Space station payload operations scheduling with ESP2

The Mission Analysis Division of the Systems Analysis and Integration Laboratory at the Marshall Space Flight Center is developing a system of programs to handle all aspects of scheduling payload operations for Space Station. The Expert Scheduling Program (ESP2) is the heart of this system. The task of payload operations scheduling can be simply stated as positioning the payload activities in a mission so that they collect their desired data without interfering with other activities or violating mission constraints. ESP2 is an advanced version of the Experiment Scheduling Program (ESP) which was developed by the Mission Integration Branch beginning in 1979 to schedule Spacelab payload activities. The automatic scheduler in ESP2 is an expert system that embodies the rules that expert planners would use to schedule payload operations by hand. This scheduler uses depth-first searching, backtracking, and forward chaining techniques to place an activity so that constraints (such as crew, resources, and orbit opportunities) are not violated. It has an explanation facility to show why an activity was or was not scheduled at a certain time. The ESP2 user can also place the activities in the schedule manually. The program offers graphical assistance to the user and will advise when constraints are being violated. ESP2 also has an option to identify conflict introduced into an existing schedule by changes to payload requirements, mission constraints, and orbit opportunities

Lowe v. SEC: Investment Advisors Act of 1940 Clashes with First Amendment Guarantees of Free Speech and Press

In the wake of mounting controversy over whether federal securities laws can withstand first amendment scrutiny, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Lowe v. SEC to consider whether the first amendment prohibits an injunction against publication and distribution of an investment advisory newsletter by an unregistered investment advisor. However, the Court bypassed this constitutional question, and instead adopted a statutory construction of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the Act ) that excluded Lowe\u27s newsletters as bonafide financial publications of general circulation under section 80(b)- 2(a)(11)(D). The majority ruled that the petitioners were not investment advisers, and therefore did not need to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Consequently, there was no justification for restraining future publication of Lowe\u27s newsletters

Missionary Life in Singapore

This oral history is about a Seventh Day Adventist that went to live in Singapore to work at a school. He shares his experience in the overall culture

Compensation for Primary Reflector Wavefront Error

The object of the invention is to compensate for errors in a large telescope primary reflector by making certain compensating deviations in a smaller, auxiliary reflector of the telescope. At least one intermediate element forms an image of the primary surface onto the secondary surface, so each point on the secondary surface corresponds to a point on the primary surface. The secondary surface is formed with a deviation from an ideal secondary surface, with the piston distance of each point on the actual secondary surface equal to the piston distance of a corresponding piston on the actual primary surface from the ideal primary surface. It is found that this results in electromagnetic (e.g., light) rays which strike a deviating area of the actual primary surface being brought to the same focus as if the actual primary surface did not have a diviation from an ideal primary surface

Spatially distributed water-balance and meteorological data from the Wolverton catchment, Sequoia National Park, California

Accurate water-balance measurements in the seasonal, snow-dominated Sierra Nevada are important for forest and downstream water management. However, few sites in the southern Sierra offer detailed records of the spatial and temporal patterns of snowpack and soil-water storage and the fluxes affecting them, i.e., precipitation as rain and snow, snowmelt, evapotranspiration, and runoff. To explore these stores and fluxes we instrumented the Wolverton basin (2180-2750 m) in Sequoia National Park with distributed, continuous sensors. This 2006-2016 record of snow depth, soil moisture and soil temperature, and meteorological data quantifies the hydrologic inputs and storage in a mostly undeveloped catchment. Clustered sensors record lateral differences with regards to aspect and canopy cover at approximately 2250 and 2625 m in elevation, where two meteorological stations are installed. Meteorological stations record air temperature, relative humidity, radiation, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and snow depth. Data are available at hourly intervals by water year (1 October-30 September) in non-proprietary formats from online data repositories (https://doi.org/10.6071/M3S94T)

Identification of Sequences in the Herpes Simplex Virus Thymidine Kinase Gene Required for Efficient Processing and Polyadenylation.

The herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 thymidine kinase gene (tk) was resected from its 3\u27 end with BAL 31 exonuclease. Two sets of plasmids were isolated that lacked information distal to the two copies of the hexanucleotide 5\u27-AATAAA-3\u27 located at the 3\u27 end of the HSV tk gene. The presence of a simian virus 40 origin of DNA replication in each plasmid facilitated analysis of patterns of transcription in transfected Cos-1 monkey cells. Transcription analyses were performed with an S1 nuclease protection assay. Efficient processing and polyadenylation at the normal site still occurred when all sequences more than 44 or 46 base pairs (bp) downstream from the first AATAAA were removed (pTK311R/SV010 and pTK209R/SV010). Removal of an additional 7 bp (pTK312R/SV010) decreased the amount of tk mRNA processed at that normal site, and tk mRNA polyadenylated at a cryptic site within pBR322 sequences began to appear. The normal processing and polyadenylation site was not used at all when an additional 12 bp was removed (pTK314R/SV010); the small amount of tk mRNA produced was processed and polyadenylated at the cryptic pBR322 site. The region of the tk gene critical for efficient processing and polyadenylation of tk mRNA is located 20 to 38 bp downstream from the first AATAAA, distal to the polyadenylation site, and as RNA can form a stem-loop structure containing AAUAAA. Similar G + T-rich elements were located in DNA fragments which substitute efficiently for the HSV tk processing and polyadenylation signal and were not found in AATAAA-containing DNA fragments which substitute inefficiently for the HSV tk signal

Developments in the scientific understanding of lupus

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by the production of antinuclear antibodies (ANAs). Recent research into human and murine lupus suggests that disease susceptibility results from genetic polymorphisms regulating immune responses as well as impairing the clearance of apoptotic cells. Because the products of dead cells, including nucleic acids, have immunologic activity, this situation can promote antigen-driven ANA responses. Furthermore, immune complexes of ANAs can drive the production of proinflammatory cytokines, inducing the 'interferon signature', and intensifying disease. Together, these findings point to new genetic and immunologic markers of disease as well as targets for new therapies

Submillimeter observations of OH and CH in M42

The (sup 2) pi sub 1/2 (J = 3/2 to 1/2) transitions of OH at 163.12 and 163.40 micro m have been detected and upper limits have been obtained for the (sup 2) pi sub 3/2 (J = 3/2 to 1/2) transitions of CH at 149.09 and 149.39 micro m, in observations of the Kleinmann-Low Nebula of Orion. All four flux levels lie between 1 and 1.2 x 10 to the 17th power/sq.cm. The OH lines are bright when compared to the lower, (sup 2) pi sub 3/2 (J = 5/2 to 3/2) fluxes reported and imply that the 119 micro m emission observed is partially self-absorbed. The combined results provide strong constraints. Taken together with existing data on molecular hydrogen and CO and recent data on other OH transition, they suggest OH emission from post-shock regions at temperatures T approx 1000 k, densities approx. 7 x 10 to the 6th powr/cu cm N sub OH approx 80/cu cm optically thick for the (sup 2) pi sub 3/2 (J = 5/2 to 3/2), 119 micro m but only partially self-absorbing in the (J = 7/2 to 3/2), 84 micro m transitions over a Doppler velocity bandwidth of 30 km/sec. The OH column density is N sub OH approx 4 x 10 to the 16th powr/sq cm. in the emitting regions which occupy a fraction of approx 0.1 of a 1' x 1' field of view centered on the Becklin-Neugebauer source. The CO (J = 31 to 30), 84 micro m transition appears to lie sufficiently close to one of the 84 micro m OH line components to be partially absorbed as well, through a Bowen-type mechanism