Midcourse maneuver operations program

Midcourse Maneuver Operations Program /MMOP/ computes the required velocity change to correct a spacecraft trajectory. The program establishes the existence of maneuvers which satisfy spacecraft constraints, explores alternate trajectories in the event that some out-of-tolerance condition forces a change in plans, and codes the maneuvers into commands

Monotonic Prefix Consistency in Distributed Systems

We study the issue of data consistency in distributed systems. Specifically, we consider a distributed system that replicates its data at multiple sites, which is prone to partitions, and which is assumed to be available (in the sense that queries are always eventually answered). In such a setting, strong consistency, where all replicas of the system apply synchronously every operation, is not possible to implement. However, many weaker consistency criteria that allow a greater number of behaviors than strong consistency, are implementable in available distributed systems. We focus on determining the strongest consistency criterion that can be implemented in a convergent and available distributed system that tolerates partitions. We focus on objects where the set of operations can be split into updates and queries. We show that no criterion stronger than Monotonic Prefix Consistency (MPC) can be implemented.Comment: Submitted pape

Unlocking biomarker discovery: Large scale application of aptamer proteomic technology for early detection of lung cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths, because ~84% of cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Worldwide in 2008, ~1.5 million people were diagnosed and ~1.3 million died – a survival rate unchanged since 1960. However, patients diagnosed at an early stage and have surgery experience an 86% overall 5-year survival. New diagnostics are therefore needed to identify lung cancer at this stage. Here we present the first large scale clinical use of aptamers to discover blood protein biomarkers in disease with our breakthrough proteomic technology. This multi-center case-control study was conducted in archived samples from 1,326 subjects from four independent studies of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in long-term tobacco-exposed populations. We measured >800 proteins in 15uL of serum, identified 44 candidate biomarkers, and developed a 12-protein panel that distinguished NSCLC from controls with 91% sensitivity and 84% specificity in a training set and 89% sensitivity and 83% specificity in a blinded, independent verification set. Performance was similar for early and late stage NSCLC. This is a significant advance in proteomics in an area of high clinical need

Implementation of routine outcome measurement in child and adolescent mental health services in the United Kingdom: a critical perspective

The aim of this commentary is to provide an overview of clinical outcome measures that are currently recommended for use in UK Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), focusing on measures that are applicable across a wide range of conditions with established validity and reliability, or innovative in their design. We also provide an overview of the barriers and drivers to the use of Routine Outcome Measurement (ROM) in clinical practice

Brief behavioural activation for adolescent depression: working with complexity and risk

Given the long-term negative outcomes associated with depression in adolescence, there is a pressing need to develop brief, evidence based treatments that are accessible to more young people experiencing low mood. Behavioural Activation (BA) is an effective treatment for adult depression, however little research has focused on the use of BA with depressed adolescents, particularly with briefer forms of BA. In this article we outline an adaptation of brief Behavioral Activation Treatment of Depression (BATD) designed for adolescents and delivered in eight sessions (Brief BA). This case example illustrates how a structured, brief intervention was useful for a depressed young person with a number of complicating and risk factors

Weight, Temperature, and Transcutaneous Bilirubin of the Term Neonate at Discharge: A Comparative Study Between a Traditional Nursery and Rooming-in Model of Care

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine day of discharge term neonate outcomes of percent weight change, body temperature, and transcutaneous bilirubin from a traditional nursery and a rooming-in model of care. Design: A retrospective, descriptive, comparative design was used, comparing two groups for differences between outcomes. Methods: A total of 102 electronic neonate records from one hospital in north Georgia were examined and divided based on when the model of neonate care changed from the traditional nursery care setting to full rooming-in, which was early November 2010: Group 1 (traditional care) consisted of 51 term neonates discharged from August 2010 through October 2010; Group 2 (rooming-in) consisted of 51 term neonates discharged from November 2010 through February 2011. Results: A one-way ANOVA revealed there was no statistically significant difference for neonates’ percent change in weight between the traditional nursery group and the rooming-in group, F(1, 100) = 1.70, p = .195. In addition, no significant difference was found for neonates’ discharge temperature or discharge transcutaneous bilirubin level between the two groups, F(1, 100) = 0.003, p = .953 and F(1, 100) = 0.000, p = .985, respectively. Conclusions: These study findings suggest term neonates cared for by their mothers in rooming-in settings have similar biometric measurements as neonates cared for by nurses in traditional nurseries. This strengthens the case for hospitals to either continue the practice of rooming-in or to transition to rooming-in if currently practicing within the traditional nursery setting

A glimpse into the differential topology and geometry of optimal transport

This note exposes the differential topology and geometry underlying some of the basic phenomena of optimal transportation. It surveys basic questions concerning Monge maps and Kantorovich measures: existence and regularity of the former, uniqueness of the latter, and estimates for the dimension of its support, as well as the associated linear programming duality. It shows the answers to these questions concern the differential geometry and topology of the chosen transportation cost. It also establishes new connections --- some heuristic and others rigorous --- based on the properties of the cross-difference of this cost, and its Taylor expansion at the diagonal.Comment: 27 page

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types