The 1984 NASA/ASEE summer faculty fellowship program

An overview is given of the program management and activities. Participants and research advisors are listed. Abstracts give describe and present results of research assignments performed by 31 fellows either at the Johnson Space Center, at the White Sands test Facility, or at the California Space Institute in La Jolla. Disciplines studied include engineering; biology/life sciences; Earth sciences; chemistry; mathematics/statistics/computer sciences; and physics/astronomy

Rethinking planning: part 2

Last month we covered background to the Government's major review on land-use and planning. This month, J A Mclnnis and Bernadette Donnelly critique current planning, and offer some suggestions for review.published_or_final_versio

Precise computer controlled positioning of robot end effectors using force sensors

A thorough study of combined position/force control using sensory feedback for a one-dimensional manipulator model, which may count for the spacecraft docking problem or be extended to the multi-joint robot manipulator problem, was performed. The additional degree of freedom introduced by the compliant force sensor is included in the system dynamics in the design of precise position control. State feedback based on the pole placement method and with integral control is used to design the position controller. A simple constant gain force controller is used as an example to illustrate the dependence of the stability and steady-state accuracy of the overall position/force control upon the design of the inner position controller. Supportive simulation results are also provided

Rethinking planning

A major planning review is under way in Hong Kong. This month, in the first of a two-part series, J A McInnis and Bernadette Donnelly look at the background to these changes. Next month they offer some suggestions for the review.published_or_final_versio

Process Information Systems: A Synthesis of Two Independent Approaches

The development of process information systems to support analysis of energy (or mineral) resource development strategies has been a continuing concern within IIASA's WELMM (Water, Energy Land, Materials and Manpower) Project since 1977, The resulting process information system, the Facility Data Base, has demonstrated its viability in a number of application studies, both in-house and outside IIASA. Motivated by its experience in socio-economic resource modeling, the Structural Analysis Division at Statistics Canada has initiated a feasibility study on a data base of industrial process descriptions (completed in 1981): the Process Encyclopedia. The independent development and the joint interest in process information systems has led to collaboration between the Structural Analysis Division of Statistics Canada and the Energy and Resources Task of the Resources and Environment Area of IIASA. This paper (also published by Statistics Canada: Working Paper No. 81-12-01) documents the first results of this collaboration: a synthesis of the conclusions which led to the development of the two systems; of their main features and of the lessons learned from their design and implementation. The conceptual mapping developed between the Facility Data Base and the Process Encyclopedia and documented as an Appendix of this paper provides a basis for future exchange of information between the two systems and should be seen as a first step in promoting interdisciplinary and international process information exchange and system building

Telegrams to International Fathers Day Association, June 1935

Telegram to International Fathers Day Association, c/o Sonora Dodd and Isabella Room, from R. B. White, President of Western Union Telegraph Company. Telegram to International Fathers Day Association, c/o Isabella Room, from Carolyn Neal McInnis, President of the Wsahington Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.https://digitalcommons.whitworth.edu/fathers-day-correspondence/1042/thumbnail.jp

Suicide prevention and mood disorders: Self-exclusion agreements for firearms as a suicide prevention strategy

Suicide involves a complex set of behaviors and emotions that lead up to actions that may be based on planning and forethought or the result of impulse. While there are a host of antecedent circumstances the presence of a mood disorder, primarily depression, is the most common factor in suicide. While management of depression is recognized as important prevention strategy in depression, the means by which suicide occurs must be a critical element of prevention. Policies that lower access to the means for suicide will decrease the fatality. Guns are associated with half of suicides and the case fatality rate of gun associated suicide is over 90% compared to 7% for all other means. This emphasizes the importance of offering strategies that limit access to guns to those at higher risk for suicide. A declaration of formal self-exclusion for access to firearms (guns and ammunition) offers the individual at greater risk for suicide to place themselves on an official list that would prevent them from purchasing lethal weapons. A person with depression, when well, might wish to enroll voluntarily to prevent themselves, when ill, from procuring a weapon to harm themselves or others. This recognizes the autonomy of the person and protects both the individual, the family, and society

Is a 20 Kg Load Sufficient to Simulate Fatigue in Squat Jumps?

Abstract available in the Annual Coaches and Sport Science College

Salivary melatonin onset in youth at familial risk for bipolar disorder

Melatonin secretion and polysomnography (PSG) were compared among a group of healthy adolescents who were at high familial risk for bipolar disorder (HR) and a second group at low familial risk (LR). Adolescent participants (n = 12) were a mean age 14 ± 2.3 years and included 8 females and 4 males. Saliva samples were collected under standardized condition light (red light) and following a 200 lux light exposure over two consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory. Red Light Melatonin onset (RLMO) was defined as saliva melatonin level exceeding the mean of the first 3 readings plus 2 standard deviations. Polysomnography was also completed during each night. HR youth, relative to LR, experienced a significantly earlier melatonin onset following 200 lux light exposure. Polysomnography revealed that LR youth, relative to HR, spent significantly more time in combined stages 3 and 4 (deep sleep) following red light exposure. Additionally, regardless of the group status (HR or LR), there was no significant difference in Red Light Melatonin Onset recorded at home or in the laboratory, implying its feasibility and reliability