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<p>The 3D MAT Project seeks to design and develop a game changing Woven Thermal Protection System (TPS) technology tailored to meet the needs of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) compression pad design for lunar return EM-1 mission and beyond.  The technology being developed is a multifunctional ablative thermal protection system material that is capable of meeting the structural and thermal requirements for the MPCV Orion EM-1 mission and beyond.  The Orion compression pads serve as the interface between the Crew Module and Service Module.  The Orion compression pads must carry the structural loads generated during launch, space operations and pyroshock separation of the two modules, and then must serve as an ablative TPS withstanding the high heating of Earth re-entry.  Current materials do not meet all of the requirements due to either insufficient mechanical strength or limited ability to manufacture to the required dimensions.  The goal of 3D MAT is to deliver a prototype compression pad material at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 4 in 2014 to enable Orion's further development and use of the material on the MPCV flight in 2017.</p>

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This table contains data on the percent of residents within ½ mile of a park, beach, open space, or coastline, for California, its regions, counties, cities/towns, and census tracts. Data is from the California Protected Areas Database (CPAD version 1.8, 2012) and the U.S. Census Bureau. The table is part of a series of indicators in the Healthy Communities Data and Indicators Project of the Office of Health Equity (http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/Pages/HealthyCommunityIndicators.aspx). As communities become increasingly more urban, parks and the protection of green and open spaces within cities increase in importance. Parks and natural areas buffer pollutants and contribute to the quality of life by providing communities with social and psychological benefits such as leisure, play, sports, and contact with nature. Parks are critical to human health by providing spaces for health and wellness activities. More information about the data table and a data dictionary can be found in the About/Attachments section.

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This map layer shows elevation contour lines for Hawaii. The map layer was derived from the 100-meter resolution elevation data set which is published by the National Atlas of the United States, and is in the same Albers Equal-area Conic projection as that source data set. Contour intervals match the steps used in the National Atlas Color-Sliced Elevation data sets. Contours were adjusted so that they are in the proper relationship to National Atlas 1:1,000,000-scale lakes, reservoirs, and wide (double-line) streams.

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Abundance, stage structure and population dynamics of brine shrimp Artemia franciscana in pond M4 of the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge were documented from September 29, 1991 to September 27, 1992 using weekly quantitative samples. Brine shrimp densities varied seasonally between 1 and 55 adults liter1, and total daily standing stock varied between 57 and 50,000 kg dry weight. Brine shrimp harvest was well correlated with brine shrimp abundance, but had no measurable impact on population size or stage structure. Temperature limited population growth during the winter, resulting in low population densities. High salinity, caused by reduced inputs from the lower salinity pond A21, produced a second abundance minimum in the fall of 1992. Food abundance set maximum population densities, and at peak brine shrimp densities, adults were the most abundant stage class apparently due to higher grazing efficiencies. A stagestructured simulation model was developed to test the effects of different pond management strategies on yearly production. Given appropriate timing and duration, flows from upstream could double yearly brine shrimp production. January salinity level was found to be the most important salt pond management factor affecting yearly brine shrimp production. The model was also found to be sensitive to changes in nutrient availability, suggesting the need for future research of nutrient dynamics. Field and model results were used to estimate maximum sustainable yield MSY. Assuming constant nutrient availability and optimal temperature and salinity, a daily harvest rate of 16 18 day1, given nonselective harvesting, and 37 day1, given .sizeselective harvesting was sustainable. MSY was 0 for temperatures 12 C and salinities 260 o. Total yearly harvest could exceed 1000 mt yr1, or 5 mt ha1 yr1, given constant inputs from upstream and an optimal harvest strategy. However, physical refugia and processing limitations imposed constraints that limited the realized catch to about 110 of the potential. Processing limitation was found to be the more limiting of the two constraints. Results from this research suggests ways in which cooperative management between the wildlife managers US Fish and Wildlife Service, salt producers Cargill Salt Co., and brine shrimp harvesters Novalek Inc., could simultaneously insure brine shrimp availability as a food source for local and migrating avifauna, and increase efficiency of salt and brine shrimp production.

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United States Army Forces Command news and information.

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This Historical North Atlantic Hurricane Tracks file of major storms with landfall in the United States contains the six-hourly (0000, 0600, 1200, 1800 UTC) center locations and intensities for all northern Atlantic major storms from 1851 through 2004. Major storms are those that made landfall in the United States and that were classified on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale as Category 3, 4, or 5 at the time of landfall. Landfalling storms are defined as those storms whose center is reported to have either crossed or passed directly adjacent to the United States coastline, and which came ashore with tropical storm intensity or greater (sustained surface winds of 34 knots or 39 miles per hour or greater). In 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003 there were no major landfalling hurricanes. This a replacement for the January 2005 map layer distributed as Historical North Atlantic Hurricane Tracks - Major Storms with Landfall in the United States, 1851-2003.

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As expected, the STTR Phase I investigation confirmed that the Digital Virtual Human (DVH) and Robonaut technologies can be merged, and that haptic and autostereoscopic technologies can be integrated in the robotic control systems, effectively and productively. This feasibility study verified and validated interactions of Robonaut with the DVH in operator response to and performance with haptic devices and autostereoscopic displays. Phase II will focus on developing two significant components from the Phase I effort for marketing and distribution in Phase III. The Collaborative-Virtual Environment Software Toolkit (C-VEST) will provide software developers a potent development toolkit with which to build and maintain 3D/VR applications and simulations. As a result of Phase II, the C-VEST product will be able to interface with immersive simulation (motion capture, manipulation, navigational, and advanced display) hardware not easily implemented in current commercial or academic 3D/VR software. The second product emanating from this Phase II project will be the OpticFlex full-body fiber-optic-based motion-capture system. This system will comprise a significant part of the Phase II and subsequently Phase III commercialization preparation effort.

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A Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature (GHRSST) global Level 4 sea surface temperature analysis produced daily on a 0.25 degree grid at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center. This product uses optimal interpolation (OI) using data from the 4 km Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Pathfinder Version 5 time series (when available, otherwise operational NOAA AVHRR data are used) and in situ ship and buoy observations. A second similar product is available that also includes Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) data from June 2002 onward. The OI analysis is a daily average SST that is bias adjusted using a spatially smoothed 7-day in situ SST average and is thus tuned to about 0.3 meter. Both day and night satellite fields are independently bias adjusted. More information is available at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/sst/oi-daily.php

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The Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map (DFIRM) Database depicts flood risk information and supporting data used to develop the risk data. The primary risk classifications used are the 1-percent-annual-chance flood event, the 0.2-percent-annual- chance flood event, and areas of minimal flood risk. The DFIRM Database is derived from Flood Insurance Studies (FISs), previously published Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs), flood hazard analyses performed in support of the FISs and FIRMs, and new mapping data, where available. The FISs and FIRMs are published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The file is georeferenced to earth's surface using the Ohio North Stateplane projection and coordinate system. The specifications for the horizontal control of DFIRM data files are consistent with those required for mapping at scales of 1:6,000, 1:12,000 and 1:24,000.

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This metadata record describes the lidar topographic elevation mapping of Hunterdon County, NJ that occurred in July 2006. Products generated include lidar point clouds in LAS 1.0 collected with a Leica ALS-50 Aerial Lidar Sensor.

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NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) is building high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) for select U.S. coastal regions. These integrated bathymetric-topographic DEMs are used to support tsunami forecasting and modeling efforts at the NOAA Center for Tsunami Research, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL). The DEMs are part of the tsunami forecast system SIFT (Short-term Inundation Forecasting for Tsunamis) currently being developed by PMEL for the NOAA Tsunami Warning Centers, and are used in the MOST (Method of Splitting Tsunami) model developed by PMEL to simulate tsunami generation, propagation, and inundation. Bathymetric, topographic, and shoreline data used in DEM compilation are obtained from various sources, including NGDC, the U.S. National Ocean Service (NOS), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and other federal, state, and local government agencies, academic institutions, and private companies. DEMs are referenced to the vertical tidal datum of Mean High Water (MHW) and horizontal datum of World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84). Cell size ranges from 1/3 arc-second (~10 meters) to 36 arc-seconds (~1 km). DEMs built by PMEL's NOAA Center for Tsunami Research (formerly NOAA Center for Tsunami Inundation Mapping Efforts) are available for download from the web site.

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Model of the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. Polygons: 3543 Vertices: 4754

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Report to the Appropriations Committee of the United States House of Representatives in Response to Conference Committee Report to PL 110-186. In an effort to provide a snapshot of the quality of care provided at VA health care facilities, this report includes information about waiting times, staffing level, infection rates, surgical volumes, quality measures, patient satisfaction, service availability and complexity, accreditation status, and patient safety. The data in this report have been drawn from multiple sources across VHA. This dataset contains the data about wait times to be seen in Primary and Specialty Care Services.

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The Tarrant County Public Health (TCPH) and Biosense collaboration is an effort to visualize TCPH health data collected by Biosense using Google Fusion Table technology and make that visualization publicly available. The data consists of patient visits to hospital emergency departments associated with Tarrant County Public Health (TCPH) that had the illness Gastro Intestinal, Heat Related, or Upper Respiratory divided by all emergency department visits that occurred for the same time period and in the geographic granularity for which the calculation was made.

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The local health agencies and the department of health work to prevent water related illness and assure that people have access to an adequate quantity of safe water. They do this through a variety of activities including: reviewing and approving water availability, investigating suspected water related illnesses, reviewing plans and providing oversight/compliance for public water supplies, providing community education about safe drinking water, inspecting wells, conducting sanitary surveys (inspections) for Group A & B Public Water Systems, and responding to emergencies (e.g., floods). A sanitary survey includes an onsite review of the water source, and the facilities, equipment, operation, and maintenance of a public water system. It is meant to identify problems which may affect the safety of the water. Group A are systems that regularly serve 15 or more service connections, or 25 or more people/day for 60 days/year, and must be surveyed every three to five years. (Note local health agencies may choose to survey smaller systems; these are not reflected in the data.) • Number of large drinking water system (Group A) surveys (Data source: DOH) • Public water systems are required to deliver safe and reliable drinking water to their customers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If the water supply becomes contaminated, consumers can become seriously ill. One of the most important steps public water system operators take to ensure safe water is to regularly test for coliform bacteria and other contaminants such as nitrate, arsenic and lead.

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Space-based imaging sensors are important for NASA's mission in both performing scientific measurements and producing literature and documentary cinema. The recent proliferation of high-definition capture devices and displays (HDTV) provide the general public with first-hand human experiences hundreds miles above sea level in brilliant detail. The recent IMAX film "Hubble," which features one of the final space shuttle missions to repair the orbital telescope, is a prime example. The core of current space-based video capture devices consist of digital imaging sensors. Unfortunately, the harsh conditions of space limit the lifespan of all the imaging sensors, in addition to other electronics. Consequently, NASA is seeking innovative technologies for space-based applications to extend the operational life of these systems to three years or more. In this SBIR project, we propose to investigate robust image reconstruction based on novel signal processing techniques in the vein of compressed sensing (CS) to mitigate pixel damage to the point that is imperceptible by the human eye. Specifically, this proposal is a response to the solicitation for radiation-hardened programmable encoding technology as an identified mid-term NASA solution. CS is a recently introduced novel framework that goes against the traditional data acquisition paradigm. CS demonstrates that a sparse, or compressible, signal can be acquired using a low rate acquisition process that projects the signal onto a small set of vectors incoherent with the sparsity basis. This approach is divided into encoder and decoder stages. We propose performing the encoding in-line with acquisition using a low-SWaP, radiation-tolerant FPGA. The robust reconstruction will occur back on Earth where high-performance GPU-accelerated workstations can be used. A benefit of our solution is that it does not require a modification to the original imaging system.

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<p>Recent work in the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Surface Systems Office (NE-S) Swamp Works and at the University of Southern California (USC) under two NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) awards have shown promising results with regolith (crushed basalt rock) materials for in-situ heat shields, bricks, landing/launch pads, berms, roads, and other structures that could be fabricated using regolith that is sintered or mixed with a polymer binder. </p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em">These results indicate that the unique properties of granular planetary regolith are well suited for use as a construction material with high insulation values, low densities and  good  manipulation characteristics. Examples of regolith manipulation processes are solar heat sintering, microwave sintering, laser sintering, polymer binders, compaction, regolith paste extrusion  and waterless concrete forming .</span></p><p>Methods of transferring regolith to a “3D Print Head” mounted on a robotic arm will be developed to investigate the feasibility of adhering the regolith particles together in successive 2D layers to achieve a 3D printing additive manufacturing proof of concept process with net shape characteristics of useful structures such as blast walls, landing pads, habitats, bricks, roads, antenna towers, heat shields and even propellant tanks. This will result in high mass savings as local in-situ regolith is without transporting material and equipment from Earth. Power consumption per product kilogram is determined for each transfer method.</p>

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Decisions issued by Administrative Law Judges of the Departmental Appeals Board's Civil Remedies Division concerning fraud and abuse determinations by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) or the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS); provider/supplier enforcement and certification determinations by CMS; terminations of or refusal to grant or continue federal funding for alleged civil rights violations; Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act determinations; civil money penalty determinations by Social Security Administration (SSA); and Equal Access to Justice Act determinations relating to OIG proceedings.

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The Floodplain Mapping/Redelineation study deliverables depict and quantify the flood risks for the study area. The primary risk classifications used are the 1-percent-annual-chance flood event, the 0.2-percent-annual- chance flood event, and areas of minimal flood risk. The Floodplain Mapping/Redelineation flood risk boundaries are derived from the engineering information Flood Insurance Studies (FISs), previously published Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs), flood hazard analyses performed in support of the FISs and FIRMs, and new mapping data, where available. The FISs and FIRMs are published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

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HLY 13-03 was a familiar mission that continued our efforts from HLY 12-03, beginning and ending in Dutch Harbor, AK. Throughout the mission we remained primarily in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, but travelled as far east as Franklin Bay in Amundsen Gulf and conducted deployments and recoveries of subsurface moorings, benthic bottom profiling, CTD casts and the occasional Van Veen Grab.

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A solar flare is a short-lived sudden increase in the intensity of radiation emitted in the neighborhood of sunspots. For many years it was best monitored in the H-alpha wavelength and occurs in the chromosphere, though occasionally white light flares are seen in the photosphere. In modern times the solar X-ray wavelengths are monitored via satellite for solar flares. Flares are characterized by a rise time of the order of minutes and a decay time of the order of tens of minutes. The total energy expended in a typical flare is about 1030 ergs; the magnetic field is extraordinarily high reaching values of 100 to 10,000 gauss. Optical flares in H-alpha are usually accompanied by radio and X-ray bursts and occasionally by high-energy particle emissions. The optical brightness and size of the flare are indicated by a two-character code called "importance." The first character, a number from 1 to 4, indicates the apparent area. For areas of less than 1, an "S" is used to designate a subflare. The second character indicates relative brilliance: B for bright, N for normal and F for faint. A general discussion of solar flares is found in Svestka [1976]. The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (formerly NGDC) holds archives for about 80 stations, covering the period 1938 to the present. Currently 5 stations send their data to NGDC Boulder on a routine monthly basis -- the current main observing emphasis for Space Weather has transitioned to Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) which directly impact the Earth's geomagnetic field. Solar flares impact the Earth's upper atmosphere and can eject high energy particles that can cause satellite failures. The flare reports were processed and published in the monthly report "Solar-Geophysical Data" and in a different format in the IAU "Quarterly Bulletin on Solar Activity."

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From March 22 to April 7, 1990, 71 largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides and four other fish species total of seven fish were collected from ten locations on or adjacent to the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge and in the Santa Fe River, Florida. The fish were collected for mercury and selenium analyses of muscle tissue. Fiftyfive percent of the bass had mercury levels that exceeded the Florida limited consumption concentration of 0.5 parts per million ppm, wet weight. Three percent exceeded Floridas noconsumption concentration of 1.5 ppm. Two other species, spotted gar Lepisosteus oculatus and yellow bullhead Ameiurus natalis, also had high levels of mercury. Evaluation of weight, length and age of largemouth bass did not provide mechanisms by which recreational fishermen could selectively retain bass that are low in mercury. No direct association was observed between mercury and selenium concentrations in muscle tissue. However, fish egg data from this study and from various other sources indicate that selenium concentrations greatly exceed mercury concentrations. Four sampling locations, the Suwannee River, Santa Fe River, Sand Fly Creek and Week Creek appear to provide high mercury environments for largemouth bass. Fish and wildlife trust resources may be at some risk when utilizing these areas. Additional geographic and biotic environmental contaminant work is recommended.

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A table illustrating the dollar amounts in the Primary Insurance Amount and the maximum family benefit formula.

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In 2009, the 10 states where per capita spending was highest ranged from 13 to 36 percent higher than the national average, and the 10 states where per capita spending was lowest ranged from 8 to 26 percent below the national average. States with the highest per capita spending tended to have older populations and the highest per capita incomes, states with the lowest per capita spending tended to have younger populations, lower per capita incomes, and higher rates of uninsured.

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This report documents field data collected in the Cape Peirce area May 26 to October 12, 1987.