Distributed environmental control

We present an architecture of distributed, independent control agents designed to work with the Computer Aided System Engineering and Analysis (CASE/A) simulation tool. CASE/A simulates behavior of Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS). We describe a lattice of agents capable of distributed sensing and overcoming certain sensor and effector failures. We address how the architecture can achieve the coordinating functions of a hierarchical command structure while maintaining the robustness and flexibility of independent agents. These agents work between the time steps of the CASE/A simulation tool to arrive at command decisions based on the state variables maintained by CASE/A. Control is evaluated according to both effectiveness (e.g., how well temperature was maintained) and resource utilization (the amount of power and materials used)

Spectral Lags Obtained by CCF of Smoothed Lightcurves

We present a new technique to calculate the spectral lags of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Unlike previous processing methods, we first smooth the light curves of gamma-ray bursts in high and low energy bands using the "Loess" filter, then, we directly define the spectral lags as such to maximize the cross-correlation function (CCF) between two smoothed light curves. This method is suitable for various shapes of CCF; it effectively avoids the errors caused by manual selections for the fitting function and fitting interval. Using the method, we have carefully measured the spectral lags of individual pulses contained in BAT/Swift gamma-ray bursts with known redshifts, and confirmed the anti-correlation between the spectral lag and the isotropy luminosity. The distribution of spectral lags can be well fitted by four Gaussian components, with the centroids at 0.03 s, 0.09 s, 0.15 s, and 0.21 s, respectively. We find that some spectral lags of the multi-peak GRBs seem to evolve with time

Data warehouse for assessing animal health, welfare, risk management and –communication

The objective of this paper is to give an overview of existing databases in Denmark and describe some of the most important of these in relation to establishment of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administrations’ veterinary data warehouse. The purpose of the data warehouse and possible use of the data are described. Finally, sharing of data and validity of data is discussed. There are databases in other countries describing animal husbandry and veterinary antimicrobial consumption, but Denmark will be the first country relating all data concerning animal husbandry, -health and -welfare in Danish production animals to each other in a data warehouse. Moreover, creating access to these data for researchers and authorities will hopefully result in easier and more substantial risk based control, risk management and risk communication by the authorities and access to data for researchers for epidemiological studies in animal health and welfare

The Development Process for a Self-Sustainable School-Based Health Center for a School District in Western Arkansas

This qualitative case study examined the development and implementation process of a school-based health center (SBHC) in a school district in Western Arkansas. Researchers and health professionals agree that children who are in good health are in a better position to learn (Allensworth & Kolbe, 1987). Little (2009) noted student health, being an underlying factor in educational achievement, is garnering educator focus to improve academic success. SBHCs are developing across the country as potential solutions to improve children’s access to quality health care (Allison et al., 2007). SBHCs provide opportunities to remove barriers like geography, transportation, and cost for impoverished families to access quality health care. Addressing student healthcare needs provides opportunity for students to reach their full academic potential. Data instruments used in this study were focus group interviews with the researcher acting as moderator of the focus group interviews. The focus group interviews with the participants involved in the establishment of the SBHC provided rich data to describe the process from developmental policy through daily operations of the SBHC. This qualitative study described the circumstances surrounding the state policy makers, state agencies, and advocacy groups working together to allow the establishment of SBHCs in Arkansas. Additionally, the study describes how the local school board, school administration, and community leadership identified the need to improve student, staff, and community health and chose to work together to provide access to quality healthcare on the school campus. The research findings indicate that the SBHC model established in the school district in Western Arkansas can be replicated provided stakeholders work together with fidelity to meet the needs of the school district children, staff, and families in the community. Reducing the barriers to academic achievement improves the opportunity for academic success and ultimately the potential for an improved life

Empirical Validation and Comparison of the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) Between the Gulf of Mexico and the Tongue of the Ocean

Ocean models are increasingly able to synthesize a large temporal domain with fine spatial resolution. With this increase in functionality and availability, ocean models are in high demand by researchers, establishing a critical need for validating a model’s ability to represent interior ocean dynamics. Satellite measurements are typically used for validation, however these measurements are limited to the upper layers of the ocean and therefore satellite measurements of sea surface height and sea surface temperature are the most validated output parameters of three-dimensional ocean models. Unfortunately there is a paucity of model validation studies for the interior ocean. This study fills a knowledge gap by contrasting model data from the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) for the interior ocean in the Tongue of the Ocean (TOTO), Bahamas and the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) against observational (i.e., in situ) data collected in both locations. Conductivity temperature and depth (CTD) data in the GoM were collected during five research cruises by the DEEPEND Consortium between May of 2015 and May 2017. These data were collected as part of the investigation into the impact of oil spills on faunal communities in deep water of the GoM. CTD and expendable CTD (XCTD) data in the TOTO were collected by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) detachment Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) in support of U.S. Navy acoustic testing between 1997 and 2017 to characterize the sound velocity profile of the water column. The global 1/12° HYCOM configuration (GLBu0.08) was found to be a better fit in the upper 400 and 250 meters of the TOTO for temperature and salinity, respectively, than the GoM 1/25° HYCOM configuration (GOMI0.04 1/25°) fit the GoM in situ data for the same depths. The GoM 1/25° HYCOM configuration (GOMI0.04 1/25°) provided a better fit in the GoM for depths of 500 and 300 meters and deeper for temperature and salinity, respectively, than the global 1/12° HYCOM configuration (GLBu0.08) fit the TOTO in situ data at the same depths. A comprehensive comparison of the vertical profile between the model and observational data for each of the regions of interest provides insight into using HYCOM forecast data for future applications

Preliminary Investigation of a new Frequency Modulator

Communication is an inherent characteristic of the human species. Man has continually strived to improve his methods of communicating with his fellow man. With the understanding of electricity and its subsequent control, a powerful tool became available; one important use of this tool is in the field of communications. First applications of electricity to communications involved physical connections between sending and receiving instruments. When scientists desired to eliminate the direct connections between the communicators, new methods had to be devised. The new methods which were developed involved the transmission of electromagnetic energy through space. One of the basic electrical waveforms used was a sine wave; the sine wave by itself, however, contains no information. Therefore, some characteristic of the wane must be varied in order that the wave can carry information. There are three fundamental qualities of a wave that can be altered – the amplitude, the frequency, and the phase. “Modulation” is the word which was adopted to denote the variation of one of these characteristics of a wave. Early work was directed toward the perfection of amplitude modulation systems. But amplitude modulation has certain limitations, among which is a noise problem. Therefore, in the early 1920’s frequency modulation (F-M) was proposed. In 1922 J. R. Carlson published a paper which was unfavorable towards frequency modulation, and the result was a decline of interest for several years. E. H. Armstrong soon discovered that F-M would actually result in less noise, and it was not long before F-M came into wide use

Static Machines and X-Ray Dermatitis.

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Letter to Charles Pettit McIlvaine

Concerned with languages and ideas in a declaration. Attitude toward Bishop Hopkins: is delighted with such an assault and makes capital of it, in his own nauseous and impious state.https://digital.kenyon.edu/mcilvaine_letters/1368/thumbnail.jp