Reach performance while wearing the Space Shuttle launch and entry suit during exposure to launch accelerations

Crewmen aboard the Space Shuttle are subjected to accelerations during ascent (the powered flight phase of launch) which range up to +3 G(sub x). Despite having 33 missions and nine years experience, not to mention all the time spent in development prior to the first flight, no truly quantitative reach study wearing actual crew equipment, using actual Shuttle seats and restraints has ever been done. What little information exists on reach performance while under acceleration has been derived primarily from subjective comments gathered retrospectively from Shuttle flight crews during their post mission debrief. This lack of reach performance data has resulted in uncertainty regarding emergency procedures that can realistically be performed during and actual Shuttle ascent versus what is practiced in the ground-fixed and motion-based Shuttle Simulators. With the introduction on STS-26 of the current Shuttle escape system, the question of reach performance under launch accelerations was once again raised. The escape system's requirement that each crewman wear a Launch/Entry Suit (LES), parachute harness, and parachute were all anticipated to contribute to a further degradation of reach performance during Shuttle ascent accelerations. In order to answer the reach performance question in a quantitative way, a photogrammetric method was chosen so that the actual reach values and associated envelopes could be captured. This would allow quantitative assessment of potential task performance impact and identify areas where changes to our Shuttle ascent emergency procedures might be required. Also, such a set of reach values would be valid for any similar acceleration profile using the same crew equipment. Potential Space Station applications of this data include predicting reach performance during Assured Crew Return Vehicle (ACRV) operations

Effectiveness of Buffalograss Filter Strips in Removing Dissolved Metolachlor and Metolachlor Metabolites from Surface Runoff

The Texas Water Resources Institute awarded Jason Krutz a $1,000 Mills Scholarship in 2002. Jason was one of 17 students to receive these grants. As part of his graduate studies, Jason is involved in research to examine whether buffalo grass filter strips are effective at removing atrazine and related metabolites from rainfall runoff. The research will include field studies in Temple, TX

Zero-Crossing Transformations and Their Effect Upon Speech Intelligibility

This thesis presents the results of three experiments which involve the transformation of zero-crossings. The first experiment entails the reordering, reversing and averaging of the zero-crossing intervals of differentiated speech. The second experiment involves the same three transformations, but the speech has now been band pass filtered prior to processing. The final experiment alters the zero-crossings by varying the sampling rate that is used to determine them. The results presented in this thesis do not support the use of zero-crossing analysis in speech processing systems. Reordering, reversing and averaging substantially decrease the intelligibility of the speech processed. The results from experiments involving these transformations suggest that zero-crossing locations play a significant role in determining the intelligibility of speech. This thesis also presents the results from an experiment which studied the effects of different methods for determining zero-crossings in combination with varying sampling rates. A roundoff method was found to be substantially better over a large frequency range than was the truncation method used in previous research

Prototype of non-destructive fruit sweetness sensor

A model LL-4 magnetic resonance low level unit designed to operate at 5.35 MHz was used to perform proton magnetic resonance ({sup 1}H-MR) tests on sugar solutions. The magnet console was designed and built by Agricultural Engineering Department personnel. The homogeneity of the magnetic field is critical to achievement of a good signal and to good performance of the device. Measurements of magnetic field strength along the major axes of the air gap are reported. Test tubes were filled with sugar solutions and placed in the air gap between the permanent magnets in the magnet console. Sugar solutions containing 0% to 30% sucrose were interrogated using, the Hahn spin echo pulse sequence. The amplitude of the echo peak was well correlated with percent sugar content in solutions