Advanced technologies for Mission Control Centers

Advance technologies for Mission Control Centers are presented in the form of the viewgraphs. The following subject areas are covered: technology needs; current technology efforts at GSFC (human-machine interface development, object oriented software development, expert systems, knowledge-based software engineering environments, and high performance VLSI telemetry systems); and test beds

Perceptual-gestural (mis)mapping in serial short-term memory: The impact of talker variability

The mechanisms underlying the poorer serial recall of talker-variable lists (e.g., alternating female–male voices) as compared with single-voice lists were examined. We tested the novel hypothesis that this talker variability effect arises from the tendency for perceptual organization to partition the list into streams based on voice such that the representation of order maps poorly onto the formation of a gestural sequence-output plan assembled in support of the reproduction of the true temporal order of the items. In line with the hypothesis, (a) the presence of a spoken lead-in designed to further promote by-voice perceptual partitioning accentuates the effect (Experiments 1 and 2); (b) the impairment is larger the greater the acoustic coherence is between nonadjacent items: Alternating-voice lists are more poorly recalled than four-voice lists (Experiment 3); and (c) talker variability combines nonadditively with phonological similarity, consistent with the view that both variables disrupt sequence output planning (Experiment 4). The results support the view that serial short-term memory performance reflects the action of sequencing processes embodied within general-purpose perceptual input-processing and gestural output-planning systems

On the Radio Polarization Signature of Efficient and Inefficient Particle Acceleration in Supernova Remnant SN 1006

We present a radio polarization study of SN 1006, based on combined VLA and ATCA observations at 20 cm that resulted in sensitive images with an angular resolution of 10 arcsec. The fractional polarization in the two bright radio and X-ray lobes of the SNR is measured to be 0.17, while in the southeastern sector, where the radio and non-thermal X-ray emission are much weaker, the polarization fraction reaches a value of 0.6 +- 0.2, close to the theoretical limit of 0.7. We interpret this result as evidence of a disordered, turbulent magnetic field in the lobes, where particle acceleration is believed to be efficient, and a highly ordered field in the southeast, where the acceleration efficiency has been shown to be very low. Utilizing the frequency coverage of our observations, an average rotation measure of ~12 rad/m2 is determined from the combined data set, which is then used to obtain the intrinsic direction of the magnetic field vectors. While the orientation of magnetic field vectors across the SNR shell appear radial, a large fraction of the magnetic vectors lie parallel to the Galactic Plane. Along the highly polarized southeastern rim, the field is aligned tangent to the shock, and therefore also nearly parallel to the Galactic Plane. These results strongly suggest that the ambient field surrounding SN 1006 is aligned with this direction (i.e., from northeast to southwest) and that the bright lobes are due to a polar cap geometry. Our study establishes that the most efficient particle acceleration and generation of magnetic turbulence in SN 1006 is attained for shocks in which the magnetic field direction and shock normal are quasi-parallel, while inefficient acceleration and little to no generation of magnetic turbulence obtains for the quasi-perpendicular case.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomical Journa

Retrieval from memory: Vulnerable or inviolable?

We show that retrieval from semantic memory is vulnerable even to the mere presence of speech. Irrelevant speech impairs semantic fluency—namely, lexical retrieval cued by a semantic category name—but only if it is meaningful (forward speech compared to reversed speech or words compared to nonwords). Moreover, speech related semantically to the retrieval category is more disruptive than unrelated speech. That phonemic fluency—in which participants are cued with the first letter of words they are to report—was not disrupted by the mere presence of meaningful speech, only by speech in a related phonemic category, suggests that distraction is not mediated by executive processing load. The pattern of sensitivity to different properties of sound as a function of the type of retrieval cue is in line with an interference-by-process approach to auditory distraction

Debris Disks in the Scorpius-Centaurus OB Association Resolved by ALMA

We present a CO(2-1) and 1240 um continuum survey of 23 debris disks with spectral types B9-G1, observed at an angular resolution of 0.5-1 arcsec with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). The sample was selected for large infrared excess and age ~10 Myr, to characterize the prevalence of molecular gas emission in young debris disks. We identify three CO-rich debris disks, plus two additional tentative (3-sigma) CO detections. Twenty disks were detected in the continuum at the >3-sigma level. For the 12 disks in the sample that are spatially resolved by our observations, we perform an independent analysis of the interferometric continuum visibilities to constrain the basic dust disk geometry, as well as a simultaneous analysis of the visibilities and broad-band spectral energy distribution to constrain the characteristic grain size and disk mass. The gas-rich debris disks exhibit preferentially larger outer radii in their dust disks, and a higher prevalence of characteristic grain sizes smaller than the blowout size. The gas-rich disks do not exhibit preferentially larger dust masses, contrary to expectations for a scenario in which a higher cometary destruction rate would be expected to result in a larger mass of both CO and dust. The three debris disks in our sample with strong CO detections are all around A stars: the conditions in disks around intermediate-mass stars appear to be the most conducive to the survival or formation of CO.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Image analysis of the AXAF VETA-I x ray mirror

Initial core scan data of the VETA-I x-ray mirror proved disappointing, showing considerable unpredicted image structure and poor measured FWHM. 2-D core scans were performed, providing important insight into the nature of the distortion. Image deconvolutions using a ray traced model PSF was performed successfully to reinforce our conclusion regarding the origin of the astigmatism. A mechanical correction was made to the optical structure, and the mirror was tested successfully (FWHM 0.22 arcsec) as a result

Supergiant Shells and Molecular Cloud Formation in the LMC

We investigate the influence of large-scale stellar feedback on the formation of molecular clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Examining the relationship between HI and 12CO(J=1-0) in supergiant shells (SGSs), we find that the molecular fraction in the total volume occupied by SGSs is not enhanced with respect to the rest of the LMC disk. However, the majority of objects (~70% by mass) are more molecular than their local surroundings, implying that the presence of a supergiant shell does on average have a positive effect on the molecular gas fraction. Averaged over the full SGS sample, our results suggest that ~12-25% of the molecular mass in supergiant shell systems was formed as a direct result of the stellar feedback that created the shells. This corresponds to ~4-11% of the total molecular mass of the galaxy. These figures are an approximate lower limit to the total contribution of stellar feedback to molecular cloud formation in the LMC, and constitute one of the first quantitative measurements of feedback-triggered molecular cloud formation in a galactic system.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Precision of the calibration of the AXAF engineering test article (VETA) mirrors

Measurements of the VETA encircled energies have been performed at 5 energies within 16 radii ranging from 0.05 to 200 arcseconds. We report here on the analysis of the accuracy of those measurements. A common 'error tree' structure applies, and we present representative numbers for the larger terms. At 0.277, 1.5, and 2.07 keV, and for radii of 3 arcsec and larger, our measurements have estimated 1 sigma errors of 0.6 to 1.5 percent. Effects of measurement statistics and of the VETA test mount limit the accuracy at smaller angles, and modulation by the counter window support structure together with the imperfect position repeatability limit the accuracy for the 0.93 and 2.3 keV energies. We expect to mitigate these limitations when calibrating the complete AXAF flight mirror assembly

Correcting x ray spectra obtained from the AXAF VETA-I mirror calibration for pileup, continuum, background and deadtime

The VETA-I mirror was calibrated with the use of a collimated soft X-ray source produced by electron bombardment of various anode materials. The FWHM, effective area and encircled energy were measured with the use of proportional counters that were scanned with a set of circular apertures. The pulsers from the proportional counters were sent through a multichannel analyzer that produced a pulse height spectrum. In order to characterize the properties of the mirror at different discrete photon energies one desires to extract from the pulse height distribution only those photons that originated from the characteristic line emission of the X-ray target source. We have developed a code that fits a modeled spectrum to the observed X-ray data, extracts the counts that originated from the line emission, and estimates the error in these counts. The function that is fitted to the X-ray spectra includes a Prescott function for the resolution of the detector a second Prescott function for a pileup peak and a X-ray continuum function. The continuum component is determined by calculating the absorption of the target Bremsstrahlung through various filters correcting for the reflectivity of the mirror and convolving with the detector response