Using MOM:TIPS as a Short-Term Inservice with Four Day-Care Teachers

Four day-care teachers were introduced to Methods of Mothering: Training in Parenting Styles (MOM:TIPS), which is a parent-training program that has never been used with teachers. Modules addressing Self-Management, Disciplining/Monitoring, Nurturing, and Teaching Concepts were presented in an inservice training. Four workshops and available one-to-one consultations occurred over the period of one month. Each teacher was evaluated as a single-case in an A-B design using direct observations and self-report questionnaires. With Self-Management, each teacher reported that she makes daily schedules and follows a routine, but Teachers A, D indicated that they rarely or never used the steps involving more methodical, record-keeping methods. With Disciplining/Monitoring, Teachers B, C showed modest increases in Catching Good Behavior. With Nurturing, Teachers A, B were observed Smiling and engaging in Active Contact more often; Teacher C showed higher percentages of Active and Passive Contact during the Training Period. Teacher B’s increases continued at Follow-Up. A Spearman’s rho analysis found significant correlations between children’s positive responses and certain affectionate behaviors with each teacher. With Teaching Concepts, Teachers A, D used each step during Baseline; Teachers B, C were observed implementing the steps either during Training or Follow-Up. Each self-report indicated frequent implementation of most of the strategies and that overall teaching styles were generally congruent with MOM:TIPS. Methodological limitations are addressed and recommendations are provided

Implementation of a production Ada project: The GRODY study

The use of the Ada language and design methodologies that encourage full use of its capabilities have a strong impact on all phases of the software development project life cycle. At the National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC), the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) conducted an experiment in parallel development of two flight dynamics systems in FORTRAN and Ada. The differences observed during the implementation, unit testing, and integration phases of the two projects are described and the lessons learned during the implementation phase of the Ada development are outlined. Included are recommendations for future Ada development projects

DEVELOPMENT OF PREDICTION MODELS TO MEASURE VENDOR PERFORMANCE IN SURVEILLANCE AND AUDITING OF AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE

Elimination of aviation accidents is one of the primary goals of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the airline industry. A leading cause of aviation accidents is lack of oversight of various organizational issues, in particular, the organization\u27s maintenance operation performance. The technologies used in the industry generate multiple risks, mostly from three domains: systems, hardware and people. Maintenance performance analyses identify the inherent risk in distributed, large-scale systems. Analysis of existing aviation maintenance data is a crucial step in meeting the aviation industry\u27s need to improve aviation safety. Presently, we lack suitable tools to analyze large bodies of maintenance data. In this study, we generate models responsive to airline operation requirements using hierarchical logistic regression analysis based on historical auditing and surveillance data. These models helped to determine the organizational factors underlying aviation maintenance errors, ultimately helping airline personnel to manage the surveillance and auditing functions of aircraft maintenance. Three models were generated- one model each for an airline\u27s technical audit, internal audit and surveillance work functions. These models were embedded in a web-based surveillance and auditing tool (WebSAT). Validation experiments were conducted to evaluate the utility of the model in WebSAT. Results indicated that there is significant improvement in vendor/ department performance prediction capabilities when the model is employed with WebSAT. The auditors and surveillance representatives\u27 ability to understand the effect of a change in the level of a predictor on rejection rate improved significantly when the model was employed in WebSAT. The technical audit and surveillance managers\u27 non-significant results indicate that the Audit Allocation and Surveillance Planning tools are not as useful for managers. It is important to improve the capabilities of the planning tools by employing more variables in the regression models including information on surveillance representatives and auditors

Reusable Reentry Satellite (RRS) system design study

The Reusable Reentry Satellite (RRS) is intended to provide investigators in several biological disciplines with a relatively inexpensive method to access space for up to 60 days with eventual recovery on Earth. The RRS will permit totally intact, relatively soft, recovery of the vehicle, system refurbishment, and reflight with new and varied payloads. The RRS is to be capable of three reflights per year over a 10-year program lifetime. The RRS vehicle will have a large and readily accessible volume near the vehicle center of gravity for the Payload Module (PM) containing the experiment hardware. The vehicle is configured to permit the experimenter late access to the PM prior to launch and rapid access following recovery. The RRS will operate in one of two modes: (1) as a free-flying spacecraft in orbit, and will be allowed to drift in attitude to provide an acceleration environment of less than 10(exp -5) g. the acceleration environment during orbital trim maneuvers will be less than 10(exp -3) g; and (2) as an artificial gravity system which spins at controlled rates to provide an artificial gravity of up to 1.5 Earth g. The RRS system will be designed to be rugged, easily maintained, and economically refurbishable for the next flight. Some systems may be designed to be replaced rather than refurbished, if cost effective and capable of meeting the specified turnaround time. The minimum time between recovery and reflight will be approximately 60 days. The PMs will be designed to be relatively autonomous, with experiments that require few commands and limited telemetry. Mass data storage will be accommodated in the PM. The hardware development and implementation phase is currently expected to start in 1991 with a first launch in late 1993

Sortie laboratory, phase B technical summary

The design and operational requirements which evolved from Sortie Lab (SL) analysis are summarized. A source of requirements for systems is given along with experimental support for the SL, baseline. Basic design data covered include: configuration definition, mission analysis, experimental integration, safety, and logistics. A technical summary outlines characteristics which reflect the influence of the growth in SL capability and the results of the mission and operational analysis. Each of the selected areas is described in terms of objectives, equipment, operational concept, and support requirements

Electrochemical air revitalization system optimization investigation

A program to characterize a Breadboard of an Electrochemical Air Revitalization System (BEARS) was successfully completed. The BEARS is composed of three components: (1) a water vapor electrolysis module (WVEM) for O2 production and partial humidity control, (2) an electrochemical depolarized carbon dioxide concentrator module (EDCM) for CO2 control, and (3) a power-sharing controller, designed to utilize the power produced by the EDCM to partially offset the WVEM power requirements. It is concluded from the results of this work that the concept of electrochemical air revitalization with power-sharing is a viable solution to the problem of providing a localized topping force for O2 generation, CO2 removal and partial humidity control aboard manned spacecraft. Continued development of the EARS concept is recommended, applying the operational experience and limits identified during the BEARS program to testing of a one-man capacity system and toward the development of advanced system controls to optimize EARS operation for given interfaces and requirements. Successful completion of this development will produce timely technology necessary to plan future advanced environmental control and life support system programs and experiments

Design of a modular digital computer system

A design tradeoff study is reported for a modular spaceborne computer system that is responsive to many mission types and phases. The computer uses redundancy to maximize reliability, and multiprocessing to maximize processing capacity. Fault detection and recovery features provide optimal reliability

Collected software engineering papers, volume 9

This document is a collection of selected technical papers produced by participants in the Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) from November 1990 through October 1991. The purpose of the document is to make available, in one reference, some results of SEL research that originally appeared in a number of different forums. This is the ninth such volume of technical papers produced by the SEL. Although these papers cover several topics related to software engineering, they do not encompass the entire scope of SEL activities and interests. For the convenience of this presentation, the eight papers contained here are grouped into three major categories: (1) software models studies; (2) software measurement studies; and (3) Ada technology studies. The first category presents studies on reuse models, including a software reuse model applied to maintenance and a model for an organization to support software reuse. The second category includes experimental research methods and software measurement techniques. The third category presents object-oriented approaches using Ada and object-oriented features proposed for Ada. The SEL is actively working to understand and improve the software development process at GSFC

The 29th Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium

The proceedings of the 29th Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium, which was hosted by NASA Johnson Space Center and held at the South Shore Harbour Conference Facility on May 17-19, 1995, are reported. Technological areas covered include actuators, aerospace mechanism applications for ground support equipment, lubricants, pointing mechanisms joints, bearings, release devices, booms, robotic mechanisms, and other mechanisms for spacecraft

RBH Photovoltaic System Analysis and Recommendations

Our group worked with The United States Coast Guard in San Juan, Puerto Rico to evaluate the photovoltaic system installed at the Río Bayamón Housing complex. The goal of the project was to explain the specifications of the system, evaluate the performance of the system, provide recommendations based on findings, and find off-grid power alternatives. We used document and data collection and analysis to assess system performance, to analyze the costs associated with implementation of the system, and to determine if backup batteries were a feasible option to complement generators during power outages. We recommended accelerating acceptance of a net metering contract and continuing to utilize diesel generators for off-grid power use