Effects of sidewall geometry on the installed performance of nonaxisymmetric convergent-divergent exhaust nozzles

The investigation was conducted at static conditions and over a Mach number range from 0.6 to 1.2. Angle of attack was held constant at 0 deg. High pressure air was used to simulate jet exhaust flow at ratios of jet total pressure to free-stream static pressure from 1 (jet off) to approximately 10. Sidewall cutback appears to be a viable way of reducing nozzle weight and cooling requirements without compromising installed performance

Effects of twin-vertical-tail parameters on twin-engine afterbody/nozzle aerodynamic characteristics

The Langley 16-foot transonic tunnel was used to determine the effects of several empennage and afterbody parameters on twin-engine aft-end aerodynamic characteristics. Model variables included twin-vertical-tail cant angle, toe angle, airfoil camber, and root-chord length and afterbody/engine interfairing shape. Tests were conducted over a Mach number range from 0.6 to 1.2 and over an angle-of-attack range from 2 deg to 10 deg. Nozzle pressure ratio was varied from 1.0 (jet off) to approximately 10.0

Fruticose lichen communities at the edge: distribution and diversity in a desert sky island on the Colorado Plateau

Subalpine habitats in sky islands in the Southwestern USA are currently facing largescale transformations. Lichens have widely been used as bioindicators of environmental change. On the Colorado Plateau, fruticose lichens occur in patchy, disconnected populations, including unique lichen-draped conifer sites in subalpine forests in the La Sal Mountains in southeastern Utah. Here, we document the distribution and fungal diversity within these lichen communities. We find that lichen-draped conifer sites in the La Sal Mountains are restricted to only three known, small areas in Picea englemannii forests above 3000 m above sea level, two of which have recently been impacted by wildfire. We document 30 different species of lichen-forming fungi in these communities, several which represent the first reports from the Colorado Plateau. We also characterize mycobiont haplotype diversity for the fruticose lichens Evernia divaricata, Ramalina sinensis, and multiple Usnea species. We also report a range of diverse fungi associated with these lichens, including genetic clusters representing 22 orders spanning seven classes of Ascomycetes and fewer clusters representing Basidiomycetes. Our results provide a baseline for ongoing monitoring and help to raise awareness of unique lichen communities and other biodiversity in the region

A Very Low Resource Language Speech Corpus for Computational Language Documentation Experiments

Most speech and language technologies are trained with massive amounts of speech and text information. However, most of the world languages do not have such resources or stable orthography. Systems constructed under these almost zero resource conditions are not only promising for speech technology but also for computational language documentation. The goal of computational language documentation is to help field linguists to (semi-)automatically analyze and annotate audio recordings of endangered and unwritten languages. Example tasks are automatic phoneme discovery or lexicon discovery from the speech signal. This paper presents a speech corpus collected during a realistic language documentation process. It is made up of 5k speech utterances in Mboshi (Bantu C25) aligned to French text translations. Speech transcriptions are also made available: they correspond to a non-standard graphemic form close to the language phonology. We present how the data was collected, cleaned and processed and we illustrate its use through a zero-resource task: spoken term discovery. The dataset is made available to the community for reproducible computational language documentation experiments and their evaluation.Comment: accepted to LREC 201

Influence of retardation effects on 2D magnetoplasmon spectrum

Within dissipationless limit the magnetic field dependence of magnetoplasmon spectrum for unbounded 2DEG system found to intersect the cyclotron resonance line, and, then approaches the frequency given by light dispersion relation. Recent experiments done for macroscopic disc-shape 2DEG systems confirm theory expectations.Comment: 2 pages,2 figure

Variability of Luminous Stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud Using 10 Years of ASAS Data

Motivated by the detection of a recent outburst of the massive luminous blue variable LMC-R71, which reached an absolute magnitude M_V = -9.3 mag, we undertook a systematic study of the optical variability of 1268 massive stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, using a recent catalog by Bonanos et al. (2009) as the input. The ASAS All Star Catalog (Pojmanski 2002) provided well-sampled light curves of these bright stars spanning 10 years. Combining the two catalogs resulted in 599 matches, on which we performed a variability search. We identified 117 variable stars, 38 of which were not known before, despite their brightness and large amplitude of variation. We found 13 periodic stars that we classify as eclipsing binary (EB) stars, eight of which are newly discovered bright, massive eclipsing binaries composed of OB type stars. The remaining 104 variables are either semi- or non-periodic, the majority (85) being red supergiants. Most (26) of the newly discovered variables in this category are also red supergiants with only three B and four O stars.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures and 3 tables; published in A

Assessing environmental controls on the distribution of long-chain alkenones in the Canadian Prairies

Long-chain alkenones (LCAs) have been used for decades to reconstruct quantitative sea-surface temperature records, but they also have a great potential for paleotemperature reconstructions in lacustrine settings. Here, we investigated how the presence and abundance of LCAs in surface sediments from 106 lakes varied with environmental conditions in lakes of the northern Great Plains (Canadian Prairies) in southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Consistent with preliminary research, we found LCAs in 55% of surveyed lakes, with mean concentrations of 143 μg/g dry sediment, but very high concentrations (up to 2.3 mg/g dry sediment) in 7% of lakes. Statistical analyses indicate that salinity and stratification play key roles in determining LCA presence and abundance supporting previous research in Spain and the northern Great Plains, USA. Overall, the alkenone unsaturation index (U37K) was not correlated significantly with average summer water temperature, probably because the timing of maximum LCA production occurs during the spring season. We conclude that improved seasonal sampling is required within the study lakes to better identify the timing and habitat of haptophyte production, and allow development of environmental temperature reconstruction tools

Elements of an Integrated Phenotyping System for Monitoring Crop Status at Canopy Level

Great care is needed to obtain spectral data appropriate for phenotyping in a scientifically rigorous manner. This paper discusses the procedures and considerations necessary and also suggests important pre-processing and analytical steps leading to real-time, non-destructive assessment of crop biophysical characteristics. The system has three major components: (1) data-collection platforms (with a focus on backpack and tractor-mounted units) including specific instruments and their configurations; (2) data-collection and display software; and (3) standard products depicting crop-biophysical characteristics derived using a suite of models to transform the spectral data into accurate, reliable biophysical characteristics of crops, such as fraction of green vegetation, absorbed photosynthetically active radiation, leaf area index, biomass, chlorophyll content and gross primary production. This system streamlines systematic data acquisition, facilitates research, and provides useful products for agriculture

Overview of Fundamental High-Lift Research for Transport Aircraft at NASA

NASA has had a long history in fundamental and applied high lift research. Current programs provide a focus on the validation of technologies and tools that will enable extremely short take off and landing coupled with efficient cruise performance, simple flaps with flow control for improved effectiveness, circulation control wing concepts, some exploration into new aircraft concepts, and partnership with Air Force Research Lab in mobility. Transport high-lift development testing will shift more toward mid and high Rn facilities at least until the question: "How much Rn is required" is answered. This viewgraph presentation provides an overview of High-Lift research at NASA

\u3ci\u3eSnowedOut Atlanta\u3c/i\u3e: Examining digital emergence on facebook during a crisis

Individuals in emergencies form spontaneous, emergent groups to respond and recover. With the rise of social media use in crises, academics and professionals must be aware of how groups digitally coordinate emergent response efforts. This paper examines digital emergence through the case of SnowedOut Atlanta, a Facebook group formed during the 2014 ice storms in Atlanta. The posts and actions of the group members are in line with those of traditional emergent groups. For example, group members shared informational, material, and emotional support. The findings also provide implications for practitioners and insight into the communication of such groups. In particular, emergency managers have an opportunity to seek out and partner with these types of groups in future similar events