Queer Theory or Queer Choice of Identification?

The definition and nomenclature used in queer theory have become distorted from their initial meanings and intents

The Effect of Interpersonal Relationships on the Body Image of First Year, Women of Color Studying at Predominately White Undergraduate Institutions

The Effect of Interpersonal Relationships on the Body Image of First Year, Women of Color Studying at Predominately White Undergraduate Institutions by Lauren Kross, a 2014 graduate student in the Gender and Women\u27s Studies Department at Minnesota State University Mankato, focuses on how relationships and peer groups positively or negatively impact the body image of first year women of color studying at Minnesota State University Mankato, a predominately white undergraduate institution. The first year of college is a time that students experience many changes in their environment, academics, interests, and identity development. Their previously formed and newly formed relationships play a big role in their identity development. Building on the work of student development scholars who suggest that women\u27s relationships aid in identity development and, therefore, influence the actions and feelings of that individual, my research finds that the participants are more likely to have a positive body image if their peer groups and friends feel positively about their body image. In addition, the women who expressed having a positive body image also explained that they defend their body and their choices confidently in negative interactions or when receiving negative comments. This differs from other research suggesting that women of color attending predominately white undergraduate institutions develop coping mechanisms for dealing with racial tension and campus environment rather than resolving the conflict. The women in my research responded to negative interactions with peers using conflict resolution. However, the majority of the participants did not have negative interactions with peers of different races while attending school so far. I was surprised that only two participants expressed having any type of negative interaction with a peer since coming to college. I think that this was due to the fact that many participants attended predominately white high schools and came from predominately white local areas

The aerodynamic challenges of SRB recovery

Recovery and reuse of the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters was baselined to support the primary goal to develop a low cost space transportation system. The recovery system required for the 170,000-lb boosters was for the largest and heaviest object yet to be retrieved from exoatmospheric conditions. State-of-the-art design procedures were ground-ruled and development testing minimized to produce both a reliable and cost effective system. The ability to utilize the inherent drag of the boosters during the initial phase of reentry was a key factor in minimizing the parachute loads, size and weight. A wind tunnel test program was devised to enable the accurate prediction of booster aerodynamic characteristics. Concurrently, wind tunnel, rocket sled and air drop tests were performed to develop and verify the performance of the parachute decelerator subsystem. Aerodynamic problems encountered during the overall recovery system development and the respective solutions are emphasized

The Conservation and Population Ecology of the Imperiled Crawfish Frog (Lithobates areolatus) in Human-altered Landscapes

The Crawfish Frog (Lithobates areolatus) is an imperiled amphibian currently experiencing severe declines across its range. As a species with unique habitat requirements that is threatened by habitat loss, understanding their status across the landscape and how they respond to environmental stressors is key to developing effective conservation strategies that maintain and expand viable populations. We used a combination of observational, experimental, and theoretical approaches to understand the status of Crawfish Frog populations in Northwest Arkansas (NWA), their individual and population-level response to human-induced changes in vegetation surrounding breeding wetlands, and the effects of fire management on larval development within breeding wetlands. Specifically, in Chapter 1, we performed a landscape-level assessment of Crawfish Frog status at 81 sites across NWA. Crawfish Frog occupancy was relatively low (~26%), but occupancy probability increased strongly with density of prairie mounds, a proxy for habitat quality, and modestly with prevalence of clay/gravelly silt loam soils. In Chapters 2 and 3, we performed a series of mesocosm experiments to investigate how vegetation (Native Prairie or Non-Native Tall-Fescue Grass) surrounding wetlands interacted with timing of oviposition and density-dependence to affect larval amphibian development. We found that Fescue-dominated wetlands might act as ecological traps resulting in complete reproductive failure of breeding Crawfish Frogs within a season, due to higher microbial respiration. Demographic population revealed that populations breeding in Fescue-dominated wetlands had a more variable population size and had a 100-500% higher probability of quasi-extinction within 200 years, compared to populations breeding in prairie-dominated wetlands. Finally, we performed an experiment to measure the effect of ash-deposition and reduced vegetation due to fire on larval Crawfish Frog development. Our results suggested that the quantity of ash used in our experiment had negligible effects on the development of aquatic amphibian larvae, but reduction of vegetation biomass by fire results in lower survival and biomass production if burning occurs during the dormant season, prior to wetlands filling. Collectively, our results indicate that Crawfish Frogs need high quality natural prairie habitat for population persistence and although relict populations exist in agricultural landscapes, these are poor replacements for natural grasslands

A Method for Evaluating Aircraft Electric Power System Sizing and Failure Resiliency

With the More Electric Aircraft paradigm, commercial commuter aircraft are increasing the size and complexity of electrical power systems by increasing the number of electrical loads. With this increase in complexity comes a need to analyze electrical power systems using new tools. The Hybrid Power System Optimizer (HyPSO) developed by Airbus SAS is a simulator designed to analyze new aircraft power systems. This thesis project will first provide a method to assess the reliability of complex aircraft electrical power systems before and after failure and reconfiguration events. Next, an add-on to HyPSO is developed to integrate the previously developed reliability calculations. Proof-of-concepts including new data visualizations are performed and provided