Material Fatigue Testing System

A system for cyclicly applying a varying load to a material under test is described. It includes a load sensor which senses the magnitude of load being applied to a material, and, upon sensing a selected magnitude of loading, causes the load to be maintained for a predetermined time and then cause the system to resume cyclical loading

Shared memory for a fault-tolerant computer

A system is described for sharing a memory in a fault-tolerant computer. The memory is under the direct control and monitoring of error detecting and error diagnostic units in the fault-tolerant computer. This computer verifies that data to and from the memory is legally encoded and verifies that words read from the memory at a desired address are, in fact, actually delivered from that desired address. The means are provided for a second processor, which is independent of the direct control and monitoring of the error checking and diagnostic units of the fault-tolerant computer, and to share the memory of the fault-tolerant computer. Circuitry is included to verify that: (1) the processor has properly accessed a desired memory location in the memory; (2) a data word read-out from the memory is properly coded; and (3) no inactive memory was erroneously outputting data onto the shared memory bus

In Search of Legitimacy in Post-revolutionary China: Bringing Ideology and Governance Back In

The contemporary politics of China reflect an ongoing effort by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to claim the right to rule in light of the consequences of economic development, international pressures, and historical change. China stands out within the Asian region for the success the regime has achieved in this effort. By focusing on the changes in China’s elite discourse during the reform period and particularly during the last decade, this paper aims to elaborate on the relative importance of various sources of legitimacy as they shift over time, as well as on their inherent dilemmas and limitations. There is evidence of an agile, responsive, and creative party effort to relegitimate the postrevolutionary regime through economic performance, nationalism, ideology, culture, governance, and democracy. At the same time, the paper identifies a clear shift in emphasis from an earlier economic-nationalistic approach to a more ideological-institutional approach.regime legitimacy, China, Chinese Communist Party, performance, nationalism, ideology, culturalism, governance, democracy

The University Immune System: Overcoming Resistance to Change

A university, similar to any other organization, has an immune system that erects a powerful barrier against change.  This article discusses the university immune system and what can be done to counteract its negative effects and thereby allow change to occur

IMAGINING, PRACTICING AND CONTESTING ROAD DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA, 1920S TO 1970S

Roads are ubiquitous yet few understand the historical and political geographies of their development. Politics, scale, and geographical imagination interweave in processes of promoting and building highways. This dissertation explores geographical imaginations of road development in West Virginia during the 1920s to 1970s with a focus on efforts to link the Great Lakes and Florida through southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia. Due to its steep and uneven terrain the region is often viewed as remote and isolated, but it was considered an essential link between the Great Lakes and Florida. This research explores three phases of the region's highway development: the transition between named historic-scenic trails and the numbered U.S. Highway System in the 1920s and 1930s; the development of the highly contested West Virginia Turnpike in the 1950s; and the incorporation of the turnpike into the interstate highway system during the 1960s and 1970s. This research enlivens road development by examining demands for better highways and its contestation. West Virginians have a long history of vying for improved road space. To explore the complexities of road development I utilize a simple framework of materiality, meaning, and practice. The advantage of this trifold approach is that it uncovers imaginations of road development and its contestation at multiple scales ranging from national imaginaries to local road uses. I draw heavily on the concepts of kinaesthetics and rhythm to consider how envisioning and contesting road space were intertwined with popular understandings of driving and riding roads in historically and geographically contingent circumstances. Kinaesthetics, the awareness of one's body in motion, helps us uncover how driving deplorable roads was used as a political tool to encourage improvement. Rhythm is useful for exploring how roads were commodified and practiced

A (Partial) Rehabilitation of Euthyphro

I argue that the character Euthyphro in the dialogue that bears his name has a more sophisticated conception of religion than he is typically regarded to have, even if he cannot articulate it. Through an analysis of Euthyphro’s use of the word ‘pollution’ in the dialogue, I establish that Euthyphro has non-traditional religious views, in contrast with the common interpretation that he represents a typical Athenian view. I then argue that Socrates, too, has religious views, and that the two characters have a surprising amount of common ground in their religious beliefs. Finally, I defend Euthyphro’s character by appealing to his commitment to pollution and cleansing his father

RECONSTRUCTION OF SATELLITE DECRYPTION AND DATA HANDLING PROCESSES

This study examines how to reconstruct a satellite decryption process from source information. It examines how cryptographic algorithms are implemented in software and what software components are required to access data in a useable format. This examination enabled the reverse engineering and reconstruction of the decoding processes utilized by the three PropCubes: Merryweather, Fauna, and Flora. Transmitted data from these PropCubes was analyzed to verify the validity of the developed decryption and data handling Python scripts. A concept of operations for implementing the reconstructed decryption and data handling processes in real-time is discussed in this research.http://archive.org/details/reconstructionof1094562698Lieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Surface Detention on Cropland, Rangeland, and Conservation Reserve Program Areas

One of the factors contributing to overland flow on upland areas is water stored temporarily in a thin sheet on the soil surface as surface detention. This study was conducted to quantify surface detention on selected cropland, rangeland, and Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) sites. Surface detention was determined from the recession portion of runoff hydrographs corresponding with the period when rainfall had ceased but runoff continued. The hydrographs were generated from six previously reported rainfall simulation studies conducted on paired 3.7 m wide 10.7 m long plots on which approximately 128 mm of rainfall was applied. Surface detention values were found to increase as crop residue or vegetative cover increased. Eleven fallow cropland sites in the eastern U.S. had surface detention values that varied from 1.7 to 4.6 mm. Surface detention on plots in southwestern Oklahoma containing Old World bluestem, no-till wheat, and conservation-till wheat was 9.4, 7.3, and 5.2 mm, respectively. No-till sorghum, tilled sorghum, no-till wheat, and tilled wheat plots in southeast Nebraska had surface detention values of 6.7, 4.5, 6.7, and 4.6 mm, respectively. Mean surface detention on no-till and tilled cropland sites in southwest Iowa containing corn residue was 7.2 and 5.9 mm, respectively. CRP study sites in southwestern Iowa had mean surface detention of 10.8 mm. When data from the six field studies were combined, mean surface detention values for fallow cropland, tilled cropland, no-till cropland, rangeland, and CRP areas were 3.1, 5.0, 6.9, 9.6, and 10.8 mm, respectively

Space Cops and Cyber Cowboys: An Institutional Comparison of the Governance of Space Exploration and the Internet

A growing concern for human society is the question of technology, how they are to be used and how can they best be governed. The very question of whether technology is governable remains for the most part unexplored. This work will seek to examine these important questions. By utilizing a historical institutional perspective, two case studies of the governance of technologies that have emerged in the last century will be explored. Space Exploration technologies and the advanced networking of computers known as the Internet will serve as the case to illuminate the question of governing technology. Deep qualitative functional analysis of both the primary and peripheral institutions will provide insight into how technology is governed in theory and in practice, as well as how institutions are created and change over time. By moving beyond questions of governance for states and societies, this work will attempt to contribute to the literature of political science as the study of governance broadly speaking. This work will contribute to and speak to newer works on the governance of non-explicitly political realms, as opposed to more traditional approaches to the study of governance, perhaps allowing new insight and avenues of research into both the question of technology and governance more broadly. Distinct policy prescriptions will be created to both better govern these particular technologies as well as lay the foundation for effective institutional governance of technologies in the future