Results of the 1978 NASA/JPL balloon flight solar cell calibration program

The 1978 scheduled solar cell calibration balloon flight was successfully completed. Thirty six modules were carried to an altitude of above 36 kilometers. Recovery of telemetry and flight packages was without incident. These calibrated standard cells are used as reference standards in simulator testing of cells and arrays with similar spectral response characteristics. The factors affecting the spectral transmission of the atmosphere at various altitudes are summarized

A critical examination of new constructional techniques and their influence on productivity in the building industry with special reference to housing in south-east Scotland

In these notes which follow, an attempt is made in the first instance to sketch in the background to this investigation of the effect of new constructional techniques on productivity. Then in Vol. 2 a representative selection of new techniques is critically examined, and wherever possible the effect of the new method on productivity is discussed. In Part Two the aspects of productivity and cost are considered more closely by summarising the data already assembled in Vol. 2 of Part One, together with certain additional notes and analyses relating to productivity and cost.The scope of this study is limited to constructional techniques and therefore does not take account of, or seek to enter into such fruitful fields of enquiry as site organisation and management, architectural design, etc. In the early stages of this study it was soon found that it would indeed be necessary to exercise some discrimination in the selection of suitable techniques for examination owing to the bewildering variety of new constructional methods now being applied in the industry.Occasionally there have been instances where these enquiries have included a process which is not strictly a process/ L} process of construction. For example, the packaging of bricks has been discussed and also a number of mechanical aids to more productive building. Wherever possible, however, I have endeavoured to confine my studies to methods of construction.The scope of this thesis was further limited . by confining all study to new methods employed in house - building. This limitation was applied, firstly because the housing aspect of the building industry is worthy of a considerable amount of study and secondly because the field would otherwise have been Duch todlarge for any reasonable concentration of thought. Indeed, in the study of the many types of buildings which can properly be described as houses, the field has been wide enough and it may be that as a consequence of this, there has perhaps been slightly more emphasis on the two or three- storey type of house types rather than multi- storey flats.It was intended that this study should have special reference to housing in South East Scotland because it was originally considered that there should be ample opportunity for site studies in this area. In particular it was hoped that a certain amount of time and motion study/ 6 study might be applied experimentally to a pre = planned scheme of four- storey maisonettes to be carried out by the Dept. of Health in Edinburgh during 1955. These maisonettes were to incorporate a number of interesting techniques of cost - saving construction. It turned out, however, that the Dept. was not interested in my offer to carry out, partly as a College project, observations and cost analyses based on labour expenditure. This was in spite of the fact that the consultant quantity surveyor for this scheme had said that he would welcome my assistance in this connection.A substantial number of the techniques which have been examined do, however, relate to Scottish house - building and wherever possible the examples have been drawn from the South East area of Scotland. From time to time it will be noted that Scottish building terms are used when describing the various constructional processes or parts of buildings, e.g. scarcement, deafening, rhone, slapping, etc.; in most instances the meaning of the term will be obvious from tho text, but where any doubt arises reference should be made to the Glossary of Scottish Building Terms included as an Appendix.In a number of instances the critical examination of new methods has been supported by laboratory tests or trial, and for the facilities necessary to do this work I am indebted to the Principal and Governors of the Heriot-Watt College.The difficulties encountered in the study of the economic aspects of the new methods proved to be far greater than were anticipated. Many contractors and others connected with the industry were approached for data on labour expenditure applied to particular processes, and in practically all instances there was a complete inability or unwillingness to provide the desired information. A similar result was experienced when attempts were made to obtain a representative selection of priced bills of quantities relating to house -building work that had included new building methods designed to save costs. My intention here was to analyse a substantial number of priced bills on an elemental basis, but it was possible to obtain only a relatively small amount of this type of cost data. The cost analyses based on these data are inserted in Appendix A to Part 2. Many letters of enquiry were sent to various contractors, manufacturing firms, architects, etc., and some extremely useful information was obtained in this way. But it was quite the exception to receive a prompt and really informative reTTly to these enquiries. In many cases the enquiries were siinply ignored - even by a number of local authority and private architects, who, one might have thought would have had the courtesy to reply, however unhelpfully.These difficulties that have been described are in no way unusual: an extract from the 1956/57 Report of the Advisory Council on Building Research and Development reads - "It is difficult to establish the actual cost of the construction of separate structural components because few builders outside the largest firms operate exact systems of cost recording and there is an understandable reluctance to divulge detailed figures even when they are available; Government departments suffer from the same reluctance. In any case it is necessary to find out what kind of cost data would be most helpful to architects and how such data would best be compiled ".In spite of this regrettable dearth of detailed information it has been possible, with the co- operation of such organisations as the Scottish Special Housing Association and one or two research- minded contracting firms, together with personal observation, much reading, and experiment to make a critical assessment of a selected group of techniques and in many cases, to publish factual information on productivity and cost.Some extracts from this thesis have already been published in the Transactions of the .Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and other technical journals, (copies of these publications are deposited with this thesis). It is hoped that a substantial part of the findings in the thesis will eventually be published in professional and technical journals and will serve, in a modest way, to inform the professions and the industry on these vital matters of productivity and cost

Localised electro-thermal processing: a new route to the patterning of magnetic recording media

notes: A new route to magnetic nanopatterning demonstrated experimentally and via new theoretical modelpublication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticlePrevious reports have detailed the fabrication of media able to support high density magnetic recording in both longitudinal and perpendicular formats by the global rapid thermal processing of sputtered non-magnetic precursor films. During processing in this manner a magnetic element is released from its nitride and agglomerates to form a random near mono-dispersion of magnetic nano-particles. Here we explore, primarily through modelling and simulation, the feasibility of processing similarly formulated precursor media not globally but locally. We investigate the potential of using conducting nano-probe tips to produce, via electro-thermal (Joule) heating, a nano-patterned recording media in the form of regular arrays of magnetic islands in a non-magnetic host. In the first instance we concentrate on the simplest cobalt based precursor medium for which both initial simulation and experimental studies indicate the formation of magnetic islands with dimensions of the order of the tip diameter is relatively straightforward. The results signify that if practical production scenarios can be devised to produce technologically significant areas of recording media by the rapid multi-probe repetition of this technique, then processing in this manner offers a promising route to areal recording densities of perhaps 5 Terabit/in2 even with the simplest cobalt media. We also note that the electro-thermal processing method is potentially extendable to the production of a wide variety of magnetic materials (eg. PtCo, FeCo, NiFe alloys) and, applied via electrical nano-imprinting type techniques, to the production of a wide variety of patterned structures

Differences in Proinflammatory Cytokines and Monocyte Subtypes in Older as Compared With Younger Kidney Transplant Recipients.

Background:The number of elderly patients with end-stage kidney disease requiring kidney transplantation continues to grow. Evaluation of healthy older adults has revealed proinflammatory changes in the immune system, which are posited to contribute to age-associated illnesses via "inflamm-aging." Immunologic dysfunction is also associated with impaired control of infections. Whether these immunologic changes are found in older kidney transplant recipients is not currently known, but may have important implications for risk for adverse clinical outcomes. Methods:Three months after transplant, innate immune phenotype was evaluated by flow cytometry from 60 kidney transplant recipients (22 older [≥60 years] and 38 younger [<60 years old]). Multiplex cytokine testing was used to evaluate plasma cytokine levels. Younger patients were matched to older patients based on transplant type and induction immune suppression. Results:Older kidney transplant recipients demonstrated decreased frequency of intermediate monocytes (CD14++CD16+) compared with younger patients (1.2% vs 3.3%, P = 0.007), and a trend toward increased frequency of proinflammatory classical monocytes (CD14++CD16-) (94.5% vs 92.1%) (P = 0.065). Increased levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) were seen in older patients. Conclusions:In this pilot study of kidney transplant recipients, we identified differences in the innate immune system in older as compared with younger patients, including increased levels of IFN-γ. This suggests that age-associated nonspecific inflammation persists despite immune suppression. The ability to apply noninvasive testing to transplant recipients will provide tools for patient risk stratification and individualization of immune suppression regimens to improve outcomes after transplantation

A first measurement of the interaction cross section of the tau neutrino

The DONuT experiment collected data in 1997 and published first results in 2000 based on four observed $\nu_\tau$ charged-current (CC) interactions. The final analysis of the data collected in the experiment is presented in this paper, based on $3.6 \times 10^{17}$ protons on target using the 800 GeV Tevatron beam at Fermilab. The number of observed $\nu_\tau$ CC interactions is 9, from a total of 578 observed neutrino interactions. We calculated the energy-independent part of the tau-neutrino CC cross section ($\nu + \bar \nu$), relative to the well-known $\nu_e$ and $\nu_\mu$ cross sections. The ratio $\sigma(\nu_\tau)$/$\sigma(\nu_{e,\mu})$ was found to be $1.37\pm0.35\pm0.77$. The $\nu_\tau$ CC cross section was found to be $0.72 \pm 0.24\pm0.36 \times 10^{-38}$ cm$^{2}\rm{GeV}^{-1}$. Both results are in agreement the Standard Model.Comment: 37 pages, 15 figure

A New Upper Limit for the Tau-Neutrino Magnetic Moment

Using a prompt neutrino beam in which a nu_tau component was identified for the first time, the nu_tau magnetic moment was measured based on a search for an anomalous increase in the number of neutrino-electron interactions. One such event was observed when 2.3 were expected from background processes, giving an upper 90% confidence limit of 3.9x10^-7 Bohr magnetons.Comment: 9 pages; 1 figur