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At least 163 records · Page 9

Evolutionary period changes in the rapidly oscillating Ap stars

Preliminary computations of the asymptotic p-mode frequency spacings, and their time derivatives, are presented for a grid of evolutionary models of the rapidly oscillating Ap ('roAp') stars. It is shown how the frequency spacings depend on stellar mass, metallicity, and evolutionary stage. The frequency spacings observed in two of the roAp stars indicate that they either are main-sequence objects or have evolved off of the main sequence, depending on how the pulsation spectrum is interpreted. A way to remove this ambiguity is suggested: secular evolutionary changes in the pulsation frequencies may be measurable if the roAp stars have evolved off of the main sequence. In principle, this determination may be made for the roAp star HR 1217 with existing data.

Heller, Clayton H.↗

Structural system reliability calculation using a probabilistic fault tree analysis method

The development of a new probabilistic fault tree analysis (PFTA) method for calculating structural system reliability is summarized. The proposed PFTA procedure includes: developing a fault tree to represent the complex structural system, constructing an approximation function for each bottom event, determining a dominant sampling sequence for all bottom events, and calculating the system reliability using an adaptive importance sampling method. PFTA is suitable for complicated structural problems that require computer-intensive computer calculations. A computer program has been developed to implement the PFTA.

Torng, T. Y.↗

NASA's New Technology Reporting System: A Review and Future Prospects

This report represents a systematic effort to describe how NASA's new technology reporting system operates today, and how that system might be enhanced. Although the system has run for more than two decades, it is not well documented in terms of organization, operational practices, or other program benchmarks. The study seeks to identify and assess incentives or disincentives to reporting, program management, program follow through, and the feasibility of various means for improving the general process. Initially, it was hoped that the study team might uncover the kind of information that would permit the determination of some 'average' sequence of events (or a time line) from the point of identifying a solution to technical 'need' to the point where its solution was actually reported to NASA. Information regarding this objective proved to be too elusive, primarily because early probes revealed that con- tractor awareness of the new technology requirements generally was too poor to provide useful information. The report that follows is based primarily upon documents furnished by NASA Headquarters, by Field Center technology utilization officers, and interviews with persons knowledgeable about the system. Visits were made to seven Field Centers: Ames Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johnson Space Center, Langley Research Center, Lewis Research Center, and Marshall Space Flight Center. Other documents were furnished by officials of major aerospace corporations. Detailed interviews were conducted with Field Center technology utilization officials, project engineers or scientists, patent counsels, and other Field Center officials who had knowledge about the new technology reporting system. Interviews also were conducted with knowledgeable officials from a number of the primary aerospace companies. Numeric data was obtained from regular NASA reports, from original sources such as, NASA Tech Briefs, or from contractor reports. I am indebted to dozens of persons in both NASA and industry who took time to assist in the data collection by being interviewed, and through answering follow up questions on the telephone. Individuals interviewed and their affiliations are shown in Appendix A. I am most grateful to them for their kind assistance. A note of thanks is due to the other members of the DRI study team: Jody Briles, Kathy Hirst, and Joel Johnson. The responsibility for this report, its accuracy, and the nature of the observations and conclusions rest solely with the author. Text or citations in the numbered footnotes are to be found at the end of each chapter.

Chapman, Richard L.↗

Sources, Sinks, and the Distribution of OH in the Lower Stratosphere

Extensive measurement campaigns by the NASA ER-2 research aircraft have obtained a nearly pole-to-pole database of the species that control HOx (OH + HO2) chemistry. The wide dynamic range of these in situ measurements provides an opportunity to demonstrate empirically the mechanisms that control the HOx system. Measurements in the lower stratosphere show a remarkably tight correlation of OH concentration with the solar zenith angle (SZA). This correlation is nearly invariant over latitudes ranging from 70 S to 90 N and all seasons. An analysis of the production and loss of HOx in terms of the rate determining steps of reaction sequences developed by Johnston and Podolske and Johnston and Kinnison is used to clarify the behavior of the system and to directly test our understanding of the system with observations. Calculations using in situ measurements show that the production rate of HOx is proportional to O3 and ultraviolet radiation flux. The loss rate is proportional to the concentration and the partitioning of NOy (reactive nitrogen) and the concentration of HO2. In the absence of heterogeneous reactions, the partitioning of NOy is controlled by O3 and NOx and the concentration of HO2 is controlled by NOy and O3, so that the removal rate of OH is buffered against changes in the correlation of O3 and NOy. The heterogeneous conversion of NO2 to HNO3 is not an important net source of HO, because production and removal sequences are nearly balanced. Changes in NOy partitioning resulting from heterogeneous chemistry have a large effect on the loss rates of HOx, but little or no impact on the measured abundance of OH. The enhanced loss rates at high NO2/HNO3 are offset in the data set examined here by enhanced production rates resulting from increased photolysis rates resulting from the decreased O3 column above the ER-2.

Hanisco, T. F.↗

Chance and necessity in the selection of nucleic acid catalysts

In Tom Stoppard's famous play [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead], the ill-fated heroes toss a coin 101 times. The first 100 times they do so the coin lands heads up. The chance of this happening is approximately 1 in 10(30), a sequence of events so rare that one might argue that it could only happen in such a delightful fiction. Similarly rare events, however, may underlie the origins of biological catalysis. What is the probability that an RNA, DNA, or protein molecule of a given random sequence will display a particular catalytic activity? The answer to this question determines whether a collection of such sequences, such as might result from prebiotic chemistry on the early earth, is extremely likely or unlikely to contain catalytically active molecules, and hence whether the origin of life itself is a virtually inevitable consequence of chemical laws or merely a bizarre fluke. The fact that a priori estimates of this probability, given by otherwise informed chemists and biologists, ranged from 10(-5) to 10(-50), inspired us to begin to address the question experimentally. As it turns out, the chance that a given random sequence RNA molecule will be able to catalyze an RNA polymerase-like phosphoryl transfer reaction is close to 1 in 10(13), rare enough, to be sure, but nevertheless in a range that is comfortably accessible by experiment. It is the purpose of this Account to describe the recent advances in combinatorial biochemistry that have made it possible for us to explore the abundance and diversity of catalysts existing in nucleic acid sequence space.

Review, Tutorial↗

Brayton Power Conversion Unit Tested: Provides a Path to Future High-Power Electric Propulsion Missions

Closed-Brayton-cycle conversion technology has been identified as an excellent candidate for nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) power conversion systems. Advantages include high efficiency, long life, and high power density for power levels from about 10 kWe to 1 MWe, and beyond. An additional benefit for Brayton is the potential for the alternator to deliver very high voltage as required by the electric thrusters, minimizing the mass and power losses associated with the power management and distribution (PMAD). To accelerate Brayton technology development for NEP, the NASA Glenn Research Center is developing a low-power NEP power systems testbed that utilizes an existing 2- kWe Brayton power conversion unit (PCU) from previous solar dynamic technology efforts. The PCU includes a turboalternator, a recuperator, and a gas cooler connected by gas ducts. The rotating assembly is supported by gas foil bearings and consists of a turbine, a compressor, a thrust rotor, and an alternator on a single shaft. The alternator produces alternating-current power that is rectified to 120-V direct-current power by the PMAD unit. The NEP power systems testbed will be utilized to conduct future investigations of operational control methods, high-voltage PMAD, electric thruster interactions, and advanced heat rejection techniques. The PCU was tested in Glenn s Vacuum Facility 6. The Brayton PCU was modified from its original solar dynamic configuration by the removal of the heat receiver and retrofitting of the electrical resistance gas heater to simulate the thermal input of a steady-state nuclear source. Then, the Brayton PCU was installed in the 3-m test port of Vacuum Facility 6, as shown. A series of tests were performed between June and August of 2002 that resulted in a total PCU operational time of about 24 hr. An initial test sequence on June 17 determined that the reconfigured unit was fully operational. Ensuing tests provided the operational data needed to characterize PCU performance over its full operating range. The primary test variables used in operating the Brayton PCU were heater input power and rotor speed. Testing demonstrated a maximum steady-state alternating-current power output of 1835 W at a gas heater power of 9000 W and a rotor speed of 52000 rpm. The corresponding measured turbine inlet gas temperature was 1076 K, and the compressor inlet gas temperature was 282 K. When insulation losses from the gas heater were neglected, the Brayton cycle efficiency for the maximum power point was calculated to be 24 percent. The net direct-current power output was 1750 W, indicating a PMAD efficiency of about 95 percent.

Mason, Lee S.↗

Summary of the Fourth AIAA CFD Drag Prediction Workshop

Results from the Fourth AIAA Drag Prediction Workshop (DPW-IV) are summarized. The workshop focused on the prediction of both absolute and differential drag levels for wing-body and wing-body-horizontal-tail configurations that are representative of transonic transport air- craft. Numerical calculations are performed using industry-relevant test cases that include lift- specific flight conditions, trimmed drag polars, downwash variations, dragrises and Reynolds- number effects. Drag, lift and pitching moment predictions from numerous Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics methods are presented. Solutions are performed on structured, unstructured and hybrid grid systems. The structured-grid sets include point- matched multi-block meshes and over-set grid systems. The unstructured and hybrid grid sets are comprised of tetrahedral, pyramid, prismatic, and hexahedral elements. Effort is made to provide a high-quality and parametrically consistent family of grids for each grid type about each configuration under study. The wing-body-horizontal families are comprised of a coarse, medium and fine grid; an optional extra-fine grid augments several of the grid families. These mesh sequences are utilized to determine asymptotic grid-convergence characteristics of the solution sets, and to estimate grid-converged absolute drag levels of the wing-body-horizontal configuration using Richardson extrapolation.

Vassberg, John C.↗

Runtime Verification with State Estimation

We introduce the concept of Runtime Verification with State Estimation and show how this concept can be applied to estimate theprobability that a temporal property is satisfied by a run of a program when monitoring overhead is reduced by sampling. In such situations, there may be gaps in the observed program executions, thus making accurate estimation challenging. To deal with the effects of sampling on runtime verification, we view event sequences as observation sequences of a Hidden Markov Model (HMM), use an HMM model of the monitored program to "fill in" sampling-induced gaps in observation sequences, and extend the classic forward algorithm for HMM state estimation (which determines the probability of a state sequence, given an observation sequence) to compute the probability that the property is satisfied by an execution of the program. To validate our approach, we present a case study based on the mission software for a Mars rover. The results of our case study demonstrate high prediction accuracy for the probabilities computed by our algorithm. They also show that our technique is much more accurate than simply evaluating the temporal property on the given observation sequences, ignoring the gaps.

sampling↗

A Fast Goal Recognition Technique Based on Interaction Estimates

Goal Recognition is the task of inferring an actor's goals given some or all of the actor's observed actions. There is considerable interest in Goal Recognition for use in intelligent personal assistants, smart environments, intelligent tutoring systems, and monitoring user's needs. In much of this work, the actor's observed actions are compared against a generated library of plans. Recent work by Ramirez and Geffner makes use of AI planning to determine how closely a sequence of observed actions matches plans for each possible goal. For each goal, this is done by comparing the cost of a plan for that goal with the cost of a plan for that goal that includes the observed actions. This approach yields useful rankings, but is impractical for real-time goal recognition in large domains because of the computational expense of constructing plans for each possible goal. In this paper, we introduce an approach that propagates cost and interaction information in a plan graph, and uses this information to estimate goal probabilities. We show that this approach is much faster, but still yields high quality results.

gola recognition↗

Boulder Bands on Lobate Debris Aprons: Does Spatial Clustering Reveal Accumulation History for Martian Glaciations?

Glacial landforms such as lobate debris aprons (LDA) and Concentric Crater Fill (CCF) are the dominant debris-covered glacial landforms on Mars. These landforms represent a volumetrically significant component of the Amazonian water ice budget, however, because small craters (diameter D≤ 0.5-1 km) are poorly retained glacial “brain terrain” surfaces, and, since the glacial landforms are geologically young, it is challenging to reliably constrain either individual glacial deposit ages or formational sequences in order to determine how quickly the glaciers accumulated. A fundamental question remaining is whether ice deposition and flow that formed LDA occurred episodically during a few, short instances, or whether glacial flow was quasi-continuous over a long period (~108 yr). Because glaciation is thought to be controlled largely by obliquity excursions, a larger question is whether glacial deposits on Mars exhibit regional to global characteristics that can be used to infer synchronicity of flow or degradation.

Levy, J. S.↗

A Titan gravity-assist technique for ballistic tours skimming over the rings of Saturn

A novel type of Titan-flyby orbits featuring passes of the Saturn rings at close range has been recently discovered. The purpose of this study is to explore the trajectory design space and assess the applicability of such orbits to the design of a Saturn Ring Tour mission concept. A set of initial conditions required to start a tour of the rings is first determined and a flyby sequence to maximize the science observation time over desired ring regions in terms of range distance, relative velocity and duration is then selected. To demonstrate the potential of this technique, a sample high-fidelity ballistic ring tour is detailed.

Tiscareno, Matthew↗

Interuser Interference Analysis for Direct-Sequence Spread-Spectrum Systems Part I: Partial-Period Cross-Correlation

This presentation discusses an analysis approach to evaluate the interuser interference for Direct-Sequence Spread-Spectrum (DSSS) Systems for Space Network (SN) Users. Part I of this analysis shows that the correlation property of pseudo noise (PN) sequences is the critical factor which determines the interuser interference performance of the DSSS system. For non-standard DSSS systems in which PN sequence s period is much larger than one data symbol duration, it is the partial-period cross-correlation that determines the system performance. This study reveals through an example that a well-designed PN sequence set (e.g. Gold Sequence, in which the cross-correlation for a whole-period is well controlled) may have non-controlled partial-period cross-correlation which could cause severe interuser interference for a DSSS system. Since the analytical derivation of performance metric (bit error rate or signal-to-noise ratio) based on partial-period cross-correlation is prohibitive, the performance degradation due to partial-period cross-correlation will be evaluated using simulation in Part II of this analysis in the future.

Ni, Jianjun (David)↗

Smooth Pursuit Saccade Amplitude Modulation During Exposure to Microgravity

Russian investigators have reported changes in pursuit tracking of a vertically moving point stimulus during space flight. Early in microgravity, changes were manifested by decreased eye movement amplitude (undershooting) and the appearance of correction saccades. As the flight progressed, pursuit of the moving point stimulus deteriorated while associated saccadic movements were unchanged. Immediately postflight there was an improved execution of active head movements indicating that the deficiencies in pursuit function noted in microgravity may be of central origin. In contrast, tests of two cosmonauts showed that horizontal and vertical smooth pursuit were unchanged inflight. However, results of corresponding saccadic tasks showed a tendency toward the overshooting of a horizontal target early inflight with high accuracy developing later inflight, accompanied by an increased saccade velocity and a trend toward decreased saccade latency. Based on these equivocal results, we have further investigated the effects of space flight on the smooth pursuit mechanism during and after short duration flight, and postflight on returning MIR crewmembers. Sinusoidal target movement was presented horizontally at frequencies of 0.33 and 1.0 Hz. Subjects were asked to perform two trials for each stimulus combination: (1) moving eyes-only (EO) and (2) moving eyes and head (EH) with the target motion. Peak amplitude was 30 deg for 0.33 Hz trials and 15 deg for the 1.0 Hz trials. The relationship between saccade amplitude and peak velocity were plotted as a main sequence for each phase of flight, and linear regression analysis allowed us to determine the slope of each main sequence plot. The linear slopes were then combined for each flight phase for each individual subject. The main sequence for both EO and EH trials at both the 0.33 and 1.0 Hz frequencies during flight for the short duration flyers showed a reduction in saccade velocity and amplitude when compared to the preflight main sequence . This difference in the regression slopes between flight phase, head/eye condition (EO or EH), and pursuit target frequency was observed across all subjects (statistically significant at the p<0.02, df= 2). It is interesting to note that postflight for the short duration flyers there was an immediate recovery to the preflight main sequence across all trials. There were no significant differences observed between the preflight slopes for either head movement condition (EO vs. EH). When the immediate postflight (R+O) regression slopes were compared with the preflight slopes, there was a tendency (not significant) for both saccade amplitude and peak velocity to increase during the postflight testing. This tendency had vanished by R+ 1. Of particular interest was the redistribution of saccades during the latter stages of the flight and immediately postflight in the EO condition. At the 1.0 Hz frequency the saccades tended to be clustered near the lowest target velocity. It was also interesting to note that gaze performance (eye in skull + head in space) was consistently better during the EH condition; a finding also observed by our Russian colleagues. As the results of the long duration flight become available we expect that they will not only show that postflight effects will be similar to those observed during the short duration flights, but will also last for a greater period of time following flight. It is not clear what mechanism is responsible for the decreased peak saccadic velocity during flight unless the change is related to the control of retinal slip. For example, it is possible that saccades will tend to initially undershoot their targets by a small percentage and these saccades are then followed, if vision is available, by a small augmenting corrective saccade. It has been postulated that the functional significance of this undershooting tendency is to maintain the spatial representation of the target on the same side of the fovea (as opposedo racing across the fovea) and hence in the same cerebral hemisphere that initiated the primary saccade thus minimizing delays caused by an intra-hemispheric transfer of information . One could also speculate that with saccade velocities greater than normal, additional corrective saccades would be required to bring the target back on the fovea. A less plausible explanation of our findings could be fatigue. Yet it seems unlikely that our subjects would show lower velocities on all inflight test days while showing increased saccade velocities immediately following space flight where fatigue is usually the greatest. Finally, the redistribution effect noted late inflight is likely caused by adaptive changes. Overall, corrective saccades appeared to be used in maintaining gaze on target; reducing retinal slip and assisting space travelers in maintaining clear vision throughout the different phases of the space flight.

Reschke, M. F.↗

Phylogeny of the ammonia-producing ruminal bacteria Peptostreptococcus anaerobius, Clostridium sticklandii, and Clostridium aminophilum sp. nov

In previous studies, gram-positive bacteria which grew rapidly with peptides or an amino acid as the sole energy source were isolated from bovine rumina. Three isolates, strains C, FT (T = type strain), and SR, were considered to be ecologically important since they produced up to 20-fold more ammonia than other ammonia-producing ruminal bacteria. On the basis of phenotypic criteria, the taxonomic position of these new isolates was uncertain. In this study, the 16S rRNA sequences of these isolates and related bacteria were determined to establish the phylogenetic positions of the organisms. The sequences of strains C, FT, and SR and reference strains of Peptostreptococcus anaerobius, Clostridium sticklandii, Clostridium coccoides, Clostridium aminovalericum, Acetomaculum ruminis, Clostridium leptum, Clostridium lituseburense, Clostridium acidiurici, and Clostridium barkeri were determined by using a modified Sanger dideoxy chain termination method. Strain C, a large coccus purported to belong to the genus Peptostreptococcus, was closely related to P. anaerobius, with a level of sequence similarity of 99.6%. Strain SR, a heat-resistant, short, rod-shaped organism, was closely related to C. sticklandii, with a level of sequence similarity of 99.9%. However, strain FT, a heat-resistant, pleomorphic, rod-shaped organism, was only distantly related to some clostridial species and P. anaerobius. On the basis of the sequence data, it was clear that strain FT warranted designation as a separate species. The closest known relative of strain FT was C. coccoides (level of similarity, only 90.6%). Additional strains that are phenotypically similar to strain FT were isolated in this study.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS).

NASA Program Exobiology↗

Evaluation of nearest-neighbor methods for detection of chimeric small-subunit rRNA sequences

Detection of chimeric artifacts formed when PCR is used to retrieve naturally occurring small-subunit (SSU) rRNA sequences may rely on demonstrating that different sequence domains have different phylogenetic affiliations. We evaluated the CHECK_CHIMERA method of the Ribosomal Database Project and another method which we developed, both based on determining nearest neighbors of different sequence domains, for their ability to discern artificially generated SSU rRNA chimeras from authentic Ribosomal Database Project sequences. The reliability of both methods decreases when the parental sequences which contribute to chimera formation are more than 82 to 84% similar. Detection is also complicated by the occurrence of authentic SSU rRNA sequences that behave like chimeras. We developed a naive statistical test based on CHECK_CHIMERA output and used it to evaluate previously reported SSU rRNA chimeras. Application of this test also suggests that chimeras might be formed by retrieving SSU rRNAs as cDNA. The amount of uncertainty associated with nearest-neighbor analyses indicates that such tests alone are insufficient and that better methods are needed.

NASA Discipline Exobiology↗

Phylogenetic origins of the plant mitochondrion based on a comparative analysis of 5S ribosomal RNA sequences

The complete nucleotide sequences of 5S ribosomal RNAs from Rhodocyclus gelatinosa, Rhodobacter sphaeroides, and Pseudomonas cepacia were determined. Comparisons of these 5S RNA sequences show that rather than being phylogenetically related to one another, the two photosynthetic bacterial 5S RNAs share more sequence and signature homology with the RNAs of two nonphotosynthetic strains. Rhodobacter sphaeroides is specifically related to Paracoccus denitrificans and Rc. gelatinosa is related to Ps. cepacia. These results support earlier 16S ribosomal RNA studies and add two important groups to the 5S RNA data base. Unique 5S RNA structural features previously found in P. denitrificans are present also in the 5S RNA of Rb. sphaeroides; these provide the basis for subdivisional signatures. The immediate consequence of obtaining these new sequences is that it is possible to clarify the phylogenetic origins of the plant mitochondrion. In particular, a close phylogenetic relationship is found between the plant mitochondria and members of the alpha subdivision of the purple photosynthetic bacteria, namely, Rb. sphaeroides, P. denitrificans, and Rhodospirillum rubrum.

Villanueva, E.↗

A Fast-Time Study of Aircraft Reordering in Arrival Sequencing and Scheduling

In order to ensure that the safe capacity of the terminal area is not exceeded, Air Traffic Management ATM often places restrictions on arriving flights transitioning from en route airspace to terminal airspace. This restriction of arrival traffic is commonly referred to as arrival flow management, and includes techniques such as metering, vectoring, fix-load balancing, and the imposition of miles-in-trail separations. These restrictions are enacted without regard for the relative priority which airlines may be placing on individual flights based on factors such as crew criticality, passenger connectivity, critical turn times, gate availability, on-time performance, fuel status, or runway preference. The development of new arrival flow management techniques which take into consideration priorities expressed by air carriers will likely reduce the economic impact of ATM restrictions on the airlines and lead to increased airline economic efficiency by allowing airlines to have greater control over their individual arrival banks of aircraft. NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have designed and developed a suite of software decision support tools (DSTs) collectively known as the Center TRACON Automation System (CTAS). One of these tools, the Traffic Management Advisor (TMA) is currently being used at the Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center to perform arrival flow management of traffic into the Dallas/Fort Worth airport (DFW). The TMA is a time-based strategic planning tool that assists Traffic Management Coordinators (TMCs) and En Route Air Traffic Controllers in efficiently balancing arrival demand with airport capacity. The primary algorithm in the TMA is a real-time scheduler which generates efficient landing sequences and landing times for arrivals within about 200 no a. from touchdown. This scheduler will sequence aircraft so that they arrive in a first- come - first-served (FCFS) order. While FCFS sequencing establishes a fair order based on estimated times of arrival, it does not take into account individual airline priorities among incoming flights. NASA is exploring the possibility of allowing airlines to express relative arrival priorities to air traffic management through the development of new CTAS scheduling algorithms which take into consideration airline arrival preferences. The accommodation of airline priorities in arrival sequencing and scheduling would under most circumstances result in a deviation from a "natural" or FCFS arrival order. As a First step toward developing airline influenced sequencing algorithms, an investigation was conducted to determine the feasibility of reordering arrival traffic from a strict FCFS sequence. A fast-time simulation has been developed which allows statistical evaluation of sequencing and scheduling algorithms for arrival traffic at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. In contrast to real-time simulation or field tests, which would require on the order of ninety minutes to examine a single traffic rush period, the fast-time simulation allows examination of multiple rush periods in a matter of seconds.

Carr, Greg↗

Establishing homologies in protein sequences

Computer-based statistical techniques used to determine homologies between proteins occurring in different species are reviewed. The technique is based on comparison of two protein sequences, either by relating all segments of a given length in one sequence to all segments of the second or by finding the best alignment of the two sequences. Approaches discussed include selection using printed tabulations, identification of very similar sequences, and computer searches of a database. The use of the SEARCH, RELATE, and ALIGN programs (Dayhoff, 1979) is explained; sample data are presented in graphs, diagrams, and tables and the construction of scoring matrices is considered.

Dayhoff, M. O.↗