Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report

Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report PDF Author: Nasa
Publisher: PDQ Press
ISBN: 9780979828898
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
NASA commissioned the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) to conduct a thorough review of both the technical and the organizational causes of the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and her crew on February 1, 2003. The accident investigation that followed determined that a large piece of insulating foam from Columbia's external tank (ET) had come off during ascent and struck the leading edge of the left wing, causing critical damage. The damage was undetected during the mission. The Columbia accident was not survivable. After the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) investigation regarding the cause of the accident was completed, further consideration produced the question of whether there were lessons to be learned about how to improve crew survival in the future. This investigation was performed with the belief that a comprehensive, respectful investigation could provide knowledge that can protect future crews in the worldwide community of human space flight. Additionally, in the course of the investigation, several areas of research were identified that could improve our understanding of both nominal space flight and future spacecraft accidents. This report is the first comprehensive, publicly available accident investigation report addressing crew survival for a human spacecraft mishap, and it provides key information for future crew survival investigations. The results of this investigation are intended to add meaning to the sacrifice of the crew's lives by making space flight safer for all future generations.

Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report

Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report PDF Author: Nasa
Publisher: PDQ Press
ISBN: 9780979828898
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
NASA commissioned the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) to conduct a thorough review of both the technical and the organizational causes of the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and her crew on February 1, 2003. The accident investigation that followed determined that a large piece of insulating foam from Columbia's external tank (ET) had come off during ascent and struck the leading edge of the left wing, causing critical damage. The damage was undetected during the mission. The Columbia accident was not survivable. After the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) investigation regarding the cause of the accident was completed, further consideration produced the question of whether there were lessons to be learned about how to improve crew survival in the future. This investigation was performed with the belief that a comprehensive, respectful investigation could provide knowledge that can protect future crews in the worldwide community of human space flight. Additionally, in the course of the investigation, several areas of research were identified that could improve our understanding of both nominal space flight and future spacecraft accidents. This report is the first comprehensive, publicly available accident investigation report addressing crew survival for a human spacecraft mishap, and it provides key information for future crew survival investigations. The results of this investigation are intended to add meaning to the sacrifice of the crew's lives by making space flight safer for all future generations.

Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States

Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309142393
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community. The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs. While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.

2009 Report Card for America's Infrastructure

2009 Report Card for America's Infrastructure PDF Author: American Society of Civil Engineers
Publisher: ASCE Publications
ISBN: 9780784410370
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
Details the rationale behind grades in 15 categories as announced by ASCE. This book presents an analysis of each category, an assessment of your state's status, case studies of successful projects, suggestions for actions you can take and ways you can get involved, and more.

Bridge Management

Bridge Management PDF Author: Bojidar Yanev
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 680

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Book Description
A comprehensive, up-to-the-minute account of bridge management developments for researchers, designers, builders, administrators, and owners Bridge Management draws on Bojidar Yanev's thirty years of research, teaching, and consulting as well as his management of 800 of New York City's 2,200 bridges. It offers an insider's view of the problems to be resolved in bridge management by civil and transportation engineers, budget and asset managers, abstract analysts, and hands-on field workers. The personal search of the author for solutions is juxtaposed with an overview of the dynamic interactions between bridge builders and the social and physical forces shaping the transportation infrastructure over the centuries. Bridge Management uniquely integrates the priorities, constraints, objectives, and tastes governing the domains of structural mechanics, economics, public administration, and field operations at both the project and network levels. It features: A review of current bridge management vulnerabilities, objectives, tools, and products Dozens of case studies illustrating the application of analytic models, and practical developments currently shaping the field Unique chapters exploring the evolution of bridge design, construction, and maintenance, from the origins of deliberate planning to the current integrated lifecycle asset management models

Urban Stormwater Management in the United States

Urban Stormwater Management in the United States PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309125391
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 611

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Book Description
The rapid conversion of land to urban and suburban areas has profoundly altered how water flows during and following storm events, putting higher volumes of water and more pollutants into the nation's rivers, lakes, and estuaries. These changes have degraded water quality and habitat in virtually every urban stream system. The Clean Water Act regulatory framework for addressing sewage and industrial wastes is not well suited to the more difficult problem of stormwater discharges. This book calls for an entirely new permitting structure that would put authority and accountability for stormwater discharges at the municipal level. A number of additional actions, such as conserving natural areas, reducing hard surface cover (e.g., roads and parking lots), and retrofitting urban areas with features that hold and treat stormwater, are recommended.

Communities in Action

Communities in Action PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309452961
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 583

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Book Description
In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Thinking in Systems

Thinking in Systems PDF Author: Donella Meadows
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603581480
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
The classic book on systems thinking—with more than half a million copies sold worldwide! "This is a fabulous book... This book opened my mind and reshaped the way I think about investing."—Forbes "Thinking in Systems is required reading for anyone hoping to run a successful company, community, or country. Learning how to think in systems is now part of change-agent literacy. And this is the best book of its kind."—Hunter Lovins In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth—the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet—Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life. Some of the biggest problems facing the world—war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation—are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking. While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner. In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

Improving the Federal Bridge Program, Including an Assessment of S. 3338 and H.R. 3999

Improving the Federal Bridge Program, Including an Assessment of S. 3338 and H.R. 3999 PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Environment and Public Works
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bridges
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description


Finding What Works in Health Care

Finding What Works in Health Care PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309164257
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Healthcare decision makers in search of reliable information that compares health interventions increasingly turn to systematic reviews for the best summary of the evidence. Systematic reviews identify, select, assess, and synthesize the findings of similar but separate studies, and can help clarify what is known and not known about the potential benefits and harms of drugs, devices, and other healthcare services. Systematic reviews can be helpful for clinicians who want to integrate research findings into their daily practices, for patients to make well-informed choices about their own care, for professional medical societies and other organizations that develop clinical practice guidelines. Too often systematic reviews are of uncertain or poor quality. There are no universally accepted standards for developing systematic reviews leading to variability in how conflicts of interest and biases are handled, how evidence is appraised, and the overall scientific rigor of the process. In Finding What Works in Health Care the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends 21 standards for developing high-quality systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research. The standards address the entire systematic review process from the initial steps of formulating the topic and building the review team to producing a detailed final report that synthesizes what the evidence shows and where knowledge gaps remain. Finding What Works in Health Care also proposes a framework for improving the quality of the science underpinning systematic reviews. This book will serve as a vital resource for both sponsors and producers of systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research.

Dirt Roads to Dixie

Dirt Roads to Dixie PDF Author: Howard Lawrence Preston
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN: 9780870496776
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
At the conclusion of the nineteenth century, one of the issues that attracted the attention of reformers in the South was road improvements. Populists who subscribed to the tenets of the good roads movement sought to provide farmers with better access to markets, make the cultural and employment opportunities of cities more available, and perhaps even halt the mass exodus of young people from the farms.