Telerobotic controller development

To meet NASA's space station's needs and growth, a modular and generic approach to robotic control which provides near-term implementation with low development cost and capability for growth into more autonomous systems was developed. The method uses a vision based robotic controller and compliant hand integrated with the Remote Manipulator System arm on the Orbiter. A description of the hardware and its system integration is presented

Spherophorus Necrophorus: Infection in Mink

Sporadic outbreaks, of Spherophorus necrophorus infection in mink are quite commonly observed. One animal, several animals, or a large portion of a herd may be affected. A typical outbreak of this disease is that observed by Dr. J. A. Hunt, Winthrop, Iowa, in a group of mink from which specimens were submitted to the Iowa Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory

Introduction to The Special Issue: Advances in Methods and Measurement in Family Psychology

This special issue presents a collection of reports that highlight recent advances in methods and measurement and also shed light on the complexity of family psychology. The importance of theory in guiding solid family science is evident throughout these reports. The reports include guides for researchers who incorporate direct observation into their research protocols and the ever-expanding field of tele-health interventions. Advanced analytic approaches are offered in the areas of grid sequence analysis, latent fixed-effects models, and the Factors of Curves Model (FOCUS). These sophisticated analytic approaches may be applied to advance systemic thinking in family psychology. The last set of articles illustrate how complex and innovative methodologies are applied to address important societal issues. Work experiences and marital relationships in African American couples address the importance of spillover effects in contemporary families. The creation of biobehavioral plasticity index has the potential to inform gene x environment contributions to family functioning. Finally, the unique methodological issues that are particularly germane to the diverse nature of stepfamilies and nonresident fathers are addressed. We hope that readers of this special issue will return to these reports as resources and examples of theory-driven methods and measurements

Enhancing Vulnerable Groups’ Resilience to Climate Change: Lessons Learned from a Case Study with Older Adults

Certain groups are more vulnerable to climate change than others and will likely feel its effects more severely. These groups include children, older adults, refugees, minoritized racial and ethnic groups, and people living in poverty. To safeguard vulnerable groups, their knowledge and perspectives need to be integrated into climate change adaptation planning. Institutions of higher education have many resources to contribute to this effort. To inform and promote engaged scholarship focusing on adaptation planning in collaboration with vulnerable groups, this research presents a case study evaluation of a project conducted by researchers at Antioch University New England with the older-adult community of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The evaluation explores attributes of the project that contributed to both positive outcomes and challenges. Key themes include the value of developing a primary partnership with a local organization, fostering an accessible and inclusive process, connecting subject matter with participants’ concerns, using an iterative process to build capacity, collaborating with multiple other local organizations, recognizing ongoing community efforts, and generating initial actions. This evaluation also explores potential transferability to other contexts

Mixing Optimization in Grooved Serpentine Microchannels

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Computational fluid dynamics modeling at Reynolds numbers ranging from 10 to 100 was used to characterize the performance of a new type of micromixer employing a serpentine channel with a grooved surface. The new topology exploits the overlap between the typical Dean flows present in curved channels due to the centrifugal forces experienced by the fluids, and the helical flows induced by slanted groove-ridge patterns with respect to the direction of the flow. The resulting flows are complex, with multiple vortices and saddle points, leading to enhanced mixing across the section of the channel. The optimization of the mixers with respect to the inner radius of curvature (Rin) of the serpentine channel identifies the designs in which the mixing index quality is both high (M \u3e 0.95) and independent of the Reynolds number across all the values investigated

The U.S. Airways Group: A Post-Merger Analysis

America West Airlines acquired the bankrupt US Airways on September 27, 2005 to form the US Airways Group. Our paper analyzes the post-merger performance of the US Airways Group using airline operating metrics and financial ratios for the period 2005 to 2013. While the airline has still a long way to go to improve its leverage and liquidity ratios, its capital structure and ability to pay its obligations have improved since 2005. Moreover, although the airline is still inefficient in utilizing its assets, the efficiency improvements achieved since the merger have resulted in profits and positive returns to investors. Its share prices have also largely outperformed the S&P 500 and XAL since the merger, an indication that investors are pleased with how the merger is developing over time. In view of the US Airways Group’s improving financial and operating performance, the merger is, essentially, a success

An Analysis of Delta Air Lines\u27 Oil Refinery Acquisition

Delta Air Lines acquired an oil refinery in April 2012 as a strategic move to hedge against higher fuel prices. Our paper analyzes the oil refinery acquisition, a backward integration strategy, on the airline’s financial and operational performance, for the period Q1 2010 to Q2 2015. The methodology involves descriptive statistics and short-term stock performance as well as an econometric model that estimates the impact of the oil refinery acquisition on Delta Air Lines’ net income. The data set consists of quarterly financial and airline operations metrics data. The results indicate that it is too early to ascertain whether Delta Air Lines’ oil refinery acquisition has any positive impact on its financial performance since the variable of interest is insignificant in predicting Delta Air Lines’ net income. Despite the apparent lack of positive impact of its oil refinery acquisition, however, the stock market has rewarded Delta Air Lines’ strategy resulting in its share prices outperforming the S&P 500 and the XAL, an index of major airline stocks, in the 60-trading day period following the announcement of its acquisition

Expanding the parameters of academia

This paper draws on qualitative data gathered from two studies funded by the UK Leadership Foundation for Higher Education to examine the expansion of academic identities in higher education. It builds on Whitchurch’s earlier work, which focused primarily on professional staff, to suggest that the emergence of broadly based projects such as widening participation, learning support and community partnership is also impacting on academic identities. Thus, academic as well as professional staff are increasingly likely to work in multi-professional teams across a variety of constituencies, as well as with external partners, and the binary distinction between ‘academic’ and ‘non-academic’ roles and activities is no longer clear-cut. Moreover, there is evidence from the studies of an intentionality about deviations from mainstream academic career routes among respondents who could have gone either way. Consideration is therefore given to factors that influence individuals to work in more project-oriented areas, as well as to variables that affect ways in which these roles and identities develop. Finally, three models of academically oriented project activity are identified, and the implications of an expansion of academic identities are reviewed

Convergence and stability theorems for the Picard-Mann hybrid iterative scheme for a general class of contractive-like operators

In this paper we use the general class of contractive-like operators introduced by Bosede and Rhoades (J. Adv. Math. Stud. 3(2):1-3, 2010) to prove strong convergence and stability results for Picard-Mann hybrid iterative schemes considered in a real normed linear space. We establish the strong convergence and stability of the Picard iterative scheme as a corollary. Our results generalize and improve a multitude of results in the literature, including the recent results of Chidume (Fixed Point Theory Appl. 2014:233, 2014)