Paper Session III-A - Commercialization of KSC Instrumentation Developed to Improve Safety, Reliability, and Cost Effectiveness of Space Shuttle Processing, Launch, and Landing

The top priority at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is safety of the flight crew and Shuttle vehicle. This priority is followed by safety of the personnel and physical assets of KSC, and reducing the costs associated with processing the Shuttle and other flight components, driven by budget and down sizing pressures. The KSC Instrumentation Laboratories, managed and staffed by both civil service NASA personnel and by I-NET, the Engineering Support Contractor, help ensure the accomplishment of these priorities by adapting or developing technologies to improve operational safety and decrease processing costs. The Laboratories are organized by technical discipline into nine laboratory teams, each being generally self contained with highly skilled scientists, engineers, and technicians providing the skills necessary to conceive, develop and test innovative technical solutions. The laboratories are the Hazardous Gas Detection Laboratory specializing in the detection of cryogenic propellants using mass spectrometer-based instruments; the Toxic Vapor Detection Laboratory providing very low level detection capabilities for highly toxic hypergolic propellants and other chemicals; the Landing Aids Laboratory which develops navigation and positioning systems to calibrate Shuttle landing guidance systems; the Optical Instrumentation Laboratory specializing in development of low cost optical and ultrasonic instruments; the Transducer Development Laboratory which provides sustaining engineering for the KSC inventory of process measurements; the Contamination Monitoring Laboratory which develops and tests clean room monitoring systems; the Special Instrumentation Laboratory and Special Development Laboratory which each develop and support instruments for non-destructive inspection; and the Data Acquisition Systems Laboratory which provides and develops data acquisition, analysis and recording systems for special tests and permanent installations. These laboratories support all functional areas of KSC and each other in accomplishing a wide range of projects which are improving the techniques involved in processing and testing the flight systems to ensure that the Shuttle remains the prime human space flight system well into the next century

Paper Session III-A - Advanced Development of Ground Instrumentation as a Key Strategy in Improving the Safety and Efficiency of Space Shuttle Checkout and Launch

This paper describes some of the advanced technology instruments produced by the Instrumentation Development Laboratories at Kennedy Space Center. These systems contribute to the realization of the goals of “better, faster, cheaper” set by the NASA Administrator and provide a steady stream of inventions which benefit the commercial marketplace through NASA’s Commercialization and Dual Use Programs. The paper discusses advanced sensors and systems developed in the technical disciplines of cryogenic and toxic gas detection, leak location, hydrogen flame detection, data acquisition, navigation and positioning, payload contamination monitoring, non-destructive inspection, and the specific contributions made to improve safety and efficiency of the Space Shuttle checkout and launch process. These technologies are government programs or for technology transfer to the commercial sector

Modelling spring flood in the area of the Upper Volga basin

Integrated river-basin management for the Volga river requires understanding and modelling of the flow process in its macro-scale tributary catchments. At the example of the Kostroma catchment (16 000 km²), a method combining existing hydrologic simulation tools was developed that allows operational modelling even when data are scarce. Emphasis was placed on simulation of three processes: snow cover development using a snow-compaction model, runoff generation using a conceptual approach with parameters for seasonal antecedent moisture conditions, and runoff concentration using a regionalised unit hydrograph approach. Based on this method, specific regional characteristics of the precipitation-runoff process were identified, in particular a distinct threshold behaviour of runoff generation in catchments with clay-rich soils. With a plausible overall parameterisation of involved tools, spring flood events could successfully be simulated. Present paper mainly focuses on the simulation of a 16-year sample of snowmelt events in a meso-scale catchment. An example of regionalised simulation in the scope of the modelling system "Flussgebietsmodell" shows the capabilities of developed method for application in macro-scale tributary catchments of the Upper Volga basin

Commercialization of Kennedy Space Center Instrumentation Developed to Improve Safety, Reliability, Cost Effectiveness of Space Shuttle Processing, Launch, and Landing

Priorities and achievements of the Kennedy Space Center (KSF) Instrumentation Laboratories in improving operational safety and decreasing processing costs associated with the Shuttle vehicle are addressed. Technologies that have been or are in the process of technology transfer are reviewed, and routes by which commercial concerns can obtain licenses to other KSF Instrumentation Laboratory technologies are discussed

Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) in Maryland— Formative Evaluation, Program Year 2019

Unemployment insurance (UI) exists to provide temporary partial wage replacement during periods of involuntary unemployment while beneficiaries are actively seeking reemployment. The reemployment effort required of UI beneficiaries, which balances the work disincentive of income replacement, ensures that UI is social insurance rather than social welfare. In 2017, Congress appropriated funding to provide reemployment services and eligibility assessments (RESEA) to UI beneficiaries. The legislation also required that states receiving RESEA conduct annual evaluations to produce causal evidence that reemployment services and eligibility assessments are effective. In this formative evaluation, we produce the first causal effect estimates of the Maryland RESEA program for participants in program year 2019. Using a comparison-group design and administrative microdata, we find that participation in RESEA, relative to participation in Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS), reduces UI benefit year compensation by 0.62 weeks, reduces the probability of UI benefit exhaustion by 3.1 percentage points, and decreases the proportion of benefits received by 2.3 percentage points. We also find that RESEA increases the probability of employment in the quarter following the benefit year begin date by 1.9 percentage points but does not affect medium-run employment and earnings outcomes. Results suggest that Maryland’s RESEA program successfully met its stated goal of reducing UI duration by increasing employment rates in the short term, but the program does not seem to offer a longer-term solution to improving UI beneficiaries’ labor market outcomes. Our evaluation design was driven by the available data, which include indicators of program participation but no information on referral to reemployment services programs. As in all states, Maryland assigns WPRS profiling scores, which measure the probability of UI benefit exhaustion, to all beneficiaries who are required to engage in an active search for reemployment. That is, UI beneficiaries who are neither union hiring hall members nor awaiting employer recall. Then, within each county, Maryland refers the 50 percent of UI beneficiaries determined most likely to exhaust their benefits to RESEA and the remainder to WPRS. We show, however, that distributions of profiling scores do not differ between RESEA and WPRS participants, and that observed proportions of UI benefits received are uncorrelated with profiling scores. In light of this, as a basis for this formative evaluation, we assume that assignment to RESEA or WPRS is as good as random, conditional on observable characteristics. We test the robustness of results to alternative specifications and matching models. We also estimate associations between particular UI services and UI and labor market outcomes, but selection into services received precludes causal impact estimates. This formative evaluation sets a benchmark for Maryland RESEA program impact estimates. Together with our process analysis report, we have provided guidance for more complete and consistent recording of data on RESEA referrals, participation, and services as a basis for future ii evaluations. In future years, we expect to produce increasingly informative evidence on the RESEA program, RESEA services, and efforts to improve participation by UI beneficiaries referred to RESEA

Current research into brain barriers and the delivery of therapeutics for neurological diseases: a report on CNS barrier congress London, UK, 2017.

This is a report on the CNS barrier congress held in London, UK, March 22-23rd 2017 and sponsored by Kisaco Research Ltd. The two 1-day sessions were chaired by John Greenwood and Margareta Hammarlund-Udenaes, respectively, and each session ended with a discussion led by the chair. Speakers consisted of invited academic researchers studying the brain barriers in relation to neurological diseases and industry researchers studying new methods to deliver therapeutics to treat neurological diseases. We include here brief reports from the speakers

A systematic literature review of the use of social media for business process management

In today’s expansion of new technologies, innovation is found necessary for organizations to be up to date with the latest management trends. Although organizations are increasingly using new technologies, opportunities still exist to achieve the nowadays essential omnichannel management strategy. More precisely, social media are opening a path for benefiting more from an organization’s process orientation. However, social media strategies are still an under-investigated field, especially when it comes to the research of social media use for the management and improvement of business processes or the internal way of working in organizations. By classifying a variety of articles, this study explores the evolution of social media implementation within the BPM discipline. We also provide avenues for future research and strategic implications for practitioners to use social media more comprehensively