Establishing a communications-intensive network to resolve artificial intelligence issues within NASA's Space Station Freedom research centers community

MITRE Corporation's, A Review of Space Station Freedom Program Capabilities for the Development and Application of Advanced Automation, cites as a critical issue the following situation, extant at the NASA facilities visited in the course of preparing the review: The major issues noted with regard to design and research facilities deal with cooperative problem solving, technology transfer, and communication between these facilities. While the authors were visiting lab and test beds to collect information, personnel at many of these facilities were interested in any information they could collect on activities at other facilities. A formal means of gathering this information could not be identified by these personnel. While communication between some facilities was taking place or was planned, for technology transfer or coordination of schedules (e.g., for SADP demonstrations), poor communication between these facilities could lead to a lack of technical standards, duplication of effort, poorly defined interfaces, scheduling problems, and increased cost. Formal mechanisms by which effective communication and cooperative problem solving can take place, and information can be disseminated, must be defined. A solution is proposed for the communications aspects of the issues addressed above; and offered at the same time a solution which can prove effective in dealing with some of the problems being encountered with expertise being lost via retirement or defection to the private sector. The proffered recommendations are recognizably cost-effective and tap the rising sector of expert knowledge being produced by the American academic community

Sex and Environmental Effects on Chemical Signals of Gryllus rubens

Many animals communicate with one another in the context of reproduction, utilizing different modalities. In some cases, more than one modality is used by the sender and receiver. Each modality can provide different sets of information, or function in a different context. Importantly, no matter the modality, the signals should be clearly distinguishable between males and females and need to be reliable even in the face of environmental changes. In field crickets, there are two major modes of communication. For long-range communication, the males produce acoustic signals to attract females. At short-range, chemical communication involving cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) in males and females are added as a communication modality to acoustic signals. The cricket Gryllus rubens has a spring and a fall generation in Kentucky and the long-range acoustic signal shows substantial differences between the generations as the result of seasonal temperatures during development (phenotypic plasticity). Even though much is known about acoustic signals and their plasticity, very little is known about chemical communication in crickets and if these short-range signals display phenotypic plasticity related to seasonal temperatures. I hypothesized that CHCs differ between males and females to allow for distinction between the sexes and that the CHC signature is also affected by environmental changes. I collected CHCs from the body surface of male and female Gryllus rubens crickets and analyzed the chemical composition of each individual. My results showed substantial differences in chemical composition of CHCs of males and females and between generations, indicating phenotypic plasticity. More specifically, I detected differences in the range of CHC compounds as well as peak abundances in my sex and generation specific comparisons. I discuss potential explanations and ramifications of this plasticity in the context of natural and sexual selection

They (Don't) Care About Education: A Counternarrative on Black Male Students' Responses to Inequitable Schooling

Focus group interviews and systematic content analysis of 304 essays written by black male undergraduates refute the dominant message that black men do not care about education. On the contrary, these students aspire to earn doctoral degrees in education despite acute understanding that the education system is stacked against them. The analysis asks what compels that dedication

Monster maker

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The Role of the Kurds in U.S. Foreign Policy

The Kurdish people in the Middle East have played a valuable role in furthering U.S. policy interests in the region. The U.S. has aligned itself with various Kurdish groups in a series of strategic partnerships dating back to the early 1970s, yet has never considered the Kurdish nation an ally. As such, the U.S. has reneged on multiple different pacts with the Kurds and opened the door for state-sponsored conflict against a supposed ally, despite mutual interests between both groups. This thesis aimed to assign a formal role to the Kurds within U.S. foreign policy, and to analyze the function of the Kurdish minority in U.S. policy decisions in the Middle East. A historical process tracing model was utilized to sequence a history of numerous U.S.-Kurdish partnerships into careful description and analysis, namely to identify the relationship foundations and causal mechanisms driving the connection between both groups. Despite numerous different partnerships that proved beneficial to both groups, this thesis has found that the U.S. has in fact benefited from existing Kurdish vulnerability and the continuation of the Kurdish struggle in the Middle East. The ongoing Kurdish struggle has positioned the Kurds as valuable strategic partnerships in multiple different conflicts in the Middle East. Furthermore, this thesis finds that despite the U.S.-Kurdish connection, Kurdish policy goals aim to upset the greatest U.S. interest in the region, which is to secure state stability and ensure regional security. There exists an inverse relationship between Middle Eastern state stability and Kurdish influence and control in the region. Because of this, the Kurds find themselves in opposition to long-term U.S. policy interests in the Middle East, even though they have contributed multiple times to the defense and security of short-term U.S. goals in the region

Electronic Monitoring of the Fetus

Although the fetal electrocardiograph (FECG), was recorded earlier in this century, utilization of the electrical activity of the heart for fetal assessment is really a procedure of approximately the last two decades. The fetal electrocardiograph obtained from the maternal abdomen can be used to detect fetal life, multiple pregnancies, and it can be extracted from the background noise by means of computer averaging techniques in order to study the electrical signal itself

Effects of Clinostat Rotation on Aurelia Statolith Synthesis

Aurelia ephyrae develop eight graviceptors (rhopalia) during their metamorphosis from polyps, which are used for positional orientation with respect to gravity. In three experiments for each speed of 1/15, 1/8, 1/2, 1, and 24 rpm, groups of six polyps were rotated in the horizontal or vertical plane (control) using clinostats. Other controls were kept stationary in the two planes. Ten ephyrae from each group were collected after 5 to 6 days at 27 C in iodine and the number of statoliths per rhopalium were counted. Statistical analyses of statolith numbers revealed that horizontal clinostat rotation at 1/4 and 1/2 rpm caused the formation of significantly fewer statoliths per rhopalium than were found in controls. The finding that these slow rates of rotation reduces statolith numbers suggests that the developing ephyrae were disoriented with respect to gravity at these speeds, causing fewer statocytes to differentiate or to mineralize