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Meehan, Thomas

Publications and source records attributed to Meehan, Thomas.

6 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Multi-species outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in a zoological institution, with the detection in two new families of carnivores

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a worldwide distribution in humans and many other mammalian species. In late September 2021, 12 animals maintained by the Chicago Zoological Society's Brookfield Zoo were observed with variable clinical signs. The Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 was detected in faeces and nasal swabs by qRT-PCR, including the first detection in animals from the families Procyonidae and Viverridae. Test positivity rate was 12.5% for 35 animals tested. All animals had been vaccinated with at least one dose of a recombinant vaccine designed for animals and all recovered with variable supportive treatment. Sequence analysis showed that six zoo animal strains were closely correlated with 18 human SARS-CoV-2 strains, suggestive of potential human-to-animal transmission events. This report documents the expanding host range of COVID-19 during the ongoing pandemic.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2004

Ka-Band Autonomous Formation Flying Sensor

Ka-band integrated range and bearing-angle formation sensor called the Autonomous Formation Flying (AFF) Sensor has been developed to enable deep-space formation flying of multiple spacecraft. The AFF Sensor concept is similar to that of the Global Positioning System (GPS), but the AFF Sensor would not use the GPS. The AFF Sensor would reside in radio transceivers and signal-processing subsystems aboard the formation-flying spacecraft. A version of the AFF Sensor has been developed for initial application to the two-spacecraft StarLight optical-interferometry mission, and several design investigations have been performed. From the prototype development, it has been concluded that the AFF Sensor can be expected to measure distances and directions with standard deviations of 2 cm and 1 arc minute, respectively, for spacecraft separations ranging up to about 1 km. It has also been concluded that it is necessary to optimize performance of the overall mission through design trade-offs among the performance of the AFF Sensor, the field of view of the AFF Sensor, the designs of the spacecraft and the scientific instruments that they will carry, the spacecraft maneuvers required for formation flying, and the design of a formation-control system.

Tien, Jeffrey↗
NASA NTRS2003

P-Code-Enhanced Encryption-Mode Processing of GPS Signals

A method of processing signals in a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver has been invented to enable the receiver to recover some of the information that is otherwise lost when GPS signals are encrypted at the transmitters. The need for this method arises because, at the option of the military, precision GPS code (P-code) is sometimes encrypted by a secret binary code, denoted the A code. Authorized users can recover the full signal with knowledge of the A-code. However, even in the absence of knowledge of the A-code, one can track the encrypted signal by use of an estimate of the A-code. The present invention is a method of making and using such an estimate. In comparison with prior such methods, this method makes it possible to recover more of the lost information and obtain greater accuracy.

Young, Lawrence↗