Design, Construction, Calibration and Applications of an Apparatus Which Conducts the Large Missle Impact Test

Prior to Hurricane Andrew (August 1992), the South Florida Building Code maintained provisions for the design of building openings based on wind pressure only. Hurricane Andrew provided evidence of other failure modes, including windborne debris and internal pressure. Following the hurricane, several changes were made to building codes in South Florida. One addition requires building openings to resist windborne debris. A missile impact test incorporated into recently accepted Dade and Broward Counties editions of the South Florida Building Code states a window, door, or external protection device shall resist a prescribed number of impacts from a nine pound 2x4 timber accelerated to 50 ft/sec. The design, construction and calibration of an apparatus to conduct this test, as well as its current applications are presented in this report

The Civil War On The Mississippi: Union Sailors, Gunboat Captains, And The Campaign To Control The River

The Union Navy\u27s Campaign to Control the Mississippi River Although it has received less attention than the major land battles of the Civil War, the Union campaign to control the Mississippi River is well known and recognized as having played an important role in the Union\u27s victory over the Conf...

Unfair\u27\u27 Restaurant Reviews:To Sue Or Not To Sue

In their discussion entitled - “Unfair” Restaurant Reviews: To Sue Or Not To Sue - by John Schroeder and Bruce Lazarus, Assistant Professors, Department of Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management at Purdue University, the authors initially state: “Both advantages and disadvantages exist on bringing lawsuits against restaurant critics who write “unfair” reviews. The authors, both of whom have experience with restaurant criticism, offer practical advice on what realistically can be done by the restaurateur outside of the courtroom to combat unfair criticism.” Well, this is going to be a sticky wicket no matter how you try to defend it, reviews being what they are; very subjective pieces of opinionated journalism, especially in the food industry. And, of course, unless you can prove malicious intent there really is no a basis for a libel suit. So, a restaurateur is at the mercy of written opinion and the press. “Libel is the written or published form of slander which is the statement of false remarks that may damage the reputation of others. It also includes any false and malicious publication which may damage a person\u27s business, trade, or employment,” is the defined form of the law provided by the authors. Anecdotally, Schroeder and Lazarus offer a few of the more scathing pieces reviewers have written about particular eating establishments. And, yes, they can be a bit comical, unless you are the owner of an establishment that appears in the crosshairs of such a reviewer. A bad review can kneecap even a popular eatery. “Because of the large readership of restaurant reviews in the publication (consumer dining out habits indicate that nearly 50 percent of consumers read a review before visiting a new restaurant) your business begins a very dangerous downward tailspin,” the authors reveal, with attribution. “Many restaurant operators contend that a bad review can cost them an immediate trade loss of upward of 50 percent,” Schroeder and Lazarus warn. “The United States Supreme Court has ruled that a restaurant owner can collect damages only if he proves that the statement or statements were made with “actual malice,” even if the statements were untrue,” the authors say by way of citation. And that last portion of the statement cannot be over-emphasized. The first amendment to the U.S. Constitution does wield a heavy hammer, indeed, and it should. So, what recourse does a restaurateur have? The authors cautiously give a guarded thumbs-up to a lawsuit, but you better be prepared to prove a misstatement of fact, as opposed to the distinguishable press protected right of opinion. For the restaurateur the pitfalls are many, the rewards few and far between, Schroeder and Lazarus will have you know. “…after weighing the advantages and disadvantages of a lawsuit against a critic...the disadvantages are overwhelming,” the authors say. “Chicago restaurant critic James Ward said that someone dumped a load of manure on his yard accompanied by a note that read - Stop writing that s--t! - after he wrote a review of a local restaurant.” Such is a novel if not legally measurable tack against an un-mutual review

Scenography for Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's ASSASSINS: Carnival of Presidential Carnage: What If We Never Left the Midway

An unconventional view of staging for Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's -Assassins

Deployable reflector antenna performance optimization using automated surface correction and array-feed compensation

Methods for increasing the electromagnetic (EM) performance of reflectors with rough surfaces were tested and evaluated. First, one quadrant of the 15-meter hoop-column antenna was retrofitted with computer-driven and controlled motors to allow automated adjustment of the reflector surface. The surface errors, measured with metric photogrammetry, were used in a previously verified computer code to calculate control motor adjustments. With this system, a rough antenna surface (rms of approximately 0.180 inch) was corrected in two iterations to approximately the structural surface smoothness limit of 0.060 inch rms. The antenna pattern and gain improved significantly as a result of these surface adjustments. The EM performance was evaluated with a computer program for distorted reflector antennas which had been previously verified with experimental data. Next, the effects of the surface distortions were compensated for in computer simulations by superimposing excitation from an array feed to maximize antenna performance relative to an undistorted reflector. Results showed that a 61-element array could produce EM performance improvements equal to surface adjustments. When both mechanical surface adjustment and feed compensation techniques were applied, the equivalent operating frequency increased from approximately 6 to 18 GHz

Valuing Fed Cattle Using Slice Shear Force Measurements

Marketing fed cattle using grid pricing has become a popluar way to sell cattle. One of the most important beef characteristics, according to consumers, is beef tenderness. USDA quality grades are poor predictors of meat tenderness. However, mechanical shear force does objectively measure tenderness. This study illustrates how problematic USDA quality grades are at assessing accurate beef tenderness and proposes and evaluates a tenderness-based valuation system based on slice shear force technology. We show that cattle of all quality grades are substantially over- or under-valued when using a grid realtive to a tenderness-based valuation system.Marketing,