Ku-Band rendezvous radar performance computer simulation model

All work performed on the Ku-band rendezvous radar performance computer simulation model program since the release of the preliminary final report is summarized. Developments on the program fall into three distinct categories: (1) modifications to the existing Ku-band radar tracking performance computer model; (2) the addition of a highly accurate, nonrealtime search and acquisition performance computer model to the total software package developed on this program; and (3) development of radar cross section (RCS) computation models for three additional satellites. All changes in the tracking model involved improvements in the automatic gain control (AGC) and the radar signal strength (RSS) computer models. Although the search and acquisition computer models were developed under the auspices of the Hughes Aircraft Company Ku-Band Integrated Radar and Communications Subsystem program office, they have been supplied to NASA as part of the Ku-band radar performance comuter model package. Their purpose is to predict Ku-band acquisition performance for specific satellite targets on specific missions. The RCS models were developed for three satellites: the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) spacecraft, the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) spacecraft, and the Space Telescopes

Transition from Health Maintenance Organizations to Consumer Driven Health Plans: Measurement of Initial Impacts for Members with Chronic Conditions

New consumer driven health insurance products are designed to contain health care costs by making consumers more accountable for the care they receive through being responsible for more cost sharing, making decisions regarding health care providers they will use, and increasing exposure to and use of health information for services and providers. Potential benefits of consumer driven products include increased information regarding personal health and a more knowledgeable patient base. Potential drawbacks of consumer driven products include negative impacts on consumers with chronic and complex health conditions. The purpose of this study was to ascertain differences in health services utilization and health status for health plan members with diagnoses that are consistent with heart failure, coronary artery disease and/or diabetes mellitus who make the transition from a health plan Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) to a Consumer Driven Health Plan (CDHP). Health plan members who changed plans were compared to those who remained in the HMO during a one year time period (2006). Utilization measures included primary care physician visits, specialist physician visits, inpatient admissions, outpatient procedures and emergency room visits. Health status was measured by member acuity risk scores. Selection bias was partially controlled by including only members who did not have a choice between an HMO or CDHP in the study. Logistic analysis and MANOVA were used to obtain study results. No statistically significant differences in utilization for members in the CDHP were seen for primary care visits, specialist physician visits, inpatient admissions and emergency room visits when compared to members in the HMO. Controlling for age, gender, income level, physician coinsurance levels and acuity, the utilization of outpatient procedures was significantly lower in the CDHP. The independent variable showing significance for all utilization analyses was the 2006 risk score that was used as a proxy for member acuity. Study results for comparison of changes in health status could not be obtained due irregularity in predicted 2007 risk scores for members in the CDHP. In this initial study of the first year of CDHP experience, benefit design seemed to have limited influence on the behavior of individuals. Future studies may include longitudinal analyses and refinement of risk measurement techniques

A comparison of June and September seventh-grade scores on individual items of the Metropolitan Achievement Test.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Swath Mapping on the Continental Shelf and Slope: The Eel River Basin, Northern California

First Paragraph The STRATAFORM program sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (Nittrouer and Kravitz, 1996, this issue) seeks to understand how sedimentary processes lead to the formation of the stratigraphic sequences on continental margins. A central challenge facing this effort is to understand the transport of sediments in shore-parallel as well as shore-perpendicular directions• Multidimensionality is necessary to describe, for example, the accumulation of sediments from river inputs, the distribution of gullies and canyons on the slope, the meandering of channels, and the structure of slumps and slides

Geological investigation of palaeotsunamis in the Samoan islands: interim report and research directions

The Komandorsky seismic gap has distinctive boundaries and a length of 650 km. Its period of “seismic silence” comes close to the maximum recurrence interval for great earthquakes in the Aleutian Island Arc - the stress concentration here probably having reached the critical value. So,estimation of possible earthquake and tsunami characteristics within this gap becomes a significant problem. The closest analog of a similar gap is the area where the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman catastrophic event occurred. Thus, for the present study we used the same modeling scheme as we used for that event. It was assumed that a source length of 650 km, consisting of 9 blocks, and an earthquake with a moment magnitude MW=8.5. Several block motion scenarios were considered. The tsunami generation and propagation in the Pacific Ocean and the possible wave characteristics on near and far-field coasts were estimated. Modeling of such an event showed that the wave heights on different Pacific coasts will vary from 3 to 9 meters. A tsunami wave with a 9-meter height is capable in causing significant loss of human life and economic damage.© 2013, Tsunami Society International

Environmental impacts during geothermal development: Some examples from Central America

The impacts of geothermal development projects are usually positive. However, without appropriate monitoring plans and mitigation actions firmly incorporated into the project planning process, there exists the potential for significant negative environmental impacts. The authors present five examples from Central America of environmental impacts associated with geothermal development activities. These brief case studies describe landslide hazards, waste brine disposal, hydrothermal explosions, and air quality issues. Improved Environmental Impact Assessments are needed to assist the developing nations of the region to judiciously address the environmental consequences associated with geothermal development

Cross-Modal Health State Estimation

Individuals create and consume more diverse data about themselves today than any time in history. Sources of this data include wearable devices, images, social media, geospatial information and more. A tremendous opportunity rests within cross-modal data analysis that leverages existing domain knowledge methods to understand and guide human health. Especially in chronic diseases, current medical practice uses a combination of sparse hospital based biological metrics (blood tests, expensive imaging, etc.) to understand the evolving health status of an individual. Future health systems must integrate data created at the individual level to better understand health status perpetually, especially in a cybernetic framework. In this work we fuse multiple user created and open source data streams along with established biomedical domain knowledge to give two types of quantitative state estimates of cardiovascular health. First, we use wearable devices to calculate cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), a known quantitative leading predictor of heart disease which is not routinely collected in clinical settings. Second, we estimate inherent genetic traits, living environmental risks, circadian rhythm, and biological metrics from a diverse dataset. Our experimental results on 24 subjects demonstrate how multi-modal data can provide personalized health insight. Understanding the dynamic nature of health status will pave the way for better health based recommendation engines, better clinical decision making and positive lifestyle changes.Comment: Accepted to ACM Multimedia 2018 Conference - Brave New Ideas, Seoul, Korea, ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-5665-7/18/1