Living in space

Bioastronautical contributions to medicin

Human performance in adverse environments

Human performance testing of astronaut capabilities during prolonged space fligh

Research on a one-inch-square linear d-c plasma accelerator

One-inch-square linear d-c plasma accelerator using cesium seeded nitroge

A Heat Transfer Investigation of Ejector Systems with 90 Deg Turns. NERVA Program

Heat transfer characteristics of ejector systems for turning rocket exhaust gases through 90 de

Astro-WISE: Chaining to the Universe

The recent explosion of recorded digital data and its processed derivatives threatens to overwhelm researchers when analysing their experimental data or when looking up data items in archives and file systems. While current hardware developments allow to acquire, process and store 100s of terabytes of data at the cost of a modern sports car, the software systems to handle these data are lagging behind. This general problem is recognized and addressed by various scientific communities, e.g., DATAGRID/EGEE federates compute and storage power over the high-energy physical community, while the astronomical community is building an Internet geared Virtual Observatory, connecting archival data. These large projects either focus on a specific distribution aspect or aim to connect many sub-communities and have a relatively long trajectory for setting standards and a common layer. Here, we report "first light" of a very different solution to the problem initiated by a smaller astronomical IT community. It provides the abstract "scientific information layer" which integrates distributed scientific analysis with distributed processing and federated archiving and publishing. By designing new abstractions and mixing in old ones, a Science Information System with fully scalable cornerstones has been achieved, transforming data systems into knowledge systems. This break-through is facilitated by the full end-to-end linking of all dependent data items, which allows full backward chaining from the observer/researcher to the experiment. Key is the notion that information is intrinsic in nature and thus is the data acquired by a scientific experiment. The new abstraction is that software systems guide the user to that intrinsic information by forcing full backward and forward chaining in the data modelling.Comment: To be published in ADASS XVI ASP Conference Series, 2006, R. Shaw, F. Hill and D. Bell, ed

Lean-Management in der Akutpflege – ist eine Etablierung in Deutschland sinnvoll?

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob eine Etablierung des Lean-Managements auf Akutstationen deutscher Krankenhäuser sinnvoll ist. Das ursprünglich aus der Automobilindustrie kommende Qualitätsmanagementsystem soll den Pflegeprozess mehr zum Patienten bringen und dabei sowohl die Patienten- und Mitarbeiterzufriedenheit und Sicherheit erhöhen als auch Pflegeabläufe besser strukturieren und Wartezeiten, Klingelrufe und Verschwendungen reduzieren. Methodisch wurde in dieser systematischen Übersichtsarbeit nach Studien aus dem nationalen und internationalen Raum gesucht, welche sowohl positive als auch negative Effekte aufgezeigt und förderliche oder hinderliche Faktoren bei der Umsetzung beschrieben haben. Die hohe Anzahl an Studien aus den USA und Großbritannien gaben dennoch wenig Antworten auf die Frage nach empirisch fundierten Effekten des Lean-Managements im Gesundheitswesen. Die analysierten Studien ergaben teils negative aber vor allem positive Ergebnisse, sodass letztendlich eine Etablierung des Lean-Managements, unter der Voraussetzung ausführlicher Informations-, Aufklärungs- und Fortbildungsarbeit für die Mitarbeiter und einer Etablierung im ganzen Haus, als sinnvoll erachtet werden kann. Zudem wird die Notwendigkeit weiterer empirischer Studien zur quantitativen Erhebung von gemessenen Effekten betont.This thesis is going to answer the question, if it is reasonable to have an establishment of the lean-management in German acute-care units. It originally came from the automobile industry and is used to increase patient-side processes, safety, patient- and worker satisfaction as well as to develop better structured care processes and to reduce waiting times and waste. „Lean Hospital“ wants to bring the patient at top priority and to organize work processes. In this literature review it was researched for national and international studies, which showed positive and negative effects as well as beneficial and obstructive factors during change processes. There was a great number of studies from the USA and Great Britain, nevertheless they did not give empirical profound effects of lean-management in healthcare. The final studies analyzed gave partial negative but substantially positive results to come to the conclusion that it is reasonable to have an establishment of the lean-management in German acute-care units. However, detailed information, clarification and further education for every staff member is required as well as an establishment in the whole organization. The need for further studies of quantitative effects is also emphasized