Paper Session III-B - A Roadmap for Space Microelectronics Technology into the New Millennium

Advances in microelectronics technologies over the past several decades have truly revolutionized modern society in almost every aspect of human endeavor. The continuous scaling of the commercial semiconductor technology to smaller and smaller device and interconnect feature sizes (referred to as Mooreís Law due to Gordon Moore of Intel) has lead to more and more functionality being developed onto a single silicon ëchipí. Moreover, the manufacturing cost of an on-chip function is getting cheaper and cheaper. These two factors: ëmore for lessí represents the fuel that has propelled the microelectronics technology revolution of the 20th century. How long will this technology revolution last into the new millennium is a key question that the semiconductor industry is continuously evaluating. An excellent roadmap of the commercial semiconductor technology needs for the next 15 years (from 1997 to 2012) is described in The National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, published by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) in December 1997 [1]

How do medium naturalness and personality traits shape academic achievement and perceived learning? An experimental study of face-to-face and synchronous e-learning

This controlled experiment examined how academic achievement and cognitive, emotional and social aspects of perceived learning are affected by the level of medium naturalness (face-to-face, one-way and two-way videoconferencing) and by learners’ personality traits (extroversion–introversion and emotional stability–neuroticism). The Media Naturalness Theory explains the degree of medium naturalness by comparing its characteristics to face-to-face communication, considered to be the most natural form of communication. A total of 76 participants were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: face-to-face, one-way and two-way videoconferencing. E-learning conditions were conducted through Zoom videoconferencing, which enables natural and spontaneous communication. Findings shed light on the trade-off involved in media naturalness: one-way videoconferencing, the less natural learning condition, enhanced the cognitive aspect of perceived learning but compromised the emotional and social aspects. Regarding the impact of personality, neurotic students tended to enjoy and succeed more in face-to-face learning, whereas emotionally stable students enjoyed and succeeded in all of the learning conditions. Extroverts tended to enjoy more natural learning environments but had lower achievements in these conditions. In accordance with the ‘poor get richer’ principle, introverts enjoyed environments with a low level of medium naturalness. However, they remained focused and had higher achievements in the face-to-face learning

Science and Enabling Technologies to Explore the Interstellar Medium

This report summarizes two very exciting and illuminating KISS workshops held on September 8, 2014 and January 12, 2015 entitled, “Science and Enabling Technologies for the Exploration of the Interstellar Medium (ISM),” led by Edward Stone (Caltech), Leon Alkalai (JPL), and Louis Friedman (The Planetary Society, Co-Founder and Executive Director Emeritus). The timing for these workshops aligned with two recent events related to the exploration of the ISM: in September 2013, Caltech professor and Voyager Project Scientist Edward Stone announced that the Voyager 1 spacecraft had detected the Heliopause a year earlier, in August 2012 [1]. Unrelated to this, the Kepler Space Telescope’s search for exoplanets (planets around other stars) has yielded spectacular results, including the detection of Earth-like planets. Thus, the vast space between our star and those with potentially habitable planets is slowly emerging into focus. This raises the question, “When and how will humanity bridge this divide and reach toward such destinations?” Even more compelling is the question, “What is a reasonable first step in that direction?” knowing full well that reaching another star is far beyond our current technical capability. The workshops brought together over thirty scientists and engineers to address the following key questions: • Is there compelling science to be achieved on the way to, at, and in the ISM? • What is a reasonable first step in the long road ahead? • What are some of the enabling technologies required to reach beyond our solar system? The answers to these questions were formulated in terms of 1) Astrophysics and Planetary science on the way to the ISM at 5–100 AU, which would include the zodiacal background and dust measurements and flyby of one or more Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs); 2) Heliophysics measurements to obtain a better understanding of the complex environments inside and outside the protective bubble created by our Sun as it travels through the ISM; 3) and Astrophysics from the vantage point of being in the ISM at 100–700 AU, including parallax science, gravitational measurements, and the imaging of exoplanets using gravitational lensin

Fault-tolerant communication channel structures

Systems and techniques for implementing fault-tolerant communication channels and features in communication systems. Selected commercial-off-the-shelf devices can be integrated in such systems to reduce the cost

Lunette: A Two-Lander Discovery-Class Geophysics Mission to the Moon

The document “The Scientific Context for the Exploration of the Moon” [1] designated understanding the structure and composition of the lunar interior (to provide fundamental information on the evolution of a differentiated planetary body) as the second highest priority lunar science concept that needed to be addressed. To this end, the Science Mission Directorate formulated the International Lunar Network (ILN) mission concept (web site) that enlisted international partners to enable the establishment of a geophysical network on the lunar surface. NASA would establish the first four “anchor nodes” in the 2018 time frame. These nodes are envisioned to use radioisotope power systems to allow operation of each node for at least 6 years. Each anchor node will contain a seismometer, magnetometer, laser retroreflector, and a heat flow probe [2] and will be distributed across the lunar surface to form a much more widespread network that the Apollo passive seismic, magnetometer, heat flow, and the Apollo and Luna laser retroreflector networks. (Fig. 1). It is planned that the four anchor nodes will be launched on an Atlas 5 launch vehicle and the cost is estimated to exceed that for a New Frontiers mission. What we present here is an alternative to the ILN architecture that will still return the data required to understand the nature of the lunar interior and determine how the Moon evolved

O fracasso do multiculturalismo e a crise das identidades // The failure of multiculturalism and the crisis of identities

Resumo: A pregação realizada nas mesquitas do Ocidente é analisada neste estudo sobre a retórica islâmica conservadora. Ele examina o tipo de história contada às comunidades de expatriados muçulmanos, o que se revela hostil aos ditames liberais das sociedades hospedeiras. Esta doutrina está em crise também devido à reação assumida por vários países contra a incitação ao ódio promovido por tais oradores

O dilema do rebelde: persuasão ou sectarismo

Este estudo examina o dilema linguístico que o rebelde enfrenta para superar o sectarismo. O exame dos comunicados dos grupos revolucionários que militaram, nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, e de grupos salafistas que atuam agora em várias partes do mundo mostra que seus pronunciamentos demandavam e continuam a demandar inferências interpretativas que o público em geral tinha e tem dificuldade de realizar. Com base nas teorias pragmáticas, é documentado com exemplos variados esse principal obstáculo pragmático à comunicação política de contestação

Table recognition in mathematical documents

While a number of techniques have been developed for table recognition in ordinary text documents, when dealing with tables in mathematical documents these techniques are often ineffective as tables containing mathematical structures can differ quite significantly from ordinary text tables. In fact, it is even difficult to clearly distinguish table recognition in mathematics from layout analysis of mathematical formulas. Again, it is not straight forward to adapt general layout analysis techniques for mathematical formulas. However, a reliable understanding of formula layout is often a necessary prerequisite to further semantic interpretation of the represented formulae. In this thesis, we present the necessary preprocessing steps towards a table recognition technique that specialises on tables in mathematical documents. It is based on our novel robust line recognition technique for mathematical expressions, which is fully independent of understanding the content or specialist fonts of expressions. We also present a graph representation for complex mathematical table structures. A set of rewriting rules applied to the graph allows for reliable re-composition of cells in order to identify several valid table interpretations. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique by applying them to a set of mathematical tables from standard text book that has been manually ground-truthed

Development and Validation of a Digital Literacy Scale for Teenagers

[EN]Research related to digital literacy has grown exponentially in recent years. Its importance is that some scholars suggest that digital skills are a prevention tool against the risks of digital technologies. These risks are especially important because of their psychological consequences on adolescents. Thus, digital literacy could be a health prevention tool. The purpose of this research was to develop and validate a scale to assess digital literacy on teenagers. A self-report questionnaire with 47 items measured in a 5-point Likert scale was developed. After a pilot study, the questionnaire was administered to a sample composed by 715 secondary school students from 13 schools in Spain, aged between 12 and 20 years. Exploratory factor analysis revealed the existence of six factors: technological skill, personal security skill, critical skill, devices security skill, informational skill and communication skill. The scale demonstrated support for internal consistency reliability in most of the factors, with Cronbach’s Alpha levels ranging from .63 to .75, and validity. Further research is needed to confirm the factor structure

O ativismo das estrelas e a comunicação dissidente

Este estudo elabora sobre o ativismo político das celebridades do showbis. Ele compara os astros americanos e brasileiros, seu impacto social e a maneira através da qual as estrelas militam. As evidências mostram que são raros os casos nos quais elas decidem se comprometer com causas dissidentes. Quando o fazem o impacto é marcante, pois ele chama a atenção da mídia que multiplica seu efeito persuasivo