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

Rendezvous, proximity operations and capture quality function deployment report

Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Capture (RPOC) is a missions operations area which is extremely important to present and future space initiatives and must be well planned and coordinated. To support this, a study team was formed to identify a specific plan of action using the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) process. This team was composed of members from a wide spectrum of engineering and operations organizations which are involved in the RPOC technology area. The key to this study's success is an understanding of the needs of potential programmatic customers and the technology base available for system implementation. To this end, the study team conducted interviews with a variety of near term and future programmatic customers and technology development sponsors. The QFD activity led to a thorough understanding of the needs of these customers in the RPOC area, as well as the relative importance of these needs

Teaching about Arms Control

Here at the Naval War College, in struggling to tie together our sessions on arms control and negotiation, we have finally settled on a simulation exercises. This game has proved to be a powerful synthesizer, and several players in various positions within Government and civilian academia have suggested we share this tool with others. Our purpose here is to describe the game in a manner so intriguing that our readers will want to use it

Prometastatic Molecular Profiles in Breast Tumors From Socially Isolated Women.

BackgroundSocial isolation is associated with accelerated breast cancer progression and increased disease recurrence and mortality, but the underlying biological mechanisms remain poorly understood. In preclinical models, beta-adrenergic signaling from fight-or-flight stress responses can stimulate prometastatic processes in the tumor microenvironment including upregulation of M2 macrophages, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and lymphovascular invasion. This study examines whether the same pathways are upregulated in breast tumors from socially isolated cancer patients.MethodsEMT and M1/M2 macrophage gene expression programs were analyzed by genome-wide transcriptional profiling, and lymphatic and vascular density were assessed by immunohistochemistry in primary tumors from 56 early-stage breast cancer patients who were part of the UCLA RISE study. Social isolation was quantified by the Social Provisions Scale, and disease characteristics were assessed by medical record review. General linear models were used to quantify differential gene expression across risk factor groups. Linear regression models were used to examine associations between social isolation and lymphovascular invasion.ResultsTumors from socially isolated patients showed upregulated expression of genes involved in EMT (average score difference = +0.080 log2 mRNA abundance ± 0.034 standard error) and M2 macrophage polarization (+0.033 ± 0.014) as well as increased density of lymphatic vessels (β= -.29) but no difference in blood vessel density. TELiS promoter-based bioinformatics analyses indicated activation of CREB family transcription factors that mediate the gene-regulatory effects of β-adrenergic signaling (log2 fold-difference in promoter binding site prevalence: mean ± standard error = +0.49 ± 0.19).ConclusionsPrimary breast tumors from socially isolated patients show multiple prometastatic molecular alterations, providing a plausible biological pathway through which poor social support may accelerate breast cancer progression and defining new targets for intervention