337 research outputs found
Bridging the Engineering and Medicine Gap
A primary challenge NASA faces is communication between the disparate entities of engineers and human system experts in life sciences. Clear communication is critical for exploration mission success from the perspective of both risk analysis and data handling. The engineering community uses probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) models to inform their own risk analysis and has extensive experience managing mission data, but does not always fully consider human systems integration (HSI). The medical community, as a part of HSI, has been working 1) to develop a suite of tools to express medical risk in quantitative terms that are relatable to the engineering approaches commonly in use, and 2) to manage and integrate HSI data with engineering data. This talk will review the development of the Integrated Medical Model as an early attempt to bridge the communication gap between the medical and engineering communities in the language of PRA. This will also address data communication between the two entities in the context of data management considerations of the Medical Data Architecture. Lessons learned from these processes will help identify important elements to consider in future communication and integration of these two groups
The effect of short ray trajectories on the scattering statistics of wave chaotic systems
In many situations, the statistical properties of wave systems with chaotic
classical limits are well-described by random matrix theory. However,
applications of random matrix theory to scattering problems require
introduction of system specific information into the statistical model, such as
the introduction of the average scattering matrix in the Poisson kernel. Here
it is shown that the average impedance matrix, which also characterizes the
system-specific properties, can be expressed in terms of classical trajectories
that travel between ports and thus can be calculated semiclassically.
Theoretical results are compared with numerical solutions for a model
wave-chaotic system
Scattering a pulse from a chaotic cavity: Transitioning from algebraic to exponential decay
The ensemble averaged power scattered in and out of lossless chaotic cavities
decays as a power law in time for large times. In the case of a pulse with a
finite duration, the power scattered from a single realization of a cavity
closely tracks the power law ensemble decay initially, but eventually
transitions to an exponential decay. In this paper, we explore the nature of
this transition in the case of coupling to a single port. We find that for a
given pulse shape, the properties of the transition are universal if time is
properly normalized. We define the crossover time to be the time at which the
deviations from the mean of the reflected power in individual realizations
become comparable to the mean reflected power. We demonstrate numerically that,
for randomly chosen cavity realizations and given pulse shapes, the probability
distribution function of reflected power depends only on time, normalized to
this crossover time.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure
Limitations in Predicting Radiation-Induced Pharmaceutical Instability during Long-Duration Spaceflight
As human spaceflight seeks to expand beyond low-Earth orbit, NASA and its
international partners face numerous challenges related to ensuring the safety
of their astronauts, including the need to provide a safe and effective
pharmacy for long-duration spaceflight. Historical missions have relied upon
frequent resupply of onboard pharmaceuticals; as a result, there has been
little study into the effects of long-term exposure of pharmaceuticals to the
space environment. Of particular concern are the long-term effects of space
radiation on drug stability, especially as missions venture away from the
protective proximity of the Earth. Here we highlight the risk of space
radiation to pharmaceuticals during exploration spaceflight, identifying the
limitations of current understanding. We further seek to identify ways in which
these limitations could be addressed through dedicated research efforts aimed
towards the rapid development of an effective pharmacy for future spaceflight
endeavors.Comment: in press, Nature Microgravit
Exact Results for the Kuramoto Model with a Bimodal Frequency Distribution
We analyze a large system of globally coupled phase oscillators whose natural
frequencies are bimodally distributed. The dynamics of this system has been the
subject of long-standing interest. In 1984 Kuramoto proposed several
conjectures about its behavior; ten years later, Crawford obtained the first
analytical results by means of a local center manifold calculation.
Nevertheless, many questions have remained open, especially about the
possibility of global bifurcations. Here we derive the system's complete
stability diagram for the special case where the bimodal distribution consists
of two equally weighted Lorentzians. Using an ansatz recently discovered by Ott
and Antonsen, we show that in this case the infinite-dimensional problem
reduces exactly to a flow in four dimensions. Depending on the parameters and
initial conditions, the long-term dynamics evolves to one of three states:
incoherence, where all the oscillators are desynchronized; partial synchrony,
where a macroscopic group of phase-locked oscillators coexists with a sea of
desynchronized ones; and a standing wave state, where two counter-rotating
groups of phase-locked oscillators emerge. Analytical results are presented for
the bifurcation boundaries between these states. Similar results are also
obtained for the case in which the bimodal distribution is given by the sum of
two Gaussians.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev. E Added comment
Echoes and revival echoes in systems of anharmonically confined atoms
We study echoes and what we call 'revival echoes' for a collection of atoms
that are described by a single quantum wavefunction and are confined in a
weakly anharmonic trap. The echoes and revival echoes are induced by applying
two, successive temporally localized potential perturbations to the confining
potential, one at time , and a smaller one at time . Pulse-like
responses in the expectation value of position are predicted at $t
\approx n\tau$ ($n=2,3,...$) and are particularly evident at $t \approx 2\tau$.
A novel result of our study is the finding of 'revival echoes'. Revivals (but
not echoes) occur even if the second perturbation is absent. In particular, in
the absence of the second perturbation, the response to the first perturbation
dies away, but then reassembles, producing a response at revival times $mT_x$
($m=1,2,...$). Including the second perturbation at $t=\tau$, we find
temporally localized responses, revival echoes, both before and after $t\approx
mT_x$, e.g., at $t\approx m T_x-n \tau$ (pre-revival echoes) and at $t\approx
mT_x+n\tau$, (post-revival echoes), where $m$ and $n$ are $1,2,...$ . Depending
on the form of the perturbations, the 'principal' revival echoes at $t \approx
T_x \pm \tau$ can be much larger than the echo at $t \approx 2\tau$. We develop
a perturbative model for these phenomena, and compare its predictions to the
numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger Equation. The scaling
of the size of the various echoes and revival echoes as a function of the
symmetry and size of the perturbations applied at $t=0$ and $t=\tau$ is
investigated. We also study the presence of revivals and revival echoes in
higher moments of position, , , and the effect of atom-atom
interactions on these phenomena.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, corrected typos and added reference
Scalar Decay in Chaotic Mixing
I review the local theory of mixing, which focuses on infinitesimal blobs of
scalar being advected and stretched by a random velocity field. An advantage of
this theory is that it provides elegant analytical results. A disadvantage is
that it is highly idealised. Nevertheless, it provides insight into the
mechanism of chaotic mixing and the effect of random fluctuations on the rate
of decay of the concentration field of a passive scalar.Comment: 35 pages, 15 figures. Springer-Verlag conference style svmult.cls
(included). Published in "Transport in Geophysical Flows: Ten Years After,"
Proceedings of the Grand Combin Summer School, 14-24 June 2004, Valle
d'Aosta, Italy. Fixed some typo
Intermittency in Two-Dimensional Turbulence with Drag
We consider the enstrophy cascade in forced two-dimensional turbulence with a
linear drag force. In the presence of linear drag, the energy wavenumber
spectrum drops with a power law faster than in the case without drag, and the
vorticity field becomes intermittent, as shown by the anomalous scaling of the
vorticity structure functions. Using a previous theory, we compare numerical
simulation results with predictions for the power law exponent of the energy
wavenumber spectrum and the scaling exponents of the vorticity structure
functions obtained in terms of the distribution of finite time
Lyapunov exponents. We also study, both by numerical experiment and theoretical
analysis, the multifractal structure of the viscous enstrophy dissipation in
terms of its R\'{e}nyi dimension spectrum and singularity spectrum
. We derive a relation between and , and discuss
its relevance to a version of the refined similarity hypothesis. In addition,
we obtain and compare theoretically and numerically derived results for the
dependence on separation of the probability distribution of
\delta_{\V{r}}\omega, the difference between the vorticity at two points
separated by a distance . Our numerical simulations are done on a grid.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figure
A Strategic Approach to Medical Care for Exploration Missions
Exploration missions will present significant new challenges to crew health, including effects of variable gravity environments, limited communication with Earth-based personnel for diagnosis and consultation for medical events, limited resupply, and limited ability for crew return. Providing health care capabilities for exploration class missions will require system trades be performed to identify a minimum set of requirements and crosscutting capabilities which can be used in design of exploration medical systems. Current and future medical data, information, and knowledge must be cataloged and put in formats that facilitate querying and analysis. These data may then be used to inform the medical research and development program through analysis of risk trade studies between medical care capabilities and system constraints such as mass, power, volume, and training. These studies will be used to define a Medical Concept of Operations to facilitate stakeholder discussions on expected medical capability for exploration missions. Medical Capability as a quantifiable variable is proposed as a surrogate risk metric and explored for trade space analysis that can improve communication between the medical and engineering approaches to mission design. The resulting medical system approach selected will inform NASA mission architecture, vehicle, and subsystem design for the next generation of spacecraft
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