Scholars Hangar (United States Air Force Academy)
Not a member yet
204 research outputs found
Sort by
Radiation Dissipation Capacity of Lunar Regolith Simulants for Efficient GCR and SPE Protection for Sustained Habitat Formation
Here’s to Chicanos in the Middle Class!
This chapter explains why the topic of Mexican American culture became especially urgent during the 1960s and 1970s, and shows why this emphasis on culture came under question during the 1980s. Arellano describes how the Chicano literary intervention was crucial for exposing reductive caricatures by providing more nuanced characterizations of Mexican Americans. This focus on nuanced characterization, however, ultimately risked obfuscating the damaging effects of class struggle. Referencing the competing visions of Tomás Rivera and Richard Rodriguez, concerning the value of culture, Arellano analyzes literary case studies by José Antonio Villarreal and Arturo Islas, showing how their emphasis on a shared ethnic identity occluded class inequality. Arellano concludes by analyzing Rolando Hinojosa’s novel We Happy Few, which reconsiders the legacy of Chicano activism, demonstrating how Hinojosa disarticulates the novel’s meaning from cultural unity and reconnects it to the needs of workers. The novel thus highlights a view of literature that takes Mexican American humanity as a given and directs readers’ critical attention toward the problems that arise from a society organized by class
Theory Manual for the Load Displacement Compatibility Method (LDC) for Design of Column-Supported Embankments: A Companion to GeogridBridge 3.0
Sponsored by the Geosynthetics Technical Committee of the Technical Coordination Council of the Geo-Institute of ASCE Theory Manual for the Load Displacement Compatibility Method (LDC) for Design of Column Supported Embankments: A Companion to GeogridBridge 3.0, GSP 356, guides engineers through an updated, detailed overview on the theory, premises, implementations, and mathematical foundations of the Load Displacement Compatibility method for the design of column-supported embankments. Supplementary geotechnical resources and tools are also provided within this publication to assist engineers with the design and construction of column-supported embankments. Topics include • Load transfer mechanisms, • Consolidation and compression, and • Monte Carlo simulation. GSP 356 intends to be a valued guide and informed resource for civil engineers and geoengineering professionals looking to utilize advancing geotechnologies for the design and construction of future column-supported embankments. To access the GeogridBridge spreadsheet, go to https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/HQRBU. This will redirect to the OSF | GeogridBridge3.0 website
Plural relay sensor method of delivery
A method of establishing a system for gathering surveillance data in a hostile environment. The method comprises the steps of providing a movable tractor for ground hauling a trailer, and providing a drone which can be operated independently from the tractor. The trailer has a floor pan for supporting a relay sensor dispensing mechanism and a platform above the floor pan, with a hole for dispensing relay sensors therethrough. The relay sensor dispensing mechanism has an elevator for holding a stockpile of relay sensors, and elevating the relay sensors through the hole. The method comprises disposing at least one relay sensor in the elevator, elevating the relay sensor to a pickup position at or above the platform and retrieving the relay sensor with a drone for subsequent deposition in the hostile environment. The relay sensor then gathers and transceives surveillance data for use and interpretation by an operator. Optional a conveyor chute may replenish the elevator when it is depleted of relay sensors
Strain Rate Dependency of the Strength Parameters of LHT1 Lunar Highlands Regolith Simulants
Product architecture strategies and effects matrices for early evaluation and selection of product architectures
Product architecture decisions are made early in the product development process and have far-reaching effects. Unless anticipated through experience or intuition, many of these effects may not be apparent until much later in the development process, making changes to the architecture costly in time, effort and resources. Many researchers through the years have studied various elements of product architecture and their effects. By using a repeatable process for aggregating statements on the effects of architecture strategies from a selection of the literature on the topic and storing them in a systematic database, this information can then be recalled and presented in the form of a Product Architecture Strategy and Effect (PASE) matrix. PASE matrices allow for the identification, comparison, evaluation, and then selection of the most desirable product architecture strategies before expending resources along a specific development path. This paper introduces the PASE Database and matrix and describes their construction and use in guiding design decisions. This paper also provides metrics for understanding the robustness of this database
Engineering Problem Solving: Implementing a New Foundational Engineering Course
This study investigates how a new first semester of a new first-year engineering course affected student engineering skills, feelings about engineering, and hesitations to declare an engineering major. Pre-and post-course surveys and interviews were conducted with eighteen students who took Engineering Problem Solving in the fall semester 2023. The course was designed to require significant teamwork among students. The course introduced students to a variety of engineering disciplines through hands-on activities. Additionally, several assignments required the students to view short video interviews with practicing exemplars who came from underrepresented groups in engineering. Results indicate students increased their skills in several engineering tasks, their confidence and sense of belonging in engineering increased slightly, and students had fewer hesitations to declare an engineering major at the conclusion of the course than prior to the course
Design and Evaluation of Additively Manufactured Polyetherimide Orbital Debris Shielding for Spacecraft
The increasingly congested orbital environment around Earth threatens the safety of space assets. Micrometeoroids and orbital debris (MMOD) less than 1 cm but traveling at hypervelocities pose a serious but defensible hazard. Traditional shields are installed during spacecraft assembly and must survive launch loads, constraining their size, shape, and ultimately, effectiveness. Recent advances in on-orbit additive manufacturing have created new opportunities for shield design and deployment. This work describes the modeling and testing of additively manufactured polyetherimide shields. The finite element code CTH was used to model hypervelocity impacts (HVIs) of such shields, and though imperfect, the models were useful for shield design. Several shield designs were additively manufactured and underwent HVI testing with a two-stage light gas gun in the regime of 4 mm diameter aluminum projectile impacts at 5 - 6.5 km/s. All successfully survived the HVIs, indicating their potential effectiveness as MMOD spacecraft shielding
Collaborative Senior Design Capstone at Two Geographically Separated Universities
As remote engineering collaboration increases in popularity due to the proliferation of networking tools and the expansion of telework opportunities resulting from the shutdowns of COVID-19, the need to study their efficacy grows. This work examines a collaboration conducted between two geographically separated universities to complete a mechanical engineering design experience. While such an experience may be rare within academic design courses, it undoubtedly reflects the reality of engineering teams in industry and government that are comprised of geographically separated teams. Three teams of students, that each included students from both schools, worked for an academic year to complete three unique capstone projects, with three different advisors. The students were provided various computer-based collaboration tools and encouraged to use them throughout. This work examines their experiences to investigate successes and potential improvements during each design phase, to include consideration of how the provided tools enabled or hindered remote collaboration. Additionally, this work surveyed project sponsors to determine how the remote collaboration teams' performance compared to previous years of collocated teams. Survey data were collected following three significant milestones during the design efforts: preliminary design review (PDR), critical design review (CDR), and the final briefing. Results show that the geographically separated teams performed equivalently to collocated teams, though they encountered challenges during the prototyping and testing design activities
The Evolution of Database Lists: Promoting Content to Connect with Users
Conference presentation given by the authors at the ER&L Annual Library Conference 2024.Database lists sometimes lack a sense of purpose or meaning to our users. Best practices have changed since their introduction. Database content can now be incorporated into discovery layers and publication finders. Our committee’s findings show how to shape database lists in today’s environment by utilizing intentionality, browsing, and instruction