Cytochemical studies of planetary microorganisms - Explorations in exobiology Status report, 1 Apr. - 1 Oct. 1967

Molecular research instrumentation for exobiological studie

Modularity and Innovation in Complex Systems

The problem of designing, coordinating, and managing complex systems has been central to the management and organizations literature. Recent writings have tended to offer modularity as, at least, a partial solution to this design problem. However, little attention has been paid to the problem of identifying what constitutes an appropriate modularization of a complex system. We develop a formal simulation model that allows us to carefully examine the dynamics of innovation and performance in complex systems. The model points to the trade-off between the destabilizing effects of overly refined modularization and the modest levels of search and a premature fixation on inferior designs that can result from excessive levels of integration. The analysis highlights an asymmetry in this trade-off, with excessively refined modules leading to cycling behavior and a lack of performance improvement. We discuss the implications of these arguments for product and organization design.

Cytochemical studies of planetary microorganisms - Explorations in exobiology Status report, Sep. 1, 1965 - Apr. 1, 1966

Cytochemical studies of planetary microorganisms by fluorometry, gas chromatography and optical resolution, mass spectrometry, computer managed instrumentation, and UV microspectrometr

Statistical Analysis of Native Contact Formation in the Folding of Designed Model Proteins

The time evolution of the formation probability of native bonds has been studied for designed sequences which fold fast into the native conformation. From this analysis a clear hierarchy of bonds emerge a) local, fast forming highly stable native bonds built by some of the most strongly interacting amino acids of the protein, b) non-local bonds formed late in the folding process, in coincidence with the folding nucleus, and involving essentially the same strongly interacting amino acids already participating in the fast bonds, c) the rest of the native bonds whose behaviour is subordinated, to a large extent, to that of the local- and non-local native contacts

The mosaics of Mars: As seen by the Viking Lander cameras

The mosaics and derivative products produced from many individual high resolution images acquired by the Viking Lander Camera Systems are described: A morning and afternoon mosaic for both cameras at the Lander 1 Chryse Planitia site, and a morning, noon, and afternoon camera pair at Utopia Planitia, the Lander 11 site. The derived products include special geometric projections of the mosaic data sets, polar stereographic (donut), stereoscopic, and orthographic. Contour maps and vertical profiles of the topography were overlaid on the mosaics from which they were derived. Sets of stereo pairs were extracted and enlarged from stereoscopic projections of the mosaics

Bridging Contested Terrain: Linking Incentive-Based and Learning Perspectives on Organizational Evolution

In this paper we present a general model of organizational problem-solving in which we explore the relationship between problem complexity, decentralization of tasks and reward schemes. When facing complex problems which require the coordination of large numbers of interdependent elements, organization face a decomposition problem which has both a cognitive dimension and a reward and incentive dimension. The former relates to the decomposition and allocation of the process of generation of new solutions: since the search space is too vast to be searched extensively, organizations employ heuristics for reducing it. The decomposition heuristic takes the form of division of cognitive labor and determines which solutions are generated and become candidates for selection. The reward and incentive dimension defines the selection environment which chooses over alternative solutions. The model we present studies the interrelationships between these two dimensions, in particular we compare the problem solving performance of organizations characterized by various decompositions (of coarser of finer grain) and various reward schemes (at the level of the entire organization, team and individual). Moreover we extend our model in a still tentative fashion - in order to account for such power and authority relationships (giving some parts of the organization the power to stop changes in other parts), and to discuss the co-evolution of problem representations and incentive mechanisms.-

Relationship of planetary quarantine to biological search strategy

Decision theory biological search strategies and planetary quarantine aspects of Mars exploratory mission

Contamination of mars

Spacecraft sterilization standards and microbial contamination of Mar

The Problem of the "Prebiotic and Never Born Proteins"

It has been argued that the limited set of proteins used by life as we know it could not have arisen by the process of Darwinian selection from all possible proteins. This probabilistic argument has a number of implicit assumptions that may not be warranted. A variety of considerations are presented to show that the number of amino-acid sequences that need have been sampled during the evolution of proteins is far smaller than assumed by the argument.Comment: 14 Pages; International Journal of Astrobiology / FirstView Article / October 2012, pp 1