Regulation and technology innovation: A comparison of stated and formal regulatory barriers throughout the technology innovation process

Regulation is often mentioned as a barrier to technology innovation in various industries. Delayed market entry, stifled creativity, added activities and resource requirements are some frequently mentioned barriers. The study presented here explored various claims of regulation acting as a barrier to technology innovation. The findings suggest that formal statutory requirements only partly explain why regulation is perceived as a technology innovation barrier. Findings further indicate several discrepancies between stated and formal regulatory barriers and suggest that the majority of the stated barriers emerge within the organization during operationalization and the technology innovation process

The Orion Microsatellite Mission: A Testbed for Command, Control, and Communications for Formation Fleets

The Orion microsatellite, under development at Stanford University, will fly along with two other Stanford satellites (“Emeralds”) as part of a NASA-funded project. The primary objective is to demonstrate, for the first time, the use of carrier-phase differential GPS (CDGPS) for the relative sensing, navigation and coordinated control of satellites to form a virtual spacecraft bus. Launch of this mission has been tentatively scheduled for late 2001. Formation flying offers an exciting new approach to conducting space science missions. Instead of employing a single, large satellite, a fleet of similar, smaller spacecraft is coordinated to perform mission-related tasks. While formation flying architectures have a significant amount of operational flexibility, the internal system complexity increases with the number of satellites in the fleet. In addition, constraints on satellite resources play a particularly key role. This paper is a summary of work conducted at Stanford to investigate the influence of resource constraints on mission and current-task planning. By making efficient use of knowledge associated with mission goals and operations, optimal strategies can be used to increase fleet life-cycle performance. In addition to discussing this topic, the role of the Orion mission as a testbed for these concepts is included

Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Plates Under Ambient and Cryogenic Conditions

Methods for structural health monitoring are now being assessed, especially in high-performance, extreme environment, safety-critical applications. One such application is for composite cryogenic fuel tanks. The work presented here attempts to characterize and investigate the feasibility of using imbedded piezoelectric sensors to detect cracks and delaminations under cryogenic and ambient conditions. Different types of excitation and response signals and different sensors are employed in composite plate samples to aid in determining an optimal algorithm, sensor placement strategy, and type of imbedded sensor to use. Variations of frequency and high frequency chirps of the sensors are employed and compared. Statistical and analytic techniques are then used to determine which method is most desirable for a specific type of damage and operating environment. These results are furthermore compared with previous work using externally mounted sensors. More work is needed to accurately account for changes in temperature seen in these environments and be statistically significant. Sensor development and placement strategy are other areas of further work to make structural health monitoring more robust. Results from this and other work might then be incorporated into a larger composite structure to validate and assess its structural health. This could prove to be important in the development and qualification of any 2nd generation reusable launch vehicle using composites as a structural element

Using a Merit-Based Scholarship Program to Increase Rates of College Enrollment in an Urban School District: The Case of the Pittsburgh Promise

The Pittsburgh Promise is a scholarship program that provides $5,000 per year toward college tuition for public high school graduates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who earned a 2.5 GPA and a 90% attendance record. This study used a difference-in-difference design to assess whether the introduction of the Promise scholarship program directly influenced changes in rates of college enrollment among students graduating from Pittsburgh public high schools in years immediately following the launch of the program. Becker’s (1964) standard human capital investment model, which predicts that youth make cost-benefit calculations to guide their college enrollment decisions, provides the framework for the analysis. Our analysis of data on two graduating classes prior to the scholarship’s implementation (2005-06 and 2006-07) and three years following the scholarship’s implementation (2007-08, 2008-09, and 2009-10) yielded mixed results. Findings showed that the scholarship had no direct effect on the overall rate of college enrollment. However, scholarship-eligible graduates were more likely to attend four-year schools in the years in which the scholarship was available

The Orion Microsatellite: A Demonstration of Formation Flying In Orbit

The Orion microsatellite project is funded by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The goals of the project are to demonstrate determination of position and attitude of spacecraft in a formation using carrier phase differential GPS, and closed loop autonomous control of the formation. The mission is designed so it can be performed with a constellation of three or more Orion spacecraft, or a constellation of one Orion spacecraft and the Emerald spacecraft. The spacecraft are designed and built by the Formation Flying Laboratory and the Space Systems Development Laboratory, both at Stanford. The Orion spacecraft will build on the heritage of prior Stanford satellites: Sapphire and Opal. The bus will be cube shaped, 0.5 meters on the side. The command and data handler is the SpaceQuest CPU, based on the NEC V-53 microprocessor. In addition there will be another StrongARM based CPU performing mission specific, CPU intensive calculations. This second CPU could be combined with the GPS computer. The Orion spacecraft will use a cold-gas propulsion system, using Nitrogen gas. The onboard propellant will provide 40 mls delta V. Kiraly, Engberg, Busse, Prof. Twiggs and How Magnetic torquer coils will be used for detumbling after deployment. The subsystems will be connected using an 12C serial data bus. The GPS receiver and computer is in development at Stanford. A single Orion spacecraft is slated to fly with the University Nanosatellite mission

Piezoelectric Sensor Evaluation for Structural Health Monitoring of Cryogenic Structures

This viewgraph presentation provides an overview of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), and profiles piezoelectric sensors useful for SHM of cryogenic structures. The presentation also profiles impedance tests and other SHM tests conducted at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)

Cerebrospinal fluid kynurenine and kynurenic acid concentrations are associated with coma duration and long-term neurocognitive impairment in Ugandan children with cerebral malaria

Background: One-fourth of children with cerebral malaria (CM) retain cognitive sequelae up to 2 years after acute disease. The kynurenine pathway of the brain, forming neuroactive metabolites, e.g. the NMDA-receptor antagonist kynurenic acid (KYNA), has been implicated in long-term cognitive dysfunction in other CNS infections. In the present study, the association between the kynurenine pathway and neurologic/cognitive complications in children with CM was investigated. Methods: Cerebrospinal fuid (CSF) concentrations of KYNA and its precursor kynurenine in 69 Ugandan children admitted for CM to Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda, between 2008 and 2013 were assessed. CSF kynurenine and KYNA were compared to CSF cytokine levels, acute and long-term neurologic complications, and long-term cogni‑ tive impairments. CSF kynurenine and KYNA from eight Swedish children without neurological or infectious disease admitted to Astrid Lindgren’s Children’s Hospital were quantifed and used for comparison. Results: Children with CM had signifcantly higher CSF concentration of kynurenine and KYNA than Swedish children (P \u3c 0.0001 for both), and CSF kynurenine and KYNA were positively correlated. In children with CM, CSF kynurenine and KYNA concentrations were associated with coma duration in children of all ages (P = 0.003 and 0.04, respec‑ tively), and CSF kynurenine concentrations were associated with worse overall cognition (P = 0.056) and attention (P = 0.003) at 12-month follow-up in children ≥5 years old. Conclusions: CSF KYNA and kynurenine are elevated in children with CM, indicating an inhibition of glutamatergic and cholinergic signaling. This inhibition may lead acutely to prolonged coma and long-term to impairment of atten‑ tion and cognition

Changing practice in dementia care in the community: developing and testing evidence-based interventions, from timely diagnosis to end of life (EVIDEM)

Background Dementia has an enormous impact on the lives of individuals and families, and on health and social services, and this will increase as the population ages. The needs of people with dementia and their carers for information and support are inadequately addressed at all key points in the illness trajectory. Methods The Unit is working specifically on an evaluation of the impact of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and will develop practice guidance to enhance concordance with the Act. Phase One of the study has involved baseline interviews with practitioners across a wide range of services to establish knowledge and expectations of the Act, and to consider change processes when new policy and legislation are implemented. Findings Phase 1, involving baseline interviews with 115 practitioners, identified variable knowledge and understanding about the principles of the Act. Phase 2 is exploring everyday decision-making by people with memory problems and their carers

Antimicrobial Resistance among Campylobacter Strains, United States, 1997–2001

We summarize antimicrobial resistance surveillance data in human and chicken isolates of Campylobacter. Isolates were from a sentinel county study from 1989 through 1990 and from nine state health departments participating in National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System for enteric bacteria (NARMS) from 1997 through 2001. None of the 297 C. jejuni or C. coli isolates tested from 1989 through 1990 was ciprofloxacin-resistant. From 1997 through 2001, a total of 1,553 human Campylobacter isolates were characterized: 1,471 (95%) were C. jejuni, 63 (4%) were C. coli, and 19 (1%) were other Campylobacter species. The prevalence of ciprofloxacin-resistant Campylobacter was 13% (28 of 217) in 1997 and 19% (75 of 384) in 2001; erythromycin resistance was 2% (4 of 217) in 1997 and 2% (8 of 384) in 2001. Ciprofloxacin-resistant Campylobacter was isolated from 10% of 180 chicken products purchased from grocery stores in three states in 1999. Ciprofloxacin resistance has emerged among Campylobacter since 1990 and has increased in prevalence since 1997