Operational concepts for selected Sortie missions: Executive summary

An executive summary is presented of a Spacelab concept study conducted from August 1973 to June 1974. Background information and a summary of study conclusions are given. Specific data are reported for the quick-reaction carrier concept, software and mission integration, configuration management, documentation, equipment pool, and integration alternatives. A forecast of the impact of a second launch site, mission feasibility, and space availability for the Spacelab are also discussed

The Conference on World Affairs Archive Online: Digitization and Metadata for a Digital Audio Pilot

The University of Colorado Archives holds a substantial collection of audio recordings from the Conference on World Affairs (CWA), held annually at the University since 1948. Recordings of Conference sessions from the 1950s to the present comprise approximately 8,000 hours of material on reel-to-reel, cassette, and audio-only VHS tapes. In 2009 the Archives, along with other units of the CU Libraries and the offices of the CWA, began the pilot phase of a project to digitize these materials to make them accessible to the public. Between December 2009 and March 2010, the pilot produced 80 digitized recordings, with 15 receiving full metadata provision and presentation in the CU Digital Library in time for the 2010 Conference on 05 April. This paper describes the history and significance of the Conference and the collection; the project team; the planning and funding of the pilot; physical characteristics of the collection; the digitization rationale, specifications and process; metadata design and creation; and delivery of the content to the public

Application Of A Large Computerized Ground System To Shuttle Payload Software Intergration

A concept for the integration of Shuttle experiment/ payload software is proposed. A key element in this software integration process is the Launch Processing System (LPS), being developed by NASA/ KSC. The concept uses the Sortie Lab as a representative experiment carrier. This concept permits the installation and checkout of experiment software prior to hardware installation onto experiment carriers. In addition it assures software compatibility, prior to payload installation, between the various elements, i.e., experiments, carriers, orbiter, and ground support system software

Discrete Accidental Symmetry for a Particle in a Constant Magnetic Field on a Torus

A classical particle in a constant magnetic field undergoes cyclotron motion on a circular orbit. At the quantum level, the fact that all classical orbits are closed gives rise to degeneracies in the spectrum. It is well-known that the spectrum of a charged particle in a constant magnetic field consists of infinitely degenerate Landau levels. Just as for the $1/r$ and $r^2$ potentials, one thus expects some hidden accidental symmetry, in this case with infinite-dimensional representations. Indeed, the position of the center of the cyclotron circle plays the role of a Runge-Lenz vector. After identifying the corresponding accidental symmetry algebra, we re-analyze the system in a finite periodic volume. Interestingly, similar to the quantum mechanical breaking of CP invariance due to the $\theta$-vacuum angle in non-Abelian gauge theories, quantum effects due to two self-adjoint extension parameters $\theta_x$ and $\theta_y$ explicitly break the continuous translation invariance of the classical theory. This reduces the symmetry to a discrete magnetic translation group and leads to finite degeneracy. Similar to a particle moving on a cone, a particle in a constant magnetic field shows a very peculiar realization of accidental symmetry in quantum mechanics.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figure

dh+CU: Future Directions for Digital Humanities at CU Boulder

Digital Humanities (DH) work harnesses digital technologies to disseminate, analyze and synthesize information in new and innovative ways, often to answer humanistic questions, and may make use of tools like visualization, text mining and statistical tools. The Libraries’ Digital Humanities Task Force was formed to investigate and report on DH activities and needs on campus and formulate recommendations for how the Libraries might help support these needs in tandem with campus partners. We take a broad view of DH and were as inclusive as possible in all of these activities – the disciplinary affiliation of the scholar engaging in these activities (humanities, social sciences or sciences) is irrelevant. In this context, DH is not a circumscribed concept but rather a broad set of methodologies and approaches that loom large in the realm of support and participation libraries and their staff can offer to users undertaking digital scholarship. The Task Force undertook several major activities to meet these goals. Among them are: an investigation of library-associated DH initiatives at other institutions; an environmental scan of campus facilities and services; a campus-wide survey (345 responses); in-depth interviews with 20 faculty, graduate students and other campus researchers; additional interviews with those involved in external DH initiatives; and presentations and feedback during the DH symposium and workshop held in August 2013. Our research showed that DH work was of broad interest to graduate students and faculty on campus across disciplinary boundaries

Revealing Our Melting Past: Rescuing Historical Snow and Ice Data

Analog archival data can supplement modern digital research, but only if those data are preserved, described, and migrated to appropriate formats. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) is responsible for managing, archiving, and disseminating cryospheric and polar data. The clear majority of these data are digital, but the NSIDC also houses a collection of historical archival materials that include measurements related to the earth\u27s glaciated regions prior to the development of modern instrumentation. Their formats, however, are not conducive to contemporary analysis, rendering them ostensibly “lost” to research. This paper describes a series of efforts to provide access to these collections that date back to their original acquisition, as long ago as the mid-nineteenth century, with focus primarily on activities over the last 15 years. The most recent effort was funded by the Council on Library & Information Resources and won the 2016 International Data Rescue Award. The intent is to highlight key challenges, and our proposed own solutions to those challenges, in designing a digitization project centered on providing online access to analog data in glaciological, geomorphological, and related research

Digital Collections Are a Sprint, Not a Marathon: Adapting Scrum Project Management Techniques to Library Digital Initiatives

This article describes a case study in which a small team from the digital initiatives group and metadata services department at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder) Libraries conducted a pilot of the Scrum project management framework. The pilot team organized digital initiatives work into short, fixed intervals called sprints—a key component of Scrum. Over a year of working in the modified framework yielded significant improvements to digital collection work, including increased production of digital objects and surrogate records, accelerated publication of digital collections, and an increase in the number of concurrent projects. Adoption of sprints has improved communication and cooperation among participants, reinforced teamwork, and enhanced their ability to adapt to shifting priorities