Pathfinder autonomous rendezvous and docking project

Capabilities are being developed and demonstrated to support manned and unmanned vehicle operations in lunar and planetary orbits. In this initial phase, primary emphasis is placed on definition of the system requirements for candidate Pathfinder mission applications and correlation of these system-level requirements with specific requirements. The FY-89 activities detailed are best characterized as foundation building. The majority of the efforts were dedicated to assessing the current state of the art, identifying desired elaborations and expansions to this level of development and charting a course that will realize the desired objectives in the future. Efforts are detailed across all work packages in developing those requirements and tools needed to test, refine, and validate basic autonomous rendezvous and docking elements

Absolute 1* quantum yields for the ICN A state by diode laser gain versus absorption spectroscopy

Absolute I* quantum yields were measured as a function of wavelength for room temperature photodissociation of the ICN A state continuum. The temperature yields are obtained by the technique of time-resolved diode laser gain-versus-absorption spectroscopy. Quantum yields are evaluated at seven wavelengths from 248 to 284 nm. The yield at 266 nm is 66.0 +/- 2% and it falls off to 53.4 +/- 2% and 44.0 +/- 4% at 284 and 248 respectively. The latter values are significantly higher than those obtained by previous workers using infrared fluorescence. Estimates of I* quantum yields obtained from analysis of CN photofragment rotational distributions, as discussed by other workers, are in good agreement with the I* yields. The results are considered in conjunction with recent theoretical and experimental work on the CN rotational distributions and with previous I* yield results

Acabó todo, menos el griterío

La actual carrera a la Casa Blanca se perfila como una de las más importantes en la historia reciente de EEUU. Esta carrera a la Casa Blanca se ha descrito como una de las más importantes en la historia reciente de EEUU. Están en juego cuestiones de política, de liderazgo y de formas de gobernar. Pero, en caso de convertirse en el próximo presidente de EEUU, Barack Obama necesitará más que la audacia de la esperanza, título de su último libro

Development of a Hierarchical, Model-Based Design Decision-Support Tool for Assessing Uncertainty of Cost Estimates

In order to identify ways to improve cost estimation, especially early in design, cost estimation needs to be viewed and represented as a process. An important activity within the cost estimation process is assessing the cost risk of a system. A decision-support tool that assesses cost risk should represent the impact of subsystem or system-level uncertainty and provide mechanisms to help select among competing designs. In order to address these problems, a generic cost estimation process was developed. It is based on an extensive review of the cost estimation literature. Also, a hierarchicial product structure, model-based approach and tool to estimate system-level cost risk was developed. This tool provides a link between cost models and cost elements for each component, mechanisms for determining the impact of risk on the cost of the design, and outputs used for selecting among alternative competing designs

Late Prehistoric Lithic Economies in the Prairie Peninsula: a Comparison of Oneota and Langford in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois

This thesis is an examination of the environmental settlement patterns and the organization of lithic technology surrounding Upper Mississippian groups in Southeastern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. The sites investigated in this study are the Washington Irving (11K52) and Koshkonong Creek Village (47JE379) habitation sites, contemporaneous creekside Langford and Oneota sites located approximately 90 kilometers apart. A two-kilometer catchment of Washington Irving is compared to that of the Koshkonong Creek Village to clarify the nature of environmental variation in Langford and Oneota settlement patterns and increase our understanding of Upper Mississippian horticulturalist lifeways. Lithic tool and mass debitage analyses use an assemblage-based approach to understand the lithic economies at each site, accounting for procurement and manufacturing strategies and assemblage diversity and complexity

Combating occupational apartheid plaguing internationally trained professionals: A mixed methods description of activist entrepreneurship in cross-sector partnerships

Individuals that were born in a foreign country, have a bachelor’s degree or higher from a foreign post-secondary education institution, and are not working at their full level of expertise, are referred to more concisely as “internationally trained professionals” (ITPs). Social workers have called becoming informed about immigrants’ integration needs a new frontier of social service and professional development. All fields of human services will benefit from any data resulting from descriptive exploration of the ITP integration issue. The bounded system that serves for this case study is the current limited response to the ITP issue seen in Virginia, USA. In the North of the state we see a mature, urban response by the local state-run community college and various community-based organizations. In the West we see an emergent, rural response by a community coalition of service providers and interested parties from all three sectors of society. Detailed in the case is the acting of leaders to address the marginalization of ITPs. Using the theoretical lens of activist entrepreneurship, the case illustrates the necessity that activist entrepreneurs feel in their work for marginalized peoples, the internal and external environmental opportunities that these leaders identify as facilitating their inner drive, and the broad social needs underpinning the opportunities and necessities. Both qualitative and quantitative data are used to describe Virginia’s response to the ITP issue. A threshold for service entry is established across three ITP variables. A snapshot of the impact of a coalition in its formation stage is explicated. Cross-sector partnerships are key tools in responding to the ITP issue. Several ideas for both quantitative and qualitative follow-up research are generated. Examining ITP variables for relationships and more fully describing the essence and process of activist entrepreneurship are among the proposals

Prisms and Polyphony: The lived experiences of high school band students and their director as the prepare for an adjudicated performance.

This hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry is called by the question: What are the lived experiences of high school band students and their director as they prepare for an adjudicated performance? While there are many lenses through which the phenomenon of music preparation and music making has been explored, a relatively untapped aspect of this phenomenon is the experience as lived by the students themselves. The experiences and behaviors of the band director are so inexorably intertwined with the student experience that this essential contextual element is also explored as a means to understand the phenomenon more fully. Two metaphorical constructs - one visual, one musical - provide a framework upon which this exploration is built. As a prism refracts a single color of light into a wide spectrum of hues, views from within illumine a variety of unique perspectives and uncover both divergent and convergent aspects of this experience. Polyphony (multiple contrasting voices working independently, yet harmoniously, toward a unified musical product) enables understandings of the multiplicity of experiences inherent in ensemble performance. Conversations with student participants and their director, notes from my observations, and journal offerings provide the text for phenomenological reflection and interpretation. The methodology underpinning this human science inquiry is identified by Max van Manen (2003) as one that "involves description, interpretation, and self-reflective or critical analysis" (p. 4). I have reflected on the counterpoint of the student experience, and both purposefully and inadvertently, viewed this counterpoint through the various windows O'Donohue (2004) suggests await our gaze in the inner tower of the mind (p. 127). The student experience showed itself through the ensemble culture, the repertoire studied, the rehearsal process, and the adjudicated performance itself. Student conversations and reflections indicate that they experienced both discovery and transformation as they interacted with the music, each other, and their director throughout this process. The fresh prismatic and polyphonic understandings that emerged may offer the possibility for others to consider more deeply the context of how students experience who they are within an ensemble and how that experience shapes their musical understandings and personal growth

Savouring Life: The Leader's Journey to Health and Effectiveness

‘Savouring Life’ was a participatory action research (PAR) study within a complex living system—the Churches of Christ in New South Wales (NSW). One hundred and eight leaders participated in collaborative qualitative research aiming to help the organisation improve professional practice in the development of healthy and effective leaders. Structured conversations, storytelling and other participatory techniques were used to elicit the leaders’ own tacit knowledge to better understand the systemic health issues that they face. Viewing the organisation through complex living systems was found to be a useful framework to explore four cycles of action research inquiry. An aspirational state of ‘optimal functioning’ was identified to assist a shift in leadership practice that emphasises the salutogenic (focus on health and wellness) rather than merely responding to the pathogenic (focus on disease and disorder). Participants co-generated their own theories of transformation, making tacit knowledge explicit through the development of six mapping tools that were designed to share newly found knowledge throughout the organisation. PAR effectively influenced both learning and change, contributing to the launch of three system-wide action interventions: (1) The Centre for Wellness, (2) The Leaders Care Network and (3) Mentoring Training. The result is a holistic approach to leadership development designed to improve the health and effectiveness of leaders across the organisation