A consideration of the use of optical fibers to remotely couple photometers to telescopes

The possible use of optical fibers to remotely couple photometers to telescopes is considered. Such an application offers the apparent prospect of enhancing photometric stability as a consequence of the benefits of remote operation and decreased sensitivity to image details. A properly designed fiber optic coupler will probably show no significant changes in optical transmisssion due to normal variations in the fiber configuration. It may be more difficult to eliminate configuration-dependent effects on the pupil of the transmitted beam, and thus achieve photometric stability to guiding and seeing errors. In addition, there is some evidence for significant changes in the optical throughputs of fibers over the temperature range normally encountered in astronomical observatories

Private Forest Industries Meet The Challenge

The Forest Industries Council was formed some 10 years ago to bring together the major forest industry associations for the purpose of promoting industrial forest management\u27 and acting on forest policy matters affecting all the wood using industries. The Council is composed of representatives of the American Paper and Pulp Association, American Pulpwood Association and the National Lumber Manufacturers Association with its 16 affiliate groups across the country

Recursive estimation of system parameters

A study of recursive estimation of parameters in a second-order, discrete-time periodic system is presented. A recursive procedure combines the current observation of a state variable with the preceeding estimate to generate a new estimate. The thesis indicates an industrial application of parameter estimation, shows how a given interpretation of a second-order system can impose constraints on the range of the parameter estimates, derives a recursive estimation procedure which approximates the optimal differential-correction procedure, and compares the derived method with tow methods recommended in the literature

Including Organizational Cultural Parameters in Work Processes

Recent work in modeling decision-making work processes has focused on including the national culture of individual decision-makers in order to emphasize the differences in decision criteria between decision-makers of different nationalities. In addition to nationality, a decision-maker is also a member of an organization and brings this organizational culture to his role in the work process, where it may also affect his task performance. In order to represent the organizational impact on the work process, five organizational cultural parameters were identified and included in an algorithm for modeling and simulation of cultural difference in human decision-making. While the five modifiers are not orthogonal, each captures a unique aspect of the organizational impact. The organizational cultural parameters are Authority Distance, Interface Culture, Command Authority, Doctrine, and Hierarchical Arrangement. This allows the prediction of outcome changes for a work process when interacting decision-makers have similar national cultures but whose organizational culture is different. The effect of including these parameters was illustrated on a Public Affairs Office process that integrated U.S. and U.K. decision-makers