A survey of life support system automation and control

The level of automation and control necessary to support advanced life support systems for use in the manned space program is steadily increasing. As the length and complexity of manned missions increase, life support systems must be able to meet new space challenges. Longer, more complex missions create new demands for increased automation, improved sensors, and improved control systems. It is imperative that research in these key areas keep pace with current and future developments in regenerative life support technology. This paper provides an overview of past and present research in the areas of sensor development, automation, and control of life support systems for the manned space program, and it discusses the impact continued research in several key areas will have on the feasibility, operation, and design of future life support systems

Resource efficient redundancy using quorum-based cycle routing in optical networks

In this paper we propose a cycle redundancy technique that provides optical networks almost fault-tolerant point-to-point and multipoint-to-multipoint communications. The technique more importantly is shown to approximately halve the necessary light-trail resources in the network while maintaining the fault-tolerance and dependability expected from cycle-based routing. For efficiency and distributed control, it is common in distributed systems and algorithms to group nodes into intersecting sets referred to as quorum sets. Optimal communication quorum sets forming optical cycles based on light-trails have been shown to flexibly and efficiently route both point-to-point and multipoint-to-multipoint traffic requests. Commonly cycle routing techniques will use pairs of cycles to achieve both routing and fault-tolerance, which uses substantial resources and creates the potential for underutilization. Instead, we intentionally utilize redundancy within the quorum cycles for fault-tolerance such that almost every point-to-point communication occurs in more than one cycle. The result is a set of cycles with 96.60% - 99.37% fault coverage, while using 42.9% - 47.18% fewer resources.Comment: 17th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON), 5-9 July 2015. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1608.05172, arXiv:1608.0516

Unidirectional Quorum-based Cycle Planning for Efficient Resource Utilization and Fault-Tolerance

In this paper, we propose a greedy cycle direction heuristic to improve the generalized $\mathbf{R}$ redundancy quorum cycle technique. When applied using only single cycles rather than the standard paired cycles, the generalized $\mathbf{R}$ redundancy technique has been shown to almost halve the necessary light-trail resources in the network. Our greedy heuristic improves this cycle-based routing technique's fault-tolerance and dependability. For efficiency and distributed control, it is common in distributed systems and algorithms to group nodes into intersecting sets referred to as quorum sets. Optimal communication quorum sets forming optical cycles based on light-trails have been shown to flexibly and efficiently route both point-to-point and multipoint-to-multipoint traffic requests. Commonly cycle routing techniques will use pairs of cycles to achieve both routing and fault-tolerance, which uses substantial resources and creates the potential for underutilization. Instead, we use a single cycle and intentionally utilize $\mathbf{R}$ redundancy within the quorum cycles such that every point-to-point communication pairs occur in at least $\mathbf{R}$ cycles. Without the paired cycles the direction of the quorum cycles becomes critical to the fault tolerance performance. For this we developed a greedy cycle direction heuristic and our single fault network simulations show a reduction of missing pairs by greater than 30%, which translates to significant improvements in fault coverage.Comment: Computer Communication and Networks (ICCCN), 2016 25th International Conference on. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1608.05172, arXiv:1608.05168, arXiv:1608.0517

Controversy, Code Names, and Cultural Memory: Building the Nevada Test Site Oral History Project Digital Collection

This poster highlights the Nevada Test Site Oral History Project (NTSOHP); a digitization collaboration dedicated to documenting, preserving, and disseminating the stories of persons affiliated with and impacted by forty years of U.S. Cold War nuclear weapons testing. The project is a partnership between the UNLV University Libraries, the director of the NTSOHP, campus, and community partners to create an online, fully searchable, digital re-search collection from the collected oral history research. Project participants include scientists, miners, military officers, contractors and corporate executives. Also presented are the voices of native tribal leaders, peace activists and communities downwind of the test site. Working with controversial material, deciphering military code names, and negotiating government acronyms were all unique challenges to the project. This poster also presents practical digital projects solutions (such as managing cross-campus communication, quality control for complex metadata creation, troubleshooting online document display, and tackling project marketing), with a focus on issues in converting oral history research for the online environment. Project at a Glance University Libraries partnered with UNLV College of Liberal Arts (History and Sociology) Over 175 participants; 335 hours of interviews (digital audio, transcribed text, images and related documents and video) Research design approved by UNLV’s Institutional Review Board and followed Evaluation Guide-lines of the Oral History Association Collection built in CONTENTdm digital collection management software Metadata created with controlled vocabulary and library standards Full-text indexing enabled for searching; transcripts provided in PDF format for output Multimedia delivered via streaming audio with custom embedded player Custom web interface to display metadata, audio player and PDF side by side

Adventures in Digitization: A New Librarian Shares Five Hard Earned Tips to Avoid Project Management Pitfalls

Many institutions are feeling pressure to embark on digitization projects to provide greater access and visibility to their unique materials. Digitization initiatives have numerous benefits, but they can also drain staff time and resources if they are not planned and prioritized well. As new librarians are hired into increasingly technical entry-level positions, they are often expected to contribute to or lead digitization projects requiring a diverse skill set. Learn five key tips to help recent grads and new digital project managers to avoid pitfalls. Topics will include: the importance of the planning process, involving key people at the right time, never underestimating the challenges of metadata, learning to love the tools at hand (the CONTENTdm digital media management system will be discussed), and successfully launching a completed project

Biomechanical Characterization of Video-Recorded Short-Distance Falls Involving Children Equipped with a Biometric Device in a Childcare Setting: A Pilot Study.

Background: A fall is the most common falsely reported injury scenario when a young child presents for medical care and the caregiver is concealing abuse. There is a lack of reliably witnessed falls with known outcomes to aid in the distinction between accidental and abusive injuries. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to characterize video-recorded short distance falls involving young children in a childcare setting, to identify body regions most commonly impacted in these short distance falls, to characterize the head biomechanics of these falls, and describe fall characteristics. Additionally, physics-based models were used to predict fall biomechanics in a subset of these falls. Methods: This study included children aged 12-25 months. Two childcare classrooms and a playground were each equipped with 3 digital video cameras. Video recordings involving falls were extracted for analysis. Falls were characterized by various factors (such as fall type; initial condition; fall dynamics; etc.), and these were analyzed for frequency. Descriptive statistics were performed on outcome measures. The distribution of impacted/contacted body regions was described and projected onto a child body map. Falls with biomechanical data from wearable devices were characterized by head impact and analyzed. It was hypothesized that head accelerations and velocities will be greater in falls with head impact than in falls without head impact. To analyze the accuracy and usefulness of physics-based biomechanical models, lumped mass, single rod, and inverted pendulum physics-based models were developed for previously conducted ATD falls and falls involving head impact from the childcare center. It was hypothesized that these models could accurately predict head biomechanical measures. Results: 100 video-recorded falls involving 8 children, age 17-25 months (mean ± SD: 20 ± 2 months) were characterized. 65% of falls involved boys, and 64% of falls occurred indoors in a classroom. No injuries occurred in any fall. The most common first contact body regions were the soles of the feet. The most common primary impact body region was the palms of the hands; bilateral shins, bilateral knees, and buttocks were also commonly impacted. Replicated ATD falls and select childcare center falls with SIM G outputs were mathematically modelled, and it was determined that mathematical physics-based models could reasonably predict biomechanical outcomes from short-distance falls. Conclusions: This study resulted in a dataset of 100 reliably witnessed video-recorded falls involving young children in a childcare center setting. Body region contact/impact maps for first contact, primary impact, and secondary impact of these common short-distance falls were developed. This study found that head biomechanical measures were not significantly different in falls with head impact versus without head impact. This study also found that the methodology used to evaluate lumped mass, single rod, and inverted pendulum models was an important factor in predicting head biomechanical outcomes. The most accurate physics-based models were the lumped mass and inverted pendulum models. No falls in this study resulted in injury. The outcomes from this study may aid in the investigation of injury histories of a short-distance fall, further increasing the understanding and differentiation of accidental versus abusive injuries

Using Google Analytics, Voyant and Other Tools to Better Understand Use of Manuscript Collections at L. Tom Perry Special Collections

[Excerpt] Developing strategies for making data-driven, objective decisions for digitization and value-added processing. based on patron usage has been an important effort in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections (hereafter Perry Special Collections). In a previous study, the authors looked at how creating a matrix using both Web analytics and in-house use statistics could provide a solid basis for making decisions about which collections to digitize as well as which collections merited deeper description. Along with providing this basis for decision making, the study also revealed some intriguing insights into how our collections were being used and raised some important questions about the impact of description on both digital and physical usage. We have continued analyzing the data from our first study and that data forms the basis of the current study. It is helpful to review the major outcomes of our previous study before looking at what we have learned in this deeper analysis. In the first study, we utilized three sources of statistical data to compare two distinct data points (in-house use and online finding aid use) and determine if there were any patterns or other information that would help curators in the department make better decisions about the items or collections selected for digitization or value-added processing. To obtain our data points, we combined two data sources related to the in-person use of manuscript collections in the Perry Special Collections reading room and one related to the use of finding aids for manuscript collections made available online through the department’s Finding Aid database ( http://findingaid.lib.byu.edu/). We mapped the resulting data points into a four quadrant graph (see figure 1)

Tales From the Field: The right mix of theory, practice, and soft skills for educating digital library leaders

Technology skills have entered the LIS curriculum, but an overlooked variable in employability is often the perception of graduates’ soft skills. Communication skills, consensus-building and strategic thinking are critical to employers and by integrating coursework, internship experience, and networking opportunities as part of the core educational experience new graduates can set themselves apart as they enter the workforce. Research shows that programs that most effectively prepare future digital librarians are those that complement theory with interdisciplinary practice by developing partnerships and offer mentoring opportunities. This paper presents two perspectives identifying strategies to help develop leadership skills for the digital library field, representing the view of a new graduate employed in a digital library and a practicing librarian engaged in mentoring and training future digital librarians