LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

Of pigs in pokes and policy diffusion: another look at pay-for-performance. by Patricia W. Ingraham

tag=1 data=Of pigs in pokes and policy diffusion: another look at pay-for-performance. by Patricia W. Ingraham tag=2 data=Ingraham, Patricia W. tag=3 data=Public Administration Review, tag=4 data=53 tag=5 data=4 tag=6 data=July/August 1993 tag=7 data=348-356. tag=8 data=MANAGEMENT%WAGES tag=10 data=Despite obvious problems, the effort continues to appeal to both elected officials and many public managers. More careful attention to design, resource commitment, and evaluation in public organizations is recommended. tag=11 data=1993/5/8 tag=12 data=93/0468 tag=13 data=CABDespite obvious problems, the effort continues to appeal to both elected officials and many public managers. More careful attention to design, resource commitment, and evaluation in public organizations is recommended

In Pursuit of Performance: Management Systems in State and Local Government

Chapter contribution, Information technology management in U. S. states, counties, and cities by Dufner, D. L., Holley, L. M., & Reed, B. J. (2007). Information technology management in U. S. states, counties, and cities in Patricia W. Ingraham\u27s In Pursuit of Performance: Management Systems in State and Local Government . Based on five years of extensive research by the Government Performance Project, this volume offers a comprehensive analysis of how government managers and elected officials use management and management systems to improve performance. Drawing on data from across the nation, it examines the performance of state, county, and city governments between 1997 and 2002 within the framework of basic management systems: financial information, human resources, capital and infrastructure, and results evaluation.Key issues addressed:• How governments strategically select elements of management to emphasize the role of leadership• How those governments that aim to improve performance differ from those that do not • What effective management looks like Through this careful, in-depth investigation, the contributors conclude that the most effective governments are not those with the most resources, but those that use the resources available to them most carefully and strategically. In Pursuit of Performance is an invaluable tool for government leaders and the scholars who study them.https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/gertontology_books/1000/thumbnail.jp