Flight evaluation of a computer aided low-altitude helicopter flight guidance system

The Flight Systems Development branch of the U.S. Army's Avionics Research and Development Activity (AVRADA) and NASA Ames Research Center developed for flight testing a Computer Aided Low-Altitude Helicopter Flight (CALAHF) guidance system. The system includes a trajectory-generation algorithm which uses dynamic programming and a helmet-mounted display (HMD) presentation of a pathway-in-the-sky, a phantom aircraft, and flight-path vector/predictor guidance symbology. The trajectory-generation algorithm uses knowledge of the global mission requirements, a digital terrain map, aircraft performance capabilities, and precision navigation information to determine a trajectory between mission waypoints that seeks valleys to minimize threat exposure. This system was developed and evaluated through extensive use of piloted simulation and has demonstrated a 'pilot centered' concept of automated and integrated navigation and terrain mission planning flight guidance. This system has shown a significant improvement in pilot situational awareness, and mission effectiveness as well as a decrease in training and proficiency time required for a near terrain, nighttime, adverse weather system

A Study Of Parents\u27 Retrospective Opinions On Kindergarten Enrollment

Should children born during the summer months be enrolled in kindergarten onetime or should they be delayed a year? The purpose of this comparative case study was to formulate recommendations for parents and schools based on parent perspectives who made the enrollment choice, but also have had four to five years to evaluate their decision. The research identifies points of consideration for parents and schools regarding kindergarten enrollment decisions for children born shortly before the enrollment cutoff date. The researcher gathered data from parents who previously made this decision and had the option to enroll their child on-time or delay kindergarten enrollment for a year, creating two subgroups: 4th and 5th graders during the 2013-14 school year. The parents were asked to complete a survey concerning their child\u27s academic, social, and emotional development. The first research question focused on parents\u27 perceptions of their own children\u27s academic, social, and emotional development. The responses indicated little difference in how parents perceived their children\u27s academic, social, and/or emotional development, regardless of enrollment choice. The second research question focused on parents\u27 reflection of their original enrollment decision. Parents of female students remained comfortable with their choices and did not desire to change their initial decision. However, 50% of the parents of males enrolled on-time expressed an interest in changing their decision. In other words, if they could do it over, they would choose to delay the entry of their son into kindergarten by a year. The findings encourage the need for further qualitative research

Damage Detection Using Pattern Classifiers

The research focused on developing and tuning finite element models to train pattern classifiers to detect and locate damage in a real structure. The research was broken into three distinct phases: finite element (FE) model development, FE model tuning, and pattern classifier training and testing. In the finite element development phase, a low order FE model called the baseline model and a high order model called the stiff model were created. In the FE model tuning phase, these FE models were tuned using measured Frequency Response Functions (FRFs), and the results were compared with previous research in which tuning was accomplished using modal data. In the pattern classifier training and testing phase, the tuned models were used to generate FRFs to train various pattern classifiers. Features (or properties) of the FRFs were extracted through an adapted feature extraction process commonly used in speech processing. This new feature set was developed to reduce the amount of data by a factor of 40 while retaining the salient properties that made the changes in the FRFs unique to each damage state. The method was tested on the Flexible Truss Experiment (FTE) at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). The FE models were developed and tuned in the Structural Dynamics Toolbox ™ for MATLAB™. To prove that the different features extracted from 32 damage states were unique, some initial tests were performed in which five classifiers were trained and tested using measured data. These tests resulted in no classification errors. Since the different damage states produced unique feature vectors, the majority of the research effort was spent developing and tuning different FE models that are then used to train five pattern classifiers to detect damage

Marked at Sea: Race, Class, and Tattoo Culture in Melville\u27s Early Sea Fiction

This thesis explores the role of Euromerican maritime tattoos in Herman Melville’s early sea fiction. Through layers of historic and scholarly obfuscation, Euromerican maritime tattoos have been delimited to a marginal role in the cosmopolitan shipboard culture of 19th-century Pacific whaling and trade networks. This project extracts and contextualizes that cultural practice as formative in the creation of sailors’ hybrid embodied identities. With this intervention in mind, Euromerican maritime tattooing emerges as a small but important feature in Melville’s first six books. Probing issues such as race, class, slavery, and colonialism, this project deploys an intimate reading practice, which seeks to engage Melville from within the text. Tattoos serve as a symbol by which he grapples with larger social formations. Through prolonged engagement with marked bodies, Melville unfurls a cast of characters who demonstrate how identity is shaped by the various domineering axes of modernization. He also reveals how a series of interconnected and somewhat autobiographical first-person narrators strive to find embodied alternatives to the violent forms of exploitation alive in the colonial Pacific and interconnected 19th-century global shipping networks. Ultimately, this project seeks to think, feel, and read alongside Melville to gain insight into how he made sense of the world. Through the lens of tattoos in his early sea fiction, Melville reveals the power of interrelation, the human potential to defy subjugation, and charts a path toward new social embodiments. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force, United States Space Force, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government

Acute Myocardial Infarction: Are we overlooking NSTEMI?

• Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. • The purpose of this study was to examine methods of clinical differentiation between ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-STEMI (NSTEMI) and then to compare the various treatment methods and subsequent outcomes in STEMI versus NSTEMI. • A compilation of systematic reviews, medical journals, practice guidelines, medical texts and meta-analyses were researched for the purpose of this study. • NSTEMI patients are older, have more comorbidities and present with more atypical symptoms than STEMI patients. • NSTEMI patients are treated less aggressively than STEMI patients both in-hospital and after discharge. • Based on current practices, NSTEMI mortality and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) rates are higher than in STEMI patients. • Recent coronary angiography (CAG) outcome comparisons generally show similar mortality and hazard ratios and suggest better revascularization in NSTEMI than in STEMI. • Early invasive treatment in NSTEMI has shown more positive results than late invasive treatment and is most effective in intermediate- to high-risk patients.https://commons.und.edu/pas-grad-posters/1143/thumbnail.jp

Plasma Diagnostics by Antenna Impedance Measurements

The impedance of an electrically short antenna immersed in a plasma provides an excellent in situ diagnostic tool for electron density and other plasma parameters. By electrically short we mean that the wavelength of the free-space electromagnetic wave that would be excited at the driving frequency is much longer than the physical size of the antenna. Probes using this impedance technique have had a long history with sounding rockets and satellites, stretching back to the early 1960s. This active technique could provide information on composition and temperature of plasmas for comet or planetary missions. Advantages of the impedance probe technique are discussed and two classes of instruments built and flown by SDL-USU for determining electron density (the capacitance and plasma frequency probes) are described

PROFIT CONSISTENCY AND MANAGEMENT CHARACTERISTICS FOR SUCCESSFUL NORTH DAKOTA FARMS, 1995-2000

Farm profitability varies widely among producers, but the reasons for those differences are not clear as it is generally not known if the same farms are in the higher profit categories every year. Characteristics of the individual producer also vary substantially. Farm size, crop yields, cost of production, debt structure, and land ownership are some of the traits which differ among farms. This study analyzed farm finance data from the North Dakota Farm and Ranch Business Management Program over the years 1996-2000 to determine if the characteristics of profitable farms were different from the characteristics of farms which were not as profitable. A secondary objective was to evaluate if farms remained in similar profit quartiles every year.North Dakota Farm and Ranch Business Management Program, farm characteristics, return on assets, costs, land ownership, debt structure, Farm Management,