Orbiter based construction equipment

Many orbiter based activities need equipment to hold a payload steady while it is being worked on. This work may be construction, updating, repair, services, check out, or refueling operations in preparation for return to Earth. The Handling and Positioning Aid (HPA) is intended for use as general purpose equipment. The HPA provides a wide choice of work station positions, both immediately above the orbiter cargo bay and beyond. It can act in a primary docking role and, if required, can assist actively in the berthing process. From an analysis of ten reference missions, it was determined that two types of HPA mobility are needed; a tilt table, which simply swings out of the cargo bay, pivoting about an athwartships y axis, and an articulated arm. Illustration of the aid are provided

Living up to our students’ expectations – using student voice to influence the way academics think about their undergraduates learning and their own teaching

Understanding the student learning experience is essential if Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are to provide an education for the 21st century. This study investigated students’ perspectives on their learning experiences and offered undergraduates a chance to influence the way academics think about learning and teaching.Participants were drawn from two UK HEIs and a semi structured focus group approach was adopted. A total of nine focus groups consisting of 3-7 participants were drawn from across all Sport degree year groups in both institutions. Assessment, pedagogy and teacher characteristics emerged as primary concerns across both institutions. Assessment was appreciated by all students as key to their learning but was exposed as being overly traditional and rigid in its application. Students were unanimous in their support for small group pedagogies, rejecting traditional powerpoint dominated lecturing styles. The emphasis on the behaviour of, and delivery by, tutors was noteworthy.Students appraised the development of their academic skills and confidence, linking these to motivation, knowledge, self-awareness and critical reflection. In doing so they understood the impact of inconsistencies in tutors’ teaching practices. The onus is on every tutor to combine imaginative assessment with dynamic and relational experiences in order to provide a strong foundation for flexible, reflective and creative graduates

Apollo PLSS: Environmental control of the smallest manned space vehicle

The production of a portable life support system (PLSS) and associated backup equipment for supporting an astronaut working outside of the lunar module (LM) either in space or on the lunar surface is reported. Described are the system, the philosophy behind its design, basic requirements imposed on the system, and some of the evolutionary processes that led to the present configuration

Analysis of a communication satellite for lunar far-side exploration

Analysis of communication satellite for lunar far-side exploration relaying color television, voice, high-bit-rate telemetry data, and ranging code from command and service, and lunar module

Quality Risk and Profitability in Cattle Production: A Multivariate Approach

This study evaluates quality, production, and price risk within the context of overall profit variability in fed cattle production. The approach used offers a flexible way to estimate a large system of equations with more than three jointly related censored outcomes. Trade-offs between quality and yield grade levels and production measures, such as average daily gain and feeding efficiency, are evaluated. Simulation procedures are used to assess the impact of quality risk on overall profit variability. Results make an important contribution to existing research by explaining why price signals through grid quality grade premiums may not generate intended producer responses.censoring, copula, fed cattle, grid pricing, multivariate, quality risk, Livestock Production/Industries,

Smarter choices ?changing the way we travel. Case study reports

This report accompanies the following volume:Cairns S, Sloman L, Newson C, Anable J, Kirkbride A and Goodwin P (2004)Smarter Choices ? Changing the Way We Travel. Report published by theDepartment for Transport, London, available via the ?Sustainable Travel? section ofwww.dft.gov.uk, and from http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00001224/

Smarter choices - changing the way we travel

Summary: In recent years, there has been growing interest in a range of initiatives, which are now widelydescribed as 'soft' transport policy measures. These seek to give better information and opportunities,aimed at helping people to choose to reduce their car use while enhancing the attractiveness ofalternatives. They are fairly new as part of mainstream transport policy, mostly relativelyuncontroversial, and often popular. They include:. Workplace and school travel plans;. Personalised travel planning, travel awareness campaigns, and public transport information andmarketing;. Car clubs and car sharing schemes;. Teleworking, teleconferencing and home shopping.This report draws on earlier studies of the impact of soft measures, new evidence from the UK andabroad, case study interviews relating to 24 specific initiatives, and the experience of commercial,public and voluntary stakeholders involved in organising such schemes. Each of the soft factors isanalysed separately, followed by an assessment of their combined potential impact.The assessment focuses on two different policy scenarios for the next ten years. The 'high intensity'scenario identifies the potential provided by a significant expansion of activity to a much morewidespread implementation of present good practice, albeit to a realistic level which still recognisesthe constraints of money and other resources, and variation in the suitability and effectiveness of softfactors according to local circumstances. The 'low intensity' scenario is broadly defined as aprojection of the present (2003-4) levels of local and national activity on soft measures.The main features of the high intensity scenario would be. A reduction in peak period urban traffic of about 21% (off-peak 13%);. A reduction of peak period non-urban traffic of about 14% (off-peak 7%);. A nationwide reduction in all traffic of about 11%.These projected changes in traffic levels are quite large (though consistent with other evidence onbehavioural change at the individual level), and would produce substantial reductions in congestion.However, this would tend to attract more car use, by other people, which could offset the impact ofthose who reduce their car use unless there are measures in place to prevent this. Therefore, thoseexperienced in the implementation of soft factors locally usually emphasise that success depends onsome or all of such supportive policies as re-allocation of road capacity and other measures toimprove public transport service levels, parking control, traffic calming, pedestrianisation, cyclenetworks, congestion charging or other traffic restraint, other use of transport prices and fares, speedregulation, or stronger legal enforcement levels. The report also records a number of suggestionsabout local and national policy measures that could facilitate the expansion of soft measures.The effects of the low intensity scenario, in which soft factors are not given increased policy prioritycompared with present practice, are estimated to be considerably less than those of the high intensityscenario, including a reduction in peak period urban traffic of about 5%, and a nationwide reductionin all traffic of 2%-3%. These smaller figures also assume that sufficient other supporting policies areused to prevent induced traffic from eroding the effects, notably at peak periods and in congestedconditions. Without these supportive measures, the effects could be lower, temporary, and perhapsinvisible.Previous advice given by the Department for Transport in relation to multi-modal studies was that softfactors might achieve a nationwide traffic reduction of about 5%. The policy assumptionsunderpinning this advice were similar to those used in our low intensity scenario: our estimate isslightly less, but the difference is probably within the range of error of such projections.The public expenditure cost of achieving reduced car use by soft measures, on average, is estimated atabout 1.5 pence per car kilometre, i.e. £15 for removing each 1000 vehicle kilometres of traffic.Current official practice calculates the benefit of reduced traffic congestion, on average, to be about15p per car kilometre removed, and more than three times this level in congested urban conditions.Thus every £1 spent on well-designed soft measures could bring about £10 of benefit in reducedcongestion alone, more in the most congested conditions, and with further potential gains fromenvironmental improvements and other effects, provided that the tendency of induced traffic to erodesuch benefits is controlled. There are also opportunities for private business expenditure on some softmeasures, which can result in offsetting cost savings.Much of the experience of implementing soft factors is recent, and the evidence is of variable quality.Therefore, there are inevitably uncertainties in the results. With this caveat, the main conclusion isthat, provided they are implemented within a supportive policy context, soft measures can besufficiently effective in facilitating choices to reduce car use, and offer sufficiently good value formoney, that they merit serious consideration for an expanded role in local and national transportstrategy.AcknowledgementsWe gratefully acknowledge the many contributions made by organisations and individuals consultedas part of the research, and by the authors of previous studies and literature reviews which we havecited. Specific acknowledgements are given at the end of each chapter.We have made extensive use of our own previous work including research by Lynn Sloman funded bythe Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 on the traffic impact of soft factors and localtransport schemes (in part previously published as 'Less Traffic Where People Live'); and by SallyCairns and Phil Goodwin as part of the research programme of TSU supported by the Economic andSocial Research Council, and particularly research on school and workplace travel plans funded bythe DfT (and managed by Transport 2000 Trust), on car dependence funded by the RAC Foundation,on travel demand analysis funded by DfT and its predecessors, and on home shopping funded byEUCAR. Case studies to accompany this report are available at: http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00001233

Measurement of the half-life of 198Au in a non-metal: High-precision measurement shows no host-material dependence

We have measured the half-life of the beta decay of 198Au to be 2.6948(9) d, with the nuclide sited in an insulating environment. Comparing this result with the half-life we measured previously with a metallic environment, we find the half-lives in both environments to be the same within 0.04%, thus contradicting a prediction that screening from a "plasma" of quasi-free electrons in a metal increases the half-life by as much as 7%

Metastable states of a ferromagnet on random thin graphs

We calculate the mean number of metastable states of an Ising ferromagnet on random thin graphs of fixed connectivity c. We find, as for mean field spin glasses that this mean increases exponentially with the number of sites, and is the same as that calculated for the +/- J spin glass on the same graphs. An annealed calculation of the number <N_{MS}(E)> of metastable states of energy E is carried out. For small c, an analytic result is obtained. The result is compared with the one obtained for spin glasses in order to discuss the role played by loops on thin graphs and hence the effect of real frustration on the distribution of metastable states.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Kinetic energy functional for Fermi vapors in spherical harmonic confinement

Two equations are constructed which reflect, for fermions moving independently in a spherical harmonic potential, a differential virial theorem and a relation between the turning points of kinetic energy and particle densities. These equations are used to derive a differential equation for the particle density and a non-local kinetic energy functional.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure