The economic value of remote sensing of earth resources from space: An ERTS overview and the value of continuity of service. Volume 3: Intensive use of living resources: Agriculture. Part 1: Overview

Potential economic benefits obtainable from a state-of-the-art ERS system in the resource area of intensive use of living resources, agriculture, are studied. A spectrum of equal capability (cost saving), increased capability, and new capability benefits are quantified. These benefits are estimated via ECON developed models of the agricultural marketplace and include benefits of improved production and distribution of agricultural crops. It is shown that increased capability benefits and new capability benefits result from a reduction of losses due to disease and insect infestation given ERS's capability to distinguish crop vigor and from the improvement in world trade negotiations given ERS's worldwide surveying capability

Isomorphism in expanding families of indistinguishable groups

For every odd prime $p$ and every integer $n\geq 12$ there is a Heisenberg group of order $p^{5n/4+O(1)}$ that has $p^{n^2/24+O(n)}$ pairwise nonisomorphic quotients of order $p^{n}$. Yet, these quotients are virtually indistinguishable. They have isomorphic character tables, every conjugacy class of a non-central element has the same size, and every element has order at most $p$. They are also directly and centrally indecomposable and of the same indecomposability type. The recognized portions of their automorphism groups are isomorphic, represented isomorphically on their abelianizations, and of small index in their full automorphism groups. Nevertheless, there is a polynomial-time algorithm to test for isomorphisms between these groups.Comment: 28 page

An aid to the development of Botswana's resources: Section on hydrology

The author has identified the following significant results. It is proved that FCC's can be used for a simple estimate of the total evaportranspiring area of the Okavango Delta, sufficiently accurate for preliminary inputs for the development of mathematical model of the surface hydrology of the delta. The color coded matrix has shown as interesting inverse correlation with an array on the same grid prepared by ecologists from air photography study, for percent liable to flood

Postflight trajectory reassembly AC-6

Postflight trajectory reassembly analysis of Atlas Centaur flight AC-

Wide-angle flat field telescope

Described is an unobscured three mirror wide angle telescopic imaging system comprised of an input baffle which provides a 20 deg (Y axis) x 30 deg (X axis) field of view, a primary mirror having a convex spherical surface, a secondary mirror having a concave ellipsoidal reflecting surface, a tertiary mirror having a concave spherical reflecting surface. The mirrors comprise mirror elements which are offset segments of parent mirrors whose axes and vertices commonly lie on the system's optical axis. An iris diaphragm forming an aperture stop is located between the secondary and tertiary mirror with its center also being coincident with the optical axis and being further located at the beam waist of input light beams reflected from the primary and secondary mirror surfaces. At the system focus following the tertiary mirror is located a flat detector which may be, for example, a TV imaging tube or a photographic film. When desirable, a spectral transmission filter is placed in front of the detector in close proximity thereto

Recent La Plata basin drought conditions observed by satellite gravimetry

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) provides quantitative measures of terrestrial water storage (TWS) change. GRACE data show a significant decrease in TWS in the lower (southern) La Plata river basin of South America over the period 2002-2009, consistent with recognized drought conditions in the region. GRACE data reveal a detailed picture of temporal and spatial evolution of this severe drought event, which suggests that the drought began in lower La Plata in around austral spring 2008 and then spread to the entire La Plata basin and peaked in austral fall 2009. During the peak, GRACE data show an average TWS deficit of ~12 cm (equivalent water layer thickness) below the 7 year mean, in a broad region in lower La Plata. GRACE measurements are consistent with accumulated precipitation data from satellite remote sensing and with vegetation index changes derived from Terra satellite observations. The Global Land Data Assimilation System model captures the drought event but underestimates its intensity. Limited available groundwater-level data in southern La Plata show significant groundwater depletion, which is likely associated with the drought in this region. GRAC-observed TWS change and precipitation anomalies in the studied region appear to closely correlate with the ENSO climate index, with dry and wet seasons corresponding to La Ni\~na and El Ni\~no events, respectively

Safe use of symbols in handover documentation for medical teams

Concern has been reported about the safe use of medical abbreviations in documents such as handover sheets and medical notes, especially when information is being communicated between staff of different specialties (BBC 2008, Sheppard et al. 2008). This article describes a study to investigate whether the use of symbols in handover documentation that is shared within and between multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) has similar safety implications. We asked 19 healthcare professionals from a range of specialties to identify 45 different combinations of 38 individual symbols. The symbols and combinations of symbols were extracted from 102 handover sheets taken from 6 different healthcare contexts in 4 London hospitals. Three symbols proposed in Microsoft's Common User Interface guidelines for alert symbols were also included. Results reveal that while some symbols are well understood, many others are either ambiguous or unknown. These results have implications for the safe use of symbols in medical documents, including paper and electronic handover documents and Electronic Patient Records (EPRs), especially where teams comprise individuals from different professional backgrounds, i.e. MDTs. We offer initial suggestions for standardisation and further research

Space station integrated propulsion and fluid systems study

This Databook addresses the integration of fluid systems of the Space Station program. It includes a catalog of components required for the Space Station elements fluid systems and information on potential hardware commonality. The components catalog is in four parts. The first part lists the components defined for all the fluid systems identified in EP 2.1, Space Station Program Fluid Systems Configuration Databook. The components are cross-referenced in three sections. Section 2.1 lists the components by the fluid system in which they are used. Section 2.2 lists the components by type. Section 2.3 lists by the type of fluid media handled by the component. The next part of the catalog provides a description of the individual component. This section (2.4) is made up of data retrieved from Martin Marietta Denver Aerospace component data base. The third part is an assessment of propulsion hardware technology requirements. Section 2.5 lists components identified during the study as requiring development prior to flight qualification. Finally, Section 2.6 presents the results of the evaluation of commonality between components. The specific requirements of each component have been reviewed and duplication eliminated

Space station integrated propulsion and fluid system study: Fluid systems configuration databook

This databook contains fluid system requirements and system descriptions for Space Station program elements including the United States and International modules, integrated fluid systems, attached payloads, fluid servicers and vehicle accommodation facilities. Separate sections are devoted to each of the program elements and include a discussion of the overall system requirements, specific fluid systems requirements and systems descriptions. The systems descriptions contain configurations, fluid inventory data and component lists. In addition, a list of information sources is referenced at the end of each section