Investigating Voting Rights in Missouri: An Assessment of Compliance with the National Voter Registration Act in Public Assistance Agencies

The number of citizens registered to vote by Missouri's public assistance agencies, a service required by the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and state law, has plummeted to one-tenth the number from 12 years ago. Visits to agency offices by Project Vote staff and Project Vote's analysis of demographic and voter registration data indicate that the decline in registration is a consequence of the failure to comply with federal and state law by the the Department of Social Services, Department of Health and Senior Services and Department of Labor.This report details the following findings: The number of voter registration applications coming from public assistance agencies across the state has dropped to one-tenth what it once was.While one county registered nearly 2,000 citizens in Department of Labor offices in 2005 and 2006, all but two other counties registered less than a hundred citizens over the same time period in the department's ofices, even in some of the most populous counties.Hundreds of thousands of Missourians remained unregistered during the decline in performance at public assistance agencies.Voter registration performance at public assistance agencies varies enormously from county to county, with some of the largest counties registering fewer citizens at public assistance agencies than much smaller counties.Participation in public assistance agency programs has not waned and thus does not explain why voter registration has declined at these agencies. The success of voter registration services at DMV offices ("motor voter") also does not explain the decline in voter registration at public assistance offices as some counties demonstrate by registering signiicant numbers in both DMV and public assistance agencies.Neither the timing nor geographic location of voter registration efforts by non-profit organizations and campaigns in the state explain the drop off in agency performance.Visits by Project Vote staff to agency sites in four counties in 2007 found numerous instances of non-compliance with the NVRA. We conclude that poor compliance and non-compliance with the National Voter Registration Act is evident in many agency offices throughout Missouri. We call upon Missouri to review NVRA performance in public assistance agencies and we make some general recommendations for improvement based on effective practices in other states

An analytical approach for predicting pilot induced oscillations

The optimal control model (OCM) of the human pilot is applied to the study of aircraft handling qualities. Attention is focused primarily on longitudinal tasks. The modeling technique differs from previous applications of the OCM in that considerable effort is expended in simplifying the pilot/vehicle analysis. After briefly reviewing the OCM, a technique for modeling the pilot controlling higher order systems is introduced. Following this, a simple criterion or determining the susceptability of an aircraft to pilot induced oscillations (PIO) is formulated. Finally, a model-based metric for pilot rating prediction is discussed. The resulting modeling procedure provides a relatively simple, yet unified approach to the study of a variety of handling qualities problems

The role of manipulator characteristics in selecting the ideal effective vehicle

A structural model of the human pilot is introduced and discussed. The model is used to provide a rationale for certain nonlinear pilot control behavior such as stick pulsing and serves as a framework for studying aspects of motor skill development. In light of the theoretical background provided by the model, some past empirical pilot response phenomena are analyzed and shown to be attributable to manipulator or control stick characteristics. In particular, some recent problems associated with pilot/vehicle performance in glideslope tracking in short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft are analyzed. The apparent contribution of the cockpit manipulator (throttle) characteristics to these problems are outlined and a solution proposed and evaluated in both simulation and flight test

Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate

The proportion of the U.S. population that registers to vote and that does vote is highly skewed towards Whites, the educated and the wealthy. Furthermore, young eligible Americans, particularly young minority males, and those who have recently moved, are disproportionately represented among those who do not participate in the U.S. electorate.This report provides an introductory review of frequency tables for responses to some of the questions in the November 2006 CPS as well as cross tabulations showing how the responses interact with race, gender and income. Data on voter registration and voter turnout for each state and the District of Columbia for 2002, 2004 and 2006 are also provided

Shear-stress controlled dynamics of nematic complex fluids

Based on a mesoscopic theory we investigate the non-equilibrium dynamics of a sheared nematic liquid, with the control parameter being the shear stress $\sigma_{\mathrm{xy}}$ (rather than the usual shear rate, $\dot\gamma$). To this end we supplement the equations of motion for the orientational order parameters by an equation for $\dot\gamma$, which then becomes time-dependent. Shearing the system from an isotropic state, the stress- controlled flow properties turn out to be essentially identical to those at fixed $\dot\gamma$. Pronounced differences when the equilibrium state is nematic. Here, shearing at controlled $\dot\gamma$ yields several non-equilibrium transitions between different dynamic states, including chaotic regimes. The corresponding stress-controlled system has only one transition from a regular periodic into a stationary (shear-aligned) state. The position of this transition in the $\sigma_{\mathrm{xy}}$-$\dot\gamma$ plane turns out to be tunable by the delay time entering our control scheme for $\sigma_{\mathrm{xy}}$. Moreover, a sudden change of the control method can {\it stabilize} the chaotic states appearing at fixed $\dot\gamma$.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

Tunable high pressure lasers

Atmospheric transmission of high energy CO2 lasers is considerably improved by high pressure operation which, due to pressure broadening, permits tuning the laser lines off atmospheric absorption lines. Pronounced improvement is shown for horizontal transmission at altitudes above several kilometers and for vertical transmission through the entire atmosphere. Applications of tunable high pressure CO2 lasers to energy transmission and to remote sensing are discussed along with initial efforts in tuning high pressure CO2 lasers

A dual-loop model of the human controller

A representative model of the human controller in single-axis compensatory tracking tasks that exhibits an internal feedback loop which is not evident in single-loop models now in common use is presented. This hypothetical inner-loop involves a neuromuscular command signal derived from the time rate of change of controlled element output which is due to control activity. It is not contended that the single-loop human controller models now in use are incorrect, but that they contain an implicit but important internal loop closure, which, if explicitly considered, can account for a good deal of the adaptive nature of the human controller in a systematic manner

Prediction of aircraft handling qualities using analytical models of the human pilot

The optimal control model (OCM) of the human pilot is applied to the study of aircraft handling qualities. Attention is focused primarily on longitudinal tasks. The modeling technique differs from previous applications of the OCM in that considerable effort is expended in simplifying the pilot/vehicle analysis. After briefly reviewing the OCM, a technique for modeling the pilot controlling higher order systems is introduced. Following this, a simple criterion for determining the susceptibility of an aircraft to pilot induced oscillations is formulated. Finally, a model based metric for pilot rating prediction is discussed. The resulting modeling procedure provides a relatively simple, yet unified approach to the study of a variety of handling qualities problems

Effects of wing modification on an aircraft's aerodynamic parameters as determined from flight data

A study of the effects of four wing-leading-edge modifications on a general aviation aircraft's stability and control parameters is presented. Flight data from the basic aircraft configuration and configurations with wing modifications are analyzed to determine each wing geometry's stability and control parameters. The parameter estimates and aerodynamic model forms are obtained using the stepwise regression and maximum likelihood techniques. The resulting parameter estimates and aerodynamic models are verified using vortex-lattice theory and by analysis of each model's ability to predict aircraft behavior. Comparisons of the stability and control derivative estimates from the basic wing and the four leading-edge modifications are accomplished so that the effects of each modification on aircraft stability and control derivatives can be determined

Unsteady pressure measurements on a supercritical airfoil at high Reynolds numbers

Steady and unsteady pressures were measured on a 14 percent supercritical airfoil at transonic Mach numbers at Reynolds numbers from 6,000,000 to 35,000,000. Instrumentation techniques were developed to measure unsteady pressures in a cryogenic tunnel at flight Reynolds numbers. Experimental steady data, corrected for wall effects show very good agreement with calculations from a full potential code with an interacted boundary layer. The steady and unsteady pressures both show a shock position that is dependent on Reynolds number. For a supercritical pressure distribution at a chord Reynolds number of 35,000,000 laminar flow was observed between the leading edge and the shock wave at 45 percent chord