Recent field test results using OMEGA transmissions for clock synchronization

The results are presented of clock synchronization experiments using OMEGA transmissions from North Dakota on 13.10 kHz and 12.85 kHz. The OMEGA transmissions were monitored during April 1974 from NASA tracking sites located at Madrid, Spain; Canary Island; and Winkfield, England. The sites are located at distances between 6600 kilometers (22,100 microseconds) to 7300 kilometers (24,400 microseconds) from North Dakota. The data shows that cycle identification of the received signals was accomplished. There are, however, discrepancies between the measured and calculated propagation delay values which have not been explained, but seem to increase with distance between the receiver and the transmitter. The data also indicates that three strategically located OMEGA transmitting stations may be adequate to provide worldwide coverage for clock synchronization to within plus or minus two (2) microseconds

Clock synchronization experiments using OMEGA transmissions

The OMEGA transmissions from North Dakota on 13.10 and 12.85 kHz were monitored at several sites using a recently developed OMEGA timing receiver specifically designed for this purpose. The experiments were conducted at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C.; and at the NASA tracking station, Rosman, North Carolina. Results show that cycle identification of the two carrier frequencies was made at each test site, thus, coarse time (76 microseconds) from the OMEGA transmitted signals to within the ambiguity period of each OMEGA frequency was extracted. The fine time determination, which was extracted from the phase difference between the received OMEGA signals and locally generated signals, was about + or - 2 microseconds for daytime reception and about + or - 5 microseconds for nighttime reception

Simulation To Improve Dementia-Related Care of Veterans

Millions of Americans, including Veterans, are diagnosed with dementia. Healthcare staff may benefit from dementia-related training. This Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) project evaluated the effectiveness of the Virtual Dementia Tour (VDT) as a learning tool to improve staff’s knowledge of dementia, enhance their empathy and attitudes when interacting with Veterans diagnosed with the disease, and increase awareness that behaviors commonly seen with dementia may be forms of communication. Interprofessional healthcare staff (N=33) at a Veterans hospital participated in the experiential simulation. A pre-and post-test design utilized the Dementia Knowledge Assessment Scale (DKAS) and the Dementia Attitude Scale (DAS). Results: A paired-sample t-test indicated the scores were significantly higher for the post-tour DKAS (M = 27.51; SD = 7.68) than for the pre-tour DKAS (M = 35.12; SD = 7.89), t(32) = -6.045, p \u3c .001, and d = 0.969 suggesting the VDT was an effective tool for improving staff knowledge. A Kendall’s Tau-b revealed a significant difference in the DAS (p \u3c .03 in all but one statement; α= .754) signifying enhanced empathy, attitudes, and awareness. Conclusion: The Virtual Dementia Tour was an effective learning tool to improve the healthcare staff’s knowledge, empathy, attitudes, and awareness of behaviors when caring for Veterans with dementia. Keywords: dementia, dementia training, dementia simulation, disruptive behaviors, empathy, simulations, Veterans with dementia, virtual dementia tour, virtual simulatio

Automatic Mapping of NES Games with Mappy

Game maps are useful for human players, general-game-playing agents, and data-driven procedural content generation. These maps are generally made by hand-assembling manually-created screenshots of game levels. Besides being tedious and error-prone, this approach requires additional effort for each new game and level to be mapped. The results can still be hard for humans or computational systems to make use of, privileging visual appearance over semantic information. We describe a software system, Mappy, that produces a good approximation of a linked map of rooms given a Nintendo Entertainment System game program and a sequence of button inputs exploring its world. In addition to visual maps, Mappy outputs grids of tiles (and how they change over time), positions of non-tile objects, clusters of similar rooms that might in fact be the same room, and a set of links between these rooms. We believe this is a necessary step towards developing larger corpora of high-quality semantically-annotated maps for PCG via machine learning and other applications.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures. Appearing at Procedural Content Generation Workshop 201

Proceedings of the 14th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Applications Planning Meeting

Developments and applications in the field of frequency and time are addressed. Specific topics include rubidium frequency standards, future timing requirements, noise and atomic standards, hydrogen maser technology, synchronization, and quartz technology

Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Application and Planning Meeting

Thirty eight papers are presented addressing various aspects of precise time and time interval applications. Areas discussed include: past accomplishments; state of the art systems; new and useful applications, procedures, and techniques; and fruitful directions for research efforts

Submicrosecond comparisons of time standards via the Navigation Technology Satellites (NTS)

An interim demonstration was performed of the time transfer capability of the NAVSTAR GPS system using a single NTS satellite. Measurements of time difference (pseudo-range) are made from the NTS tracking network and at the participating observatories. The NTS network measurements are used to compute the NTS orbit trajectory. The central NTS tracking station has a time link to the Naval Observatory UTC (USNO,MC1) master clock. Measurements are used with the NTS receiver at the remote observatory, the time transfer value UTC (USNO,MC1)-UTC (REMOTE, VIA NTS) is calculated. Intercomparisons were computed using predicted values of satellite clock offset and ephemeus

Motivational game design patterns of ’ville games

The phenomenal growth of social network games in the last five years has left many game designers, game scholars, and long-time game players wondering how these games so effectively engage their audiences. Without a strong understanding of the sources of appeal of social network games, and how they relate to the appeal of past games and other human activities, it has proven difficult to interpret the phenomenon accurately or build upon its successes. In this paper we propose and employ a particular approach to this challenge, analyzing the motivational game design patterns in the popular ‘Ville style of game using the lenses of behavioral economics and behavioral psychology, explaining ways these games engage and retain players. We show how such games employ strategies in central, visible ways that are also present (if perhaps harder to perceive) in games with very different mechanics and audiences. Our conclusions point to lessons for game design, game interpretation, and the design of engaging software of any type