Diagnostics in the Extendable Integrated Support Environment (EISE)

Extendable Integrated Support Environment (EISE) is a real-time computer network consisting of commercially available hardware and software components to support systems level integration, modifications, and enhancement to weapons systems. The EISE approach offers substantial potential savings by eliminating unique support environments in favor of sharing common modules for the support of operational weapon systems. An expert system is being developed that will help support diagnosing faults in this network. This is a multi-level, multi-expert diagnostic system that uses experiential knowledge relating symptoms to faults and also reasons from structural and functional models of the underlying physical model when experiential reasoning is inadequate. The individual expert systems are orchestrated by a supervisory reasoning controller, a meta-level reasoner which plans the sequence of reasoning steps to solve the given specific problem. The overall system, termed the Diagnostic Executive, accesses systems level performance checks and error reports, and issues remote test procedures to formulate and confirm fault hypotheses

Towards the production of an ultra cold antihydrogen beam with the AEGIS apparatus

The AEGIS (Antimatter Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy) experiment is an international collaboration, based at CERN, with the experimental goal of performing the first direct measurement of the Earth's gravitational acceleration on antihydrogen. In the first phase of the experiment, a gravity measurement with 1% precision will be performed by passing a beam of ultra cold antihydrogen atoms through a classical Moiré deflectometer coupled to a position sensitive detector. The key requirements for this measurement are the production of ultra cold (T∼100mK) Rydberg state antihydrogen and the subsequent Stark acceleration of these atoms. The aim is to produce Rydberg state antihydrogen by means of the charge exchange reaction between ultra cold antiprotons (T∼100mK) and Rydberg state positronium. This paper will present details of the developments necessary for the successful production of the ultra cold antihydrogen beam, with emphasis on the detector that is required for the development of these techniques. Issues covered will include the detection of antihydrogen production and temperature, as well as detection of the effects of Stark acceleratio

Boy Gothic and Other Stories

[i]Boy Gothic and Other Stories[/i], by James Benjamin Storey, is a collection of short stories related by theme. Most of the stories follow the life of Sam, our main character, as he confronts and explores the modern condition--poverty, race, politics, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Perhaps the most important conflict is Sam's Ptolemaic struggle to overcome his father, a large man whose influence restricts Sam to the role of "perpetual boy." The thesis is organized in a morning, noon, night cycle corresponding to Sam's age. The collection is patterned after Hemingway's [i]In Our Time[/i] in the inclusion of short-shorts between longer stories. Other major influences include Faulkner, Joyce, Ellison, and Anderson. As an example of its writer's current development, the thesis includes works created throughout its author's graduate studies. The result is a collection that reflects the major literary movements of the 20th century

Assessing hospitality industry employee perceptions of performance appraisals

Performance appraisals are prevalent in all credible hospitality organizations today (Capelli, 2016). After an extensive review of the literature, it is apparent that there is a considerable disconnect between the execution of the performance appraisal and the outcomes that a practitioner would expect. With the use of the implicit person theory (IPT) and the five-factor model (FFM), this study pursued a view of how the personality disposition of a manager may affect how a performance appraisal is perceived by subordinates suggesting that innately some managers are better suited to conduct performance appraisals. The aim of this research was to assess the relationship between the employee’s perceived fairness and effectiveness of a recently conducted performance appraisal and a manager’s IPT disposition and FFM personality attributes. Paired data were collected using four established instruments; two for the predictor variables and two for the dependent variables. IPT Disposition Survey (Dweck, 1999) and FFM Survey (Shafer, 1999) were used to collect predictor variable data. Justice Measures Survey (Colquit, 2001) and Effective Performance Evaluation Survey (Longenecker, Liverpool & Wilson, 1988) were used to collect dependent variable data. Additionally, demographic and descriptive data were obtained. A response rate of 77% (N=90) was received after hand-delivered survey packets were distributed to the manager and the employee samples. The participants were from 20 different hospitality organizations located in the northeast region of the United States; the sample was derived from hotels (7), restaurants (8) and private clubs (5). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Coefficient correlation analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and regression analyses to test 15 hypothesis and to answer five research questions. Statistical significance was found between IPT incrementalism and perceived fairness [r (90) = .400, p\u3c.000]. Regression analysis revealed IPT incrementalism was statistically significant in predicting perceived fairness (F (1, 89) = 16.722, p \u3c.000]. Statistical significance was also present between IPT incrementalism and perceived effectiveness [r (90) = .435, p \u3c.000]. Regression analysis revealed IPT incrementalism was statistically significant in predicting perceived fairness [F (1, 89) = 20.501, p\u3c.000]. Among the manager sample, statistical significance was found in agreeableness of FFM related to effectiveness [F (1, 89) = 4.508, p = .037]. Lastly, sex and age were examined for differences in means. Among the employee sample, a t – Test for equality of means revealed a statistically significant difference in means between sex and fairness [t (88) = -1.99, p = .049]. Practical and research implications are discussed; recommendations for further research and limitations regarding this present research are included. Keywords: performance evaluation, manager personality, employee perceptions, fairness, effectivenes

Direct dating of mid-crustal shear zones with synkinematic allanite:new in situ U-Th-Pb geochronological approaches applied to the Mont Blanc massif

International audienceDating the timing of motion on crustal shear zones is of tremendous importance for understanding the assembly of orogenic terranes. This objective is achieved in this paper by combining petrological and structural observations with novel developments in in situ U-Th-Pb geochronology of allanite. A greenschist facies shear zone within the Mont Blanc Massif is documented. Allanite is synkinematic and belongs to the mylonitic assemblage. LA-ICP-MS U-Th-Pb isotope analyses of allanite reveal high contents and highly radiogenic isotopic compositions of the common-Pb component. The use of measured Pb-isotope compositions of associated minerals (feldspars and chlorite) is critical for accurate common-Pb correction, and provides a powerful mechanism for linking allanite growth to the metamorphic assemblage. A mean 208Pb/232Th age of 29.44 ± 0.95 Ma is accordingly taken for synkinematic allanite crystallisation under greenschist facies conditions. This age reflects the timing of the Mont Blanc underthrusting below the Penninic Front and highlights the potential of directly dating deformation with allanite

Locating the pseudogap closing point in cuprate superconductors: absence of entrant or reentrant behavior

Current descriptions of the pseudogap in underdoped cuprates envision a doping-dependent transition line $T^*(p)$ which descends monotonically towards zero just beyond optimal doping. There is much debate as to the location of the terminal point $p^*$ where $T^*(p)$ vanishes, whether or not there is a phase transition at $T^*$ and exactly how $T^*(p)$ behaves below $T_c$ within the superconducting dome. One perspective sees $T^*(p)$ cutting the dome and continuing to descend monotonically to zero at $p_{crit} \approx 0.19$ holes/Cu $-$ referred to here as `entrant behavior'. Another perspective derived from photoemission studies is that $T^*(p)$ intersects the dome near $p_{crit} \approx 0.23$ holes/Cu then turns back below $T_c$, falling to zero again around $p_{crit} \approx 0.19$ $-$ referred to here as `reentrant behavior'. By examining thermodynamic data for Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ we show that neither entrant nor reentrant behavior is experimentally supported. Rather, $p_{crit} \approx 0.19$ sharply delimits the pseudogap regime and for $p < 0.19$ the pseudogap is always present, independent of temperature. Similar results are found for Y$_{0.8}$Ca$_{0.2}$Ba$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-\delta}$. For both materials $T^*(p)$ is not a temperature but a crossover scale, $\approx E^*(p)/2k_B$, reflecting instead the underlying pseudogap energy $E^*(p)$ which vanishes as $p \rightarrow 0.19$.Comment: 20 Pages, 9 Figures, in press Phys. Rev.

Report from the MPP Working Group to the NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications

NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications (OSSA) gave a select group of scientists the opportunity to test and implement their computational algorithms on the Massively Parallel Processor (MPP) located at Goddard Space Flight Center, beginning in late 1985. One year later, the Working Group presented its report, which addressed the following: algorithms, programming languages, architecture, programming environments, the way theory relates, and performance measured. The findings point to a number of demonstrated computational techniques for which the MPP architecture is ideally suited. For example, besides executing much faster on the MPP than on conventional computers, systolic VLSI simulation (where distances are short), lattice simulation, neural network simulation, and image problems were found to be easier to program on the MPP's architecture than on a CYBER 205 or even a VAX. The report also makes technical recommendations covering all aspects of MPP use, and recommendations concerning the future of the MPP and machines based on similar architectures, expansion of the Working Group, and study of the role of future parallel processors for space station, EOS, and the Great Observatories era