Lessons from the Pandemic: Congress Must Act to Mandate Digital Accessibility for the Disabled Community

The upheaval and disruption created by the COVID-19 pandemic has left some of our most vulnerable, the disabled community, facing increased discrimination and hardship due in part to lack of access to websites and other digital technologies. The pandemic has laid bare the extent of our dependence on technology and the perils faced by those who are unable to access that technology. This Article identifies the regulatory, judicial, and legislative failures to resolve the issue of whether digital technologies are “places of public accommodation” under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It then calls on Congress to enact a new title to the ADA which clearly mandates the removal of barriers to website accessibility, while taking into account the impact on businesses and other entities that may be subject to accessibility requirements

Cloud To Cloud Registration For 3d Point Data

The vast potential of digital representation of objects by large collections of 3D points is being recognized on a global scale and has given rise to the popularity of point cloud data (PCD). 3D imaging sensors provide a means for quickly capturing dense and accurate geospatial information that represent the 3D geometry of objects in a digital environment. Due to spatial and temporal constraints, it is quite common that two or more sets of PCD are obtained to provide full 3D analysis. It is therefore quite essential that all the PCD are referenced to a homogeneous coordinate frame of reference. This homogeneity in coordinates is achieved through a point cloud registration task and it involves determining a set of transformation parameters and applying those parameters to transform one dataset into another reference frame or to a global reference frame. The registration task typically involves the use of targets or other geometric features that are recognizable in the different sets of PCD. The recognition of these features usually involves the use of imagery, either intensity images or true-color images or both. In this dissertation, cloud-to-cloud registration, which is also called surface matching or surface registration is investigated as an alternative registration method, which has potential for improved automation and accuracy. The challenge in cloud-to-cloud registration lies in the fact that PCD are usually unstructured and possess little semantics. Two novel techniques were developed in this dissertation, one for the pairwise registration of PCD and the other for the global registration of PCD. The developed algorithms were evaluated by comparing with popular approaches and improvements in registration accuracy up to four fold were obtained. The improvement obtained may be attributed to some of the novel considerations introduced in this dissertation. The main novel idea is the simultaneous consideration of the stochastic properties of a pair of scans via the symmetric correspondence

The Benefits and Risks Associated with Use of the Wind Tunnel in Safe Separation Flight Test

Flight test demonstrating safe separation of stores from aircraft has gained greater importance since World War II. With the expansion of aircraft flight envelopes, the impact of the aircraft flow field on store separation has also expanded. At best the store fell away from the aircraft; at worst it could tumble or hit the aircraft causing significant structural damage. Early safe separation flight test programs took a simple approach, starting slow and in straight and level flight and then in small increments, building up to supersonic straight path dives. Unfortunately, this approach required a great deal of stores as well as numerous flights. As the cost of operating test aircraft and weapons has increased, this approach has become increasingly expensive. Wind tunnels have been used with great success since the dawn of aviation as a tool to engineer new concepts in aerodynamics. Once only the domain for flow visualization of airfoils, they have matured into a system that can test high angles of attack at full scale to small scale hypersonic flow. From this growth has emerged the capability to model the flow field around an aircraft and predict the separation characteristics of weapons from the aircraft. By using the wind tunnel to find the worst-case separation characteristics, flight test engineers could reduce the build up necessary and the number of flights required. This was seemingly the answer to the need of program managers as the way to reduce risk and cost. This thesis examined the results of two modern safe separation programs, the Mk-82 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and the GBU-24B/B Low Level Laser Guided Bomb, for the technical and cost impact of the wind tunnel. This examination has shown that the realities of flight test and the limitations of wind tunnel predictions have combined to reduce the wind tunnel effectiveness in providing a cost savings to safe separation programs. For the JDAM, the wind tunnel was able to significantly reduce the number of flights required to demonstrate safe separation, but weapon umbilical failures required more flights to be added back into the program. The GBU-24B/B on the U.S. Navy’s new Super Hornet aircraft is in jeopardy of failing to meet fleet operational requirements as a result of waiting for wind tunnel data. In contrast, the GBU-24B/B program conducted on the older Hornet was completed without the wind tunnel in significantly less time and cost. Program managers and engineers must weigh the benefits of having wind tunnel data with the risks that come with the wind tunnel. In some cases, the wind tunnel may come at a higher a price and require more time than a conventional flight test program without wind tunnel predictions

Local Strain Measurement of Kevlar Strand with Fiber Optic Bragg Grating

1987 DuPont manufactured 4560 denier Kevlar/Epoxy Strands were instrumented with nine and three sensors each. Stress tests were performed at 30,45,60,70 and 80% of ultimate strength with dwell times of 10,000 seconds. FBG showed uneven stress levels which is contrary to conventional observation

Strain Measurement during Stress Rupture of Composite Over-Wrapped Pressure Vessel with Fiber Bragg Gratings Sensors

Fiber optic Bragg gratings were used to measure strain fields during Stress Rupture (SSM) test of Kevlar Composite Over-Wrapped Pressure Vessels (COPV). The sensors were embedded under the over-wrapped attached to the liner released from the Kevlar and attached to the Kevlar released from the liner. Additional sensors (foil gages and fiber bragg gratings) were surface mounted on the COPY liner

Evidence for Selective Caching by Arctic Ground Squirrels Living in Alpine Meadows in the Yukon

Male arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii) rely on food they cached the previous year for the energy they need to compete for mates each spring. We collected cheek-pouch contents of arctic ground squirrels trapped during three summers (2000–02) as an indication of what squirrels cached. Among adults, both males and females carried material in their cheek pouches, but males did so more frequently than females (4.4% vs. 0.6% of captures). Males carried material later in the summer than females, and also carried different material (seeds and rhizomes as opposed to nesting material). These differences probably reflect different purposes of cheek-pouch contents—females carried material for immediate use, whereas males carried food for caching. Only 24 of over 100 species of vascular plants growing at our alpine study site were carried, and presumably cached, by male arctic ground squirrels. The seeds or rhizomes of one species, Polygonum viviparum, were found in over 90% of cheek-pouch contents examined, even though that species grew at relatively low density and was no more common than another species in the same genus (Polygonum bistorta) that was never found in cheek-pouch contents. Collectively, this evidence indicates that males are highly selective in what species they cache. Many of the species carried by arctic ground squirrels in this study have also been found in Pleistocene fossil caches from central Yukon, indicating that food preferences of this species may have remained stable over time.Les spermophiles arctiques mâles (Spermophilus parryii) dépendent de la nourriture qu’ils ont cachée l’année précédente pour obtenir l’énergie dont ils ont besoin pour se trouver une compagne d’accouplement au printemps. On a recueilli le contenu des abajoues de spermophiles arctiques capturés pendant trois étés (de 2000 à 2002) pour obtenir un aperçu de ce qu’ils emmagasinaient. Les spermophiles adultes, tant mâles que femelles, transportaient des matériaux dans leurs abajoues, mais c’était plus souvent le cas chez les mâles que chez les femelles (4,4 % par rapport à 0,6 % des spermophiles capturés). Les mâles transportaient des matériaux plus tard pendant l’été que les femelles, sans compter que ces matériaux étaient différents (des graines et des rhizomes par opposition à des matériaux destinés à la nidification). Ces différences sont probablement le reflet de la raison d’être différente du contenu des abajoues — les femelles transportaient des matériaux dont elles allaient se servir immédiatement, tandis que les mâles transportaient des aliments qu’ils allaient mettre en réserve. Sur la centaine d’espèces de plantes vasculaires poussant au site alpin que nous avons étudié, seulement 24 d’entre elles étaient présentes. Ces plantes avaient probablement été mises en réserve par les spermophiles arctiques mâles. Les graines ou les rhizomes d’une espèce, soit le Polygonum viviparum, ont été trouvés dans plus de 90 % du contenu des abajoues examiné, même si ces espèces poussaient selon des densités relativement faibles et qu’elles n’étaient pas plus courantes qu’une autre espèce du même genre (Polygonum bistorta) qui ne se retrouvait jamais dans le contenu des abajoues. Dans l’ensemble, cela indique que les mâles font preuve d’une grande sélectivité quant aux espèces qu’ils mettent en réserve. Grand nombre des espèces transportées par les spermophiles arctiques visés par cette étude ont également été retrouvées dans les caches fossiles du Pléistocène du centre du Yukon, ce qui laisse croire que les préférences alimentaires de cette espèce n’ont guère changé au fil du temps

The integration of advanced photonics and MEMS : LDRD 26519 final report.

In this work we have demonstrated the fabrication of two different classes of devices which demonstrate the integration of simple MEMS structures with photonics structures. In the first class of device a suspended, movable Si waveguide was designed and fabricated. This waveguide was designed to be able to be actuated so that it could be brought into close proximity to a ring resonator or similar structure. In the course of this work we also designed a technique to improve the input coupling to the waveguide. While these structures were successfully fabricated, post fabrication and testing involved a significant amount of manipulation of the devices and due to their relatively flimsy nature our structures could not readily survive this extra handling. As a result we redesigned our devices so that instead of moving the waveguides themselves we moved a much smaller optical element into close proximity to the waveguides. Using this approach it was also possible to fabricate a much larger array of actively switched photonic devices: switches, ring resonators, couplers (which act as switches or splitters) and attenuators. We successfully fabricated all these structures and were able to successfully demonstrate splitters, switches and attenuators. The quality of the SiN waveguides fabricated in this work were found to be qualitatively compatible to those made using semiconductor materials

Polyphosphate Storage during Sporulation in the Gram-Negative Bacterium Acetonema longum

Using electron cryotomography, we show that the Gram-negative sporulating bacterium Acetonema longum synthesizes high-density storage granules at the leading edges of engulfing membranes. The granules appear in the prespore and increase in size and number as engulfment proceeds. Typically, a cluster of 8 to 12 storage granules closely associates with the inner spore membrane and ultimately accounts for ∼7% of the total volume in mature spores. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analyses show that the granules contain high levels of phosphorus, oxygen, and magnesium and therefore are likely composed of polyphosphate (poly-P). Unlike the Gram-positive Bacilli and Clostridia, A. longum spores retain their outer spore membrane upon germination. To explore the possibility that the granules in A. longum may be involved in this unique process, we imaged purified Bacillus cereus, Bacillus thuringiensis, Bacillus subtilis, and Clostridium sporogenes spores. Even though B. cereus and B. thuringiensis contain the ppk and ppx genes, none of the spores from Gram-positive bacteria had granules. We speculate that poly-P in A. longum may provide either the energy or phosphate metabolites needed for outgrowth while retaining an outer membrane