Global positioning system supported pilot's display

The hardware, software, and operation of the Microwave Scanning Beam Landing System (MSBLS) Flight Inspection System Pilot's Display is discussed. The Pilot's Display is used in conjunction with flight inspection tests that certify the Microwave Scanning Beam Landing System used at Space Shuttle landing facilities throughout the world. The Pilot's Display was developed for the pilot of test aircraft to set up and fly a given test flight path determined by the flight inspection test engineers. This display also aids the aircraft pilot when hazy or cloud cover conditions exist that limit the pilot's visibility of the Shuttle runway during the flight inspection. The aircraft position is calculated using the Global Positioning System and displayed in the cockpit on a graphical display

It\u27s Not Like He Was Being a Robot: Student Perceptions of Video-Based Writing Feedback in Online Graduate Coursework

Although much research has explored the impact writing feedback has on student learning, it has primarily focused on undergraduate coursework offered in traditional face-to-face settings. This work explores student perceptions of writing feedback they received in an online graduate-level research methods course. Using a seven-point framework based on undergraduate writing feedback literature, students received feedback on a semester-long research proposal writing project. We explored student perceptions of the feedback they received in both written and video formats. Interviews were conducted with participants in both studies to understand their perceptions of the feedback they received. Students perceived the feedback and revision process as being constructive, positively impacting their content knowledge about the research process, and as facilitating their growth as writers for research. Most participants preferred the video-based feedback they received. This was found to impact the relationship students formed with the instructor in the course and support student growth as writers for research

Estimating the Effects of Part Size on Direct Laser Deposition Parameter Selection via a Thermal Resistance Network Approach

A mathematical model for heat transfer during the Directed Energy Deposition (DED) process is proposed. The model employs the thermal resistance network analogy and is developed to aid one in predicting part size effects on its temperature distribution during manufacture, and in how to compensate such effects via suitable process parameter selection. The model predicts a pseudo steady-state temperature response in the melt pool. The temperature variation along the heat affected zone of a thin-walled part is estimated while assuming deposition is occurring far from the substrate. Predicted melt pool and bulk part temperatures are validated against Laser Engineering Net Shaping (LENSTM) experimental data obtained via a dual-wavelength pyrometer and in-chamber infrared camera, respectively. Results demonstrate that the model may be used to predict an average melt pool temperature. Bulk, calculated temperature distribution needs to be further investigated to find a more suitable heat transfer coefficient surrounding the part.Mechanical Engineerin

Biomedical semantics in the Semantic Web

The Semantic Web offers an ideal platform for representing and linking biomedical information, which is a prerequisite for the development and application of analytical tools to address problems in data-intensive areas such as systems biology and translational medicine. As for any new paradigm, the adoption of the Semantic Web offers opportunities and poses questions and challenges to the life sciences scientific community: which technologies in the Semantic Web stack will be more beneficial for the life sciences? Is biomedical information too complex to benefit from simple interlinked representations? What are the implications of adopting a new paradigm for knowledge representation? What are the incentives for the adoption of the Semantic Web, and who are the facilitators? Is there going to be a Semantic Web revolution in the life sciences

The Size Distribution of Kuiper Belt Objects

We describe analytical and numerical collisional evolution calculations for the size distribution of icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt. For a wide range of bulk properties, initial masses, and orbital parameters, our results yield power-law cumulative size distributions, N_C propto r^{-q}, with q_L = 3.5 for large bodies with radii of 10-100 km, and q_s = 2.5-3 for small bodies with radii lesss than 0.1-1 km. The transition between the two power laws occurs at a break radius of 1-30 km. The break radius is more sensitive to the initial mass in the Kuiper Belt and the amount of stirring by Neptune than the bulk properties of individual Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs). Comparisons with observations indicate that most models can explain the observed sky surface density of KBOs for red magnitudes, R = 22-27. For R 28, the model surface density is sensitive to the amount of stirring by Neptune, suggesting that the size distribution of icy planets in the outer solar system provides independent constraints on the formation of Neptune.Comment: 24 pages of text, 12 figures; to appear in the Astronomical Journal, October 200

A Compact Five-Channel VLF Wave Receiver for CubeSat Missions

Very low frequency (VLF) waves play an important role in controlling the evolution of energetic electron distributions in near-Earth space. This paper describes the design of a VLF receiver for the Climatology of Anthropogenic and Natural VLF Wave Activity in Space (CANVAS) CubeSat mission, designed to make continuous observations of VLF waves in low-Earth orbit originating from lightning and ground-based transmitters. The CANVAS VLF receiver will observe five components of VLF waves in the 0.3–40 kHz frequency range, using three orthogonal magnetic search coils deployed on the end of a 1-meter carbon fiber boom and four deployable electric field antennas operated as two orthogonal dipoles. Together, these five wave components will be used to calculate real and imaginary spectral matrix components using real-time fast Fourier transforms calculated in an onboard FPGA. Spectral matrix components will be averaged to obtain 1 second time resolution and frequency resolution better than 10%. The averaged spectral matrix will be used to determine the complete set of wave parameters, including Poynting flux, polarization, planarity, and k-vector direction. CANVAS is currently in the manufacturing and assembly phase and is planned to launch at the end of 2022

Cohort Study of the Impact of High-Dose Opioid Analgesics on Overdose Mortality

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies examining opioid dose and overdose risk provide limited granularity by milligram strength and instead rely on thresholds. We quantify dose-dependent overdose mortality over a large spectrum of clinically common doses. We also examine the contributions of benzodiazepines and extended release opioid formulations to mortality. DESIGN: Prospective observational cohort with one year follow-up. SETTING: One year in one state (NC) using a controlled substances prescription monitoring program, with name-linked mortality data. SUBJECTS: Residential population of North Carolina (n = 9,560,234), with 2,182,374 opioid analgesic patients. METHODS: Exposure was dispensed prescriptions of solid oral and transdermal opioid analgesics; person-years calculated using intent-to-treat principles. Outcome was overdose deaths involving opioid analgesics in a primary or additive role. Poisson models were created, implemented using generalized estimating equations. RESULTS: Opioid analgesics were dispensed to 22.8% of residents. Among licensed clinicians, 89.6% prescribed opioid analgesics, and 40.0% prescribed ER formulations. There were 629 overdose deaths, half of which had an opioid analgesic prescription active on the day of death. Of 2,182,374 patients prescribed opioids, 478 overdose deaths were reported (0.022% per year). Mortality rates increased gradually across the range of average daily milligrams of morphine equivalents. 80.0% of opioid analgesic patients also received benzodiazepines. Rates of overdose death among those co-dispensed benzodiazepines and opioid analgesics were ten times higher (7.0 per 10,000 person-years, 95 percent CI: 6.3, 7.8) than opioid analgesics alone (0.7 per 10,000 person years, 95 percent CI: 0.6, 0.9). CONCLUSIONS: Dose-dependent opioid overdose risk among patients increased gradually and did not show evidence of a distinct risk threshold. There is urgent need for guidance about combined classes of medicines to facilitate a better balance between pain relief and overdose risk

Towards an interoperable information infrastructure providing decision support for genomic medicine

Genetic dispositions play a major role in individual disease risk and treatment response. Genomic medicine, in which medical decisions are refined by genetic information of particular patients, is becoming increasingly important. Here we describe our work and future visions around the creation of a distributed infrastructure for pharmacogenetic data and medical decision support, based on industry standards such as the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and the Arden Syntax

The ocean’s role in the transient response of climate to abrupt greenhouse gas forcing

We study the role of the ocean in setting the patterns and timescale of the transient response of the climate to anthropogenic greenhouse gas forcing. A novel framework is set out which involves integration of an ocean-only model in which the anthropogenic temperature signal is forced from the surface by anomalous downwelling heat fluxes and damped at a rate controlled by a ‘climate feedback’ parameter. We observe a broad correspondence between the evolution of the anthropogenic temperature (T[subscript anthro]) in our simplified ocean-only model and that of coupled climate models perturbed by a quadrupling of CO[subscript 2]. This suggests that many of the mechanisms at work in fully coupled models are captured by our idealized ocean-only system. The framework allows us to probe the role of the ocean in delaying warming signals in the Southern Ocean and in the northern North Atlantic, and in amplifying the warming signal in the Arctic. By comparing active and passive temperature-like tracers we assess the degree to which changes in ocean circulation play a role in setting the distribution and evolution of T[subscript anthro]. The background ocean circulation strongly influences the large-scale patterns of ocean heat uptake and storage, such that T[subscript anthro] is governed by an advection/diffusion equation and weakly damped to the atmosphere at a rate set by climate feedbacks. Where warming is sufficiently small, for example in the Southern Ocean, changes in ocean circulation play a secondary role. In other regions, most noticeably in the North Atlantic, changes in ocean circulation induced by T[subscript anthro] are central in shaping the response.United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Modeling, Analysis, and Prediction ProgramMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global ChangeJames S. McDonnell Foundation (Postdoctoral Fellowship