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NASA NTRS2010

Correlated Topics in a Scalable Multidimensional Text Cube: Algorithms and Aviation Safety Case Study

As world-wide air traffic continues to grow even at a modest pace, the overall complexity of the system will increase significantly. This increased complexity can lead to a larger number of fatalities per year even if the extremely low fatality rate that we currently enjoy is maintained. One important source of information about the safety of the aviation system is in Aviation Safety Text Reports which are written by members of the flight crew, air traffic controllers, and other parties involved with the aviation system. These anonymized narrative reports contain fixed-field contextual information about the flight but also contain free-form narratives that describe, in the author s own words, the nature of the safety incident and, in many cases, the contributing factors that led to the safety incident. Several thousand such reports are filed each month, each of which is read and analyzed by highly trained experts. However, it is possible that there are emerging safety issues due to the fact that they may be reported very infrequently and in different contexts with different descriptions. The goal of this research paper is to develop correlated topic models which uncover correlations in the subspaces defined by the intersection of numerous fixed fields and discovered correlated topics. This task requires the discovery of latent topics in the text reports and the creation of a topic cube. Furthermore, because the number of potential cells in the topic cube is very large, we discuss novel methods of pruning the search space in the topic cells, thereby making the analysis feasible. We demonstrate the new algorithms on an analysis of pilot fatigue and its contributing factors, as well as the safety incidents that are correlated with this phenomenon.

Zhao, Bo↗

NASA NTRS2019

Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) Phase 2 Technology Description Document (TDD)

This Technology Description Document (TDD) provides an overview of the technology for the Phase 1 Baseline and Phase 2 Fused demonstrations of the Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) prototype system of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) project, which has been demonstrated since October of 2017 at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). Development, integration, and field demonstration of relevant technologies of the IADS system directly address recommendations made by the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) Integration Working Group (NIWG) on Surface and Data Sharing and the Surface Collaborative Decision Making (Surface CDM) concept of operations developed jointly by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aviation industry partners. NASA has been developing the IADS traffic management system under the ATD-2 project in coordination with the FAA, flight operators, CLT airport operators, and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). The primary goal of ATD-2 is to improve the predictability and operational efficiency of the air traffic system in metroplex environments, through the enhancement, development, and integration of the nation’s most advanced and sophisticated arrival, departure, and surface prediction, scheduling, and management systems. The ATD-2 project is a 5-year research activity beginning in 2015 and extending through 2020. The Phase 1 Baseline IADS capability resulting from the ATD-2 research has been demonstrated at the CLT airport since the beginning of October 2017. Phase 1 provided data exchange and integration with the initial demonstration of the integrated system of strategic and tactical scheduling, collaborative tactical surface metering, tactical departure scheduling to an en route meter point and overhead stream insertion, initial integration of a TFDM SWIM prototype feed, and an early implementation prototype of a Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) Electronic Flight Data (EFD) system. The strategic surface scheduling element of the capability is consistent with the Surface CDM Concept of Operations published in 2014 by the FAA Surface Operations Directorate.1 The Phase 2 Fused IADS system provided substantial updates to baseline IADS Demonstration capability. Improvements were made to the IADS modeler; tactical surface scheduling, and metering; tactical departure scheduling for overhead stream insertion; Electronic Flight Data (EFD) and the integration with the FAA Advanced Electronic Flight Strip (AEFS); RTC/RMTC, and departure trajectories. New capabilities included a TFDM SWIM prototype feed and delivery of IADS data via the TFDM Terminal Publication (TTP) service of the FAA’s SWIM system; strategic surface scheduling and metering as well as fusion with tactical surface metering; integration and ingestion of data from TTP-connected Mobile App and texting industry for General Aviation (GA) flights; and expansion of airspace deployments to include adjacent Center automation, in particular interface with the Atlanta Center (ZTL) arrival metering TBFM system to evaluate pre-scheduling of flights. Improvements in Data Analysis and System Health (DASH) monitoring and updates were completed as well.

Talebi, Ehsan↗

NASA NTRS1992

Guide to object-oriented analysis and design

The purpose of this guide is to provide Marshall Space Flight Center personnel with guidelines for the use of object-oriented analysis and design and to describe how it can be accomplished within the framework of existing development directives, including the Software Development Plan. It is not intended as a detailed tutorial. The reader is referred to the Coad and Yourdon texts in the References.

Harrison, Harry C.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Copyright Ownership in a Networked Multimedia Environment

The explosion of computer communications in the United States has spurred the development of many new technologies. One of these new technologies is Mosaic and the World-Wide Web. Mosaic is a user interface that uses the internet as a backbone for communications. The Mosaic interface enables a user to manipulate text, images and graphics produced by different authors. The flexibility that Mosaic offers raises significant copyright issues. This paper attempts to analyze these issues using current copyright law as a framework. The author then goes on to offer a different analysis that may result from future developments in copyright law.

Williams, Vernon E.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Natural Language Processing Methods for Air Traffic Management Text and Speech Data

This presentation discusses two efforts of the NARI AI/ML Intern team during the Fall 2021 OSTEM Internship term. For Letters of Agreement (LoA), we have studied how LoAs are structured and explored the question ‘What is an LoA constraint?’ To do this, our approach is data-driven, iterative, and assisted by machine learning when available. In this presentation, we will walk through our tasks of manually scanning through documents, performing a preliminary entity labelling task, and our unsupervised analysis on LoA procedures sections. After this research phase, we define the smallest constraint unit in an LoA, and start to perform entity extraction. Looking towards constraint extraction, we are also exploring the use of a one-class support vector machine (OneClassSVM) model to identify patterns within the data. The second effort of our team this term is focused on Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) advisory meetings, and the subsequent advisory documents that get published from their content. These advisory documents are important to give readily accessible summaries of daily operations, so that data centers, airline officials, and other stakeholders can easily understand the context of these meetings in real time. In applying machine learning to this scenario, two natural language processing tasks are used. First is developing machine learning models to convert the meeting speech data into text. With this text, use of extractive and abstractive text summarization models are used to automatically generate preliminary versions of the advisory documents.

Natural Language Processing↗

NASA NTRS1973

The Earth's Rotation

The most ancient and fundamental concern of astronomy is the orientation and motion of a terrestrial observer relative to the stars. Its geophysical aspects date from the time of Newton and Halley, and its mathematical foundations were laid by Euler 200 years ago. Despite this honorable antiquity, the subject is far from moribund and today presents a rich and fascinating array of challenges to observation, experiment, data analysis, and theory. The many‐faceted problems of the three‐dimensional rotation of the earth about its center of mass now attract astronomers and paleontologists, solid earth geophysicists and electrical engineers, general relativists and oceanographers, and applied mathematicians and scholars of classical texts.

M G Rochester↗

NASA NTRS1983

Generic buckling curves for specially orthotropic rectangular plates

Using a double affine transformation, the classical buckling equation for specially orthotropic plates and the corresponding virtual work theorem are presented in a particularly simple fashion. These dual representations are characterized by a single material constant, called the generalized rigidity ratio, whose range is predicted to be the closed interval from 0 to 1 (if this prediction is correct then the numerical results using a ratio greater than 1 in the specially orthotropic plate literature are incorrect); when natural boundary conditions are considered a generalized Poisson's ratio is introduced. Thus the buckling results are valid for any specially orthotropic material; hence the curves presented in the text are generic rather than specific. The solution trends are twofold; the buckling coefficients decrease with decreasing generalized rigidity ratio and, when applicable, they decrease with increasing generalized Poisson's ratio. Since the isotropic plate is one limiting case of the above analysis, it is also true that isotropic buckling coefficients decrease with increasing Poission's ratio.

Brunnelle, E. J.↗

NASA NTRS2006

NASA Taxonomies for Searching Problem Reports and FMEAs

Many types of hazard and risk analyses are used during the life cycle of complex systems, including Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Hazard Analysis, Fault Tree and Event Tree Analysis, Probabilistic Risk Assessment, Reliability Analysis and analysis of Problem Reporting and Corrective Action (PRACA) databases. The success of these methods depends on the availability of input data and the analysts knowledge. Standard nomenclature can increase the reusability of hazard, risk and problem data. When nomenclature in the source texts is not standard, taxonomies with mapping words (sets of rough synonyms) can be combined with semantic search to identify items and tag them with metadata based on a rich standard nomenclature. Semantic search uses word meanings in the context of parsed phrases to find matches. The NASA taxonomies provide the word meanings. Spacecraft taxonomies and ontologies (generalization hierarchies with attributes and relationships, based on terms meanings) are being developed for types of subsystems, functions, entities, hazards and failures. The ontologies are broad and general, covering hardware, software and human systems. Semantic search of Space Station texts was used to validate and extend the taxonomies. The taxonomies have also been used to extract system connectivity (interaction) models and functions from requirements text. Now the Reconciler semantic search tool and the taxonomies are being applied to improve search in the Space Shuttle PRACA database, to discover recurring patterns of failure. Usual methods of string search and keyword search fall short because the entries are terse and have numerous shortcuts (irregular abbreviations, nonstandard acronyms, cryptic codes) and modifier words cannot be used in sentence context to refine the search. The limited and fixed FMEA categories associated with the entries do not make the fine distinctions needed in the search. The approach assigns PRACA report titles to problem classes in the taxonomy. Each ontology class includes mapping words - near-synonyms naming different manifestations of that problem class. The mapping words for Problems, Entities and Functions are converted to a canonical form plus any of a small set of modifier words (e.g. non-uniformity NOT + UNIFORM.) The report titles are parsed as sentences if possible, or treated as a flat sequence of word tokens if parsing fails. When canonical forms in the title match mapping words, the PRACA entry is associated with the corresponding Problem, Entity or Function in the ontology. The user can search for types of failures associated with types of equipment, clustering by type of problem (e.g., all bearings found with problems of being uneven: rough, irregular, gritty ). The results could also be used for tagging PRACA report entries with rich metadata. This approach could also be applied to searching and tagging failure modes, failure effects and mitigations in FMEAs. In the pilot work, parsing 52K+ truncated titles (the test cases that were available), has resulted in identification of both a type of equipment and type of problem in about 75% of the cases. The results are displayed in a manner analogous to Google search results. The effort has also led to the enrichment of the taxonomy, adding some new categories and many new mapping words. Further work would make enhancements that have been identified for improving the clustering and further reducing the false alarm rate. (In searching for recurring problems, good clustering is more important than reducing false alarms). Searching complete PRACA reports should lead to immediate improvement.

Malin, Jane T.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Display and Automation Considerations for the Airborne Collision Avoidance System Xu

In this paper we examine several display and automation considerations of a collision avoidance system that is currently under development: the Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS) Xu. This study builds on previous work conducted as part of NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration into the National Airspace System (NAS) project. ACAS Xu represents the next-generation successor to the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS II), wherein the Xu variant is intended for UAS applications. Whereas TCAS II exclusively issues RAs in the vertical dimension, a major distinction between ACAS Xu and previous collision avoidance (CA) systems is the introduction of horizontal and “blended” RAs (i.e., RAs with both horizontal and vertical components). This present work was conducted as an engineering analysis involving two parts. In Part 1, a two-by-two, within-subjects study was performed that manipulated how RAs were presented to a pilot situated at a UAS ground control station. Five participants experienced four experimental trials in which text and aural alerting characteristics were manipulated. In Part 2, another five participants experienced four trials in which the levels of automation were manipulated with regard to the CA and return-to-course (RTC) tasks. The results for Part 1 found no effect of display or alerting configuration on pilot performance. However, it was discovered that pilot response time to RAs greatly depended on the RA type. In particular, pilots were quicker to respond to vertical RAs (M = 4.52 seconds) than horizontal (M = 7.42 seconds) and blended (M = 9.68 seconds) RAs in which both dimensions were issued simultaneously. For Part 2 of the study, pilots found both auto-CA and auto-RTC functions equally useful. Most pilots were comfortable with the automation, however responses were mixed. Three of five participants indicated high levels of comfort with the auto-CA function, while two rated their comfort as low. Pilots’ comfort for the auto-RTC functionality was slightly higher: four out of five pilots gave high ratings, while one pilot gave a low rating. Overall, pilots ordinally ranked their preference for automated functions as auto-CA together with auto-RTC (when an aural alert announces a change between CA and RTC states), auto-CA, and auto-CA and RTC (without the aural state-change announcement). Recommendations for improving the display of automation are also discussed.

collision avoidance↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Display and Automation Considerations for the Airborne Collision Avoidance System Xu

In this presentation we examine several display and automation considerations of a collision avoidance system that is currently under development: the Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS) Xu. This study builds on previous work conducted as part of NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration into the National Airspace System (NAS) project. ACAS Xu represents the next-generation successor to the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS II), wherein the Xu variant is intended for UAS applications. Whereas TCAS II exclusively issues RAs in the vertical dimension, a major distinction between ACAS Xu and previous collision avoidance (CA) systems is the introduction of horizontal and “blended” RAs (i.e., RAs with both horizontal and vertical components). This present work was conducted as an engineering analysis involving two parts. In Part 1, a two-by-two, within-subjects study was performed that manipulated how RAs were presented to a pilot situated at a UAS ground control station. Five participants experienced four experimental trials in which text and aural alerting characteristics were manipulated. In Part 2, another five participants experienced four trials in which the levels of automation were manipulated with regard to the CA and return-to-course (RTC) tasks. The results for Part 1 found no effect of display or alerting configuration on pilot performance. However, it was discovered that pilot response time to RAs greatly depended on the RA type. In particular, pilots were quicker to respond to vertical RAs (M = 4.52 seconds) than horizontal (M = 7.42 seconds) and blended (M = 9.68 seconds) RAs in which both dimensions were issued simultaneously. For Part 2 of the study, pilots found both auto-CA and auto-RTC functions equally useful. Most pilots were comfortable with the automation, however responses were mixed. Three of five participants indicated high levels of comfort with the auto-CA function, while two rated their comfort as low. Pilots’ comfort for the auto-RTC functionality was slightly higher: four out of five pilots gave high ratings, while one pilot gave a low rating. Overall, pilots ordinally ranked their preference for automated functions as auto-CA together with auto-RTC (when an aural alert announces a change between CA and RTC states), auto-CA, and auto-CA and RTC (without the aural state-change announcement). Recommendations for improving the display of automation are also discussed.

collision avoidance↗

NASA NTRS2004

Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program

Geological mapping and topical studies, primarily in the southern Acidalia Planitia/Cydonia Mensae region of Mars is presented. The overall objective was to understand geologic processes and crustal history in the northern lowland in order to assess the probability that an ocean once existed in this region. The major deliverable is a block of 6 1:500,000 scale geologic maps that will be published in 2004 as a single map at 1:1,000,000 scale along with extensive descriptive and interpretive text. A major issue addressed by the mapping was the relative ages of the extensive plains of Acidalia Planitia and the knobs and mesas of Cydonia Mensae. The mapping results clearly favor a younger age for the plains. Topical studies included a preliminary analysis of the very abundant small domes and cones to assess the possibility that their origins could be determined by detailed mapping and remote-sensing analysis. We also tested the validity of putative shorelines by using GIs to co-register full-resolution MOLA altimetry data and Viking images with these shorelines plotted on them. Of the 3 proposed shorelines in this area, one is probably valid, one is definitely not valid, and the third is apparently 2 shorelines closely spaced in elevation. Publications supported entirely or in part by this grant are included.

McGill, George E.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Tool for Forecasting Cool-Season Peak Winds Across Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

The expected peak wind speed for the day is an important element in the daily morning forecast for ground and space launch operations at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) must issue forecast advisories for KSC/CCAFS when they expect peak gusts for >= 25, >= 35, and >= 50 kt thresholds at any level from the surface to 300 ft. In Phase I of this task, the 45 WS tasked the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) to develop a cool-season (October - April) tool to help forecast the non-convective peak wind from the surface to 300 ft at KSC/CCAFS. During the warm season, these wind speeds are rarely exceeded except during convective winds or under the influence of tropical cyclones, for which other techniques are already in use. The tool used single and multiple linear regression equations to predict the peak wind from the morning sounding. The forecaster manually entered several observed sounding parameters into a Microsoft Excel graphical user interface (GUI), and then the tool displayed the forecast peak wind speed, average wind speed at the time of the peak wind, the timing of the peak wind and the probability the peak wind will meet or exceed 35, 50 and 60 kt. The 45 WS customers later dropped the requirement for >= 60 kt wind warnings. During Phase II of this task, the AMU expanded the period of record (POR) by six years to increase the number of observations used to create the forecast equations. A large number of possible predictors were evaluated from archived soundings, including inversion depth and strength, low-level wind shear, mixing height, temperature lapse rate and winds from the surface to 3000 ft. Each day in the POR was stratified in a number of ways, such as by low-level wind direction, synoptic weather pattern, precipitation and Bulk Richardson number. The most accurate Phase II equations were then selected for an independent verification. The Phase I and II forecast methods were compared using an independent verification data set. The two methods were compared to climatology, wind warnings and advisories issued by the 45 WS, and North American Mesoscale (NAM) model (MesoNAM) forecast winds. The performance of the Phase I and II methods were similar with respect to mean absolute error. Since the Phase I data were not stratified by precipitation, this method's peak wind forecasts had a large negative bias on days with precipitation and a small positive bias on days with no precipitation. Overall, the climatology methods performed the worst while the MesoNAM performed the best. Since the MesoNAM winds were the most accurate in the comparison, the final version of the tool was based on the MesoNAM winds. The probability the peak wind will meet or exceed the warning thresholds were based on the one standard deviation error bars from the linear regression. For example, the linear regression might forecast the most likely peak speed to be 35 kt and the error bars used to calculate that the probability of >= 25 kt = 76%, the probability of >= 35 kt = 50%, and the probability of >= 50 kt = 19%. The authors have not seen this application of linear regression error bars in any other meteorological applications. Although probability forecast tools should usually be developed with logistic regression, this technique could be easily generalized to any linear regression forecast tool to estimate the probability of exceeding any desired threshold . This could be useful for previously developed linear regression forecast tools or new forecast applications where statistical analysis software to perform logistic regression is not available. The tool was delivered in two formats - a Microsoft Excel GUI and a Tool Command Language/Tool Kit (Tcl/Tk) GUI in the Meteorological Interactive Data Display System (MIDDS). The Microsoft Excel GUI reads a MesoNAM text file containing hourly forecasts from 0 to 84 hours, from one model run (00 or 12 UTC). The GUI then displays e peak wind speed, average wind speed, and the probability the peak wind will meet or exceed the 25-, 35- and 50-kt thresholds. The user can display the Day-1 through Day-3 peak wind forecasts, and separate forecasts are made for precipitation and non-precipitation days. The MIDDS GUI uses data from the NAM and Global Forecast System (GFS), instead of the MesoNAM. It can display Day-1 and Day-2 forecasts using NAM data, and Day-1 through Day-5 forecasts using GFS data. The timing of the peak wind is not displayed, since the independent verification showed that none of the forecast methods performed significantly better than climatology. The forecaster should use the climatological timing of the peak wind (2248 UTC) as a first guess and then adjust it based on the movement of weather features.

Barrett, Joe H., III↗

NASA NTRS1993

Mass balance approaches for estimating the intestinal absorption and metabolism of peptides and analogues: theoretical development and applications

A theoretical analysis for estimating the extent of intestinal peptide and peptide analogue absorption was developed on the basis of a mass balance approach that incorporates convection, permeability, and reaction. The macroscopic mass balance analysis (MMBA) was extended to include chemical and enzymatic degradation. A microscopic mass balance analysis, a numerical approach, was also developed and the results compared to the MMBA. The mass balance equations for the fraction of a drug absorbed and reacted in the tube were derived from the general steady state mass balance in a tube: [formula: see text] where M is mass, z is the length of the tube, R is the tube radius, Pw is the intestinal wall permeability, kr is the reaction rate constant, C is the concentration of drug in the volume element over which the mass balance is taken, VL is the volume of the tube, and vz is the axial velocity of drug. The theory was first applied to the oral absorption of two tripeptide analogues, cefaclor (CCL) and cefatrizine (CZN), which degrade and dimerize in the intestine. Simulations using the mass balance equations, the experimental absorption parameters, and the literature stability rate constants yielded a mean estimated extent of CCL (250-mg dose) and CZN (1000-mg dose) absorption of 89 and 51%, respectively, which was similar to the mean extent of absorption reported in humans (90 and 50%). It was proposed previously that 15% of the CCL dose spontaneously degraded systematically; however, our simulations suggest that significant CCL degradation occurs (8 to 17%) presystemically in the intestinal lumen.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS).

Non-NASA Center↗

NASA NTRS2018

GMI-IPS: Python Processing Software for Aircraft Campaigns

NASA's Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) seeks to understand the impact of anthropogenic air pollution on gases in the Earth's atmosphere. Four flight campaigns are being deployed on a seasonal basis to establish a continuous global-scale data set intended to improve the representation of chemically reactive gases in global atmospheric chemistry models. The Global Modeling Initiative (GMI), is creating chemical transport simulations on a global scale for each of the ATom flight campaigns. To meet the computational demands required to translate the GMI simulation data to grids associated with the flights from the ATom campaigns, the GMI ICARTT Processing Software (GMI-IPS) has been developed and is providing key functionality for data processing and analysis in this ongoing effort. The GMI-IPS is written in Python and provides computational kernels for data interpolation and visualization tasks on GMI simulation data. A key feature of the GMI-IPS, is its ability to read ICARTT files, a text-based file format for airborne instrument data, and extract the required flight information that defines regional and temporal grid parameters associated with an ATom flight. Perhaps most importantly, the GMI-IPS creates ICARTT files containing GMI simulated data, which are used in collaboration with ATom instrument teams and other modeling groups. The initial main task of the GMI-IPS is to interpolate GMI model data to the finer temporal resolution (1-10 seconds) of a given flight. The model data includes basic fields such as temperature and pressure, but the main focus of this effort is to provide species concentrations of chemical gases for ATom flights. The software, which uses parallel computation techniques for data intensive tasks, linearly interpolates each of the model fields to the time resolution of the flight. The temporally interpolated data is then saved to disk, and is used to create additional derived quantities. In order to translate the GMI model data to the spatial grid of the flight path as defined by the pressure, latitude, and longitude points at each flight time record, a weighted average is then calculated from the nearest neighbors in two dimensions (latitude, longitude). Using SciPya's Regular Grid Interpolator, interpolation functions are generated for the GMI model grid and the calculated weighted averages. The flight path points are then extracted from the ATom ICARTT instrument file, and are sent to the multi-dimensional interpolating functions to generate GMI field quantities along the spatial path of the flight. The interpolated field quantities are then written to a ICARTT data file, which is stored for further manipulation. The GMI-IPS is aware of a generic ATom ICARTT header format, containing basic information for all flight campaigns. The GMI-IPS includes logic to edit metadata for the derived field quantities, as well as modify the generic header data such as processing dates and associated instrument files. The ICARTT interpolated data is then appended to the modified header data, and the ICARTT processing is complete for the given flight and ready for collaboration. The output ICARTT data adheres to the ICARTT file format standards V1.1. The visualization component of the GMI-IPS uses Matplotlib extensively and has several functions ranging in complexity. First, it creates a model background curtain for the flight (time versus model eta levels) with the interpolated flight data superimposed on the curtain. Secondly, it creates a time-series plot of the interpolated flight data. Lastly, the visualization component creates averaged 2D model slices (longitude versus latitude) with overlaid flight track circles at key pressure levels. The GMI-IPS consists of a handful of classes and supporting functionality that have been generalized to be compatible with any ICARTT file that adheres to the base class definition. The base class represents a generic ICARTT entry, only defining a single time entry and 3D spatial positioning parameters. Other classes inherit from this base class; several classes for input ICARTT instrument files, which contain the necessary flight positioning information as a basis for data processing, as well as other classes for output ICARTT files, which contain the interpolated model data. Utility classes provide functionality for routine procedures such as: comparing field names among ICARTT files, reading ICARTT entries from a data file and storing them in data structures, and returning a reduced spatial grid based on a collection of ICARTT entries. Although the GMI-IPS is compatible with GMI model data, it can be adapted with reasonable effort for any simulation that creates Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) files. The same can be said of its adaptability to ICARTT files outside of the context of the ATom mission. The GMI-IPS contains just under 30,000 lines of code, eight classes, and a dozen drivers and utility programs. It is maintained with GIT source code management and has been used to deliver processed GMI model data for the ATom campaigns that have taken place to date.

Damon, M. R.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Are Current SEE Test Procedures Adequate for Modern Devices and Electronics Technologies?

Believe it or not, this has been a simplistic look at starting a checklist for SEE testing. Given a memory that has 68 operating modes, when a SEU occurs that changes the mode, just how do you determine what's going on? Laser and microbeam tests can help, but not easily for modern packaged devices. Expanding this approach to other more complex devices such as ADCs or processors as well as analog devices should be considered. The recommendation is to use the existing text standards as the starting point. Just make your own checklist for the device/technology/issues being considered. At HEART 2007, we presented some of the burgeoning challenges associated with single event effect(SEE) testing of modern commercial memories: a) Package, device complexity, test fixture, and data analysis issues were discussed; b) "Complete" SEE Characterization would take 15 years; c) Qualification test costs have a greater than 4 times increase over the last decade. In this talk, we continue to explore the roles of technology with an emphasis on the existing SEE Test Procedures and some of the concerns related to modern devices. The primary objective of the briefing is to provide some overarching guidance concerning the many considerations involved in the formulation of a SEE test plan provided in a " Checklist" format.we note that there is no such thing as a complete check list and that the best approach is to develop a flexible test plan that takes into account the device type and functions, the device technology, circuit and package design, and, of course, test facility and beam characteristics.

LaBel, Kenneth A.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Computer aided systems human engineering: A hypermedia tool

The Computer Aided Systems Human Engineering (CASHE) system, Version 1.0, is a multimedia ergonomics database on CD-ROM for the Apple Macintosh II computer, being developed for use by human system designers, educators, and researchers. It will initially be available on CD-ROM and will allow users to access ergonomics data and models stored electronically as text, graphics, and audio. The CASHE CD-ROM, Version 1.0 will contain the Boff and Lincoln (1988) Engineering Data Compendium, MIL-STD-1472D and a unique, interactive simulation capability, the Perception and Performance Prototyper. Its features also include a specialized data retrieval, scaling, and analysis capability and the state of the art in information retrieval, browsing, and navigation.

Boff, Kenneth R.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Preliminary Analysis of Photoreading

The purpose of this project was to provide a preliminary analysis of a reading strategy called PhotoReading. PhotoReading is a technique developed by Paul Scheele that claims to increase reading rate to 25,000 words per minute (Scheele, 1993). PhotoReading itself involves entering a "relaxed state" and looking at, but not reading, each page of a text for a brief moment (about I to 2 seconds). While this technique has received attention in the popular press, there had been no objective examinations of the technique's validity. To examine the effectiveness of PhotoReading, the principal investigator (i.e., trainee) participated in a PhotoReading workshop to learn the technique. Parallel versions of two standardized and three experimenter-created reading comprehension tests were administered to the trainee and an expert user of the PhotoReading technique to compare the use of normal reading strategies and the PhotoReading technique by both readers. The results for all measures yielded no benefits of using the PhotoReading technique. The extremely rapid reading rates claimed by PhotoReaders were not observed; indeed, the reading rates were generally comparable to those for normal reading. Moreover, the PhotoReading expert generally showed an increase in reading time when using the PhotoReading technique in comparison to when using normal reading strategies to process text. This increase in reading time when PhotoReading was accompanied by a decrease in text comprehension.

McNamara, Danielle S.↗

NASA NTRS2006

Comprehensive Astronaut Immune Assessment Following a Short-Duration Space Flight

Immune system dysregulation has been demonstrated to occur during spaceflight and has the potential to cause serious health risks to crewmembers participating in exploration class missions. As a part of an ongoing NASA flight experiment assessing viral immunity (DSO-500), a generalized immune assessment was performed on 3 crewmembers who participated in the recent STS-114 Space Shuttle mission. The following assays were performed: (1) comprehensive immunophenotype analysis; (2) T cell function/intracellular cytokine profiles; (4) secreted Th1/Th2 cytokine profiles via cytometric bead array. Immunophenotype analysis included a leukocyte differential, lymphocyte subsets, T cell subsets, cytotoxic/effector CD8+ T cells, memory/naive T cell subsets and constitutively activated T cells. Study timepoints were L-180, L-65, L-10, R+0, R+3 and R+14. Detailed data are presented in the poster text. As expected from a limited number of human subjects, data tended to vary with respect to most parameters. Specific post-flight alterations were as follows (subject number in parentheses): Granulocytosis (2/3), reduced NK cells (3/3), elevated CD4/CD8 ratio (3/3), general CD8+ phenotype shift to a less differentiated phenotype (3/3), elevated levels of memory CD4+ T cells (3/3), loss of L-selectin on T cell subsets (3/3), increased levels of activated T cells (2/3), reduced IL-2 producing T cell subsets (3/3), levels of IFNg producing T cells were unchanged. CD8+ T cell expression of the CD69 activation markers following whole blood stimulation with SEA+SEB were dramatically reduced postflight (3/3), whereas other T cell function assessments were largely unchanged. Cytometric bead array assessment of secreted T cell cytokines was performed, following whole blood stimulation with either CD3/CD28 antibodies or PMA+ionomycin for 48 hours. Specific cytokines assessed were IFNg, TNFa, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-10. Following CD3/CD28 stimulation, all three crewmembers had a mission-associated reduction in the levels of secreted IFNg. One crewmember had a post-flight inversion in the IFNg/IL-10 ratio postflight, which trended back to baseline by R+14. Detailed cytokine data are presented in the poster text. This testing regimen was designed to correlate immunophenotype changes (thought to correspond to specific in-vivo immune responses or pathogenesis), against altered leukocyte function and cytokine profiles. In-flight studies are required to determine if post-flight alterations are reflective of the in-flight condition, or are a response to landing and readaptation.

Crucian, Brian↗