Testimony of Robert A. Frosch before the Subcommittee on HUD and Independent Agencies of the Senate Committee on Appropriations

An agreement between NASA and the Congress was arranged as part of the activities supporting the establishment of NASA Policy on Automation and Robotics for the space station. This agreement is dicussed. A panel brought together experts from industry, universities, national laboratories, other government agencies, and NASA to perform an independent study of how NASA could use automation and robotics in the space station in ways that would be most useful to carrying out the mission of the station, and that would lead to useful benefits to the U.S. economy and industry on the ground

The Missing Child in A Midsummer Night\u27s Dream

The Indian boy over whom the king and queen of fairies quarrel is the most important of several characters in A Midsummer Night\u27s Dream who do not appear on stage: his parents, who form with him a missing nuclear family; a child god, Cupid; and a female authority figure, the dowager to whose property the lovers Lysander and Hermia flee. In its narrative structure the play presents a healing regression to the early mother and the primary process. However, the regressive movement has disturbing, as well as adaptive, elements; in addition, while the characters are still in the forest, the play\u27s troubled engagement with fathers has not yet been resolved. The burlesque performance of Pyramus and Thisbe disarms the attachment to childhood, presenting regressive modes of thought and behavior in absurd form, and thus helps complete a return to the world of the mature ego; the final act also reconstitutes the image of the father. But adult demystification and even a benign fatherly authority also appear limited, and the fairies return, bringing elements of childhood needed for a happy ending. Puck\u27s epilogue suggests what Winnicott calls the infant\u27s transitional experience, with its healing realm of play between dreams and objective reality, between enchantment and demystification. In the fairies\u27 blessing, the missing child appears, still in absent form, as a child to come, a symbol of potentiality. Looming over that symbolic child is the Indian boy of Greek myth, the child god Bacchus. The play ends with a comic vision of a positive future and of amity with the often disturbing regressive elements still alive within adult psyches. Overriding the ironic and dark notes that recent critics have stressed in the play, that cosmic vision recreates for us a new beginning, including the new beginning of love, in the promise of a wished-for child

Space agency notes 20th anniversary

The twentieth anniversary of NASA is announced. A chronology of major milestones of the NASA program is given along with a brief outline of the programs and responsibilities of NASA Headquarters and the NASA centers and facilities. The NASA launch record is included

Y - EN ; Questions pour des champions

Adapted for the synchronous online teaching environment. Can also be used face-to-face with an element of competition between teams within a group

Repair and Strengthening of Bridges in Indiana Using Fiber Reinforced Polymer Systems: Volume 2–FRP Flexural Strengthening and End Region Repair Experimental Programs

For bridges that are experiencing deterioration, action is needed to ensure the structural performance is adequate for the demands imposed. Innovate repair and strengthening techniques can provide a cost-effective means to efficiently and safely extend the service lives of bridges. The use of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) systems for the repair and strengthening of concrete bridges is increasing in popularity. Recognizing the potential benefits of the widespread use of FRP, a research project was initiated to determine the most appropriate applications of FRP in Indiana and provide recommendations for the use of FRP in the state for the repair and strengthening of bridges. The details of the research are presented in two volumes. Volume 1 provides the details of a study conducted to (i) summarize the state-of-the-art for the application of FRP to concrete bridges, (ii) identify successful examples of FRP implementation for concrete bridges in the literature and examine past applications of FRP in Indiana through case studies, and (iii) better understand FRP usage and installation procedures in the Midwest and Indiana through industry surveys. Volume 2 presents two experimental programs that were conducted to develop and evaluate various repair and strengthening methodologies used to restore the performance of deteriorated concrete bridge beams. The first program investigated FRP flexural strengthening methods, with focus placed on adjacent box beam bridges. The second experimental program examined potential techniques for repairing deteriorated end regions of prestressed concrete bridge girders. Externally bonded FRP and near-surface-mounted (NSM) FRP were considered in both programs

Public health implications of 1990 air toxics concentrations across the United States.

Occupational and toxicological studies have demonstrated adverse health effects from exposure to toxic air contaminants. Data on outdoor levels of toxic air contaminants have not been available for most communities in the United States, making it difficult to assess the potential for adverse human health effects from general population exposures. Emissions data from stationary and mobile sources are used in an atmospheric dispersion model to estimate outdoor concentrations of 148 toxic air contaminants for each of the 60,803 census tracts in the contiguous United States for 1990. Outdoor concentrations of air toxics were compared to previously defined benchmark concentrations for cancer and noncancer health effects. Benchmark concentrations are based on standard toxicological references and represent air toxic levels above which health risks may occur. The number of benchmark concentrations exceeded by modeled concentrations ranged from 8 to 32 per census tract, with a mean of 14. Estimated concentrations of benzene, formaldehyde, and 1,3-butadiene were greater than cancer benchmark concentrations in over 90% of the census tracts. Approximately 10% of all census tracts had estimated concentrations of one or more carcinogenic HAPs greater than a 1-in-10,000 risk level. Twenty-two pollutants with chronic toxicity benchmark concentrations had modeled concentrations in excess of these benchmarks, and approximately 200 census tracts had a modeled concentration 100 times the benchmark for at least one of these pollutants. This comprehensive assessment of air toxics concentrations across the United States indicates hazardous air pollutants may pose a potential public health problem

Intersubject Regularity in the Intrinsic Shape of Human V1

Previous studies have reported considerable intersubject variability in the three-dimensional geometry of the human primary visual cortex (V1). Here we demonstrate that much of this variability is due to extrinsic geometric features of the cortical folds, and that the intrinsic shape of V1 is similar across individuals. V1 was imaged in ten ex vivo human hemispheres using high-resolution (200 μm) structural magnetic resonance imaging at high field strength (7 T). Manual tracings of the stria of Gennari were used to construct a surface representation, which was computationally flattened into the plane with minimal metric distortion. The instrinsic shape of V1 was determined from the boundary of the planar representation of the stria. An ellipse provided a simple parametric shape model that was a good approximation to the boundary of flattened V1. The aspect ration of the best-fitting ellipse was found to be consistent across subject, with a mean of 1.85 and standard deviation of 0.12. Optimal rigid alignment of size-normalized V1 produced greater overlap than that achieved by previous studies using different registration methods. A shape analysis of published macaque data indicated that the intrinsic shape of macaque V1 is also stereotyped, and similar to the human V1 shape. Previoud measurements of the functional boundary of V1 in human and macaque are in close agreement with these results

Separate and Unequal: Residential Segregation and Estimated Cancer Risks Associated with Ambient Air Toxics in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

This study examines links between racial residential segregation and estimated ambient air toxics exposures and their associated cancer risks using modeled concentration estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Air Toxics Assessment. We combined pollutant concentration estimates with potencies to calculate cancer risks by census tract for 309 metropolitan areas in the United States. This information was combined with socioeconomic status (SES) measures from the 1990 Census. Estimated cancer risks associated with ambient air toxics were highest in tracts located in metropolitan areas that were highly segregated. Disparities between racial/ethnic groups were also wider in more segregated metropolitan areas. Multivariate modeling showed that, after controlling for tract-level SES measures, increasing segregation amplified the cancer risks associated with ambient air toxics for all racial groups combined [highly segregated areas: relative cancer risk (RCR) = 1.04; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.01–107; extremely segregated areas: RCR = 1.32; 95% CI, 1.28–1.36]. This segregation effect was strongest for Hispanics (highly segregated areas: RCR = 1.09; 95% CI, 1.01–1.17; extremely segregated areas: RCR = 1.74; 95% CI, 1.61–1.88) and weaker among whites (highly segregated areas: RCR = 1.04; 95% CI, 1.01–1.08; extremely segregated areas: RCR = 1.28; 95% CI, 1.24–1.33), African Americans (highly segregated areas: RCR = 1.09; 95% CI, 0.98–1.21; extremely segregated areas: RCR = 1.38; 95% CI, 1.24–1.53), and Asians (highly segregated areas: RCR = 1.10; 95% CI, 0.97–1.24; extremely segregated areas: RCR = 1.32; 95% CI, 1.16–1.51). Results suggest that disparities associated with ambient air toxics are affected by segregation and that these exposures may have health significance for populations across racial lines