Ontology-assisted database integration to support natural language processing and biomedical data-mining

Successful biomedical data mining and information extraction require a complete picture of biological phenomena such as genes, biological processes, and diseases; as these exist on different levels of granularity. To realize this goal, several freely available heterogeneous databases as well as proprietary structured datasets have to be integrated into a single global customizable scheme. We will present a tool to integrate different biological data sources by mapping them to a proprietary biomedical ontology that has been developed for the purposes of making computers understand medical natural language

Onboard System Health Assessment

Viewgraphs and discussion of onboard system health assessment are presented. Success of the space station program will be measured by how well it addresses the basic requirements for (1) maintaining the orbiting Space Station Freedom fully operational for its projected life of thirty years, and (2) the cost-effective execution of the overall space station program. Onboard system health assessment must provide complete and thorough testing capabilities along with effective associated redundancy/fault management

Vehicle Systems Panel deliberations

The Vehicle Systems Panel addressed materials and structures technology issues related to launch and space vehicle systems not directly associated with the propulsion or entry systems. The Vehicle Systems Panel was comprised of two subpanels - Expendable Launch Vehicles & Cryotanks (ELVC) and Reusable Vehicles (RV). Tom Bales, LaRC, and Tom Modlin, JSC, chaired the expendable and reusable vehicles subpanels, respectively, and co-chaired the Vehicle Systems Panel. The following four papers are discussed in this section: (1) Net Section components for Weldalite Cryogenic Tanks, by Don Bolstad; (2) Build-up Structures for Cryogenic Tanks and Dry Bay Structural Applications, by Barry Lisagor; (3) Composite Materials Program, by Robert Van Siclen; (4) Shuttle Technology (and M&S Lessons Learned), by Stan Greenberg

Arctic sea ice associated biodiversity: importance and challenges.

Mr. Tom Barry, CAFF – Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, at the NRF 6th open Assembly in Hveragerði, Iceland. September 2011

Characterization of frequency drift of sampled-grating DBR laser module under direct modulation

The authors demonstrate the drift in frequency of a static sampled-grating distributed Bragg reflector (SG DBR) laser module when it is subjected to direct modulation. The magnitude of drift and its settling time is characterized as a function of the index of modulation. Results show that when the directly modulated SG DBR is optically filtered, as in a dense wavelength- division- multiplexed system, a power penalty of 6.7 dB is incurred in comparison to the unfiltered case

Time-resolved linewidth measurements of a wavelength switched SG-DBR laser for optical packet switched networks

We report time-resolved linewidth measurements of different sizes of optical packets under wavelength-switching for the first time and show that laser linewidth is significantly broadened during switching transition requiring ~3 mus to attain its minimum value

Profit Planning for Irrigated Farming.

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Safety sans frontières: an international safety culture model

The management of safety culture in international and culturally diverse organisations is a concern for many high-risk industries. Yet, research has primarily developed models of safety culture within Western countries, and there is a need to extend investigations of safety culture to global environments. We examined i) whether safety culture can be reliably measured within a single industry operating across different cultural environments, and ii) if there is an association between safety culture and national culture. The psychometric properties of a safety culture model developed for the air traffic management industry (ATM) were examined in 17 European countries from four culturally distinct regions of Europe (North, East, South, West). Participants were ATM operational staff (n = 5176) and management staff (n = 1230). Through employing multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, good psychometric properties of the model were established. This demonstrates, for the first time, that when safety culture models are tailored to a specific industry, they can operate consistently across national boundaries and occupational groups. Additionally, safety culture scores at both regional and national levels were associated with country-level data on Hofstede’s five national culture dimensions (collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance). MANOVAs indicated safety culture to be most positive in Northern Europe, less so in Western and Eastern Europe, and least positive in Southern Europe. This indicates that national cultural traits may influence the development of organisational safety culture, with significant implications for safety culture theory and practice