Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

Turbofan engines are the most modern type of gas turbine engine used in today’s aircrafts. These engines will continue to serve as the backbone of future modernized airliners. They promise dramatic efficiency improvements, which is mainly due to the introduction of innovative new technologies. The basic thermodynamic theory of the turbofan engine generally is not complicated; however, the snag and the main concern rests with the flow into the engine devices. This flow is compressible in nature and it is subject to a set of specified ambient conditions and a range of pressure ratios. The theory behind such arrangements gets complex upon looking at the areo-thermodynamic details of the flow structure within each device to sustain a preferable engine operation. Thus, this study undertakes evaluating the performance of a turbofan engine using a simulator model in a virtual bench setting. It is the Price Induction Engine Virtual Test Bench DGEN 380 Turbofan Engine [1].

The college of Aeronautics and Engineering acquired this simulation software-based system as an educational and research tool to help students learn and explore turbofan engines and understand their functionality. Among its features is allowing studying an aircraft engine’s control system, thermodynamic data, and aerodynamic data. The DGEN 380 Turbofan Engine is promoted for the light jet market which is a mostly propeller powered market as of today. The unique design of the DGEN gives it a high bypass ratio making it very fuel efficient and suitable to fly at the lower altitudes of personal light aircraft. This system is utilized to conduct this distinctive research study which focuses on isolated engine component failures under unconditional flight path and analyzes the reaction on the engine performance metrics when these failures occur [2-6]. Results pertaining to failure diagnosis based on the engine parameters displayed on the virtual test bench are to be presented and discussed.

Given the instability and falsity which seem to surround today’s current social, political, and economic climate, should we be doubting the “facts” put forth by science? To answer this question, this project focuses upon the critique of modernism presented in Thus Spoke Zarathustra to determine whether Nietzsche’s alternative is feasible today. The goal of this research is to determine what Nietzsche’s meliorism might look like today, and whether it is possible to apply a Nietzschean critique of modernist scientific certainty to the current world, which necessitates revisiting how we perceive the modern scientific perspective. Nietzsche’s ideal world lacks absolutes, truths, and facts; to Nietzsche, science is a uniquely human enterprise which is divorced from facts, and he argues against all hallmarks of science alongside anything considered concrete or self-evident. Nietzsche argues that the pursuit of science does not allow us to pursue passion and courage, and that we pursue certainty out of fear. Utilizing an experimental technique aimed at challenging an existing point of view and modifying it, this study is based in the analysis and criticism of theory and literature. This project’s methodology consists of examining primary and secondary sources in order to understand the contemporary options given Nietzsche’s beliefs. This revaluation will allow scholars to examine an alternative postmodernism that focuses on courage as the root of the human condition, as Nietzsche espoused. The result of this study is a clarification of Nietzsche’s ideas, which will allow further examination of an alternative postmodernism and the application of Nietzsche’s critique.

Global Nomadism is the art of living an international lifestyle. Global Nomads travel from one country to another without a permanent job or home. An important factor that becomes of Global Nomads is that they start to lose their state of origin from their country of origin, in other words their ties to their country begins to loosen; they start to no longer belong anywhere. Global Nomads work for independent companies such as IT, writing, teaching, or crafts (artisans).

Global Nomadism has become such a popular lifestyle because society is forced to come up with different ways of living in order to survive. As society has progressed and developed throughout the years living expenses are becoming higher and wages are staying the same. This factual truth leads mankind to develop a new lifestyle.

The purpose of my design was to give my customer shelter along her journey. I wanted to give my customer the freedom to travel as long as she pleased and the ability to reside at any place she chose to stop at. After long days and nights of constant research and consistent trials I was able to design a jacket that can transform into a tent that can provide shelter to three to four people at a time.

I used technical fabrics and innovative strategies to solve the solution to create shelter through fashion. The tent jacket is made with waterproof fabrics accessorized with a severe climate zipper that withstands temperatures as -150 degrees Fahrenheit.

These Things That Remain - Courtney Donovan & Zoe Harr

Thousands of people every year are fitted with bionic limb reinforcements and replacements - artificial knees, hips, rods, screws - but no one considers what happens to these pieces when someone passes away. These objects exist within millions of people, yet most have no idea what they look like.

We were presented with an amazing opportunity to utilize these parts in a meaningful way. We were inspired by these pieces to ask questions about the things, and relationships, that are left behind when we die.

Our idea is to curate a collection of these objects in a gallery setting, addressing the overarching question - when we are gone, what is left behind? While showcasing these objects in a way that creates reflection and exploration - much like a curated set of objects in a museum - we will use literature to discuss all of those elements of humanity; life, death, love, loss, and so on. As the piece is still in progress, our research will come from development of the idea, and the physical creation of the piece.

We believe this project - while being unconventional - will be impactful on every audience it encounters. By presenting a set of uncommon physical objects in an artistic setting, the project will ask the viewer to consider tough questions about life and loss. It will bridge science, sculpture, and creative writing in an innovative and emotional way that has never done before at K.S.U.

The story of the Jewish people in Mexico is a captivating chronicle; a narrative that is not well-known to audiences, and not notable within universal Jewish history. However, it is a story of challenges, achievements, failures, and triumphs. It is a story of a community that thrived religiously and socially in a foreign land. The Jewish story in Mexico dates back to the year 1492, when Jewish subjects were expelled from Spain, and traveled furtively to the New World. My research shadows the lives of the Jews in Colonial Mexico, in the Mexican Republic of the nineteenth century, and in the early twentieth century, when modern Jewish immigration took place. The majority of the Jews in Mexico today are descendants of the immigrants who found refuge in Aztec lands in the early twentieth century.

I am drawing together both a scholarly text, and a book where I incorporate my training in graphic design. The designed book incorporates illustrations and background designs with the text integrated into the layout. It as well includes scanned photographs and documents, and photos of artifacts relating to the time period. This research project is a multilingual venture. I have worked with primary sources written in Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish, and English. To aid in my research I traveled twice to Mexico City, where I visited research centers, and momentous locations associated with the story of the Jews in Mexico.

Cotton, a natural fiber, has historically been a trusted, top choice material for consumers. Recently, worldwide cotton use has declined in favor of synthetic fibers. The research questions of this study will focus on what shifts in consumer fiber content preferences between cotton and synthetics have occurred in the past ten years. Differences in fiber production relating to sustainability may also influence consumer opinions. In recent times, the fashion industry has been under scrutiny for its lack of sustainability and large contributions to increasing global warming and negative environmental impacts. Clothing, especially in fast fashion production, uses a large amount of natural resources, adds to worldwide environmental problems. Consumer fiber content preference may be impacted by knowledge of their environmental impact. Exploratory research will consist of consumer surveys that will answer fiber content favorability with a variety of different factors, including price, material feel and wear and durability to understand why consumers might choose one material type over another. These surveys will also question consumer’s current fiber choices, and whether or not they have noticed a difference in their clothing purchased in recent years where synthetic fiber usage has been more prominent. By gathering direct consumer opinions, a better understanding of material usage shifts will be learned. The relationship of social media and fiber content will be examined by reviewing the potential variables that go into decision making to further understand the relationship between social media and fiber content preferences.

On January 21, 2017, over one million individuals participated in the Women’s March on Washington. Media coverage noted the “strong collective visual statement” created by a “sea of bright pink” pussyhats with top corners resembling cat ears (Reuters, 2017, para. 1). Months before, a campaign distributed simple patterns to knit, crochet, or sew these distinctive hats. The making and wearing of pussyhats present an interesting evolution in feminism and the recent phenomenon termed “craftism.” The purpose of this study was to employ Identity Theory to explore the making and wearing of pussyhats as “a weapon of resistance for women” (Parker, 1984, Introduction).

A Google search of the terms “pussyhat” and “pussy hat” in mainstream news articles and editorial reporting between November 8, 2016, and March 15, 2017, was conducted. The initial sample was capped at 420 using a comparison method. Full content was transcribed and analyzed for reoccurring terms with the number of instances recorded and ranked.

One hundred sixty-nine terms occurred at least ten times in the forty articles. Unrelated terms and terms with less than 10 occurrences were removed, resulting in a total of 121 terms in the sample to be analyzed. Of these, the most common were identified. Results indicate the presence of an identity where needle arts and feminism intersect. This study supports Lewis (2012), Parker (1984), and Pöllänen (2006). Making and wearing the pussyhat demonstrates an evolving concept of feminism, which encompasses the wide range of expressions and activities available to contemporary women.

The formation of the Spanish American discourse entails an array of sources that can be identified since the time of the Conquest of the Americas. Using an analytical research methodology, I examine the legacy of Indigenous cultures and the European discourse which predominated among the conquistadors and chroniclers. José Rabasa, in Inventing America: Spanish Historiography and the formation of Eurocentrism, exposes the tremendous influence of Eurocentrism, Western metaphysics, and racism in the perspective of the history of the Indigenous world (240). Indigenous discourse was mainly based on orality, but with the arrival of the Spaniards, as transcribed with the Spanish alphabet and later translated into a European language, it became undoubtedly influenced by the European discourse. For example, the translation of Popol Vuh, the Mayan book of Creation, originally transcribed in Quiché, sometimes shows a certain level of subjectivity, as it bears some passages that appear to detract from its authenticity and universality. Likewise, works written originally in Spanish from the European perspective tend to use a Christian and European ideology to represent that of the Indigenous; thus, my questioning their subjectivity. Consequently, it is essential to reflect on the effects that Eurocentrism has had on our understanding of the history of Latin America so that the biased perspective is changed. As a conclusion, this study reveals the subjectivity ingrained in the discourse of the colonial Spanish American period which tends to blur its veracity.

Individual differences in brain function arise from genetic and environmental influences and play an important role in understanding variation in executive control, cognitive ability, and personality. By collecting task fMRI and behavioral data for monozygotic (MZ) twins, dizygotic (DZ) twins, siblings (SIB), and unrelated people, the Human Connectome Project (HCP) allows investigation of the degree to which genetics shapes these differences. This study compared activation similarity patterns in the frontoparietal and visual networks across these subject groups. Activation similarity was correlated for the N-back task under conditions of high or low working memory load and across two object stimulus categories. If heritability plays a substantial role in determining neural activation, groups of higher genetic similarity should have more similar activation patterns. Indeed, in both networks considered, MZ twins showed a higher similarity than DZ twins or siblings, and DZ twins and siblings showed a higher similarity than unrelated participants. Furthermore, this correlation is emphasized under conditions of higher cognitive load in the frontoparietal network. This provides evidence that genetic influences play a substantial role in the neural basis of individual differences, and ultimately helps lay the foundation for task-related brain activation to be considered as an endophenotype for psychiatric or neural disorders.

Previous research has shown there is a negative relationship between Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and cognitive function (Yarlott et al., 2017). In the current study, we further investigated this relationship between PTSD and cognitive function with individuals seeking detoxification treatment, focusing on the potential moderating effect of Hepatitis C status. One of the ramifications of Hepatitis C is impaired cognitive function and Hepatitis C has been shown to be increasing in individuals with substance use disorders (Solinas et al., 2015, Huckans et al., 2009). In this study, we recruited 235 participants from Oriana House, all presenting with a substance use disorder. Oriana House is a medical detoxification center for individuals of Summit County. Cognitive assessments were administered along with questionnaires about past trauma, PTSD and Hepatitis C diagnosis to the participants at the detox center. The cognitive assessment battery included the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). The MoCA is an indicator of mild cognitive impairment and assesses different cognitive domains including attention and concentration, executive functions, memory, language, visio-constructional skills, conceptual thinking, calculations, and orientation (Nasreddine et al, 2005). Given the established relationship between PTSD and cognitive function, we expect to replicate the negative association between these two variables. Furthermore, we expect that Hepatitis C status will moderate the relationship between PTSD and cognitive function.

Analysis is ongoing.