Robust Mission Design Through Evidence Theory and Multi-Agent Collaborative Search

In this paper, the preliminary design of a space mission is approached introducing uncertainties on the design parameters and formulating the resulting reliable design problem as a multiobjective optimization problem. Uncertainties are modelled through evidence theory and the belief, or credibility, in the successful achievement of mission goals is maximised along with the reliability of constraint satisfaction. The multiobjective optimisation problem is solved through a novel algorithm based on the collaboration of a population of agents in search for the set of highly reliable solutions. Two typical problems in mission analysis are used to illustrate the proposed methodology

Exploring lesson study as a form of professional development for enriching teacher knowledge and classroom practices

This study tracked the development of teacher knowledge through a professional development experience called lesson study. Lesson study is a Japanese professional development process in which a group of teachers develop a series of lessons using the following stages: planning lessons, teaching/observing the lessons, reflecting on lessons taught as well as sharing and discussing the lessons with their colleagues (Lewis, 2002). The aim of this study was to explore how the lesson study process influenced teacher knowledge of mathematics content and pedagogical content. Study participants were four secondary mathematics teachers from a rural high school in the Northeast. All participants were certified in teaching secondary mathematics and varied in their educational background and teaching experience. These four teachers and the researcher created a Mathematics Lesson Study Group at the high school level. Throughout the 2004-2005 school year, this group met to plan three different mathematics lessons. After planning each lesson, one teacher from the group taught the lesson to his/her class of students while the other teachers observed. Following the teaching/observing stage of the lesson development, the teachers had a debriefing meeting to reflect on how the lesson went and to propose possible revisions. Each stage of the lesson study process - planning, teaching/observing, and debriefing was examined carefully in order to determine how the various aspects of that stage contributed to the development of the teachers\u27 mathematics content and pedagogical content knowledge. This information was gathered from videotapes and teachers\u27 notes taken at all meetings, journal reflections following the meetings, initial and final interviews, and classroom observations. All data was analyzed qualitatively. Results indicate that the teachers\u27 mathematics content knowledge in the form of substantive and syntactic knowledge was influenced throughout all stages of the lesson study process. In addition, during each of the stages of lesson study the teachers\u27 pedagogical content knowledge evolved in the areas of prior knowledge connections, anticipating student misconceptions, questioning, choosing example problems, assessing student understanding during the lesson, and curriculum knowledge. Lastly, the results support how important the components of planning and reflection, within the lesson study model, are to the enrichment of teachers\u27 knowledge and classroom practices

Application of program LAURA to perfect gas shock tube flows: A parametric study

The Langley Aerothermodynamic Upwind Relaxation Algorithm (LAURA) was originally developed to solve steady-flow problems. The desire to validate the algorithm with shock tube experimental data motivated the development of a time-accurate version of the LAURA code. The current work presents a test of the Algorithm. Computational results are compared with the exact solution for a simple shock tube case. The parameters examined are Courant number, relaxation sweeps, grid spacing, and the inviscid relaxation factor. The results of the study indicate that LAURA is capable of producing accurate solutions when appropriate values are used for each parameter

Staff Education on Heart Failure Guidelines and Self-Care Management Practices

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States with heart failure (HF) being one of the more prevalent diseases associated with heart disease. HF is reported to have a high mortality rate and presents an economic burden to the U.S. healthcare system. To improve patient outcomes and reduce the costs of treatment for HF-related symptoms, infusion nurses need adequate education and training. The purpose of this project was to train home infusion nurses on self-care management practices based on current HF guidelines. The Donabedian model, known for quality assurance, provided the framework to support the educational project. A panel of 4 experts were recruited to evaluate the program for content using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire with an open-ended question for recommendations. The recommendations provided by each expert included symptom monitoring, fluid intake, medication adherence tips to improve medication compliance, and medication gold standards to treat HF. The feedback was incorporated into the final program to enhance overall program quality. Nine nurses at the local home infusion company in the Eastern United States participated in the 1-hour HF program on HF guidelines and self-care management practices. The Knowledge of Heart Failure Education Principles questionnaire was the tool used to measure participant pre and postknowledge. Analysis of the data showed a 13.9% improvement in the posteducation program test scores. Increasing the home infusion nursesâ knowledge provides a positive social change that can ultimately improve patient outcomes and potentially reduce hospital readmissions

Classification and Retrieval of Digital Pathology Scans: A New Dataset

In this paper, we introduce a new dataset, \textbf{Kimia Path24}, for image classification and retrieval in digital pathology. We use the whole scan images of 24 different tissue textures to generate 1,325 test patches of size 1000$\times$1000 (0.5mm$\times$0.5mm). Training data can be generated according to preferences of algorithm designer and can range from approximately 27,000 to over 50,000 patches if the preset parameters are adopted. We propose a compound patch-and-scan accuracy measurement that makes achieving high accuracies quite challenging. In addition, we set the benchmarking line by applying LBP, dictionary approach and convolutional neural nets (CNNs) and report their results. The highest accuracy was 41.80\% for CNN.Comment: Accepted for presentation at Workshop for Computer Vision for Microscopy Image Analysis (CVMI 2017) @ CVPR 2017, Honolulu, Hawai

Wake Flow About the Mars Pathfinder Entry Vehicle

A computational approach is used to describe the aerothermodynamics of the Mars Pathfinder vehicle entering the Mars atmosphere at the maximum heating and maximum deceleration points in its trajectory. Ablating and nonablating boundary conditions are developed which produce maximum recombination of CO2 on the surface. For the maximum heating trajectory point, an axisymmetric, nonablating calculation predicts a stagnation-point value for the convective heating of 115 W/cm(exp 2). Radiative heating estimates predict an additional 5-12 W/cm(exp 2) at the stagnation point. Peak convective heating on the afterbody occurs on the vehicle's flat stern with a value of 5.9% of the stagnation value. The forebody flow exhibits chemical nonequilibrium behavior, and the flow is frozen in the near wake. Including ablation injection on the forebody lowers the stagnation-point convective heating 18%

Subsonic Dynamics of Stardust Sample Return Capsule

Subsonic dynamic stability tests performed in the NASA Langley 20-Foot Vertical Spin-Tunnel on a 0.238 scale model of the Stardust Sample Return Capsule are discussed. The tests reveal that the blunted 60 degree half-angle cone capsule is dynamically unstable at low subsonic conditions due to the aft location of the center-of-gravity (0.351 body diameters back from the nose). The divergent behavior of the capsule continued when the center-of-gravity was moved to 0.337 and 0.313 body diameters back from the nose. When the center-of-gravity was moved further forward to 0.290 body diameters back from the nose, the vehicle established itself in a limit cycle with amplitude around 10 degrees. Two afterbody modifications were examined which proved unsuccessful in alleviating the instability of the original design. Finally, the addition of different sized parachutes was examined as a means to stabilize the vehicle. The parachute tests indicate that a parachute with equivalent full scale drag area of at least 2.24 ft. is necessary to assure large perturbations are damped