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Purpose: This article introduces the AAAJ special issue's content and, in so doing, aims to reflect on the contribution that accounting as a discipline is placed to make within the more contemporary context of space exploration, the space economy and public space policy. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws together, identifies, expands upon and advances opportunities available to researchers seeking to investigate the ways in which accounting research and practice might inform the modern space sector. Findings: Papers comprising the AAAJ special issue are informed by authors with diverse research backgrounds (including various accounting subfields and non-accounting business disciplines) and varying methodological approaches, including positivist, interpretivist as well as critical research paradigms. Interestingly, the call for papers also attracted several non-accounting academics or academics who have not traditionally undertaken or engaged appreciably with accounting research. This diverse approach to addressing initial space accounting questions should help establish a firm launching point for future research advances. Originality/value: The paper's originality lies in advancing a need to engage with the unique demands of "the New Space Age", requiring fundamentally innovative approaches to many aspects of accounting such as financial accounting, management accounting and sustainability accounting as well as contextualising or re-contextualising current accounting concepts, principles and thinking to apply to a new setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes up Rancière's conceptualization of the regimes of art in order to explore what might be left of art, if the scale of the world is expanded to the cosmos, rather than constrained to earth. Starting from the assertion that the beginning of the space age may be considered an event that radically reshapes the coordinates of subjectivity, the paper discusses its reverberations in the realm of aesthetics. The text focuses on two recent Russian films about the beginning of the space age: Dreaming of Space (2005) and Paper Soldier (2008). Both films are examined as statements - ones that are contextually bound and yet that harbour an element of excess - rather than as mere representations of a certain socio-cultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: New Space activities offer benefits for human progress and life beyond the Earth. However, there is a risk that the New Space Economy may develop according to an anthropocentric mindset favouring human progress and survival at the expense of all other species and the environment. This mindset raises concerns over the social and environmental impacts of space activities and the accountability of space actors. This research article explores the accountability of space actors by presenting a pluralistic accountability framework to understand, inspire and change accountability in the New Space Economy. This study also identifies future research opportunities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is a reflective and normative essay. The arguments are developed using contemporary multidisciplinary academic literature, publicly available evidence and examples. Further, the authors use Dillard and Vinnari's accountability framework to examine a pluralistic accountability system for space businesses. Findings: The New Space Economy requires public and private entities to embrace hybrid and pluralistic accountability for their social and environmental impacts. A new way of seeing the relationship between human life, the Earth and celestial space is needed. Accounting language is used to mirror and mobilise broader forms of responsibility in those involved in space. Originality/value: This paper responds to the AAAJ's special issue call for examining how accountability can be ensured in the New Space Age. The space activities businesses conduct, and the anthropocentric view inspiring their race toward space is concerning. Hence, the authors advocate the need for rethinking accountability between humans and nature. The paper contributes to fostering the debate on social and environmental accounting and the accountability of space actors in the New Space Economy. To this end, the authors use a pluralistic accountability framework to help understand how the New Space Economy can face the risks emanating from its anthropocentric mindset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Mexico Historical Review has published a list of recently released books. Some of the titles include "A Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v. Oklahoma" by Robert J. Miller and Robbie Ethridge, "Indigenous Missourians: Ancient Societies to the Present" by Greg Olson, and "Whose America? U.S. Immigration Policy since 1980" edited by Maria Cristina Garcia and Maddalena Marinari. The list covers a range of topics including Native American history, political change in Reconstruction Texas, and U.S. immigration policy. [Extracted from the article]

This conceptual paper elaborates on the paradigm of 'grey spaces' in skateboarding. It presents the fundamentals of the grey spaces concept as a bond between the material and symbolic and provides three core arguments. Firstly, it suggests that the simplicity of the concept works to make the complexity of skateboarding accessible. In doing so it opens the opportunity to bond elements of research on skateboarding to other lifestyle and action sports, and more broadly to a variety of disparate scholarly realms. Secondly, it identifies a nascent movement in skateboard studies to craft and adopt bespoke methodologies that speak to the specificities of skateboarding as a social, sensual and urban act. Thirdly, it proposes some possible frames by which grey spaces can be adopted to theorise elements of skateboarding and make conceptual bridging beyond the niche frame of the sport, and lifestyle/action sports more generally. These frames relate to pollution, active ageing, sport for development and peace, and identity. In conclusion, grey spaces are advocated as a paradigm to encourage scholars of skateboarding and beyond to connect and communicate through a shared frame. It also advocates for plurality and has a political component that suggests that even though there may be something unique in skateboarding, it can be known, communicated, understood, and even applied in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this modern age of conflicts trapped between nationalism, globalization, and migration, digital diasporas have come to represent a threat to national borders, fixed cultures, traditional narratives, and archaic notions of identity and cultural development. Interactivity, networking, immediacy, and presence are connotations of digitalization, while the diaspora connotes displacement, hybridity, fluid citizenship, and nomadic communities. Together, they form the foundation for transnational imaginaries that use technological possibilities to investigate a new level of identity creation in migration and diaspora studies. As a postmodern and transnational travel writer, Pico Iyer echoes these nuances of identity in a polymorphous world with near-invisible boundaries due to the large-scale migration and boom in the travel and tourism industry. Advancements in information and communication technology intensified the creation of the new class of digital migrants who employ these technological advancements to develop a sense of rootedness in the virtual age. Using the notion of digital diaspora as a neo-nomad negotiating technology and existing in a globalized and technocentric world, this paper attempts to explore the fluid identity of the diaspora in a digital world through a careful exegesis of Iyer's "The Global Soul." Contemporary virtual space and the digital age are synonymous with hyperreality, simulation, and manipulation. Any form of identity conceived and performed in the digital sphere should be scrutinized to assess its validity and sustainability. Consequently, this paper attempts to explore the tenability of the digital homeland of the diaspora in the contemporary age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Irrigation & Drainage is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

When we think about European integration practices, we rarely consider how they may extend to outer space. Yet, a new global space race is in full swing, in which commercial and government actors worldwide are putting forward bold visions of human futures in outer space. Europe is at the cusp of deciding which role to play in this new Space Age, with the European rocket program Ariane being at the centre of many debates about the future of Europe in space. Controversies about the future of the jointly built and heavily subsidised rocket entangle questions of innovation, in/security, and geopolitical power constellations. This paper traces which kind of space futures are projected onto and realised through Ariane, how the current geopolitical dynamics in the accelerating New Space Age are co-constitutive of how European strategic autonomy is envisioned, and how these futures relate to ideals and tensions of European integration. Mobilising work in science and technology studies (STS) on sociotechnical imaginaries and insights from the emerging social studies of outer space (SSOS), the paper offers unique and timely insights into how future visions of space shape forms of European collaboration in the present and how, conversely, geopolitical relations on Earth shape how and by whom these futures are imagined. The empirical part builds on two years of fieldwork in the European space sector, including interviews and participant observation. It presents three vignettes that highlight different aspects of strategic autonomy. The vignettes concern (1) the broader geopolitical dimension of the European rocket programme, (2) the issue of dual-use and the blurring of boundaries between civilian and military innovation, and (3) European technopolitical integration and the question of power in changing actor configurations. It is argued that the current emphasis on strategic autonomy in the European context represents a significant transformation of the role of space for European (security) integration and direct response to both the commercialisation and the securitisation of space. Moreover, it is shown how the securitisation of (access to) outer space has become a vital force to spur innovation – channelling resources, marshalling funds, and creating political legitimacy, entangling political economies of innovation with geopolitical transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to study the development of space-age aesthetics culture and arts in seven decades since 1950s. The first known use of "space-age" was in 1946, and was defined as "of, relating to, or befitting the age of space exploration." A more popular definition for the "space age" is "The space age is the time period in human history related to the space race, space exploration, and space technology. Most people say this started when Sputnik 1 was launched in 1957, and continues to today. This has influenced culture such as in movies, television, music, art, and architecture." Culture, in the anthropology, is the patterns of behaviour and thinking that people living in social groups learn, create, and share. Culture distinguishes one human group from others. It also distinguishes humans from other animals. A people's culture includes their beliefs, rules of behaviour, language, rituals, art, technology, styles of dress, ways of producing and cooking food, religion, and political and economic systems. Therefore, the space-age art is one of the major elements of the space-age culture of human beings. On the other hand, the space exploration has significant inspiration and influence on the aesthetics art. In particular, the following aspects shall be studied in this paper: architecture and exhibition craftworks. • The space-age architecture and exhibition craftworks were investigated. • Five space-age architecture shapes investigated are disc, rocket, tower, spherical and combined. • Three space-age installation craftworks studied are sky waves, embroidery, planet models, etc. • Many space-age architectures are destroyed due to many reasons. • Hopefully the young generations can be inspired to carry forward these precious heritages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major purpose of this paper is to study the important role of historical painting art on the creation of space-age era eight decades ago in 1950s. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary , the first known use of "space age" was in 1946. In the Collins Dictionary , the space age is the present period in the history of the world when travel in space has become possible, and people use "space-age" to describe something that is very modern and makes you think of the technology of the space age. In American English, space age is the period in modern history characterized by space exploration, usually considered as beginning on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, into orbit around the Earth. In the ancient time, many artists including Giovanni di Paolo, Albrecht Dürer, Étienne Léopold Trouvelot and Vincent van Gogh created masterpieces of space related paintings. Even in the extreme ancient era, the cave art already evidenced humans' astronomical knowledge. Besides the technological research and development for space explorations, groups of workers and artists in the areas of culture, painting, architects, installation artwork, etc. had done many contributions in the development of space-age cultural and aesthetic art before 1950s. They not only created so many masterpieces with plenty of space-age aesthetics, but witnessed and recorded the development history of the space age. It goes without doubt that historical space painting art played an important role on the creation of space-age era in 1950s. Therefore, it is mandatory to investigate and reveal the fact. • To study the important role of historical painting art on the creation of space-age era eight decades ago in 1950s. • The first known use of "space age" was in 1946, considered as beginning on October 4, 1957 when Sputnik I launched. • Giovanni di Paolo, Albrecht Dürer, Étienne Léopold Trouvelot and Vincent van Gogh created masterpieces of space related paintings. • In the extreme ancient era, the cave art already evidenced humans' astronomical knowledge. • Groups of artists in the areas of culture, painting, architects, etc. contributed space-age cultural and aesthetic art before 1950s. • Historical space painting art played an important role on the creation of space-age era in 1950s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) technique is used for a precipitation hardening of Ni-based alloy to predict more flexible non-isothermal aging (NIA) and to examine the possible routes for the enhancement in strength that may be practically achieved. Additionally, AI is used to integrate with Materials Integration by Network Technology, which is a computational workflow utilized to model the microstructure evolution and evaluate the 0.2% proof stress for isothermal aging and NIA. As a result, it is possible to find enhanced 0.2% proof stress for NIA for a fixed time of 10 min compared to the isothermal aging benchmark. The entire search space for aging scheduling was ~ 3 billion. Out of 1620 NIA schedules, we succeeded in designing the 110 NIA schedules that outperformed the isothermal aging benchmark. Interestingly, it is found that early-stage high-temperature aging for a shorter time increases the γ′ precipitate size up to the critical size and later aging at lower temperature increases the γ′ fraction with no anomalous change in γ′ size. Therefore, employing this essence from AI, we designed an optimum aging route in which we attained an outperformed 0.2% proof stress to AI-designed NIA routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss cosmic age problem in the case of ghost dark energy (GDE) model. To this end, we use two observational data sets to constrain the free parameter space of the models. Next, we try to set new limits on the mentioned free parameter space using the age of the universe. In this work, both of these tasks are done for the GDE model in the presence of the sign-changeable interaction terms. To this end, three classes of interaction terms are considered that provide a sign-changeability possibility. For one of these cases, the age problem passes completely and there is no new bound of free parameters. For two others the age test sets some constrains on the models. In addition to cosmic age problem, we investigate some other properties of these three models including ability to cross the phantom line, accelerating phase of cosmic expansion and the stability against cosmic perturbations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A focus on the materiality within ageing studies brings into focus the material dimensions of space, rhythms and material objects in everyday life. The aim of this paper is to explore meanings around space in the context of the daily lives of people growing older and how materiality is embodied, embedded and performed in the material and social context of our everyday lives. The paper draws on data from the empirical research study Photographing Everyday Life: Ageing, Lived Experiences, Time and Space funded by the ESRC, UK. The focus of the project was to explore the significance of the ordinary and day-to-day and focus on the everyday meanings, lived experiences, practical activities, and social contexts in which people in mid-to-later life live their daily lives. The research involved a diverse sample of 62 women and men aged 50 years and over who took photographs of their different daily routines to create a weekly visual diary. The data reveals three interconnecting whilst analytically distinct themes within the materiality of ageing and the spaces around everyday life: (1) Space, materiality and everyday life; (2) Rhythms, routines and materiality; and (3) Social and material connectivity. The paper concludes by highlighting a complex engagement with space, in which participants drew and re-drew boundaries surrounding meanings of space, sometimes within the same interview or even within a discussion of the same photograph. Moreover, a focus on materiality has elicited rich and illuminating accounts of how people in mid-to-later life experience the intersections between ageing, bodies, time and space in their everyday lives. • Visual diaries on everyday life. • Explorations of materiality, rhythms and ageing – linking theory with data. • Novel insights into space, place and everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-lived-in dwelling spaces provide a huge number of valuable data by which to figure out human activities and patterns of space use by prehistoric communities. However, cultural dynamics can intervene during deposit formation processes and transform depositional sets of rubbish involving artefacts and ecofacts. Notably, trampling resulting from human activities represents the most intrusive agent that affects spaces continuously used over a certain timespan. Therefore, comprehending the effect of trampling represents a key-step to assess the distribution of items in the archaeological record and to establish a solid base on which to build valid models of the use of space. This paper proposes a methodological approach to figure out the diverse effects of trampling. The methodology has been tailored on a specific case study, a long-lived-in dwelling area of the Bronze Age settlement of Coppa Nevigata (South-Eastern Italy), dated to the 12th cent. BC. Here, cycles of use and of the discarding of pottery produced a massive number of shards, whose primary deposition has been probably subjected to alteration by trampling. On this premise, the impasto pottery record has been considered as viable proxy to investigate the effects of this cultural agent on the archaeological record. The analysis proceeds by three main steps: a data entry process structured to optimize the recording of shards dimension, fragmentation rate analysis of shards and spatial analysis of well-preserved vessels. This integrated approach allowed an assessment of the reliability of distribution and conservation of the archaeological record in the studied spaces, providing crucial information to better understand use of space patterns through a second analytical step: spatial analysis of artefacts and ecofacts. An aim of this paper is to provide an analytical process replicable for further Late Prehistoric contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Launch date of the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 was on October 4, 1957, therefore it was commonly considered to be the starting year of the space age. Being inspired by the rapid developments in space and universe explorations, André Courrèges, Pierre Cardin and many other designers opened the frontier territory of the space-age era in the fashion community. From 1964, André Courrèges extensively used the white and silver metallic colours which soon became the definition of aesthetics at that time and was named Godfather of the space-age designer. On the other hand, Pierre Cardin demonstrated his early space-age work at the Paris Fashion Week in 1968 and was called the pioneer of the space-age fashion designer. For the six decades up to now, at least 15 fashion designers launched the so-called "Fashion communities' interplanetary mission" in different years: André Courrèges (1964), Mary Quant (1965), Reed Crawford (1966, specialized in hat design), Pierre Cardin (1968), Paco Rabanne (1968), Thierry Mugler (1979), Issey Miyake (1995), Alexander McQueen (1995), Nicolas Ghesquière (2007), Hussein Chalayan (2007), Christopher Kane (2011), Raf Simons (2014), Donatella Versace (2016), Karl Lagerfeld (2017), Nicolas Ghesquière (second time in 2019, as the artistic director of Louis Vuitton) and Iris Van Herpen (2019). The purpose of this paper is to systematically and methodically review the inspiration and significant influence of space exploration and universe discovery on the fashion aesthetics, styling and design in six decades from 1960 to the current year. Major creative ideas included new colours such as silver, new materials such as metallic, new styling such as flying saucer, new patterns such as totems, and the use of new technologies such as 3-dimensional (3D) printing, with the most important considerations of noble, elegancy and aesthetics. Also, the feedback influence of the space-age fashion on the new generation SpaceX and Boeing suits is discussed. • The starting year of the space age was on October 4, 1957. • Inspired by the space age, André Courrèges, Pierre Cardin, etc. opened the frontier in fashion community. • For six decades from 1960, fashion designers launched the "Fashion communities' interplanetary mission". • This paper reviews the inspiration and significant influence of space exploration on the fashion aesthetics. • Major creative ideas included new colours, new materials, new styling, new patterns and new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban shrinkage is a world-wide phenomenon characterized by population loss in a short period of time. During this process, the decrease of the younger generation will further accelerate the demographic aging process through lowering birth rates. Although many studies have qualitatively addressed that demographic aging could be both a result and cause of urban shrinkage, empirical studies to examine their interrelations are lacking. This paper aims to examine their interrelationships by proposing an integrated model which covers the paths, effects, and interrelationships between shrinking cities and demographic aging in economic, spatial, and social dimensions. Based on the data from 138 county-level cities in China, partial least-square method is used for structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that two indirect influence paths exist between shrinking cities and the demographic aging process. First, urban shrinkage has an indirect interaction with the demographic aging process via social and economic factors (path: shrinking cities ↔ society ↔ economy ↔ aging process). Second, urban shrinkage is also indirectly interrelated with the demographic aging process in spatial factors (path: shrinking cities ↔ space ↔ aging process). To deal with the double challenges of urban shrinkage and demographic aging, planning policies should integrate with policies in socio-economic and spatial aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone age assessment (BAA) is clinically important as it can be used to diagnose endocrine and metabolic disorders during child development. Existing deep learning based methods for classifying bone age use the global image as input, or exploit local information by annotating extra bounding boxes or key points. However, training with the global image underutilizes discriminative local information, while providing extra annotations is expensive and subjective. In this paper, we propose an attention-guided approach to automatically localize the discriminative regions for BAA without any extra annotations. Specifically, we first train a classification model to learn the attention maps of the discriminative regions, finding the hand region, the most discriminative region (the carpal bones), and the next most discriminative region (the metacarpal bones). Guided by those attention maps, we then crop the informative local regions from the original image and aggregate different regions for BAA. Instead of taking BAA as a general regression task, which is suboptimal due to the label ambiguity problem in the age label space, we propose using joint age distribution learning and expectation regression, which makes use of the ordinal relationship among hand images with different individual ages and leads to more robust age estimation. Extensive experiments are conducted on the RSNA pediatric bone age data set. Without using extra manual annotations, our method achieves competitive results compared with existing state-of-the-art deep learning-based methods that require manual annotation. Code is available at https://github.com/chenchao666/Bone-Age-Assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a comprehensive theoretical overview has been presented on the areas, the technological devices, and designs that can be used for offering a comfortable home to the elderly in India where they can stay with dignity and age gracefully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing number of satellites orbiting around Earth has led to an uncontrolled increase in objects within the orbital environment. Since the beginning of the space age on 4 October 1957 (launch of Sputnik I), there have been more than 4900 space launches, leading to over 18,000 satellites and ground-trackable objects currently orbiting the Earth. For each satellite launched, several other objects are also sent into orbit, including rocket upper stages, instrument covers, and so on. Having a reliable system for tracking objects and satellites and monitoring their attitude is at present a mandatory challenge in order to prevent dangerous collisions and an increase in space debris. In this paper, the evaluation of the reflection coefficient of different shaped objects has been carried out by means of the bi-static reflection method, also known as NRL arch measurement, in order to evaluate their visibility and attitude in a wide range of frequencies (12–18 GHz). The test campaign aims to correlate the experimental measures with the hypothetical reflection properties of orbiting systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon fresh archival research and participant observation, the author traces the emergence and transformative idea of the non-weaponized and peaceful use of space from the 1920s to today. Building on this, the case study questions much of the common wisdom surrounding humans' relationship with space over the past century. Although the beginnings of the Space Age are usually thought to have closely coincided with the Space Race beginning in 1955, the paper goes further back to the Spaceflight Movement of the 1920s and 30s, tracing the emergence of the idea of space as part of the global commons. This societal-level movement was highly transnational and collaborative in nature, and pushed for the achievement of human spaceflight decades before the technology existed, at the same time advocating for space as a peaceful domain for all of humankind. Using a new approach that also provides the basic ontological assumption for Model 3 of the special issue framework, the author argues that the impetus to engage in space exploration was fundamentally 'ultrasocial', defined as a human predisposition to be other-regarding, empathic, and inclined toward seeking wide-scale cooperation, even among strangers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Riordan matrices are infinite lower triangular matrices corresponding to the certain operators in the space of formal power series. The n th descending diagonal of the ordinary Riordan matrix and the n th descending diagonal of the exponential Riordan matrix have the generating functions respectively g n (φ x) / (1 − φ x) n + 1 and h n (φ x) / (1 − φ x) 2 n + 1 , where g n (x) , h n (x) are polynomials of degree ≤ n. We will call these polynomials the numerator polynomials of Riordan matrices. General properties of these polynomials were considered in separate paper. In this paper, we will consider numerator polynomials of the Riordan matrices associated with the family of series a (β) (x) = a (x (β) a β (x)). The matrices of transformations, in which these polynomials participate, have the form A n E n β A n − 1 , where A n is the certain matrix of order n + 1 , E is the matrix of the shift operator. The main focus is on studying the properties of these matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to study the birth of space age and the distinguished achievements in the space-age painting aesthetics inspired by space exploration. It has been 66 years ever since the first successfully launch of the artificial satellite Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, generally recognized as the first year of space age. Exemplified by the best and most well-known "NASA Art Program", many major space agencies have sponsored the art program. In Japan, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) supports the art program through its Public Affairs Department. In the European Space Agency (ESA), one of its well-known residence artists is Aoife van Linden Tol. For 66 years of the space age, there are many outstanding painters with many distinguished achievements and heritage of aesthetic paintings created. In particular, Robert Rauschenberg's work " Buffalo II " painted in 1964 has become a classic masterpiece that realized the price of $ 88 million at Christie's auction in 2019. • It has been 65 years since the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 generally recognized as the first year of space age. • After the well-known "NASA Art Program", many major space agencies have sponsored the art program. • In Japan, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) supports the art program through its Public Affairs Department. • In the European Space Agency (ESA), one of its well-known residence artists is Aoife van Linden Tol. • Robert Rauschenberg's work " Buffalo II " painted in 1964 priced $88 million at Christie's auction in 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medium voltage dc (MVDC) distribution is a promising solution for many applications such as transportation electrification, city centers, oil and gas platforms, and renewable energy collection systems. Compared to ac, a MVDC system can significantly improve power density, energy efficiency, and controllability. Weight and size of power equipment are limiting factors in transportation electrification, and cables usually take up a large space in a power system. A focus of this research is to investigate the potential of dc supply to reduce cable size without compromising cable service life. Since partial discharges (PD) in internal voids have been identified as a major source for power equipment premature failure, it is critical to understand PD mechanisms of medium voltage cables under both ac and dc, especially PD from internal void and delamination. This paper presents PD experimental data from medium voltage cables and test coupons to show that dc supply could be a more favorable condition for cables than ac. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks why was Britain slow to adopt diesel and electric traction on its railways. The management of Britain's railways were aware of technical developments in electrification and diesel traction from the start. Advocates of electrification ranged across the rail industry and the UK had diesel pioneers such as the Armstrong Whitworth Company. British owned railway companies and equipment suppliers successfully pursued electrification overseas. Nevertheless, Britain's domestic railways in the main stuck with steam until labour and coal shortages prompted change after nationalisation following WW2. Insufficient capital explains the reluctance to electrify during the inter-war period once the advantages became obvious, although Southern made considerable progress on its commuter routes into London. Britain's railways remained 'tooled-up' for steam and locked into a labour intensive, coal using technology into the 1960's. Fuel requirements for the Royal Navy set Britain on a twentieth century trajectory of oil use, a change that slowly fed into the rail industry once diesel technology became reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we prove a global Calderón-Zygmund type estimate in the framework of Lorentz spaces for a variable power of the gradients to the zero-Dirichlet problem of general nonlinear elliptic equations with the nonlinearities satisfying Orlicz growth. It is mainly assumed that the variable exponents p(x) satisfy the log-Hölder continuity, while the nonlinearity and underlying domain (A, Ω) is (δ, R0)-vanishing in x ∈ Ω. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Propulsion and power have long been core competencies of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC). At the dawn of the space era, the center brought key propulsion and power technology to support spacecraft development. This paper serves as an introduction to a series of papers describing the highlights of the GRC's power and propulsion research and development efforts. The power papers cover solar and nuclear power generation and energy conversion, energy storage (focusing on batteries, flywheels, and fuel cells), power systems, and power management and distribution. The propulsion papers cover chemical propulsion, cryogenic propellant systems, electric propulsion, and nuclear thermal rocket propulsion. Each paper addresses some history, current efforts, and future plans for each of the technology areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Textual is the property of Universidad Autonoma Chapingo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines how 'ways of seeing' landscape, as practised within the little-known American astronomical art community, can be used to examine the popular geopolitical scripting of an American manifest destiny in outer space. A significant body of work in critical geopolitics has sought to recognise the way in which culturally manifest representations of space and place, together with embedded visual practices, can reproduce and elucidate the construction of geographical imaginations. Despite this, cultural representations of outer space have frequently been overlooked in readings of American popular, geopolitical discourse and associated geographical understandings. As a response to this lacuna, this paper interrogates how visual motifs of an American manifest destiny, developed in nineteenth-century American romanticism, have been mobilised through American astronomical art to explain and popularise conceptions of outer space that invite American human space exploration. By way of conclusion, the paper stresses how the inscription of outer space under the rubric of an American manifest destiny continues to frame the way in which the American space programme, and by extension American geopolitical and geographical imaginations, can be understood today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union (EU) is the newest actor in the European space sector and is cultivating the political will to make Europe a world class space power comparable to the United States (US). The Galileo satellite system and the Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security space program are the most visible manifestations of this will. This article suggests that Europe can approach comparable space power if capabilities are considered rather than just budgets. The paper discusses the catalysts driving EU space initiatives, and assesses the EU's nascent European Space Policy and European Space Program, and EU organization and funding for space. Of importance are the asymmetric means for Europe to increase its space capabilities and the implications this has for the trans-Atlantic relationship with the US. The analysis is directed to the security, civil, and dual-use space sectors within the security aspects of EU space initiatives. This article also provides a baseline to track changes in EU space policy, organization, and funding dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At this stage of the slowing Space Age it is an oddity that William Herschel's music still remains difficult of access, particularly in light of the numerous examples of diverse genres of music from many cultures available as audio files and scores. This paper describes the situation, considers the causes, and suggests a few solutions. As a small contribution toward increasing access to William Herschel's music, a transcription and arrangement according to 18th-century practices is included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the study of a robust and highly accurate object detection model for classification of food items. Our model uses ResNet50 with the optimization of stochastic gradient descent which uses less computational power and is space efficient. The model implements transfer learning to achieve higher accuracy even with a small dataset. In order to achieve accurate results we randomly flipped and resized the images from its base resolution to match the real world scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to the emergence, proliferation and increasing relevance of various forms of virtual tourism set in outer space. It approaches virtual space tours as a distinct register of the changing nature of travel within global media cultures in their space age, framing them as a part of the ongoing socio-technical momentum of our emerging 'extra-planetary mobilities'. We consider the extraterrestrial provisions of virtual tourism, including a host of space apps offering Martian tours and explore the ways in which the domestications of outer space through quotidian media practices affect our tourist disposition, altering collective ways of traveling and seeing, performing and consuming and configuring our mediated and embodied senses of place. We suggest that the prospects of mediated space travel are progressively shaping the relationship between human societies and our planetary exterior, sculpting the ambits of a 'global abode' beyond the globe.q [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mounting ambitions and capabilities for public and private, non-government sector crewed space exploration bring with them an increasingly diverse set of space travelers, raising new and nontrivial ethical, legal, and medical policy and practice concerns which are still relatively underexplored. In this piece, we lay out several pressing issues related to ethical considerations for selecting space travelers and conducting human subject research on them, especially in the context of non-governmental and commercial/private space operations. New and dynamically changing opportunities for commercial/private and civilian spaceflight raise the need for an examination of how to ethically guide space industry and community. This Perspective explores such considerations with respect to space traveler selection and human subject research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aging of cable insulation presents a significant threat to the safe operation of cables, with space charge serving as a crucial factor influencing cable insulation degradation. However, the characteristics related to space charge and conduction current behavior during thermal aging remain unclear. This study focused on the thermal aging of cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) material and utilizes a combined pulse electro-acoustic (PEA) and conduction current testing system to analyze the space charge and conduction current characteristics in the sample under varying electric fields and temperatures. The average charge density, short-circuit residual electric field, electric field distortion rate, and conduction current were studied. The findings indicate that the space charge in the samples following thermal aging is predominantly governed by the injected charge. The amorphous region of XLPE decreases, while the cross-linking degree increases after aging, thereby facilitating charge carrier migration within the sample and reducing the generation of charge carriers through thermal pyrolysis. The minimum temperature required for charge injection is reduced by thermal aging. Furthermore, modifications in conduction current, residual electric field, and average charge density indicate that thermal aging has the potential to alter the microstructure and trap characteristics of XLPE. This study provides empirical evidence to elucidate the underlying mechanism of cable insulation aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely acknowledged that NATO has multiple rationales. What is more contestable is the view that the burgeoning complexity of the security environment feeds these rationales and that NATO may not be able to cope. If each rationale is like a personality, then NATO's multiple personalities have a corrosive effect on the Alliance since they prevent it from setting consistent goals and pursuing them. The prescribed cure is a clarified personality that emphasises one rationale at the expense of others. This paper questions the metaphor behind this debate. NATO's multiple rationales are built into the Alliance, we argue, and a better metaphor may be NATO as a congress whose members are independent yet tied to an overarching political project. Such a congress will never be unitary, but it can at times make decisions. Sometimes decision-making will require grand and thus elusive bargains; sometimes it can be moved from formal committees to backroom caucuses that eschew big questions of rationale and instead focus on problem-solving. In any case, congresses can cope with persistent, competing preference orderings and divergent resource bases among constituent states. Where the split personality analogy leads to the collapse of NATO as a coherent actor, the congress metaphor affords better notional explanations for what we actually observe, a messy, raucous alliance that muddles through from Kabul to Earth orbit.1 An earlier version of this article was presented at the International Studies Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, February 17–20, 2010. This academic work does not represent the official views of the United States Government or the United States Air Force. The authors acknowledge the Danish Social Science Research Council (grant 09-064015/FSE) and the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies for funding research into the Atlantic Alliance that enabled the writing of this paper. For support and comments, we also thank the Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies at the United States Air Force Academy, Eisenhower Center director Roger Harrison, Sean Crean, Mick Gleason, and Pete Hays. The opinions herein and any factual errors are strictly our own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of a solar dish concentrator is proposed based on triangular membrane facets for space power applications. The facet concentrator approximates a parabolic surface supported by a deployable perimeter truss structure, which originates from a large aperture space antenna. For optimizing the number of facets rows and focal-diameter ratio of the concentrator, Monte Carlo ray-tracing method is utilized to determine optical performance of the concentrator, and the system root-mean-square (RMS) deviation is considered in this design procedure. A 600-facet concentrator with focal-diameter ratio of 1.1 will achieve 83.63% of radiative collection efficiency over a 15 cm radius disk located in the focal plane, with a mean solar concentration ratio exceeding 300. The study in this paper is helpful for the development of the membrane facet concentrator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the impact of export policy on 21st century United States space power. The efficacy of current export controls in preventing the proliferation of space technologies and maintaining United States advantage is evaluated. The study finds that space launch technology has been and remains highly globalized; the United States has lost significant international communications satellite market share, but it maintains a tangible lead in position, navigation, and timing systems; and the recent growth in foreign imaging systems, both radar and optical, have eroded any advantage the United States once enjoyed. Furthermore, export controls have not appreciably slowed the internationalization of space and breaking dependency on the United States is a common underlying theme. The paper goes on to highlight the unintended consequences stemming from current policy, including limiting access to advanced technology of foreign origin, limiting access to foreign-born expertise, and adding “fog” and “friction” to the execution of programs that include foreign content. This paper finds current export control policy is incongruent with 21st century space power programs and initiatives, such as Operationally Responsive Space, Coalition Space, and “Soft” Space Power. Export control reform is suggested herein on the basis of developing a trusted community of trading partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rocket reusability dates as long as rockets. Since the beginning of space age, the possibility to reuse the full vehicle or some stages has been a matter of engineering. But this was directly opposite to mass ratio efficiency, the key for a well-designed rocket. Since as soon as a stage has to be recovered, subsystems to provide this function and additional inert mass are needed. Even if reusable systems are only a small part of the worldwide rockets, they flew operationally since the space shuttle age. However, full reusable vehicles are not yet operational and only partially reusable launch vehicles have been flown until now. The preliminary space shuttle design consisted of two stages both liquid and reusable (booster and orbiter stages). The consolidated design retrieved the orbiter (upper stage, the cargo and propulsion bay) and the solid rocket boosters. On Russian side Energia-Buran only retrieved the upper stage with its cargo bay and the same approach was adapted for the original design of Ariane 5-Hermes. Europe investigated and developed different reusable systems, set up test facilities and flew the IXV demonstrator in 2015. More recently, the preferred strategy consists in reuse of unwinged booster stages (e.g. Falcon 9 of SpaceX) or of only the orbited spacecraft (e.g. NASA-USAF X-37). France and Europe are preparing propulsion and reusable rocket stage demonstration bricks for next generation launchers. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some reusable space systems with emphasis on the different design strategy and skills mainly focused on European heritage. The systems are split into low and high energy with a view to technology aspects and in-flight experiments. • Reuse of space vehicles skills and technology are outlined depending on the energy level of the vehicle. • In-flight experiments learning is examined as a basis for preparation of future programs. • Examples of technology maturation and testing approach are given on the basis of European and worldwide testing heritage. Capsules have been widely used since the early space age. A number of capsules is currently operational or next to be operational, such as Soyuz, Shenzhou (and the next generation crew vehicle - NGCV), Orion, CST-100, Dragon-2 and a lot owns to the past, such as Vostok, Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will argue that there are pragmatic reasons to further cooperation between Indigenous peoples and space agencies, exemplified by Navajo-NASA cooperation. These pragmatic reasons rest upon an argument from belonging: space expansion involves a series of multi-generation projects. The significance of our contributions to these project will depend upon the actions of other generations who are unlikely to accept goals which are idiosyncratic, rather than drawing upon some deeper human concern with space. Such concern can be informed through Indigenous inclusion. The paper will remain officially neutral about a broader range of discourses concerning land rights, sovereignty, and attempts to situate dissent as resistance to colonial settler states. It will, however, presuppose a broad sympathy with Indigenous predicaments and group survival. The approach will be pragmatic in the sense that three nonarbitrary constraints/adequacy conditions will have to be met: (i) the overall approach must be geared to policy discussions rather than counterculture; (ii) Indigenous knowledge must be acknowledged as more than ecological, in order to be relevant to the matter at hand; and (iii) the practical role assigned to Indigenous peoples must be significant and distinctive. The overall aim is to explain that there is at least one important practical advantage of extending and deepening Indigenous inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiation tolerance is a critical performance criterion of photovoltaic devices for space power applications. In this paper we demonstrate the intrinsic radiation tolerance of an ultra-thin solar cell geometry. Device characteristics of GaAs solar cells with absorber layer thicknesses 80 nm and 800 nm were compared before and after 3MeV proton irradiation. Both cells showed a similar degradation in Voc with increasing fluence; however, the 80 nm cell showed no degradation in Isc for fluences up to 1014 p+ cm–2. For the same exposure, the Isc of the 800 nm cell had severely degraded leaving a remaining factor of 0.26. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economical/environmental scheduling problem (EESP) of the ship integrated energy system (SIES) has high computational complexity, which includes more than one optimization objective, various types of constraints, and frequently fluctuated load demand. Therefore, the intelligent scheduling strategies cannot be applied to the ship energy management system (SEMS) online, which has limited computing power and storage space. Aiming at realizing green computing on SEMS, in this paper a typical SIES-EESP optimization model is built, considering the form of decision vectors, the economical/environmental optimization objectives, and various types of real-world constraints of the SIES. Based on the complexity of SIES-EESPs, a two-stage offline-to-online multiobjective optimization strategy for SIES-EESP is proposed, which transfers part of the energy dispatch online computing task to the offline high-performance computer systems. The specific constraints handling methods are designed to reduce both continuous and discrete constraints violations of SIES-EESPs. Then, an establishment method of energy scheduling scheme-base is proposed. By using the big data offline, the economical/environmental scheduling solutions of a typical year can be obtained and stored with more computing resources and operation time on land. Thereafter, a short-term multiobjective offline-to-online optimization approach by SEMS is considered, with the application of multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) and typical schemes corresponding to the actual SIES-EESPs. Simulation results show that the proposed strategy can obtain enough feasible Pareto solutions in a shorter time and get well-distributed Pareto sets with better convergence performance, which can well adapt to the features of real-world SIES-EESPs and save plenty of operation time and storage space for the SEMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible planar spacecraft, such as solar sails, phased antenna arrays and space solar power satellites vary their shape in flight and also may not have a known shape after deployment. To allow applications where spacecraft shapes are measured to allow the closed-loop correction of flight or payload parameters, this paper presents a method for measuring shapes with miniature sun sensors embedded within the structure. Two algorithms to reconstruct the shape of the structure from the two local angles to the sun are presented; the first one is geometry-based, whereas the second one uses a finite element model of the structure. Both algorithms are validated on a 1.3 m × 0.25 m structure with 14 novel miniature sun sensors with an accuracy of 0. 5 ∘ , developed for the present research. The structure was reconstructed to an accuracy better than one millimeter by both algorithms, after undergoing bending and torsional deformations. While the geometrically based algorithm is fast and accurate for small deformations, the finite element based algorithm performs better overall, especially for larger deformations. • The shape of planar spacecraft is reconstructed from sun sensor measurements. • Two reconstruction algorithms are presented. • Novel miniature sun sensors with an accuracy of 0. 5 ∘ are presented. • Both algorithms are tested on a 1.3 m × 0.25 m structure with 14 sun sensors. • The finite element-based algorithm is slower but more accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]