Unsung heroes: Constituency election agents in British general elections

Despite their central role in the electoral process, constituency agents have been largely overlooked by political scientists and this article seeks to rectify the omission. It sketches the origins and development of the role of agent from the late 19th century and suggests that a serious rethink of the role took place in the 1990s. Survey-based evidence about the social characteristics of agents is presented confirming that they are largely middle-aged, middle-class, well-educated men. They are also becoming more experienced, offer realistic assessments of the impact of constituency campaigning and, arguably, many take a long-term view of how their party's support can be maximised

Measurement of SIFT operating system overhead

The overhead of the software implemented fault tolerance (SIFT) operating system was measured. Several versions of the operating system evolved. Each version represents different strategies employed to improve the measured performance. Three of these versions are analyzed. The internal data structures of the operating systems are discussed. The overhead of the SIFT operating system was found to be of two types: vote overhead and executive task overhead. Both types of overhead were found to be significant in all versions of the system. Improvements substantially reduced this overhead; even with these improvements, the operating system consumed well over 50% of the available processing time

Statistical correlation analysis for comparing vibration data from test and analysis

A theory was developed to compare vibration modes obtained by NASTRAN analysis with those obtained experimentally. Because many more analytical modes can be obtained than experimental modes, the analytical set was treated as expansion functions for putting both sources in comparative form. The dimensional symmetry was developed for three general cases: nonsymmetric whole model compared with a nonsymmetric whole structural test, symmetric analytical portion compared with a symmetric experimental portion, and analytical symmetric portion with a whole experimental test. The theory was coded and a statistical correlation program was installed as a utility. The theory is established with small classical structures

A knowledge-based flight status monitor for real-time application in digital avionics systems

The Dryden Flight Research Facility of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center (Ames-Dryden) is the principal NASA facility for the flight testing and evaluation of new and complex avionics systems. To aid in the interpretation of system health and status data, a knowledge-based flight status monitor was designed. The monitor was designed to use fault indicators from the onboard system which are telemetered to the ground and processed by a rule-based model of the aircraft failure management system to give timely advice and recommendations in the mission control room. One of the important constraints on the flight status monitor is the need to operate in real time, and to pursue this aspect, a joint research activity between NASA Ames-Dryden and the Royal Aerospace Establishment (RAE) on real-time knowledge-based systems was established. Under this agreement, the original LISP knowledge base for the flight status monitor was reimplemented using the intelligent knowledge-based system toolkit, MUSE, which was developed under RAE sponsorship. Details of the flight status monitor and the MUSE implementation are presented

Trouble at the top: The construction of a tenant identity in the governance of social housing organizations

The project of citizen governance has transformed the social housing sector in England where 20,000 tenants now sit as directors on the boards of housing associations, but the entrance of social housing tenants to the boardroom has aroused opposition from the chief executives of housing companies and triggered regulatory intervention from government inspectors. This paper investigates the cause of these tensions through a theoretical framework drawn from the work of feminist philosopher Judith Butler. It interprets housing governance as an identificatory project with the power to constitute tenant directors as regulated subjects, and presents evidence to suggest that this project of identity fails to completely enclose its subject, allowing tenant directors to engage in ‘identity work’ that threatens the supposed unity of the board. The paper charts the development of antagonism and political tension in the board rooms of housing companies to present an innovative account of the construction and contestation of identities in housing governance

Improving measurements of SF6 for the study of atmospheric transport and emissions

Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is a potent greenhouse gas and useful atmospheric tracer. Measurements of SF6 on global and regional scales are necessary to estimate emissions and to verify or examine the performance of atmospheric transport models. Typical precision for common gas chromatographic methods with electron capture detection (GC-ECD) is 1–2%. We have modified a common GC-ECD method to achieve measurement precision of 0.5% or better. Global mean SF6 measurements were used to examine changes in the growth rate of SF6 and corresponding SF6 emissions. Global emissions and mixing ratios from 2000–2008 are consistent with recently published work. More recent observations show a 10% decline in SF6 emissions in 2008–2009, which seems to coincide with a decrease in world economic output. This decline was short-lived, as the global SF6 growth rate has recently increased to near its 2007–2008 maximum value of 0.30±0.03 pmol mol−1 (ppt) yr−1 (95% C.L.)

Developmental changes in the germinability, desiccation tolerance, hardseededness, and longevity of individual seeds of Trifolium ambiguum

Background and Aims: Using two parental clones of outcrossing Trifolium ambiguum as a potential model system, we examined how during seed development the maternal parent, number of seeds per pod, seed position within the pod, and pod position within the inflorescence influenced individual seed fresh weight, dry weight, water content, germinability, desiccation tolerance, hardseededness, and subsequent longevity of individual seeds. Methods: Near simultaneous, manual reciprocal crosses were carried out between clonal lines for two experiments. Infructescences were harvested at intervals during seed development. Each individual seed was weighed and then used to determine dry weight or one of the physiological behaviour traits. Key Results: Whilst population mass maturity was reached at 33–36 days after pollination (DAP), seed-to-seed variation in maximum seed dry weight, when it was achieved, and when maturation drying commenced, was considerable. Individual seeds acquired germinability between 14 and 44 DAP, desiccation tolerance between 30 and 40 DAP, and the capability to become hardseeded between 30 and 47 DAP. The time for viability to fall to 50 % (p50) at 60 % relative humidity and 45 °C increased between 36 and 56 DAP, when the seed coats of most individuals had become dark orange, but declined thereafter. Individual seed f. wt at harvest did not correlate with air-dry storage survival period. Analysing survival data for cohorts of seeds reduced the standard deviation of the normal distribution of seed deaths in time, but no sub-population showed complete uniformity of survival period. Conclusions: Variation in individual seed behaviours within a developing population is inherent and inevitable. In this outbreeder, there is significant variation in seed longevity which appears dependent on embryo genotype with little effect of maternal genotype or architectural factors

A NASA/RAE cooperation in the development of a real-time knowledge-based autopilot

As part of a US/UK cooperative aeronautical research program, a joint activity between the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility and the Royal Aerospace Establishment on knowledge-based systems was established. This joint activity is concerned with tools and techniques for the implementation and validation of real-time knowledge-based systems. The proposed next stage of this research is described, in which some of the problems of implementing and validating a knowledge-based autopilot for a generic high-performance aircraft are investigated

The laboratory telerobotic manipulator program

New opportunities for the application of telerobotic systems to enhance human intelligence and dexterity in the hazardous environment of space are presented by the NASA Space Station Program. Because of the need for significant increases in extravehicular activity and the potential increase in hazards associated with space programs, emphasis is being heightened on telerobotic systems research and development. The Laboratory Telerobotic Manipulator (LTM) program is performed to develop and demonstrate ground-based telerobotic manipulator system hardware for research and demonstrations aimed at future NASA applications. The LTM incorporates traction drives, modularity, redundant kinematics, and state-of-the-art hierarchical control techniques to form a basis for merging the diverse technological domains of robust, high-dexterity teleoperations and autonomous robotic operation into common hardware to further NASA's research

The Planck Low Frequency Instrument

The Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) of the "Planck Surveyor" ESA mission will perform high-resolution imaging of the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies at four frequencies in the 30-100 GHz range. We review the LFI main scientific objectives, the current status of the instrument design and the on-going effort to develop software simulations of the LFI observations. In particular we discuss the design status of the PLANCK telescope, which is critical for reaching adequate effective angular resolution.Comment: 10 pages, Latex (use epsfig.sty); 4 Postscript figures; Astrophys. Lett & Comm, in press. Proc. of the Conference: "The Cosmic Microwave Background and the Planck Mission", Santander, Spain, 22-25 June 199