Generic Ada code in the NASA space station command, control and communications environment

The results of efforts to apply powerful Ada constructs to the formatted message handling process are described. The goal of these efforts was to extend the state-of-technology in message handling while at the same time producing production-quality, reusable code. The first effort was initiated in September, 1984 and delivered in April, 1985. That product, the Generic Message Handling Facility, met initial goals, was reused, and is available in the Ada Repository on ARPANET. However, it became apparent during its development that the initial approach to building a message handler template was not optimal. As a result of this initial effort, several alternate approaches were identified, and research is now on-going to identify an improved product. The ultimate goal is to be able to instantly build a message handling system for any message format given a specification of that message format. The problem lies in how to specify the message format, and one that is done, how to use that information to build the message handler. Message handling systems and message types are described. The initial efforts, its results and its shortcomings are detailed. The approach now being taken to build a system which will be significantly easier to implement, and once implemented, easier to use, is described. Finally, conclusions are offered

Tyne Darling: a Novel

Tyne Darling spent most of his youth dreaming about the saints. They came 15 to a pack with a single stick of stale, pink bubble gum. Their posters hung on his walls, and their pictures—cut from the Sports Illustrated magazines he got from his uncle—were tacked to his cork board and taped above his desk. His saints were Hank Aaron and Oscar Gamble, Carlton Fisk and Tom Seaver. His saints had rocket arms and sweet, smooth swings. They played a game that existed out of time on a sacred square within a circle. His saints were baseball players. Now, as he grapples with the tentacles of adulthood—what it means to be a father and a partner—he works to unravel the tangled threads of his past and come to terms with his present and future circumstances. He gazes back at mistakes and missed opportunities, cuts through a rambling lack of self-belief, and reaches deep into the marrow of his sprawling ambitions, as he attempts to destroy his vāsanā—inclinations that were formed from past perceptions, experiences, and impressions—and come to terms with what it might be like to actually start anew (Varenne 88). What he finds in his rearview mirror, though, are the same kinds of things that are just beyond his windshield. Then, his friend is killed—suddenly and grotesquely—in the remote desert of Syria. Tyne Darling leans on the saints of his youth—on the stories and mythos of baseball—and upon the memory and threads of connection left by his departed friend, as well as upon his family—his partner, Emma, and son, Cass—as he discovers who he was, who he is, and possibly, who he will be

Integration Versus Meritocracy? Competing Educational Goals During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Alongside the immediate challenges of operating schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, over the past year, parents, students, and policymakers around the country have also debated equity and access to some of the country’s most elite and segregated public schools. This qualitative case study examines how New York City activists conceptualized educational equity during the pandemic. Conceptually framed by Labaree’s (1997) typology of the three competing purposes of education—democratic equality, social efficiency, and social mobility—we document different lessons learned from the pandemic by integration activists, who emphasized school integration for democratic equality; and meritocratic activists, who prioritized retaining the existing stratified system mainly to foster social mobility and social efficiency. Our findings highlight the challenge of sustaining a vision oriented around the public good amid powerful framings emphasizing the individual purposes of education

Identity and Behavior: Exploring an Understanding of “Being” and “Doing” for Catholic Priests Accused of the Sexual Abuse of Minors in the United States

The problem of the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests in the United States has been problematized as a phenomenon that is, in part, a distinction of the priesthood. Although it is known that there are sex offenders in the world who are not, nor were they ever, priests, this study sets forth to uncover whether or not the priests in the sample are, in fact, different on typical psychological risk factors than the at-large sex offender. More importantly, in the absence of notable differences on risk factor characteristics, this study explores the ways in which narrative structures are used to tell difficult stories. It also supplements an understanding of the specificity of the problem of abuse in the Church, and the ways in which priests use both classic vocabularies of motive as well as vocabularies that are culturally rooted. The narratives paint a picture of the ways accused priests make sense of their identity as men, as moral leaders, and as men accused of sexual abuse, particularly as these are understood within the Catholic subculture of sin, repentance, and redemption. The specific risk factors described are deviant relationships to sexuality, social interaction deficiencies, and low esteem. In general, priests are no different on most of the measures, and when they are the comparative sample sizes are small, requiring a cautious use of the findings to make universal claims regarding priests. What is unique to the priesthood is the trajectory of the story of coming to this peculiar master status, and the mechanisms for managing the allegations made against them which, whether true or not, interrupt the priest\u27s narrative. Priests use similar stigma management techniques as other sex offenders with victims who are minors and/or adults. Some priests in this sample denied allegations outright or, when they admitted to them, engaged in the process of disavowal from the sick self , often after they had received some sort of treatment. Admitters also used typical techniques of neutralization, the content of which, at times, were illustrative of an understanding of self as fallible and forgivable

Somatic variants in the human lens epithelium: A preliminary assessment

PURPOSE: We hypothesize that somatic mutations accumulate in cells of the human lens and may contribute to the development of cortical or posterior sub-capsular cataracts. Here, we used a Next-generation sequencing (NGS) strategy to screen for low-allelic frequency variants in DNA extracted from human lens epithelial samples. METHODS: Next-Generation sequencing of 151 cancer-related genes (WUCaMP2 panel) was performed on DNA extracted from post-mortem or surgical specimens obtained from 24 individuals. Usually, pairwise comparisons were made between two or more ocular samples from the same individual, allowing putative somatic variants detected in lens samples to be differentiated from germline variants. RESULTS: Use of a targeted hybridization approach enabled high sequence coverage (>1000-fold) of the WUCaMP2 genes. In addition to high-frequency variants (corresponding to homozygous or heterozygous SNPs and Indels), somatic variants with allelic frequencies of 1-4% were detected in the lens epithelial samples. The presence of one such variant, a T > C point substitution at position 32907082 in BRCA2, was verified subsequently using droplet digital PCR. CONCLUSIONS: Low-allelic fraction variants are present in the human lens epithelium, at frequencies consistent with the presence of millimeter-sized clones

Review of fatigue criteria development for HTGR core supports

Fatigue criteria for HTGR core support graphite structure are presented. The criteria takes into consideration the brittle nature of the material, and emphasizes the probabilistic approach in the treatment of strength data. The stress analysis is still deterministic. The conventional cumulative damage approach is adopted here. A specified minimum S-N curve is defined as the curve with 99% probability of survival at a 95% confidence level to accommodate random variability of the material strength. A constant life diagram is constructed to reconcile the effect of mean stress. The linear damage rule is assumed to account for the effect of random cycles. An additional factor of safety of three on cycles is recommended. The uniaxial S-N curve is modified in the medium-to-high cycle range (> 2 x 10/sup 3/ cycles) for mutiaxial fatigue effects

Building Civic Capacity: The History & Landscape of NYC Integration Activism 2012–2021 [post-print]

Background: New York City is one of the most segregated school districts in the country, but in the last nine years, school integration has moved from being marginal to a central education policy. Existing narratives have emphasized parents, school and political leaders, downplaying the significance of citywide coalitions of activists, especially youth activists. Purpose: We examine how grassroots activists contributed to transform school integration policy, and the opportunities and challenges as a result through urban regime theory and specifically civic capacity, which highlights how various constituencies build a shared agenda for policy change. Research Design: Working in partnership with four youth interviewers at two integration activist organizations, we conducted 72 semi-structured interviews with New York City student, parent and community activists. We also observed 36 hours of public meeting observations and collected publicly available documents, including 360 newspaper articles and policy documents in order to triangulate our findings. Conclusions: We find that activist coalitions made progress in developing integration civic capacity through increased collaboration among diverse stakeholders, notably youth, toward a shared definition of integration. However, growing tensions with rival coalitions and the fragmented political landscape of NYC limited the strength and durability of civic capacity

Seeking serenity: living with HIV/AIDS in rural Western Canada

The purpose of this naturalistic inquiry was to describe the experience of living with HIV infection in rural Alberta, Canada. Although the urban HIV epidemic has been well researched, the virus continues its spread into more remote populations where there is a need to understand and address its impact. Affected rural residents form a diverse and marginalized group that includes women, Aboriginal peoples, immigrants, injecting drug users, and men who have sex with men, yet there are few data available to inform appropriate health and social services and practice. A number of factors, such as stigma, invisibility, isolation, confidentiality, poverty, and risk behaviours, contribute to the rural experience, but have not been clearly explicated in the literature. This study was conducted in order to better understand the perceptions of health in a rural setting, the processes involved in accessing care, the challenges and benefits associated with rural life, and the relationship between personal beliefs and values and the nature of the disease.Ye

Opportunities and challenges of self-binding directives: A comparison of empirical research with stakeholders in three European countries

BackgroundSelf-binding directives (SBDs) are psychiatric advance directives that include a clause in which mental health service users consent in advance to involuntary hospital admission and treatment under specified conditions. Medical ethicists and legal scholars identified various potential benefits of SBDs but have also raised ethical concerns. Until recently, little was known about the views of stakeholders on the opportunities and challenges of SBDs.AimsThis article aims to foster an international exchange on SBDs by comparing recent empirical findings on stakeholders’ views on the opportunities and challenges of SBDs from Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.MethodComparisons between the empirical findings were drawn using a structured expert consensus process.ResultsFindings converged on many points. Perceived opportunities of SBDs include promotion of autonomy, avoidance of personally defined harms, early intervention, reduction of admission duration, improvement of the therapeutic relationship, involvement of persons of trust, avoidance of involuntary hospital admission, addressing trauma, destigmatization of involuntary treatment, increase of professionals’ confidence, and relief for proxy decision-makers. Perceived challenges include lack of awareness and knowledge, lack of support, undue influence, inaccessibility during crisis, lack of cross-agency coordination, problems of interpretation, difficulties in capacity assessment, restricted therapeutic flexibility, scarce resources, disappointment due to noncompliance, and outdated content. Stakeholders tended to focus on practical challenges and did not often raise fundamental ethical concerns.ConclusionsStakeholders tend to see the implementation of SBDs as ethically desirable, provided that the associated challenges are addressed.<br/

Characterization of NS safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) and false flax (Camelina sativa L.) collections

Plant genetic resources are one of the most important natural resources for an agricultural country such as Serbia. Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops (IFVCNS), Novi Sad (NS), maintains the collections of major and minor oil crops, including safflower and false flax, that are used in breeding. Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) that belongs to the Asteraceae (Compositae) family, is a thistle -like drought resistant annual plant that is grown commercially for the production of oil and birdseed. False flax (Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz) is an oil crop from Brassicaceae family, which has become particularly interesting in recent years due to its diverse use and modest growing and cultivation requirements.NS safflower collection consist of genotypes of different geographical origin (Ukraine, Italy, Turkey), while false flax collection comprises accessions exchanged between Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU) and IFVCNS