Software engineering environment tool set integration

Space Transportation System Division (STSD) Engineering has a program to promote excellence within the engineering function. This program resulted in a capital funded facility based on a VAX cluster called the Rockwell Operational Engineering System (ROSES). The second phase of a three phase plan to establish an integrated software engineering environment for ROSES is examined. It discusses briefly phase one which establishes the basic capability for a modern software development environment to include a tool set, training and standards. Phase two is a tool set integration. The tool set is primarily off-the-shelf tools acquired through vendors or government agencies (public domain). These tools were placed into categories of software development. These categories are: requirements, design, and construction support; verification and validation support; and software management support. The integration of the tool set is being performed through concept prototyping and development of tools specifically designed to support the life cycle and provide transition from one phase to the next

Real-time diagnostics of gas/water assisted injection moulding using integrated ultrasonic sensors

YesAn ultrasound sensor system has been applied to the mould of both the water and gas assisted injection moulding processes. The mould has a cavity wall mounted pressure sensor and instrumentation to monitor the injection moulding machine. Two ultrasound sensors are used to monitor the arrival of the fluid (gas or water) bubble tip through the detection of reflected ultrasound energy from the fluid polymer boundary and the fluid bubble tip velocity through the polymer melt is estimated. The polymer contact with the cavity wall is observed through the reflected ultrasound energy from that boundary. A theoretically based estimation of the residual wall thickness is made using the ultrasound reflection from the fluid (gas or water) polymer boundary whilst the samples are still inside the mould and a good correlation with a physical measurement is observed

Magnetic-field dependence of the critical currents in a periodic coplanar array of narrow superconducting strip

We calculate the magnetic-field dependence of the critical current due to both geometrical edge barriers and bulk pinning in a periodic coplanar array of narrow superconducting strips. We find that in zero or low applied magnetic fields the critical current can be considerably enhanced by the edge barriers, but in modest applied magnetic fields the critical current reduces to that due to bulk pinning alone.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figure

SALL4 controls cell fate in response to DNA base composition

Contains fulltext : 232790.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access

Neuronal non-CG methylation is an essential target for MeCP2 function

DNA methylation is implicated in neuronal biology via the protein MeCP2, the mutation of which causes Rett syndrome. MeCP2 recruits the NCOR1/2 co-repressor complexes to methylated cytosine in the CG dinucleotide, but also to sites of non-CG methylation, which are abundant in neurons. To test the biological significance of the dual-binding specificity of MeCP2, we replaced its DNA binding domain with an orthologous domain from MBD2, which can only bind mCG motifs. Knockin mice expressing the domain-swap protein displayed severe Rett-syndrome-like phenotypes, indicating that normal brain function requires the interaction of MeCP2 with sites of non-CG methylation, specifically mCAC. The results support the notion that the delayed onset of Rett syndrome is due to the simultaneous post-natal accumulation of mCAC and its reader MeCP2. Intriguingly, genes dysregulated in both Mecp2 null and domain-swap mice are implicated in other neurological disorders, potentially highlighting targets of relevance to the Rett syndrome phenotype

Visual masking: past accomplishments, present status, future developments

Visual masking, throughout its history, has been used as an investigative tool in exploring the temporal dynamics of visual perception, beginning with retinal processes and ending in cortical processes concerned with the conscious registration of stimuli. However, visual masking also has been a phenomenon deemed worthy of study in its own right. Most of the recent uses of visual masking have focused on the study of central processes, particularly those involved in feature, object and scene representations, in attentional control mechanisms, and in phenomenal awareness. In recent years our understanding of the phenomenon and cortical mechanisms of visual masking also has benefited from several brain imaging techniques and from a number of sophisticated and neurophysiologically plausible neural network models. Key issues and problems are discussed with the aim of guiding future empirical and theoretical research

Disruption of mouse Slx4, a regulator of structure-specific nucleases, phenocopies Fanconi anemia

International audienc