Coalition Battle Management Language (C-BML) Phase 1 Specification Development / Paper 08S-SIW-004

Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) SIW Conference PaperThe Coalition Battle Management Language (C-BML) is intended to be an unambiguous language for expressing and exchanging plans, orders, and reports across command and control (C2) systems, modeling and simulation (M&S) systems, and robotics systems. In March 2006, the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) approved initiation of a Product Development Group (PDG) to generate a standard and guidance document for C-BML. The PDG laid out a 3-phase development effort to (1) specify a sufficient data model to unambiguously define a set of military orders using the Joint Command, Control, and Consultation Information Exchange Data Model (JC3IEDM) as a starting point; (2) develop a formal grammar (lexicon and production rules) to formalize the definition of orders, requests, and reports; and (3) develop a formal battle management ontology to enable conceptual interoperability across software systems. This paper reports on the technical approach and status of development of the C-BML Phase 1 Specification

Optical systems integrated modeling

An integrated modeling capability that provides the tools by which entire optical systems and instruments can be simulated and optimized is a key technology development, applicable to all mission classes, especially astrophysics. Many of the future missions require optical systems that are physically much larger than anything flown before and yet must retain the characteristic sub-micron diffraction limited wavefront accuracy of their smaller precursors. It is no longer feasible to follow the path of 'cut and test' development; the sheer scale of these systems precludes many of the older techniques that rely upon ground evaluation of full size engineering units. The ability to accurately model (by computer) and optimize the entire flight system's integrated structural, thermal, and dynamic characteristics is essential. Two distinct integrated modeling capabilities are required. These are an initial design capability and a detailed design and optimization system. The content of an initial design package is shown. It would be a modular, workstation based code which allows preliminary integrated system analysis and trade studies to be carried out quickly by a single engineer or a small design team. A simple concept for a detailed design and optimization system is shown. This is a linkage of interface architecture that allows efficient interchange of information between existing large specialized optical, control, thermal, and structural design codes. The computing environment would be a network of large mainframe machines and its users would be project level design teams. More advanced concepts for detailed design systems would support interaction between modules and automated optimization of the entire system. Technology assessment and development plans for integrated package for initial design, interface development for detailed optimization, validation, and modeling research are presented

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathway activation in breast cancer brain metastases

Activation status of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway in breast cancer brain metastases (BCBMs) is largely unknown. We examined expression of phospho(p)-AKT, p-S6, and phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN) in BCBMs and their implications for overall survival (OS) and survival after BCBMs. Secondary analyses included PI3K pathway activation status and associations with time to distant recurrence (TTDR) and time to BCBMs. Similar analyses were also conducted among the subset of patients with triple-negative BCBMs. METHODS: p-AKT, p-S6, and PTEN expression was assessed with immunohistochemistry in 52 BCBMs and 12 matched primary BCs. Subtypes were defined as hormone receptor (HR)+/HER2-, HER2+, and triple-negative (TNBC). Survival analyses were performed by using a Cox model, and survival curves were estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: Expression of p-AKT and p-S6 and lack of PTEN (PTEN-) was observed in 75%, 69%, and 25% of BCBMs. Concordance between primary BCs and matched BCBMs was 67% for p-AKT, 58% for p-S6, and 83% for PTEN. PTEN- was more common in TNBC compared with HR+/HER2- and HER2+. Expression of p-AKT, p-S6, and PTEN- was not associated with OS or survival after BCBMs (all, P > 0.06). Interestingly, among all patients, PTEN- correlated with shorter time to distant and brain recurrence. Among patients with TNBC, PTEN- in BCBMs was associated with poorer overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: The PI3K pathway is active in most BCBMs regardless of subtype. Inhibition of this pathway represents a promising therapeutic strategy for patients with BCBMs, a group of patients with poor prognosis and limited systemic therapeutic options. Although expression of the PI3K pathway did not correlate with OS and survival after BCBM, PTEN- association with time to recurrence and OS (among patients with TNBC) is worthy of further study

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Coalition Battle Management Language (C-BML) Phase 1 Specification Development Progress: An Update to the M&S Community / Paper 08F-SIW-005

Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) SIW Conference PaperThe Coalition Battle Management Language (C-BML) is an emerging standard for expressing and exchanging plans, orders, and reports across command and control (C2) systems, modeling and simulation (M&S) systems, and robotic systems. In March 2006, the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) approved initiation of a Product Development Group (PDG) to generate C-BML specification and guidance documents. The PDG laid out a 3-phase development effort: (1) Phase 1 will specify a sufficient data model to unambiguously define a set of military orders using the Joint Command, Control, and Consultation Information Exchange Data Model (JC3IEDM) as a starting point; (2) Phase 2 will develop a formal grammar (lexicon and production rules) to formalize the definition of orders, requests, and reports; and (3) Phase 3 will develop a formal battle management ontology to enable conceptual interoperability across software systems. Progress on development of the C-BML Phase 1 Specification was reported by the C-BML Drafting Group to the PDG at the Spring 2008 Simulation Interoperability Workshop (SIW). During that meeting, PDG members stated a number of different positions regarding the required scope of the Phase 1 Specification. The discussions resulted in a motion to initiate a Tiger Team effort to clarify the various positions and to recommend a way forward for completion of the Phase 1 Specification and Guidelines documents. This paper updates the M&S community on the work and findings of the Tiger Team

Defining a Standard Metric for Electricity Savings

The growing investment by governments and electric utilities in energy efficiency programs highlights the need for simple tools to help assess and explain the size of the potential resource. One technique that is commonly used in this effort is to characterize electricity savings in terms of avoided power plants, because it is easier for people to visualize a power plant than it is to understand an abstraction such as billions of kilowatt-hours. Unfortunately, there is no standardization around the characteristics of such power plants. In this letter we define parameters for a standard avoided power plant that have physical meaning and intuitive plausibility, for use in back-of-the-envelope calculations. For the prototypical plant this article settles on a 500 MW existing coal plant operating at a 70% capacity factor with 7% T&D losses. Displacing such a plant for one year would save 3 billion kWh/year at the meter and reduce emissions by 3 million metric tons of CO2 per year. The proposed name for this metric is the Rosenfeld, in keeping with the tradition among scientists of naming units in honor of the person most responsible for the discovery and widespread adoption of the underlying scientific principle in question—Dr Arthur H Rosenfeld