An intelligent simulation training system

The Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Central Florida, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and General Electric (SCSD) have been funded by the State of Florida to build an Intelligent Simulation Training System. The objective was and is to make the system generic except for the domain expertise. Researchers accomplished this objective in their prototype. The system is modularized and therefore it is easy to make any corrections, expansions or adaptations. The funding by the state of Florida has exceeded $3 million over the past three years and through the 1990 fiscal year. UCF has expended in excess of 15 work years on the project. The project effort has been broken into three major tasks. General Electric provides the simulation. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University provides the domain expertise. The University of Central Florida has constructed the generic part of the system which is comprised of several modules that perform the tutoring, evaluation, communication, status, etc. The generic parts of the Intelligent Simulation Training Systems (ISTS) are described

Safe at School: Addressing the School Environment and LGBT Safety through Policy and Legislation

"The mistreatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students is worse today than many might realize, with unacceptable complicity by school personnel that continues to exacerbate the problem," according to Stuart Biegel, co-author of a groundbreaking new report released today. The report, Safe at School: Addressing the School Environment and LGBT Safety through Policy and Legislation, presents a series of recommendations and model legislation to make public schools safer for LGBT students. The new report is authored by Biegel and Sheila James Kuehl and is a collaboration between the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Education and the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, with financial support provided by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice.Safe at School documents the persistence of hostile and unsafe school environments that can result in lower educational outcomes and higher rates of depression and suicide for LGBT students. Citing an extensive body of research, it also takes note of the growing legal exposure that schools face when they do not act to change these hostile environments. The authors note and respond to the lack of resources and institutional support that school administrators, teachers, and educational support professionals sometimes face in their attempts to make schools more welcoming to LGBT students.The report contains a series of policy recommendations to ensure schools are welcoming and safe for LGBT students. These recommendations cover areas such as school climate, curriculum, and the particular role of school sports in defining a school's culture.Safe at School also contains model legislation, offering a range of options for state legislatures to adopt, including general prohibitions against bullying, harassment and intimidation in schools, as well as sections that address teacher education and professional development. "The addition of a Model State Code to the analysis and recommendations in the report will encourage state legislatures to adopt a comprehensive and tested set of statutes to help remedy the problems of discrimination in our schools," said co-author Sheila Kuehl, a former State Senator from California.The authors explain that the overarching purpose of all their recommendations is to make schools safe and improve the quality of life for everyone within our education system. "In this area, educators are not required to change their personal values or religious beliefs," said co-author Biegel. "However, all students must be treated with equal dignity and equal respect by school officials, both under the law and as a matter of morality and common decency.

Transition rates via Bethe ansatz for the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain

We use the exact determinantal representation derived by Kitanine, Maillet, and Terras for matrix elements of local spin operators between Bethe wave functions of the one-dimensional s=1/2 Heisenberg model to calculate and numerically evaluate transition rates pertaining to dynamic spin structure factors. For real solutions z_1,...,z_r of the Bethe ansatz equations, the size of the determinants is of order r x r. We present applications to the zero-temperature spin fluctuations parallel and perpendicular to an external magnetic field.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures and LaTeX-svjour clas

Quasiparticles of string solutions in the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain in a magnetic field

Spectral properties of the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain in a magnetic field are investigated by using exact Bethe-ansatz solutions. We argue that not only quasiparticles called psinon and antipsinon but also a quasiparticle representing a 2-string in the Bethe ansatz plays an important role for dynamical properties in a magnetic field. Combined with psinon and antipsinon, the quasiparticle for a 2-string forms a continuum in the high-energy regime for transverse dynamical structure factor $S^{+-}(k,\omega)$. In the zero-field limit, the continuum is located on the mode of the lowest excited states in zero field called the des Cloizeaux-Pearson mode. In a magnetic field, the continuum separates from other low-energy continua, and reduces to the mode of bound states of overturned spins from the fully polarized state near the saturation field. We confirm the relevance through comparisons with available experimental results on the quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnet CuCl$_2\cdot$2N(C$_5$D$_5$).Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl

Spectral Properties of Interacting One-Dimensional Spinless Fermions

The spectral properties of the spinless fermion model with nearest-neighbor repulsive interactions on a one-dimensional lattice are investigated using the Bethe ansatz. Although its bulk quantities are exactly the same as those of the spin-1/2 XXZ chain, the difference in the statistics of particles causes substantial effects on spectral features, such as gapless points of dispersion relations and line shapes of spectral functions. In this Letter, we clarify the origin of the differences in spectral features between fermionic and bosonic systems in terms of Bethe ansatz solutions. We also confirm that the two-string solutions have considerable spectral weights in the high-energy regime.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

NASA's Digital Transformation (DT) Initiative

NASA's Digital Transformation (DT) Initiative will dramatically enhance NASA's mission impact by reinventing mission and mission support processes, products, and capabilities, enabled by an innovation culture, digital-savvy workforce, and advanced digital technologies, building on a foundation of modern data management and IT security. This presentation, as part of a conference panel, provides an overview of NASA's DT Initiative, and describes how the Initiative supports an "antidisciplinary" future, where the greatest mission transformation opportunities will be found at the intersections and mergers of multiple disciplines

Comparison of modelled and empirical atmospheric propagation data

The radiometric integrity of TM thermal infrared channel data was evaluated and monitored to develop improved radiometric preprocessing calibration techniques for removal of atmospheric effects. Modelled atmospheric transmittance and path radiance were compared with empirical values derived from aircraft underflight data. Aircraft thermal infrared imagery and calibration data were available on two dates as were corresponding atmospheric radiosonde data. The radiosonde data were used as input to the LOWTRAN 5A code which was modified to output atmospheric path radiance in addition to transmittance. The aircraft data were calibrated and used to generate analogous measurements. These data indicate that there is a tendancy for the LOWTRAN model to underestimate atmospheric path radiance and transmittance as compared to empirical data. A plot of transmittance versus altitude for both LOWTRAN and empirical data is presented

Attachment and Disordered Eating: The Mediating Impact of Body Dissatisfaction

This study will examine the relationship between attachment patterns and disordered eating, and whether body dissatisfaction impacts this relationship. This is a correlational design. Emphasis will be placed on gender in this sample because past research has not focused on studying males. It is expected that a relationship between insecure attachment patterns and disordered eating will be found, and that body dissatisfaction will impact how disordered eating and attachment patterns are related

Photometry of Star Clusters from Mendel Observatory

We have observed four open star clusters and three globular star clusters using Mendel Observatory’s 18” Richey-Chrétien telescope. Our photometry data was obtained using nonstandard R, G, and B filters. We plotted the results in the form of a Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram in an attempt to determine the so called “turn-off point” for the observed clusters, which is a strong indicator of age. Due to our limited sample size of stars in each cluster, we were not able to determine the turn-off points and obtain relative ages for the clusters. However, we find that the shapes of our H-R diagrams at fainter magnitudes are consistent with that from other studies [4], despite our much smaller sample size. This project demonstrates for the first time that the Mendel Observatory is capable of obtaining scientifically relevant photometry data [3], specifically of faint stars with a magnitude of 14.65. The methods and techniques we learned from this study will be applied to future related projects involving students and faculty