Development of a NASA Integrated Technical Workforce Career Development Model Entitled Requisite Occupation Competencies and Knowledge -- the ROCK

This paper shares the findings of NASA's Integrated Learning and Development Program (ILDP) in its effort to reinvigorate the HANDS-ON practice of space systems engineering and project/program management through focused coursework, training opportunities, on-the job learning and special assignments. Prior to March 2005, NASA responsibility for technical workforce development (the program/project manager, systems engineering, discipline engineering, discipline engineering and associated communities) was executed by two parallel organizations. In March 2005 these organizations merged. The resulting program-ILDP-was chartered to implement an integrated competency-based development model capable of enhancing NASA's technical workforce performance as they face the complex challenges of Earth science, space science, aeronautics and human spaceflight missions. Results developed in collaboration with NASA Field Centers are reported on. This work led to definition of the agency's first integrated technical workforce development model known as the Requisite Occupation Competence and Knowledge (the ROCK). Critical processes and products are presented including: 'validation' techniques to guide model development, the Design-A-CUrriculuM (DACUM) process, and creation of the agency's first systems engineering body-of-knowledge. Findings were validated via nine focus groups from industry and government, validated with over 17 space-related organizations, at an estimated cost exceeding $300,000 (US). Masters-level programs and training programs have evolved to address the needs of these practitioner communities based upon these results. The ROCK reintroduced rigor and depth to the practitioner's development in these critical disciplines enabling their ability to take mission concepts from imagination to reality

Doctor of Engineering internship experience at Ball Aerospace Systems Division, Boulder, Colorado: an internship report

Cover title"Submitted to the College of Engineering of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Engineering."Includes bibliographical referencesThis monograph describes the author's internship experiences at Ball Aerospace Systems Division, Boulder, Colorado. A system-level spacecraft design procedure is presented. It describes a spacecraft design flow with emphasis on the interactions among subsystem design decisions. The preliminary subsystem trade studies are discussed. Several financial and marketing issues of spacecraft contract proposal development are discussed. The linear design and analysis of the attitude control system for the Air Force Starscan spacecraft is presented. The equations of motion are developed and several attitude control structures and saturation torque limiting schemes are analyzed

Establishment of a Spaceport Network Architecture

Since the beginning of the space age, the main actors in space exploration have been governmental agencies, enabling a privileged access to space, but with very restricted and rare missions. The last decade has seen the rise of space tourism, and the founding of ambitious private space mining companies, showing the beginnings of a new exploration era, that is based on a more generalized and regular access to space and which is not limited to the Earth's vicinity. However, the cost of launching sufficient mass into orbit to sustain these inspiring challenges is prohibitive, and the necessary infrastructures to support these missions is still lacking. To provide easy and affordable access into orbital and deep space destinations, there is the need to create a network of spaceports via specific waypoint locations coupled with the use of natural resources, or In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), to provide a more economical solution. As part of the International Space University Space Studies Program 2012, the international and intercultural team of Operations and Service Infrastructure for Space (OASIS) proposes an interdisciplinary answer to the problem of economical space access and transportation. This paper presents a summary of a detailed report [1] of the different phases of a project for developing a network of spaceports throughout the Solar System in a timeframe of 50 years. The requirements, functions, critical technologies and mission architecture of this network of spaceports are outlined in a roadmap of the important steps and phases. The economic and financial aspects are emphasized in order to allow a sustainable development of the network in a public-private partnership via the formation of an International Spaceport Authority (ISPA). The approach includes engineering, scientific, financial, legal, policy, and societal aspects. Team OASIS intends to provide guidelines to make the development of space transportation via a spaceports logistics network feasible, and believes that this pioneering effort will revolutionize space exploration, science and commerce, ultimately contributing to permanently expand humanity into space

Patterns of geohelminth infection, impact of albendazole treatment and re-infection after treatment in schoolchildren from rural KwaZulu-Natal/South-Africa

BACKGROUND: Geohelminth infection is a major health problem of children from rural areas of developing countries. In an attempt to reduce this burden, the Department of Health of the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) established in 1998 a programme for helminth control that aimed at regularly treating primary school children for schistosomiasis and intestinal helminths. This article describes the baseline situation and the effect of treatment on geohelminth infection in a rural part of the province. METHODS: Grade 3 schoolchildren from Maputaland in northern KZN were examined for infections with hookworm, Ascaris lumbricoides, and Trichuris trichiura, treated twice with 400 mg albendazole and re-examined several times over one year after the first treatment in order to assess the impact of treatment and patterns of infection and re-infection. RESULTS: The hookworm prevalence in the study population (83.2%) was considerably higher than in other parts of the province whereas T. trichiura and especially A. lumbricoides prevalences (57.2 and 19.4%, respectively) were much lower than elsewhere on the KZN coastal plain. Single dose treatment with albendazole was very effective against hookworm and A. lumbricoides with cure rates (CR) of 78.8 and 96.4% and egg reduction rates (ERR) of 93.2 and 97.7%, respectively. It was exceptionally ineffective against T. trichiura (CR = 12.7%, ERR = 24.8%). Re-infection with hookworm and A. lumbricoides over 29 weeks after treatment was considerable but still well below pre-treatment levels. CONCLUSION: High geohelminth prevalences and re-infection rates in the study population confirm the need for regular treatment of primary school children in the area. The low effectiveness of single course albendazole treatment against T. trichiura infection however demands consideration of alternative treatment approaches

Spontaneous formation of crystalline lithium molybdate from solid reagents at room temperature

Lithium molybdate has been prepared by grinding LiOH x H(2)O with MoO(3) in air at room temperature. X-Ray powder diffraction data show that the formation of highly crystalline Li(2)MoO(4) is largely complete after 10 min. The phenacite structure of this material is the same as that derived from an X-ray diffraction study of a single crystal obtained from aqueous solution [R3; a = 14.3178(14) A, c = 9.5757(9) A]. Anhydrous lithium hydroxide fails to give the same reaction indicating that the water of crystallisation of LiOH x H(2)O is a vital component in this rapid synthesis. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements show that this reaction can proceed spontaneously between the two stable solid reagents at sub-ambient temperatures and is driven by the liberation of water from the crystalline lattice. Lithium molybdate prepared in this manner has significantly smaller and more regularly shaped particles than samples prepared by other synthetic methods

Targeted Drug Delivery by Gemtuzumab Ozogamicin: Mechanism-Based Mathematical Model for Treatment Strategy Improvement and Therapy Individualization

Gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO) is a chemotherapy-conjugated anti-CD33 monoclonal antibody effective in some patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The optimal treatment schedule and optimal timing of GO administration relative to other agents remains unknown. Conventional pharmacokinetic analysis has been of limited insight for the schedule optimization. We developed a mechanism-based mathematical model and employed it to analyze the time-course of free and GO-bound CD33 molecules on the lekemic blasts in individual AML patients treated with GO. We calculated expected intravascular drug exposure (I-AUC) as a surrogate marker for the response to the drug. A high CD33 production rate and low drug efflux were the most important determinants of high I-AUC, characterizing patients with favorable pharmacokinetic profile and, hence, improved response. I-AUC was insensitive to other studied parameters within biologically relevant ranges, including internalization rate and dissociation constant. Our computations suggested that even moderate blast burden reduction prior to drug administration enables lowering of GO doses without significantly compromising intracellular drug exposure. These findings indicate that GO may optimally be used after cyto-reductive chemotherapy, rather than before, or concomitantly with it, and that GO efficacy can be maintained by dose reduction to 6 mg/m2 and a dosing interval of 7 days. Model predictions are validated by comparison with the results of EORTC-GIMEMA AML19 clinical trial, where two different GO schedules were administered. We suggest that incorporation of our results in clinical practice can serve identification of the subpopulation of elderly patients who can benefit most of the GO treatment and enable return of the currently suspended drug to clinic

What is the role of the film viewer? The effects of narrative comprehension and viewing task on gaze control in film

Film is ubiquitous, but the processes that guide viewers' attention while viewing film narratives are poorly understood. In fact, many film theorists and practitioners disagree on whether the film stimulus (bottom-up) or the viewer (top-down) is more important in determining how we watch movies. Reading research has shown a strong connection between eye movements and comprehension, and scene perception studies have shown strong effects of viewing tasks on eye movements, but such idiosyncratic top-down control of gaze in film would be anathema to the universal control mainstream filmmakers typically aim for. Thus, in two experiments we tested whether the eye movements and comprehension relationship similarly held in a classic film example, the famous opening scene of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (Welles & Zugsmith, Touch of Evil, 1958). Comprehension differences were compared with more volitionally controlled task-based effects on eye movements. To investigate the effects of comprehension on eye movements during film viewing, we manipulated viewers' comprehension by starting participants at different points in a film, and then tracked their eyes. Overall, the manipulation created large differences in comprehension, but only produced modest differences in eye movements. To amplify top-down effects on eye movements, a task manipulation was designed to prioritize peripheral scene features: a map task. This task manipulation created large differences in eye movements when compared to participants freely viewing the clip for comprehension. Thus, to allow for strong, volitional top-down control of eye movements in film, task manipulations need to make features that are important to narrative comprehension irrelevant to the viewing task. The evidence provided by this experimental case study suggests that filmmakers' belief in their ability to create systematic gaze behavior across viewers is confirmed, but that this does not indicate universally similar comprehension of the film narrative