Environmental fog/rain visual display system for aircraft simulators

An environmental fog/rain visual display system for aircraft simulators is described. The electronic elements of the system include a real time digital computer, a caligraphic color display which simulates landing lights of selective intensity, and a color television camera for producing a moving color display of the airport runway as depicted on a model terrain board. The mechanical simulation elements of the system include an environmental chamber which can produce natural fog, nonhomogeneous fog, rain and fog combined, or rain only. A pilot looking through the aircraft wind screen will look through the fog and/or rain generated in the environmental chamber onto a viewing screen with the simulated color image of the airport runway thereon, and observe a very real simulation of actual conditions of a runway as it would appear through actual fog and/or rain

Spectrally balanced chromatic landing approach lighting system

Red warning lights delineate the runway approach with additional blue lights juxtaposed with the red lights such that the red lights are chromatically balanced. The red/blue point light sources result in the phenomenon that the red lights appear in front of the blue lights with about one and one-half times the diameter of the blue. To a pilot observing these lights along a glide path, those red lights directly below appear to be nearer than the blue lights. For those lights farther away seen in perspective at oblique angles, the red lights appear to be in a position closer to the pilot and hence appear to be above the corresponding blue lights. This produces a very pronounced three dimensional effect referred to as chromostereopsis which provides valuable visual cues to enable the pilot to perceive his actual position above the ground and the actual distance to the runway

A Quest for Fair and Balanced: The Supreme Court, State Courts, and the Future of Same-Sex Marriage Review after Perry

Gay rights advocates and social conservatives alike have criticized the Supreme Court for its recent decisions concerning sexual orientation. An examination of those decisions reveals that, taken together, they represent a surprisingly careful balance. The result is a principle of neutrality in which the Court has effectively demanded that states refrain from taking either side in the culture war surrounding sexual orientation. The true test of that neutrality principle will arise when the Court considers the constitutionality of a same-sex marriage ban. Thus far, challenges have taken place in state courts under state constitutions; those judges appear to have been guided by their own assumptions and values rather than the Supreme Court\u27s balanced approach. The federal challenge in Perry v. Schwarzenegger may change the legal landscape. The district court ordered a full trial the first court to do so and held, based on the evidence, that the state constitutional amendment violated the U.S. Constitution because it served only to disapprove of gay persons and their relationships. This August 2010 decision provides an excellent application of the Supreme Court\u27s state-neutrality principle and will offer the Court the chance to weigh in on same-sex marriage

Full color hybrid display for aircraft simulators

A full spectrum color monitor, connected to the camera and lens system of a television camera supported by a gantry frame over a terrain model simulating an aircraft landing zone, projects the monitor image onto a lens or screen visually accessible to a trainee in the simulator. A digital computer produces a pattern corresponding to the lights associated with the landing strip onto a monochromatic display, and an optical system projects the calligraphic image onto the same lens so that it is superposed on the video representation of the landing field. The optical system includes a four-color wheel which is rotated between the calligraphic display and the lens, and an apparatus for synchronizing the generation of a calligraphic pattern with the color segments on the color wheel. A servo feedback system responsive to the servo motors on the gantry frame produces an input to the computer so that the calligraphically generated signal corresponds in shape, size and location to the video signal

Virtual-image display system for flight simulators

Dual TV monitor and collimated lens system in windscreens of standard aircraft cockpit simulator permits both pilot and copilot to simultaneously view three dimensional presentation. Proper design of complete system permits depth and viewpoint of visual displays to be accurately presented

Leveling transparency via situated intermediary learning objectives (SILOs)

When designers set out to create a mathematics learning activity, they have a fair sense of its objectives: students will understand a concept and master relevant procedural skills. In reform-oriented activities, students first engage in concrete situations, wherein they achieve situated, intermediary learning objectives (SILOs), and only then they rearticulate their solutions formally. We define SILOs as heuristics learners devise to accommodate contingencies in an evolving problem space, e.g., monitoring and repairing manipulable structures so that they model with fidelity a source situation. Students achieve SILOs through problem-solving with media, instructors orient toward SILOs via discursive solicitation, and designers articulate SILOs via analyzing implementation data. We describe the emergence of three SILOs in developing the activity Giant Steps for Algebra. Whereas the notion of SILOs emerged spontaneously as a framework to organize a system of practice, i.e. our collaborative design, it aligns with phenomenological theory of knowledge as instrumented action

Environmental Philosophy: From Theory to Practice

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

Forest Stand Preference of Sirex Nigricornis, and Sirex Noctilio Hazard in the Southeastern United States

The Eurasian wood wasp, Sirex noctilio, is considered a secondary pest in its native range; however, it has caused significant economic damage when introduced to pine plantations in the Southern Hemisphere. Sirex noctilio was recently introduced to the northeastern U.S., which has raised concerns about its potential impact on Southeastern pine plantations. This research was conducted to understand how silvicultural management affects populations of a native wood wasp, Sirex nigricornis, a wood wasp with similar ecosystem functions as S. noctilio. Sirex nigricornis abundance was higher in un-managed pine plantations than in managed plantations, mixed, and old growth forests. Additionally, geospatial models were built displaying S. noctilio hazard for the Southeastern U.S. based on oviposition host preference assays and historical outbreak information. Sirex noctilio hazard models will inform land managers about areas of greatest concern under various scenarios and should be used to decrease susceptibility of pine forests to this pest

Wavevector/Frequency Spectrum of Turbulent-Boundary-Layer Pressure

Knowledge of the wavevector/frequency spectrum of wall pressure, P(K,ω) [K = (k1,k3)], for a normal turbulent boundary layer has been largely confined to properties depending on the mean-convective ridge (k1=ω/uc). Recent theoretical work yields the wavevector dependence of P(K,ω), for flow at low Mach numbers, also in the acoustic wave number domain where K ≤ ω/c, except for undetermined functions of ωδ/U∞. In the nonconvective but incompressive domain of wavevectors (important in underwater acoustics), apart from the proportionality to K2 where ω/c ≤ K ≤ δ-1, the scaling, dependence and magnitude of P(K,ω) remain to be established. This domain is approached here by theoretical modeling of the velocity-derivative sources of pressure. The expression for the pressure spectrum derived from the pertinent Poisson equation is cast so that source models may be formulated as spectra in frequency and three-component wavevector, and inhomogeneity normal to the wall treated via dependence of source strength, correlation scales, and mean convection velocity on geometric mean wall distance. A model for the frequency dependence is formulated on the notion of fluctuating local convection. Convection of a frozen wave pattern of the turbulent velocity-product field generates a disturbance in this velocity product, and hence in wall pressure, at frequency ω even if the streamwise wavenumber component of the convected pattern is much smaller than the minimum mean convective wavenumber, ω/U∞. Such generation occurs by virtue of wavenumber components normal to the wall on the order of the ratio of frequency to probable normal convection velocities. The effective rms normal convection velocity is argued to be of the order of the local rms normal turbulence velocity. (This local-convection model for pressure differs essentially from one based jointly on assumption of a space-time quasinormal velocity distribution and application of the local-convection model to two-component velocity spectra.) The model yields the source wavevector/frequency spectrum in terms of the pure wavevector spectrum. A wavevector spectrum constructed to accord with Kronauer-Morrison wave structure yields, in the nonconvective domain where ω-uck1/v*K \u3e \u3e 1 (v* = friction velocity) but K δ \u3e \u3e 1: P(K, ω) = a\u27B(k 1/K)o2v*7K(ω-u ck1)-4 for Ω \u3c \u3c 1, where a\u27 is a constant, B(k1/K) an uncertain anisotropy factor, uc a convection velocity, and Ω = 5(ω-uck1)v/v* a viscous-sublayer parameter; for Ω \u3e \u3e 1, an exponential cutoff is predicted. This sharp cutoff is characteristic of the local-convection model with a normal distribution of convection velocity. An alternative source wavevector spectrum yields form (A) with an additional factor v* K(ω-uck1)-1. A recent wind-tunnel measurement is interpreted to provide an upper limit on a\u27 in either case. Application of the model to the mean-convective domain suggests isotropy of the pertinent Kronauer-Morrison wave strength and hence an angular dependence of P(K,ω) as ctcm(k1/K)2 where ct, cm derive respectively from pure-turbulence and mean-shear source terms and ctcm is comparable with or somewhat less than unity