Acceleration Studies

In his Contributions to Philosophy, Martin Heidegger introduces 'acceleration' as on the three symptoms--along with 'calculation' and the 'outbreak of massiveness'-- of our technological way of being-in-the-world. In this article, I unpack the relationship between these symptoms and draw a twofold conclusion. First, interpreting acceleration in terms of time pathologies, I suggest the self in becoming increasingly fragmented and emotionally overwhelmed from chronic sensory arousal and time pressure. This experience makes it difficult for us to qualitatively distinguish what matters to us in our everyday lives, resulting in a pervasive cultural mood of indifference or, what Heidegger calls 'profound boredom'.  Second, by drawing on Heidegger's hermeneutic method, I argue that the practice of mainstream psychology and psychiatry, by adopting the reductive methodology of the empirical sciences, largely ignores our accelerated socio-historical situation, resulting in therapeutic models that have a tendency to construct and perpetuate the very pathologies the therapist is seeking to treat.

A theoretical model that could be useful for investigating the performance of ground vehicles using acceleration tests was developed. The model takes into account all of the forces acting on a moving vehicle to give a description of its kinematics: the rolling friction of the propulsion devices, their slip on the soil, aerodynamic resistance, road slope and traction developed by the engine. In the methodology of applying the model, the experimental data collected during acceleration tests on a flat and sloping road from a standing start to reach a given distance or a stated speed are used to determine the average efficiency of the transmission of three tractors with different equipment (a mechanical full-powershift drive and two different hydro-mechanical continuouslyvariable ratio transmissions e CVT). The same model was also used to predict tractor performance during other acceleration tests. The results of the CVT tests suggest that there probably is an influence of the transmission architecture that takes precedence over the general type of the transmission.

: Aeromedical flight equipment must meet airworthiness criteria according to Department of Defense Handbook MIL-HDBK-516, Airworthiness Certification Criteria, MIL-STD-810G, and MIL-STD- 1791, which requires restraint of any item that may potentially cause injury to personnel during emergency landings, an overwater ditching, or crash loads. Several government standards provide adequate descriptions of acceleration test methods; however, none formally documents a non-destructive test method to qualify equipment as safe-to-fly (STF). Using the USAF fixed-wing aircraft STF test criteria, this article presents a structured process developed by the Aeromedical Test Branch, 77th Aeronautical Systems Group, to assess equipment as STF. Further, it demonstrates the application of this process to meet the acceleration requirements for aeromedical evacuation equipment.

A theoretical model that could be useful for investigating the performance of ground vehicles using acceleration tests was developed. The model takes into account all of the forces acting on a moving vehicle to give a description of its kinematics: the rolling friction of the propulsion devices, their slip on the soil, aerodynamic resistance, road slope and traction developed by the engine. In the methodology of applying the model, the experimental data collected during acceleration tests on a flat and sloping road from a standing start to reach a given distance or a stated speed are used to determine the average efficiency of the transmission of three tractors with different equipment (a mechanical full-powershift drive and two different hydro-mechanical continuouslyvariable ratio transmissions e CVT). The same model was also used to predict tractor performance during other acceleration tests. The results of the CVT tests suggest that there probably is an influence of the transmission architecture that takes precedence over the general type of the transmission.

"The Internet economy has been conceptualized as a contradiction or symbiosis between commodity and gift exchange. Richard Barbrook (2005) argues that the Internet, with its reliance on non-rivalrous digital data and low cost of copying, enables the existence of a high-tech version of the gift economies that Marcell Mauss (1954) and other economic anthropologists have theorized. Similarly, Christian Fuchs argues that "information gifts form a part of the Internet economy in which goods are distributed for free and openly accessible." Lawrence Lessig (2008) conceptualizes the gift economy as part of read-write culture, which is inherently about sharing. Lessig counterposes “read-write” culture with a commercial “read-only” culture. Read-only objects are subject to copyright and before they can be used permission must be given, usually granted through purchase. Barbrook also recognizes that the same piece of digital code may exist as both a gift and a commodity. Similarly, Fuchs argues that the circulation of digital commodities form part of a sub-system of the Internet economy that is controlled by intellectual property rights.

This paper, while agreeing with Barbrook, Fuchs and Lessig that the Internet economy is a contradiction between gifts and commodities, will argue that these theorists have focused only on appearances and have not recognized the fundamental contradiction of the Internet. Basing this argument on another iteration of Marx's argument that exchange “produces a differentiation of the commodity into two elements, commodity and money, an external opposition which expresses the opposition between use-value and value which is inherent in it” (1976:199), I will argue that gifts and commodities are the forms of appearance, or expression, of the fundamental and internal contradiction of the Internet economy. Conceiving the Internet as a real-time environment, the paper will argue that the internal contradiction is temporal: between simultaneity and immediacy"

Aeromedical flight equipment must meet airworthiness criteria according to Department of Defense Handbook MIL-HDBK-516, Airworthiness Certification Criteria, MIL-STD-810G, and MIL-STD-1791, which requires restraint of any item that may potentially cause injury to personnel during emergency landings, ditching, or crash loads.

Several government standards provide adequate descriptions of acceleration test methods; however, none formally documents a non-destructive test method to qualify equipment as safe-to-fly (STF). Using the USAF fixed-wing aircraft STF test criteria, this article presents a structured process developed by the Aeromedical Test Branch, 77th Aeronautical Systems Group, to assess equipment as STF. Further, it demonstrates the application of this process to meet the acceleration requirements for aeromedical evacuation equipment.