minor children beneficial substitutes?

Poor women have elevated stress but also face deficits in their social networks to provide help. Consequently, they may substitute their minor children as a support source in place of more traditional ties. Support substitution and compensation theory suggest this form of substitution may not lead to compensatory benefits. We hypothesized that low-income mothers experiencing high levels of acute and network stress would be more likely to rely on their minor children, and this reliance on minor children would be related to worse health outcomes through its impact on minor children's well-being. In an interview-based community study of 116 low-income mothers from Northeast Ohio, USA we found that acute stress (but not network stress) was related to greater reliance on minor children for support and the impact on minor children's well-being mediated the link with low-income mothers' worse health outcomes. These results suggest that the reason for and type of social network substitution may determine whether compensatory benefits are realized.Social support Network substitution Health outcomes Women USA Children Poverty

Support Communication in Culturally Diverse Families: The Role of Stigma

Ethnic minority groups are societally defined groups that exist as psychological and/or numerical minorities, and whose members presumably share biological and/or cultural heritage (Markus, 2008). Although religious and national minority groups clearly are defined by culture, racial minority groups (which psychologists have tended to regard as defined by biology; Fairchild, Yee, Wyatt, & Weizmann, 1995;Yee, Fairchild, Weizmann, & Wyatt, 1993) similarly are defined by culture (Jones, 1997). In turn, culturally diverse families are defined by the presence of one or more family members who are members of racial, religious, or national minority groups within a given society (Gaines, 1997). According to Erving Goffman (1963), stigmatization toward members of ethnic minority groups not only can affect those individuals but also can affect the individuals\u27 families. Within the U.S.A. and other Western nations, majority group members as well as minority group members in interracial marriages often are acutely aware of the transmission of stigmatization throughout entire families (Gaines & Ickes, 2000). However, the transmission of stigmatization can occur in all families in which one or more members belong to racial, religious, or national minority groups (Gaines, 2001). In the present chapter, we draw upon Goffman\u27s (1959, 1963) symbolic interactionist theory in examining support communication within culturally diverse families. We pay particular attention to Goffman\u27s (1963) concept of stigma as applied to members of ethnic minority groups and as applied to their families. Moreover, we focus on specific forms of support communication (following Mickelson & Williams, 2008; Williams & Mickelson, 2008) that members of ethnic minority groups may use to obtain social support from family members and, thus, counteract the potentially negative effects of stigmatization. In addition, we consider the utility of Claude Steele\u27s (1997) concept of stereotype threat in explaining the potential lack of generalizability of support communication processes across ethnic (and especially racial) groups