Space shuttle solid rocket booster cost-per-flight analysis technique

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Forney, J. A.

1979-01-01

A cost per flight computer model is described which considers: traffic model, component attrition, hardware useful life, turnaround time for refurbishment, manufacturing rates, learning curves on the time to perform tasks, cost improvement curves on quantity hardware buys, inflation, spares philosophy, long lead, hardware funding requirements, and other logistics and scheduling constraints. Additional uses of the model include assessing the cost per flight impact of changing major space shuttle program parameters and searching for opportunities to make cost effective management decisions.

48 CFR 352.216-70 - Additional cost principles.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Additional cost principles... Additional cost principles. As prescribed in 316.307(j), the Contracting Officer shall insert the following clause: Additional Cost Principles (January 2006) (a) Bid and proposal (B & P) costs. (1) B & P costs are...

Hardware and software improvements to a low-cost horizontal parallax holographic video monitor.

PubMed

Henrie, Andrew; Codling, Jesse R; Gneiting, Scott; Christensen, Justin B; Awerkamp, Parker; Burdette, Mark J; Smalley, Daniel E

2018-01-01

Displays capable of true holographic video have been prohibitively expensive and difficult to build. With this paper, we present a suite of modularized hardware components and software tools needed to build a HoloMonitor with basic "hacker-space" equipment, highlighting improvements that have enabled the total materials cost to fall to $820, well below that of other holographic displays. It is our hope that the current level of simplicity, development, design flexibility, and documentation will enable the lay engineer, programmer, and scientist to relatively easily replicate, modify, and build upon our designs, bringing true holographic video to the masses.

Innovative Contamination Certification of Multi-Mission Flight Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hansen, Patricia A.; Hughes, David W.; Montt, Kristina M.; Triolo, Jack J.

1998-01-01

Maintaining contamination certification of multi-mission flight hardware is an innovative approach to controlling mission costs. Methods for assessing ground induced degradation between missions have been employed by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Project for the multi-mission (servicing) hardware. By maintaining the cleanliness of the hardware between missions, and by controlling the materials added to the hardware during modification and refurbishment both project funding for contamination recertification and schedule have been significantly reduced. These methods will be discussed and HST hardware data will be presented.

Innovative Contamination Certification of Multi-Mission Flight Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hansen, Patricia A.; Hughes, David W.; Montt, Kristina M.; Triolo, Jack J.

1999-01-01

Maintaining contamination certification of multi-mission flight hardware is an innovative approach to controlling mission costs. Methods for assessing ground induced degradation between missions have been employed by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Project for the multi-mission (servicing) hardware. By maintaining the cleanliness of the hardware between missions, and by controlling the materials added to the hardware during modification and refurbishment both project funding for contamination recertification and schedule have been significantly reduced. These methods will be discussed and HST hardware data will be presented.

Open hardware, low cost, air quality stations for monitoring ozone in coastal area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lima, Marco; Donzella, Davide; Pintus, Fabio; Fedi, Adriano; Ferrari, Daniele; Massabò, Marco

2014-05-01

Ozone concentrations in urban and coastal area are a great concern for citizens and, consequently regulator. In the last 20 years the Ozone concentration is almost doubled and it has attracted the public attention because of the well know harmful impacts on human health and biosphere in general. Official monitoring networks usually comprise high precision, high accuracy observation stations, usually managed by public administrations and environmental agency; unfortunately due to their high costs of installation and maintenance, the monitoring stations are relatively sparse. This kind of monitoring networks have been recognized to be unsuitable to effectively characterize the high variability of air quality, especially in areas where pollution sources are various and often not static. We present a prototype of a low cost station for air quality monitoring, specifically developed for complementing the official monitoring stations improving the representation of air quality spatial distribution. We focused on a semi-professional product that could guarantee the highest reliability at the lowest possible cost, supported by a consistent infrastructure for data management. We test two type of Ozone sensor electrochemical and metal oxide. This work is integrated in the ACRONET Paradigm ® project: an open-hardware platform strongly oriented on environmental monitoring. All software and hardware sources will be available on the web. Thus, a computer and a small amount of work tools will be sufficient to create new monitoring networks, with the only constraint to share all the data obtained. It will so possible to create a real "sensing community". The prototype is currently able to measure ozone level, temperature and relative humidity, but soon, with the upcoming changes, it will be able also to monitor dust, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, always through the use of commercial sensors. The sensors are grouped in a compact board that interfaces with a data

Finite Element Simulation and Additive Manufacturing of Stiffness-Matched NiTi Fixation Hardware for Mandibular Reconstruction Surgery

PubMed Central

Jahadakbar, Ahmadreza; Shayesteh Moghaddam, Narges; Amerinatanzi, Amirhesam; Dean, David; Karaca, Haluk E.; Elahinia, Mohammad

2016-01-01

Process parameters and post-processing heat treatment techniques have been developed to produce both shape memory and superelastic NiTi using Additive Manufacturing. By introducing engineered porosity, the stiffness of NiTi can be tuned to the level closely matching cortical bone. Using additively manufactured porous superelastic NiTi, we have proposed the use of patient-specific, stiffness-matched fixation hardware, for mandible skeletal reconstructive surgery. Currently, Ti-6Al-4V is the most commonly used material for skeletal fixation devices. Although this material offers more than sufficient strength for immobilization during the bone healing process, the high stiffness of Ti-6Al-4V implants can cause stress shielding. In this paper, we present a study of mandibular reconstruction that uses a dry cadaver mandible to validate our geometric and biomechanical design and fabrication (i.e., 3D printing) of NiTi skeletal fixation hardware. Based on the reference-dried mandible, we have developed a Finite Element model to evaluate the performance of the proposed fixation. Our results show a closer-to-normal stress distribution and an enhanced contact pressure at the bone graft interface than would be in the case with Ti-6Al-4V off-the-shelf fixation hardware. The porous fixation plates used in this study were fabricated by selective laser melting. PMID:28952598

Finite Element Simulation and Additive Manufacturing of Stiffness-Matched NiTi Fixation Hardware for Mandibular Reconstruction Surgery.

PubMed

Jahadakbar, Ahmadreza; Shayesteh Moghaddam, Narges; Amerinatanzi, Amirhesam; Dean, David; Karaca, Haluk E; Elahinia, Mohammad

2016-12-19

Process parameters and post-processing heat treatment techniques have been developed to produce both shape memory and superelastic NiTi using Additive Manufacturing. By introducing engineered porosity, the stiffness of NiTi can be tuned to the level closely matching cortical bone. Using additively manufactured porous superelastic NiTi, we have proposed the use of patient-specific, stiffness-matched fixation hardware, for mandible skeletal reconstructive surgery. Currently, Ti-6Al-4V is the most commonly used material for skeletal fixation devices. Although this material offers more than sufficient strength for immobilization during the bone healing process, the high stiffness of Ti-6Al-4V implants can cause stress shielding. In this paper, we present a study of mandibular reconstruction that uses a dry cadaver mandible to validate our geometric and biomechanical design and fabrication (i.e., 3D printing) of NiTi skeletal fixation hardware. Based on the reference-dried mandible, we have developed a Finite Element model to evaluate the performance of the proposed fixation. Our results show a closer-to-normal stress distribution and an enhanced contact pressure at the bone graft interface than would be in the case with Ti-6Al-4V off-the-shelf fixation hardware. The porous fixation plates used in this study were fabricated by selective laser melting.

NASA HUNCH Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Nancy R.; Wagner, James; Phelps, Amanda

2014-01-01

What is NASA HUNCH? High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware-HUNCH is an instructional partnership between NASA and educational institutions. This partnership benefits both NASA and students. NASA receives cost-effective hardware and soft goods, while students receive real-world hands-on experiences. The 2014-2015 was the 12th year of the HUNCH Program. NASA Glenn Research Center joined the program that already included the NASA Johnson Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, Langley Research Center and Goddard Space Flight Center. The program included 76 schools in 24 states and NASA Glenn worked with the following five schools in the HUNCH Build to Print Hardware Program: Medina Career Center, Medina, OH; Cattaraugus Allegheny-BOCES, Olean, NY; Orleans Niagara-BOCES, Medina, NY; Apollo Career Center, Lima, OH; Romeo Engineering and Tech Center, Washington, MI. The schools built various parts of an International Space Station (ISS) middeck stowage locker and learned about manufacturing process and how best to build these components to NASA specifications. For the 2015-2016 school year the schools will be part of a larger group of schools building flight hardware consisting of 20 ISS middeck stowage lockers for the ISS Program. The HUNCH Program consists of: Build to Print Hardware; Build to Print Soft Goods; Design and Prototyping; Culinary Challenge; Implementation: Web Page and Video Production.

The Impact of Flight Hardware Scavenging on Space Logistics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oeftering, Richard C.

2011-01-01

For a given fixed launch vehicle capacity the logistics payload delivered to the moon may be only roughly 20 percent of the payload delivered to the International Space Station (ISS). This is compounded by the much lower flight frequency to the moon and thus low availability of spares for maintenance. This implies that lunar hardware is much more scarce and more costly per kilogram than ISS and thus there is much more incentive to preserve hardware. The Constellation Lunar Surface System (LSS) program is considering ways of utilizing hardware scavenged from vehicles including the Altair lunar lander. In general, the hardware will have only had a matter of hours of operation yet there may be years of operational life remaining. By scavenging this hardware the program, in effect, is treating vehicle hardware as part of the payload. Flight hardware may provide logistics spares for system maintenance and reduce the overall logistics footprint. This hardware has a wide array of potential applications including expanding the power infrastructure, and exploiting in-situ resources. Scavenging can also be seen as a way of recovering the value of, literally, billions of dollars worth of hardware that would normally be discarded. Scavenging flight hardware adds operational complexity and steps must be taken to augment the crew s capability with robotics, capabilities embedded in flight hardware itself, and external processes. New embedded technologies are needed to make hardware more serviceable and scavengable. Process technologies are needed to extract hardware, evaluate hardware, reconfigure or repair hardware, and reintegrate it into new applications. This paper also illustrates how scavenging can be used to drive down the cost of the overall program by exploiting the intrinsic value of otherwise discarded flight hardware.

Energy efficient engine low-pressure compressor component test hardware detailed design report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Michael, C. J.; Halle, J. E.

1981-01-01

The aerodynamic and mechanical design description of the low pressure compressor component of the Energy Efficient Engine were used. The component was designed to meet the requirements of the Flight Propulsion System while maintaining a low cost approach in providing a low pressure compressor design for the Integrated Core/Low Spool test required in the Energy Efficient Engine Program. The resulting low pressure compressor component design meets or exceeds all design goals with the exception of surge margin. In addition, the expense of hardware fabrication for the Integrated Core/Low Spool test has been minimized through the use of existing minor part hardware.

Lower Total Cost of Ownership of ONE-NET by Using Thin-Client Desktop Deployment and Virtualization-Based Server Technology

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-09-01

NNWC) was used to calculate major cost components—labor, hardware, software , and transport, while a VMware tool was used to calculate power and...cooling costs for both solutions. In addition, VMware provided a cost estimate for the upfront hardware and software licensing costs needed to support...cost per seat (CPS) model developed by Naval Network Warfare Command (NNWC) was used to calculate major cost components—labor, hardware, software , and

FPS-RAM: Fast Prefix Search RAM-Based Hardware for Forwarding Engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaitsu, Kazuya; Yamamoto, Koji; Kuroda, Yasuto; Inoue, Kazunari; Ata, Shingo; Oka, Ikuo

Ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) is becoming very popular for designing high-throughput forwarding engines on routers. However, TCAM has potential problems in terms of hardware and power costs, which limits its ability to deploy large amounts of capacity in IP routers. In this paper, we propose new hardware architecture for fast forwarding engines, called fast prefix search RAM-based hardware (FPS-RAM). We designed FPS-RAM hardware with the intent of maintaining the same search performance and physical user interface as TCAM because our objective is to replace the TCAM in the market. Our RAM-based hardware architecture is completely different from that of TCAM and has dramatically reduced the costs and power consumption to 62% and 52%, respectively. We implemented FPS-RAM on an FPGA to examine its lookup operation.

An Advanced Programming Technique for a Cost-Effective Hardware-Independent Realization of Naval Software Systems. Final Technical Report, Part II.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Computer Symbolic, Inc., Washington, DC.

A pseudo assembly language, PAL, was developed and specified for use as the lowest level in a general, multilevel programing system for the realization of cost-effective, hardware-independent Naval software. The language was developed as part of the system called FIRMS (Fast Iterative Recursive Macro System) and is sufficiently general to allow…

Hardware assisted hypervisor introspection.

PubMed

Shi, Jiangyong; Yang, Yuexiang; Tang, Chuan

2016-01-01

In this paper, we introduce hypervisor introspection, an out-of-box way to monitor the execution of hypervisors. Similar to virtual machine introspection which has been proposed to protect virtual machines in an out-of-box way over the past decade, hypervisor introspection can be used to protect hypervisors which are the basis of cloud security. Virtual machine introspection tools are usually deployed either in hypervisor or in privileged virtual machines, which might also be compromised. By utilizing hardware support including nested virtualization, EPT protection and #BP, we are able to monitor all hypercalls belongs to the virtual machines of one hypervisor, include that of privileged virtual machine and even when the hypervisor is compromised. What's more, hypercall injection method is used to simulate hypercall-based attacks and evaluate the performance of our method. Experiment results show that our method can effectively detect hypercall-based attacks with some performance cost. Lastly, we discuss our furture approaches of reducing the performance cost and preventing the compromised hypervisor from detecting the existence of our introspector, in addition with some new scenarios to apply our hypervisor introspection system.

Trends in computer hardware and software.

PubMed

Frankenfeld, F M

1993-04-01

Previously identified and current trends in the development of computer systems and in the use of computers for health care applications are reviewed. Trends identified in a 1982 article were increasing miniaturization and archival ability, increasing software costs, increasing software independence, user empowerment through new software technologies, shorter computer-system life cycles, and more rapid development and support of pharmaceutical services. Most of these trends continue today. Current trends in hardware and software include the increasing use of reduced instruction-set computing, migration to the UNIX operating system, the development of large software libraries, microprocessor-based smart terminals that allow remote validation of data, speech synthesis and recognition, application generators, fourth-generation languages, computer-aided software engineering, object-oriented technologies, and artificial intelligence. Current trends specific to pharmacy and hospitals are the withdrawal of vendors of hospital information systems from the pharmacy market, improved linkage of information systems within hospitals, and increased regulation by government. The computer industry and its products continue to undergo dynamic change. Software development continues to lag behind hardware, and its high cost is offsetting the savings provided by hardware.

Rapid Production of Composite Prototype Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

DeLay, T. K.

2000-01-01

The objective of this research was to provide a mechanism to cost-effectively produce composite hardware prototypes. The task was to take a hands-on approach to developing new technologies that could benefit multiple future programs.

Systems engineering and integration: Cost estimation and benefits analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dean, ED; Fridge, Ernie; Hamaker, Joe

1990-01-01

Space Transportation Avionics hardware and software cost has traditionally been estimated in Phase A and B using cost techniques which predict cost as a function of various cost predictive variables such as weight, lines of code, functions to be performed, quantities of test hardware, quantities of flight hardware, design and development heritage, complexity, etc. The output of such analyses has been life cycle costs, economic benefits and related data. The major objectives of Cost Estimation and Benefits analysis are twofold: (1) to play a role in the evaluation of potential new space transportation avionics technologies, and (2) to benefit from emerging technological innovations. Both aspects of cost estimation and technology are discussed here. The role of cost analysis in the evaluation of potential technologies should be one of offering additional quantitative and qualitative information to aid decision-making. The cost analyses process needs to be fully integrated into the design process in such a way that cost trades, optimizations and sensitivities are understood. Current hardware cost models tend to primarily use weights, functional specifications, quantities, design heritage and complexity as metrics to predict cost. Software models mostly use functionality, volume of code, heritage and complexity as cost descriptive variables. Basic research needs to be initiated to develop metrics more responsive to the trades which are required for future launch vehicle avionics systems. These would include cost estimating capabilities that are sensitive to technological innovations such as improved materials and fabrication processes, computer aided design and manufacturing, self checkout and many others. In addition to basic cost estimating improvements, the process must be sensitive to the fact that no cost estimate can be quoted without also quoting a confidence associated with the estimate. In order to achieve this, better cost risk evaluation techniques are

High-Speed Isolation Board for Flight Hardware Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yamamoto, Clifford K.; Goodpasture, Richard L.

2011-01-01

There is a need to provide a portable and cost-effective galvanic isolation between ground support equipment and flight hardware such that any unforeseen voltage differential between ground and power supplies is eliminated. An interface board was designed for use between the ground support equipment and the flight hardware that electrically isolates all input and output signals and faithfully reproduces them on each side of the interface. It utilizes highly integrated multi-channel isolating devices to minimize size and reduce assembly time. This single-board solution provides appropriate connector hardware and breakout of required flight signals to individual connectors as needed for various ground support equipment. The board utilizes multi-channel integrated circuits that contain transformer coupling, thereby allowing input and output signals to be isolated from one another while still providing high-fidelity reproduction of the signal up to 90 MHz. The board also takes in a single-voltage power supply input from the ground support equipment and in turn provides a transformer-derived isolated voltage supply to power the portion of the circuitry that is electrically connected to the flight hardware. Prior designs used expensive opto-isolated couplers that were required for each signal to isolate and were time-consuming to assemble. In addition, these earlier designs were bulky and required a 2U rack-mount enclosure. The new design is smaller than a piece of 8.5 11-in. (.22 28-mm) paper and can be easily hand-carried where needed. The flight hardware in question is based on a lineage of existing software-defined radios (SDRs) that utilize a common interface connector with many similar input-output signals present. There are currently four to five variations of this SDR, and more upcoming versions are planned based on the more recent design.

Efficient architecture for spike sorting in reconfigurable hardware.

PubMed

Hwang, Wen-Jyi; Lee, Wei-Hao; Lin, Shiow-Jyu; Lai, Sheng-Ying

2013-11-01

This paper presents a novel hardware architecture for fast spike sorting. The architecture is able to perform both the feature extraction and clustering in hardware. The generalized Hebbian algorithm (GHA) and fuzzy C-means (FCM) algorithm are used for feature extraction and clustering, respectively. The employment of GHA allows efficient computation of principal components for subsequent clustering operations. The FCM is able to achieve near optimal clustering for spike sorting. Its performance is insensitive to the selection of initial cluster centers. The hardware implementations of GHA and FCM feature low area costs and high throughput. In the GHA architecture, the computation of different weight vectors share the same circuit for lowering the area costs. Moreover, in the FCM hardware implementation, the usual iterative operations for updating the membership matrix and cluster centroid are merged into one single updating process to evade the large storage requirement. To show the effectiveness of the circuit, the proposed architecture is physically implemented by field programmable gate array (FPGA). It is embedded in a System-on-Chip (SOC) platform for performance measurement. Experimental results show that the proposed architecture is an efficient spike sorting design for attaining high classification correct rate and high speed computation.

Costs, Benefits, and Adoption of Additive Manufacturing: A Supply Chain Perspective.

PubMed

Thomas, Douglas

2016-07-01

There are three primary aspects to the economics of additive manufacturing: measuring the value of goods produced, measuring the costs and benefits of using the technology, and estimating the adoption and diffusion of the technology. This paper provides an updated estimate of the value of goods produced. It then reviews the literature on additive manufacturing costs and identifies those instances in the literature where this technology is cost effective. The paper then goes on to propose an approach for examining and understanding the societal costs and benefits of this technology both from a monetary viewpoint and a resource consumption viewpoint. The final section discusses the trends in the adoption of additive manufacturing. Globally, there is an estimated $667 million in value added produced using additive manufacturing, which equates to 0.01 % of total global manufacturing value added. US value added is estimated as $241 million. Current research on additive manufacturing costs reveals that it is cost effective for manufacturing small batches with continued centralized production; however, with increased automation distributed production may become cost effective. Due to the complexities of measuring additive manufacturing costs and data limitations, current studies are limited in their scope. Many of the current studies examine the production of single parts and those that examine assemblies tend not to examine supply chain effects such as inventory and transportation costs along with decreased risk to supply disruption. The additive manufacturing system and the material costs constitute a significant portion of an additive manufactured product; however, these costs are declining over time. The current trends in costs and benefits have resulted in this technology representing 0.02 % of the relevant manufacturing industries in the US; however, as the costs of additive manufacturing systems decrease, this technology may become widely adopted and change the

VEG-01: Veggie Hardware Verification Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Massa, Gioia; Newsham, Gary; Hummerick, Mary; Morrow, Robert; Wheeler, Raymond

2013-01-01

The Veggie plant/vegetable production system is scheduled to fly on ISS at the end of2013. Since much of the technology associated with Veggie has not been previously tested in microgravity, a hardware validation flight was initiated. This test will allow data to be collected about Veggie hardware functionality on ISS, allow crew interactions to be vetted for future improvements, validate the ability of the hardware to grow and sustain plants, and collect data that will be helpful to future Veggie investigators as they develop their payloads. Additionally, food safety data on the lettuce plants grown will be collected to help support the development of a pathway for the crew to safely consume produce grown on orbit. Significant background research has been performed on the Veggie plant growth system, with early tests focusing on the development of the rooting pillow concept, and the selection of fertilizer, rooting medium and plant species. More recent testing has been conducted to integrate the pillow concept into the Veggie hardware and to ensure that adequate water is provided throughout the growth cycle. Seed sanitation protocols have been established for flight, and hardware sanitation between experiments has been studied. Methods for shipping and storage of rooting pillows and the development of crew procedures and crew training videos for plant activities on-orbit have been established. Science verification testing was conducted and lettuce plants were successfully grown in prototype Veggie hardware, microbial samples were taken, plant were harvested, frozen, stored and later analyzed for microbial growth, nutrients, and A TP levels. An additional verification test, prior to the final payload verification testing, is desired to demonstrate similar growth in the flight hardware and also to test a second set of pillows containing zinnia seeds. Issues with root mat water supply are being resolved, with final testing and flight scheduled for later in 2013.

Costs, Benefits, and Adoption of Additive Manufacturing: A Supply Chain Perspective

PubMed Central

Thomas, Douglas

2017-01-01

There are three primary aspects to the economics of additive manufacturing: measuring the value of goods produced, measuring the costs and benefits of using the technology, and estimating the adoption and diffusion of the technology. This paper provides an updated estimate of the value of goods produced. It then reviews the literature on additive manufacturing costs and identifies those instances in the literature where this technology is cost effective. The paper then goes on to propose an approach for examining and understanding the societal costs and benefits of this technology both from a monetary viewpoint and a resource consumption viewpoint. The final section discusses the trends in the adoption of additive manufacturing. Globally, there is an estimated $667 million in value added produced using additive manufacturing, which equates to 0.01 % of total global manufacturing value added. US value added is estimated as $241 million. Current research on additive manufacturing costs reveals that it is cost effective for manufacturing small batches with continued centralized production; however, with increased automation distributed production may become cost effective. Due to the complexities of measuring additive manufacturing costs and data limitations, current studies are limited in their scope. Many of the current studies examine the production of single parts and those that examine assemblies tend not to examine supply chain effects such as inventory and transportation costs along with decreased risk to supply disruption. The additive manufacturing system and the material costs constitute a significant portion of an additive manufactured product; however, these costs are declining over time. The current trends in costs and benefits have resulted in this technology representing 0.02 % of the relevant manufacturing industries in the US; however, as the costs of additive manufacturing systems decrease, this technology may become widely adopted and change the

Software for Managing Inventory of Flight Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Salisbury, John; Savage, Scott; Thomas, Shirman

2003-01-01

The Flight Hardware Support Request System (FHSRS) is a computer program that relieves engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) of most of the non-engineering administrative burden of managing an inventory of flight hardware. The FHSRS can also be adapted to perform similar functions for other organizations. The FHSRS affords a combination of capabilities, including those formerly provided by three separate programs in purchasing, inventorying, and inspecting hardware. The FHSRS provides a Web-based interface with a server computer that supports a relational database of inventory; electronic routing of requests and approvals; and electronic documentation from initial request through implementation of quality criteria, acquisition, receipt, inspection, storage, and final issue of flight materials and components. The database lists both hardware acquired for current projects and residual hardware from previous projects. The increased visibility of residual flight components provided by the FHSRS has dramatically improved the re-utilization of materials in lieu of new procurements, resulting in a cost savings of over $1.7 million. The FHSRS includes subprograms for manipulating the data in the database, informing of the status of a request or an item of hardware, and searching the database on any physical or other technical characteristic of a component or material. The software structure forces normalization of the data to facilitate inquiries and searches for which users have entered mixed or inconsistent values.

Space Telecommunications Radio Systems (STRS) Hardware Architecture Standard: Release 1.0 Hardware Section

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reinhart, Richard C.; Kacpura, Thomas J.; Smith, Carl R.; Liebetreu, John; Hill, Gary; Mortensen, Dale J.; Andro, Monty; Scardelletti, Maximilian C.; Farrington, Allen

2008-01-01

This report defines a hardware architecture approach for software-defined radios to enable commonality among NASA space missions. The architecture accommodates a range of reconfigurable processing technologies including general-purpose processors, digital signal processors, field programmable gate arrays, and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) in addition to flexible and tunable radiofrequency front ends to satisfy varying mission requirements. The hardware architecture consists of modules, radio functions, and interfaces. The modules are a logical division of common radio functions that compose a typical communication radio. This report describes the architecture details, the module definitions, the typical functions on each module, and the module interfaces. Tradeoffs between component-based, custom architecture and a functional-based, open architecture are described. The architecture does not specify a physical implementation internally on each module, nor does the architecture mandate the standards or ratings of the hardware used to construct the radios.

Multi-User Hardware Solutions to Combustion Science ISS Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Otero, Angel M.

2001-01-01

In response to the budget environment and to expand on the International Space Station (ISS) Fluids and Combustion Facility (FCF) Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR), common hardware approach, the NASA Combustion Science Program shifted focus in 1999 from single investigator PI (Principal Investigator)-specific hardware to multi-user 'Minifacilities'. These mini-facilities would take the CIR common hardware philosophy to the next level. The approach that was developed re-arranged all the investigations in the program into sub-fields of research. Then common requirements within these subfields were used to develop a common system that would then be complemented by a few PI-specific components. The sub-fields of research selected were droplet combustion, solids and fire safety, and gaseous fuels. From these research areas three mini-facilities have sprung: the Multi-user Droplet Combustion Apparatus (MDCA) for droplet research, Flow Enclosure for Novel Investigations in Combustion of Solids (FEANICS) for solids and fire safety, and the Multi-user Gaseous Fuels Apparatus (MGFA) for gaseous fuels. These mini-facilities will develop common Chamber Insert Assemblies (CIA) and diagnostics for the respective investigators complementing the capability provided by CIR. Presently there are four investigators for MDCA, six for FEANICS, and four for MGFA. The goal of these multi-user facilities is to drive the cost per PI down after the initial development investment is made. Each of these mini-facilities will become a fixture of future Combustion Science NASA Research Announcements (NRAs), enabling investigators to propose against an existing capability. Additionally, an investigation is provided the opportunity to enhance the existing capability to bridge the gap between the capability and their specific science requirements. This multi-user development approach will enable the Combustion Science Program to drive cost per investigation down while drastically reducing the time

47 CFR 25.111 - Additional information and ITU cost recovery.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Additional information and ITU cost recovery....111 Additional information and ITU cost recovery. (a) The Commission may request from any party at any time additional information concerning any application, or any other submission or pleading regarding...

A study of the additional costs of dispensing workers' compensation prescriptions.

PubMed

Schafermeyer, Kenneth W

2007-03-01

Although there is a significant amount of additional work involved in dispensing workers' compensation prescriptions, these costs have not been quantified. A study of the additional costs to dispense a workers' compensation prescription is needed to measure actual costs and to help determine the reasonableness of reimbursement for prescriptions dispensed under workers' compensation programs. The purpose of this study was to determine the minimum additional time and costs required to dispense workers' compensation prescriptions in Texas. A convenience sample of 30 store-level pharmacy staff members involved in submitting and processing prescription claims for the Texas Mutual workers' compensation program were interviewed by telephone. Data collected to determine the additional costs of dispensing a workers' compensation prescription included (1) the amount of additional time and personnel costs required to dispense and process an average workers' compensation prescription claim, (2) the difference in time required for a new versus a refilled prescription, (3) overhead costs for processing workers' compensation prescription claims by experienced experts at a central processing facility, (4) carrying costs for workers' compensation accounts receivable, and (5) bad debts due to uncollectible workers' compensation claims. The median of the sample pharmacies' additional costs for dispensing a workers' compensation prescription was estimated to be at least $9.86 greater than for a cash prescription. This study shows that the estimated costs for workers' compensation prescriptions were significantly higher than for cash prescriptions. These costs are probably much more than most employers, workers' compensation payers, and pharmacy managers would expect. It is recommended that pharmacy managers should estimate their own costs and compare these costs to actual reimbursement when considering the reasonableness of workers' compensation prescriptions and whether to accept

Parameterized hardware description as object oriented hardware model implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drabik, Pawel K.

2010-09-01

The paper introduces novel model for design, visualization and management of complex, highly adaptive hardware systems. The model settles component oriented environment for both hardware modules and software application. It is developed on parameterized hardware description research. Establishment of stable link between hardware and software, as a purpose of designed and realized work, is presented. Novel programming framework model for the environment, named Graphic-Functional-Components is presented. The purpose of the paper is to present object oriented hardware modeling with mentioned features. Possible model implementation in FPGA chips and its management by object oriented software in Java is described.

Targeting multiple heterogeneous hardware platforms with OpenCL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fox, Paul A.; Kozacik, Stephen T.; Humphrey, John R.; Paolini, Aaron; Kuller, Aryeh; Kelmelis, Eric J.

2014-06-01

The OpenCL API allows for the abstract expression of parallel, heterogeneous computing, but hardware implementations have substantial implementation differences. The abstractions provided by the OpenCL API are often insufficiently high-level to conceal differences in hardware architecture. Additionally, implementations often do not take advantage of potential performance gains from certain features due to hardware limitations and other factors. These factors make it challenging to produce code that is portable in practice, resulting in much OpenCL code being duplicated for each hardware platform being targeted. This duplication of effort offsets the principal advantage of OpenCL: portability. The use of certain coding practices can mitigate this problem, allowing a common code base to be adapted to perform well across a wide range of hardware platforms. To this end, we explore some general practices for producing performant code that are effective across platforms. Additionally, we explore some ways of modularizing code to enable optional optimizations that take advantage of hardware-specific characteristics. The minimum requirement for portability implies avoiding the use of OpenCL features that are optional, not widely implemented, poorly implemented, or missing in major implementations. Exposing multiple levels of parallelism allows hardware to take advantage of the types of parallelism it supports, from the task level down to explicit vector operations. Static optimizations and branch elimination in device code help the platform compiler to effectively optimize programs. Modularization of some code is important to allow operations to be chosen for performance on target hardware. Optional subroutines exploiting explicit memory locality allow for different memory hierarchies to be exploited for maximum performance. The C preprocessor and JIT compilation using the OpenCL runtime can be used to enable some of these techniques, as well as to factor in hardware

Providing Self-Healing Ability for Wireless Sensor Node by Using Reconfigurable Hardware

PubMed Central

Yuan, Shenfang; Qiu, Lei; Gao, Shang; Tong, Yao; Yang, Weiwei

2012-01-01

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have received tremendous attention over the past ten years. In engineering applications of WSNs, a number of sensor nodes are usually spread across some specific geographical area. Some of these nodes have to work in harsh environments. Dependability of the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is very important for its successful applications in the engineering area. In ordinary research, when a node has a failure, it is usually discarded and the network is reorganized to ensure the normal operation of the WSN. Using appropriate WSN re-organization methods, though the sensor networks can be reorganized, this causes additional maintenance costs and sometimes still decreases the function of the networks. In those situations where the sensor networks cannot be reorganized, the performance of the whole WSN will surely be degraded. In order to ensure the reliable and low cost operation of WSNs, a method to develop a wireless sensor node with self-healing ability based on reconfigurable hardware is proposed in this paper. Two self-healing WSN node realization paradigms based on reconfigurable hardware are presented, including a redundancy-based self-healing paradigm and a whole FPAA/FPGA based self-healing paradigm. The nodes designed with the self-healing ability can dynamically change their node configurations to repair the nodes' hardware failures. To demonstrate these two paradigms, a strain sensor node is adopted as an illustration to show the concepts. Two strain WSN sensor nodes with self-healing ability are developed respectively according to the proposed self-healing paradigms. Evaluation experiments on self-healing ability and power consumption are performed. Experimental results show that the developed nodes can self-diagnose the failures and recover to a normal state automatically. The research presented can improve the robustness of WSNs and reduce the maintenance cost of WSNs in engineering applications. PMID:23202176

Evaluating the Applicability of Heritage Flight Hardware in Orion Environmental Control and Life Support Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cross, Cynthia D.; Lewis, John F.; Barido, Richard A.; Carrasquillo, Robyn; Rains, George E.

2011-01-01

Recent changes in the overall NASA vision has resulted in further cost and schedule challenges for the Orion program. As a result, additional scrutiny has been focused on the use of new developments for hardware in the environmental control and life support systems. This paper will examine the Orion architecture as it is envisioned to support missions to the International Space Station and future exploration missions and determine what if any functions can be satisfied through the use of existing, heritage hardware designs. An initial evaluation of each component is included and where a heritage component was deemed likely further details are examined. Key technical parameters, mass, volume and vibration loads are a few of the specific items that are evaluated. Where heritage hardware has been identified that may be substituted in the Orion architecture a discussion of key requirement changes that may need to be made as well as recommendation to further evaluate applicability are noted.

Pre-Hardware Optimization of Spacecraft Image Processing Algorithms and Hardware Implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kizhner, Semion; Petrick, David J.; Flatley, Thomas P.; Hestnes, Phyllis; Jentoft-Nilsen, Marit; Day, John H. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Spacecraft telemetry rates and telemetry product complexity have steadily increased over the last decade presenting a problem for real-time processing by ground facilities. This paper proposes a solution to a related problem for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Spacecraft (GOES-8) image data processing and color picture generation application. Although large super-computer facilities are the obvious heritage solution, they are very costly, making it imperative to seek a feasible alternative engineering solution at a fraction of the cost. The proposed solution is based on a Personal Computer (PC) platform and synergy of optimized software algorithms, and reconfigurable computing hardware (RC) technologies, such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Digital Signal Processors (DSP). It has been shown that this approach can provide superior inexpensive performance for a chosen application on the ground station or on-board a spacecraft.

COTD: Reference-free Hardware Trojan Detection in Gate-level Netlist

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-01

modern designs , the constraint of time- to-market window, and the cost restriction of final product highly drive the horizontal design process. The...third-party intellectual properties (3PIPs) are widely used while they expose a design to hardware Trojans (HTs) that may tamper with the design and...activated. Some work have investigated hardware Trojans in early design stages and several techniques have been proposed to study the switching

Use of heat pipes in electronic hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Graves, J. R.

1977-01-01

A modular, multiple output power converter was developed in order to reduce costs of space hardware in future missions. The converter is of reduced size and weight, and utilizes advanced heat removal techniques, in the form of heat pipes which remove internally generated heat more effectively than conventional methods.

On the use of inexact, pruned hardware in atmospheric modelling

PubMed Central

Düben, Peter D.; Joven, Jaume; Lingamneni, Avinash; McNamara, Hugh; De Micheli, Giovanni; Palem, Krishna V.; Palmer, T. N.

2014-01-01

Inexact hardware design, which advocates trading the accuracy of computations in exchange for significant savings in area, power and/or performance of computing hardware, has received increasing prominence in several error-tolerant application domains, particularly those involving perceptual or statistical end-users. In this paper, we evaluate inexact hardware for its applicability in weather and climate modelling. We expand previous studies on inexact techniques, in particular probabilistic pruning, to floating point arithmetic units and derive several simulated set-ups of pruned hardware with reasonable levels of error for applications in atmospheric modelling. The set-up is tested on the Lorenz ‘96 model, a toy model for atmospheric dynamics, using software emulation for the proposed hardware. The results show that large parts of the computation tolerate the use of pruned hardware blocks without major changes in the quality of short- and long-time diagnostics, such as forecast errors and probability density functions. This could open the door to significant savings in computational cost and to higher resolution simulations with weather and climate models. PMID:24842031

Benchmarking DoD Use of Additive Manufacturing and Quantifying Costs

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-01

46 VI. Cost Benefit ...developing a cost model. The US Army Logistics Innovation Agency published a study called “Additive Manufacturing Cost - Benefit Analysis”. This...to over fifteen thousand dollars on GSA Advantage. Desktop printers do not require extensive support equipment. 47    VI. Cost Benefit

Inexact hardware for modelling weather & climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Düben, Peter D.; McNamara, Hugh; Palmer, Tim

2014-05-01

The use of stochastic processing hardware and low precision arithmetic in atmospheric models is investigated. Stochastic processors allow hardware-induced faults in calculations, sacrificing exact calculations in exchange for improvements in performance and potentially accuracy and a reduction in power consumption. A similar trade-off is achieved using low precision arithmetic, with improvements in computation and communication speed and savings in storage and memory requirements. As high-performance computing becomes more massively parallel and power intensive, these two approaches may be important stepping stones in the pursuit of global cloud resolving atmospheric modelling. The impact of both, hardware induced faults and low precision arithmetic is tested in the dynamical core of a global atmosphere model. Our simulations show that both approaches to inexact calculations do not substantially affect the quality of the model simulations, provided they are restricted to act only on smaller scales. This suggests that inexact calculations at the small scale could reduce computation and power costs without adversely affecting the quality of the simulations.

Benchmarking Non-Hardware Balance-of-System (Soft) Costs for U.S. Photovoltaic Systems, Using a Bottom-Up Approach and Installer Survey - Second Edition

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Friedman, B.; Ardani, K.; Feldman, D.

2013-10-01

This report presents results from the second U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored, bottom-up data-collection and analysis of non-hardware balance-of-system costs -- often referred to as 'business process' or 'soft' costs -- for U.S. residential and commercial photovoltaic (PV) systems. In service to DOE's SunShot Initiative, annual expenditure and labor-hour-productivity data are analyzed to benchmark 2012 soft costs related to (1) customer acquisition and system design (2) permitting, inspection, and interconnection (PII). We also include an in-depth analysis of costs related to financing, overhead, and profit. Soft costs are both a major challenge and a major opportunity for reducing PVmore » system prices and stimulating SunShot-level PV deployment in the United States. The data and analysis in this series of benchmarking reports are a step toward the more detailed understanding of PV soft costs required to track and accelerate these price reductions.« less

Hardware Neural Network for a Visual Inspection System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chun, Seungwoo; Hayakawa, Yoshihiro; Nakajima, Koji

The visual inspection of defects in products is heavily dependent on human experience and instinct. In this situation, it is difficult to reduce the production costs and to shorten the inspection time and hence the total process time. Consequently people involved in this area desire an automatic inspection system. In this paper, we propose a hardware neural network, which is expected to provide high-speed operation for automatic inspection of products. Since neural networks can learn, this is a suitable method for self-adjustment of criteria for classification. To achieve high-speed operation, we use parallel and pipelining techniques. Furthermore, we use a piecewise linear function instead of a conventional activation function in order to save hardware resources. Consequently, our proposed hardware neural network achieved 6GCPS and 2GCUPS, which in our test sample proved to be sufficiently fast.

Speed challenge: a case for hardware implementation in soft-computing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Daud, T.; Stoica, A.; Duong, T.; Keymeulen, D.; Zebulum, R.; Thomas, T.; Thakoor, A.

2000-01-01

For over a decade, JPL has been actively involved in soft computing research on theory, architecture, applications, and electronics hardware. The driving force in all our research activities, in addition to the potential enabling technology promise, has been creation of a niche that imparts orders of magnitude speed advantage by implementation in parallel processing hardware with algorithms made especially suitable for hardware implementation. We review our work on neural networks, fuzzy logic, and evolvable hardware with selected application examples requiring real time response capabilities.

Additive Manufacturing of Low Cost Upper Stage Propulsion Components

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Protz, Christopher; Bowman, Randy; Cooper, Ken; Fikes, John; Taminger, Karen; Wright, Belinda

2014-01-01

NASA is currently developing Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies and design tools aimed at reducing the costs and manufacturing time of regeneratively cooled rocket engine components. These Low Cost Upper Stage Propulsion (LCUSP) tasks are funded through NASA's Game Changing Development Program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate. The LCUSP project will develop a copper alloy additive manufacturing design process and develop and optimize the Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication (EBF3) manufacturing process to direct deposit a nickel alloy structural jacket and manifolds onto an SLM manufactured GRCop chamber and Ni-alloy nozzle. In order to develop these processes, the project will characterize both the microstructural and mechanical properties of the SLMproduced GRCop-84, and will explore and document novel design techniques specific to AM combustion devices components. These manufacturing technologies will be used to build a 25K-class regenerative chamber and nozzle (to be used with tested DMLS injectors) that will be tested individually and as a system in hot fire tests to demonstrate the applicability of the technologies. These tasks are expected to bring costs and manufacturing time down as spacecraft propulsion systems typically comprise more than 70% of the total vehicle cost and account for a significant portion of the development schedule. Additionally, high pressure/high temperature combustion chambers and nozzles must be regeneratively cooled to survive their operating environment, causing their design to be time consuming and costly to build. LCUSP presents an opportunity to develop and demonstrate a process that can infuse these technologies into industry, build competition, and drive down costs of future engines.

Mini-O, simple Omega receiver hardware for user education

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burhans, R. W.

1976-01-01

A problem with the Omega system is a lack of suitable low cost hardware for the small user community. A collection of do it yourself circuit modules are under development intended for use by educational institutions, small boat owners, aviation enthusiasts, and others who have some skills in fabricating their own electronic equipment. Applications of the hardware to time frequency standards measurements, signal propagation monitoring, and navigation experiments are presented. A family of Mini-O systems have been constructed varying from the simplest RF preamplifiers and narrowband filters front-ends, to sophisticated microcomputer interface adapters.

Environmental Conditions for Space Flight Hardware: A Survey

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Plante, Jeannette; Lee, Brandon

2005-01-01

Interest in generalization of the physical environment experienced by NASA hardware from the natural Earth environment (on the launch pad), man-made environment on Earth (storage acceptance an d qualification testing), the launch environment, and the space environment, is ed to find commonality among our hardware in an effort to reduce cost and complexity. NASA is entering a period of increase in its number of planetary missions and it is important to understand how our qualification requirements will evolve with and track these new environments. Environmental conditions are described for NASA projects in several ways for the different periods of the mission life cycle. At the beginning, the mission manager defines survivability requirements based on the mission length, orbit, launch date, launch vehicle, and other factors . such as the use of reactor engines. Margins are then applied to these values (temperature extremes, vibration extremes, radiation tolerances, etc,) and a new set of conditions is generalized for design requirements. Mission assurance documents will then assign an additional margin for reliability, and a third set of values is provided for during testing. A fourth set of environmental condition values may evolve intermittently from heritage hardware that has been tested to a level beyond the actual mission requirement. These various sets of environment figures can make it quite confusing and difficult to capture common hardware environmental requirements. Environmental requirement information can be found in a wide variety of places. The most obvious is with the individual projects. We can easily get answers to questions about temperature extremes being used and radiation tolerance goals, but it is more difficult to map the answers to the process that created these requirements: for design, for qualification, and for actual environment with no margin applied. Not everyone assigned to a NASA project may have that kind of insight, as many have

Review of hardware cost estimation methods, models and tools applied to early phases of space mission planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trivailo, O.; Sippel, M.; Şekercioğlu, Y. A.

2012-08-01

The primary purpose of this paper is to review currently existing cost estimation methods, models, tools and resources applicable to the space sector. While key space sector methods are outlined, a specific focus is placed on hardware cost estimation on a system level, particularly for early mission phases during which specifications and requirements are not yet crystallised, and information is limited. For the space industry, cost engineering within the systems engineering framework is an integral discipline. The cost of any space program now constitutes a stringent design criterion, which must be considered and carefully controlled during the entire program life cycle. A first step to any program budget is a representative cost estimate which usually hinges on a particular estimation approach, or methodology. Therefore appropriate selection of specific cost models, methods and tools is paramount, a difficult task given the highly variable nature, scope as well as scientific and technical requirements applicable to each program. Numerous methods, models and tools exist. However new ways are needed to address very early, pre-Phase 0 cost estimation during the initial program research and establishment phase when system specifications are limited, but the available research budget needs to be established and defined. Due to their specificity, for vehicles such as reusable launchers with a manned capability, a lack of historical data implies that using either the classic heuristic approach such as parametric cost estimation based on underlying CERs, or the analogy approach, is therefore, by definition, limited. This review identifies prominent cost estimation models applied to the space sector, and their underlying cost driving parameters and factors. Strengths, weaknesses, and suitability to specific mission types and classes are also highlighted. Current approaches which strategically amalgamate various cost estimation strategies both for formulation and validation

Space Transportatioin System (STS) propellant scavenging system study. Volume 3: Cost and work breakdown structure-dictionary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1985-01-01

Fundamentally, the volumes of the oxidizer and fuel propellant scavenged from the orbiter and external tank determine the size and weight of the scavenging system. The optimization of system dimensions and weights is stimulated by the requirement to minimize the use of partial length of the orbiter payload bay. Thus, the cost estimates begin with weights established for the optimum design. Both the design, development, test, and evaluation and theoretical first unit hardware production costs are estimated from parametric cost weight scaling relations for four subsystems. For cryogenic propellants, the widely differing characteristics of the oxidizer and the fuel lead to two separate tank subsystems, in addition to the electrical and instrumentation subsystems. Hardwares costs also involve quantity, as an independent variable, since the number of production scavenging systems is not firm. For storable propellants, since the tankage volume of the oxidizer and fuel are equal, the hardware production costs for developing these systems are lower than for cryogenic propellants.

Cost Modeling for low-cost planetary missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kwan, Eric; Habib-Agahi, Hamid; Rosenberg, Leigh

2005-01-01

This presentation will provide an overview of the JPL parametric cost models used to estimate flight science spacecrafts and instruments. This material will emphasize the cost model approaches to estimate low-cost flight hardware, sensors, and instrumentation, and to perform cost-risk assessments. This presentation will also discuss JPL approaches to perform cost modeling and the methodologies and analyses used to capture low-cost vs. key cost drivers.

Solid rocket motor cost model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harney, A. G.; Raphael, L.; Warren, S.; Yakura, J. K.

1972-01-01

A systematic and standardized procedure for estimating life cycle costs of solid rocket motor booster configurations. The model consists of clearly defined cost categories and appropriate cost equations in which cost is related to program and hardware parameters. Cost estimating relationships are generally based on analogous experience. In this model the experience drawn on is from estimates prepared by the study contractors. Contractors' estimates are derived by means of engineering estimates for some predetermined level of detail of the SRM hardware and program functions of the system life cycle. This method is frequently referred to as bottom-up. A parametric cost analysis is a useful technique when rapid estimates are required. This is particularly true during the planning stages of a system when hardware designs and program definition are conceptual and constantly changing as the selection process, which includes cost comparisons or trade-offs, is performed. The use of cost estimating relationships also facilitates the performance of cost sensitivity studies in which relative and comparable cost comparisons are significant.

20 CFR 404.278 - Additional cost-of-living increase.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... Section 404.278 Employees' Benefits SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION FEDERAL OLD-AGE, SURVIVORS AND DISABILITY INSURANCE (1950- ) Computing Primary Insurance Amounts Cost-Of-Living Increases § 404.278...) Measuring period for the additional increase—(1) Beginning. To compute the additional increase, we begin...

Spectral-element Seismic Wave Propagation on CUDA/OpenCL Hardware Accelerators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peter, D. B.; Videau, B.; Pouget, K.; Komatitsch, D.

2015-12-01

Seismic wave propagation codes are essential tools to investigate a variety of wave phenomena in the Earth. Furthermore, they can now be used for seismic full-waveform inversions in regional- and global-scale adjoint tomography. Although these seismic wave propagation solvers are crucial ingredients to improve the resolution of tomographic images to answer important questions about the nature of Earth's internal processes and subsurface structure, their practical application is often limited due to high computational costs. They thus need high-performance computing (HPC) facilities to improving the current state of knowledge. At present, numerous large HPC systems embed many-core architectures such as graphics processing units (GPUs) to enhance numerical performance. Such hardware accelerators can be programmed using either the CUDA programming environment or the OpenCL language standard. CUDA software development targets NVIDIA graphic cards while OpenCL was adopted by additional hardware accelerators, like e.g. AMD graphic cards, ARM-based processors as well as Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. For seismic wave propagation simulations using the open-source spectral-element code package SPECFEM3D_GLOBE, we incorporated an automatic source-to-source code generation tool (BOAST) which allows us to use meta-programming of all computational kernels for forward and adjoint runs. Using our BOAST kernels, we generate optimized source code for both CUDA and OpenCL languages within the source code package. Thus, seismic wave simulations are able now to fully utilize CUDA and OpenCL hardware accelerators. We show benchmarks of forward seismic wave propagation simulations using SPECFEM3D_GLOBE on CUDA/OpenCL GPUs, validating results and comparing performances for different simulations and hardware usages.

Development and characteristics of the hardware for Skylab experiment S015

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thirolf, R. G.

1975-01-01

Details are given regarding the hardware for the Skylab S015 experiment, which was designed to detect the effects of zero gravity on cell growth rates. Experience gained in hardware-related considerations is presented for use of researchers concerned with future research of this type and further study of the S015 results. Brief descriptions are given of the experiment hardware, the hardware configuration for the critical design review, the major configuration changes, the final configuration, and the postflight review and analysis. An appendix describes pertinent documentation, film, and hardware that are available to qualified researchers; sources for additional or special information are given.

Development of low cost custom hybrid microcircuit technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Perkins, K. L.; Licari, J. J.

1981-01-01

Selected potentially low cost, alternate packaging and interconnection techniques were developed and implemented in the manufacture of specific NASA/MSFC hardware, and the actual cost savings achieved by their use. The hardware chosen as the test bed for this evaluation ws the hybrids and modules manufactured by Rockwell International fo the MSFC Flight Accelerometer Safety Cut-Off System (FASCOS). Three potentially low cost packaging and interconnection alternates were selected for evaluation. This study was performed in three phases: hardware fabrication and testing, cost comparison, and reliability evaluation.

Scaling Retro-Commissioning to Small Commercial Buildings: A Turnkey Automated Hardware-Software Solution

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lin, Guanjing; Granderson, J.; Brambley, Michael R.

2015-07-01

In the United States, small commercial buildings represent 51% of total floor space of all commercial buildings and consume nearly 3 quadrillion Btu (3.2 quintillion joule) of site energy annually, presenting an enormous opportunity for energy savings. Retro-commissioning (RCx), the process through which professional energy service providers identify and correct operational problems, has proven to be a cost-effective means to achieve median energy savings of 16%. However, retro-commissioning is not typically conducted at scale throughout the commercial stock. Very few small commercial buildings are retro-commissioned because utility expenses are relatively modest, margins are tighter, and capital for improvements is limited.more » In addition, small buildings do not have in-house staff with the expertise to identify improvement opportunities. In response, a turnkey hardware-software solution was developed to enable cost-effective, monitoring-based RCx of small commercial buildings. This highly tailored solution enables non-commissioning providers to identify energy and comfort problems, as well as associated cost impacts and remedies. It also facilitates scale by offering energy service providers the means to streamline their existing processes and reduce costs by more than half. The turnkey RCx sensor suitcase consists of two primary components: a suitcase of sensors for short-term building data collection that guides users through the process of deploying and retrieving their data and a software application that automates analysis of sensor data, identifies problems and generates recommendations. This paper presents the design and testing of prototype models, including descriptions of the hardware design, analysis algorithms, performance testing, and plans for dissemination.« less

Flight Avionics Hardware Roadmap

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Some, Raphael; Goforth, Monte; Chen, Yuan; Powell, Wes; Paulick, Paul; Vitalpur, Sharada; Buscher, Deborah; Wade, Ray; West, John; Redifer, Matt;

OSI for hardware/software interoperability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wood, Richard J.; Harvey, Donald L.; Linderman, Richard W.; Gardener, Gary A.; Capraro, Gerard T.

1994-03-01

There is a need in public safety for real-time data collection and transmission from one or more sensors. The Rome Laboratory and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization are pursuing an effort to bring the benefits of Open System Architectures (OSA) to embedded systems within the Department of Defense. When developed properly OSA provides interoperability, commonality, graceful upgradeability, survivability and hardware/software transportability to greatly minimize life cycle costs, integration and supportability. Architecture flexibility can be achieved to take advantage of commercial accomplishments by basing these developments on vendor-neutral commercially accepted standards and protocols.

Cost-effectiveness of additional catheter-directed thrombolysis for deep vein thrombosis.

PubMed

Enden, T; Resch, S; White, C; Wik, H S; Kløw, N E; Sandset, P M

2013-06-01

Additional treatment with catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) has recently been shown to reduce post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS). To estimate the cost effectiveness of additional CDT compared with standard treatment alone. Using a Markov decision model, we compared the two treatment strategies in patients with a high proximal deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and a low risk of bleeding. The model captured the development of PTS, recurrent venous thromboembolism and treatment-related adverse events within a lifetime horizon and the perspective of a third-party payer. Uncertainty was assessed with one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyzes. Model inputs from the CaVenT study included PTS development, major bleeding from CDT and utilities for post DVT states including PTS. The remaining clinical inputs were obtained from the literature. Costs obtained from the CaVenT study, hospital accounts and the literature are expressed in US dollars ($); effects in quality adjusted life years (QALY). In base case analyzes, additional CDT accumulated 32.31 QALYs compared with 31.68 QALYs after standard treatment alone. Direct medical costs were $64,709 for additional CDT and $51,866 for standard treatment. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was $20,429/QALY gained. One-way sensitivity analysis showed model sensitivity to the clinical efficacy of both strategies, but the ICER remained < $55,000/QALY over the full range of all parameters. The probability that CDT is cost effective was 82% at a willingness to pay threshold of $50,000/QALY gained. Additional CDT is likely to be a cost-effective alternative to the standard treatment for patients with a high proximal DVT and a low risk of bleeding. © 2013 International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Cost-effectiveness of additional catheter-directed thrombolysis for deep vein thrombosis

PubMed Central

ENDEN, T.; RESCH, S.; WHITE, C.; WIK, H. S.; KLØW, N. E.; SANDSET, P. M.

2013-01-01

Summary Background Additional treatment with catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) has recently been shown to reduce post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS). Objectives To estimate the cost effectiveness of additional CDT compared with standard treatment alone. Methods Using a Markov decision model, we compared the two treatment strategies in patients with a high proximal deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and a low risk of bleeding. The model captured the development of PTS, recurrent venous thromboembolism and treatment-related adverse events within a lifetime horizon and the perspective of a third-party payer. Uncertainty was assessed with one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyzes. Model inputs from the CaVenT study included PTS development, major bleeding from CDT and utilities for post DVT states including PTS. The remaining clinical inputs were obtained from the literature. Costs obtained from the CaVenT study, hospital accounts and the literature are expressed in US dollars ($); effects in quality adjusted life years (QALY). Results In base case analyzes, additional CDT accumulated 32.31 QALYs compared with 31.68 QALYs after standard treatment alone. Direct medical costs were $64 709 for additional CDT and $51 866 for standard treatment. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was $20 429/QALY gained. One-way sensitivity analysis showed model sensitivity to the clinical efficacy of both strategies, but the ICER remained < $55 000/QALY over the full range of all parameters. The probability that CDT is cost effective was 82% at a willingness to pay threshold of $50 000/QALY gained. Conclusions Additional CDT is likely to be a cost-effective alternative to the standard treatment for patients with a high proximal DVT and a low risk of bleeding. PMID:23452204

Hardware Acceleration of Adaptive Neural Algorithms.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

James, Conrad D.

As tradit ional numerical computing has faced challenges, researchers have turned towards alternative computing approaches to reduce power - per - computation metrics and improve algorithm performance. Here, we describe an approach towards non - conventional computing that strengthens the connection between machine learning and neuroscience concepts. The Hardware Acceleration of Adaptive Neural Algorithms (HAANA) project ha s develop ed neural machine learning algorithms and hardware for applications in image processing and cybersecurity. While machine learning methods are effective at extracting relevant features from many types of data, the effectiveness of these algorithms degrades when subjected to real - worldmore » conditions. Our team has generated novel neural - inspired approa ches to improve the resiliency and adaptability of machine learning algorithms. In addition, we have also designed and fabricated hardware architectures and microelectronic devices specifically tuned towards the training and inference operations of neural - inspired algorithms. Finally, our multi - scale simulation framework allows us to assess the impact of microelectronic device properties on algorithm performance.« less

Defense Inventory Management: Expanding Use of Best Practices for Hardware Items Can Reduce Logistics Costs.

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-01-01

This report is the 11th in a series of reports comparing the Department of Defense’s (DOD) logistics practices with those of the private sector . We...leading private sector practices. This report focuses on DOD’S progress in adopting best inventory management practices for hardware items such as bearings...valves, and bolts. The objectives of this review were to determine (1) DOD and private sector practices for managing hardware items, (2) whether DOD

Exercise Countermeasure Hardware Evolution on ISS: The First Decade.

PubMed

Korth, Deborah W

2015-12-01

The hardware systems necessary to support exercise countermeasures to the deconditioning associated with microgravity exposure have evolved and improved significantly during the first decade of the International Space Station (ISS), resulting in both new types of hardware and enhanced performance capabilities for initial hardware items. The original suite of countermeasure hardware supported the first crews to arrive on the ISS and the improved countermeasure system delivered in later missions continues to serve the astronauts today with increased efficacy. Due to aggressive hardware development schedules and constrained budgets, the initial approach was to identify existing spaceflight-certified exercise countermeasure equipment, when available, and modify it for use on the ISS. Program management encouraged the use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, or hardware previously developed (heritage hardware) for the Space Shuttle Program. However, in many cases the resultant hardware did not meet the additional requirements necessary to support crew health maintenance during long-duration missions (3 to 12 mo) and anticipated future utilization activities in support of biomedical research. Hardware development was further complicated by performance requirements that were not fully defined at the outset and tended to evolve over the course of design and fabrication. Modifications, ranging from simple to extensive, were necessary to meet these evolving requirements in each case where heritage hardware was proposed. Heritage hardware was anticipated to be inherently reliable without the need for extensive ground testing, due to its prior positive history during operational spaceflight utilization. As a result, developmental budgets were typically insufficient and schedules were too constrained to permit long-term evaluation of dedicated ground-test units ("fleet leader" type testing) to identify reliability issues when applied to long-duration use. In most cases

Companion Chip: Building a Segregated Hardware Architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pareaud, Thomas; Houelle, Alain; Vaucher, Niolas; Albinet, Mathieu; Honvault, Christophe

2011-08-01

Partitioning is a more and more mature concept in Space industry. It aims at assuring that some error propagation modes are not possible. This paper gives an overview of an analysis conducted in the frame of a research and technology study performed in 2010/2011. The "Java Companion Chip" study addresses an interesting approach to partitioning using hardware concepts: a SoC architecture integrates a master processor, a companion chip and additional hardware functions aiming at enforcing the time and space segregation between the master processor and the slave one.This paper discusses the benefits and the main challenges of the proposed approach. In addition, it presents an application of these concepts to a case study: a Leon/Java processor architecture able to concurrently execute native and Java applications.

Agile hardware and software systems engineering for critical military space applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Philip M.; Knuth, Andrew A.; Krueger, Robert O.; Garrison-Darrin, Margaret A.

2012-06-01

The Multi Mission Bus Demonstrator (MBD) is a successful demonstration of agile program management and system engineering in a high risk technology application where utilizing and implementing new, untraditional development strategies were necessary. MBD produced two fully functioning spacecraft for a military/DOD application in a record breaking time frame and at dramatically reduced costs. This paper discloses the adaptation and application of concepts developed in agile software engineering to hardware product and system development for critical military applications. This challenging spacecraft did not use existing key technology (heritage hardware) and created a large paradigm shift from traditional spacecraft development. The insertion of new technologies and methods in space hardware has long been a problem due to long build times, the desire to use heritage hardware, and lack of effective process. The role of momentum in the innovative process can be exploited to tackle ongoing technology disruptions and allowing risk interactions to be mitigated in a disciplined manner. Examples of how these concepts were used during the MBD program will be delineated. Maintaining project momentum was essential to assess the constant non recurring technological challenges which needed to be retired rapidly from the engineering risk liens. Development never slowed due to tactical assessment of the hardware with the adoption of the SCRUM technique. We adapted this concept as a representation of mitigation of technical risk while allowing for design freeze later in the program's development cycle. By using Agile Systems Engineering and Management techniques which enabled decisive action, the product development momentum effectively was used to produce two novel space vehicles in a fraction of time with dramatically reduced cost.

Using Innovative Technologies for Manufacturing and Evaluating Rocket Engine Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Betts, Erin M.; Hardin, Andy

2011-01-01

Many of the manufacturing and evaluation techniques that are currently used for rocket engine component production are traditional methods that have been proven through years of experience and historical precedence. As we enter into a new space age where new launch vehicles are being designed and propulsion systems are being improved upon, it is sometimes necessary to adopt new and innovative techniques for manufacturing and evaluating hardware. With a heavy emphasis on cost reduction and improvements in manufacturing time, manufacturing techniques such as Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) and white light scanning are being adopted and evaluated for their use on J-2X, with hopes of employing both technologies on a wide variety of future projects. DMLS has the potential to significantly reduce the processing time and cost of engine hardware, while achieving desirable material properties by using a layered powdered metal manufacturing process in order to produce complex part geometries. The white light technique is a non-invasive method that can be used to inspect for geometric feature alignment. Both the DMLS manufacturing method and the white light scanning technique have proven to be viable options for manufacturing and evaluating rocket engine hardware, and further development and use of these techniques is recommended.

The Crucial Role of Additive Manufacturing at NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vickers, John

2016-01-01

At NASA, the first steps of the Journey to Mars are well underway with the development of NASA's next generation launch system and investments in research and technologies that should increase the affordability, capability, and safety of exploration activities. Additive Manufacturing presents a disruptive opportunity for NASA to design and manufacture hardware with new materials at dramatically reduced cost and schedule. Opportunities to incorporate additive manufacturing align very well with NASA missions and with most NASA programs related to space, science, and aeronautics. The Agency also relies on many partnerships with other government agencies, industry and academia.

New Ways Of Doing Business (NWODB) cost quantification analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hamaker, Joseph W.; Rosmait, Russell L.

1992-01-01

The cost of designing, producing, and operating typical aerospace flight hardware is necessarily more expensive than most other human endeavors. Because of the more stringent environment of space, hardware designed to operate there will probably always be more expensive than similar hardware which is designed for less taxing environments. It is the thesis of this study that there are very significant improvements that can be made in the cost of aerospace flight hardware.

Can Additional Homeopathic Treatment Save Costs? A Retrospective Cost-Analysis Based on 44500 Insured Persons

PubMed Central

Ostermann, Julia K.; Reinhold, Thomas; Witt, Claudia M.

2015-01-01

Objectives The aim of this study was to compare the health care costs for patients using additional homeopathic treatment (homeopathy group) with the costs for those receiving usual care (control group). Methods Cost data provided by a large German statutory health insurance company were retrospectively analysed from the societal perspective (primary outcome) and from the statutory health insurance perspective. Patients in both groups were matched using a propensity score matching procedure based on socio-demographic variables as well as costs, number of hospital stays and sick leave days in the previous 12 months. Total cumulative costs over 18 months were compared between the groups with an analysis of covariance (adjusted for baseline costs) across diagnoses and for six specific diagnoses (depression, migraine, allergic rhinitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, and headache). Results Data from 44,550 patients (67.3% females) were available for analysis. From the societal perspective, total costs after 18 months were higher in the homeopathy group (adj. mean: EUR 7,207.72 [95% CI 7,001.14–7,414.29]) than in the control group (EUR 5,857.56 [5,650.98–6,064.13]; p<0.0001) with the largest differences between groups for productivity loss (homeopathy EUR 3,698.00 [3,586.48–3,809.53] vs. control EUR 3,092.84 [2,981.31–3,204.37]) and outpatient care costs (homeopathy EUR 1,088.25 [1,073.90–1,102.59] vs. control EUR 867.87 [853.52–882.21]). Group differences decreased over time. For all diagnoses, costs were higher in the homeopathy group than in the control group, although this difference was not always statistically significant. Conclusion Compared with usual care, additional homeopathic treatment was associated with significantly higher costs. These analyses did not confirm previously observed cost savings resulting from the use of homeopathy in the health care system. PMID:26230412

Using Innovative Techniques for Manufacturing Rocket Engine Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Betts, Erin M.; Reynolds, David C.; Eddleman, David E.; Hardin, Andy

2011-01-01

Many of the manufacturing techniques that are currently used for rocket engine component production are traditional methods that have been proven through years of experience and historical precedence. As we enter into a new space age where new launch vehicles are being designed and propulsion systems are being improved upon, it is sometimes necessary to adopt new and innovative techniques for manufacturing hardware. With a heavy emphasis on cost reduction and improvements in manufacturing time, manufacturing techniques such as Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) are being adopted and evaluated for their use on J-2X, with hopes of employing this technology on a wide variety of future projects. DMLS has the potential to significantly reduce the processing time and cost of engine hardware, while achieving desirable material properties by using a layered powder metal manufacturing process in order to produce complex part geometries. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has recently hot-fire tested a J-2X gas generator discharge duct that was manufactured using DMLS. The duct was inspected and proof tested prior to the hot-fire test. Using the Workhorse Gas Generator (WHGG) test setup at MSFC?s East Test Area test stand 116, the duct was subject to extreme J-2X gas generator environments and endured a total of 538 seconds of hot-fire time. The duct survived the testing and was inspected after the test. DMLS manufacturing has proven to be a viable option for manufacturing rocket engine hardware, and further development and use of this manufacturing method is recommended.

Suture Button Fixation Versus Syndesmotic Screws in Supination-External Rotation Type 4 Injuries: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.

PubMed

Neary, Kaitlin C; Mormino, Matthew A; Wang, Hongmei

2017-01-01

In stress-positive, unstable supination-external rotation type 4 (SER IV) ankle fractures, implant selection for syndesmotic fixation is a debated topic. Among the available syndesmotic fixation methods, the metallic screw and the suture button have been routinely compared in the literature. In addition to strength of fixation and ability to anatomically restore the syndesmosis, costs associated with implant use have recently been called into question. This study aimed to examine the cost-effectiveness of the suture button and determine whether suture button fixation is more cost-effective than two 3.5-mm syndesmotic screws not removed on a routine postoperative basis. Economic and decision analysis; Level of evidence, 2. Studies with the highest evidence levels in the available literature were used to estimate the hardware removal and failure rates for syndesmotic screws and suture button fixation. Costs were determined by examining the average costs for patients who underwent surgery for unstable SER IV ankle fractures at a single level-1 trauma institution. A decision analysis model that allowed comparison of the 2 fixation methods was developed. Using a 20% screw hardware removal rate and a 4% suture button hardware removal rate, the total cost for 2 syndesmotic screws was US$20,836 and the total effectiveness was 5.846. This yielded a total cost of $3564 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) over an 8-year time period. The total cost for suture button fixation was $19,354 and the total effectiveness was 5.904, resulting in a total cost of $3294 per QALY over the same time period. A sensitivity analysis was then conducted to assess suture button fixation costs as well as screw and suture button hardware removal rates. Other possible treatment scenarios were also examined, including 1 screw and 2 suture buttons for operative fixation of the syndesmosis. To become more cost-effective, the screw hardware removal rate would have to be reduced to less than 10

Hardware description languages

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tucker, Jerry H.

1994-01-01

Hardware description languages are special purpose programming languages. They are primarily used to specify the behavior of digital systems and are rapidly replacing traditional digital system design techniques. This is because they allow the designer to concentrate on how the system should operate rather than on implementation details. Hardware description languages allow a digital system to be described with a wide range of abstraction, and they support top down design techniques. A key feature of any hardware description language environment is its ability to simulate the modeled system. The two most important hardware description languages are Verilog and VHDL. Verilog has been the dominant language for the design of application specific integrated circuits (ASIC's). However, VHDL is rapidly gaining in popularity.

Transistor Level Circuit Experiments using Evolvable Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stoica, A.; Zebulum, R. S.; Keymeulen, D.; Ferguson, M. I.; Daud, Taher; Thakoor, A.

2005-01-01

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) performs research in fault tolerant, long life, and space survivable electronics for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). With that focus, JPL has been involved in Evolvable Hardware (EHW) technology research for the past several years. We have advanced the technology not only by simulation and evolution experiments, but also by designing, fabricating, and evolving a variety of transistor-based analog and digital circuits at the chip level. EHW refers to self-configuration of electronic hardware by evolutionary/genetic search mechanisms, thereby maintaining existing functionality in the presence of degradations due to aging, temperature, and radiation. In addition, EHW has the capability to reconfigure itself for new functionality when required for mission changes or encountered opportunities. Evolution experiments are performed using a genetic algorithm running on a DSP as the reconfiguration mechanism and controlling the evolvable hardware mounted on a self-contained circuit board. Rapid reconfiguration allows convergence to circuit solutions in the order of seconds. The paper illustrates hardware evolution results of electronic circuits and their ability to perform under 230 C temperature as well as radiations of up to 250 kRad.

Hardware and Software Integration to Support Real-Time Space Link Emulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murawski, Robert; Bhasin, Kul; Bittner, David; Sweet, Aaron; Coulter, Rachel; Schwab, Devin

2012-01-01

Prior to operational use, communications hardware and software must be thoroughly tested and verified. In space-link communications, field testing equipment can be prohibitively expensive and cannot test to non-ideal situations. In this paper, we show how software and hardware emulation tools can be used to accurately model the characteristics of a satellite communication channel in a lab environment. We describe some of the challenges associated with developing an emulation lab and present results to demonstrate the channel modeling. We then show how network emulation software can be used to extend a hardware emulation model without requiring additional network and channel simulation hardware.

Hardware and Software Integration to Support Real-Time Space-Link Emulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murawski, Robert; Bhasin, Kul; Bittner, David

2012-01-01

Prior to operational use, communications hardware and software must be thoroughly tested and verified. In space-link communications, field testing equipment can be prohibitively expensive and cannot test to non-ideal situations. In this paper, we show how software and hardware emulation tools can be used to accurately model the characteristics of a satellite communication channel in a lab environment. We describe some of the challenges associated with developing an emulation lab and present results to demonstrate the channel modeling. We then show how network emulation software can be used to extend a hardware emulation model without requiring additional network and channel simulation hardware.

Additively Manufactured Low Cost Upper Stage Combustion Chamber

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Protz, Christopher; Cooper, Ken; Ellis, David; Fikes, John; Jones, Zachary; Kim, Tony; Medina, Cory; Taminger, Karen; Willingham, Derek

2016-01-01

Over the past two years NASA's Low Cost Upper Stage Propulsion (LCUSP) project has developed Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies and design tools aimed at reducing the costs and manufacturing time of regeneratively cooled rocket engine components. High pressure/high temperature combustion chambers and nozzles must be regeneratively cooled to survive their operating environment, causing their design fabrication to be costly and time consuming due to the number of individual steps and different processes required. Under LCUSP, AM technologies in Sintered Laser Melting (SLM) GRCop-84 and Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication (EBF3) Inconel 625 have been significantly advanced, allowing the team to successfully fabricate a 25k-class regenerative chamber. Estimates of the costs and schedule of future builds indicate cost reductions and significant schedule reductions will be enabled by this technology. Characterization of the microstructural and mechanical properties of the SLM-produced GRCop-84, EBF3 Inconel 625 and the interface layer between the two has been performed and indicates the properties will meet the design requirements. The LCUSP chamber is to be tested with a previously demonstrated SLM injector in order to advance the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and demonstrate the capability of the application of these processes. NASA is advancing these technologies to reduce cost and schedule for future engine applications and commercial needs.

Use of Hardware Battery Drill in Orthopedic Surgery.

PubMed

Satish, Bhava R J; Shahdi, Masood; Ramarao, Duddupudi; Ranganadham, Atmakuri V; Kalamegam, Sundaresan

2017-03-01

Among the power drills (Electrical/Pneumatic/Battery) used in Orthopedic surgery, battery drill has got several advantages. Surgeons in low resource settings could not routinely use Orthopedic battery drills (OBD) due to the prohibitive cost of good drills or poor quality of other drills. "Hardware" or Engineering battery drill (HBD) is a viable alternative to OBD. HBD is easy to procure, rugged in nature, easy to maintain, durable, easily serviceable and 70 to 75 times cheaper than the standard high end OBD. We consider HBD as one of the cost effective equipment in Orthopedic operation theatres.

Low-Cost Space Hardware and Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shea, Bradley Franklin

2013-01-01

The goal of this project is to demonstrate and support the overall vision of NASA's Rocket University (RocketU) through the design of an electrical power system (EPS) monitor for implementation on RUBICS (Rocket University Broad Initiatives CubeSat), through the support for the CHREC (Center for High-Performance Reconfigurable Computing) Space Processor, and through FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) design. RocketU will continue to provide low-cost innovations even with continuous cuts to the budget.

Accelerating epistasis analysis in human genetics with consumer graphics hardware.

PubMed

Sinnott-Armstrong, Nicholas A; Greene, Casey S; Cancare, Fabio; Moore, Jason H

2009-07-24

Human geneticists are now capable of measuring more than one million DNA sequence variations from across the human genome. The new challenge is to develop computationally feasible methods capable of analyzing these data for associations with common human disease, particularly in the context of epistasis. Epistasis describes the situation where multiple genes interact in a complex non-linear manner to determine an individual's disease risk and is thought to be ubiquitous for common diseases. Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction (MDR) is an algorithm capable of detecting epistasis. An exhaustive analysis with MDR is often computationally expensive, particularly for high order interactions. This challenge has previously been met with parallel computation and expensive hardware. The option we examine here exploits commodity hardware designed for computer graphics. In modern computers Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have more memory bandwidth and computational capability than Central Processing Units (CPUs) and are well suited to this problem. Advances in the video game industry have led to an economy of scale creating a situation where these powerful components are readily available at very low cost. Here we implement and evaluate the performance of the MDR algorithm on GPUs. Of primary interest are the time required for an epistasis analysis and the price to performance ratio of available solutions. We found that using MDR on GPUs consistently increased performance per machine over both a feature rich Java software package and a C++ cluster implementation. The performance of a GPU workstation running a GPU implementation reduces computation time by a factor of 160 compared to an 8-core workstation running the Java implementation on CPUs. This GPU workstation performs similarly to 150 cores running an optimized C++ implementation on a Beowulf cluster. Furthermore this GPU system provides extremely cost effective performance while leaving the CPU available for other

Hardware Development Process for Human Research Facility Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bauer, Liz

2000-01-01

well as modifications needed to meet program requirements. Options are consolidated and the hardware development team reaches a hardware development decision point. Within budget and schedule constraints, the team must decide whether or not to complete the hardware as an in-house, subcontract with vendor, or commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) development. An in-house development indicates NASA personnel or a contractor builds the hardware at a NASA site. A subcontract development is completed off-site by a commercial company. A COTS item is a vendor product available by ordering a specific part number. The team evaluates the pros and cons of each development path. For example, in-bouse developments utilize existing corporate knowledge regarding bow to build equipment for use in space. However, technical expertise would be required to fully understand the medical equipment capabilities, such as for an ultrasound system. It may require additional time and funding to gain the expertise that commercially exists. The major benefit of subcontracting a hardware development is the product is delivered as an end-item and commercial expertise is utilized. On the other hand, NASA has limited control over schedule delays. The final option of COTS or modified COTS equipment is a compromise between in-house and subcontracts. A vendor product may exist that meets all functional requirements but req uires in-house modifications for successful operation in a space environment. The HRF utilizes equipment developed using all of the paths described: inhouse, subcontract, and modified COTS.

Operating System Support for Shared Hardware Data Structures

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-31

Carbon [73] uses hardware queues to improve fine-grained multitasking for Recognition, Mining , and Synthesis. Compared to software ap- proaches...web transaction processing, data mining , and multimedia. Early work in database processors [114, 96, 79, 111] reduce the costs of relational database...assignment can be solved statically or dynamically. Static assignment deter- mines offline which data structures are assigned to use HWDS resources and at

A novel low-cost open-hardware platform for monitoring soil water content and multiple soil-air-vegetation parameters.

PubMed

Bitella, Giovanni; Rossi, Roberta; Bochicchio, Rocco; Perniola, Michele; Amato, Mariana

2014-10-21

Monitoring soil water content at high spatio-temporal resolution and coupled to other sensor data is crucial for applications oriented towards water sustainability in agriculture, such as precision irrigation or phenotyping root traits for drought tolerance. The cost of instrumentation, however, limits measurement frequency and number of sensors. The objective of this work was to design a low cost "open hardware" platform for multi-sensor measurements including water content at different depths, air and soil temperatures. The system is based on an open-source ARDUINO microcontroller-board, programmed in a simple integrated development environment (IDE). Low cost high-frequency dielectric probes were used in the platform and lab tested on three non-saline soils (ECe1: 2.5 < 0.1 mS/cm). Empirical calibration curves were subjected to cross-validation (leave-one-out method), and normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) were respectively 0.09 for the overall model, 0.09 for the sandy soil, 0.07 for the clay loam and 0.08 for the sandy loam. The overall model (pooled soil data) fitted the data very well (R2 = 0.89) showing a high stability, being able to generate very similar RMSEs during training and validation (RMSE(training) = 2.63; RMSE(validation) = 2.61). Data recorded on the card were automatically sent to a remote server allowing repeated field-data quality checks. This work provides a framework for the replication and upgrading of a customized low cost platform, consistent with the open source approach whereby sharing information on equipment design and software facilitates the adoption and continuous improvement of existing technologies.

U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmark: Q1 2017

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fu, Ran; Feldman, David J.; Margolis, Robert M.

NREL has been modeling U.S. photovoltaic (PV) system costs since 2009. This year, our report benchmarks costs of U.S. solar PV for residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems built in the first quarter of 2017 (Q1 2017). Costs are represented from the perspective of the developer/installer, thus all hardware costs represent the price at which components are purchased by the developer/installer, not accounting for preexisting supply agreements or other contracts. Importantly, the benchmark this year (2017) also represents the sales price paid to the installer; therefore, it includes profit in the cost of the hardware, along with the profit the installer/developermore » receives, as a separate cost category. However, it does not include any additional net profit, such as a developer fee or price gross-up, which are common in the marketplace. We adopt this approach owing to the wide variation in developer profits in all three sectors, where project pricing is highly dependent on region and project specifics such as local retail electricity rate structures, local rebate and incentive structures, competitive environment, and overall project or deal structures.« less

The Effect of Mission Location on Mission Costs and Equivalent System Mass

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fisher, John W.; Levri, Julie A.; Jones, Harry W.

2003-01-01

Equivalent System Mass (ESM) is used by the Advanced Life Support (ALS) community to quantify mission costs of technologies for space applications (Drysdale et al, 1999, Levri et al, 2000). Mass is used as a cost measure because the mass of an object determines propulsion (acceleration) cost (i.e. amount of fuel needed), and costs relating to propulsion dominate mission cost. Mission location drives mission cost because acceleration is typically required to initiate and complete a change in location. Total mission costs may be reduced by minimizing the mass of materials that must be propelled to each distinct location. In order to minimize fuel requirements for missions beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO), the hardware and astronauts may not all go to the same location. For example, on a Lunar or Mars mission, some of the hardware or astronauts may stay in orbit while the rest of the hardware and astronauts descend to the planetary surface. In addition, there may be disposal of waste or used hardware at various mission locations to avoid propulsion of mass that is no longer needed in the mission. This paper demonstrates how using location factors in the calculation of ESM can account for the effects of various acceleration events and can improve the accuracy and value of the ESM metric to mission planners. Even a mission with one location can benefit from location factor analysis if the alternative technologies under consideration consume resources at different rates. For example, a mission that regenerates resources will have a relatively constant mass compared to one that uses consumables and vents/discards mass along the way. This paper shows examples of how location factors can affect ESM calculations and how the inclusion of location factors can change the relative value of technologies being considered for development.

Standard Hardware Acquisition and Reliability Program's (SHARP's) efforts in incorporating fiber optic interconnects into standard electronic module (SEM) connectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riggs, William R.

1994-05-01

SHARP is a Navy wide logistics technology development effort aimed at reducing the acquisition costs, support costs, and risks of military electronic weapon systems while increasing the performance capability, reliability, maintainability, and readiness of these systems. Lower life cycle costs for electronic hardware are achieved through technology transition, standardization, and reliability enhancement to improve system affordability and availability as well as enhancing fleet modernization. Advanced technology is transferred into the fleet through hardware specifications for weapon system building blocks of standard electronic modules, standard power systems, and standard electronic systems. The product lines are all defined with respect to their size, weight, I/O, environmental performance, and operational performance. This method of defining the standard is very conducive to inserting new technologies into systems using the standard hardware. This is the approach taken thus far in inserting photonic technologies into SHARP hardware. All of the efforts have been related to module packaging; i.e. interconnects, component packaging, and module developments. Fiber optic interconnects are discussed in this paper.

Hardware Removal in Craniomaxillofacial Trauma

PubMed Central

Cahill, Thomas J.; Gandhi, Rikesh; Allori, Alexander C.; Marcus, Jeffrey R.; Powers, David; Erdmann, Detlev; Hollenbeck, Scott T.; Levinson, Howard

2015-01-01

Background Craniomaxillofacial (CMF) fractures are typically treated with open reduction and internal fixation. Open reduction and internal fixation can be complicated by hardware exposure or infection. The literature often does not differentiate between these 2 entities; so for this study, we have considered all hardware exposures as hardware infections. Approximately 5% of adults with CMF trauma are thought to develop hardware infections. Management consists of either removing the hardware versus leaving it in situ. The optimal approach has not been investigated. Thus, a systematic review of the literature was undertaken and a resultant evidence-based approach to the treatment and management of CMF hardware infections was devised. Materials and Methods A comprehensive search of journal articles was performed in parallel using MEDLINE, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect electronic databases. Keywords and phrases used were maxillofacial injuries; facial bones; wounds and injuries; fracture fixation, internal; wound infection; and infection. Our search yielded 529 articles. To focus on CMF fractures with hardware infections, the full text of English-language articles was reviewed to identify articles focusing on the evaluation and management of infected hardware in CMF trauma. Each article’s reference list was manually reviewed and citation analysis performed to identify articles missed by the search strategy. There were 259 articles that met the full inclusion criteria and form the basis of this systematic review. The articles were rated based on the level of evidence. There were 81 grade II articles included in the meta-analysis. Result Our meta-analysis revealed that 7503 patients were treated with hardware for CMF fractures in the 81 grade II articles. Hardware infection occurred in 510 (6.8%) of these patients. Of those infections, hardware removal occurred in 264 (51.8%) patients; hardware was left in place in 166 (32.6%) patients; and in 80 (15.6%) cases

Evaluation of wheelchair seating system crashworthiness: "drop hook"-type seat attachment hardware.

PubMed

Bertocci, G; Ha, D; Deemer, E; Karg, P

2001-04-01

To evaluate the crashworthiness of commercially available hardware that attaches seat surfaces to the wheelchair frame. A low cost static crashworthiness test procedure that simulates a frontal impact motor vehicle crash. Safety testing laboratory. Eleven unique sets of drop-hook hardware made of carbon steel (4), stainless steel (4), and aluminum (3). Replicated seat-loading conditions associated with a 20g/48 kph frontal impact. Test criterion for seat loading was 16,680 N (3750 lb). Failure load and deflection of seat surface. None of the hardware sets tested met the crashworthiness test criterion. All failed at less than 50% of the load that seating hardware could be exposed to in a 20g/48 kph frontal impact. The primary failure mode was excessive deformation, leading to an unstable seat support surface. Results suggest that commercially available seating drop hooks may be unable to withstand loading associated with a frontal crash and may not be the best option for use with transport wheelchairs.

Real-time range generation for ladar hardware-in-the-loop testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olson, Eric M.; Coker, Charles F.

1996-05-01

Real-time closed loop simulation of LADAR seekers in a hardware-in-the-loop facility can reduce program risk and cost. This paper discusses an implementation of real-time range imagery generated in a synthetic environment at the Kinetic Kill Vehicle Hardware-in-the Loop facility at Eglin AFB, for the stimulation of LADAR seekers and algorithms. The computer hardware platform used was a Silicon Graphics Incorporated Onyx Reality Engine. This computer contains graphics hardware, and is optimized for generating visible or infrared imagery in real-time. A by-produce of the rendering process, in the form of a depth buffer, is generated from all objects in view during its rendering process. The depth buffer is an array of integer values that contributes to the proper rendering of overlapping objects and can be converted to range values using a mathematical formula. This paper presents an optimized software approach to the generation of the scenes, calculation of the range values, and outputting the range data for a LADAR seeker.

Using Innovative Technologies for Manufacturing Rocket Engine Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Betts, E. M.; Eddleman, D. E.; Reynolds, D. C.; Hardin, N. A.

2011-01-01

Many of the manufacturing techniques that are currently used for rocket engine component production are traditional methods that have been proven through years of experience and historical precedence. As the United States enters into the next space age where new launch vehicles are being designed and propulsion systems are being improved upon, it is sometimes necessary to adopt innovative techniques for manufacturing hardware. With a heavy emphasis on cost reduction and improvements in manufacturing time, rapid manufacturing techniques such as Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) are being adopted and evaluated for their use on NASA s Space Launch System (SLS) upper stage engine, J-2X, with hopes of employing this technology on a wide variety of future projects. DMLS has the potential to significantly reduce the processing time and cost of engine hardware, while achieving desirable material properties by using a layered powder metal manufacturing process in order to produce complex part geometries. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has recently hot-fire tested a J-2X gas generator (GG) discharge duct that was manufactured using DMLS. The duct was inspected and proof tested prior to the hot-fire test. Using a workhorse gas generator (WHGG) test fixture at MSFC's East Test Area, the duct was subjected to extreme J-2X hot gas environments during 7 tests for a total of 537 seconds of hot-fire time. The duct underwent extensive post-test evaluation and showed no signs of degradation. DMLS manufacturing has proven to be a viable option for manufacturing rocket engine hardware, and further development and use of this manufacturing method is recommended.

Commercial Aircraft Maintenance Experience Relating to Engine External Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soditus, Sharon M.

2006-01-01

Airlines are extremely sensitive to the amount of dollars spent on maintaining the external engine hardware in the field. Analysis reveals that many problems revolve around a central issue, reliability. Fuel and oil leakage due to seal failure and electrical fault messages due to wire harness failures play a major role in aircraft delays and cancellations (D&C's) and scheduled maintenance. Correcting these items on the line requires a large investment of engineering resources and manpower after the fact. The smartest and most cost effective philosophy is to build the best hardware the first time. The only way to do that is to completely understand and model the operating environment, study the field experience of similar designs and to perform extensive testing.

Cost-effectiveness of additional blood screening tests in the Netherlands.

PubMed

Borkent-Raven, Barbara A; Janssen, Mart P; van der Poel, Cees L; Bonsel, Gouke J; van Hout, Ben A

2012-03-01

During the past decade, blood screening tests such as triplex nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) and human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I or I (HTLV-I/II) antibody testing were added to existing serologic testing for hepatitis B virus (HBV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV). In some low-prevalence regions these additional tests yielded disputable benefits that can be valuated by cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs). CEAs are used to support decision making on implementation of medical technology. We present CEAs of selected additional screening tests that are not uniformly implemented in the EU. Cost-effectiveness was analyzed of: 1) HBV, HCV, and HIV triplex NAT in addition to serologic testing; 2) HTLV-I/II antibody test for all donors, for first-time donors only, and for pediatric recipients only; and 3) hepatitis A virus (HAV) for all donations. Disease progression of the studied viral infections was described in five Markov models. In the Netherlands, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of triplex NAT is €5.20 million per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) for testing minipools of six donation samples and €4.65 million/QALY for individual donation testing. The ICER for anti-HTLV-I/II is €45.2 million/QALY if testing all donations, €2.23 million/QALY if testing new donors only, and €27.0 million/QALY if testing blood products for pediatric patients only. The ICER of HAV NAT is €18.6 million/QALY. The resulting ICERs are very high, especially when compared to other health care interventions. Nevertheless, these screening tests are implemented in the Netherlands and elsewhere. Policy makers should reflect more explicit on the acceptability of costs and effects whenever additional blood screening tests are implemented. © 2011 American Association of Blood Banks.

Open source hardware solutions for low-cost, do-it-yourself environmental monitoring, citizen science, and STEM education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hicks, S. D.; Aufdenkampe, A. K.; Horsburgh, J. S.; Arscott, D. B.; Muenz, T.; Bressler, D. W.

2016-12-01

The explosion in DIY open-source hardware and software has resulted in the development of affordable and accessible technologies, like drones and weather stations, that can greatly assist the general public in monitoring environmental health and its degradation. It is widely recognized that education and support of audiences in pursuit of STEM literacy and the application of emerging technologies is a challenge for the future of citizen science and for preparing high school graduates to be actively engaged in environmental stewardship. It is also clear that detecting environmental change/degradation over time and space will be greatly enhanced with expanded use of networked, remote monitoring technologies by watershed organizations and citizen scientists if data collection and reporting are properly carried out and curated. However, there are few focused efforts to link citizen scientists and school programs with these emerging tools. We have started a multi-year program to develop hardware and teaching materials for training students and citizen scientists about the use of open source hardware in environmental monitoring. Scientists and educators around the world have started building their own dataloggers and devices using a variety of boards based on open source electronics. This new hardware is now providing researchers with an inexpensive alternative to commercial data logging and transmission hardware. We will present a variety of hardware solutions using the Arduino-compatible EnviroDIY Mayfly board (http://envirodiy.org/mayfly) that can be used to build and deploy a rugged environmental monitoring station using a wide variety of sensors and options, giving the users a fully customizable device for making measurements almost anywhere. A database and visualization system is being developed that will allow the users to view and manage the data their devices are collecting. We will also present our plan for developing curricula and leading workshops to various

Manpower/Hardware Life Cycle Cost Analysis Study.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-11-06

designer will begin to learn, on a subconscious level, about the likely outcome of tradeoffs. At the high rate of use expected for these machines, he...one requiring considerable cost analytic expertise), and the model must be redocumented and partially or completely reprogrammed . All this is extremely

A Primer for Telemetry Interfacing in Accordance with NASA Standards Using Low Cost FPGAs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCoy, Jake; Schultz, Ted; Tutt, James; Rogers, Thomas; Miles, Drew; McEntaffer, Randall

2016-03-01

Photon counting detector systems on sounding rocket payloads often require interfacing asynchronous outputs with a synchronously clocked telemetry (TM) stream. Though this can be handled with an on-board computer, there are several low cost alternatives including custom hardware, microcontrollers and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). This paper outlines how a TM interface (TMIF) for detectors on a sounding rocket with asynchronous parallel digital output can be implemented using low cost FPGAs and minimal custom hardware. Low power consumption and high speed FPGAs are available as commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products and can be used to develop the main component of the TMIF. Then, only a small amount of additional hardware is required for signal buffering and level translating. This paper also discusses how this system can be tested with a simulated TM chain in the small laboratory setting using FPGAs and COTS specialized data acquisition products.

Real-Time Processing Library for Open-Source Hardware Biomedical Sensors.

PubMed

Molina-Cantero, Alberto J; Castro-García, Juan A; Lebrato-Vázquez, Clara; Gómez-González, Isabel M; Merino-Monge, Manuel

2018-03-29

Applications involving data acquisition from sensors need samples at a preset frequency rate, the filtering out of noise and/or analysis of certain frequency components. We propose a novel software architecture based on open-software hardware platforms which allows programmers to create data streams from input channels and easily implement filters and frequency analysis objects. The performances of the different classes given in the size of memory allocated and execution time (number of clock cycles) were analyzed in the low-cost platform Arduino Genuino. In addition, 11 people took part in an experiment in which they had to implement several exercises and complete a usability test. Sampling rates under 250 Hz (typical for many biomedical applications) makes it feasible to implement filters, sliding windows and Fourier analysis, operating in real time. Participants rated software usability at 70.2 out of 100 and the ease of use when implementing several signal processing applications was rated at just over 4.4 out of 5. Participants showed their intention of using this software because it was percieved as useful and very easy to use. The performances of the library showed that it may be appropriate for implementing small biomedical real-time applications or for human movement monitoring, even in a simple open-source hardware device like Arduino Genuino. The general perception about this library is that it is easy to use and intuitive.

24 CFR 908.108 - Cost.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... computer hardware or software, or both, the cost of contracting for those services, or the cost of... operating budget. At the HA's option, the cost of the computer software may include service contracts to...

Arduino: a low-cost multipurpose lab equipment.

PubMed

D'Ausilio, Alessandro

2012-06-01

Typical experiments in psychological and neurophysiological settings often require the accurate control of multiple input and output signals. These signals are often generated or recorded via computer software and/or external dedicated hardware. Dedicated hardware is usually very expensive and requires additional software to control its behavior. In the present article, I present some accuracy tests on a low-cost and open-source I/O board (Arduino family) that may be useful in many lab environments. One of the strengths of Arduinos is the possibility they afford to load the experimental script on the board's memory and let it run without interfacing with computers or external software, thus granting complete independence, portability, and accuracy. Furthermore, a large community has arisen around the Arduino idea and offers many hardware add-ons and hundreds of free scripts for different projects. Accuracy tests show that Arduino boards may be an inexpensive tool for many psychological and neurophysiological labs.

Hardware realization of an SVM algorithm implemented in FPGAs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiśniewski, Remigiusz; Bazydło, Grzegorz; Szcześniak, Paweł

2017-08-01

The paper proposes a technique of hardware realization of a space vector modulation (SVM) of state function switching in matrix converter (MC), oriented on the implementation in a single field programmable gate array (FPGA). In MC the SVM method is based on the instantaneous space-vector representation of input currents and output voltages. The traditional computation algorithms usually involve digital signal processors (DSPs) which consumes the large number of power transistors (18 transistors and 18 independent PWM outputs) and "non-standard positions of control pulses" during the switching sequence. Recently, hardware implementations become popular since computed operations may be executed much faster and efficient due to nature of the digital devices (especially concurrency). In the paper, we propose a hardware algorithm of SVM computation. In opposite to the existing techniques, the presented solution applies COordinate Rotation DIgital Computer (CORDIC) method to solve the trigonometric operations. Furthermore, adequate arithmetic modules (that is, sub-devices) used for intermediate calculations, such as code converters or proper sectors selectors (for output voltages and input current) are presented in detail. The proposed technique has been implemented as a design described with the use of Verilog hardware description language. The preliminary results of logic implementation oriented on the Xilinx FPGA (particularly, low-cost device from Artix-7 family from Xilinx was used) are also presented.

A novel visual hardware behavioral language

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Xueqin; Cheng, H. D.

1992-01-01

Most hardware behavioral languages just use texts to describe the behavior of the desired hardware design. This is inconvenient for VLSI designers who enjoy using the schematic approach. The proposed visual hardware behavioral language has the ability to graphically express design information using visual parallel models (blocks), visual sequential models (processes) and visual data flow graphs (which consist of primitive operational icons, control icons, and Data and Synchro links). Thus, the proposed visual hardware behavioral language can not only specify hardware concurrent and sequential functionality, but can also visually expose parallelism, sequentiality, and disjointness (mutually exclusive operations) for the hardware designers. That would make the hardware designers capture the design ideas easily and explicitly using this visual hardware behavioral language.

Neutron Imaging for Selective Laser Melting Inconel Hardware with Internal Passages

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tramel, Terri L.; Norwood, Joseph K.; Bilheux, Hassina

2014-01-01

Additive Manufacturing is showing great promise for the development of new innovative designs and large potential life cycle cost reduction for the Aerospace Industry. However, more development work is required to move this technology into space flight hardware production. With selective laser melting (SLM), hardware that once consisted of multiple, carefully machined and inspected pieces, joined together can be made in one part. However standard inspection techniques cannot be used to verify that the internal passages are within dimensional tolerances or surface finish requirements. NASA/MSFC traveled to Oak Ridge National Lab's (ORNL) Spallation Neutron Source to perform some non-destructive, proof of concept imaging measurements to assess the capabilities to understand internal dimensional tolerances and internal passages surface roughness. This presentation will describe 1) the goals of this proof of concept testing, 2) the lessons learned when designing and building these Inconel 718 test specimens to minimize beam time, 3) the neutron imaging test setup and test procedure to get the images, 4) the initial results in images, volume and a video, 4) the assessment of using this imaging technique to gather real data for designing internal flow passages in SLM manufacturing aerospace hardware, and lastly 5) how proper cleaning of the internal passages is critically important. In summary, the initial results are very promising and continued development of a technique to assist in SLM development for aerospace components is desired by both NASA and ORNL. A plan forward that benefits both ORNL and NASA will also be presented, based on the promising initial results. The initial images and volume reconstruction showed that clean, clear images of the internal passages geometry are obtainable. These clear images of the internal passages of simple geometries will be compared to the build model to determine any differences. One surprising result was that a new cleaning

Low-Cost Nested-MIMO Array for Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Applications.

PubMed

Zhang, Duo; Wu, Wen; Fang, Dagang; Wang, Wenqin; Cui, Can

2017-05-12

In modern communication and radar applications, large-scale sensor arrays have increasingly been used to improve the performance of a system. However, the hardware cost and circuit power consumption scale linearly with the number of sensors, which makes the whole system expensive and power-hungry. This paper presents a low-cost nested multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) array, which is capable of providing O ( 2 N 2 ) degrees of freedom (DOF) with O ( N ) physical sensors. The sensor locations of the proposed array have closed-form expressions. Thus, the aperture size and number of DOF can be predicted as a function of the total number of sensors. Additionally, with the help of time-sequence-phase-weighting (TSPW) technology, only one receiver channel is required for sampling the signals received by all of the sensors, which is conducive to reducing the hardware cost and power consumption. Numerical simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed array.

Low-Cost Nested-MIMO Array for Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Applications

PubMed Central

Zhang, Duo; Wu, Wen; Fang, Dagang; Wang, Wenqin; Cui, Can

2017-01-01

In modern communication and radar applications, large-scale sensor arrays have increasingly been used to improve the performance of a system. However, the hardware cost and circuit power consumption scale linearly with the number of sensors, which makes the whole system expensive and power-hungry. This paper presents a low-cost nested multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) array, which is capable of providing O(2N2) degrees of freedom (DOF) with O(N) physical sensors. The sensor locations of the proposed array have closed-form expressions. Thus, the aperture size and number of DOF can be predicted as a function of the total number of sensors. Additionally, with the help of time-sequence-phase-weighting (TSPW) technology, only one receiver channel is required for sampling the signals received by all of the sensors, which is conducive to reducing the hardware cost and power consumption. Numerical simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed array. PMID:28498329

Expendable vs reusable propulsion systems cost sensitivity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hamaker, Joseph W.; Dodd, Glenn R.

1989-01-01

One of the key trade studies that must be considered when studying any new space transportation hardware is whether to go reusable or expendable. An analysis is presented here for such a trade relative to a proposed Liquid Rocket Booster which is being studied at MSFC. The assumptions or inputs to the trade were developed and integrated into a model that compares the Life-Cycle Costs of both a reusable LRB and an expendable LRB. Sensitivities were run by varying the input variables to see their effect on total cost. In addition a Monte-Carlo simulation was run to determine the amount of cost risk that may be involved in a decision to reuse or expend.

Extravehicular activity training and hardware design consideration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thuot, P. J.; Harbaugh, G. J.

1995-01-01

Preparing astronauts to perform the many complex extravehicular activity (EVA) tasks required to assemble and maintain Space Station will be accomplished through training simulations in a variety of facilities. The adequacy of this training is dependent on a thorough understanding of the task to be performed, the environment in which the task will be performed, high-fidelity training hardware and an awareness of the limitations of each particular training facility. Designing hardware that can be successfully operated, or assembled, by EVA astronauts in an efficient manner, requires an acute understanding of human factors and the capabilities and limitations of the space-suited astronaut. Additionally, the significant effect the microgravity environment has on the crew members' capabilities has to be carefully considered not only for each particular task, but also for all the overhead related to the task and the general overhead associated with EVA. This paper will describe various training methods and facilities that will be used to train EVA astronauts for Space Station assembly and maintenance. User-friendly EVA hardware design considerations and recent EVA flight experience will also be presented.

Extravehicular activity training and hardware design consideration.

PubMed

Thuot, P J; Harbaugh, G J

1995-07-01

Preparing astronauts to perform the many complex extravehicular activity (EVA) tasks required to assemble and maintain Space Station will be accomplished through training simulations in a variety of facilities. The adequacy of this training is dependent on a thorough understanding of the task to be performed, the environment in which the task will be performed, high-fidelity training hardware and an awareness of the limitations of each particular training facility. Designing hardware that can be successfully operated, or assembled, by EVA astronauts in an efficient manner, requires an acute understanding of human factors and the capabilities and limitations of the space-suited astronaut. Additionally, the significant effect the microgravity environment has on the crew members' capabilities has to be carefully considered not only for each particular task, but also for all the overhead related to the task and the general overhead associated with EVA. This paper will describe various training methods and facilities that will be used to train EVA astronauts for Space Station assembly and maintenance. User-friendly EVA hardware design considerations and recent EVA flight experience will also be presented.

U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmark: Q1 2017

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fu, Ran; Feldman, David; Margolis, Robert

This report benchmarks U.S. solar photovoltaic (PV) system installed costs as of the first quarter of 2017 (Q1 2017). We use a bottom-up methodology, accounting for all system and projectdevelopment costs incurred during the installation to model the costs for residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems. In general, we attempt to model the typical installation techniques and business operations from an installed-cost perspective. Costs are represented from the perspective of the developer/installer; thus, all hardware costs represent the price at which components are purchased by the developer/installer, not accounting for preexisting supply agreements or other contracts. Importantly, the benchmark also representsmore » the sales price paid to the installer; therefore, it includes profit in the cost of the hardware, 1 along with the profit the installer/developer receives, as a separate cost category. However, it does not include any additional net profit, such as a developer fee or price gross-up, which is common in the marketplace. We adopt this approach owing to the wide variation in developer profits in all three sectors, where project pricing is highly dependent on region and project specifics such as local retail electricity rate structures, local rebate and incentive structures, competitive environment, and overall project or deal structures. Finally, our benchmarks are national averages weighted by state installed capacities.« less

MRI monitoring of focused ultrasound sonications near metallic hardware.

PubMed

Weber, Hans; Ghanouni, Pejman; Pascal-Tenorio, Aurea; Pauly, Kim Butts; Hargreaves, Brian A

2018-07-01

To explore the temperature-induced signal change in two-dimensional multi-spectral imaging (2DMSI) for fast thermometry near metallic hardware to enable MR-guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) in patients with implanted metallic hardware. 2DMSI was optimized for temperature sensitivity and applied to monitor focus ultrasound surgery (FUS) sonications near metallic hardware in phantoms and ex vivo porcine muscle tissue. Further, we evaluated its temperature sensitivity for in vivo muscle in patients without metallic hardware. In addition, we performed a comparison of temperature sensitivity between 2DMSI and conventional proton-resonance-frequency-shift (PRFS) thermometry at different distances from metal devices and different signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). 2DMSI thermometry enabled visualization of short ultrasound sonications near metallic hardware. Calibration using in vivo muscle yielded a constant temperature sensitivity for temperatures below 43 °C. For an off-resonance coverage of ± 6 kHz, we achieved a temperature sensitivity of 1.45%/K, resulting in a minimum detectable temperature change of ∼2.5 K for an SNR of 100 with a temporal resolution of 6 s per frame. The proposed 2DMSI thermometry has the potential to allow MR-guided FUS treatments of patients with metallic hardware and therefore expand its reach to a larger patient population. Magn Reson Med 80:259-271, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Hardware-assisted software clock synchronization for homogeneous distributed systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramanathan, P.; Kandlur, Dilip D.; Shin, Kang G.

1990-01-01

A clock synchronization scheme that strikes a balance between hardware and software solutions is proposed. The proposed is a software algorithm that uses minimal additional hardware to achieve reasonably tight synchronization. Unlike other software solutions, the guaranteed worst-case skews can be made insensitive to the maximum variation of message transit delay in the system. The scheme is particularly suitable for large partially connected distributed systems with topologies that support simple point-to-point broadcast algorithms. Examples of such topologies include the hypercube and the mesh interconnection structures.

Computational Process Modeling for Additive Manufacturing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bagg, Stacey; Zhang, Wei

2014-01-01

Computational Process and Material Modeling of Powder Bed additive manufacturing of IN 718. Optimize material build parameters with reduced time and cost through modeling. Increase understanding of build properties. Increase reliability of builds. Decrease time to adoption of process for critical hardware. Potential to decrease post-build heat treatments. Conduct single-track and coupon builds at various build parameters. Record build parameter information and QM Meltpool data. Refine Applied Optimization powder bed AM process model using data. Report thermal modeling results. Conduct metallography of build samples. Calibrate STK models using metallography findings. Run STK models using AO thermal profiles and report STK modeling results. Validate modeling with additional build. Photodiode Intensity measurements highly linear with power input. Melt Pool Intensity highly correlated to Melt Pool Size. Melt Pool size and intensity increase with power. Applied Optimization will use data to develop powder bed additive manufacturing process model.

Real-time demonstration hardware for enhanced DPCM video compression algorithm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bizon, Thomas P.; Whyte, Wayne A., Jr.; Marcopoli, Vincent R.

1992-01-01

The lack of available wideband digital links as well as the complexity of implementation of bandwidth efficient digital video CODECs (encoder/decoder) has worked to keep the cost of digital television transmission too high to compete with analog methods. Terrestrial and satellite video service providers, however, are now recognizing the potential gains that digital video compression offers and are proposing to incorporate compression systems to increase the number of available program channels. NASA is similarly recognizing the benefits of and trend toward digital video compression techniques for transmission of high quality video from space and therefore, has developed a digital television bandwidth compression algorithm to process standard National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) composite color television signals. The algorithm is based on differential pulse code modulation (DPCM), but additionally utilizes a non-adaptive predictor, non-uniform quantizer and multilevel Huffman coder to reduce the data rate substantially below that achievable with straight DPCM. The non-adaptive predictor and multilevel Huffman coder combine to set this technique apart from other DPCM encoding algorithms. All processing is done on a intra-field basis to prevent motion degradation and minimize hardware complexity. Computer simulations have shown the algorithm will produce broadcast quality reconstructed video at an average transmission rate of 1.8 bits/pixel. Hardware implementation of the DPCM circuit, non-adaptive predictor and non-uniform quantizer has been completed, providing realtime demonstration of the image quality at full video rates. Video sampling/reconstruction circuits have also been constructed to accomplish the analog video processing necessary for the real-time demonstration. Performance results for the completed hardware compare favorably with simulation results. Hardware implementation of the multilevel Huffman encoder/decoder is currently under development

42 CFR 413.355 - Additional payment: QIO photocopy and mailing costs.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... RENAL DISEASE SERVICES; OPTIONAL PROSPECTIVELY DETERMINED PAYMENT RATES FOR SKILLED NURSING FACILITIES Prospective Payment for Skilled Nursing Facilities § 413.355 Additional payment: QIO photocopy and mailing costs. An additional payment is made to a skilled nursing facility in accordance with § 476.78 of this...

42 CFR 413.355 - Additional payment: QIO photocopy and mailing costs.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... RENAL DISEASE SERVICES; OPTIONAL PROSPECTIVELY DETERMINED PAYMENT RATES FOR SKILLED NURSING FACILITIES Prospective Payment for Skilled Nursing Facilities § 413.355 Additional payment: QIO photocopy and mailing costs. An additional payment is made to a skilled nursing facility in accordance with § 476.78 of this...

Launch vehicle operations cost reduction through artificial intelligence techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, Tom C., Jr.

1988-01-01

NASA's Kennedy Space Center has attempted to develop AI methods in order to reduce the cost of launch vehicle ground operations as well as to improve the reliability and safety of such operations. Attention is presently given to cost savings estimates for systems involving launch vehicle firing-room software and hardware real-time diagnostics, as well as the nature of configuration control and the real-time autonomous diagnostics of launch-processing systems by these means. Intelligent launch decisions and intelligent weather forecasting are additional applications of AI being considered.

Efficient Hardware Implementation of the Lightweight Block Encryption Algorithm LEA

PubMed Central

Lee, Donggeon; Kim, Dong-Chan; Kwon, Daesung; Kim, Howon

2014-01-01

Recently, due to the advent of resource-constrained trends, such as smartphones and smart devices, the computing environment is changing. Because our daily life is deeply intertwined with ubiquitous networks, the importance of security is growing. A lightweight encryption algorithm is essential for secure communication between these kinds of resource-constrained devices, and many researchers have been investigating this field. Recently, a lightweight block cipher called LEA was proposed. LEA was originally targeted for efficient implementation on microprocessors, as it is fast when implemented in software and furthermore, it has a small memory footprint. To reflect on recent technology, all required calculations utilize 32-bit wide operations. In addition, the algorithm is comprised of not complex S-Box-like structures but simple Addition, Rotation, and XOR operations. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first report on a comprehensive hardware implementation of LEA. We present various hardware structures and their implementation results according to key sizes. Even though LEA was originally targeted at software efficiency, it also shows high efficiency when implemented as hardware. PMID:24406859

Hardware for Accelerating N-Modular Redundant Systems for High-Reliability Computing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dobbs, Carl, Sr.

2012-01-01

A hardware unit has been designed that reduces the cost, in terms of performance and power consumption, for implementing N-modular redundancy (NMR) in a multiprocessor device. The innovation monitors transactions to memory, and calculates a form of sumcheck on-the-fly, thereby relieving the processors of calculating the sumcheck in software

Generalized Maintenance Trainer Simulator: Development of Hardware and Software. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Towne, Douglas M.; Munro, Allen

A general purpose maintenance trainer, which has the potential to simulate a wide variety of electronic equipments without hardware changes or new computer programs, has been developed and field tested by the Navy. Based on a previous laboratory model, the Generalized Maintenance Trainer Simulator (GMTS) is a relatively low cost trainer that…

Satellite Communication Hardware Emulation System (SCHES)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaplan, Ted

1993-01-01

Satellite Communication Hardware Emulator System (SCHES) is a powerful simulator that emulates the hardware used in TDRSS links. SCHES is a true bit-by-bit simulator that models communications hardware accurately enough to be used as a verification mechanism for actual hardware tests on user spacecraft. As a credit to its modular design, SCHES is easily configurable to model any user satellite communication link, though some development may be required to tailor existing software to user specific hardware.

CUDA compatible GPU cards as efficient hardware accelerators for Smith-Waterman sequence alignment

PubMed Central

Manavski, Svetlin A; Valle, Giorgio

2008-01-01

Background Searching for similarities in protein and DNA databases has become a routine procedure in Molecular Biology. The Smith-Waterman algorithm has been available for more than 25 years. It is based on a dynamic programming approach that explores all the possible alignments between two sequences; as a result it returns the optimal local alignment. Unfortunately, the computational cost is very high, requiring a number of operations proportional to the product of the length of two sequences. Furthermore, the exponential growth of protein and DNA databases makes the Smith-Waterman algorithm unrealistic for searching similarities in large sets of sequences. For these reasons heuristic approaches such as those implemented in FASTA and BLAST tend to be preferred, allowing faster execution times at the cost of reduced sensitivity. The main motivation of our work is to exploit the huge computational power of commonly available graphic cards, to develop high performance solutions for sequence alignment. Results In this paper we present what we believe is the fastest solution of the exact Smith-Waterman algorithm running on commodity hardware. It is implemented in the recently released CUDA programming environment by NVidia. CUDA allows direct access to the hardware primitives of the last-generation Graphics Processing Units (GPU) G80. Speeds of more than 3.5 GCUPS (Giga Cell Updates Per Second) are achieved on a workstation running two GeForce 8800 GTX. Exhaustive tests have been done to compare our implementation to SSEARCH and BLAST, running on a 3 GHz Intel Pentium IV processor. Our solution was also compared to a recently published GPU implementation and to a Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) solution. These tests show that our implementation performs from 2 to 30 times faster than any other previous attempt available on commodity hardware. Conclusions The results show that graphic cards are now sufficiently advanced to be used as efficient hardware

Incremental Costs and Cost Effectiveness of Intensive Treatment in Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes Detected by Screening in the ADDITION-UK Trial: An Update with Empirical Trial-Based Cost Data.

PubMed

Laxy, Michael; Wilson, Edward C F; Boothby, Clare E; Griffin, Simon J

2017-12-01

There is uncertainty about the cost effectiveness of early intensive treatment versus routine care in individuals with type 2 diabetes detected by screening. To derive a trial-informed estimate of the incremental costs of intensive treatment as delivered in the Anglo-Danish-Dutch Study of Intensive Treatment in People with Screen-Detected Diabetes in Primary Care-Europe (ADDITION) trial and to revisit the long-term cost-effectiveness analysis from the perspective of the UK National Health Service. We analyzed the electronic primary care records of a subsample of the ADDITION-Cambridge trial cohort (n = 173). Unit costs of used primary care services were taken from the published literature. Incremental annual costs of intensive treatment versus routine care in years 1 to 5 after diagnosis were calculated using multilevel generalized linear models. We revisited the long-term cost-utility analyses for the ADDITION-UK trial cohort and reported results for ADDITION-Cambridge using the UK Prospective Diabetes Study Outcomes Model and the trial-informed cost estimates according to a previously developed evaluation framework. Incremental annual costs of intensive treatment over years 1 to 5 averaged £29.10 (standard error = £33.00) for consultations with general practitioners and nurses and £54.60 (standard error = £28.50) for metabolic and cardioprotective medication. For ADDITION-UK, over the 10-, 20-, and 30-year time horizon, adjusted incremental quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were 0.014, 0.043, and 0.048, and adjusted incremental costs were £1,021, £1,217, and £1,311, resulting in incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of £71,232/QALY, £28,444/QALY, and £27,549/QALY, respectively. Respective incremental cost-effectiveness ratios for ADDITION-Cambridge were slightly higher. The incremental costs of intensive treatment as delivered in the ADDITION-Cambridge trial were lower than expected. Given UK willingness-to-pay thresholds in patients with screen

Low Cost Injection Mold Creation via Hybrid Additive and Conventional Manufacturing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dehoff, Ryan R.; Watkins, Thomas R.; List, III, Frederick Alyious

2015-12-01

The purpose of the proposed project between Cummins and ORNL is to significantly reduce the cost of the tooling (machining and materials) required to create injection molds to make plastic components. Presently, the high cost of this tooling forces the design decision to make cast aluminum parts because Cummins typical production volumes are too low to allow injection molded plastic parts to be cost effective with the amortized cost of the injection molding tooling. In addition to reducing the weight of components, polymer injection molding allows the opportunity for the alternative cooling methods, via nitrogen gas. Nitrogen gas cooling offersmore » an environmentally and economically attractive cooling option, if the mold can be manufactured economically. In this project, a current injection molding design was optimized for cooling using nitrogen gas. The various components of the injection mold tooling were fabricated using the Renishaw powder bed laser additive manufacturing technology. Subsequent machining was performed on the as deposited components to form a working assembly. The injection mold is scheduled to be tested in a projection setting at a commercial vendor selected by Cummins.« less

Hardware acceleration and verification of systems designed with hardware description languages (HDL)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wisniewski, Remigiusz; Wegrzyn, Marek

2005-02-01

Hardware description languages (HDLs) allow creating bigger and bigger designs nowadays. The size of prototyped systems very often exceeds million gates. Therefore verification process of the designs takes several hours or even days. The solution for this problem can be solved by hardware acceleration of simulation.

Real-Time Processing Library for Open-Source Hardware Biomedical Sensors

PubMed Central

Castro-García, Juan A.; Lebrato-Vázquez, Clara

2018-01-01

Applications involving data acquisition from sensors need samples at a preset frequency rate, the filtering out of noise and/or analysis of certain frequency components. We propose a novel software architecture based on open-software hardware platforms which allows programmers to create data streams from input channels and easily implement filters and frequency analysis objects. The performances of the different classes given in the size of memory allocated and execution time (number of clock cycles) were analyzed in the low-cost platform Arduino Genuino. In addition, 11 people took part in an experiment in which they had to implement several exercises and complete a usability test. Sampling rates under 250 Hz (typical for many biomedical applications) makes it feasible to implement filters, sliding windows and Fourier analysis, operating in real time. Participants rated software usability at 70.2 out of 100 and the ease of use when implementing several signal processing applications was rated at just over 4.4 out of 5. Participants showed their intention of using this software because it was percieved as useful and very easy to use. The performances of the library showed that it may be appropriate for implementing small biomedical real-time applications or for human movement monitoring, even in a simple open-source hardware device like Arduino Genuino. The general perception about this library is that it is easy to use and intuitive. PMID:29596394

24 CFR 208.112 - Cost.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... increases. (b) At the owner's option, the cost of the computer software may include service contracts to... requirements. (c) The source of funds for the purchase of hardware or software, or contracting for services for... formatted data, including either the purchase and maintenance of computer hardware or software, or both, the...

Pulseq: A rapid and hardware-independent pulse sequence prototyping framework.

PubMed

Layton, Kelvin J; Kroboth, Stefan; Jia, Feng; Littin, Sebastian; Yu, Huijun; Leupold, Jochen; Nielsen, Jon-Fredrik; Stöcker, Tony; Zaitsev, Maxim

2017-04-01

Implementing new magnetic resonance experiments, or sequences, often involves extensive programming on vendor-specific platforms, which can be time consuming and costly. This situation is exacerbated when research sequences need to be implemented on several platforms simultaneously, for example, at different field strengths. This work presents an alternative programming environment that is hardware-independent, open-source, and promotes rapid sequence prototyping. A novel file format is described to efficiently store the hardware events and timing information required for an MR pulse sequence. Platform-dependent interpreter modules convert the file to appropriate instructions to run the sequence on MR hardware. Sequences can be designed in high-level languages, such as MATLAB, or with a graphical interface. Spin physics simulation tools are incorporated into the framework, allowing for comparison between real and virtual experiments. Minimal effort is required to implement relatively advanced sequences using the tools provided. Sequences are executed on three different MR platforms, demonstrating the flexibility of the approach. A high-level, flexible and hardware-independent approach to sequence programming is ideal for the rapid development of new sequences. The framework is currently not suitable for large patient studies or routine scanning although this would be possible with deeper integration into existing workflows. Magn Reson Med 77:1544-1552, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Commercial Vessel Safety. Economic Costs. Appendix A. Estimation Procedures for Costs and Cost Impacts of Marine Safety Regulations.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-12-01

Subsistence: Includes the cost of all edibles , sales taxes, delivery charges, and loading costs. Stores, Supplies, and Equipment: The cost of all...consumable stores, supplies, and expendable equipment other than edibles , fuel, and water. 89 Insurance: Annual cost for H&M, P&I, and port risk for the...Products (50) 3441 3442 3444 3446 3449 105 Screw Machine Products (51) 3450 106 Metal Stampings (51) 3460 107 Cutlery , Hand Tools, Hardware (52) 3420

Development of a hardware-in-loop attitude control simulator for a CubeSat satellite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tapsawat, Wittawat; Sangpet, Teerawat; Kuntanapreeda, Suwat

2018-01-01

Attitude control is an important part in satellite on-orbit operation. It greatly affects the performance of satellites. Testing of an attitude determination and control subsystem (ADCS) is very challenging since it might require attitude dynamics and space environment in the orbit. This paper develops a low-cost hardware-in-loop (HIL) simulator for testing an ADCS of a CubeSat satellite. The simulator consists of a numerical simulation part, a hardware part, and a HIL interface hardware unit. The numerical simulation part includes orbital dynamics, attitude dynamics and Earth’s magnetic field. The hardware part is the real ADCS board of the satellite. The simulation part outputs satellite’s angular velocity and geomagnetic field information to the HIL interface hardware. Then, based on this information, the HIL interface hardware generates I2C signals mimicking the signals of the on-board rate-gyros and magnetometers and consequently outputs the signals to the ADCS board. The ADCS board reads the rate-gyro and magnetometer signals, calculates control signals, and drives the attitude actuators which are three magnetic torquers (MTQs). The responses of the MTQs sensed by a separated magnetometer are feedback to the numerical simulation part completing the HIL simulation loop. Experimental studies are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the simulator.

Final postflight hardware evaluation report RSRM-32 (STS-57)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nielson, Greg

1993-01-01

This document is the final report for the postflight assessment of the RSRM-32 (STS-57) flight set. This report presents the disassembly evaluations performed at the Thiokol facilities in Utah and is a continuation of the evaluations performed at KSC (TWR-64239). The PEEP for this assessment is outlined in TWR-50051, Revision B. The PEEP defines the requirements for evaluating RSRM hardware. Special hardware issues pertaining to this flight set requiring additional or modified assessment are outlined in TWR-64237. All observed hardware conditions were documented on PFOR's which are included in Appendix A. Observations were compared against limits defined in the PEEP. Any observation that was categorized as reportable or had no defined limits was documented on a preliminary PFAR by the assessment engineers. Preliminary PFAR's were reviewed by the Thiokol SPAT Executive Board to determine if elevation to PFAR's was required.

7 CFR 1710.253 - Engineering and cost studies-addition of generation capacity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 11 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Engineering and cost studies-addition of generation... TO ELECTRIC LOANS AND GUARANTEES Construction Work Plans and Related Studies § 1710.253 Engineering... engineering and cost studies as specified by RUS. The studies shall cover a period from the beginning of the...

7 CFR 1710.253 - Engineering and cost studies-addition of generation capacity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 11 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Engineering and cost studies-addition of generation... TO ELECTRIC LOANS AND GUARANTEES Construction Work Plans and Related Studies § 1710.253 Engineering... engineering and cost studies as specified by RUS. The studies shall cover a period from the beginning of the...

7 CFR 1710.253 - Engineering and cost studies-addition of generation capacity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 11 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Engineering and cost studies-addition of generation... TO ELECTRIC LOANS AND GUARANTEES Construction Work Plans and Related Studies § 1710.253 Engineering... engineering and cost studies as specified by RUS. The studies shall cover a period from the beginning of the...

7 CFR 1710.253 - Engineering and cost studies-addition of generation capacity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 11 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Engineering and cost studies-addition of generation... TO ELECTRIC LOANS AND GUARANTEES Construction Work Plans and Related Studies § 1710.253 Engineering... engineering and cost studies as specified by RUS. The studies shall cover a period from the beginning of the...

7 CFR 1710.253 - Engineering and cost studies-addition of generation capacity.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 11 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Engineering and cost studies-addition of generation... TO ELECTRIC LOANS AND GUARANTEES Construction Work Plans and Related Studies § 1710.253 Engineering... engineering and cost studies as specified by RUS. The studies shall cover a period from the beginning of the...

Exascale Hardware Architectures Working Group

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hemmert, S; Ang, J; Chiang, P

2011-03-15

The ASC Exascale Hardware Architecture working group is challenged to provide input on the following areas impacting the future use and usability of potential exascale computer systems: processor, memory, and interconnect architectures, as well as the power and resilience of these systems. Going forward, there are many challenging issues that will need to be addressed. First, power constraints in processor technologies will lead to steady increases in parallelism within a socket. Additionally, all cores may not be fully independent nor fully general purpose. Second, there is a clear trend toward less balanced machines, in terms of compute capability compared tomore » memory and interconnect performance. In order to mitigate the memory issues, memory technologies will introduce 3D stacking, eventually moving on-socket and likely on-die, providing greatly increased bandwidth but unfortunately also likely providing smaller memory capacity per core. Off-socket memory, possibly in the form of non-volatile memory, will create a complex memory hierarchy. Third, communication energy will dominate the energy required to compute, such that interconnect power and bandwidth will have a significant impact. All of the above changes are driven by the need for greatly increased energy efficiency, as current technology will prove unsuitable for exascale, due to unsustainable power requirements of such a system. These changes will have the most significant impact on programming models and algorithms, but they will be felt across all layers of the machine. There is clear need to engage all ASC working groups in planning for how to deal with technological changes of this magnitude. The primary function of the Hardware Architecture Working Group is to facilitate codesign with hardware vendors to ensure future exascale platforms are capable of efficiently supporting the ASC applications, which in turn need to meet the mission needs of the NNSA Stockpile Stewardship Program. This issue

Spares Management : Optimizing Hardware Usage for the Space Shuttle Main Engine

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gulbrandsen, K. A.

1999-01-01

The complexity of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), combined with mounting requirements to reduce operations costs have increased demands for accurate tracking, maintenance, and projections of SSME assets. The SSME Logistics Team is developing an integrated asset management process. This PC-based tool provides a user-friendly asset database for daily decision making, plus a variable-input hardware usage simulation with complex logic yielding output that addresses essential asset management issues. Cycle times on critical tasks are significantly reduced. Associated costs have decreased as asset data quality and decision-making capability has increased.

CAI System Costs: Present and Future.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pressman, Israel; Rosenbloom, Bruce

1984-01-01

Discusses costs related to providing computer assisted instruction (CAI), considering hardware, software, user training, maintenance, and installation. Provides an example of the total cost of CAI broken down into these categories, giving an adjusted yearly cost. Projects future trends and costs of CAI as well as cost savings possibilities. (JM)

Cost analysis of water recovery systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yakut, M. M.

1973-01-01

A methodology was developed to predict the relevant contributions of the more intangible cost elements encountered in the development of flight-qualified hardware based on an extrapolation of past hardware development experience. Major items of costs within water recovery systems were identified and related to physical and/or performance criteria. Cost and performance data from Gemini, Skylab, and other aerospace and biotechnology programs were analyzed to identify major cost elements required to establish cost estimating relationships for advanced water recovery systems. The results of the study are expected to assist NASA in long-range planning and allocation of resources in a cost effective manner in support of earth orbital programs. This report deals with the cost analysis of the five leading water reclamation systems, namely: (1) RITE waste management-water system, (2) reverse osmosis system, (3) multifiltration system, (4) vapor compression system, and (5) closed air evaporation system with electrolytic pretreatment.

CAI: Its Cost and Its Role.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pressman, Israel; Rosenbloom, Bruce

1984-01-01

Describes and evaluates costs of hardware, software, training, and maintenance for computer assisted instruction (CAI) as they relate to total system cost. An example of an educational system provides an illustration of CAI cost analysis. Future developments, cost effectiveness, affordability, and applications in public and private environments…

Design Tools for Reconfigurable Hardware in Orbit (RHinO)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

French, Mathew; Graham, Paul; Wirthlin, Michael; Larchev, Gregory; Bellows, Peter; Schott, Brian

2004-01-01

The Reconfigurable Hardware in Orbit (RHinO) project is focused on creating a set of design tools that facilitate and automate design techniques for reconfigurable computing in space, using SRAM-based field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA) technology. These tools leverage an established FPGA design environment and focus primarily on space effects mitigation and power optimization. The project is creating software to automatically test and evaluate the single-event-upsets (SEUs) sensitivities of an FPGA design and insert mitigation techniques. Extensions into the tool suite will also allow evolvable algorithm techniques to reconfigure around single-event-latchup (SEL) events. In the power domain, tools are being created for dynamic power visualiization and optimization. Thus, this technology seeks to enable the use of Reconfigurable Hardware in Orbit, via an integrated design tool-suite aiming to reduce risk, cost, and design time of multimission reconfigurable space processors using SRAM-based FPGAs.

System-level protection and hardware Trojan detection using weighted voting.

PubMed

Amin, Hany A M; Alkabani, Yousra; Selim, Gamal M I

2014-07-01

The problem of hardware Trojans is becoming more serious especially with the widespread of fabless design houses and design reuse. Hardware Trojans can be embedded on chip during manufacturing or in third party intellectual property cores (IPs) during the design process. Recent research is performed to detect Trojans embedded at manufacturing time by comparing the suspected chip with a golden chip that is fully trusted. However, Trojan detection in third party IP cores is more challenging than other logic modules especially that there is no golden chip. This paper proposes a new methodology to detect/prevent hardware Trojans in third party IP cores. The method works by gradually building trust in suspected IP cores by comparing the outputs of different untrusted implementations of the same IP core. Simulation results show that our method achieves higher probability of Trojan detection over a naive implementation of simple voting on the output of different IP cores. In addition, experimental results show that the proposed method requires less hardware overhead when compared with a simple voting technique achieving the same degree of security.

Electronic processing and control system with programmable hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alkalaj, Leon (Inventor); Fang, Wai-Chi (Inventor); Newell, Michael A. (Inventor)

1998-01-01

A computer system with reprogrammable hardware allowing dynamically allocating hardware resources for different functions and adaptability for different processors and different operating platforms. All hardware resources are physically partitioned into system-user hardware and application-user hardware depending on the specific operation requirements. A reprogrammable interface preferably interconnects the system-user hardware and application-user hardware.

Hardware system of X-wave generator with simple driving pulses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xu; Li, Yaqin; Xiao, Feng; Ding, Mingyue; Yuchi, Ming

2013-03-01

The limited diffraction beams such as X-wave have the properties of larger depth of field. Thus, it has the potential to generate ultra-high frame rate ultrasound images. However, in practice, the real-time generation of X-wave ultrasonic field requires complex and high-cost system, especially the precise and specific voltage time distribution part for the excitation of each distinct array element. In order to simplify the hardware realization of X-wave, based on the previous works, X-wave excitation signals were decomposed and expressed as the superposition of a group of simple driving pulses, such as rectangular and triangular waves. The hardware system for the X-wave generator was also designed. The generator consists of a computer for communication with the circuit, universal serial bus (USB) based micro-controller unit (MCU) for data transmission, field programmable gate array (FPGA) based Direct Digital Synthesizer(DDS), 12-bit digital-to-analog (D/A) converter and a two stage amplifier.The hardware simulation results show that the designed system can generate the waveforms at different radius approximating the theoretical X-wave excitations with a maximum error of 0.49% triggered by the quantification of amplitude data.

Final postflight hardware evaluation report RSRM-28 (STS-53)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Starrett, William David, Jr.

1993-01-01

The final report for the Clearfield disassembly evaluation and a continuation of the KSC postflight assessment for the RSRM-28 (STS-53) RSRM flight set is presented. All observed hardware conditions were documented on PFOR's and are included in Appendices A through C. Appendices D and E contain the measurements and safety factor data for the nozzle and insulation components. This report, along with the KSC Ten-Day Postflight Hardware Evaluation Report (TWR-64215), represents a summary of the RSRM-28 hardware evaluation. The as-flown hardware configuration is documented in TWR-63638. Disassembly evaluation photograph numbers are logged in TWA-1989. The RSRM-28 flight set disassembly evaluations described were performed at the RSRM Refurbishment Facility in Clearfield, Utah. The final factory joint demate occurred on July 15, 1993. Additional time was required to perform the evaluation of the stiffener rings per special issue 4.1.5.2 because of the washout schedule. The release of this report was after completion of all special issues per program management direction. Detailed evaluations were performed in accordance with the Clearfield PEEP, TWR-50051, Revision A. All observations were compared against limits that are also defined in the PEEP. These limits outline the criteria for categorizing the observations as acceptable, reportable, or critical. Hardware conditions that were unexpected and/or determined to be reportable or critical were evaluated by the applicable team and tracked through the PFAR system.

Hardware Architecture Study for NASA's Space Software Defined Radios

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reinhart, Richard C.; Scardelletti, Maximilian C.; Mortensen, Dale J.; Kacpura, Thomas J.; Andro, Monty; Smith, Carl; Liebetreu, John

2008-01-01

This study defines a hardware architecture approach for software defined radios to enable commonality among NASA space missions. The architecture accommodates a range of reconfigurable processing technologies including general purpose processors, digital signal processors, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) in addition to flexible and tunable radio frequency (RF) front-ends to satisfy varying mission requirements. The hardware architecture consists of modules, radio functions, and and interfaces. The modules are a logical division of common radio functions that comprise a typical communication radio. This paper describes the architecture details, module definitions, and the typical functions on each module as well as the module interfaces. Trade-offs between component-based, custom architecture and a functional-based, open architecture are described. The architecture does not specify the internal physical implementation within each module, nor does the architecture mandate the standards or ratings of the hardware used to construct the radios.

Additive Manufacturing for Affordable Rocket Engines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

West, Brian; Robertson, Elizabeth; Osborne, Robin; Calvert, Marty

2016-01-01

Additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing) technology has the potential to drastically reduce costs and lead times associated with the development of complex liquid rocket engine systems. NASA is using 3D printing to manufacture rocket engine components including augmented spark igniters, injectors, turbopumps, and valves. NASA is advancing the process to certify these components for flight. Success Story: MSFC has been developing rocket 3D-printing technology using the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process. Over the last several years, NASA has built and tested several injectors and combustion chambers. Recently, MSFC has 3D printed an augmented spark igniter for potential use the RS-25 engines that will be used on the Space Launch System. The new design is expected to reduce the cost of the igniter by a factor of four. MSFC has also 3D printed and tested a liquid hydrogen turbopump for potential use on an Upper Stage Engine. Additive manufacturing of the turbopump resulted in a 45% part count reduction. To understanding how the 3D printed parts perform and to certify them for flight, MSFC built a breadboard liquid rocket engine using additive manufactured components including injectors, turbomachinery, and valves. The liquid rocket engine was tested seven times in 2016 using liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. In addition to exposing the hardware to harsh environments, engineers learned to design for the new manufacturing technique, taking advantage of its capabilities and gaining awareness of its limitations. Benefit: The 3D-printing technology promises reduced cost and schedule for rocket engines. Cost is a function of complexity, and the most complicated features provide the largest opportunities for cost reductions. This is especially true where brazes or welds can be eliminated. The drastic reduction in part count achievable with 3D printing creates a waterfall effect that reduces the number of processes and drawings, decreases the amount of touch

The Ruggedized STD Bus Microcomputer - A low cost computer suitable for Space Shuttle experiments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Budney, T. J.; Stone, R. W.

1982-01-01

Previous space flight computers have been costly in terms of both hardware and software. The Ruggedized STD Bus Microcomputer is based on the commercial Mostek/Pro-Log STD Bus. Ruggedized PC cards can be based on commercial cards from more than 60 manufacturers, reducing hardware cost and design time. Software costs are minimized by using standard 8-bit microprocessors and by debugging code using commercial versions of the ruggedized flight boards while the flight hardware is being fabricated.

Satellite servicing mission preliminary cost estimation model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1987-01-01

The cost model presented is a preliminary methodology for determining a rough order-of-magnitude cost for implementing a satellite servicing mission. Mission implementation, in this context, encompassess all activities associated with mission design and planning, including both flight and ground crew training and systems integration (payload processing) of servicing hardward with the Shuttle. A basic assumption made in developing this cost model is that a generic set of servicing hardware was developed and flight tested, is inventoried, and is maintained by NASA. This implies that all hardware physical and functional interfaces are well known and therefore recurring CITE testing is not required. The development of the cost model algorithms and examples of their use are discussed.

Costs of cloud computing for a biometry department. A case study.

PubMed

Knaus, J; Hieke, S; Binder, H; Schwarzer, G

2013-01-01

"Cloud" computing providers, such as the Amazon Web Services (AWS), offer stable and scalable computational resources based on hardware virtualization, with short, usually hourly, billing periods. The idea of pay-as-you-use seems appealing for biometry research units which have only limited access to university or corporate data center resources or grids. This case study compares the costs of an existing heterogeneous on-site hardware pool in a Medical Biometry and Statistics department to a comparable AWS offer. The "total cost of ownership", including all direct costs, is determined for the on-site hardware, and hourly prices are derived, based on actual system utilization during the year 2011. Indirect costs, which are difficult to quantify are not included in this comparison, but nevertheless some rough guidance from our experience is given. To indicate the scale of costs for a methodological research project, a simulation study of a permutation-based statistical approach is performed using AWS and on-site hardware. In the presented case, with a system utilization of 25-30 percent and 3-5-year amortization, on-site hardware can result in smaller costs, compared to hourly rental in the cloud dependent on the instance chosen. Renting cloud instances with sufficient main memory is a deciding factor in this comparison. Costs for on-site hardware may vary, depending on the specific infrastructure at a research unit, but have only moderate impact on the overall comparison and subsequent decision for obtaining affordable scientific computing resources. Overall utilization has a much stronger impact as it determines the actual computing hours needed per year. Taking this into ac count, cloud computing might still be a viable option for projects with limited maturity, or as a supplement for short peaks in demand.

Cost analysis of oxygen recovery systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yakut, M. M.

1973-01-01

Report is made of the cost analysis of four leading oxygen recovery subsystems which include two carbon dioxide reduction subsystems and two water electrolysis subsystems, namely, the solid polymer electrolyte and the circulating KOH electrolyte. The four oxygen recovery systems were quantitatively evaluated. System characteristics, including process flows, performance, and physical characteristics were also analyzed. Additionally, the status of development of each of the systems considered and the required advance technology efforts required to bring conceptual and/or pre-prototype hardware to an operational prototype status were defined. Intimate knowledge of the operations, development status, and capabilities of the systems to meet space mission requirements were found to be essential in establishing the cost estimating relationships for advanced life support systems.

An evaluation of Skylab habitability hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stokes, J.

1974-01-01

For effective mission performance, participants in space missions lasting 30-60 days or longer must be provided with hardware to accommodate their personal needs. Such habitability hardware was provided on Skylab. Equipment defined as habitability hardware was that equipment composing the food system, water system, sleep system, waste management system, personal hygiene system, trash management system, and entertainment equipment. Equipment not specifically defined as habitability hardware but which served that function were the Wardroom window, the exercise equipment, and the intercom system, which was occasionally used for private communications. All Skylab habitability hardware generally functioned as intended for the three missions, and most items could be considered as adequate concepts for future flights of similar duration. Specific components were criticized for their shortcomings.

16 CFR 1508.6 - Hardware.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... eliminates from any hardware accessible to a child within the crib the possibility of the hardware's... foreseeable damage or abuse. (b) Locking or latching devices used to secure dropside rails shall require a...

16 CFR 1508.6 - Hardware.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... eliminates from any hardware accessible to a child within the crib the possibility of the hardware's... foreseeable damage or abuse. (b) Locking or latching devices used to secure dropside rails shall require a...

A hardware-algorithm co-design approach to optimize seizure detection algorithms for implantable applications.

PubMed

Raghunathan, Shriram; Gupta, Sumeet K; Markandeya, Himanshu S; Roy, Kaushik; Irazoqui, Pedro P

2010-10-30

Implantable neural prostheses that deliver focal electrical stimulation upon demand are rapidly emerging as an alternate therapy for roughly a third of the epileptic patient population that is medically refractory. Seizure detection algorithms enable feedback mechanisms to provide focally and temporally specific intervention. Real-time feasibility and computational complexity often limit most reported detection algorithms to implementations using computers for bedside monitoring or external devices communicating with the implanted electrodes. A comparison of algorithms based on detection efficacy does not present a complete picture of the feasibility of the algorithm with limited computational power, as is the case with most battery-powered applications. We present a two-dimensional design optimization approach that takes into account both detection efficacy and hardware cost in evaluating algorithms for their feasibility in an implantable application. Detection features are first compared for their ability to detect electrographic seizures from micro-electrode data recorded from kainate-treated rats. Circuit models are then used to estimate the dynamic and leakage power consumption of the compared features. A score is assigned based on detection efficacy and the hardware cost for each of the features, then plotted on a two-dimensional design space. An optimal combination of compared features is used to construct an algorithm that provides maximal detection efficacy per unit hardware cost. The methods presented in this paper would facilitate the development of a common platform to benchmark seizure detection algorithms for comparison and feasibility analysis in the next generation of implantable neuroprosthetic devices to treat epilepsy. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hardware-in-the-loop tow missile system simulator

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Waldman, G.S.; Wootton, J.R.; Hobson, G.L.

1993-07-06

A missile system simulator is described for use in training people for target acquisition, missile launch, and missile guidance under simulated battlefield conditions comprising: simulating means for producing a digital signal representing a simulated battlefield environment including at least one target movable therewithin, the simulating means generating an infrared map representing the field-of-view and the target; interface means for converting said digital signals to an infrared image; missile system hardware including the missile acquisition, tracking, and guidance portions thereof, said hardware sensing the infrared image to determine the location of the target in a field-of-view; and, image means for generatingmore » an infrared image of a missile launched at the target and guided thereto, the image means imposing the missile image onto the field-of-view for the missile hardware to acquire the image of the missile in addition to that of the target, and to generate guidance signals to guide the missile image to the target image, wherein the interfacing means is responsive to a guidance signal from the hardware to simulate, in real-time, the response of the missile to the guidance signal, the image means including a blackbody, laser means for irradiating the blackbody to heat it to a temperature at which it emits infrared radiation, and optic means for integrating the radiant image produced by heating the blackbody into the infrared map.« less

Door Hardware and Installations; Carpentry: 901894.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dade County Public Schools, Miami, FL.

The curriculum guide outlines a course designed to provide instruction in the selection, preparation, and installation of hardware for door assemblies. The course is divided into five blocks of instruction (introduction to doors and hardware, door hardware, exterior doors and jambs, interior doors and jambs, and a quinmester post-test) totaling…

NASA's Additive Manufacturing Development Materials Science to Technology Infusion - Connecting the Digital Dots

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vickers, John

2017-01-01

At NASA, the first steps of the Journey to Mars are well underway with the development of NASA's next generation launch system and investments in research and technologies that should increase the affordability, capability, and safety of exploration activities. Additive Manufacturing presents a disruptive opportunity for NASA to design and manufacture hardware with new materials at dramatically reduced cost and schedule. Opportunities to incorporate additive manufacturing align very well with NASA missions and with most NASA programs related to space, science, and aeronautics. The Agency also relies on many partnerships with other government agencies, industry and academia.

An approach to secure weather and climate models against hardware faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Düben, Peter D.; Dawson, Andrew

2017-03-01

Enabling Earth System models to run efficiently on future supercomputers is a serious challenge for model development. Many publications study efficient parallelization to allow better scaling of performance on an increasing number of computing cores. However, one of the most alarming threats for weather and climate predictions on future high performance computing architectures is widely ignored: the presence of hardware faults that will frequently hit large applications as we approach exascale supercomputing. Changes in the structure of weather and climate models that would allow them to be resilient against hardware faults are hardly discussed in the model development community. In this paper, we present an approach to secure the dynamical core of weather and climate models against hardware faults using a backup system that stores coarse resolution copies of prognostic variables. Frequent checks of the model fields on the backup grid allow the detection of severe hardware faults, and prognostic variables that are changed by hardware faults on the model grid can be restored from the backup grid to continue model simulations with no significant delay. To justify the approach, we perform model simulations with a C-grid shallow water model in the presence of frequent hardware faults. As long as the backup system is used, simulations do not crash and a high level of model quality can be maintained. The overhead due to the backup system is reasonable and additional storage requirements are small. Runtime is increased by only 13 % for the shallow water model.

An approach to secure weather and climate models against hardware faults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Düben, Peter; Dawson, Andrew

2017-04-01

Enabling Earth System models to run efficiently on future supercomputers is a serious challenge for model development. Many publications study efficient parallelisation to allow better scaling of performance on an increasing number of computing cores. However, one of the most alarming threats for weather and climate predictions on future high performance computing architectures is widely ignored: the presence of hardware faults that will frequently hit large applications as we approach exascale supercomputing. Changes in the structure of weather and climate models that would allow them to be resilient against hardware faults are hardly discussed in the model development community. We present an approach to secure the dynamical core of weather and climate models against hardware faults using a backup system that stores coarse resolution copies of prognostic variables. Frequent checks of the model fields on the backup grid allow the detection of severe hardware faults, and prognostic variables that are changed by hardware faults on the model grid can be restored from the backup grid to continue model simulations with no significant delay. To justify the approach, we perform simulations with a C-grid shallow water model in the presence of frequent hardware faults. As long as the backup system is used, simulations do not crash and a high level of model quality can be maintained. The overhead due to the backup system is reasonable and additional storage requirements are small. Runtime is increased by only 13% for the shallow water model.

Statistical Analysis of Complexity Generators for Cost Estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rowell, Ginger Holmes

1999-01-01

Predicting the cost of cutting edge new technologies involved with spacecraft hardware can be quite complicated. A new feature of the NASA Air Force Cost Model (NAFCOM), called the Complexity Generator, is being developed to model the complexity factors that drive the cost of space hardware. This parametric approach is also designed to account for the differences in cost, based on factors that are unique to each system and subsystem. The cost driver categories included in this model are weight, inheritance from previous missions, technical complexity, and management factors. This paper explains the Complexity Generator framework, the statistical methods used to select the best model within this framework, and the procedures used to find the region of predictability and the prediction intervals for the cost of a mission.

Choice of word length in the design of a specialized hardware for lossless wavelet compression of medical images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Urriza, Isidro; Barragan, Luis A.; Artigas, Jose I.; Garcia, Jose I.; Navarro, Denis

1997-11-01

Image compression plays an important role in the archiving and transmission of medical images. Discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based compression methods are not suitable for medical images because of block-like image artifacts that could mask or be mistaken for pathology. Wavelet transforms (WTs) are used to overcome this problem. When implementing WTs in hardware, finite precision arithmetic introduces quantization errors. However, lossless compression is usually required in the medical image field. Thus, the hardware designer must look for the optimum register length that, while ensuring the lossless accuracy criteria, will also lead to a high-speed implementation with small chip area. In addition, wavelet choice is a critical issue that affects image quality as well as system design. We analyze the filters best suited to image compression that appear in the literature. For them, we obtain the maximum quantization errors produced in the calculation of the WT components. Thus, we deduce the minimum word length required for the reconstructed image to be numerically identical to the original image. The theoretical results are compared with experimental results obtained from algorithm simulations on random test images. These results enable us to compare the hardware implementation cost of the different filter banks. Moreover, to reduce the word length, we have analyzed the case of increasing the integer part of the numbers while maintaining constant the word length when the scale increases.

Advanced flight hardware for organic separations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deuser, Mark S.; Vellinger, John C.; Weber, John T.

1997-01-01

Aqueous Two-Phase Partitioning (ATPP) is a unique separation technique which allows purification and classification of biological materials. SHOT has employed the ATPP process in separation equipment developed for both space and ground applications. Initial equipment development and research focused on the ORganic SEParation (ORSEP) space flight experiments that were performed on suborbital rockets and the shuttle. ADvanced SEParations (ADSEP) technology was developed as the next generation of ORSEP equipment through a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract. Under the SBIR contract, a marketing study was conducted, indicating a growing commercial market exists among biotechnology firms for ADSEP equipment and associated flight research and development services. SHOT is preparing to begin manufacturing and marketing laboratory versions of the ADSEP hardware for the ground-based market. In addition, through a self-financed SBIR Phase III effort, SHOT fabricated and integrated the ADSEP flight hardware for a commercially-driven flight experiment as the initial step in marketing space processing services. The ADSEP ground-based and microgravity research is expected to play a vital role in developing important new biomedical and pharmaceutical products.

Hardware cleanliness methodology and certification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harvey, Gale A.; Lash, Thomas J.; Rawls, J. Richard

1995-01-01

Inadequacy of mass loss cleanliness criteria for selection of materials for contamination sensitive uses, and processing of flight hardware for contamination sensitive instruments is discussed. Materials selection for flight hardware is usually based on mass loss (ASTM E-595). However, flight hardware cleanliness (MIL 1246A) is a surface cleanliness assessment. It is possible for materials (e.g. Sil-Pad 2000) to pass ASTM E-595 and fail MIL 1246A class A by orders of magnitude. Conversely, it is possible for small amounts of nonconforming material (Huma-Seal conformal coating) to not present significant cleanliness problems to an optical flight instrument. Effective cleaning (precleaning, precision cleaning, and ultra cleaning) and cleanliness verification are essential for contamination sensitive flight instruments. Polish cleaning of hardware, e.g. vacuum baking for vacuum applications, and storage of clean hardware, e.g. laser optics, is discussed. Silicone materials present special concerns for use in space because of the rapid conversion of the outgassed residues to glass by solar ultraviolet radiation and/or atomic oxygen. Non ozone depleting solvent cleaning and institutional support for cleaning and certification are also discussed.

Mechanically verified hardware implementing an 8-bit parallel IO Byzantine agreement processor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moore, J. Strother

1992-01-01

Consider a network of four processors that use the Oral Messages (Byzantine Generals) Algorithm of Pease, Shostak, and Lamport to achieve agreement in the presence of faults. Bevier and Young have published a functional description of a single processor that, when interconnected appropriately with three identical others, implements this network under the assumption that the four processors step in synchrony. By formalizing the original Pease, et al work, Bevier and Young mechanically proved that such a network achieves fault tolerance. We develop, formalize, and discuss a hardware design that has been mechanically proven to implement their processor. In particular, we formally define mapping functions from the abstract state space of the Bevier-Young processor to a concrete state space of a hardware module and state a theorem that expresses the claim that the hardware correctly implements the processor. We briefly discuss the Brock-Hunt Formal Hardware Description Language which permits designs both to be proved correct with the Boyer-Moore theorem prover and to be expressed in a commercially supported hardware description language for additional electrical analysis and layout. We briefly describe our implementation.

16 CFR 1509.7 - Hardware.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... NON-FULL-SIZE BABY CRIBS § 1509.7 Hardware. (a) The hardware in a non-full-size baby crib shall be... abuse. (b) Non-full-size baby cribs shall incorporate locking or latching devices for dropsides or... non-full-size baby crib. ...

Verifying Dissolution Of Wax From Hardware Surfaces

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Montoya, Benjamina G.

1995-01-01

Wax removed by cleaning solvent revealed by cooling solution with liquid nitrogen. Such improved procedure and test needed in case of hardware that must be protected by wax during machining or plating but required to be free of wax during subsequent use. Improved cleaning procedure and test take less than 5 minutes. Does not require special skill or equipment and performs at cleaning site. In addition, enables recovery of all cleaning solvent.

Use of Shuttle Heritage Hardware in Space Launch System (SLS) Application-Structural Assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aggarwal, Pravin; Booker, James N.

2018-01-01

NASA is moving forward with the development of the next generation system of human spaceflight to meet the Nation's goals of human space exploration. To meet these goals, NASA is aggressively pursuing the development of an integrated architecture and capabilities for safe crewed and cargo missions beyond low-Earth orbit. Two important tenets critical to the achievement of NASA's strategic objectives are Affordability and Safety. The Space Launch System (SLS) is a heavy-lift launch vehicle being designed/developed to meet these goals. The SLS Block 1 configuration (Figure 1) will be used for the first Exploration Mission (EM-1). It utilizes existing hardware from the Space Shuttle inventory, as much as possible, to save cost and expedite the schedule. SLS Block 1 Elements include the Core Stage, "Heritage" Boosters, Heritage Engines, and the Integrated Spacecraft and Payload Element (ISPE) consisting of the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter (LVSA), the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Stage Adapter (MSA), and an Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) for Earth orbit escape and beyond-Earth orbit in-space propulsive maneuvers. When heritage hardware is used in a new application, it requires a systematic evaluation of its qualification. In addition, there are previously-documented Lessons Learned (Table -1) in this area cautioning the need of a rigorous evaluation in any new application. This paper will exemplify the systematic qualification/assessment efforts made to qualify the application of Heritage Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) hardware in SLS. This paper describes the testing and structural assessment performed to ensure the application is acceptable for intended use without having any adverse impact to Safety. It will further address elements such as Loads, Material Properties and Manufacturing, Testing, Analysis, Failure Criterion and Factor of Safety (FS) considerations made to reach the conclusion and recommendation.

Hardware multiplier processor

DOEpatents

Pierce, Paul E.

1986-01-01

A hardware processor is disclosed which in the described embodiment is a memory mapped multiplier processor that can operate in parallel with a 16 bit microcomputer. The multiplier processor decodes the address bus to receive specific instructions so that in one access it can write and automatically perform single or double precision multiplication involving a number written to it with or without addition or subtraction with a previously stored number. It can also, on a single read command automatically round and scale a previously stored number. The multiplier processor includes two concatenated 16 bit multiplier registers, two 16 bit concatenated 16 bit multipliers, and four 16 bit product registers connected to an internal 16 bit data bus. A high level address decoder determines when the multiplier processor is being addressed and first and second low level address decoders generate control signals. In addition, certain low order address lines are used to carry uncoded control signals. First and second control circuits coupled to the decoders generate further control signals and generate a plurality of clocking pulse trains in response to the decoded and address control signals.

Hardware multiplier processor

DOEpatents

Pierce, P.E.

A hardware processor is disclosed which in the described embodiment is a memory mapped multiplier processor that can operate in parallel with a 16 bit microcomputer. The multiplier processor decodes the address bus to receive specific instructions so that in one access it can write and automatically perform single or double precision multiplication involving a number written to it with or without addition or subtraction with a previously stored number. It can also, on a single read command automatically round and scale a previously stored number. The multiplier processor includes two concatenated 16 bit multiplier registers, two 16 bit concatenated 16 bit multipliers, and four 16 bit product registers connected to an internal 16 bit data bus. A high level address decoder determines when the multiplier processor is being addressed and first and second low level address decoders generate control signals. In addition, certain low order address lines are used to carry uncoded control signals. First and second control circuits coupled to the decoders generate further control signals and generate a plurality of clocking pulse trains in response to the decoded and address control signals.

Neural network hardware and software solutions for sorting of waste plastics for recycling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stanton, S.L.; Alam, M.K.; Hebner, G.A.

1992-12-31

While plastic recycling efforts have expanded during the past several years, the cost of recovering plastics is still a major impediment for recyclers. Several factors contribute to the prohibitive cost of recycled resins, including the present low marketability of products made with mixed recycled materials, and costs of collecting, sorting and reprocessing plastic materials. A method for automatic sorting of post-consumer plastics into pure polymer streams is needed to overcome the inaccuracies and low product throughput of the currently used method of hand sorting of waste plastics for recycling. The Society of Plastics has designated seven categories as recyclable: Polyethylenemore » terephthalate (PET); High Density Polyethylene (HDPE); Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC); Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE); Polypropylene (PP); Polystyrene (PS); and Other (mixtures, layered items, etc.). With these categories in mind, a system for sorting of waste plastics using near-infrared reflectance spectra and a backpropagation neural network classifier has been developed. A solution has been demonstrated in the laboratory using a high resolution, and relatively slow instrument. A faster instrument is being developed at this time. Neural network hardware options have been evaluated for use in a real-time industrial system. In the lab, a Fourier transform Near Infrared (FT-NIR) scanning spectrometer was used to gather reflectance data from various locations on samples of actual waste plastics. Neural networks were trained off-line with this data using the NeuralWorks Professional II Plus software package on a SparcStation 2. One of the successfully trained networks was used to compare the neural accelerator hardware options available. The results of running this ``worst case`` network on the neural network hardware will be presented. The AT&T ANNA chip and the Intel 80170NX chip development system were used to determine the ease of implementation and accuracies for this network.« less

Neural network hardware and software solutions for sorting of waste plastics for recycling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stanton, S.L.; Alam, M.K.; Hebner, G.A.

1992-01-01

While plastic recycling efforts have expanded during the past several years, the cost of recovering plastics is still a major impediment for recyclers. Several factors contribute to the prohibitive cost of recycled resins, including the present low marketability of products made with mixed recycled materials, and costs of collecting, sorting and reprocessing plastic materials. A method for automatic sorting of post-consumer plastics into pure polymer streams is needed to overcome the inaccuracies and low product throughput of the currently used method of hand sorting of waste plastics for recycling. The Society of Plastics has designated seven categories as recyclable: Polyethylenemore » terephthalate (PET); High Density Polyethylene (HDPE); Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC); Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE); Polypropylene (PP); Polystyrene (PS); and Other (mixtures, layered items, etc.). With these categories in mind, a system for sorting of waste plastics using near-infrared reflectance spectra and a backpropagation neural network classifier has been developed. A solution has been demonstrated in the laboratory using a high resolution, and relatively slow instrument. A faster instrument is being developed at this time. Neural network hardware options have been evaluated for use in a real-time industrial system. In the lab, a Fourier transform Near Infrared (FT-NIR) scanning spectrometer was used to gather reflectance data from various locations on samples of actual waste plastics. Neural networks were trained off-line with this data using the NeuralWorks Professional II Plus software package on a SparcStation 2. One of the successfully trained networks was used to compare the neural accelerator hardware options available. The results of running this worst case'' network on the neural network hardware will be presented. The AT T ANNA chip and the Intel 80170NX chip development system were used to determine the ease of implementation and accuracies for this network.« less

ZEUS hardware control system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loveless, R.; Erhard, P.; Ficenec, J.; Gather, K.; Heath, G.; Iacovacci, M.; Kehres, J.; Mobayyen, M.; Notz, D.; Orr, R.; Orr, R.; Sephton, A.; Stroili, R.; Tokushuku, K.; Vogel, W.; Whitmore, J.; Wiggers, L.

1989-12-01

The ZEUS collaboration is building a system to monitor, control and document the hardware of the ZEUS detector. This system is based on a network of VAX computers and microprocessors connected via ethernet. The database for the hardware values will be ADAMO tables; the ethernet connection will be DECNET, TCP/IP, or RPC. Most of the documentation will also be kept in ADAMO tables for easy access by users.

Space Station Freedom electrical power system hardware commonality with the United States Polar Platform

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rieker, Lorra L.; Haraburda, Francis M.

1989-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has adopted the policy to achieve the maximum practical level of commonality for the Space Station Freedom program in order to significantly reduce life cycle costs. Commonality means using identical or similar hardware/software for meeting common sets of functionally similar requirements. Information on how the concept of commonality is being implemented with respect to electric power system hardware for the Space Station Freedom and the U.S. Polar Platform is presented. Included is a historical account of the candidate common items which have the potential to serve the same power system functions on both Freedom and the Polar Platform.

Kedalion: NASA's Adaptable and Agile Hardware/Software Integration and Test Lab

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mangieri, Mark L.; Vice, Jason

2011-01-01

NASA fs Kedalion engineering analysis lab at Johnson Space Center is on the forefront of validating and using many contemporary avionics hardware/software development and integration techniques, which represent new paradigms to heritage NASA culture. Kedalion has validated many of the Orion hardware/software engineering techniques borrowed from the adjacent commercial aircraft avionics solution space, with the intention to build upon such techniques to better align with today fs aerospace market. Using agile techniques, commercial products, early rapid prototyping, in-house expertise and tools, and customer collaboration, Kedalion has demonstrated that cost effective contemporary paradigms hold the promise to serve future NASA endeavors within a diverse range of system domains. Kedalion provides a readily adaptable solution for medium/large scale integration projects. The Kedalion lab is currently serving as an in-line resource for the project and the Multipurpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) program.

Hardware cloth seed-spot screens reduce high surface soil temperature

Treesearch

H.A. Fowells; R.K. Arnold

1939-01-01

Screens made of hardware cloth are commonly used to protect seed-spots in forest plantations from the depredations of birds and rodents. It is important to know whether or not the screens influence germination and survival of seedlings in addition to furnishing protection against animals.

Openstage: A Low-Cost Motorized Microscope Stage with Sub-Micron Positioning Accuracy

PubMed Central

Campbell, Robert A. A.; Eifert, Robert W.; Turner, Glenn C.

2014-01-01

Recent progress in intracellular calcium sensors and other fluorophores has promoted the widespread adoption of functional optical imaging in the life sciences. Home-built multiphoton microscopes are easy to build, highly customizable, and cost effective. For many imaging applications a 3-axis motorized stage is critical, but commercially available motorization hardware (motorized translators, controller boxes, etc) are often very expensive. Furthermore, the firmware on commercial motor controllers cannot easily be altered and is not usually designed with a microscope stage in mind. Here we describe an open-source motorization solution that is simple to construct, yet far cheaper and more customizable than commercial offerings. The cost of the controller and motorization hardware are under $1000. Hardware costs are kept low by replacing linear actuators with high quality stepper motors. Electronics are assembled from commonly available hobby components, which are easy to work with. Here we describe assembly of the system and quantify the positioning accuracy of all three axes. We obtain positioning repeatability of the order of in X/Y and in Z. A hand-held control-pad allows the user to direct stage motion precisely over a wide range of speeds ( to ), rapidly store and return to different locations, and execute “jumps” of a fixed size. In addition, the system can be controlled from a PC serial port. Our “OpenStage” controller is sufficiently flexible that it could be used to drive other devices, such as micro-manipulators, with minimal modifications. PMID:24586468

Cost Optimization and Technology Enablement COTSAT-1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spremo, Stevan; Lindsay, Michael C.; Klupar, Peter Damian; Swank, Aaron J.

2010-01-01

Cost Optimized Test of Spacecraft Avionics and Technologies (COTSAT-1) is an ongoing spacecraft research and development project at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC). The space industry was a hot bed of innovation and development at its birth. Many new technologies were developed for and first demonstrated in space. In the recent past this trend has reversed with most of the new technology funding and research being driven by the private industry. Most of the recent advances in spaceflight hardware have come from the cell phone industry with a lag of about 10 to 15 years from lab demonstration to in space usage. NASA has started a project designed to address this problem. The prototype spacecraft known as Cost Optimized Test of Spacecraft Avionics and Technologies (COTSAT-1) and CheapSat work to reduce these issues. This paper highlights the approach taken by NASA Ames Research center to achieve significant subsystem cost reductions. The COSTAT-1 research system design incorporates use of COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf), MOTS (Modified Off The Shelf), and GOTS (Government Off The Shelf) hardware for a remote sensing spacecraft. The COTSAT-1 team demonstrated building a fully functional spacecraft for $500K parts and $2.0M labor. The COTSAT-1 system, including a selected science payload, is described within this paper. Many of the advancements identified in the process of cost reduction can be attributed to the use of a one-atmosphere pressurized structure to house the spacecraft components. By using COTS hardware, the spacecraft program can utilize investments already made by commercial vendors. This ambitious project development philosophy/cycle has yielded the COTSAT-1 flight hardware. This paper highlights the advancements of the COTSAT-1 spacecraft leading to the delivery of the current flight hardware that is now located at NASA Ames Research Center. This paper also addresses the plans for COTSAT-2.

NDAS Hardware Translation Layer Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nazaretian, Ryan N.; Holladay, Wendy T.

2011-01-01

The NASA Data Acquisition System (NDAS) project is aimed to replace all DAS software for NASA s Rocket Testing Facilities. There must be a software-hardware translation layer so the software can properly talk to the hardware. Since the hardware from each test stand varies, drivers for each stand have to be made. These drivers will act more like plugins for the software. If the software is being used in E3, then the software should point to the E3 driver package. If the software is being used at B2, then the software should point to the B2 driver package. The driver packages should also be filled with hardware drivers that are universal to the DAS system. For example, since A1, A2, and B2 all use the Preston 8300AU signal conditioners, then the driver for those three stands should be the same and updated collectively.

Hardware for dynamic quantum computing.

PubMed

Ryan, Colm A; Johnson, Blake R; Ristè, Diego; Donovan, Brian; Ohki, Thomas A

2017-10-01

We describe the hardware, gateware, and software developed at Raytheon BBN Technologies for dynamic quantum information processing experiments on superconducting qubits. In dynamic experiments, real-time qubit state information is fed back or fed forward within a fraction of the qubits' coherence time to dynamically change the implemented sequence. The hardware presented here covers both control and readout of superconducting qubits. For readout, we created a custom signal processing gateware and software stack on commercial hardware to convert pulses in a heterodyne receiver into qubit state assignments with minimal latency, alongside data taking capability. For control, we developed custom hardware with gateware and software for pulse sequencing and steering information distribution that is capable of arbitrary control flow in a fraction of superconducting qubit coherence times. Both readout and control platforms make extensive use of field programmable gate arrays to enable tailored qubit control systems in a reconfigurable fabric suitable for iterative development.

Automatic Digital Hardware Synthesis

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-09-01

VHDL to PALASM, a hardware synthesis language. The PALASM description is then directly implemented into a field programmable gate array (FPGAI using...process of translating VHDL to PALASM, a hardware synthesis language. The PALASM description is then directly implemented into a field programmable gate...allows the engineer to use VHDL to create and validate a design, and then to implement it in a gate array. The development of software o translate VHDL

Thermal Hardware for the Thermal Analyst

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Steinfeld, David

2015-01-01

The presentation will be given at the 26th Annual Thermal Fluids Analysis Workshop (TFAWS 2015) hosted by the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Thermal Engineering Branch (Code 545). NCTS 21070-1. Most Thermal analysts do not have a good background into the hardware which thermally controls the spacecraft they design. SINDA and Thermal Desktop models are nice, but knowing how this applies to the actual thermal hardware (heaters, thermostats, thermistors, MLI blanketing, optical coatings, etc...) is just as important. The course will delve into the thermal hardware and their application techniques on actual spacecraft. Knowledge of how thermal hardware is used and applied will make a thermal analyst a better engineer.

Hardware device binding and mutual authentication

DOEpatents

Hamlet, Jason R; Pierson, Lyndon G

2014-03-04

Detection and deterrence of device tampering and subversion by substitution may be achieved by including a cryptographic unit within a computing device for binding multiple hardware devices and mutually authenticating the devices. The cryptographic unit includes a physically unclonable function ("PUF") circuit disposed in or on the hardware device, which generates a binding PUF value. The cryptographic unit uses the binding PUF value during an enrollment phase and subsequent authentication phases. During a subsequent authentication phase, the cryptographic unit uses the binding PUF values of the multiple hardware devices to generate a challenge to send to the other device, and to verify a challenge received from the other device to mutually authenticate the hardware devices.

Hardware and software reliability estimation using simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Swern, Frederic L.

1994-01-01

The simulation technique is used to explore the validation of both hardware and software. It was concluded that simulation is a viable means for validating both hardware and software and associating a reliability number with each. This is useful in determining the overall probability of system failure of an embedded processor unit, and improving both the code and the hardware where necessary to meet reliability requirements. The methodologies were proved using some simple programs, and simple hardware models.

A Modular Framework for Modeling Hardware Elements in Distributed Engine Control Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zinnecker, Alicia M.; Culley, Dennis E.; Aretskin-Hariton, Eliot D.

2014-01-01

Progress toward the implementation of distributed engine control in an aerospace application may be accelerated through the development of a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system for testing new control architectures and hardware outside of a physical test cell environment. One component required in an HIL simulation system is a high-fidelity model of the control platform: sensors, actuators, and the control law. The control system developed for the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation 40k (C-MAPSS40k) provides a verifiable baseline for development of a model for simulating a distributed control architecture. This distributed controller model will contain enhanced hardware models, capturing the dynamics of the transducer and the effects of data processing, and a model of the controller network. A multilevel framework is presented that establishes three sets of interfaces in the control platform: communication with the engine (through sensors and actuators), communication between hardware and controller (over a network), and the physical connections within individual pieces of hardware. This introduces modularity at each level of the model, encouraging collaboration in the development and testing of various control schemes or hardware designs. At the hardware level, this modularity is leveraged through the creation of a Simulink(R) library containing blocks for constructing smart transducer models complying with the IEEE 1451 specification. These hardware models were incorporated in a distributed version of the baseline C-MAPSS40k controller and simulations were run to compare the performance of the two models. The overall tracking ability differed only due to quantization effects in the feedback measurements in the distributed controller. Additionally, it was also found that the added complexity of the smart transducer models did not prevent real-time operation of the distributed controller model, a requirement of an HIL system.

A Modular Framework for Modeling Hardware Elements in Distributed Engine Control Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zinnecker, Alicia M.; Culley, Dennis E.; Aretskin-Hariton, Eliot D.

2015-01-01

Progress toward the implementation of distributed engine control in an aerospace application may be accelerated through the development of a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system for testing new control architectures and hardware outside of a physical test cell environment. One component required in an HIL simulation system is a high-fidelity model of the control platform: sensors, actuators, and the control law. The control system developed for the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation 40k (C-MAPSS40k) provides a verifiable baseline for development of a model for simulating a distributed control architecture. This distributed controller model will contain enhanced hardware models, capturing the dynamics of the transducer and the effects of data processing, and a model of the controller network. A multilevel framework is presented that establishes three sets of interfaces in the control platform: communication with the engine (through sensors and actuators), communication between hardware and controller (over a network), and the physical connections within individual pieces of hardware. This introduces modularity at each level of the model, encouraging collaboration in the development and testing of various control schemes or hardware designs. At the hardware level, this modularity is leveraged through the creation of a SimulinkR library containing blocks for constructing smart transducer models complying with the IEEE 1451 specification. These hardware models were incorporated in a distributed version of the baseline C-MAPSS40k controller and simulations were run to compare the performance of the two models. The overall tracking ability differed only due to quantization effects in the feedback measurements in the distributed controller. Additionally, it was also found that the added complexity of the smart transducer models did not prevent real-time operation of the distributed controller model, a requirement of an HIL system.

A Modular Framework for Modeling Hardware Elements in Distributed Engine Control Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zinnecker, Alicia Mae; Culley, Dennis E.; Aretskin-Hariton, Eliot D.

2014-01-01

Progress toward the implementation of distributed engine control in an aerospace application may be accelerated through the development of a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system for testing new control architectures and hardware outside of a physical test cell environment. One component required in an HIL simulation system is a high-fidelity model of the control platform: sensors, actuators, and the control law. The control system developed for the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation 40k (40,000 pound force thrust) (C-MAPSS40k) provides a verifiable baseline for development of a model for simulating a distributed control architecture. This distributed controller model will contain enhanced hardware models, capturing the dynamics of the transducer and the effects of data processing, and a model of the controller network. A multilevel framework is presented that establishes three sets of interfaces in the control platform: communication with the engine (through sensors and actuators), communication between hardware and controller (over a network), and the physical connections within individual pieces of hardware. This introduces modularity at each level of the model, encouraging collaboration in the development and testing of various control schemes or hardware designs. At the hardware level, this modularity is leveraged through the creation of a Simulink (R) library containing blocks for constructing smart transducer models complying with the IEEE 1451 specification. These hardware models were incorporated in a distributed version of the baseline C-MAPSS40k controller and simulations were run to compare the performance of the two models. The overall tracking ability differed only due to quantization effects in the feedback measurements in the distributed controller. Additionally, it was also found that the added complexity of the smart transducer models did not prevent real-time operation of the distributed controller model, a requirement of an HIL

Cost estimating methods for advanced space systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cyr, Kelley

1994-01-01

NASA is responsible for developing much of the nation's future space technology. Cost estimates for new programs are required early in the planning process so that decisions can be made accurately. Because of the long lead times required to develop space hardware, the cost estimates are frequently required 10 to 15 years before the program delivers hardware. The system design in conceptual phases of a program is usually only vaguely defined and the technology used is so often state-of-the-art or beyond. These factors combine to make cost estimating for conceptual programs very challenging. This paper describes an effort to develop parametric cost estimating methods for space systems in the conceptual design phase. The approach is to identify variables that drive cost such as weight, quantity, development culture, design inheritance and time. The nature of the relationships between the driver variables and cost will be discussed. In particular, the relationship between weight and cost will be examined in detail. A theoretical model of cost will be developed and tested statistically against a historical database of major research and development projects.

A Common Approach for the Certifying of International Space Station (ISS) Basic Hardware for Ground Safety

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kirkpatrick, Paul D.; Trinchero, Jean-Pierre

2005-01-01

In order to support the International Space Station, as well as any future long term human missions, vast amounts of logistical-type hardware is required to be processed through the various launch sites. This category consists of such hardware as spare parts, replacement items, and upgraded hardware. The category also includes samples for experiments and consumables. One attribute that all these items have is they are generally non-hazardous, at least to ground personnel. Even though the items are non-hazardous, launch site ground safety has a responsibility for the protection of personnel, the flight hardware, and launch site resources. In order to fulfill this responsibility, the safety organization must have knowledge of the hardware and its operations. Conversely, the hardware providers are entitled to a process that is commensurate with the hazard. Additionally, a common system should be in place that is flexible enough to account for the requirements at all launch sites, so that, the hardware provider need only complete one process for ground safety regardless of the launch site.

Comparing fixation used for calcaneal displacement osteotomies: a look at removal rates and cost.

PubMed

Lucas, Douglas E; Simpson, G Alex; Philbin, Terrence M

2015-02-01

The calcaneal displacement osteotomy is a procedure frequently used by foot and ankle surgeons for hindfoot angular deformity. Traditional techniques use compression screw fixation that can result in prominent hardware. While the results of the procedure are generally good, a common concern is the development of plantar heel pain related to prominent hardware. The primary purpose of this study is to retrospectively compare clinical outcomes of 2 fixation methods for the osteotomy. Secondarily a cost analysis will compare implant costs to hardware removal costs. Records were reviewed for patients who had undergone a calcaneal displacement osteotomy fixated with either lag screw or a locked lateral compression plate (LLCP). Neuropathy, previous ipsilateral calcaneus surgery, heel pad trauma, or incomplete radiographic follow-up were exclusionary. Thirty-two patients (19.4%) required hardware removal from the screw fixation group compared to 1 (1.6%) of the LLCP group, which is significant (P < .05). Time to radiographic healing was not significantly different (P = .87). The screw fixation group required more follow-up visits over a longer period of time (P < .05). Implant cost was remarkably different with screw fixation costing on average $247.12, compared to the LLCP costing $1175.59. Although the LLCP cost was significantly higher, cost savings were identified when the cost of removal and removal rates were included. This study demonstrates that this device provides adequate stabilization for healing in equivalent time to screw fixation. The LLCP required decreased rates of hardware removal with fewer postoperative visits over a shorter period of time. Significant savings were demonstrated in the LLCP group despite the higher implant cost. Therapeutic, Level III, Retrospective Comparative Study. © 2014 The Author(s).

The Hidden Costs of Owning a Microcomputer.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDole, Thomas L.

Before purchasing computer hardware, individuals must consider the costs associated with the setup and operation of a microcomputer system. Included among the initial costs of purchasing a computer are the costs of the computer, one or more disk drives, a monitor, and a printer as well as the costs of such optional peripheral devices as a plotter…

Hardware in the Loop Testing of an Iodine-Fed Hall Thruster

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Polzin, Kurt A.; Peeples, Steven R.; Cecil, Jim; Lewis, Brandon L.; Molina Fraticelli, Jose C.; Clark, James P.

2015-01-01

CUBESATS are relatively new spacecraft platforms that are typically deployed from a launch vehicle as a secondary payload,1 providing low-cost access to space for a wide range of end-users. These satellites are comprised of building blocks having dimensions of 10x10x10 cm cu and a mass of 1.33 kg (a 1-U size). While providing low-cost access to space, a major operational limitation is the lack of a propulsion system that can fit within a CubeSat and is capable of executing high delta v maneuvers. This makes it difficult to use CubeSats on missions requiring certain types of maneuvers (i.e. formation flying, spacecraft rendezvous). Recently, work has been performed investigating the use of iodine as a propellant for Hall-effect thrusters (HETs) 2 that could subsequently be used to provide a high specific impulse path to CubeSat propulsion. Iodine stores as a dense solid at very low pressures, making it acceptable as a propellant on a secondary payload. It has exceptionally high ?Isp (density times specific impulse), making it an enabling technology for small satellite near-term applications and providing the potential for systems-level advantages over mid-term high power electric propulsion options. Iodine flow can also be thermally regulated, subliming at relatively low temperature ( less than100 C) to yield I2 vapor at or below 50 torr. At low power, the measured performance of an iodine-fed HET is very similar to that of a state-of-the-art xenon-fed thruster. Just as importantly, the current-voltage discharge characteristics of low power iodine-fed and xenon-fed thrusters are remarkably similar, potentially reducing development and qualifications costs by making it possible to use an already-qualified xenon-HET PPU in an iodine-fed system. Finally, a cold surface can be installed in a vacuum test chamber on which expended iodine propellant can deposit. In addition, the temperature doesn't have to be extremely cold to maintain a low vapor pressure in the vacuum

Evaluation of hardware costs of implementing PSK signal detection circuit based on "system on chip"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sokolovskiy, A. V.; Dmitriev, D. D.; Veisov, E. A.; Gladyshev, A. B.

2018-05-01

The article deals with the choice of the architecture of digital signal processing units for implementing the PSK signal detection scheme. As an assessment of the effectiveness of architectures, the required number of shift registers and computational processes are used when implementing the "system on a chip" on the chip. A statistical estimation of the normalized code sequence offset in the signal synchronization scheme for various hardware block architectures is used.

Marine Corps IT Hardware: A Method for Categorizing and Determining Technology Refreshment Cycles

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-01

PPB&E Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution xiv ROI return on investment SABRS Standard Accounting, Budgeting and Reporting System...and manage IT assets are the Standard Accounting, Budgeting and Reporting System ( SABRS ), the Total Force Structure Management System (TFSMS), and...Defense Property Accountability System (DPAS). The TFSMS and DPAS systems account for the physical hardware assets, while SABRS accounts for costs

Wireless Energy Harvesting Two-Way Relay Networks with Hardware Impairments.

PubMed

Peng, Chunling; Li, Fangwei; Liu, Huaping

2017-11-13

This paper considers a wireless energy harvesting two-way relay (TWR) network where the relay has energy-harvesting abilities and the effects of practical hardware impairments are taken into consideration. In particular, power splitting (PS) receiver is adopted at relay to harvests the power it needs for relaying the information between the source nodes from the signals transmitted by the source nodes, and hardware impairments is assumed suffered by each node. We analyze the effect of hardware impairments [-20]on both decode-and-forward (DF) relaying and amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying networks. By utilizing the obtained new expressions of signal-to-noise-plus-distortion ratios, the exact analytical expressions of the achievable sum rate and ergodic capacities for both DF and AF relaying protocols are derived. Additionally, the optimal power splitting (OPS) ratio that maximizes the instantaneous achievable sum rate is formulated and solved for both protocols. The performances of DF and AF protocols are evaluated via numerical results, which also show the effects of various network parameters on the system performance and on the OPS ratio design.

Hardware Simulations of Spacecraft Attitude Synchronization Using Lyapunov-Based Controllers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jung, Juno; Park, Sang-Young; Eun, Youngho; Kim, Sung-Woo; Park, Chandeok

2018-04-01

In the near future, space missions with multiple spacecraft are expected to replace traditional missions with a single large spacecraft. These spacecraft formation flying missions generally require precise knowledge of relative position and attitude between neighboring agents. In this study, among the several challenging issues, we focus on the technique to control spacecraft attitude synchronization in formation. We develop a number of nonlinear control schemes based on the Lyapunov stability theorem and considering special situations: full-state feedback control, full-state feedback control with unknown inertia parameters, and output feedback control without angular velocity measurements. All the proposed controllers offer absolute and relative control using reaction wheel assembly for both regulator and tracking problems. In addition to the numerical simulations, an air-bearing-based hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system is used to verify the proposed control laws in real-time hardware environments. The pointing errors converge to 0.5{°} with numerical simulations and to 2{°} using the HIL system. Consequently, both numerical and hardware simulations confirm the performance of the spacecraft attitude synchronization algorithms developed in this study.

Distributed Wind Soft Costs: A Beginning

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jimenez, Tony; Forsyth,Trudy; Preus, Robert

2016-06-14

Tony Jimenez presented this overview of distributed wind soft costs at the 2016 Small Wind Conference in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on June 14, 2016. Soft costs are any non-hardware project costs, such as costs related to permitting fees, installer/developer profit, taxes, transaction costs, permitting, installation, indirect corporate costs, installation labor, and supply chain costs. This presentation provides an overview of soft costs, a distributed wind project taxonomy (of which soft costs are a subset), an alpha data set project demographics, data summary, and future work in this area.

Hardware friendly probabilistic spiking neural network with long-term and short-term plasticity.

PubMed

Hsieh, Hung-Yi; Tang, Kea-Tiong

2013-12-01

This paper proposes a probabilistic spiking neural network (PSNN) with unimodal weight distribution, possessing long- and short-term plasticity. The proposed algorithm is derived by both the arithmetic gradient decent calculation and bioinspired algorithms. The algorithm is benchmarked by the Iris and Wisconsin breast cancer (WBC) data sets. The network features fast convergence speed and high accuracy. In the experiment, the PSNN took not more than 40 epochs for convergence. The average testing accuracy for Iris and WBC data is 96.7% and 97.2%, respectively. To test the usefulness of the PSNN to real world application, the PSNN was also tested with the odor data, which was collected by our self-developed electronic nose (e-nose). Compared with the algorithm (K-nearest neighbor) that has the highest classification accuracy in the e-nose for the same odor data, the classification accuracy of the PSNN is only 1.3% less but the memory requirement can be reduced at least 40%. All the experiments suggest that the PSNN is hardware friendly. First, it requires only nine-bits weight resolution for training and testing. Second, the PSNN can learn complex data sets with a little number of neurons that in turn reduce the cost of VLSI implementation. In addition, the algorithm is insensitive to synaptic noise and the parameter variation induced by the VLSI fabrication. Therefore, the algorithm can be implemented by either software or hardware, making it suitable for wider application.

Demonstration of Datacenter Automation Software and Hardware (DASH) at the California Franchise Tax Board

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bell, Geoffrey C.; Federspiel, Clifford

Control software and wireless sensors designed for closed-loop, monitoring and control of IT equipment's inlet air temperatures in datacenters were evaluated and tested while other datacenter cooling best practices were implemented. The controls software and hardware along with each best practice were installed sequentially and evaluated using a measurement and verification procedure between each measure. The results show that the overall project eliminates 475,239 kWh per year, which is 21.3percent of the baseline energy consumption of the data center. The total project, including the best practices will save $42,772 per year and cost $134,057 yielding a simple payback of 3.1more » years. However, the control system alone eliminates 59.6percent of the baseline energy used to move air in the datacenter and 13.6percent of the baseline cooling energy, which is 15.2percent of the baseline energy consumption (see Project Approach, Task 1, below, for additional information) while keeping temperatures substantially within the limits recommended by ASHRAE. Savings attributed to the control system are $30,564 per year with a cost $56,824 for a simple payback of 1.9 years.« less

Evaluation of methods for determining hardware projected life

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1971-01-01

An investigation of existing methods of predicting hardware life is summarized by reviewing programs having long life requirements, current research efforts on long life problems, and technical papers reporting work on life predicting techniques. The results indicate that there are no accurate quantitative means to predict hardware life for system level hardware. The effectiveness of test programs and the cause of hardware failures is considered.

Overview of Additive Manufacturing Initiatives at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clinton, R. G., Jr.

2018-01-01

NASA's In Space Manufacturing Initiative (ISM) includes: The case for ISM - why; ISM path to exploration - results from the 3D Printing In Zero-G Technology Demonstration - ISM challenges; In space Robotic Manufacturing and Assembly (IRMA); Additive construction. Additively Manufacturing (AM) development for liquid rocket engine space flight hardware. MSFC standard and specification for additively manufactured space flight hardware. Summary.

Government regulation and public opposition create high additional costs for field trials with GM crops in Switzerland.

PubMed

Bernauer, Thomas; Tribaldos, Theresa; Luginbühl, Carolin; Winzeler, Michael

2011-12-01

Field trials with GM crops are not only plant science experiments. They are also social experiments concerning the implications of government imposed regulatory constraints and public opposition for scientific activity. We assess these implications by estimating additional costs due to government regulation and public opposition in a recent set of field trials in Switzerland. We find that for every Euro spent on research, an additional 78 cents were spent on security, an additional 31 cents on biosafety, and an additional 17 cents on government regulatory supervision. Hence the total additional spending due to government regulation and public opposition was around 1.26 Euros for every Euro spent on the research per se. These estimates are conservative; they do not include additional costs that are hard to monetize (e.g. stakeholder information and dialogue activities, involvement of various government agencies). We conclude that further field experiments with GM crops in Switzerland are unlikely unless protected sites are set up to reduce these additional costs.

Hardware development process for Human Research facility applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bauer, Liz

2000-01-01

The simple goal of the Human Research Facility (HRF) is to conduct human research experiments on the International Space Station (ISS) astronauts during long-duration missions. This is accomplished by providing integration and operation of the necessary hardware and software capabilities. A typical hardware development flow consists of five stages: functional inputs and requirements definition, market research, design life cycle through hardware delivery, crew training, and mission support. The purpose of this presentation is to guide the audience through the early hardware development process: requirement definition through selecting a development path. Specific HRF equipment is used to illustrate the hardware development paths. .

Veggie and the VEG-01 Hardware Validation Test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Massa, Gioia; wheeler, Ray; Smith, Trent

2015-01-01

This presentation presents a brief overview of KSC plant science hardware for space and then details the Veggie hardware and the VEG-01 hardware validation test. The test results and future plans are discussed.

Programmable hardware for reconfigurable computing systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, Stephen

1996-10-01

In 1945 the work of J. von Neumann and H. Goldstein created the principal architecture for electronic computation that has now lasted fifty years. Nevertheless alternative architectures have been created that have computational capability, for special tasks, far beyond that feasible with von Neumann machines. The emergence of high capacity programmable logic devices has made the realization of these architectures practical. The original ENIAC and EDVAC machines were conceived to solve special mathematical problems that were far from today's concept of 'killer applications.' In a similar vein programmable hardware computation is being used today to solve unique mathematical problems. Our programmable hardware activity is focused on the research and development of novel computational systems based upon the reconfigurability of our programmable logic devices. We explore our programmable logic architectures and their implications for programmable hardware. One programmable hardware board implementation is detailed.

A Power Hardware-in-the-Loop Platform with Remote Distribution Circuit Cosimulation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Palmintier, Bryan; Lundstrom, Blake; Chakraborty, Sudipta

2015-04-01

This paper demonstrates the use of a novel cosimulation architecture that integrates hardware testing using Power Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL) with larger-scale electric grid models using off-the-shelf, non-PHIL software tools. This architecture enables utilities to study the impacts of emerging energy technologies on their system and manufacturers to explore the interactions of new devices with existing and emerging devices on the power system, both without the need to convert existing grid models to a new platform or to conduct in-field trials. The paper describes an implementation of this architecture for testing two residential-scale advanced solar inverters at separate points of common coupling.more » The same hardware setup is tested with two different distribution feeders (IEEE 123 and 8500 node test systems) modeled using GridLAB-D. In addition to simplifying testing with multiple feeders, the architecture demonstrates additional flexibility with hardware testing in one location linked via the Internet to software modeling in a remote location. In testing, inverter current, real and reactive power, and PCC voltage are well captured by the co-simulation platform. Testing of the inverter advanced control features is currently somewhat limited by the software model time step (1 sec) and tested communication latency (24 msec). Overshoot induced oscillations are observed with volt/VAR control delays of 0 and 1.5 sec, while 3.4 sec and 5.5 sec delays produced little or no oscillation. These limitations could be overcome using faster modeling and communication within the same co-simulation architecture.« less

A hardware implementation of the discrete Pascal transform for image processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goodman, Thomas J.; Aburdene, Maurice F.

2006-02-01

The discrete Pascal transform is a polynomial transform with applications in pattern recognition, digital filtering, and digital image processing. It already has been shown that the Pascal transform matrix can be decomposed into a product of binary matrices. Such a factorization leads to a fast and efficient hardware implementation without the use of multipliers, which consume large amounts of hardware. We recently developed a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation to compute the Pascal transform. Our goal was to demonstrate the computational efficiency of the transform while keeping hardware requirements at a minimum. Images are uploaded into memory from a remote computer prior to processing, and the transform coefficients can be offloaded from the FPGA board for analysis. Design techniques like as-soon-as-possible scheduling and adder sharing allowed us to develop a fast and efficient system. An eight-point, one-dimensional transform completes in 13 clock cycles and requires only four adders. An 8x8 two-dimensional transform completes in 240 cycles and requires only a top-level controller in addition to the one-dimensional transform hardware. Finally, through minor modifications to the controller, the transform operations can be pipelined to achieve 100% utilization of the four adders, allowing one eight-point transform to complete every seven clock cycles.

Computer hardware fault administration

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J.; Megerian, Mark G.; Ratterman, Joseph D.; Smith, Brian E.

2010-09-14

Computer hardware fault administration carried out in a parallel computer, where the parallel computer includes a plurality of compute nodes. The compute nodes are coupled for data communications by at least two independent data communications networks, where each data communications network includes data communications links connected to the compute nodes. Typical embodiments carry out hardware fault administration by identifying a location of a defective link in the first data communications network of the parallel computer and routing communications data around the defective link through the second data communications network of the parallel computer.

Image manipulation software portable on different hardware platforms: what is the cost?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ligier, Yves; Ratib, Osman M.; Funk, Matthieu; Perrier, Rene; Girard, Christian; Logean, Marianne

1992-07-01

A hospital wide PACS project is currently under development at the University Hospital of Geneva. The visualization and manipulation of images provided by different imaging modalities constitutes one of the most challenging components of a PACS. Because there are different requirements depending on the clinical usage, it was necessary for such a visualization software to be provided on different types of workstations in different sectors of the PACS. The user interface has to be the same independently of the underlying workstation. Beside, in addition to a standard set of image manipulation and processing tools there is a need for more specific clinical tools that should be easily adapted to specific medical requirements. To achieve operating and windowing systems: the standard Unix/X-11/OSF-Motif based workstations and the Macintosh family and should be easily ported on other systems. This paper describes the design of such a system and discusses the extra cost and efforts involved in the development of a portable and easily expandable software.

Cost analysis of Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery.

PubMed

Griffiths, Alison; Marinovich, Luke; Barton, Michael B; Lord, Sarah J

2007-01-01

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is used to treat intracranial lesions and vascular malformations as an addition or replacement to whole brain radiotherapy and microsurgery. SRS can be delivered by hardware and software appended to standard linear accelerators (Linacs) or by dedicated systems such as Gamma Knife, which has been proposed as a more accurate and user friendly technology. Internationally, dedicated systems have been funded, despite limitations in evidence. However, some countries including Australia have not recommended additional reimbursement for dedicated systems. This study compares the costs of Linac radiosurgery with Gamma Knife radiosurgery. Due to limited evidence on comparative effects, the economic analysis was restricted to a cost evaluation. The base-case analysis assumed a modified Linac was used only to treat SRS patients. However, because a modified Linac could be used to treat other radiotherapy patients, a second analysis assumed spare time was used to meet other radiotherapy needs, and Linac capital costs were apportioned according to SRS use. The incremental cost of Gamma Knife versus a modified Linac was estimated as AU$209 per patient. This result is sensitive to variations in assumptions. A second analysis proportioning capital costs according to SRS use showed that Gamma Knife may cost up to AU$1673 more per patient. Gamma Knife may be cost competitive only if demand for SRS services is high enough to fully use equipment working time. However, given low patient demand and competing radiotherapy needs, Gamma Knife appears more costly and further evidence of survival or quality of life advantages may be required to justify reimbursement.

48 CFR 3452.216-70 - Additional cost principles.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... practice is to treat these costs by some other method, they may be accepted if they are found to be reasonable and equitable. Bid and proposal costs do not include independent research and development costs or pre-award costs. (b) Independent research and development costs. Independent research and development...

Integrated operations/payloads/fleet analysis. Volume 3: System costs. Appendix A: Program direct costs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1971-01-01

Individualized program direct costs for each satellite program are presented. This breakdown provides the activity level dependent costs for each satellite program. The activity level dependent costs, or, more simply, program direct costs, are comprised of the total payload costs (as these costs are strictly program dependent) and the direct launch vehicle costs. Only those incremental launch vehicle costs associated directly with the satellite program are considered. For expendable launch vehicles the direct costs include the vehicle investment hardware costs and the launch operations costs. For the reusable STS vehicles the direct costs include only the launch operations, recovery operations, command and control, vehicle maintenance, and propellant support. The costs associated with amortization of reusable vehicle investment, RDT&E range support, etc., are not included.

Hardware efficient monitoring of input/output signals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Driscoll, Kevin R. (Inventor); Hall, Brendan (Inventor); Paulitsch, Michael (Inventor)

2012-01-01

A communication device comprises first and second circuits to implement a plurality of ports via which the communicative device is operable to communicate over a plurality of communication channels. For each of the plurality of ports, the communication device comprises: command hardware that includes a first transmitter to transmit data over a respective one of the plurality of channels and a first receiver to receive data from the respective one of the plurality of channels; and monitor hardware that includes a second receiver coupled to the first transmitter and a third receiver coupled to the respective one of the plurality of channels. The first circuit comprises the command hardware for a first subset of the plurality of ports. The second circuit comprises the monitor hardware for the first subset of the plurality of ports and the command hardware for a second subset of the plurality of ports.

Cut Costs with Thin Client Computing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hartley, Patrick H.

2001-01-01

Discusses how school districts can considerably increase the number of administrative computers in their districts without a corresponding increase in costs by using the "Thin Client" component of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCC) model. TCC and Thin Client are described, including its software and hardware components. An example of a…

Summary of materials and hardware performance on LDEF

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dursch, Harry; Pippin, Gary; Teichman, Lou

1993-01-01

A wide variety of materials and experiment support hardware were flown on the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF). Postflight testing has determined the effects of the almost 6 years of low-earth orbit (LEO) exposure on this hardware. An overview of the results are presented. Hardware discussed includes adhesives, fasteners, lubricants, data storage systems, solar cells, seals, and the LDEF structure. Lessons learned from the testing and analysis of LDEF hardware is also presented.

Network Hardware Virtualization for Application Provisioning in Core Networks

DOE PAGES

Gumaste, Ashwin; Das, Tamal; Khandwala, Kandarp; ...

2017-02-03

We present that service providers and vendors are moving toward a network virtualized core, whereby multiple applications would be treated on their own merit in programmable hardware. Such a network would have the advantage of being customized for user requirements and allow provisioning of next generation services that are built specifically to meet user needs. In this article, we articulate the impact of network virtualization on networks that provide customized services and how a provider's business can grow with network virtualization. We outline a decision map that allows mapping of applications with technology that is supported in network-virtualization - orientedmore » equipment. Analogies to the world of virtual machines and generic virtualization show that hardware supporting network virtualization will facilitate new customer needs while optimizing the provider network from the cost and performance perspectives. A key conclusion of the article is that growth would yield sizable revenue when providers plan ahead in terms of supporting network-virtualization-oriented technology in their networks. To be precise, providers have to incorporate into their growth plans network elements capable of new service deployments while protecting network neutrality. Finally, a simulation study validates our NV-induced model.« less

Network Hardware Virtualization for Application Provisioning in Core Networks

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gumaste, Ashwin; Das, Tamal; Khandwala, Kandarp

We present that service providers and vendors are moving toward a network virtualized core, whereby multiple applications would be treated on their own merit in programmable hardware. Such a network would have the advantage of being customized for user requirements and allow provisioning of next generation services that are built specifically to meet user needs. In this article, we articulate the impact of network virtualization on networks that provide customized services and how a provider's business can grow with network virtualization. We outline a decision map that allows mapping of applications with technology that is supported in network-virtualization - orientedmore » equipment. Analogies to the world of virtual machines and generic virtualization show that hardware supporting network virtualization will facilitate new customer needs while optimizing the provider network from the cost and performance perspectives. A key conclusion of the article is that growth would yield sizable revenue when providers plan ahead in terms of supporting network-virtualization-oriented technology in their networks. To be precise, providers have to incorporate into their growth plans network elements capable of new service deployments while protecting network neutrality. Finally, a simulation study validates our NV-induced model.« less

Parameter Validation for Evaluation of Spaceflight Hardware Reusability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Childress-Thompson, Rhonda; Dale, Thomas L.; Farrington, Phillip

2017-01-01

Within recent years, there has been an influx of companies around the world pursuing reusable systems for space flight. Much like NASA, many of these new entrants are learning that reusable systems are complex and difficult to acheive. For instance, in its first attempts to retrieve spaceflight hardware for future reuse, SpaceX unsuccessfully tried to land on a barge at sea, resulting in a crash-landing. As this new generation of launch developers continues to develop concepts for reusable systems, having a systematic approach for determining the most effective systems for reuse is paramount. Three factors that influence the effective implementation of reusability are cost, operability and reliability. Therefore, a method that integrates these factors into the decision-making process must be utilized to adequately determine whether hardware used in space flight should be reused or discarded. Previous research has identified seven features that contribute to the successful implementation of reusability for space flight applications, defined reusability for space flight applications, highlighted the importance of reusability, and presented areas that hinder successful implementation of reusability. The next step is to ensure that the list of reusability parameters previously identified is comprehensive, and any duplication is either removed or consolidated. The characteristics to judge the seven features as good indicators for successful reuse are identified and then assessed using multiattribute decision making. Next, discriminators in the form of metrics or descriptors are assigned to each parameter. This paper explains the approach used to evaluate these parameters, define the Measures of Effectiveness (MOE) for reusability, and quantify these parameters. Using the MOEs, each parameter is assessed for its contribution to the reusability of the hardware. Potential data sources needed to validate the approach will be identified.

The cost of an additional disability-free life year for older Americans: 1992-2005.

PubMed

Cai, Liming

2013-02-01

To estimate the cost of an additional disability-free life year for older Americans in 1992-2005. This study used 1992-2005 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, a longitudinal survey of Medicare beneficiaries with a rotating panel design. This analysis used multistate life table model to estimate probabilities of transition among a discrete set of health states (nondisabled, disabled, and dead) for two panels of older Americans in 1992 and 2002. Health spending incurred between annual health interviews was estimated by a generalized linear mixed model. Health status, including death, was simulated for each member of the panel using these transition probabilities; the associated health spending was cross-walked to the simulated health changes. Disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) increased significantly more than life expectancy during the study period. Assuming that 50 percent of the gains in DFLE between 1992 and 2005 were attributable to increases in spending, the average discounted cost per additional disability-free life year was $71,000. There were small differences between gender and racial/ethnic groups. The cost of an additional disability-free life year was substantially below previous estimates based on mortality trends alone. © Health Research and Educational Trust.

Comparative Modal Analysis of Sieve Hardware Designs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, Nathaniel

2012-01-01

The CMTB Thwacker hardware operates as a testbed analogue for the Flight Thwacker and Sieve components of CHIMRA, a device on the Curiosity Rover. The sieve separates particles with a diameter smaller than 150 microns for delivery to onboard science instruments. The sieving behavior of the testbed hardware should be similar to the Flight hardware for the results to be meaningful. The elastodynamic behavior of both sieves was studied analytically using the Rayleigh Ritz method in conjunction with classical plate theory. Finite element models were used to determine the mode shapes of both designs, and comparisons between the natural frequencies and mode shapes were made. The analysis predicts that the performance of the CMTB Thwacker will closely resemble the performance of the Flight Thwacker within the expected steady state operating regime. Excitations of the testbed hardware that will mimic the flight hardware were recommended, as were those that will improve the efficiency of the sieving process.

25 CFR 171.555 - What additional costs will I incur if I am granted a Payment Plan?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false What additional costs will I incur if I am granted a... AND WATER IRRIGATION OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE Financial Matters: Assessments, Billing, and Collections § 171.555 What additional costs will I incur if I am granted a Payment Plan? You will incur the...

25 CFR 171.555 - What additional costs will I incur if I am granted a Payment Plan?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What additional costs will I incur if I am granted a... AND WATER IRRIGATION OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE Financial Matters: Assessments, Billing, and Collections § 171.555 What additional costs will I incur if I am granted a Payment Plan? You will incur the...

Intrinsic Hardware Evolution for the Design and Reconfiguration of Analog Speed Controllers for a DC Motor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gwaltney, David A.; Ferguson, Michael I.

2003-01-01

Evolvable hardware provides the capability to evolve analog circuits to produce amplifier and filter functions. Conventional analog controller designs employ these same functions. Analog controllers for the control of the shaft speed of a DC motor are evolved on an evolvable hardware platform utilizing a second generation Field Programmable Transistor Array (FPTA2). The performance of an evolved controller is compared to that of a conventional proportional-integral (PI) controller. It is shown that hardware evolution is able to create a compact design that provides good performance, while using considerably less functional electronic components than the conventional design. Additionally, the use of hardware evolution to provide fault tolerance by reconfiguring the design is explored. Experimental results are presented showing that significant recovery of capability can be made in the face of damaging induced faults.

Tri-FAST Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation. Volume I. Tri-FAST Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation at the Advanced Simulation Center

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-03-28

TECHNICAL REPORT T-79-43 TRI- FAST HARDWARE-IN-THE-LOOP SIMULATION Volume 1: Trn FAST Hardware-In-the. Loop Simulation at the Advanced Simulation...Identify by block number) Tri- FAST Hardware-in-the-Loop ACSL Advanced Simulation Center Simulation RF Target Models I a. AfIACT ( sin -oveme skit N nem...e n tdositr by block number) The purpose of this report is to document the Tri- FAST missile simulation development and the seeker hardware-in-the

Remote hardware-reconfigurable robotic camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arias-Estrada, Miguel; Torres-Huitzil, Cesar; Maya-Rueda, Selene E.

2001-10-01

In this work, a camera with integrated image processing capabilities is discussed. The camera is based on an imager coupled to an FPGA device (Field Programmable Gate Array) which contains an architecture for real-time computer vision low-level processing. The architecture can be reprogrammed remotely for application specific purposes. The system is intended for rapid modification and adaptation for inspection and recognition applications, with the flexibility of hardware and software reprogrammability. FPGA reconfiguration allows the same ease of upgrade in hardware as a software upgrade process. The camera is composed of a digital imager coupled to an FPGA device, two memory banks, and a microcontroller. The microcontroller is used for communication tasks and FPGA programming. The system implements a software architecture to handle multiple FPGA architectures in the device, and the possibility to download a software/hardware object from the host computer into its internal context memory. System advantages are: small size, low power consumption, and a library of hardware/software functionalities that can be exchanged during run time. The system has been validated with an edge detection and a motion processing architecture, which will be presented in the paper. Applications targeted are in robotics, mobile robotics, and vision based quality control.

A study of the relative effectiveness and cost of computerized information retrieval in the interactive mode

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smetana, F. O.; Furniss, M. A.; Potter, T. R.

1974-01-01

Results of a number of experiments to illuminate the relative effectiveness and costs of computerized information retrieval in the interactive mode are reported. It was found that for equal time spent in preparing the search strategy, the batch and interactive modes gave approximately equal recall and relevance. The interactive mode however encourages the searcher to devote more time to the task and therefore usually yields improved output. Engineering costs as a result are higher in this mode. Estimates of associated hardware costs also indicate that operation in this mode is more expensive. Skilled RECON users like the rapid feedback and additional features offered by this mode if they are not constrained by considerations of cost.

Data to hardware binding with physical unclonable functions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hamlet, Jason

The various technologies presented herein relate to binding data (e.g., software) to hardware, wherein the hardware is to utilize the data. The generated binding can be utilized to detect whether at least one of the hardware or the data has been modified between an initial moment (enrollment) and a later moment (authentication). During enrollment, an enrollment value is generated that includes a signature of the data, a first response from a PUF located on the hardware, and a code word. During authentication, a second response from the PUF is utilized to authenticate any of the content in the enrollment value,more » and based upon the authentication, a determination can be made regarding whether the hardware and/or the data have been modified. If modification is detected then a mitigating operation can be performed, e.g., the hardware is prevented from utilizing the data. If no modification is detected, the data can be utilized.« less

Space system production cost benefits from contemporary philosophies in management and manufacturing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosmait, Russell L.

1991-01-01

The cost of manufacturing space system hardware has always been expensive. The Engineering Cost Group of the Program Planning office at Marshall is attempting to account for cost savings that result from new technologies in manufacturing and management. The objective is to identify and define contemporary philosophies in manufacturing and management. The seven broad categories that make up the areas where technological advances can assist in reducing space system costs are illustrated. Included within these broad categories is a list of the processes or techniques that specifically provide the cost savings within todays design, test, production and operations environments. The processes and techniques listed achieve savings in the following manner: increased productivity; reduced down time; reduced scrap; reduced rework; reduced man hours; and reduced material costs. In addition, it should be noted that cost savings from production and processing improvements effect 20 to 40 pct. of production costs whereas savings from management improvements effects 60 to 80 of production cost. This is important because most efforts in reducing costs are spent trying to reduce cost in the production.

APRON: A Cellular Processor Array Simulation and Hardware Design Tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barr, David R. W.; Dudek, Piotr

2009-12-01

We present a software environment for the efficient simulation of cellular processor arrays (CPAs). This software (APRON) is used to explore algorithms that are designed for massively parallel fine-grained processor arrays, topographic multilayer neural networks, vision chips with SIMD processor arrays, and related architectures. The software uses a highly optimised core combined with a flexible compiler to provide the user with tools for the design of new processor array hardware architectures and the emulation of existing devices. We present performance benchmarks for the software processor array implemented on standard commodity microprocessors. APRON can be configured to use additional processing hardware if necessary and can be used as a complete graphical user interface and development environment for new or existing CPA systems, allowing more users to develop algorithms for CPA systems.

Cost Per Additional Responder Associated With Ixekizumab and Etanercept in the Treatment of Moderate-to-Severe Psoriasis.

PubMed

Feldman, Steven R; Foster, Shonda A; Zhu, Baojin; Burge, Russel; Al Sawah, Sarah; Goldblum, Orin M

2017-12-01

BACKGROUND: Newer psoriasis treatments can achieve greater levels of efficacy than older systemic therapies; however, current psoriasis costs are substantial. We sought to estimate costs per additional responder associated with ixekizumab and etanercept, versus placebo, using efficacy data from phase 3 clinical trials (UNCOVER-2 and UNCOVER-3). METHODS: In UNCOVER-2/UNCOVER-3, patients received subcutaneous placebo, etanercept 50 mg twice weekly (BIW), or ixekizumab one 80 mg injection every 2 weeks (Q2W) after a 160-mg starting dose. Twelve-week induction-phase Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) 75, PASI 90, and PASI 100 response rates for ixekizumab, etanercept, and placebo were obtained from pooled data from the overall and United States (US) subgroup intention-to-treat (ITT) populations, and used to calculate numbers needed to treat (NNTs) to achieve one additional PASI 75, PASI 90, or PASI 100 response for ixekizumab Q2W and etanercept BIW versus placebo. Twelve-week drug costs per patient were calculated based on the UNCOVER-2/UNCOVER-3 dosing schedule and wholesale acquisition costs. Mean costs per additional responder for PASI 75, PASI 90, and PASI 100 for each treatment versus placebo were calculated for pooled UN-COVER-2/UNCOVER-3 overall and US subgroup ITT populations. RESULTS: Pooled overall ITT population: costs per additional PASI 75, PASI 90, or PASI 100 responder were US $37,540, US $46,299, or US $80,710 for ixekizumab Q2W and US $57,533, US $120,720, or US $404,695 for etanercept BIW, respectively. US subgroup ITT population: costs per additional PASI 75, PASI 90, or PASI 100 responder were US $38,165, US $49,740, or US $93,536 for ixekizumab Q2W and US $69,580, US $140,881, or US $631,875 for etanercept BIW, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Twelve-week costs per additional responder were lower for ixekizumab Q2W than for etanercept BIW across all levels of clearance (PASI 75, PASI 90, and PASI 100) in the pooled UNCOVER-2/UNCOVER-3 overall and

Recent Developments in Hardware-in-the-Loop Formation Navigation and Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mitchell, Jason W.; Luquette, Richard J.

2005-01-01

The Formation Flying Test-Bed (FFTB) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) provides a hardware-in-the-loop test environment for formation navigation and control. The facility is evolving as a modular, hybrid, dynamic simulation facility for end-tc-end guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) design and analysis of formation flying spacecraft. The core capabilities of the FFTB, as a platform for testing critical hardware and software algorithms in-the-loop, are reviewed with a focus on many recent improvements. Two significant upgrades to the FFTB are a message-oriented middleware (MOM) architecture, and a software crosslink for inter-spacecraft ranging. The MOM architecture provides a common messaging bus for software agents, easing integration, arid supporting the GSFC Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC) architecture via software bridge. Additionally, the FFTB s hardware capabilities are expanding. Recently, two Low-Power Transceivers (LPTs) with ranging capability have been introduced into the FFTB. The LPT crosslinks will be connected to a modified Crosslink Channel Simulator (CCS), which applies realistic space-environment effects to the Radio Frequency (RF) signals produced by the LPTs.

Computer hardware description languages - A tutorial

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shiva, S. G.

1979-01-01

The paper introduces hardware description languages (HDL) as useful tools for hardware design and documentation. The capabilities and limitations of HDLs are discussed along with the guidelines needed in selecting an appropriate HDL. The directions for future work are provided and attention is given to the implementation of HDLs in microcomputers.

Open-source micro-tensile testers via additive manufacturing for the mechanical characterization of thin films and papers

PubMed Central

Scheftic, Charlie M.; Brinson, L. Catherine

2018-01-01

The cost of specialized scientific equipment can be high and with limited funding resources, researchers and students are often unable to access or purchase the ideal equipment for their projects. In the fields of materials science and mechanical engineering, fundamental equipment such as tensile testing devices can cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. While a research lab often has access to a large-scale testing machine suitable for conventional samples, loading devices for meso- and micro-scale samples for in-situ testing with the myriad of microscopy tools are often hard to source and cost prohibitive. Open-source software has allowed for great strides in the reduction of costs associated with software development and open-source hardware and additive manufacturing have the potential to similarly reduce the costs of scientific equipment and increase the accessibility of scientific research. To investigate the feasibility of open-source hardware, a micro-tensile tester was designed with a freely accessible computer-aided design package and manufactured with a desktop 3D-printer and off-the-shelf components. To our knowledge this is one of the first demonstrations of a tensile tester with additively manufactured components for scientific research. The capabilities of the tensile tester were demonstrated by investigating the mechanical properties of Graphene Oxide (GO) paper and thin films. A 3D printed tensile tester was successfully used in conjunction with an atomic force microscope to provide one of the first quantitative measurements of GO thin film buckling under compression. The tensile tester was also used in conjunction with an atomic force microscope to observe the change in surface topology of a GO paper in response to increasing tensile strain. No significant change in surface topology was observed in contrast to prior hypotheses from the literature. Based on this result obtained with the new open source tensile stage we propose an

Open-source micro-tensile testers via additive manufacturing for the mechanical characterization of thin films and papers.

PubMed

Nandy, Krishanu; Collinson, David W; Scheftic, Charlie M; Brinson, L Catherine

2018-01-01

The cost of specialized scientific equipment can be high and with limited funding resources, researchers and students are often unable to access or purchase the ideal equipment for their projects. In the fields of materials science and mechanical engineering, fundamental equipment such as tensile testing devices can cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. While a research lab often has access to a large-scale testing machine suitable for conventional samples, loading devices for meso- and micro-scale samples for in-situ testing with the myriad of microscopy tools are often hard to source and cost prohibitive. Open-source software has allowed for great strides in the reduction of costs associated with software development and open-source hardware and additive manufacturing have the potential to similarly reduce the costs of scientific equipment and increase the accessibility of scientific research. To investigate the feasibility of open-source hardware, a micro-tensile tester was designed with a freely accessible computer-aided design package and manufactured with a desktop 3D-printer and off-the-shelf components. To our knowledge this is one of the first demonstrations of a tensile tester with additively manufactured components for scientific research. The capabilities of the tensile tester were demonstrated by investigating the mechanical properties of Graphene Oxide (GO) paper and thin films. A 3D printed tensile tester was successfully used in conjunction with an atomic force microscope to provide one of the first quantitative measurements of GO thin film buckling under compression. The tensile tester was also used in conjunction with an atomic force microscope to observe the change in surface topology of a GO paper in response to increasing tensile strain. No significant change in surface topology was observed in contrast to prior hypotheses from the literature. Based on this result obtained with the new open source tensile stage we propose an

Sterilization of space hardware.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pflug, I. J.

1971-01-01

Discussion of various techniques of sterilization of space flight hardware using either destructive heating or the action of chemicals. Factors considered in the dry-heat destruction of microorganisms include the effects of microbial water content, temperature, the physicochemical properties of the microorganism and adjacent support, and nature of the surrounding gas atmosphere. Dry-heat destruction rates of microorganisms on the surface, between mated surface areas, or buried in the solid material of space vehicle hardware are reviewed, along with alternative dry-heat sterilization cycles, thermodynamic considerations, and considerations of final sterilization-process design. Discussed sterilization chemicals include ethylene oxide, formaldehyde, methyl bromide, dimethyl sulfoxide, peracetic acid, and beta-propiolactone.

OpenMM 4: A Reusable, Extensible, Hardware Independent Library for High Performance Molecular Simulation.

PubMed

Eastman, Peter; Friedrichs, Mark S; Chodera, John D; Radmer, Randall J; Bruns, Christopher M; Ku, Joy P; Beauchamp, Kyle A; Lane, Thomas J; Wang, Lee-Ping; Shukla, Diwakar; Tye, Tony; Houston, Mike; Stich, Timo; Klein, Christoph; Shirts, Michael R; Pande, Vijay S

2013-01-08

OpenMM is a software toolkit for performing molecular simulations on a range of high performance computing architectures. It is based on a layered architecture: the lower layers function as a reusable library that can be invoked by any application, while the upper layers form a complete environment for running molecular simulations. The library API hides all hardware-specific dependencies and optimizations from the users and developers of simulation programs: they can be run without modification on any hardware on which the API has been implemented. The current implementations of OpenMM include support for graphics processing units using the OpenCL and CUDA frameworks. In addition, OpenMM was designed to be extensible, so new hardware architectures can be accommodated and new functionality (e.g., energy terms and integrators) can be easily added.

Apollo Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Hardware Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Interbartolo, Michael

2009-01-01

This viewgraph presentation reviews basic guidance, navigation and control (GNC) concepts, examines the Command and Service Module (CSM) and Lunar Module (LM) GNC organization and discusses the primary GNC and the CSM Stabilization and Control System (SCS), as well as other CSM-specific hardware. The LM Abort Guidance System (AGS), Control Electronics System (CES) and other LM-specific hardware are also addressed. Three subsystems exist on each vehicle: the computer subsystem (CSS), the inertial subsystem (ISS) and the optical subsystem (OSS). The CSS and ISS are almost identical between CSM and LM and each is designed to operate independently. CSM SCS hardware are highlighted, including translation control, rotation controls, gyro assemblies, a gyro display coupler and flight director attitude indicators. The LM AGS hardware are also highlighted and include the abort electronics assembly and the abort sensor assembly; while the LM CES hardware includes the attitude controller assembly, thrust/translation controller assemblies and the ascent engine arming assemble. Other common hardware including the Orbital Rate Display - Earth and Lunar (ORDEAL) and the Crewman Optical Alignment Sight (COAS), a docking aid, are also highlighted.

Comparison of Actual Costs to Integrate Commercial Buildings with the Grid

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Piette, Mary Ann; Black, Doug; Yin, Rongxin

During the past decade, the technology to automate demand response (DR) in buildings and industrial facilities has advanced significantly. Automation allows rapid, repeatable, reliable operation. This study focuses on costs for DR automation in commercial buildings with some discussion on residential buildings and industrial facilities. DR automation technology relies on numerous components, including communication systems, hardware and software gateways, standards-based messaging protocols, controls and integration platforms, and measurement and telemetry systems. This paper discusses the impact factors that contribute to the costs of automated DR systems, with a focus on OpenADR 1.0 and 2.0 systems. In addition, this report comparesmore » cost data from several DR automation programs and pilot projects, evaluates trends in the cost per unit of DR and kilowatts (kW) available from automated systems, and applies a standard naming convention and classification or taxonomy for system elements. In summary, median costs for the 56 installed automated DR systems studied here are about $200/kW. The deviation around this median is large with costs in some cases being an order of magnitude greater or less than median. Costs to automate fast DR systems for ancillary services are not fully analyzed in this report because additional research is needed to determine the total such costs.« less

An Efficient Hardware Circuit for Spike Sorting Based on Competitive Learning Networks.

PubMed

Chen, Huan-Yuan; Chen, Chih-Chang; Hwang, Wen-Jyi

2017-09-28

This study aims to present an effective VLSI circuit for multi-channel spike sorting. The circuit supports the spike detection, feature extraction and classification operations. The detection circuit is implemented in accordance with the nonlinear energy operator algorithm. Both the peak detection and area computation operations are adopted for the realization of the hardware architecture for feature extraction. The resulting feature vectors are classified by a circuit for competitive learning (CL) neural networks. The CL circuit supports both online training and classification. In the proposed architecture, all the channels share the same detection, feature extraction, learning and classification circuits for a low area cost hardware implementation. The clock-gating technique is also employed for reducing the power dissipation. To evaluate the performance of the architecture, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) implementation is presented. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed circuit exhibits the advantages of a low chip area, a low power dissipation and a high classification success rate for spike sorting.

An Efficient Hardware Circuit for Spike Sorting Based on Competitive Learning Networks

PubMed Central

Chen, Huan-Yuan; Chen, Chih-Chang

2017-01-01

This study aims to present an effective VLSI circuit for multi-channel spike sorting. The circuit supports the spike detection, feature extraction and classification operations. The detection circuit is implemented in accordance with the nonlinear energy operator algorithm. Both the peak detection and area computation operations are adopted for the realization of the hardware architecture for feature extraction. The resulting feature vectors are classified by a circuit for competitive learning (CL) neural networks. The CL circuit supports both online training and classification. In the proposed architecture, all the channels share the same detection, feature extraction, learning and classification circuits for a low area cost hardware implementation. The clock-gating technique is also employed for reducing the power dissipation. To evaluate the performance of the architecture, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) implementation is presented. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed circuit exhibits the advantages of a low chip area, a low power dissipation and a high classification success rate for spike sorting. PMID:28956859

Power Efficient Hardware Architecture of SHA-1 Algorithm for Trusted Mobile Computing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Mooseop; Ryou, Jaecheol

The Trusted Mobile Platform (TMP) is developed and promoted by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), which is an industry standard body to enhance the security of the mobile computing environment. The built-in SHA-1 engine in TMP is one of the most important circuit blocks and contributes the performance of the whole platform because it is used as key primitives supporting platform integrity and command authentication. Mobile platforms have very stringent limitations with respect to available power, physical circuit area, and cost. Therefore special architecture and design methods for low power SHA-1 circuit are required. In this paper, we present a novel and efficient hardware architecture of low power SHA-1 design for TMP. Our low power SHA-1 hardware can compute 512-bit data block using less than 7,000 gates and has a power consumption about 1.1 mA on a 0.25μm CMOS process.

Space biology initiative program definition review. Trade study 2: Prototype utilization in the development of space biology hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jackson, L. Neal; Crenshaw, John, Sr.; Schulze, Arthur E.; Wood, H. J., Jr.

1989-01-01

The objective was to define the factors which space flight hardware developers and planners should consider when determining: (1) the number of hardware units required to support program; (2) design level of the units; and (3) most efficient means of utilization of the units. The analysis considered technology risk, maintainability, reliability, and safety design requirements for achieving the delivery of highest quality flight hardware. Relative cost impacts of the utilization of prototyping were identified. The development of Space Biology Initiative research hardware will involve intertwined hardware/software activities. Experience has shown that software development can be an expensive portion of a system design program. While software prototyping could imply the development of a significantly different end item, an operational system prototype must be considered to be a combination of software and hardware. Hundreds of factors were identified that could be considered in determining the quantity and types of prototypes that should be constructed. In developing the decision models, these factors were combined and reduced by approximately ten-to-one in order to develop a manageable structure based on the major determining factors. The Baseline SBI hardware list of Appendix D was examined and reviewed in detail; however, from the facts available it was impossible to identify the exact types and quantities of prototypes required for each of these items. Although the factors that must be considered could be enumerated for each of these pieces of equipment, the exact status and state of development of the equipment is variable and uncertain at this time.

Space station: Cost and benefits

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

Costs for developing, producing, operating, and supporting the initial space station, a 4 to 8 man space station, and a 4 to 24 man space station are estimated and compared. These costs include contractor hardware; space station assembly and logistics flight costs; and payload support elements. Transportation system options examined include orbiter modules; standard and extended duration STS fights; reusable spacebased perigee kick motor OTV; and upper stages. Space station service charges assessed include crew hours; energy requirements; payload support module storage; pressurized port usage; and OTV service facility. Graphs show costs for science missions, space processing research, small communication satellites; large GEO transportation; OVT launch costs; DOD payload costs, and user costs.

VME rollback hardware for time warp multiprocessor systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robb, Michael J.; Buzzell, Calvin A.

1992-01-01

The purpose of the research effort is to develop and demonstrate innovative hardware to implement specific rollback and timing functions required for efficient queue management and precision timekeeping in multiprocessor discrete event simulations. The previously completed phase 1 effort demonstrated the technical feasibility of building hardware modules which eliminate the state saving overhead of the Time Warp paradigm used in distributed simulations on multiprocessor systems. The current phase 2 effort will build multiple pre-production rollback hardware modules integrated with a network of Sun workstations, and the integrated system will be tested by executing a Time Warp simulation. The rollback hardware will be designed to interface with the greatest number of multiprocessor systems possible. The authors believe that the rollback hardware will provide for significant speedup of large scale discrete event simulation problems and allow multiprocessors using Time Warp to dramatically increase performance.

Methodology for Assessing Reusability of Spaceflight Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Childress-Thompson, Rhonda; Thomas, L. Dale; Farrington, Phillip

2017-01-01

Experimental (DC-X), reusability within the spaceflight arena is still in its infancy. With unlimited resources (namely, time and money), almost any launch vehicle and its associated hardware can be made reusable. However, an endless supply of funds for space exploration is not the case in today's economy for neither government agencies nor their commercial counterparts. Therefore, any organization wanting to be a leader in space exploration and remain competitive in this unforgiving space faring industry must confront shrinking budgets with more cost conscious and efficient designs. Therefore, standards for developing reusable spaceflight hardware need to be established. By having standards available to existing and emerging companies, some of the potential roadblocks and limitations that plagued previous attempts at reuse may be minimized or completely avoided.

Analysis of systems hardware flown on LDEF: New findings and comparison to other retrieved spacecraft hardware

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dursch, Harry; Bohnhoff-Hlavacek, Gail; Blue, Donald; Hansen, Patricia

1995-09-01

The Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) was retrieved in 1990 after spending 69 months in low-earth-orbit (LEO). A wide variety of mechanical, electrical, thermal, and optical systems, subsystems, and components were flown on LDEF. The Systems Special Investigation Group (Systems SIG) was formed by NASA to investigate the effects of the 69 month exposure on systems related hardware and to coordinate and collate all systems analysis of LDEF hardware. This report is the Systems SIG final report which updates earlier findings and compares LDEF systems findings to results from other retrieved spacecraft hardware such as Hubble Space Telescope. Also included are sections titled (1) Effects of Long Duration Space Exposure on Optical Scatter, (2) Contamination Survey of LDEF, and (3) Degradation of Optical Materials in Space.

Analysis of systems hardware flown on LDEF: New findings and comparison to other retrieved spacecraft hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dursch, Harry; Bohnhoff-Hlavacek, Gail; Blue, Donald; Hansen, Patricia

1995-01-01

The Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) was retrieved in 1990 after spending 69 months in low-earth-orbit (LEO). A wide variety of mechanical, electrical, thermal, and optical systems, subsystems, and components were flown on LDEF. The Systems Special Investigation Group (Systems SIG) was formed by NASA to investigate the effects of the 69 month exposure on systems related hardware and to coordinate and collate all systems analysis of LDEF hardware. This report is the Systems SIG final report which updates earlier findings and compares LDEF systems findings to results from other retrieved spacecraft hardware such as Hubble Space Telescope. Also included are sections titled (1) Effects of Long Duration Space Exposure on Optical Scatter, (2) Contamination Survey of LDEF, and (3) Degradation of Optical Materials in Space.

INTEGRATED MONITORING HARDWARE DEVELOPMENTS AT LOS ALAMOS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

R. PARKER; J. HALBIG; ET AL

1999-09-01

The hardware of the integrated monitoring system supports a family of instruments having a common internal architecture and firmware. Instruments can be easily configured from application-specific personality boards combined with common master-processor and high- and low-voltage power supply boards, and basic operating firmware. The instruments are designed to function autonomously to survive power and communication outages and to adapt to changing conditions. The personality boards allow measurement of gross gammas and neutrons, neutron coincidence and multiplicity, and gamma spectra. In addition, the Intelligent Local Node (ILON) provides a moderate-bandwidth network to tie together instruments, sensors, and computers.

CHeCS: International Space Station Medical Hardware Catalog

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2008-01-01

The purpose of this catalog is to provide a detailed description of each piece of hardware in the Crew Health Care System (CHeCS), including subpacks associated with the hardware, and to briefly describe the interfaces between the hardware and the ISS. The primary user of this document is the Space Medicine/Medical Operations ISS Biomedical Flight Controllers (ISS BMEs).

Issues Related to Large Flight Hardware Acoustic Qualification Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kolaini, Ali R.; Perry, Douglas C.; Kern, Dennis L.

2011-01-01

The characteristics of acoustical testing volumes generated by reverberant chambers or a circle of loudspeakers with and without large flight hardware within the testing volume are significantly different. The parameters attributing to these differences are normally not accounted for through analysis or acoustic tests prior to the qualification testing without the test hardware present. In most cases the control microphones are kept at least 2-ft away from hardware surfaces, chamber walls, and speaker surfaces to minimize the impact of the hardware in controlling the sound field. However, the acoustic absorption and radiation of sound by hardware surfaces may significantly alter the sound pressure field controlled within the chamber/speaker volume to a given specification. These parameters often result in an acoustic field that may provide under/over testing scenarios for flight hardware. In this paper the acoustic absorption by hardware surfaces will be discussed in some detail. A simple model is provided to account for some of the observations made from Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft that recently underwent acoustic qualification tests in a reverberant chamber.

Using hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) simulation to provide low-cost testing of TMD IR missile systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buford, James A., Jr.; Paone, Thad

1998-07-01

A greater awareness of and increased interest in the use of modeling and simulation (M&S) has been demonstrated at many levels within the Department of Defense (DoD) and all the Armed Services agencies in recent years. M&S application is regarded as a viable means of lowering the life cycle costs of theater missile defense (TMD) weapon system acquisition beginning with studies of new concepts of warfighting through user training and post-deployment support. The Missile Research, Engineering, and Development Center (MRDEC) of the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) has an extensive history of applying all types of M&S to TMD weapon system development and has been a particularly strong advocate of hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) simulation for many years. Over the past 10 years MRDEC has developed specific and dedicated HWIL capabilities for TMD applications in both the infrared and radio frequency sensor domains. This paper provides an overview of the infrared-based TMD HWIL missile facility known as the Imaging Infrared System Simulation (I2RSS) which is used to support the Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) missile system. This facility uses M&S to conduct daily THAAD HWIL missile simulations to support flight tests, missile/system development, independent verification and validation of weapon system embedded software and simulations, and missile/system performance against current and future threat environments. This paper describes the THAAD TMD HWIL role, process, major components, HWIL verification/validation, and daily HWIL support areas in terms of both missile and complete system.

Advanced Thermoplastic Polymers and Additive Manufacturing Applied to ISS Columbus Toolbox: Lessons Learnt and Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferrino, Marinella; Secondo, Ottaviano; Sabbagh, Amir; Della Sala, Emilio

2014-06-01

In the frame of the International Space Station (ISS) Exploitation Program a new toolbox has been realized by TAS-I to accommodate the tools currently in use on the ISS Columbus Module utilizing full-scale prototypes obtained with 3D rapid prototyping. The manufacturing of the flight hardware by means of advanced thermoplastic polymer UL TEM 9085 and additive manufacturing Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) technology represent innovative elements. In this paper, the results achieved and the lessons learned are analyzed to promote future technology know-how. The acquired experience confirmed that the additive manufacturing process allows to save time/cost and to realize new shapes/features to introduce innovation in products and future design processes for space applications.

OpenMM 4: A Reusable, Extensible, Hardware Independent Library for High Performance Molecular Simulation

PubMed Central

Eastman, Peter; Friedrichs, Mark S.; Chodera, John D.; Radmer, Randall J.; Bruns, Christopher M.; Ku, Joy P.; Beauchamp, Kyle A.; Lane, Thomas J.; Wang, Lee-Ping; Shukla, Diwakar; Tye, Tony; Houston, Mike; Stich, Timo; Klein, Christoph; Shirts, Michael R.; Pande, Vijay S.

2012-01-01

OpenMM is a software toolkit for performing molecular simulations on a range of high performance computing architectures. It is based on a layered architecture: the lower layers function as a reusable library that can be invoked by any application, while the upper layers form a complete environment for running molecular simulations. The library API hides all hardware-specific dependencies and optimizations from the users and developers of simulation programs: they can be run without modification on any hardware on which the API has been implemented. The current implementations of OpenMM include support for graphics processing units using the OpenCL and CUDA frameworks. In addition, OpenMM was designed to be extensible, so new hardware architectures can be accommodated and new functionality (e.g., energy terms and integrators) can be easily added. PMID:23316124

An update on SCARLET hardware development and flight programs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jones, P.A.; Murphy, D.M.; Piszczor, M.F.

1995-10-01

Solar Concentrator Array with Refractive Linear Element Technology (SCARLET) is one of the first practical photovoltaic concentrator array technologies that offers a number of benefits for space applications (i.e. high array efficiency, protection from space radiation effects, a relatively light weight system, minimized plasma interactions, etc.) The line-focus concentrator concept, however, also offers two very important advantages: (1) low-cost mass production potential of the lens material; and (2) relaxation of precise array tracking requirements to only a single axis. These benefits offer unique capabilities to both commercial and government spacecraft users, specifically those interested in high radiation missions, such asmore » MEO orbits, and electric-powered propulsion LEO-to-GEO orbit raising applications. SCARLET is an aggressive hardware development and flight validation program sponsored by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) and NASA Lewis Research Center. Its intent is to bring technology to the level of performance and validation necessary for use by various government and commercial programs. The first phase of the SCARLET program culminated with the design, development and fabrication of a small concentrator array for flight on the METEOR satellite. This hardware will be the first in-space demonstration of concentrator technology at the `array level` and will provide valuable in-orbit performance measurements. The METEOR satellite is currently planned for a September/October 1995 launch. The next phase of the program is the development of large array for use by one of the NASA New Millenium Program missions. This hardware will incorporate a number of the significant improvements over the basic METEOR design. This presentation will address the basic SCARLET technology, examine its benefits to users, and describe the expected improvements for future missions.« less

Human-machine interface hardware: The next decade

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marcus, Elizabeth A.

1991-01-01

In order to understand where human-machine interface hardware is headed, it is important to understand where we are today, how we got there, and what our goals for the future are. As computers become more capable, faster, and programs become more sophisticated, it becomes apparent that the interface hardware is the key to an exciting future in computing. How can a user interact and control a seemingly limitless array of parameters effectively? Today, the answer is most often a limitless array of controls. The link between these controls and human sensory motor capabilities does not utilize existing human capabilities to their full extent. Interface hardware for teleoperation and virtual environments is now facing a crossroad in design. Therefore, we as developers need to explore how the combination of interface hardware, human capabilities, and user experience can be blended to get the best performance today and in the future.

Low cost attitude control system scanwheel development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bialke, William; Selby, Vaughn

1991-03-01

In order to satisfy a growing demand for low cost attitude control systems for small spacecraft, development of low cost scanning horizon sensor coupled to a low cost/low power consumption Reaction Wheel Assembly was initiated. This report addresses the details of the versatile design resulting from this effort. Tradeoff analyses for each of the major components are included, as well as test data from an engineering prototype of the hardware.

Low cost attitude control system scanwheel development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bialke, William; Selby, Vaughn

1991-01-01

In order to satisfy a growing demand for low cost attitude control systems for small spacecraft, development of low cost scanning horizon sensor coupled to a low cost/low power consumption Reaction Wheel Assembly was initiated. This report addresses the details of the versatile design resulting from this effort. Tradeoff analyses for each of the major components are included, as well as test data from an engineering prototype of the hardware.

Data Applicability of Heritage and New Hardware for Launch Vehicle System Reliability Models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Al Hassan Mohammad; Novack, Steven

2015-01-01

Many launch vehicle systems are designed and developed using heritage and new hardware. In most cases, the heritage hardware undergoes modifications to fit new functional system requirements, impacting the failure rates and, ultimately, the reliability data. New hardware, which lacks historical data, is often compared to like systems when estimating failure rates. Some qualification of applicability for the data source to the current system should be made. Accurately characterizing the reliability data applicability and quality under these circumstances is crucial to developing model estimations that support confident decisions on design changes and trade studies. This presentation will demonstrate a data-source classification method that ranks reliability data according to applicability and quality criteria to a new launch vehicle. This method accounts for similarities/dissimilarities in source and applicability, as well as operating environments like vibrations, acoustic regime, and shock. This classification approach will be followed by uncertainty-importance routines to assess the need for additional data to reduce uncertainty.

Towards composition of verified hardware devices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schubert, E. Thomas; Levitt, K.; Cohen, G. C.

1991-01-01

Computers are being used where no affordable level of testing is adequate. Safety and life critical systems must find a replacement for exhaustive testing to guarantee their correctness. Through a mathematical proof, hardware verification research has focused on device verification and has largely ignored system composition verification. To address these deficiencies, we examine how the current hardware verification methodology can be extended to verify complete systems.

Movable Ground Based Recovery System for Reuseable Space Flight Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sarver, George L. (Inventor)

2013-01-01

A reusable space flight launch system is configured to eliminate complex descent and landing systems from the space flight hardware and move them to maneuverable ground based systems. Precision landing of the reusable space flight hardware is enabled using a simple, light weight aerodynamic device on board the flight hardware such as a parachute, and one or more translating ground based vehicles such as a hovercraft that include active speed, orientation and directional control. The ground based vehicle maneuvers itself into position beneath the descending flight hardware, matching its speed and direction and captures the flight hardware. The ground based vehicle will contain propulsion, command and GN&C functionality as well as space flight hardware landing cushioning and retaining hardware. The ground based vehicle propulsion system enables longitudinal and transverse maneuverability independent of its physical heading.

Cost analysis of carbon dioxide concentrators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yakut, M. M.

1972-01-01

A methodology is developed to predict the relevant contributions of the more intangible cost elements encountered in the development of flight-qualified hardware and is used to predict the costs of three carbon dioxide concentration systems. The cost and performance data from Gemini, Skylab, and other programs are utilized as a basis for establishing the cost estimating relationships. The concentration systems analyzed are the molecular sieves C02 concentrator, the hydrogen-depolarized concentrator, and the regenerable solid desiccant concentrator. Besides the cost estimates for each system, their comparative criteria including relative characteristics, operational differences, and development status are considered.

Hierarchical image-based rendering using texture mapping hardware

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Max, N

1999-01-15

Multi-layered depth images containing color and normal information for subobjects in a hierarchical scene model are precomputed with standard z-buffer hardware for six orthogonal views. These are adaptively selected according to the proximity of the viewpoint, and combined using hardware texture mapping to create ''reprojected'' output images for new viewpoints. (If a subobject is too close to the viewpoint, the polygons in the original model are rendered.) Specific z-ranges are selected from the textures with the hardware alpha test to give accurate 3D reprojection. The OpenGL color matrix is used to transform the precomputed normals into their orientations in themore » final view, for hardware shading.« less

Hardware design for the Autonomous Visibility Monitoring (AVM) observatory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cowles, K.

1993-01-01

The hardware for the three Autonomous Visibility Monitoring (AVM) observatories was redesigned. Changes in hardware design include electronics components, weather sensors, and the telescope drive system. Operation of the new hardware is discussed, as well as some of its features. The redesign will allow reliable automated operation.

Hardware simulation of fuel cell/gas turbine hybrids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, Thomas Paul

Hybrid solid oxide fuel cell/gas turbine (SOFC/GT) systems offer high efficiency power generation, but face numerous integration and operability challenges. This dissertation addresses the application of hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS) to explore the performance of a solid oxide fuel cell stack and gas turbine when combined into a hybrid system. Specifically, this project entailed developing and demonstrating a methodology for coupling a numerical SOFC subsystem model with a gas turbine that has been modified with supplemental process flow and control paths to mimic a hybrid system. This HILS approach was implemented with the U.S. Department of Energy Hybrid Performance Project (HyPer) located at the National Energy Technology Laboratory. By utilizing HILS the facility provides a cost effective and capable platform for characterizing the response of hybrid systems to dynamic variations in operating conditions. HILS of a hybrid system was accomplished by first interfacing a numerical model with operating gas turbine hardware. The real-time SOFC stack model responds to operating turbine flow conditions in order to predict the level of thermal effluent from the SOFC stack. This simulated level of heating then dynamically sets the turbine's "firing" rate to reflect the stack output heat rate. Second, a high-speed computer system with data acquisition capabilities was integrated with the existing controls and sensors of the turbine facility. In the future, this will allow for the utilization of high-fidelity fuel cell models that infer cell performance parameters while still computing the simulation in real-time. Once the integration of the numeric and the hardware simulation components was completed, HILS experiments were conducted to evaluate hybrid system performance. The testing identified non-intuitive transient responses arising from the large thermal capacitance of the stack that are inherent to hybrid systems. Furthermore, the tests demonstrated the

Toward Evolvable Hardware Chips: Experiments with a Programmable Transistor Array

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stoica, Adrian

1998-01-01

Evolvable Hardware is reconfigurable hardware that self-configures under the control of an evolutionary algorithm. We search for a hardware configuration can be performed using software models or, faster and more accurate, directly in reconfigurable hardware. Several experiments have demonstrated the possibility to automatically synthesize both digital and analog circuits. The paper introduces an approach to automated synthesis of CMOS circuits, based on evolution on a Programmable Transistor Array (PTA). The approach is illustrated with a software experiment showing evolutionary synthesis of a circuit with a desired DC characteristic. A hardware implementation of a test PTA chip is then described, and the same evolutionary experiment is performed on the chip demonstrating circuit synthesis/self-configuration directly in hardware.

Impact of low cost refurbishable and standard spacecraft upon future NASA space programs. Payload effects follow-on study, appendix

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

Mission analysis is discussed, including the consolidation and expansion of mission equipment and experiment characteristics, and determination of simplified shuttle flight schedule. Parametric analysis of standard space hardware and preliminary shuttle/payload constraints analysis are evaluated, along with the cost impact of low cost standard hardware.

Hardware Interface Description for the Integrated Power, Avionics, and Software (iPAS) Space Telecommunications Radio Ssystem (STRS) Radio

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shalkhauser, Mary Jo W.; Roche, Rigoberto

2017-01-01

The Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) provides a common, consistent framework for software defined radios (SDRs) to abstract the application software from the radio platform hardware. The STRS standard aims to reduce the cost and risk of using complex, configurable and reprogrammable radio systems across NASA missions. To promote the use of the STRS architecture for future NASA advanced exploration missions, NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) developed an STRS-compliant SDR on a radio platform used by the Advance Exploration System program at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in their Integrated Power, Avionics, and Software (iPAS) laboratory. The iPAS STRS Radio was implemented on the Reconfigurable, Intelligently-Adaptive Communication System (RIACS) platform, currently being used for radio development at JSC. The platform consists of a Xilinx ML605 Virtex-6 FPGA board, an Analog Devices FMCOMMS1-EBZ RF transceiver board, and an Embedded PC (Axiomtek eBox 620-110-FL) running the Ubuntu 12.4 operating system. Figure 1 shows the RIACS platform hardware. The result of this development is a very low cost STRS compliant platform that can be used for waveform developments for multiple applications.The purpose of this document is to describe how to develop a new waveform using the RIACS platform and the Very High Speed Integrated Circuits (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language (VHDL) FPGA wrapper code and the STRS implementation on the Axiomtek processor.

Taking the "Total Cost of Ownership" Concept to the Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitzgerald, Sara

2001-01-01

Suggests school leaders must understand the total cost of ownership (TOC)-all of the costs involved with installing, operating, and maintaining computers-if they are going to use them to full advantage and cost-effectively. Discusses the major components of TCO after initial hardware investment (professional development, software, support, and…

The role of hardware in learning engineering fundamentals: An empirical study of engineering design and product analysis activity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brereton, Margot Felicity

A series of short engineering exercises and design projects was created to help students learn to apply abstract knowledge to physical experiences with hardware. The exercises involved designing machines from kits of materials and dissecting and analyzing familiar household products. Students worked in teams. During the activities students brought their knowledge of engineering fundamentals to bear. Videotape analysis was used to identify and characterize the ways in which hardware contributed to learning fundamental concepts. Structural and qualitative analyses of videotaped activities were undertaken. Structural analysis involved counting the references to theory and hardware and the extent of interleaving of references in activity. The analysis found that there was much more discussion linking fundamental concepts to hardware in some activities than in others. The analysis showed that the interleaving of references to theory and hardware in activity is observable and quantifiable. Qualitative analysis was used to investigate the dialog linking concepts and hardware. Students were found to advance their designs and their understanding of engineering fundamentals through a negotiation process in which they pitted abstract concepts against hardware behavior. Through this process students sorted out theoretical assumptions and causal relations. In addition they discovered design assumptions, functional connections and physical embodiments of abstract concepts in hardware, developing a repertoire of familiar hardware components and machines. Hardware was found to be integral to learning, affecting the course of inquiry and the dynamics of group interaction. Several case studies are presented to illustrate the processes at work. The research illustrates the importance of working across the boundary between abstractions and experiences with hardware in order to learn engineering and physical sciences. The research findings are: (a) the negotiation process by which

Study of the adaptability of existing hardware designs to a Pioneer Saturn/Uranus probe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1973-01-01

The basic concept of designing a scientific entry probe for the expected range of environments at Saturn or Uranus and making the probe compatible with the interface constraints of the Pioneer spacecraft was investigated for launches in the early 1980's. It was found that the amount of hardware commonality between that used in the Pioneer Venus program and that for the Saturn/Uranus probe was approximately 85%. It is recommended that additional development studies be conducted to improve the hardware definitions of the probe design for the following: heat shield, battery, nose cap jettisoning, and thermal control insulation.

Space station systems analysis study. Part 3: Documentation. Volume 5: Cost and schedule data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1977-01-01

Cost estimates for the space station systems analysis were recorded. Space construction base costs and characteristics were cited as well as mission hardware costs and characteristics. Also delineated were cost ground rules, the program schedule, and a detail cost estimate and funding distribution.

Tinker's Toys: Lessons from Bank Street: Hardware.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tinker, Robert

1985-01-01

Bank Street Laboratory (a set of hardware/software tools for measuring temperature, light, and sound) consists of a board that plugs into Apple microcomputers, cabling, software, and six probes. Discusses the laboratory's hardware, including the analog-to-digital converter, multiplier chip, and modular connectors. Circuit diagrams of components…

The cost of doing business: cost structure of electronic immunization registries.

PubMed

Fontanesi, John M; Flesher, Don S; De Guire, Michelle; Lieberthal, Allan; Holcomb, Kathy

2002-10-01

To predict the true cost of developing and maintaining an electronic immunization registry, and to set the framework for developing future cost-effective and cost-benefit analysis. Primary data collected at three immunization registries located in California, accounting for 90 percent of all immunization records in registries in the state during the study period. A parametric cost analysis compared registry development and maintenance expenditures to registry performance requirements. Data were collected at each registry through interviews, reviews of expenditure records, technical accomplishments development schedules, and immunization coverage rates. The cost of building immunization registries is predictable and independent of the hardware/software combination employed. The effort requires four man-years of technical effort or approximately $250,000 in 1998 dollars. Costs for maintaining a registry were approximately $5,100 per end user per three-year period. There is a predictable cost structure for both developing and maintaining immunization registries. The cost structure can be used as a framework for examining the cost-effectiveness and cost-benefits of registries. The greatest factor effecting improvement in coverage rates was ongoing, user-based administrative investment.

Preliminary design of flight hardware for two-phase fluid research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hustvedt, D. C.; Oonk, R. L.

1982-01-01

This study defined the preliminary designs of flight software for the Space Shuttle Orbiter for three two-phase fluid research experiments: (1) liquid reorientation - to study the motion of liquid in tanks subjected to small accelerations; (2) pool boiling - to study low-gravity boiling from horizontal cylinders; and (3) flow boiling - to study low-gravity forced flow boiling heat transfer and flow phenomena in a heated horizontal tube. The study consisted of eight major tasks: reassessment of the existing experiment designs, assessment of the Spacelab facility approach, assessment of the individual carry-on approach, selection of the preferred approach, preliminary design of flight hardware, safety analysis, preparation of a development plan, estimates of detailed design, fabrication and ground testing costs. The most cost effective design approach for the experiments is individual carry-ons in the Orbiter middeck. The experiments were designed to fit into one or two middeck lockers. Development schedules for the detailed design, fabrication and ground testing ranged from 15 1/2 to 18 months. Minimum costs (in 1981 dollars) ranged from $463K for the liquid reorientation experiment to $998K for the pool boiling experiment.

The Evolution of Exercise Hardware on ISS: Past, Present, and Future

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buxton, R. E.; Kalogera, K. L.; Hanson, A. M.

2017-01-01

During 16 years in low-Earth orbit, the suite of exercise hardware aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has matured significantly. Today, the countermeasure system supports an array of physical-training protocols and serves as an extensive research platform. Future hardware designs are required to have smaller operational envelopes and must also mitigate known physiologic issues observed in long-duration spaceflight. Taking lessons learned from the long history of space exercise will be important to successful development and implementation of future, compact exercise hardware. The evolution of exercise hardware as deployed on the ISS has implications for future exercise hardware and operations. Key lessons learned from the early days of ISS have helped to: 1. Enhance hardware performance (increased speed and loads). 2. Mature software interfaces. 3. Compare inflight exercise workloads to pre-, in-, and post-flight musculoskeletal and aerobic conditions. 4. Improve exercise comfort. 5. Develop complimentary hardware for research and operations. Current ISS exercise hardware includes both custom and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. Benefits and challenges to this approach have prepared engineering teams to take a hybrid approach when designing and implementing future exercise hardware. Significant effort has gone into consideration of hardware instrumentation and wearable devices that provide important data to monitor crew health and performance.

Hardware device to physical structure binding and authentication

DOEpatents

Hamlet, Jason R.; Stein, David J.; Bauer, Todd M.

2013-08-20

Detection and deterrence of device tampering and subversion may be achieved by including a cryptographic fingerprint unit within a hardware device for authenticating a binding of the hardware device and a physical structure. The cryptographic fingerprint unit includes an internal physically unclonable function ("PUF") circuit disposed in or on the hardware device, which generate an internal PUF value. Binding logic is coupled to receive the internal PUF value, as well as an external PUF value associated with the physical structure, and generates a binding PUF value, which represents the binding of the hardware device and the physical structure. The cryptographic fingerprint unit also includes a cryptographic unit that uses the binding PUF value to allow a challenger to authenticate the binding.

Cost Is Not Everything.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clement, Russell T.

1985-01-01

Reports results of survey of 21 smaller to medium-sized (50,000-200,000 volumes) libraries which was conducted to determine factors used to make selection decisions in purchase of automated turnkey systems from established vendors. Factors examined include costs, software, hardware, and vendors for parts A (actual experience) and B (hypothetical…

Compressive Sensing Image Sensors-Hardware Implementation

PubMed Central

Dadkhah, Mohammadreza; Deen, M. Jamal; Shirani, Shahram

2013-01-01

The compressive sensing (CS) paradigm uses simultaneous sensing and compression to provide an efficient image acquisition technique. The main advantages of the CS method include high resolution imaging using low resolution sensor arrays and faster image acquisition. Since the imaging philosophy in CS imagers is different from conventional imaging systems, new physical structures have been developed for cameras that use the CS technique. In this paper, a review of different hardware implementations of CS encoding in optical and electrical domains is presented. Considering the recent advances in CMOS (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) technologies and the feasibility of performing on-chip signal processing, important practical issues in the implementation of CS in CMOS sensors are emphasized. In addition, the CS coding for video capture is discussed. PMID:23584123

The Cost of an Additional Disability-Free Life Year for Older Americans: 1992–2005

PubMed Central

Cai, Liming

2013-01-01

Objective To estimate the cost of an additional disability-free life year for older Americans in 1992–2005. Data Source This study used 1992–2005 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, a longitudinal survey of Medicare beneficiaries with a rotating panel design. Study Design This analysis used multistate life table model to estimate probabilities of transition among a discrete set of health states (nondisabled, disabled, and dead) for two panels of older Americans in 1992 and 2002. Health spending incurred between annual health interviews was estimated by a generalized linear mixed model. Health status, including death, was simulated for each member of the panel using these transition probabilities; the associated health spending was cross-walked to the simulated health changes. Principal Findings Disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) increased significantly more than life expectancy during the study period. Assuming that 50 percent of the gains in DFLE between 1992 and 2005 were attributable to increases in spending, the average discounted cost per additional disability-free life year was $71,000. There were small differences between gender and racial/ethnic groups. Conclusions The cost of an additional disability-free life year was substantially below previous estimates based on mortality trends alone. PMID:22670874

Applying a Genetic Algorithm to Reconfigurable Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wells, B. Earl; Weir, John; Trevino, Luis; Patrick, Clint; Steincamp, Jim

2004-01-01

This paper investigates the feasibility of applying genetic algorithms to solve optimization problems that are implemented entirely in reconfgurable hardware. The paper highlights the pe$ormance/design space trade-offs that must be understood to effectively implement a standard genetic algorithm within a modem Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA, reconfgurable hardware environment and presents a case-study where this stochastic search technique is applied to standard test-case problems taken from the technical literature. In this research, the targeted FPGA-based platform and high-level design environment was the Starbridge Hypercomputing platform, which incorporates multiple Xilinx Virtex II FPGAs, and the Viva TM graphical hardware description language.

Contamination Control and Hardware Processing Solutions at Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burns, DeWitt H.; Hampton, Tammy; Huey, LaQuieta; Mitchell, Mark; Norwood, Joey; Lowrey, Nikki

2012-01-01

The Contamination Control Team of Marshall Space Flight Center's Materials and Processes Laboratory supports many Programs/ Projects that design, manufacture, and test a wide range of hardware types that are sensitive to contamination and foreign object damage (FOD). Examples where contamination/FOD concerns arise include sensitive structural bondline failure, critical orifice blockage, seal leakage, and reactive fluid compatibility (liquid oxygen, hydrazine) as well as performance degradation of sensitive instruments or spacecraft surfaces such as optical elements and thermal control systems. During the design phase, determination of the sensitivity of a hardware system to different types or levels of contamination/FOD is essential. A contamination control and FOD control plan must then be developed and implemented through all phases of ground processing, and, sometimes, on-orbit use, recovery, and refurbishment. Implementation of proper controls prevents cost and schedule impacts due to hardware damage or rework and helps assure mission success. Current capabilities are being used to support recent and on-going activities for multiple Mission Directorates / Programs such as International Space Station (ISS), James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Space Launch System (SLS) elements (tanks, engines, booster), etc. The team also advances Green Technology initiatives and addresses materials obsolescence issues for NASA and external customers, most notably in the area of solvent replacement (e.g. aqueous cleaners containing hexavalent chrome, ozone depleting chemicals (CFC s and HCFC's), suspect carcinogens). The team evaluates new surface cleanliness inspection and cleaning technologies (e.g. plasma cleaning), and maintains databases for processing support materials as well as outgassing and optical compatibility test results for spaceflight environments.

A modular suite of hardware enabling spaceflight cell culture research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoehn, Alexander; Klaus, David M.; Stodieck, Louis S.

2004-01-01

BioServe Space Technologies, a NASA Research Partnership Center (RPC), has developed and operated various middeck payloads launched on 23 shuttle missions since 1991 in support of commercial space biotechnology projects. Modular cell culture systems are contained within the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (CGBA) suite of flight-qualified hardware, compatible with Space Shuttle, SPACEHAB, Spacelab and International Space Station (ISS) EXPRESS Rack interfaces. As part of the CGBA family, the Isothermal Containment Module (ICM) incubator provides thermal control, data acquisition and experiment manipulation capabilities, including accelerometer launch detection for automated activation and thermal profiling for culture incubation and sample preservation. The ICM can accommodate up to 8 individually controlled temperature zones. Command and telemetry capabilities allow real-time downlink of data and video permitting remote payload operation and ground control synchronization. Individual cell culture experiments can be accommodated in a variety of devices ranging from 'microgravity test tubes' or standard 100 mm Petri dishes, to complex, fed-batch bioreactors with automated culture feeding, waste removal and multiple sample draws. Up to 3 levels of containment can be achieved for chemical fixative addition, and passive gas exchange can be provided through hydrophobic membranes. Many additional options exist for designing customized hardware depending on specific science requirements.

Performance Analysis of a Hardware Implemented Complex Signal Kurtosis Radio-Frequency Interference Detector

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schoenwald, Adam J.; Bradley, Damon C.; Mohammed, Priscilla N.; Piepmeier, Jeffrey R.; Wong, Mark

2016-01-01

Radio-frequency interference (RFI) is a known problem for passive remote sensing as evidenced in the L-band radiometers SMOS, Aquarius and more recently, SMAP. Various algorithms have been developed and implemented on SMAP to improve science measurements. This was achieved by the use of a digital microwave radiometer. RFI mitigation becomes more challenging for microwave radiometers operating at higher frequencies in shared allocations. At higher frequencies larger bandwidths are also desirable for lower measurement noise further adding to processing challenges. This work focuses on finding improved RFI mitigation techniques that will be effective at additional frequencies and at higher bandwidths. To aid the development and testing of applicable detection and mitigation techniques, a wide-band RFI algorithm testing environment has been developed using the Reconfigurable Open Architecture Computing Hardware System (ROACH) built by the Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER) Group. The testing environment also consists of various test equipment used to reproduce typical signals that a radiometer may see including those with and without RFI. The testing environment permits quick evaluations of RFI mitigation algorithms as well as show that they are implementable in hardware. The algorithm implemented is a complex signal kurtosis detector which was modeled and simulated. The complex signal kurtosis detector showed improved performance over the real kurtosis detector under certain conditions. The real kurtosis is implemented on SMAP at 24 MHz bandwidth. The complex signal kurtosis algorithm was then implemented in hardware at 200 MHz bandwidth using the ROACH. In this work, performance of the complex signal kurtosis and the real signal kurtosis are compared. Performance evaluations and comparisons in both simulation as well as experimental hardware implementations were done with the use of receiver operating characteristic (ROC

78 FR 32224 - Availability of Version 3.1.2 of the Connect America Fund Phase II Cost Model; Additional...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-29

... Version 3.1.2 of the Connect America Fund Phase II Cost Model; Additional Discussion Topics in Connect America Cost Model Virtual Workshop AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Proposed rule... America Cost Model (CAM v3.1.2), which allows Commission staff and interested parties to calculate costs...

A Survey of Display Hardware and Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poore, Jesse H., Jr.; And Others

Reported are two papers which deal with the fundamentals of display hardware and software in computer systems. The first report presents the basic principles of display hardware in terms of image generation from buffers presumed to be loaded and controlled by a digital computer. The concepts surrounding the electrostatic tube, the electromagnetic…

Real-time high speed generator system emulation with hardware-in-the-loop application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stroupe, Nicholas

that will emulate and reproduce these voltages on real hardware. The output of the inverter is then connected with the rest of the test bed and can consist of a variety of distributed system topologies for many testing scenarios. The idea is that the distributed power system under test in hardware can also integrate real generator system dynamics without physically involving an actual generator system. The benefits of successful generator system emulation are vast and lead to much more detailed system studies without the draw backs of needing physical generator units. Some of these advantages are safety, reduced costs, and the ability of scaling while still preserving the appropriate system dynamics. This thesis will introduce the ideas behind generator emulation and explain the process and necessary steps to obtaining such an objective. It will also demonstrate real results and verification of numerical values in real-time. The final goal of this thesis is to introduce this new idea and show that it is in fact obtainable and can prove to be a highly useful tool in the simulation and verification of distributed power systems.

Enough to Go 'Round? Thinking Smart about Total Cost of Ownership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McIntire, Todd

2006-01-01

Total cost of ownership or TCO refers to the life cycle of costs for technology, including both direct and indirect expenses. TCO includes costs incurred by capital (hardware, software, and facilities); administration and operation (planning, upgrade, replacement, and technical support); and end-user operation (staff development and user…

Two weeks of additional standing balance circuit classes during inpatient rehabilitation are cost saving and effective: an economic evaluation.

PubMed

Treacy, Daniel; Howard, Kirsten; Hayes, Alison; Hassett, Leanne; Schurr, Karl; Sherrington, Catherine

2018-01-01

Among people admitted for inpatient rehabilitation, is usual care plus standing balance circuit classes more cost-effective than usual care alone? Cost-effectiveness study embedded within a randomised controlled trial with concealed allocation, assessor blinding and intention-to-treat analysis. 162 rehabilitation inpatients from a metropolitan hospital in Sydney, Australia. The experimental group received a 1-hour standing balance circuit class, delivered three times a week for 2 weeks, in addition to usual therapy. The circuit classes were supervised by one physiotherapist and one physiotherapy assistant for up to eight patients. The control group received usual therapy alone. Costs were estimated from routinely collected hospital use data in the 3 months after randomisation. The functional outcome measure was mobility measured at 3 months using the Short Physical Performance Battery administered by a blinded assessor. An incremental analysis was conducted and the joint probability distribution of costs and outcomes was examined using bootstrapping. The median cost savings for the intervention group was AUD4,741 (95% CI 137 to 9,372) per participant; 94% of bootstraps showed that the intervention was both effective and cost saving. Two weeks of additional standing balance circuit classes delivered in addition to usual therapy resulted in decreased healthcare costs at 3 months in hospital inpatients admitted for rehabilitation. There is a high probability that this intervention is both cost saving and effective. ACTRN12611000412932. [Treacy D, Howard K, Hayes A, Hassett L, Schurr K, Sherrington C (2018) Two weeks of additional standing balance circuit classes during inpatient rehabilitation are cost saving and effective: an economic evaluation. Journal of Physiotherapy 64: 41-47]. Copyright © 2017 Australian Physiotherapy Association. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Health Monitoring System Technology Assessments: Cost Benefits Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kent, Renee M.; Murphy, Dennis A.

2000-01-01

The subject of sensor-based structural health monitoring is very diverse and encompasses a wide range of activities including initiatives and innovations involving the development of advanced sensor, signal processing, data analysis, and actuation and control technologies. In addition, it embraces the consideration of the availability of low-cost, high-quality contributing technologies, computational utilities, and hardware and software resources that enable the operational realization of robust health monitoring technologies. This report presents a detailed analysis of the cost benefit and other logistics and operational considerations associated with the implementation and utilization of sensor-based technologies for use in aerospace structure health monitoring. The scope of this volume is to assess the economic impact, from an end-user perspective, implementation health monitoring technologies on three structures. It specifically focuses on evaluating the impact on maintaining and supporting these structures with and without health monitoring capability.

In-Situ monitoring and modeling of metal additive manufacturing powder bed fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alldredge, Jacob; Slotwinski, John; Storck, Steven; Kim, Sam; Goldberg, Arnold; Montalbano, Timothy

2018-04-01

One of the major challenges in metal additive manufacturing is developing in-situ sensing and feedback control capabilities to eliminate build errors and allow qualified part creation without the need for costly and destructive external testing. Previously, many groups have focused on high fidelity numerical modeling and true temperature thermal imaging systems. These approaches require large computational resources or costly hardware that requires complex calibration and are difficult to integrate into commercial systems. In addition, due to the rapid change in the state of the material as well as its surface properties, getting true temperature is complicated and difficult. Here, we describe a different approach where we implement a low cost thermal imaging solution allowing for relative temperature measurements sufficient for detecting unwanted process variability. We match this with a faster than real time qualitative model that allows the process to be rapidly modeled during the build. The hope is to combine these two, allowing for the detection of anomalies in real time, enabling corrective action to potentially be taken, or parts to be stopped immediately after the error, saving material and time. Here we describe our sensor setup, its costs and abilities. We also show the ability to detect in real time unwanted process deviations. We also show that the output of our high speed model agrees qualitatively with experimental results. These results lay the groundwork for our vision of an integrated feedback and control scheme that combines low cost, easy to use sensors and fast modeling for process deviation monitoring.

Big Science, Small-Budget Space Experiment Package Aka MISSE-5: A Hardware And Software Perspective

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krasowski, Michael; Greer, Lawrence; Flatico, Joseph; Jenkins, Phillip; Spina, Dan

2007-01-01

Conducting space experiments with small budgets is a fact of life for many design groups with low-visibility science programs. One major consequence is that specialized space grade electronic components are often too costly to incorporate into the design. Radiation mitigation now becomes more complex as a result of being restricted to the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts. Unique hardware and software design techniques are required to succeed in producing a viable instrument suited for use in space. This paper highlights some of the design challenges and associated solutions encountered in the production of a highly capable, low cost space experiment package.

15 MW HArdware-in-the-loop Grid Simulation Project

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rigas, Nikolaos; Fox, John Curtiss; Collins, Randy

2014-10-31

The 15MW Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) Grid Simulator project was to (1) design, (2) construct and (3) commission a state-of-the-art grid integration testing facility for testing of multi-megawatt devices through a ‘shared facility’ model open to all innovators to promote the rapid introduction of new technology in the energy market to lower the cost of energy delivered. The 15 MW HIL Grid Simulator project now serves as the cornerstone of the Duke Energy Electric Grid Research, Innovation and Development (eGRID) Center. This project leveraged the 24 kV utility interconnection and electrical infrastructure of the US DOE EERE funded WTDTF project at themore » Clemson University Restoration Institute in North Charleston, SC. Additionally, the project has spurred interest from other technology sectors, including large PV inverter and energy storage testing and several leading edge research proposals dealing with smart grid technologies, grid modernization and grid cyber security. The key components of the project are the power amplifier units capable of providing up to 20MW of defined power to the research grid. The project has also developed a one of a kind solution to performing fault ride-through testing by combining a reactive divider network and a large power converter into a hybrid method. This unique hybrid method of performing fault ride-through analysis will allow for the research team at the eGRID Center to investigate the complex differences between the alternative methods of performing fault ride-through evaluations and will ultimately further the science behind this testing. With the final goal of being able to perform HIL experiments and demonstration projects, the eGRID team undertook a significant challenge with respect to developing a control system that is capable of communicating with several different pieces of equipment with different communication protocols in real-time. The eGRID team developed a custom fiber optical network that is based

Use of CCSDS Packets Over SpaceWire to Control Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haddad, Omar; Blau, Michael; Haghani, Noosha; Yuknis, William; Albaijes, Dennis

2012-01-01

For the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Command and Data Handling subsystem consisted of several electronic hardware assemblies that were connected with SpaceWire serial links. Electronic hardware would be commanded/controlled and telemetry data was obtained using the SpaceWire links. Prior art focused on parallel data buses and other types of serial buses, which were not compatible with the SpaceWire and the core flight executive (CFE) software bus. This innovation applies to anything that utilizes both SpaceWire networks and the CFE software. The CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems) packet contains predetermined values in its payload fields that electronic hardware attached at the terminus of the SpaceWire node would decode, interpret, and execute. The hardware s interpretation of the packet data would enable the hardware to change its state/configuration (command) or generate status (telemetry). The primary purpose is to provide an interface that is compatible with the hardware and the CFE software bus. By specifying the format of the CCSDS packet, it is possible to specify how the resulting hardware is to be built (in terms of digital logic) that results in a hardware design that can be controlled by the CFE software bus in the final application

48 CFR 352.216-70 - Additional cost principles.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

...-Federal contracts, grants, and agreements, including the development of scientific, cost, and other data... method, they may be accepted if they are found to be reasonable and equitable. (4) B & P costs do not...

Returned Solar Max hardware degradation study results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Triolo, Jack J.; Ousley, Gilbert W.

1989-01-01

The Solar Maximum Repair Mission returned with the replaced hardware that had been in low Earth orbit for over four years. The materials of this returned hardware gave the aerospace community an opportunity to study the realtime effects of atomic oxygen, solar radiation, impact particles, charged particle radiation, and molecular contamination. The results of these studies are summarized.

48 CFR 3452.216-70 - Additional cost principles.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... scientific, cost, and other data needed to support the bids, proposals, and applications. Bid and proposal... practice is to treat these costs by some other method, they may be accepted if they are found to be...

48 CFR 3452.216-70 - Additional cost principles.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... scientific, cost, and other data needed to support the bids, proposals, and applications. Bid and proposal... practice is to treat these costs by some other method, they may be accepted if they are found to be...

Human wound photogrammetry with low-cost hardware based on automatic calibration of geometry and color

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jose, Abin; Haak, Daniel; Jonas, Stephan; Brandenburg, Vincent; Deserno, Thomas M.

2015-03-01

Photographic documentation and image-based wound assessment is frequently performed in medical diagnostics, patient care, and clinical research. To support quantitative assessment, photographic imaging is based on expensive and high-quality hardware and still needs appropriate registration and calibration. Using inexpensive consumer hardware such as smartphone-integrated cameras, calibration of geometry, color, and contrast is challenging. Some methods involve color calibration using a reference pattern such as a standard color card, which is located manually in the photographs. In this paper, we adopt the lattice detection algorithm by Park et al. from real world to medicine. At first, the algorithm extracts and clusters feature points according to their local intensity patterns. Groups of similar points are fed into a selection process, which tests for suitability as a lattice grid. The group which describes the largest probability of the meshes of a lattice is selected and from it a template for an initial lattice cell is extracted. Then, a Markov random field is modeled. Using the mean-shift belief propagation, the detection of the 2D lattice is solved iteratively as a spatial tracking problem. Least-squares geometric calibration of projective distortions and non-linear color calibration in RGB space is supported by 35 corner points of 24 color patches, respectively. The method is tested on 37 photographs taken from the German Calciphylaxis registry, where non-standardized photographic documentation is collected nationwide from all contributing trial sites. In all images, the reference card location is correctly identified. At least, 28 out of 35 lattice points were detected, outperforming the SIFT-based approach previously applied. Based on these coordinates, robust geometry and color registration is performed making the photographs comparable for quantitative analysis.

DATAS Hardware Diagnostic Tests

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1990-10-01

This document is reference material for personnel using the Data Link and : Analysis System (DATAS) for hardware diagnostic testing. Included in this : document is a brief overall description of the DATAS, and a thorough : description of how to opera...

A historical survey of algorithms and hardware architectures for neural-inspired and neuromorphic computing applications

DOE PAGES

James, Conrad D.; Aimone, James B.; Miner, Nadine E.; ...

2017-01-04

In this study, biological neural networks continue to inspire new developments in algorithms and microelectronic hardware to solve challenging data processing and classification problems. Here in this research, we survey the history of neural-inspired and neuromorphic computing in order to examine the complex and intertwined trajectories of the mathematical theory and hardware developed in this field. Early research focused on adapting existing hardware to emulate the pattern recognition capabilities of living organisms. Contributions from psychologists, mathematicians, engineers, neuroscientists, and other professions were crucial to maturing the field from narrowly-tailored demonstrations to more generalizable systems capable of addressing difficult problem classesmore » such as object detection and speech recognition. Algorithms that leverage fundamental principles found in neuroscience such as hierarchical structure, temporal integration, and robustness to error have been developed, and some of these approaches are achieving world-leading performance on particular data classification tasks. Additionally, novel microelectronic hardware is being developed to perform logic and to serve as memory in neuromorphic computing systems with optimized system integration and improved energy efficiency. Key to such advancements was the incorporation of new discoveries in neuroscience research, the transition away from strict structural replication and towards the functional replication of neural systems, and the use of mathematical theory frameworks to guide algorithm and hardware developments.« less

A historical survey of algorithms and hardware architectures for neural-inspired and neuromorphic computing applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

James, Conrad D.; Aimone, James B.; Miner, Nadine E.

In this study, biological neural networks continue to inspire new developments in algorithms and microelectronic hardware to solve challenging data processing and classification problems. Here in this research, we survey the history of neural-inspired and neuromorphic computing in order to examine the complex and intertwined trajectories of the mathematical theory and hardware developed in this field. Early research focused on adapting existing hardware to emulate the pattern recognition capabilities of living organisms. Contributions from psychologists, mathematicians, engineers, neuroscientists, and other professions were crucial to maturing the field from narrowly-tailored demonstrations to more generalizable systems capable of addressing difficult problem classesmore » such as object detection and speech recognition. Algorithms that leverage fundamental principles found in neuroscience such as hierarchical structure, temporal integration, and robustness to error have been developed, and some of these approaches are achieving world-leading performance on particular data classification tasks. Additionally, novel microelectronic hardware is being developed to perform logic and to serve as memory in neuromorphic computing systems with optimized system integration and improved energy efficiency. Key to such advancements was the incorporation of new discoveries in neuroscience research, the transition away from strict structural replication and towards the functional replication of neural systems, and the use of mathematical theory frameworks to guide algorithm and hardware developments.« less

The Art of Space Flight Exercise Hardware: Design and Implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beyene, Nahom M.

2004-01-01

The design of space flight exercise hardware depends on experience with crew health maintenance in a microgravity environment, history in development of flight-quality exercise hardware, and a foundation for certifying proper project management and design methodology. Developed over the past 40 years, the expertise in designing exercise countermeasures hardware at the Johnson Space Center stems from these three aspects of design. The medical community has steadily pursued an understanding of physiological changes in humans in a weightless environment and methods of counteracting negative effects on the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal system. The effects of weightlessness extend to the pulmonary and neurovestibular system as well with conditions ranging from motion sickness to loss of bone density. Results have shown losses in water weight and muscle mass in antigravity muscle groups. With the support of university-based research groups and partner space agencies, NASA has identified exercise to be the primary countermeasure for long-duration space flight. The history of exercise hardware began during the Apollo Era and leads directly to the present hardware on the International Space Station. Under the classifications of aerobic and resistive exercise, there is a clear line of development from the early devices to the countermeasures hardware used today. In support of all engineering projects, the engineering directorate has created a structured framework for project management. Engineers have identified standards and "best practices" to promote efficient and elegant design of space exercise hardware. The quality of space exercise hardware depends on how well hardware requirements are justified by exercise performance guidelines and crew health indicators. When considering the microgravity environment of the device, designers must consider performance of hardware separately from the combined human-in-hardware system. Astronauts are the caretakers of the hardware

Hardware solution for continuous time-resolved burst detection of single molecules in flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wahl, Michael; Erdmann, Rainer; Lauritsen, Kristian; Rahn, Hans-Juergen

1998-04-01

Time Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) is a valuable tool for Single Molecule Detection (SMD). However, existing TCSPC systems did not support continuous data collection and processing as is desirable for applications such as SMD for e.g. DNA-sequencing in a liquid flow. First attempts at using existing instrumentation in this kind of operation mode required additional routing hardware to switch between several memory banks and were not truly continuous. We have designed a hard- and software system to perform continuous real-time TCSPC based upon a modern solid state Time to Digital Converter (TDC). Short dead times of the fully digital TDC design combined with fast Field Programmable Gay Array logic permit a continuous data throughput as high as 3 Mcounts/sec. The histogramming time may be set as short as 100 microsecond(s) . Every histogram or every single fluorescence photon can be real-time tagged at 200 ns resolution in addition to recording its arrival time relative to the excitation pulse. Continuous switching between memory banks permits concurrent histogramming and data read-out. The instrument provides a time resolution of 60 ps and up to 4096 histogram channels. The overall instrument response function in combination with a low cost picosecond diode laser and an inexpensive photomultiplier tube was found to be 180 ps and well sufficient to measure sub-nanosecond fluorescence lifetimes.

Space biology initiative program definition review. Trade study 4: Design modularity and commonality

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jackson, L. Neal; Crenshaw, John, Sr.; Davidson, William L.; Herbert, Frank J.; Bilodeau, James W.; Stoval, J. Michael; Sutton, Terry

1989-01-01

The relative cost impacts (up or down) of developing Space Biology hardware using design modularity and commonality is studied. Recommendations for how the hardware development should be accomplished to meet optimum design modularity requirements for Life Science investigation hardware will be provided. In addition, the relative cost impacts of implementing commonality of hardware for all Space Biology hardware are defined. Cost analysis and supporting recommendations for levels of modularity and commonality are presented. A mathematical or statistical cost analysis method with the capability to support development of production design modularity and commonality impacts to parametric cost analysis is provided.

Networking K-12 Schools: Architecture Models and Evaluation of Costs and Benefits.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rothstein, Russell Isaac

This thesis examines the cost and benefits of communication networks in K-12 schools using cost analysis of five technology models with increasing levels of connectivity. Data indicate that the cost of the network hardware is only a small fraction of the overall networking costs. PC purchases, initial training, and retrofitting are the largest…

BASS Hardware Setup

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-01-27

ISS046e025945 (01/27/2016) --- NASA astronaut Tim Kopra sets up hardware for the Burning and Suppression of Solids – Milliken, or BASS-M, experiment. The BASS-M investigation tests flame-retardant cotton fabrics to determine how well they resist burning in microgravity. Results benefit research on flame-retardant textiles that can be used on Earth and in space

Hardware survey for the avionics test bed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cobb, J. M.

1981-01-01

A survey of maor hardware items that could possibly be used in the development of an avionics test bed for space shuttle attached or autonomous large space structures was conducted in NASA Johnson Space Center building 16. The results of the survey are organized to show the hardware by laboratory usage. Computer systems in each laboratory are described in some detail.

On Convergence of Development Costs and Cost Models for Complex Spaceflight Instrument Electronics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kizhner, Semion; Patel, Umeshkumar D.; Kasa, Robert L.; Hestnes, Phyllis; Brown, Tammy; Vootukuru, Madhavi

2008-01-01

Development costs of a few recent spaceflight instrument electrical and electronics subsystems have diverged from respective heritage cost model predictions. The cost models used are Grass Roots, Price-H and Parametric Model. These cost models originated in the military and industry around 1970 and were successfully adopted and patched by NASA on a mission-by-mission basis for years. However, the complexity of new instruments recently changed rapidly by orders of magnitude. This is most obvious in the complexity of representative spaceflight instrument electronics' data system. It is now required to perform intermediate processing of digitized data apart from conventional processing of science phenomenon signals from multiple detectors. This involves on-board instrument formatting of computational operands from row data for example, images), multi-million operations per second on large volumes of data in reconfigurable hardware (in addition to processing on a general purpose imbedded or standalone instrument flight computer), as well as making decisions for on-board system adaptation and resource reconfiguration. The instrument data system is now tasked to perform more functions, such as forming packets and instrument-level data compression of more than one data stream, which are traditionally performed by the spacecraft command and data handling system. It is furthermore required that the electronics box for new complex instruments is developed for one-digit watt power consumption, small size and that it is light-weight, and delivers super-computing capabilities. The conflict between the actual development cost of newer complex instruments and its electronics components' heritage cost model predictions seems to be irreconcilable. This conflict and an approach to its resolution are addressed in this paper by determining the complexity parameters, complexity index, and their use in enhanced cost model.

The Investigation and Development of Low Cost Hardware Components for Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells - Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

George A. Marchetti

1999-12-15

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell components, which would have a low-cost structure in mass production, were fabricated and tested. A fuel cell electrode structure, comprising a thin layer of graphite (50 microns) and a front-loaded platinum catalyst layer (600 angstroms), was shown to produce significant power densities. In addition, a PEM bipolar plate, comprising flexible graphite, carbon cloth flow-fields and an integrated polymer gasket, was fabricated. Power densities of a two-cell unit using this inexpensive bipolar plate architecture were shown to be comparable to state-of-the-art bipolar plates.

Defining Exercise Performance Metrics for Flight Hardware Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beyene, Nahon M.

2004-01-01

The space industry has prevailed over numerous design challenges in the spirit of exploration. Manned space flight entails creating products for use by humans and the Johnson Space Center has pioneered this effort as NASA's center for manned space flight. NASA Astronauts use a suite of flight exercise hardware to maintain strength for extravehicular activities and to minimize losses in muscle mass and bone mineral density. With a cycle ergometer, treadmill, and the Resistive Exercise Device available on the International Space Station (ISS), the Space Medicine community aspires to reproduce physical loading schemes that match exercise performance in Earth s gravity. The resistive exercise device presents the greatest challenge with the duty of accommodating 20 different exercises and many variations on the core set of exercises. This paper presents a methodology for capturing engineering parameters that can quantify proper resistive exercise performance techniques. For each specified exercise, the method provides engineering parameters on hand spacing, foot spacing, and positions of the point of load application at the starting point, midpoint, and end point of the exercise. As humans vary in height and fitness levels, the methodology presents values as ranges. In addition, this method shows engineers the proper load application regions on the human body. The methodology applies to resistive exercise in general and is in use for the current development of a Resistive Exercise Device. Exercise hardware systems must remain available for use and conducive to proper exercise performance as a contributor to mission success. The astronauts depend on exercise hardware to support extended stays aboard the ISS. Future plans towards exploration of Mars and beyond acknowledge the necessity of exercise. Continuous improvement in technology and our understanding of human health maintenance in space will allow us to support the exploration of Mars and the future of space

[Postoperative implant-associated osteomyelitis of the shoulder: Hardware-retaining revision concept using temporary drainage].

PubMed

Schnetzke, M; Aytac, S; Herrmann, P; Wölfl, C; Grützner, P A; Heppert, V; Guehring, T

2015-06-01

Posttraumatic and postoperative osteomyelitis (PPO) is a subgroup of bone infections with increasing importance. However, to date no standardized reoperation concept exists particularly for patients with PPO of the shoulder region. Therefore the purpose of this study was to evaluate a revision concept including débridement, irrigation, and insertion of temporary drainage with hardware retention until healing. A total of 31 patients with PPO were included with a proximal humerus fracture (n = 14), clavicle fracture (n = 10), or AC-joint separation (n = 7). In all, 27 of these patients could be followed for > 1 year. Hardware retention until fracture or ligament healing could be achieved in > 83%. Six patients required follow-up débridement due to recurrent infections, but then were unremarkable. Clinical outcome showed excellent Constant scores (91.6 ± 2.8). A cost-efficient, simple, and successful revision concept for patients with PPO of the shoulder region is described.

A retrospective cost-analysis of additional homeopathic treatment in Germany: Long-term economic outcomes

PubMed Central

Ostermann, Julia K.; Witt, Claudia M.; Reinhold, Thomas

2017-01-01

Objectives This study aimed to provide a long-term cost comparison of patients using additional homeopathic treatment (homeopathy group) with patients using usual care (control group) over an observation period of 33 months. Methods Health claims data from a large statutory health insurance company were analysed from both the societal perspective (primary outcome) and from the statutory health insurance perspective (secondary outcome). To compare costs between patient groups, homeopathy and control patients were matched in a 1:1 ratio using propensity scores. Predictor variables for the propensity scores included health care costs and both medical and demographic variables. Health care costs were analysed using an analysis of covariance, adjusted for baseline costs, between groups both across diagnoses and for specific diagnoses over a period of 33 months. Specific diagnoses included depression, migraine, allergic rhinitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, and headache. Results Data from 21,939 patients in the homeopathy group (67.4% females) and 21,861 patients in the control group (67.2% females) were analysed. Health care costs over the 33 months were 12,414 EUR [95% CI 12,022–12,805] in the homeopathy group and 10,428 EUR [95% CI 10,036–10,820] in the control group (p<0.0001). The largest cost differences were attributed to productivity losses (homeopathy: EUR 6,289 [6,118–6,460]; control: EUR 5,498 [5,326–5,670], p<0.0001) and outpatient costs (homeopathy: EUR 1,794 [1,770–1,818]; control: EUR 1,438 [1,414–1,462], p<0.0001). Although the costs of the two groups converged over time, cost differences remained over the full 33 months. For all diagnoses, homeopathy patients generated higher costs than control patients. Conclusion The analysis showed that even when following-up over 33 months, there were still cost differences between groups, with higher costs in the homeopathy group. PMID:28915242

The Cost of Doing Business: Cost Structure of Electronic Immunization Registries

PubMed Central

Fontanesi, John M; Flesher, Don S; De Guire, Michelle; Lieberthal, Allan; Holcomb, Kathy

2002-01-01

Objective To predict the true cost of developing and maintaining an electronic immunization registry, and to set the framework for developing future cost-effective and cost-benefit analysis. Data Sources/Study Setting Primary data collected at three immunization registries located in California, accounting for 90 percent of all immunization records in registries in the state during the study period. Study Design A parametric cost analysis compared registry development and maintenance expenditures to registry performance requirements. Data Collection/Extraction Methods Data were collected at each registry through interviews, reviews of expenditure records, technical accomplishments development schedules, and immunization coverage rates. Principal Findings The cost of building immunization registries is predictable and independent of the hardware/software combination employed. The effort requires four man-years of technical effort or approximately $250,000 in 1998 dollars. Costs for maintaining a registry were approximately $5,100 per end user per three-year period. Conclusions There is a predictable cost structure for both developing and maintaining immunization registries. The cost structure can be used as a framework for examining the cost-effectiveness and cost-benefits of registries. The greatest factor effecting improvement in coverage rates was ongoing, user-based administrative investment. PMID:12479497

Support for Diagnosis of Custom Computer Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Molock, Dwaine S.

2008-01-01

The Coldfire SDN Diagnostics software is a flexible means of exercising, testing, and debugging custom computer hardware. The software is a set of routines that, collectively, serve as a common software interface through which one can gain access to various parts of the hardware under test and/or cause the hardware to perform various functions. The routines can be used to construct tests to exercise, and verify the operation of, various processors and hardware interfaces. More specifically, the software can be used to gain access to memory, to execute timer delays, to configure interrupts, and configure processor cache, floating-point, and direct-memory-access units. The software is designed to be used on diverse NASA projects, and can be customized for use with different processors and interfaces. The routines are supported, regardless of the architecture of a processor that one seeks to diagnose. The present version of the software is configured for Coldfire processors on the Subsystem Data Node processor boards of the Solar Dynamics Observatory. There is also support for the software with respect to Mongoose V, RAD750, and PPC405 processors or their equivalents.

Evaluation of pressurized water cleaning systems for hardware refurbishment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dillard, Terry W.; Deweese, Charles D.; Hoppe, David T.; Vickers, John H.; Swenson, Gary J.; Hutchens, Dale E.

1995-01-01

Historically, refurbishment processes for RSRM motor cases and components have employed environmentally harmful materials. Specifically, vapor degreasing processes consume and emit large amounts of ozone depleting compounds. This program evaluates the use of pressurized water cleaning systems as a replacement for the vapor degreasing process. Tests have been conducted to determine if high pressure water washing, without any form of additive cleaner, is a viable candidate for replacing vapor degreasing processes. This paper discusses the findings thus far of Engineering Test Plan - 1168 (ETP-1168), 'Evaluation of Pressurized Water Cleaning Systems for Hardware Refurbishment.'

Independent Production Cost Estimate: XM1 Tank Main Armament Evaluation

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-11-01

r V. REFERtNCfcS 1. Ammunition Cost Research Study, Gerald W. Kalal and Patrick Gannon, Jun 76, AD-A-029330. 2. Ammunition Cost Research: Medium...Bore Cannon Ammunition, Annexes A-E, Patrick Gannon, Celestino George, Gerald Kalal , Kathleen Keleher, Paul Riedesel, Joseph Robinson, Sep 75, AD-A...016104. 3. Cost Estimating Relationships for Manufacturing Hardware Cost of Gun/Howitzer Cannons, Gerald W. Kalal , Aug 72, AD-75-7163. 4. ARRCOM

49 CFR 238.105 - Train electronic hardware and software safety.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Train electronic hardware and software safety. 238... and General Requirements § 238.105 Train electronic hardware and software safety. The requirements of this section apply to electronic hardware and software used to control or monitor safety functions in...

49 CFR 238.105 - Train electronic hardware and software safety.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Train electronic hardware and software safety. 238... and General Requirements § 238.105 Train electronic hardware and software safety. The requirements of this section apply to electronic hardware and software used to control or monitor safety functions in...

49 CFR 238.105 - Train electronic hardware and software safety.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Train electronic hardware and software safety. 238... and General Requirements § 238.105 Train electronic hardware and software safety. The requirements of this section apply to electronic hardware and software used to control or monitor safety functions in...

49 CFR 238.105 - Train electronic hardware and software safety.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Train electronic hardware and software safety. 238... and General Requirements § 238.105 Train electronic hardware and software safety. The requirements of this section apply to electronic hardware and software used to control or monitor safety functions in...

Computer hardware for radiologists: Part I

PubMed Central

Indrajit, IK; Alam, A

2010-01-01

Computers are an integral part of modern radiology practice. They are used in different radiology modalities to acquire, process, and postprocess imaging data. They have had a dramatic influence on contemporary radiology practice. Their impact has extended further with the emergence of Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM), Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), Radiology information system (RIS) technology, and Teleradiology. A basic overview of computer hardware relevant to radiology practice is presented here. The key hardware components in a computer are the motherboard, central processor unit (CPU), the chipset, the random access memory (RAM), the memory modules, bus, storage drives, and ports. The personnel computer (PC) has a rectangular case that contains important components called hardware, many of which are integrated circuits (ICs). The fiberglass motherboard is the main printed circuit board and has a variety of important hardware mounted on it, which are connected by electrical pathways called “buses”. The CPU is the largest IC on the motherboard and contains millions of transistors. Its principal function is to execute “programs”. A Pentium® 4 CPU has transistors that execute a billion instructions per second. The chipset is completely different from the CPU in design and function; it controls data and interaction of buses between the motherboard and the CPU. Memory (RAM) is fundamentally semiconductor chips storing data and instructions for access by a CPU. RAM is classified by storage capacity, access speed, data rate, and configuration. PMID:21042437

Hardware Evolution of Closed-Loop Controller Designs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gwaltney, David; Ferguson, Ian

2002-01-01

Poster presentation will outline on-going efforts at NASA, MSFC to employ various Evolvable Hardware experimental platforms in the evolution of digital and analog circuitry for application to automatic control. Included will be information concerning the application of commercially available hardware and software along with the use of the JPL developed FPTA2 integrated circuit and supporting JPL developed software. Results to date will be presented.

Open-Source 3-D Platform for Low-Cost Scientific Instrument Ecosystem.

PubMed

Zhang, C; Wijnen, B; Pearce, J M

2016-08-01

The combination of open-source software and hardware provides technically feasible methods to create low-cost, highly customized scientific research equipment. Open-source 3-D printers have proven useful for fabricating scientific tools. Here the capabilities of an open-source 3-D printer are expanded to become a highly flexible scientific platform. An automated low-cost 3-D motion control platform is presented that has the capacity to perform scientific applications, including (1) 3-D printing of scientific hardware; (2) laboratory auto-stirring, measuring, and probing; (3) automated fluid handling; and (4) shaking and mixing. The open-source 3-D platform not only facilities routine research while radically reducing the cost, but also inspires the creation of a diverse array of custom instruments that can be shared and replicated digitally throughout the world to drive down the cost of research and education further. © 2016 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

Project-based physics labs using low-cost open-source hardware

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouquet, F.; Bobroff, J.; Fuchs-Gallezot, M.; Maurines, L.

2017-03-01

We describe a project-based physics lab, which we proposed to third-year university students. These labs are based on new open-source low-cost equipment (Arduino microcontrollers and compatible sensors). Students are given complete autonomy: they develop their own experimental setup and study the physics topic of their choice. The goal of these projects is to let students to discover the reality of experimental physics. Technical specifications of the acquisition material and case studies are presented for practical implementation in other universities.

The Effect of Mission Location on Mission Costs and Equivalent System Mass

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fisher, John W.; Levri, Julie

2002-01-01

It is the goal of developers of advanced life support researcher to develop technology that reduces the cost of life support for future space missions and thereby enables missions that are currently infeasible or too expensive. Because the cost of propulsion dominates the cost of hardware emplacement in space and because the mass of a deliverable object controls its propulsive requirements, equivalent system mass (ESM) is used as a means for accounting for mission costs. ESM is typically calculated by adding to the actual mass the equivalent amount of mass that must be added to a mission due to other characteristics of a piece of hardware such as the item s volume or energy requirements. This approach works well for comparing different pieces of hardware when they go to the same location in space. However, different locations in mission space such low Earth orbit, Mars surface, or full trip to Mars and return to low Earth orbit require vastly different amounts of propulsion. Moving an object from Earth surface to the Martian surface and returning it to Earth will require as much as 100 times the propulsion that is required to move the object to low Earth orbit only. This paper presents the case for including the effect that location can have on cost as a part of ESM and suggests a method for achieving this improvement of ESM.

Hardware in the Loop at Megawatt-Scale Power | Energy Systems Integration

Science.gov Websites

Facility | NREL Hardware in the Loop at Megawatt-Scale Power Hardware in the Loop at Megawatt -Scale Power Hardware-in-the-loop simulation is not new, but the Energy System Integration Facility's -in-the-loop co-simulation. For more information, read the power hardware-in-the-loop factsheet. Text

Easy Handling of Sensors and Actuators over TCP/IP Networks by Open Source Hardware/Software

PubMed Central

Mejías, Andrés; Herrera, Reyes S.; Márquez, Marco A.; Calderón, Antonio José; González, Isaías; Andújar, José Manuel

2017-01-01

There are several specific solutions for accessing sensors and actuators present in any process or system through a TCP/IP network, either local or a wide area type like the Internet. The usage of sensors and actuators of different nature and diverse interfaces (SPI, I2C, analogue, etc.) makes access to them from a network in a homogeneous and secure way more complex. A framework, including both software and hardware resources, is necessary to simplify and unify networked access to these devices. In this paper, a set of open-source software tools, specifically designed to cover the different issues concerning the access to sensors and actuators, and two proposed low-cost hardware architectures to operate with the abovementioned software tools are presented. They allow integrated and easy access to local or remote sensors and actuators. The software tools, integrated in the free authoring tool Easy Java and Javascript Simulations (EJS) solve the interaction issues between the subsystem that integrates sensors and actuators into the network, called convergence subsystem in this paper, and the Human Machine Interface (HMI)—this one designed using the intuitive graphical system of EJS—located on the user’s computer. The proposed hardware architectures and software tools are described and experimental implementations with the proposed tools are presented. PMID:28067801

Easy Handling of Sensors and Actuators over TCP/IP Networks by Open Source Hardware/Software.

PubMed

Mejías, Andrés; Herrera, Reyes S; Márquez, Marco A; Calderón, Antonio José; González, Isaías; Andújar, José Manuel

2017-01-05

There are several specific solutions for accessing sensors and actuators present in any process or system through a TCP/IP network, either local or a wide area type like the Internet. The usage of sensors and actuators of different nature and diverse interfaces (SPI, I2C, analogue, etc.) makes access to them from a network in a homogeneous and secure way more complex. A framework, including both software and hardware resources, is necessary to simplify and unify networked access to these devices. In this paper, a set of open-source software tools, specifically designed to cover the different issues concerning the access to sensors and actuators, and two proposed low-cost hardware architectures to operate with the abovementioned software tools are presented. They allow integrated and easy access to local or remote sensors and actuators. The software tools, integrated in the free authoring tool Easy Java and Javascript Simulations (EJS) solve the interaction issues between the subsystem that integrates sensors and actuators into the network, called convergence subsystem in this paper, and the Human Machine Interface (HMI)-this one designed using the intuitive graphical system of EJS-located on the user's computer. The proposed hardware architectures and software tools are described and experimental implementations with the proposed tools are presented.

Nutritional supplementation: the additional costs of managing children infected with HIV in resource-constrained settings.

PubMed

Cobb, G; Bland, R M

2013-01-01

To explore the financial implications of applying the WHO guidelines for the nutritional management of HIV-infected children in a rural South African HIV programme. WHO guidelines describe Nutritional Care Plans (NCPs) for three categories of HIV-infected children: NCP-A: growing adequately; NCP-B: weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) ≤-2 but no evidence of severe acute malnutrition (SAM), confirmed weight loss/growth curve flattening, or condition with increased nutritional needs (e.g. tuberculosis); NCP-C: SAM. In resource-constrained settings, children requiring NCP-B or NCP-C usually need supplementation to achieve the additional energy recommendation. We estimated the proportion of children initiating antiretroviral treatment (ART) in the Hlabisa HIV Programme who would have been eligible for supplementation in 2010. The cost of supplying 26-weeks supplementation as a proportion of the cost of supplying ART to the same group was calculated. A total of 251 children aged 6 months to 14 years initiated ART. Eighty-eight required 6-month NCP-B, including 41 with a WAZ ≤-2 (no evidence of SAM) and 47 with a WAZ >-2 with co-existent morbidities including tuberculosis. Additionally, 25 children had SAM and required 10-weeks NCP-C followed by 16-weeks NCP-B. Thus, 113 of 251 (45%) children were eligible for nutritional supplementation at an estimated overall cost of $11 136, using 2010 exchange rates. These costs are an estimated additional 11.6% to that of supplying 26-week ART to the 251 children initiated. It is essential to address nutritional needs of HIV-infected children to optimise their health outcomes. Nutritional supplementation should be integral to, and budgeted for, in HIV programmes. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

CMOL/CMOS hardware architectures and performance/price for Bayesian memory - The building block of intelligent systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaveri, Mazad Shaheriar

The semiconductor/computer industry has been following Moore's law for several decades and has reaped the benefits in speed and density of the resultant scaling. Transistor density has reached almost one billion per chip, and transistor delays are in picoseconds. However, scaling has slowed down, and the semiconductor industry is now facing several challenges. Hybrid CMOS/nano technologies, such as CMOL, are considered as an interim solution to some of the challenges. Another potential architectural solution includes specialized architectures for applications/models in the intelligent computing domain, one aspect of which includes abstract computational models inspired from the neuro/cognitive sciences. Consequently in this dissertation, we focus on the hardware implementations of Bayesian Memory (BM), which is a (Bayesian) Biologically Inspired Computational Model (BICM). This model is a simplified version of George and Hawkins' model of the visual cortex, which includes an inference framework based on Judea Pearl's belief propagation. We then present a "hardware design space exploration" methodology for implementing and analyzing the (digital and mixed-signal) hardware for the BM. This particular methodology involves: analyzing the computational/operational cost and the related micro-architecture, exploring candidate hardware components, proposing various custom hardware architectures using both traditional CMOS and hybrid nanotechnology - CMOL, and investigating the baseline performance/price of these architectures. The results suggest that CMOL is a promising candidate for implementing a BM. Such implementations can utilize the very high density storage/computation benefits of these new nano-scale technologies much more efficiently; for example, the throughput per 858 mm2 (TPM) obtained for CMOL based architectures is 32 to 40 times better than the TPM for a CMOS based multiprocessor/multi-FPGA system, and almost 2000 times better than the TPM for a PC

Low cost attitude control system reaction wheel development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bialke, William

1991-03-01

In order to satisfy a growing demand for low cost attitude control systems for small spacecraft, development of a low power and low cost Reaction Wheel Assembly was initiated. The details of the versatile design resulting from this effort are addressed. Tradeoff analyses for each of the major components are included, as well as test data from an engineering prototype of the hardware.

Low cost attitude control system reaction wheel development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bialke, William

1991-01-01

In order to satisfy a growing demand for low cost attitude control systems for small spacecraft, development of a low power and low cost Reaction Wheel Assembly was initiated. The details of the versatile design resulting from this effort are addressed. Tradeoff analyses for each of the major components are included, as well as test data from an engineering prototype of the hardware.

Shielded battery syndrome: a new hardware complication of deep brain stimulation.

PubMed

Chelvarajah, Ramesh; Lumsden, Daniel; Kaminska, Margaret; Samuel, Michael; Hulse, Natasha; Selway, Richard P; Lin, Jean-Pierre; Ashkan, Keyoumars

2012-01-01

Deep brain stimulation hardware is constantly advancing. The last few years have seen the introduction of rechargeable cell technology into the implanted pulse generator design, allowing for longer battery life and fewer replacement operations. The Medtronic® system requires an additional pocket adaptor when revising a non-rechargeable battery such as their Kinetra® to their rechargeable Activa® RC. This additional hardware item can, if it migrates superficially, become an impediment to the recharging of the battery and negate the intended technological advance. To report the emergence of the 'shielded battery syndrome', which has not been previously described. We reviewed our deep brain stimulation database to identify cases of recharging difficulties reported by patients with Activa RC implanted pulse generators. Two cases of shielded battery syndrome were identified. The first required surgery to reposition the adaptor to the deep aspect of the subcutaneous pocket. In the second case, it was possible to perform external manual manipulation to restore the adaptor to its original position deep to the battery. We describe strategies to minimise the occurrence of the shielded battery syndrome and advise vigilance in all patients who experience difficulty with recharging after replacement surgery of this type for the implanted pulse generator. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Simulation analysis of a microcomputer-based, low-cost Omega navigation system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lilley, R. W.; Salter, R. J., Jr.

1976-01-01

The current status of research on a proposed micro-computer-based, low-cost Omega Navigation System (ONS) is described. The design approach emphasizes minimum hardware, maximum software, and the use of a low-cost, commercially-available microcomputer. Currently under investigation is the implementation of a low-cost navigation processor and its interface with an omega sensor to complete the hardware-based ONS. Sensor processor functions are simulated to determine how many of the sensor processor functions can be handled by innovative software. An input data base of live Omega ground and flight test data was created. The Omega sensor and microcomputer interface modules used to collect the data are functionally described. Automatic synchronization to the Omega transmission pattern is described as an example of the algorithms developed using this data base.

Effect of a preoperative decontamination protocol on surgical site infections in patients undergoing elective orthopedic surgery with hardware implantation.

PubMed

Bebko, Serge P; Green, David M; Awad, Samir S

2015-05-01

365 patients developed an SSI) than the SSI rate in the control group (3.8%; 13 of 344 patients developed an SSI) (P = .02). Multivariate logistic regression identified MRSA decontamination as an independent predictor of not developing an SSI (adjusted odds ratio, 0.24 [95% CI, 0.08-0.77]; P = .02). Our study demonstrates that preoperative MRSA decontamination with chlorhexidine washcloths and oral rinse and intranasal povidone-iodine decreased the SSI rate by more than 50% among patients undergoing elective orthopedic surgery with hardware implantation. Universal decontamination using this low-cost protocol may be considered as an additional prevention strategy for SSIs in patients undergoing orthopedic surgery with hardware implantation and warrants further study.

Resolution-independent surface rendering using programmable graphics hardware

DOEpatents

Loop, Charles T.; Blinn, James Frederick

2008-12-16

Surfaces defined by a Bezier tetrahedron, and in particular quadric surfaces, are rendered on programmable graphics hardware. Pixels are rendered through triangular sides of the tetrahedra and locations on the shapes, as well as surface normals for lighting evaluations, are computed using pixel shader computations. Additionally, vertex shaders are used to aid interpolation over a small number of values as input to the pixel shaders. Through this, rendering of the surfaces is performed independently of viewing resolution, allowing for advanced level-of-detail management. By individually rendering tetrahedrally-defined surfaces which together form complex shapes, the complex shapes can be rendered in their entirety.

Programming time-multiplexed reconfigurable hardware using a scalable neuromorphic compiler.

PubMed

Minkovich, Kirill; Srinivasa, Narayan; Cruz-Albrecht, Jose M; Cho, Youngkwan; Nogin, Aleksey

2012-06-01

Scalability and connectivity are two key challenges in designing neuromorphic hardware that can match biological levels. In this paper, we describe a neuromorphic system architecture design that addresses an approach to meet these challenges using traditional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) hardware. A key requirement in realizing such neural architectures in hardware is the ability to automatically configure the hardware to emulate any neural architecture or model. The focus for this paper is to describe the details of such a programmable front-end. This programmable front-end is composed of a neuromorphic compiler and a digital memory, and is designed based on the concept of synaptic time-multiplexing (STM). The neuromorphic compiler automatically translates any given neural architecture to hardware switch states and these states are stored in digital memory to enable desired neural architectures. STM enables our proposed architecture to address scalability and connectivity using traditional CMOS hardware. We describe the details of the proposed design and the programmable front-end, and provide examples to illustrate its capabilities. We also provide perspectives for future extensions and potential applications.

Propellant production and useful materials: Hardware data from components and the systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramohalli, Kumar

1992-01-01

Research activities at the University of Arizona/NASA Space Engineering Research Center are described; the primary emphasis is on hardware development and operation. The research activities are all aimed toward introducing significant cost reductions through the utilization of resources locally available at extraterrestrial sites. The four logical aspects include lunar, Martian, support, and common technologies. These are described in turn. The hardware realizations are based upon sound scientific principles which are used to screen a host of interesting and novel concepts. Small scale feasibility studies are used as the screen to allow only the most promising concepts to proceed. Specific examples include: kg/day-class oxygen plant that uses CO2 as the feed stock, spent stream utilization to produce methane and 'higher' compounds (using hydrogen from a water electrolysis plant), separation of CO from the CO2, reduction of any iron bearing silicate (lunar soils), production of structural components, smart sensors and autonomous controls, and quantitative computer simulation of extraterrestrial plants. The most important feature of all this research continues to be the training of high-quality students for our future in space.

Is a 4-bit synaptic weight resolution enough? - constraints on enabling spike-timing dependent plasticity in neuromorphic hardware.

PubMed

Pfeil, Thomas; Potjans, Tobias C; Schrader, Sven; Potjans, Wiebke; Schemmel, Johannes; Diesmann, Markus; Meier, Karlheinz

2012-01-01

Large-scale neuromorphic hardware systems typically bear the trade-off between detail level and required chip resources. Especially when implementing spike-timing dependent plasticity, reduction in resources leads to limitations as compared to floating point precision. By design, a natural modification that saves resources would be reducing synaptic weight resolution. In this study, we give an estimate for the impact of synaptic weight discretization on different levels, ranging from random walks of individual weights to computer simulations of spiking neural networks. The FACETS wafer-scale hardware system offers a 4-bit resolution of synaptic weights, which is shown to be sufficient within the scope of our network benchmark. Our findings indicate that increasing the resolution may not even be useful in light of further restrictions of customized mixed-signal synapses. In addition, variations due to production imperfections are investigated and shown to be uncritical in the context of the presented study. Our results represent a general framework for setting up and configuring hardware-constrained synapses. We suggest how weight discretization could be considered for other backends dedicated to large-scale simulations. Thus, our proposition of a good hardware verification practice may rise synergy effects between hardware developers and neuroscientists.

An improved non-uniformity correction algorithm and its hardware implementation on FPGA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rong, Shenghui; Zhou, Huixin; Wen, Zhigang; Qin, Hanlin; Qian, Kun; Cheng, Kuanhong

2017-09-01

The Non-uniformity of Infrared Focal Plane Arrays (IRFPA) severely degrades the infrared image quality. An effective non-uniformity correction (NUC) algorithm is necessary for an IRFPA imaging and application system. However traditional scene-based NUC algorithm suffers the image blurring and artificial ghosting. In addition, few effective hardware platforms have been proposed to implement corresponding NUC algorithms. Thus, this paper proposed an improved neural-network based NUC algorithm by the guided image filter and the projection-based motion detection algorithm. First, the guided image filter is utilized to achieve the accurate desired image to decrease the artificial ghosting. Then a projection-based moving detection algorithm is utilized to determine whether the correction coefficients should be updated or not. In this way the problem of image blurring can be overcome. At last, an FPGA-based hardware design is introduced to realize the proposed NUC algorithm. A real and a simulated infrared image sequences are utilized to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm. Experimental results indicated that the proposed NUC algorithm can effectively eliminate the fix pattern noise with less image blurring and artificial ghosting. The proposed hardware design takes less logic elements in FPGA and spends less clock cycles to process one frame of image.

Hardware accelerator for molecular dynamics: MDGRAPE-2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Susukita, Ryutaro; Ebisuzaki, Toshikazu; Elmegreen, Bruce G.; Furusawa, Hideaki; Kato, Kenya; Kawai, Atsushi; Kobayashi, Yoshinao; Koishi, Takahiro; McNiven, Geoffrey D.; Narumi, Tetsu; Yasuoka, Kenji

2003-10-01

We developed MDGRAPE-2, a hardware accelerator that calculates forces at high speed in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. MDGRAPE-2 is connected to a PC or a workstation as an extension board. The sustained performance of one MDGRAPE-2 board is 15 Gflops, roughly equivalent to the peak performance of the fastest supercomputer processing element. One board is able to calculate all forces between 10 000 particles in 0.28 s (i.e. 310000 time steps per day). If 16 boards are connected to one computer and operated in parallel, this calculation speed becomes ˜10 times faster. In addition to MD, MDGRAPE-2 can be applied to gravitational N-body simulations, the vortex method and smoothed particle hydrodynamics in computational fluid dynamics.

Framework for Development and Distribution of Hardware Acceleration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomas, David B.; Luk, Wayne W.

2002-07-01

This paper describes IGOL, a framework for developing reconfigurable data processing applications. While IGOL was originally designed to target imaging and graphics systems, its structure is sufficiently general to support a broad range of applications. IGOL adopts a four-layer architecture: application layer, operation layer, appliance layer and configuration layer. This architecture is intended to separate and co-ordinate both the development and execution of hardware and software components. Hardware developers can use IGOL as an instance testbed for verification and benchmarking, as well as for distribution. Software application developers can use IGOL to discover hardware accelerated data processors, and to access them in a transparent, non-hardware specific manner. IGOL provides extensive support for the RC1000-PP board via the Handel-C language, and a wide selection of image processing filters have been developed. IGOL also supplies plug-ins to enable such filters to be incorporated in popular applications such as Premiere, Winamp, VirtualDub and DirectShow. Moreover, IGOL allows the automatic use of multiple cards to accelerate an application, demonstrated using DirectShow. To enable transparent acceleration without sacrificing performance, a three-tiered COM (Component Object Model) API has been designed and implemented. This API provides a well-defined and extensible interface which facilitates the development of hardware data processors that can accelerate multiple applications.

OS friendly microprocessor architecture: Hardware level computer security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jungwirth, Patrick; La Fratta, Patrick

2016-05-01

We present an introduction to the patented OS Friendly Microprocessor Architecture (OSFA) and hardware level computer security. Conventional microprocessors have not tried to balance hardware performance and OS performance at the same time. Conventional microprocessors have depended on the Operating System for computer security and information assurance. The goal of the OS Friendly Architecture is to provide a high performance and secure microprocessor and OS system. We are interested in cyber security, information technology (IT), and SCADA control professionals reviewing the hardware level security features. The OS Friendly Architecture is a switched set of cache memory banks in a pipeline configuration. For light-weight threads, the memory pipeline configuration provides near instantaneous context switching times. The pipelining and parallelism provided by the cache memory pipeline provides for background cache read and write operations while the microprocessor's execution pipeline is running instructions. The cache bank selection controllers provide arbitration to prevent the memory pipeline and microprocessor's execution pipeline from accessing the same cache bank at the same time. This separation allows the cache memory pages to transfer to and from level 1 (L1) caching while the microprocessor pipeline is executing instructions. Computer security operations are implemented in hardware. By extending Unix file permissions bits to each cache memory bank and memory address, the OSFA provides hardware level computer security.

New Approaches in Force-Limited Vibration Testing of Flight Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kolaini, Ali R.; Kern, Dennis L.

2012-01-01

To qualify flight hardware for random vibration environments the following methods are used to limit the loads in the aerospace industry: (1) Response limiting and notching (2) Simple TDOF model (3) Semi-empirical force limits (4) Apparent mass, etc. and (5) Impedance method. In all these methods attempts are made to remove conservatism due to the mismatch in impedances between the test and the flight configurations of the hardware that are being qualified. Assumption is the hardware interfaces have correlated responses. A new method that takes into account the un-correlated hardware interface responses are described in this presentation.

NASA/Air Force Cost Model: NAFCOM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Winn, Sharon D.; Hamcher, John W. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The NASA/Air Force Cost Model (NAFCOM) is a parametric estimating tool for space hardware. It is based on historical NASA and Air Force space projects and is primarily used in the very early phases of a development project. NAFCOM can be used at the subsystem or component levels.

Non-Hardware ("Soft") Cost-Reduction Roadmap for Residential and Small Commercial Solar Photovoltaics, 2013-2020

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ardani, K.; Seif, D.; Margolis, R.

2013-08-01

The objective of this analysis is to roadmap the cost reductions and innovations necessary to achieve the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot Initiative's total soft-cost targets by 2020. The roadmap focuses on advances in four soft-cost areas: (1) customer acquisition; (2) permitting, inspection, and interconnection (PII); (3) installation labor; and (4) financing. Financing cost reductions are in terms of the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) for financing PV system installations, with real-percent targets of 3.0% (residential) and 3.4% (commercial).

PLC Hardware Discrimination using RF-DNA fingerprinting

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-19

PLC HARDWARE DISCRIMINATION USING RF-DNA FINGERPRINTING THESIS Bradley C. Wright, Civilian, USAF AFIT-ENG-T-14-J-12 DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE AIR...protection in the United States. AFIT-ENG-T-14-J-12 PLC HARDWARE DISCRIMINATION USING RF-DNA FINGERPRINTING THESIS Presented to the Faculty Department...DISCRIMINATION USING RF-DNA FINGERPRINTING Bradley C. Wright, B.S.E.E. Civilian, USAF Approved: /signed/ Maj Samuel J. Stone, PhD (Chairman) /signed/ Michael A

Development of robotics facility docking test hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Loughead, T. E.; Winkler, R. V.

1984-01-01

Design and fabricate test hardware for NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) are reported. A docking device conceptually developed was fabricated, and two docking targets which provide high and low mass docking loads were required and were represented by an aft 61.0 cm section of a Hubble space telescope (ST) mockup and an upgrading of an existing multimission modular spacecraft (MSS) mockup respectively. A test plan is developed for testing the hardware.

First- and Second-Line Bevacizumab in Addition to Chemotherapy for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: A United States–Based Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

PubMed Central

Goldstein, Daniel A.; Chen, Qiushi; Ayer, Turgay; Howard, David H.; Lipscomb, Joseph; El-Rayes, Bassel F.; Flowers, Christopher R.

2015-01-01

Purpose The addition of bevacizumab to fluorouracil-based chemotherapy is a standard of care for previously untreated metastatic colorectal cancer. Continuation of bevacizumab beyond progression is an accepted standard of care based on a 1.4-month increase in median overall survival observed in a randomized trial. No United States–based cost-effectiveness modeling analyses are currently available addressing the use of bevacizumab in metastatic colorectal cancer. Our objective was to determine the cost effectiveness of bevacizumab in the first-line setting and when continued beyond progression from the perspective of US payers. Methods We developed two Markov models to compare the cost and effectiveness of fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin with or without bevacizumab in the first-line treatment and subsequent fluorouracil, leucovorin, and irinotecan with or without bevacizumab in the second-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Model robustness was addressed by univariable and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Health outcomes were measured in life-years and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). Results Using bevacizumab in first-line therapy provided an additional 0.10 QALYs (0.14 life-years) at a cost of $59,361. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was $571,240 per QALY. Continuing bevacizumab beyond progression provided an additional 0.11 QALYs (0.16 life-years) at a cost of $39,209. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was $364,083 per QALY. In univariable sensitivity analyses, the variables with the greatest influence on the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio were bevacizumab cost, overall survival, and utility. Conclusion Bevacizumab provides minimal incremental benefit at high incremental cost per QALY in both the first- and second-line settings of metastatic colorectal cancer treatment. PMID:25691669

Hardware Evolution of Control Electronics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gwaltney, David; Steincamp, Jim; Corder, Eric; King, Ken; Ferguson, M. I.; Dutton, Ken

2003-01-01

The evolution of closed-loop motor speed controllers implemented on the JPL FPTA2 is presented. The response of evolved controller to sinusoidal commands, controller reconfiguration for fault tolerance,and hardware evolution are described.

Development of Enhanced Avionics Flight Hardware Selection Process

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, K.; Watson, G. L.

2003-01-01

The primary objective of this research was to determine the processes and feasibility of using commercial off-the-shelf PC104 hardware for flight applications. This would lead to a faster, better, and cheaper approach to low-budget programs as opposed to the design, procurement. and fabrication of space flight hardware. This effort will provide experimental evaluation with results of flight environmental testing. Also, a method and/or suggestion used to bring test hardware up to flight standards will be given. Several microgravity programs, such as the Equiaxed Dendritic Solidification Experiment, Self-Diffusion in Liquid Elements, and various other programs, are interested in PC104 environmental testing to establish the limits of this technology.

Hardware Implementation of COTS Avionics System on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Platforms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yeh, Yoo-Hsiu; Kumar, Parth; Ishihara, Abraham; Ippolito, Corey

2010-01-01

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can serve as low cost and low risk platforms for flight testing in Aeronautics research. The NASA Exploration Aerial Vehicle (EAV) and Experimental Sensor-Controlled Aerial Vehicle (X-SCAV) UAVs were developed in support of control systems research at NASA Ames Research Center. The avionics hardware for both systems has been redesigned and updated, and the structure of the EAV has been further strengthened. Preliminary tests show the avionics operate properly in the new configuration. A linear model for the EAV also was estimated from flight data, and was verified in simulation. These modifications and results prepare the EAV and X-SCAV to be used in a wide variety of flight research projects.

Microbiologic assay of space hardware.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Favero, M. S.

1971-01-01

Review of the procedures used in the microbiological examination of space hardware. The general procedure for enumerating aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms and spores is outlined. Culture media and temperature-time cycles used for incubation are reviewed, along with assay systems designed for the enumeration of aerobic and anaerobic spores. The special problems which are discussed are involved in the precise and accurate enumeration of microorganisms on surfaces and in the neutralization of viable organisms buried inside solid materials that could be released to a planet's surface if the solid should be fractured. Special attention is given to sampling procedures including also the indirect techniques of surface assays of space hardware such as those using detachable or fallout strips. Some data on comparative levels of microbial contamination on lunar and planetary spacecraft are presented.

Low Cost Upper Stage-Class Propulsion (LCUSP)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vickers, John

2015-01-01

NASA is making space exploration more affordable and viable by developing and utilizing innovative manufacturing technologies. Technology development efforts at NASA in propulsion are committed to continuous innovation of design and manufacturing technologies for rocket engines in order to reduce the cost of NASA's journey to Mars. The Low Cost Upper Stage-Class Propulsion (LCUSP) effort will develop and utilize emerging Additive Manufacturing (AM) to significantly reduce the development time and cost for complex rocket propulsion hardware. Benefit of Additive Manufacturing (3-D Printing) Current rocket propulsion manufacturing techniques are costly and have lengthy development times. In order to fabricate rocket engines, numerous complex parts made of different materials are assembled in a way that allow the propellant to collect heat at the right places to drive the turbopump and simultaneously keep the thrust chamber from melting. The heat conditioned fuel and oxidizer come together and burn inside the combustion chamber to provide thrust. The efforts to make multiple parts precisely fit together and not leak after experiencing cryogenic temperatures on one-side and combustion temperatures on the other is quite challenging. Additive manufacturing has the potential to significantly reduce the time and cost of making rocket parts like the copper liner and Nickel-alloy jackets found in rocket combustion chambers where super-cold cryogenic propellants are heated and mixed to the extreme temperatures needed to propel rockets in space. The Selective Laser Melting (SLM) machine fuses 8,255 layers of copper powder to make a section of the chamber in 10 days. Machining an equivalent part and assembling it with welding and brazing techniques could take months to accomplish with potential failures or leaks that could require fixes. The design process is also enhanced since it does not require the 3D model to be converted to 2-D drawings. The design and fabrication process

Postflight hardware evaluation 360T021 (RSRM-21, STS-45), revision A

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maccauly, Linda E.

1992-01-01

The Final Postflight Hardware Evaluation Report 360T021 (RSRM-21, STS-45) is included. All observed hardware conditions were documented on Postflight Observation Reports (PFOR's) and included in Appendices A through E. This report, along with the KSC Ten-Day Postflight Hardware Evaluation Report represents a summary of the 360T021 hardware evaluation.

Low-cost telepresence for collaborative virtual environments.

PubMed

Rhee, Seon-Min; Ziegler, Remo; Park, Jiyoung; Naef, Martin; Gross, Markus; Kim, Myoung-Hee

2007-01-01

We present a novel low-cost method for visual communication and telepresence in a CAVE -like environment, relying on 2D stereo-based video avatars. The system combines a selection of proven efficient algorithms and approximations in a unique way, resulting in a convincing stereoscopic real-time representation of a remote user acquired in a spatially immersive display. The system was designed to extend existing projection systems with acquisition capabilities requiring minimal hardware modifications and cost. The system uses infrared-based image segmentation to enable concurrent acquisition and projection in an immersive environment without a static background. The system consists of two color cameras and two additional b/w cameras used for segmentation in the near-IR spectrum. There is no need for special optics as the mask and color image are merged using image-warping based on a depth estimation. The resulting stereo image stream is compressed, streamed across a network, and displayed as a frame-sequential stereo texture on a billboard in the remote virtual environment.

Additive Manufacturing and Casting Technology Comparison: Mechanical Properties, Productivity and Cost Benchmark

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vevers, A.; Kromanis, A.; Gerins, E.; Ozolins, J.

2018-04-01

The casting technology is one of the oldest production technologies in the world but in the recent years metal additive manufacturing also known as metal 3D printing has been evolving with huge steps. Both technologies have capabilities to produce parts with internal holes and at first glance surface roughness is similar for both technologies, which means that for precise dimensions parts have to be machined in places where precise fit is necessary. Benchmark tests have been made to find out if parts which are produced with metal additive manufacturing can be used to replace parts which are produced with casting technology. Most of the comparative tests have been made with GJS-400-15 grade which is one of the most popular cast iron grades. To compare mechanical properties samples have been produced using additive manufacturing and tested for tensile strength, hardness, surface roughness and microstructure and then the results have been compared with the samples produced with casting technology. In addition, both technologies have been compared in terms of the production time and production costs to see if additive manufacturing is competitive with the casting technology. The original paper has been written in the Latvian language as part of the Master Thesis within the framework of the production technology study programme at Riga Technical University.

Live HDR video streaming on commodity hardware

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McNamee, Joshua; Hatchett, Jonathan; Debattista, Kurt; Chalmers, Alan

2015-09-01

High Dynamic Range (HDR) video provides a step change in viewing experience, for example the ability to clearly see the soccer ball when it is kicked from the shadow of the stadium into sunshine. To achieve the full potential of HDR video, so-called true HDR, it is crucial that all the dynamic range that was captured is delivered to the display device and tone mapping is confined only to the display. Furthermore, to ensure widespread uptake of HDR imaging, it should be low cost and available on commodity hardware. This paper describes an end-to-end HDR pipeline for capturing, encoding and streaming high-definition HDR video in real-time using off-the-shelf components. All the lighting that is captured by HDR-enabled consumer cameras is delivered via the pipeline to any display, including HDR displays and even mobile devices with minimum latency. The system thus provides an integrated HDR video pipeline that includes everything from capture to post-production, archival and storage, compression, transmission, and display.

A Hardware and Software Perspective of the Fifth Materials on the International Space Station Experiment (MISSE-5)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krasowski, Michael; Greer, Lawrence; Flatico, Joseph; Jenkins, Phillip; Spina, Dan

2005-01-01

Conducting space experiments with small budgets is a fact of life for many design groups with low-visibility science programs. One major consequence is that specialized space grade electronic components are often too costly to incorporate into the design. Radiation mitigation now becomes more complex as a result of being restricted to the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts. Unique hardware and software design techniques are required to succeed in producing a viable instrument suited for use in space. This paper highlights some of the design challenges and associated solutions encountered in the production of a highly capable, low cost space experiment package.

Weight and cost forecasting for advanced manned space vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Raymond

1989-01-01

A mass and cost estimating computerized methology for predicting advanced manned space vehicle weights and costs was developed. The user friendly methology designated MERCER (Mass Estimating Relationship/Cost Estimating Relationship) organizes the predictive process according to major vehicle subsystem levels. Design, development, test, evaluation, and flight hardware cost forecasting is treated by the study. This methodology consists of a complete set of mass estimating relationships (MERs) which serve as the control components for the model and cost estimating relationships (CERs) which use MER output as input. To develop this model, numerous MER and CER studies were surveyed and modified where required. Additionally, relationships were regressed from raw data to accommodate the methology. The models and formulations which estimated the cost of historical vehicles to within 20 percent of the actual cost were selected. The result of the research, along with components of the MERCER Program, are reported. On the basis of the analysis, the following conclusions were established: (1) The cost of a spacecraft is best estimated by summing the cost of individual subsystems; (2) No one cost equation can be used for forecasting the cost of all spacecraft; (3) Spacecraft cost is highly correlated with its mass; (4) No study surveyed contained sufficient formulations to autonomously forecast the cost and weight of the entire advanced manned vehicle spacecraft program; (5) No user friendly program was found that linked MERs with CERs to produce spacecraft cost; and (6) The group accumulation weight estimation method (summing the estimated weights of the various subsystems) proved to be a useful method for finding total weight and cost of a spacecraft.

Magnetic Field Apparatus (MFA) Hardware Test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anderson, Ken; Boody, April; Reed, Dave; Wang, Chung; Stuckey, Bob; Cox, Dave

1999-01-01

The objectives of this study are threefold: (1) Provide insight into water delivery in microgravity and determine optimal germination paper wetting for subsequent seed germination in microgravity; (2) Observe the behavior of water exposed to a strong localized magnetic field in microgravity; and (3) Simulate the flow of fixative (using water) through the hardware. The Magnetic Field Apparatus (MFA) is a new piece of hardware slated to fly on the Space Shuttle in early 2001. MFA is designed to expose plant tissue to magnets in a microgravity environment, deliver water to the plant tissue, record photographic images of plant tissue, and deliver fixative to the plant tissue.

Human Centered Hardware Modeling and Collaboration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stambolian Damon; Lawrence, Brad; Stelges, Katrine; Henderson, Gena

2013-01-01

In order to collaborate engineering designs among NASA Centers and customers, to in clude hardware and human activities from multiple remote locations, live human-centered modeling and collaboration across several sites has been successfully facilitated by Kennedy Space Center. The focus of this paper includes innovative a pproaches to engineering design analyses and training, along with research being conducted to apply new technologies for tracking, immersing, and evaluating humans as well as rocket, vehic le, component, or faci lity hardware utilizing high resolution cameras, motion tracking, ergonomic analysis, biomedical monitoring, wor k instruction integration, head-mounted displays, and other innovative human-system integration modeling, simulation, and collaboration applications.

Hardware/software codesign for embedded RISC core

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Peng

2001-12-01

This paper describes hardware/software codesign method of the extendible embedded RISC core VIRGO, which based on MIPS-I instruction set architecture. VIRGO is described by Verilog hardware description language that has five-stage pipeline with shared 32-bit cache/memory interface, and it is controlled by distributed control scheme. Every pipeline stage has one small controller, which controls the pipeline stage status and cooperation among the pipeline phase. Since description use high level language and structure is distributed, VIRGO core has highly extension that can meet the requirements of application. We take look at the high-definition television MPEG2 MPHL decoder chip, constructed the hardware/software codesign virtual prototyping machine that can research on VIRGO core instruction set architecture, and system on chip memory size requirements, and system on chip software, etc. We also can evaluate the system on chip design and RISC instruction set based on the virtual prototyping machine platform.

Compiling quantum circuits to realistic hardware architectures using temporal planners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Venturelli, Davide; Do, Minh; Rieffel, Eleanor; Frank, Jeremy

2018-04-01

To run quantum algorithms on emerging gate-model quantum hardware, quantum circuits must be compiled to take into account constraints on the hardware. For near-term hardware, with only limited means to mitigate decoherence, it is critical to minimize the duration of the circuit. We investigate the application of temporal planners to the problem of compiling quantum circuits to newly emerging quantum hardware. While our approach is general, we focus on compiling to superconducting hardware architectures with nearest neighbor constraints. Our initial experiments focus on compiling Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz (QAOA) circuits whose high number of commuting gates allow great flexibility in the order in which the gates can be applied. That freedom makes it more challenging to find optimal compilations but also means there is a greater potential win from more optimized compilation than for less flexible circuits. We map this quantum circuit compilation problem to a temporal planning problem, and generated a test suite of compilation problems for QAOA circuits of various sizes to a realistic hardware architecture. We report compilation results from several state-of-the-art temporal planners on this test set. This early empirical evaluation demonstrates that temporal planning is a viable approach to quantum circuit compilation.

Event-driven processing for hardware-efficient neural spike sorting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Yan; Pereira, João L.; Constandinou, Timothy G.

2018-02-01

Objective. The prospect of real-time and on-node spike sorting provides a genuine opportunity to push the envelope of large-scale integrated neural recording systems. In such systems the hardware resources, power requirements and data bandwidth increase linearly with channel count. Event-based (or data-driven) processing can provide here a new efficient means for hardware implementation that is completely activity dependant. In this work, we investigate using continuous-time level-crossing sampling for efficient data representation and subsequent spike processing. Approach. (1) We first compare signals (synthetic neural datasets) encoded with this technique against conventional sampling. (2) We then show how such a representation can be directly exploited by extracting simple time domain features from the bitstream to perform neural spike sorting. (3) The proposed method is implemented in a low power FPGA platform to demonstrate its hardware viability. Main results. It is observed that considerably lower data rates are achievable when using 7 bits or less to represent the signals, whilst maintaining the signal fidelity. Results obtained using both MATLAB and reconfigurable logic hardware (FPGA) indicate that feature extraction and spike sorting accuracies can be achieved with comparable or better accuracy than reference methods whilst also requiring relatively low hardware resources. Significance. By effectively exploiting continuous-time data representation, neural signal processing can be achieved in a completely event-driven manner, reducing both the required resources (memory, complexity) and computations (operations). This will see future large-scale neural systems integrating on-node processing in real-time hardware.

The JPL telerobot operator control station. Part 1: Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kan, Edwin P.; Tower, John T.; Hunka, George W.; Vansant, Glenn J.

1989-01-01

The Operator Control Station of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/NASA Telerobot Demonstrator System provides the man-machine interface between the operator and the system. It provides all the hardware and software for accepting human input for the direct and indirect (supervised) manipulation of the robot arms and tools for task execution. Hardware and software are also provided for the display and feedback of information and control data for the operator's consumption and interaction with the task being executed. The hardware design, system architecture, and its integration and interface with the rest of the Telerobot Demonstrator System are discussed.

A fast, programmable hardware architecture for spaceborne SAR processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bennett, J. R.; Cumming, I. G.; Lim, J.; Wedding, R. M.

1983-01-01

The launch of spaceborne SARs during the 1980's is discussed. The satellite SARs require high quality and high throughput ground processors. Compression ratios in range and azimuth of greater than 500 and 150 respectively lead to frequency domain processing and data computation rates in excess of 2000 million real operations per second for C-band SARs under consideration. Various hardware architectures are examined and two promising candidates and proceeds to recommend a fast, programmable hardware architecture for spaceborne SAR processing are selected. Modularity and programmability are introduced as desirable attributes for the purpose of HTSP hardware selection.

Using Ozone To Clean and Passivate Oxygen-Handling Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Torrance, Paul; Biesinger, Paul

2009-01-01

A proposed method of cleaning, passivating, and verifying the cleanliness of oxygen-handling hardware would extend the established art of cleaning by use of ozone. As used here, "cleaning" signifies ridding all exposed surfaces of combustible (in particular, carbon-based) contaminants. The method calls for exposing the surfaces of the hardware to ozone while monitoring the ozone effluent for carbon dioxide. The ozone would passivate the hardware while oxidizing carbon-based residues, converting the carbon in them to carbon dioxide. The exposure to ozone would be continued until no more carbon dioxide was detected, signifying that cleaning and passivation were complete.

Life Sciences Division Spaceflight Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yost, B.

1999-01-01

The Ames Research Center (ARC) is responsible for the development, integration, and operation of non-human life sciences payloads in support of NASA's Gravitational Biology and Ecology (GB&E) program. To help stimulate discussion and interest in the development and application of novel technologies for incorporation within non-human life sciences experiment systems, three hardware system models will be displayed with associated graphics/text explanations. First, an Animal Enclosure Model (AEM) will be shown to communicate the nature and types of constraints physiological researchers must deal with during manned space flight experiments using rodent specimens. Second, a model of the Modular Cultivation System (MCS) under development by ESA will be presented to highlight technologies that may benefit cell-based research, including advanced imaging technologies. Finally, subsystems of the Cell Culture Unit (CCU) in development by ARC will also be shown. A discussion will be provided on candidate technology requirements in the areas of specimen environmental control, biotelemetry, telescience and telerobotics, and in situ analytical techniques and imaging. In addition, an overview of the Center for Gravitational Biology Research facilities will be provided.

Single Event Effect Hardware Trojans with Remote Activation

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-01

kinetically as in the SDI approach. These high-energy directed energy weapons have been studied and developed largely for the purpose remote sensing and...Single Event Effect Hardware Trojans with Remote Activation Paul A. Quintana; John McCollum; William A. Hill Microsemi Corporation, San Jose...space qualified semiconductors the use of SEE sensitive circuits may represents a latent and remotely -triggered hardware Trojan which would be

Super Heavy-Duty Door Hardware.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fickes, Michael

2000-01-01

Discusses the new generation of durable school-door hardware and innovations that can resist everyday abuse. Concluding comments address cross-corridor door innovations that can help doorways more easily accommodate the passage of oversized items, and classroom door locking systems. (GR)

Structuring Formal Control Systems Specifications for Reuse: Surviving Hardware Changes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, Jeffrey M.; Heimdahl, Mats P. E.; Erickson, Debra M.

2000-01-01

Formal capture and analysis of the required behavior of control systems have many advantages. For instance, it encourages rigorous requirements analysis, the required behavior is unambiguously defined, and we can assure that various safety properties are satisfied. Formal modeling is, however, a costly and time consuming process and if one could reuse the formal models over a family of products, significant cost savings would be realized. In an ongoing project we are investigating how to structure state-based models to achieve a high level of reusability within product families. In this paper we discuss a high-level structure of requirements models that achieves reusability of the desired control behavior across varying hardware platforms in a product family. The structuring approach is demonstrated through a case study in the mobile robotics domain where the desired robot behavior is reused on two diverse platforms-one commercial mobile platform and one build in-house. We use our language RSML (-e) to capture the control behavior for reuse and our tool NIMBUS to demonstrate how the formal specification can be validated and used as a prototype on the two platforms.

VIEW OF POPPELL'S HARDWARE, FURNITURE, FEED AND SEED STORE FROM ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

VIEW OF POPPELL'S HARDWARE, FURNITURE, FEED AND SEED STORE FROM SOUTHEAST FACING NORTHWEST - Poppell's Hardware, Furniture, Feed & Seed Store, U.S. Highway 341 at Carter Avenue, Odum, Wayne County, GA

VIEW OF POPPELL'S HARDWARE, FURNITURE, FEED AND SEED STORE FROM ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

VIEW OF POPPELL'S HARDWARE, FURNITURE, FEED AND SEED STORE FROM NORTHEAST FACING SOUTHWEST - Poppell's Hardware, Furniture, Feed & Seed Store, U.S. Highway 341 at Carter Avenue, Odum, Wayne County, GA

Hardware and software status of QCDOC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boyle, P. A.; Chen, D.; Christ, N. H.; Clark, M.; Cohen, S. D.; Cristian, C.; Dong, Z.; Gara, A.; Joó, B.; Jung, C.; Kim, C.; Levkova, L.; Liao, X.; Liu, G.; Mawhinney, R. D.; Ohta, S.; Petrov, K.; Wettig, T.; Yamaguchi, A.

2004-03-01

QCDOC is a massively parallel supercomputer whose processing nodes are based on an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). This ASIC was custom-designed so that crucial lattice QCD kernels achieve an overall sustained performance of 50% on machines with several 10,000 nodes. This strong scalability, together with low power consumption and a price/performance ratio of $1 per sustained MFlops, enable QCDOC to attack the most demanding lattice QCD problems. The first ASICs became available in June of 2003, and the testing performed so far has shown all systems functioning according to specification. We review the hardware and software status of QCDOC and present performance figures obtained in real hardware as well as in simulation.

Quantum neuromorphic hardware for quantum artificial intelligence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prati, Enrico

2017-08-01

The development of machine learning methods based on deep learning boosted the field of artificial intelligence towards unprecedented achievements and application in several fields. Such prominent results were made in parallel with the first successful demonstrations of fault tolerant hardware for quantum information processing. To which extent deep learning can take advantage of the existence of a hardware based on qubits behaving as a universal quantum computer is an open question under investigation. Here I review the convergence between the two fields towards implementation of advanced quantum algorithms, including quantum deep learning.

Monitoring Particulate Matter with Commodity Hardware

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holstius, David

Health effects attributed to outdoor fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) rank it among the risk factors with the highest health burdens in the world, annually accounting for over 3.2 million premature deaths and over 76 million lost disability-adjusted life years. Existing PM2.5 monitoring infrastructure cannot, however, be used to resolve variations in ambient PM2.5 concentrations with adequate spatial and temporal density, or with adequate coverage of human time-activity patterns, such that the needs of modern exposure science and control can be met. Small, inexpensive, and portable devices, relying on newly available off-the-shelf sensors, may facilitate the creation of PM2.5 datasets with improved resolution and coverage, especially if many such devices can be deployed concurrently with low system cost. Datasets generated with such technology could be used to overcome many important problems associated with exposure misclassification in air pollution epidemiology. Chapter 2 presents an epidemiological study of PM2.5 that used data from ambient monitoring stations in the Los Angeles basin to observe a decrease of 6.1 g (95% CI: 3.5, 8.7) in population mean birthweight following in utero exposure to the Southern California wildfires of 2003, but was otherwise limited by the sparsity of the empirical basis for exposure assessment. Chapter 3 demonstrates technical potential for remedying PM2.5 monitoring deficiencies, beginning with the generation of low-cost yet useful estimates of hourly and daily PM2.5 concentrations at a regulatory monitoring site. The context (an urban neighborhood proximate to a major goods-movement corridor) and the method (an off-the-shelf sensor costing approximately USD $10, combined with other low-cost, open-source, readily available hardware) were selected to have special significance among researchers and practitioners affiliated with contemporary communities of practice in public health and citizen science. As operationalized by

Analysis of the additional costs of clinical complications in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement in the German Health Care System.

PubMed

Gutmann, Anja; Kaier, Klaus; Sorg, Stefan; von Zur Mühlen, Constantin; Siepe, Matthias; Moser, Martin; Geibel, Annette; Zirlik, Andreas; Ahrens, Ingo; Baumbach, Hardy; Beyersdorf, Friedhelm; Vach, Werner; Zehender, Manfred; Bode, Christoph; Reinöhl, Jochen

2015-01-20

This study aims at analyzing complication-induced additional costs of patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). In a prospective observational study, a total of 163 consecutive patients received either transfemoral (TF-, n=97) or transapical (TA-) TAVR (n=66) between February 2009 and December 2012. Clinical endpoints were categorized according to VARC-2 definitions and in-hospital costs were determined from the hospital perspective. Finally, the additional costs of complications were estimated using multiple linear regression models. TF-TAVR patients experienced significantly more minor access site bleeding, major non-access site bleeding, minor vascular complications, stage 2 acute kidney injury (AKI) and permanent pacemaker implantation. Total in-hospital costs did not differ between groups and were on average €40,348 (SD 15,851) per patient. The average incremental cost component of a single complication was €3438 (p<0.01) and the estimated cost of a TF-TAVR without complications was €34,351. The complications associated with the highest additional costs were life-threatening non-access site bleeding (€47,494; p<0.05), stage 3 AKI (€20,468; p<0.01), implantation of a second valve (€16,767; p<0.01) and other severe cardiac dysrhythmia (€10,611 p<0.05). Overall, the presence of complication-related in-hospital mortality increased costs. Bleeding complications, severe kidney failure, and implantation of a second valve were the most important cost drivers in our TAVR patients. Strategies and advances in device design aimed at reducing these complications have the potential to generate significant in-hospital cost reductions for the German Health Care System. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Low-cost flywheel demonstration program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rabenhorst, D. W.; Small, T. R.; Wilkinson, W. O.

1980-04-01

All primary objectives were successfully achieved as follows: demonstration of a full-size, 1 kWh flywheel having an estimated cost in large-volume production of approximately $50/kWh; development of a ball-bearing system having losses comparable to the losses in a totally magnetic suspension system; successful and repeated demonstration of the low-cost flywheel in a complete flywheel energy-storage system based on the use of ordinary house voltage and frequency; and application of the experience gained in the hardware program to project the system design into a complete, full-scale, 30 kWh home-type flywheel energy-storage system.

Fifty Years of Observing Hardware and Human Behavior

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McMann, Joe

2011-01-01

During this half-day workshop, Joe McMann presented the lessons learned during his 50 years of experience in both industry and government, which included all U.S. manned space programs, from Mercury to the ISS. He shared his thoughts about hardware and people and what he has learned from first-hand experience. Included were such topics as design, testing, design changes, development, failures, crew expectations, hardware, requirements, and meetings.

Hardware support for collecting performance counters directly to memory

DOEpatents

Gara, Alan; Salapura, Valentina; Wisniewski, Robert W.

2012-09-25

Hardware support for collecting performance counters directly to memory, in one aspect, may include a plurality of performance counters operable to collect one or more counts of one or more selected activities. A first storage element may be operable to store an address of a memory location. A second storage element may be operable to store a value indicating whether the hardware should begin copying. A state machine may be operable to detect the value in the second storage element and trigger hardware copying of data in selected one or more of the plurality of performance counters to the memory location whose address is stored in the first storage element.

Systems cost/performance analysis (study 2.3). Volume 2: Systems cost/performance model. [unmanned automated payload programs and program planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, B. H.

1974-01-01

A methodology which was developed for balanced designing of spacecraft subsystems and interrelates cost, performance, safety, and schedule considerations was refined. The methodology consists of a two-step process: the first step is one of selecting all hardware designs which satisfy the given performance and safety requirements, the second step is one of estimating the cost and schedule required to design, build, and operate each spacecraft design. Using this methodology to develop a systems cost/performance model allows the user of such a model to establish specific designs and the related costs and schedule. The user is able to determine the sensitivity of design, costs, and schedules to changes in requirements. The resulting systems cost performance model is described and implemented as a digital computer program.

No-hardware-signature cybersecurity-crypto-module: a resilient cyber defense agent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaghloul, A. R. M.; Zaghloul, Y. A.

2014-06-01

We present an optical cybersecurity-crypto-module as a resilient cyber defense agent. It has no hardware signature since it is bitstream reconfigurable, where single hardware architecture functions as any selected device of all possible ones of the same number of inputs. For a two-input digital device, a 4-digit bitstream of 0s and 1s determines which device, of a total of 16 devices, the hardware performs as. Accordingly, the hardware itself is not physically reconfigured, but its performance is. Such a defense agent allows the attack to take place, rendering it harmless. On the other hand, if the system is already infected with malware sending out information, the defense agent allows the information to go out, rendering it meaningless. The hardware architecture is immune to side attacks since such an attack would reveal information on the attack itself and not on the hardware. This cyber defense agent can be used to secure a point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, a whole network, and/or a single entity in the cyberspace. Therefore, ensuring trust between cyber resources. It can provide secure communication in an insecure network. We provide the hardware design and explain how it works. Scalability of the design is briefly discussed. (Protected by United States Patents No.: US 8,004,734; US 8,325,404; and other National Patents worldwide.)

Teaching Robotics Software with the Open Hardware Mobile Manipulator

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vona, M.; Shekar, N. H.

2013-01-01

The "open hardware mobile manipulator" (OHMM) is a new open platform with a unique combination of features for teaching robotics software and algorithms. On-board low- and high-level processors support real-time embedded programming and motor control, as well as higher-level coding with contemporary libraries. Full hardware designs and…

Event-driven, pattern-based methodology for cost-effective development of standardized personal health devices.

PubMed

Martínez-Espronceda, Miguel; Trigo, Jesús D; Led, Santiago; Barrón-González, H Gilberto; Redondo, Javier; Baquero, Alfonso; Serrano, Luis

2014-11-01

Experiences applying standards in personal health devices (PHDs) show an inherent trade-off between interoperability and costs (in terms of processing load and development time). Therefore, reducing hardware and software costs as well as time-to-market is crucial for standards adoption. The ISO/IEEE11073 PHD family of standards (also referred to as X73PHD) provides interoperable communication between PHDs and aggregators. Nevertheless, the responsibility of achieving inexpensive implementations of X73PHD in limited resource microcontrollers falls directly on the developer. Hence, the authors previously presented a methodology based on patterns to implement X73-compliant PHDs into devices with low-voltage low-power constraints. That version was based on multitasking, which required additional features and resources. This paper therefore presents an event-driven evolution of the patterns-based methodology for cost-effective development of standardized PHDs. The results of comparing between the two versions showed that the mean values of decrease in memory consumption and cycles of latency are 11.59% and 45.95%, respectively. In addition, several enhancements in terms of cost-effectiveness and development time can be derived from the new version of the methodology. Therefore, the new approach could help in producing cost-effective X73-compliant PHDs, which in turn could foster the adoption of standards. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Economics of NASA Mission Cost Reserves

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whitley, Sally; Shinn, Stephen

2012-01-01

Increases in NASA mission costs have led to analysis of the causes and magnitude of historical mission overruns as well as mitigation and prevention attempts. This paper hypothesizes that one cause is that the availability of reserves may reduce incentives to control costs. We draw a comparison to the insurance concept of moral hazard, and we use actuarial techniques to better understand the increase in mission costs due to the availability of reserves. NASA's CADRe database provided the data against which we tested our hypothesis and discovered that there is correlation between the amount of available reserves and project overruns, particularly for mission hardware cost increases. We address the question of how to prevent reserves from increasing mission spending without increasing cost risk to projects.

An ultra-low cost NMR device with arbitrary pulse programming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Hsueh-Ying; Kim, Yaewon; Nath, Pulak; Hilty, Christian

2015-06-01

Ultra-low cost, general purpose electronics boards featuring microprocessors or field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) are reaching capabilities sufficient for direct implementation of NMR spectrometers. We demonstrate a spectrometer based on such a board, implemented with a minimal need for the addition of custom electronics and external components. This feature allows such a spectrometer to be readily implemented using typical knowledge present in an NMR laboratory. With FPGA technology, digital tasks are performed with precise timing, without the limitation of predetermined hardware function. In this case, the FPGA is used for programming of arbitrarily timed pulse sequence events, and to digitally generate required frequencies. Data acquired from a 0.53 T permanent magnet serves as a demonstration of the flexibility of pulse programming for diverse experiments. Pulse sequences applied include a spin-lattice relaxation measurement using a pulse train with small-flip angle pulses, and a Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill experiment with phase cycle. Mixing of NMR signals with a digitally generated, 4-step phase-cycled reference frequency is further implemented to achieve sequential quadrature detection. The flexibility in hardware implementation permits tailoring this type of spectrometer for applications such as relaxometry, polarimetry, diffusometry or NMR based magnetometry.

Real-time orthorectification by FPGA-based hardware acceleration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuo, David; Gordon, Don

2010-10-01

Orthorectification that corrects the perspective distortion of remote sensing imagery, providing accurate geolocation and ease of correlation to other images is a valuable first-step in image processing for information extraction. However, the large amount of metadata and the floating-point matrix transformations required to operate on each pixel make this a computation and I/O (Input/Output) intensive process. As result much imagery is either left unprocessed or loses timesensitive value in the long processing cycle. However, the computation on each pixel can be reduced substantially by using computational results of the neighboring pixels and accelerated by special pipelined hardware architecture in one to two orders of magnitude. A specialized coprocessor that is implemented inside an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) chip and surrounded by vendorsupported hardware IP (Intellectual Property) shares the computation workload with CPU through PCI-Express interface. The ultimate speed of one pixel per clock (125 MHz) is achieved by the pipelined systolic array architecture. The optimal partition between software and hardware, the timing profile among image I/O and computation, and the highly automated GUI (Graphical User Interface) that fully exploits this speed increase to maximize overall image production throughput will also be discussed. The software that runs on a workstation with the acceleration hardware orthorectifies 16 Megapixels per second, which is 16 times faster than without the hardware. It turns the production time from months to days. A real-life successful story of an imaging satellite company that adopted such workstations for their orthorectified imagery production will be presented. The potential candidacy of the image processing computation that can be accelerated more efficiently by the same approach will also be analyzed.

Integrated Hardware and Software for No-Loss Computing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

James, Mark

2007-01-01

When an algorithm is distributed across multiple threads executing on many distinct processors, a loss of one of those threads or processors can potentially result in the total loss of all the incremental results up to that point. When implementation is massively hardware distributed, then the probability of a hardware failure during the course of a long execution is potentially high. Traditionally, this problem has been addressed by establishing checkpoints where the current state of some or part of the execution is saved. Then in the event of a failure, this state information can be used to recompute that point in the execution and resume the computation from that point. A serious problem arises when one distributes a problem across multiple threads and physical processors is that one increases the likelihood of the algorithm failing due to no fault of the scientist but as a result of hardware faults coupled with operating system problems. With good reason, scientists expect their computing tools to serve them and not the other way around. What is novel here is a unique combination of hardware and software that reformulates an application into monolithic structure that can be monitored in real-time and dynamically reconfigured in the event of a failure. This unique reformulation of hardware and software will provide advanced aeronautical technologies to meet the challenges of next-generation systems in aviation, for civilian and scientific purposes, in our atmosphere and in atmospheres of other worlds. In particular, with respect to NASA s manned flight to Mars, this technology addresses the critical requirements for improving safety and increasing reliability of manned spacecraft.

Reconfigurable Hardware Adapts to Changing Mission Demands

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

A new class of computing architectures and processing systems, which use reconfigurable hardware, is creating a revolutionary approach to implementing future spacecraft systems. With the increasing complexity of electronic components, engineers must design next-generation spacecraft systems with new technologies in both hardware and software. Derivation Systems, Inc., of Carlsbad, California, has been working through NASA s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to develop key technologies in reconfigurable computing and Intellectual Property (IP) soft cores. Founded in 1993, Derivation Systems has received several SBIR contracts from NASA s Langley Research Center and the U.S. Department of Defense Air Force Research Laboratories in support of its mission to develop hardware and software for high-assurance systems. Through these contracts, Derivation Systems began developing leading-edge technology in formal verification, embedded Java, and reconfigurable computing for its PF3100, Derivational Reasoning System (DRS ), FormalCORE IP, FormalCORE PCI/32, FormalCORE DES, and LavaCORE Configurable Java Processor, which are designed for greater flexibility and security on all space missions.

Involuntary eye motion correction in retinal optical coherence tomography: Hardware or software solution?

PubMed

Baghaie, Ahmadreza; Yu, Zeyun; D'Souza, Roshan M

2017-04-01

In this paper, we review state-of-the-art techniques to correct eye motion artifacts in Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) imaging. The methods for eye motion artifact reduction can be categorized into two major classes: (1) hardware-based techniques and (2) software-based techniques. In the first class, additional hardware is mounted onto the OCT scanner to gather information about the eye motion patterns during OCT data acquisition. This information is later processed and applied to the OCT data for creating an anatomically correct representation of the retina, either in an offline or online manner. In software based techniques, the motion patterns are approximated either by comparing the acquired data to a reference image, or by considering some prior assumptions about the nature of the eye motion. Careful investigations done on the most common methods in the field provides invaluable insight regarding future directions of the research in this area. The challenge in hardware-based techniques lies in the implementation aspects of particular devices. However, the results of these techniques are superior to those obtained from software-based techniques because they are capable of capturing secondary data related to eye motion during OCT acquisition. Software-based techniques on the other hand, achieve moderate success and their performance is highly dependent on the quality of the OCT data in terms of the amount of motion artifacts contained in them. However, they are still relevant to the field since they are the sole class of techniques with the ability to be applied to legacy data acquired using systems that do not have extra hardware to track eye motion. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Is a 4-Bit Synaptic Weight Resolution Enough? – Constraints on Enabling Spike-Timing Dependent Plasticity in Neuromorphic Hardware

PubMed Central

Pfeil, Thomas; Potjans, Tobias C.; Schrader, Sven; Potjans, Wiebke; Schemmel, Johannes; Diesmann, Markus; Meier, Karlheinz

2012-01-01

Large-scale neuromorphic hardware systems typically bear the trade-off between detail level and required chip resources. Especially when implementing spike-timing dependent plasticity, reduction in resources leads to limitations as compared to floating point precision. By design, a natural modification that saves resources would be reducing synaptic weight resolution. In this study, we give an estimate for the impact of synaptic weight discretization on different levels, ranging from random walks of individual weights to computer simulations of spiking neural networks. The FACETS wafer-scale hardware system offers a 4-bit resolution of synaptic weights, which is shown to be sufficient within the scope of our network benchmark. Our findings indicate that increasing the resolution may not even be useful in light of further restrictions of customized mixed-signal synapses. In addition, variations due to production imperfections are investigated and shown to be uncritical in the context of the presented study. Our results represent a general framework for setting up and configuring hardware-constrained synapses. We suggest how weight discretization could be considered for other backends dedicated to large-scale simulations. Thus, our proposition of a good hardware verification practice may rise synergy effects between hardware developers and neuroscientists. PMID:22822388

"Do-It-Yourself" reliable pH-stat device by using open-source software, inexpensive hardware and available laboratory equipment

PubMed Central

Kragic, Rastislav; Kostic, Mirjana

2018-01-01

In this paper, we present the construction of a reliable and inexpensive pH stat device, by using open-source “OpenPhControl” software, inexpensive hardware (a peristaltic and a syringe pump, Arduino, a step motor…), readily available laboratory devices: a pH meter, a computer, a webcam, and some 3D printed parts. We provide a methodology for the design, development and test results of each part of the device, as well as of the entire system. In addition to dosing reagents by means of a low-cost peristaltic pump, we also present carefully controlled dosing of reagents by an open-source syringe pump. The upgrading of the basic open-source syringe pump is given in terms of pump control and application of a larger syringe. In addition to the basic functions of pH stat, i.e. pH value measurement and maintenance, an improvement allowing the device to be used for potentiometric titration has been made as well. We have demonstrated the device’s utility when applied for cellulose fibers oxidation with 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl radical, i.e. for TEMPO-mediated oxidation. In support of this, we present the results obtained for the oxidation kinetics, the consumption of added reagent and experimental repeatability. Considering that the open-source scientific tools are available to everyone, and that researchers can construct and adjust the device according to their needs, as well as, that the total cost of the open-source pH stat device, excluding the existing laboratory equipment (pH meter, computer and glossary) was less than 150 EUR, we believe that, at a small fraction of the cost of available commercial offers, our open-source pH stat can significantly improve experimental work where the use of pH stat is necessary. PMID:29509793

"Do-It-Yourself" reliable pH-stat device by using open-source software, inexpensive hardware and available laboratory equipment.

PubMed

Milanovic, Jovana Z; Milanovic, Predrag; Kragic, Rastislav; Kostic, Mirjana

2018-01-01

In this paper, we present the construction of a reliable and inexpensive pH stat device, by using open-source "OpenPhControl" software, inexpensive hardware (a peristaltic and a syringe pump, Arduino, a step motor…), readily available laboratory devices: a pH meter, a computer, a webcam, and some 3D printed parts. We provide a methodology for the design, development and test results of each part of the device, as well as of the entire system. In addition to dosing reagents by means of a low-cost peristaltic pump, we also present carefully controlled dosing of reagents by an open-source syringe pump. The upgrading of the basic open-source syringe pump is given in terms of pump control and application of a larger syringe. In addition to the basic functions of pH stat, i.e. pH value measurement and maintenance, an improvement allowing the device to be used for potentiometric titration has been made as well. We have demonstrated the device's utility when applied for cellulose fibers oxidation with 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl radical, i.e. for TEMPO-mediated oxidation. In support of this, we present the results obtained for the oxidation kinetics, the consumption of added reagent and experimental repeatability. Considering that the open-source scientific tools are available to everyone, and that researchers can construct and adjust the device according to their needs, as well as, that the total cost of the open-source pH stat device, excluding the existing laboratory equipment (pH meter, computer and glossary) was less than 150 EUR, we believe that, at a small fraction of the cost of available commercial offers, our open-source pH stat can significantly improve experimental work where the use of pH stat is necessary.

Hardware-Enabled Security Through On-Chip Reconfigurable Fabric

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-02-05

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: The goal of this project was to enable hardware-based security techniques on future microprocessors in a way that they... microprocessors in a way that they can be added and updated after fabrication, similar to software, while maintaining the efficiency and the security of...Progress The goal of this project was to enable hardware-based security techniques on future microprocessors in a way that they can be added and

Extended Logic Intelligent Processing System for a Sensor Fusion Processor Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stoica, Adrian; Thomas, Tyson; Li, Wei-Te; Daud, Taher; Fabunmi, James

2000-01-01

The paper presents the hardware implementation and initial tests from a low-power, highspeed reconfigurable sensor fusion processor. The Extended Logic Intelligent Processing System (ELIPS) is described, which combines rule-based systems, fuzzy logic, and neural networks to achieve parallel fusion of sensor signals in compact low power VLSI. The development of the ELIPS concept is being done to demonstrate the interceptor functionality which particularly underlines the high speed and low power requirements. The hardware programmability allows the processor to reconfigure into different machines, taking the most efficient hardware implementation during each phase of information processing. Processing speeds of microseconds have been demonstrated using our test hardware.

Space Station Freedom electrical power system hardware commonality with the United States Polar Platform

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rieker, Lorra L.; Haraburda, Francis M.

1989-01-01

Information is presented on how the concept of commonality is being implemented with respect to electric power system hardware for the Space Station Freedom and the U.S. Polar Platform. Included is a historical account of the candidate common items which have the potential to serve the same power system functions on both Freedom and the Polar Platform. The Space Station program and objectives are described, focusing on the test and development responsibilities. The program definition and preliminary design phase and the design and development phase are discussed. The goal of this work is to reduce the program cost.

Thermal control evaluation of a Shuttle Orbiter solar observatory using Skylab ATM backup hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Class, C. R.; Presta, G.; Trucks, H.

1975-01-01

A study under the sponsorship of Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) established the feasibility to utilize the Skylab Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) backup hardware for early low cost Shuttle Orbiter solar observation missions. A solar inertial attitude and a seven-day, full sun exposure were baselined. As a portion of the study, a series of thermal control evaluations were performed to resolve the problems caused by the relocation of the ATM to the Shuttle Orbiter bay and resulting configuration changes. Thermal control requirements, problems, the use of solar shields, Spacelab supplied fluid cooling and component placement are discussed.

Power Hardware-in-the-Loop Evaluation of PV Inverter Grid Support on Hawaiian Electric Feeders

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nelson, Austin A; Prabakar, Kumaraguru; Nagarajan, Adarsh

As more grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) inverters become compliant with evolving interconnections requirements, there is increased interest from utilities in understanding how to best deploy advanced grid-support functions (GSF) in the field. One efficient and cost-effective method to examine such deployment options is to leverage power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) testing methods, which combine the fidelity of hardware tests with the flexibility of computer simulation. This paper summarizes a study wherein two Hawaiian Electric feeder models were converted to real-time models using an OPAL-RT real-time digital testing platform, and integrated with models of GSF capable PV inverters based on characterization test data. Themore » integrated model was subsequently used in PHIL testing to evaluate the effects of different fixed power factor and volt-watt control settings on voltage regulation of the selected feeders using physical inverters. Selected results are presented in this paper, and complete results of this study were provided as inputs for field deployment and technical interconnection requirements for grid-connected PV inverters on the Hawaiian Islands.« less

Spacelab cost reduction alternatives study. Volume 1: Executive summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1976-01-01

Alternative approaches to payload operations planning and control and flight crew training are defined for spacelab payloads with the goal of: lowering FY77 and FY 78 costs for new starts; lowering costs to achieve Spacelab operational capability; and minimizing the cost per Spacelab flight. These alternatives attempt to minimize duplication of hardware, software, and personnel, and the investment in supporting facility and equipment. Of particular importance is the possible reduction of equipment, software, and manpower resources such as comtational systems, trainers, and simulators.

STS-71 hardware assembly view

NASA Image and Video Library

1994-12-02

S94-47810 (2 Dec. 1994) --- Lockheed Space Operations Company workers in the Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO) Facility, located inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), carefully hoist the Orbiter Docking System (ODS) from its shipping container into a test stand. The ODS was shipped in a horizontal position to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) from contractor Rockwell Aerospace's Downey plant. Once the ODS is upright, work can continue to prepare the hardware for the first docking of the United States Space Shuttle and Russian Space Station MIR in 1995. The ODS contains both United States-made and Russian-made hardware. The black band is Russian-made thermal insulation protecting part of the docking mechanism, also Russian-made, called the Androgynous Peripheral Docking System (APDS). A red protective cap covers the APDS itself. Other elements of the ODS, most of it protected by white United States-made thermal insulation, were developed by Rockwell, which also integrated and checked out the assembled Russian-United States system.

How Elected Officials Can Control Computer Costs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grady, Daniel B.

Elected officials have a special obligation to monitor and make informed decisions about computer expenditures. In doing so, officials should insist that a needs assessment be carried out; review all cost and configuration data; draw up a master plan specifying user needs as well as hardware, software, and personnel requirements; and subject…

NASA Air Force Cost Model (NAFCOM): Capabilities and Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McAfee, Julie; Culver, George; Naderi, Mahmoud

2011-01-01

NAFCOM is a parametric estimating tool for space hardware. Uses cost estimating relationships (CERs) which correlate historical costs to mission characteristics to predict new project costs. It is based on historical NASA and Air Force space projects. It is intended to be used in the very early phases of a development project. NAFCOM can be used at the subsystem or component levels and estimates development and production costs. NAFCOM is applicable to various types of missions (crewed spacecraft, uncrewed spacecraft, and launch vehicles). There are two versions of the model: a government version that is restricted and a contractor releasable version.

Can IR scene projectors reduce total system cost?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ginn, Robert; Solomon, Steven

2006-05-01

There is an incredible amount of system engineering involved in turning the typical infrared system needs of probability of detection, probability of identification, and probability of false alarm into focal plane array (FPA) requirements of noise equivalent irradiance (NEI), modulation transfer function (MTF), fixed pattern noise (FPN), and defective pixels. Unfortunately, there are no analytic solutions to this problem so many approximations and plenty of "seat of the pants" engineering is employed. This leads to conservative specifications, which needlessly drive up system costs by increasing system engineering costs, reducing FPA yields, increasing test costs, increasing rework and the never ending renegotiation of requirements in an effort to rein in costs. These issues do not include the added complexity to the FPA factory manager of trying to meet varied, and changing, requirements for similar products because different customers have made different approximations and flown down different specifications. Scene generation technology may well be mature and cost effective enough to generate considerable overall savings for FPA based systems. We will compare the costs and capabilities of various existing scene generation systems and estimate the potential savings if implemented at several locations in the IR system fabrication cycle. The costs of implementing this new testing methodology will be compared to the probable savings in systems engineering, test, rework, yield improvement and others. The diverse requirements and techniques required for testing missile warning systems, missile seekers, and FLIRs will be defined. Last, we will discuss both the hardware and software requirements necessary to meet the new test paradigm and discuss additional cost improvements related to the incorporation of these technologies.

A Comparison of Optical versus Hardware Fourier Transforms.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-10-31

AD- R136 223 A COMPRISON’OF OPTICAL ERSUS HARDWARE FOURIER i/i.TRANSFORMS(U) VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND STATE UNIV BLACKSBURG DEPT OF PHYSICS S P...transform and its inverse filtered Fourier transform obtained with the Digital Image Processing (DIP) hardware system located at the School of Aerospace...transparencies, and provided to us by Dr. Ralph G. Allen, Director of the Laser Effects Branch (Division of Radiation Sciences). The DIP system consisted of: an

Systems design study of the Pioneer Venus spacecraft. Appendices to volume 1, sections 8-11 (part 3 of 3). [power subsystem/cost tradeoffs for Venus probe

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1973-01-01

Power subsystem cost/weight tradeoffs are discussed for the Venus probe spacecraft. The cost estimations of power subsystem units were based upon DSCS-2, DSP, and Pioneer 10 and 11 hardware design and development and manufacturing experience. Parts count and degree of modification of existing hardware were factored into the estimate of manufacturing and design and development costs. Cost data includes sufficient quantities of units to equip probe bus and orbiter versions. It was based on the orbiter complement of equipment, but the savings in fewer slices for the probe bus balance the cost of the different probe bus battery. The preferred systems for the Thor/Delta and for the Atlas/Centaur are discussed. The weights of the candidate designs were based upon slice or tray weights for functionally equivalent circuitry measured on existing hardware such as Pioneers 10 and 11, Intelsat 3, DSCS-2, or DSP programs. Battery weights were based on measured cell weight data adjusted for case weight or off-the-shelf battery weights. The solar array weight estimate was based upon recent hardware experience on DSCS-2 and DSP arrays.

Hybrid Residual Flexibility/Mass-Additive Method for Structural Dynamic Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tinker, M. L.

2003-01-01

A large fixture was designed and constructed for modal vibration testing of International Space Station elements. This fixed-base test fixture, which weighs thousands of pounds and is anchored to a massive concrete floor, initially utilized spherical bearings and pendulum mechanisms to simulate Shuttle orbiter boundary constraints for launch of the hardware. Many difficulties were encountered during a checkout test of the common module prototype structure, mainly due to undesirable friction and excessive clearances in the test-article-to-fixture interface bearings. Measured mode shapes and frequencies were not representative of orbiter-constrained modes due to the friction and clearance effects in the bearings. As a result, a major redesign effort for the interface mechanisms was undertaken. The total cost of the fixture design, construction and checkout, and redesign was over $2 million. Because of the problems experienced with fixed-base testing, alternative free-suspension methods were studied, including the residual flexibility and mass-additive approaches. Free-suspension structural dynamics test methods utilize soft elastic bungee cords and overhead frame suspension systems that are less complex and much less expensive than fixed-base systems. The cost of free-suspension fixturing is on the order of tens of thousands of dollars as opposed to millions, for large fixed-base fixturing. In addition, free-suspension test configurations are portable, allowing modal tests to be done at sites without modal test facilities. For example, a mass-additive modal test of the ASTRO-1 Shuttle payload was done at the Kennedy Space Center launch site. In this Technical Memorandum, the mass-additive and residual flexibility test methods are described in detail. A discussion of a hybrid approach that combines the best characteristics of each method follows and is the focus of the study.

Cascade Error Projection: A Learning Algorithm for Hardware Implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duong, Tuan A.; Daud, Taher

1996-01-01

In this paper, we workout a detailed mathematical analysis for a new learning algorithm termed Cascade Error Projection (CEP) and a general learning frame work. This frame work can be used to obtain the cascade correlation learning algorithm by choosing a particular set of parameters. Furthermore, CEP learning algorithm is operated only on one layer, whereas the other set of weights can be calculated deterministically. In association with the dynamical stepsize change concept to convert the weight update from infinite space into a finite space, the relation between the current stepsize and the previous energy level is also given and the estimation procedure for optimal stepsize is used for validation of our proposed technique. The weight values of zero are used for starting the learning for every layer, and a single hidden unit is applied instead of using a pool of candidate hidden units similar to cascade correlation scheme. Therefore, simplicity in hardware implementation is also obtained. Furthermore, this analysis allows us to select from other methods (such as the conjugate gradient descent or the Newton's second order) one of which will be a good candidate for the learning technique. The choice of learning technique depends on the constraints of the problem (e.g., speed, performance, and hardware implementation); one technique may be more suitable than others. Moreover, for a discrete weight space, the theoretical analysis presents the capability of learning with limited weight quantization. Finally, 5- to 8-bit parity and chaotic time series prediction problems are investigated; the simulation results demonstrate that 4-bit or more weight quantization is sufficient for learning neural network using CEP. In addition, it is demonstrated that this technique is able to compensate for less bit weight resolution by incorporating additional hidden units. However, generation result may suffer somewhat with lower bit weight quantization.

HSCT Sector Combustor Hardware Modifications for Improved Combustor Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greenfield, Stuart C.; Heberling, Paul V.; Moertle, George E.

2005-01-01

An alternative to the stepped-dome design for the lean premixed prevaporized (LPP) combustor has been developed. The new design uses the same premixer types as the stepped-dome design: integrated mixer flameholder (IMFH) tubes and a cyclone swirler pilot. The IMFH fuel system has been taken to a new level of development. Although the IMFH fuel system design developed in this Task is not intended to be engine-like hardware, it does have certain characteristics of engine hardware, including separate fuel circuits for each of the fuel stages. The four main stage fuel circuits are integrated into a single system which can be withdrawn from the combustor as a unit. Additionally, two new types of liner cooling have been designed. The resulting lean blowout data was found to correlate well with the Lefebvre parameter. As expected, CO and unburned hydrocarbons emissions were shown to have an approximately linear relationship, even though some scatter was present in the data, and the CO versus flame temperature data showed the typical cupped shape. Finally, the NOx emissions data was shown to agree well with a previously developed correlation based on emissions data from Configuration 3 tests performed at GEAE. The design variations of the cyclone swirler pilot that were investigated in this study did not significantly change the NOx emissions from the baseline design (GEAE Configuration 3) at supersonic cruise conditions.

Health Maintenance System (HMS) Hardware Research, Design, and Collaboration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gonzalez, Stefanie M.

2010-01-01

The Space Life Sciences division (SLSD) concentrates on optimizing a crew member's health. Developments are translated into innovative engineering solutions, research growth, and community awareness. This internship incorporates all those areas by targeting various projects. The main project focuses on integrating clinical and biomedical engineering principles to design, develop, and test new medical kits scheduled for launch in the Spring of 2011. Additionally, items will be tagged with Radio Frequency Interference Devices (RFID) to keep track of the inventory. The tags will then be tested to optimize Radio Frequency feed and feed placement. Research growth will occur with ground based experiments designed to measure calcium encrusted deposits in the International Space Station (ISS). The tests will assess the urine calcium levels with Portable Clinical Blood Analyzer (PCBA) technology. If effective then a model for urine calcium will be developed and expanded to microgravity environments. To support collaboration amongst the subdivisions of SLSD the architecture of the Crew Healthcare Systems (CHeCS) SharePoint site has been redesigned for maximum efficiency. Community collaboration has also been established with the University of Southern California, Dept. of Aeronautical Engineering and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Hardware disbursements will transpire within these communities to support planetary surface exploration and to serve as an educational tool demonstrating how ground based medicine influenced the technological development of space hardware.

Software algorithm and hardware design for real-time implementation of new spectral estimator

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Real-time spectral analyzers can be difficult to implement for PC computer-based systems because of the potential for high computational cost, and algorithm complexity. In this work a new spectral estimator (NSE) is developed for real-time analysis, and compared with the discrete Fourier transform (DFT). Method Clinical data in the form of 216 fractionated atrial electrogram sequences were used as inputs. The sample rate for acquisition was 977 Hz, or approximately 1 millisecond between digital samples. Real-time NSE power spectra were generated for 16,384 consecutive data points. The same data sequences were used for spectral calculation using a radix-2 implementation of the DFT. The NSE algorithm was also developed for implementation as a real-time spectral analyzer electronic circuit board. Results The average interval for a single real-time spectral calculation in software was 3.29 μs for NSE versus 504.5 μs for DFT. Thus for real-time spectral analysis, the NSE algorithm is approximately 150× faster than the DFT. Over a 1 millisecond sampling period, the NSE algorithm had the capability to spectrally analyze a maximum of 303 data channels, while the DFT algorithm could only analyze a single channel. Moreover, for the 8 second sequences, the NSE spectral resolution in the 3-12 Hz range was 0.037 Hz while the DFT spectral resolution was only 0.122 Hz. The NSE was also found to be implementable as a standalone spectral analyzer board using approximately 26 integrated circuits at a cost of approximately $500. The software files used for analysis are included as a supplement, please see the Additional files 1 and 2. Conclusions The NSE real-time algorithm has low computational cost and complexity, and is implementable in both software and hardware for 1 millisecond updates of multichannel spectra. The algorithm may be helpful to guide radiofrequency catheter ablation in real time. PMID:24886214

Applications for Gradient Metal Alloys Fabricated Using Additive Manufacturing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hofmann, Douglas C.; Borgonia, John Paul C.; Dillon, Robert P.; Suh, Eric J.; Mulder, jerry L.; Gardner, Paul B.

2013-01-01

Recently, additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have been developed that may shift the paradigm of traditional metal production by allowing complex net-shaped hardware to be built up layer-by-layer, rather than being machined from a billet. The AM process is ubiquitous with polymers due to their low melting temperatures, fast curing, and controllable viscosity, and 3D printers are widely available as commercial or consumer products. 3D printing with metals is inherently more complicated than with polymers due to their higher melting temperatures and reactivity with air, particularly when heated or molten. The process generally requires a high-power laser or other focused heat source, like an electron beam, for precise melting and deposition. Several promising metal AM techniques have been developed, including laser deposition (also called laser engineered net shaping or LENS® and laser deposition technology (LDT)), direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), and electron beam free-form (EBF). These machines typically use powders or wire feedstock that are melted and deposited using a laser or electron beam. Complex net-shape parts have been widely demonstrated using these (and other) AM techniques and the process appears to be a promising alternative to machining in some cases. Rather than simply competing with traditional machining for cost and time savings, the true advantage of AM involves the fabrication of hardware that cannot be produced using other techniques. This could include parts with "blind" features (like foams or trusses), parts that are difficult to machine conventionally, or parts made from materials that do not exist in bulk forms. In this work, the inventors identify that several AM techniques can be used to develop metal parts that change composition from one location in the part to another, allowing for complete control over the mechanical or physical properties. This changes the paradigm for conventional metal fabrication, which relies on an

Hardware based redundant multi-threading inside a GPU for improved reliability

DOEpatents

Sridharan, Vilas; Gurumurthi, Sudhanva

2015-05-05

A system and method for verifying computation output using computer hardware are provided. Instances of computation are generated and processed on hardware-based processors. As instances of computation are processed, each instance of computation receives a load accessible to other instances of computation. Instances of output are generated by processing the instances of computation. The instances of output are verified against each other in a hardware based processor to ensure accuracy of the output.

Microcomputer Hardware. Energy Technology Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Technical Education Research Centre-Southwest, Waco, TX.

This course in microcomputer hardware is one of 16 courses in the Energy Technology Series developed for an Energy Conservation-and-Use Technology curriculum. Intended for use in two-year postsecondary technical institutions to prepare technicians for employment, the courses are also useful in industry for updating employees in company-sponsored…

Design guidelines for robotically serviceable hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gordon, Scott A.

1988-01-01

Research being conducted at the Goddard Space Flight Center into the development of guidelines for the design of robotically serviceable spaceflight hardware is described. A mock-up was built based on an existing spaceflight system demonstrating how these guidelines can be applied to actual hardware. The report examines the basic servicing philosophy being studied and how this philosophy is reflected in the formulation of design guidelines for robotic servicing. A description of the mock-up is presented with emphasis on the design features that make it robot friendly. Three robotic servicing schemes fulfilling the design guidelines were developed for the mock-up. These servicing schemes are examined as to how their implementation was affected by the constraints of the spacecraft system on which the mock-up is based.

SpiderSpec: a low-cost compact colorimeter with IoT functionality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mignani, Anna G.; Mencaglia, Andrea A.; Baldi, Massimo; Ciaccheri, Leonardo

2015-07-01

A miniaturized device for colorimetry is presented that utilizes a LED array for illumination and a compact spectrometer for detection. It can be battery-powered, operated locally as a stand-alone device, or connected via wi-fi to the internet. It has potentials to be remotely operated by means of a tablet or a smartphone. In practice, it consists of a low-cost hardware configuration that is adaptable via software to the user's most varied requests, as a spectroscopic platform appropriate for a variety of applications. The hardware and software modules can be designed with different performances, complexities and costs, with the aim of making the colorimeter a device for Internet-of-Things use. It will be suitable for a selected range of consumer applications, as well as for targeted industrial, environmental, and food applications.

Organizing for low cost space operations - Status and plans

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, C.

1976-01-01

Design features of the Space Transportation System (vehicle reuse, low cost expendable components, simple payload interfaces, standard support systems) must be matched by economical operational methods to achieve low operating and payload costs. Users will be responsible for their own payloads and will be charged according to the services they require. Efficient use of manpower, simple documentation, simplified test, checkout, and flight planning are firm goals, together with flexibility for quick response to varying user needs. Status of the Shuttle hardware, plans for establishing low cost procedures, and the policy for user charges are discussed.

Vendors' Summit '88: A Special Report on the Hardware Industry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodspeed, Jonathan

1988-01-01

Presents report of the Hardware Vendors/Educators Forum, which was convened to discuss microcomputer hardware in elementary and secondary schools. Representatives from Commodore, IBM, Tandy/Radio Shack, and Apple Computer, addressed topics including sales and service, integrating technology into the curriculum, college versus secondary level…

Developing Analogy Cost Estimates for Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shishko, Robert

2004-01-01

The analogy approach in cost estimation combines actual cost data from similar existing systems, activities, or items with adjustments for a new project's technical, physical or programmatic differences to derive a cost estimate for the new system. This method is normally used early in a project cycle when there is insufficient design/cost data to use as a basis for (or insufficient time to perform) a detailed engineering cost estimate. The major limitation of this method is that it relies on the judgment and experience of the analyst/estimator. The analyst must ensure that the best analogy or analogies have been selected, and that appropriate adjustments have been made. While analogy costing is common, there is a dearth of advice in the literature on the 'adjustment methodology', especially for hardware projects. This paper discusses some potential approaches that can improve rigor and repeatability in the analogy costing process.

Event and Pulse Node Hardware Design for Nuclear Fusion Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fortunato, J. C.; Batista, A.; Sousa, J.; Fernandes, H.; Varandas, C. A. F.

2008-04-01

This article presents an event and pulse node hardware module (EPN) developed for use in control and data acquisition (CODAC) in current and upcoming long discharges nuclear fusion experiments. Its purpose is to allow real time event management and trigger distribution. The use of a mixture of digital signal processing and field programmable gate arrays, with fiber optic channels for event broadcast between CODAC nodes, and short length paths between the EPN and CODAC hardware, allows an effective and low latency communication path. This hardware will be integrated in the ISTTOK CODAC to allow long AC plasma discharges.

Postflight hardware evaluation 360T026 (RSRM-26, STS-47)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nielson, Greg

1993-01-01

The final report for the Clearfield disassembly evaluation and a continuation of the KSC postflight assessment for the 360T026 (STS-47) Redesigned Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) flight set is provided. All observed hardware conditions were documented on PFOR's and are included in Appendices A, B, and C. Appendices D and E contain the measurements and safety factor data for the nozzle and insulation components. This report, along with the KSC Ten-Day Postflight Hardware Evaluation Report (TWR-64203), represents a summary of the 360T026 hardware evaluation. The as-flown hardware configuration is documented in TWR-60472. Disassembly evaluation photograph numbers are logged in TWA-1987. The 360T026 flight set disassembly evaluations described were performed at the RSRM Refurbishment Facility in Clearfield, Utah. The final factory joint demate occurred on 12 April 1993. Detailed evaluations were performed in accordance with the Clearfield Postflight Engineering Evaluation Plan (PEEP), TWR-50051, Revision A. All observations were compared against limits that are also defined in the PEEP. These limits outline the criteria for categorizing the observations as acceptable, reportable, or critical. Hardware conditions that were unexpected and/or determined to be reportable or critical were evaluated by the applicable CPT and tracked through the PFAR system.

A portable hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) device for automotive diagnostic control systems.

PubMed

Palladino, A; Fiengo, G; Lanzo, D

2012-01-01

In-vehicle driving tests for evaluating the performance and diagnostic functionalities of engine control systems are often time consuming, expensive, and not reproducible. Using a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation approach, new control strategies and diagnostic functions on a controller area network (CAN) line can be easily tested in real time, in order to reduce the effort and the cost of the testing phase. Nowadays, spark ignition engines are controlled by an electronic control unit (ECU) with a large number of embedded sensors and actuators. In order to meet the rising demand of lower emissions and fuel consumption, an increasing number of control functions are added into such a unit. This work aims at presenting a portable electronic environment system, suited for HIL simulations, in order to test the engine control software and the diagnostic functionality on a CAN line, respectively, through non-regression and diagnostic tests. The performances of the proposed electronic device, called a micro hardware-in-the-loop system, are presented through the testing of the engine management system software of a 1.6 l Fiat gasoline engine with variable valve actuation for the ECU development version. Copyright © 2011 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cost-Effectiveness of Alternative Approaches to Computer-Assisted Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levin, Henry M.; And Others

Operating on the premise that different approaches to computer-assisted instruction (CAI) may use different configurations of hardware and software, different curricula, and different organizational and personnel arrangements, this study explored the feasibility of collecting evaluations of CAI to evaluate the comparative cost-effectiveness of…

Extravehicular Activity training and hardware design considerations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thuot, Pierre J.; Harbaugh, Gregory J.

1993-01-01

Designing hardware that can be successfully operated by EVA astronauts for EVA tasks required to assemble and maintain Space Station Freedom requires a thorough understanding of human factors and of the capabilities and limitations of the space-suited astronaut, as well as of the effect of microgravity environment on the crew member's capabilities and on the overhead associated with EVA. This paper describes various training methods and facilities that are being designed for training EVA astronauts for Space Station assembly and maintenance, taking into account the above discussed factors. Particular attention is given to the user-friendly hardware design for EVA and to recent EVA flight experience.

Language of CTO interventions - Focus on hardware.

PubMed

Mishra, Sundeep

2016-01-01

The knowledge of variety of chronic total occlusion (CTO) hardware and the ability to use them represents the key to success of any CTO interventions. However, the multiplicity of CTO hardware and their physical character and the terminology used by experts create confusion in the mind of an average interventional cardiologist, particularly a beginner in this field. This knowledge is available but is scattered. We aim to classify and compare the currently used devices based on their properties focusing on how physical character of each device can be utilized in a specific situation, thus clarifying and simplifying the technical discourse. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Performance Analysis of a Hardware Implemented Complex Signal Kurtosis Radio-Frequency Interference Detector

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schoenwald, Adam J.; Bradley, Damon C.; Mohammed, Priscilla N.; Piepmeier, Jeffrey R.; Wong, Mark

2016-01-01

Radio-frequency interference (RFI) is a known problem for passive remote sensing as evidenced in the L-band radiometers SMOS, Aquarius and more recently, SMAP. Various algorithms have been developed and implemented on SMAP to improve science measurements. This was achieved by the use of a digital microwave radiometer. RFI mitigation becomes more challenging for microwave radiometers operating at higher frequencies in shared allocations. At higher frequencies larger bandwidths are also desirable for lower measurement noise further adding to processing challenges. This work focuses on finding improved RFI mitigation techniques that will be effective at additional frequencies and at higher bandwidths. To aid the development and testing of applicable detection and mitigation techniques, a wide-band RFI algorithm testing environment has been developed using the Reconfigurable Open Architecture Computing Hardware System (ROACH) built by the Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER) Group. The testing environment also consists of various test equipment used to reproduce typical signals that a radiometer may see including those with and without RFI. The testing environment permits quick evaluations of RFI mitigation algorithms as well as show that they are implementable in hardware. The algorithm implemented is a complex signal kurtosis detector which was modeled and simulated. The complex signal kurtosis detector showed improved performance over the real kurtosis detector under certain conditions. The real kurtosis is implemented on SMAP at 24 MHz bandwidth. The complex signal kurtosis algorithm was then implemented in hardware at 200 MHz bandwidth using the ROACH. In this work, performance of the complex signal kurtosis and the real signal kurtosis are compared. Performance evaluations and comparisons in both simulation as well as experimental hardware implementations were done with the use of receiver operating characteristic (ROC

Motion compensation in digital subtraction angiography using graphics hardware.

PubMed

Deuerling-Zheng, Yu; Lell, Michael; Galant, Adam; Hornegger, Joachim

2006-07-01

An inherent disadvantage of digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is its sensitivity to patient motion which causes artifacts in the subtraction images. These artifacts could often reduce the diagnostic value of this technique. Automated, fast and accurate motion compensation is therefore required. To cope with this requirement, we first examine a method explicitly designed to detect local motions in DSA. Then, we implement a motion compensation algorithm by means of block matching on modern graphics hardware. Both methods search for maximal local similarity by evaluating a histogram-based measure. In this context, we are the first who have mapped an optimizing search strategy on graphics hardware while paralleling block matching. Moreover, we provide an innovative method for creating histograms on graphics hardware with vertex texturing and frame buffer blending. It turns out that both methods can effectively correct the artifacts in most case, as the hardware implementation of block matching performs much faster: the displacements of two 1024 x 1024 images can be calculated at 3 frames/s with integer precision or 2 frames/s with sub-pixel precision. Preliminary clinical evaluation indicates that the computation with integer precision could already be sufficient.

A hardware-oriented concurrent TZ search algorithm for High-Efficiency Video Coding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doan, Nghia; Kim, Tae Sung; Rhee, Chae Eun; Lee, Hyuk-Jae

2017-12-01

High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is the latest video coding standard, in which the compression performance is double that of its predecessor, the H.264/AVC standard, while the video quality remains unchanged. In HEVC, the test zone (TZ) search algorithm is widely used for integer motion estimation because it effectively searches the good-quality motion vector with a relatively small amount of computation. However, the complex computation structure of the TZ search algorithm makes it difficult to implement it in the hardware. This paper proposes a new integer motion estimation algorithm which is designed for hardware execution by modifying the conventional TZ search to allow parallel motion estimations of all prediction unit (PU) partitions. The algorithm consists of the three phases of zonal, raster, and refinement searches. At the beginning of each phase, the algorithm obtains the search points required by the original TZ search for all PU partitions in a coding unit (CU). Then, all redundant search points are removed prior to the estimation of the motion costs, and the best search points are then selected for all PUs. Compared to the conventional TZ search algorithm, experimental results show that the proposed algorithm significantly decreases the Bjøntegaard Delta bitrate (BD-BR) by 0.84%, and it also reduces the computational complexity by 54.54%.

Hardware packet pacing using a DMA in a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Chen, Dong; Heidelberger, Phillip; Vranas, Pavlos

2013-08-13

Method and system for hardware packet pacing using a direct memory access controller in a parallel computer which, in one aspect, keeps track of a total number of bytes put on the network as a result of a remote get operation, using a hardware token counter.

Equivalent Mass versus Life Cycle Cost for Life Support Technology Selection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Harry

2003-01-01

The decision to develop a particular life support technology or to select it for flight usually depends on the cost to develop and fly it. Other criteria - performance, safety, reliability, crew time, and risk - are considered, but cost is always an important factor. Because launch cost accounts for most of the cost of planetary missions, and because launch cost is directly proportional to the mass launched, equivalent mass has been used instead of cost to select life support technology. The equivalent mass of a life support system includes the estimated masses of the hardware and of the pressurized volume, power supply, and cooling system that the hardware requires. The equivalent mass is defined as the total payload launch mass needed to provide and support the system. An extension of equivalent mass, Equivalent System Mass (ESM), has been established for use in Advanced Life Support. A crew time mass-equivalent and sometimes other non-mass factors are added to equivalent mass to create ESM. Equivalent mass is an estimate of the launch cost only. For earth orbit rather than planetary missions, the launch cost is usually exceeded by the cost of Design, Development, Test, and Evaluation (DDT&E). Equivalent mass is used only in life support analysis. Life Cycle Cost (LCC) is much more commonly used. LCC includes DDT&E, launch, and operations costs. Since LCC includes launch cost, it is always a more accurate cost estimator than equivalent mass. The relative costs of development, launch, and operations vary depending on the mission design, destination, and duration. Since DDT&E or operations may cost more than launch, LCC may give a more accurate cost ranking than equivalent mass. To be sure of identifying the lowest cost technology for a particular mission, we should use LCC rather than equivalent mass.

PEM Electrolyzer Incorporating an Advanced Low-Cost Membrane

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hamdan, Monjid

The Department of Energy (DOE) has identified hydrogen production by electrolysis of water at forecourt stations as a critical technology for transition to the hydrogen economy; however, the cost of hydrogen produced by present commercially available electrolysis systems is considerably higher than the DOE 2015 and 2020 cost targets. Analyses of proton-exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer systems indicate that reductions in electricity consumption and electrolyzer stack and system capital cost are required to meet the DOE cost targets. The primary objective is to develop and demonstrate a cost-effective energy-based system for electrolytic generation of hydrogen. The goal is to increase PEMmore » electrolyzer efficiency and to reduce electrolyzer stack and system capital cost to meet the DOE cost targets for distributed electrolysis. To accomplish this objective, work was conducted by a team consisting of Giner, Inc. (Giner), Virginia Polytechnic Institute & University (VT), and domnick hunter group, a subsidiary of Parker Hannifin (Parker). The project focused on four (4) key areas: (1) development of a high-efficiency, high-strength membrane; (2) development of a long-life cell-separator; (3) scale-up of cell active area to 290 cm2 (from 160 cm²); and (4) development of a prototype commercial electrolyzer system. In each of the key stack development areas Giner and our team members conducted focused development in laboratory-scale hardware, with analytical support as necessary, followed by life-testing of the most promising candidate materials. Selected components were then scaled up and incorporated into low-cost scaled-up stack hardware. The project culminated in the fabrication and testing of a highly efficient electrolyzer system for production of 0.5 kg/hr hydrogen and validation of the stack and system in testing at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).« less

Design-for-Hardware-Trust Techniques, Detection Strategies and Metrics for Hardware Trojans

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-14

down  both  rising  and  falling  transitions.  For  Trojan   detection ,   one   fault ,   slow-­‐to-­‐rise  or   slow-­‐to...in Jan. 2016. Through the course of this project we developed novel hardware Trojan detection techniques based on clock sweeping. The technique takes...algorithms to detect minor changes due to Trojan and compared them with those changes made by process variations. This technique was implemented on

The design and construction of a cost-efficient confocal laser scanning microscope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xi, Peng; Rajwa, Bartlomiej; Jones, James T.; Robinson, J. Paul

2007-03-01

The optical dissection ability of confocal microscopy makes it a powerful tool for biological materials. However, the cost and complexity of confocal scanning laser microscopy hinders its wide application in education. We describe the construction of a simplified confocal scanning laser microscope and demonstrate three-dimensional projection based on cost-efficient commercial hardware, together with available open source software.

The DISCUS Hardware System,

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-07-01

blocks. DISCUS has no form of hardware synchronisation between the processors. The only synchronisation is at an operating system level. ;ach processor is... operations in global store so that semaphoring on global objects can be done correctly. Write Protect is used by the operating system for read-only...the appropriate operating system program. String Handling primitives . The Z8000 has a rich set of string primitives . However as we saw before if a

Space Station Freedom biomedical monitoring and countermeasures: Biomedical facility hardware catalog

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

This hardware catalog covers that hardware proposed under the Biomedical Monitoring and Countermeasures Development Program supported by the Johnson Space Center. The hardware items are listed separately by item, and are in alphabetical order. Each hardware item specification consists of four pages. The first page describes background information with an illustration, definition and a history/design status. The second page identifies the general specifications, performance, rack interface requirements, problems, issues, concerns, physical description, and functional description. The level of hardware design reliability is also identified under the maintainability and reliability category. The third page specifies the mechanical design guidelines and assumptions. Described are the material types and weights, modules, and construction methods. Also described is an estimation of percentage of construction which utilizes a particular method, and the percentage of required new mechanical design is documented. The fourth page analyzes the electronics, the scope of design effort, and the software requirements. Electronics are described by percentages of component types and new design. The design effort, as well as, the software requirements are identified and categorized.

Design and development of data acquisition system based on WeChat hardware

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Zhitao; Ding, Lei

2018-06-01

Data acquisition system based on WeChat hardware provides methods for popularization and practicality of data acquisition. The whole system is based on WeChat hardware platform, where the hardware part is developed on DA14580 development board and the software part is based on Alibaba Cloud. We designed service module, logic processing module, data processing module and database module. The communication between hardware and software uses AirSync Protocal. We tested this system by collecting temperature and humidity data, and the result shows that the system can aquisite the temperature and humidity in real time according to settings.

Mir hardware heritage

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Portree, David S. F.

1995-01-01

The heritage of the major Mir complex hardware elements is described. These elements include Soyuz-TM and Progress-M; the Kvant, Kvant 2, and Kristall modules; and the Mir base block. Configuration changes and major mission events of the Salyut 6, Salyut 7, and Mir multiport space stations are described in detail for the period 1977-1994. A comparative chronology of U.S. and Soviet/Russian manned spaceflight is also given for that period. The 68 illustrations include comparative scale drawings of U.S. and Russian spacecraft as well as sequential drawings depicting missions and mission events.

Scalable digital hardware for a trapped ion quantum computer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mount, Emily; Gaultney, Daniel; Vrijsen, Geert; Adams, Michael; Baek, So-Young; Hudek, Kai; Isabella, Louis; Crain, Stephen; van Rynbach, Andre; Maunz, Peter; Kim, Jungsang

2016-12-01

Many of the challenges of scaling quantum computer hardware lie at the interface between the qubits and the classical control signals used to manipulate them. Modular ion trap quantum computer architectures address scalability by constructing individual quantum processors interconnected via a network of quantum communication channels. Successful operation of such quantum hardware requires a fully programmable classical control system capable of frequency stabilizing the continuous wave lasers necessary for loading, cooling, initialization, and detection of the ion qubits, stabilizing the optical frequency combs used to drive logic gate operations on the ion qubits, providing a large number of analog voltage sources to drive the trap electrodes, and a scheme for maintaining phase coherence among all the controllers that manipulate the qubits. In this work, we describe scalable solutions to these hardware development challenges.

20 CFR 645.235 - What types of activities are subject to the administrative cost limit on Welfare-to-Work grants?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... maintenance of office space; (4) Travel costs incurred for official business in carrying out administrative...) Although administrative in nature, costs of information technology—computer hardware and software—needed...

20 CFR 645.235 - What types of activities are subject to the administrative cost limit on Welfare-to-Work grants?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... maintenance of office space; (4) Travel costs incurred for official business in carrying out administrative...) Although administrative in nature, costs of information technology—computer hardware and software—needed...

20 CFR 645.235 - What types of activities are subject to the administrative cost limit on Welfare-to-Work grants?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... maintenance of office space; (4) Travel costs incurred for official business in carrying out administrative...) Although administrative in nature, costs of information technology—computer hardware and software—needed...

20 CFR 645.235 - What types of activities are subject to the administrative cost limit on Welfare-to-Work grants?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... maintenance of office space; (4) Travel costs incurred for official business in carrying out administrative...) Although administrative in nature, costs of information technology—computer hardware and software—needed...

Generating clock signals for a cycle accurate, cycle reproducible FPGA based hardware accelerator

DOEpatents

Asaad, Sameth W.; Kapur, Mohit

2016-01-05

A method, system and computer program product are disclosed for generating clock signals for a cycle accurate FPGA based hardware accelerator used to simulate operations of a device-under-test (DUT). In one embodiment, the DUT includes multiple device clocks generating multiple device clock signals at multiple frequencies and at a defined frequency ratio; and the FPG hardware accelerator includes multiple accelerator clocks generating multiple accelerator clock signals to operate the FPGA hardware accelerator to simulate the operations of the DUT. In one embodiment, operations of the DUT are mapped to the FPGA hardware accelerator, and the accelerator clock signals are generated at multiple frequencies and at the defined frequency ratio of the frequencies of the multiple device clocks, to maintain cycle accuracy between the DUT and the FPGA hardware accelerator. In an embodiment, the FPGA hardware accelerator may be used to control the frequencies of the multiple device clocks.

Estimate of the benefits of a population-based reduction in dietary sodium additives on hypertension and its related health care costs in Canada.

PubMed

Joffres, Michel R; Campbell, Norm R C; Manns, Braden; Tu, Karen

2007-05-01

Hypertension is the leading risk factor for mortality worldwide. One-quarter of the adult Canadian population has hypertension, and more than 90% of the population is estimated to develop hypertension if they live an average lifespan. Reductions in dietary sodium additives significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and population reductions in dietary sodium are recommended by major scientific and public health organizations. To estimate the reduction in hypertension prevalence and specific hypertension management cost savings associated with a population-wide reduction in dietary sodium additives. Based on data from clinical trials, reducing dietary sodium additives by 1840 mg/day would result in a decrease of 5.06 mmHg (systolic) and 2.7 mmHg (diastolic) blood pressures. Using Canadian Heart Health Survey data, the resulting reduction in hypertension was estimated. Costs of laboratory testing and physician visits were based on 2001 to 2003 Ontario Health Insurance Plan data, and the number of physician visits and costs of medications for patients with hypertension were taken from 2003 IMS Canada. To estimate the reduction in total physician visits and laboratory costs, current estimates of aware hypertensive patients in Canada were used from the Canadian Community Health Survey. Reducing dietary sodium additives may decrease hypertension prevalence by 30%, resulting in one million fewer hypertensive patients in Canada, and almost double the treatment and control rate. Direct cost savings related to fewer physician visits, laboratory tests and lower medication use are estimated to be approximately $430 million per year. Physician visits and laboratory costs would decrease by 6.5%, and 23% fewer treated hypertensive patients would require medications for control of blood pressure. Based on these estimates, lowering dietary sodium additives would lead to a large reduction in hypertension prevalence and result in health care cost savings in Canada.

Estimate of the benefits of a population-based reduction in dietary sodium additives on hypertension and its related health care costs in Canada

PubMed Central

Joffres, Michel R; Campbell, Norm RC; Manns, Braden; Tu, Karen

2007-01-01

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is the leading risk factor for mortality worldwide. One-quarter of the adult Canadian population has hypertension, and more than 90% of the population is estimated to develop hypertension if they live an average lifespan. Reductions in dietary sodium additives significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and population reductions in dietary sodium are recommended by major scientific and public health organizations. OBJECTIVES: To estimate the reduction in hypertension prevalence and specific hypertension management cost savings associated with a population-wide reduction in dietary sodium additives. METHODS: Based on data from clinical trials, reducing dietary sodium additives by 1840 mg/day would result in a decrease of 5.06 mmHg (systolic) and 2.7 mmHg (diastolic) blood pressures. Using Canadian Heart Health Survey data, the resulting reduction in hypertension was estimated. Costs of laboratory testing and physician visits were based on 2001 to 2003 Ontario Health Insurance Plan data, and the number of physician visits and costs of medications for patients with hypertension were taken from 2003 IMS Canada. To estimate the reduction in total physician visits and laboratory costs, current estimates of aware hypertensive patients in Canada were used from the Canadian Community Health Survey. RESULTS: Reducing dietary sodium additives may decrease hypertension prevalence by 30%, resulting in one million fewer hypertensive patients in Canada, and almost double the treatment and control rate. Direct cost savings related to fewer physician visits, laboratory tests and lower medication use are estimated to be approximately $430 million per year. Physician visits and laboratory costs would decrease by 6.5%, and 23% fewer treated hypertensive patients would require medications for control of blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS: Based on these estimates, lowering dietary sodium additives would lead to a large reduction in hypertension

A Proposal for Modeling Real Hardware, Weather and Marine Conditions for Underwater Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Climent, Salvador; Capella, Juan Vicente; Blanc, Sara; Perles, Angel; Serrano, Juan José

2013-01-01

Network simulators are useful for researching protocol performance, appraising new hardware capabilities and evaluating real application scenarios. However, these tasks can only be achieved when using accurate models and real parameters that enable the extraction of trustworthy results and conclusions. This paper presents an underwater wireless sensor network ecosystem for the ns-3 simulator. This ecosystem is composed of a new energy-harvesting model and a low-cost, low-power underwater wake-up modem model that, alongside existing models, enables the performance of accurate simulations by providing real weather and marine conditions from the location where the real application is to be deployed. PMID:23748171