Constraint checking during error recovery

The system-level software onboard a spacecraft is responsible for recovery from communication, power, thermal, and computer-health anomalies that may occur. The recovery must occur without disrupting any critical scientific or engineering activity that is executing at the time of the error. Thus, the error-recovery software may have to execute concurrently with the ongoing acquisition of scientific data or with spacecraft maneuvers. This work provides a technique by which the rules that constrain the concurrent execution of these processes can be modeled in a graph. An algorithm is described that uses this model to validate that the constraints hold for all concurrent executions of the error-recovery software with the software that controls the science and engineering activities of the spacecraft. The results are applicable to a variety of control systems with critical constraints on the timing and ordering of the events they control

Operation and performance of the Ciba-Corning 512 coagulation monitor during parabolic flight

The goal was to assess the functionality and evaluate the procedures and operations required to operate the Ciba-Corning 512 Coagulation Monitor during parabolic flight. This monitor determines the clotting characteristics of blood. The analyzer operates by laser detection of the cessation of blood flow in a capillary channel within a test cartridge. Test simulator results were excellent for both pre-and post-flight. In-flight results were not obtained due to the warm-up time required for the simulator. Since this is an electronic function only, the expected results on the simulator would be the same in zero-g

You are in a better position to protect people when you feel like you\u27re protected yourself : to what extent does union membership and ethical clinical social work practice align? : an exploratory study

The purpose of this study was to examine the question: “to what extent does union membership and ethical clinical social work practice align?” by interviewing Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW) working within unionized environments. The study focused on the experience of these clinicians within their current working environment and how being a union member allowed them to be able to provide ethical clinical social work practice to their clients/patients. The most compelling findings from this research were that the clinicians felt that union membership did align with providing ethical clinical social work practice to their populations within their agencies or organizations. There were limitations and concerns when it came to union participation in the form of a strike. Participants had mixed responses regarding the ethical considerations that come about as a result of a strike and how it could potentially impact their clients/patients negatively. Implications for social practice and policy highlight the need for further research in how the values of both labor unions and the field of clinical social work are closely aligned and in turn how can that help clinicians provide the most ethical care possible

Subduction dynamics at the middle America trench : new constraints from swath bathymetry, multichannel seismic data, and 10BE

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution September 2003The cosmogenic radionuclide 10Be is a unique tracer of shallow sediment subduction in volcanic arcs. The range in 10Be enrichment in the Central American Volcanic Arc between Guatemala and Costa Rica is not controlled by variations in 10Be concentrations in subducting sediment seaward of the Middle America Trench. Sedimentary 10Be is correlated negatively with 143Nd/144Nd, illustrating that 10Be concentrations varied both between and within cores due to mixing between terrigenous clay and volcanic ash endmember components. This mixing behavior was determined to be a function of grain size controls on 10Be concentrations. A negative correlation of bulk sedimentary 10Be concentrations with median grain size and a positive correlation with the proportion of the sediment grains that were <32 μm in diameter demonstrated that high concentrations of 10Be in fine-grained, terrigenous sediments were diluted by larger grained volcanogenic material. The sharp decrease in 10Be enrichment in the Central American Volcanic Arc between southeastern Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica correlates with changes in fault structure in the subducting Cocos plate. Offshore of Nicaragua, extensional faults associated with plate bending have throw equal to or greater than the overlying subducting sediment thickness. These faults enable efficient subduction of the entire sediment package by preventing relocation of the décollement within the downgoing sediments. Offshore of Costa Rica, the reduction of fault relief results in basement faults that do not penetrate the overlying sediment. A conceptual model is proposed in which the absence of significant basement roughness allows the décollement to descend into the subducting sediment column, leading to subsequent underplating and therefore removal of the bulk of the sediment layer that contains 10Be. Basement fault relief was linearly related to plate curvature and trench depth. The systematic shoaling of the plate from southeastern Nicaragua to northwestern Costa Rica is not explained by changes in plate age for this region. Instead, it is hypothesized that the flexural shape of the plate offshore of southeastern Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica represents a lateral response to a buoyant load caused by the thick crust and elevated thermal regime in the Cocos plate offshore of southeastern Costa Rica.Funding for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the WHOI Ocean Ventures Fund, the WHOI Deep Ocean Institute Graduate Fellowship, and Geological Society of America Graduate Research Grant #7179-02

A validation study of the measurement accuracy of SCENE and SceneVision 3D software programs.

This descriptive study sought to determine the measurement accuracy of two 3D modeling software programs used in crime scene processing and reconstruction. These two programs are FARO's SCENE and 3rdTech's SceneVision 3D. This study compared the measurement difference means to guidelines published by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). A statistical analysis was performed by subtracting the manual measurement from the measurements from SCENE and SceneVision 3D. These differences were used in a paired t-test. The measurement difference means for each program were found to be within the NIST guidelines. The outcome of the paired t-test showed a statistical but not practical significance in the measurement differences. SCENE was found to be slightly more accurate than SceneVision 3D

Sign language interpreters’ ethical discourse and moral reasoning patterns

This study investigates the ethical reasoning abilities of sign language interpreters in the US using two data sources, one that is qualitative and one that is quantitative. The twenty-five participants involved in this study were recruited after their completion of an online training session on interpreting ethics (unrelated to this study or the author). Their responses to six ethical scenarios (e.g., what would you do and why) were analysed through the lens of James Rest’s three tacit moral schemas: personal interest schema, maintaining norms schema, and post-conventional schema. These data were then compared to the results of Rest’s standardised instrument of moral reasoning, the Defining Issues Test, also based on these three schema preferences. These data show that the interpreter participants have a preference for a maintaining norms schema on both qualitative and quantitative data sources. This moral reasoning pattern found in the interpreter cohort is more typical of adolescent reasoning – a much younger profile than the actual age and education level of the participant pool. Furthermore, this reasoning preference does not coincide with the justice claims often made in the profession (e.g. the ally model). Justice as defined by collaboration by both moral psychologists and translation scholars is only weakly evident in the ethical discourse of the interpreter participants. These reasoning patterns that reveal an adolescent and non-collaborative approach are also evident in ethical documents and literature of the sign language interpreting profession. How the profession has come to conceive of and articulate ethics is explored as a potential limiting factor on the study participant’s abilities to express more sophisticated reasoning. In addition to moral judgement patterns evident in the quantitative and qualitative data, the study cohort’s qualitative data are examined for other psychological aspects of Rest’s Four Component Model (FCM). Findings indicate that sign language interpreters make many assumptions about service users’ needs, actions, and intentions. Further, they are more concerned for how decisions might impact them than the potential impact on service users. As a result, education interventions are indicated particularly for moral sensitivity and moral judgement

The Influence of Inequality, Responsibility and Justifiability on Reports of Group-Based Guilt for Ingroup Privilege

Although members of several social groups report feeling guilt because of their group’s actions, average reports of group-based guilt tend to be quite low. We investigate three antecedents of group-based guilt derived from research on social justice and interpersonal emotion. We find that Whites, men and women perceive inequality, responsibility and justifiability of group differences to the same extent. Moreover, each factor is a key antecedent of guilt for Whites, men and women. We also find an interaction between justifiability and responsibility such that reports of group-based guilt increase as perceptions of ingroup responsibility increase and justifications for group differences decrease. Given the beneficial consequences of group-based guilt for intergroup relations, it is important to understand what factors lead to group-based guilt