Current outlook: sustained growth, sustained inflation

A report on the May 4, 1990 meeting of the Fourth District Economists' Roundtable, at which participants predicted a stronger long-term growth rate for the national economy through 1991 and an inflation rate of about 4 percent.Economic conditions - United States

How state takeovers undermine the principle of municipal home rule.

Recent years have seen high profile cases of municipal government failure and state takeover in American cities like Detroit and Flint, Michigan. Ashley E. Nickels writes on why we should be concerned about threats to local autonomy such as these, which can supersede local home rule. She argues that such state actions – which can remove municipalities’ fiscal management – are often interventions when only assistance is needed, and that they can alienate local residents and community organizations

Constructing ‘suspect’ communities and Britishness: mapping British press coverage of Irish and Muslim communities, 1974–2007

There exist many parallels between the experiences of Irish communities in Britain in the past and those of Muslim communities today. However, although they have both been the subject of negative stereotyping, intelligence profiling, wrongful arrest and prejudice, little research has been carried out comparing how these communities are represented in the media. This article addresses this gap by mapping British press coverage of events involving Irish and Muslim communities that occurred between 1974 and 2007. The analysis shows that both sets of communities have been represented as ‘suspect’ to different degrees, which the article attributes to varying perceptions within the press as to the nature of the threat Irish and Muslim communities are thought to pose to Britain. The article concludes that a central concern of the press lies with defending its own constructions of Britishness against perceived extremists, and against abuses of power and authority by the state security apparatus

The economic outlook: growth weakens, inflation unchanged

A summation of the forecasts of 27 economists made at the January 26, 1990 meeting of the Fourth District Economists' Roundtable, with major emphasis on the inflation outlook, GNP growth, and capital spending.Economic conditions - United States ; Inflation (Finance)

Hand-Eye Calibration of Robonaut

NASA's Human Space Flight program depends heavily on Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVA's) performed by human astronauts. EVA is a high risk environment that requires extensive training and ground support. In collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), NASA is conducting a ground development project to produce a robotic astronaut's assistant, called Robonaut, that could help reduce human EVA time and workload. The project described in this paper designed and implemented a hand-eye calibration scheme for Robonaut, Unit A. The intent of this calibration scheme is to improve hand-eye coordination of the robot. The basic approach is to use kinematic and stereo vision measurements, namely the joint angles self-reported by the right arm and 3-D positions of a calibration fixture as measured by vision, to estimate the transformation from Robonaut's base coordinate system to its hand coordinate system and to its vision coordinate system. Two methods of gathering data sets have been developed, along with software to support each. In the first, the system observes the robotic arm and neck angles as the robot is operated under external control, and measures the 3-D position of a calibration fixture using Robonaut's stereo cameras, and logs these data. In the second, the system drives the arm and neck through a set of pre-recorded configurations, and data are again logged. Two variants of the calibration scheme have been developed. The full calibration scheme is a batch procedure that estimates all relevant kinematic parameters of the arm and neck of the robot The daily calibration scheme estimates only joint offsets for each rotational joint on the arm and neck, which are assumed to change from day to day. The schemes have been designed to be automatic and easy to use so that the robot can be fully recalibrated when needed such as after repair, upgrade, etc, and can be partially recalibrated after each power cycle. The scheme has been implemented on Robonaut Unit A and has been shown to reduce mismatch between kinematically derived positions and visually derived positions from a mean of 13.75cm using the previous calibration to means of 1.85cm using a full calibration and 2.02cm using a suboptimal but faster daily calibration. This improved calibration has already enabled the robot to more accurately reach for and grasp objects that it sees within its workspace. The system has been used to support an autonomous wrench-grasping experiment and significantly improved the workspace positioning of the hand based on visually derived wrench position. estimates

The issue of 'impairment':an analysis of diverging discourses used to represent the d/Deaf population in America

Reference terms used to refer to d/Deaf individuals in America have long been a point of contention within the d/Deaf population. Although this population in its majority prefers to be regarded as members of a cultural and linguistic minority mainstream society often opts for a different view, one that associates them as a disabled, or ‘impaired’ group. It can be argued that the ubiquitous use of the term ‘impaired’ in classifying the d/Deaf population is one of the ways in which existing power relations are maintained, constraining the opportunities of those considered ‘impaired’. d/Deaf individuals, as well as advocates and allies of the d/Deaf community, believe that the association with the disabled community and classification as ‘impaired’ promotes the same agenda popular years ago: one where d/Deaf people need the help of hearing people to compensate for their impairment and where the ultimate goal should be to mend said impairment in order to participate in society as a ‘normal’ person would (Lane, 1995; 1999). This paper presents a small-scale textual analysis that is used to determine to what degree these beliefs are true. The analysis presented in this paper reveals elements suggesting the existence of divergent discourses surrounding the use of the reference terms ‘hearing-impaired’ and ‘d/Deaf’. Conducted within the framework of critical discourse analysis, this small-scale research study employs systems of Systemic Functional Grammar (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014), including social actor representation (van Leeuwen, 1996) and transitivity, as the means for discourse analysis. Findings will show the discursive strategies in which the term ‘hearing-impaired’ is used and the extent to which the discursive use of this label supports the ideology that Deafness is deficiency

Archaeological Testing of 41BX1131 at O.R. Mitchell Dam, Bexar County, Texas

The Center for Archaeological Research contracted with the Simpson Group to conduct testing of 41BXl131, a prehistoric archaeological site located at the base of O. R. Mitchell Dam, on Medio Creek in southwest Bexar County. The purpose of testing was to determine whether or not the site would be impacted by construction of a spillway in the immediate area. A pedestrian survey identified the extent of surface scatter. Subsequent shovel testing and backhoe trenching determined that the site had no depth, and consisted of a surface scatter only