Evaluation of a load cell model for dynamic calibration of the rotor systems research aircraft

The Rotor Systems Research Aircraft uses load cells to isolate the rotor/transmission system from the fuselage. An analytical model of the relationship between applied rotor loads and the resulting load cell measurements is derived by applying a force-and-moment balance to the isolated rotor/transmission system. The model is then used to estimate the applied loads from measured load cell data, as obtained from a ground-based shake test. Using nominal design values for the parameters, the estimation errors, for the case of lateral forcing, were shown to be on the order of the sensor measurement noise in all but the roll axis. An unmodeled external load appears to be the source of the error in this axis

Re-Purposing the Elderly Body

In cross-disciplinary scholarship, an emerging “trash” discourse considers the implications of excessive production and consumption and their inevitable corollary—the sense that all things are disposable. Nature has been reconfigured as a landfill, an artificial landscape of discarded matter. Objects possess a shrinking lifespan, quickly replaced by a newer upgrade. Driven by a need for constant rejuvenation, consumers fetishize the new and dismiss obsolescent products. I wish to posit aging – more specifically, the elderly female body—against the “landscape” of trash in order to engage its vocabulary of entropy and decay as well as to deploy the repurposing of discarded materials as a means to reconceptualize aging. In her film, The Gleaners and I (2001), Agnes Varda interposes her body between the spectator and her consideration of different forms of gleaning in France. Our awareness of her mediation recasts the symbiosis of women and nature in terms of aging. The organic matter recovered by gleaners functions metaphorically to “repurpose” Varda’s aging perspectives and continuing immersion in and engagement with her environment and intersecting communities. While Varda’s documentary is concerned with organic waste, inorganic landfill—particularly “old” technologies—also informs perceptions of youth, age, and life cycles

An introduction to spacecraft thermal control

External and internal passive and active methods for spacecraft thermal control - material insulation and structural propertie

Deception in finitely repeated security games

Allocating resources to defend targets from attack is often complicated by uncertainty about the attacker’s capabilities, objectives, or other underlying characteristics. In a repeated interaction setting, the defender can collect attack data over time to reduce this uncertainty and learn an effective defense. However, a clever attacker can manipulate the attack data to mislead the defender, influencing the learning process toward its own benefit. We investigate strategic deception on the part of an attacker with private type information, who interacts repeatedly with a defender. We present a detailed computation and analysis of both players’ optimal strategies given the attacker may play deceptively. Computational experiments illuminate conditions conducive to strategic deception, and quantify benefits to the attacker. By taking into account the attacker’s deception capacity, the defender can significantly mitigate loss from misleading attack actions

Reducing instruction fetch energy with backwards branch control information and buffering

Many emerging applications, e.g. in the embedded and DSP space, are often characterized by their loopy nature where a substantial part of the execution time is spent within a few program phases. Loop buffering techniques have been proposed for capturing and processing these loops in small buffers to reduce the processor‘s instruction fetch energy. However, these schemes are limited to straight-line or inner-most loops and fail to adequately handle complex loops. In this paper, we propose a dynamic loop buffering mech-anism that uses backwards branch control information to identify, capture and process complex loop structures. The DLB controller has been fully implemented in VHDL, syn-thesized and timed with the IBM Booledozer and Einstimer Synthesis tools, and analyzed for power with the Sequence PowerTheater tool. Our experiments show that the DLB approach, on average, results in a factor of 3 reduction in energy consumption compared to a traditional instruction memory design at an area overhead of about 9%

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PYRUVATE DEHYDROGENASE COMPLEX AS A CENTRAL REGULATOR OF MITOCHONDRIAL REDOX WITHIN SKELETAL MUSCLE

Once regarded as "byproducts" of aerobic metabolism, the production of superoxide/Hâ‚‚Oâ‚‚ is now understood to be a highly specialized and extensively regulated process responsible for exerting control over a vast number of thiol-containing proteins, collectively referred to as the redox-sensitive proteome. Although disruptions within this process, secondary to elevated peroxide exposure, have been linked to disease, delineation of the sources and mechanisms regulating this increased peroxide burden remain poorly defined and as such difficult to target using pharmacotherapy. Herein we demonstrate a role for pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) as a key source of Hâ‚‚Oâ‚‚ under physiological constraints in which respiratory chain-dependent electron leak is negligible. PDH is shown to generate Hâ‚‚Oâ‚‚ as a function of glutathione content, matrix metabolic balance, as well as antioxidant reductase activity. With respect to the latter, manipulation of matrix redox buffering reveals a novel mechanism whereby Hâ‚‚Oâ‚‚ producing NADH-linked dehydrogenases, such as PDH, are functionally linked to the redox buffering network within skeletal muscle through the activity of nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase (NNT). These findings highlight the importance of NNT and the entire redox buffering system in regulating cytosolic peroxide emission and suggest a novel and pivotal role for PDH as a redox-sensitive reporter of matrix redox buffering integrity and nutrient status.Ph.D

Does \u2018bigger\u2019mean \u2018better\u2019? Pitfalls and shortcuts associated with big data for social research

\u2018Big data is here to stay.\u2019 This key statement has a double value: is an assumption as well as the reason why a theoretical reflection is needed. Furthermore, Big data is something that is gaining visibility and success in social sciences even, overcoming the division between humanities and computer sciences. In this contribution some considerations on the presence and the certain persistence of Big data as a socio-technical assemblage will be outlined. Therefore, the intriguing opportunities for social research linked to such interaction between practices and technological development will be developed. However, despite a promissory rhetoric, fostered by several scholars since the birth of Big data as a labelled concept, some risks are just around the corner. The claims for the methodological power of bigger and bigger datasets, as well as increasing speed in analysis and data collection, are creating a real hype in social research. Peculiar attention is needed in order to avoid some pitfalls. These risks will be analysed for what concerns the validity of the research results \u2018obtained through Big data. After a pars distruens, this contribution will conclude with a pars construens; assuming the previous critiques, a mixed methods research design approach will be described as a general proposal with the objective of stimulating a debate on the integration of Big data in complex research projecting