Planning and scheduling for the Large Hadron Collider Project

This report gives the procedure which must be used for the Planning and Scheduling activities of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Project, including the software tools, and which applies to all phases of the Project, from prototyping to commissioning. The contents of this report has been approved by the LHC Project Leader and is published in the form of a Project Report in order to allow immediate implementation. It will be incorporated later in the Quality Assurance Plan of the LHC Project which is under preparation

Identificação e avaliação de estratégias de desenvolvimento territorial em áreas de cafeicultura familiar do sul de Minas Gerais.

Este texto se refere a uma pesquisa (?Identificação e avaliação de estratégias de desenvolvimento rural sustentável para a cafeicultura do Sul de Minas?, subprojeto componente do projeto ?Estratégias, modelos e geotecnologias para a caracterização e monitoramento de agroecossistemas cafeeiros de Minas Gerais?, coordenado pela Embrapa Café) em andamento que analisa as relações sócio-ambientais do espaço rural, mais especificamente as que tratam do processo de desenvolvimento rural sustentável das famílias produtoras de café dos de Machado, Campestre e Poço Fundo, Sul de Minas Gerais. A pesquisa optou por uma combinação de métodos científicos que foca o uso eficaz dos recursos naturais e valoriza o conhecimento e cultura locais. De maneira abrangente, três preocupações estruturam o subprojeto: 1) a caracterização de territórios, sob os aspectos físico-ambiental, técnico, comercial, cultural e socioeconômico; 2) a análise da qualidade do café e 3) apoio às dinâmicas sociais e territoriais valorizando ativos específicos da região da cultura cafeeira

Identificação e avaliação de estratégias de desenvolvimento territorial em áreas de cafeicultura familiar do sul de Minas Gerais.

Este texto se refere a uma pesquisa (?Identificação e avaliação de estratégias de desenvolvimento rural sustentável para a cafeicultura do Sul de Minas?, subprojeto componente do projeto ?Estratégias, modelos e geotecnologias para a caracterização e monitoramento de agroecossistemas cafeeiros de Minas Gerais?, coordenado pela Embrapa Café) em andamento que analisa as relações sócio-ambientais do espaço rural, mais especificamente as que tratam do processo de desenvolvimento rural sustentável das famílias produtoras de café dos de Machado, Campestre e Poço Fundo, Sul de Minas Gerais. A pesquisa optou por uma combinação de métodos científicos que foca o uso eficaz dos recursos naturais e valoriza o conhecimento e cultura locais. De maneira abrangente, três preocupações estruturam o subprojeto: 1) a caracterização de territórios, sob os aspectos físico-ambiental, técnico, comercial, cultural e socioeconômico; 2) a análise da qualidade do café e 3) apoio às dinâmicas sociais e territoriais valorizando ativos específicos da região da cultura cafeeira

BioRuby: bioinformatics software for the Ruby programming language

Summary: The BioRuby software toolkit contains a comprehensive set of free development tools and libraries for bioinformatics and molecular biology, written in the Ruby programming language. BioRuby has components for sequence analysis, pathway analysis, protein modelling and phylogenetic analysis; it supports many widely used data formats and provides easy access to databases, external programs and public web services, including BLAST, KEGG, GenBank, MEDLINE and GO. BioRuby comes with a tutorial, documentation and an interactive environment, which can be used in the shell, and in the web browser

Academic careers and the valuation of academics. A discursive perspective on status categories and academic salaries in France as compared to the U.S., Germany and Great Britain

Academic careers are social processes which involve many members of large populations over long periods of time. This paper outlines a discursive perspective which looks into how academics are categorized in academic systems. From a discursive view, academic careers are organized by categories which can define who academics are (subjectivation) and what they are worth (valuation). The question of this paper is what institutional categorizations such as status and salaries can tell us about academic subject positions and their valuation. By comparing formal status systems and salary scales in France with those in the U.S., Great Britain and Germany, this paper reveals the constraints of institutional categorization systems on academic careers. Special attention is given to the French system of status categories which is relatively homogeneous and restricts the competitive valuation of academics between institutions. The comparison shows that academic systems such as the U.S. which are characterized by a high level of heterogeneity typically present more negotiation opportunities for the valuation of academics. From a discursive perspective, institutional categories, therefore, can reflect the ways in which academics are valuated in the inter-institutional job market, by national bureaucracies or in professional oligarchies

Active space debris removal by a hybrid propulsion module

During the last 40 years, the mass of the artificial objects in orbit increased quite steadily at the rate of about 145 metric tons annually, leading to a total tally of approximately 7000 metric tons. Now, most of the cross-sectional area and mass (97% in LEO) is concentrated in about 4600 intact objects, i.e. abandoned spacecraft and rocket bodies, plus a further 1000 operational spacecraft. Simulations and parametric analyses have shown that the most efficient and effective way to prevent the outbreak of a long-term exponential growth of the catalogued debris population would be to remove enough cross-sectional area and mass from densely populated orbits. In practice, according to the most recent NASA results, the active yearly removal of approximately 0.1% of the abandoned intact objects would be sufficient to stabilize the catalogued debris in low Earth orbit, together with the worldwide adoption of mitigation measures. The candidate targets for removal would have typical masses between 500 and 1000 kg, in the case of spacecraft, and of more than 1000 kg, in the case of rocket upper stages. Current data suggest that optimal active debris removal missions should be carried out in a few critical altitude-inclination bands. This paper deals with the feasibility study of a mission in which the debris is removed by using a hybrid propulsion module as propulsion unit. Specifically, the engine is transferred from a servicing platform to the debris target by a robotic arm so to perform a controlled disposal. Hybrid rocket technology for de-orbiting applications is considered a valuable option due to high specific impulse, intrinsic safety, thrust throttle ability, low environmental impact and reduced operating costs. Typically, in hybrid rockets a gaseous or liquid oxidizer is injected into the combustion chamber along the axial direction to burn a solid fuel. However, the use of tangential injection on a solid grain Pancake Geometry allows for more compact design of the propulsion unit. Only explorative tests were performed in the past on this rocket configuration, which appears to be suitable as de-orbiting system of new satellites as well as for direct application on large debris in the framework of a mission for debris removal. The paper describes some critical aspects of the mission with particular concern to the target selection, the hybrid propulsion module, the operations as well as the systems needed to rendezvous and dock with the target, and the disposal strateg

Adaptive thrust vector control during on-orbit servicing

On-orbit servicing missions often include a final propulsive phase where a spacecraft pushes the other one towards a different orbit. Specifically this is the case of the debris grasping mission where the chaser, after capturing the target by means of robotic arms, has to perform a de-orbit operation. The large thrust involved needs a perfect alignment with respect to the center of mass or the system composed by chaser and target, in order to avoid attitude changes. Such accurate alignment is quite difficult to achieve especially when the characteristics of the target are not perfectly known. A procedure is proposed in this paper, allowing a complete estimation of the center of mass position and of the moments of inertia of the system, starting from the data obtained by the gyros mounted on board of the spacecraft. The output is used to design a maneuver for correcting the target and chaser relative position by moving the robotic arms. Numerical simulations show the proficiency and the applicability of the estimation algorithm and of re-alignment maneuver to a selected mission scenario

Tipologia dos sistemas de produção praticados pelos pequenos produtores rurais do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte.

Esta pesquisa buscou tipificar e caracterizar os sistemas de producao praticados pelos pequenos produtores rurais do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte. Foram selecionadas 14 Unidades Geoambientais representativas da regiao semi-arida do Estado, e para cada unidade, escolhido um municipio representativo. Em cada municipio, foi selecionada uma amostra de produtores e aplicado um questionario contendo 860 variaveis. As informacoes foram analisadas atraves de tecnicas estatisticas multivariadas. Os resultados mostraram a existencia de doze tipos distintos de pequenos produtores, que foram caracterizados de acordo com o tamanho da familia, dos rebanhos, producoes vegetais e animais, areas total e cultivadas (culturas comerciais, subsistencia e pastagens), indice de tecnologia e rendas diversas (agropecuarias, aposentadoria e outra atividades), e que estes tipos possuem demandas diferenciadas no que diz respeito a politicas de difusao de tecnologias, priorizacao de acoes de pesquisa e de investimentos

Professional Sports Firm Values: Bringing New Determinants to the Foreground? A Study of European Soccer, 2005-2013

Since 2004, Forbes has proposed a list of the most valuable soccer clubs. One year later, Transfermarkt began to estimate European soccer players’ value. This article estimate the determinants of firm values in European soccer over the period 2005-2013 incorporating player valuations, clubs’ operating income, and new ownership, three variables not included previously. The results of this study demonstrate that these variables are significant factors in club valuations. More generally, club assets including stadium age, club ownership type, supporter numbers and income, and past sports performances all have a significant impact