The Balloon Experimental Twin Telescope for Infrared Interferometry (BETTII): First Flight

The Balloon Experimental Twin Telescope for Infrared Interferometry (BETTII) is an 8-meter far-infrared (30-100 m) double-Fourier Michelson interferometer designed to fly on a high altitude scientific balloon. The project began in 2011, and the payload was declared ready for flight in September 2016. Due to bad weather, the first flight was postponed until June 2017; BETTII was successfully launched on June 8, 2017 for an engineering flight. Over the course of the one night flight, BETTII acquired a large amount of technical data that we are using to characterize the payload. Unfortunately, the flight ended with an anomaly that resulted in destruction of the payload. In this paper, we will discuss the path to BETTII flight, the results of the first flight, and some of the plans for the future

Creativity in Agile Systems Development: A Literature Review

Proponents of agile methods claim that enabling, fostering and driving creativity is the key motivation that differentiates agile methods from their more traditional, beauraucratic counterparts. However, there is very little rigorous research to support this claim. Like most of their predecessors, the development and promotion of these methods has been almost entirely driven by practitioners and consultants, with little objective validation from the research community. This lack of validation is particularly relevant for SMEs, given that many of their project teams typify the environment to which agile methods are most suited i.e. small, co-located teams with diverse, blended skills in unstructured, sometimes even chaotic surroundings. This paper uses creativity theory as a lens to review the current agile method literature to understand exactly how much we know about the extent to which creativity actually occurs in these agile environments. The study reveals many gaps and conflict of opinion in the body of knowledge in its current state and identifies many avenues for further research

The reductive cleavage of cyclic aminol ethers to N,N-dialkylaminoderivatives: Modifications to the Eschweiler-Clarke procedure

The reductive cleavage of cyclic aminol ethers to give N-alkylamino- derivatives in very high yields can be achieved using chlorotrimethylsilane in the presence of sodium cyanoborohydride: in the case of cyclic aminol ethers derived from formaldehyde the Eschweiler-Clarke reaction can be carried out in formic acid heated under reflux in the absence of formaldehyde

Alignment Measurements of the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) Instrument in a Thermal/Vacuum Chamber Using Photogrammetry

The Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) Observatory, scheduled for a late 2000 launch, is designed to measure temperature fluctuations (anisotropy) and produce a high sensitivity and high spatial resolution (< 0.3 deg at 90 GHz.) map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation over the entire sky between 22 and 90 GHz. MAP utilizes back-to-back Gregorian telescopes to focus the microwave signals into 10 differential microwave receivers, via 20 feed horns. Proper alignment of the telescope reflectors and the feed horns at the operating temperature of 90 K is a critical element to ensure mission success. We describe the hardware and methods used to validate the displacement/deformation predictions of the reflectors and the microwave feed horns during thermal/vacuum testing of the reflectors and the microwave instrument. The smallest deformations to be resolved by the measurement system were on the order of +/- 0.030 inches (0.762 mm). Performance of these alignment measurements inside a thermal/vacuum chamber with conventional alignment equipment posed several limitations. A photogrammetry (PG) system was chosen to perform the measurements since it is a non-contact measurement system, the measurements can be made relatively quickly and accurately, and the photogrammetric camera can be operated remotely. The hardware and methods developed to perform the MAP alignment measurements using PG proved to be highly successful. The PG measurements met the desired requirements, enabling the desired deformations to be measured and even resolved to an order of magnitude smaller than the imposed requirements. Viable data were provided to the MAP Project for a full analysis of the on-orbit performance of the Instrument's microwave system

Use of bis-(aminol) ethers derived from N-(S)-(-)alpha-methylbenzylamine in reactions with resorcinarenes and double Mannich reactions

The synthesis of some chiral bis-(aminol)ethers are described. Reaction of a solution of the resorcin[4]arene derived from propanal with N,N-bis(methoxymethyl)-N-(S)-(-)-alpha-methylbenzylamine in toluene at 85 degrees C initially afforded a 1: 1 mixture of two diastereoisomeric tetrakis(benzoxazines). Further, heating of this mixture under reflux in ethanol for 24 h afforded the crystalline (alpha S),(S)-diastereoisomer in 77% yield. N,N-bis(ethoxymethyl)-N-(S)-(-)-alpha-methylbenzylamine and N,N-bis(ethoxymethyl)-N-(R)-(+)-alpha-methylbenzylamine were reacted with beta keto esters to afford a 1: 1 mixture of the diastereoisomeric double Mannich adducts. Two of the double Mannich adducts were converted into tricyclic ABE analogues of the alkaloid methyllycaconitine 1. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved