Stability Augmentation on Cuboid Containers From Simple Leading Edge Modifications

2025-01-03 · 1 citations

The stabilization of slung-load cuboid shipping containers is critical to increasing the capabilities of helicopters. Instability decreases the maximum forward speed of the aircraft, while also increasing pilot workload and putting the helicopter and crew at risk. Thus far, afterbody and wake based modifications have proven capable of stabilizing cuboid sling-loads, but typically fail to provide significant drag savings. Using simple windward-face modifications of rounding or chamfering, pressure distributions and shear layer reattachment on side faces can be manipulated to augment stability performance of cuboid cargo containers, while also promoting lower drag loads. Applying these modifications to a 1/16th scale wind tunnel model of an ISU-90, the range of static stability increased from ±12 degrees to ±20 degrees in some cases, with neutral stability at low angles of attack. Furthermore, significant drag savings were assessed, approaching 80% for the best case. Considerable differences were observed by simply modifying corner geometry to lessen the strength of discontinuity a sharp corner presents to airflow. Pressure measurements on the surface of the model revealed changes to three dimensional flow reattachment and separation, providing insight to how the different geometries and angles of attack affect the flow field and wake.

Extending the Joint Probability Method to Compound Flooding: Statistical Delineation of Transition Zones and Design Event Selection

ArXiv.org · 2025-11-05

Compound flooding from the combined effects of extreme storm surge, rainfall, and river flows poses significant risks to infrastructure and communities -- as demonstrated by hurricanes Isaac and Harvey. Yet, existing methods to quantify compound flood risk lack a unified probabilistic basis. Copula-based models capture the co-occurrence of flood drivers but not the likelihood of the flood response, while coupled hydrodynamic models simulate interactions but lack a probabilistic characterization of compound flood extremes. The Joint Probability Method (JPM), the foundation of coastal surge risk analysis, has never been formally extended to incorporate hydrologic drivers -- leaving a critical gap in quantifying compound flood risk and the statistical structure of compound flood transition zones (CFTZs). Here, we extend the JPM theory to hydrologic processes for quantifying the likelihood of compound flood depths across both tropical and non-tropical storms. This extended methodology incorporates rainfall fields, antecedent soil moisture, and baseflow alongside coastal storm surge, enabling: (1) a statistical description of the flood depth as the response to the joint distribution of hydrologic and coastal drivers, (2) a statistical delineation of the CFTZ based on exceedance probabilities, and (3) a systematic identification of design storms for specified return period flood depths, moving beyond design based solely on driver likelihoods. We demonstrate this method around Lake Maurepas, Louisiana. Results show a CFTZ more than double the area of prior event-specific delineations, with compound interactions increasing flood depths by up to 2.25 feet. This extended JPM provides a probabilistic foundation for compound flood risk assessment and planning.

Theatre, health, and wellbeing

2025-10-23

Theatre has long been intertwined with healing practices across cultures, serving as a medium of care, community engagement, and health communication. This chapter explores the historical and contemporary intersections between theatre and health, providing case studies from India, the United States, and South Africa. In Corona Maari, a theatre-based public health initiative in India, traditional dance-drama was used to combat misinformation about COVID-19 and promote vaccine uptake in marginalised Adivasi communities. The Miss Kendra Program in the United States employed storytelling and role play to help children process toxic stress in school settings, using an imaginal figure as a psychological buffer. In Ikhaya Lethemba, a drama therapy intervention for survivors of gender-based violence in South Africa, structured storytelling and ritual enabled participants to reclaim agency over their narratives. Across these examples, theatre emerged as a culturally resonant catalyst to convene communities, increase health literacy, represent concerns, facilitate trauma recovery, and encourage social connection. Key considerations include the importance of collaboration, the role of theatre practitioners as health communicators, the value of aesthetic distance in processing trauma, and the capacity of theatre to bridge gaps in healthcare accessibility. The chapter concludes with reflections on sustainability and the integration of theatre into holistic health strategies.

Panel Study of Income Dynamics: Construction and Evaluation of the 2019 Longitudinal Individual and Family Weights

2021-01-01 · 2 citations

Multiple Imputation with Massive Data: An Application to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics

Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology · 2021 · 15 citations

• Computer Science
• Data Mining
• Computer Science

Multiple imputation (MI) is a popular and well-established method for handling missing data in multivariate data sets, but its practicality for use in massive and complex data sets has been questioned. One such data set is the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a longstanding and extensive survey of household income and wealth in the United States. Missing data for this survey are currently handled using traditional hot deck methods because of the simple implementation; however, the univariate hot deck results in large random wealth fluctuations. MI is effective but faced with operational challenges. We use a sequential regression/chained-equation approach, using the software IVEware, to multiply impute cross-sectional wealth data in the 2013 PSID, and compare analyses of the resulting imputed data with those from the current hot deck approach. Practical difficulties, such as non-normally distributed variables, skip patterns, categorical variables with many levels, and multicollinearity, are described together with our approaches to overcoming them. We evaluate the imputation quality and validity with internal diagnostics and external benchmarking data. MI produces improvements over the existing hot deck approach by helping preserve correlation structures, such as the associations between PSID wealth components and the relationships between the household net worth and sociodemographic factors, and facilitates completed data analyses with general purposes. MI incorporates highly predictive covariates into imputation models and increases efficiency. We recommend the practical implementation of MI and expect greater gains when the fraction of missing information is large.

Achieving presence in film and psychotherapy

Journal of Clinical Psychology · 2020-06-22

Film-makers have had to learn how to manipulate static images in both time and space to create an illusion of presence for their audiences. Film editors have discovered the importance of shot length in keeping audiences' attention and evoking various emotions of suspense, confusion, and excitement. Cinematographers shape the experience of witnessing through subjective and objective camera angles, positioning the audience in empty space or inside a character. For psychotherapists who attempt to "be present" for their clients, without the tools of the film editor or cinematographer, achieving presence can be quite an undertaking. Psychotherapists continuously mark their presence with "mm-hmms" or nods, and they depart the moment to think about and prepare what they will say, without appearing as if they have done so. Unlike film, which stabilizes the relationship between subject and object, psychotherapy embraces the unstable dance of the interpersonal encounter. Nevertheless, in the end, a good film and a good psychotherapy session are able to overcome the barriers to presence and bring us together in a colocated state of consciousness.

Multiple Imputation with Massive Data: An Application to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics

arXiv (Cornell University) · 2020

• Computer Science
• Data Mining
• Econometrics

\Multiple imputation (MI) is a popular and well-established method for handling missing data in multivariate data sets, but its practicality for use in massive and complex data sets has been questioned. One such data set is the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a longstanding and extensive survey of household income and wealth in the U.S. Missing data for this survey are currently handled using traditional hot deck methods because of the simple implementation; however, the univariate hot deck results in large random wealth fluctuations. MI is effective but faced with operational challenges. We use a sequential regression/ chained-equation approach, using the software IVEware, to multiply impute cross-sectional wealth data in the 2013 PSID, and compare analyses of the resulting imputed data with those from the current hot deck approach. Practical difficulties, such as non-normally distributed variables, skip patterns, categorical variables with many levels, and multicollinearity, are described together with our approaches to overcoming them. We evaluate the imputation quality and validity with internal diagnostics and external benchmarking data. MI produces improvements over the existing hot deck approach by helping preserve correlation structures, such as the associations between PSID wealth components and the relationships between the household net worth and socio-demographic factors, and facilitates completed data analyses with general purposes. MI incorporates highly predictive covariates into imputation models and increases efficiency. We recommend the practical implementation of MI and expect greater gains when the fraction of missing information is large.

A DvT-based clinical assessment of toxic stress in young children

Drama Therapy Review · 2020 · 2 citations

• Psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Psychotherapist

A clinical assessment procedure is described for identifying possible sources of toxic stress among young children (ages 3–10), using a semi-structured modification of Developmental Transformations. This modification consists of improvisational play combined with a pre-determined sequence of roles symbolic of common adverse childhood experiences of neglect or emotional or physical threat. While conducting this procedure, the therapist carefully observes the client’s responses within the play to note the presence of play disruptions (e.g. hesitation, shift of scene and/or emotional arousal). These shifts may arise from prior experiences that remain distressing to the client and might merit further exploration. A review of the literature concerning toxic stress and assessments of children (particularly those that are play-based), along with an illustration of the clinical assessment, are presented. Strategies for follow-up and early intervention possibilities are highlighted. Key ethical considerations of this procedure are also discussed.

Reducing depressive symptoms in adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder using drama therapy

2018-05-16 · 3 citations

Trauma-centered Developmental Transformations is presented as a form of drama therapy to address depressive symptoms related to Adverse Childhood Experiences in adolescents. Due to the significant overlap in symptomatology between Major Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, a trauma-focused treatment may be of benefit. In two case studies, adolescent clients’ depressive symptoms decreased significantly. Administering a trauma assessment to depressed adolescents prior to initiating treatment may be helpful in the selection of the most appropriate treatment modality.

Learning from Experience: The Legacy of Billy Lindkvist

Dramatherapy · 2018-07-01

For the last 15 years of her life, I took the train up to High Barnet to visit with Billy each year, a pilgrimage of sorts. She insisted on meeting me at the station and driving me to her flat, whi...