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The Scope and Direction of Health Informatics

Health Informatics (HI) is a dynamic discipline based upon the medical sciences, information sciences, and cognitive sciences. Its domain is can broadly be defined as medical information management. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of this domain, discuss the current "state of the art" , and indicate the likely growth areas for health informatics. The sources of information utilized in this paper are selected publications from the literature of Health Informatics, HI 5300: Introduction to Health Informatics, which is a course from the Department of Health Informatics at the University of Texas Houston Health Sciences Center, and the author's personal experience in practicing telemedicine and implementing an electronic medical record at the NASA Johnson Space Center. The conclusion is that the direction of Health Informatics is in the direction of data management, transfer, and representation via electronic medical records and the Internet.

McGinnis, Patrick J.↗

Scientific Data Analysis and Software Support: Geodynamics

The support on this contract centers on development of data analysis strategies, geodynamic models, and software codes to study four-dimensional geodynamic and oceanographic processes, as well as studies and mission support for near-Earth and interplanetary satellite missions. SRE had a subcontract to maintain the optical laboratory for the LTP, where instruments such as MOLA and GLAS are developed. NVI performed work on a Raytheon laser altimetry task through a subcontract, providing data analysis and final data production for distribution to users. HBG had a subcontract for specialized digital topography analysis and map generation. Over the course of this contract, Raytheon ITSS staff have supported over 60 individual tasks. Some tasks have remained in place during this entire interval whereas others have been completed and were of shorter duration. Over the course of events, task numbers were changed to reflect changes in the character of the work or new funding sources. The description presented below will detail the technical accomplishments that have been achieved according to their science and technology areas. What will be shown is a brief overview of the progress that has been made in each of these investigative and software development areas. Raytheon ITSS staff members have received many awards for their work on this contract, including GSFC Group Achievement Awards for TOPEX Precision Orbit Determination and the Joint Gravity Model One Team. NASA JPL gave the TOPEX/POSEIDON team a medal commemorating the completion of the primary mission and a Certificate of Appreciation. Raytheon ITSS has also received a Certificate of Appreciation from GSFC for its extensive support of the Shuttle Laser Altimeter Experiment.

Klosko, Steven↗

Clinical Decision Support - Concepts of Operation

We are entering a new era in space exploration to return to the moon and explore Mars. These ambitious goals will require significant changes to in-flight and habitat medical care due to constraints on mass, volume, power, crew time and medical evacuation capabilities. These constraints make it absolutely necessary to develop transformative solutions using new technologies. The Exploration Medical Capability (ExMC) Element of the Human Research Program (HRP) pushes the boundary of space medical systems to advance the care of astronauts on future exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit by identifying and testing next-generation medical care and crew health maintenance technologies. The Clinical Decision Support (CDS) project addresses the gap Medical-701 within the Inflight Medical Conditions risk: Enhance medical capabilities within an exploration medical system. For long-duration, deep space missions, computational and data resources will play an important role in maintaining crew health, wellness and performance where the crew will need to be more self-reliant. The aim of the CDS project is to develop and provide recommended requirements for an in-vehicle CDSS that acts as an assistant for delivering optimal health and performance and medical care during exploration missions. The CDSS is envisioned as a software-based tool that will augment a crewmembers’ knowledge, skills and abilities to assist in decision-making and crew health and performance (CHP) management thus increasing CHP systems capabilities. The human interface will be context aware and lessen the cognitive load to assimilate and use information as well as combine large disparate data sets in such a manner that provides the crew with actionable insight to decisions related to crew medical, health and performance management. Crew autonomy will be provided through a CDS that presents knowledge and data in a context aware manner to augment a crew members’ knowledge, skills and abilities during the process of observation, orientation, decisions and action. The CDS project addresses the need for crew members to operate independently during long duration space exploration missions that require medical Levels of Care (LoC) V, the highest level specified by NASA-STD-3001 and described in more detail by the ExMC interpretation of LoC document (NASA/TM-2017-219290), where significant changes to in-flight and habitat medical care necessitate increasing crew autonomy in decision making and task performance. The CDS project will develop and test a series of iterative and increasingly more complex system prototypes. These annual demonstrations of the data system integration with the crew health and performance domain will inform exploration medical system requirements for an on-board Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) through a series of use cases that guide CDS prototype functionality. CDS concepts are based on ExMC Concept of Operations documents (presented separately) and will highlight architecture extensibility to other more complex analyses and tests using core crew health and performance integrated data management, processing and visualization capabilities. This approach also establishes how externally developed analyses and approaches could be added to expand a clinical decision support system and thus highlight how a comprehensive system can be commercially and/or globally developed. The CDS project will build upon the concept of an integrated data management approach based on the Medical Data Architecture (MDA) project to more fully address challenges associated with in-flight and habitat medical, health and performance care due to constraints on mass, volume, power, crew time and medical evacuation capabilities required for medical LoC V. These requirements will be derived through systems engineering approaches and software prototype developments over the course of the multi-year CDS project to address crew health and performance decision-making and task performance, often autonomously executed by the crew, in a manner that is consistent with the appropriate medical level of care for the mission. This presentation will provide an overview of the vision for the CDS project and highlight the initial accomplishments in project planning, implementation and requirements identification in fiscal year 2020.

clinical decision support↗

Launching and Deploying the James Webb Space Telescope

On December 25, 2021, at 12:20 UTC, the James Webb Space Telescope lifted off and onward to its destination in orbit at the second Lagrange point. With more than two decades in development, and an international collaboration between NASA, CSA, and ESA, Webb is one of the most anticipated science missions ever launched. After a dramatic and flawless launch, Webb's toughest and riskiest days lie ahead. Unprecedented in its complexity and ambition, over the next two weeks Webb would undergo the most complex on-orbit deployment sequence ever attempted, with any single deployment anomaly carrying the risk of full mission failure. An exquisite design, years of ground testing, a exhaustively trained and rehearsed operations and engineering team, and an unprecedented level of contingency planning, all resulted in a fully and successfully deployed Webb observatory, on its way to L2, and nominally cooling to its cryogenic temperatures. Although Webb still had many more months of commissioning left, there was a collective sigh of relief heard round the world. This incredible achievement was not by chance but was years in the making. We go behind the scenes of Webb's first month on orbit, starting with the unique and challenging launch itself, the time criticality of its mid-course corrections, and a summary of nearly 14 days to undergo nearly 50 major deployments. We discuss what went better than planned and how years of robust and detailed contingency planning were prepared for unanticipated events and on-orbit spacecraft behavior. And finally, we provide a brief overview of the entire commissioning process which successfully completed on July 10th, 2022.

Keith A Parrish↗

The Chandra X-ray Observatory: An Overview of Its Success

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the X-Ray component of NASA's Great Observatory Program has been an outstanding scientific and technical success. Designed for a three year lifespan, Chandra is now beginning its 8-th year of scientific operation. Some of the history of the Project, including a discussion of the design, development, and calibration of the X-Ray optics will be presented. Of course the highlights of several of the myriad discoveries will be shown concerning topics ranging from solar system objects to dark matter studies in clusters of galaxies.

Weisskopf, Martin C.↗

Enhancing Systems Engineering Education Through Case Study Writing

Developing and refining methods for teaching systems engineering is part of Systems Engineering grand challenges and agenda for research in the SE research community. Retention of systems engineering knowledge is a growing concern in the United States as the baby boom generation continues to retire and the faster pace of technology development does not allow for younger generations to gain experiential knowledge through years of practice. Government agencies, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), develop their own curricula and SE leadership development programs to "grow their own" systems engineers. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) conducts its own Center-focused Marshall Systems Engineering Leadership Development Program (MSELDP), a competitive program consisting of coursework, a guest lecture series, and a rotational assignment into an unfamiliar organization engaged in systems engineering. Independently, MSFC developed two courses to address knowledge retention and sharing concerns: Real World Marshall Mission Success course and its Case Study Writers Workshop and Writers Experience. Teaching case study writing and leading students through a hands-on experience at writing a case study on an SE topic can enhance SE training and has the potential to accelerate the transfer of experiential knowledge. This paper is an overview of the pilot experiences with teaching case study writing, its application in case study-based learning, and identifies potential areas of research and application for case study writing in systems engineering education.

Stevens, Jennifer Stenger↗

Thermal & Electrochemical Power Plant Design and Cost Estimation

Public textbook for "Thermal & Electrochemical Power Plant Design and Cost Estimation: Version#1" This public textbook is an extension of class notes from Carnegie Mellon University courses: Energy System Modeling (24-722) and Fuel Cell Systems (24-262), taught by Dr. Nicholas Siefert between 2010-2021. Textbook includes some references to class notes from Dr. Shawn Litster, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University. Textbook covers the equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamics of power systems as well as an overview of system and economic modeling of these systems. There is in-depth coverage of (a) entropy generation, (b) exergy and (c) the redox state of molecules in equilibrium with the natural environment. This textbook is integrated with other materials (such as lecture slides, solved homeworks, and solved exams) that will be posted to the PowerShare: Energy Systems Modeling group on EDX. Publication Number: DOE/NETL-2023/3913

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

An overview of the communications technology satellite project: Executive summary

An overview of the Communications Technology Satellite (CTS) project, a joint venture between NASA and the Canadian Department of Communications is given. A brief technical description of the CTS spacecraft and its cognate hardware and operations, a history of the CTS project, and a list of the CTS experiments and demonstrations conducted during the course of the project are given.

Rapp, W.↗

Creating the Environment for Exploration Habitats

The Crew and Thermal Systems Division’s (CTSD) 20 Foot Chamber has undergone significant modifications to support NASA’s future human exploration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Existing chamber systems such as Vacuum/Repress, Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), and Fire Suppression System (FSS), were upgraded, while new systems such as Air Revitalization and Gas Distribution were added. In addition, the chamber was outfitted with crew quarters, hygiene areas, storage, and workspaces. Teams across the Johnson Space Center (JSC) worked together to overcome the logistical and operational challenges of the planned test parameters. The ultimate goal was to create an analog testbed in which a maximum of 8 human test subjects could safely live and work for at least 11 days in the same conditions (reduced pressures, Oxygen concentrations, etc.) as those expected inside a base spacecraft. This would allow researchers to study the effects of such environments on humans and to validate proposed Prebreathe Protocols to enable the safe performance of surface extravehicular activities (EVAs). Over the last eighteen months, the CTSD Systems Test Branch has performed six tests of varying lengths and atmospheres for both NASA and commercial partners. To date, researchers now have collected data on 48 test subjects in the course of 42 days and over 130 simulated EVAs. This paper will discuss the history of the 20 Foot Chamber, its long road to becoming an analog testbed for human exploration, and the capabilities that make it a unique, world class facility for NASA and commercial human exploration missions. It will provide an overview of past and future testing, and the lessons learned along the way.

Cristina Aurora Anchondo↗

Creating the Environment for Exploration Habitats

The Crew and Thermal Systems Division’s (CTSD) 20 Foot Chamber has undergone significant modifications to support NASA’s future human exploration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Existing chamber systems such as Vacuum/Repress, Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), and Fire Suppression System (FSS), were upgraded, while new systems such as Air Revitalization and Gas Distribution were added. In addition, the chamber was outfitted with crew quarters, hygiene areas, storage, and workspaces. Teams across the Johnson Space Center (JSC) worked together to overcome the logistical and operational challenges of the planned test parameters. The ultimate goal was to create an analog testbed in which a maximum of 8 human test subjects could safely live and work for at least 11 days in the same conditions (reduced pressures, Oxygen concentrations, etc.) as those expected inside a base spacecraft. This would allow researchers to study the effects of such environments on humans and to validate proposed Prebreathe Protocols to enable the safe performance of surface extravehicular activities (EVAs). Over the last eighteen months, the CTSD Systems Test Branch has performed six tests of varying lengths and atmospheres for both NASA and commercial partners. To date, researchers now have collected data on 48 test subjects in the course of 42 days and over 130 simulated EVAs. This paper will discuss the history of the 20 Foot Chamber, its long road to becoming an analog testbed for human exploration, and the capabilities that make it a unique, world class facility for NASA and commercial human exploration missions. It will provide an overview of past and future testing, and the lessons learned along the way.

Cristina A Anchondo↗

Creating the Test Environment for Exploration Habitats

The Crew and Thermal Systems Division’s (CTSD) 20 Foot Chamber has undergone significant modifications to support NASA’s future human exploration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Existing chamber systems such as Vacuum/Repress, Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), and Fire Suppression System (FSS), were upgraded, while new systems such as Air Revitalization and Gas Distribution were added. In addition, the chamber was outfitted with crew quarters, hygiene areas, storage, and workspaces. Teams across the Johnson Space Center (JSC) worked together to overcome the logistical and operational challenges of the planned test parameters. The ultimate goal was to create an analog testbed in which a maximum of eight human test subjects could safely live and work for at least 11 days in the same conditions (e.g., reduced pressures, oxygen concentrations, and so on) as those expected inside a base spacecraft. This would allow researchers to study the effects of such environments on humans and to validate proposed Prebreathe Protocols to enable the safe performance of surface extravehicular activities (EVAs). Over the last 18 months, the CTSD Systems Test Branch has performed six tests of varying lengths and atmospheres for both NASA and commercial partners. To date, researchers now have collected data on 48 test subjects in the course of 42 days and over 130 simulated EVAs. This paper will discuss the history of the 20 Foot Chamber, its long road to becoming an analog testbed for human exploration, and the capabilities that make it a unique, world class facility for NASA and commercial human exploration missions. It will provide an overview of past and future testing and the lessons learned along the way.

Cristina A Anchondo↗

Creating the Test Environment for Exploration Habitats

The Crew and Thermal Systems Division’s (CTSD) 20 Foot Chamber has undergone significant modifications to support NASA’s future human exploration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Existing chamber systems such as Vacuum/Repress, Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), and Fire Suppression System (FSS), were upgraded, while new systems such as Air Revitalization and Gas Distribution were added. In addition, the chamber was outfitted with crew quarters, hygiene areas, storage, and workspaces. Teams across the Johnson Space Center (JSC) worked together to overcome the logistical and operational challenges of the planned test parameters. The ultimate goal was to create an analog testbed in which a maximum of eight human test subjects could safely live and work for at least 11 days in the same conditions (e.g., reduced pressures, oxygen concentrations, and so on) as those expected inside a base spacecraft. This would allow researchers to study the effects of such environments on humans and to validate proposed Prebreathe Protocols to enable the safe performance of surface extravehicular activities (EVAs). Over the last 18 months, the CTSD Systems Test Branch has performed six tests of varying lengths and atmospheres for both NASA and commercial partners. To date, researchers now have collected data on 48 test subjects in the course of 42 days and over 130 simulated EVAs. This paper will discuss the history of the 20 Foot Chamber, its long road to becoming an analog testbed for human exploration, and the capabilities that make it a unique, world class facility for NASA and commercial human exploration missions. It will provide an overview of past and future testing and the lessons learned along the way.

Chris Briggs↗

Interrogating Solar Flare Loop Models With IRIS Observations 1: Overview of the Models, and Mass Flows

Solar flares are transient yet dramatic events in the atmosphere of the Sun, during which a vast amount of magnetic energy is liberated. This energy is subsequently transported through the solar atmosphere or into the heliosphere, and together with coronal mass ejections flares comprise a fundamental component of space weather. Thus, understanding the physical processes at play in flares is vital. That understanding often requires the use of forward modelling in order to predict the hydrodynamic and radiative response of the solar atmosphere. Those predictions must then be critiqued by observations to show us where our models are missing ingredients. While flares are of course 3D phenomenon, simulating the flaring atmosphere including an accurate chromosphere with the required spatial scales in 3D is largely beyond current computational capabilities, and certainly performing parameter studies of energy transport mechanisms is not yet tractable in 3D. Therefore, field-aligned 1D loop models that can resolve the relevant scales have a crucial role to play in advancing our knowledge of flares. In recent years, driven in part by the spectacular observations from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), flare loop models have revealed many interesting features of flares. For this review I highlight some important results that illustrate the utility of attacking the problem of solar flares with a combination of high quality observations, and state-of-the-art flare loop models, demonstrating: 1) how models help to interpret flare observations from IRIS, 2) how those observations show us where we are missing physics from our models, and 3) how the ever increasing quality of solar observations drives model improvements. Here in Paper one of this two part review I provide an overview of modern flare loop models, and of electron-beam driven mass flows during solar flares.

solar flares↗

Cyber-Informed Engineering Adoption in University Engineering Programs: An Overview of CIE Integration Successes at Nine U.S. Educational Institutions

This report examines the adoption of Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) in university engineering programs, driven by the need to protect critical energy infrastructure from adversarial threats. CIE equips current and future engineers and technicians with the necessary mindset, skills, and competencies to enhance the resilience of engineered systems against cyber attacks. This report highlights nine academic partners who are incorporating CIE into their curricula through various approaches, including lectures, courses, and certificates.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Jet Mixing Enhancement by Feedback Control

The objective of this work has been to produce methodologies for high speed jet noise reduction based on natural mechanisms and enhanced feedback control to affect frequencies and structures in a prescribed manner. In this effort the two-point hot wire measurements obtained in the Langley jet facility by Ukeiley were used in conjuction with linear stochastic estimation (LSE) to implement the LSE component of the complementary technique. This method combines the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and LSE to provide an experimental low dimensional time dependent description of the flow field. From such a description it should be possible to identify short time high strain rate events in the jet which contribute to the noise. The main task completed for this effort is summarized: LSE experiments were performed at the downstream locations where the two point hot wire measurements have been obtained by Ukeiley. These experiments involved sampling simultaneously hot wire signals from a relatively course spatial grid in gamma and theta. From this simultaneous data, coupled with the two-point measurements of Ukeiley via the LSE components of the complementary technique, an experimental low dimensional description of the jet at 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 diameters downstream was obtained for Mach numbers of 0.3 and 0.6. We first present an overview of the theory involved. We finish up with a statement of the work performed and finally provide charts from a 1999 APS talk which summarizes the results.

Glauser, Mark↗

Structural diversity among multinary pnictide oxides: a minireview focused on semiconducting and superconducting heteroanionic materials

Incorporating different anions with varied ionic sizes and charges is a rapidly growing approach to bring out unusual physical properties among various classes of solid-state materials, pnictides and chalcogenides in particular. This minireview is focused on hetero-anionic materials based on the pnictogens, which have been demonstrated to offer an impressive diversity of crystal chemistry and electronic structures. In addition, many pnictide oxides or oxypnictides, over the course of the last decade, have been shown to exhibit a broad spectrum of superconducting, magnetic, and semiconducting properties. However, the structural diversity of the mixed-anion materials is far greater than the several known structure types, or their variants, of the well-known layered superconductive materials. Therefore, with this treatise, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the crystal chemistry of pnictide oxides by recounting almost 40 different structures of such ternary and multinary compounds. In addition to the structural aspects, we also highlight some of the challenges associated with the synthesis, and briefly summarize reported, to date, physical properties of this remarkable class of solids.

crystal structure↗

Mars Aeronomy Explorer (MAX): Study Employing Distributed Micro-Spacecraft

An overview of a Mars Aeronomy Explorer (MAX) mission design study performed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is presented herein. The mission design consists of ten micro-spacecraft orbiters launched on a Delta IV to Mars polar orbit to determine the spatial, diurnal and seasonal variation of the constituents of the Martian upper atmosphere and ionosphere over the course of one Martian year. The spacecraft are designed to allow penetration of the upper atmosphere to at least 90 km. This property coupled with orbit precession will yield knowledge of the nature of the solar wind interaction with Mars, the influence of the Mars crustal magnetic field on ionospheric processes, and the measurement of present thermal and nonthermal escape rates of atmospheric constituents. The mission design incorporates alternative design paradigms that are more appropriate for-and in some cases motivate-distributed micro-spacecraft. These design paradigms are not defined by a simple set of rules, but rather a way of thinking about the function of instruments, mission reliability/risk, and cost in a systemic framework.

Mars↗

How the discovery of Cold Noise delayed the production of ATLAS ITk strip tracker modules by a year

Here, the construction of the ATLAS strip tracker barrel will require the assembly of 12,000 barrel detector modules over the course of 3.5 years. In 2022, during the module pre-production phase, modules were found to display clusters of noisy channels outside required specifications when tested at operating temperatures (-35°C), called “Cold Noise”. Extensive investigations into the cause and mechanism of Cold Noise interrupted pre-production and occupied most barrel module assembly sites. This contribution presents an overview of the year-long investigations into Cold Noise, the final identification of the underlying mechanism and necessary changes for the transition to production.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗