NASA JSC neural network survey results

A survey of Artificial Neural Systems in support of NASA's (Johnson Space Center) Automatic Perception for Mission Planning and Flight Control Research Program was conducted. Several of the world's leading researchers contributed papers containing their most recent results on artificial neural systems. These papers were broken into categories and descriptive accounts of the results make up a large part of this report. Also included is material on sources of information on artificial neural systems such as books, technical reports, software tools, etc

Space shuttle main engine fault detection using neural networks

A method for on-line Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) anomaly detection and fault typing using a feedback neural network is described. The method involves the computation of features representing time-variance of SSME sensor parameters, using historical test case data. The network is trained, using backpropagation, to recognize a set of fault cases. The network is then able to diagnose new fault cases correctly. An essential element of the training technique is the inclusion of randomly generated data along with the real data, in order to span the entire input space of potential non-nominal data

Hybrid Thermo-Electrochemical In Situ Instrumentation for Lithium-Ion Energy Storage

Current “state‐of‐the‐art” monitoring and control techniques for lithium‐ion cells rely on full‐cell potential measurement and occasional surface temperature measurements. However, Li‐ion cells are complex multi‐layer devices and as such these techniques have poor resolution, limiting applicability. In this work we develop hybrid thermo‐electrochemical sensing arrays placed within the cell. The arrays are integrated into A5 pouch cells during manufacture and are used to create thermal maps in parallel with anode and cathode electrochemical data. The sensor array can be adapted to a range of cell formats and chemistries and installed into commercial or other industrially relevant cells, incorporating enhanced thermal and electrochemical diagnostic capability into a standard cell build

Fiction Fix 07

https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/fiction_fix/1006/thumbnail.jp

Anthropometric factors and ovarian cancer risk: a systematic review and nonlinear dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies

In the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research report from 2007 the evidence relating body fatness to ovarian cancer risk was considered inconclusive, while the evidence supported a probably causal relationship between adult attained height and increased risk. Several additional cohort studies have since been published, and therefore we conducted an updated meta-analysis of the evidence as part of the Continuous Update Project. We searched PubMed and several other databases up to December 2013. Summary relative risks (RRs) were calculated using a random effects model. The summary relative risk for a 5 unit increment in BMI was 1.07 (95% CI: 1.02-1.11, I2=53%, n=26 studies). There was evidence of a nonlinear association, pnonlinearity<0.0001, with risk increasing significantly from BMI~28 and above. The summary RR per 5 unit increase in BMI in early adulthood was 1.12 (95% CI: 1.05-1.20, I2=0%, pheterogeneity=0.54, n=6), per 5 kg increase in body weight was 1.03 (95% CI: 1.02-1.05, I2=0%, n=4) and per 10 cm increase in waist circumference was 1.06 (95% CI: 1.00-1.12, I2=0%, n=6). No association was found for weight gain, hip circumference or waist-to-hip ratio. The summary RR per 10 cm increase in height was 1.16 (95% CI: 1.11-1.21, I2=32%, n=16). In conclusion, greater body fatness as measured by body mass index and weight are positively associated risk of ovarian cancer, and in addition, greater height is associated with increased risk. Further studies are needed to clarify whether abdominal fatness and weight gain is associated with risk

Access to Artemisinin-Based Anti-Malarial Treatment and its Related Factors in Rural Tanzania.

Artemisinin-based combination treatment (ACT) has been widely adopted as one of the main malaria control strategies. However, its promise to save thousands of lives in sub-Saharan Africa depends on how effective the use of ACT is within the routine health system. The INESS platform evaluated effective coverage of ACT in several African countries. Timely access within 24 hours to an authorized ACT outlet is one of the determinants of effective coverage and was assessed for artemether-lumefantrine (Alu), in two district health systems in rural Tanzania. From October 2009 to June 2011we conducted continuous rolling household surveys in the Kilombero-Ulanga and the Rufiji Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites (HDSS). Surveys were linked to the routine HDSS update rounds. Members of randomly pre-selected households that had experienced a fever episode in the previous two weeks were eligible for a structured interview. Data on individual treatment seeking, access to treatment, timing, source of treatment and household costs per episode were collected. Data are presented on timely access from a total of 2,112 interviews in relation to demographics, seasonality, and socio economic status. In Kilombero-Ulanga, 41.8% (CI: 36.6-45.1) and in Rufiji 36.8% (33.7-40.1) of fever cases had access to an authorized ACT provider within 24 hours of fever onset. In neither of the HDSS site was age, sex, socio-economic status or seasonality of malaria found to be significantly correlated with timely access. Timely access to authorized ACT providers is below 50% despite interventions intended to improve access such as social marketing and accreditation of private dispensing outlets. To improve prompt diagnosis and treatment, access remains a major bottle neck and new more innovative interventions are needed to raise effective coverage of malaria treatment in Tanzania

Cosmic spherules from Widerøefjellet, Sør Rondane Mountains (East Antarctica)

A newly discovered sedimentary accumulation of micrometeorites in the Sør Rondane Mountains of East Antarctica, close to the Widerøefjellet summit at ~2750 meter above sea level, is characterized in this work. The focus here lies on 2099 melted cosmic spherules larger than 200 μm, extracted from 3.2 kg of sampled sediment. Although the Widerøefjellet deposit shares similarities to the micrometeorite traps encountered in the Transantarctic Mountains, both subtle and more distinct differences in the physicochemical properties of the retrieved extraterrestrial particles and sedimentary host deposits are discernable (e.g., types of bedrock, degree of wind exposure, abundance of metal-rich particles). Unlike the Frontier Mountain and Miller Butte sedimentary traps, the size fraction below 240 μm indicates some degree of sorting at Widerøefjellet, potentially through the redistribution by wind, preferential alteration of smaller particles, or processing biases. However, the cosmic spherules larger than 300 μm appear largely unbiased following their size distribution, frequency by textural type, and bulk chemical compositions. Based on the available bedrock exposure ages for the Sør Rondane Mountains, extraterrestrial dust is estimated to have accumulated over a time span of ~1 to 3 Ma at Widerøefjellet. Consequently, the Widerøefjellet collection reflects a substantial reservoir to sample the micrometeorite influx over this time interval. Petrographic observations and 3D microscopic CT imaging are combined with chemical and triple-oxygen isotopic analyses of silicate-rich cosmic spherules larger than 325 μm. The major element composition of 49 cosmic spherules confirms their principally chondritic parentage. For 18 glassy, 15 barred olivine, and 11 cryptocrystalline cosmic spherules, trace element concentrations are also reported on. Based on comparison with evaporation experiments reported in literature and accounting for siderophile and chalcophile element losses during high-density phase segregation and ejection, the observed compositional sequence largely reflects progressive heating and evaporation during atmospheric passage accompanied by significant redox shifts, although the influence of (refractory) chondrite mineral constituents and terrestrial alteration cannot be excluded in all cases. Twenty-eight cosmic spherules larger than 325 μm analyzed for triple-oxygen isotope ratios confirm inheritance from mostly carbonaceous chondritic precursor materials (~55% of the particles). Yet, ~30% of the measured cosmic spherules and ~50% of all glassy cosmic spherules are characterized by oxygen isotope ratios above the terrestrial fractionation line, implying genetic links to ordinary chondrites and parent bodies currently unsampled by meteorites. The structural, textural, chemical, and isotopic characteristics of the cosmic spherules from the Sør Rondane Mountains, and particularly the high proportion of Mg-rich glass particles contained therein, imply a well-preserved and representative new sedimentary micrometeorite collection from a previously unstudied region in East Antarctica characterized by distinct geological and exposure histories

In search of green political economy: steering markets, innovation and the case of the zero carbon homes agenda in England

Advocates of a democratic ‘Green state’ challenge Hayekian free-market environmentalist proposals for a minimal state and the emphasis of ecological modernisation discourses on technological innovation as the primary route towards ecological sustainability. However, these more strongly pro-market traditions raise important questions and provide useful insights concerning the challenges of translating the political ideology of ‘ecologism’ into practical proposals for democratic governance. Hayekian thought raises vital questions concerning the capacity of political processes to address complex challenges of coordinating the formulation and delivery of the sustainability objectives of ecologism. Scholarship on ecological modernisation and the ‘new regulation’ offer important insights into how shifting interrelationships between the state and private sector in the policy process might enable this challenge to be more effectively addressed. These areas for further developing proposals for a Green state are illustrated here through a case study of the zero carbon homes policy agenda in England

Governance, Coordination and Evaluation: the case for an epistemological focus and a return to C.E. Lindblom

While much political science research focuses on conceptualizing and analyzing various forms of governance, there remains a need to develop frameworks and criteria for governance evaluation (Torfing et al 2012). The post-positivist turn, influential in recent governance theory, emphasizes the complexity, uncertainty and the contested normative dimensions of policy analysis. Yet a central evaluative question still arises concerning the capacity of governance networks to facilitate ‘coordination’. The classic contributions of Charles Lindblom, although pre-dating the contemporary governance literature, can enable further elaboration of and engagement with this question. Lindblom’s conceptualisation of coordination challenges in the face of complexity shares with post-positivism a recognition of the inevitably contested nature of policy goals. Yet Lindblom suggests a closer focus on the complex, dynamically evolving, broadly ‘economic’ choices and trade-offs involved in defining and delivery policy for enabling these goals to be achieved and the significant epistemological challenges that they raise for policy-makers. This focus can complement and enrich both post-positivist scholarship and the process and incentives-orientated approaches which predominate in contemporary political science research on coordination in governance. This is briefly illustrated through a short case study evaluating governance for steering markets towards delivering low and zero carbon homes in England