Technology for the Future: In-Space Technology Experiments Program, part 1

The purpose of the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST) In-Space Technology Experiment Program (In-STEP) 1988 Workshop was to identify and prioritize technologies that are critical for future national space programs and require validation in the space environment, and review current NASA (In-Reach) and industry/university (Out-Reach) experiments. A prioritized list of the critical technology needs was developed for the following eight disciplines: structures; environmental effects; power systems and thermal management; fluid management and propulsion systems; automation and robotics; sensors and information systems; in-space systems; and humans in space. This is part one of two parts and is the executive summary and experiment description. The executive summary portion contains keynote addresses, strategic planning information, and the critical technology needs summaries for each theme. The experiment description portion contains brief overviews of the objectives, technology needs and backgrounds, descriptions, and development schedules for current industry, university, and NASA space flight technology experiments

Glu: An Online Type 1 Diabetes Information Community

This research paper examines the online health community Glu (MyGlu.org), a type 1 diabetes social media site. Type 1 diabetes is a chronic medical condition that requires constant and specialized medical attention. Online health communities like Glu, are an important part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle for many of its members. This study discusses the composition of this information community, the motivations of its members, and the benefits members gain through their participation. It describes the major characteristics of the community and focuses on the information needs of type 1 diabetics. It concludes with reflections on how libraries and LIS professionals can better serve the information needs of health communities like Glu and accommodate their needs in the physical space of the library

Remote Sensing Information Sciences Research Group: Santa Barbara Information Sciences Research Group, year 4

Information Sciences Research Group (ISRG) research continues to focus on improving the type, quantity, and quality of information which can be derived from remotely sensed data. Particular focus in on the needs of the remote sensing research and application science community which will be served by the Earth Observing System (EOS) and Space Station, including associated polar and co-orbiting platforms. The areas of georeferenced information systems, machine assisted information extraction from image data, artificial intelligence and both natural and cultural vegetation analysis and modeling research will be expanded

System/360 Computer Assisted Network Scheduling (CANS) System

Computer assisted scheduling techniques that produce conflict-free and efficient schedules have been developed and implemented to meet needs of the Manned Space Flight Network. CANS system provides effective management of resources in complex scheduling environment. System is automated resource scheduling, controlling, planning, information storage and retrieval tool

An architecture of a user-centred digital library for the academic community

An architecture of a user-centred digital library, designed to lead users of an academic community to the required information resources based on their tasks, is proposed. Information resources include full-text articles, databases, theses and dissertations, e-journals, e-books, multimedia databases, and so on. Other information resources such as university course calendars, university statutes, course registration, thesis and dissertation guidelines, style guides, and so on, are also needed by users. A prototype has been designed and developed using the School of Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as an example of such an environment to provide access to these information resources which are spread across different servers and in different home pages This prototype provides links to various information resources according to users' needs, as well as a personal work space to record/store his/her publications, frequently used or favorite hyperlinks and references or notes. Various stages of the prototype design and development are described and future works on this line are highlighted

On the Origin of Gravity and the Laws of Newton

Starting from first principles and general assumptions Newton's law of gravitation is shown to arise naturally and unavoidably in a theory in which space is emergent through a holographic scenario. Gravity is explained as an entropic force caused by changes in the information associated with the positions of material bodies. A relativistic generalization of the presented arguments directly leads to the Einstein equations. When space is emergent even Newton's law of inertia needs to be explained. The equivalence principle leads us to conclude that it is actually this law of inertia whose origin is entropic.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figure

Informed Proposal Monte Carlo

Any search or sampling algorithm for solution of inverse problems needs guidance to be efficient. Many algorithms collect and apply information about the problem on the fly, and much improvement has been made in this way. However, as a consequence of the the No-Free-Lunch Theorem, the only way we can ensure a significantly better performance of search and sampling algorithms is to build in as much information about the problem as possible. In the special case of Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling (MCMC) we review how this is done through the choice of proposal distribution, and we show how this way of adding more information about the problem can be made particularly efficient when based on an approximate physics model of the problem. A highly nonlinear inverse scattering problem with a high-dimensional model space serves as an illustration of the gain of efficiency through this approach