SPEED AND RESOLUTION IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGICAL REPRODUCIBILITY

The rate of acceleration of the biologic and synthetic world has for a while now, been in the process of exponentially speeding up, maxing out servers and landfills, merging with each other, destroying each other. The last prehistoric relics on Earth are absorbing the same oxygen, carbon dioxide and electronic waves in our biosphere as us. A degraded .jpeg enlarged to full screen on a Samsung 4K UHD HU8550 Series Smart TV - 85” Class (84.5” diag.). Within this composite ecology, the ancient limestone of the grand canyon competes with the iMax movie of itself, the production of Mac pros, a YouTube clip from Jurassic park, and the super bowl halftime show. A search engines assistance with biographic memory helps our bodies survive new atmospheres and weigh the gravities that exist around the versions of an objects materiality. Communication has moved from our vocal chords, to swipes and taps of our thumbs on a screen that predicts the weather, accesses the hidden, invisible, and withdrawn information from the objects around us, and still ducks up what we are trying to say. This txt was written on a tablet returned to stock settings and embedded with content to mine the experience in which mediated technology creates, communicates and obscures new forms of language. Life in a new event horizon — a dimensional dualism that finds us competing for genetic and mimetic survival — we are now functioning as different types of humans

Implementing the Use of Intracuff Alkalinized Lidocaine among Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists: A Practice Change Proposal

Patients today are experiencing comorbidities predisposing them to increased risk under general anesthesia. Emergence cough reflex is a response that can lead to hemodynamic alterations occurring during emergence and the postoperative period for many patients requiring general endotracheal tube anesthesia (GETA). It is proposed that 38% to 96% of patients receiving GETA will experience coughing during emergence (As, Iqbal, & Ali, 2009; Watkins, Lee, White Jr, & Mundy, 2012). The use of intracuff alkalinized lidocaine is an intervention shown to be effective in previous studies at blunting this response during anesthesia emergence. Through verbal communication with CRNAs, it was discovered that the use of intracuff alkalinized lidocaine was not currently being used at a facility in Southeastern Mississippi. An evidence-based poster presentation and brochure was prepared using the most recent studies utilizing intracuff alkalinized lidocaine and was presented to the CRNAs at this facility. 18 CRNAs participated in the baseline survey, evidence-based poster presentation, and received a brochure which illustrated the recent research findings on the use of intracuff alkalinized lidocaine. Two weeks after the presentation, 12 CRNAs participated in the follow-up survey. The follow-up surveys demonstrated the percentage use of intracuff alkalinized lidocaine was increased from 0% to 33% among CRNAs participating in this project. A total of four CRNAs implemented the intervention, reported 11 total cuff inflations in which 82% effectively inhibited the emergence cough reflex. The CRNAs reported that the main barrier to use intracuff alkalinized lidocaine was no recent patient interaction where it would be beneficial to the patients. Through individually presenting CRNAs with the evidence of intracuff alkalinized lidocaine’s effectiveness, the goal of this project was to increase the utilization of intracuff alkalinized lidocaine by CRNAs to prevent emergence cough reflex

A new class of neural architectures to model episodic memory : computational studies of distal reward learning

A computational cognitive neuroscience model is proposed, which models episodic memory based on the mammalian brain. A computational neural architecture instantiates the proposed model and is tested on a particular task of distal reward learning. Categorical Neural Semantic Theory informs the architecture design. To experiment upon the computational brain model, embodiment and an environment in which the embodiment exists are simulated. This simulated environment realizes the Morris Water Maze task, a well established biological experimental test of distal reward learning. The embodied neural architecture is treated as a virtual rat and the environment it acts in as a virtual water tank. Performance levels of the neural architectures are evaluated through analysis of embodied behavior in the distal reward learning task. Comparison is made to biological rat experimental data, as well as comparison to other published models. In addition, differences in performance are compared between the normal and categorically informed versions of the architecture

VALLEY GLACIER RESPONSE TO LATE HOLOCENE CLIMATE CHANGE: THE ROLE OF GLACIER GEOMETRY AND FOREFIELD CHARACTERISTICS IN INFLUENCING THE MAGNITUDE OF ADVANCES

Tree-ring dates show that valley glaciers in coastal south-central Alaska have made multiple advances during the late Holocene. While the timing of these advances has generally been synchronous throughout the region, termini have differed in the distances they reached down-valley. As a result, dates of outermost Holocene moraines range in age from C.E. 1710s to early 1900s, and the regionally prominent 1870s-1900s moraine varies from being a terminal moraine to a recessional moraine at different forefields. Because adjacent termini often show these differences in outermost moraine age, it seems unlikely that this variability is due to regional variability in the magnitude of the climatic forcing. Rather, we hypothesize that localized glacier-specific effects have filtered the climatic forcing to cause some glaciers to advance farther than others in response to the same climate changes. In this study we test this hypothesis using a dataset of 36 glaciers in coastal south-central Alaska for which previous work has provided dates of terminal moraines. Glacier boundaries for the mid 20th century were delineated from U.S.G.S. topographic maps in ArcGIS 10.2 and used to clip digital elevation models for each glacier. These were then used to determine glacier areas, high and low elevations, hypsometries, flow lengths, and slopes. Correlation of these variables with outermost moraine dates found a significant relationship for slope at the 95% confidence level, with steeper glaciers having generally older outermost moraines; other geometric factors did not show significant relationships. This result is consistent with other studies that have found steeper glaciers to be different to less steep glaciers in their response to 20th century climate change. Ongoing work is examining the possible roles of forefield geometry, geology, and geomorphology in influencing the magnitude of late Holocene advances

Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detection: A Method to Quantify Total Measurement Uncertainty

In applications where leak rates of components or systems are evaluated against a leak rate requirement, the uncertainty of the measured leak rate must be included in the reported result. However, in the helium mass spectrometer leak detection method, the sensitivity, or resolution, of the instrument is often the only component of the total measurement uncertainty noted when reporting results. To address this shortfall, a measurement uncertainty analysis method was developed that includes the leak detector unit's resolution, repeatability, hysteresis, and drift, along with the uncertainty associated with the calibration standard. In a step-wise process, the method identifies the bias and precision components of the calibration standard, the measurement correction factor (K-factor), and the leak detector unit. Together these individual contributions to error are combined and the total measurement uncertainty is determined using the root-sum-square method. It was found that the precision component contributes more to the total uncertainty than the bias component, but the bias component is not insignificant. For helium mass spectrometer leak rate tests where unit sensitivity alone is not enough, a thorough evaluation of the measurement uncertainty such as the one presented herein should be performed and reported along with the leak rate value

Analyzing Psychology Students\u27 Understanding of Their Worth in The Modern Workplace

An average degree in psychology incorporates understanding of social constructs, behaviorism, individual motivations, empirical research designs, levels of statistical analysis, and a deeper understanding of problem-solving. Yet, even with the various skills psychology students gain in their training, they are chronically unemployed in the workforce. One possible reason psychology graduates are continually underemployed is that they do not understand how their learned skill sets translate into the workplace. The proposed study aims to address this gap by developing a survey to assess psychology students’ understanding of the knowledge and critical skill sets they gain in their degree program and their understanding of the practical, transferable implementations of these sought-after workplace skills. The outcomes of the proposed study will deepen the understanding of what undergraduate psychology students know and understand about the application of what they have learned through their education. This knowledge can then be used to design interventions or trainings that will assist students in articulating what they have learned in their training to the job market and future careers

Raspberry Pi Sensor Array

The Raspberry Pi is a fully operational, credit card sized computer that costs $40. When a monitor and keyboard are connected, it can perform any task that a desktop computer can accomplish. The Raspberry Pi uses Linux based operating systems which can be easy to use and learn. Integrating the Pi into projects is made easy by connecting specific hardware components and programming them with the Python computer language. Python is widely used by many companies including Google and Reddit. The Pi is faster and more user-friendly than similar boards such as Arduino. Additionally, there are online support forums from Pi customers and support teams. In the summer of 2017, we were able to outfit the Pi to operate an air quality sensor array

High Temperature Evaluation of an Active Clearance Control System Concept

A mechanically actuated blade tip clearance control concept was evaluated in a nonrotating test rig to quantify secondary seal leakage at elevated temperatures. These tests were conducted to further investigate the feasibility of actively controlling the clearance between the rotor blade tips and the surrounding shroud seal in the high pressure turbine (HPT) section of a turbine engine. The test environment simulates the state of the back side of the HPT shroud seal with pressure differentials as high as 120 psig and temperatures up to 1000 F. As expected, static secondary seal leakage decreased with increasing temperature. At 1000 F, the test rig's calculated effective clearance (at 120 psig test pressure) was 0.0003 in., well within the industry specified effective clearance goal

Further Characterization of an Active Clearance Control Concept

A new test chamber and precision hydraulic actuation system were incorporated into an active clearance control (ACC) test rig at NASA Glenn Research Center. Using the improved system, a fast-acting, mechanically-actuated, ACC concept was evaluated at engine simulated temperatures and pressure differentials up to 1140 F and 120 psig, on the basis of secondary seal leakage and kinematic controllability. During testing, the ACC concept tracked a simulated flight clearance transient profile at 1140 F, 120 psig, with a maximum error of only 0.0012 in. Comparison of average dynamic leakage of the system with average static leakage did not show significant differences between the two operating conditions. Calculated effective clearance values for the rig were approximately 0.0002 in. at 120 psig, well below the industry specified effective clearance threshold of 0.001 in

Noncontacting Laser Inspection System for Dimensional Profiling of Space Application Thermal Barriers

A noncontacting, two-dimensional (2-D) laser inspection system has been designed and implemented to dimensionally profile thermal barriers being developed for space vehicle applications. In a vehicle as-installed state, thermal barriers are commonly compressed between load sensitive thermal protection system (TPS) panels to prevent hot gas ingestion through the panel interface during flight. Loads required to compress the thermal barriers are functions of their construction, as well as their dimensional characteristics relative to the gaps in which they are installed. Excessive loads during a mission could damage surrounding TPS panels and have catastrophic consequences. As such, accurate dimensional profiling of thermal barriers prior to use is important. Due to the compliant nature of the thermal barriers, traditional contact measurement techniques (e.g., calipers and micrometers) are subjective and introduce significant error and variability into collected dimensional data. Implementation of a laser inspection system significantly enhanced the method by which thermal barriers are dimensionally profiled, and improved the accuracy and repeatability of collected data. A statistical design of experiments study comparing laser inspection and manual caliper measurement techniques verified these findings