MIRAGE: The data acquisition, analysis, and display system

Developed for the NASA Johnson Space Center and Life Sciences Directorate by GE Government Services, the Microcomputer Integrated Real-time Acquisition Ground Equipment (MIRAGE) system is a portable ground support system for Spacelab life sciences experiments. The MIRAGE system can acquire digital or analog data. Digital data may be NRZ-formatted telemetry packets of packets from a network interface. Analog signal are digitized and stored in experimental packet format. Data packets from any acquisition source are archived to a disk as they are received. Meta-parameters are generated from the data packet parameters by applying mathematical and logical operators. Parameters are displayed in text and graphical form or output to analog devices. Experiment data packets may be retransmitted through the network interface. Data stream definition, experiment parameter format, parameter displays, and other variables are configured using spreadsheet database. A database can be developed to support virtually any data packet format. The user interface provides menu- and icon-driven program control. The MIRAGE system can be integrated with other workstations to perform a variety of functions. The generic capabilities, adaptability and ease of use make the MIRAGE a cost-effective solution to many experimental data processing requirements

Women’s participations in economic and NGO activities in Bangladesh: an empirical study on the Bangladesh Demography and Health Survey (BDHS)

This study examines key factors affecting the economic involvement of women in Bangladesh and women’s involvement with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) operating in that country. Quantitative analysis was utilised to explore data contained in the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys 2007 and 2011. The findings indicate that age, marital status, number of children living in the household, place of residence, geographical location, education, partner’s education and the wealth index are important factors in enabling women’s involvement in economic activities. In other words, the key findings emerged from the study are firstly, the low level of women’s economic activities in Bangladesh with a majority involved in farming, agriculture and poultry; secondly, those women involved in the labour market generally tended to come from poor backgrounds, have very little education, live in the Northwest geographical region and have a large family living in the same house; and finally, age, currently married, having a higher number of children, living in rural areas, from the Northwest region with almost no education and belonging to the poor wealth index quintile are found to be associated more with NGO activities in Bangladesh. The findings indicate there are potential barriers that are preventing Bangladeshi women from engaging in the labour market that could reinforce the case for reshaping the Government’s labour policies. The study reveals that the recent economic crisis has no significant impact on the women labour force participation as well their involvement in NGO activities in Bangladesh. It is generally understood that enhancing women’s economic participation and NGO activities has a positive impact at family, community and country levels. The study concludes that investing in women, particularly in creating employment opportunities including NGO sectors can help the country as a safeguard even during the economic crisis. It is anticipated that the findings will help policy-makers in enhancing female labour-force participation as well as encouraging them to engage in NGO activities in Bangladesh

Atrial myxoma presenting as a cerebellar stroke

Primary tumors of the heart are rare. However, among them cardiac myxoma is the most common tumor accounting for half of the primary cardiac neoplasms. About 75% of cardiac myxomas are located in the left atrium, and 25% are located in the right atrium. These are thought to be arising from remnants of subendocardial vasoformative reserve cells or multipotential primitive mesenchymal cells in the fossa ovalis and surrounding endocardium, which can differentiate along a variety of cell lineages including epithelial, hematopoietic, and muscle cells. Although some cases are discovered incidentally by echocardiographic examination, it was recognized in most of the patients by various symptoms caused by the release of inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), obstruction of intracardiac blood flow, or embolization. Cardiac myxoma has many undetermined interesting issues regarding its origin, nature as a tumor, varying clinical manifestations, and the presence of both sporadic and familial types. Recent evidence revealed that cardiac myxomas are benign neoplasms and slowly proliferating lesions. The existence of its malignant counterpart is controversial. However, recurrence after surgical excision or metastasis has been reported. We hereby present a case report of a young gentleman who presented with history of sudden onset of weakness and cerebellar signs. Urgent CT scan revealed hypodensities of bilateral occipital lobes and cerebellum suggestive of infarcts. Urgent echocardiography denoted large left atrial myxoma. The tumor was excised and the patient recovered well

Optical pathlength control on the JPL Phase B interferometer testbed

Design and implementation of a controller for optical pathlength compensation on a flexible structure is presented. Nanometer level pathlength control is demonstrated in the laboratory. The experimental results are in close agreement with performance predictions

Dispersion-engineered silicon nitride waveguides for mid-infrared supercontinuum generation covering the wavelength range 0.8-6.5 mu m

We numerically demonstrate the generation of a mid-infrared supercontinuum (SC) through the design of an on-chip complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible 10-mm-long air-clad rectangular waveguide made using stoichiometric silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ) as the core and MgF 2 glass as its lower cladding. The proposed waveguide is optimized for pumping in both the anomalous and all-normal dispersion regimes. A number of waveguide geometries are optimized for pumping at 1.55 μ m with ultrashort pulses of 50-fs duration and a peak power of 5 kW. By initially keeping the thickness constant at 0.8 μ m, four different structures are engineered with varying widths between 3 μ m and 6 μ m. The largest SC spectral evolution covering a region of 0.8 μ m to beyond 6.5 μ m could be realized by a waveguide geometry with a width of 3 μ m. Numerical analysis shows that increasing width beyond 3 μ m by fixing thickness at 0.8 μ m results in a reduction of the SC extension in the long wavelength side. However, the SC spectrum can be enhanced beyond 6.5 μ m by increasing the waveguide thickness beyond 0.9 μ m with the same peak power and pump source. To the best of our knowledge, this is first time report of a broad SC spectral evolution through numerical demonstration in the mid-infrared region by the silicon nitride waveguide. In the case of all-normal dispersion pumping, a flatter SC spectra can be predicted with the same power and pump pulse but with a reduced bandwidth spanning 950–2100 nm