4,712 research outputs found
Lightweight Vacuum Jacket for Cryogenic Insulation - Appendices to Final Report
The feasibility is demonstrated of producing a lightweight vacuum jacket using state-of-the-art technology and materials. Design and analytical studies were made on an orbital maneuvering system fuel tank. Preliminary design details were completed for the tank assembly which included an optimized vacuum jacket and multilayered insulation system. A half-scale LH2 test model was designed and fabricated and a force/stiffness proof test was conducted on the vacuum jacket. A vacuum leak rate of 0.00001 was measured, approximately 1500 hours of vacuum pressure was sustained, and 29 vacuum pressure cycles were experienced prior to failure. For vol. 1, see N75-26192
Simplified thermal estimation techniques for large space structures
A tool for making rapid estimates of the response of space structures to thermal environments encountered in earth orbits is provided for the designer of these structures. Charts giving heating rates and temperatures for certain typical large spacecraft structural elements are provided. Background information for spacecraft thermal design considerations is presented. Environments, requirements, thermal control techniques, design guidelines, and approaches available for more detailed thermal response analysis are discussed
Rayleigh scattering, mode coupling, and optical loss in silicon microdisks
High refractive index contrast optical microdisk resonators fabricated from
silicon-on-insulator wafers are studied using an external silica fiber taper
waveguide as a wafer-scale optical probe. Measurements performed in the 1500 nm
wavelength band show that these silicon microdisks can support
whispering-gallery modes with quality factors as high as 5.2 x 10^5, limited by
Rayleigh scattering from fabrication induced surface roughness. Microdisks with
radii as small as 2.5 microns are studied, with measured quality factors as
high as 4.7 x 10^5 for an optical mode volume of 5.3 cubic wavelengths in the
material.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; contains minor correction to doublet splitting
theor
Single-crystal diamond low-dissipation cavity optomechanics
Single-crystal diamond cavity optomechanical devices are a promising example
of a hybrid quantum system: by coupling mechanical resonances to both light and
electron spins, they can enable new ways for photons to control solid state
qubits. However, realizing cavity optomechanical devices from high quality
diamond chips has been an outstanding challenge. Here we demonstrate
single-crystal diamond cavity optomechanical devices that can enable
photon-phonon-spin coupling. Cavity optomechanical coupling to
frequency () mechanical resonances is observed. In room temperature
ambient conditions, these resonances have a record combination of low
dissipation (mechanical quality factor, ) and high
frequency, with sufficient
for room temperature single phonon coherence. The system exhibits high optical
quality factor () resonances at infrared and visible
wavelengths, is nearly sideband resolved, and exhibits optomechanical
cooperativity . The devices' potential for optomechanical control of
diamond electron spins is demonstrated through radiation pressure excitation of
mechanical self-oscillations whose 31 pm amplitude is predicted to provide 0.6
MHz coupling rates to diamond nitrogen vacancy center ground state transitions
(6 Hz / phonon), and stronger coupling rates to excited state
transitions.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
A Survey of the Czechoslovak Follow-up of Lung Cancer Mortality in Uranium Miners
The major Czechoslovak cohort of uranium miners (S-cohort) is surveyed in terms of diagrams illustrating dependences on calendar year, age, and exposure to radon and radon progeny. An analysis of the dose dependence of lung cancer mortality is performed by nonparametric and, subsequently, by parametric methods. In the first step, two-dimensional isotonic regression is employed to derive the lung cancer mortality rate and the relative excess risk as functions of age attained and of lagged cumulated exposure. In a second step, analytical fits in terms of relative risk models are derived. The treatment is largely analogous to the methods applied by the BEIR IV Committee to other major cohorts of uranium miners. There is a marked dependence of the excess risk on age attained and on time since exposure. A specific characteristic of the Czechoslovak data is the nonlinearity of the dependence of the lung cancer excess risk on the cumulated exposure; exposures on the order of 100 working level months or less appear to be more effective per working level month than larger exposures but, in the absence of an internal control group, this cannot be excluded to be due to confounders such as smoking or environmental exposures. A further notable observation is the association of larger excess risks with longer protraction of the exposures
Quantum Optics with Surface Plasmons
We describe a technique that enables strong, coherent coupling between
individual optical emitters and guided plasmon excitations in conducting
nano-structures at optical frequencies. We show that under realistic
conditions, optical emission can be almost entirely directed into the plasmon
modes. As an example, we describe an application of this technique involving
efficient generation of single photons on demand, in which the plasmon is
efficiently out-coupled to a dielectric waveguide.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Nanoscale Torsional Optomechanics
Optomechanical transduction is demonstrated for nanoscale torsional
resonators evanescently coupled to optical microdisk whispering gallery mode
resonators. The on-chip, integrated devices are measured using a fully
fiber-based system, including a tapered and dimpled optical fiber probe. With a
thermomechanically calibrated optomechanical noise floor down to 7 fm/sqrt(Hz),
these devices open the door for a wide range of physical measurements involving
extremely small torques, as little as 4x10^-20 N*m.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures - Accepted to APL Oct 22nd, 2012. To appear in
February 4th issue - as cover articl
On the iterated Crank-Nicolson for hyperbolic and parabolic equations in numerical relativity
The iterated Crank-Nicolson is a predictor-corrector algorithm commonly used
in numerical relativity for the solution of both hyperbolic and parabolic
partial differential equations. We here extend the recent work on the stability
of this scheme for hyperbolic equations by investigating the properties when
the average between the predicted and corrected values is made with unequal
weights and when the scheme is applied to a parabolic equation. We also propose
a variant of the scheme in which the coefficients in the averages are swapped
between two corrections leading to systematically larger amplification factors
and to a smaller numerical dispersion.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Variability in H9N2 haemagglutinin receptor-binding preference and the pH of fusion
H9N2 avian influenza viruses are primarily a disease of poultry; however, they occasionally infect humans and are considered a potential pandemic threat. Little work has been performed to assess the intrinsic biochemical properties related to zoonotic potential of H9N2 viruses. The objective of this study, therefore, was to investigate H9N2 haemagglutinins (HAs) using two well-known correlates for human adaption: receptor-binding avidity and pH of fusion. Receptor binding was characterized using bio-layer interferometry to measure virus binding to human and avian-like receptor analogues and the pH of fusion was assayed by syncytium formation in virus-infected cells at different pHs. We characterized contemporary H9N2 viruses of the zoonotic G1 lineage, as well as representative viruses of the zoonotic BJ94 lineage. We found that most contemporary H9N2 viruses show a preference for sulphated avian-like receptor analogues. However, the ‘Eastern’ G1 H9N2 viruses displayed a consistent preference in binding to a human-like receptor analogue. We demonstrate that the presence of leucine at position 226 of the HA receptor-binding site correlated poorly with the ability to bind a human-like sialic acid receptor. H9N2 HAs also display variability in their pH of fusion, ranging between pH 5.4 and 5.85 which is similar to that of the first wave of human H1N1pdm09 viruses but lower than the pH of fusion seen in zoonotic H5N1 and H7N9 viruses. Our results suggest possible molecular mechanisms that may underlie the relatively high prevalence of human zoonotic infection by particular H9N2 virus lineages
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