The less invasive laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty (LAUP) burns away excess tissue and is performed under local anesthesia on an outpatient basis. Yet its long-term effectiveness has yet to be established, and the pain can still land you in a new grotto of hell."The incision or the laser burn has to heal while you constantly breathe, talk and swallow, so the wound is always being stretched, causing considerable pain," says John Shepard, M.D., medical director of the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorders Center in Rochester, Minn. "One patient said that if he''d had a gun he would have shot himself, the pain was so bad." To be fair, others experience less discomfort--the equivalent of a bad sore throat for three or four days.

Power and WeightManufacturers break cordless drill users into two distinct groups. The people in the first group want as much power as they can get and don''t mind carrying heavier tools to get it. The people in the second group are willing to sacrifice power to get a light, maneuverable drill with superior run-time.The split makes sense. People who frame, build decks, or work in sub-trades like electrical, plumbing, and hvac drill big holes and drive lags and oversized fasteners. Only the bigger, heavier drills have the power to perform those tasks. People who do finish work like hanging doors or building and installing cabinets don''t need that much power and can be more productive with a light, compact tool.

"Okay," said the manager. "We go with the two heads."The time frame was the winter of 1999, and this exchange was typical of many conversations that the Al controls team from the Automation, Robotics, and Simulation Division (AR&SD) at Johnson Space Center (JSC) would have with the advanced water-recovery personnel as the two groups prepared for a year-long test of a new Integrated Water-Recovery System (iWRS), slated to begin in January 2001. We were building an AI control system for this test that had to handle upward of 200 sensors and actuators grouped among 4 water processing subsystems. The control system would run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and be completely autonomous. It was an applied AI engineer''s dream, and in the end, we were extremely successful. However, there were events that happened for which we were ill prepared, and we would come away with a much better appreciation for the difficulties involved in controlling long-duration life-support systems.

©2003 www.circular-saws.net All rights reserved.