Support and servicing requirements for large observatories in space

The concept of lunar optical and IR observatories is a natural step in the total utilization of the space environment for the benefit of science. Among the challenges associated with this remote observatory concept is the requirement for the support and servicing of the facility. This presentation will draw on the experience of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) program on-orbit maintenance design requirements plus the Lockheed on-orbit servicing and assembly activity to develop requirements for the maintenance and construction of a lunar observatory

Machine Learning Approaches to Modeling the Physiochemical Properties of Small Peptides

Peptide and protein sequences are most commonly represented as a strings: a series of letters selected from the twenty character alphabet of abbreviations for the naturally occurring amino acids. Here, we experiment with representations of small peptide sequences that incorporate more physiochemical information. Specifically, we develop three different physiochemical representations for a set of roughly 700 HIV–I protease substrates. These different representations are used as input to an array of six different machine learning models which are used to predict whether or not a given peptide is likely to be an acceptable substrate for the protease. Our results show that, in general, higher–dimensional physiochemical representations tend to have better performance than representations incorporating fewer dimensions selected on the basis of high information content. We contend that such representations are more biologically relevant than simple string–based representations and are likely to more accurately capture peptide characteristics that are functionally important.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

Advances in smart grids - benefits on sharing background experiences from Portugal, Central Europe and Brazil

This paper presents ELECON - Electricity Consumption Analysis to Promote Energy Efficiency Considering Demand Response and Non-technical Losses, an international research project that involves European and Brazilian partners. ELECON focuses on energy efficiency increasing through consumer´s active participation which is a key area for Europe and Brazil cooperation. The project aims at significantly contributing towards the successful implementation of smart grids, focussing on the use of new methods that allow the efficient use of distributed energy resources, namely distributed generation, storage and demand response. ELECON puts together researchers from seven European and Brazilian partners, with consolidated research background and evidencing complementary competences. ELECON involves institutions of 3 European countries (Portugal, Germany, and France) and 4 Brazilian institutions. The complementary background and experience of the European and Brazilian partners is of main relevance to ensure the capacities required to achieve the proposed goals. In fact, the European Union (EU) and Brazil have very different resources and approaches in what concerns this area. Having huge hydro and fossil resources, Brazil has not been putting emphasis on distributed renewable based electricity generation. On the contrary, EU has been doing huge investments in this area, taking into account environmental concerns and also the economic EU external dependence dictated by huge requirements of energy related products imports. Sharing these different backgrounds allows the project team to propose new methodologies able to efficiently address the new challenges of smart grids

Color pattern recognition with circular component whitening

Polychromatic object recognition based on circular whitening preprocessing of red-green-blue components and multichannel matched filtering is described. Computer simulations and experimental results are provided to facilitate recognizing a color target among objects of similar shape but with different color contents. Experimental results are obtained with an optical correlator with two spatial light modulators, one to introduce the scene and the second one to introduce the filter

Identifying metabolites by integrating metabolome databases with mass spectrometry cheminformatics.

Novel metabolites distinct from canonical pathways can be identified through the integration of three cheminformatics tools: BinVestigate, which queries the BinBase gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) metabolome database to match unknowns with biological metadata across over 110,000 samples; MS-DIAL 2.0, a software tool for chromatographic deconvolution of high-resolution GC-MS or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS); and MS-FINDER 2.0, a structure-elucidation program that uses a combination of 14 metabolome databases in addition to an enzyme promiscuity library. We showcase our workflow by annotating N-methyl-uridine monophosphate (UMP), lysomonogalactosyl-monopalmitin, N-methylalanine, and two propofol derivatives

It ain\u27t easy being on the streets : Understanding the Needs of Street-Involved Youth in Southern Ontario through a Client-Centred Approach

Tens of thousands of street-involved youth in Canada live in various forms of precarious housing – living outside on the streets, in youth shelters, couch surfing, and so on. Research into the needs of street youth often employs a “top-down” approach, relying on health researchers as experts on their needs as opposed to directly engaging the sentiments of the youth themselves. This literature is often based on the assumption that meeting the needs of street youth involves providing access to opportunities for minimizing the risks posed by street life. This study serves as a counterbalance to this literature by employing a symbolic interactionist and client-centred approach to give these youth the opportunity to describe their experiences of street life. Instead of focusing on protecting youth from risks, it treats them as capable individuals who are experts in defining their needs and as stakeholders in the services offered to them. There is also an identified need in the literature for research on the needs of street youth that is holistic and simultaneously examines multiple aspects of their lives. Through in-depth one-on-one interviews with 15 street youth in two Southern Ontario cities, I sought to gain a deeper understanding of how these youth define various aspects of their lived experiences of street involvement, their needs, and the ways in which they go about meeting those needs. Despite facing a number of challenges related to family conflict, mental health issues, and issues with obtaining shelter, among many others, participants of this study represent a highly resilient, resourceful and disciplined group of young people who are invested in the social services offered to them. I also argue that, in spite of the fact that they feel marginalized in society, the client-centred approach empowers these youth by honouring their wisdom as a key contribution to research directly impacting them

HISTORICAL BENEFIT AND CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO SUSTAINABLE (LOW CARBON) URBAN TRANSPORT IN JAPAN

2012-03The Millennium Cities Database for Sustainable Transport ranks Tokyo as top performer in comparison to 84 cities in providing one of the comparatively most sustainable transport systems worldwide. This finding will be examined on the basis of land-use and transport energy consumption in order to unlock the underlying success factors. As a result, three main reasons could be identified: (1) a strong regulatory and institutional framework, (2) reasonable spatial planning strategies, and (3) investment decisions in an appropriate socioeconomic environment. In the second part of the paper, two road transport related policy initiatives, the “Top-Runner Regulation” and the “No Diesel-Vehicle Campaign”, with regard to their contribution to sustainable (low carbon) mobility will be analyzed. In conclusion, the Top Runner Regulation could be more congruent with its initial goal, if stepwise weight-categorized fuel consumption standards would be replaced by a linear standard as applied in the European Union. How significant the loopholes created by the Japanese weight-categorized standards are in comparison to the EU regulation remains unclear. The European standard, however, is obviously more stringent. The “No Diesel-Vehicle Campaign”, by contrast, seems to be a full success.Comments and Discussions : Shinichi NAGAORevised version, September 2012departmental bulletin pape

Sociodemographic Correlates of Public Land Use and Management Preferences Among Utah Residents

The purpose of this thesis is to look at the preferred use and management of public lands in the state of Utah. The data used in this study was collected through a statewide, random survey measuring the respondent’s preferred use and management of public lands along with social and demographic information. Several quantitative tests were conducted on the variables used to illustrate the following: a snapshot of what the survey population looks like, how each independent variable interacts with the dependent variable, and finally, the combined interaction of all of the independent variables on the dependent variable. The primary goal of this thesis is to add more information to the growing body of literature on public land uses and preferences. Specifically, this research hopes to shed some light on how people in Utah feel about the use and management of public lands that exist within the borders. A secondary purpose in this study is to provide agencies and individuals that have a say in the use and management of public lands with information that will help them to manage public lands to more closely resemble the desires of the state residents. If a characteristic (or set of characteristics) is identified as a reliable predictor of preferences, those people and agencies who have the power to decide how public lands will be used will have a better indicator as to how well their decision will go over based on the characteristics of the population in that area