Paper Session II-C - Introducing New Technologies Into Space Station Subsystems

In a cooperative effort between Kennedy Space Center, Stanford University and Lockheed Space Operations Company, a new systems engineering methodology has been developed and applied in the operational world of Shuttle processing. The new engineering approach stresses the importance of identifying, quantitatively assessing, and managing system performance and risk related to the dynamic nature of requirements, technology, and operational concepts. Under the cooperative program entitled, Space Systems Integration and Operations Research Applications (SIORA), the modernization of the processing operations for the Shuttle thermal protection system (IPS) or tiles became the first application of the engineering methodology. This effort adopted an approach consisting of an integrated set of rapid prototyping testbeds in which a government/ university/industry team of users, technologists, and engineers tested and evaluated new concepts and technologies within and in parallel to Shuttle processing operations. The integrated set of technologies introduced included speech recognition and synthesis capabilities, laser imaging inspection systems, distributed Ada programming environments, distributed relational database architectures, in addition to distributed computer network architectures, multi-media workbenches, expert system applications, probabilistic risk assessment modeling, and human factors considerations. The successful operational implementation of the integrated prototype, referred to as the Space Shuttle Tile Automation System, has validated the engineering methodology and strongly indicates that the same approach would be a viable systems engineering and project management tool for Freedom Space Station. This paper will address the lessons learned from the Shuttle processing experience and will present concepts which are applicable to the design and development of the Freedom Space Station

Digital curation and the cloud

Digital curation involves a wide range of activities, many of which could benefit from cloud deployment to a greater or lesser extent. These range from infrequent, resource-intensive tasks which benefit from the ability to rapidly provision resources to day-to-day collaborative activities which can be facilitated by networked cloud services. Associated benefits are offset by risks such as loss of data or service level, legal and governance incompatibilities and transfer bottlenecks. There is considerable variability across both risks and benefits according to the service and deployment models being adopted and the context in which activities are performed. Some risks, such as legal liabilities, are mitigated by the use of alternative, e.g., private cloud models, but this is typically at the expense of benefits such as resource elasticity and economies of scale. Infrastructure as a Service model may provide a basis on which more specialised software services may be provided. There is considerable work to be done in helping institutions understand the cloud and its associated costs, risks and benefits, and how these compare to their current working methods, in order that the most beneficial uses of cloud technologies may be identified. Specific proposals, echoing recent work coordinated by EPSRC and JISC are the development of advisory, costing and brokering services to facilitate appropriate cloud deployments, the exploration of opportunities for certifying or accrediting cloud preservation providers, and the targeted publicity of outputs from pilot studies to the full range of stakeholders within the curation lifecycle, including data creators and owners, repositories, institutional IT support professionals and senior manager

Improving perceptual multimedia quality with an adaptable communication protocol

Copyrights @ 2005 University Computing Centre ZagrebInnovations and developments in networking technology have been driven by technical considerations with little analysis of the benefit to the user. In this paper we argue that network parameters that define the network Quality of Service (QoS) must be driven by user-centric parameters such as user expectations and requirements for multimedia transmitted over a network. To this end a mechanism for mapping user-oriented parameters to network QoS parameters is outlined. The paper surveys existing methods for mapping user requirements to the network. An adaptable communication system is implemented to validate the mapping. The architecture adapts to varying network conditions caused by congestion so as to maintain user expectations and requirements. The paper also surveys research in the area of adaptable communications architectures and protocols. Our results show that such a user-biased approach to networking does bring tangible benefits to the user

EcoGIS – GIS tools for ecosystem approaches to fisheries management

Executive Summary: The EcoGIS project was launched in September 2004 to investigate how Geographic Information Systems (GIS), marine data, and custom analysis tools can better enable fisheries scientists and managers to adopt Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries Management (EAFM). EcoGIS is a collaborative effort between NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and four regional Fishery Management Councils. The project has focused on four priority areas: Fishing Catch and Effort Analysis, Area Characterization, Bycatch Analysis, and Habitat Interactions. Of these four functional areas, the project team first focused on developing a working prototype for catch and effort analysis: the Fishery Mapper Tool. This ArcGIS extension creates time-and-area summarized maps of fishing catch and effort from logbook, observer, or fishery-independent survey data sets. Source data may come from Oracle, Microsoft Access, or other file formats. Feedback from beta-testers of the Fishery Mapper was used to debug the prototype, enhance performance, and add features. This report describes the four priority functional areas, the development of the Fishery Mapper tool, and several themes that emerged through the parallel evolution of the EcoGIS project, the concept and implementation of the broader field of Ecosystem Approaches to Management (EAM), data management practices, and other EAM toolsets. In addition, a set of six succinct recommendations are proposed on page 29. One major conclusion from this work is that there is no single “super-tool” to enable Ecosystem Approaches to Management; as such, tools should be developed for specific purposes with attention given to interoperability and automation. Future work should be coordinated with other GIS development projects in order to provide “value added” and minimize duplication of efforts. In addition to custom tools, the development of cross-cutting Regional Ecosystem Spatial Databases will enable access to quality data to support the analyses required by EAM. GIS tools will be useful in developing Integrated Ecosystem Assessments (IEAs) and providing pre- and post-processing capabilities for spatially-explicit ecosystem models. Continued funding will enable the EcoGIS project to develop GIS tools that are immediately applicable to today’s needs. These tools will enable simplified and efficient data query, the ability to visualize data over time, and ways to synthesize multidimensional data from diverse sources. These capabilities will provide new information for analyzing issues from an ecosystem perspective, which will ultimately result in better understanding of fisheries and better support for decision-making. (PDF file contains 45 pages.

Algorithms for advance bandwidth reservation in media production networks

Media production generally requires many geographically distributed actors (e.g., production houses, broadcasters, advertisers) to exchange huge amounts of raw video and audio data. Traditional distribution techniques, such as dedicated point-to-point optical links, are highly inefficient in terms of installation time and cost. To improve efficiency, shared media production networks that connect all involved actors over a large geographical area, are currently being deployed. The traffic in such networks is often predictable, as the timing and bandwidth requirements of data transfers are generally known hours or even days in advance. As such, the use of advance bandwidth reservation (AR) can greatly increase resource utilization and cost efficiency. In this paper, we propose an Integer Linear Programming formulation of the bandwidth scheduling problem, which takes into account the specific characteristics of media production networks, is presented. Two novel optimization algorithms based on this model are thoroughly evaluated and compared by means of in-depth simulation results

Distributed generation on rural electricity networks - a lines company perspective : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Energy Management at Massey University

CD held with Reference copyA number of electricity assets used in rural New Zealand yield a very low return on investment. According to the provisions of the Electricity Act 1992, after 01 April 2013, lines companies may terminate supply to any customer to whom they cannot provide electricity lines services profitably. This research was undertaken to assist the policy makers, lines companies, rural investors on the viability of distributed generation in a rural setting from the point of view of the lines company and the investor as well as to provide recommendations to the problem areas. A dynamic distributed generation model was developed to simulate critical distributed generation scenarios relevant to New Zealand, such as diverse metering arrangements, time dependent electricity prices, peak shaving by load control, peak lopping by dispatchable distributed generation and state subsides, which are not addressed in commercial software. Data required to run the model was collected from a small rural North Island sheep and beef farming community situated at the end of a 26km long radial distribution feeder. Additional operational data were also collected from the community on distributed resources such as solar hot water systems. A number of optimum distributed generation combinations involving a range of technologies under different metering arrangements and price signals were identified for the small and the medium investor. The effect of influencing factors, such as state initiatives and technological growth, on the investor and the lines companies were discussed. Recommendations for future implementation in order to integrate distributed generation on to rural networks were also given. Several key research areas were identified and discussed including low cost micro hydro, wind resource assessment, diversification of the use of the induction generators, voltage flicker and dynamic distributed generation techno-economic forecasting tools