Distributed microprocessors in a tactical universal modem

The distributed microprocessor system associated with a wideband signal conversion unit (WBSCU) is described. Multiple embedded 8086 and 2901 microprocessors, supported by dedicated hardware modules, perform the required real time operations for both transmit and receive functions. Commands from a host computer determine the configuration of the WBSCU via the IEEE 488 bus. Each of the four WBSCU channels is assigned to process a specified IF waveform; each channel configures its own resources and, in some cases, borrows resources from other channels. The processed waveform data is communicated from individual channels to redundant global memories. Data flow between the user community and global memories occurs via redundant 1553 buses through intelligent Bus Interface Units. Each WBSCU channel contains one 2901 bit slice machine and one 8086 microprocessor. The 2901 provides high speed processing capability for the most time critical operations. The 8086 is used for lower speed processing tasks where its high level language capability can be better exploited. Each 8086 has a global bus for wideband interprocessor communication, and a local bus for 8086/2901, master/slave communication. Software architecture consists of a control and communications structure governing mode dependent signal processing tasks

A comparison of tourism and manufacturing economies in quasi-rural counties

Traditionally, state and local governments have sought to improve the lives of their residents by attracting manufacturing industries. Communities with natural advantages for tourism are often criticized for their lack of interest in pursuing new manufacturing plants. Because of the dominance of the marketplace, jobs in tourism areas are concentrated in trade and service industries. Although both tourism and manufacturing industries provide tax revenues to state and local governments and receive infrastructure from these governments, decision-makers question the wisdom of allowing jobs to concentrate in non-manufacturing industries. Critics claim that tourism jobs provide a lower standard of living for residents of tourism communities as compared to manufacturing communities. This thesis investigates the issues of job growth and changes in the standard of living in tourism- and manufacturing-based counties over a period of twenty-five to thirty years. The study is limited to three recognized tourism counties with populations less than 100,000 selected from three regions of the United States. These were paired with manufacturing counties of a similar population size located in the same state. This study concludes that manufacturing-based economies in quasi-rural counties do not provide a higher standard of living than tourism-based economies. In fact, indicators like poverty, income, education, jobs, healthcare, government revenue and environmental impacts are more positive for tourism counties. Negative effects of tourism are higher unemployment, higher crime rates, and a slightly higher cost for housing. These results support a balanced approach to growth that uses a county\u27s comparative advantage

Addison Mizner: Promoter in Paradise

California\u27s gold rush of 1849 and the Klondike gold rush of 1898 pale when compared to the Florida land rush of 1925. As tales of quick profits captured the attention of the nation, the boom in paradise became the greatest speculative frenzy in history. 1 Florida’s climate, new roads, and low taxes had appeal, but the chance of easy money fueled the hysteria. Real estate promoters littered the state with “the joyful and confident devastation of development.” Anything could happen as subdivisions rose from snake-infested mangrove swamps. Not since the days of the carpetbaggers had so many opportunists and swindlers migrated south

Effects of Collaborative Problem Solving Training for Parents of Children with Challenging Behavior in a Public School Setting

The intent of the Think:Kids Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) Parent Group Therapy curriculum is to help parents recognize the underlying skill deficits contributing to their child\u27s challenging behavior, identify pathways leading to the behavior, and make environmental changes to prevent problem behavior. This quasi-experimental study assessed the effects of implementing a 6-week, 12-hour Think:Kids CPS parent curriculum in a public school setting with an intervention group compared to a non-random waitlist group. Data was collected for both groups at pre-, post-and one-month follow-up on the following measures: the Parent Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI); the Parenting Stress Index, 4th edition, Short Form (PSI-SF); the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI); and the Think:Kids Parent Group Therapy Questionnaire. Data was collected weekly and at one-month follow-up on the Think:Kids - Change Over Time (TK-COT) and the Goal Attainment Scale (GAS). Seven parents participated in the intervention group and four parents participated in the waitlist comparison group. Attrition was low as all intervention group parents completed the class. Results on the PSI-SF did indicate statistically significant improvement in parent-child interactions for the intervention group compared to the waitlist group and in parent perception of their child\u27s behavior for both groups, warranting further study of the Think:Kids Parent Group Therapy with larger sample sizes and a randomized control design. Results indicated the Think:Kids Change Over Time (TK:COT) shows promise as an outcome measure for measuring adherence to the CPS philosophy. Mixed results on the PCRI could indicate issues with its use in applied settings. Implications of these findings and further research directions of the Think:Kids CPS parent curriculum are discussed

Ecological effects and environmental fate of solid rocket exhaust

Specific target processes were classified as to the chemical, chemical-physical, and biological reactions and toxic effects of solid rocket emissions within selected ecosystems at Kennedy Space Center. Exposure of Citris seedlings, English peas, and bush beans to SRM exhaust under laboratory conditions demonstrated reduced growth rates, but at very high concentrations. Field studies of natural plant populations in three diverse ecosystems failed to reveal any structural damage at the concentration levels tested. Background information on elemental composition of selected woody plants from two terrestrial ecosystems is reported. LD sub 50 for a native mouse (peromysous gossypinus) exposed to SRM exhaust was determined to be 50 ppm/g body weight. Results strongly indicate that other components of the SRM exhaust act synergically to enhance the toxic effects of HCl gas when inhaled. A brief summary is given regarding the work on SRM exhaust and its possible impact on hatchability of incubating bird eggs

Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe

Social enterprises present an alternative to business-as-usual with their combination of core social and environmental objectives being addressed through commercial approaches. In this way they present an alternative avenue for a sustainable prosperity that is not driven by profit but rather focused on flourishing and living within ecological limits. In the UK, there has been particular interest and support for the creation of start-ups and the scaling of existing social enterprises. The term social enterprise has been in use in the UK since the 1970s, and the current approaches are shaped by the philanthropic traditions of charities, the cooperative traditions of democratic governance, and cultures of socially responsible business. The UK social enterprise movement was given a boost by the pioneering public policies and approaches in the 1990s, including various support programmes, the introduction of a new legal form and investment funds. Since 2010 there has been a focus of policy on encouraging social investment funds and mutual social enterprise ‘spin-outs’ from the public sector. However, the context of public sector austerity has seen a considerable decline in overall spending across the UK in recent years, with the exception of Scotlan

Sonification abstraite/sonification concrete: An 'aesthetic persepctive space' for classifying auditory displays in the ars musica domain

Presented at the 12th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), London, UK, June 20-23, 2006.This paper discusses æsthetic issues of sonifications and the relationships between sonification (ars informatica) and music & sound art (ars musica). It is posited that many sonifications have suffered from poor internal ecological validity which makes listening more difficult, thereby resulting in poorer data extraction and inference on the part of the listener. Lessons are drawn from the electroacoustic music and musique concrète communities as it is argued that it is not instructive to distinguish between sonifications and music/sound art. Edgard Varèse defined music as organised sound, and sonifications organise sound to reflect mimetically the thing being sonified. Therefore, an æsthetic perspective space onto which sonifications and musical compositions alike can be mapped is proposed. The resultant map allows sonifications to be compared with works in the ars musica domain with which they share characteristics. The æsthetics of those ars musica counterparts can then be interrogated revealing useful design and organisation constructs that can be used to improve the sonifications' communicative ability

New light on Galactic post-asymptotic giant branch stars. I. First distance catalogue

We have commenced a detailed analysis of the known sample of Galactic post-asymptotic giant branch (PAGB) objects compiled in the Toru\'n catalogue of Szczerba et al., and present, for the first time, homogeneously derived distance determinations for the 209 likely and 87 possible catalogued PAGB stars from that compilation. Knowing distances are essential in determining meaningful physical characteristics for these sources and this has been difficult to determine for most objects previously. The distances were determined by modelling their spectral energy distributions (SED) with multiple black-body curves, and integrating under the overall fit to determine the total distance-dependent flux. This method works because the luminosity of these central stars is very nearly constant from the tip of the AGB phase to the beginning of the white-dwarf cooling track. This then enables us to use a standard-candle luminosity to estimate the SED distances. For Galactic thin disk PAGB objects, we use three luminosity bins based on typical observational characteristics, ranging between 3500 and 12000 L_sun. We further adopt a default luminosity of 1700 L_sun for all halo PAGB objects. We have also applied the above technique to a further sample of 69 related nebulae not in the current edition of the Toru\'n catalogue. In a follow-up paper we will estimate distances to the subset of RV Tauri variables using empirical period-luminosity relations, and to the R\,CrB stars, allowing a population comparison of these objects with the other subclasses of PAGB stars for the first time.Comment: 24 pages, 8 tables, 4 figures. Submitted to MNRAS. Appendix B containing full list of SED figures excluded in this versio

Towards practice-based studies of HRM: an actor-network and communities of practice informed approach

HRM may have become co-terminus with the new managerialism in the rhetorical orthodoxies of the HRM textbooks and other platforms for its professional claims. However, we have detailed case-study data showing that HR practices can be much more complicated, nuanced and indeed resistive toward management within organizational settings. Our study is based on ethnographic research, informed by actor-network theory and community of practice theory conducted by one of the authors over an 18-month period. Using actor-network theory in a descriptive and critical way, we analyse practices of managerial resistance, enrolment and counter-enrolment through which an unofficial network of managers used a formal HRM practice to successfully counteract the official strategy of the firm, which was to close parts of a production site. As a consequence, this network of middle managers effectively changed top management strategy and did so through official HRM practices, coupled with other actor-network building processes, arguably for the ultimate benefit of the organization, though against the initial views of the top management. The research reported here, may be characterized as a situated study of HRM-in-practice and we draw conclusions which problematize the concept of HRM in contemporary management literature