The space shuttle payload planning working groups. Volume 5: Solar physics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1973-01-01

The findings of the Solar Physics working group of the space shuttle payload planning activity are presented. The areas to be investigated by the solar physics experiments are: (1) the production of mechanical energy in the subphotospheric layers and its transport and dissipation in the upper layers of the atmosphere, (2) the mass flux from the subphotospheric layers into the chromosphere and corona and beyond the solar wind, (3) solar activity and its relationship to magnetic fields, and (4) the production of solar flares. The approach to be followed in conducting the experiments and the equipment required are defined.

The space shuttle payload planning working groups. Volume 10: Space technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1973-01-01

The findings and recommendations of the Space Technology group of the space shuttle payload planning activity are presented. The elements of the space technology program are: (1) long duration exposure facility, (2) advanced technology laboratory, (3) physics and chemistry laboratory, (4) contamination experiments, and (5) laser information/data transmission technology. The space technology mission model is presented in tabular form. The proposed experiments to be conducted by each test facility are described. Recommended approaches for user community interfacing are included.

On the structure and applications of the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alessio, Francesco; Esposito, Giampiero

This work is a pedagogical review dedicated to a modern description of the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) group. Minkowski space-time has an interesting and useful group of isometries, but, for a generic space-time, the isometry group is simply the identity and hence provides no significant informations. Yet symmetry groups have important role to play in physics; in particular, the Poincaré group describing the isometries of Minkowski space-time plays a role in the standard definitions of energy-momentum and angular-momentum. For this reason alone it would seem to be important to look for a generalization of the concept of isometry group that can apply in a useful way to suitable curved space-times. The curved space-times that will be taken into account are the ones that suitably approach, at infinity, Minkowski space-time. In particular we will focus on asymptotically flat space-times. In this work, the concept of asymptotic symmetry group of those space-times will be studied. In the first two sections we derive the asymptotic group following the classical approach which was basically developed by Bondi, van den Burg, Metzner and Sachs. This is essentially the group of transformations between coordinate systems of a certain type in asymptotically flat space-times. In the third section the conformal method and the notion of “asymptotic simplicity” are introduced, following mainly the works of Penrose. This section prepares us for another derivation of the BMS group which will involve the conformal structure, and is thus more geometrical and fundamental. In the subsequent sections we discuss the properties of the BMS group, e.g. its algebra and the possibility to obtain as its subgroup the Poincaré group, as we may expect. The paper ends with a review of the BMS invariance properties of classical gravitational scattering discovered by Strominger, that are finding application to black hole physics and quantum gravity in the literature.

SU-E-E-03: Shared Space Fosters Didactic and Professional Learning Across Professions for Medical and Physics Residents

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

Dieterich, S; Perks, J; Fragoso, R

Purpose: Medical Physicists and Radiation Oncologists are two professions who should be working as a team for optimal patient care, yet lack of mutual understanding about each others respective role and work environment creates barriers To improve collaboration and learning, we designed a shared didactic and work space for physics and radiation oncology residents to maximize interaction throughout their professional training. Methods: Physician and Physics residents are required to take the same didactic classes, including journal clubs and respective seminars. The residents also share an office environment among the seven physician and two physic residents. Results: By maximizing didactic overlapmore » and sharing office space, the two resident groups have developed a close professional relationship and supportive work environment. Several joint research projects have been initiated by the residents. Awareness of physics tasks in the clinic has led to a request by the physician residents to change physics didactics, converting the physics short course into a lab-oriented course for the medical residents which is in part taught by the physics residents. The physics seminar is given by both residency groups; increased motivation and interest in learning about physics has led to several medical resident-initiated topic selections which generated lively discussion. The physics long course has changed toward including more discussion among residents to delve deeper into topics and study beyond what passing the boards would require. A supportive work environment has developed, embedding the two physics residents into a larger residents group, allowing them to find mentor and peers more easily. Conclusion: By creating a shared work and didactic environment, physician and physics residents have improved their understanding of respective professional practice. Resident-initiated changes in didactic practice have led to improved learning and joint research. A strong social support system has developed, embedding physics residents into a larger peer group.« less

Group theoretical formulation of free fall and projectile motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Düztaş, Koray

2018-07-01

In this work we formulate the group theoretical description of free fall and projectile motion. We show that the kinematic equations for constant acceleration form a one parameter group acting on a phase space. We define the group elements ϕ t by their action on the points in the phase space. We also generalize this approach to projectile motion. We evaluate the group orbits regarding their relations to the physical orbits of particles and unphysical solutions. We note that the group theoretical formulation does not apply to more general cases involving a time-dependent acceleration. This method improves our understanding of the constant acceleration problem with its global approach. It is especially beneficial for students who want to pursue a career in theoretical physics.

The Application of the SPASE Metadata Standard in the U.S. and Worldwide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thieman, J. R.; King, T. A.; Roberts, D.

2012-12-01

The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) Metadata standard for Heliophysics and related data is now an established standard within the NASA-funded space and solar physics community and is spreading to the international groups within that community. Development of SPASE had involved a number of international partners and the current version of the SPASE Metadata Model (version 2.2.2) has not needed any structural modifications since January 2011 . The SPASE standard has been adopted by groups such as NASA's Heliophysics division, the Canadian Space Science Data Portal (CSSDP), Canada's AUTUMN network, Japan's Inter-university Upper atmosphere Global Observation NETwork (IUGONET), Centre de Données de la Physique des Plasmas (CDPP), and the near-Earth space data infrastructure for e-Science (ESPAS). In addition, portions of the SPASE dictionary have been modeled in semantic web ontologies for use with reasoners and semantic searches. While we anticipate additional modifications to the model in the future to accommodate simulation and model data, these changes will not affect the data descriptions already generated for instrument-related datasets. Examples of SPASE descriptions can be viewed at http://www.spase-group.org/registry/explorer and data can be located using SPASE concepts by searching the Virtual Space Physics Observatory (http://vspo.gsfc.nasa.gov/websearch/dispatcher) for data of interest.

Space-Time Crystal and Space-Time Group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Shenglong; Wu, Congjun

2018-03-01

Crystal structures and the Bloch theorem play a fundamental role in condensed matter physics. We extend the static crystal to the dynamic "space-time" crystal characterized by the general intertwined space-time periodicities in D +1 dimensions, which include both the static crystal and the Floquet crystal as special cases. A new group structure dubbed a "space-time" group is constructed to describe the discrete symmetries of a space-time crystal. Compared to space and magnetic groups, the space-time group is augmented by "time-screw" rotations and "time-glide" reflections involving fractional translations along the time direction. A complete classification of the 13 space-time groups in one-plus-one dimensions (1 +1 D ) is performed. The Kramers-type degeneracy can arise from the glide time-reversal symmetry without the half-integer spinor structure, which constrains the winding number patterns of spectral dispersions. In 2 +1 D , nonsymmorphic space-time symmetries enforce spectral degeneracies, leading to protected Floquet semimetal states. We provide a general framework for further studying topological properties of the (D +1 )-dimensional space-time crystal.

Space-Time Crystal and Space-Time Group.

PubMed

Xu, Shenglong; Wu, Congjun

2018-03-02

Crystal structures and the Bloch theorem play a fundamental role in condensed matter physics. We extend the static crystal to the dynamic "space-time" crystal characterized by the general intertwined space-time periodicities in D+1 dimensions, which include both the static crystal and the Floquet crystal as special cases. A new group structure dubbed a "space-time" group is constructed to describe the discrete symmetries of a space-time crystal. Compared to space and magnetic groups, the space-time group is augmented by "time-screw" rotations and "time-glide" reflections involving fractional translations along the time direction. A complete classification of the 13 space-time groups in one-plus-one dimensions (1+1D) is performed. The Kramers-type degeneracy can arise from the glide time-reversal symmetry without the half-integer spinor structure, which constrains the winding number patterns of spectral dispersions. In 2+1D, nonsymmorphic space-time symmetries enforce spectral degeneracies, leading to protected Floquet semimetal states. We provide a general framework for further studying topological properties of the (D+1)-dimensional space-time crystal.

Implementation of small group discussion as a teaching method in earth and space science subject

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aryani, N. P.; Supriyadi

2018-03-01

In Physics Department Universitas Negeri Semarang, Earth and Space Science subject is included in the curriculum of the third year of physics education students. There are various models of teaching earth and space science subject such as textbook method, lecturer, demonstrations, study tours, problem-solving method, etc. Lectures method is the most commonly used of teaching earth and space science subject. The disadvantage of this method is the lack of two ways interaction between lecturers and students. This research used small group discussion as a teaching method in Earth and Space science. The purpose of this study is to identify the conditions under which an efficient discussion may be initiated and maintained while students are investigating properties of earth and space science subjects. The results of this research show that there is an increase in student’s understanding of earth and space science subject proven through the evaluation results. In addition, during the learning process, student’s activeness also increase.

Affine Kac-Moody symmetric spaces related with A1^{(1)}, A2^{(1)},} A2^{(2)}

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nayak, Saudamini; Pati, K. C.

2014-08-01

Symmetric spaces associated with Lie algebras and Lie groups which are Riemannian manifolds have recently got a lot of attention in various branches of Physics for their role in classical/quantum integrable systems, transport phenomena, etc. Their infinite dimensional counter parts have recently been discovered which are affine Kac-Moody symmetric spaces. In this paper we have (algebraically) explicitly computed the affine Kac-Moody symmetric spaces associated with affine Kac-Moody algebras A1^{(1)}, A2^{(1)}, A2^{(2)}. We hope these types of spaces will play similar roles as that of symmetric spaces in many physical systems.

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

Emmanuel, Glory Ruth; Silva, Austin Ray

Sandia Labs has corporate, lab-wide efforts to enhance the research environment as well as improve physical space. However, these two efforts are usually done in isolation. The integration of physical space design with the nurturing of what we call psychosocial space can foster more efficient and effective creativity, innovation, collaboration, and performance. This paper presents a brief literature review on how academia and industry are studying the integration of physical and psychosocial space and focuses on the efforts that we, the authors, have made to improve the research environment in the Cyber Engineering Research Lab (CERL), home to Group 1460.more » Interviews with subject matter experts from Silicon Valley and the University of New Mexico plus changes to actual spaces in CERL provided us with six lessons learned when integrating physical and psychosocial space. We describe these six key takeaways in hopes that Sandia will see this area as an evolving research capability that Sandia can both contribute to and benefit from.« less

Understanding Relationships between Health, Ethnicity, Place and the Role of Urban Green Space in Deprived Urban Communities

PubMed Central

Roe, Jenny; Aspinall, Peter A.; Ward Thompson, Catharine

2016-01-01

Very little is known about how differences in use and perceptions of urban green space impact on the general health of black and minority ethnic (BME) groups. BME groups in the UK suffer from poorer health and a wide range of environmental inequalities that include poorer access to urban green space and poorer quality of green space provision. This study used a household questionnaire (n = 523) to explore the relationship between general health and a range of individual, social and physical environmental predictors in deprived white British and BME groups living in ethnically diverse cities in England. Results from Chi-Squared Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) segmentation analyses identified three distinct general health segments in our sample ranging from “very good” health (people of Indian origin), to ”good” health (white British), and ”poor” health (people of African-Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Pakistani origin and other BME groups), labelled ”Mixed BME” in the analyses. Correlated Component Regression analyses explored predictors of general health for each group. Common predictors of general health across all groups were age, disability, and levels of physical activity. However, social and environmental predictors of general health-including use and perceptions of urban green space-varied among the three groups. For white British people, social characteristics of place (i.e., place belonging, levels of neighbourhood trust, loneliness) ranked most highly as predictors of general health, whilst the quality of, access to and the use of urban green space was a significant predictor of general health for the poorest health group only, i.e., in ”Mixed BME”. Results are discussed from the perspective of differences in use and perceptions of urban green space amongst ethnic groups. We conclude that health and recreation policy in the UK needs to give greater attention to the provision of local green space amongst poor BME communities since this can play an important role in helping address the health inequalities experienced by these groups. PMID:27399736

Understanding Relationships between Health, Ethnicity, Place and the Role of Urban Green Space in Deprived Urban Communities.

PubMed

Roe, Jenny; Aspinall, Peter A; Ward Thompson, Catharine

2016-07-05

Very little is known about how differences in use and perceptions of urban green space impact on the general health of black and minority ethnic (BME) groups. BME groups in the UK suffer from poorer health and a wide range of environmental inequalities that include poorer access to urban green space and poorer quality of green space provision. This study used a household questionnaire (n = 523) to explore the relationship between general health and a range of individual, social and physical environmental predictors in deprived white British and BME groups living in ethnically diverse cities in England. Results from Chi-Squared Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) segmentation analyses identified three distinct general health segments in our sample ranging from "very good" health (people of Indian origin), to "good" health (white British), and "poor" health (people of African-Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Pakistani origin and other BME groups), labelled "Mixed BME" in the analyses. Correlated Component Regression analyses explored predictors of general health for each group. Common predictors of general health across all groups were age, disability, and levels of physical activity. However, social and environmental predictors of general health-including use and perceptions of urban green space-varied among the three groups. For white British people, social characteristics of place (i.e., place belonging, levels of neighbourhood trust, loneliness) ranked most highly as predictors of general health, whilst the quality of, access to and the use of urban green space was a significant predictor of general health for the poorest health group only, i.e., in "Mixed BME". Results are discussed from the perspective of differences in use and perceptions of urban green space amongst ethnic groups. We conclude that health and recreation policy in the UK needs to give greater attention to the provision of local green space amongst poor BME communities since this can play an important role in helping address the health inequalities experienced by these groups.

Moving through Life-Space Areas and Objectively Measured Physical Activity of Older People.

PubMed

Portegijs, Erja; Tsai, Li-Tang; Rantanen, Taina; Rantakokko, Merja

2015-01-01

Physical activity-an important determinant of health and function in old age-may vary according to the life-space area reached. Our aim was to study how moving through greater life-space areas is associated with greater physical activity of community-dwelling older people. The association between objectively measured physical activity and life-space area reached on different days by the same individual was studied using one-week longitudinal data, to provide insight in causal relationships. One-week surveillance of objectively assessed physical activity of community-dwelling 70-90-year-old people in central Finland from the "Life-space mobility in old age" cohort substudy (N = 174). In spring 2012, participants wore an accelerometer for 7 days and completed a daily diary including the largest life-space area reached (inside home, outside home, neighborhood, town, and beyond town). The daily step count, and the time in moderate (incl. walking) and low activity and sedentary behavior were assessed. Differences in physical activity between days on which different life-space areas were reached were tested using Generalized Estimation Equation models (within-group comparison). Participants' mean age was 80.4±4.2 years and 63.5% were female. Participants had higher average step counts (p < .001) and greater moderate and low activity time (p < .001) on days when greater life-space areas were reached, from the home to the town area. Only low activity time continued to increase when moving beyond the town. Community-dwelling older people were more physically active on days when they moved through greater life-space areas. While it is unknown whether physical activity was a motivator to leave the home, intervention studies are needed to determine whether facilitation of daily outdoor mobility, regardless of the purpose, may be beneficial in terms of promoting physical activity.

KSC-2012-6218

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-11-08

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Inside a laboratory in the Engineering Development Laboratory, or EDL, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, research scientist Michael Hogue, in the green plaid shirt, describes several technologies to a group of Society of Physics students. About 800 graduate and undergraduate physics students toured Kennedy facilities. A group of about 40 students toured laboratories in the Operations and Checkout Building and the EDL during their visit. The physics students were in Orlando for the 2012 Quadrennial Physics Congress. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

KSC-2012-6215

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-11-08

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Inside a laboratory in the Engineering Development Laboratory, or EDL, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, research physicist Phil Metzger describes lunar excavators and soil processing technologies to a group of Society of Physics students. About 800 graduate and undergraduate physics students toured Kennedy facilities. A group of about 40 students toured laboratories in the Operations and Checkout Building and the EDL during their visit. The physics students were in Orlando for the 2012 Quadrennial Physics Congress. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

KSC-2012-6217

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-11-08

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- – Inside a laboratory in the Engineering Development Laboratory, or EDL, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, research scientist Michael Johansen, in the blue polo shirt, describes dust mitigation technology to a group of Society of Physics students. About 800 graduate and undergraduate physics students toured Kennedy facilities. A group of about 40 students toured laboratories in the Operations and Checkout Building and the EDL during their visit. The physics students were in Orlando for the 2012 Quadrennial Physics Congress. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

KSC-2012-6216

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-11-08

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Inside a laboratory in the Engineering Development Laboratory, or EDL, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, research physicist Phil Metzger describes lunar excavators and soil processing technologies to a group of Society of Physics students. About 800 graduate and undergraduate physics students toured Kennedy facilities. A group of about 40 students toured laboratories in the Operations and Checkout Building and the EDL during their visit. The physics students were in Orlando for the 2012 Quadrennial Physics Congress. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

Geometry of the theory space in the exact renormalization group formalism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pagani, C.; Sonoda, H.

2018-01-01

We consider the theory space as a manifold whose coordinates are given by the couplings appearing in the Wilson action. We discuss how to introduce connections on this theory space. A particularly intriguing connection can be defined directly from the solution of the exact renormalization group (ERG) equation. We advocate a geometric viewpoint that lets us define straightforwardly physically relevant quantities invariant under the changes of a renormalization scheme.

Affine Kac-Moody symmetric spaces related with A{sub 1}{sup (1)}, A{sub 2}{sup (1)}, A{sub 2}{sup (2)}

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

Nayak, Saudamini, E-mail: anumama.nayak07@gmail.com; Pati, K. C., E-mail: kcpati@nitrkl.ac.in

Symmetric spaces associated with Lie algebras and Lie groups which are Riemannian manifolds have recently got a lot of attention in various branches of Physics for their role in classical/quantum integrable systems, transport phenomena, etc. Their infinite dimensional counter parts have recently been discovered which are affine Kac-Moody symmetric spaces. In this paper we have (algebraically) explicitly computed the affine Kac-Moody symmetric spaces associated with affine Kac-Moody algebras A{sub 1}{sup (1)},A{sub 2}{sup (1)},A{sub 2}{sup (2)}. We hope these types of spaces will play similar roles as that of symmetric spaces in many physical systems.

Grasping versus knitting: A geometric perspective. Comment on "Hand synergies: Integration of robotics and neuroscience for understanding the control of biological and artificial hands" by M. Santello et al.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laumond, Jean-Paul

2016-07-01

Grasping an object is a matter of first moving a prehensile organ at some position in the world, and then managing the contact relationship between the prehensile organ and the object. Once the contact relationship has been established and made stable, the object is part of the body and it can move in the world. As any action, the action of grasping is ontologically anchored in the physical space while the correlative movement originates in the space of the body. Robots-as any living system-access the physical space only indirectly through sensors and motors. Sensors and motors constitute the space of the body where homeostasis takes place. Physical space and both sensor space and motor space constitute a triangulation, which is the locus of the action embodiment, i.e. the locus of operations allowing the fundamental inversion between world-centered and body-centered frames. Referring to these three fundamental spaces, geometry appears as the best abstraction to capture the nature of action-driven movements. Indeed, a particular geometry is captured by a particular group of transformations of the points of a space such that every point or every direction in space can be transformed by an element of the group to every other point or direction within the group. Quoting mathematician Poincaré, the issue is not find the truest geometry but the most practical one to account for the complexity of the world [1]. Geometry is then the language fostering the dialog between neurophysiology and engineering about natural and artificial movement science and technology. Evolution has found amazing solutions that allow organisms to rapidly and efficiently manage the relationship between their body and the world [2]. It is then natural that roboticists consider taking inspiration of these natural solutions, while contributing to better understand their origin.

KSC-2012-6219

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-11-08

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Inside a laboratory in the Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, research chemist Mary Coan describes components of the Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatiles Extraction, or RESOLVE, rover to a group of Society of Physics students. About 800 graduate and undergraduate physics students toured Kennedy facilities. A group of about 40 students toured laboratories in the Operations and Checkout Building and the EDL during their visit. The physics students were in Orlando for the 2012 Quadrennial Physics Congress. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston

Space, body, time and relationship experiences of recess physical activity: a qualitative case study among the least physical active schoolchildren.

PubMed

Pawlowski, Charlotte Skau; Andersen, Henriette Bondo; Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, Tine; Troelsen, Jens; Schipperijn, Jasper

2016-01-06

Increasing recess physical activity has been the aim of several interventions, as this setting can provide numerous physical activity opportunities. However, it is unclear if these interventions are equally effective for all children, or if they only appeal to children who are already physically active. This study was conducted to explore the least physically active children's "lived experiences" within four existential lifeworlds linked to physical activity during recess: space, body, time, and relations. The study builds on ethnographic fieldwork in a public school in Denmark using a combination of participatory photo interviews and participant observation. Thirty-seven grade five children (11-12 years old) were grouped in quartiles based on their objectively measured daily physical activity levels. Eight children in the lowest activity quartile (six girls) were selected to participate in the study. To avoid stigmatising and to make generalisations more reliable we further recruited eight children from the two highest activity quartiles (four girls) to participate. An analysis of the least physically active children's "lived experiences" of space, body, time and relations revealed several key factors influencing their recess physical activity: perceived classroom safety, indoor cosiness, lack of attractive outdoor facilities, bodily dissatisfaction, bodily complaints, tiredness, feeling bored, and peer influence. We found that the four existential lifeworlds provided an in-depth understanding of the least physically active children's "lived experiences" of recess physical activity. Our findings imply that specific intervention strategies might be needed to increase the least physically active children's physical activity level. For example, rethinking the classroom as a space for physical activity, designing schoolyards with smaller secluded spaces and varied facilities, improving children's self-esteem and body image, e.g., during physical education, and creating teacher organised play activities during recess.

Gendering/ed Research Spaces: Insights from a Study of Independent Schooling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forbes, Joan; Weiner, Gaby

2013-01-01

This paper draws on a research study into multiple capitals in independent schooling in Scotland. We examine gender discourses and practices in the specific inter/institutional space created within school and research group relations. A three-level conceptual framing of physical, social and intellectual space is used together with theorizations of…

Students' Experience of University Space: An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cox, Andrew M.

2011-01-01

The last decade has seen a wave of new building across British universities, so that it would appear that despite the virtualization discourses around higher education, space still matters in learning. Yet studies of student experience of the physical space of the university are rather lacking. This paper explores the response of one group of…

Psychology of Learning Spaces: Impact on Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Granito, Vincent J.; Santana, Mary E.

2016-01-01

New research is emerging that focuses on the role the physical classroom space plays in the teaching-learning dynamic. The purpose of this exploratory research is to describe the students' and instructors' perspectives of how the classroom space and environment impact teaching and learning. Focus groups were utilized with data points coming from…

Nuclear Physics Made Very, Very Easy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hanlen, D. F.; Morse, W. J.

1968-01-01

The fundamental approach to nuclear physics was prepared to introduce basic reactor principles to various groups of non-nuclear technical personnel associated with NERVA Test Operations. NERVA Test Operations functions as the field test group for the Nuclear Rocket Engine Program. Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) program is the combined efforts of Aerojet-General Corporation as prime contractor, and Westinghouse Astronuclear Laboratory as the major subcontractor, for the assembly and testing of nuclear rocket engines. Development of the NERVA Program is under the direction of the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office, a joint agency of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The development of a high-capacity instrument module heat transport system, appendixes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

Data sheets provide temperature requirements for 82 individual instruments that are under development or planned for grouping on a space platform or pallet. The scientific objectives of these instrument packages are related to solar physics, space plasma physics, astronomy, high energy astrophysics, resources observations, environmental observations, materials processing, and life sciences. System specifications are given for a high capacity instrument module heat transport system to be used with future payloads.

Classical closure theory and Lam's interpretation of epsilon-RNG

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhou, YE

1995-01-01

Lam's phenomenological epsilon-renormalization group (RNG) model is quite different from the other members of that group. It does not make use of the correspondence principle and the epsilon-expansion procedure. We demonstrate that Lam's epsilon-RNG model is essentially the physical space version of the classical closure theory in spectral space and consider the corresponding treatment of the eddy viscosity and energy backscatter.

On the background independence of two-dimensional topological gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Imbimbo, Camillo

1995-04-01

We formulate two-dimensional topological gravity in a background covariant Lagrangian framework. We derive the Ward identities which characterize the dependence of physical correlators on the background world-sheet metric defining the gauge-slice. We point out the existence of an "anomaly" in Ward identitites involving correlators of observables with higher ghost number. This "anomaly" represents an obstruction for physical correlators to be globally defined forms on moduli space which could be integrated in a background independent way. Starting from the anomalous Ward identities, we derive "descent" equations whose solutions are cocycles of the Lie algebra of the diffeomorphism group with values in the space of local forms on the moduli space. We solve the descent equations and provide explicit formulas for the cocycles, which allow for the definition of background independent integrals of physical correlators on the moduli space.

Highlights from the First Ever Demographic Study of Solar Physics, Space Physics, and Upper Atmospheric Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moldwin, M.; Morrow, C. A.; White, S. C.; Ivie, R.

2014-12-01

Members of the Education & Workforce Working Group and the American Institute of Physics (AIP) conducted the first ever National Demographic Survey of working professionals for the 2012 National Academy of Sciences Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey to learn about the demographics of this sub-field of space science. The instrument contained questions for participants on: the type of workplace; basic demographic information regarding gender and minority status, educational pathways (discipline of undergrad degree, field of their PhD), how their undergraduate and graduate student researchers are funded, participation in NSF and NASA funded spaceflight missions and suborbital programs, and barriers to career advancement. Using contact data bases from AGU, the American Astronomical Society's Solar Physics Division (AAS-SPD), attendees of NOAA's Space Weather Week and proposal submissions to NSF's Atmospheric, Geospace Science Division, the AIP's Statistical Research Center cross correlated and culled these data bases resulting in 2776 unique email addresses of US based working professionals. The survey received 1305 responses (51%) and generated 125 pages of single space answers to a number of open-ended questions. This talk will summarize the highlights of this first-ever demographic survey including findings extracted from the open-ended responses regarding barriers to career advancement which showed significant gender differences.

Initiatives (Part 3): Food Pyramid Juggle; Transportation Initiative Circuit.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kilty, Katie; Klag, Bill

2001-01-01

Presents two group activities for ages 10 and up; one instructs about food groups and reinforces healthy eating habits, while the other is a multitask physical activity stressing cooperation and coordination. Includes target group, group size, time and space needs, activity level, overview, goals, props, instructions, suggestions for framing and…

Constraining the physical state by symmetries

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

Fatibene, L., E-mail: lorenzo.fatibene@unito.it; INFN - Sezione Torino - IS QGSKY; Ferraris, M.

After reviewing the hole argument and its relations with initial value problem and general covariance, we shall discuss how much freedom one has to define the physical state in a generally covariant field theory (with or without internal gauge symmetries). Our analysis relies on Cauchy problems, thus it is restricted to globally hyperbolic spacetimes. We shall show that in generally covariant theories on a compact space (as well as for internal gauge symmetries on any spacetime) one has no freedom and one is forced to declare as physically equivalent two configurations which differ by a global spacetime diffeomorphism (or bymore » an internal gauge transformation) as it is usually prescribed. On the contrary, when space is not compact, the result does not hold true and one may have different options to define physically equivalent configurations, still preserving determinism. - Highlights: • Investigate the relation between the hole argument, covariance, determinism and physical state. • Show that if space is compact then any diffeomorphism is a gauge symmetry. • Show that if space is not compact then there may be more freedom in choosing gauge group.« less

Physics-based Space Weather Forecasting in the Project for Solar-Terrestrial Environment Prediction (PSTEP) in Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kusano, K.

2016-12-01

Project for Solar-Terrestrial Environment Prediction (PSTEP) is a Japanese nation-wide research collaboration, which was recently launched. PSTEP aims to develop a synergistic interaction between predictive and scientific studies of the solar-terrestrial environment and to establish the basis for next-generation space weather forecasting using the state-of-the-art observation systems and the physics-based models. For this project, we coordinate the four research groups, which develop (1) the integration of space weather forecast system, (2) the physics-based solar storm prediction, (3) the predictive models of magnetosphere and ionosphere dynamics, and (4) the model of solar cycle activity and its impact on climate, respectively. In this project, we will build the coordinated physics-based model to answer the fundamental questions concerning the onset of solar eruptions and the mechanism for radiation belt dynamics in the Earth's magnetosphere. In this paper, we will show the strategy of PSTEP, and discuss about the role and prospect of the physics-based space weather forecasting system being developed by PSTEP.

"Space and Consequences": The Influence of the Roundtable Classroom Design on Student Dialogue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parsons, Caroline S.

2016-01-01

This study sought to explore how the design of both physical and virtual learning spaces influence student dialogue in a modern university. Qualitative analysis of the learning spaces in an undergraduate liberal arts program was conducted. Interview and focus group data from students and faculty, in addition to classroom observations, resulted in…

Robust operative diagnosis as problem solving in a hypothesis space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abbott, Kathy H.

1988-01-01

This paper describes an approach that formulates diagnosis of physical systems in operation as problem solving in a hypothesis space. Such a formulation increases robustness by: (1) incremental hypotheses construction via dynamic inputs, (2) reasoning at a higher level of abstraction to construct hypotheses, and (3) partitioning the space by grouping fault hypotheses according to the type of physical system representation and problem solving techniques used in their construction. It was implemented for a turbofan engine and hydraulic subsystem. Evaluation of the implementation on eight actual aircraft accident cases involving engine faults provided very promising results.

Spacecraft Dynamics as Related to Laboratory Experiments in Space. [conference

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fichtl, G. H. (Editor); Antar, B. N. (Editor); Collins, F. G. (Editor)

1981-01-01

Proceedings are presented of a conference sponsored by the Physics and Chemistry Experiments in Space Working Group to discuss the scientific and engineering aspects involved in the design and performance of reduced to zero gravity experiments affected by spacecraft environments and dynamics. The dynamics of drops, geophysical fluids, and superfluid helium are considered as well as two phase flow, combustion, and heat transfer. Interactions between spacecraft motions and the atmospheric cloud physics laboratory experiments are also examined.

Fluid physics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer experiments in space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dodge, F. T.; Abramson, H. N.; Angrist, S. W.; Catton, I.; Churchill, S. W.; Mannheimer, R. J.; Otrach, S.; Schwartz, S. H.; Sengers, J. V.

1975-01-01

An overstudy committee was formed to study and recommend fundamental experiments in fluid physics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer for experimentation in orbit, using the space shuttle system and a space laboratory. The space environment, particularly the low-gravity condition, is an indispensable requirement for all the recommended experiments. The experiments fell broadly into five groups: critical-point thermophysical phenomena, fluid surface dynamics and capillarity, convection at reduced gravity, non-heated multiphase mixtures, and multiphase heat transfer. The Committee attempted to assess the effects of g-jitter and other perturbations of the gravitational field on the conduct of the experiments. A series of ground-based experiments are recommended to define some of the phenomena and to develop reliable instrumentation.

Girls InSpace project: A new space physics outreach initiative.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abe Pacini, A.; Tegbaru, D.; Max, A., Sr.

2017-12-01

We present here the concept and state-of-art of the new space physics youth education and outreach initiative called "Girls InSpace project". The project goal is to spread quality scientific information to underrepresented groups, motivate girls in STEM and promote gender equality in the Space Physics area. Initially, the "Girls InSpace project" will be available in two languages (Portuguese and English) aiming to reach out to the youth of Brazil, United States, Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia and Angola. Eventually, the material will be translated to French and Spanish, focusing on French-speaking countries in Africa and Latin America. The project spans a collection of four books about a group of young girls and their adventures (always related to the sky and simultaneously introducing earth and space science concepts). Ancillary content such as a webpage, mobile applications and lesson plans are also in development. The books were written by a Space Physicist PhD woman, illustrated by a Brazilian young artist and commented by senior female scientists, creating positive role models for the next generation of girls in STEM. The story lines were drawn around the selected topics of astronomy and space physics, introducing scientific information to the target readers (girls from 8-13 years old) and enhancing their curiosity and critical thinking. The books instill the readers to explore the available extra web-content (with images, videos, interviews with scientists, real space data, coding and deeper scientific information) and game apps (with Virtual Reality components and real space images). Moreover, for teachers K-12, a collection of lesson plans will be made available, aiming to facilitate scientific content discussed in the books and inside classroom environments. Gender bias in STEM reported earlier this year in Nature and based on a study of the American Geophysical Union's member database showed a competitive disadvantage for women in the Earth and Space Sciences. The AGU has since challenged the scientific community to act and support gender balance initiatives as crucial path to progress. This project aligns well with AGU's mission and similar-thinking organizations, and aims to educate and promote development of young girls in underrepresented communities.

Impact of the Supporting Physical Activity in the Childcare Environment (SPACE) intervention on preschoolers' physical activity levels and sedentary time: a single-blind cluster randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Tucker, Patricia; Vanderloo, Leigh M; Johnson, Andrew M; Burke, Shauna M; Irwin, Jennifer D; Gaston, Anca; Driediger, Molly; Timmons, Brian W

2017-09-07

Physical activity levels among preschoolers in childcare are low and sedentary time high. The Supporting Physical Activity in the Childcare Environment (SPACE) intervention had three components: 1. portable play equipment; 2. staff training; and, 3. modified outdoor playtime (i.e., shorter, more frequent periods). This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the SPACE intervention on preschoolers' physical activity levels and sedentary time during childcare hours (compared to standard care). Via a single-blind cluster randomized controlled trial, 338 preschoolers (39.86 ± 7.33 months; 52% boys) from 22 centre-based childcare facilities (11 experimental, 11 control) were enrolled. Preschoolers wore an Actical™ accelerometer for 5 days during childcare hours at baseline, post-intervention, and 6- and 12-month follow-up, and were included in the analyses if they had a minimum of two valid days (5 h each day) at baseline and one additional time point. Intervention effectiveness was tested using a linear mixed effects model for each of the four outcome variables (i.e., sedentary time, light physical activity [LPA], moderate-to-vigorous physical activity [MVPA], and total physical activity [TPA]). Fixed effects were further evaluated with t-tests, for which degrees of freedom were estimated using a Satterthwaite approximation. One hundred and ninety-five preschoolers were retained for analyses. The intervention did not significantly impact LPA. MVPA was significantly greater among children in the experimental group when comparing post-intervention to pre-intervention, t(318) = 3.50, p = .0005, but no intervention effects were evident at 6- or 12-month follow-up. TPA was significantly greater for children in the intervention group at post-intervention when compared to pre-intervention, t(321) = 2.70, p = .007, with no intervention effects evident at later time periods. Finally, sedentary time was significantly lower among preschoolers in the experimental group when comparing post-intervention to pre-intervention, t(322) = 2.63, p = .009, with no significant effects at follow-up. The SPACE intervention was effective at increasing MVPA and TPA among preschoolers, while simultaneously decreasing sedentary time. The ability of the SPACE intervention to target higher intensity activity is promising, as MVPA levels have been documented to be low in centre-based childcare. The changes in physical activity were not sustained long term (6- or 12-month follow-up). ISRCTN70604107 (October 8, 2014).

Making media work in space: an interdisciplinary perspective on media and communication requirements for current and future space communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babidge, S.; Cokley, J.; Gordon, F.; Louw, E.

2005-10-01

As humans expand into space communities will form. These have already begun to form in small ways, such as long-duration missions on the International Space Station and the space shuttle, and small-scale tourist excursions into space. Social, behavioural and communications data emerging from such existing communities in space suggest that the physically-bounded, work-oriented and traditionally male-dominated nature of these extremely remote groups present specific problems for the resident astronauts, groups of them viewed as ‘communities’, and their associated groups who remain on Earth, including mission controllers, management and astronauts’ families. Notionally feminine group attributes such as adaptive competence, social adaptation skills and social sensitivity will be crucial to the viability of space communities and in the absence of gender equity, ‘staying in touch’ by means of ‘news from home’ becomes more important than ever. A template of news and media forms and technologies is suggested to service those needs and enhance the social viability of future terraforming activities.

Tools in the orbit space approach to the study of invariant functions: rational parametrization of strata

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sartori, G.; Valente, G.

2003-02-01

Functions which are equivariant or invariant under the transformations of a compact linear group G acting in a Euclidean space Bbb Rn, can profitably be studied as functions defined in the orbit space of the group. The orbit space is the union of a finite set of strata, which are semialgebraic manifolds formed by the G-orbits with the same orbit-type. In this paper, we provide a simple recipe to obtain rational parametrizations of the strata. Our results can be easily exploited, in many physical contexts where the study of equivariant or invariant functions is important, for instance in the determination of patterns of spontaneous symmetry breaking, in the analysis of phase spaces and structural phase transitions (Landau theory), in equivariant bifurcation theory, in crystal field theory and in most areas where use is made of symmetry-adapted functions. A physically significant example of utilization of the recipe is given, related to spontaneous polarization in chiral biaxial liquid crystals, where the advantages with respect to previous heuristic approaches are shown.

Relationship between child care centers' compliance with physical activity regulations and children's physical activity, New York City, 2010.

PubMed

Stephens, Robert L; Xu, Ye; Lesesne, Catherine A; Dunn, Lillian; Kakietek, Jakub; Jernigan, Jan; Khan, Laura Kettel

2014-10-16

Physical activity may protect against overweight and obesity among preschoolers, and the policies and characteristics of group child care centers influence the physical activity levels of children who attend them. We examined whether children in New York City group child care centers that are compliant with the city's regulations on child physical activity engage in more activity than children in centers who do not comply. A sample of 1,352 children (mean age, 3.39 years) served by 110 group child care centers in low-income neighborhoods participated. Children's anthropometric data were collected and accelerometers were used to measure duration and intensity of physical activity. Multilevel generalized linear regression modeling techniques were used to assess the effect of center- and child-level factors on child-level physical activity. Centers' compliance with the regulation of obtaining at least 60 minutes of total physical activity per day was positively associated with children's levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA); compliance with the regulation of obtaining at least 30 minutes of structured activity was not associated with increased levels of MVPA. Children in centers with a dedicated outdoor play space available also spent more time in MVPA. Boys spent more time in MVPA than girls, and non-Hispanic black children spent more time in MVPA than Hispanic children. To increase children's level of MVPA in child care, both time and type of activity should be considered. Further examination of the role of play space availability and its effect on opportunities for engaging in physical activity is needed.

G-Strands on symmetric spaces

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

We study the G-strand equations that are extensions of the classical chiral model of particle physics in the particular setting of broken symmetries described by symmetric spaces. These equations are simple field theory models whose configuration space is a Lie group, or in this case a symmetric space. In this class of systems, we derive several models that are completely integrable on finite dimensional Lie group G, and we treat in more detail examples with symmetric space SU(2)/S1 and SO(4)/SO(3). The latter model simplifies to an apparently new integrable nine-dimensional system. We also study the G-strands on the infinite dimensional group of diffeomorphisms, which gives, together with the Sobolev norm, systems of 1+2 Camassa–Holm equations. The solutions of these equations on the complementary space related to the Witt algebra decomposition are the odd function solutions. PMID:28413343

The impact of intervening in green space in Dutch deprived neighbourhoods on physical activity and general health: results from the quasi-experimental URBAN40 study.

PubMed

Droomers, Mariël; Jongeneel-Grimen, Birthe; Kramer, Daniëlle; de Vries, Sjerp; Kremers, Stef; Bruggink, Jan-Willem; van Oers, Hans; Kunst, Anton E; Stronks, Karien

2016-02-01

Many problems concentrate in deprived neighbourhoods, among which is poor health. One possible way to address these health problems is to invest in the green space in deprived neighbourhoods. The number of evaluations of the public health impact of actual changes in neighbourhood green space is still limited. This study investigated the impact of real-life changes in the quality or quantity of green space in severely deprived neighbourhoods on physical activity and perceived general health. Repeated cross-sectional surveys from 2004 till 2011 yielded self-reported information on leisure time walking, cycling and sports, and perceived general health of 48,132 adult residents. We fitted generalised mixed models to assess the rate of change per half year, estimate the linear trend, and the change in trends before and after the start of the urban regeneration mid-2008. Using a quasi-experimental design, we compared the trends in the intervention neighbourhoods with different selections of control areas. The deprived neighbourhoods that intervened in green space did not show more favourable changes in the trend of physical activity and good general health compared to all the different groups of control areas. We did not observe short-term positive effects on physical activity and general health among adults from improvements in green space in deprived neighbourhoods. This suggests that greening interventions that have been carried out in the context of the Dutch District Approach did not achieve short-term health gains among adults. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Clock Technology Development for the Laser Cooling and Atomic Physics (LCAP) Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Klipstein, W. M.; Thompson, R. J.; Seidel, D. J.; Kohel, J.; Maleki, L.

1998-01-01

The Time and Frequency Sciences and Technology Group at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a laser cooling capability for flight and has been selected by NASA to support the Laser-Cooling and Atomic Physics (LCAP) program. Current work in the group includes design and development for tee two laser-cooled atomic clock experiments which have been selected for flight on the International Space Station.

High Energy Astrophysics and Cosmology from Space: NASA's Physics of the Cosmos Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hornschemeier, Ann

2016-03-01

We summarize currently-funded NASA activities in high energy astrophysics and cosmology, embodied in the NASA Physics of the Cosmos program, including updates on technology development and mission studies. The portfolio includes development of a space mission for measuring gravitational waves from merging supermassive black holes, currently envisioned as a collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) on its L3 mission and development of an X-ray observatory that will measure X-ray emission from the final stages of accretion onto black holes, currently envisioned as a NASA collaboration on ESA's Athena observatory. The portfolio also includes the study of cosmic rays and gamma ray photons resulting from a range of processes, of the physical process of inflation associated with the birth of the universe and of the nature of the dark energy that dominates the mass-energy of the modern universe. The program is supported by an analysis group called the PhysPAG that serves as a forum for community input and analysis and the talk will include a description of activities of this group.

Designing flexible instructional space for teaching introductory physics with emphasis on inquiry and collaborative active learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bykov, Tikhon

2010-03-01

In recent years McMurry University's introductory physics curriculum has gone through a series of significant changes to achieve better integration of traditional course components (lecture/lab/discussion) by means of instructional design and technology. A system of flexible curriculum modules with emphasis on inquiry-based teaching and collaborative active learning has been introduced. To unify module elements, a technology suite has been used that consists of Tablet PC's and software applications including Physlets, tablet-adapted personal response system, PASCO data acquisition systems, and MS One-note collaborative writing software. Adoption of the new teaching model resulted in reevaluation of existing instructional spaces. The new teaching space will be created during the renovation of the McMurry Science Building. This space will allow for easy transitions between lecture and laboratory modes. Movable partitions will be used to accommodate student groups of different sizes. The space will be supportive of small peer-group activities with easy-to-reconfigure furniture, multiple white and black board surfaces and multiple projection screens. The new space will be highly flexible to account for different teaching functions, different teaching modes and learning styles.

Combinatorial approach to the representation of the Schur-Weyl duality in one-dimensional spin systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jakubczyk, Dorota; Jakubczyk, Paweł

2018-02-01

We propose combinatorial approach to the representation of Schur-Weyl duality in physical systems on the example of one-dimensional spin chains. Exploiting the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth algorithm, we perform decomposition of the dual group representations into irreducible representations in a fully combinatorial way. As representation space, we choose the Hilbert space of the spin chains, but this approach can be easily generalized to an arbitrary physical system where the Schur-Weyl duality works.

Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics Brussels-Austin style

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bishop, Robert C.

The fundamental problem on which Ilya Prigogine and the Brussels-Austin Group have focused can be stated briefly as follows. Our observations indicate that there is an arrow of time in our experience of the world (e.g., decay of unstable radioactive atoms like uranium, or the mixing of cream in coffee). Most of the fundamental equations of physics are time reversible, however, presenting an apparent conflict between our theoretical descriptions and experimental observations. Many have thought that the observed arrow of time was either an artifact of our observations or due to very special initial conditions. An alternative approach, followed by the Brussels-Austin Group, is to consider the observed direction of time to be a basic physical phenomenon due to the dynamics of physical systems. This essay focuses mainly on recent developments in the Brussels-Austin Group after the mid-1980s. The fundamental concerns are the same as in their earlier approaches (subdynamics, similarity transformations), but the contemporary approach utilizes rigged Hilbert space (whereas the older approaches used Hilbert space). While the emphasis on nonequilibrium statistical mechanics remains the same, their more recent approach addresses the physical features of large Poincaré systems, nonlinear dynamics and the mathematical tools necessary to analyze them.

Spatial and Social Comparison of the Traditional Neighbourhood and the Modern Gated Community: Eskisehir Sample

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koca, Güler; Kayılıoğlu, Begüm

2017-10-01

People’s expectations from the city have changed with the transformation of urban life. Urban space is not the only place where structures are formed. Urban space also consists of a combination of public spaces, semi-public spaces, and private spaces. As social and cultural phenomena, social events occur and people communicate with each other in these spaces. Therefore, streets and neighbourhoods composed of houses are not only physical spaces, but they also have important social and cultural dimensions. Modern life has brought a plethora of changes that affected the cities. Due to rapid changes today, the urban space forms in the conversion process are also designed differently. Historically, the space organization based on the streets of the semi-public life in Turkish cities has been transformed into mass housing and housing estate-style life in recent years. This transformation has been expressed differently in urban life not only physically, but also socially and culturally. The street which is regarded as a public space was a place where people communicated and social events happened in the past; but today, the streets are rife with security problems and they have become a concept evoking an image of street that is bordered with buildings. Spatial separation has emerged with middle and upper classes isolating themselves from the streets and heading towards gated communities, especially for security reasons. This social and spatial separation has begun to lead to various problems in cities. Eskisehir is an important Anatolian city located between Ankara, the capital of Turkey, and Istanbul. This research was conducted in two research sites in Eskisehir: one is a gated community where middle and upper-income groups reside, and the other is a residential neighbourhood where middle-income groups live. These groups were studied through a survey. The spatial preferences of the residents in these two areas and their relation with the neighbourhood are examined. These groups were surveyed and their relations with their relatives have been researched.

Examining the Role of Environment in a Comprehensive Sample of Compact Groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, Lisa May; Johnson, Kelsey E.; Gallagher, Sarah C.; Charlton, Jane C.; Hornschemeier, Ann E.; Hibbard, John E.

2012-03-01

Compact groups, with their high number densities, small velocity dispersions, and an interstellar medium that has not been fully processed, provide a local analog to conditions of galaxy interactions in the earlier universe. The frequent and prolonged gravitational encounters that occur in compact groups affect the evolution of the constituent galaxies in a myriad of ways, for example, gas processing and star formation. Recently, a statistically significant "gap" has been discovered in the mid-infrared (MIR: 3.6-8 μm) IRAC color space of compact group galaxies. This gap is not seen in field samples and is a new example of how the compact group environment may affect the evolution of member galaxies. In order to investigate the origin and nature of this gap, we have compiled a larger sample of 37 compact groups in addition to the original 12 groups studied by Johnson et al. (yielding 174 individual galaxies with reliable MIR photometry). We find that a statistically significant deficit of galaxies in this gap region of IRAC color space is persistent in the full sample, lending support to the hypothesis that the compact group environment inhibits moderate specific star formation rates. Using this expanded sample, we have more fully characterized the distribution of galaxies in this color space and quantified the low-density region more fully with respect to MIR bluer and MIR redder colors. We note a curvature in the color-space distribution, which is fully consistent with increasing dust temperature as the activity in a galaxy increases. This full sample of 49 compact groups allows us to subdivide the data according to physical properties of the groups. An analysis of these subsamples indicates that neither projected physical diameter nor density shows a trend in color space within the values represented by this sample. We hypothesize that the apparent lack of a trend is due to the relatively small range of properties in this sample, whose groups have already been pre-selected to be compact and dense. Thus, the relative influence of stochastic effects (such as the particular distribution and amount of star formation in individual galaxies) becomes dominant. We analyze spectral energy distributions of member galaxies as a function of their location in color space and find that galaxies in different regions of MIR color space contain dust with varying temperatures and/or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission.

Examining the Role of Environment in a Comprehensive Sample of Compact Groups

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walker, Lisa May; Johnson, Kelsey E.; Gallagher, Sarah C.; Charlton, Jane C.; Hornschemeier, Ann E.; Hibbard, John E.

2012-01-01

Compact groups, with their high number densities, small velocity dispersions, and an interstellar medium that has not been fully processed, provide a local analog to conditions of galaxy interactions in the earlier universe. The frequent and prolonged gravitational encounters that occur in compact groups affect the evolution of the constituent galaxies in a myriad of ways, for example, gas processing and star formation. Recently, a statistically significant "gap" has been discovered in the mid-infrared (MIR: 3.6-8 µm) IRAC color space of compact group galaxies. This gap is not seen in field samples and is a new example of how the compact group environment may affect the evolution of member galaxies. In order to investigate the origin and nature of this gap, we have compiled a larger sample of 37 compact groups in addition to the original 12 groups studied by Johnson et al. (yielding 174 individual galaxies with reliable MIR photometry). We find that a statistically significant deficit of galaxies in this gap region of IRAC color space is persistent in the full sample, lending support to the hypothesis that the compact group environment inhibits moderate specific star formation rates. Using this expanded sample, we have more fully characterized the distribution of galaxies in this color space and quantified the low-density region more fully with respect to MIR bluer and MIR redder colors. We note a curvature in the color-space distribution, which is fully consistent with increasing dust temperature as the activity in a galaxy increases. This full sample of 49 compact groups allows us to subdivide the data according to physical properties of the groups. An analysis of these subsamples indicates that neither projected physical diameter nor density shows a trend in color space within the values represented by this sample. We hypothesize that the apparent lack of a trend is due to the relatively small range of properties in this sample, whose groups have already been pre-selected to be compact and dense. Thus, the relative influence of stochastic effects (such as the particular distribution and amount of star formation in individual galaxies) becomes dominant. We analyze spectral energy distributions of member galaxies as a function of their location in color space and find that galaxies in different regions of MIR color space contain dust with varying temperatures and/or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission.

Barriers for recess physical activity: a gender specific qualitative focus group exploration.

PubMed

Pawlowski, Charlotte Skau; Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, Tine; Schipperijn, Jasper; Troelsen, Jens

2014-06-23

Many children, in particular girls, do not reach the recommended amount of daily physical activity. School recess provides an opportunity for both boys and girls to be physically active, but barriers to recess physical activity are not well understood. This study explores gender differences in children's perceptions of barriers to recess physical activity. Based on the socio-ecological model four types of environmental barriers were distinguished: natural, social, physical and organizational environment. Data were collected through 17 focus groups (at 17 different schools) with in total 111 children (53 boys) from fourth grade, with a mean age of 10.4 years. The focus groups included an open group discussion, go-along group interviews, and a gender segregated post-it note activity. A content analysis of the post-it notes was used to rank the children's perceived barriers. This was verified by a thematic analysis of transcripts from the open discussions and go-along interviews. The most frequently identified barriers for both boys and girls were weather, conflicts, lack of space, lack of play facilities and a newly-found barrier, use of electronic devices. While boys and girls identified the same barriers, there were both inter- and intra-gender differences in the perception of these barriers. Weather was a barrier for all children, apart from the most active boys. Conflicts were perceived as a barrier particularly by those boys who played ballgames. Girls said they would like to have more secluded areas added to the school playground, even in large schoolyards where lack of space was not a barrier. This aligned with girls' requests for more "hanging-out" facilities, whereas boys primarily wanted activity promoting facilities. Based on the results from this study, we recommend promoting recess physical activity through a combination of actions, addressing barriers within the natural, social, physical and organizational environment.

Data Realities : Citation Equals Funding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hourclé, Joseph

2015-04-01

Solar physics has a problem with tracking the impact of solar data's use in scientific literature. Data collected by solar-observing missions is used in many other fields, but we do not have good information about who is using our data. Solar data is useful not only in solar physics, but also general astronomy, planetery, space weather, space physics and earth science.The sun is the only star that we can see in high detail; solar data is used to erase moonlight from night-time images; coronagraphs have found more comets than night-observing telescopes; space weather affects life on earth, communications, air traffic, and manned space-flight.As our missions' continued funding is justified through use of our data, missing too many of these uses could decrease our future funding or lead to cancellation. As our current methods of finding data use is through human review of the literature, we are much more likely to miss usage in fields outside of solar physics.To better deal with tracking cross-discipline data usage, a number of groups have come up with guidelines and principles for data citation.[1,2,3] We provide an update on the efforts of multiple groups working on standards to implement both data and software citation.[1] National Research Council, 2012. http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13564[2] CODATA, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.2481/dsj.OSOM13-043[3] 2014. http://www.force11.org/datacitation

Is the local linearity of space-time inherited from the linearity of probabilities?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Müller, Markus P.; Carrozza, Sylvain; Höhn, Philipp A.

2017-02-01

The appearance of linear spaces, describing physical quantities by vectors and tensors, is ubiquitous in all of physics, from classical mechanics to the modern notion of local Lorentz invariance. However, as natural as this seems to the physicist, most computer scientists would argue that something like a ‘local linear tangent space’ is not very typical and in fact a quite surprising property of any conceivable world or algorithm. In this paper, we take the perspective of the computer scientist seriously, and ask whether there could be any inherently information-theoretic reason to expect this notion of linearity to appear in physics. We give a series of simple arguments, spanning quantum information theory, group representation theory, and renormalization in quantum gravity, that supports a surprising thesis: namely, that the local linearity of space-time might ultimately be a consequence of the linearity of probabilities. While our arguments involve a fair amount of speculation, they have the virtue of being independent of any detailed assumptions on quantum gravity, and they are in harmony with several independent recent ideas on emergent space-time in high-energy physics.

Access to green space, physical activity and mental health: a twin study.

PubMed

Cohen-Cline, Hannah; Turkheimer, Eric; Duncan, Glen E

2015-06-01

Increasing global urbanisation has resulted in a greater proportion of the world's population becoming exposed to risk factors unique to urban areas, and understanding these effects on public health is essential. The aim of this study was to examine the association between access to green space and mental health among adult twin pairs. We used a multilevel random intercept model of same-sex twin pairs (4338 individuals) from the community-based University of Washington Twin Registry to analyse the association between access to green space, as measured by the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index and self-reported depression, stress, and anxiety. The main parameter of interest was the within-pair effect for identical (monozygotic, MZ) twins because it was not subject to confounding by genetic or shared childhood environment factors. Models were adjusted for income, physical activity, neighbourhood deprivation and population density. When treating twins as individuals and not as members of a twin pair, green space was significantly inversely associated with each mental health outcome. The association with depression remained significant in the within-pair MZ univariate and adjusted models; however, there was no within-pair MZ effect for stress or anxiety among the models adjusted for income and physical activity. These results suggest that greater access to green space is associated with less depression, but provide less evidence for effects on stress or anxiety. Understanding the mechanisms linking neighbourhood characteristics to mental health has important public health implications. Future studies should combine twin designs and longitudinal data to strengthen causal inference. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Informal and Formal Support Groups Retain Women and Minorities in Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ong, Maria

2005-10-01

Ten U.S. minority female undergraduates who aspire to become physicists were followed over an 8-year period. Participant observation and in-depth interviews recorded the strategies they used to earn bachelor's degrees in physics or physics-related fields, and then go on to graduate school and/or careers in science. One significant strategy these women of color employed was participating in small subcommunities with other women or underrepresented ethnic minorities at the margins of their local physics community. The study found that informal peer groups offered safe spaces to counter negative experiences, to normalize their social realities, and to offer practical guidance for persevering in the field. Formal women- and minority-serving programs in physics provided foundations for community building, stronger curriculum and instruction, networking, and role models. The positive effects of informal and formal support groups on these students' experiences challenge a standard application of Pierre Bourdieu's framework of social and cultural capital. Women of color in the study initially lacked traditional capital of "acceptable" appearance, cultural background and habits, and networks that are more easily acquired by white males and are rewarded by the U.S. physics culture. However, instead of failing or leaving, as Bourdieu's theory would predict, the minority women persisted and achieved in science. The marginal communities contributed to their retention by offering safe spaces in which they could learn and share alternative ways of "accruing capital." Moreover, as these women made strides along their academic and career paths, they also engaged in social justice work in efforts to change the physics culture to be more welcoming of nontraditional members. The outcomes of the study offer empirical confirmation of the critical need for informal and institutionally supported women's and minorities' support groups to promote diversity in science.

Physics of the Lorentz Group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Başkal, Sibel

2015-11-01

This book explains the Lorentz mathematical group in a language familiar to physicists. While the three-dimensional rotation group is one of the standard mathematical tools in physics, the Lorentz group of the four-dimensional Minkowski space is still very strange to most present-day physicists. It plays an essential role in understanding particles moving at close to light speed and is becoming the essential language for quantum optics, classical optics, and information science. The book is based on papers and books published by the authors on the representations of the Lorentz group based on harmonic oscillators and their applications to high-energy physics and to Wigner functions applicable to quantum optics. It also covers the two-by-two representations of the Lorentz group applicable to ray optics, including cavity, multilayer and lens optics, as well as representations of the Lorentz group applicable to Stokes parameters and the Poincaré sphere on polarization optics.

Some Lessons Learned From 15 Years of Engaging Undergraduates in Space Physics Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopez, R. E.; Bruntz, R. J.

2016-12-01

Over the past 15 years, the Lopez research group has provided about 10 undergraduates each year with opportunities to enagage in space physics research. In this presentation I will discuss and describe three critical factors to the success of the group. First of these is the use of near-peer mentoring structure that entends from undergradutes who have just joined the group up through postdocs and the lead professor. Second is the empahasis we place on science communication, which includes professional development of presentation skills and attending regional or national scientific meetings. Third is the careful selection of research projects that can be carried out successfully by undergraduates with the proper support and scaffolding. While other elements do contribute to the success of the group (such as the use of a group-wide wiki as a resource center and lab notebook), these three elements are at the core of what we do, and all senior group members (Ph.D. graduates and Postdocs) gain an understanding of these elements that they have been able to apply in their own settings once they move on.

The urban brain: analysing outdoor physical activity with mobile EEG.

PubMed

Aspinall, Peter; Mavros, Panagiotis; Coyne, Richard; Roe, Jenny

2015-02-01

Researchers in environmental psychology, health studies and urban design are interested in the relationship between the environment, behaviour settings and emotions. In particular, happiness, or the presence of positive emotional mindsets, broadens an individual's thought-action repertoire with positive benefits to physical and intellectual activities, and to social and psychological resources. This occurs through play, exploration or similar activities. In addition, a body of restorative literature focuses on the potential benefits to emotional recovery from stress offered by green space and 'soft fascination'. However, access to the cortical correlates of emotional states of a person actively engaged within an environment has not been possible until recently. This study investigates the use of mobile electroencephalography (EEG) as a method to record and analyse the emotional experience of a group of walkers in three types of urban environment including a green space setting. Using Emotiv EPOC, a low-cost mobile EEG recorder, participants took part in a 25 min walk through three different areas of Edinburgh. The areas (of approximately equal length) were labelled zone 1 (urban shopping street), zone 2 (path through green space) and zone 3 (street in a busy commercial district). The equipment provided continuous recordings from five channels, labelled excitement (short-term), frustration, engagement, long-term excitement (or arousal) and meditation. A new form of high-dimensional correlated component logistic regression analysis showed evidence of lower frustration, engagement and arousal, and higher meditation when moving into the green space zone; and higher engagement when moving out of it. Systematic differences in EEG recordings were found between three urban areas in line with restoration theory. This has implications for promoting urban green space as a mood-enhancing environment for walking or for other forms of physical or reflective activity. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Subluminal group velocity and dispersion of Laguerre Gauss beams in free space.

PubMed

Bareza, Nestor D; Hermosa, Nathaniel

2016-05-27

That the speed of light in free space c is constant has been a pillar of modern physics since the derivation of Maxwell and in Einstein's postulate in special relativity. This has been a basic assumption in light's various applications. However, a physical beam of light has a finite extent such that even in free space it is by nature dispersive. The field confinement changes its wavevector, hence, altering the light's group velocity vg. Here, we report the subluminal vg and consequently the dispersion in free space of Laguerre-Gauss (LG) beam, a beam known to carry orbital angular momentum. The vg of LG beam, calculated in the paraxial regime, is observed to be inversely proportional to the beam's divergence θ0, the orbital order ℓ and the radial order p. LG beams of higher orders travel relatively slower than that of lower orders. As a consequence, LG beams of different orders separate in the temporal domain along propagation. This is an added effect to the dispersion due to field confinement. Our results are useful for treating information embedded in LG beams from astronomical sources and/or data transmission in free space.

The Effects of Spacing, Naps, and Fatigue on the Acquisition and Retention of Laparoscopic Skills.

PubMed

Spruit, Edward N; Band, Guido P H; van der Heijden, Kristiaan B; Hamming, Jaap F

Earlier research has shown that laparoscopic skills are trained more efficiently on a spaced schedule compared to a massed schedule. The aim of the study was to estimate to what extent the spacing interval, naps, and fatigue influenced the effectiveness of spacing laparoscopy training. Overall 4 groups of trainees (aged 17-41y; 72% female; N massed = 40; N break = 35; N break-nap = 37; N spaced = 37) without prior experience were trained in 3 laparoscopic tasks using a physical box trainer with different scheduling interventions. The first (massed) group received three 100-minute training sessions consecutively on a single day. The second (break) group received the sessions interrupted with two 45-minute breaks. The third (break-nap) group had the same schedule as the second group, but had two 35-minute powernap intervals during the breaks. The fourth (spaced) group had the 3 sessions on 3 consecutive days. A retention session was organized approximately 3 months after training. The results showed an overall pattern of superior performance at the end of training and at retention for the spaced group, followed by the break-nap, break, and massed group, respectively. The spaced and break-nap group significantly outperformed the break and massed group, with effect sizes ranging from 0.20 to 0.37. Spacing laparoscopic training over 3 consecutive days or weeks is superior to massed training, even if the massed training contains breaks. Breaks with sleep opportunity (i.e., lying, inactive, and muted sensory input) enhance performance over training with regular breaks and traditional massed training. Copyright © 2017 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Very Large Area Network (VLAN) knowledge-base applied to space communication problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zander, Carol S.

1988-01-01

This paper first describes a hierarchical model for very large area networks (VLAN). Space communication problems whose solution could profit by the model are discussed and then an enhanced version of this model incorporating the knowledge needed for the missile detection-destruction problem is presented. A satellite network or VLAN is a network which includes at least one satellite. Due to the complexity, a compromise between fully centralized and fully distributed network management has been adopted. Network nodes are assigned to a physically localized group, called a partition. Partitions consist of groups of cell nodes with one cell node acting as the organizer or master, called the Group Master (GM). Coordinating the group masters is a Partition Master (PM). Knowledge is also distributed hierarchically existing in at least two nodes. Each satellite node has a back-up earth node. Knowledge must be distributed in such a way so as to minimize information loss when a node fails. Thus the model is hierarchical both physically and informationally.

The impact of interventions to promote physical activity in urban green space: a systematic review and recommendations for future research.

PubMed

Hunter, Ruth F; Christian, Hayley; Veitch, Jenny; Astell-Burt, Thomas; Hipp, J Aaron; Schipperijn, Jasper

2015-01-01

Evidence is mounting on the association between the built environment and physical activity (PA) with a call for intervention research. A broader approach which recognizes the role of supportive environments that can make healthy choices easier is required. A systematic review was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of interventions to encourage PA in urban green space. Five databases were searched independently by two reviewers using search terms relating to 'physical activity', 'urban green space' and 'intervention' in July 2014. Eligibility criteria included: (i) intervention to encourage PA in urban green space which involved either a physical change to the urban green space or a PA intervention to promote use of urban green space or a combination of both; and (ii) primary outcome of PA. Of the 2405 studies identified, 12 were included. There was some evidence (4/9 studies showed positive effect) to support built environment only interventions for encouraging use and increasing PA in urban green space. There was more promising evidence (3/3 studies showed positive effect) to support PAprograms or PA programs combined with a physical change to the built environment, for increasing urban green space use and PA of users. Recommendations for future research include the need for longer term follow-up post-intervention, adequate control groups, sufficiently powered studies, and consideration of the social environment, which was identified as a significantly under-utilized resource in this area. Interventions that involve the use of PA programs combined with a physical change to the built environment are likely to have a positive effect on PA. Robust evaluations of such interventions are urgently required. The findings provide a platform to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of future urban green space and PAintervention research. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fictive kinship as it mediates learning, resiliency, perseverance, and social learning of inner-city high school students of color in a college physics class

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexakos, Konstantinos; Jones, Jayson K.; Rodriguez, Victor H.

2011-12-01

In this hermeneutic study we explore how fictive kinship (kin-like close personal friendship) amongst high school students of color mediated their resiliency, perseverance, and success in a college physics class. These freely chosen, processual friendships were based on emotional and material support, motivation, and caring for each other, as well as trust, common interests, and goals. Such close bonds contributed in creating a safe and supportive emotional space and allowed for friendly, cooperative competition within the physics classroom. Friends became the role models, source of support, and motivation for the fictive kinship group as well as for each other, as the group became the role model, source of support, and motivation for the individuals in it. Because of their friendships with one another, physics talk was extended and made part of their personal interactions outside the classroom. These social relationships and safe spaces helped the students cope and persevere despite their initial conflicting expectations of their success in physics. Our research thus expands on the concept of social learning by exploring student friendships and how they frame and mediate such a process.

Impact of Physical Environment on Academic Achievement of High School Youth.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burkhalter, Bettye B.

1983-01-01

To study the relationship of the physical environment to high school students' academic achievement, 60 students participated in an experiential career exploration program at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center while 108 students participated in a traditional careers program. Tests indicated the former group improved more in career choice…

38 CFR 59.160 - Adult day health care requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... multipurpose room or area for group activities, including dining, with adequate table setting space. (2) Rehabilitation rooms or an area for individual and group treatments for occupational therapy, physical therapy... individual room for counseling and interviewing participants and family members. (10) A reception area. (11...

Distribution of green infrastructure along walkable roads ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Low-income and minority neighborhoods frequently lack healthful resources to which wealthier communities have access. Though important, the addition of facilities such as recreation centers can be costly and take time to implement. Urban green infrastructure, such as street trees and other green space, can be a low-cost alternative to promote frequency and duration of outdoor physical activity. Street trees and other green space may increase outdoor physical activity levels by providing shade, improving aesthetics, and promoting social engagement. Though street trees and green space provide many benefits and are publicly accessible at all times, these resources are not evenly distributed between neighborhoods. An objective analysis of street tree cover and green space in 6,407 block groups across 10 urban areas was conducted using fine-scale land cover data. Distribution of green infrastructure was then analyzed by minority status, income, car ownership, housing density, and employment density. The objective measure of street tree cover and green space is based on 1-meter resolution land cover data from the U.S. EPA-led EnviroAtlas. Tree cover was analyzed along each side of walkable road centerlines in the areas where sidewalks are estimated to be. Green space was calculated within 25 meters of road centerlines. Percent tree cover and green space per city block were then summarized to census block group (CBG). CBG demographics from the U.S. Census and built env

Children's active play: self-reported motivators, barriers and facilitators

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Physical activity has important benefits for children's physical health and mental wellbeing, but many children do not meet recommended levels. Research suggests that active play has the potential to make a valuable contribution to children's overall physical activity, whilst providing additional cognitive, social and emotional benefits. However, relatively little is known about the determinants of UK children's active play. Understanding these factors provides the critical first step in developing interventions to increase children's active play, and therefore overall physical activity. Methods Eleven focus groups were conducted with 77, 10-11 year old children from four primary schools in Bristol, UK. Focus groups examined: (i) factors which motivate children to take part in active play; (ii) factors which limit children's active play and (iii) factors which facilitate children's active play. All focus groups were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using a thematic approach. Results Children were motivated to engage in active play because they perceived it to be enjoyable, to prevent boredom, to have physical and mental health benefits and to provide freedom from adult control, rules and structure. However, children's active play was constrained by a number of factors, including rainy weather and fear of groups of teenagers in their play spaces. Some features of the physical environment facilitated children's active play, including the presence of green spaces and cul-de-sacs in the neighbourhood. Additionally, children's use of mobile phones when playing away from home was reported to help to alleviate parents' safety fears, and therefore assist children's active play. Conclusions Children express a range of motivational and environmental factors that constrain and facilitate their active play. Consideration of these factors should improve effectiveness of interventions designed to increase active play. PMID:21663605

Children's active play: self-reported motivators, barriers and facilitators.

PubMed

Brockman, Rowan; Jago, Russell; Fox, Kenneth R

2011-06-10

Physical activity has important benefits for children's physical health and mental wellbeing, but many children do not meet recommended levels. Research suggests that active play has the potential to make a valuable contribution to children's overall physical activity, whilst providing additional cognitive, social and emotional benefits. However, relatively little is known about the determinants of UK children's active play. Understanding these factors provides the critical first step in developing interventions to increase children's active play, and therefore overall physical activity. Eleven focus groups were conducted with 77, 10-11 year old children from four primary schools in Bristol, UK. Focus groups examined: (i) factors which motivate children to take part in active play; (ii) factors which limit children's active play and (iii) factors which facilitate children's active play. All focus groups were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using a thematic approach. Children were motivated to engage in active play because they perceived it to be enjoyable, to prevent boredom, to have physical and mental health benefits and to provide freedom from adult control, rules and structure. However, children's active play was constrained by a number of factors, including rainy weather and fear of groups of teenagers in their play spaces. Some features of the physical environment facilitated children's active play, including the presence of green spaces and cul-de-sacs in the neighbourhood. Additionally, children's use of mobile phones when playing away from home was reported to help to alleviate parents' safety fears, and therefore assist children's active play. Children express a range of motivational and environmental factors that constrain and facilitate their active play. Consideration of these factors should improve effectiveness of interventions designed to increase active play.

The NASA Physics of the Cosmos Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bock, Jamie

2015-04-01

The NASA Physics of the Cosmos program is a portfolio of space-based investigations for studying fundamental processes in the universe. Areas of focus include: probing the physical process of inflation associated with the birth of the universe, studying the nature of the dark energy that dominates the mass-energy of the modern universe, advancing new ways to observe the universe through gravitational-wave astronomy, studying the universe in X-rays and gamma rays to probe energetic astrophysical processes and to study the formation and behavior of black holes in strong gravity, and determining the energetic origins and history of cosmic rays. The program is supported by an analysis group called the PhysPAG that serves as a forum for community input and analysis. Space offers unique advantages for these exciting investigations, and the program seeks to guide the development of future space missions through observations from current facilities, and by formulating new technologies and capabilities.

We Never See Children in Parks: A Qualitative Examination of the Role of Safety Concerns on Physical Activity Among Children.

PubMed

Rader, Nicole E; Byrd, Sylvia H; Fountain, Brent J; Bounds, Christopher W; Gray, Virginia; Frugé, Andrew Dandridge

2015-07-01

Previous literature indicates physical activity and obesity are interrelated problems, especially among children in disorganized environments. Qualitative focus groups were conducted with parents of elementary school children located within the Mississippi Delta to answer one overarching research question: "What influence do safety concerns have on physical activity for children in the Mississippi Delta?" There were 2 large themes; first was that recreational areas were criminal and the second was that safety concerns were a barrier to physical activity. Safety concerns as a barrier to physical activity rendered 3 sub-themes, including 1) Parental fear of crime inhibited the use of public recreational spaces, 2) Parental perceptions of police as ineffective and untrustworthy reduced the use of public spaces where children might play, and 3) Parents often expressed safety-induced intense supervision requirements that limited the physical activity of their children. Our study provides valuable insights into the mechanisms by which safety concerns limit physical activity of children in the Mississippi Delta.

Building Virtual Spaces for Children in the Digital Branch

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DuBroy, Michelle

2010-01-01

Purpose: A digital branch is just like a physical branch except that content is delivered digitally via the web. A digital branch has staff, a collection, a community, and a building. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of building individual spaces for different user groups, specifically children, within a digital branch.…

From classical to quantum mechanics: ``How to translate physical ideas into mathematical language''

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergeron, H.

2001-09-01

Following previous works by E. Prugovečki [Physica A 91A, 202 (1978) and Stochastic Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Space-time (Reidel, Dordrecht, 1986)] on common features of classical and quantum mechanics, we develop a unified mathematical framework for classical and quantum mechanics (based on L2-spaces over classical phase space), in order to investigate to what extent quantum mechanics can be obtained as a simple modification of classical mechanics (on both logical and analytical levels). To obtain this unified framework, we split quantum theory in two parts: (i) general quantum axiomatics (a system is described by a state in a Hilbert space, observables are self-adjoints operators, and so on) and (ii) quantum mechanics proper that specifies the Hilbert space as L2(Rn); the Heisenberg rule [pi,qj]=-iℏδij with p=-iℏ∇, the free Hamiltonian H=-ℏ2Δ/2m and so on. We show that general quantum axiomatics (up to a supplementary "axiom of classicity") can be used as a nonstandard mathematical ground to formulate physical ideas and equations of ordinary classical statistical mechanics. So, the question of a "true quantization" with "ℏ" must be seen as an independent physical problem not directly related with quantum formalism. At this stage, we show that this nonstandard formulation of classical mechanics exhibits a new kind of operation that has no classical counterpart: this operation is related to the "quantization process," and we show why quantization physically depends on group theory (the Galilei group). This analytical procedure of quantization replaces the "correspondence principle" (or canonical quantization) and allows us to map classical mechanics into quantum mechanics, giving all operators of quantum dynamics and the Schrödinger equation. The great advantage of this point of view is that quantization is based on concrete physical arguments and not derived from some "pure algebraic rule" (we exhibit also some limit of the correspondence principle). Moreover spins for particles are naturally generated, including an approximation of their interaction with magnetic fields. We also recover by this approach the semi-classical formalism developed by E. Prugovečki [Stochastic Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Space-time (Reidel, Dordrecht, 1986)].

Students' Perception of Relationship Skills during an Adventure-Based Learning Unit within Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stuhr, Paul T.; Sutherland, Sue; Ressler, James; Ortiz-Stuhr, Esther M.

2015-01-01

Adventure-based learning (ABL) is a sequenced curriculum using structured physical and team building activities that create the space for participants to work on group communication, cooperation, trust, and problem solving. Reflection (i.e., debriefing) is an essential aspect of the ABL curriculum (Cosgriff, 2000). A debrief in ABL is the…

Socio-Cultural Impacts in the Formation of Urban Village

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marpaung, B. O. Y.

2017-03-01

In Indonesia, a group of village people tends to move from one place to another and develops a living space to create a settlement. This research is conducted by taking an example of a particular ethnic group that leaves the forestry area to a new place in the city. After some time, this group of people creates a similar or adapted socio-cultural system adapted from their origin place. The purpose of this research is to examine the socio-cultural aspects that significantly influence the emergence of urban village. This influence is interpreted as social and cultural relations with the establishment of space and significance of urban village. By focusing on this issue, this research will trace the process of how a new and unplanned settlement could emerge. The process and elements are indispensable from social and cultural factors. Essentially, the shape of bulit space is a non-physical manifestation of local people, which is established from time to time. In this case, the research’s challenge lies on the circumstance in Indonesia where society and culture influence the emergence of urban village. Physical appearance can be identified as a tipology of settlement and morphology of urban village.

Using spaced retrieval and Montessori-based activities in improving eating ability for residents with dementia.

PubMed

Lin, Li-Chan; Huang, Ya-Ju; Su, Su-Gen; Watson, Roger; Tsai, Belina W-J; Wu, Shiao-Chi

2010-10-01

To construct a training protocol for spaced retrieval (SR) and to investigate the effectiveness of SR and Montessori-based activities in decreasing eating difficulty in older residents with dementia. A single evaluator, blind, and randomized control trial was used. Eighty-five residents with dementia were chosen from three special care units for residents with dementia in long-term care facilities in Taiwan. To avoid any confounding of subjects, the three institutions were randomized into three groups: spaced retrieval, Montessori-based activities, and a control group. The invention consisted of three 30-40 min sessions per week, for 8 weeks. After receiving the intervention, the Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia (EdFED) scores and assisted feeding scores for the SR and Montessori-based activity groups were significantly lower than that of the control group. However, the frequencies of physical assistance and verbal assistance for the Montessori-based activity group after intervention were significantly higher than that of the control group, which suggests that residents who received Montessori-based activity need more physical and verbal assistance during mealtimes. In terms of the effects of nutritional status after intervention, Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) in the SR group was significantly higher than that of the control group. This study confirms the efficacy of SR and Montessori-based activities for eating difficulty and eating ability. A longitudinal study to follow the long-term effects of SR and Montessori-based activities on eating ability and nutritional status is recommended. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Townes Group Activities from 1983-2000: Personal Recollections of William Danchi

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Danchi, William C.

2015-01-01

I arrived in Berkeley in October 1983 as a post-doc, and my appointment was at the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL). During that time the group was very large, with multiple activities led by Charlie himself and also by Senior Fellows such as John Lacy, Dan Jaffe, and Al Betz at the top of the hill at Space Sciences. Another significant contingent of the Townes group was housed in Birge Hall on campus, led by Reinhard Genzel when he was an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department. Although the group encompassed two separate locations, it functioned as one large group. Either we rode with Charlie up and down the hill, or (if we were concerned about our safety!) we took the bus.

Communication spaces

PubMed Central

Coiera, Enrico

2014-01-01

Background and objective Annotations to physical workspaces such as signs and notes are ubiquitous. When densely annotated, work areas become communication spaces. This study aims to characterize the types and purpose of such annotations. Methods A qualitative observational study was undertaken in two wards and the radiology department of a 440-bed metropolitan teaching hospital. Images were purposefully sampled; 39 were analyzed after excluding inferior images. Results Annotation functions included signaling identity, location, capability, status, availability, and operation. They encoded data, rules or procedural descriptions. Most aggregated into groups that either created a workflow by referencing each other, supported a common workflow without reference to each other, or were heterogeneous, referring to many workflows. Higher-level assemblies of such groupings were also observed. Discussion Annotations make visible the gap between work done and the capability of a space to support work. Annotations are repairs of an environment, improving fitness for purpose, fixing inadequacy in design, or meeting emergent needs. Annotations thus record the missing information needed to undertake tasks, typically added post-implemented. Measuring annotation levels post-implementation could help assess the fit of technology to task. Physical and digital spaces could meet broader user needs by formally supporting user customization, ‘programming through annotation’. Augmented reality systems could also directly support annotation, addressing existing information gaps, and enhancing work with context sensitive annotation. Conclusions Communication spaces offer a model of how work unfolds. Annotations make visible local adaptation that makes technology fit for purpose post-implementation and suggest an important role for annotatable information systems and digital augmentation of the physical environment. PMID:24005797

Program to study optimal protocol for cardiovascular and muscular efficiency. [physical fitness training for manned space flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Olree, H. D.

1974-01-01

Training programs necessary for the development of optimal strength during prolonged manned space flight were examined, and exercises performed on the Super Mini Gym Skylab 2 were compared with similar exercises on the Universal Gym and calisthenics. Cardiopulmonary gains were found negligible but all training groups exhibited good gains in strength.

Natural environment design criteria for the space station program definition phase

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vaughan, W. W.

1984-01-01

The natural environment design criteria requirements for use in the Space Station and its Elements (SSPE) definition phase studies are presented. The atmospheric dynamic and thermodynamic environments, meteoroids, radiation, physical constants are addressed. It is intended to enable all groups involved in the definition phase studies to proceed with a common and consistent set of natural environment criteria requirements.

Thermally Activated Driver

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kinard, William H.; Murray, Robert C.; Walsh, Robert F.

1987-01-01

Space-qualified, precise, large-force, thermally activated driver (TAD) developed for use in space on astro-physics experiment to measure abundance of rare actinide-group elements in cosmic rays. Actinide cosmic rays detected using thermally activated driver as heart of event-thermometer (ET) system. Thermal expansion and contraction of silicone oil activates driver. Potential applications in fluid-control systems where precise valve controls are needed.

The Physics Learning Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nossal, S. M.; Watson, L.; Huesmann, A.; Jacob, A.; Fretz, J.; Clarke, M.

2006-05-01

The Physics Learning Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison provides a supportive learning environment for students studying physics. We pair staff and upper level physics and secondary science education majors in small study groups with students studying introductory physics. Approximately 33-50% of our students are from racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in the sciences. In addition, students participating in our program include others who may be feeling isolated such as first-generation college students, returning adults, students with disabilities, international students, and students from small rural schools; as well as students with weak math and physics preparation and/or who are struggling with the course. The Physics Learning Program is run in conjunction with similar programs for chemistry and biochemistry. During the past year with a move to a new building we obtained a dedicated space for the Physics Learning Program, facilitating students to form their own study groups. We also began a pilot program for students in the calculus-based physics sequence. We will discuss these additions, as well as recruitment, pedagogy, teacher training, and mentoring practices that we use with the aim of creating an inclusive learning environment.

Perceived Benefits, Facilitators, Disadvantages, and Barriers for Physical Activity Amongst South Asian Adolescents in India and Canada.

PubMed

Rajaraman, Divya; Correa, Natasha; Punthakee, Zubin; Lear, Scott A; Jayachitra, Krishnaswamy G; Vaz, Mario; Swaminathan, Sumathi

2015-07-01

The purpose of this study was to understand perceived benefits, facilitators, disadvantages, and barriers for physical activity among South Asian adolescents in India and Canada. Thirteen focus group discussions with South Asian (origin) adolescent boys and girls of different nutritional status and socioeconomic status in rural and urban India and urban Canada. Across the groups, fitness and 'energy' were perceived to be major benefits of physical activity. In India, better academic performance was highlighted, while health benefits were well detailed in Canadian groups. In all settings, friends, family, and teachers were perceived as facilitators of as well as barriers to physical activity. Lack of a safe space to play was a major concern for urban adolescents, while academic pressures and preference for other sedentary recreational activities were common barriers across all groups. Girls were less likely than boys to be interested in physical activity, with girls' participation in India further limited by societal restrictions. The study suggests key areas for promotion of physical activity among South Asian adolescents: balance between academic pressure and opportunities for physical activity, especially in India; urban planning for a built environment conducive to physical activity; and gender-sensitive programming to promote girls' activity which also addresses culture-specific barriers.

SCIENCE EDUCATION IN THE JUNIOR COLLEGE, PROBLEMS AND PRACTICES.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

EISS, ALBERT F.

MAJOR ADDRESSES AND SUMMARIES OF GROUP ACTIVITIES FROM FOUR CONFERENCES ON TEACHING SCIENCE IN THE JUNIOR COLLEGE ARE PRESENTED. THE PRESENT STATUS OF JUNIOR COLLEGE SCIENCE IS EXAMINED AND SUGGESTIONS ARE MADE FOR IMPROVEMENT. NEW APPROACHES TO PHYSICAL SCIENCE AND BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE SPACE PROGRAM ARE CONSIDERED. WORKING GROUP REPORTS…

Physical activity is related to quality of life in older adults.

PubMed

Acree, Luke S; Longfors, Jessica; Fjeldstad, Anette S; Fjeldstad, Cecilie; Schank, Bob; Nickel, Kevin J; Montgomery, Polly S; Gardner, Andrew W

2006-06-30

Physical activity is associated with health-related quality of life (HRQL) in clinical populations, but less is known whether this relationship exists in older men and women who are healthy. Thus, this study determined if physical activity was related to HRQL in apparently healthy, older subjects. Measures were obtained from 112 male and female volunteers (70 +/- 8 years, mean +/- SD) recruited from media advertisements and flyers around the Norman, Oklahoma area. Data was collected using a medical history questionnaire, HRQL from the Medical Outcomes Survey short form-36 questionnaire, and physical activity level from the Johnson Space Center physical activity scale. Subjects were separated into either a higher physically active group (n = 62) or a lower physically active group (n = 50) according to the physical activity scale. The HRQL scores in all eight domains were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in the group reporting higher physical activity. Additionally, the more active group had fewer females (44% vs. 72%, p = 0.033), and lower prevalence of hypertension (39% vs. 60%, p = 0.041) than the low active group. After adjusting for gender and hypertension, the more active group had higher values in the following five HRQL domains: physical function (82 +/- 20 vs. 68 +/- 21, p = 0.029), role-physical (83 +/- 34 vs. 61 +/- 36, p = 0.022), bodily pain (83 +/- 22 vs. 66 +/- 23, p = 0.001), vitality (74 +/- 15 vs. 59 +/- 16, p = 0.001), and social functioning (92 +/- 18 vs. 83 +/- 19, p = 0.040). General health, role-emotional, and mental health were not significantly different (p > 0.05) between the two groups. Healthy older adults who regularly participated in physical activity of at least moderate intensity for more than one hour per week had higher HRQL measures in both physical and mental domains than those who were less physically active. Therefore, incorporating more physical activity into the lifestyles of sedentary or slightly active older individuals may improve their HRQL.

High Energy Astrophysics and Cosmology from Space: NASA's Physics of the Cosmos Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bautz, Marshall

2017-01-01

We summarize currently-funded NASA activities in high energy astrophysics and cosmology embodied in the NASA Physics of the Cosmos program, including updates on technology development and mission studies. The portfolio includes participation in a space mission to measure gravitational waves from a variety of astrophysical sources, including binary black holes, throughout most of cosmic history, and in another to map the evolution of black hole accretion by means of the accompanying X-ray emission. These missions are envisioned as collaborations with the European Space Agency's Large 3 (L3) and Athena programs, respectively. It also features definition of a large, NASA-led X-ray Observatory capable of tracing the surprisingly rapid growth of supermassive black holes during the first billion years of cosmic history. The program also includes the study of cosmic rays and high-energy gamma-ray photons resulting from range of physical processes, and efforts to characterize both the physics of inflation associated with the birth of the universe and the nature of the dark energy that dominates its mass-energy content today. Finally, we describe the activities of the Physics of the Cosmos Program Analysis Group, which serves as a forum for community analysis and input to NASA.

Koszul information geometry and Souriau Lie group thermodynamics

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

Barbaresco, Frédéric, E-mail: frederic.barbaresco@thalesgroup.com

The François Massieu 1869 idea to derive some mechanical and thermal properties of physical systems from 'Characteristic Functions', was developed by Gibbs and Duhem in thermodynamics with the concept of potentials, and introduced by Poincaré in probability. This paper deals with generalization of this Characteristic Function concept by Jean-Louis Koszul in Mathematics and by Jean-Marie Souriau in Statistical Physics. The Koszul-Vinberg Characteristic Function (KVCF) on convex cones will be presented as cornerstone of 'Information Geometry' theory, defining Koszul Entropy as Legendre transform of minus the logarithm of KVCF, and Fisher Information Metrics as hessian of these dual functions, invariant bymore » their automorphisms. In parallel, Souriau has extended the Characteristic Function in Statistical Physics looking for other kinds of invariances through co-adjoint action of a group on its momentum space, defining physical observables like energy, heat and momentum as pure geometrical objects. In covariant Souriau model, Gibbs equilibriums states are indexed by a geometric parameter, the Geometric (Planck) Temperature, with values in the Lie algebra of the dynamical Galileo/Poincaré groups, interpreted as a space-time vector, giving to the metric tensor a null Lie derivative. Fisher Information metric appears as the opposite of the derivative of Mean 'Moment map' by geometric temperature, equivalent to a Geometric Capacity or Specific Heat. These elements has been developed by author in [10][11].« less

Exactly solvable quantum cosmologies from two killing field reductions of general relativity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Husain, Viqar; Smolin, Lee

1989-11-01

An exact and, possibly, general solution to the quantum constraints is given for the sector of general relativity containing cosmological solutions with two space-like, commuting, Killing fields. The dynamics of these model space-times, which are known as Gowdy space-times, is formulated in terms of Ashtekar's new variables. The quantization is done by using the recently introduced self-dual and loop representations. On the classical phase space we find four explicit physical observables, or constants of motion, which generate a GL(2) symmetry group on the space of solutions. In the loop representations we find that a complete description of the physical state space, consisting of the simultaneous solutions to all of the constraints, is given in terms of the equivalence classes, under Diff(S1), of a pair of densities on the circle. These play the same role that the link classes play in the loop representation solution to the full 3+1 theory. An infinite dimensional algebra of physical observables is found on the physical state space, which is a GL(2) loop algebra. In addition, by freezing the local degrees of freedom of the model, we find a finite dimensional quantum system which describes a set of degenerate quantum cosmologies on T3 in which the length of one of the S1's has gone to zero, while the area of the remaining S1×S1 is quantized in units of the Planck area. The quantum kinematics of this sector of the model is identical to that of a one-plaquette SU(2) lattice gauge theory.

Design of Urban Public Spaces: Intent vs. Reality

PubMed Central

Martin, W. Mike; Stewart, Tom; Troelsen, Jens

2018-01-01

This study investigated how two public spaces for sport and recreation were utilized by different user groups, and how this aligned with the initial design objectives for these spaces. Two newly built urban spaces situated in Copenhagen, Denmark, provided the context for this investigation. The System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC) was used to examine the physical activity of users in these two urban spaces. The architects responsible for designing each space were interviewed to ascertain the intended target group of each space and to unravel the reasons behind the design decisions. The SOPARC observations revealed that males were more vigorously active than females when using the recreation facilities, and the observed users did not align with the intended target groups. The interviews suggested that design decisions were based on minimal interdisciplinary knowledge, and that expert knowledge was chosen randomly. These findings point to a systematic lack of evidence-based practice when designing sport and recreational facilities. This article has implications for landscape architects and urban planners; a new method must be developed to embed interdisciplinary knowledge in the planning process of future sport and recreation projects. This must be done in a systematic way to make the design process transparent. PMID:29690509

Preliminary design of the Space Station environmental control and life support system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reuter, J. L.; Turner, L. D.; Humphries, W. R.

1988-01-01

This paper outlines the current status of the Space Station Enrivonmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS). The seven subsystem groups which comprise the ECLSS are identified and their functional descriptions are provided. The impact that the nominal and safe haven operating requirements have on the physical distribution, sizing, and number of ECLSS subsystems is described. The role that the major ECLSS interfaces with other Space Station systems and elements play in the ECLSS design is described.

Differentiable representations of finite dimensional Lie groups in rigged Hilbert spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wickramasekara, Sujeewa

The inceptive motivation for introducing rigged Hilbert spaces (RHS) in quantum physics in the mid 1960's was to provide the already well established Dirac formalism with a proper mathematical context. It has since become clear, however, that this mathematical framework is lissome enough to accommodate a class of solutions to the dynamical equations of quantum physics that includes some which are not possible in the normative Hilbert space theory. Among the additional solutions, in particular, are those which describe aspects of scattering and decay phenomena that have eluded the orthodox quantum physics. In this light, the RHS formulation seems to provide a mathematical rubric under which various phenomenological observations and calculational techniques, commonly known in the study of resonance scattering and decay as ``effective theories'' (e.g., the Wigner- Weisskopf method), receive a unified theoretical foundation. These observations lead to the inference that a theory founded upon the RHS mathematics may prove to be of better utility and value in understanding quantum physical phenomena. This dissertation primarily aims to contribute to the general formalism of the RHS theory of quantum mechanics by undertaking a study of differentiable representations of finite dimensional Lie groups. In particular, it is shown that a finite dimensional operator Lie algebra G in a rigged Hilbert space can be always integrated, provided one parameter integrability holds true for the elements of any basis for G . This result differs from and extends the well known integration theorem of E. Nelson and the subsequent works of others on unitary representations in that it does not require any assumptions on the existence of analytic vectors. Also presented here is a construction of a particular rigged Hilbert space of Hardy class functions that appears useful in formulating a relativistic version of the RHS theory of resonances and decay. As a contexture for the construction, a synopsis of the new relativistic theory is presented.

Introduction of International Microgravity Strategic Planning Group

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rhome, Robert

1998-01-01

Established in May 6, 1995, the purpose of this International Strategic Planning Group for Microgravity Science and Applications Research is to develop and update, at least on a biennial basis, an International Strategic Plan for Microgravity Science and Applications Research. The member space agencies have agreed to contribute to the development of a Strategic Plan, and seek the implementation of the cooperative programs defined in this Plan. The emphasis of this plan is the coordination of hardware construction and utilization within the various areas of research including biotechnology, combustion science, fluid physics, materials science and other special topics in physical sciences. The Microgravity Science and Applications International Strategic Plan is a joint effort by the present members - ASI, CNES, CSA, DLR, ESA, NASA, and NASDA. It represents the consensus from a series of discussions held within the International Microgravity Strategic Planning Group (IMSPG). In 1996 several space agencies initiated multilateral discussions on how to improve the effectiveness of international microgravity research during the upcoming Space Station era. These discussions led to a recognition of the need for a comprehensive strategic plan for international microgravity research that would provide a framework for cooperation between international agencies. The Strategic Plan is intended to provide a basis for inter-agency coordination and cooperation in microgravity research in the environment of the International Space Station (ISS) era. This will be accomplished through analysis of the interests and goals of each participating agency and identification of mutual interests and program compatibilities. The Plan provides a framework for maximizing the productivity of space-based research for the benefit of our societies.

Race, space, place: notes on the racialisation and spatialisation of commercial sex work in Dubai, UAE.

PubMed

Mahdavi, Pardis

2010-11-01

This paper focuses on the perceived racialisation and resultant spatialisation of commercial sex in Dubai. In recent years, the sex industry in Dubai has grown to include women from the Middle East, Eastern Europe, East Asia and Africa. With the increase in sex workers of different nationalities has come a form of localised racism that is embedded in structures and desires seen within specific locations. The physical spatialisation of sex work hinges on perceived race and produces distinct income generating potential for women engaged in the sex industry in Dubai. The social and physical topography of Dubai is important in marginalising or privileging these various groups of sex workers, which correlates race, space and place with rights and assistance. I begin with a description of the multidirectional flows of causality between race, space, place and demand. I then discuss how these various groups are inversely spatialised within the discourse on assistance, protection and rights. The findings presented here are based on ethnographic research conducted with transnational migrants in the UAE in 2004, 2008 and 2009.

Multiagent Work Practice Simulation: Progress and Challenges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clancey, William J.; Sierhuis, Maarten; Shaffe, Michael G. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Modeling and simulating complex human-system interactions requires going beyond formal procedures and information flows to analyze how people interact with each other. Such work practices include conversations, modes of communication, informal assistance, impromptu meetings, workarounds, and so on. To make these social processes visible, we have developed a multiagent simulation tool, called Brahms, for modeling the activities of people belonging to multiple groups, situated in a physical environment (geographic regions, buildings, transport vehicles, etc.) consisting of tools, documents, and a computer system. We are finding many useful applications of Brahms for system requirements analysis, instruction, implementing software agents, and as a workbench for relating cognitive and social theories of human behavior. Many challenges remain for representing work practices, including modeling: memory over multiple days, scheduled activities combining physical objects, groups, and locations on a timeline (such as a Space Shuttle mission), habitat vehicles with trajectories (such as the Shuttle), agent movement in 3D space (e.g., inside the International Space Station), agent posture and line of sight, coupled movements (such as carrying objects), and learning (mimicry, forming habits, detecting repetition, etc.).

Multiagent Work Practice Simulation: Progress and Challenges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clancey, William J.; Sierhuis, Maarten

2002-01-01

Modeling and simulating complex human-system interactions requires going beyond formal procedures and information flows to analyze how people interact with each other. Such work practices include conversations, modes of communication, informal assistance, impromptu meetings, workarounds, and so on. To make these social processes visible, we have developed a multiagent simulation tool, called Brahms, for modeling the activities of people belonging to multiple groups, situated in a physical environment (geographic regions, buildings, transport vehicles, etc.) consisting of tools, documents, and computer systems. We are finding many useful applications of Brahms for system requirements analysis, instruction, implementing software agents, and as a workbench for relating cognitive and social theories of human behavior. Many challenges remain for representing work practices, including modeling: memory over multiple days, scheduled activities combining physical objects, groups, and locations on a timeline (such as a Space Shuttle mission), habitat vehicles with trajectories (such as the Shuttle), agent movement in 3d space (e.g., inside the International Space Station), agent posture and line of sight, coupled movements (such as carrying objects), and learning (mimicry, forming habits, detecting repetition, etc.).

Kinematic state estimation and motion planning for stochastic nonholonomic systems using the exponential map.

PubMed

Park, Wooram; Liu, Yan; Zhou, Yu; Moses, Matthew; Chirikjian, Gregory S

2008-04-11

A nonholonomic system subjected to external noise from the environment, or internal noise in its own actuators, will evolve in a stochastic manner described by an ensemble of trajectories. This ensemble of trajectories is equivalent to the solution of a Fokker-Planck equation that typically evolves on a Lie group. If the most likely state of such a system is to be estimated, and plans for subsequent motions from the current state are to be made so as to move the system to a desired state with high probability, then modeling how the probability density of the system evolves is critical. Methods for solving Fokker-Planck equations that evolve on Lie groups then become important. Such equations can be solved using the operational properties of group Fourier transforms in which irreducible unitary representation (IUR) matrices play a critical role. Therefore, we develop a simple approach for the numerical approximation of all the IUR matrices for two of the groups of most interest in robotics: the rotation group in three-dimensional space, SO(3), and the Euclidean motion group of the plane, SE(2). This approach uses the exponential mapping from the Lie algebras of these groups, and takes advantage of the sparse nature of the Lie algebra representation matrices. Other techniques for density estimation on groups are also explored. The computed densities are applied in the context of probabilistic path planning for kinematic cart in the plane and flexible needle steering in three-dimensional space. In these examples the injection of artificial noise into the computational models (rather than noise in the actual physical systems) serves as a tool to search the configuration spaces and plan paths. Finally, we illustrate how density estimation problems arise in the characterization of physical noise in orientational sensors such as gyroscopes.

Working Group Reports and Presentations: Earth 3.0.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dator, James

2006-01-01

We affirm the principle that a viable human space exploration program must be conducted hand-in-hand with a comprehensive scientific research program that incorporates both the physical and life sciences and that continues to protect and extend understanding of our home planet. Without advances in life science, we will be incapable of devising self-sustaining extraterrestrial habitats, and we will struggle to survive on the only living planet we know. Without advances in the physical sciences, we limit our ability to imagine new technologies for space travel and to understand the nature of the universe we explore. Scientific advances expand the boundaries of humanity s dreams.

Polyimides Containing Pendent Phosphine Oxide Groups for Space Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, C. M.; Smith, J. G., Jr.; Watson, K. A.; Connell, J. W.

2002-01-01

As part of an ongoing materials development activity to produce high performance polymers that are durable to the space environment, phosphine oxide containing polyimides have been under investigation. A novel dianhydride was prepared from 2,5-dihydroxyphenyldiphenylphosphine oxide in good yield. The dianhydride was reacted with commercially available diamines, and a previously reported diamine was reacted with commercially available dianhydrides to prepare isomeric polyimides. The physical and mechanical properties, particularly thermal and optical properties, of the polymers were determined. One material exhibited a high glass transition temperature, high tensile properties, and low solar absorptivity. The chemistry, physical, and mechanical properties of these resins will be discussed.

Geometry of Theory Space and RG Flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kar, Sayan

The space of couplings of a given theory is the arena of interest in this article. Equipped with a metric ansatz akin to the Fisher information matrix in the space of parameters in statistics (similar metrics in physics are the Zamolodchikov metric or the O'Connor-Stephens metric) we investigate the geometry of theory space through a study of specific examples. We then look into renormalisation group flows in theory space and make an attempt to characterise such flows via its isotropic expansion, rotation and shear. Consequences arising from the evolution equation for the isotropic expansion are discussed. We conclude by pointing out generalisations and pose some open questions.

Solid polymeric electrolytes for lithium batteries

DOEpatents

Angell, Charles A.; Xu, Wu; Sun, Xiaoguang

2006-03-14

Novel conductive polyanionic polymers and methods for their preparion are provided. The polyanionic polymers comprise repeating units of weakly-coordinating anionic groups chemically linked to polymer chains. The polymer chains in turn comprise repeating spacer groups. Spacer groups can be chosen to be of length and structure to impart desired electrochemical and physical properties to the polymers. Preferred embodiments are prepared from precursor polymers comprising the Lewis acid borate tri-coordinated to a selected ligand and repeating spacer groups to form repeating polymer chain units. These precursor polymers are reacted with a chosen Lewis base to form a polyanionic polymer comprising weakly coordinating anionic groups spaced at chosen intervals along the polymer chain. The polyanionic polymers exhibit high conductivity and physical properties which make them suitable as solid polymeric electrolytes in lithium batteries, especially secondary lithium batteries.

Linear canonical transformations of coherent and squeezed states in the Wigner phase space. III - Two-mode states

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Han, D.; Kim, Y. S.; Noz, Marilyn E.

1990-01-01

It is shown that the basic symmetry of two-mode squeezed states is governed by the group SP(4) in the Wigner phase space which is locally isomorphic to the (3 + 2)-dimensional Lorentz group. This symmetry, in the Schroedinger picture, appears as Dirac's two-oscillator representation of O(3,2). It is shown that the SU(2) and SU(1,1) interferometers exhibit the symmetry of this higher-dimensional Lorentz group. The mathematics of two-mode squeezed states is shown to be applicable to other branches of physics including thermally excited states in statistical mechanics and relativistic extended hadrons in the quark model.

Spatially-protected Topology and Group Cohomology in Band Insulators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexandradinata, A.

This thesis investigates band topologies which rely fundamentally on spatial symmetries. A basic geometric property that distinguishes spatial symmetry regards their transformation of the spatial origin. Point groups consist of spatial transformations that preserve the spatial origin, while un-split extensions of the point groups by spatial translations are referred to as nonsymmorphic space groups. The first part of the thesis addresses topological phases with discretely-robust surface properties: we introduce theories for the Cnv point groups, as well as certain nonsymmorphic groups that involve glide reflections. These band insulators admit a powerful characterization through the geometry of quasimomentum space; parallel transport in this space is represented by the Wilson loop. The non-symmorphic topology we study is naturally described by a further extension of the nonsymmorphic space group by quasimomentum translations (the Wilson loop), thus placing real and quasimomentum space on equal footing -- here, we introduce the language of group cohomology into the theory of band insulators. The second part of the thesis addresses topological phases without surface properties -- their only known physical consequences are discrete signatures in parallel transport. We provide two such case studies with spatial-inversion and discrete-rotational symmetries respectively. One lesson learned here regards the choice of parameter loops in which we carry out transport -- the loop must be chosen to exploit the symmetry that protects the topology. While straight loops are popular for their connection with the geometric theory of polarization, we show that bent loops also have utility in topological band theory.

Effect of a governmentally-led physical activity program on motor skills in young children attending child care centers: a cluster randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Bonvin, Antoine; Barral, Jérôme; Kakebeeke, Tanja H; Kriemler, Susi; Longchamp, Anouk; Schindler, Christian; Marques-Vidal, Pedro; Puder, Jardena J

2013-07-08

To assess the effect of a governmentally-led center based child care physical activity program (Youp'là Bouge) on child motor skills. We conducted a single blinded cluster randomized controlled trial in 58 Swiss child care centers. Centers were randomly selected and 1:1 assigned to a control or intervention group. The intervention lasted from September 2009 to June 2010 and included training of the educators, adaptation of the child care built environment, parental involvement and daily physical activity. Motor skill was the primary outcome and body mass index (BMI), physical activity and quality of life secondary outcomes. The intervention implementation was also assessed. At baseline, 648 children present on the motor test day were included (age 3.3 ± 0.6, BMI 16.3 ± 1.3 kg/m2, 13.2% overweight, 49% girls) and 313 received the intervention. Relative to children in the control group (n = 201), children in the intervention group (n = 187) showed no significant increase in motor skills (delta of mean change (95% confidence interval: -0.2 (-0.8 to 0.3), p = 0.43) or in any of the secondary outcomes. Not all child care centers implemented all the intervention components. Within the intervention group, several predictors were positively associated with trial outcomes: (1) free-access to a movement space and parental information session for motor skills (2) highly motivated and trained educators for BMI (3) free-access to a movement space and purchase of mobile equipment for physical activity (all p < 0.05). This "real-life" physical activity program in child care centers confirms the complexity of implementing an intervention outside a study setting and identified potentially relevant predictors that could improve future programs. Clinical trials.gov NCT00967460.

Association of physical activity and physical fitness with blood pressure profile in Gujarati Indian adolescents.

PubMed

Shaikh, Wasim A; Patel, Minal C; Singh, S K

2011-01-01

The current study was conducted to determine how physical activity level and physical fitness affects the blood pressure profile of Gujarati Indian adolescents so as to help in developing preventive strategies for the local population as ethnic differences exist in the aetiopathogenesis of hypertension. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 485 Gujarati Indian adolescent boys and girls of age group 16-19 years. Physical activity level was assessed using Johnson Space Center/NASA Physical Activity Rating Scale and VO2 max was used to assess the physical fitness. Body composition was assessed in terms of Body Mass Index, Fat Mass Index and Waist Circumference. Blood Pressure was measured by oscillometry. One-way ANOVA was used to study if any significant differences (P<0.05) existed in the blood pressure profile between the high, moderate and low physical activity groups. Pearson's correlation coefficient was determined to assess the relationship between VO2 max and blood pressure profile. In girls, physical activity level was not found to have a significant effect on the blood pressure profile. In boys, systolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure were found to be significantly higher in Moderate Physical Activity Group as compared to Low Physical Activity Group. PVO2 max was found to have a significant negative correlationship with SBP, DBP and MAP in girls and a significant negative correlationship with SBP, PP and MAP in boys. It could thus be concluded that a better physical fitness rather than a higher physical activity level could keep the blood pressure in check in the Gujarati Indian adolescents.

SPASE: The Connection Among Solar and Space Physics Data Centers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thieman, James R.; King, Todd A.; Roberts, D. Aaron

2011-01-01

The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) project is an international collaboration among Heliophysics (solar and space physics) groups concerned with data acquisition and archiving. Within this community there are a variety of old and new data centers, resident archives, "virtual observatories", etc. acquiring, holding, and distributing data. A researcher interested in finding data of value for his or her study faces a complex data environment. The SPASE group has simplified the search for data through the development of the SPASE Data Model as a common method to describe data sets in the various archives. The data model is an XML-based schema and is now in operational use. There are both positives and negatives to this approach. The advantage is the common metadata language enabling wide-ranging searches across the archives, but it is difficult to inspire the data holders to spend the time necessary to describe their data using the Model. Software tools have helped, but the main motivational factor is wide-ranging use of the standard by the community. The use is expanding, but there are still other groups who could benefit from adopting SPASE. The SPASE Data Model is also being expanded in the sense of providing the means for more detailed description of data sets with the aim of enabling more automated ingestion and use of the data through detailed format descriptions. We will discuss the present state of SPASE usage and how we foresee development in the future. The evolution is based on a number of lessons learned - some unique to Heliophysics, but many common to the various data disciplines.

Heliophysics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Austin, M.; Guhathakurta, M.; Schrijver, C. J.; Bagenal, F.; Sojka, J. J.

2013-12-01

Title: Heliophysics Presentation Type: Poster Current Section/Focus Group: SPA-Solar and Heliosphere Physics (SH) Current Session: SH-01. SPA-Solar and Heliosphere Physics General Contributions Authors: Meg Austin1, Madhulika Guhathakurta2, Carolus Schrijver3, Frances Bagenal4, Jan Sojka5 1. UCAR Visiting Scientist Programs 2. NASA Living With a Star Program 3. Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center 4. Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado 5. Utah State University Abstract: Heliophysics is a developing scientific discipline integrating studies of the Sun's variability, the surrounding heliosphere, and climate environments. Over the past few centuries our understanding of how the Sun drives space weather and climate on the Earth and other planets has advanced at an ever-increasing rate. NASA Living With a Star and the UCAR Visiting Scientist Progams sponsor the annual Heliophysics Summer Schools to build the next generation of scientists in this emerging field. The highly successful series of the summer schools (commencing 2007) trains a select group of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and university faculty to learn and develop the science of heliophysics as a broad, coherent discipline that reaches in space from the Earth's troposphere to the depths of the Sun, and in time from the formation of the solar system to the distant future. The first three years of the school resulted in the publication of three textbooks now being used at universities worldwide. Subsequent years have also developed the complementary materials that support teaching of heliophysics at both graduate and undergraduate levels. The textbooks are edited by Carolus J. Schrijver, Lockheed Martin, and George L. Siscoe, Boston University. The books provide a foundational reference for researchers in heliophysics, astrophysics, plasma physics, space physics, solar physics aeronomy, space weather, planetary science and climate science. The Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellowship Program matches newly graduated postdoctorates with hosting mentors for the purpose of training the next generation researchers needed in heliophysics. The fellowships are for two years, and any U.S. university or research lab may apply to host a fellow. Two major topics of focus for the program are the science of space weather and of the Sun-climate connection. Since the goal of this fellowship program is to train Sun-Earth system researchers, preference is also given to research projects that cross the traditional heliophysics subdomains of the Sun, heliosphere, magnetosphere, and ionosphere/upper atmosphere, as well as Sun-climate investigations. Host mentors plan critical roles. Potential hosts may enter information about their research on a central database.

Space Science

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-04-01

Using the Solar Vector Magnetograph, a solar observation facility at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), scientists from the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, Alabama, are monitoring the explosive potential of magnetic areas of the Sun. This effort could someday lead to better prediction of severe space weather, a phenomenon that occurs when blasts of particles and magnetic fields from the Sun impact the magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble around the Earth. When massive solar explosions, known as coronal mass ejections, blast through the Sun's outer atmosphere and plow toward Earth at speeds of thousands of miles per second, the resulting effects can be harmful to communication satellites and astronauts outside the Earth's magnetosphere. Like severe weather on Earth, severe space weather can be costly. On the ground, magnetic storms wrought by these solar particles can knock out electric power. Photographed are a group of contributing researchers in front of the Solar Vector Magnetograph at MSFC. The researchers are part of NSSTC's solar physics group, which develops instruments for measuring magnetic fields on the Sun. With these instruments, the group studies the origin, structure, and evolution of the solar magnetic fields and the impact they have on Earth's space environment.

Quantum theory in real Hilbert space: How the complex Hilbert space structure emerges from Poincaré symmetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moretti, Valter; Oppio, Marco

As earlier conjectured by several authors and much later established by Solèr (relying on partial results by Piron, Maeda-Maeda and other authors), from the lattice theory point of view, Quantum Mechanics may be formulated in real, complex or quaternionic Hilbert spaces only. Stückelberg provided some physical, but not mathematically rigorous, reasons for ruling out the real Hilbert space formulation, assuming that any formulation should encompass a statement of Heisenberg principle. Focusing on this issue from another — in our opinion, deeper — viewpoint, we argue that there is a general fundamental reason why elementary quantum systems are not described in real Hilbert spaces. It is their basic symmetry group. In the first part of the paper, we consider an elementary relativistic system within Wigner’s approach defined as a locally-faithful irreducible strongly-continuous unitary representation of the Poincaré group in a real Hilbert space. We prove that, if the squared-mass operator is non-negative, the system admits a natural, Poincaré invariant and unique up to sign, complex structure which commutes with the whole algebra of observables generated by the representation itself. This complex structure leads to a physically equivalent reformulation of the theory in a complex Hilbert space. Within this complex formulation, differently from what happens in the real one, all selfadjoint operators represent observables in accordance with Solèr’s thesis, and the standard quantum version of Noether theorem may be formulated. In the second part of this work, we focus on the physical hypotheses adopted to define a quantum elementary relativistic system relaxing them on the one hand, and making our model physically more general on the other hand. We use a physically more accurate notion of irreducibility regarding the algebra of observables only, we describe the symmetries in terms of automorphisms of the restricted lattice of elementary propositions of the quantum system and we adopt a notion of continuity referred to the states viewed as probability measures on the elementary propositions. Also in this case, the final result proves that there exists a unique (up to sign) Poincaré invariant complex structure making the theory complex and completely fitting into Solèr’s picture. This complex structure reveals a nice interplay of Poincaré symmetry and the classification of the commutant of irreducible real von Neumann algebras.

The Ultimate Monte Carlo: Studying Cross-Sections With Cosmic Rays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, Thomas L.

2007-01-01

The high-energy physics community has been discussing for years the need to bring together the three principal disciplines that study hadron cross-section physics - ground-based accelerators, cosmic-ray experiments in space, and air shower research. Only recently have NASA investigators begun discussing the use of space-borne cosmic-ray payloads to bridge the gap between accelerator physics and air shower work using cosmic-ray measurements. The common tool used in these three realms of high-energy hadron physics is the Monte Carlo (MC). Yet the obvious has not been considered - using a single MC for simulating the entire relativistic energy range (GeV to EeV). The task is daunting due to large uncertainties in accelerator, space, and atmospheric cascade measurements. These include inclusive versus exclusive cross-section measurements, primary composition, interaction dynamics, and possible new physics beyond the standard model. However, the discussion of a common tool or ultimate MC might be the very thing that could begin to unify these independent groups into a common purpose. The Offline ALICE concept of a Virtual MC at CERN s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be discussed as a rudimentary beginning of this idea, and as a possible forum for carrying it forward in the future as LHC data emerges.

Assessing the effect of physical activity classes in public spaces on leisure-time physical activity: "Al Ritmo de las Comunidades" A natural experiment in Bogota, Colombia.

PubMed

Torres, Andrea; Díaz, María Paula; Hayat, Matthew J; Lyn, Rodney; Pratt, Michael; Salvo, Deborah; Sarmiento, Olga L

2017-10-01

The Recreovia program provides free physical activity (PA) classes in public spaces in Bogota, Colombia. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the Recreovia program in increasing PA among users of nine parks in Bogota. This study was a natural experiment conducted between 2013 and 2015 in Bogota. Community members and park users living nearby three groups of parks were compared: Group 1 were parks implementing new Recreovias (n=3), Group 2 were control parks (n=3) without Recreovias, and Group 3 were parks with existing Recreovías. Individuals in the "intervention" group were exposed to newly implemented Recreovia programs in parks near their homes. Measurements were collected at baseline and 6-8months after the intervention started. A total of 1533 participants were enrolled in the study: 501 for the existing Recreovias (included in a cross-sectional assessment) and 1032 participants (from the new Recreovias and control parks) included in the cross-sectional and pre-post study. Most participants were low income females. Twenty-three percent of the intervention group started participating in the program. Users of existing Recreovias were significantly more active and less likely to be overweight/obese compared to new Recreovia users at baseline. No changes on PA were found when comparing the intervention and control groups. Recreovias may have potential for increasing PA at the population level in urban areas given their rapid scalability, the higher levels of PA observed among program users, and its potential to reach women, low-income, less educated populations, and the overweight and obese. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Artificial gravity as a multi-system countermeasure: effects on cognitive function.

PubMed

Seaton, Kimberly A; Slack, Kelley J; Sipes, Walter; Bowie, Kendra

2007-07-01

The Space Flight Cognitive Assessment Tool for Windows (WinSCAT) is used on the International Space Station to evaluate cognitive functioning after physical insult or trauma. The current study uses WinSCAT to assess cognitive functioning in a space flight analog (bed rest) environment where intermittent artificial gravity (AG) is being tested as a countermeasure. Fifteen male subjects (8 treatment, 7 control), who participated in 21 days of 6 degree head-down tilt bed rest, were assessed during the acclimatization phase, bed rest phase, and recovery phase. Individual differences were found within both the treatment and control groups. The treatment group accounted for more off-nominal WinSCAT scores than the control group. The length of time spent in bed rest was not associated with a change in cognitive function. Individual differences in underlying cognitive ability and motivation level are other possible explanations for the current findings.

Optics. Spatially structured photons that travel in free space slower than the speed of light.

PubMed

Giovannini, Daniel; Romero, Jacquiline; Potoček, Václav; Ferenczi, Gergely; Speirits, Fiona; Barnett, Stephen M; Faccio, Daniele; Padgett, Miles J

2015-02-20

That the speed of light in free space is constant is a cornerstone of modern physics. However, light beams have finite transverse size, which leads to a modification of their wave vectors resulting in a change to their phase and group velocities. We study the group velocity of single photons by measuring a change in their arrival time that results from changing the beam's transverse spatial structure. Using time-correlated photon pairs, we show a reduction in the group velocity of photons in both a Bessel beam and photons in a focused Gaussian beam. In both cases, the delay is several micrometers over a propagation distance of ~1 meter. Our work highlights that, even in free space, the invariance of the speed of light only applies to plane waves. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The physical work environment and end-user requirements: Investigating marine engineering officers' operational demands and ship design.

PubMed

Mallam, Steven C; Lundh, Monica

2016-08-12

Physical environments influence how individuals perceive a space and behave within it. Previous research has revealed deficiencies in ship engine department work environments, and their impact on crew productivity, health and wellbeing. Connect operational task demands to pragmatic physical design and layout solutions by implementing a user-centric perspective. Three focus groups, each consisting of three marine engineers participated in this study. Focus groups were divided into two sessions: first, to investigate the end-user's operational requirements and their relationship with ship physical design and layout. Second, criteria formulated from group discussions were applied to a ship design case study. All focus group sessions were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were analyzed using Grounded Theory. Design choices made in a ships general arrangement were described to inherently influence how individuals and teams are able to function within the system. Participants detailed logistical relationships between key areas, stressing that the work environment and physical linkages must allow for flexibility of work organization and task execution. Traditional engine control paradigms do not allow effective mitigation of traditional engine department challenges. The influence of technology and modernization of ship systems can facilitate improvement of physical environments and work organization if effectively utilized.

Connecting physical and social dimensions of place attachment: What can we learn from attachment to urban recreational spaces?

PubMed

Madgin, Rebecca; Bradley, Lisa; Hastings, Annette

2016-01-01

This paper is concerned with the ways in which people form attachments to recreational spaces. More specifically it examines the relationship between recreational spaces associated with sporting activity in urban neighbourhoods and place attachment. The focus is on the ways in which changes to these spaces exposes the affective bonds between people and their surroundings. The paper applies a qualitative methodology, namely focus groups and photo elicitation, to the case study of Parkhead, a neighbourhood in the East End of Glasgow. Parkhead has historically been subjected to successive waves of redevelopment as a result of deindustrialization in the late twentieth century. More recently redevelopment associated with the 2014 Commonwealth Games involved further changes to neighbourhood recreational spaces, including refurbishing of existing sports facilities and building new ones. This paper reflects on the cumulative impacts of this redevelopment to conclude (a) that recreational sports spaces provoke multi-layered and complex attachments that are inextricably connected to both temporal and spatial narratives and (b) that research on neighbourhood recreational spaces can develop our understanding of the intricate relationship between the social and physical dimensions of place attachment.

Physically detached 'compact groups'

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hernquist, Lars; Katz, Neal; Weinberg, David H.

1995-01-01

A small fraction of galaxies appear to reside in dense compact groups, whose inferred crossing times are much shorter than a Hubble time. These short crossing times have led to considerable disagreement among researchers attempting to deduce the dynamical state of these systems. In this paper, we suggest that many of the observed groups are not physically bound but are chance projections of galaxies well separated along the line of sight. Unlike earlier similar proposals, ours does not require that the galaxies in the compact group be members of a more diffuse, but physically bound entity. The probability of physically separated galaxies projecting into an apparent compact group is nonnegligible if most galaxies are distributed in thin filaments. We illustrate this general point with a specific example: a simulation of a cold dark matter universe, in which hydrodynamic effects are included to identify galaxies. The simulated galaxy distribution is filamentary and end-on views of these filaments produce apparent galaxy associations that have sizes and velocity dispersions similar to those of observed compact groups. The frequency of such projections is sufficient, in principle, to explain the observed space density of groups in the Hickson catalog. We discuss the implications of our proposal for the formation and evolution of groups and elliptical galaxies. The proposal can be tested by using redshift-independent distance estimators to measure the line-of-sight spatial extent of nearby compact groups.

MSFC's Advanced Space Propulsion Formulation Task

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huebner, Lawrence D.; Gerrish, Harold P.; Robinson, Joel W.; Taylor, Terry L.

2012-01-01

In NASA s Fiscal Year 2012, a small project was undertaken to provide additional substance, depth, and activity knowledge to the technology areas identified in the In-Space Propulsion Systems Roadmap, Technology Area 02 (TA-02), as created under the auspices of the NASA Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT). This roadmap was divided into four basic groups: (1) Chemical Propulsion, (2) Non-chemical Propulsion, (3) Advanced (TRL<3) Propulsion Technologies, and (4) Supporting Technologies. The first two were grouped according to the governing physics. The third group captured technologies and physic concepts that are at a lower TRL level. The fourth group identified pertinent technical areas that are strongly coupled with these related areas which could allow significant improvements in performance. There were a total of 45 technologies identified in TA-02, and 25 of these were studied in this formulation task. The goal of this task was to provide OCT with a knowledge-base for decisionmaking on advanced space propulsion technologies and not waste money by unintentionally repeating past projects or funding the technologies with minor impacts. This formulation task developed the next level of detail for technologies described and provides context to OCT where investments should be made. The presentation will begin with the list of technologies from TA-02, how they were prioritized for this study, and details on what additional data was captured for the technologies studied. Following this, some samples of the documentation will be provided, followed by plans on how the data will be made accessible.

Lorentz Invariance of Gravitational Lagrangians in the Space of Reference Frames

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cognola, G.

1980-06-01

The recently proposed theories of gravitation in the space of reference frames S are based on a Lagrangian invariant with respect to the homogeneous Lorentz group. However, in theories of this kind, the Lorentz invariance is not a necessary consequence of some physical principles, as in the theories formulated in space-time, but rather a purely esthetic request. In the present paper, we give a systematic method for the construction of gravitational theories in the space S, without assuming a priori the Lorentz invariance of the Lagrangian. The Einstein-Cartan equations of gravitation are obtained requiring only that the Lagrangian is invariant under proper rotations and has particular transformation properties under space reflections and space-time dilatations

Wayfinding: a quality factor in human design approach to healthcare facilities.

PubMed

Del Nord, R

1999-01-01

The specific aim of this paper is the systematic analysis of interactions and reciprocal conditions existing between the physical space of hospital buildings and the different categories of individuals that come in contact with them. The physical and environmental facilities of hospital architecture often influence the therapeutic character of space and the employees. If the values of the individual are to be safeguarded in this context, priority needs to be given to such factors as communication, privacy, etc. This would mean the involvement of other professional groups such as psychologists, sociologists, ergonomists, etc. at the hospital building planning stage. This paper will outline the result of some research conducted at the University Research Center "TESIS" of Florence to provide better understanding of design strategies applied to reduce the pathology of spaces within the healthcare environment. The case studies will highlight the parameters and the possible architectural solutions to wayfinding and the humanization of spaces, with particular emphasis on lay-outs, technologies, furniture and finishing design.

Space physics and policy for contemporary society

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cassak, P. A.; Emslie, A. G.; Halford, A. J.; Baker, D. N.; Spence, H. E.; Avery, S. K.; Fisk, L. A.

2017-04-01

Space physics is the study of Earth's home in space. Elements of space physics include how the Sun works from its interior to its atmosphere, the environment between the Sun and planets out to the interstellar medium, and the physics of the magnetic barriers surrounding Earth and other planets. Space physics is highly relevant to society. Space weather, with its goal of predicting how Earth's technological infrastructure responds to activity on the Sun, is an oft-cited example, but there are many more. Space physics has important impacts in formulating public policy.

Identity, Physical Space, and Stigma Among African American Men Living with HIV in Chicago and Seattle.

PubMed

Singleton, Judith L; Raunig, Manuela; Brunsteter, Halley; Desmond, Michelle; Rao, Deepa

2015-12-01

African American men have the highest rates of HIV in the USA, and research has shown that stigma, mistrust of health care, and other psychosocial factors interfere with optimal engagement in care with this population. In order to further understand reducing stigma and other psychosocial issues among African American men, we conducted qualitative interviews and focus groups with African American men in two metropolitan areas in the USA: Chicago and Seattle. We examined transcripts for relationships across variables of stigma, anonymity, self-identity, and space within the context of HIV. Our analysis pointed to similarities between experiences of stigma across the two cities and illustrated the relationships between space, isolation, and preferred anonymity related to living with HIV. The men in our study often preferred that their HIV-linked identities remain invisible and anonymous, associated with perceived and created isolation from physical community spaces. This article suggests that our health care and housing institutions may influence preferences for anonymity. We make recommendations in key areas to create safer spaces for African American men living with HIV and reduce feelings of stigma and isolation.

Experiments in Planetary and Related Sciences and the Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greeley, Ronald (Editor); Williams, Richard J. (Editor)

1987-01-01

Numerous workshops were held to provide a forum for discussing the full range of possible experiments, their science rationale, and the requirements on the Space Station, should such experiments eventually be flown. During the workshops, subgroups met to discuss areas of common interest. Summaries of each group and abstracts of contributed papers as they developed from a workshop on September 15 to 16, 1986, are included. Topics addressed include: planetary impact experimentation; physics of windblown particles; particle formation and interaction; experimental cosmochemistry in the space station; and an overview of the program to place advanced automation and robotics on the space station.

Space Station Habitability Recommendations Based on a Systematic Comparative Analysis of Analogous Conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stuster, Jack W.

1986-01-01

Conditions analogous to the proposed NASA Space Station are systematically analyzed in order to extrapolate design guidelines and recommendations concerning habitability and crew productivity. Analogous environments studied included Skylab, Sealab, Tektite, submarines, Antarctic stations and oil drilling platforms, among others. These analogues were compared and rated for size and composition of group, social organization, preparedness for mission, duration of tour, types of tasks, physical and psychological isolation, personal motivation, perceived risk, and quality of habitat and life support conditions. One-hundred design recommendations concerning, sleep, clothing, exercise, medical support, personal hygiene, food preparation, group interaction, habitat aesthetics, outside communications, recreational opportunities, privacy and personal space, waste disposal, onboard training, simulation and task preparation, and behavioral and physiological requirements associated with a microgravity environment, are provided.

A 12 years brazilian space education activity experience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stancato, Fernando; Gustavo Catalani Racca, João; Ballarotti, MaurícioG.

2001-03-01

A multidisciplinary group of students from the university and latter also from the high school was formed in 1988 with the objective to make them put in practice their knowledge in physics, chemistry and mathematics and engineering fields in experimental rocketry. The group was called "Grupo de Foguetes Experimentais", GFE. Since that time more than 150 students passed throw the group and now many of them are in the space arena. The benefits for students in a space hands-on project are many: More interest in their school subjects is gotten as they see an application for them; Interrelation attitudes are learned as space projects is a team activity; Responsibility is gained as each is responsible for a part of a critical mission project; Multidisciplinary and international experience is gotten as these are space project characteristics; Learn how to work in a high stress environment as use to be a project launch. This paper will cover the educational experiences gotten during these years and how some structured groups work. It is explained the objectives and how the group was formed. The group structure and the different phases that at each year the new team passes are described. It is shown the different activities that the group uses to do from scientific seminars, scientific club and international meetings to technical tours and assistance to rocket activities in regional schools. It is also explained the group outreach activities as some launches were covered by the media in more then 6 articles in newspaper and 7 television news. In 1999 as formed an official group called NATA, Núcleo de Atividades Aerospaciais within the Universidade Estadual de Londrina, UEL, by some GFE members and teachers from university. It is explained the first group project results.

Long-term follow-up effects of the HomeStyles randomized controlled trial in families with preschool children on social cognitive theory constructs associated with physical activity cognitions and behaviors.

PubMed

Quick, Virginia; Martin-Biggers, Jennifer; Povis, Gayle Alleman; Worobey, John; Hongu, Nobuko; Byrd-Bredbenner, Carol

2018-05-01

This study examined long-term follow-up effects of participation in the HomeStyles RCT, using Social Cognitive Theory constructs, on physical activity cognitions, home environment, and lifestyle behavioral practices of families with preschool children (ages 2 to 5 years). Parents were systematically randomized to experimental or attention control group at baseline. Those completing all surveys that comprised of valid, reliable measures were the analytic sample (n = 61 experimental, n = 63 control; mean age 32.8 ± 5.9SD years). Repeated measures ANCOVA, controlling for prognostic variables (e.g., parent sex) revealed that variables assessing modeling of physical activity for children increased significantly (P ≤ .01) in both groups with no significant time by group effects. Paired t-tests indicated the experimental group's self-efficacy for keeping children's weight healthy and performing health promoting behaviors increased significantly over time whereas the control group did not but with no significant time by group effects. Self-regulation paired t-test findings indicated that total screentime the experimental group allowed children decreased significantly over time with no significant time by group effect. The value parents placed on physical activity for children increased over time in both groups with a significant time effect. The experimental group over time had significantly greater increases in the availability of physical activity space and supports inside the home than the control group. Improvements noted have the potential to help protect children and parents from excess weight gain, yet findings indicate considerable opportunity for continued improvement as well as elucidation of factors affecting concomitant changes in both study groups. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The topology of Double Field Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hassler, Falk

2018-04-01

We describe the doubled space of Double Field Theory as a group manifold G with an arbitrary generalized metric. Local information from the latter is not relevant to our discussion and so G only captures the topology of the doubled space. Strong Constraint solutions are maximal isotropic submanifold M in G. We construct them and their Generalized Geometry in Double Field Theory on Group Manifolds. In general, G admits different physical subspace M which are Poisson-Lie T-dual to each other. By studying two examples, we reproduce the topology changes induced by T-duality with non-trivial H-flux which were discussed by Bouwknegt, Evslin and Mathai [1].

Different habitus: different strategies in teaching physics? Relationships between teachers' social, economic and cultural capital and strategies in teaching physics in upper secondary school

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engström, Susanne; Carlhed, Carina

2014-09-01

With environmental awareness in the societies of today, political steering documents emphasize that all education should include sustainable development. But it seems to be others competing ideals for teaching physics, or why do the physics teachers teach as they do? Physics teachers in secondary school in Sweden have generally, been focused on facts and a strong link with scientific theories and concepts. In general, the curriculum sway the teaching, a standard text book in physics is used, the teaching is organized according to the book and the teacher deals with and demonstrates typical tasks on the whiteboard and group work is common for special issues related to tasks from the textbook or elaborating. The aim with this study is to analyze why physics teachers in upper secondary school choose to teach energy as they do. Data emerging from a questionnaire focused on indicators of the teachers' cultural and economic assets, or capital, according to the work of Pierre Bourdieu's sociology. Especially his concept on life styles and habitus provide a tool for analysis. We focus on physics teachers' positions in the social space, dispositions and standpoints towards the ideal way to teach physics in upper secondary school (n = 268). Our response rate is 29 % and due to the low response rate a non response bias analysis was made. In our analysis we primarily sought for groups, with a cluster analysis based on the teaching practice, revealed common features for both what and how they teach and three different teaching types emerged. Then we reconstructed the group habitus of the teachers by analyzing dispositions and standpoints and related those to the specific polarization of sacred values, that is struggles about the natural order (doxa) in the social space of science education, which is a part of and has boundaries to dominating fields like the natural sciences and the political fields (curriculum etc.). Three teacher-groups' habituses are described and analyzed; (1) The Manager of the Traditional, (2) The Challenger for Technology and (3) The Challenger for Citizenship. By constructing the habitus of the teachers in the different groups we can explain why teachers teach as they do and thereby make a contribution to both science education research and to teaching training, whereas reflective approach which also includes the individual dispositions and representations are paramount. In our paper we elaborate the grounds and implications of these findings further.

Space physics strategy-implementation study. Volume 1: Goals, objectives, strategy. A report to the Space Physics Subcommittee of the Space Science and Applications Advisory Committee

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

Space physics is defined as the study of the heliosphere as one system; that is, of the Sun and solar wind, and their interactions with the upper atmospheres, ionospheres, and magnetospheres of the planets and comets, with energetic particles, and with the interstellar medium. This report contains a number of reports by different panels on the major topics in the space physics program including: (1) the cosmic and heliospheric physics program for the years 1995 to 2010; (2) ionosphere, thermosphere, and mesosphere studies; (3) magnetospheric physics; (4) solar physics; and (5) space physics theory.

Hyperconifold transitions, mirror symmetry, and string theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davies, Rhys

2011-09-01

Multiply-connected Calabi-Yau threefolds are of particular interest for both string theorists and mathematicians. Recently it was pointed out that one of the generic degenerations of these spaces (occurring at codimension one in moduli space) is an isolated singularity which is a finite cyclic quotient of the conifold; these were called hyperconifolds. It was also shown that if the order of the quotient group is even, such singular varieties have projective crepant resolutions, which are therefore smooth Calabi-Yau manifolds. The resulting topological transitions were called hyperconifold transitions, and change the fundamental group as well as the Hodge numbers. Here Batyrev's construction of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric fourfolds is used to demonstrate that certain compact examples containing the remaining hyperconifolds — the Z and Z cases — also have Calabi-Yau resolutions. The mirrors of the resulting transitions are studied and it is found, surprisingly, that they are ordinary conifold transitions. These are the first examples of conifold transitions with mirrors which are more exotic extremal transitions. The new hyperconifold transitions are also used to construct a small number of new Calabi-Yau manifolds, with small Hodge numbers and fundamental group Z or Z. Finally, it is demonstrated that a hyperconifold is a physically sensible background in Type IIB string theory. In analogy to the conifold case, non-perturbative dynamics smooth the physical moduli space, such that hyperconifold transitions correspond to non-singular processes in the full theory.

Living environment and mobility of older adults.

PubMed

Cress, M Elaine; Orini, Stefania; Kinsler, Laura

2011-01-01

Older adults often elect to move into smaller living environments. Smaller living space and the addition of services provided by a retirement community (RC) may make living easier for the individual, but it may also reduce the amount of daily physical activity and ultimately reduce functional ability. With home size as an independent variable, the primary purpose of this study was to evaluate daily physical activity and physical function of community dwellers (CD; n = 31) as compared to residents of an RC (n = 30). In this cross-sectional study design, assessments included: the Continuous Scale Physical Functional Performance - 10 test, with a possible range of 0-100, higher scores reflecting better function; Step Activity Monitor (StepWatch 3.1); a physical activity questionnaire, the area of the home (in square meters). Groups were compared by one-way ANOVA. A general linear regression model was used to predict the number of steps per day at home. The level of significance was p < 0.05. Of the 61 volunteers (mean age: 79 ± 6.3 years; range: 65-94 years), the RC living space (68 ± 37.7 m(2)) was 62% smaller than the CD living space (182.8 ± 77.9 m(2); p = 0.001). After correcting for age, the RC took fewer total steps per day excluding exercise (p = 0.03) and had lower function (p = 0.005) than the CD. On average, RC residents take 3,000 steps less per day and have approximately 60% of the living space of a CD. Home size and physical function were primary predictors of the number of steps taken at home, as found using a general linear regression analysis. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.

International Space Station Science Research Accomplishments During the Assembly Years: An Analysis of Results from 2000-2008

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Evans, Cynthia A.; Robinson, Julie A.; Tate-Brown, Judy; Thumm, Tracy; Crespo-Richey, Jessica; Baumann, David; Rhatigan, Jennifer

2009-01-01

This report summarizes research accomplishments on the International Space Station (ISS) through the first 15 Expeditions. When research programs for early Expeditions were established, five administrative organizations were executing research on ISS: bioastronautics research, fundamental space biology, physical science, space product development, and space flight. The Vision for Space Exploration led to changes in NASA's administrative structures, so we have grouped experiments topically by scientific themes human research for exploration, physical and biological sciences, technology development, observing the Earth, and educating and inspiring the next generation even when these do not correspond to the administrative structure at the time at which they were completed. The research organizations at the time at which the experiments flew are preserved in the appendix of this document. These investigations on the ISS have laid the groundwork for research planning for Expeditions to come. Humans performing scientific investigations on ISS serve as a model for the goals of future Exploration missions. The success of a wide variety of investigations is an important hallmark of early research on ISS. Of the investigations summarized here, some are completed with results released, some are completed with preliminary results, and some remain ongoing.

Mutual information, neural networks and the renormalization group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koch-Janusz, Maciej; Ringel, Zohar

2018-06-01

Physical systems differing in their microscopic details often display strikingly similar behaviour when probed at macroscopic scales. Those universal properties, largely determining their physical characteristics, are revealed by the powerful renormalization group (RG) procedure, which systematically retains `slow' degrees of freedom and integrates out the rest. However, the important degrees of freedom may be difficult to identify. Here we demonstrate a machine-learning algorithm capable of identifying the relevant degrees of freedom and executing RG steps iteratively without any prior knowledge about the system. We introduce an artificial neural network based on a model-independent, information-theoretic characterization of a real-space RG procedure, which performs this task. We apply the algorithm to classical statistical physics problems in one and two dimensions. We demonstrate RG flow and extract the Ising critical exponent. Our results demonstrate that machine-learning techniques can extract abstract physical concepts and consequently become an integral part of theory- and model-building.

Success Stories of Undergraduate Retention: A Pathways Study of Graduate Students in Solar and Space Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morrow, C. A.; Stoll, W.; Moldwin, M.; Gross, N. A.

2012-12-01

This presentation describes results from an NSF-funded study of the pathways students in solar and space physics have taken to arrive in graduate school. Our Pathways study has documented results from structured interviews conducted with graduate students attending two, week-long, NSF-sponsored scientific workshops during the summer of 2011. Our research team interviewed 48 solar and space physics students (29 males and 19 females currently in graduate programs at US institutions,) in small group settings regarding what attracted and retained them along their pathways leading to grad school. This presentation addresses what these students revealed about the attributes and influences that supported completion of their undergraduate experience and focused their aspirations toward graduate school. In advance of the interview process, we collected 125 on-line survey responses from students at the two workshops. This 20-item survey included questions about high school and undergraduate education, as well as about research and graduate experience. A subset of the 125 students who completed this on-line survey volunteered to be interviewed. Two types of interview data were collected from the 48 interviewees: 1) written answers to a pre-interview questionnaire; and 2) detailed notes taken by researchers during group interviews. On the pre-interview questionnaire, we posed the question: "How did you come to be a graduate student in your field?" Our findings to date are based on an analysis of responses to this question, cross correlated with the corresponding on-line survey data. Our analysis reveals the importance of early research experiences. About 80% of the students participating in the Pathways study cited formative undergraduate research experiences. Moreover, about 50% of participants reported undergraduate research experiences that were in the field of their current graduate studies. Graduate students interviewed frequently cited a childhood interest in science that grew through high school and undergraduate science courses on into trying out research as an undergraduate. Reasons cited for finding space physics more attractive than, say astronomy or cosmology, included: 1) the domain of physical reality being studied (near-Earth space) can be accessed by humans; 2) the research content is easier to explain to family and friends; and 3) the research has more societal relevance. Our data also suggest the pivotal role of undergraduate professors and research advisors in supporting student persistence.

Socio-environmental correlates of physical activity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

PubMed

Arbillaga-Etxarri, Ane; Gimeno-Santos, Elena; Barberan-Garcia, Anael; Benet, Marta; Borrell, Eulàlia; Dadvand, Payam; Foraster, Maria; Marín, Alicia; Monteagudo, Mònica; Rodriguez-Roisin, Robert; Vall-Casas, Pere; Vilaró, Jordi; Garcia-Aymerich, Judith

2017-09-01

Study of the causes of the reduced levels of physical activity in patients with COPD has been scarce and limited to biological factors. To assess the relationship between novel socio-environmental factors, namely dog walking, grandparenting, neighbourhood deprivation, residential surrounding greenness and residential proximity to green or blue spaces, and amount and intensity of physical activity in COPD patients. This cross-sectional study recruited 410 COPD patients from five Catalan municipalities. Dog walking and grandparenting were assessed by questionnaire. Neighbourhood deprivation was assessed using the census Urban Vulnerability Index, residential surrounding greenness by the satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, and residential proximity to green or blue spaces as living within 300 m of such a space. Physical activity was measured during 1 week by accelerometer to assess time spent on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and vector magnitude units (VMU) per minute. Patients were 85% male, had a mean (SD) age of 69 (9) years, and post-bronchodilator FEV 1 of 56 (17) %pred. After adjusting for age, sex, socio-economic status, dyspnoea, exercise capacity and anxiety in a linear regression model, both dog walking and grandparenting were significantly associated with an increase both in time in MVPA (18 min/day (p<0.01) and 9 min/day (p<0.05), respectively) and in physical activity intensity (76 VMU/min (p=0.05) and 59 VMUs/min (p<0.05), respectively). Neighbourhood deprivation, surrounding greenness and proximity to green or blue spaces were not associated with physical activity. Dog walking and grandparenting are associated with a higher amount and intensity of physical activity in COPD patients. Pre-results, NCT01897298. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Physical and electrical properties of SrTiO3 and SrZrO3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fashren Muhamad, Norhizatol; Aina Maulat Osman, Rozana; Sobri Idris, Mohd; Yasin, Mohd Najib Mohd

2017-11-01

Perovskite type oxide strontium titanate (SrTiO3) and strontium zirconate (SrZrO3) ceramic powder has been synthesized using conventional solid state reaction method. The powders were mixed and ground undergone calcinations at 1400°C for 12 h and sintered at 1550°C for 5h. X-ray Diffraction exposes physical properties SrTiO3 which exhibit cubic phase (space group: pm-3m) at room temperature meanwhile SrZrO3 has Orthorhombic phase (space group: pnma). The electrical properties such as dielectric constant (ɛr), dielectric loss (tan δ), and conductivity (σ) were studied in variation temperature and frequency. High dielectric constant of SrTiO3 and SrZrO3 were observed at 10 kHz for both samples about 240 and 21 respectively at room temperature. The dielectric loss of SrTiO3 and SrZrO3 is very low loss value approximately 0.00076 and 0.67512 indicates very good dielectric.

String Theory, the Crisis in Particle Physics and the Ascent of Metaphoric Arguments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schroer, Bert

This essay presents a critical evaluation of the concepts of string theory and its impact on particle physics. The point of departure is a historical review of four decades of string theory within the broader context of six decades of failed attempts at an autonomous S matrix approach to particle theory. The central message, contained in Secs. 5 and 6, is that string theory is not what its name suggests, namely a theory of objects in space-time whose localization is string-instead of pointlike. Contrary to popular opinion, the oscillators corresponding to the Fourier models of a quantum-mechanical string do not become embedded in space-time and neither does the "range space" of a chiral conformal QFT acquire the interpretation of stringlike-localized quantum matter. Rather, string theory represents a solution to a problem which enjoyed some popularity in the 1960s: find a principle which, similar to the SO(4,2) group in the case of the hydrogen spectrum, determines an infinite component wave function with a (realistic) mass/spin spectrum. Instead of the group theory used in the old failed attempts, it creates this mass/spin spectrum by combining an internal oscillator quantum mechanics with a pointlike-localized quantum-field-theoretic object, i.e. the mass/spin tower "sits" over one point and does not arise from a wiggling string in space-time. The widespread acceptance of a theory whose interpretation has been based on metaphoric reasoning had a corroding influence on particle theory, a point which will be illustrated in the last section with some remarks of a more sociological nature. These remarks also lend additional support to observations on connections between the discourse in particle physics and the present Zeitgeist of the post-Cold War period that are made in the introduction.

The Application and Future Direction of the SPASE Metadata Standard in the U.S. and Worldwide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

King, Todd; Thieman, James; Roberts, D. Aaron

2013-04-01

The Space Physics Archive Search and Extract (SPASE) Metadata standard for Heliophysics and related data is now an established standard within the NASA-funded space and solar physics community and is spreading to the international groups within that community. Development of SPASE had involved a number of international partners and the current version of the SPASE Metadata Model (version 2.2.2) has been stable since January 2011. The SPASE standard has been adopted by groups such as NASA's Heliophysics division, the Canadian Space Science Data Portal (CSSDP), Canada's AUTUMN network, Japan's Inter-university Upper atmosphere Global Observation NETwork (IUGONET), Centre de Données de la Physique des Plasmas (CDPP), and the near-Earth space data infrastructure for e-Science (ESPAS). In addition, portions of the SPASE dictionary have been modeled in semantic web ontologies for use with reasoners and semantic searches. In development are modifications to accommodate simulation and model data, as well as enhancements to describe data accessibility. These additions will add features to describe a broader range of data types. In keeping with a SPASE principle of back-compatibility, these changes will not affect the data descriptions already generated for instrument-related datasets. We also look at the long term commitment by NASA to support the SPASE effort and how SPASE metadata can enable value-added services.

Exploring staff perceptions on the role of physical environment in dementia care setting.

PubMed

Lee, Sook Y; Chaudhury, Habib; Hung, Lillian

2016-07-01

This study explored staff perceptions of the role of physical environment in dementia care facilities in affecting resident's behaviors and staff care practice. We conducted focus groups with staff (n = 15) in two purposely selected care facilities in Vancouver, Canada. Focus group participants included nurses, care aides, recreation staff, administrative staff, and family. Data analysis revealed two themes: (a) a supportive physical environment contributes positively to both quality of staff care interaction and residents' quality of life and (b) an unsupportive physical environment contributes negatively to residents' quality of life and thereby makes the work of staff more challenging. The staff participants collectively viewed that comfort, familiarity, and an organized space were important therapeutic resources for supporting the well-being of residents. Certain behaviors of residents were influenced by poor environmental factors, including stimulation overload, safety risks, wayfinding challenge, and rushed care This study demonstrates the complex interrelationships among the dementia care setting's physical environment, staff experiences, and residents' quality of life. © The Author(s) 2014.

Constraining the physical state by symmetries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fatibene, L.; Ferraris, M.; Magnano, G.

2017-03-01

After reviewing the hole argument and its relations with initial value problem and general covariance, we shall discuss how much freedom one has to define the physical state in a generally covariant field theory (with or without internal gauge symmetries). Our analysis relies on Cauchy problems, thus it is restricted to globally hyperbolic spacetimes. We shall show that in generally covariant theories on a compact space (as well as for internal gauge symmetries on any spacetime) one has no freedom and one is forced to declare as physically equivalent two configurations which differ by a global spacetime diffeomorphism (or by an internal gauge transformation) as it is usually prescribed. On the contrary, when space is not compact, the result does not hold true and one may have different options to define physically equivalent configurations, still preserving determinism. For this scenario to be effective, the group G of formal transformations needs to be a subgroup of dynamical symmetries (otherwise field equations, which are written in terms of configurations would not induce equations for the physical state classes) and it must contain the group D generated by Cauchy transformations (otherwise the equations induced on physical state classes would not be well posed, either). We argue that it is exactly because of this double inclusion that the hole argument in its initial problem formulation is more powerful than in its boundary formulation. In the boundary formulation of the hole argument one still has that the group G of formal transformations is a subgroup of dynamical symmetries, but there is no evidence for it to contain a particular non-trivial subgroup.In this paper we shall show that this scenario is exactly implemented in generally covariant theories. In the last section we shall show it to be implemented in gauge theories as well.Norton also argued (see [1]) that the definition of physical state is something to be discussed in physics and it is not something which can be settled by a purely mathematical argument. This position is certainly plausible and agreeable. However, we shall here argue that some constraints to the definition of physical state can be in fact put on a mathematical stance (the ones which go back to Einstein-Hilbert about well-posedness of Cauchy problems).A physical state is hence defined as an equivalence class of configurations, for which dynamics is well-posed, i.e. its evolution is deterministically singled out by initial conditions. It also defines what the physical observables are, i.e., by definition, the quantities which depend on the equivalence classes, but not on the specific representative configurations. Equivalently, physical observables are defined as quantities which are invariant with respect to formal transformations.A detailed analysis of these issues shows an unexpected structure of cases which is not clarified in general, yet. What is clear is that assuming, as usually done, that the physical state of a generally covariant theory is to be identified with equivalence classes of configurations modulo spacetime diffeomorphisms is a fair assumption, still a choice which is sometimes forced by mathematics (in particular by determinism in the form of Cauchy theorem on globally hyperbolic spacetimes with a compact space) but sometimes it is one of many possible choices which, in those cases, we agree should be addressed from a physical stance.We shall argue that sometimes one can find subclasses of diffeomorphisms (i.e. the group generated by Cauchy-compatible transformations, below denoted by D →) which play a distinctive role in the discussion and which, to the best of our knowledge, has not properly been taken into account in standard frameworks.Let us start, for the sake of simplicity, by restricting to generally covariant theories. Gauge theories will be briefly discussed in the conclusions since most of what we shall do easily applies to those cases, as well; see [20] for general framework and notation.In a generally covariant theory one has a huge group of symmetries S containing the (lift to the configuration bundle of the) spacetime diffeomorphisms. The group of spacetime diffeomorphisms will be denoted by Diff(M) . In particular, the subgroup of spacetime diffeomorphisms which can be connected by a flow with the identity idM will be denoted by Diffe(M) . Any element Φ ∈Diffe(M) can be obtained by evaluating a 1-parameter subgroup Φs at s = 1, i.e. Φ =Φ1. The 1-parameter subgroup Φs is also called a flow of diffeomorphisms.The standard attitude is to assume that in a generally covariant theory any two configurations of fields differing by any spacetime diffeomorphism represent the same physical state. In other words, if σ is a section of the configuration bundle and Φ∗ σ =σ‧ is its image through a diffeomorphism (in Diffe(M) or in Diff(M) depending on the case) then both σ and σ‧ represent the same physical state of the system.Let us call formal transformations the group G of transformations which fix the physical state, or, equivalently, define the physical states of the orbits of the group G. As a matter of fact defining the group of formal transformations is equivalent to defining the physical state. Either one defines the physical state as the orbits of the action of formal transformations or defines formal transformations as the transformations acting on configurations by mapping one representative of the physical state into another representative of the same physical state, i.e. fixing the physical states.In order for this to make sense one needs a formal transformation Φ to be a symmetry of the system (as it is in generally covariant theories) since if σ is a solution, of course also σ‧ must be a solution as well. In other words any formal transformation (acting on configurations but leaving the physical state unchanged) must be a symmetry and the symmetry group is an upper bound to the group of formal transformations, i.e. one must have G ⊂ S.We shall show that there is a lower bound (which will be denoted by D → and which is generated by Cauchy transformations) for the group G of formal transformations as well, i.e. one must have D → ⊂ G ⊂ S.We shall argue that when D → ⊊ S =Diffe(M) one has a certain freedom in setting G between its lower and upper bounds. In these cases one has different options to set the group D → ⊂ G ⊂ S and each different assumption about what G is, in fact defines a different theory with the same dynamics but different interpretation of what is the physical state and what can be in principle observed; see [21]. We shall also discuss topological conditions on M for which this freedom is nullified and one is forced to set G =Diffe(M) as usually done in the literature. On the other hand, we can discuss the motion of particles in spacetime on a physical stance and show that it is reasonable to assume that the physical state is described by worldline trajectories and parameterisations are irrelevant. The two viewpoints come (quite independently) to the same conclusion, which is a good thing. We shall also show a counter example, showing a globally hyperbolic spacetime M = R × R with a non-compact space Σ ≡ R in which the situation is different from the compact space case. As a consequence, the usual assumption of identifying configurations which differ by a diffeomorphism is a legitimate though in general unmotivated choice. When describing a system one should be aware of which assumptions come from mathematical constraints and which assumptions are done on a physical stance.When setting up a general covariant theory one should first study whether the group D → is a strict subgroup of Diffe(M) . If it is, one should characterise possible subgroups D → ⊂ G ⊂ S. Then one should declare which one of such groups G is elected as the group of formal transformations. Different choices lead to different theories with an equivalent dynamics but different observables.

The NRC Research Associateship Program has Greatly Enhanced the Solar Research at Marshall Space Flight Center During the Last Quarter Century

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gary, G. A.

2003-01-01

Under the educational Resident Research Associateships (RRA) program, NASA Headquarters funds post-doctoral research scientists through a contract with the National Research Council (NRC). This short article reviews the important influence that the RRAs have had on solar research at NASA s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Through the RRA program the National Research Council under the National Academy of Sciences has provided the Marshall Space Flight Center s Solar Physics Group with 29 post-doctorial research associateships since 1975. This starting date corresponds with the increased research activity in solar physics at MSFC. A number of MSFC scientists had been working on and supporting NASA s Skylab Mission in operation from May 1973 until February 1974. This scientific effort included the development MSFC s X-ray telescope SO56 and the development of the United States first full-vector magnetograph. Numerous engineers and scientists at MSFC supported the development and operation of the cluster of solar telescopes on the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM), a principal part of the Skylab orbiting workshop. With the enormous volume of new and exciting solar data of the solar corona, MSFC dedicated a group of scientists to analyze these data and develop new solar instruments and programs. With this new initiative, came the world- renowned solar prominence expert, Dr. Einar Tandberg-Hanssen, from the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado and the support of the first two RRAs in support of solar physics research.

Outreach of Astronomy with emphasis to the Solar System by the Space group in Greece

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moussas, X.; Dialynas, K.; Babasides, G.; Fasoulopoulos, G.; Dimitropoulou, V.; Prassopoulos, D.; Kouphos, S.; Spandagos, E.; Strikis, J.

We have a long tradition in Space and Solar System outreach at the University of Athens (Space Group). We have contributed with many popular science articles in encyclopaedias (a total of some 200000 words), magazines and newspapers, public lectures around Greece and radio and TV programmes. We contribute in exhibitions for the public on many occasions (e.g. The British Exploration of the Planets, an exhibition organized by the British Council, at Eugenides Foundation and The Planetarium, where I prepared some 15 posters). We are preparing an outreach site of Astrophysics with sections for the planets, the exploration of the solar system and solar terrestrial relations. I am preparing several posters for the planets. We organize with the Hellenic Physical Union a series of Astrophysics Lectures at the University of Athens. Together with the Hellenic Physical Union we are planning to produce a theatrical play and CD or DVD concerning the planets. We have excellent collaboration with the amateur astronomers allover Greece and Cyprus. We organize, together with Physics or mathematics teachers in high schools several events related to astronomical observations (e.g. Venus transit, solar eclipe, astronomy nights). 1 We also organize popular science programmes in TV channels. I brief we consider Astronomy and especially the planetary system as a "Great Attractor" of pupil and the general public to science and we use it on every occasion for the benefit of the pupil and science. 2

Kinematic state estimation and motion planning for stochastic nonholonomic systems using the exponential map

PubMed Central

Park, Wooram; Liu, Yan; Zhou, Yu; Moses, Matthew; Chirikjian, Gregory S.

2010-01-01

SUMMARY A nonholonomic system subjected to external noise from the environment, or internal noise in its own actuators, will evolve in a stochastic manner described by an ensemble of trajectories. This ensemble of trajectories is equivalent to the solution of a Fokker–Planck equation that typically evolves on a Lie group. If the most likely state of such a system is to be estimated, and plans for subsequent motions from the current state are to be made so as to move the system to a desired state with high probability, then modeling how the probability density of the system evolves is critical. Methods for solving Fokker-Planck equations that evolve on Lie groups then become important. Such equations can be solved using the operational properties of group Fourier transforms in which irreducible unitary representation (IUR) matrices play a critical role. Therefore, we develop a simple approach for the numerical approximation of all the IUR matrices for two of the groups of most interest in robotics: the rotation group in three-dimensional space, SO(3), and the Euclidean motion group of the plane, SE(2). This approach uses the exponential mapping from the Lie algebras of these groups, and takes advantage of the sparse nature of the Lie algebra representation matrices. Other techniques for density estimation on groups are also explored. The computed densities are applied in the context of probabilistic path planning for kinematic cart in the plane and flexible needle steering in three-dimensional space. In these examples the injection of artificial noise into the computational models (rather than noise in the actual physical systems) serves as a tool to search the configuration spaces and plan paths. Finally, we illustrate how density estimation problems arise in the characterization of physical noise in orientational sensors such as gyroscopes. PMID:20454468

Natural environment design criteria for the Space Station definition and preliminary design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vaughan, W. W.; Green, C. E.

1985-03-01

The natural environment design criteria for the Space Station Program (SSP) definition and preliminary design are presented. Information on the atmospheric, dynamic and thermodynamic environments, meteoroids, radiation, magnetic fields, physical constants, etc. is provided with the intension of enabling all groups involved in the definition and preliminary design studies to proceed with a common and consistent set of natural environment criteria requirements. The space station program elements (SSPE) shall be designed with no operational sensitivity to natural environment conditions during assembly, checkout, stowage, launch, and orbital operations to the maximum degree practical.

Natural environment design criteria for the Space Station definition and preliminary design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vaughan, W. W.; Green, C. E.

1985-01-01

The natural environment design criteria for the Space Station Program (SSP) definition and preliminary design are presented. Information on the atmospheric, dynamic and thermodynamic environments, meteoroids, radiation, magnetic fields, physical constants, etc. is provided with the intension of enabling all groups involved in the definition and preliminary design studies to proceed with a common and consistent set of natural environment criteria requirements. The space station program elements (SSPE) shall be designed with no operational sensitivity to natural environment conditions during assembly, checkout, stowage, launch, and orbital operations to the maximum degree practical.

Multi-physics simulations of space weather

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gombosi, Tamas; Toth, Gabor; Sokolov, Igor; de Zeeuw, Darren; van der Holst, Bart; Cohen, Ofer; Glocer, Alex; Manchester, Ward, IV; Ridley, Aaron

Presently magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models represent the "workhorse" technology for simulating the space environment from the solar corona to the ionosphere. While these models are very successful in describing many important phenomena, they are based on a low-order moment approximation of the phase-space distribution function. In the last decade our group at the Center for Space Environment Modeling (CSEM) has developed the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) that efficiently couples together different models describing the interacting regions of the space environment. Many of these domain models (such as the global solar corona, the inner heliosphere or the global magnetosphere) are based on MHD and are represented by our multiphysics code, BATS-R-US. BATS-R-US can solve the equations of "standard" ideal MHD, but it can also go beyond this first approximation. It can solve resistive MHD, Hall MHD, semi-relativistic MHD (that keeps the displacement current), multispecies (different ion species have different continuity equations) and multifluid (all ion species have separate continuity, momentum and energy equations) MHD. Recently we added two-fluid Hall MHD (solving the electron and ion energy equations separately) and are working on extended magnetohydrodynamics with anisotropic pressures. This talk will show the effects of added physics and compare space weather simulation results to "standard" ideal MHD.

Photonic Component Qualification and Implementation Activities at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ott, Melanie N.; Jin, Xiaodan Linda; Chuska, Richard F.; LaRocca, Frank V.; MacMurphy, Shawn L.; Matuszeski, Adam J.; Zellar, Ronald S.; Friedberg, Patricia R.; Malenab, Mary C.

2006-01-01

The photonics group in Code 562 at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center supports a variety of space flight programs at NASA including the: International Space Station (ISS), Shuttle Return to Flight Mission, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Express Logistics Carrier, and the NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging Program (NEPP). Through research, development, and testing of the photonic systems to support these missions much information has been gathered on practical implementations for space environments. Presented here are the highlights and lessons learned as a result of striving to satisfy the project requirements for high performance and reliable commercial optical fiber components for space flight systems. The approach of how to qualify optical fiber components for harsh environmental conditions, the physics of failure and development lessons learned will be discussed.

KSC-2010-4484

NASA Image and Video Library

2010-08-26

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, STS-134 Mission Specialists Michael Fincke, Andrew Fuestel, Pilot Gregory C. Johnson, Commander Mark Kelly and Mission Specialist Greg Chamitoff (in blue flight suits) join the Air Force C-5M flight crew that delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, to the Shuttle Landing Facility, in a group photo opportunity. AMS, a state-of-the-art particle physics detector, is designed to operate as an external module on the International Space Station. It will use the unique environment of space to study the universe and its origin by searching for dark matter. AMS will fly to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission, targeted to launch Feb. 26, 2011. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

Science on Spacelab. [astronomy, high energy astrophysics, life sciences, and solar, atmospheric and space physics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmerling, E. R.

1977-01-01

Spacelab was developed by the European Space Agency for the conduction of scientific and technological experiments in space. Spacelab can be taken into earth orbit by the Space Shuttle and returned to earth after a period of 1-3 weeks. The Spacelab modular system of pallets, pressurized modules, and racks can contain large payloads with high power and telemetry requirements. A working group has defined the 'Atmospheres, Magnetospheres, and Plasmas-in-Space' project. The project objectives include the absolute measurement of solar flux in a number of carefully selected bands at the same time at which atmospheric measurements are made. NASA is committed to the concept that the scientist is to play a key role in its scientific programs.

Current algebra, statistical mechanics and quantum models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vilela Mendes, R.

2017-11-01

Results obtained in the past for free boson systems at zero and nonzero temperatures are revisited to clarify the physical meaning of current algebra reducible functionals which are associated to systems with density fluctuations, leading to observable effects on phase transitions. To use current algebra as a tool for the formulation of quantum statistical mechanics amounts to the construction of unitary representations of diffeomorphism groups. Two mathematical equivalent procedures exist for this purpose. One searches for quasi-invariant measures on configuration spaces, the other for a cyclic vector in Hilbert space. Here, one argues that the second approach is closer to the physical intuition when modelling complex systems. An example of application of the current algebra methodology to the pairing phenomenon in two-dimensional fermion systems is discussed.

Mathematics for Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stone, Michael; Goldbart, Paul

2009-07-01

Preface; 1. Calculus of variations; 2. Function spaces; 3. Linear ordinary differential equations; 4. Linear differential operators; 5. Green functions; 6. Partial differential equations; 7. The mathematics of real waves; 8. Special functions; 9. Integral equations; 10. Vectors and tensors; 11. Differential calculus on manifolds; 12. Integration on manifolds; 13. An introduction to differential topology; 14. Group and group representations; 15. Lie groups; 16. The geometry of fibre bundles; 17. Complex analysis I; 18. Applications of complex variables; 19. Special functions and complex variables; Appendixes; Reference; Index.

Using real-time ultrasound imaging as adjunct teaching tools to enhance physical therapist students' ability and confidence to perform traction of the knee joint.

PubMed

Markowski, Alycia; Watkins, Maureen K; Burnett, Todd; Ho, Melissa; Ling, Michael

2018-04-01

Often, physical therapy students struggle with the skill and the confidence to perform manual techniques for musculoskeletal examination. Current teaching methods lack concurrent objective feedback. Real-time ultrasound imaging (RTUI) has the advantage of generating visualization of anatomical structures in real-time in an efficient and safe manner. We hypothesize that the use of RTUI to augment teaching with concurrent objective visual feedback will result in students' improved ability to create a change in joint space when performing a manual knee traction and higher confidence scores. Eighty-six students were randomly allocated to a control or an experimental group. All participants received baseline instructions on how to perform knee traction. The control group received standardized lab instruction (visual, video, and instructor/partner feedback). The experimental group received standardized lab instruction augmented with RTUI feedback. Pre-data and post-data collection consisted of measuring participants' ability to create changes in joint space when performing knee traction, a confidence survey evaluating perceived ability and a reflection paper. Joint space changes between groups were compared using a paired t-test. Surveys were analyzed with descriptive statistics and compared using Wilcoxon Rank Sum and for the reflection papers, themes were identified and descriptive statistics reported. Although there were no statistically significant differences between the control and the experimental group, overall scores improved. Qualitative data suggests students found the use of ultrasound imaging beneficial and would like more exposure. This novel approach to teaching knee traction with RTUI has potential and may be a basis for further studies. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Model of Job Facet Satisfaction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conway, Patricia G.; And Others

1987-01-01

Elements of the job that lead to overall job satisfaction were surveyed among public employees. The 17-facet model included promotion, training, supervisor, upper management, organization of work tasks, work stress, work challenge and autonomy, physical work space and equipment, work group, organizational structure, pay, etc. (Author/MH)

Learning from the experts: exploring playground experience and activities using a write and draw technique.

PubMed

Knowles, Zoe Rebecca; Parnell, Daniel; Stratton, Gareth; Ridgers, Nicola Diane

2013-03-01

Qualitative research into the effect of school recess on children's physical activity is currently limited. This study used a write and draw technique to explore children's perceptions of physical activity opportunities during recess. 299 children age 7-11 years from 3 primary schools were enlisted. Children were grouped into Years 3 & 4 and Years 5 & 6 and completed a write and draw task focusing on likes and dislikes. Pen profiles were used to analyze the data. Results indicated 'likes' focused on play, positive social interaction, and games across both age groups but showed an increasing dominance of games with an appreciation for being outdoors with age. 'Dislikes' focused on dysfunctional interactions linked with bullying, membership, equipment, and conflict for playground space. Football was a dominant feature across both age groups and 'likes/dislikes' that caused conflict and dominated the physically active games undertaken. Recess was important for the development of conflict management and social skills and contributed to physical activity engagement. The findings contradict suggestions that time spent in recess should be reduced because of behavioral issues.

Effects of Distant Green Space on Physical Activity in Sydney, Australia.

PubMed

Chong, Shanley; Byun, Roy; Mazumdar, Soumya; Bauman, Adrian; Jalaludin, Bin

2017-01-01

The aim was to investigate the association between distant green space and physical activity modified by local green space. Information about physical activity, demographic and socioeconomic background at the individual level was extracted from the New South Wales Population Health Survey. The proportion of a postcode that was parkland was used as a proxy measure for access to parklands and was calculated for each individual. There was a significant relationship between distant green space and engaging in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) at least once a week. No significant relationship was found between adequate physical activity and distant green space. No significant relationships were found between adequate physical activity, engaging in MVPA, and local green space. However, if respondents lived in greater local green space (≥25%), there was a significant relationship between engaging in MVPA at least once a week and distance green space of ≥20%. This study highlights the important effect of distant green space on physical activity. Our findings also suggest that moderate size of local green space together with moderate size of distant green space are important levers for participation of physical activity.

Social space, social class and Bourdieu: health inequalities in British Columbia, Canada.

PubMed

Veenstra, Gerry

2007-03-01

This article adopts Pierre Bourdieu's cultural-structuralist approach to conceptualizing and identifying social classes in social space and seeks to identify health effects of class in one Canadian province. Utilizing data from an original questionnaire survey of randomly selected adults from 25 communities in British Columbia, social (class) groupings defined by cultural tastes and dispositions, lifestyle practices, social background, educational capital, economic capital, social capital and occupational categories are presented in visual mappings of social space constructed by use of exploratory multiple correspondence analysis techniques. Indicators of physical and mental health are then situated within this social space, enabling speculations pertaining to health effects of social class in British Columbia.

Overview of Space Station attached payloads in the areas of solar physics, solar terrestrial physics, and plasma processes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roberts, W. T.; Kropp, J.; Taylor, W. W. L.

1986-01-01

This paper outlines the currently planned utilization of the Space Station to perform investigations in solar physics, solar terrestrial physics, and plasma physics. The investigations and instrumentation planned for the Solar Terrestrial Observatory (STO) and its associated Space Station accommodation requirements are discussed as well as the planned placement of the STO instruments and typical operational scenarios. In the area of plasma physics, some preliminary plans for scientific investigations and for the accommodation of a plasma physics facility attached to the Space Station are outlined. These preliminary experiment concepts use the space environment around the Space Station as an unconfined plasma laboratory. In solar physics, the initial instrument complement and associated accommodation requirements of the Advanced Solar Observatory are described. The planned evolutionary development of this observatory is outlined, making use of the Space Station capabilities for servicing and instrument reconfiguration.

The Influence of Physical Forces on Progenitor Cell Migration, Proliferation and Differentiation in Fracture Repair

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-11-01

Figure 6) and the marrow spaces within the periosteal callus (Figure 7). This is true for all of the groups euthanized on day 48 except for the...the most consistent location for the MSC populations was in the medullary marrow and the marrow within the periosteal callus. Figure 7: GFP...positive cells in the periosteal callus (brown stained). The injected MSCs populated any area that consisted of marrow spaces. The areas in between the

Laboratory space physics: Investigating the physics of space plasmas in the laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howes, Gregory G.

2018-05-01

Laboratory experiments provide a valuable complement to explore the fundamental physics of space plasmas without the limitations inherent to spacecraft measurements. Specifically, experiments overcome the restriction that spacecraft measurements are made at only one (or a few) points in space, enable greater control of the plasma conditions and applied perturbations, can be reproducible, and are orders of magnitude less expensive than launching spacecraft. Here, I highlight key open questions about the physics of space plasmas and identify the aspects of these problems that can potentially be tackled in laboratory experiments. Several past successes in laboratory space physics provide concrete examples of how complementary experiments can contribute to our understanding of physical processes at play in the solar corona, solar wind, planetary magnetospheres, and the outer boundary of the heliosphere. I present developments on the horizon of laboratory space physics, identifying velocity space as a key new frontier, highlighting new and enhanced experimental facilities, and showcasing anticipated developments to produce improved diagnostics and innovative analysis methods. A strategy for future laboratory space physics investigations will be outlined, with explicit connections to specific fundamental plasma phenomena of interest.

Book Review: Dolores Knipp’s Understanding Space Weather and the Physics Behind It

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moldwin, Mark

2012-08-01

Delores Knipp's textbook Understanding Space Weather and the Physics Behind It provides a comprehensive resource for space physicists teaching in a variety of academic departments to introduce space weather to advanced undergraduates. The book benefits from Knipp's extensive experience teaching introductory and advanced undergraduate physics courses at the U.S. Air Force Academy. The fundamental physics concepts are clearly explained and are connected directly to the space physics concepts being discussed. To expand upon the relevant basic physics, current research areas and new observations are highlighted, with many of the chapters including contributions from a number of leading space physicists.

Trends in outdoor recreation activity conflicts

Treesearch

John J. Lindsay

1980-01-01

Conflict caused by outdoor recreation activity groups competing for the same physical and psychological space has given rise to recreation resource planning, allocation and management problems. Research has shown recreation managers can expect certain types of users to be involved in significant conflict about 25 percent of their occupancy time. Well planned and...

Social Networks and Performance in Distributed Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cadima, Rita; Ojeda, Jordi; Monguet, Josep M.

2012-01-01

Social networks play an essential role in learning environments as a key channel for knowledge sharing and students' support. In distributed learning communities, knowledge sharing does not occur as spontaneously as when a working group shares the same physical space; knowledge sharing depends even more on student informal connections. In this…

Crystal Data

National Institute of Standards and Technology Data Gateway

SRD 3 NIST Crystal Data (PC database for purchase)   NIST Crystal Data contains chemical, physical, and crystallographic information useful to characterize more than 237,671 inorganic and organic crystalline materials. The data include the standard cell parameters, cell volume, space group number and symbol, calculated density, chemical formula, chemical name, and classification by chemical type.

The High/Scope Preschool Key Experiences: Essential Elements of Young Children's Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hohmann, Mary

2002-01-01

Discusses High/Scope's preschool key experiences (a set of 58 statements that describe young children's social, cognitive, and physical development). The key experiences are grouped into 10 major developmental areas (creative representation, language and literacy, social relations, movement, music, classification, seriation, number, space, and…

Charging of Space Debris and Their Dynamical Consequences

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-01-08

field of plasmas and space physics . 15. SUBJECT TERMS Space Plasma Physics , Space Debris 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT...opens up potential new areas of fundamental and applied research in the field of plasmas and space physics ...object in a plasma”, accepted for publication in Physics of Plasmas. (attached as Annexure III) For details on (iv) please refer to the

Identity, Physical Space, and Stigma Among African American Men Living with HIV in Chicago and Seattle

PubMed Central

Singleton, Judith L.; Raunig, Manuela; Brunsteter, Halley; Desmond, Michelle; Rao, Deepa

2015-01-01

African American men have the highest rates of HIV in the United States, and research has shown that stigma, mistrust of healthcare, and other psychosocial factors interfere with optimal engagement in care with this population. In order to further understand reducing stigma and other psychosocial issues among African American men, we conducted qualitative interviews and focus groups with African American men in two metropolitan areas in the United States: Chicago and Seattle. We examined transcripts for relationships across variables of stigma, anonymity, self-identity, and space within the context of HIV. Our analysis pointed to similarities between experiences of stigma across the two cities, and illustrated the relationships between space, isolation and preferred anonymity related to living with HIV. The men in our study often preferred their HIV-linked identities remain invisible and anonymous, associated with perceived and created isolation from physical community spaces. This article suggests that our healthcare and housing institutions may influence preferences for anonymity. We make recommendations in key areas to create safer spaces for African American men living with HIV and reduce feelings of stigma and isolation. PMID:26863561

Space science public outreach at Louisiana State University

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guzik, T.; Babin, E.; Cooney, W.; Giammanco, J.; Hartman, D.; McNeil, R.; Slovak, M.; Stacy, J.

Over the last seven years the Astronomy / Astrophysics group in the Department of Physics and Astronomy of Louisiana State University has developed an exten- sive Space Science education and public outreach program. This program includes the local park district (the Recreation and Park Commission for the Parish of East Baton Rouge, BREC), the local amateur astronomer group (the Baton Rouge As- tronomical Society, BRAS), the Louisiana Arts and Science Museum (LASM), and Southern University (SU, part of the largest HBCU system in the nation). Our effort has directly led to the development of the Highland Road Park Observatory (HRPO, http://www.bro.lsu.edu/hrpo) that supports student astronomy training at LSU and SU, amateur observations and a public program for adults and children, establishment of a series of teacher professional development workshops in astronomy and physics, and the "Robots for Internet Experiences (ROBIE)" project (http://www.bro.lsu.edu/) where we have several instruments (e.g. HAM radio, radio telescope, optical tele- scopes) that can be controlled over the internet by students and teachers in the class- room along with associated lessons developed by a teacher group. In addition, this year the LASM, will be opening a new planetarium / space theater in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We are currently working to bring live views of the heavens from the HRPO telescope to audiences attending planetarium shows and will be working closely with planetarium staff to develop shows that highlight LSU astronomy / space science research. During the presentation we will provide some details about our in- dividual projects, the overall structure of our program, establishing community links and some of the lessons we learned along the way. Finally, we would like to acknowl- edge NASA, Louisiana State University, the Louisiana Systemic Initiatives Program and the Louisiana Technology Innovation Fund for their support.

Hospital Patient Room Design: The Issues Facing 23 Occupational Groups Who Work in Medical/Surgical Patient Rooms.

PubMed

Lavender, Steven A; Sommerich, Carolyn M; Patterson, Emily S; Sanders, Elizabeth B-N; Evans, Kevin D; Park, Sanghyun; Umar, Radin Zaid Radin; Li, Jing

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to learn from a wide range of hospital staff members about how the design of the patient room in which they work adversely affects their ergonomics or hinders their job performance. In addition to providing a healing space for patients, hospital patient rooms need to serve as functional workplaces for the people who provide clinical care, to clean, or to maintain room functions. Therefore, from a design perspective, it is important to understand the needs of all the users of hospital patient rooms with regard to room design. One hundred forty-seven people, representing 23 different occupational stakeholder groups, participated in either focus groups or interviews in which they were asked to identify room design issues that affect the performance of their work tasks. Key issues shared across multiple stakeholder groups included an inability to have eye contact with the patient when entering the room, inadequate space around the bed for the equipment used by stakeholders, the physical demands experienced as stakeholders move furnishings to accomplish their activities or access equipment, and a lack of available horizontal surfaces. Unique issues were also identified for a number of stakeholder groups. There are a number of issues that should be addressed in the next generation of hospital patient rooms, or when refurbishing existing facilities, so that all occupational stakeholder groups can work effectively, efficiently, and without undue physical stress. © The Author(s) 2015.

Spectral geometry of {kappa}-Minkowski space

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

D'Andrea, Francesco

After recalling Snyder's idea [Phys. Rev. 71, 38 (1947)] of using vector fields over a smooth manifold as 'coordinates on a noncommutative space', we discuss a two-dimensional toy-model whose 'dual' noncommutative coordinates form a Lie algebra: this is the well-known {kappa}-Minkowski space [Phys. Lett. B 334, 348 (1994)]. We show how to improve Snyder's idea using the tools of quantum groups and noncommutative geometry. We find a natural representation of the coordinate algebra of {kappa}-Minkowski as linear operators on an Hilbert space (a major problem in the construction of a physical theory), study its 'spectral properties', and discuss how tomore » obtain a Dirac operator for this space. We describe two Dirac operators. The first is associated with a spectral triple. We prove that the cyclic integral of Dimitrijevic et al. [Eur. Phys. J. C 31, 129 (2003)] can be obtained as Dixmier trace associated to this triple. The second Dirac operator is equivariant for the action of the quantum Euclidean group, but it has unbounded commutators with the algebra.« less

The Dynamic Family Home: a qualitative exploration of physical environmental influences on children's sedentary behaviour and physical activity within the home space.

PubMed

Maitland, Clover; Stratton, Gareth; Foster, Sarah; Braham, Rebecca; Rosenberg, Michael

2014-12-24

Recent changes in home physical environments, such as decreasing outdoor space and increasing electronic media, may negatively affect health by facilitating sedentariness and reducing physical activity. As children spend much of their time at home they are particularly vulnerable. This study qualitatively explored family perceptions of physical environmental influences on sedentary behaviour and physical activity within the home space. Home based interviews were conducted with 28 families with children aged 9-13 years (total n = 74 individuals), living in Perth, Australia. Families were stratified by socioeconomic status and selected to provide variation in housing. Qualitative methods included a family interview, observation and home tour where families guided the researcher through their home, enabling discussion while in the physical home space. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Emergent themes related to children's sedentariness and physical activity included overall size, space and design of the home; allocation of home space; equipment within the home space; perceived safety of the home space; and the changing nature of the home space. Families reported that children's activity options were limited when houses and yards were small. In larger homes, multiple indoor living rooms usually housed additional sedentary entertainment options, although parents reported that open plan home layouts could facilitate monitoring of children's electronic media use. Most families reported changing the allocation and contents of their home space in response to changing priorities and circumstances. The physical home environment can enhance or limit opportunities for children's sedentary behaviour and physical activity. However, the home space is a dynamic ecological setting that is amenable to change and is largely shaped by the family living within it, thus differentiating it from other settings. While size and space were considered important, how families prioritise the use of their home space and overcome the challenges posed by the physical environment may be of equal or greater importance in establishing supportive home environments. Further research is required to tease out how physical, social and individual factors interact within the family home space to influence children's sedentary behaviour and physical activity at home.

Electrodynamic Dust Shield for Space Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mackey, Paul J.; Johansen, Michael R.; Olsen, Robert C.; Raines, Matthew G.; Phillips, James R., III; Cox, Rachel E.; Hogue, Michael D.; Pollard, Jacob R. S.; Calle, Carlos I.

2016-01-01

Dust mitigation technology has been highlighted by NASA and the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) as a Global Exploration Roadmap (GER) critical technology need in order to reduce life cycle cost and risk, and increase the probability of mission success. The Electrostatics and Surface Physics Lab in Swamp Works at the Kennedy Space Center has developed an Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) to remove dust from multiple surfaces, including glass shields and thermal radiators. Further development is underway to improve the operation and reliability of the EDS as well as to perform material and component testing outside of the International Space Station (ISS) on the Materials on International Space Station Experiment (MISSE). This experiment is designed to verify that the EDS can withstand the harsh environment of space and will look to closely replicate the solar environment experienced on the Moon.

Experiment module concepts study. Volume 2: Experiments and mission operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Macdonald, J. M.

1970-01-01

The baseline experiment program is concerned with future space experiments and cover the scientific disciplines of astronomy, space physics, space biology, biomedicine and biotechnology, earth applications, materials science, and advanced technology. The experiments within each discipline are grouped into functional program elements according to experiments that support a particular area of research or investigation and experiments that impose similar or related demand on space station support systems. The experiment requirements on module subsystems, experiment operating modes and time profiles, and the role of the astronaut are discussed. Launch and rendezvous with the space station, disposal, and on-orbit operations are delineated. The operational interfaces between module and other system elements are presented and include space station and logistic system interfaces. Preliminary launch and on-orbit environmental criteria and requirements are discussed, and experiment equipment weights by functional program elements are tabulated.

Counting RG flows

DOE PAGES

Gukov, Sergei

2016-01-05

Here, interpreting renormalization group flows as solitons interpolating between different fixed points, we ask various questions that are normally asked in soliton physics but not in renormalization theory. Can one count RG flows? Are there different "topological sectors" for RG flows? What is the moduli space of an RG flow, and how does it compare to familiar moduli spaces of (supersymmetric) dowain walls? Analyzing these questions in a wide variety of contexts -- from counting RG walls to AdS/CFT correspondence -- will not only provide favorable answers, but will also lead us to a unified general framework that is powerfulmore » enough to account for peculiar RG flows and predict new physical phenomena. Namely, using Bott's version of Morse theory we relate the topology of conformal manifolds to certain properties of RG flows that can be used as precise diagnostics and "topological obstructions" for the strong form of the C-theorem in any dimension. Moreover, this framework suggests a precise mechanism for how the violation of the strong C-theorem happens and predicts "phase transitions" along the RG flow when the topological obstruction is non-trivial. Along the way, we also find new conformal manifolds in well-known 4d CFT's and point out connections with the superconformal index and classifying spaces of global symmetry groups.« less

Apex-4 for SpaceX CRS-10

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-02-16

APEX-04, or Advanced Plant EXperiments-04, is being prepared in a cold room in the Kennedy Space Center Processing Facility for SpaceX-10. Eric Morris from the cold stowage group fits items into the Double Cold Bag (DCB) which is a non-powered container that keeps the APEX petri plates at +4 degrees Celsius during launch and ascent.. Dr. Anna Lisa Paul of the University of Florida is the principal investigator for APEX-04. Apex-04 is an experiment involving Arabidopsis in petri plates inside the Veggie facility aboard the International Space Station. Since Arabidopsis is the genetic model of the plant world, it is a perfect sample organism for performing genetic studies in spaceflight. The experiment is the result of a grant from NASA’s Space Life and Physical Sciences division.

Apex-4 for SpaceX CRS-10

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-02-16

APEX-04, or Advanced Plant EXperiments-04, is being prepared in a cold room in the Kennedy Space Center Processing Facility for SpaceX-10. The 30 petri plates are bundled into groups of 10 and placed into one of three science kits. The science kits allow easy handling when the crew removes the plates from cold stowage on station. Dr. Anna Lisa Paul of the University of Florida is the principal investigator for APEX-04. Apex-04 is an experiment involving Arabidopsis in petri plates inside the Veggie facility aboard the International Space Station. Since Arabidopsis is the genetic model of the plant world, it is a perfect sample organism for performing genetic studies in spaceflight. The experiment is the result of a grant from NASA’s Space Life and Physical Sciences division.

Proceedings of the 2003 NASA/JPL Workshop on Fundamental Physics in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Strayer, Don (Editor)

2003-01-01

The 2003 Fundamental Physics workshop included presentations ranging from forces acting on RNA to properties of clouds of degenerate Fermi atoms, to techniques to probe for a added space-time dimensions, and to flight hardware for low temperature experiments, amongst others. Mark Lee from NASA Headquarters described the new strategic plan that NASA has developed under Administrator Sean O'Keefe's leadership. Mark explained that the Fundamental Physics community now needs to align its research program and the roadmap describing the long-term goals of the program with the NASA plan. Ulf Israelsson of JPL discussed how the rewrite of the roadmap will be implemented under the leadership of the Fundamental Physics Discipline Working Group (DWG). Nick Bigelow, chair of the DWG, outlined how investigators can contribute to the writing of the roadmap. Results of measurements on very cold clouds of Fermi atoms near a Feshbach resonance were described by three investigators. Also, new measurements relating to tests of Einstein equivalence were discussed. Investigators also described methods to test other aspects of Einstein's relativity theories.

Computational Physics for Space Flight Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reed, Robert A.

2004-01-01

This paper presents viewgraphs on computational physics for space flight applications. The topics include: 1) Introduction to space radiation effects in microelectronics; 2) Using applied physics to help NASA meet mission objectives; 3) Example of applied computational physics; and 4) Future directions in applied computational physics.

Deformation Theory and Physics Model Building

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sternheimer, Daniel

2006-08-01

The mathematical theory of deformations has proved to be a powerful tool in modeling physical reality. We start with a short historical and philosophical review of the context and concentrate this rapid presentation on a few interrelated directions where deformation theory is essential in bringing a new framework - which has then to be developed using adapted tools, some of which come from the deformation aspect. Minkowskian space-time can be deformed into Anti de Sitter, where massless particles become composite (also dynamically): this opens new perspectives in particle physics, at least at the electroweak level, including prediction of new mesons. Nonlinear group representations and covariant field equations, coming from interactions, can be viewed as some deformation of their linear (free) part: recognizing this fact can provide a good framework for treating problems in this area, in particular global solutions. Last but not least, (algebras associated with) classical mechanics (and field theory) on a Poisson phase space can be deformed to (algebras associated with) quantum mechanics (and quantum field theory). That is now a frontier domain in mathematics and theoretical physics called deformation quantization, with multiple ramifications, avatars and connections in both mathematics and physics. These include representation theory, quantum groups (when considering Hopf algebras instead of associative or Lie algebras), noncommutative geometry and manifolds, algebraic geometry, number theory, and of course what is regrouped under the name of M-theory. We shall here look at these from the unifying point of view of deformation theory and refer to a limited number of papers as a starting point for further study.

BFV quantization on hermitian symmetric spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fradkin, E. S.; Linetsky, V. Ya.

1995-02-01

Gauge-invariant BFV approach to geometric quantization is applied to the case of hermitian symmetric spaces G/ H. In particular, gauge invariant quantization on the Lobachevski plane and sphere is carried out. Due to the presence of symmetry, master equations for the first-class constraints, quantum observables and physical quantum states are exactly solvable. BFV-BRST operator defines a flat G-connection in the Fock bundle over G/ H. Physical quantum states are covariantly constant sections with respect to this connection and are shown to coincide with the generalized coherent states for the group G. Vacuum expectation values of the quantum observables commuting with the quantum first-class constraints reduce to the covariant symbols of Berezin. The gauge-invariant approach to quantization on symplectic manifolds synthesizes geometric, deformation and Berezin quantization approaches.

Data analysis and interpretation of UVSP and other experiments on board solar maximum mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wu, S. T.

1987-01-01

During the period of this contract (February 1 1980 to February 1987) there were two separate efforts involved: one was programmetric, i.e., the coordination of scientific working groups and the organization of workshops in the solar physics discipline; the second was scientific, i.e., to perform research to investigate the fundamental physical mechanisms of the energy and momentum transport from the solar surface to interplanetary space. In the former, 19 workshops, involving 88 scientists were organized. In the latter aspect, the following were investigated: solar flare energy buildup and release, coronal dynamics, energy and momentum transport from lower solar atmosphere to interplanetary space, numerical methods for the calculation of the nonlinear force-free field, and the evolution of the solar magnetic field.

KSC-2012-2761

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-14

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Dr. Phil Metzger demonstrates an experiment to study the physics of granular materials to students in the Granular Physics and Regolith Operations Lab at the Space Life Sciences Lab facility. The 26 honor students in chemistry and biology and their teachers got a chance to visit a number of high-tech labs at Kennedy Space Center as part of an effort to encourage students in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math. The tenth and eleventh grade students from Terry Parker High School in Jacksonville, Fla., visited a number of vastly different labs during their one-day tour. The group's visit to Kennedy was hosted by the Education Office as part of a nationwide effort by the National Lab Network to help introduce the nation's students to science careers. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

Key Gaps for Enabling Plant Growth in Future Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anderson, Molly; Motil, Brian; Barta, Dan; Fritsche, Ralph; Massa, Gioia; Quincy, Charlie; Romeyn, Matthew; Wheeler, Ray; Hanford, Anthony

2017-01-01

Growing plants to provide food or psychological benefits to crewmembers is a common vision for the future of human spaceflight, often represented in media and in serious concept studies. The complexity of controlled environment agriculture, and plant growth in microgravity have and continue to be the subject of dedicated scientific research. However, actually implementing these systems in a way that will be cost effective, efficient, and sustainable for future space missions is a complex, multi-disciplinary problem. Key questions exist in many areas: human medical research in nutrition and psychology, horticulture, plant physiology and microbiology, multi-phase microgravity fluid physics, hardware design and technology development, and system design, operations and mission planning. This paper describes key knowledge gaps identified by a multi-disciplinary working group within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It also begins to identify solutions to the simpler questions identified by the group based on work initiated in 2017. Growing plants to provide food or psychological benefits to crewmembers is a common vision for the future of human spaceflight, often represented in media and in serious concept studies. The complexity of controlled environment agriculture, and plant growth in microgravity have and continue to be the subject of dedicated scientific research. However, actually implementing these systems in a way that will be cost effective, efficient, and sustainable for future space missions is a complex, multi-disciplinary problem. Key questions exist in many areas: human medical research in nutrition and psychology, horticulture, plant physiology and microbiology, multi-phase microgravity fluid physics, hardware design and technology development, and system design, operations and mission planning. This paper describes key knowledge gaps identified by a multi-disciplinary working group within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It also begins to identify solutions to the simpler questions identified by the group based on work initiated in 2017.

KSC-02pd2005

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Workers prepare a Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle for detachment from the underside of an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft. The aircraft, with the launch vehicle nestled beneath, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. The Pegasus XL will undergo three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch in late January 2003. It will carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

KSC-02pd2001

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Workers prepare to remove a Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle from the underside of an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft. The aircraft, with the launch vehicle attached, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. The Pegasus XL will undergo three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch in late January 2003. It will carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

MERI: an ultra-long-baseline Moon-Earth radio interferometer.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burns, J. O.

Radiofrequency aperture synthesis, pioneered by Ryle and his colleagues at Cambridge in the 1960's, has evolved to ever longer baselines and larger arrays in recent years. The limiting resolution at a given frequency for modern ground-based very-long-baseline interferometry is simply determined by the physical diameter of the Earth. A second-generation, totally space-based VLB network was proposed recently by a group at the Naval Research Laboratory. The next logical extension of space-based VLBI would be a station or stations on the Moon. The Moon could serve as an outpost or even the primary correlator station for an extended array of space-based antennas.

KSC-02pd2002

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle is moments away from being removed from the underside of an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft. The aircraft, with the launch vehicle attached, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. The Pegasus XL will undergo three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch in late January 2003. It will carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

KSC-02pd2003

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Workers begin the process to remove a Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle from the underside of an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft. The aircraft, with the launch vehicle attached, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. The Pegasus XL will undergo three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch in late January 2003. It will carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

Ghettoizing outdoor advertising: disadvantage and ad panel density in black neighborhoods.

PubMed

Kwate, Naa Oyo A; Lee, Tammy H

2007-01-01

This study investigated correlates of outdoor advertising panel density in predominantly African American neighborhoods in New York City. Research shows that black neighborhoods have more outdoor advertising space than white neighborhoods, and these spaces disproportionately market alcohol and tobacco advertisements. Thus, understanding the factors associated with outdoor advertising panel density has important implications for public health. We linked 2000 census data with property data at the census block group level to investigate two neighborhood-level determinants of ad density: income level and physical decay. Results showed that block groups were exposed to an average of four ad spaces per 1,000 residents and that vacant lot square footage was a significant positive predictor of ad density. An inverse relationship between median household income and ad density did not reach significance, suggesting that relative affluence did not protect black neighborhoods from being targeted for outdoor advertisements.

Ghettoizing Outdoor Advertising: Disadvantage and Ad Panel Density in Black Neighborhoods

PubMed Central

Lee, Tammy H.

2006-01-01

This study investigated correlates of outdoor advertising panel density in predominantly African American neighborhoods in New York City. Research shows that black neighborhoods have more outdoor advertising space than white neighborhoods, and these spaces disproportionately market alcohol and tobacco advertisements. Thus, understanding the factors associated with outdoor advertising panel density has important implications for public health. We linked 2000 census data with property data at the census block group level to investigate two neighborhood-level determinants of ad density: income level and physical decay. Results showed that block groups were exposed to an average of four ad spaces per 1,000 residents and that vacant lot square footage was a significant positive predictor of ad density. An inverse relationship between median household income and ad density did not reach significance, suggesting that relative affluence did not protect black neighborhoods from being targeted for outdoor advertisements. PMID:17146710

Hyperfunction solutions of the zero rest mass equations and representations of LIE groups

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

Dunne, E.G.

1984-01-01

Recently, hyperfunctions have arisen in an essential way in separate results in mathematical physics and in representation theory. In the setting of the twistor program, Wells, with others, has extended the Penrose transform to hyperfunction solutions of the zero rest mass equations, showing that the fundamental isomorphisms hold for this larger space. Meanwhile, Schmid has shown the existence of a canonical globalization of a Harish-Chandra module, V, to a representation of the group. This maximal globalization may be realized as the completion of V in a locally convex vector space in the hyperfunction topology. This thesis shows that the formermore » is a particular case of the latter where the globalization can be done by hand. This explicit globalization is then carried out for a more general case of the Radon transform on homogeneous spaces.« less

Effect of LEO Exposure on Aromatic Polymers Containing Phenylphosphine Oxide Groups

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lillehei, P. T.; Smith, J. G., Jr.; Connell, J. W.

2008-01-01

As part of the Materials on The International Space Station Experiment (MISSE), aromatic polymers containing phenylphosphine oxide groups were exposed to low Earth orbit for approx.4 years. All of the aromatic polymers containing phenylphosphine oxide groups survived the exposure despite the high fluence of atomic oxygen that completely eroded other polymer films such as Kapton(TradeMark) and Mylar(Trademark) of comparable or greater thickness. The samples were characterized for changes in physical properties, thermal/optical properties surface chemistry, and surface topography. The data from the polymer samples on MISSE were compared to samples from the same batch of material stored under ambient conditions on Earth. In addition, comparisons were made between the MISSE samples and those subjected to shorter term space flight exposures. The results of these analyses will be presented.

Definition of a parametric form of nonsingular Mueller matrices.

PubMed

Devlaminck, Vincent; Terrier, Patrick

2008-11-01

The goal of this paper is to propose a mathematical framework to define and analyze a general parametric form of an arbitrary nonsingular Mueller matrix. Starting from previous results about nondepolarizing matrices, we generalize the method to any nonsingular Mueller matrix. We address this problem in a six-dimensional space in order to introduce a transformation group with the same number of degrees of freedom and explain why subsets of O(5,1), the orthogonal group associated with six-dimensional Minkowski space, is a physically admissible solution to this question. Generators of this group are used to define possible expressions of an arbitrary nonsingular Mueller matrix. Ultimately, the problem of decomposition of these matrices is addressed, and we point out that the "reverse" and "forward" decomposition concepts recently introduced may be inferred from the formalism we propose.

Group dynamics challenges: Insights from Biosphere 2 experiments.

PubMed

Nelson, Mark; Gray, Kathelin; Allen, John P

2015-07-01

Successfully managing group dynamics of small, physically isolated groups is vital for long duration space exploration/habitation and for terrestrial CELSS (Controlled Environmental Life Support System) facilities with human participants. Biosphere 2 had important differences and shares some key commonalities with both Antarctic and space environments. There were a multitude of stress factors during the first two year closure experiment as well as mitigating factors. A helpful tool used at Biosphere 2 was the work of W.R. Bion who identified two competing modalities of behavior in small groups. Task-oriented groups are governed by conscious acceptance of goals, reality-thinking in relation to time and resources, and intelligent management of challenges. The opposing unconscious mode, the "basic-assumption" ("group animal") group, manifests through Dependency/Kill the Leader, Fight/Flight and Pairing. These unconscious dynamics undermine and can defeat the task group's goal. The biospherians experienced some dynamics seen in other isolated teams: factions developing reflecting personal chemistry and disagreements on overall mission procedures. These conflicts were exacerbated by external power struggles which enlisted support of those inside. Nevertheless, the crew evolved a coherent, creative life style to deal with some of the deprivations of isolation. The experience of the first two year closure of Biosphere 2 vividly illustrates both vicissitudes and management of group dynamics. The crew overrode inevitable frictions to creatively manage both operational and research demands and opportunities of the facility, thus staying 'on task' in Bion's group dynamics terminology. The understanding that Biosphere 2 was their life support system may also have helped the mission to succeed. Insights from the Biosphere 2 experience can help space and remote missions cope successfully with the inherent challenges of small, isolated crews. Copyright © 2015 The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Physical activity and sedentary behaviour in European children: the IDEFICS study.

PubMed

Santaliestra-Pasías, Alba Ma; Mouratidou, Theodora; Verbestel, Vera; Bammann, Karin; Molnar, Dénes; Sieri, Sabina; Siani, Alfonso; Veidebaum, Toomas; Mårild, Staffan; Lissner, Lauren; Hadjigeorgiou, Charalambos; Reisch, Lucia; De Bourdeaudhuij, Ilse; Moreno, Luis A

2014-10-01

To estimate the prevalence of physical activity and sedentary behaviours in European children, and to evaluate the relationship between media availability in personal space and physical activity in relation to total screen time. Data from the baseline IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of dietary- and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants) cross-sectional survey. Information on hours of television/digital video disk/video viewing and computer/games-console use (weekday and weekend days), media device availability in personal space, sports club membership, hours of active organized play and commuting (to and from school) were assessed via a self-reported parental questionnaire. Total screen time was defined as the sum of daily media use and subsequently dichotomized into meeting or not meeting the guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Eight survey centres (Italy, Estonia, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Hungary and Spain). Children (n 15 330; 51% males) aged 2-10 years. Percentage of children engaged in total screen time for >2 h/d was higher on weekend days (52% v. 20% on weekdays) and in the older group (71% in males; 57% in females), varying by country. Children with a television set in their bedroom were more likely not to meet the screen time recommendations (OR = 1·54; 95% CI 1·60, 1·74). Approximately a third of the children failed to meet current screen time recommendations. Availability of a television set in personal space increased the risk of excess total screen time. This information could be used to identify potential targets for public health promotion actions of young population groups.

[Reflections on physical spaces and mental spaces].

PubMed

Chen, Hung-Yi

2013-08-01

This article analyzes certain reciprocal impacts from physical spaces to mental spaces. If the epistemological construction and the spatial imagination from the subject of cogito or the social collectivities are able to influence the construction and creation of the physical spaces of that subject, then the context of that physical space may also affect the cognitive or social subject's mental cognition. This article applies the methodology of iconology from art history (E. Panofsky) and sociology (P. Bourdieu) to explore correlations between the creation of imaginative and physical spaces from the collective consciousness and mental cognition. The author uses Gilles Deleuses's opinion regarding the 17th-century Baroque style and contemporary social collective symptoms as an explanation. From these theoretical studies, the author analyzes the differences of spatial epistemology generated by Taiwan's special geological text. Finally, the author applies Michel Foucault's studies on spatial context to assess the possible application of this thesis of reciprocal impacts from mental spaces to physical spaces in a nursing context.

Trade Space Assessment for Human Exploration Mission Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Joosten, B. Kent

2006-01-01

Many human space exploration mission architecture assessments have been performed over the years by diverse organizations and individuals. Direct comparison of metrics among these studies is extremely difficult due to widely varying assumptions involving projected technology readiness, mission goals, acceptable risk criteria, and socio-political environments. However, constant over the years have been the physical laws of celestial dynamics and rocket propulsion systems. A finite diverse yet finite architecture trade space should exist which captures methods of human exploration - particularly of the Moon and Mars - by delineating technical trades and cataloging the physically realizable options of each. A particular architectural approach should then have a traceable path through this "trade tree". It should be pointed out that not every permutation of paths will result in a physically realizable mission approach, but cataloging options that have been examined by past studies should help guide future analysis. This effort was undertaken in two phases by multi-center NASA working groups in the spring and summer of 2004 using more than thirty years of past studies to "flesh out" the Moon-Mars human exploration trade space. The results are presented, not as a "trade tree", which would be unwieldy, but as a "menu" of potential technical options as a function of mission phases. This is envisioned as a tool to aid future mission designers by offering guidance to relevant past analyses.

Public open space, physical activity, urban design and public health: Concepts, methods and research agenda.

PubMed

Koohsari, Mohammad Javad; Mavoa, Suzanne; Villanueva, Karen; Sugiyama, Takemi; Badland, Hannah; Kaczynski, Andrew T; Owen, Neville; Giles-Corti, Billie

2015-05-01

Public open spaces such as parks and green spaces are key built environment elements within neighbourhoods for encouraging a variety of physical activity behaviours. Over the past decade, there has been a burgeoning number of active living research studies examining the influence of public open space on physical activity. However, the evidence shows mixed associations between different aspects of public open space (e.g., proximity, size, quality) and physical activity. These inconsistencies hinder the development of specific evidence-based guidelines for urban designers and policy-makers for (re)designing public open space to encourage physical activity. This paper aims to move this research agenda forward, by identifying key conceptual and methodological issues that may contribute to inconsistencies in research examining relations between public open space and physical activity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Shared Use of Physical Activity Facilities Among North Carolina Faith Communities, 2013

PubMed Central

Edwards, Michael B.; Bocarro, Jason N.; Stein, Anna; Kanters, Michael A.; Sherman, Danielle Marie; Rhew, Lori K.; Stallings, Willona Marie; Bowen, Sarah K.

2017-01-01

Introduction Shared use of recreational facilities is a promising strategy for increasing access to places for physical activity. Little is known about shared use in faith-based settings. This study examined shared use practices and barriers in faith communities in North Carolina. Methods Faith communities in North Carolina (n = 234) completed an online survey (October–December 2013) designed to provide information about the extent and nature of shared use of recreational facilities. We used binary logistic regression to examine differences between congregations that shared use and those that did not share use. Results Most of the faith communities (82.9%) that completed the survey indicated that they share their facilities with outside individuals and organizations. Formal agreements were more common when faith communities shared indoor spaces such as gymnasiums and classroom meeting spaces than when they shared outdoor spaces such as playgrounds or athletic fields. Faith communities in the wealthiest counties were more likely to share their spaces than were faith communities in poorer counties. Faith communities in counties with the best health rankings were more likely to share facilities than faith communities in counties that had lower health rankings. The most frequently cited reasons faith communities did not share their facilities were that they did not know how to initiate the process of sharing their facilities or that no outside groups had ever asked. Conclusion Most faith communities shared their facilities for physical activity. Research is needed on the relationship between shared use and physical activity levels, including the effect of formalizing shared-use policies. PMID:28152362

Shared Use of Physical Activity Facilities Among North Carolina Faith Communities, 2013.

PubMed

Hardison-Moody, Annie; Edwards, Michael B; Bocarro, Jason N; Stein, Anna; Kanters, Michael A; Sherman, Danielle Marie; Rhew, Lori K; Stallings, Willona Marie; Bowen, Sarah K

2017-02-02

Shared use of recreational facilities is a promising strategy for increasing access to places for physical activity. Little is known about shared use in faith-based settings. This study examined shared use practices and barriers in faith communities in North Carolina. Faith communities in North Carolina (n = 234) completed an online survey (October-December 2013) designed to provide information about the extent and nature of shared use of recreational facilities. We used binary logistic regression to examine differences between congregations that shared use and those that did not share use. Most of the faith communities (82.9%) that completed the survey indicated that they share their facilities with outside individuals and organizations. Formal agreements were more common when faith communities shared indoor spaces such as gymnasiums and classroom meeting spaces than when they shared outdoor spaces such as playgrounds or athletic fields. Faith communities in the wealthiest counties were more likely to share their spaces than were faith communities in poorer counties. Faith communities in counties with the best health rankings were more likely to share facilities than faith communities in counties that had lower health rankings. The most frequently cited reasons faith communities did not share their facilities were that they did not know how to initiate the process of sharing their facilities or that no outside groups had ever asked. Most faith communities shared their facilities for physical activity. Research is needed on the relationship between shared use and physical activity levels, including the effect of formalizing shared-use policies.

Molecular Astrophysics from Space: the Physical and Chemical Effects of Star Formation and the Destruction of Planetary Systems around Evolved Stars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neufeld, David

2005-01-01

The research conducted during the reporting period is grouped into three sections: 1) Warm molecular gas in the interstellar medium (ISM); 2) Absorption line studies of "cold" molecular clouds; 3) Vaporization of comets around the AGB star IRC+10216.

Quality in Family Child Care: A Focus Group Study with Canadian Providers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doherty, Gillian

2015-01-01

A substantial proportion of American, Canadian and English preschoolers regularly participate in family child care making its quality of vital importance for the children concerned, their parents, the school system and the society in which they live. This article discusses the seven key caregiver behaviors and physical space characteristics…

Watch Out for Children: A Mothers' Statement to Advertisers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Institute for American Values, New York, NY.

This report explains that all adults must watch out for all children, cautioning that marketing is harmful to children. Advertisers are aggressively targeting age groups that, until recently, have been considered off-limits and occupying more of children's psychic and physical space. The report presents a commitment by mothers to all children to…

Reforming the Environment: The Influence of the Roundtable Classroom Design on Interactive Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parsons, Caroline S.

2017-01-01

This study investigated the influence of physical and virtual learning spaces on interactive learning in a college and university setting. Qualitative analysis of an undergraduate liberal arts program that employs the use of roundtable classrooms was conducted. Interview and focus group data from students and faculty, along with classroom…

Jumping Good Fun

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nye, Susan B.

2010-01-01

Jumping rope is an activity that can be fun and enjoyable for all students. It requires minimal activity space, can be performed individually or in small groups, and is an inexpensive way to engage students in a lifelong physical activity. Jumping rope is commonly used by coaches and athletes for training purposes to improve aerobic endurance,…

CU Prime Diversity Workshops: Creating Spaces for Growth Amongst Organizers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hyater-Adams, Simone

2016-03-01

CU Prime is a graduate student run organization that was created as a way to promote community and inclusion amongst students in CU Physics Department. With a mission to improve the experiences of students, especially those underrepresented in the department and field, the core organizers developed three programs: a seminar series, a class, and a mentorship program. However, because this is strictly volunteer time for most organizers, there is little time for development and growth as a group. In response, we developed a series of diversity workshops for the group, in order to provide space and time for organizers to reflect on and grapple with difficult issues around diversity and inclusion that are important to think about when running these programs. With a structure based on readings, informal videos, and reflection, there have been 5 workshops around topics ranging from gender in physics to how to be an ally. We overview the structure and framing of these workshops, along with the challenges and successes throughout the process of developing them, along with plans for future development.

Microstructural Characterization of Polymers with Positrons

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Singh, Jag J.

1997-01-01

Positrons provide a versatile probe for monitoring microstructural features of molecular solids. In this paper, we report on positron lifetime measurements in two different types of polymers. The first group comprises polyacrylates processed on earth and in space. The second group includes fully-compatible and totally-incompatible Semi-Interpenetrating polymer networks of thermosetting and thermoplastic polyimides. On the basis of lifetime measurements, it is concluded that free volumes are a direct reflection of physical/electromagnetic properties of the host polymers.

Sensorimotor coordination and the structure of space.

PubMed

McCollum, Gin

2003-01-01

Embedded in neural and behavioral organization is a structure of sensorimotor space. Both this embedded spatial structure and the structure of physical space inform sensorimotor control. This paper reviews studies in which the gravitational vertical and horizontal are crucial. The mathematical expressions of spatial geometry in these studies indicate methods for investigating sensorimotor control in freefall. In freefall, the spatial structure introduced by gravitation - the distinction between vertical and horizontal - does not exist. However, an astronaut arriving in space carries the physiologically-embedded distinction between horizontal and vertical learned on earth. The physiological organization based on this distinction collapses when the strong otolith activity and other gravitational cues for sensorimotor behavior become unavailable. The mathematical methods in this review are applicable in understanding the changes in physiological organization as an astronaut adapts to sensorimotor control in freefall. Many mathematical languages are available for characterizing the logical structures in physiological organization. Here, group theory is used to characterize basic structure of physical and physiological spaces. Dynamics and topology allow the grouping of trajectory ranges according to the outcomes or attractors. The mathematics of ordered structures express complex orderings, such as in multiphase movements in which different parts of the body are moving in different phase sequences. Conditional dynamics, which combines dynamics with the mathematics of ordered structures, accommodates the parsing of movement sequences into trajectories and transitions. Studies reviewed include those of the sit-to-stand movement and early locomotion, because of the salience of gravitation in those behaviors. Sensorimotor transitions and the conditions leading to them are characterized in conditional dynamic control structures that do not require thinking of an organism as an input-output device. Conditions leading to sensorimotor transitions on earth assume the presence of a gravitational vertical which is lacking in space. Thus, conditions used on earth for sensorimotor transitions may become ambiguous in space. A platform study in which sensorimotor transition conditions are ambiguous and are related to motion sickness is reviewed.

Video game play, child diet, and physical activity behavior change a randomized clinical trial.

PubMed

Baranowski, Tom; Baranowski, Janice; Thompson, Debbe; Buday, Richard; Jago, Russ; Griffith, Melissa Juliano; Islam, Noemi; Nguyen, Nga; Watson, Kathleen B

2011-01-01

Video games designed to promote behavior change are a promising venue to enable children to learn healthier behaviors. Evaluate outcome from playing "Escape from Diab" (Diab) and "Nanoswarm: Invasion from Inner Space" (Nano) video games on children's diet, physical activity, and adiposity. Two-group RCT; assessments occurred at baseline, immediately after Diab, immediately after Nano, and 2 months later. Data were collected in 2008-2009, and analyses were conducted in 2009-2010. 133 children aged 10-12 years, initially between 50th percentile and 95th percentile BMI. Treatment group played Diab and Nano in sequence. Control Group played diet and physical activity knowledge-based games on popular websites. Servings of fruit, vegetable, and water; minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity. At each point of assessment: 3 nonconsecutive days of 24-hour dietary recalls; 5 consecutive days of physical activity using accelerometers; and assessment of height, weight, waist circumference, and triceps skinfold. A repeated measures ANCOVA was conducted (analyzed in 2009-2010). Children playing these video games increased fruit and vegetable consumption by about 0.67 servings per day (p<0.018) but not water and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, or body composition. Playing Diab and Nano resulted in an increase in fruit and vegetable intake. Research is needed on the optimal design of video game components to maximize change. Copyright © 2011 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. All rights reserved.

On public space design for Chinese urban residential area based on integrated architectural physics environment evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, J. Y.; Cheng, W.; Ma, C. P.; Tan, Y. T.; Xin, L. S.

2017-04-01

The residential public space is an important part in designing the ecological residence, and a proper physics environment of public space is of greater significance to urban residence in China. Actually, the measure to apply computer aided design software into residential design can effectively avoid an inconformity of design intent with actual using condition, and a negative impact on users due to bad architectural physics environment of buildings, etc. The paper largely adopts a design method of analyzing architectural physics environment of residential public space. By analyzing and evaluating various physics environments, a suitability assessment is obtained for residential public space, thereby guiding the space design.

Physico-Chemical Characteristics of Uraniferous Supergene Minerals; CARACTERISTIQUES PHYSICO-CHIMIQUES DES MINERAUX URANIFERES SUPERGENES

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

Semat, M.A.

1960-01-01

Transport and deposit conditions of uraniferous minerals are breifly described. The synthesis of crystallograpic, physical, optical, and thermal properties permits defining the main characteristics of this mineralogical group. Tables to facilicate identification of the supergene uranium minerals are given on investigation by anion and cation; system, cleavages, cell parameters, interplanar spacings, refractive indices, optical barings; classification by decreasing values of the most intense line of the powder diagram; diagram for the three higher interplanar spacings; and diagram of the refractive indices. (auth)

Modularity, quaternion-Kähler spaces, and mirror symmetry

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

Alexandrov, Sergei; Banerjee, Sibasish

2013-10-15

We provide an explicit twistorial construction of quaternion-Kähler manifolds obtained by deformation of c-map spaces and carrying an isometric action of the modular group SL(2,Z). The deformation is not assumed to preserve any continuous isometry and therefore this construction presents a general framework for describing NS5-brane instanton effects in string compactifications with N= 2 supersymmetry. In this context the modular invariant parametrization of twistor lines found in this work yields the complete non-perturbative mirror map between type IIA and type IIB physical fields.

1999 LDRD Laboratory Directed Research and Development

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

Rita Spencer; Kyle Wheeler

This is the FY 1999 Progress Report for the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It gives an overview of the LDRD Program, summarizes work done on individual research projects, relates the projects to major Laboratory program sponsors, and provides an index to the principal investigators. Project summaries are grouped by their LDRD component: Competency Development, Program Development, and Individual Projects. Within each component, they are further grouped into nine technical categories: (1) materials science, (2) chemistry, (3) mathematics and computational science, (4) atomic, molecular, optical, and plasma physics, fluids, and particle beams, (5)more » engineering science, (6) instrumentation and diagnostics, (7) geoscience, space science, and astrophysics, (8) nuclear and particle physics, and (9) bioscience.« less

Laboratory Directed Research and Development FY 1998 Progress Report

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

John Vigil; Kyle Wheeler

This is the FY 1998 Progress Report for the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It gives an overview of the LDRD Program, summarizes work done on individual research projects, relates the projects to major Laboratory program sponsors, and provides an index to the principle investigators. Project summaries are grouped by their LDRD component: Competency Development, Program Development, and Individual Projects. Within each component, they are further grouped into nine technical categories: (1) materials science, (2) chemistry, (3) mathematics and computational science, (4) atomic, molecular, optical, and plasma physics, fluids, and particle beams, (5)more » engineering science, (6) instrumentation and diagnostics, (7) geoscience, space science, and astrophysics, (8) nuclear and particle physics, and (9) bioscience.« less

Laboratory directed research and development: FY 1997 progress report

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

Vigil, J.; Prono, J.

1998-05-01

This is the FY 1997 Progress Report for the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It gives an overview of the LDRD program, summarizes work done on individual research projects, relates the projects to major Laboratory program sponsors, and provides an index to the principal investigators. Project summaries are grouped by their LDRD component: Competency Development, Program Development, and Individual Projects. Within each component, they are further grouped into nine technical categories: (1) materials science, (2) chemistry, (3) mathematics and computational science, (4) atomic and molecular physics and plasmas, fluids, and particle beams, (5)more » engineering science, (6) instrumentation and diagnostics, (7) geoscience, space science, and astrophysics, (8) nuclear and particle physics, and (9) bioscience.« less

On the Hodge-type decomposition and cohomology groups of k-Cauchy-Fueter complexes over domains in the quaternionic space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Der-Chen; Markina, Irina; Wang, Wei

2016-09-01

The k-Cauchy-Fueter operator D0(k) on one dimensional quaternionic space H is the Euclidean version of spin k / 2 massless field operator on the Minkowski space in physics. The k-Cauchy-Fueter equation for k ≥ 2 is overdetermined and its compatibility condition is given by the k-Cauchy-Fueter complex. In quaternionic analysis, these complexes play the role of Dolbeault complex in several complex variables. We prove that a natural boundary value problem associated to this complex is regular. Then by using the theory of regular boundary value problems, we show the Hodge-type orthogonal decomposition, and the fact that the non-homogeneous k-Cauchy-Fueter equation D0(k) u = f on a smooth domain Ω in H is solvable if and only if f satisfies the compatibility condition and is orthogonal to the set ℋ(k)1 (Ω) of Hodge-type elements. This set is isomorphic to the first cohomology group of the k-Cauchy-Fueter complex over Ω, which is finite dimensional, while the second cohomology group is always trivial.

Research and technology: Fiscal year 1984 report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1985-01-01

Topics covered include extraterrestrial physics, high energy astrophysics, astronomy, solar physics, atmospheres, oceans, terrestrial physics, space technology, sensors, techniques, user space data systems, space communications and navigation, and system and software engineering.

Multiple Weyl points and the sign change of their topological charges in woodpile photonic crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Ming-Li; Xiao, Meng; Chen, Wen-Jie; Chan, C. T.

2017-03-01

We show that Weyl points with topological charges 1 and 2 can be found in very simple chiral woodpile photonic crystals and the distribution of the charges can be changed by changing the material parameters without altering space-group symmetry. The underlying physics can be understood through a tight-binding model. Gapless surface states and their backscattering immune properties also are demonstrated in these systems. Obtaining Weyl points in these easily fabricated woodpile photonic crystals will facilitate the realization of Weyl point physics in optical and IR frequencies.

Current algebras, measures quasi-invariant under diffeomorphism groups, and infinite quantum systems with accumulation points

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakuraba, Takao

The approach to quantum physics via current algebra and unitary representations of the diffeomorphism group is established. This thesis studies possible infinite Bose gas systems using this approach. Systems of locally finite configurations and systems of configurations with accumulation points are considered, with the main emphasis on the latter. In Chapter 2, canonical quantization, quantization via current algebra and unitary representations of the diffeomorphism group are reviewed. In Chapter 3, a new definition of the space of configurations is proposed and an axiom for general configuration spaces is abstracted. Various subsets of the configuration space, including those specifying the number of points in a Borel set and those specifying the number of accumulation points in a Borel set are proved to be measurable using this axiom. In Chapter 4, known results on the space of locally finite configurations and Poisson measure are reviewed in the light of the approach developed in Chapter 3, including the approach to current algebra in the Poisson space by Albeverio, Kondratiev, and Rockner. Goldin and Moschella considered unitary representations of the group of diffeomorphisms of the line based on self-similar random processes, which may describe infinite quantum gas systems with clusters. In Chapter 5, the Goldin-Moschella theory is developed further. Their construction of measures quasi-invariant under diffeomorphisms is reviewed, and a rigorous proof of their conjectures is given. It is proved that their measures with distinct correlation parameters are mutually singular. A quasi-invariant measure constructed by Ismagilov on the space of configurations with accumulation points on the circle is proved to be singular with respect to the Goldin-Moschella measures. Finally a generalization of the Goldin-Moschella measures to the higher-dimensional case is studied, where the notion of covariance matrix and the notion of condition number play important roles. A rigorous construction of measures quasi-invariant under the group of diffeomorphisms of d-dimensional space stabilizing a point is given.

Can We Build Inclusion?

PubMed

Kirkeby, Inge Mette; Grangaard, Sidse

2016-01-01

Inclusion of children with special needs in kindergartens and preschools may be approached from different angles. This paper raises the question of whether the physical framework of kindergartens makes any difference for daily life at the kindergarten at all, and whether it can support inclusion of some children with special needs. Hence the title - can we build inclusion? In the literature of Universal Design, accommodation and design features seldom reflect the less visible disabilities. The paper is based on a research project initiated to investigate how more or less space influences daily pedagogical practice in general. Twelve interviews were conducted with experienced teachers from twelve different kindergartens with different amounts of space, varying from a ratio of 2.1 m² play area per child to 5.5 m². The results indicated that, for a group of children with special needs in particular, the amount of space is crucial. This group consisted of children who were socially very extrovert, and who maybe were noisy, easily provoked, and quick to get involved in arguments with other children. Alternatively, children in the group were very restrained and withdrawn in social interaction. Based on the answers in the interviews, we found support for answering the question in the title in the affirmative; we can build inclusion! This is because the teachers' experience indicated that, if there was sufficient space per child, there were fewer conflicts and the children managed to stay in the same activity for a much longer period. Sufficient space made it possible to divide the children into smaller groups, and use any secluded space. Therefore, it was much easier for other children to include some children with special needs. Accordingly, we can say that, sufficient space per child and an adequate layout and furnishing of the kindergarten is an advantage for all children. This is a clear example of Universal Design in which architectural solutions that are good for one specific group are also beneficial for all children.

Space physics education via examples in the undergraduate physics curriculum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, R.; Holland, D. L.

2011-12-01

The field of space physics is rich with examples of basic physics and analysis techniques, yet it is rarely seen in physics courses or textbooks. As space physicists in an undergraduate physics department we like to use research to inform teaching, and we find that students respond well to examples from magnetospheric science. While we integrate examples into general education courses as well, this talk will focus on physics major courses. Space physics examples are typically selected to illustrate a particular concept or method taught in the course. Four examples will be discussed, from an introductory electricity and magnetism course, a mechanics/nonlinear dynamics course, a computational physics course, and a plasma physics course. Space physics provides examples of many concepts from introductory E&M, including the application of Faraday's law to terrestrial magnetic storm effects and the use of the basic motion of charged particles as a springboard to discussion of the inner magnetosphere and the aurora. In the mechanics and nonlinear dynamics courses, the motion of charged particles in a magnetotail current sheet magnetic field is treated as a Newtonian dynamical system, illustrating the Poincaré surface-of-section technique, the partitioning of phase space, and the KAM theorem. Neural network time series analysis of AE data is used as an example in the computational physics course. Finally, among several examples, current sheet particle dynamics is utilized in the plasma physics course to illustrate the notion of adiabatic/guiding center motion and the breakdown of the adiabatic approximation. We will present short descriptions of our pedagogy and student assignments in this "backdoor" method of space physics education.

Views of parents, teachers and children on health promotion in kindergarten--first results from formative focus groups and observations.

PubMed

Sansolios, Sanne; Mikkelsen, Bent Egberg

2011-10-01

The aim of the study was to capture the views of children, parents and teachers on the topic of physical activity in kindergarten through observation and focus group interviews. The study was conducted in the kindergartens from the sampling group in the Danish part of PERISCOPE. 1(st) methodology: Children interviewed inside by the researcher on preferable movements and settings and then observed outside during their playtime. 2(nd) methodology: Children asked to draw themselves playing their most preferred physical activity. Parents and kindergarten teachers interviewed in two different groups, using an identical guide. Children are skilled in taking advantage of the space and facilities available for physical activity; girls need more support than boys to initiate physical activity; children are happy with the facilities and the toys available in the kindergarten. Teachers feel an increasing pressure to take more responsibility and initiatives for the children's health habits. Parents state that if more physical activity is initiated in the kindergarten, it could make children request domestic activity. Physical activity and movement concept are too abstract for children of this age to talk about: they quickly lose their focus and concentration. The new methodology of videotaping gives the researcher the chance to interpret facial expressions to capture movement, talk and actions, and to make a distinction among children, as they tend to interrupt each other. However, this method contains a weakness, if used alone, by the fact that the shooting is only a reflection of what the video camera has recorded.

Projective loop quantum gravity. I. State space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lanéry, Suzanne; Thiemann, Thomas

2016-12-01

Instead of formulating the state space of a quantum field theory over one big Hilbert space, it has been proposed by Kijowski to describe quantum states as projective families of density matrices over a collection of smaller, simpler Hilbert spaces. Beside the physical motivations for this approach, it could help designing a quantum state space holding the states we need. In a latter work by Okolów, the description of a theory of Abelian connections within this framework was developed, an important insight being to use building blocks labeled by combinations of edges and surfaces. The present work generalizes this construction to an arbitrary gauge group G (in particular, G is neither assumed to be Abelian nor compact). This involves refining the definition of the label set, as well as deriving explicit formulas to relate the Hilbert spaces attached to different labels. If the gauge group happens to be compact, we also have at our disposal the well-established Ashtekar-Lewandowski Hilbert space, which is defined as an inductive limit using building blocks labeled by edges only. We then show that the quantum state space presented here can be thought as a natural extension of the space of density matrices over this Hilbert space. In addition, it is manifest from the classical counterparts of both formalisms that the projective approach allows for a more balanced treatment of the holonomy and flux variables, so it might pave the way for the development of more satisfactory coherent states.

KSC-02pd2016

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle is prepared for towing to the Multi-Purpose Payload Facility (MPPF) where it will undergo testing, verification, and three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch. The vehicle, nestled beneath an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. It is commissioned to carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit in late January 2003. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

KSC-02pd2007

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Workers supervise the placement of a transporter below a Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle before its detachment from the underside of an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft. The aircraft, with the launch vehicle nestled beneath, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. The Pegasus XL will undergo three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch in late January 2003. It will carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

KSC-02pd2018

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle sits atop a transporter following its arrival in the Multi-Purpose Payload Facility (MPPF) where it will undergo testing, verification, and three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch. The vehicle, nestled beneath an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. It is commissioned to carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit in late January 2003. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

Space Science News: from archive to teaching resource, the secret life of newspapers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McClune, Billy; Jarman, Ruth

2004-03-01

This article illustrates the use of newspapers as a resource for teaching and learning about science. Science teachers in Northern Ireland have produced a special edition news magazine, Space Science News, to support the teaching and learning of aspects of space science in secondary school. The resource is based on authentic newspaper articles and was developed in partnership with a local newspaper and with the support of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC). Articles have been grouped into curriculum-related 'themes' and are accompanied by a range of classroom activities designed to support learning in this area, to develop literacy skills and to promote awareness of media- and citizenship-related issues.

KSC-02pd2012

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Workers complete the final steps to detach a Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle from the underside of an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft. The aircraft, with the launch vehicle nestled beneath, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. The Pegasus XL will undergo three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch in late January 2003. It will carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

KSC-02pd2010

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A transporter is repositioned below a Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle before it is detached from the underside of an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft. The aircraft, with the launch vehicle nestled beneath, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. The Pegasus XL will undergo three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch in late January 2003. It will carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

KSC-02pd2015

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle is prepared for towing to the Multi-Purpose Payload Facility (MPPF) where it will undergo testing, verification, and three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch. The vehicle, nestled beneath an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. It is commissioned to carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit in late January 2003. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

KSC-02pd2006

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A transporter is positioned below a Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle before its detachment from the underside of an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft. The aircraft, with the launch vehicle nestled beneath, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. The Pegasus XL will undergo three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch in late January 2003. It will carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

Solar and Space Physics PhD Production and Job Availability: Implications for the Future of the Space Weather Research Workforce

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moldwin, M.; Morrow, C. A.; Moldwin, L. A.; Torrence, J.

2012-12-01

To assess the state-of-health of the field of Solar and Space Physics an analysis of the number of Ph.D.s produced and number of Job Postings each year was done for the decade 2001-2010. To determine the number of Ph.D's produced in the field, the University of Michigan Ph.D. Dissertation Archive (Proquest) was queried for Solar and Space Physics dissertations produced in North America. The field generated about 30 Ph.D. per year from 2001 to 2006, but then saw the number increase to 50 to 70 per year for the rest of the decade. Only 14 institutions account for the majority of Solar and Space Physics PhDs. To estimate the number of jobs available each year in the field, a compilation of the job advertisements listed in the American Astronomical Society's Solar Physics Division (SPD) and the American Geophysical Union's Space Physics and Aeronomy (SPA) electronic newsletters was done. The positions were sorted into four types (Faculty, Post-doctoral Researcher, and Scientist/Researcher or Staff), institution type (academic, government lab, or industry) and if the position was located inside or outside the United States. Overall worldwide, 943 Solar and Space Physics positions were advertised over the decade. Of this total, 52% were for positions outside the US. Within Solar Physics, 44% of the positions were in the US, while in Space Physics 57% of the positions were for US institutions. The annual average for positions in the US were 26.9 for Solar Physics and 31.5 for Space Physics though there is much variability year-to-year particularly in Solar Physics positions outside the US. A disconcerting trend is a decline in job advertisements in the last two years for Solar Physics positions and between 2009 and 2010 for Space Physics positions. For both communities within the US in 2010, the total job ads reached their lowest levels in the decade (14), approximately half the decadal average number of job advertisements.

Geometrical basis for the Standard Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Potter, Franklin

1994-02-01

The robust character of the Standard Model is confirmed. Examination of its geometrical basis in three equivalent internal symmetry spaces-the unitary plane C 2, the quaternion space Q, and the real space R 4—as well as the real space R 3 uncovers mathematical properties that predict the physical properties of leptons and quarks. The finite rotational subgroups of the gauge group SU(2) L × U(1) Y generate exactly three lepton families and four quark families and reveal how quarks and leptons are related. Among the physical properties explained are the mass ratios of the six leptons and eight quarks, the origin of the left-handed preference by the weak interaction, the geometrical source of color symmetry, and the zero neutrino masses. The ( u, d) and ( c, s) quark families team together to satisfy the triangle anomaly cancellation with the electron family, while the other families pair one-to-one for cancellation. The spontaneously broken symmetry is discrete and needs no Higgs mechanism. Predictions include all massless neutrinos, the top quark at 160 GeV/ c 2, the b' quark at 80 GeV/ c 2, and the t' quark at 2600 GeV/ c 2.

Physics of Colloids in Space: Microgravity Experiment Launched, Installed, and Activated on the International Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doherty, Michael P.

2002-01-01

The Physics of Colloids in Space (PCS) experiment is a Microgravity Fluids Physics investigation that is presently located in an Expedite the Process of Experiments to Space Station (EXPRESS) Rack on the International Space Station. PCS was launched to the International Space Station on April 19, 2001, activated on May 31, 2001, and will continue to operate about 90 hr per week through May 2002.

Microstructural Characterization of Polymers by Positron Lifetime Spectroscopy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Singh, Jag J.

1996-01-01

Positrons provide a versatile probe for monitoring microstructural features of molecular solids. In this paper, we report on positron lifetime measurements in two different types of polymers. The first group comprises polyacrylates processed on earth and in space. The second group includes fully-compatible and totally-incompatible Semi-Interpenetrating polymer networks of thermosetting and thermoplastic polyimides. On the basis of lifetime measurements, it is concluded that free volumes are a direct reflection of physical/electromagnetic properties of the host polymers.

Summary results of the Industry Conference on the Commercial Use of Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

REUSE; Thuerbach, R. P.

1985-01-01

The future intentions of the Federal Republic of Germany in the area of the commercialization of space are presented. It is shown that significant advances in microgravity research, particulary in the areas of materials science, composite materials, physical chemistry, crystal growth, biology, and process engineering will have an effect on future plans for establishing sponsoring organizations to guide commercial interests in German space research. An organizational and functional outline of a proposed sponsoring organization to promote space commercialization under German supervision, including the objectives, the target group to be served, and the administrative structure, is presented. The role of the DFVLR (German Aerospace Research Establishment) and the BMFT (German Ministry for Research and Technology) as sponsoring organizations representing the interests of the German government is shown.

Adolescents' Sense of Community on MySpace and Facebook: A Mixed-Methods Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reich, Stephanie M.

2010-01-01

Communities are foundational to the field of Community Psychology yet they are difficult to define and measure. Once viewed as social groups with ties to geographical locations, online communities interact free of physical or face-to-face contact. This cyberexistence makes the study of communities more challenging. Social networking sites (SNS),…

Physical-Biological-Optics Model Development and Simulation for the Pacific Ocean and Monterey Bay, California

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-04-01

advanced ROMS-CoSiNE-Optics model in a full three-dimensional environment. We collaborate with Dr. Curt Mobley at Sequoia Scientific to implement...projects. Besides working closely with the modeling group at the NRL and their BioSpace project, we are collaborating with Dr. Curtis Mobley of Sequoia

Telematics and Electronic Communication and Their Effect on Educational Space. [Brief No.] 3.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morton, James E.

A telematics and electronic communication task group examines technology's influence on the educational process as well as the physical classroom, and the needs and concerns these new technologies bring to architects and educators in designing an adaptable classroom. Technology and the classroom are examined in the following areas: the use of…

Learning about Flood Risk: Comparing the Web-Based and Physical Flood-Walk Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang Rundgren, Shu-Nu; Nyberg, Lars; Evers, Mariele; Alexandersson, Jan

2015-01-01

Numerous of sustainable development related challenges are emerging today, e.g. flooding problems. Our group has developed "the flood walk" project since 2010 to convey flood risk knowledge in an authentic context. Considering the limitation of time and space to educate people the flood risk knowledge, we tried to transform the physical…

[Cluster analysis applicability to fitness evaluation of cosmonauts on long-term missions of the International space station].

PubMed

Egorov, A D; Stepantsov, V I; Nosovskiĭ, A M; Shipov, A A

2009-01-01

Cluster analysis was applied to evaluate locomotion training (running and running intermingled with walking) of 13 cosmonauts on long-term ISS missions by the parameters of duration (min), distance (m) and intensity (km/h). Based on the results of analyses, the cosmonauts were distributed into three steady groups of 2, 5 and 6 persons. Distance and speed showed a statistical rise (p < 0.03) from group 1 to group 3. Duration of physical locomotion training was not statistically different in the groups (p = 0.125). Therefore, cluster analysis is an adequate method of evaluating fitness of cosmonauts on long-term missions.

Solar physics in the space age

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1989-01-01

A concise and brief review is given of the solar physics' domain, and how its study has been affected by NASA Space programs which have enabled space based observations. The observations have greatly increased the knowledge of solar physics by proving some theories and challenging others. Many questions remain unanswered. To exploit coming opportunities like the Space Station, solar physics must continue its advances in instrument development, observational techniques, and basic theory. Even with the Advance Solar Observatory, other space based observation will still be required for the sure to be ensuing questions.

Morbidity is related to a green living environment.

PubMed

Maas, J; Verheij, R A; de Vries, S; Spreeuwenberg, P; Schellevis, F G; Groenewegen, P P

2009-12-01

As a result of increasing urbanisation, people face the prospect of living in environments with few green spaces. There is increasing evidence for a positive relation between green space in people's living environment and self-reported indicators of physical and mental health. This study investigates whether physician-assessed morbidity is also related to green space in people's living environment. Morbidity data were derived from electronic medical records of 195 general practitioners in 96 Dutch practices, serving a population of 345,143 people. Morbidity was classified by the general practitioners according to the International Classification of Primary Care. The percentage of green space within a 1 km and 3 km radius around the postal code coordinates was derived from an existing database and was calculated for each household. Multilevel logistic regression analyses were performed, controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The annual prevalence rate of 15 of the 24 disease clusters was lower in living environments with more green space in a 1 km radius. The relation was strongest for anxiety disorder and depression. The relation was stronger for children and people with a lower socioeconomic status. Furthermore, the relation was strongest in slightly urban areas and not apparent in very strongly urban areas. This study indicates that the previously established relation between green space and a number of self-reported general indicators of physical and mental health can also be found for clusters of specific physician-assessed morbidity. The study stresses the importance of green space close to home for children and lower socioeconomic groups.

Research and technology 1988

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1988-01-01

This report presents the on-going research activities at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center for the year 1988. The subjects presented are space transportation systems, shuttle cargo vehicle, materials processing in space, environmental data base management, microgravity science, astronomy, astrophysics, solar physics, magnetospheric physics, aeronomy, atomic physics, rocket propulsion, materials and processes, telerobotics, and space systems.

Space physics strategy: Implementation study. Volume 2: Program plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

In June, 1989, the Space Science and Applications Advisory Committee (SSAAC) authorized its Space Physics Subcommittee (SPS) to prepare a plan specifying the future missions, launch sequence, and encompassing themes of the Space Physics Division. The plan, now complete, is the product of a year-long study comprising two week-long workshops - in January and June 1990 - assisted by pre-workshop, inter-workshop, and post-workshop preparation and assessment activities. The workshops engaged about seventy participants, drawn equally from the Division's four science disciplines: cosmic and heliospheric physics, solar physics, magnetosphere physics, and ionosphere-thermosphere-mesospheric physics. An earlier report records the outcome of the first workshop; this is the report of the final workshop.

Virtual worlds and avatars as the new frontier of telehealth care.

PubMed

Morie, J; Haynes, E; Chance, E; Purohit, D

2012-01-01

We are entering a new age where people routinely visit, inhabit, play in and learn within virtual worlds (VWs). One in eight people worldwide are VW participants, according to the latest 2011 figures from KZERO [1]. VWs are also emerging as a new and advanced form of telehealth care delivery. In addition to existing telehealth care advantages; VWs feature three powerful affordances that can benefit a wide range of physical and psychological issues. First, the highly social nature of VWs encourages social networking and the formation of essential support groups. Secondly, the type of spaces that have been proven in the physical world to promote psychological health and well-being can be virtually recreated. Finally, research suggests that embodied avatar representation within VWs can affect users psychologically and physically. These three aspects of VWs can be leveraged for enhanced patient-client interactions, spaces that promote healing and positive responses, and avatar activities that transfer real benefits from the virtual to the physical world. This paper explains the mounting evidence behind these claims and provides examples of VWs as an innovative and compelling form of telehealth care destined to become commonplace in the future.

Space Science

NASA Image and Video Library

1990-10-01

Using the Solar Vector Magnetograph, a solar observation facility at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), scientists from the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, Alabama, are monitoring the explosive potential of magnetic areas of the Sun. This effort could someday lead to better prediction of severe space weather, a phenomenon that occurs when blasts of particles and magnetic fields from the Sun impact the magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble around the Earth. When massive solar explosions, known as coronal mass ejections, blast through the Sun's outer atmosphere and plow toward Earth at speeds of thousands of miles per second, the resulting effects can be harmful to communication satellites and astronauts outside the Earth's magnetosphere. Like severe weather on Earth, severe space weather can be costly. On the ground, the magnetic storm wrought by these solar particles can knock out electric power. The researchers from MSFC and NSSTC's solar physics group develop instruments for measuring magnetic fields on the Sun. With these instruments, the group studies the origin, structure, and evolution of the solar magnetic field and the impact it has on Earth's space environment. This photograph shows the Solar Vector Magnetograph and Dr. Mona Hagyard of MSFC, the director of the observatory who leads the development, operation and research program of the Solar Vector Magnetograph.

Space Studies Board Annual Report 1995

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

During 1995, the Space Studies Board and its committees and task groups gathered for a total of 40 meetings. Highlights of these meetings are presented. Formal study reports and short reports developed and approved during the meetings and issued during 1995 are represented in this annual report either by their executive summaries (for full-length reports), or by reproduction in full (for short reports). Nine full-length reports were distributed or delivered, including a congressionally mandated report by the Committee on the Future of Space Science and a comprehensive survey of Earth observation programs by the Committee on Earth Studies. Major research guidance reports were completed and published by the Committee on Microgravity Research and by the federated Committee on Solar and Space Physics/Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Research. Several significant assessment reports were also published, including an assessment of small missions by the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration, a scientific evaluation of Gravity Probe B by the Task Group on Gravity Probe B, and an analysis of technologies for a 4-meter active optics telescope by the Task Group on BMDO New Technology Orbital Observatory. In addition, the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics Panel on Ground-based Optical and Infrared Astronomy released its report, and the Task Group on Priorities in Space Research issued its second and final report. Five short reports were also prepared and released during 1995. They addressed such diverse topics as reflight of shuttle-borne synthetic aperture radars, the role of NASA centers and center scientists in scientific research, guidelines for establishment of NASA research institutes, and clarification of findings of the microgravity research opportunities report and of the Future of Space Science Committee's management study.

Packaging a Successful NASA Mission to Reach a Large Audience with a Small Budget. Earth's Dynamic Space: Solar-Terrestrial Physics and NASA's Polar Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fox, Nicola J.; Goldberg, Richard; Barnes, Robin J.; Sigwarth, John B.; Beisser, Kerri B.; Moore, Thomas E.; Hoffman, Robert A.; Russell, Christopher T.; Scudder, Jack D.; Spann, James F.

2004-01-01

To showcase the on-going and wide-ranging scope of the Polar science discoveries, the Polar science team has created a one-stop shop for a thorough introduction to geospace physics, in the form of a DVD with supporting website. The DVD, Earth's Dynamic Space: Solar-Terrestrial Physics & NASA's Polar Mission, can be viewed as an end-to-end product or split into individual segments and tailored to lesson plans. Capitalizing on the Polar mission and its amazing science return, the Polar team created an exciting multi-use DVD intended for audiences ranging from a traditional classroom and after school clubs, to museums and science centers. The DVD tackles subjects such as the aurora, the magnetosphere and space weather, whilst highlighting the science discoveries of the Polar mission. This platform introduces the learner to key team members as well as the science principles. Dramatic visualizations are used to illustrate the complex principles that describe Earth's dynamic space. In order to produce such a wide-ranging product on a shoe-string budget, the team poured through existing NASA resources to package them into the Polar story. Team members also created visualizations using Polar data to complement the NASA stock footage. Scientists donated their time to create and review scripts to make this a real team effort, working closely with the award winning audio-visual group at JHU/Applied Physics Laboratory. The team was excited to be invited to join NASA's Sun-Earth Day 2005 E/PO program and the DVD will be distributed as part of the supporting educational packages.

Packaging a successful NASA mission to reach a large audience within a small budget. Earth's Dynamic Space: Solar-Terrestrial Physics & NASA's Polar Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fox, N. J.; Goldberg, R.; Barnes, R. J.; Sigwarth, J. B.; Beisser, K. B.; Moore, T. E.; Hoffman, R. A.; Russell, C. T.; Scudder, J.; Spann, J. F.; Newell, P. T.; Hobson, L. J.; Gribben, S. P.; Obrien, J. E.; Menietti, J. D.; Germany, G. G.; Mobilia, J.; Schulz, M.

2004-12-01

To showcase the on-going and wide-ranging scope of the Polar science discoveries, the Polar science team has created a one-stop shop for a thorough introduction to geospace physics, in the form of a DVD with supporting website. The DVD, Earth's Dynamic Space: Solar-Terrestrial Physics & NASA's Polar Mission, can be viewed as an end-to-end product or split into individual segments and tailored to lesson plans. Capitalizing on the Polar mission and its amazing science return, the Polar team created an exciting multi-use DVD intended for audiences ranging from a traditional classroom and after school clubs, to museums and science centers. The DVD tackles subjects such as the aurora, the magnetosphere and space weather, whilst highlighting the science discoveries of the Polar mission. This platform introduces the learner to key team members as well as the science principles. Dramatic visualizations are used to illustrate the complex principles that describe Earth’s dynamic space. In order to produce such a wide-ranging product on a shoe-string budget, the team poured through existing NASA resources to package them into the Polar story, and visualizations were created using Polar data to complement the NASA stock footage. Scientists donated their time to create and review scripts in order to make this a real team effort, working closely with the award winning audio-visual group at JHU/Applied Physics Laboratory. The team was excited to be invited to join NASA’s Sun-Earth Day 2005 E/PO program and the DVD will be distributed as part of the supporting educational packages.

Taking Risks for the Future of Space Weather Forecasting, Research, and Operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jaynes, A. N.; Baker, D. N.; Kanekal, S. G.; Li, X.; Turner, D. L.

2017-12-01

Taking Risks for the Future of Space Weather Forecasting, Research, and Operations The need for highly improved space weather modeling and monitoring is quickly becoming imperative as our society depends ever more on the sensitive technology that builds and connects our world. Instead of relying primarily on tried and true concepts, academic institutions and funding agencies alike should be focusing on truly new and innovative ways to solve this pressing problem. In this exciting time, where student-led groups can launch CubeSats for under a million dollars and companies like SpaceX are actively reducing the cost-cap of access to space, the space physics community should be pushing the boundaries of what is possible to enhance our understanding of the space environment. Taking great risks in instrumentation, mission concepts, operational development, collaborations, and scientific research is the best way to move our field forward to where it needs to be for the betterment of science and society.

A Science Strategy for Space Physics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1995-01-01

This report by the Committee on Solar and Space Physics and the Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Research recommends the major directions for scientific research in space physics for the coming decade. As a field of science, space physics has passed through the stage of simply looking to see what is out beyond Earth's atmosphere. It has become a 'hard' science, focusing on understanding the fundamental interactions between charged particles, electromagnetic fields, and gases in the natural laboratory consisting of the galaxy, the Sun, the heliosphere, and planetary magnetospheres, ionospheres, and upper atmospheres. The motivation for space physics research goes far beyond basic physics and intellectual curiosity, however, because long-term variations in the brightness of the Sun virtually affect the habitability of the Earth, while sudden rearrangements of magnetic fields above the solar surface can have profound effects on the delicate balance of the forces that shape our environment in space and on the human technology that is sensitive to that balance. The several subfields of space physics share the following objectives: to understand the fundamental laws or processes of nature as they apply to space plasmas and rarefied gases both on the microscale and in the larger complex systems that constitute the domain of space physics; to understand the links between changes in the Sun and the resulting effects at the Earth, with the eventual goal of predicting the significant effects on the terrestrial environment; and to continue the exploration and description of the plasmas and rarefied gases in the solar system.

Book Review: Physics of the Space Environment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holman, Gordon D.

1998-01-01

Space physics, narrowly defined as the study of Earth's plasma environment, has had an identity crisis throughout its relatively brief existence as a discipline. - The limited and often serendipitous nature of the data requires the research style of an astrophysicist. However, the in situ observations and instrumentation that are central to the field are quite different from the remote observations and instrumentation of astronomy. Compared to neutral gases, the wealth of additional phenomena and the complexity associated with magnetized plasmas and their interaction leaves little in common with the atmospheric scientist. Although the phenomena studied in space physics are ultimately important to astrophysics, the intimate measurements of plasma properties provide a greater commonality with the plasma physicist. Space physics has experienced something of a renaissance in the past few years. The interdisciplinary umbrella "Solar-Terrestrial Physics" or "Sun-Earth Connection" has stimulated an increasing interaction of space physicists, solar physicists and atmospheric scientists. Spectacular images of the Sun from Yohkoh and SOHO and solar-activity-related damage to communications satellites have increased the public's awareness of and interest in "space weather". The dangers of energetic particles and currents in space to technological systems and to future space exploration have elevated space physics observations from interesting scientific measurements that can be included on a space probe to critically important measurements that must be made.

REU Solar and Space Physics Summer School

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Snow, M. A.; Wood, E. L.

2011-12-01

The Research Experience for Undergrads (REU) program in Solar and Space Physics at the University of Colorado begins with a week of lectures and labs on Solar and Space Physics. The students in our program come from a variety of majors (physics, engineering, meteorology, etc.) and from a wide range of schools (small liberal arts colleges up through large research universities). The majority of the students have never been exposed to solar and space physics before arriving in Boulder to begin their research projects. We have developed a week-long crash course in the field using the expertise of scientists in Boulder and the labs designed by the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM).

Apex-4 for SpaceX CRS-10

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-02-16

APEX-04, or Advanced Plant EXperiments-04, is being prepared in a cold room in the Kennedy Space Center Processing Facility for SpaceX-10. Eric Morris from the cold stowage group places the APEX-04 science kits into the Double Cold Bag (DCB), which is a non-powered container that keeps the APEX petri plates at +4 degrees Celsius during launch and ascent. The cold bricks in the lower right of the photo are placed in the DCB prior to closure. Dr. Anna Lisa Paul of the University of Florida is the principal investigator for APEX-04. Apex-04 is an experiment involving Arabidopsis in petri plates inside the Veggie facility aboard the International Space Station. Since Arabidopsis is the genetic model of the plant world, it is a perfect sample organism for performing genetic studies in spaceflight. The experiment is the result of a grant from NASA’s Space Life and Physical Sciences division.

Interpersonal and cultural issues involving crews and ground personnel during Shuttle/Mir space missions.

PubMed

Kanas, N; Salnitskiy, V; Grund, E M; Gushin, V; Weiss, D S; Kozerenko, O; Sled, A; Marmar, C R

2000-09-01

Anecdotal reports from space and results from simulation studies on Earth suggest that interpersonal and cultural issues will have an impact on the interactions of crewmembers and mission control personnel during future long-duration space missions. To evaluate this impact we studied 5 astronauts, 8 cosmonauts, and 42 American and 16 Russian mission control personnel who participated in the Shuttle/Mir space program. Subjects completed questions from the Profile of Mood States, the Group Environment Scale, and the Work Environment Scale on a weekly basis during the missions. Subscale scores from these measures were analyzed using a two-way ANOVA to examine mean differences as a function of country (American vs. Russian), group (crewmember vs. ground personnel), and their interaction. Americans scored higher on measures of vigor and work pressure, and Russians scored higher on measures of managerial control, task orientation, physical comfort, self discovery, and leader support (which also showed a significant interaction effect). Mission control subjects scored higher than crewmembers on four measures of dysphoric emotions, but both groups scored significantly lower than published norms from other studies. There were significant interaction effects for subscales measuring leader support, expressiveness, and independence, with the American astronauts scoring the lowest of all comparison groups on all three subscales. In future long-duration space missions, countermeasures should focus on providing support for crewmembers from a culture in the minority, and crews should include more than one representative from this culture. Positive aspects of the interpersonal environment should be enhanced. The needs of mission control personnel should be addressed as well as those of crewmembers.

Green Space Visits among Adolescents: Frequency and Predictors in the PIAMA Birth Cohort Study.

PubMed

Bloemsma, Lizan D; Gehring, Ulrike; Klompmaker, Jochem O; Hoek, Gerard; Janssen, Nicole A H; Smit, Henriëtte A; Vonk, Judith M; Brunekreef, Bert; Lebret, Erik; Wijga, Alet H

2018-04-30

Green space may influence health through several pathways, for example, increased physical activity, enhanced social cohesion, reduced stress, and improved air quality. For green space to increase physical activity and social cohesion, spending time in green spaces is likely to be important. We examined whether adolescents visit green spaces and for what purposes. Furthermore, we assessed the predictors of green space visits. In this cross-sectional study, data for 1911 participants of the Dutch PIAMA (Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy) birth cohort were analyzed. At age 17, adolescents reported how often they visited green spaces for physical activities, social activities, relaxation, and to experience nature and quietness. We assessed the predictors of green space visits altogether and for different purposes by log-binomial regression. Fifty-three percent of the adolescents visited green spaces at least once a week in summer, mostly for physical and social activities. Adolescents reporting that a green environment was (very) important to them visited green spaces most frequently {adjusted prevalence ratio (PR) [95% confidence interval (CI)] very vs. not important: 6.84 (5.10, 9.17) for physical activities and 4.76 (3.72, 6.09) for social activities}. Boys and adolescents with highly educated fathers visited green spaces more often for physical and social activities. Adolescents who own a dog visited green spaces more often to experience nature and quietness. Green space visits were not associated with the objectively measured quantity of residential green space, i.e., the average normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and percentages of urban, agricultural, and natural green space in circular buffers around the adolescents' homes. Subjective variables are stronger predictors of green space visits in adolescents than the objectively measured quantity of residential green space. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP2429.

The REU Program in Solar Physics at Montana State University

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martens, Petrus C.; Canfield, R. C.; McKenzie, D. M.

2007-05-01

The Solar Physics group at Montana State University has organized an annual summer REU program in Solar Physics, Astronomy, and Space Physics since 1999, with NSF funding since 2003. The number of students applying and being admitted to the program has increased every year, and we have been very successful in attracting female participants. A great majority of our REU alumni have chosen career paths in the sciences, and, according to their testimonies, our REU program has played a significant role in their decisions. From the start our REU program has had an important international component through a close collaboration with the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. In our poster we will describe the goals, organization, scientific contents, international aspects, and results, and present statistics on applications, participants, gender balance, and diversity.

Twenty years of space radiation physics at the BNL AGS and NASA Space Radiation Laboratory.

PubMed

Miller, J; Zeitlin, C

2016-06-01

Highly ionizing atomic nuclei HZE in the GCR will be a significant source of radiation exposure for humans on extended missions outside low Earth orbit. Accelerators such as the LBNL Bevalac and the BNL AGS, designed decades ago for fundamental nuclear and particle physics research, subsequently found use as sources of GCR-like particles for ground-based physics and biology research relevant to space flight. The NASA Space Radiation Laboratory at BNL was constructed specifically for space radiation research. Here we review some of the space-related physics results obtained over the first 20 years of NASA-sponsored research at Brookhaven. Copyright © 2016 The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Research and technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1986-01-01

Activities of the Goddard Space Flight Center are described in the areas of planets and interplanetary media, comets, astronomy and high-energy physics, solar physics, atmospheres, terrestrial physics, ocean science, sensors and space technology, techniques, user space data systems, space communications and navigation, and system and software engineering. Flight projects and mission definition studies are presented, and institutional technology is described.

Asymptotic structure of space-time with a positive cosmological constant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kesavan, Aruna

In general relativity a satisfactory framework for describing isolated systems exists when the cosmological constant Lambda is zero. The detailed analysis of the asymptotic structure of the gravitational field, which constitutes the framework of asymptotic flatness, lays the foundation for research in diverse areas in gravitational science. However, the framework is incomplete in two respects. First, asymptotic flatness provides well-defined expressions for physical observables such as energy and momentum as 'charges' of asymptotic symmetries at null infinity, [special character omitted] +. But the asymptotic symmetry group, called the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs group is infinite-dimensional and a tensorial expression for the 'charge' integral of an arbitrary BMS element is missing. We address this issue by providing a charge formula which is a 2-sphere integral over fields local to the 2-sphere and refers to no extraneous structure. The second, and more significant shortcoming is that observations have established that Lambda is not zero but positive in our universe. Can the framework describing isolated systems and their gravitational radiation be extended to incorporate this fact? In this dissertation we show that, unfortunately, the standard framework does not extend from the Lambda = 0 case to the Lambda > 0 case in a physically useful manner. In particular, we do not have an invariant notion of gravitational waves in the non-linear regime, nor an analog of the Bondi 'news tensor', nor positive energy theorems. In addition, we argue that the stronger boundary condition of conformal flatness of intrinsic metric on [special character omitted]+, which reduces the asymptotic symmetry group from Diff([special character omitted]) to the de Sitter group, is insufficient to characterize gravitational fluxes and is physically unreasonable. To obtain guidance for the full non-linear theory with Lambda > 0, linearized gravitational waves in de Sitter space-time are analyzed in detail. i) We show explicitly that conformal flatness of the boundary removes half the degrees of freedom of the gravitational field by hand and is not justified by physical considerations; ii) We obtain gauge invariant expressions of energy-momentum and angular momentum fluxes carried by gravitational waves in terms of fields defined at [special character omitted]+; iii) We demonstrate that the flux formulas reduce to the familiar ones in Minkowski spacetime in spite of the fact that the limit Lambda → 0 is discontinuous (since, in particular, [special character omitted]+ changes its space-like character to null in the limit); iv) We obtain a generalization of Einstein's 1918 quadrupole formula for power emission by a linearized source to include a positive Lambda; and, finally v) We show that, although energy of linearized gravitational waves can be arbitrarily negative in general, gravitational waves emitted by physically reasonable sources carry positive energy.

High Energy Density Physics and Exotic Acceleration Schemes

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

Cowan, T.; /General Atomics, San Diego; Colby, E.

2005-09-27

The High Energy Density and Exotic Acceleration working group took as our goal to reach beyond the community of plasma accelerator research with its applications to high energy physics, to promote exchange with other disciplines which are challenged by related and demanding beam physics issues. The scope of the group was to cover particle acceleration and beam transport that, unlike other groups at AAC, are not mediated by plasmas or by electromagnetic structures. At this Workshop, we saw an impressive advancement from years past in the area of Vacuum Acceleration, for example with the LEAP experiment at Stanford. And wemore » saw an influx of exciting new beam physics topics involving particle propagation inside of solid-density plasmas or at extremely high charge density, particularly in the areas of laser acceleration of ions, and extreme beams for fusion energy research, including Heavy-ion Inertial Fusion beam physics. One example of the importance and extreme nature of beam physics in HED research is the requirement in the Fast Ignitor scheme of inertial fusion to heat a compressed DT fusion pellet to keV temperatures by injection of laser-driven electron or ion beams of giga-Amp current. Even in modest experiments presently being performed on the laser-acceleration of ions from solids, mega-amp currents of MeV electrons must be transported through solid foils, requiring almost complete return current neutralization, and giving rise to a wide variety of beam-plasma instabilities. As keynote talks our group promoted Ion Acceleration (plenary talk by A. MacKinnon), which historically has grown out of inertial fusion research, and HIF Accelerator Research (invited talk by A. Friedman), which will require impressive advancements in space-charge-limited ion beam physics and in understanding the generation and transport of neutralized ion beams. A unifying aspect of High Energy Density applications was the physics of particle beams inside of solids, which is proving to be a very important field for diverse applications such as muon cooling, fusion energy research, and ultra-bright particle and radiation generation with high intensity lasers. We had several talks on these and other subjects, and many joint sessions with the Computational group, the EM Structures group, and the Beam Generation group. We summarize our groups' work in the following categories: vacuum acceleration schemes; ion acceleration; particle transport in solids; and applications to high energy density phenomena.« less

Effects of kinesiotaping versus non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and physical therapy for treatment of pes anserinus tendino-bursitis: A randomized comparative clinical trial.

PubMed

Homayouni, Kaynoosh; Foruzi, Shima; Kalhori, Fereshte

2016-09-01

Pes anserinus tendino-bursitis is a condition caused by repetitive friction over the bursa or direct trauma to knee joint and it presents with proximal medial tibial pain and swelling. The aim of this study is to determine the effects of kinesiotaping in comparison with naproxen and physical therapy in treatment of pes anserinus tendino-bursitis. In a randomized comparative clinical trial 56 patients with clinical diagnosis of pes anserinus tendino-bursitis were randomly assigned to kinesiotaping and naproxen/physical therapy (28 patients in each group). Kinesiotaping on the tender area in the form of space-correction (lifting) technique was used and repeated for three times with a one-week interval. Another group received naproxen (250mg TID for 10 days) and ten sessions of daily physical therapy. The visual analog scale (VAS) was used for evaluation of pain. The depth of swelling of the area was measured with sonography before and after treatment. Wilcoxon signed ranks test has been used for determining the influence of interventions on pain (VAS) and swelling scores in each group. The ANCOVA (Analysis of covariance) test was applied for comparing the influence of interventions on VAS and swelling scores after adjustment for co-variables. At end of the study, 27 patients remained in the kinesiotaping group and 19 patients in naproxen/physical therapy group. Treatment with kinesiotaping significantly decreased the pain (P=0.0001) and swelling scores (P=0.0001) in comparison with naproxen/physical therapy after adjustment for baseline characteristics. Kinesiotaping was safe without any complications except for a mild local skin irritation in one patient. Kinesiotaping is more effective than naproxen plus physical therapy in reduction of pain and swelling in patients with pes anserinus tendino-bursitis. www.ClinicalTrials.gov identifier is NCT01680263.

Group Dynamics as a Critical Component of Successful Space Exploration: Conceptual Theory and Insights from the Biosphere 2 Closure Experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nelson, Mark; Allen, John P.

As space exploration and eventually habitation achieves longer durations, successfully managing group dynamics of small, physically isolated groups will become vital. The paper summarizes important underlying research and conceptual theory and how these manifested in a well-documented example: the closure experiments of Biosphere 2. Key research breakthroughs in discerning the operation of small human groups comes from the pioneering work of W.R. Bion. He discovered two competing modalities of behavior. The first is the “task-oriented” or work group governed by shared acceptance of goals, reality-thinking in relation to time, resources and rational, and intelligent management of challenges presented. The opposing, usually unconscious, modality is what Bion called the “basic-assumption” group and alternates between three “group animal” groups: dependency/kill the leader; fight/flight and pairing. If not dealt with, these dynamics work to undermine and defeat the conscious task group’s goal achievement. The paper discusses crew training and selection, various approaches to structuring the work and hierarchy of the group, the importance of contact with a larger population through electronic communication and dealing with the “us-them” syndrome frequently observed between crew and Mission Control. The experience of the first two year closure of Biosphere 2 is drawn on in new ways to illustrate vicissitudes and management of group dynamics especially as both the inside team of biospherians and key members of Mission Control had training in working with group dynamics. Insights from that experience may help mission planning so that future groups in space cope successfully with inherent group dynamics challenges that arise.

Mexican Space Weather Service (SCIESMEX)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzalez-Esparza, A.; De la Luz, V.; Mejia-Ambriz, J. C.; Aguilar-Rodriguez, E.; Corona-Romero, P.; Gonzalez, L. X.

2015-12-01

Recent modifications of the Civil Protection Law in Mexico include now specific mentions to space hazards and space weather phenomena. During the last few years, the UN has promoted international cooperation on Space Weather awareness, studies and monitoring. Internal and external conditions motivated the creation of a Space Weather Service in Mexico (SCIESMEX). The SCIESMEX (www.sciesmex.unam.mx) is operated by the Geophysics Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The UNAM has the experience of operating several critical national services, including the National Seismological Service (SSN); besides that has a well established scientific group with expertise in space physics and solar- terrestrial phenomena. The SCIESMEX is also related with the recent creation of the Mexican Space Agency (AEM). The project combines a network of different ground instruments covering solar, interplanetary, geomagnetic, and ionospheric observations. The SCIESMEX has already in operation computing infrastructure running the web application, a virtual observatory and a high performance computing server to run numerical models. SCIESMEX participates in the International Space Environment Services (ISES) and in the Inter-progamme Coordination Team on Space Weather (ICTSW) of the Word Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Enabling Interoperable Space Robots With the Joint Technical Architecture for Robotic Systems (JTARS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bradley, Arthur; Dubowsky, Steven; Quinn, Roger; Marzwell, Neville

2005-01-01

Robots that operate independently of one another will not be adequate to accomplish the future exploration tasks of long-distance autonomous navigation, habitat construction, resource discovery, and material handling. Such activities will require that systems widely share information, plan and divide complex tasks, share common resources, and physically cooperate to manipulate objects. Recognizing the need for interoperable robots to accomplish the new exploration initiative, NASA s Office of Exploration Systems Research & Technology recently funded the development of the Joint Technical Architecture for Robotic Systems (JTARS). JTARS charter is to identify the interface standards necessary to achieve interoperability among space robots. A JTARS working group (JTARS-WG) has been established comprising recognized leaders in the field of space robotics including representatives from seven NASA centers along with academia and private industry. The working group s early accomplishments include addressing key issues required for interoperability, defining which systems are within the project s scope, and framing the JTARS manuals around classes of robotic systems.

Promoting Scientist Communications Through Graduate Summer School in Heliophysics and Space Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gross, N. A.; Schrijver, K.; Bagenal, F.; Sojka, J. J.; Wiltberger, M. J.

2014-12-01

edagogical tools that promote student interaction can be applied successfully during graduate workshops to enhance community and communication among the participants and instructors. The NASA/LWS funded Heliophysics Summer School and the NSF funded Space Weather Summer School provide graduate students starting research in the field, and others who are involved in space physics, an opportunity to learn from and interact with leaders in the field and each other. These interactions can happen casually, but there are a number of programatic aspects that foster the interaction so that they can be as fruitful as possible during the short period. These include: specific "ice-breaker" activities, practicing "elevator speeches", embedded lecture questions, question cards, discussion questions, interactive lab activities, structured lab groups, and use of social media. We are continuing to develop new ways to foster profession interaction during these short courses. Along with enhancing their own learning, the inclusion of these strategies provides both the participants and the instructors with models of good pedagogical tools and builds community among the students. Our specific implementation of these strategies and evidence of success will be presented.

Personal mobility and manipulation using robotics, artificial intelligence and advanced control.

PubMed

Cooper, Rory A; Ding, Dan; Grindle, Garrett G; Wang, Hongwu

2007-01-01

Recent advancements of technologies, including computation, robotics, machine learning, communication, and miniaturization technologies, bring us closer to futuristic visions of compassionate intelligent devices. The missing element is a basic understanding of how to relate human functions (physiological, physical, and cognitive) to the design of intelligent devices and systems that aid and interact with people. Our stakeholder and clinician consultants identified a number of mobility barriers that have been intransigent to traditional approaches. The most important physical obstacles are stairs, steps, curbs, doorways (doors), rough/uneven surfaces, weather hazards (snow, ice), crowded/cluttered spaces, and confined spaces. Focus group participants suggested a number of ways to make interaction simpler, including natural language interfaces such as the ability to say "I want a drink", a library of high level commands (open a door, park the wheelchair, ...), and a touchscreen interface with images so the user could point and use other gestures.

Geometrization of quantum physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ol'Khov, O. A.

2009-12-01

It is shown that the Dirac equation for free particle can be considered as a description of specific distortion of the space euclidean geometry (space topological defect). This approach is based on possibility of interpretation of the wave function as vector realizing representation of the fundamental group of the closed topological space-time 4-manifold. Mass and spin appear to be topological invariants. Such concept explains all so called “strange” properties of quantum formalism: probabilities, wave-particle duality, nonlocal instantaneous correlation between noninteracting particles (EPR-paradox) and so on. Acceptance of suggested geometrical concept means rejection of atomistic concept where all matter is considered as consisting of more and more small elementary particles. There is no any particles a priori, before measurement: the notions of particles appear as a result of classical interpretation of the contact of the region of the curved space with a device.

KSC-02pd2017

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- Workers in clean room attire supervise the delivery of a Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle to the Multi-Purpose Payload Facility (MPPF). Next, it will be moved into a highbay where it will undergo testing, verification, and three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch. The vehicle, nestled beneath an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. It is commissioned to carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit in late January 2003. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with four instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

KSC-02pd2019

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle sits atop a transporter following its arrival in the Multi-Purpose Payload Facility (MPPF). Next, it will be moved into a highbay where it will undergo testing, verification, and three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch. The vehicle, nestled beneath an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. It is commissioned to carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit in late January 2003. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

KSC-02pd2020

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle sits atop a transporter following its arrival in the Multi-Purpose Payload Facility (MPPF). Next, it will be moved into a highbay where it will undergo testing, verification, and three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch. The vehicle, nestled beneath an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. It is commissioned to carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit in late January 2003. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

Operational Use of Civil Space-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Montgomery, Donald R. (Editor)

1996-01-01

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a remote-sensing technology which uses the motion of the aircraft or spacecraft carrying the radar to synthesize an antenna aperture larger than the physical antenna to yield a high-spatial resolution imaging capability. SAR systems can thus obtain high-spatial resolution geophysical measurements of the Earth over wide surface areas, under all-weather, day/night conditions. This report was prepared to document the results of a six-month study by an Ad Hoc Interagency Working Group on the Operational Use of Civil (i.e., non-military) Space-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). The Assistant Administrator of NOAA for Satellite and Information Services convened this working group and chaired three meetings of the group over a six-month period. This action was taken in response to a request by the Associate Administrator of NASA for Mission to Planet Earth for an assessment of operational applications of SAR to be accomplished in parallel with a separate study requested of the Committee on Earth Studies of the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council on the scientific results of SAR research missions. The representatives of participating agencies are listed following the Preface. There was no formal charter for the working group or long term plans for future meetings. However, the working group may be reconstituted in the future as a coordination body for multiagency use of operational SAR systems.

In-vehicle group activity modeling and simulation in sensor-based virtual environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shirkhodaie, Amir; Telagamsetti, Durga; Poshtyar, Azin; Chan, Alex; Hu, Shuowen

2016-05-01

Human group activity recognition is a very complex and challenging task, especially for Partially Observable Group Activities (POGA) that occur in confined spaces with limited visual observability and often under severe occultation. In this paper, we present IRIS Virtual Environment Simulation Model (VESM) for the modeling and simulation of dynamic POGA. More specifically, we address sensor-based modeling and simulation of a specific category of POGA, called In-Vehicle Group Activities (IVGA). In VESM, human-alike animated characters, called humanoids, are employed to simulate complex in-vehicle group activities within the confined space of a modeled vehicle. Each articulated humanoid is kinematically modeled with comparable physical attributes and appearances that are linkable to its human counterpart. Each humanoid exhibits harmonious full-body motion - simulating human-like gestures and postures, facial impressions, and hands motions for coordinated dexterity. VESM facilitates the creation of interactive scenarios consisting of multiple humanoids with different personalities and intentions, which are capable of performing complicated human activities within the confined space inside a typical vehicle. In this paper, we demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of VESM in terms of its capabilities to seamlessly generate time-synchronized, multi-source, and correlated imagery datasets of IVGA, which are useful for the training and testing of multi-source full-motion video processing and annotation. Furthermore, we demonstrate full-motion video processing of such simulated scenarios under different operational contextual constraints.

The oldest computer in today's education: The great attractor of children to science, the Antikythera Mechanism, as an educational instrument.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moussas, X.; Coustenis, A.; Solomonidou, A.; Bampasidis, G.; Bratsolis, E.; Stamogiorgos, S.

2012-04-01

People have always been charmed by the beauty of the starry sky, the Sun, the Moon, the planets, the Solar System and the mystery of the birth and the evolution of the Cosmos. As the deep space is believed to be the only territory unexplored by the mankind, the humanity has always been looking forward to the discoveries of Space Science. However, due to the complicated character of modern Science and Technology, people usually are alienated from scientific issues. Dealing with this situation, the Space Group of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in collaboration with LESIA of the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, have been performing several campaigns to raise the public awareness of Science and Astronomy with emphasis to the Solar System exploration. The Space Group of the University of Athens has scientific impact in both the Space Physics field and the public outreach of Astronomy throughout Europe, Northern Africa and the United States of America. Using the Antikythera Mechanism as central object and as a great attractor of children and the general public to astronomy and even philosophy, we have performed numerous outreach activities focalized on the general audience in order to conceptualize astronomical phenomena and change their prior usually not very clear knowledge and intuition. These Solar System events, conducted by our Group, help young people to develop their critical thinking, self-expression and creative talents and eventually to love astronomy and to develop an interest the planets. Their introduction into the space field seems essential for cultivation of these skills.

The Pursuit of Quantum Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dewitt-Morette, Cecile

2012-03-01

Why is it so difficult to make a Quantum Theory of Gravitation? What is the key idea of quantum physics? What is the key idea of Einstein theory of gravitation? I have selected three (simple) problems that can be solved and are relevant to these issues: 1. The nonanalyticity of semi classical approximations (or the sex life of the male moth) 2. The Pin Group (or the implication of the quantum phase in particle physics) 3. Spacetime is Space x Time (or the deflection of light by the Sun) Conclusion: La joie de l'ame est dans l'action Lyautey (or astronomical observations)

Walking Clinic in ambulatory surgery--A patient based concept: A Portuguese pioneer project.

PubMed

Vinagreiro, M; Valverde, J N; Alves, D; Costa, M; Gouveia, P; Guerreiro, E

2015-06-01

Walking Clinic is an innovative, efficient and easily reproducible concept adapted to ambulatory surgery. It consists of a preoperative single day work-up, with a surgeon, an anesthetist and a nurse. The aim of this study was to evaluate patient satisfaction and its determinants. A survey was applied to 171 patients (101 of the Walking Clinic group and 70 not engaged in this new concept). Patient satisfaction was assessed evaluating five major questionnaire items: secretariat (quality of the information and support given), physical space (overall comfort and cleanliness), nurses and medical staff (willingness and expertise), and patients (waiting time until pre-operative consults and exams, waiting time until being scheduled for surgery, surgery day waiting time and postoperative pain control). Furthermore, overall assessment of the received treatment, and probability of patient recommending or returning to our ambulatory unit were also analyzed. Walking Clinic group had overall better results in the five major questionnaire items assessed, with statistical significance, except for the physical space. It also showed better results regarding the sub-items postoperative pain control, waiting time until being scheduled for surgery and surgery day waiting time. The results confirm better patient satisfaction with this new concept. The Walking Clinic concept complements all the tenets of ambulatory surgery, in a more efficient manner. Copyright © 2015 IJS Publishing Group Limited. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

3D+T motion analysis with nanosensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leduc, Jean-Pierre

2017-09-01

This paper addresses the problem of motion analysis performed in a signal sampled on an irregular grid spread in 3-dimensional space and time (3D+T). Nanosensors can be randomly scattered in the field to form a "sensor network". Once released, each nanosensor transmits at its own fixed pace information which corresponds to some physical variable measured in the field. Each nanosensor is supposed to have a limited lifetime given by a Poisson-exponential distribution after release. The motion analysis is supported by a model based on a Lie group called the Galilei group that refers to the actual mechanics that takes place on some given geometry. The Galilei group has representations in the Hilbert space of the captured signals. Those representations have the properties to be unitary, irreducible and square-integrable and to enable the existence of admissible continuous wavelets fit for motion analysis. The motion analysis can be considered as a so-called "inverse problem" where the physical model is inferred to estimate the kinematical parameters of interest. The estimation of the kinematical parameters is performed by a gradient algorithm. The gradient algorithm extends in the trajectory determination. Trajectory computation is related to a Lagrangian-Hamiltonian formulation and fits into a neuro-dynamic programming approach that can be implemented in the form of a Q-learning algorithm. Applications relevant for this problem can be found in medical imaging, Earth science, military, and neurophysiology.

Construction of a Solid State Research Facility, Building 3150. Environmental Assessment

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

Not Available

1993-07-01

The Department of Energy (DOE) proposes to construct a new facility to house the Materials Synthesis Group (MSG) and the Semiconductor Physics Group (SPG) of the Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The location of the proposed action is Roane County, Tennessee. MSG is involved in the study of crystal growth and the preparation and characterization of advanced materials, such as high-temperature superconductors, while SPG is involved in semiconductor physics research. All MSG and a major pardon of SPG research activities are now conducted in Building 2000, a deteriorating structure constructed in the 1940. The physical deterioration ofmore » the roof; the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system; and the plumbing make this building inadequate for supporting research activities. The proposed project is needed to provide laboratory and office space for MSG and SPG and to ensure that research activities can continue without interruption due to deficiencies in the building and its associated utility systems.« less

Review of Gravity Probe B

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1995-01-01

In response to a request by the NASA Administrator, the National Research Council (NRC) has conducted an accelerated scientific review of NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission. The review was carried out by the Task Group on Gravity Probe B, under the auspices of the NRC's Space Studies Board and Board on Physics and Astronomy. The specific charge to the task group was to review the GP-B mission with respect to the following terms of reference: (1) scientific importance - including a current assessment of the value of the project in the context of recent progress in gravitational physics and relevant technology; (2) technical feasibility - the technical approach will be evaluated for likelihood of success, both in terms of achievement of flight mission objectives but also in terms of scientific conclusiveness of the various possible outcomes for the measurements to be made; and (3) competitive value - if possible, GP-B science will be assessed qualitatively against the objectives and accomplishments of one or more fundamental physics projects of similar cost (e.g., the Cosmic Background Explorer, COBE).

Design and implementation of space physics multi-model application integration based on web

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Wenping; Zou, Ziming

With the development of research on space environment and space science, how to develop network online computing environment of space weather, space environment and space physics models for Chinese scientific community is becoming more and more important in recent years. Currently, There are two software modes on space physics multi-model application integrated system (SPMAIS) such as C/S and B/S. the C/S mode which is traditional and stand-alone, demands a team or workshop from many disciplines and specialties to build their own multi-model application integrated system, that requires the client must be deployed in different physical regions when user visits the integrated system. Thus, this requirement brings two shortcomings: reducing the efficiency of researchers who use the models to compute; inconvenience of accessing the data. Therefore, it is necessary to create a shared network resource access environment which could help users to visit the computing resources of space physics models through the terminal quickly for conducting space science research and forecasting spatial environment. The SPMAIS develops high-performance, first-principles in B/S mode based on computational models of the space environment and uses these models to predict "Space Weather", to understand space mission data and to further our understanding of the solar system. the main goal of space physics multi-model application integration system (SPMAIS) is to provide an easily and convenient user-driven online models operating environment. up to now, the SPMAIS have contained dozens of space environment models , including international AP8/AE8 IGRF T96 models and solar proton prediction model geomagnetic transmission model etc. which are developed by Chinese scientists. another function of SPMAIS is to integrate space observation data sets which offers input data for models online high-speed computing. In this paper, service-oriented architecture (SOA) concept that divides system into independent modules according to different business needs is applied to solve the problem of the independence of the physical space between multiple models. The classic MVC(Model View Controller) software design pattern is concerned to build the architecture of space physics multi-model application integrated system. The JSP+servlet+javabean technology is used to integrate the web application programs of space physics multi-model. It solves the problem of multi-user requesting the same job of model computing and effectively balances each server computing tasks. In addition, we also complete follow tasks: establishing standard graphical user interface based on Java Applet application program; Designing the interface between model computing and model computing results visualization; Realizing three-dimensional network visualization without plug-ins; Using Java3D technology to achieve a three-dimensional network scene interaction; Improved ability to interact with web pages and dynamic execution capabilities, including rendering three-dimensional graphics, fonts and color control. Through the design and implementation of the SPMAIS based on Web, we provide an online computing and application runtime environment of space physics multi-model. The practical application improves that researchers could be benefit from our system in space physics research and engineering applications.

Generalised Spin Dynamics and Induced Bounds of Automorphic [A]nX, [AX]n NMR Systems via Dual Tensorial Sets: An Invariant Cardinality Role for CFP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Temme, Francis P.

For uniform spins and their indistinguishable point sets of tensorial bases defining automorphic group-based Liouvillian NMR spin dynamics, the role of recursively-derived coefficients of fractional parentage (CFP) bijections and Schur duality-defined CFP(0)(n) ≡ ¦GI¦(n) group invariant cardinality is central both to understanding the impact of time-reversal invariance(TRI) spin physics, and to analysis as density-matrix formalisms over democratic recoupled (DR) dual tensorial sets, {T{ṽ}k(11.1)(SU2 × ln)}. Over abstract spin space, these tensorial sets are (ṽ) invariant-theoretic forms which lie beyond the Liouvillian graph recoupling and Racah-forms envisaged by Sanctuary [1]. This is a direct consequence of the dominance of the ln group. It leads to new views on the value of projective group actions as mappings over specialised Liouvillian carrier spaces, and on the need for the replacement of Racah-Wigner (R-W) orthogonality for distinct point sets, by criteria based on explicit properties of invariants [J. Phys.: Math. & Theor. A 41, 015210 (2008)] for multiple invariant systems. Ũ × P group actions over disjoint (L) carrier subspaces, leading to exclusively combinatorial views of the nature of quantal completeness for indistinguishable point-based tensorial sets. Such generalised invariant-theoretic approaches lie beyond the range of Lévi-Civitá generator views, or of Lévy-Leblond and Lévy-Nahas [9] with its additional cyclic-commutators defining mono-invariant DR forms. Comparison of the latter with generalised multiple-invariant techniques provides an answer to the question of precisely why [A]n≥4(X) and [AX]n≥4 NMR system spin dynamics are not ameniable to conventional R-W analysis of recoupled discrete-point tensorial systems. Our work augments earlier Hilbert space views, both of Louck and Biedenharn [21] on boson pattern projective mapping, and of Corio [19]. The roles of recent ln group action and (λ ⊢ n)-Schur combinatorial concepts, as well as of polyhedral-combinatorial modelling over invariance algebras, contribute significantly to our understanding of invariant-based techniques of Liouville dual tensorial sets for automorphic NMR spin physics.1

Latency-Information Theory: The Mathematical-Physical Theory of Communication-Observation

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-01

Werner Heisenberg of quantum mechanics; 3) the source-entropy and channel-capacity lossless performance bounds of Claude Shannon that guide...through noisy intel-space channels, and where the physical time-dislocations of intel-space exhibit a passing of time Heisenberg information...life-space sensor, and where the physical time- dislocations of life-space exhibit a passing of time Heisenberg information-uncertainty; and 4

Instructional computing in space physics moves ahead

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Russell, C. T.; Omidi, N.

As the number of spacecraft stationed in the Earth's magnetosphere exponentiates and society becomes more technologically sophisticated and dependent on these spacebased resources, both the importance of space physics and the need to train people in this field will increase.Space physics is a very difficult subject for students to master. Both mechanical and electromagnetic forces are important. The treatment of problems can be very mathematical, and the scale sizes of phenomena are usually such that laboratory studies become impossible, and experimentation, when possible at all, must be carried out in deep space. Fortunately, computers have evolved to the point that they are able to greatly facilitate instruction in space physics.

Time: the enigma of space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Francis T. S.

2017-08-01

In this article we have based on the laws of physics to illustrate the enigma time as creating our physical space (i.e., the universe). We have shown that without time there would be no physical substances, no space and no life. In reference to Einstein's energy equation, we see that energy and mass can be traded, and every mass can be treated as an Energy Reservoir. We have further shown that physical space cannot be embedded in absolute empty space and cannot have any absolute empty subspace in it. Since all physical substances existed with time, our cosmos is created by time and every substance including our universe is coexisted with time. Although time initiates the creation, it is the physical substances which presented to us the existence of time. We are not alone with almost absolute certainty. Someday we may find a right planet, once upon a time, had harbored a civilization for a short period of light years.

Paying attention to working memory: Similarities in the spatial distribution of attention in mental and physical space.

PubMed

Sahan, Muhammet Ikbal; Verguts, Tom; Boehler, Carsten Nicolas; Pourtois, Gilles; Fias, Wim

2016-08-01

Selective attention is not limited to information that is physically present in the external world, but can also operate on mental representations in the internal world. However, it is not known whether the mechanisms of attentional selection operate in similar fashions in physical and mental space. We studied the spatial distributions of attention for items in physical and mental space by comparing how successfully distractors were rejected at varying distances from the attended location. The results indicated very similar distribution characteristics of spatial attention in physical and mental space. Specifically, we found that performance monotonically improved with increasing distractor distance relative to the attended location, suggesting that distractor confusability is particularly pronounced for nearby distractors, relative to distractors farther away. The present findings suggest that mental representations preserve their spatial configuration in working memory, and that similar mechanistic principles underlie selective attention in physical and in mental space.

Plasma Physics of the Subauroral Space Weather

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-20

AFRL-RV-PS- AFRL-RV-PS- TR-2016-0068 TR-2016-0068 PLASMA PHYSICS OF THE SUBAURORAL SPACE WEATHER Evgeny V. Mishin, et al. 20 March 2016 Final...Oct 2013 to 30 Sep 2015 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Plasma Physics of the Subauroral Space Weather 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM...5 4.3. Physics -based hybrid model with finite Larmor radius effects

Green space definition affects associations of green space with overweight and physical activity.

PubMed

Klompmaker, Jochem O; Hoek, Gerard; Bloemsma, Lizan D; Gehring, Ulrike; Strak, Maciej; Wijga, Alet H; van den Brink, Carolien; Brunekreef, Bert; Lebret, Erik; Janssen, Nicole A H

2018-01-01

In epidemiological studies, exposure to green space is inconsistently associated with being overweight and physical activity, possibly because studies differ widely in their definition of green space exposure, inclusion of important confounders, study population and data analysis. We evaluated whether the association of green space with being overweight and physical activity depended upon definition of greenspace. We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from a Dutch national health survey of 387,195 adults. Distance to the nearest park entrance and surrounding green space, based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) or a detailed Dutch land-use database (TOP10NL), was calculated for each residential address. We used logistic regression analyses to study the association of green space exposure with being overweight and being moderately or vigorously physically active outdoors at least 150min/week (self-reported). To study the shape of the association, we specified natural splines and quintiles. The distance to the nearest park entrance was not associated with being overweight or outdoor physical activity. Associations of surrounding green space with being overweight or outdoor physical activity were highly non-linear. For NDVI surrounding greenness, we observed significantly decreased odds of being overweight [300m buffer, odds ratio (OR) = 0.88; 95% CI: 0.86, 0.91] and increased odds for outdoor physical activity [300m buffer, OR = 1.14; 95% CI: 1.10, 1.17] in the highest quintile compared to the lowest quintile. For TOP10NL surrounding green space, associations were mostly non-significant. Associations were generally stronger for subjects living in less urban areas and for the smaller buffers. Associations of green space with being overweight and outdoor physical activity differed considerably between different green space definitions. Associations were strongest for NDVI surrounding greenness. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Group dynamics challenges: Insights from Biosphere 2 experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nelson, Mark; Gray, Kathelin; Allen, John P.

2015-07-01

Successfully managing group dynamics of small, physically isolated groups is vital for long duration space exploration/habitation and for terrestrial CELSS (Controlled Environmental Life Support System) facilities with human participants. Biosphere 2 had important differences and shares some key commonalities with both Antarctic and space environments. There were a multitude of stress factors during the first two year closure experiment as well as mitigating factors. A helpful tool used at Biosphere 2 was the work of W.R. Bion who identified two competing modalities of behavior in small groups. Task-oriented groups are governed by conscious acceptance of goals, reality-thinking in relation to time and resources, and intelligent management of challenges. The opposing unconscious mode, the "basic-assumption" ("group animal") group, manifests through Dependency/Kill the Leader, Fight/Flight and Pairing. These unconscious dynamics undermine and can defeat the task group's goal. The biospherians experienced some dynamics seen in other isolated teams: factions developing reflecting personal chemistry and disagreements on overall mission procedures. These conflicts were exacerbated by external power struggles which enlisted support of those inside. Nevertheless, the crew evolved a coherent, creative life style to deal with some of the deprivations of isolation. The experience of the first two year closure of Biosphere 2 vividly illustrates both vicissitudes and management of group dynamics. The crew overrode inevitable frictions to creatively manage both operational and research demands and opportunities of the facility, thus staying 'on task' in Bion's group dynamics terminology. The understanding that Biosphere 2 was their life support system may also have helped the mission to succeed. Insights from the Biosphere 2 experience can help space and remote missions cope successfully with the inherent challenges of small, isolated crews.

Correlates of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity among preschoolers during unstructured outdoor play periods.

PubMed

Nicaise, Virginie; Kahan, David; Sallis, James F

2011-10-01

Quantify moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and its correlates in preschool children during outdoor unstructured play periods using direct observation. Cross-sectional data consisting of 204 observation periods collected from 51 four- and five-year-old children using the Observation System for Recording Physical Activity in Children - Preschool (OSRAC-P) at a preschool in southern California, autumn and spring 2009-2010. Gender and BMI classification and OSRAC-P environmental codes were related to observed MVPA in multiple logistic regression models. Less than 21% of intervals were spent in MVPA overall. Boys and normal weight children engaged in higher intensity levels than their respective counterparts. More MVPA was associated with normal weight (OR=2.49-3.25, R(2)=3%), location (grass, playground, looping cycle path; OR=3.21-4.90, R(2)=4-12%), play context (ball/objects, wheel, open space; OR=2.78-8.51, R(2)=9%), and group composition (solitary, one-on-one; OR=1.34-2.08, R(2)=1%). Open spaces located in playgrounds and grass fields, and activity-genic portable equipment, manipulative objects, and riding vehicles are some design and equipment features that appear to foster MVPA. Lowering play space density and engaging children through teacher prompts and teacher-arranged activities may further increase MVPA on playgrounds. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Space Physics Course: Understanding the Process of Science Through One Field's Colorful History

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lopez, Ramon E.

1996-01-01

Science education in this country is in its greatest period of ferment since the post-Sputnik frenzy a generation ago. In that earlier time, however, educators' emphasis was on producing more scientists and engineers. Today we recognize that all Americans need a good science background. The ability to observe, measure, think quantitatively, and reach logical conclusions based on available evidence is a set of skills that everyone entering the workforce needs to acquire if our country is to be competitive in a global economy. Moreover, as public policy increasingly crystallizes around scientific issues, it is critical that citizens be educated in science so that they may provide informed debate and on these issues. In order to develop this idea more fully, I proposed to teach a historically based course about space physics as an honors course at the University of Maryland-College Park (UMCP). The honors program at UMCP was established to foster broad-based undergraduate courses that utilize innovative teaching techniques to provide exemplary education to a select group of students. I designed an introductory course that would have four basic goals: to acquaint students with geomagnetic and auroral phenomena and their relationship to the space environment; to examine issues related to the history of science using the evolution of the field as an example; to develop familiarity with basic skills such as describing and interpreting observations, analyzing scientific papers, and communicating the results of their own research; and to provide some understanding of basic physics, especially those aspect that play a role in the near-earth space environment.

Search for unconventional superconductors among the YTE 2Si2 compounds (TE  =  Cr, Co, Ni, Rh, Pd, Pt)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pikul, A. P.; Samsel–Czekała, M.; Chajewski, G.; Romanova, T.; Hackemer, A.; Gorzelniak, R.; Wiśniewski, P.; Kaczorowski, D.

2017-05-01

Motivated by the recent discovery of exotic superconductivity in YFe2Ge2 we undertook reinvestigation of formation and physical properties of yttrium-based 1:2:2 silicides. Here we report on syntheses and crystal structures of the YTE 2Si2 compounds with TE  =  Cr, Co, Ni, Rh, Pd and Pt, and their low-temperature physical properties measurements, supplemented by results of fully relativistic full-potential local-orbital minimum basis band structure calculations. We confirm that most of the members of that family crystallize in a tetragonal ThCr2Si2-type structure (space group I4/mmm) and have three-dimensional Fermi surface, while only one of them (YPt2Si2) forms with a closely-related primitive CaBe2Ge2-type unit cell (space group P4/nmm) and possess quasi-two-dimensional Fermi surface sheets. Physical measurements indicated that BCS-like superconductivity is observed only in YPt2Si2 (T c  =  1.54 K) and YPd2Si2 (T c  =  0.43 K), while no superconducting phase transition was found in other systems at least down to 0.35 K. Thermal analysis showed no polymorphism in both superconducting phases. No clear relation between the superconductivity and the crystal structure (and dimensionality of the Fermi surface) was observed.

'Lending the space': midwives' perceptions of birth space and clinical risk management.

PubMed

Seibold, Carmel; Seibold, Camel; Licqurish, Sharon; Rolls, Colleen; Hopkins, Finbar

2010-10-01

to explore and describe midwives perceptions of birth space and clinical risk management and their impact on practice both before and after a move to a new facility. an exploratory descriptive study utilising a modified participatory approach and observation and focus groups for data collection. a major metropolitan maternity hospital in Victoria, Australia. 18 midwives, including graduate year midwives, caseload midwives and hospital midwives working normal shifts, employed within a hospital. the major themes identified were perceptions of birth space, perceptions of risk management, influence of birth space and risk management on practice and moving but not changing: geographical space and practice. Midwives desire to create the ideal birth space was hampered by a prevailing biomedical discourse which emphasised risk. Midwives in all three groups saw themselves as the gatekeepers, 'holding the space' or 'providing a bridge' for women, often in the face of a hierarchical hospital structure with obstetricians governing practice. This situation did not differ significantly after the relocation to the new hospital. Despite a warmer, more spacious and private birth space midwives felt the care was still influenced by the old hierarchical hospital culture. Caseload midwives felt they had the best opportunity to make a difference to women's experience because they were able, through continuity of care, to build trusting relationships with women during the antenatal period. although the physical environment can make a marginal contribution to an optimal birth space, it has little effect on clinical risk management practices within a major public hospital and the way in which this impacts midwives' practice. The importance of place and people are the key to providing an optimal birth space, as are women centred midwifery models of care and reasonable workloads. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Assessment of Levels of Safety in Psychiatric Units.

PubMed

Bayramzadeh, Sara

2017-01-01

This article aims to understand the incident patterns in relation to different types of spaces within a psychiatric unit, which are discussed using the five levels of safety framework. Implementing measures to improve patient safety is essential particularly in a psychiatric hospital, where limited research has been conducted on inpatient safety. Therefore, this article aims to understand the incident patterns from the lens of the five levels of safety framework, which categorizes spaces according to the level of patient supervision in psychiatric facilities, as follows: service areas, corridors, dayrooms, patient rooms and bathrooms, seclusions and admissions. In an 81-bed psychiatric hospital, this mixed-method study drew 7 years of incident reports and caregivers' perceptions gathered through focus groups. Incident reports on physical safety were analyzed based on the five levels of safety framework ( N = 1,316). Focus groups ( n = 9) explored the caregivers' viewpoints on patient safety and five categories of spaces. Overall findings support the five levels of safety pattern, confirming that most incidents occurred in patient rooms and bathrooms; moreover, relatively fewer incidents happened in dayrooms and corridors. Elopements are higher in hallways and dayrooms. Suicide is most common in patient rooms and bathrooms, and violence is more frequent in dayrooms. Focus groups results yielded insightful recommendations. Levels of safety framework can be adapted to seven categories where seclusion room and admission area would be two of the spaces with least incidents.

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

Kachru, Shamit; Paquette, Natalie M.; Volpato, Roberto

Here, the simplest string theory compactifications to 3D with 16 supercharges—the heterotic string on T 7, and type II strings onmore » $$K3 \\times T^3$$ —are related by U-duality, and share a moduli space of vacua parametrized by $$O(8, 24;{{\\mathbb Z}}) ~\\backslash ~O(8, 24)~ /~ (O(8) \\times O(24))$$ . One can think of this as the moduli space of even, self-dual 32-dimensional lattices with signature (8,24). At 24 special points in moduli space, the lattice splits as $$\\Gamma^{8, 0} \\oplus \\Gamma^{0, 24}$$ . $$\\Gamma^{0, 24}$$ can be the Leech lattice or any of 23 Niemeier lattices, while $$\\Gamma^{8, 0}$$ is the E 8 root lattice. We show that starting from this observation, one can find a precise connection between the Umbral groups and type IIA string theory on K3. This may provide a natural physical starting point for understanding Mathieu and Umbral moonshine. The maximal unbroken subgroups of Umbral groups in 6D (or any other limit) are those obtained by starting at the associated Niemeier point and moving in moduli space while preserving the largest possible subgroup of the Umbral group. To illustrate the action of these symmetries on BPS states, we discuss the computation of certain protected four-derivative terms in the effective field theory, and recover facts about the spectrum and symmetry representations of 1/2-BPS states.« less

Effect of LEO Exposure on Aromatic Polymers Containing Phenylphosphine Oxide Groups

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, K. A.; Ghose, S.; Lillehei, P. T.; Smith, J. G., Jr.; Connell, J. W.

2007-01-01

As part of the Materials on The International Space Station Experiment (MISSE), aromatic polymers containing phenylphosphine oxide groups were exposed to low Earth orbit (LEO) for approximately 4 years. All of the aromatic polymers containing phenylphosphine oxide groups survived the exposure despite the high fluence of atomic oxygen that completely eroded other polymer films such as Kapton and Mylar of comparable or greater thickness. The samples consisted of a colorless polyimide film and a poly(arylene ether benzimidazole) film and thread. The samples were characterized for changes in physical properties, thermal/optical properties (i.e. solar absorptivity and thermal emissivity), surface chemistry (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy), and surface topography (atomic force microscopy). The data from the polymer samples on MISSE were compared to samples from the same batch of material stored under ambient conditions on Earth. In addition, comparisons were made between the MISSE samples and those subjected to shorter term space flight exposures. The results of these analyses will be presented.

Modular Gravitational Reference Sensor (MGRS) For Astrophysics and Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Ke-Xun; Buchman, S.; Byer, R. L.; DeBra, D.; Goebel, J.; Allen, G.; Conklin, J.; Gerardi, D.; Higuchi, S.; Leindecker, N.; Lu, P.; Swank, A.; Torres, E.; Trillter, M.; Zoellner, A.

2009-01-01

The study of space-time for gravitational wave detection and cosmology beyond Einstein will be an important theme for astrophysics and astronomy in decades to come. Laser Interferometric Space Antenna (LISA) is designed for detecting gravitational wave in space. The Modular Gravitational Reference Sensor (MGRS) is developed as the next generation core instrument for space-time research, including gravitational wave detection beyond LISA, and an array of precision experiments in space. The MGRS provide a stable gravitational cardinal point in space-time by using a test sphere, which eliminates the need for orientation control, minimizing disturbances. The MGRS measures the space-time variation via a two step process: measurement between test mass and housing, and between housings of two spacecraft. Our Stanford group is conducting systematic research and development on the MGRS. Our initial objectives are to gain a system perspective of the MGRS, to develop component technologies, and to establish test platforms. We will review our recent progress in system technologies, optical displacement and angle sensing, diffractive optics, proof mass characterization, UV LED charge management system and space qualification, thermal control and sensor development. Some highlights of our recent results are: Demonstration of the extreme radiation hardness of UV LED which sustained 2 trillion protons per square centimeter; measurement of mass center offset down to 300 nm, and measurement of small angle 0.2 nrad per root hertz using a compact grating angular sensor. The Stanford MGRS program has made exceptional contribution to education of next generation scientists and engineers. We have undergraduate and graduate students in aeronautical and astronautic engineering, applied physics, cybernetics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and physics. We have also housed a number of high school students in our labs for education and public outreach.

NASA physics and chemistry experiments in-space program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gabris, E. A.

1981-01-01

The Physics and Chemistry Experiments Program (PACE) is part of the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST) research and technology effort in understanding the fundamental characteristics of physics and chemical phenomena. This program seeks to increase the basic knowledge in these areas by well-planned research efforts which include in-space experiments when the limitations of ground-based activities precludes or restricts the achievement of research goals. Overview study areas are concerned with molecular beam experiments for Space Shuttle, experiments on drops and bubbles in a manned earth-orbiting laboratory, the study of combustion experiments in space, combustion experiments in orbiting spacecraft, gravitation experiments in space, and fluid physics, thermodynamics, and heat-transfer experiments. Procedures for the study program have four phases. An overview study was conducted in the area of materials science.

Systolic Algorithms for Imaging from Space

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-07-31

on a keystone or trapezoidal grid [ Arikan & Munson, 1987]. The image reconstruction algorithm then simply applies an inverse 2-D FFT to the stored...rithm composed of groups of point targets, and we determined the effects of windowing and incor- poration of a Jacobian weighting factor [ Arikan ...the impulse response of the desired filter [ Arikan & Munson, 1989]. The necessary filtering is then accomplished through the physical mechanism of the

Applied Physics Lab Kennedy Space Center: Recent Contributions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Starr, Stan; Youngquist, Robert

2006-01-01

The mission of the Applied Physics Lab is: (1) Develop and deliver novel sensors and devices to support KSC mission operations. (2) Analyze operational issues and recommend or deliver practical solutions. (3) Apply physics to the resolution of long term space flight issues that affect space port operation on Earth or on other planets.

The space physics analysis network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Green, James L.

1988-04-01

The Space Physics Analysis Network, or SPAN, is emerging as a viable method for solving an immediate communication problem for space and Earth scientists and has been operational for nearly 7 years. SPAN and its extension into Europe, utilizes computer-to-computer communications allowing mail, binary and text file transfer, and remote logon capability to over 1000 space science computer systems. The network has been used to successfully transfer real-time data to remote researchers for rapid data analysis but its primary function is for non-real-time applications. One of the major advantages for using SPAN is its spacecraft mission independence. Space science researchers using SPAN are located in universities, industries and government institutions all across the United States and Europe. These researchers are in such fields as magnetospheric physics, astrophysics, ionosperic physics, atmospheric physics, climatology, meteorology, oceanography, planetary physics and solar physics. SPAN users have access to space and Earth science data bases, mission planning and information systems, and computational facilities for the purposes of facilitating correlative space data exchange, data analysis and space research. For example, the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC), which manages the network, is providing facilities on SPAN such as the Network Information Center (SPAN NIC). SPAN has interconnections with several national and international networks such as HEPNET and TEXNET forming a transparent DECnet network. The combined total number of computers now reachable over these combined networks is about 2000. In addition, SPAN supports full function capabilities over the international public packet switched networks (e.g. TELENET) and has mail gateways to ARPANET, BITNET and JANET.

Cyber-physical approach to the network-centric robotics control task

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muliukha, Vladimir; Ilyashenko, Alexander; Zaborovsky, Vladimir; Lukashin, Alexey

2016-10-01

Complex engineering tasks concerning control for groups of mobile robots are developed poorly. In our work for their formalization we use cyber-physical approach, which extends the range of engineering and physical methods for a design of complex technical objects by researching the informational aspects of communication and interaction between objects and with an external environment [1]. The paper analyzes network-centric methods for control of cyber-physical objects. Robots or cyber-physical objects interact with each other by transmitting information via computer networks using preemptive queueing system and randomized push-out mechanism [2],[3]. The main field of application for the results of our work is space robotics. The selection of cyber-physical systems as a special class of designed objects is due to the necessity of integrating various components responsible for computing, communications and control processes. Network-centric solutions allow using universal means for the organization of information exchange to integrate different technologies for the control system.

Space physics educational outreach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Copeland, Richard A.

1995-01-01

The goal of this Space Physics Educational Outreach project was to develop a laboratory experiment and classroom lecture on Earth's aurora for use in lower division college physics courses, with the particular aim of implementing the experiment and lecture at Saint Mary's College of California. The strategy is to teach physics in the context of an interesting natural phenomenon by investigating the physical principles that are important in Earth's aurora, including motion of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields, particle collisions and chemical reactions, and atomic and molecular spectroscopy. As a by-product, the undergraduate students would develop an appreciation for naturally occurring space physics phenomena.

Candidates for office 2004-2006

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Timothy L. Killeen. AGU member since 1981. Director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR); Senior Scientist, High Altitude Observatory; Adjunct Professor, University of Michigan. Major areas of interest include space physics and aeronomy remote sensing, and interdisciplinary science education. B.S., Physics and Astronomy (first class honors), 1972, University College London; Ph.D., Atomic and Molecular Physics, 1975, University College London. University of Michigan: Researcher and Professor of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences, 1978-2000 Director of the Space Physics Research Laboratory 1993-1998 Associate Vice-President for Research, 1997-2000. Visiting senior scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 1992. Program Committee, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Council Member, American Meteorological Society; Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics; Chair, Jerome K.Weisner National Policy Symposium on the Integration of Research and Education, 1999. Authored over 140 publications, 57 in AGU journals. Significant publications include: Interaction of low energy positrons with gaseous atoms and molecules, Atomic Physics, 4, 1975; Energetics and dynamics of the thermosphere, Reviews of Geophysics, 1987; The upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere, AGU Geophysical Monograph, 1995, Excellence in Teaching and Research awards, College of Engineering, University of Michigan; recipient of two NASA Achievement Awards; former chair, NASA Space Physics Subcommittee; former chair, National Science Foundation (NSF) Coupling, Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) program; former member, NSF Advisory Committee for Geosciences, and chair of NSF's Atmospheric Sciences Subcommittee, 1999-2002 member, NASA Earth Science Enterprise Advisory Committee; member of various National Academy of Science/National Research Council Committees; cochair, American Association for the Advancement of Science National Meeting, 2003. AGU service includes: term as associate editor of Journal of Geophysical Research-Space Physics; chair, Panel on International Space Station; Global Climate Change Panel; Federal Budget Review Committee; member of AGU Program, Public Information, Awards, and Public Affairs committees; Chapman Conference Convener and Monograph editor; Section Secretary and Program Chair, Space and Planetary Relations Section; President of Space Physics and Aeronomy Section; AGU Council Member.

A model of professional development for urban teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Narasimhan, C.

Over the past five years, DePaul University has established a network of urban teachers who are focused on linking the learning of fundamental concepts of physics, chemistry, and biology to relevant and current discoveries in space science. One component of this effort has been a series of annual space science symposia for Chicago-area teachers. These symposia are mixtures of space science presentations by national and local scientists and discussions in areas such as curriculum and professional development, NASA resources, and communication. Since the first symposium, planning has been done in partnership with a small group of teachers who have moved into leadership positions in advancing space science in the Chicago area. This presentation will describe the evolution of the annual symposium as a professional development activity and give the results of a recent assessment project designed to measure the impact of these symposia on Chicago teachers and their classroom practices.

Dynamically hot galaxies. I - Structural properties

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bender, Ralf; Burstein, David; Faber, S. M.

1992-01-01

Results are reported from an analysis of the structural properties of dynamically hot galaxies which combines central velocity dispersion, effective surface brightness, and effective radius into a new 3-space (k), in which the axes are parameters that are physically meaningful. Hot galaxies are found to divide into groups in k-space that closely parallel conventional morphological classifications, namely, luminous ellipticals, compacts, bulges, bright dwarfs, and dwarf spheroidals. A major sequence is defined by luminous ellipticals, bulges, and most compacts, which together constitute a smooth continuum in k-space. Several properties vary smoothly with mass along this continuum, including bulge-to-disk ratio, radio properties, rotation, degree of velocity anisotropy, and 'unrelaxed'. A second major sequence is comprised of dwarf ellipticals and dwarf spheroidals. It is suggested that mass loss is a major factor in hot dwarf galaxies, but the dwarf sequence cannot be simply a mass-loss sequence, as it has the wrong direction in k-space.

Microdosemeter instrument (MIDN) for assessing risk in space.

PubMed

Pisacane, V L; Dolecek, Q E; Malak, H; Cucinotta, F A; Zaider, M; Rosenfeld, A B; Rusek, A; Sivertz, M; Dicello, J F

2011-02-01

Radiation in space generally produces higher dose rates than that on the Earth's surface, and contributions from primary galactic and solar events increase with altitude within the magnetosphere. Presently, no personnel monitor is available to astronauts for real-time monitoring of dose, radiation quality and regulatory risk. This group is developing a prototypic instrument for use in an unknown, time-varying radiation field. This microdosemeter-dosemeter nucleon instrument is for use in a spacesuit, spacecraft, remote rover and other applications. It provides absorbed dose, dose rate and dose equivalent in real time so that action can be taken to reduce exposure. Such a system has applications in health physics, anti-terrorism and radiation-hardening of electronics as well. The space system is described and results of ground-based studies are presented and compared with predictions of transport codes. An early prototype in 2007 was successfully launched, the only solid-state microdosemeter to have flown in space.

20th National Solar Physics Meeting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dorotovic, Ivan

2010-12-01

These proceedings (ISBN: 978-80-85221-68-8) provide an overview of current research on solar physics, geophysics and space weather in the astronomical, geophysical and space physics institutions in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic. Several researchers from other countries participated in the meeting as well. The different parts address: solar interior, solar photosphere, chromosphere, corona, total solar eclipses, space weather, instrumentation. Most of the papers are published in Slovak and Czech, respectively. The proceedings are intended for researchers, graduate and PhD. students, workers of astronomical observatories interested in solar physics, geophysics and space weather.

The joint effects of person and situation factors on stress in spaceflight.

PubMed

Endler, Norman S

2004-07-01

Psychologists can play an important role in spaceflight and exploration. Indeed, their input at four specific stages in spaceflight can help to ensure successful missions. Psychologists have a role to play in: 1) Selection; 2) Training; 3) Real or Simulated Space Missions; and 4) Post-Flight Problems. During selection, psychologists can provide guidelines as to the appropriate coping styles for reacting to mission-related stressors. During training, psychologists can help astronauts to plan for, and cope with, problems (e.g., group conflict). Training in social sensitivity, or in specific coping styles (i.e., to be high in task-oriented coping), would be beneficial so that astronauts are able to deal with unforeseen problems. Task-oriented coping is related to control and efficiency, and reduces stress and anxiety. Emotion-oriented coping relates to anxiety for controllable situations, and task-oriented coping is most efficacious. A primary role for psychologists would be the investigation of what problems could arise from living with others in a limited space and for long periods of times. As such, investigations into group dynamics, physical and psychological stress caused by such an environment, and the lack of normal ways to deal with these problems should all be considered. It is also clear that the impact of spaceflight on an individual does not end with physical re-entry. On the contrary, the astronaut will also have to make a psychological post-flight "re-entry" readjustment to life on Earth. Psychologists have an important role to play during all four stages of the space program, especially in regards to person by situation interactions. That is, space is a novel environment for human beings, and we need to investigate how we can better improve the fit between astronauts and space situational stressors. Not only are person by situation interactions relevant for each of the four stages discussed above, but each of the stages interacts with one another bidirectionally and even multidirectionally.

Do Natural Experiments of Changes in Neighborhood Built Environment Impact Physical Activity and Diet? A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

George, Emma S.; Feng, Xiaoqi; Merom, Dafna; Bennie, Andrew; Cook, Amelia; Dwyer, Genevieve; Pang, Bonnie; Astell-Burt, Thomas

2018-01-01

Physical activity and diet are major modifiable risk factors for chronic disease and have been shown to be associated with neighborhood built environment. Systematic review evidence from longitudinal studies on the impact of changing the built environment on physical activity and diet is currently lacking. A systematic review of natural experiments of neighborhood built environment was conducted. The aims of this systematic review were to summarize study characteristics, study quality, and impact of changes in neighborhood built environment on physical activity and diet outcomes among residents. Natural experiments of neighborhood built environment change, exploring longitudinal impacts on physical activity and/or diet in residents, were included. From five electronic databases, 2084 references were identified. A narrative synthesis was conducted, considering results in relation to study quality. Nineteen papers, reporting on 15 different exposures met inclusion criteria. Four studies included a comparison group and 11 were pre-post/longitudinal studies without a comparison group. Studies reported on the impact of redeveloping or introducing cycle and/or walking trails (n = 5), rail stops/lines (n = 4), supermarkets and farmers’ markets (n = 4) and park and green space (n = 2). Eight/15 studies reported at least one beneficial change in physical activity, diet or another associated health outcome. Due to limitations in study design and reporting, as well as the wide array of outcome measures reported, drawing conclusions to inform policy was challenging. Future research should consider a consistent approach to measure the same outcomes (e.g., using measurement methods that collect comparable physical activity and diet outcome data), to allow for pooled analyses. Additionally, including comparison groups wherever possible and ensuring high quality reporting is essential. PMID:29373567

Do Natural Experiments of Changes in Neighborhood Built Environment Impact Physical Activity and Diet? A Systematic Review.

PubMed

MacMillan, Freya; George, Emma S; Feng, Xiaoqi; Merom, Dafna; Bennie, Andrew; Cook, Amelia; Sanders, Taren; Dwyer, Genevieve; Pang, Bonnie; Guagliano, Justin M; Kolt, Gregory S; Astell-Burt, Thomas

2018-01-26

Physical activity and diet are major modifiable risk factors for chronic disease and have been shown to be associated with neighborhood built environment. Systematic review evidence from longitudinal studies on the impact of changing the built environment on physical activity and diet is currently lacking. A systematic review of natural experiments of neighborhood built environment was conducted. The aims of this systematic review were to summarize study characteristics, study quality, and impact of changes in neighborhood built environment on physical activity and diet outcomes among residents. Natural experiments of neighborhood built environment change, exploring longitudinal impacts on physical activity and/or diet in residents, were included. From five electronic databases, 2084 references were identified. A narrative synthesis was conducted, considering results in relation to study quality. Nineteen papers, reporting on 15 different exposures met inclusion criteria. Four studies included a comparison group and 11 were pre-post/longitudinal studies without a comparison group. Studies reported on the impact of redeveloping or introducing cycle and/or walking trails ( n = 5), rail stops/lines ( n = 4), supermarkets and farmers' markets ( n = 4) and park and green space ( n = 2). Eight/15 studies reported at least one beneficial change in physical activity, diet or another associated health outcome. Due to limitations in study design and reporting, as well as the wide array of outcome measures reported, drawing conclusions to inform policy was challenging. Future research should consider a consistent approach to measure the same outcomes (e.g., using measurement methods that collect comparable physical activity and diet outcome data), to allow for pooled analyses. Additionally, including comparison groups wherever possible and ensuring high quality reporting is essential.

Playing in parallel: the effects of multiplayer modes in active video game on motivation and physical exertion.

PubMed

Peng, Wei; Crouse, Julia

2013-06-01

Although multiplayer modes are common among contemporary video games, the bulk of game research focuses on the single-player mode. To fill the gap in the literature, the current study investigated the effects of different multiplayer modes on enjoyment, future play motivation, and the actual physical activity intensity in an active video game. One hundred sixty-two participants participated in a one-factor between-subject laboratory experiment with three conditions: (a) single player: play against self pretest score; (b) cooperation with another player in the same physical space; (c) parallel competition with another player in separated physical spaces. We found that parallel competition in separate physical spaces was the optimal mode, since it resulted in both high enjoyment and future play motivation and high physical intensity. Implications for future research on multiplayer mode and play space as well as active video game-based physical activity interventions are discussed.

Meta-analysis on the effects of the physical environment, animal traits, feeder and feed characteristics on the feeding behaviour and performance of growing-finishing pigs.

PubMed

Averós, X; Brossard, L; Dourmad, J Y; de Greef, K H; Edwards, S A; Meunier-Salaün, M C

2012-08-01

A meta-analysis, using information from 45 experiments on growing-finishing pigs published in 39 manuscripts, was carried out to determine the simultaneous effects of the physical environment (space allowance, group size, flooring conditions, temperature, presence of enrichment), pig traits (initial body weight (BW) for each studied time interval, sex, genetics), feeder characteristics (water provision within the feeder, feeder design (individual/collective), feeder places/pig, presence of feeder protection) and feed characteristics (feed allowance (ad libitum/restricted), net energy content, crude protein (CP) content), as well as their potential interactions, on the feeding behaviour and performance of growing-finishing pigs. The detrimental effect of low temperature on performance was particularly evident for restricted-fed pigs (P < 0.05). At reduced feeder space allowance, a reduction in the percentage of time spent eating was predicted when increasing initial BW, whereas the opposite was predicted for larger feeder space allowances (P < 0.001). The reduction in visit duration to the feeder in higher BW groups became gradually more important with increasing feeder space allowance (P < 0.01), whereas the increase in the ingestion rate and average daily feed intake (ADFI) with increasing initial BW became smaller with increasing feeder space (P < 0.05). The model predicted a reduction in feed conversion ratio (FCR) with increasing group size (P < 0.05) and floor space allowance (P < 0.01) and on solid floors with or without bedding (P < 0.05). In comparison with other feeders, wet/dry feeders were associated with more frequent but shorter feeder visits (P < 0.05), higher ingestion rates (P < 0.001) and higher ADFI (P < 0.10). The use of protection within individual feeders increased the time spent feeding (P < 0.001), reduced the number of visits per day (P < 0.01), the ingestion rate (P < 0.001) and FCR (P < 0.01) in comparison with other feeder types. Sex modulated the effect of the number of feeder places/pig on FCR (P < 0.05), with a gradual reduction of FCR in entire males and females when increasing feeder space allowance. Genetics tended to modulate the effect of diets' CP content on FCR (P < 0.10). Overall, these results may contribute to the improvement of the welfare and performance of growing-finishing pigs by a better knowledge of the influence of the rearing environment and may help optimize the feeding strategies in current production systems.

Beyond Physical Activity: The Importance of Play and Nature-Based Play Spaces for Children's Health and Development.

PubMed

Herrington, Susan; Brussoni, Mariana

2015-12-01

The reduction of child obesity continues to be a challenge worldwide. Research indicates that playing outdoors, particularly in natural play spaces, boosts children's physical activity, potentially decreasing childhood obesity. We present evidence that natural play spaces also provide for more diverse forms of play for children of varying ages and competencies. This is crucial because play spaces designed expressly for physical activity may not increase physical activity among less active children. Moreover, when researchers only examine physical activity in play, they overlook the valuable contributions that play makes to other aspects of children's health and development. To enhance research on children and their play environments, we introduce the theory of play affordances. To assist in the creation of more natural play spaces, we describe the Seven Cs, an evidence-based approach for designing children's play spaces that promotes diverse play. We end with some preliminary insights from our current research using the Seven Cs to illustrate the connections between play, nature, and children's healthy development.

The Impact of Group Size on Welfare Indicators of Ewes during Pregnancy

PubMed Central

Averós, Xavier; Beltrán de Heredia, Ignacia; Ruiz, Roberto; Estevez, Inma

2016-01-01

Group size (GS) and space allowance have major implications for the welfare of production species, however their effects are often confounded. In a previous study we investigated the impact of varying space allowance at constant GS. In the present work we report the consequences of varying GS on pregnant ewes while controlling space allowance. We housed ewes at 6 (GS6) or 12 ewes/enclosure (GS12), while controlling space allowance to 1.5 m2/ewe (3 enclosures/treatment), and necessarily varying enclosure size. Therefore, when indicating GS effects we implicitly reflect a confounding effect with that of enclosure size. Movement, use of space, behaviour, serum cortisol concentration and body condition score (BCS) were collected during the last 12 gestation weeks. Movement, use of space, and behaviour were collected every other week, during 2 days/week, using 10 minute continuous scan samplings. Blood was collected during weeks 10, 13, 17, and 21 of gestation, and BCS during weeks 15 and 21. Data were analysed using repeated measures, generalized linear mixed models, with GS, week, and their interaction as fixed effects, and enclosure as random effect. GS mainly affected movement and use of space. GS12 ewes walked longer distances using longer steps (P<0.001). An interaction GS by week was observed for angular dispersion (P<0.0001), which was smaller for GS12 from week 10 onwards. Initial restlessness levels were lower for GS12, as shown by the reduced frequency of location changes (P<0.0001). Furthest and mean neighbour distances increased with GS (P<0.0001). The effect of GS on behaviour was only evident for eating behaviour as an interaction with gestation week (P<0.05). Changes in behaviour, movement and use of space along the study indicated an activity peak during weeks 3 to 5. Cortisol changes during gestation (P<0.01) also reflected this activity peak, while BCS (P<0.001) reflected normal physical condition changes during pregnancy. Although the separate effects of GS and enclosure size cannot be disentangled, we conclude that if enough space/ewe is given during gestation, larger GS will result in larger effective space, and no major implications for the welfare of ewes should be expected as GS increases. Ewes will adapt their movement patterns and use of space to enclosure size, and no further behavioural, physiological and physical consequences should be expected. PMID:27893817

Technique for forcing high Reynolds number isotropic turbulence in physical space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palmore, John A.; Desjardins, Olivier

2018-03-01

Many common engineering problems involve the study of turbulence interaction with other physical processes. For many such physical processes, solutions are expressed most naturally in physical space, necessitating the use of physical space solutions. For simulating isotropic turbulence in physical space, linear forcing is a commonly used strategy because it produces realistic turbulence in an easy-to-implement formulation. However, the method resolves a smaller range of scales on the same mesh than spectral forcing. We propose an alternative approach for turbulence forcing in physical space that uses the low-pass filtered velocity field as the basis of the forcing term. This method is shown to double the range of scales captured by linear forcing while maintaining the flexibility and low computational cost of the original method. This translates to a 60% increase of the Taylor microscale Reynolds number on the same mesh. An extension is made to scalar mixing wherein a scalar field is forced to have an arbitrarily chosen, constant variance. Filtered linear forcing of the scalar field allows for control over the length scale of scalar injection, which could be important when simulating scalar mixing.

KSC-02pd2014

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-12-18

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A Pegasus XL Expendable Launch Vehicle is seen moments after being detached from the underside of an Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft and lowered onto a transporter. The aircraft, with the launch vehicle nestled beneath, arrived at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip on Dec. 17. Next, the vehicle will be towed to the Multi-Purpose Payload Facility (MPPF) where it will undergo testing, verification, and three flight simulations prior to its scheduled launch in late January 2003. It will carry NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft into orbit. Built by Orbital Sciences Space Systems Group, SORCE will study and measure solar irradiance as a source of energy in the Earth's atmosphere with instruments built by the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

Research and technology, 1990

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Potter, P. Y.

1990-01-01

The annual report of the Marshall Space Flight Center for 1990 is presented. Brief summaries of research are presented for work in the fields of transportation systems, space systems, data systems, microgravity science, astronomy, astrophysics, solar physics, magnetospheric physics, atomic physics, aeronomy, Earth science and applications, propulsion technology, materials and processes, structures and dynamics, automated systems, space systems, and avionics.

An implementation plan for priorities in solar-system space physics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krimigis, Stamatios M.; Athay, R. Grant; Baker, Daniel; Fisk, Lennard A.; Fredricks, Robert W.; Harvey, John W.; Jokipii, Jack R.; Kivelson, Margaret; Mendillo, Michael; Nagy, Andrew F.

1985-01-01

The scientific objectives and implementation plans and priorities of the Space Science Board in areas of solar physics, heliospheric physics, magnetospheric physics, upper atmosphere physics, solar-terrestrial coupling, and comparative planetary studies are discussed and recommended programs are summarized. Accomplishments of Skylab, Solar Maximum Mission, Nimbus-7, and 11 other programs are highlighted. Detailed mission plans in areas of solar and heliospheric physics, plasma physics, and upper atmospheric physics are also described.

The Influences of Landscape Features on Visitation of Hospital Green Spaces-A Choice Experiment Approach.

PubMed

Chang, Kaowen Grace; Chien, Hungju

2017-07-05

Studies have suggested that visiting and viewing landscaping at hospitals accelerates patient's recovery from surgery and help staff's recovery from mental fatigue. To plan and construct such landscapes, we need to unravel landscape features desirable to different groups so that the space can benefit a wide range of hospital users. Using discrete choice modeling, we developed experimental choice sets to investigate how landscape features influence the visitations of different users in a large regional hospital in Taiwan. The empirical survey provides quantitative estimates of the influence of each landscape feature on four user groups, including patients, caregivers, staff, and neighborhood residents. Our findings suggest that different types of features promote visits from specific user groups. Landscape features facilitating physical activities effectively encourage visits across user groups especially for caregivers and staff. Patients in this study specify a strong need for contact with nature. The nearby community favors the features designed for children's play and family activities. People across user groups value the features that provide a mitigated microclimate of comfort, such as a shelter. Study implications and limitations are also discussed. Our study provides information essential for creating a better healing environment in a hospital setting.

Request for Naval Reactors Comment on Proposed Prometheus Space Flight Nuclear Reactor High Tier Reactor Safety Requirements and for Naval Reactors Approval to Transmit These Requirements to JPL

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

D. Kokkinos

2005-04-28

The purpose of this letter is to request Naval Reactors comments on the nuclear reactor high tier requirements for the PROMETHEUS space flight reactor design, pre-launch operations, launch, ascent, operation, and disposal, and to request Naval Reactors approval to transmit these requirements to Jet Propulsion Laboratory to ensure consistency between the reactor safety requirements and the spacecraft safety requirements. The proposed PROMETHEUS nuclear reactor high tier safety requirements are consistent with the long standing safety culture of the Naval Reactors Program and its commitment to protecting the health and safety of the public and the environment. In addition, the philosophymore » on which these requirements are based is consistent with the Nuclear Safety Policy Working Group recommendations on space nuclear propulsion safety (Reference 1), DOE Nuclear Safety Criteria and Specifications for Space Nuclear Reactors (Reference 2), the Nuclear Space Power Safety and Facility Guidelines Study of the Applied Physics Laboratory.« less

The Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF): Models and Validation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gombosi, Tamas; Toth, Gabor; Sokolov, Igor; de Zeeuw, Darren; van der Holst, Bart; Ridley, Aaron; Manchester, Ward, IV

In the last decade our group at the Center for Space Environment Modeling (CSEM) has developed the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) that efficiently couples together different models describing the interacting regions of the space environment. Many of these domain models (such as the global solar corona, the inner heliosphere or the global magneto-sphere) are based on MHD and are represented by our multiphysics code, BATS-R-US. SWMF is a powerful tool for coupling regional models describing the space environment from the solar photosphere to the bottom of the ionosphere. Presently, SWMF contains over a dozen components: the solar corona (SC), eruptive event generator (EE), inner heliosphere (IE), outer heliosphere (OH), solar energetic particles (SE), global magnetosphere (GM), inner magnetosphere (IM), radiation belts (RB), plasmasphere (PS), ionospheric electrodynamics (IE), polar wind (PW), upper atmosphere (UA) and lower atmosphere (LA). This talk will present an overview of SWMF, new results obtained with improved physics as well as some validation studies.

“Football is a boys’ game”: children’s perceptions about barriers for physical activity during recess time

PubMed Central

Martínez-Andrés, Maria; Bartolomé-Gutiérrez, Raquel; Rodríguez-Martín, Beatriz; Pardo-Guijarro, Maria Jesus; Martínez-Vizcaíno, Vicente

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT The aim of the study was to know the factors that influence boys and girls’ perceptions for performing physical activity during playground recess from their own perspective. Ninety-eight schoolchildren aged 8–11 years from five schools from Cuenca (Spain) participated in 22 focus groups and carried out 98 drawings following the socioecological model as a theoretical framework. A content analysis of the transcripts from the focus groups and drawings was carried out by three researchers. Results showed that, in spite of boys and girls identified same barriers, there were gender differences in their perceptions. Gender socialization was the key as central category and helped to understand these differences. Boys preferred play football and this sport had a monopoly on the recess space. Weather was a barrier for boys. Girls and boys, who did not play football, were relegated to peripheral areas and lack of materials was a barrier for them. Teachers were a barrier for all children who did not play football. Thus, in order to promote recess physical activity, researchers, teachers and educational policy makers should take into account gender socialization and promote inclusive non-curricular physical activity in schools. PMID:29039264

"Football is a boys' game": children's perceptions about barriers for physical activity during recess time.

PubMed

Martínez-Andrés, Maria; Bartolomé-Gutiérrez, Raquel; Rodríguez-Martín, Beatriz; Pardo-Guijarro, Maria Jesus; Martínez-Vizcaíno, Vicente

2017-01-01

The aim of the study was to know the factors that influence boys and girls' perceptions for performing physical activity during playground recess from their own perspective. Ninety-eight schoolchildren aged 8-11 years from five schools from Cuenca (Spain) participated in 22 focus groups and carried out 98 drawings following the socioecological model as a theoretical framework. A content analysis of the transcripts from the focus groups and drawings was carried out by three researchers. Results showed that, in spite of boys and girls identified same barriers, there were gender differences in their perceptions. Gender socialization was the key as central category and helped to understand these differences. Boys preferred play football and this sport had a monopoly on the recess space. Weather was a barrier for boys. Girls and boys, who did not play football, were relegated to peripheral areas and lack of materials was a barrier for them. Teachers were a barrier for all children who did not play football. Thus, in order to promote recess physical activity, researchers, teachers and educational policy makers should take into account gender socialization and promote inclusive non-curricular physical activity in schools.

Laboratory Experiments to Simulate and Investigate the Physics Underlying the Dynamics of Merging Solar Corona Structures

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-05

have attended and made presen- tations at the annual APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting, the bi-annual High Energy Laboratory Astrophysics meeting...the AFOSR Space Science Pro- gram Review, the SHINE solar physics meeting, the International Astrophysics Conference, and the workshop “Complex plasma...tor k and Resolving Space-time Ambiguity. GR-Space Physics . submitted. Bellan, P. M., Zhai, X., Chai, K. B., & Ha, B. N. 2015. Complex astrophysical

Fighting the War above Iraq. Employing Space Forces to Defeat an Insurgency

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-05-01

Before discussing the part space forces can play, we must first validate that current operations in Iraq actu­ ally require isolating the physical ...borders.”24 In order to overcome the previous challenges and achieve this objec­ tive, we can look for past attempts to isolate the physical ... physical battlespace through surveil­ lance will likely be countered. Space Forces’ Role We have seen that the need to isolate the physical battle­

Physical Origins of Space Weather Impacts: Open Physics Questions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lanzerotti, L. J.

2011-12-01

Beginning with the era of development of electrical telegraph systems in the early 19th century, physical processes in the space environment on the Sun, in the interplanetary medium, and around Earth have influenced the design and operations of ever-increasing and sophisticated technical systems, both in space and on the ground. Understanding of Earth's space environment has increased enormously in the last century and one-half. Nevertheless, many of the physical processes that produced effects on early cable and wireless technologies continue to plague modern-day systems. And as new technologies are developed for improved communications, surveillance, navigation, and conditions for human space flight, the solar-terrestrial environment often offers surprises to their safe, secure and uninterrupted operations. This talk will address some of the challenges that I see to the successful operations of some modern-day technical systems that are posed by significant deficiencies of understanding of physical processes operating from the Sun to the Earth.

Implementation of the Boston University Space Physics Acquisition Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spence, Harlan E.

1998-01-01

The tasks carried out during this grant achieved the goals as set forth in the initial proposal. The Boston University Space Physics Acquisition CEnter (BUSPACE) now provides World Wide Web access to data from a large suite of both space-based and ground-based instruments, archived from different missions, experiments, or campaigns in which researchers associated with the Center for Space Physics (CSP) at Boston University have been involved. These archival data sets are in digital form and are valuable for retrospective data analysis studies of magnetospheric as well as ionospheric, thermospheric, and mesospheric physics. We have leveraged our grass-roots effort with the NASA seed money to establish dedicated hardware (computer and hard disk augmentation) and student support to grow and maintain the system. This leveraging of effort now permits easy access by the space physics community to many underutilized, yet important data sets, one example being that of the SCATHA satellite.

Functional renormalization group approach to SU(N ) Heisenberg models: Real-space renormalization group at arbitrary N

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buessen, Finn Lasse; Roscher, Dietrich; Diehl, Sebastian; Trebst, Simon

2018-02-01

The pseudofermion functional renormalization group (pf-FRG) is one of the few numerical approaches that has been demonstrated to quantitatively determine the ordering tendencies of frustrated quantum magnets in two and three spatial dimensions. The approach, however, relies on a number of presumptions and approximations, in particular the choice of pseudofermion decomposition and the truncation of an infinite number of flow equations to a finite set. Here we generalize the pf-FRG approach to SU (N )-spin systems with arbitrary N and demonstrate that the scheme becomes exact in the large-N limit. Numerically solving the generalized real-space renormalization group equations for arbitrary N , we can make a stringent connection between the physically most significant case of SU(2) spins and more accessible SU (N ) models. In a case study of the square-lattice SU (N ) Heisenberg antiferromagnet, we explicitly demonstrate that the generalized pf-FRG approach is capable of identifying the instability indicating the transition into a staggered flux spin liquid ground state in these models for large, but finite, values of N . In a companion paper [Roscher et al., Phys. Rev. B 97, 064416 (2018), 10.1103/PhysRevB.97.064416] we formulate a momentum-space pf-FRG approach for SU (N ) spin models that allows us to explicitly study the large-N limit and access the low-temperature spin liquid phase.

One-dimensional super Calabi-Yau manifolds and their mirrors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noja, S.; Cacciatori, S. L.; Piazza, F. Dalla; Marrani, A.; Re, R.

2017-04-01

We apply a definition of generalised super Calabi-Yau variety (SCY) to supermanifolds of complex dimension one. One of our results is that there are two SCY's having reduced manifold equal to P^1, namely the projective super space P^{.1|2} and the weighted projective super space W{P}_{(2)}^{.1|1} . Then we compute the corresponding sheaf cohomology of superforms, showing that the cohomology with picture number one is infinite dimensional, while the de Rham cohomology, which is what matters from a physical point of view, remains finite dimensional. Moreover, we provide the complete real and holomorphic de Rham cohomology for generic projective super spaces {P}^{.n|m} . We also determine the automorphism groups: these always match the dimension of the projective super group with the only exception of {P}^{.1|2} , whose automorphism group turns out to be larger than the projective super group. By considering the cohomology of the super tangent sheaf, we compute the deformations of {P}^{.1|m} , discovering that the presence of a fermionic structure allows for deformations even if the reduced manifold is rigid. Finally, we show that {P}^{.1|2} is self-mirror, whereas W{P}_{(2)}^{.1|1} has a zero dimensional mirror. Also, the mirror map for {P}^{.1|2} naturally endows it with a structure of N = 2 super Riemann surface.

Communication: a density functional with accurate fractional-charge and fractional-spin behaviour for s-electrons.

PubMed

Johnson, Erin R; Contreras-García, Julia

2011-08-28

We develop a new density-functional approach combining physical insight from chemical structure with treatment of multi-reference character by real-space modeling of the exchange-correlation hole. We are able to recover, for the first time, correct fractional-charge and fractional-spin behaviour for atoms of groups 1 and 2. Based on Becke's non-dynamical correlation functional [A. D. Becke, J. Chem. Phys. 119, 2972 (2003)] and explicitly accounting for core-valence separation and pairing effects, this method is able to accurately describe dissociation and strong correlation in s-shell many-electron systems. © 2011 American Institute of Physics

Revisiting Einstein's Happiest Thought: On Ernst Mach and the Early History of Relativity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Staley, Richard

2016-03-01

This paper argues we should distinguish three phases in the formation of relativity. The first involved relational approaches to perception, and physiological and geometrical space and time in the 1860s and 70s. The second concerned electrodynamics and mechanics (special relativity). The third concerned mechanics, gravitation, and physical and geometrical space and time. Mach's early work on the Doppler effect, together with studies of visual and motor perception linked physiology, physics and psychology, and offered new approaches to physiological space and time. These informed the critical conceptual attacks on Newtonian absolutes that Mach famously outlined in The Science of Mechanics. Subsequently Mach identified a growing group of ``relativists,'' and his critiques helped form a foundation for later work in electrodynamics (in which he did not participate). Revisiting Mach's early work will suggest he was still more important to the development of new approaches to inertia and gravitation than has been commonly appreciated. In addition to what Einstein later called ``Mach's principle,'' I will argue that a thought experiment on falling bodies in Mach's Science of Mechanics also provided a point of inspiration for the happy thought that led Einstein to the equivalence principle.

How does mental-physical multimorbidity express itself in lived time and space? A phenomenological analysis of encounters with depression and chronic physical illness.

PubMed

Coventry, Peter A; Dickens, Chris; Todd, Chris

2014-10-01

Mental-physical multimorbidity (the co-existence of mental and physical ill health) is highly prevalent and associated with significant impairments and high healthcare costs. While the sociology of chronic illness has developed a mature discourse on coping with long term physical illness the impact of mental and physical health have remained analytically separated, highlighting the need for a better understanding of the day-to-day complexities encountered by people living with mental-physical multimorbidity. We used the phenomenological paradigm of the lived body to elucidate how the experience of mental-physical multimorbidity shapes people's lifeworlds. Nineteen people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and depression (defined as a score ≥8 on depression scale of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) were recruited from secondary NHS care and interviewed at their homes. Data were analysed phenomenologically using van Manen's lifeworld existential framework of the lived body, lived time, lived space, lived relations. Additionally, we re-analysed data (using the same framework) collected from 13 people recruited from secondary NHS care with either COPD, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, or type 1 or type 2 diabetes and depression. The phenomenology of mental-physical multimorbidity was articulated through embodied and emotional encounters with day-to-day life in four ways: [a] participants' perception of lived time and lived space contracted; [b] time and [c] space were experienced as liminal categories, enforcing negative mood and temporal and spatial contraction; and [d] time and space could also be customised to reinstate agency and self-determination. Mental-physical multimorbidity negatively impacts on individuals' perceptions of lived time and lived space, leading to a loss of agency, heightened uncertainty, and poor well-being. Harnessing people's capacity to modify their experience of time and space may be a novel way to support people with mental-physical multimorbidity to live well with illness. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Inquiry-Based Approach to Teaching Space Weather to Undergraduate Non-Science Majors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cade, W. B., III

2016-12-01

Undergraduate Space Weather education is an important component of creating a society that is knowledgeable about space weather and its societal impacts. The space physics community has made great strides in providing academic education for students, typically physics and engineering majors, who are interested in pursuing a career in the space sciences or space weather. What is rarely addressed, however, is providing a broader space weather education to undergraduate students as a whole. To help address this gap, I have created an introductory space weather course for non-science majors, with the idea of expanding exposure to space weather beyond the typical physics and engineering students. The philosophy and methodologies used in this course will be presented, as well as the results of the first attempts to teach it. Using an approach more tailored to the non-scientist, courses such as this can be an effective means of broadening space weather education and outreach.

Formative research and strategic development of a physical activity component to a social marketing campaign for obesity prevention in preschoolers.

PubMed

Bellows, Laura; Anderson, Jennifer; Gould, Susan Martin; Auld, Garry

2008-06-01

The prevalence of overweight in childhood, including preschoolers, continues to rise. While efforts focusing on school-aged children are encouraging, obesity prevention programs to address nutrition and physical activity in the child care center are lacking. Food Friends is a successfully evaluated nutrition program aimed at enhancing preschoolers' food choices, the addition of a physical activity program would improve the programs overall efforts to establish healthful habits early in life. This study describes the formative research conducted with secondary influencers of preschoolers-teachers and parents-for the development of a physical activity program. Key informant interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with preschool teachers and parents, respectively, to examine current physical activity practices, as well as attitudes, opinions, and desired wants and needs for physical activity materials. Findings illustrate that teachers provided physical activity; however, most did not use a structured program. Teachers identified time, space and equipment as barriers to providing activity in their classroom. Focus group findings identified activities of preschoolers', parents' perceptions of the adequacy of activity levels, and items to help parents engage their children in more physical activity. Barriers were also identified by parents and included time, safety, inclement weather, and lack of knowledge and self-efficacy. Findings from this formative research were used to develop a marketing strategy to guide the development of a physical activity component, Food Friends Get Movin' with Mighty Moves , as part of a larger social marketing campaign aimed to decrease the risk for obesity in low-income preschoolers.

Superconductivity in YTE2Ge2 compounds (TE = d-electron transition metal)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chajewski, G.; Samsel-Czekała, M.; Hackemer, A.; Wiśniewski, P.; Pikul, A. P.; Kaczorowski, D.

2018-05-01

Polycrystalline samples of YTE2Ge2 with TE = Co, Ni, Ru, Rh, Pd and Pt were synthesized and characterized by means of X-ray powder diffraction and low-temperature electrical resistivity and specific heat measurements, supplemented by fully relativistic full-potential local-orbital band structure calculations. We confirm that most of the compounds studied crystallize in a body-centered tetragonal ThCr2S2 -type structure (space group I 4 / mmm) and have three-dimensional Fermi surfaces, while only one of them (YPt2Ge2) forms with a primitive tetragonal CaBe2Ge2 -type unit cell (space group P 4 / nmm) and possesses quasi-two-dimensional Fermi surface sheets with some nesting. Physical properties data show conventional superconductivity in the phases with TE = Co, Pd and Pt, i.e. independently of the structure type (and hence the dimensionality of the Fermi surface).

UCLA IGPP Space Plasma Simulation Group

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

During the past 10 years the UCLA IGPP Space Plasma Simulation Group has pursued its theoretical effort to develop a Mission Oriented Theory (MOT) for the International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) program. This effort has been based on a combination of approaches: analytical theory, large scale kinetic (LSK) calculations, global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations and self-consistent plasma kinetic (SCK) simulations. These models have been used to formulate a global interpretation of local measurements made by the ISTP spacecraft. The regions of applications of the MOT cover most of the magnetosphere: the solar wind, the low- and high-latitude magnetospheric boundary, the near-Earth and distant magnetotail, and the auroral region. Most recent investigations include: plasma processes in the electron foreshock, response of the magnetospheric cusp, particle entry in the magnetosphere, sources of observed distribution functions in the magnetotail, transport of oxygen ions, self-consistent evolution of the magnetotail, substorm studies, effects of explosive reconnection, and auroral acceleration simulations.

Renormalization group equation analysis of a pseudoscalar portal dark matter model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghorbani, Karim

2017-10-01

We investigate the vacuum stability and perturbativity of a pseudoscalar portal dark matter (DM) model with a Dirac DM candidate, through the renormalization group equation analysis at one-loop order. The model has a particular feature which can evade the direct detection upper bounds measured by XENON100 and even that from planned experiment XENON1T. We first find the viable regions in the parameter space which will give rise to correct DM relic density and comply with the constraints from Higgs physics. We show that for a given mass of the pseudoscalar, the mixing angle plays no significant role in the running of the couplings. Then we study the running of the couplings for various pseudoscalar masses at mixing angle θ =6^\\circ , and find the scale of validity in terms of the dark coupling, {λ }d. Depending on our choice of the cutoff scale, the resulting viable parameter space will be determined.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the effect of galaxy group environment on active galactic nuclei

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gordon, Yjan A.; Pimbblet, Kevin A.; Owers, Matt S.; Bland-Hawthorn, Joss; Brough, Sarah; Brown, Michael J. I.; Cluver, Michelle E.; Croom, Scott M.; Holwerda, Benne W.; Loveday, Jonathan; Mahajan, Smriti; Wang, Lingyu

2018-04-01

In galaxy clusters, efficiently accreting active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are preferentially located in the infall regions of the cluster projected phase-space, and are rarely found in the cluster core. This has been attributed to both an increase in triggering opportunities for infalling galaxies, and a reduction of those mechanisms in the hot, virialized, cluster core. Exploiting the depth and completeness (98 per cent at r < 19.8 mag) of the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey (GAMA), we probe down the group halo mass function to assess whether AGNs are found in the same regions in groups as they are in clusters. We select 451 optical AGNs from 7498 galaxies with log10(M*/M⊙) > 9.9 in 695 groups with 11.53 ≤ log10(M200/M⊙) ≤ 14.56 at z < 0.15. By analysing the projected phase-space positions of these galaxies, we demonstrate that when split both radially, and into physically derived infalling and core populations, AGN position within group projected phase-space is dependent on halo mass. For groups with log10(M200/M⊙) > 13.5, AGNs are preferentially found in the infalling galaxy population with 3.6σ confidence. At lower halo masses, we observe no difference in AGN fraction between core and infalling galaxies. These observations support a model where a reduced number of low-speed interactions, ram pressure stripping and intra-group/cluster medium temperature, the dominance of which increase with halo mass, work to inhibit AGN in the cores of groups and clusters with log10(M200/M⊙) > 13.5, but do not significantly affect nuclear activity in cores of less massive structures.

Parks as Social and Cultural Spaces Among U.S.- and Foreign-Born Latinas.

PubMed

Munet-Vilaró, Frances; Chase, Sabrina Marie; Echeverria, Sandra

2017-02-01

Parks provide opportunities for people to engage in activities that can promote physical and emotional well-being. Using focus groups and personal interviews conducted in select neighborhoods of a Northeastern city with a high rate of obesity, we examined perceptions of barriers and facilitators regarding the use of parks and park features that would promote physical activity among Latina women ( N = 39). Foreign-born Latinas emphasized the environmental characteristics of parks and the types of amenities that can support preferred cultural and social activities, while U.S.-born Latinas emphasized the use of parks for physical activity and weight management. Most striking were the different ways in which foreign-born participants conceptualized parks as sociocultural family centers, extending more common conceptualizations centered on exercise or individual health gain. These findings suggest the need for new policies that incorporate culturally specific park programming to promote national goals of increasing levels of physical activity for health.

Creating Inclusive Physical Activity Spaces: The Case of Body-Positive Yoga.

PubMed

Pickett, Andrew C; Cunningham, George B

2017-09-01

Within the modern cultural climate, those in larger bodies face high levels of weight stigma, particularly in sport and physical activity spaces, which serves as a strong barrier to their participation. However, given the strong link between physical activity and general health and well-being for participants, it is important to explore strategies that encourage participation of these individuals. Thus, the current research examined strategies that physical activity instructors use to develop inclusive exercise spaces for all body sizes. This study employed a series of semistructured qualitative interviews (n = 9) with instructors of body-inclusive yoga classes to explore the ways in which they encourage participation for those in larger bodies. Emergent themes from the current study suggested support for 6 factors for creating body-inclusive physical activity spaces: authentic leadership, a culture of inclusion, a focus on health, inclusive language, leader social activism, and a sense of community. This study revealed that leaders must intentionally cultivate inclusion in their spaces to encourage those in nonconforming bodies to participate. These findings have important health and management implications for the sport and physical activity context and provide a basic outline of practical strategies that practitioners can use to foster inclusion in their spaces.

Role of Fundamental Physics in Human Space Exploration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turyshev, Slava

2004-01-01

This talk will discuss the critical role that fundamental physics research plays for the human space exploration. In particular, the currently available technologies can already provide significant radiation reduction, minimize bone loss, increase crew productivity and, thus, uniquely contribute to overall mission success. I will discuss how fundamental physics research and emerging technologies may not only further reduce the risks of space travel, but also increase the crew mobility, enhance safety and increase the value of space exploration in the near future.

Clock Technology Development in the Laser Cooling and Atomic Physics (LCAP) Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Seidel, Dave; Thompson, R. J.; Klipstein, W. M.; Kohel, J.; Maleki, L.

2000-01-01

This paper presents the Laser Cooling and Atomic Physics (LCAP) program. It focuses on clock technology development. The topics include: 1) Overview of LCAP Flight Projects; 2) Space Clock 101; 3) Physics with Clocks in microgravity; 4) Space Clock Challenges; 5) LCAP Timeline; 6) International Space Station (ISS) Science Platforms; 7) ISS Express Rack; 8) Space Qualification of Components; 9) Laser Configuration; 10) Clock Rate Comparisons: GPS Carrier Phase Frequency Transfer; and 11) ISS Model Views. This paper is presented in viewgraph form.

Research in space science and technology. [including X-ray astronomy and interplanetary plasma physics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beckley, L. E.

1977-01-01

Progress in various space flight research programs is reported. Emphasis is placed on X-ray astronomy and interplanetary plasma physics. Topics covered include: infrared astronomy, long base line interferometry, geological spectroscopy, space life science experiments, atmospheric physics, and space based materials and structures research. Analysis of galactic and extra-galactic X-ray data from the Small Astronomy Satellite (SAS-3) and HEAO-A and interplanetary plasma data for Mariner 10, Explorers 47 and 50, and Solrad is discussed.

Observation of Wave Packet Distortion during a Negative-Group-Velocity Transmission

PubMed Central

Ye, Dexin; Salamin, Yannick; Huangfu, Jiangtao; Qiao, Shan; Zheng, Guoan; Ran, Lixin

2015-01-01

In Physics, causality is a fundamental postulation arising from the second law of thermodynamics. It states that, the cause of an event precedes its effect. In the context of Electromagnetics, the relativistic causality limits the upper bound of the velocity of information, which is carried by electromagnetic wave packets, to the speed of light in free space (c). In anomalously dispersive media (ADM), it has been shown that, wave packets appear to propagate with a superluminal or even negative group velocity. However, Sommerfeld and Brillouin pointed out that the “front” of such wave packets, known as the initial point of the Sommerfeld precursor, always travels at c. In this work, we investigate the negative-group-velocity transmission of half-sine wave packets. We experimentally observe the wave front and the distortion of modulated wave packets propagating with a negative group velocity in a passive artificial ADM in microwave regime. Different from previous literature on the propagation of superluminal Gaussian packets, strongly distorted sinusoidal packets with non-superluminal wave fronts were observed. This result agrees with Brillouin's assertion, i.e., the severe distortion of seemingly superluminal wave packets makes the definition of group velocity physically meaningless in the anomalously dispersive region. PMID:25631746

The Role of Open Space in Urban Neighbourhoods for Health-Related Lifestyle

PubMed Central

Lestan, Katarina Ana; Eržen, Ivan; Golobič, Mojca

2014-01-01

The research reported in this paper addresses the relationship between quality of open space and health related lifestyle in urban residential areas. The research was performed in the residential developments in Ljubljana, Slovenia, dating from the time of political and economic changes in the early nineties. Compared to the older neighborhoods, these are typically single-use residential areas, with small open spaces and poor landscape design. The research is concerned with the quality of life in these areas, especially from the perspective of the vulnerable users, like the elderly and children. Both depend on easily accessible green areas in close proximity to their homes. The hypothesis is that the poor open space quality affects their health-related behavior and their perceived health status. The research has three methodological phases: (1) a comparison between urban residential areas by criteria describing their physical characteristics; (2) behavior observation and mapping and (3) a resident opinion survey. The results confirm differences between open spaces of the selected residential areas as well as their relation with outdoor activities: a lack of outdoor programs correlates with poor variety of outdoor activities, limited to transition type, less time spent outdoors and lower satisfaction with their home environment. The survey also disclosed a strong influence of a set of socio-economic variables such as education and economic status on physical activity and self-perceived health status of people. The results therefore confirm the hypothesis especially for less affluent and educated; i.e., vulnerable groups. PMID:25003173

Local random configuration-tree theory for string repetition and facilitated dynamics of glass

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lam, Chi-Hang

2018-02-01

We derive a microscopic theory of glassy dynamics based on the transport of voids by micro-string motions, each of which involves particles arranged in a line hopping simultaneously displacing one another. Disorder is modeled by a random energy landscape quenched in the configuration space of distinguishable particles, but transient in the physical space as expected for glassy fluids. We study the evolution of local regions with m coupled voids. At a low temperature, energetically accessible local particle configurations can be organized into a random tree with nodes and edges denoting configurations and micro-string propagations respectively. Such trees defined in the configuration space naturally describe systems defined in two- or three-dimensional physical space. A micro-string propagation initiated by a void can facilitate similar motions by other voids via perturbing the random energy landscape, realizing path interactions between voids or equivalently string interactions. We obtain explicit expressions of the particle diffusion coefficient and a particle return probability. Under our approximation, as temperature decreases, random trees of energetically accessible configurations exhibit a sequence of percolation transitions in the configuration space, with local regions containing fewer coupled voids entering the non-percolating immobile phase first. Dynamics is dominated by coupled voids of an optimal group size, which increases as temperature decreases. Comparison with a distinguishable-particle lattice model (DPLM) of glass shows very good quantitative agreements using only two adjustable parameters related to typical energy fluctuations and the interaction range of the micro-strings.

Very special conformal field theories and their holographic duals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakayama, Yu

2018-03-01

Cohen and Glashow introduced the notion of very special relativity as viable space-time symmetry of elementary particle physics. As a natural generalization of their idea, we study the subgroup of the conformal group, dubbed very special conformal symmetry, which is an extension of the very special relativity. We classify all of them and construct field theory examples as well as holographic realization of the very special conformal field theories.

Archiving Student Solutions with Tablet PCs in a Discussion-based Introductory Physics Class

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Price, Edward; De Leone, Charles

2008-10-01

Many active learning based physics courses use whiteboards as a space for groups to respond to prompts based on short lab activities, problem solving, or inquiry-oriented activities. Whiteboards are volatile; once erased, the material is lost. Tablet PCs and software such as Ubiquitous Presenter can be used as digital whiteboards in active learning classes. This enables automatic capture and archiving of student work for online review by students, instructors, and researchers. We studied the use of digital whiteboards in an active-learning introductory physics course at California State University, San Marcos. In this paper we examine the archival features of digital whiteboards', and characterize the use of these features by students and instructors, and explore possible uses for researchers and curriculum developers.

Time Asymmetric Quantum Mechanics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bohm, Arno R.; Gadella, Manuel; Kielanowski, Piotr

2011-09-01

The meaning of time asymmetry in quantum physics is discussed. On the basis of a mathematical theorem, the Stone-von Neumann theorem, the solutions of the dynamical equations, the Schrödinger equation (1) for states or the Heisenberg equation (6a) for observables are given by a unitary group. Dirac kets require the concept of a RHS (rigged Hilbert space) of Schwartz functions; for this kind of RHS a mathematical theorem also leads to time symmetric group evolution. Scattering theory suggests to distinguish mathematically between states (defined by a preparation apparatus) and observables (defined by a registration apparatus (detector)). If one requires that scattering resonances of width Γ and exponentially decaying states of lifetime τ=h/Γ should be the same physical entities (for which there is sufficient evidence) one is led to a pair of RHS's of Hardy functions and connected with it, to a semigroup time evolution t0≤t<∞, with the puzzling result that there is a quantum mechanical beginning of time, just like the big bang time for the universe, when it was a quantum system. The decay of quasi-stable particles is used to illustrate this quantum mechanical time asymmetry. From the analysis of these processes, we show that the properties of rigged Hilbert spaces of Hardy functions are suitable for a formulation of time asymmetry in quantum mechanics.

Understanding the relationships between the physical environment and physical activity in older adults: a systematic review of qualitative studies.

PubMed

Moran, Mika; Van Cauwenberg, Jelle; Hercky-Linnewiel, Rachel; Cerin, Ester; Deforche, Benedicte; Plaut, Pnina

2014-07-17

While physical activity (PA) provides many physical, social, and mental health benefits for older adults, they are the least physically active age group. Ecological models highlight the importance of the physical environment in promoting PA. However, results of previous quantitative research revealed inconsistencies in environmental correlates of older adults' PA that may be explained by methodological issues. Qualitative studies can inform and complement quantitative research on environment-PA relationships by providing insight into how and why the environment influences participants' PA behaviors. The current study aimed to provide a systematic review of qualitative studies exploring the potential impact of the physical environment on older adults' PA behaviors. A systematic search was conducted in databases of various disciplines, including: health, architecture and urban planning, transportation, and interdisciplinary databases. From 3,047 articles identified in the physical activity, initial search, 31 articles published from 1996 to 2012 met all inclusion criteria. An inductive content analysis was performed on the extracted findings to identify emerging environmental elements related to older adults' PA. The identified environmental elements were then grouped by study methodologies [indoor interviews (individual or focus groups) vs spatial methods (photo-voice, observations, walk-along interviews)]. This review provides detailed information about environmental factors that potentially influence older adults' PA behaviors. These factors were categorized into five themes: pedestrian infrastructure, safety, access to amenities, aesthetics, and environmental conditions. Environmental factors especially relevant to older adults (i.e., access to facilities, green open spaces and rest areas) tended to emerge more frequently in studies that combined interviews with spatial qualitative methods. Findings showed that qualitative research can provide in-depth information on environmental elements that influence older adults' PA. Future qualitative studies on the physical environment and older adults' PA would benefit from combining interviews with more spatially-oriented methods. Multidisciplinary mixed-methods studies are recommended to establish quantitative relationships complemented with in-depth qualitative information.

On the physical Hilbert space of loop quantum cosmology

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

Noui, Karim; Perez, Alejandro; Vandersloot, Kevin

2005-02-15

In this paper we present a model of Riemannian loop quantum cosmology with a self-adjoint quantum scalar constraint. The physical Hilbert space is constructed using refined algebraic quantization. When matter is included in the form of a cosmological constant, the model is exactly solvable and we show explicitly that the physical Hilbert space is separable, consisting of a single physical state. We extend the model to the Lorentzian sector and discuss important implications for standard loop quantum cosmology.

Cubic Dirac fermions in quasi-one-dimensional transition-metal chalcogenide semimetals immune to Peierls distortion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Qihang; Zunger, Alex

A Cubic Dirac Fermion in condensed-matter physics refers to a band crossing in periodic solids that has 4-fold degeneracy with cubic dispersions in certain directions. Such a crystalline symmetry induced fermion is composed of 6 Weyl fermions where 3 have left-handed and 3 have right-handed chirality, and constitutes one of the ``new fermions'' that have no counterpart in high-energy physics. However, no prediction has yet pointed to a plausible example of a material candidate hosting such a cubically-dispersed Dirac semimetal (CDSM). Here we establish the design principles for CDSM finding that only 2 out of 230 space groups possess the required symmetry elements. Adding the required band occupancy criteria, we conduct a material search using density functional band theory identifying a group of quasi-one-dimensional molybdenum chalcogenide compounds A(MoX)3 (A = Na, K, Rb, In, Tl; X = S, Se, Te) with space group P63/m as ideal CDSM candidates. Studying the stability of the A(MoX)3 family towards a Peierls distortion reveals a few candidates such as Rb(MoTe)3 and Tl(MoTe)3 that are resilliant to Peierls distortion, thus retaining the metallic character. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under Grant No. DE-FG02-13ER46959 to University of Colorado, Boulder.

Quantum correlations are weaved by the spinors of the Euclidean primitives

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

The exceptional Lie group E8 plays a prominent role in both mathematics and theoretical physics. It is the largest symmetry group associated with the most general possible normed division algebra, namely, that of the non-associative real octonions, which—thanks to their non-associativity—form the only possible closed set of spinors (or rotors) that can parallelize the 7-sphere. By contrast, here we show how a similar 7-sphere also arises naturally from the algebraic interplay of the graded Euclidean primitives, such as points, lines, planes and volumes, which characterize the three-dimensional conformal geometry of the ambient physical space, set within its eight-dimensional Clifford-algebraic representation. Remarkably, the resulting algebra remains associative, and allows us to understand the origins and strengths of all quantum correlations locally, in terms of the geometry of the compactified physical space, namely, that of a quaternionic 3-sphere, S3, with S7 being its algebraic representation space. Every quantum correlation can thus be understood as a correlation among a set of points of this S7, computed using manifestly local spinors within S3, thereby extending the stringent bounds of ±2 set by Bell inequalities to the bounds of ±22 on the strengths of all possible strong correlations, in the same quantitatively precise manner as that predicted within quantum mechanics. The resulting geometrical framework thus overcomes Bell’s theorem by producing a strictly deterministic and realistic framework that allows a locally causal understanding of all quantum correlations, without requiring either remote contextuality or backward causation. We demonstrate this by first proving a general theorem concerning the geometrical origins of the correlations predicted by arbitrarily entangled quantum states, and then reproducing the correlations predicted by the EPR-Bohm and the GHZ states. The raison d’être of strong correlations turns out to be the Möbius-like twists in the Hopf bundles of S3 and S7. PMID:29893385

The relationship of physical activity and overweight to objectively measured green space accessibility and use

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

This study examines the association between objectively measured access to green space, frequency of green space use, physical activity, and the probability of being overweight or obese in the city of Bristol, England. Data from the Bristol Quality of Life in your Neighbourhood survey for 6,821 adults were combined with a comprehensive GIS database of neighbourhood and green space characteristics.. A range of green space accessibility measures were computed. Associations between accessibility and the odds of respondents achieving a recommended 30 minutes or more of moderate activity five times a week, or being overweight or obese, were examined using logistic regression. Results showed that the reported frequency of green space use declined with increasing distance. The study also found that respondents living closest to the type of green space classified as a Formal park were more likely to achieve the physical activity recommendation and less likely to be overweight or obese. The association with physical activity, but not with overweight or obesity, remained after adjustment for respondent characteristics, area deprivation, and a range of characteristics of the neighbourhood environment. The findings suggest that the provision of good access to green spaces in urban areas may help promote population physical activity. PMID:20060635

Planarian regeneration in space: Persistent anatomical, behavioral, and bacteriological changes induced by space travel.

PubMed

Morokuma, Junji; Durant, Fallon; Williams, Katherine B; Finkelstein, Joshua M; Blackiston, Douglas J; Clements, Twyman; Reed, David W; Roberts, Michael; Jain, Mahendra; Kimel, Kris; Trauger, Sunia A; Wolfe, Benjamin E; Levin, Michael

2017-04-01

Regeneration is regulated not only by chemical signals but also by physical processes, such as bioelectric gradients. How these may change in the absence of the normal gravitational and geomagnetic fields is largely unknown. Planarian flatworms were moved to the International Space Station for 5 weeks, immediately after removing their heads and tails. A control group in spring water remained on Earth. No manipulation of the planaria occurred while they were in orbit, and space-exposed worms were returned to our laboratory for analysis. One animal out of 15 regenerated into a double-headed phenotype-normally an extremely rare event. Remarkably, amputating this double-headed worm again, in plain water, resulted again in the double-headed phenotype. Moreover, even when tested 20 months after return to Earth, the space-exposed worms displayed significant quantitative differences in behavior and microbiome composition. These observations may have implications for human and animal space travelers, but could also elucidate how microgravity and hypomagnetic environments could be used to trigger desired morphological, neurological, physiological, and bacteriomic changes for various regenerative and bioengineering applications.

Clear, Conductive, Transparent, Flexible Space Durable Composite Films for Electrostatic Charge Mitigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, Kent A.; Connell, John W.; Delozier, Donavon M.; Smith, Joseph G., Jr.

2004-01-01

Space environmentally durable polymeric films with low color and sufficient electrical conductivity to mitigate electrostatic charge (ESC) build-up have been under investigation as part of a materials development activity. These materials have potential applications on advanced spacecraft, particularly on large, deployable, ultra-light weight Gossamer spacecraft. The approach taken to impart sufficient electrical conductivity into the polymer film while maintaining flexibility is to use single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) as conductive additives. Approaches investigated in our lab involved an in-situ polymerization method, addition of SWNTs to a polymer containing reactive end-groups, and spray coating of polymer surfaces. The work described herein is a summary of the current status of this project. Surface conductivities (measured as surface resistance) in the range sufficient for ESC mitigation were achieved with minimal effects on the physical, thermal, mechanical and optical properties of the films. Additionally, the electrical conductivity was not affected by harsh mechanical manipulation of the films. The chemistry and physical properties of these nanocomposites will be discussed.

Princeton University High Energy Physics Research

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

Marlow, Daniel R.

This is the Final Report on research conducted by the Princeton Elementary Particles group over the approximately three-year period from May 1, 2012 to April 30, 2015. The goal of our research is to investigate the fundamental constituents of matter, their fields, and their interactions; to understand the properties of space and time; and to study the profound relationships between cosmology and particle physics. During the funding period covered by this report, the group has been organized into a subgroup concentrating on the theory of particles, strings, and cosmology; and four subgroups performing major experiments at laboratories around the world: CERN, Daya Bay, Gran Sasso as well as detector R\\&D on the Princeton campus. Highlights in of this research include the discovery of the Higgs Boson at CERN and the measurement ofmore » $$\\sin^22\\theta_{13}$$ by the Daya Bay experiment. In both cases, Princeton researchers supported by this grant played key roles.« less

Updated Bs-mixing constraints on new physics models for b →s ℓ+ℓ- anomalies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Di Luzio, Luca; Kirk, Matthew; Lenz, Alexander

2018-05-01

Many new physics models that explain the intriguing anomalies in the b -quark flavor sector are severely constrained by Bs mixing, for which the Standard Model prediction and experiment agreed well until recently. The most recent Flavour Lattice Averaging Group (FLAG) average of lattice results for the nonperturbative matrix elements points, however, in the direction of a small discrepancy in this observable Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM). Using up-to-date inputs from standard sources such as PDG, FLAG and one of the two leading CKM fitting groups to determine Δ MsSM, we find a severe reduction of the allowed parameter space of Z' and leptoquark models explaining the B anomalies. Remarkably, in the former case the upper bound on the Z' mass approaches dangerously close to the energy scales already probed by the LHC. We finally identify some model-building directions in order to alleviate the tension with Bs mixing.

Reference earth orbital research and applications investigations (blue book). Volume 3: Physics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1971-01-01

The definition of physics experiments to be conducted aboard the space station is presented. The four functional program elements are: (1) space physics research laboratory, (2) plasma physics and environmental perturbation laboratory, (3) cosmic ray physics laboratory, and (4) physics and chemistry laboratory. The experiments to be conducted by each facility are defined and the crew member requirements to accomplish the experiments are presented.

Reduced Pseudoneglect for Physical Space, but Not Mental Representations of Space, for Adults with Autistic Traits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

English, Michael C.; Maybery, Murray T.; Visser, Troy A.

2017-01-01

Neurotypical individuals display a leftward attentional bias, called pseudoneglect, for physical space (e.g. landmark task) and mental representations of space (e.g. mental number line bisection). However, leftward bias is reduced in autistic individuals viewing faces, and neurotypical individuals with autistic traits viewing "greyscale"…

Place-People-Practice-Process: Using Sociomateriality in University Physical Spaces Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Acton, Renae

2017-01-01

Pedagogy is an inherently spatial practice. Implicit in much of the rhetoric of physical space designed for teaching and learning is an ontological position that assumes material space as distinct from human practice, often conceptualising space as causally (and simplistically) impacting upon people's behaviours. An alternative, and growing,…

Space Particle Hazard Measurement and Modeling

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-01

understand the interactions of the physical processes driving, then specify and ultimately predict the state of the energetic particle populations...Hudson, and B. T. Kress (2013), Direct observation of the CRAND proton radiation belt source, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics , 118, doi:10.1002...anticritical temperature for spacecraft charging, J. Geophys Res.: Space Physics , 113, 2156-2202, doi: 10.1029/2008JA013161 2010 – Tested basic

5 CFR 792.230 - May an agency use appropriated funds to improve the physical space of the family child care homes...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... improve the physical space of the family child care homes or child care centers? 792.230 Section 792.230... EMPLOYEES' HEALTH AND COUNSELING PROGRAMS Agency Use of Appropriated Funds for Child Care Costs for Lower... May an agency use appropriated funds to improve the physical space of the family child care homes or...

Space War Meets Info War: The Integration of Space and Information Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-04-01

spacelift, command and control of satellites, and surveillance and deconfliction of systems in space.” (4, xi) These operations provide the physical ...PSYOPS), electronic warfare (EW), physical attack/destruction, special information operations (SIO), and may include computer network attack. (3, viii... physical security, counter-deception, counter- propaganda, counter-intelligence, EW, and SIO. (3, viii) Information operations employ both lethal and non

Space Biophysics: Accomplishments, Trends, Challenges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Jeffrey D.

2015-01-01

Physics and biology are inextricably linked. All the chemical and biological processes of life are dutifully bound to follow the rules and laws of physics. In space, these physical laws seem to turn on their head and biological systems, from microbes to humans, adapt and evolve in myriad ways to cope with the changed physical influences of the space environment. Gravity is the most prominent change in space that influences biology. In microgravity, the physical processes of sedimentation, density-driven convective flow, influence of surface tension and fluid pressure profoundly influence biology at the molecular and cellular level as well as at the whole-body level. Gravity sensing mechanisms are altered, structural and functional components of biology (such as bone and muscle) are reduced and changes in the way fluids and gasses behave also drive the way microbial systems and biofilms grow as well as the way plants and animals adapt. The radiation environment also effects life in space. Solar particle events and high energy cosmic radiation can cause serious damage to DNA and other biomolecules. The results can cause mutation, cellular damage or death, leading to health consequences of acute radiation damage or long-term health consequences such as increased cancer risk. Space Biophysics is the study and utilization of physical changes in space that cause changes in biological systems. The unique physical environment in space has been used successfully to grow high-quality protein crystals and 3D tissue cultures that could not be grown in the presence of unidirectional gravitational acceleration here on Earth. All biological processes that change in space have their root in a biophysical alteration due to microgravity and/or the radiation environment of space. In order to fully-understand the risks to human health in space and to fully-understand how humans, plants, animals and microbes can safely and effectively travel and eventually live for long periods beyond the protective environment of Earth, the biophysical properties underlying these changes must be studied, characterized and understood. This lecture reviews the current state of NASA biophysics research accomplishments and identifies future trends and challenges for biophysics research on the International Space Station and beyond.

Observational properties of compact groups of galaxies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hickson, Paul

1990-01-01

Compact groups are small, relatively isolated, systems of galaxies with projected separations comparable to the diameters of the galaxies themselves. Two well-known examples are Stephan's Quintet (Stephan, 1877) and Seyfert's Sextet (Seyfert 1948a,b). In groups such as these, the apparent space density of galaxies approaches 10(exp 6) Mpc(sub -3), denser even than the cores of rich clusters. The apparent unlikeliness of the chance occurrence of such tight groupings lead Ambartsumyan (1958, 1975) to conclude that compact groups must be physically dense systems. This view is supported by clear signs of galaxy interactions that are seen in many groups. Spectroscopic observations reveal that typical relative velocities of galaxies in the groups are comparable to their internal stellar velocities. This should be conducive to strong gravitational interactions - more so than in rich clusters, where galaxy velocities are typically much higher. This suggests that compact groups could be excellent laboratories in which to study galaxy interactions and their effects. Compact groups often contain one or more galaxies whose redshift differs greatly from those of the other group members. If these galaxies are at the same distance as the other members, either entire galaxies are being ejected at high velocities from these groups, or some new physical phenomena must be occurring. If their redshifts are cosmological, we must explain why so many discordant galaxies are found in compact groups. In recent years much progress has been made in addressing these questions. Here, the author discusses the current observational data on compact groups and their implications.

Space plasma branch at NRL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

The Naval Research Laboratory (Washington, D.C.) formed the Space Plasma Branch within its Plasma Physics Division on July 1. Vithal Patel, former Program Director of Magnetospheric Physics, National Science Foundation, also joined NRL on the same date as Associate Superintendent of the Plasma Physics Division. Barret Ripin is head of the newly organized branch. The Space Plasma branch will do basic and applied space plasma research using a multidisciplinary approach. It consolidates traditional rocket and satellite space experiments, space plasma theory and computation, with laboratory space-related experiments. About 40 research scientists, postdoctoral fellows, engineers, and technicians are divided among its five sections. The Theory and Computation sections are led by Joseph Huba and Joel Fedder, the Space Experiments section is led by Paul Rodriguez, and the Pharos Laser Facility and Laser Experiments sections are headed by Charles Manka and Jacob Grun.

The Thaayorre think of Time Like They Talk of Space.

PubMed

Gaby, Alice

2012-01-01

Around the world, it is common to both talk and think about time in terms of space. But does our conceptualization of time simply reflect the space/time metaphors of the language we speak? Evidence from the Australian language Kuuk Thaayorre suggests not. Kuuk Thaayorre speakers do not employ active spatial metaphors in describing time. But this is not to say that spatial language is irrelevant to temporal construals: non-linguistic representations of time are shown here to covary with the linguistic system of describing space. This article contrasts two populations of ethnic Thaayorre from Pormpuraaw - one comprising Kuuk Thaayorre/English bilinguals and the other English-monolinguals - in order to distinguish the effects of language from environmental and other factors. Despite their common physical, social, and cultural context, the two groups differ in their representations of time in ways that are congruent with the language of space in Kuuk Thaayorre and English, respectively. Kuuk Thaayorre/English bilinguals represent time along an absolute east-to-west axis, in alignment with the high frequency of absolute frame of reference terms in Kuuk Thaayorre spatial description. The English-monolinguals, in contrast, represent time from left-to-right, aligning with the dominant relative frame of reference in English spatial description. This occurs in the absence of any east-to-west metaphors in Kuuk Thaayorre, or left-to-right metaphors in English. Thus the way these two groups think about time appears to reflect the language of space and not the language of time.

Emergence of metapopulations and echo chambers in mobile agents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Starnini, Michele; Frasca, Mattia; Baronchelli, Andrea

2016-08-01

Multi-agent models often describe populations segregated either in the physical space, i.e. subdivided in metapopulations, or in the ecology of opinions, i.e. partitioned in echo chambers. Here we show how both kinds of segregation can emerge from the interplay between homophily and social influence in a simple model of mobile agents endowed with a continuous opinion variable. In the model, physical proximity determines a progressive convergence of opinions but differing opinions result in agents moving away from each others. This feedback between mobility and social dynamics determines the onset of a stable dynamical metapopulation scenario where physically separated groups of like-minded individuals interact with each other through the exchange of agents. The further introduction of confirmation bias in social interactions, defined as the tendency of an individual to favor opinions that match his own, leads to the emergence of echo chambers where different opinions coexist also within the same group. We believe that the model may be of interest to researchers investigating the origin of segregation in the offline and online world.

Barriers and motivators for owners walking their dog: results from qualitative research.

PubMed

Cutt, Hayley E; Giles-Corti, Billie; Wood, Lisa J; Knuiman, Matthew W; Burke, Valerie

2008-08-01

This qualitative research explored the relationship between dog ownership and dog-related, social environmental and physical environmental factors associated with walking with a dog. Seven focus groups with dog owners (n=51) were conducted. A pre-determined discussion guide was used and transcripts were analysed as group data, using content analysis to identify common themes. Many of the physical environmental barriers and facilitators that influenced dog owners to walk were similar to those found in the literature for general walking. However, a number of key motivators for walking, specific to dog owners, were identified. Dog owners reported that their dog was a strong source of motivation, companionship and social support that encouraged them to walk with their dog. The availability and accessibility of public open space (POS) for dogs and the provision of dog-related infrastructure within POS were also important environmental factors that affected whether owners walked with their dog. Results from this qualitative study were used to develop the Dogs and Physical Activity (DAPA) tool which is now being used to measure the walking behaviour of dog owners.

PREFACE: International Symposium on Physical Sciences in Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meyer, Andreas; Egry, Ivan

2011-12-01

ISPS is the major international scientific forum for researchers in physics utilizing the space environment, in particular microgravity. It is intended to inspire and encourage cross-cutting discussions between different scientific communities working in the same environment. Contributions discussing results of experiments carried out on drop towers, parabolic aircraft flights, sounding rockets, unmanned recoverable capsules and, last but not least, the International Space Station ISS, are the backbone of this conference series, complemented by preparatory ground-based work, both experimentally and theoretically. The first International Symposium on Physical Sciences in Space (ISPS) sponsored by the International Microgravity Strategic Planning Group (IMSPG) took place in 2000 in Sorrento, Italy. IMSPG seeks to coordinate the planning of space for research in physical sciences by space agencies worldwide. AEB (Brazil), ASI (Italy), CNES (France), CSA (Canada), DLR (Germany), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan), NASA (USA), NSAU (Ukraine) and RSA (Russia) are members, and CNSA (China) and ISRO (India) are also invited to join IMSPG meetings. ISPS-4 was the fourth symposium in that series, following ISPS-2 organized by CSA in 2004 in Toronto, Canada, and ISPS-3 organized in 2007 by JAXA in Nara, Japan. ISPS-4 was jointly organized by ESA and DLR on behalf of the IMSPG and was held in Bonn from 11-15 July 2011. 230 participants from 17 different countries attended ISPS-4. Recent microgravity experiments were presented, analysed, and set in context to results from Earth bound experiments in 16 plenary and 68 topical talks. Lively discussions continued during two dedicated poster sessions and at the exhibition booths of space industry and research centers with new flight hardware on display. The oral presentations at ISPS4 were selected exclusively on the basis of scientific merit, as evidenced through the submitted abstracts. The selection was performed by the International Scientific Program Committee. It is our pleasure to thank the members of this committee for their excellent support in setting up a high-quality, well-balanced program. We also thank our sponsors, the German Aerospace Center and the European Space Agency, the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie (German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology), the ZARM Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity as well as our industrial sponsors EADS-Astrium and Kayser-Threde, for their generous contributions. Our special thanks go to the authors and reviewers of the papers in these proceedings. Together we were able to realize up-to-date, peer reviewed conference proceedings, containing new and original data. Thanks to their efforts and that of the IOP Publishing staff, we succeeded in publishing the proceedings within six months of the conference. We are confident that this collection of papers will provide a useful reference for all workers in the field. Andreas Meyer and Ivan Egry Chairmen ISPS-4 Institute of Materials Physics in Space German Aerospace Center, Cologne Conference photograph Opening ceremony Professor Dr Andreas Meyer, Chairman ISPS 4, Professor Dr Johann-Dietrich Wörner, CEO DLR, and Dr Martin Zell, Head of ESA ISS Utilisation (left to right), at the opening ceremony of ISPS-4.

Hybrid Reduced Order Modeling Algorithms for Reactor Physics Calculations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bang, Youngsuk

Reduced order modeling (ROM) has been recognized as an indispensable approach when the engineering analysis requires many executions of high fidelity simulation codes. Examples of such engineering analyses in nuclear reactor core calculations, representing the focus of this dissertation, include the functionalization of the homogenized few-group cross-sections in terms of the various core conditions, e.g. burn-up, fuel enrichment, temperature, etc. This is done via assembly calculations which are executed many times to generate the required functionalization for use in the downstream core calculations. Other examples are sensitivity analysis used to determine important core attribute variations due to input parameter variations, and uncertainty quantification employed to estimate core attribute uncertainties originating from input parameter uncertainties. ROM constructs a surrogate model with quantifiable accuracy which can replace the original code for subsequent engineering analysis calculations. This is achieved by reducing the effective dimensionality of the input parameter, the state variable, or the output response spaces, by projection onto the so-called active subspaces. Confining the variations to the active subspace allows one to construct an ROM model of reduced complexity which can be solved more efficiently. This dissertation introduces a new algorithm to render reduction with the reduction errors bounded based on a user-defined error tolerance which represents the main challenge of existing ROM techniques. Bounding the error is the key to ensuring that the constructed ROM models are robust for all possible applications. Providing such error bounds represents one of the algorithmic contributions of this dissertation to the ROM state-of-the-art. Recognizing that ROM techniques have been developed to render reduction at different levels, e.g. the input parameter space, the state space, and the response space, this dissertation offers a set of novel hybrid ROM algorithms which can be readily integrated into existing methods and offer higher computational efficiency and defendable accuracy of the reduced models. For example, the snapshots ROM algorithm is hybridized with the range finding algorithm to render reduction in the state space, e.g. the flux in reactor calculations. In another implementation, the perturbation theory used to calculate first order derivatives of responses with respect to parameters is hybridized with a forward sensitivity analysis approach to render reduction in the parameter space. Reduction at the state and parameter spaces can be combined to render further reduction at the interface between different physics codes in a multi-physics model with the accuracy quantified in a similar manner to the single physics case. Although the proposed algorithms are generic in nature, we focus here on radiation transport models used in support of the design and analysis of nuclear reactor cores. In particular, we focus on replacing the traditional assembly calculations by ROM models to facilitate the generation of homogenized cross-sections for downstream core calculations. The implication is that assembly calculations could be done instantaneously therefore precluding the need for the expensive evaluation of the few-group cross-sections for all possible core conditions. Given the generic natures of the algorithms, we make an effort to introduce the material in a general form to allow non-nuclear engineers to benefit from this work.

3D string theory and Umbral moonshine

DOE PAGES

Kachru, Shamit; Paquette, Natalie M.; Volpato, Roberto

2017-09-05

Here, the simplest string theory compactifications to 3D with 16 supercharges—the heterotic string on T 7, and type II strings onmore » $$K3 \\times T^3$$ —are related by U-duality, and share a moduli space of vacua parametrized by $$O(8, 24;{{\\mathbb Z}}) ~\\backslash ~O(8, 24)~ /~ (O(8) \\times O(24))$$ . One can think of this as the moduli space of even, self-dual 32-dimensional lattices with signature (8,24). At 24 special points in moduli space, the lattice splits as $$\\Gamma^{8, 0} \\oplus \\Gamma^{0, 24}$$ . $$\\Gamma^{0, 24}$$ can be the Leech lattice or any of 23 Niemeier lattices, while $$\\Gamma^{8, 0}$$ is the E 8 root lattice. We show that starting from this observation, one can find a precise connection between the Umbral groups and type IIA string theory on K3. This may provide a natural physical starting point for understanding Mathieu and Umbral moonshine. The maximal unbroken subgroups of Umbral groups in 6D (or any other limit) are those obtained by starting at the associated Niemeier point and moving in moduli space while preserving the largest possible subgroup of the Umbral group. To illustrate the action of these symmetries on BPS states, we discuss the computation of certain protected four-derivative terms in the effective field theory, and recover facts about the spectrum and symmetry representations of 1/2-BPS states.« less

The influence of neighbourhood green space on children's physical activity and screen time: findings from the longitudinal study of Australian children.

PubMed

Sanders, Taren; Feng, Xiaoqi; Fahey, Paul P; Lonsdale, Chris; Astell-Burt, Thomas

2015-09-30

It is often hypothesised that neighbourhood green space may help prevent well-known declines in physical activity and increases in sedentary behaviour that occur across childhood. As most studies in this regard are cross-sectional, the purpose of our study was to use longitudinal data to examine whether green space promotes active lifestyles as children grow older. Data came from participants (n = 4983; age = 4-5) of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, a nationally representative study on health and child development. Physical activity and screen time were measured biennially (2004-2012) using questionnaires and time use diaries. Quantity of neighbourhood green space was objectively measured using Australian Bureau of Statistics mesh block data for each participant's statistical area level 2. Multilevel regression was used to test for associations between physical activity and screen time with green space quantity, adjusting for socio-economic confounders. Boys living in areas with 10% more neighbourhood green space had a: 7% (95% CI = 1.02, 1.13) greater odds of choosing physically active pastimes; 8% (95 % CI = 0.85, 1.00) lower odds of not enjoying physical activity; 2.3 min reduction in weekend television viewing (95% CI = -4.00, -0.69); and 7% (95% CI = 1.02; 1.12) and 9% (95% CI = 1.03; 1.15) greater odds of meeting physical activity guidelines on weekdays and weekends, respectively. No statistically (or practically) significant results were observed for girls. Current provisions of neighbourhood green space may be more amenable to promoting active lifestyles among boys than girls. Research is needed to explore what types of green space promote active lifestyles in all children.

Biomedical analysis of rat body hair after hindlimb suspension for 14 days

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Terada, Masahiro; Kawano, Fuminori; Ishioka, Noriaki; Higashibata, Akira; Majima, Hideyuki J.; Yamazaki, Takashi; Watanabe-Asaka, Tomomi; Niihori, Maki; Nakao, Reiko; Yamada, Shin; Mukai, Chiaki; Ohira, Yoshinobu

2012-04-01

The levels of 26 minerals in rat body hair were analyzed in control and hindlimb-suspended Wistar Hannover rats (n=5 each). We quantified the levels of 22 minerals in this experiment. However, we were unable to measure the levels of 4 minerals (Be, V, Cd, and Hg) quantitatively because they were below the limit of detection. Of the 22 quantified, the levels of 19 minerals were not significantly different between control and hindlimb-suspended groups. The levels of 3 minerals (Pb, Cr, and Al) tended to be higher in the hindlimb-suspended group than in the control group; however, this difference was not significant. The concentrations of 3 other minerals (I, K, and Mg) were significantly different between the 2 groups. The iodine (I) level was 58.2% higher in the hindlimb-suspended group than in the control group (P<0.05). Potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg) levels were 55.2% and 20.4% lower, respectively, in the experimental group (P<0.05 in both cases). These results indicate that a physiological change in mineral metabolism resulting from physical or mental stress, such as hindlimb suspension, is reflected in body hair. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has initiated a human research study to investigate the effects of long-term space flight on gene expression and mineral metabolism by analyzing hair samples of astronauts who stayed in the International Space Station (ISS) for 6 months. We believe that hindlimb suspension for 14 days can simulate the effects of an extremely severe environment, such as space flight, because the hindlimb suspension model elicits a rapid physiological change in skeletal muscle, bone, and fluid shift even in the short term. These results also suggest that we can detect various effects on the body by analyzing the human scalp hair shaft.

Symmetry Beyond Perturbation Theory: Floppy Molecules and Rotation-Vibration States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmiedt, Hanno; Schlemmer, Stephan; Jensen, Per

2015-06-01

In the customary approach to the theoretical description of the nuclear motion in molecules, the molecule is seen as a near-static structure rotating in space. Vibrational motion causing small structural deformations induces a perturbative treatment of the rotation-vibration interaction, which fails in fluxional molecules, where all vibrational motions are large compared to the linear extension of the molecule. An example is protonated methane (CH_5^+). For this molecule, customary theory fails to simulate reliably even the low-energy spectrum. Within the traditional view of rotation and vibration being near-separable, rotational and vibrational wavefunctions can be symmetry classified separately in the molecular symmetry (MS) group. In the present contribution we discuss a fundamental group theoretical approach to the problem of determining the symmetries of molecular rotation-vibration states. We will show that all MS groups discussed so far are subgroups of the special orthogonal group in three dimensions SO(3) This leads to a group theoretical foundation of the technique of equivalent rotations. The MS group of protonated methane (G240) represents, to the best of our knowledge, the first example of an MS group which is not a subgroup of SO(3) (nor of O(3) nor of SU(2)). Because of this, a separate symmetry classification of vibrational and rotational wavefunctions becomes impossible in this MS group, consistent with the fact that a decoupling of vibrational and rotational motion is impossible. We want to discuss the consequences of this. In conclusion, we show that the prototypical floppy molecule CH_5^+ represents a new class of molecules, where usual group theoretical methods for determining selection rules and spectral assignments fail so that new methods have to be developed. P. Kumar and D. Marx, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 8, 573 (2006) Z. Jin, B. J. Braams, and J. M. Bowman, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 110, 1569 (2006) A. S. Petit, J. E. Ford, and A. B. McCoy, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 118, 7206 (2014). P.R. Bunker and P. Jensen, Molecular Symmetry and Spectroscopy (NRC Research Press, Ottawa, Canada, 1988 Being precise, we must include O(3) and SU(2), but our theory can be easily extended to these two groups. H. Longuet-Higgins, Molecular Physics 6, 445 (1963).

Ethnic Differences in Physical Fitness, Blood Pressure and Blood Chemistry in Women (AGES 20-63)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ayers, G. W.; Wier, L. T.; Jackson, A. S.; Stuteville, J. E.; Keptra, Sean (Technical Monitor)

1999-01-01

This study examined the role of ethnicity on the aerobic fitness, blood pressure, and selected blood chemistry values of women. One hundred twenty-four females (mean age 41.37 +/- 9.0) were medically Examined at the NASA/Johnson Space Center occupational health clinic. Ethnic groups consisted of 23 Black (B), 18 Hispanic (H) and 83 Non-minority (NM). Each woman had a maximum Bruce treadmill stress test (RER greater than or = 1.1) and a negative ECG. Indirect calorimetry, skinfolds, self-report physical activity (NASA activity scale), seated blood pressure, and blood chemistry panel determined VO2max, percent fat, level of physical activity, blood pressure and blood chemistry values. ANOVA revealed that the groups did not differ (p greater than 0.05) in age, VO2 max, weight, percent fat, level of physical activity, total cholesterol, or HDL-C. However, significant differences (p greater than 0.05) were noted in BMI, diastolic blood pressure, and blood chemistries. BMI was 3.17 higher in H than in NM; resting diastolic pressures were 5.69 and 8.05 mmHg. lower in NM and H than in B; triglycerides were 48.07 and 37.21 mg/dl higher in H than in B and NM; hemoglobin was .814 gm/dl higher in NM than B; fasting blood sugar was 15.41 mg/dl higher in H than NM; The results of this study showed that ethnic groups differed in blood pressure and blood chemistry values but not aerobic fitness or physical activity. There was an ethnic difference in BMI but not percent fat.

Inner space/outer space - The interface between cosmology and particle physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolb, Edward W.; Turner, Michael S.; Lindley, David; Olive, Keith; Seckel, David

A collection of papers covering the synthesis between particle physics and cosmology is presented. The general topics addressed include: standard models of particle physics and cosmology; microwave background radiation; origin and evolution of large-scale structure; inflation; massive magnetic monopoles; supersymmetry, supergravity, and quantum gravity; cosmological constraints on particle physics; Kaluza-Klein cosmology; and future directions and connections in particle physics and cosmology.

Space Biology and Medicine. Volume 4; Health, Performance, and Safety of Space Crews

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dietlein, Lawrence F. (Editor); Pestov, Igor D. (Editor)

2004-01-01

Volume IV is devoted to examining the medical and associated organizational measures used to maintain the health of space crews and to support their performance before, during, and after space flight. These measures, collectively known as the medical flight support system, are important contributors to the safety and success of space flight. The contributions of space hardware and the spacecraft environment to flight safety and mission success are covered in previous volumes of the Space Biology and Medicine series. In Volume IV, we address means of improving the reliability of people who are required to function in the unfamiliar environment of space flight as well as the importance of those who support the crew. Please note that the extensive collaboration between Russian and American teams for this volume of work resulted in a timeframe of publication longer than originally anticipated. Therefore, new research or insights may have emerged since the authors composed their chapters and references. This volume includes a list of authors' names and addresses should readers seek specifics on new information. At least three groups of factors act to perturb human physiological homeostasis during space flight. All have significant influence on health, psychological, and emotional status, tolerance, and work capacity. The first and most important of these factors is weightlessness, the most specific and radical change in the ambient environment; it causes a variety of functional and structural changes in human physiology. The second group of factors precludes the constraints associated with living in the sealed, confined environment of spacecraft. Although these factors are not unique to space flight, the limitations they entail in terms of an uncomfortable environment can diminish the well-being and performance of crewmembers in space. The third group of factors includes the occupational and social factors associated with the difficult, critical nature of the crewmembers' work: the risks involved in space flight, changes in circadian rhythms, and intragroup interactions. The physical and emotional stress and fatigue that develop under these conditions also can disturb human health and performance. In addition to these factors, the risk also exists that crewmembers will develop various illnesses during flight. The risk of illness is no less during space flight than on Earth, and may actually be greater for some classes of diseases.

The association between objectively measured physical activity and life-space mobility among older people.

PubMed

Tsai, L-T; Portegijs, E; Rantakokko, M; Viljanen, A; Saajanaho, M; Eronen, J; Rantanen, T

2015-08-01

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the association between objectively measured physical activity and life-space mobility in community-dwelling older people. Life-space refers to the spatial area a person purposefully moves through in daily life (bedroom, home, yard, neighborhood, town, and beyond) and life-space mobility to the frequency of travel and the help needed when moving through different life-space areas. The study population comprised community-living 75- to 90-year-old people {n = 174; median age 79.7 [interquartile range (IQR) 7.1]}, participating in the accelerometer substudy of Life-Space Mobility in Old Age (LISPE) project. Step counts and activity time were measured by an accelerometer (Hookie "AM20 Activity Meter") for 7 days. Life-space mobility was assessed with Life-Space Assessment (LSA) questionnaire. Altogether, 16% had a life-space area restricted to the neighborhood when moving independently. Participants with a restricted life space were less physically active and about 70% of them had exceptionally low values in daily step counts (≤ 615 steps) and moderate activity time (≤ 6.8 min). Higher step counts and activity time correlated positively with life-space mobility. Prospective studies are needed to clarify the temporal order of low physical activity level and restriction in life-space mobility. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A Proposal to Study the Scientific Uses of Solar Electric Propulsion for Space Physics Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kurth, William S.

1999-01-01

This effort was for the participation of Dr. William S. Kurth in the study of the application of spacecraft using solar electric propulsion (SEP) for a range of space physics missions. This effort included the participation of Dr. Kurth in the Tropix Science Definition Team but also included the generalization to various space physics and planetary missions, including specific Explorer mission studies.

Spacelab

NASA Image and Video Library

1983-11-28

A Space Shuttle mission STS-9 onboard view show's Spacelab-1 (SL-1) module in orbiter Columbia's payload bay. Spacelab-1 was a cooperative venture of NASA and the European Space Agency. Scientists from eleven European nations plus Canada, Japan and the U.S. provided instruments and experimental procedures for over 70 different investigations in five research areas of disciplines: astronomy and solar physics, space plasma physics, atmospheric physics and Earth observations, life sciences and materials science.

The Space-Time Topography of English Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duman, Steve

2016-01-01

English speakers talk and think about Time in terms of physical space. The past is behind us, and the future is in front of us. In this way, we "map" space onto Time. This dissertation addresses the specificity of this physical space, or its topography. Inspired by languages like Yupno (Nunez, et al., 2012) and Bamileke-Dschang (Hyman,…

Heliophysics as a Scientific Discipline

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greb, K.

2015-12-01

Heliophysics is a developing scientific discipline integrating studies of the Sun's variability, the surrounding heliosphere, and climate environments. Over the past few centuries our understanding of how the Sun drives space weather and climate on the Earth and other planets has advanced at an ever-increasing rate. NASA Living With a Star and the UCAR Visiting Scientist Progams sponsor the annual Heliophysics Summer Schools to build the next generation of scientists in this emerging field. The highly successful series of the summer schools (commencing 2007) trains a select group of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and university faculty to learn and develop the science of heliophysics as a broad, coherent discipline that reaches in space from the Earth's troposphere to the depths of the Sun, and in time from the formation of the solar system to the distant future. Now in its tenth year, the School has resulted in the publication of five Heliophysics textbooks now being used at universities worldwide. The books provide a foundational reference for researchers in space physics, solar physics, aeronomy, space weather, planetary science and climate science, astrophysics, plasma physics,. In parallel, the School also developed the complementary materials that support teaching of heliophysics at both graduate and undergraduate levels. The Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellowship Program matches newly graduated postdoctorates with hosting mentors for the purpose of training the next generation researchers needed in heliophysics. The fellowships are for two years, and any U.S. university or research lab may apply to host a fellow. Two major topics of focus for the program are the science of space weather and of the Sun-climate connection. Since the goal of this fellowship program is to train Sun-Earth system researchers, preference is also given to research projects that cross the traditional heliophysics subdomains of the Sun, heliosphere, magnetosphere, and ionosphere/upper atmosphere, as well as Sun-climate investigations. Host mentors plan critical roles. Potential hosts may enter information about their research on a central database.

Heliophysics as a Scientific Discipline

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greb, K.; Austin, M.; Guhathakurta, M.

2016-12-01

Heliophysics is a developing scientific discipline integrating studies of the Sun's variability, the surrounding heliosphere, and climate environments. Over the past few centuries our understanding of how the Sun drives space weather and climate on the Earth and other planets has advanced at an ever-increasing rate. NASA Living With a Star and the UCAR Visiting Scientist Progams sponsor the annual Heliophysics Summer Schools to build the next generation of scientists in this emerging field. The highly successful series of the summer schools (commencing 2007) trains a select group of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and university faculty to learn and develop the science of heliophysics as a broad, coherent discipline that reaches in space from the Earth's troposphere to the depths of the Sun, and in time from the formation of the solar system to the distant future. Now in its tenth year, the School has resulted in the publication of five Heliophysics textbooks now being used at universities worldwide. The books provide a foundational reference for researchers in space physics, solar physics, aeronomy, space weather, planetary science and climate science, astrophysics, plasma physics,. In parallel, the School also developed the complementary materials that support teaching of heliophysics at both graduate and undergraduate levels. The Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellowship Program matches newly graduated postdoctorates with hosting mentors for the purpose of training the next generation researchers needed in heliophysics. The fellowships are for two years, and any U.S. university or research lab may apply to host a fellow. Two major topics of focus for the program are the science of space weather and of the Sun-climate connection. Since the goal of this fellowship program is to train Sun-Earth system researchers, preference is also given to research projects that cross the traditional heliophysics subdomains of the Sun, heliosphere, magnetosphere, and ionosphere/upper atmosphere, as well as Sun-climate investigations. Host mentors play critical roles. Potential hosts may enter information about their research on a central database.

A validation study of a stochastic model of human interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burchfield, Mitchel Talmadge

The purpose of this dissertation is to validate a stochastic model of human interactions which is part of a developmentalism paradigm. Incorporating elements of ancient and contemporary philosophy and science, developmentalism defines human development as a progression of increasing competence and utilizes compatible theories of developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, educational psychology, social psychology, curriculum development, neurology, psychophysics, and physics. To validate a stochastic model of human interactions, the study addressed four research questions: (a) Does attitude vary over time? (b) What are the distributional assumptions underlying attitudes? (c) Does the stochastic model, {-}N{intlimitssbsp{-infty}{infty}}varphi(chi,tau)\\ Psi(tau)dtau, have utility for the study of attitudinal distributions and dynamics? (d) Are the Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac, and Bose-Einstein theories applicable to human groups? Approximately 25,000 attitude observations were made using the Semantic Differential Scale. Positions of individuals varied over time and the logistic model predicted observed distributions with correlations between 0.98 and 1.0, with estimated standard errors significantly less than the magnitudes of the parameters. The results bring into question the applicability of Fisherian research designs (Fisher, 1922, 1928, 1938) for behavioral research based on the apparent failure of two fundamental assumptions-the noninteractive nature of the objects being studied and normal distribution of attributes. The findings indicate that individual belief structures are representable in terms of a psychological space which has the same or similar properties as physical space. The psychological space not only has dimension, but individuals interact by force equations similar to those described in theoretical physics models. Nonlinear regression techniques were used to estimate Fermi-Dirac parameters from the data. The model explained a high degree of the variance in each probability distribution. The correlation between predicted and observed probabilities ranged from a low of 0.955 to a high value of 0.998, indicating that humans behave in psychological space as Fermions behave in momentum space.

Promoting Physical Activity Through the Shared Use of School Recreational Spaces: A Policy Statement From the American Heart Association

PubMed Central

Young, Deborah R.; Spengler, John O.; Frost, Natasha; Evenson, Kelly R.; Vincent, Jeffrey M.; Whitsel, Laurie

2014-01-01

Most Americans are not sufficiently physically active, even though regular physical activity improves health and reduces the risk of many chronic diseases. Those living in rural, non-White, and lower-income communities often have insufficient access to places to be active, which can contribute to their lower level of physical activity. The shared use of school recreational facilities can provide safe and affordable places for communities. Studies suggest that challenges to shared use include additional cost, liability protection, communication among constituencies interested in sharing space, and decision-making about scheduling and space allocation. This American Heart Association policy statement has provided recommendations for federal, state, and local decision-makers to support and expand opportunities for physical activity in communities through the shared use of school spaces. PMID:24134355

Promoting physical activity through the shared use of school recreational spaces: a policy statement from the American Heart Association.

PubMed

Young, Deborah R; Spengler, John O; Frost, Natasha; Evenson, Kelly R; Vincent, Jeffrey M; Whitsel, Laurie

2014-09-01

Most Americans are not sufficiently physically active, even though regular physical activity improves health and reduces the risk of many chronic diseases. Those living in rural, non-White, and lower-income communities often have insufficient access to places to be active, which can contribute to their lower level of physical activity. The shared use of school recreational facilities can provide safe and affordable places for communities. Studies suggest that challenges to shared use include additional cost, liability protection, communication among constituencies interested in sharing space, and decision-making about scheduling and space allocation. This American Heart Association policy statement has provided recommendations for federal, state, and local decision-makers to support and expand opportunities for physical activity in communities through the shared use of school spaces.

News Teaching: The epiSTEMe project: KS3 maths and science improvement Field trip: Pupils learn physics in a stately home Conference: ShowPhysics welcomes fun in Europe Student numbers: Physics numbers increase in UK Tournament: Physics tournament travels to Singapore Particle physics: Hadron Collider sets new record Astronomy: Take your classroom into space Forthcoming Events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2010-05-01

Teaching: The epiSTEMe project: KS3 maths and science improvement Field trip: Pupils learn physics in a stately home Conference: ShowPhysics welcomes fun in Europe Student numbers: Physics numbers increase in UK Tournament: Physics tournament travels to Singapore Particle physics: Hadron Collider sets new record Astronomy: Take your classroom into space Forthcoming Events

Plasma physics and the 2013-2022 decadal survey in solar and space physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baker, Daniel N.

2016-11-01

The U.S. National Academies established in 2011 a steering committee to develop a comprehensive strategy for solar and space physics research. This updated and extended the first (2003) solar and space physics decadal survey. The latest decadal study implemented a 2008 Congressional directive to NASA for the fields of solar and space physics, but also addressed research in other federal agencies. The new survey broadly canvassed the fields of research to determine the current state of the discipline, identified the most important open scientific questions, and proposed the measurements and means to obtain them so as to advance the state of knowledge during the years 2013-2022. Research in this field has sought to understand: dynamical behaviour of the Sun and its heliosphere; properties of the space environments of the Earth and other solar system bodies; multiscale interaction between solar system plasmas and the interstellar medium; and energy transport throughout the solar system and its impact on the Earth and other solar system bodies. Research in solar and space plasma processes using observation, theory, laboratory studies, and numerical models has offered the prospect of understanding this interconnected system well enough to develop a predictive capability for operational support of civil and military space systems. We here describe the recommendations and strategic plans laid out in the 2013-2022 decadal survey as they relate to measurement capabilities and plasma physical research. We assess progress to date. We also identify further steps to achieve the Survey goals with an emphasis on plasma physical aspects of the program.

Cosmic Ray research in Armenia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chilingarian, A.; Mirzoyan, R.; Zazyan, M.

2009-11-01

Cosmic Ray research on Mt. Aragats began in 1934 with the measurements of East-West anisotropy by the group from Leningrad Physics-Technical Institute and Norair Kocharian from Yerevan State University. Stimulated by the results of their experiments in 1942 Artem and Abraham Alikhanyan brothers organized a scientific expedition to Aragats. Since that time physicists were studying Cosmic Ray fluxes on Mt. Aragats with various particle detectors: mass spectrometers, calorimeters, transition radiation detectors, and huge particle detector arrays detecting protons and nuclei accelerated in most violent explosions in Galaxy. Latest activities at Mt. Aragats include Space Weather research with networks of particle detectors located in Armenia and abroad, and detectors of Space Education center in Yerevan.

Correspondence between nonrelativistic anti-de Sitter space and conformal field theory, and aging-gravity duality.

PubMed

Minic, Djordje; Pleimling, Michel

2008-12-01

We point out that the recent discussion of nonrelativistic anti-de Sitter space and conformal field theory correspondence has a direct application in nonequilibrium statistical physics, a fact which has not been emphasized in the recent literature on the subject. In particular, we propose a duality between aging in systems far from equilibrium characterized by the dynamical exponent z=2 and gravity in a specific background. The key ingredient in our proposal is the recent geometric realization of the Schrödinger group. We also discuss the relevance of the proposed correspondence for the more general aging phenomena in systems where the value of the dynamical exponent is different from 2.

Nonchemically amplified resists for deep-UV lithography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ganesan, Ramakrishnan; Kim, Sumin; Youn, Seul Ki; Cho, Youngook; Yun, Jei-Moon; Kim, Jin-Baek

2007-03-01

A novel monomer containing a diazoketo functional group was designed and synthesized. Polymers were synthesized using the diazoketo-functionalized monomer and their physical properties were evaluated. The polymers were synthesized by radical copolymerization of cholic acid 3-diazo-3-ethoxycarbonyl-2-oxo-propyl ester methacrylate, methyl methacrylate, and γ-butyrolacton-2-yl methacrylate. These polymers showed 0.7 μm line and space patterns using a mercury-xenon lamp in a contact printing mode.

Sacred Space in Community settlement of Kudus Kulon, Central Java, Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Budi Sardjono, Agung; Rochma Harani, Arnis

2017-12-01

The sacred space becomes an important part of the spatial layout of Javanese society, as well as in most houses of the archipelago. This space is related to religious activities, highly respected and usually located in the main place. Kudus Kulon community is a part of Javanese culture in the northern coastal area of Java. Known as a devout Muslim society, sacred space in Kudus Kulon community house becomes an important thing to understand the culture of living in society. The research was conducted by looking at the religious activities of the community and how the space of activity is realized. The research was conducted by qualitative research method. In the Kudus Kulon community, sacred spaces are available in the house itself, in the community grup of houses, and around Kudus Kulon area. In every house, the sacred space can be found in Gedongan and extends to Dalem. In the community group of houses, the sacred space can be found in the neighbourhood praying area, while In Kudus Kulon area, it can be found in Mosque complex and Tower tomb. Physically sacred space is realized by raising the floor height of the space around it. In architectural view, the sacred space is seen on the elevation of the roof or roof angle. Spatially the sacred space occupies a central position and visually represented by a vertical orientation.

Multiscale unfolding of real networks by geometric renormalization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García-Pérez, Guillermo; Boguñá, Marián; Serrano, M. Ángeles

2018-06-01

Symmetries in physical theories denote invariance under some transformation, such as self-similarity under a change of scale. The renormalization group provides a powerful framework to study these symmetries, leading to a better understanding of the universal properties of phase transitions. However, the small-world property of complex networks complicates application of the renormalization group by introducing correlations between coexisting scales. Here, we provide a framework for the investigation of complex networks at different resolutions. The approach is based on geometric representations, which have been shown to sustain network navigability and to reveal the mechanisms that govern network structure and evolution. We define a geometric renormalization group for networks by embedding them into an underlying hidden metric space. We find that real scale-free networks show geometric scaling under this renormalization group transformation. We unfold the networks in a self-similar multilayer shell that distinguishes the coexisting scales and their interactions. This in turn offers a basis for exploring critical phenomena and universality in complex networks. It also affords us immediate practical applications, including high-fidelity smaller-scale replicas of large networks and a multiscale navigation protocol in hyperbolic space, which betters those on single layers.

Research and technology, fiscal year 1982

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1982-01-01

Advanced studies are reviewed. Atmospheric sciences, magnetospheric physics, solar physics, gravitational physics, astronomy, and materials processing in space comprise the research programs. Large space systems, propulsion technology, materials and processes, electrical/electronic systems, data bases/design criteria, and facilities development comprise the technology development activities.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Biological and Physical Research Enterprise Strategy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

As the 21st century begins, NASA's new Vision and Mission focuses the Agency's Enterprises toward exploration and discovery.The Biological and Physical Research Enterprise has a unique and enabling role in support of the Agency's Vision and Mission. Our strategic research seeks innovations and solutions to enable the extension of life into deep space safely and productively. Our fundamental research, as well as our research partnerships with industry and other agencies, allow new knowledge and tech- nologies to bring improvements to life on Earth. Our interdisciplinary research in the unique laboratory of microgravity addresses opportunities and challenges on our home planet as well as in space environments. The Enterprise maintains a key role in encouraging and engaging the next generation of explorers from primary school through the grad- uate level via our direct student participation in space research.The Biological and Physical Research Enterprise encompasses three themes. The biological sciences research theme investigates ways to support a safe human presence in space. This theme addresses the definition and control of physiological and psychological risks from the space environment, including radiation,reduced gravity, and isolation. The biological sciences research theme is also responsible for the develop- ment of human support systems technology as well as fundamental biological research spanning topics from genomics to ecologies. The physical sciences research theme supports research that takes advantage of the space environment to expand our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature. This theme also supports applied physical sciences research to improve safety and performance of humans in space. The research partnerships and flight support theme establishes policies and allocates space resources to encourage and develop entrepreneurial partners access to space research.Working together across research disciplines, the Biological and Physical Research Enterprise is performing vital research and technology development to extend the reach of human space flight.

Inspire Your Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pine, William E.; Taylor, William W. L.

1991-01-01

Describes a science project, Interactive Space Physics Ionosphere Radio Experiments (INSPIRE), that allows students to work with physicists to address unanswered questions about the physics of space. (ZWH)

Assessing the Associations Between Types of Green Space, Physical Activity, and Health Indicators Using GIS and Participatory Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akpinar, A.

2017-11-01

This study explores whether specific types of green spaces (i.e. urban green spaces, forests, agricultural lands, rangelands, and wetlands) are associated with physical activity, quality of life, and cardiovascular disease prevalence. A sample of 8,976 respondents from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, conducted in 2006 in Washington State across 291 zip-codes, was analyzed. Measures included physical activity status, quality of life, and cardiovascular disease prevalence (i.e. heart attack, angina, and stroke). Percentage of green spaces was derived from the National Land Cover Dataset and measured with Geographical Information System. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted to analyze the data while controlling for age, sex, race, weight, marital status, occupation, income, education level, and zip-code population and socio-economic situation. Regression results reveal that no green space types were associated with physical activity, quality of life, and cardiovascular disease prevalence. On the other hand, the analysis shows that physical activity was associated with general health, quality of life, and cardiovascular disease prevalence. The findings suggest that other factors such as size, structure and distribution (sprawled or concentrated, large or small), quality, and characteristics of green space might be important in general health, quality of life, and cardiovascular disease prevalence rather than green space types. Therefore, further investigations are needed.

Gymnastics in Phase Space

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

Chao, Alexander Wu; /SLAC

2012-03-01

As accelerator technology advances, the requirements on accelerator beam quality become increasingly demanding. Facing these new demands, the topic of phase space gymnastics is becoming a new focus of accelerator physics R&D. In a phase space gymnastics, the beam's phase space distribution is manipulated and precision tailored to meet the required beam qualities. On the other hand, all realization of such gymnastics will have to obey accelerator physics principles as well as technological limitations. Recent examples of phase space gymnastics include Emittance exchanges, Phase space exchanges, Emittance partitioning, Seeded FELs and Microbunched beams. The emittance related topics of this listmore » are reviewed in this report. The accelerator physics basis, the optics design principles that provide these phase space manipulations, and the possible applications of these gymnastics, are discussed. This fascinating new field promises to be a powerful tool of the future.« less

Lessons learned from recent geomagnetic disturbance model validation activities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pulkkinen, A. A.; Welling, D. T.

2017-12-01

Due to concerns pertaining to geomagnetically induced current impact on ground-based infrastructure, there has been significantly elevated interest in applying models for local geomagnetic disturbance or "delta-B" predictions. Correspondingly there has been elevated need for testing the quality of the delta-B predictions generated by the modern empirical and physics-based models. To address this need, community-wide activities were launched under the GEM Challenge framework and one culmination of the activities was the validation and selection of models that were transitioned into operations at NOAA SWPC. The community-wide delta-B action is continued under the CCMC-facilitated International Forum for Space Weather Capabilities Assessment and its "Ground Magnetic Perturbations: dBdt, delta-B, GICs, FACs" working group. The new delta-B working group builds on the past experiences and expands the collaborations to cover the entire international space weather community. In this paper, we discuss the key lessons learned from the past delta-B validation exercises and lay out the path forward for building on those experience under the new delta-B working group.

Autonomous perception and decision making in cyber-physical systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarkar, Soumik

2011-07-01

The cyber-physical system (CPS) is a relatively new interdisciplinary technology area that includes the general class of embedded and hybrid systems. CPSs require integration of computation and physical processes that involves the aspects of physical quantities such as time, energy and space during information processing and control. The physical space is the source of information and the cyber space makes use of the generated information to make decisions. This dissertation proposes an overall architecture of autonomous perception-based decision & control of complex cyber-physical systems. Perception involves the recently developed framework of Symbolic Dynamic Filtering for abstraction of physical world in the cyber space. For example, under this framework, sensor observations from a physical entity are discretized temporally and spatially to generate blocks of symbols, also called words that form a language. A grammar of a language is the set of rules that determine the relationships among words to build sentences. Subsequently, a physical system is conjectured to be a linguistic source that is capable of generating a specific language. The proposed technology is validated on various (experimental and simulated) case studies that include health monitoring of aircraft gas turbine engines, detection and estimation of fatigue damage in polycrystalline alloys, and parameter identification. Control of complex cyber-physical systems involve distributed sensing, computation, control as well as complexity analysis. A novel statistical mechanics-inspired complexity analysis approach is proposed in this dissertation. In such a scenario of networked physical systems, the distribution of physical entities determines the underlying network topology and the interaction among the entities forms the abstract cyber space. It is envisioned that the general contributions, made in this dissertation, will be useful for potential application areas such as smart power grids and buildings, distributed energy systems, advanced health care procedures and future ground and air transportation systems.

Natural world physical, brain operational, and mind phenomenal space-time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fingelkurts, Andrew A.; Fingelkurts, Alexander A.; Neves, Carlos F. H.

2010-06-01

Concepts of space and time are widely developed in physics. However, there is a considerable lack of biologically plausible theoretical frameworks that can demonstrate how space and time dimensions are implemented in the activity of the most complex life-system - the brain with a mind. Brain activity is organized both temporally and spatially, thus representing space-time in the brain. Critical analysis of recent research on the space-time organization of the brain's activity pointed to the existence of so-called operational space-time in the brain. This space-time is limited to the execution of brain operations of differing complexity. During each such brain operation a particular short-term spatio-temporal pattern of integrated activity of different brain areas emerges within related operational space-time. At the same time, to have a fully functional human brain one needs to have a subjective mental experience. Current research on the subjective mental experience offers detailed analysis of space-time organization of the mind. According to this research, subjective mental experience (subjective virtual world) has definitive spatial and temporal properties similar to many physical phenomena. Based on systematic review of the propositions and tenets of brain and mind space-time descriptions, our aim in this review essay is to explore the relations between the two. To be precise, we would like to discuss the hypothesis that via the brain operational space-time the mind subjective space-time is connected to otherwise distant physical space-time reality.

The extent of visual space inferred from perspective angles

PubMed Central

Erkelens, Casper J.

2015-01-01

Retinal images are perspective projections of the visual environment. Perspective projections do not explain why we perceive perspective in 3-D space. Analysis of underlying spatial transformations shows that visual space is a perspective transformation of physical space if parallel lines in physical space vanish at finite distance in visual space. Perspective angles, i.e., the angle perceived between parallel lines in physical space, were estimated for rails of a straight railway track. Perspective angles were also estimated from pictures taken from the same point of view. Perspective angles between rails ranged from 27% to 83% of their angular size in the retinal image. Perspective angles prescribe the distance of vanishing points of visual space. All computed distances were shorter than 6 m. The shallow depth of a hypothetical space inferred from perspective angles does not match the depth of visual space, as it is perceived. Incongruity between the perceived shape of a railway line on the one hand and the experienced ratio between width and length of the line on the other hand is huge, but apparently so unobtrusive that it has remained unnoticed. The incompatibility between perspective angles and perceived distances casts doubt on evidence for a curved visual space that has been presented in the literature and was obtained from combining judgments of distances and angles with physical positions. PMID:26034567

How can laboratory plasma experiments contribute to space and &astrophysics?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamada, M.

Plasma physics plays key role in a wide range of phenomena in the universe, from laboratory plasmas to the magnetosphere, the solar corona, and to the tenuous interstellar and intergalactic gas. Despite the huge difference in physical scales, there are striking similarities in plasma behavior of laboratory and space plasmas. Similar plasma physics problems have been investigated independently by both laboratory plasma physicists and astrophysicists. Since 1991, cross fertilization has been increased among laboratory plasma physicists and space physicists through meeting such as IPELS [Interrelationship between Plasma Experiments in the Laboratory and Space] meeting. The advances in laboratory plasma physics, along with the recent surge of astronomical data from satellites, make this moment ripe for research collaboration to further advance plasma physics and to obtain new understanding of key space and astrophysical phenomena. The recent NRC review of astronomy and astrophysics notes the benefit that can accrue from stronger connection to plasma physics. The present talk discusses how laboratory plasma studies can contribute to the fundamental understandings of the space and astrophysical phenomena by covering common key physics topics such as magnetic reconnection, dynamos, angular momentum transport, ion heating, and magnetic self-organization. In particular, it has recently been recognized that "physics -issue- dedicated" laboratory experiments can contribute significantly to the understanding of the fundamental physics for space-astrophysical phenomena since they can create fundamental physics processes in controlled manner and provide well-correlated plasma parameters at multiple plasma locations simultaneously. Such dedicated experiments not only can bring about better understanding of the fundamental physics processes but also can lead to findings of new physics principles as well as new ideas for fusion plasma confinement. Several dedicated experiments have provided the fundamental physics data for magnetic reconnection [1]. Linear plasma devices have been utilized to investigate Whistler waves and Alfven wave phenomena [2,3]. A rotating gallium disk experiment has been initiated to study magneto-rotational instability [4]. This talk also presents the most recent progress of these dedicated laboratory plasma research. 1. M. Yamada et al., Phys. Plasmas 4, 1936, (1997) 2. R. Stenzel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 3001 (1991) 3. W. Gekelman et al, Plasma Phys. Contr. Fusion, v42, B15-B26, Suppl.12B (2000) 4. H. Ji, J. Goodman, A. Kageyama Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 325, L1- (2001)

3DView: Space physics data visualizer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Génot, V.; Beigbeder, L.; Popescu, D.; Dufourg, N.; Gangloff, M.; Bouchemit, M.; Caussarieu, S.; Toniutti, J.-P.; Durand, J.; Modolo, R.; André, N.; Cecconi, B.; Jacquey, C.; Pitout, F.; Rouillard, A.; Pinto, R.; Erard, S.; Jourdane, N.; Leclercq, L.; Hess, S.; Khodachenko, M.; Al-Ubaidi, T.; Scherf, M.; Budnik, E.

2018-04-01

3DView creates visualizations of space physics data in their original 3D context. Time series, vectors, dynamic spectra, celestial body maps, magnetic field or flow lines, and 2D cuts in simulation cubes are among the variety of data representation enabled by 3DView. It offers direct connections to several large databases and uses VO standards; it also allows the user to upload data. 3DView's versatility covers a wide range of space physics contexts.

NASA-HBCU Space Science and Engineering Research Forum Proceedings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sanders, Yvonne D. (Editor); Freeman, Yvonne B. (Editor); George, M. C. (Editor)

1989-01-01

The proceedings of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) forum are presented. A wide range of research topics from plant science to space science and related academic areas was covered. The sessions were divided into the following subject areas: Life science; Mathematical modeling, image processing, pattern recognition, and algorithms; Microgravity processing, space utilization and application; Physical science and chemistry; Research and training programs; Space science (astronomy, planetary science, asteroids, moon); Space technology (engineering, structures and systems for application in space); Space technology (physics of materials and systems for space applications); and Technology (materials, techniques, measurements).

Solo Life to Second Life: The Design of Physical and Virtual Learning Spaces Inspired by the Drama Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicholls, Jennifer; Philip, Robyn

2012-01-01

This paper explores the design of virtual and physical learning spaces developed for students of drama and theatre studies. What can we learn from the traditional drama workshop that will inform the design of drama and theatre spaces created in technology-mediated learning environments? The authors examine four examples of spaces created for…

Laboratory-directed research and development: FY 1996 progress report

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

Vigil, J.; Prono, J.

1997-05-01

This report summarizes the FY 1996 goals and accomplishments of Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) projects. It gives an overview of the LDRD program, summarizes work done on individual research projects, and provides an index to the projects` principal investigators. Projects are grouped by their LDRD component: Individual Projects, Competency Development, and Program Development. Within each component, they are further divided into nine technical disciplines: (1) materials science, (2) engineering and base technologies, (3) plasmas, fluids, and particle beams, (4) chemistry, (5) mathematics and computational sciences, (6) atomic and molecular physics, (7) geoscience, space science, and astrophysics, (8) nuclear andmore » particle physics, and (9) biosciences.« less

Inerton fields: very new ideas on fundamental physics

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

Krasnoholovets, Volodymyr

2010-12-22

Modern theories of everything, or theories of the grand unification of all physical interactions, try to describe the whole world starting from the first principles of quantum theory. However, the first principles operate with undetermined notions, such as the wave {psi}-function, particle, lepton and quark, de Broglie and Compton wavelengths, mass, electric charge, spin, electromagnetic field, photon, gravitation, physical vacuum, space, etc. From a logical point of view this means that such modern approach to the theory of everything is condemned to failure... Thus, what should we suggest to improve the situation? It seems quite reasonable to develop initially amore » theory of something, which will be able to clarify the major fundamental notions (listed above) that physics operates with every day. What would be a starting point in such approach? Of course a theory of space as such, because particles and all physical fields emerge just from space. After that, when a particle and fields (and hence the fields' carriers) are well defined and introduced in the well defined physical space, different kinds of interactions can be proposed and investigated. Moreover, we must also allow for a possible interaction of a created particle with the space that generated the appearance of the particle. The mathematical studies of Michel Bounias and the author have shown what the real physical space is, how the space is constituted, how it is arranged and what its elements are. Having constructed the real physical space we can then derive whatever we wish, in particular, such basic notions as mass, particle and charge. How are mechanics of such objects (a massive particle, a charged massive particle) organised? The appropriate theory of motion has been called a sub microscopic mechanics of particles, which is developed in the real physical space, not an abstract phase space, as conventional quantum mechanics does. A series of questions arise: can these two mechanics (submicroscopic and conventional quantum mechanics) be unified?, what can such unification bring new for us?, can such submicroscopic mechanics be a starting point for the derivation of the phenomenon of gravity?, can this new theory be a unified physical theory?, does the theory allow experimental verification? These major points have been clarified in detail. And, perhaps, the most intriguing aspect of the theory is the derivation of a new physical field associated with the notion of mass (or rather inertia of a particle, which has been called the inerton field and which represents a real sense of the particle's wave {psi}-function). This field emerges by analogy with the electromagnetic field associated with the notion of the electric charge. Yes, the postulated inerton field has being tested in a series of different experiments. Even more, the inerton field might have a number of practical applications...« less

Kuipers works to remove the Marangoni Suface Fluid Physics Experiment

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-03-15

ISS030-E-142784 (15 March 2012) --- European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, Expedition 30 flight engineer, works to remove the Marangoni Surface fluid physics experiment from the Fluid Physics Experiment Facility (FPEF) in the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station.

Kuipers works to remove the Marangoni Suface Fluid Physics Experiment

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-03-15

ISS030-E-142785 (15 March 2012) --- European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, Expedition 30 flight engineer, works to remove the Marangoni Surface fluid physics experiment from the Fluid Physics Experiment Facility (FPEF) in the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station.

"I used to be as fit as a linnet" - beliefs, attitudes, and environmental supportiveness for physical activity in former mining areas in the North-East of England.

PubMed

Rind, Esther; Jones, Andy

2015-02-01

Studies of geographical variations in physical activity behaviours have suggested that activity levels are particularly low in areas that have undergone employment loss associated with the decline of industry. This is of concern given that affected populations are already at risk of poor health. Applying focus group methodology amongst 19 participants in four groups, this study aims to unpack how broader societal and environmental changes associated with industrial decline affect beliefs and attitudes towards physical activity in ex-mining communities in the North-East of England. Identified core themes comprise the direct impact of deindustrialisation on social and physical environments. Based on our findings, we provide evidence for mechanisms that operate via loss of occupational physical activity as well as the progressive development of environments that are not fit to support population activity levels. Particularly important was the loss of recreational facilities, public green spaces and sports facilities that were owned and organised by the miners themselves with support from the mining companies. Attitudes and beliefs directly related to the areas' industrial past were also seen to be key. We suggest that the development of interventions considering the socio-cultural history and socio-economic reality of communities could be a promising route to encourage more active lifestyles in deprived areas with particularly low levels of physical activity. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

“I used to be as fit as a linnet” – Beliefs, attitudes, and environmental supportiveness for physical activity in former mining areas in the North-East of England☆

PubMed Central

Rind, Esther; Jones, Andy

2015-01-01

Studies of geographical variations in physical activity behaviours have suggested that activity levels are particularly low in areas that have undergone employment loss associated with the decline of industry. This is of concern given that affected populations are already at risk of poor health. Applying focus group methodology amongst 19 participants in four groups, this study aims to unpack how broader societal and environmental changes associated with industrial decline affect beliefs and attitudes towards physical activity in ex-mining communities in the North-East of England. Identified core themes comprise the direct impact of deindustrialisation on social and physical environments. Based on our findings, we provide evidence for mechanisms that operate via loss of occupational physical activity as well as the progressive development of environments that are not fit to support population activity levels. Particularly important was the loss of recreational facilities, public green spaces and sports facilities that were owned and organised by the miners themselves with support from the mining companies. Attitudes and beliefs directly related to the areas' industrial past were also seen to be key. We suggest that the development of interventions considering the socio-cultural history and socio-economic reality of communities could be a promising route to encourage more active lifestyles in deprived areas with particularly low levels of physical activity. PMID:25541186

A summary of the OV1-19 satellite dose, depth dose, and linear energy transfer spectral measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cervini, J. T.

1972-01-01

Measurements of the biophysical and physical parameters in the near earth space environment, specifically, the Inner Van Allen Belt are discussed. This region of space is of great interest to planners of the Skylab and the Space Station programs because of the high energy proton environment, especially during periods of increased solar activity. Many physical measurements of charged particle flux, spectra, and pitch angle distribution have been conducted and are programmed in the space radiation environment. Such predictions are not sufficient to accurately predict the effects of space radiations on critical biological and electronic systems operating in these environments. Some of the difficulties encountered in transferring from physical data to a prediction of the effects of space radiation on operational systems are discussed.

The design and development of a space laboratory to conduct magnetospheric and plasma research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosen, A.

1974-01-01

A design study was conducted concerning a proposed shuttle-borne space laboratory for research on magnetospheric and plasma physics. A worldwide survey found two broad research disciplines of interest: geophysical studies of the dynamics and structure of the magnetosphere (including wave characteristics, wave-particle interactions, magnetospheric modifications, beam-plasma interactions, and energetic particles and tracers) and plasma physics studies (plasma physics in space, wake and sheath studies, and propulsion and devices). The Plasma Physics and Environmental Perturbation Laboratory (PPEPL) designed to perform experiments in these areas will include two 50-m booms and two maneuverable subsatellites, a photometer array, standardized proton, electron, and plasma accelerators, a high-powered transmitter for frequencies above 100 kHz, a low-power transmitter for VLF and below, and complete diagnostic packages. Problem areas in the design of a space plasma physics laboratory are indicated.

Spacelab

NASA Image and Video Library

1983-01-01

This photograph shows the Spacelab 1 module and pallet ready to be installed in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Orbiter Columbia at the Kennedy Space Center. The overall goal of the first Spacelab mission was to verify its Space performance through a variety of scientific experiments. The investigation selected for this mission tested the Spacelab hardware, flight and ground systems, and crew to demonstrate their capabilities for advanced research in space. However, Spacelab 1 was not merely a checkout flight or a trial run. Important research problems that required a laboratory in space were scheduled for the mission. Spacelab 1 was a multidisciplinary mission; that is, investigations were performed in several different fields of scientific research. These fields were Astronomy and Solar Physics, Space Plasma Physics, Atmospheric Physics and Earth Observations, Life Sciences, and Materials Science. Spacelab 1 was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-9 mission) on November 28, 1983.

Being with woman: claiming midwifery space.

PubMed

Hunter, Louise

2015-03-01

Being 'with woman' is characterised as presence, a spiritual concept which is nevertheless bound up with physical space. In this article, the work of the American philosopher Judith Butler is used to explore the interplay between space and relationships in midwifery practice. Butler argues that relationships based on mutual recognition and respect define the actions possible within physical space. In midwifery, being with woman creates a therapeutic space necessary for the wellbeing and empowerment of women and midwives alike.

Pragmatic turn in biology: From biological molecules to genetic content operators.

PubMed

Witzany, Guenther

2014-08-26

Erwin Schrödinger's question "What is life?" received the answer for decades of "physics + chemistry". The concepts of Alain Turing and John von Neumann introduced a third term: "information". This led to the understanding of nucleic acid sequences as a natural code. Manfred Eigen adapted the concept of Hammings "sequence space". Similar to Hilbert space, in which every ontological entity could be defined by an unequivocal point in a mathematical axiomatic system, in the abstract "sequence space" concept each point represents a unique syntactic structure and the value of their separation represents their dissimilarity. In this concept molecular features of the genetic code evolve by means of self-organisation of matter. Biological selection determines the fittest types among varieties of replication errors of quasi-species. The quasi-species concept dominated evolution theory for many decades. In contrast to this, recent empirical data on the evolution of DNA and its forerunners, the RNA-world and viruses indicate cooperative agent-based interactions. Group behaviour of quasi-species consortia constitute de novo and arrange available genetic content for adaptational purposes within real-life contexts that determine epigenetic markings. This review focuses on some fundamental changes in biology, discarding its traditional status as a subdiscipline of physics and chemistry.

Exceptional quantum geometry and particle physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dubois-Violette, Michel

2016-11-01

Based on an interpretation of the quark-lepton symmetry in terms of the unimodularity of the color group SU (3) and on the existence of 3 generations, we develop an argumentation suggesting that the "finite quantum space" corresponding to the exceptional real Jordan algebra of dimension 27 (the Euclidean Albert algebra) is relevant for the description of internal spaces in the theory of particles. In particular, the triality which corresponds to the 3 off-diagonal octonionic elements of the exceptional algebra is associated to the 3 generations of the Standard Model while the representation of the octonions as a complex 4-dimensional space C ⊕C3 is associated to the quark-lepton symmetry (one complex for the lepton and 3 for the corresponding quark). More generally it is suggested that the replacement of the algebra of real functions on spacetime by the algebra of functions on spacetime with values in a finite-dimensional Euclidean Jordan algebra which plays the role of "the algebra of real functions" on the corresponding almost classical quantum spacetime is relevant in particle physics. This leads us to study the theory of Jordan modules and to develop the differential calculus over Jordan algebras (i.e. to introduce the appropriate notion of differential forms). We formulate the corresponding definition of connections on Jordan modules.

Undeveloped green space and free-time physical activity in 11 to 13-year-old children.

PubMed

Janssen, Ian; Rosu, Andrei

2015-02-21

Research on the association between the physical environment and physical activity in children has focused on built and developed features or total green space. The impact of natural, undeveloped green spaces is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine whether the presence of undeveloped green spaces in the home neighborhood are associated with physical activity in 11 to 13-year-olds. This was a cross-sectional study of grade 6 to 8 urban residing Canadian students who participated in the 2009/10 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey. Children self-reported the frequency they participated in physical activity in their free-time outside of school hours. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to assess the proportion of land area within 1 km of participants' homes that was devoted to publicly accessible meadows (i.e., field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants) and treed areas (i.e., field vegetated primarily by trees and shrubs). Ordinal logistic regression models were used to examine the relationships between the undeveloped green space areas and free-time physical activity. Several intrapersonal, family, and neighborhood environment factors were controlled for in these regression models. The proportion of neighborhood land covered by meadows was not associated with the physical activity outcome (p > 0.6). However, the proportion of neighborhood land covered by treed areas was independently associated with the physical activity outcome (p = 0.02). For each additional 5% increase in the proportion of neighborhood land covered by treed areas there was a corresponding 5% increase (95% confidence interval: 1-10% increase) in the relative odds of increasing free-time physical activity outside of school hours. The physical activity levels of 11 to 13-year-old children was associated with the amount of space in their home neighborhood devoted to treed areas.

Development of a Space Radiation Monte-Carlo Computer Simulation Based on the FLUKE and Root Codes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pinsky, L. S.; Wilson, T. L.; Ferrari, A.; Sala, Paola; Carminati, F.; Brun, R.

2001-01-01

The radiation environment in space is a complex problem to model. Trying to extrapolate the projections of that environment into all areas of the internal spacecraft geometry is even more daunting. With the support of our CERN colleagues, our research group in Houston is embarking on a project to develop a radiation transport tool that is tailored to the problem of taking the external radiation flux incident on any particular spacecraft and simulating the evolution of that flux through a geometrically accurate model of the spacecraft material. The output will be a prediction of the detailed nature of the resulting internal radiation environment within the spacecraft as well as its secondary albedo. Beyond doing the physics transport of the incident flux, the software tool we are developing will provide a self-contained stand-alone object-oriented analysis and visualization infrastructure. It will also include a graphical user interface and a set of input tools to facilitate the simulation of space missions in terms of nominal radiation models and mission trajectory profiles. The goal of this project is to produce a code that is considerably more accurate and user-friendly than existing Monte-Carlo-based tools for the evaluation of the space radiation environment. Furthermore, the code will be an essential complement to the currently existing analytic codes in the BRYNTRN/HZETRN family for the evaluation of radiation shielding. The code will be directly applicable to the simulation of environments in low earth orbit, on the lunar surface, on planetary surfaces (including the Earth) and in the interplanetary medium such as on a transit to Mars (and even in the interstellar medium). The software will include modules whose underlying physics base can continue to be enhanced and updated for physics content, as future data become available beyond the timeframe of the initial development now foreseen. This future maintenance will be available from the authors of FLUKA as part of their continuing efforts to support the users of the FLUKA code within the particle physics community. In keeping with the spirit of developing an evolving physics code, we are planning as part of this project, to participate in the efforts to validate the core FLUKA physics in ground-based accelerator test runs. The emphasis of these test runs will be the physics of greatest interest in the simulation of the space radiation environment. Such a tool will be of great value to planners, designers and operators of future space missions, as well as for the design of the vehicles and habitats to be used on such missions. It will also be of aid to future experiments of various kinds that may be affected at some level by the ambient radiation environment, or in the analysis of hybrid experiment designs that have been discussed for space-based astronomy and astrophysics. The tool will be of value to the Life Sciences personnel involved in the prediction and measurement of radiation doses experienced by the crewmembers on such missions. In addition, the tool will be of great use to the planners of experiments to measure and evaluate the space radiation environment itself. It can likewise be useful in the analysis of safe havens, hazard migration plans, and NASA's call for new research in composites and to NASA engineers modeling the radiation exposure of electronic circuits. This code will provide an important complimentary check on the predictions of analytic codes such as BRYNTRN/HZETRN that are presently used for many similar applications, and which have shortcomings that are more easily overcome with Monte Carlo type simulations. Finally, it is acknowledged that there are similar efforts based around the use of the GEANT4 Monte-Carlo transport code currently under development at CERN. It is our intention to make our software modular and sufficiently flexible to allow the parallel use of either FLUKA or GEANT4 as the physics transport engine.

Quantization of noncompact coverings and its physical applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ivankov, Petr

2018-02-01

A rigorous algebraic definition of noncommutative coverings is developed. In the case of commutative algebras this definition is equivalent to the classical definition of topological coverings of locally compact spaces. The theory has following nontrivial applications: • Coverings of continuous trace algebras, • Coverings of noncommutative tori, • Coverings of the quantum SU(2) group, • Coverings of foliations, • Coverings of isospectral deformations of Spin - manifolds. The theory supplies the rigorous definition of noncommutative Wilson lines.

Trends in Lightning Electrical Energy Derived from the Lightning Imaging Sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bitzer, P. M.; Koshak, W. J.

2016-12-01

We present results detailing an emerging application of space-based measurement of lightning: the electrical energy. This is a little-used attribute of lightning data which can have applications for severe weather, lightning physics, and wildfires. In particular, we use data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Lightning Imaging Sensor (TRMM/LIS) to find the temporal and spatial variations in the detected spectral energy density. This is used to estimate the total lightning electrical energy, following established methodologies. Results showing the trend in time of the electrical energy, as well as the distribution around the globe, will be highlighted. While flashes have been typically used in most studies, the basic scientifically-relevant measured unit by LIS is the optical group data product. This generally corresponds to a return stroke or IC pulse. We explore how the electrical energy varies per LIS group, providing an extension and comparison with previous investigations. The result is an initial climatology of this new and important application of space-based optical measurements of lightning, which can provide a baseline for future applications using the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), the European Lightning Imager (LI), and the International Space Station Lightning Imaging Sensor (ISS/LIS) instruments.

Modeling of two-phase flow in membranes and porous media in microgravity as applied to plant irrigation in space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scovazzo, P.; Illangasekare, T. H.; Hoehn, A.; Todd, P.

2001-01-01

In traditional applications in soil physics it is convention to scale porous media properties, such as hydraulic conductivity, soil water diffusivity, and capillary head, with the gravitational acceleration. In addition, the Richards equation for water flux in partially saturated porous media also contains a gravity term. With the plans to develop plant habitats in space, such as in the International Space Station, it becomes necessary to evaluate these properties and this equation under conditions of microgravitational acceleration. This article develops models for microgravity steady state two-phase flow, as found in irrigation systems, that addresses critical design issues. Conventional dimensionless groups in two-phase mathematical models are scaled with gravity, which must be assigned a value of zero for microgravity modeling. The use of these conventional solutions in microgravity, therefore, is not possible. This article therefore introduces new dimensionless groups for two-phase models. The microgravity models introduced here determined that in addition to porous media properties, important design factors for microgravity systems include applied water potential and the ratio of inner to outer radii for cylindrical and spherical porous media systems.

Use of Statistical Estimators as Virtual Observatory Search ParametersEnabling Access to Solar and Planetary Resources through the Virtual Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Merka, J.; Dolan, C. F.

2015-12-01

Finding and retrieving space physics data is often a complicated taskeven for publicly available data sets: Thousands of relativelysmall and many large data sets are stored in various formats and, inthe better case, accompanied by at least some documentation. VirtualHeliospheric and Magnetospheric Observatories (VHO and VMO) help researches by creating a single point of uniformdiscovery, access, and use of heliospheric (VHO) and magnetospheric(VMO) data.The VMO and VHO functionality relies on metadata expressed using theSPASE data model. This data model is developed by the SPASE WorkingGroup which is currently the only international group supporting globaldata management for Solar and Space Physics. The two Virtual Observatories(VxOs) have initiated and lead a development of a SPASE-related standardnamed SPASE Query Language for provided a standard way of submittingqueries and receiving results.The VMO and VHO use SPASE and SPASEQL for searches based on various criteria such as, for example, spatial location, time of observation, measurement type, parameter values, etc. The parameter values are represented by their statisticalestimators calculated typically over 10-minute intervals: mean, median, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum. The use of statistical estimatorsenables science driven data queries that simplify and shorten the effort tofind where and/or how often the sought phenomenon is observed, as we will present.

Swarms: Optimum aggregations of spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mayer, H. L.

1980-01-01

Swarms are aggregations of spacecraft or elements of a space system which are cooperative in function, but physically isolated or only loosely connected. For some missions the swarm configuration may be optimum compared to a group of completely independent spacecraft or a complex rigidly integrated spacecraft or space platform. General features of swarms are induced by considering an ensemble of 26 swarms, examples ranging from Earth centered swarms for commercial application to swarms for exploring minor planets. A concept for a low altitude swarm as a substitute for a space platform is proposed and a preliminary design studied. The salient design feature is the web of tethers holding the 30 km swarm in a rigid two dimensional array in the orbital plane. A mathematical discussion and tutorial in tether technology and in some aspects of the distribution of services (mass, energy, and information to swarm elements) are included.

Research program of the Geodynamics Branch

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kahn, W. D. (Editor); Cohen, S. C. (Editor); Boccucci, B. S. (Editor)

1986-01-01

This report is the Fourth Annual Summary of the Research Program of the Geodynamics Branch. The branch is located within the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics of the Space and Earth Sciences Directorate of the Goddard Space Flight Center. The research activities of the branch staff cover a broad spectrum of geoscience disciplines including: tectonophysics, space geodesy, geopotential field modeling, and dynamic oceanography. The NASA programs which are supported by the work described in this document include the Geodynamics and Ocean Programs, the Crustal Dynamics Project and the proposed Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX). The reports highlight the investigations conducted by the Geodynamics Branch staff during calendar year 1985. The individual papers are grouped into chapters on Crustal Movements and Solid Earth Dynamics, Gravity Field Modeling and Sensing Techniques, and Sea Surface Topography. Further information on the activities of the branch or the particular research efforts described herein can be obtained through the branch office or from individual staff members.

Environmental projects, volume 11. Environmental assessment: Addition to operations building, Mars site

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

An Environmental Assessment was performed of the proposed addition to building G-86 at the Mars Site, which will provide space for new electronic equipment to consolidate the Deep Space Network (DSN) support facilities from other Goldstone Deep Space Communication Complex (GDSCC) sites at the Mars Site, and will include a fifth telemetry and command group with its associated link monitor, control processor, and operator consoles. The addition of these facilities will increase the capability of the DSN to support future sophisticated NASA spacecraft missions such as the International Solar and Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) Program. The planned construction of this building addition requires an Environmental Assessment (EA) document that records the existing environmental conditions at the Mars Site, that analyzes the environmental effects that possibly could be expected from the construction and use of the new building addition, and that recommends measures to be taken to mitigate any possible deleterious environmental effects.

Ames Research Center Research and Technology 2000

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

This report highlights the challenging work accomplished during fiscal year 2000 by Ames research scientists,engineers, and technologists. It discusses research and technologies that enable the Information Age, that expand the frontiers of knowledge for aeronautics and space, and that help to maintain U.S. leadership in aeronautics and space research and technology development. The accomplishments are grouped into four categories based on four of NASA's Strategic Enterprises: Aerospace Technology, Space Science, Biological and Physical Research, and Earth Science. The primary purpose of this report is to communicate knowledge-to inform our stakeholders, customer, and partners, and the people of the United States about the scope and diversity of Ames' mission,the nature of Ames' research and technolog) activities,and the stimulating challenges ahead. The accomplishments cited illustrate the contributions that Ames is willing to improve the quality of life for our citizens and the economic position of the United States in the world marketplace.

Mission Concept to Connect Magnetospheric Physical Processes to Ionospheric Phenomena

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dors, E. E.; MacDonald, E.; Kepko, L.; Borovsky, J.; Reeves, G. D.; Delzanno, G. L.; Thomsen, M. F.; Sanchez, E. R.; Henderson, M. G.; Nguyen, D. C.; Vaith, H.; Gilchrist, B. E.; Spanswick, E.; Marshall, R. A.; Donovan, E.; Neilson, J.; Carlsten, B. E.

2017-12-01

On the Earth's nightside the magnetic connections between the ionosphere and the dynamic magnetosphere have a great deal of uncertainty: this uncertainty prevents us from scientifically understanding what physical processes in the magnetosphere are driving the various phenomena in the ionosphere. Since the 1990s, the space plasma physics group at Los Alamos National Laboratory has been working on a concept to connect magnetospheric physical processes to auroral phenomena in the ionosphere by firing an electron beam from a magnetospheric spacecraft and optically imaging the beam spot in the ionosphere. The magnetospheric spacecraft will carry a steerable electron accelerator, a power-storage system, a plasma contactor, and instruments to measure magnetic and electric fields, plasma, and energetic particles. The spacecraft orbit will be coordinated with a ground-based network of cameras to (a) locate the electron beam spot in the upper atmosphere and (b) monitor the aurora. An overview of the mission concept will be presented, including recent enabling advancements based on (1) a new understanding of the dynamic spacecraft charging of the accelerator and plasma-contactor system in the tenuous magnetosphere based on ion emission rather than electron collection, (2) a new understanding of the propagation properties of pulsed MeV-class beams in the magnetosphere, and (3) the design of a compact high-power 1-MeV electron accelerator and power-storage system. This strategy to (a) determine the magnetosphere-to-ionosphere connections and (b) reduce accelerator- platform charging responds to one of the six emerging-technology needs called out in the most-recent National Academies Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics. [LA-UR-17-23614

Spacelab to Space Station; Proceedings of the International Symposium on Spacelab 1 - Results, Implications and Perspectives, Naples and Capri, Italy, June 11-16, 1984

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Napolitano, L. G. (Editor)

1985-01-01

Consideration is given to the scientific objectives of the Spacelab program, a review of data obtained during the STS-9/Spacelab 1 mission on board the Shuttle, and the coordination of future Spacelab research among participating European nations. Among the specific fields of study covered by Spacelab 1 were space plasma physics, materials and fluid sciences and technology, astronomy and solar physics, and atmospheric physics and earth observations. Consideration is also given to the legal aspects of space manufacturing activities, the role of private industry in space-based manufacturing ventures, plant production and breeding in space, and the development of remote sensing systems for use in a microgravity environment.

Time and space: undergraduate Mexican physics in motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Candela, Antonia

2010-09-01

This is an ethnographic study of the trajectories and itineraries of undergraduate physics students at a Mexican university. In this work learning is understood as being able to move oneself and, other things (cultural tools), through the space-time networks of a discipline (Nespor in Knowledge in motion: space, time and curriculum in undergraduate physics and management. Routledge Farmer, London, 1994). The potential of this socio-cultural perspective allows an analysis of how students are connected through extended spaces and times with an international core discipline as well as with cultural features related to local networks of power and construction. Through an example, I show that, from an actor-network-theory (Latour in Science in action. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1987), that in order to understand the complexities of undergraduate physics processes of learning you have to break classroom walls and take into account students' movements through complex spatial and temporal traces of the discipline of physics. Mexican professors do not give classes following one textbook but in a moment-to-moment open dynamism tending to include undergraduate students as actors in classroom events extending the teaching space-time of the classroom to the disciplinary research work of physics. I also find that Mexican undergraduate students show initiative and display some autonomy and power in the construction of their itineraries as they are encouraged to examine a variety of sources including contemporary research articles, unsolved physics problems, and even to participate in several physicists' spaces, as for example being speakers at the national congresses of physics. Their itineraries also open up new spaces of cultural and social practices, creating more extensive networks beyond those associated with a discipline. Some economic, historical and cultural contextual features of this school of sciences are analyzed in order to help understanding the particular way students are encouraged to develop their autonomy.

Physical Sciences Research Priorities and Plans in OBPR

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trinh, Eugene

2002-01-01

This paper presents viewgraphs of physical sciences research priorities and plans at the Office of Biological and Physical Sciences Research (OBPR). The topics include: 1) Sixth Microgravity Fluid Physics and Transport Phenomena Conference; 2) Beneficial Characteristics of the Space Environment; 3) Windows of Opportunity for Research Derived from Microgravity; 4) Physical Sciences Research Program; 5) Fundamental Research: Space-based Results and Ground-based Applications; 6) Nonlinear Oscillations; and 7) Fundamental Research: Applications to Mission-Oriented Research.

Approaches and Activities of Professional Development During Graduate/Postdoctoral Summer Workshops

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gross, N. A.; Wiltberger, M. J.; Hughes, W. J.; Bhattacharjee, A.; Schrijver, K.; Bagenal, F.; Sojka, J. J.; Munoz-Jaramillo, A.

2017-12-01

NSF and NASA each fund a space physics summer school - the Space Weather Summer School (https://www2.hao.ucar.edu/CISM-Summer-School) and the Heliophysics Summer School (https://cpaess.ucar.edu/heliophysics/summer-school) - each of which provide a comprehensive introduction to their fields at the conceptual and quantitative level for graduate and postdoctoral researchers. Along with specific content goals, each summer school also recognizes professional development goals for the students. Each school intentionally develops community among the summer school students to promote professional networking between the students and between students and instructors. Community is promoted both as part of the formal program and through informal gatherings and outings. Social media is intentionally used for this purpose as well. The summer schools also promote practice with discussing science concepts in small groups through peer instruction, practice presenting in small groups, and discussing results with minimal preparation. Short formal student presentations and poster sessions are organized as part of the formal schedule of one of the summer schools. Much of the professional development work is informed by improvisational theater approaches. Group improv training focuses on the development of the group or the community rather than the individual. Group improv activities are used to build the group and encourage full participation. This talk will outline the professional development activities in each school and how they are informed by improv.

Recent Research applications at the Athens Neutron Monitor Station

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mavromichalaki, H.; Gerontidou, M.; Paschalis, P.; Papaioannou, A.; Paouris, E.; Papailiou, M.; Souvatzoglou, G.

2015-08-01

The ground based neutron monitor measurements play a key role in the field of space physics, solar-terrestrial relations, and space weather applications. The Athens cosmic ray group has developed several research applications such as an optimized automated Ground Level Enhancement Alert (GLE Alert Plus) and a web interface, providing data from multiple Neutron Monitor stations (Multi-Station tool). These services are actually available via the Space Weather Portal operated by the European Space Agency (http://swe.ssa.esa.int). In addition, two simulation tools, based on Geant4, have also been implemented. The first one is for the simulation of the cosmic ray showers in the atmosphere (DYASTIMA) and the second one is for the simulation of the 6NM-64 neutron monitor. The contribution of the simulation tools to the calculations of the radiation dose received by air crews and passengers within the Earth's atmosphere and to the neutron monitor study is presented as well. Furthermore, the accurate calculation of the barometric coefficient and the primary data processing by filtering algorithms, such as the well known Median Editor and the developed by the Athens group ANN Algorithm and Edge Editor which contribute to the provision of high quality neutron monitor data are also discussed. Finally, a Space Weather Forecasting Center which provides a three day geomagnetic activity report on a daily basis has been set up and has been operating for the last two years at the Athens Neutron Monitor Station.

A prototype Upper Atmospheric Research Collaboratory (UARC)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clauer, C. R.; Atkins, D. E; Weymouth, T. E.; Olson, G. M.; Niciejewski, R.; Finholt, T. A.; Prakash, A.; Rasmussen, C. E.; Killeen, T.; Rosenberg, T. J.

1995-01-01

The National Collaboratory concept has great potential for enabling 'critical mass' working groups and highly interdisciplinary research projects. We report here on a new program to build a prototype collaboratory using the Sondrestrom Upper Atmospheric Research Facility in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland and a group of associated scientists. The Upper Atmospheric Research Collaboratory (UARC) is a joint venture of researchers in upper atmospheric and space science, computer science, and behavioral science to develop a testbed for collaborative remote research. We define the 'collaboratory' as an advanced information technology environment which enables teams to work together over distance and time on a wide variety of intellectual tasks. It provides: (1) human-to-human communications using shared computer tools and work spaces; (2) group access and use of a network of information, data, and knowledge sources; and (3) remote access and control of instruments for data acquisition. The UARC testbed is being implemented to support a distributed community of space scientists so that they have network access to the remote instrument facility in Kangerlussuaq and are able to interact among geographically distributed locations. The goal is to enable them to use the UARC rather than physical travel to Greenland to conduct team research campaigns. Even on short notice through the collaboratory from their home institutions, participants will be able to meet together to operate a battery of remote interactive observations and to acquire, process, and interpret the data.

Assessing Built Environment Walkability using Activity-Space Summary Measures.

PubMed

Tribby, Calvin P; Miller, Harvey J; Brown, Barbara B; Werner, Carol M; Smith, Ken R

There is increasing emphasis on active transportation, such as walking, in transportation planning as a sustainable form of mobility and in public health as a means of achieving recommended physical activity and better health outcomes. A research focus is the influence of the built environment on walking, with the ultimate goal of identifying environmental modifications that invite more walking. However, assessments of the built environment for walkability are typically at a spatially disaggregate level (such as street blocks) or at a spatially aggregate level (such as census block groups). A key issue is determining the spatial units for walkability measures so that they reflect potential walking behavior. This paper develops methods for assessing walkability within individual activity spaces : the geographic region accessible to an individual during a given walking trip. We first estimate street network-based activity spaces using the shortest path between known trip starting/ending points and a travel time budget that reflects potential alternative paths. Based on objective walkability measures of the street blocks, we use three summary measures for walkability within activity spaces: i) the average walkability score across block segments (representing the general level of walkability in the activity space); ii) the standard deviation (representing the walkability variation), and; iii) the network autocorrelation (representing the spatial coherence of the walkability pattern). We assess the method using data from an empirical study of built environment walkability and walking behavior in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. We visualize and map these activity space summary measures to compare walkability among individuals' trips within their neighborhoods. We also compare summary measures for activity spaces versus census block groups, with the result that they agree less than half of the time.

Assessing Built Environment Walkability using Activity-Space Summary Measures

PubMed Central

Tribby, Calvin P.; Miller, Harvey J.; Brown, Barbara B.; Werner, Carol M.; Smith, Ken R.

2015-01-01

There is increasing emphasis on active transportation, such as walking, in transportation planning as a sustainable form of mobility and in public health as a means of achieving recommended physical activity and better health outcomes. A research focus is the influence of the built environment on walking, with the ultimate goal of identifying environmental modifications that invite more walking. However, assessments of the built environment for walkability are typically at a spatially disaggregate level (such as street blocks) or at a spatially aggregate level (such as census block groups). A key issue is determining the spatial units for walkability measures so that they reflect potential walking behavior. This paper develops methods for assessing walkability within individual activity spaces: the geographic region accessible to an individual during a given walking trip. We first estimate street network-based activity spaces using the shortest path between known trip starting/ending points and a travel time budget that reflects potential alternative paths. Based on objective walkability measures of the street blocks, we use three summary measures for walkability within activity spaces: i) the average walkability score across block segments (representing the general level of walkability in the activity space); ii) the standard deviation (representing the walkability variation), and; iii) the network autocorrelation (representing the spatial coherence of the walkability pattern). We assess the method using data from an empirical study of built environment walkability and walking behavior in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. We visualize and map these activity space summary measures to compare walkability among individuals’ trips within their neighborhoods. We also compare summary measures for activity spaces versus census block groups, with the result that they agree less than half of the time. PMID:27213027

Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2013-01-01

From the interior of the Sun, to the upper atmosphere and near-space environment of Earth, and outward to a region far beyond Pluto where the Sun's influence wanes, advances during the past decade in space physics and solar physics the disciplines NASA refers to as heliophysics have yielded spectacular insights into the phenomena that affect our home in space. This report, from the National Research Council's (NRC's) Committee for a Decadal Strategy in Solar and Space Physics, is the second NRC decadal survey in heliophysics. Building on the research accomplishments realized over the past decade, the report presents a program of basic and applied research for the period 2013-2022 that will improve scientific understanding of the mechanisms that drive the Sun's activity and the fundamental physical processes underlying near-Earth plasma dynamics, determine the physical interactions of Earth's atmospheric layers in the context of the connected Sun-Earth system, and enhance greatly the capability to provide realistic and specific forecasts of Earth's space environment that will better serve the needs of society. Although the recommended program is directed primarily to NASA (Science Mission Directorate -- Heliophysics Division) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) (Directorate for Geosciences -- Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences) for action, the report also recommends actions by other federal agencies, especially the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) those parts of NOAA charged with the day-to-day (operational) forecast of space weather. In addition to the recommendations included in this summary, related recommendations are presented in the main text of the report.

Stealing Zeus’s Thunder: Physical Space-Control Advantages Against Hostile Satellites

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-01-01

UNCLASSIFIED Defense Technical Information Center Compilation Part Notice ADP023956 TITLE: Stealing Zeus’s Thunder: Physical Space-Control Advantages ...e .d co ne t to a pj@naxwel af. ni Stealing eus’s Thunder Physical Space-Control Advantages against Hostile Satellites CAPT JOSEPH T. PAGE 11, USAF...and ICBM combat crew comander (Squadron Command Post) at he 741st Mi6sse Squadon, 91st Spae Wing, Minor AFB, North akota. 26 its advantage via active

The NASA Microgravity Fluid Physics Program: Knowledge for Use on Earth and Future Space Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kohl, Fred J.; Singh, Bhim S.; Alexander, J. Iwan; Shaw, Nancy J.; Hill, Myron E.; Gati, Frank G.

2002-01-01

Building on over four decades of research and technology development related to the behavior of fluids in low gravity environments, the current NASA Microgravity Fluid Physics Program continues the quest for knowledge to further understand and design better fluids systems for use on earth and in space. The purpose of the Fluid Physics Program is to support the goals of NASA's Biological and Physical Research Enterprise which seeks to exploit the space environment to conduct research and to develop commercial opportunities, while building the vital knowledge base needed to enable efficient and effective systems for protecting and sustaining humans during extended space flights. There are currently five major research areas in the Microgravity Fluid Physics Program: complex fluids, multiphase flows and phase change, interfacial phenomena, biofluid mechanics, and dynamics and instabilities. Numerous investigations into these areas are being conducted in both ground-based laboratories and facilities and in the flight experiments program. Most of the future NASA-sponsored fluid physics and transport phenomena studies will be carried out on the International Space Station in the Fluids Integrated Rack, in the Microgravity Science Glovebox, in EXPRESS racks, and in other facilities provided by international partners. This paper will present an overview of the near- and long-term visions for NASA's Microgravity Fluid Physics Research Program and brief descriptions of hardware systems planned to achieve this research.

Ninth Conference on Space Simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1977-01-01

The papers presented in this conference provided an international dialogue and a meaningful exchange in the simulation of space environments as well as the evolution of these technological advances into other fields. The papers represent a significant contribution to the understanding of space simulation problems and the utilization of this knowledge. The topics of the papers include; spacecraft testing; facilities and test equipment; system and subsystem test; life sciences, medicine and space; physical environmental factors; chemical environmental factors; contamination; space physics; and thermal protection.

Studying the unfolding process of protein G and protein L under physical property space

PubMed Central

Zhao, Liling; Wang, Jihua; Dou, Xianghua; Cao, Zanxia

2009-01-01

Background The studies on protein folding/unfolding indicate that the native state topology is an important determinant of protein folding mechanism. The folding/unfolding behaviors of proteins which have similar topologies have been studied under Cartesian space and the results indicate that some proteins share the similar folding/unfolding characters. Results We construct physical property space with twelve different physical properties. By studying the unfolding process of the protein G and protein L under the property space, we find that the two proteins have the similar unfolding pathways that can be divided into three types and the one which with the umbrella-shape represents the preferred pathway. Moreover, the unfolding simulation time of the two proteins is different and protein L unfolding faster than protein G. Additionally, the distributing area of unfolded state ensemble of protein L is larger than that of protein G. Conclusion Under the physical property space, the protein G and protein L have the similar folding/unfolding behaviors, which agree with the previous results obtained from the studies under Cartesian coordinate space. At the same time, some different unfolding properties can be detected easily, which can not be analyzed under Cartesian coordinate space. PMID:19208146

Social Distance Evaluation in Human Parietal Cortex

PubMed Central

Yamakawa, Yoshinori; Kanai, Ryota; Matsumura, Michikazu; Naito, Eiichi

2009-01-01

Across cultures, social relationships are often thought of, described, and acted out in terms of physical space (e.g. “close friends” “high lord”). Does this cognitive mapping of social concepts arise from shared brain resources for processing social and physical relationships? Using fMRI, we found that the tasks of evaluating social compatibility and of evaluating physical distances engage a common brain substrate in the parietal cortex. The present study shows the possibility of an analytic brain mechanism to process and represent complex networks of social relationships. Given parietal cortex's known role in constructing egocentric maps of physical space, our present findings may help to explain the linguistic, psychological and behavioural links between social and physical space. PMID:19204791

Astro Academy: Principia--A Suite of Physical Science Demonstrations Conducted Aboard the ISS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMurray, Andy

2016-01-01

Astro Academy: Principia is an education programme developed by the UK National Space Academy for the UK Space Agency (UKSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). The Academy designed, constructed, flight-qualified and developed experimental procedures for a suite of physics and chemistry demonstration experiments that were conducted by ESA…

Time and Space: Undergraduate Mexican Physics in Motion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Candela, Antonia

2010-01-01

This is an ethnographic study of the trajectories and itineraries of undergraduate physics students at a Mexican university. In this work learning is understood as being able to move oneself and, other things (cultural tools), through the space-time networks of a discipline (Nespor in Knowledge in motion: space, time and curriculum in…

Space-time-modulated stochastic processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giona, Massimiliano

2017-10-01

Starting from the physical problem associated with the Lorentzian transformation of a Poisson-Kac process in inertial frames, the concept of space-time-modulated stochastic processes is introduced for processes possessing finite propagation velocity. This class of stochastic processes provides a two-way coupling between the stochastic perturbation acting on a physical observable and the evolution of the physical observable itself, which in turn influences the statistical properties of the stochastic perturbation during its evolution. The definition of space-time-modulated processes requires the introduction of two functions: a nonlinear amplitude modulation, controlling the intensity of the stochastic perturbation, and a time-horizon function, which modulates its statistical properties, providing irreducible feedback between the stochastic perturbation and the physical observable influenced by it. The latter property is the peculiar fingerprint of this class of models that makes them suitable for extension to generic curved-space times. Considering Poisson-Kac processes as prototypical examples of stochastic processes possessing finite propagation velocity, the balance equations for the probability density functions associated with their space-time modulations are derived. Several examples highlighting the peculiarities of space-time-modulated processes are thoroughly analyzed.

Swinging Symmetry, Multiple Structural Phase Transitions, and Versatile Physical Properties in RECuGa3 (RE = La-Nd, Sm-Gd).

PubMed

Subbarao, Udumula; Rayaprol, Sudhindra; Dally, Rebecca; Graf, Michael J; Peter, Sebastian C

2016-01-19

The compounds RECuGa3 (RE = La-Nd, Sm-Gd) were synthesized by various techniques. Preliminary X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses at room temperature suggested that the compounds crystallize in the tetragonal system with either the centrosymmetric space group I4/mmm (BaAl4 type) or the non-centrosymmetric space group I4mm (BaNiSn3 type). Detailed single-crystal XRD, neutron diffraction, and synchrotron XRD studies of selected compounds confirmed the non-centrosymmetric BaNiSn3 structure type at room temperature with space group I4mm. Temperature-dependent single-crystal XRD, powder XRD, and synchrotron beamline measurements showed a structural transition between centro- and non-centrosymmetry followed by a phase transition to the Rb5Hg19 type (space group I4/m) above 400 K and another transition to the Cu3Au structure type (space group Pm3̅m) above 700 K. Combined single-crystal and synchrotron powder XRD studies of PrCuGa3 at high temperatures revealed structural transitions at higher temperatures, highlighting the closeness of the BaNiSn3 structure to other structure types not known to the RECuGa3 family. The crystal structure of RECuGa3 is composed of eight capped hexagonal prism cages [RE4Cu4Ga12] occupying one rare-earth atom in each ring, which are shared through the edge of Cu and Ga atoms along the ab plane, resulting in a three-dimensional network. Resistivity and magnetization measurements demonstrated that all of these compounds undergo magnetic ordering at temperatures between 1.8 and 80 K, apart from the Pr and La compounds: the former remains paramagnetic down to 0.3 K, while superconductivity was observed in the La compound at T = 1 K. It is not clear whether this is intrinsic or due to filamentary Ga present in the sample. The divalent nature of Eu in EuCuGa3 was confirmed by magnetization measurements and X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy and is further supported by the crystal structure analysis.

A new chapter in doctoral candidate training: The Helmholtz Space Life Sciences Research School (SpaceLife)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hellweg, C. E.; Gerzer, R.; Reitz, G.

2011-05-01

In the field of space life sciences, the demand of an interdisciplinary and specific training of young researchers is high due to the complex interaction of medical, biological, physical, technical and other questions. The Helmholtz Space Life Sciences Research School (SpaceLife) offers an excellent interdisciplinary training for doctoral students from different fields (biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, physics, psychology, nutrition or sports sciences and related fields) and any country. SpaceLife is coordinated by the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne. The German Universities in Kiel, Bonn, Aachen, Regensburg, Magdeburg and Berlin, and the German Sports University (DSHS) in Cologne are members of SpaceLife. The Universities of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Frankfurt, Hohenheim, and the Beihang University in Beijing are associated partners. In each generation, up to 25 students can participate in the three-year program. Students learn to develop integrated concepts to solve health issues in human spaceflight and in related disease patterns on Earth, and to further explore the requirements for life in extreme environments, enabling a better understanding of the ecosystem Earth and the search for life on other planets in unmanned and manned missions. The doctoral candidates are coached by two specialist supervisors from DLR and the partner university, and a mentor. All students attend lectures in different subfields of space life sciences to attain an overview of the field: radiation and gravitational biology, astrobiology and space physiology, including psychological aspects of short and long term space missions. Seminars, advanced lectures, laboratory courses and stays at labs at the partner institutions or abroad are offered as elective course and will provide in-depth knowledge of the chosen subfield or allow to appropriate innovative methods. In Journal Clubs of the participating working groups, doctoral students learn critical reading of scientific literature, first steps in peer review, scientific writing during preparation of their own publication, and writing of the thesis. The training of soft skills is offered as block course in cooperation with other Helmholtz Research Schools. The whole program encompasses 303 h and is organized in semester terms. The first doctoral candidates started the program in spring 2009.

Atomic study on the ordered structure in Al melts induced by liquid/substrate interface with Ti solute

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

Zhang, H. L.; Han, Y. F., E-mail: yfhan@sjtu.edu.cn, E-mail: bdsun@sjtu.edu.cn; Zhou, W.

2015-01-26

Atomic ordering in Al melts induced by liquid/substrate interface with Ti solute was investigated by ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction. It is predicted that deformed nanoscale ordering Al layers with a rhombohedral-centered hexagonal structure (R3{sup ¯}m space group) instead of the intrinsic fcc structure (Fm3{sup ¯}m space group) form on substrate at temperature above Al liquids. With Al atoms stacking away from the interface, the ordering structure reaches a critical thickness, which inhibits the consecutive stacking of Al atoms on substrates. The locally stacking reconstruction induced by Ti atom relieves the accumulated elastic strain energymore » in ordered Al layers, facilitating fully heterogeneous nucleation on substrate beyond the deformed ordering Al layer around the melting point. The roles of liquid/substrate interface with Ti solute in the physical behavior of heterogeneous nucleation on substrate were discussed.« less

Hand gesture recognition in confined spaces with partial observability and occultation constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shirkhodaie, Amir; Chan, Alex; Hu, Shuowen

2016-05-01

Human activity detection and recognition capabilities have broad applications for military and homeland security. These tasks are very complicated, however, especially when multiple persons are performing concurrent activities in confined spaces that impose significant obstruction, occultation, and observability uncertainty. In this paper, our primary contribution is to present a dedicated taxonomy and kinematic ontology that are developed for in-vehicle group human activities (IVGA). Secondly, we describe a set of hand-observable patterns that represents certain IVGA examples. Thirdly, we propose two classifiers for hand gesture recognition and compare their performance individually and jointly. Finally, we present a variant of Hidden Markov Model for Bayesian tracking, recognition, and annotation of hand motions, which enables spatiotemporal inference to human group activity perception and understanding. To validate our approach, synthetic (graphical data from virtual environment) and real physical environment video imagery are employed to verify the performance of these hand gesture classifiers, while measuring their efficiency and effectiveness based on the proposed Hidden Markov Model for tracking and interpreting dynamic spatiotemporal IVGA scenarios.

Eisenstein series for infinite-dimensional U-duality groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fleig, Philipp; Kleinschmidt, Axel

2012-06-01

We consider Eisenstein series appearing as coefficients of curvature corrections in the low-energy expansion of type II string theory four-graviton scattering amplitudes. We define these Eisenstein series over all groups in the E n series of string duality groups, and in particular for the infinite-dimensional Kac-Moody groups E 9, E 10 and E 11. We show that, remarkably, the so-called constant term of Kac-Moody-Eisenstein series contains only a finite number of terms for particular choices of a parameter appearing in the definition of the series. This resonates with the idea that the constant term of the Eisenstein series encodes perturbative string corrections in BPS-protected sectors allowing only a finite number of corrections. We underpin our findings with an extensive discussion of physical degeneration limits in D < 3 space-time dimensions.

An arena for model building in the Cohen-Glashow very special relativity

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

Sheikh-Jabbari, M. M., E-mail: jabbari@theory.ipm.ac.i; Tureanu, A., E-mail: anca.tureanu@helsinki.f

2010-02-15

The Cohen-Glashow Very Special Relativity (VSR) algebra is defined as the part of the Lorentz algebra which upon addition of CP or T invariance enhances to the full Lorentz group, plus the space-time translations. We show that noncommutative space-time, in particular noncommutative Moyal plane, with light- like noncommutativity provides a robust mathematical setting for quantum field theories which are VSR invariant and hence set the stage for building VSR invariant particle physics models. In our setting the VSR invariant theories are specified with a single deformation parameter, the noncommutativity scale {Lambda}{sub NC}. Preliminary analysis with the available data leads tomore » {Lambda}{sub NC} {>=} 1-10 TeV.« less

General solution of a cosmological model induced from higher dimensions using a kinematical constraint

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akarsu, Özgür; Dereli, Tekin; Katırcı, Nihan; Sheftel, Mikhail B.

2015-05-01

In a recent study Akarsu and Dereli (Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 45:1211, 2013) discussed the dynamical reduction of a higher dimensional cosmological model which is augmented by a kinematical constraint characterized by a single real parameter, correlating and controlling the expansion of both the external (physical) and internal spaces. In that paper explicit solutions were found only for the case of three dimensional internal space (). Here we derive a general solution of the system using Lie group symmetry properties, in parametric form for arbitrary number of internal dimensions. We also investigate the dynamical reduction of the model as a function of cosmic time for various values of and generate parametric plots to discuss cosmologically relevant results.

Miniature Tunable Laser Spectrometers for Quantifying Atmospheric Trace Gases, Water Resources, Earth Back-Contamination, and In Situ Resource Utilization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Webster, Chris; Blacksberg, Jordana; Flesch, Greg; Keymeulen, Didier; Christensen, Lance; Forouhar, Siamak

2012-01-01

The Tunable Laser Spectrometers (TLS) technique has seen wide applicability in gas measurement and analysis for atmospheric analysis, industrial, commercial and health monitoring and space applications. In Earth science using balloons and aircraft over 2 decades, several groups (JPL, NASA Langley & Ames, NOAA, Harvard U., etc) have demonstrated the technique for ozone hole studies, lab kinetics measurements, cloud physics and transport, climate change in the ice record. The recent availability of high-power (mW) room temperature lasers (TDL, IC, QC) has enabled miniaturized, high-sensitivity spectrometers for industry and space (1) Mars, Titan, Venus, Saturn, Moon (2) Commercial isotope ratio spectrometers are replacing bulkier, complex isotope ratio mass spectrometers.

Physics issues of gamma ray burst emissions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liang, Edison

1987-01-01

The critical physics issues in the interpretation of gamma-ray-burst spectra are reviewed. An attempt is made to define the emission-region parameter space satisfying the maximum number of observational and theoretical constraints. Also discussed are the physical mechanisms responsible for the bursts that are most consistent with the above parameter space.

Solar Physics in the Space Age.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dittmer, Phil D.; And Others

This amply illustrated booklet provides a physical description of the sun as well as present and future tasks for solar physics study. The first chapter, an introduction, describes the history of solar study, solar study in space, and the relevance of solar study. The second chapter describes the five heliographic domains including the interior,…

Phase space deformations in phantom cosmology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

López, J. L.; Sabido, M.; Yee-Romero, C.

2018-03-01

We discuss the physical consequences of general phase space deformations on the minisuperspace of phantom cosmology. Based on the principle of physically equivalent descriptions in the deformed theory, we investigate for what values of the deformation parameters the arising descriptions are physically equivalent. We also construct and solve the quantum model and derive the semiclassical dynamics.

Testing the Efficacy of OurSpace, a Brief, Group Dynamics-Based Physical Activity Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

PubMed

Irwin, Brandon; Kurz, Daniel; Chalin, Patrice; Thompson, Nicholas

2016-05-06

Emerging technologies (ie, mobile phones, Internet) may be effective tools for promoting physical activity (PA). However, few interventions have provided effective means to enhance social support through these platforms. Face-to-face programs that use group dynamics-based principles of behavior change have been shown to be highly effective in enhancing social support through promoting group cohesion and PA, but to date, no studies have examined their effects in Web-based programs. The aim was to explore proof of concept and test the efficacy of a brief, online group dynamics-based intervention on PA in a controlled experiment. We expected that the impact of the intervention on PA would be moderated by perceptions of cohesion and the partner's degree of presence in the online media. Participants (n=135) were randomized into same-sex dyads and randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: standard social support (standard), group dynamics-based-high presence, group dynamics-based-low presence, or individual control. Participants performed two sets of planking exercises (pre-post). Between sets, participants in partnered conditions interacted with a virtual partner using either a standard social support app or a group dynamics-based app (group dynamics-based-low presence and group dynamics-based-high presence), the latter of which they participated in a series of online team-building exercises. Individual participants were given an equivalent rest period between sets. To increase presence during the second set, participants in the group dynamics-based-high presence group saw a live video stream of their partner exercising. Perceptions of cohesion were measured using a modified PA Group Environment Questionnaire. Physical activity was calculated as the time persisted during set 2 after controlling for persistence in set 1. Perceptions of cohesion were higher in the group dynamics-based-low presence (overall mean 5.81, SD 1.04) condition compared to the standard (overall mean 5.04, SD 0.81) conditions ( P=.006), but did not differ between group dynamics-based-low presence and group dynamics-based-high presence (overall mean 5.42, SD 1.07) conditions ( P=.25). Physical activity was higher in the high presence condition (mean 64.48, SD 20.19, P=.01) than all other conditions (mean 53.3, SD 17.35). A brief, online group dynamics-based intervention may be an effective method of improving group cohesion in virtual PA groups. However, it may be insufficient on its own to improve PA.

Influence of the day care, home and neighbourhood environment on young children's physical activity and health: protocol for the PLAYCE observational study.

PubMed

Christian, Hayley; Maitland, Clover; Enkel, Stephanie; Trapp, Georgina; Trost, Stewart G; Schipperijn, Jasper; Boruff, Bryan; Lester, Leanne; Rosenberg, Michael; Zubrick, Stephen R

2016-12-08

The early years are a critical period in a child's health and development, yet most preschool children fail to meet physical activity guidelines. Outside of the home and neighbourhood, children spend a large proportion of time within early childhood education and care (ECEC) services such as long day care. Research is required to determine how the design of day care outdoor (and indoor) spaces provides opportunities or constraints for physical activity. A significant evidence gap surrounds what objectively measured attributes of the home and neighbourhood environment influence preschoolers' physical activity. The PLAY Spaces & Environments for Children's Physical Activity (PLAYCE) study will empirically investigate the relative and cumulative influence of the day care, home and neighbourhood environment on preschoolers' physical activity. The PLAYCE study is a cross-sectional observational study (April 2015 to April 2018) of 2400 children aged 2-5 years attending long day care in metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. Accelerometers will measure physical activity with indoor physical activity measured using radio frequency identification. Global positioning systems will be used to determine outdoor location of physical activity around the home and neighbourhood for a subsample (n=310). The day care environment will be objectively measured using a validated audit tool. Other potential individual, social and physical environmental influences on preschoolers' physical activity will be collected by geographic information systems measures, parent and day care educator surveys. Ethical approval has been granted by The University of Western Australia Human Ethics Research Committee, approval number RA/4/1/7417. Findings will be published in international peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences. Key findings will be disseminated to stakeholders, collaborators, policymakers and practitioners working in the ECEC sector. Day care centre directors and parents will be given a summary report of the key findings. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

"They put you on your toes": Physical Therapists' Perceived Benefits from and Barriers to Supervising Students in the Clinical Setting.

PubMed

Davies, Robyn; Hanna, Elizabeth; Cott, Cheryl

2011-01-01

To identify the perceived benefits of and barriers to clinical supervision of physical therapy (PT) students. In this qualitative descriptive study, three focus groups and six key-informant interviews were conducted with clinical physical therapists or administrators working in acute care, orthopaedic rehabilitation, or complex continuing care. Data were coded and analyzed for common ideas using a constant comparison approach. Perceived barriers to supervising students tended to be extrinsic: time and space constraints, challenging or difficult students, and decreased autonomy or flexibility for the clinical physical therapists. Benefits tended to be intrinsic: teaching provided personal gratification by promoting reflective practice and exposing clinical educators to current knowledge. The culture of different health care institutions was an important factor in therapists' perceptions of student supervision. Despite different disciplines and models of supervision, there is considerable synchronicity in the issues reported by physical therapists and other disciplines. Embedding the value of clinical teaching in the institution, along with strong communication links among academic partners, institutions, and potential clinical faculty, may mitigate barriers and increase the commitment and satisfaction of teaching staff.

Mental and Physical Workload, Salivary Stress Biomarkers and Taste Perception: Mars Desert Research Station Expedition

PubMed Central

Rai, Balwant; Kaur, Jasdeep

2012-01-01

Background: Very few studies have been conducted on the effects of simulation of Mars conditions on taste. Aims: This study was planned to find the effects of physical and mental workload on taste sensitivity and salivary stress biomarkers. Materials and Methods: Twelve crew members were selected. Taste reactions and intensity of the taste sensations to quinine sulfate, citric acid, and sucrose were tested before and after mental and physical tasks for one hour. Also, psychological mood states by profile of mood state, salivary, salivary alpha amylase and cortisol, and current stress test scores were measured before and after mental and physical tasks. Results: Average time intensity evaluation showed that after the mental and physical tasks, the perceived duration of bitter, sour, and sweet taste sensations was significantly shortened relative to control group. There were good correlations between average time intensity of sweetness, bitterness, sourness and cortisol levels. Conclusions: Taste alterations due to stress can have an effect on the health and confidence of astronauts in long- term space missions. Thus, this issue remains one of the important issues for future human explorations. PMID:23181230

Creating virtual electrodes with 2D current steering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spencer, Thomas C.; Fallon, James B.; Shivdasani, Mohit N.

2018-06-01

Objective. Current steering techniques have shown promise in retinal prostheses as a way to increase the number of distinct percepts elicitable without increasing the number of implanted electrodes. Previously, it has been shown that ‘virtual’ electrodes can be created between simultaneously stimulated electrode pairs, producing unique cortical response patterns. This study investigated whether virtual electrodes could be created using 2D current steering, and whether these virtual electrodes can produce cortical responses with predictable spatial characteristics. Approach. Normally-sighted eyes of seven adult anaesthetised cats were implanted with a 42-channel electrode array in the suprachoroidal space and multi-unit neural activity was recorded from the visual cortex. Stimuli were delivered to individual physical electrodes, or electrodes grouped into triangular, rectangular, and hexagonal arrangements. Varying proportions of charge were applied to each electrode in a group to ‘steer’ current and create virtual electrodes. The centroids of cortical responses to stimulation of virtual electrodes were compared to those evoked by stimulation of single physical electrodes. Main results. Responses to stimulation of groups of up to six electrodes with equal ratios of charge on each electrode resulted in cortical activation patterns that were similar to those elicited by the central physical electrode (centroids: RM ANOVA on ranks, p  >  0.05 neural spread: one-way ANOVA on Ranks, p  >  0.05). We were also able to steer the centroid of activation towards the direction of any of the electrodes of the group by applying a greater charge to that electrode, but the movement in the centroid was not found to be significant. Significance. The results suggest that current steering is possible in two dimensions between up to at least six electrodes, indicating it may be possible to increase the number of percepts in patients without increasing the number of physical electrodes. Being able to reproduce spatial characteristics of responses to individual physical electrodes suggests that this technique could also be used to compensate for faulty electrodes.

Evidence for Type Ia Supernova Diversity from Ultraviolet Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-04-20

Observational Cosmology , NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 665, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA 31 Enrico Fermi Institute, Department of Physics, and Kavli...Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA 32 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, the State University...Austin, TX 78712, USA 59 Pittsburgh Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Center (Pitt-PACC), University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA

Fast emulation of track reconstruction in the CMS simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Komm, Matthias; CMS Collaboration

2017-10-01

Simulated samples of various physics processes are a key ingredient within analyses to unlock the physics behind LHC collision data. Samples with more and more statistics are required to keep up with the increasing amounts of recorded data. During sample generation, significant computing time is spent on the reconstruction of charged particle tracks from energy deposits which additionally scales with the pileup conditions. In CMS, the FastSimulation package is developed for providing a fast alternative to the standard simulation and reconstruction workflow. It employs various techniques to emulate track reconstruction effects in particle collision events. Several analysis groups in CMS are utilizing the package, in particular those requiring many samples to scan the parameter space of physics models (e.g. SUSY) or for the purpose of estimating systematic uncertainties. The strategies for and recent developments in this emulation are presented, including a novel, flexible implementation of tracking emulation while retaining a sufficient, tuneable accuracy.

Client-centered design of residential addiction and mental health care facilities: staff perceptions of their work environment.

PubMed

Novotná, Gabriela; Urbanoski, Karen A; Rush, Brian R

2011-11-01

In this article we discuss the findings from a series of focus groups conducted as part of a 3-year, mixed-method evaluation of clinical programs in a large mental health and substance use treatment facility in Canada. We examined the perceptions of clinical personnel on the physical design of new treatment units and the impact on service delivery and the work environment. The new physical design appeared to support client recovery and reduce stigma; however, it brought certain challenges. Participants reported a compromised ability to monitor clients, a lack of designated therapeutic spaces, and insufficient workspace for staff. They also thought that physical design positively facilitated communication and therapeutic relationships among clinicians and clients, and increased team cohesion. We suggest that, from these findings, new avenues for research on achieving the important balance between client and staff needs in health facility design can be explored.

ARIES: Enabling Visual Exploration and Organization of Art Image Collections.

PubMed

Crissaff, Lhaylla; Wood Ruby, Louisa; Deutch, Samantha; DuBois, R Luke; Fekete, Jean-Daniel; Freire, Juliana; Silva, Claudio

2018-01-01

Art historians have traditionally used physical light boxes to prepare exhibits or curate collections. On a light box, they can place slides or printed images, move the images around at will, group them as desired, and visual-ly compare them. The transition to digital images has rendered this workflow obsolete. Now, art historians lack well-designed, unified interactive software tools that effectively support the operations they perform with physi-cal light boxes. To address this problem, we designed ARIES (ARt Image Exploration Space), an interactive image manipulation system that enables the exploration and organization of fine digital art. The system allows images to be compared in multiple ways, offering dynamic overlays analogous to a physical light box, and sup-porting advanced image comparisons and feature-matching functions, available through computational image processing. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our system to support art historians tasks through real use cases.

The visual perception of distance ratios in physical space.

PubMed

Norman, J Farley; Adkins, Olivia C; Pedersen, Lauren E

2016-06-01

Past studies have consistently demonstrated that human observers cannot accurately perceive environmental distances. Even so, we obviously detect sufficient spatial information to meet the demands of everyday life. In the current experiment, ten younger adults (mean age was 21.8years) and ten older adults (mean age was 72.3years) estimated distance ratios in physical space. On any given trial, observers judged how long one distance interval was relative to another. The 18 stimulus ratios ranged from 1.0 to 9.5; the observers judged each stimulus ratio three times. The average correlation coefficient relating actual distance ratios to perceived ratios was identical (r=0.87) for both younger and older age groups. Despite this strong relationship between perception and reality, the judgments of many individual observers were inaccurate. For example, ten percent of the observers overestimated the stimulus ratios, while fifty percent underestimated the stimulus ratios. Although both under- and overestimation occurred in the current experiment, the results nevertheless demonstrate that human adults can reliably compare environmental distances in different directions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Inertial frames and breakthrough propulsion physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Millis, Marc G.

2017-09-01

The term ;Breakthrough Propulsion Physics; comes from the NASA project by that name which examined non-rocket space drives, gravity control, and faster-than-light travel. The focus here is on space drives and the related unsolved physics of inertial frames. A ;space drive; is a generic term encompassing any concept for using as-yet undiscovered physics to move a spacecraft instead of existing rockets, sails, or tethers. The collective state of the art spans mostly steps 1-3 of the scientific method: defining the problem, collecting data, and forming hypotheses. The key issues include (1) conservation of momentum, (2) absence of obvious reaction mass, and (3) the net-external thrusting requirement. Relevant open problems in physics include: (1) the sources and mechanisms of inertial frames, (2) coupling of gravitation to the other fundamental forces, and (3) the nature of the quantum vacuum. Rather than following the assumption that inertial frames are an immutable, intrinsic property of space, this paper revisits Mach's Principle, where it is posited that inertia is relative to the distant surrounding matter. This perspective allows conjectures that a space drive could impart reaction forces to that matter, via some as-yet undiscovered interaction with the inertial frame properties of space. Thought experiments are offered to begin a process to derive new hypotheses. It is unknown if this line of inquiry will be fruitful, but it is hoped that, by revisiting unsolved physics from a propulsion point of view, new insights will be gained.

Physics of Colloids in Space: Flight Hardware Operations on ISS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doherty, Michael P.; Bailey, Arthur E.; Jankovsky, Amy L.; Lorik, Tibor

2002-01-01

The Physics of Colloids in Space (PCS) experiment was launched on Space Shuttle STS-100 in April 2001 and integrated into EXpedite the PRocess of Experiments to Space Station Rack 2 on the International Space Station (ISS). This microgravity fluid physics investigation is being conducted in the ISS U.S. Lab 'Destiny' Module over a period of approximately thirteen months during the ISS assembly period from flight 6A through flight 9A. PCS is gathering data on the basic physical properties of simple colloidal suspensions by studying the structures that form. A colloid is a micron or submicron particle, be it solid, liquid, or gas. A colloidal suspension consists of these fine particles suspended in another medium. Common colloidal suspensions include paints, milk, salad dressings, cosmetics, and aerosols. Though these products are routinely produced and used, we still have much to learn about their behavior as well as the underlying properties of colloids in general. The long-term goal of the PCS investigation is to learn how to steer the growth of colloidal structures to create new materials. This experiment is the first part of a two-stage investigation conceived by Professor David Weitz of Harvard University (the Principal Investigator) along with Professor Peter Pusey of the University of Edinburgh (the Co-Investigator). This paper describes the flight hardware, experiment operations, and initial science findings of the first fluid physics payload to be conducted on ISS: The Physics of Colloids in Space.

Second-order perturbation theory with a density matrix renormalization group self-consistent field reference function: theory and application to the study of chromium dimer.

PubMed

Kurashige, Yuki; Yanai, Takeshi

2011-09-07

We present a second-order perturbation theory based on a density matrix renormalization group self-consistent field (DMRG-SCF) reference function. The method reproduces the solution of the complete active space with second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2) when the DMRG reference function is represented by a sufficiently large number of renormalized many-body basis, thereby being named DMRG-CASPT2 method. The DMRG-SCF is able to describe non-dynamical correlation with large active space that is insurmountable to the conventional CASSCF method, while the second-order perturbation theory provides an efficient description of dynamical correlation effects. The capability of our implementation is demonstrated for an application to the potential energy curve of the chromium dimer, which is one of the most demanding multireference systems that require best electronic structure treatment for non-dynamical and dynamical correlation as well as large basis sets. The DMRG-CASPT2/cc-pwCV5Z calculations were performed with a large (3d double-shell) active space consisting of 28 orbitals. Our approach using large-size DMRG reference addressed the problems of why the dissociation energy is largely overestimated by CASPT2 with the small active space consisting of 12 orbitals (3d4s), and also is oversensitive to the choice of the zeroth-order Hamiltonian. © 2011 American Institute of Physics

An Adaptive Mesh Algorithm: Mesh Structure and Generation

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

Scannapieco, Anthony J.

2016-06-21

The purpose of Adaptive Mesh Refinement is to minimize spatial errors over the computational space not to minimize the number of computational elements. The additional result of the technique is that it may reduce the number of computational elements needed to retain a given level of spatial accuracy. Adaptive mesh refinement is a computational technique used to dynamically select, over a region of space, a set of computational elements designed to minimize spatial error in the computational model of a physical process. The fundamental idea is to increase the mesh resolution in regions where the physical variables are represented bymore » a broad spectrum of modes in k-space, hence increasing the effective global spectral coverage of those physical variables. In addition, the selection of the spatially distributed elements is done dynamically by cyclically adjusting the mesh to follow the spectral evolution of the system. Over the years three types of AMR schemes have evolved; block, patch and locally refined AMR. In block and patch AMR logical blocks of various grid sizes are overlaid to span the physical space of interest, whereas in locally refined AMR no logical blocks are employed but locally nested mesh levels are used to span the physical space. The distinction between block and patch AMR is that in block AMR the original blocks refine and coarsen entirely in time, whereas in patch AMR the patches change location and zone size with time. The type of AMR described herein is a locally refi ned AMR. In the algorithm described, at any point in physical space only one zone exists at whatever level of mesh that is appropriate for that physical location. The dynamic creation of a locally refi ned computational mesh is made practical by a judicious selection of mesh rules. With these rules the mesh is evolved via a mesh potential designed to concentrate the nest mesh in regions where the physics is modally dense, and coarsen zones in regions where the physics is modally sparse.« less

Newton's Metaphysics of Space as God's Emanative Effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacquette, Dale

2014-09-01

In several of his writings, Isaac Newton proposed that physical space is God's "emanative effect" or "sensorium," revealing something interesting about the metaphysics underlying his mathematical physics. Newton's conjectures depart from Plato and Aristotle's metaphysics of space and from classical and Cambridge Neoplatonism. Present-day philosophical concepts of supervenience clarify Newton's ideas about space and offer a portrait of Newton not only as a mathematical physicist but an independent-minded rationalist philosopher.

Using the FLUKA Monte Carlo Code to Simulate the Interactions of Ionizing Radiation with Matter to Assist and Aid Our Understanding of Ground Based Accelerator Testing, Space Hardware Design, and Secondary Space Radiation Environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reddell, Brandon

2015-01-01

Designing hardware to operate in the space radiation environment is a very difficult and costly activity. Ground based particle accelerators can be used to test for exposure to the radiation environment, one species at a time, however, the actual space environment cannot be duplicated because of the range of energies and isotropic nature of space radiation. The FLUKA Monte Carlo code is an integrated physics package based at CERN that has been under development for the last 40+ years and includes the most up-to-date fundamental physics theory and particle physics data. This work presents an overview of FLUKA and how it has been used in conjunction with ground based radiation testing for NASA and improve our understanding of secondary particle environments resulting from the interaction of space radiation with matter.

Sociospace: A smart social framework based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hasswa, Ahmed

Advances in smart technologies, wireless networking, and increased interest in contextual services have led to the emergence of ubiquitous and pervasive computing as one of the most promising areas of computing in recent years. Smart Spaces, in particular, have gained significant interest within the research community. Currently, most Smart Spaces rely on physical components, such as sensors, to acquire information about the real-world environment. Although current sensor networks can acquire some useful contextual information from the physical environment, their information resources are often limited, and the data acquired is often unreliable. We argue that by introducing social network information into such systems, smarter and more adaptive spaces can be created. Social networks have recently become extremely popular, and are now an integral part of millions of people's daily lives. Through social networks, users create profiles, build relationships, and join groups, forming intermingled sets and communities. Social Networks contain a wealth of information, which, if exploited properly, can lead to a whole new level of smart contextual services. A mechanism is therefore needed to extract data from heterogeneous social networks, to link profiles across different networks, and to aggregate the data obtained. We therefore propose the design and implementation of a Smart Spaces framework that utilizes the social context. In order to manage services and sessions, we integrate our system with the IP Multimedia Subsystem. Our system, which we call SocioSpace, includes full design and implementation of all components, including the central server, the location management system, the social network interfacing system, the service delivery platform, and user agents. We have built a prototype for proof of concept and carried out exhaustive performance analysis; the results show that SocioSpace is scalable, extensible, and fault-tolerant. It is capable of creating Smart Spaces that can truly deliver adaptive services that enhance the users' overall experience, increase their satisfaction, and make the surroundings more beneficial and interesting to them.

Geomagnetically induced currents: Science, engineering, and applications readiness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pulkkinen, A.; Bernabeu, E.; Thomson, A.; Viljanen, A.; Pirjola, R.; Boteler, D.; Eichner, J.; Cilliers, P. J.; Welling, D.; Savani, N. P.; Weigel, R. S.; Love, J. J.; Balch, C.; Ngwira, C. M.; Crowley, G.; Schultz, A.; Kataoka, R.; Anderson, B.; Fugate, D.; Simpson, J. J.; MacAlester, M.

2017-07-01

This paper is the primary deliverable of the very first NASA Living With a Star Institute Working Group, Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GIC) Working Group. The paper provides a broad overview of the current status and future challenges pertaining to the science, engineering, and applications of the GIC problem. Science is understood here as the basic space and Earth sciences research that allows improved understanding and physics-based modeling of the physical processes behind GIC. Engineering, in turn, is understood here as the "impact" aspect of GIC. Applications are understood as the models, tools, and activities that can provide actionable information to entities such as power systems operators for mitigating the effects of GIC and government agencies for managing any potential consequences from GIC impact to critical infrastructure. Applications can be considered the ultimate goal of our GIC work. In assessing the status of the field, we quantify the readiness of various applications in the mitigation context. We use the Applications Readiness Level (ARL) concept to carry out the quantification.

Geomagnetically induced currents: Science, engineering, and applications readiness

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pulkkinen, Antti; Bernabeu, E.; Thomson, A.; Viljanen, A.; Pirjola, R.; Boteler, D.; Eichner, J.; Cilliers, P.J.; Welling, D.; Savani, N.P.; Weigel, R.S.; Love, Jeffrey J.; Balch, Christopher; Ngwira, C.M.; Crowley, G.; Schultz, Adam; Kataoka, R.; Anderson, B.; Fugate, D.; Simpson, J.J.; MacAlester, M.

2017-01-01

This paper is the primary deliverable of the very first NASA Living With a Star Institute Working Group, Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GIC) Working Group. The paper provides a broad overview of the current status and future challenges pertaining to the science, engineering, and applications of the GIC problem. Science is understood here as the basic space and Earth sciences research that allows improved understanding and physics-based modeling of the physical processes behind GIC. Engineering, in turn, is understood here as the “impact” aspect of GIC. Applications are understood as the models, tools, and activities that can provide actionable information to entities such as power systems operators for mitigating the effects of GIC and government agencies for managing any potential consequences from GIC impact to critical infrastructure. Applications can be considered the ultimate goal of our GIC work. In assessing the status of the field, we quantify the readiness of various applications in the mitigation context. We use the Applications Readiness Level (ARL) concept to carry out the quantification.

Growing Physics and Astronomy Public Outreach in Montreal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simard, Gabrielle; Lepo, Kelly

2017-01-01

AstroMcGill was founded in 2011 by an enthusiastic group of undergraduate students, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. It serves as the education and public outreach (EPO) branch of the astronomy group within the Physics Department at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Over the last five years, AstroMcGill has grown from organizing sporadic visits in a couple primary schools to running a successful inquiry-based outreach programme for grade 4-6 students, the McGill Space Explorers. During the same time span, the attendance at public AstroNight lectures ramped up from attracting a few dozen people to over 500 people each month. We will highlight the recent successes of the programme and our best guesses for the reasons behind this success. We will also discuss the challenges of working in a bilingual city as we juggle our majority anglophone volunteers, a mandatory french science curriculum for primary school children and the (somewhat) overlapping English- and French-speaking communities in the city.

The NASA Space Life Sciences Training Program: Accomplishments Since 2013

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rask, Jon; Gibbs, Kristina; Ray, Hami; Bridges, Desireemoi; Bailey, Brad; Smith, Jeff; Sato, Kevin; Taylor, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

The NASA Space Life Sciences Training Program (SLSTP) provides undergraduate students entering their junior or senior years with professional experience in space life science disciplines. This challenging ten-week summer program is held at NASA Ames Research Center. The primary goal of the program is to train the next generation of scientists and engineers, enabling NASA to meet future research and development challenges in the space life sciences. Students work closely with NASA scientists and engineers on cutting-edge research and technology development. In addition to conducting hands-on research and presenting their findings, SLSTP students attend technical lectures given by experts on a wide range of topics, tour NASA research facilities, participate in leadership and team building exercises, and complete a group project. For this presentation, we will highlight program processes, accomplishments, goals, and feedback from alumni and mentors since 2013. To date, 49 students from 41 different academic institutions, 9 staffers, and 21 mentors have participated in the program. The SLSTP is funded by Space Biology, which is part of the Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Application division of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. The SLSTP is managed by the Space Biology Project within the Science Directorate at Ames Research Center.