813 research outputs found
Atmosphere breathing engines in astronautics
The contents of this note fall into two sections. Part I considers
the possibilities and problems involved in using ramjets as a power source
for one of the stages of a satellite launching vehicle or similar project.
In comparing such a system with rocket powered vehicles, consideration is
given to both performance and mass of the various systems. Various trajectories
are considered. This work includes a reassessment of projects that have been
suggested elsewhere.
The second part examines the possibility of using forms of ramjet in
the atmosphere of other planets. Because there is insufficient knowledge
of these atmospheres, a study has been carried out to determine the approximate
performance of a chemical ramjet in atmospheres of Methane, Ammonia, Hydrogen
and Carbon Dioxide at Mach 3. The work in Part II is original, there being
no previously reported papers on the subject known.
These studies, which are necessarily based on several simplifying
assumptions, indicate that applications for these engines may be expected
to arise in astronautics, and that this is a fruitful field for further
studies
Satellite Evidence of Hurricane-Induced Phytoplankton Blooms in an Oceanic Desert
The physical effects of hurricanes include deepening of the mixed layer and decreasing of the sea surface temperature in response to entrainment, curl-induced upwelling, and increased upper ocean cooling. However, the biological effects of hurricanes remain relatively unexplored. In this paper, we examine the passages of 13 hurricanes through the Sargasso Sea region of the North Atlantic during the years 1998 through 2001. Remotely sensed ocean color shows increased concentrations of surface chlorophyll within the cool wakes of the hurricanes, apparently in response to the injection of nutrients and/or biogenic pigments into the oligotrophic surface waters. This increase in post-storm surface chlorophyll concentration usually lasted 2-3 weeks before it returned to its nominal pre-hurricane level
High-Resolution monitoring of current rapid transformations on glacial and periglacial environments
Glacial and periglacial environments are highly sensitive to climatic changes. Processes of cryosphere degradation may strongly impact human activities and infrastructures, and need to be monitored for improved understanding and for mitigation/adaptation. Studying glacial and periglacial environments using traditional techniques may be difficult or not feasible, but new remote sensing techniques like terrestrial and aerial laser scanner opened new possibilities for cryospheric studies. This work presents an application of the terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) for monitoring the current rapid changes occurring on the Montasio Occidentale glacier (Eastern Italian alps), which is representative of low-altitude, avalanche-fed and debris-cover glaciers. These glaciers are quite common in the Alps but their reaction to climate changes is still poorly known. The mass balance, surface velocity fields, debris cover dynamics and effects of meteorological extremes were investigated by repeat high-resolution TLS scanning from September 2010 to October 2012. The results were encouraging and shed light on the peculiar response of this glacier to climatic changes, on its current dynamics and on the feedback played by the debris cover, which is critical for its preservation. The rapid transformations in act, combined with the unstable ice mass, large amount of loose debris and channeled runoff during intense rainfalls, constitute a potential area for the formation of large debris flows, as shown by field evidences and documented by the recent literature
A common p73 polymorphism is associated with a reduced incidence of oesophageal carcinoma
The incidence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma is rising; to date, no susceptibility genes have been identified. p73, a novel p53 homologue, maps to chromosome 1p36, a region commonly deleted in oesophageal cancers. p73 shares some p53-like activity, but in addition, may also play a role in gastrointestinal epithelial inflammatory responses. A non-coding p73 polymorphism (denoted AT or GC) may be functionally significant. We investigated whether this polymorphism might play a role in the aetiopathogenesis of oesophageal cancer. This was a caseâcontrol, retrospective study. 84 cases of oesophageal cancer (25 squamous and 59 adenocarcinoma) and 152 normal population controls were genotyped for this polymorphism. Informative cases were examined for p73 LOH within the tumour. AT/AT homozygotes were significantly less prevalent in the oesophageal cancer population (1/84 = 1.2%) compared to controls (15/152 = 9.9%) (P < 0.02), corresponding to an odds ratio of 0.11 (95% C.I. 0.02â0.6, P < 0.02), or 9-fold reduced risk. Moreover, AT/AT homozygotes were significantly less frequent in the cancer population than would be expected under the HardyâWeinberg hypothesis (P = 0.0099). LOH at the p73 locus was observed in 37.8% (14/37) of the AT/GC heterozygotes studied; in all cases there was loss of the AT allele. Our findings indicate that p73 AT/AT homozygotes appear to be protected against the development of oesophageal cancer. Clinically, this observation could have implications in aiding identification of high-risk Barrett's oesophagus patients.© 2001 Cancer Research Campaignââhttp://www.bjcancer.co
Increasing compliance with wearing a medical device in children with autism
Health professionals often recommend the use of medical devices to assess the health, monitor
the well-being, or improve the quality of life of their patients. Children with autism may present
challenges in these situations as their sensory peculiarities may increase refusals to wear such
devices. To address this issue, we systematically replicated prior research by examining the
effects of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) to increase compliance with
wearing a heart rate monitor in 2 children with autism. The intervention increased compliance to
100% for both participants when an edible reinforcer was delivered every 90 s. The results
indicate that DRO does not require the implementation of extinction to increase compliance with
wearing a medical device. More research is needed to examine whether the reinforcement
schedule can be further thinned
Steady late quaternary slip rate on the Cinarcik section of the North Anatolian fault near Istanbul, Turkey
The distribution of plate motion between multiple fault strands and how this distribution may evolve remain poorly understood, despite the key implications for seismic hazards. The North Anatolian Fault in northwest Turkey is a prime example of a multistranded continental transform. Here we present the first constraints on late Quaternary slip rates on its northern branch across the Cinarcik Basin in the eastern Marmara Sea. We use both deep penetration and highâresolution multichannel seismic reflection data with a stratigraphic age model to show that a depocenter has persisted near the fault bend responsible for that transform basin. Successively older depocenters have been transported westward by fault motion relative to Eurasia, indicating a uniform rightâlateral slip rate of 18.5âmm/yr over the last 500,000âyears, compared to overall GPS rates (23â24âmm/yr). Thus, the northern branch has slipped at a nearly constant rate and has accounted for most of the relative plate motion between Eurasia and Anatolia since ~0.5âMa
First-Order Melting and Dynamics of Flux Lines in a Model for YBaCuO
We have studied the statics and dynamics of flux lines in a model for YBCO,
using both Monte Carlo simulations and Langevin dynamics. For a clean system,
both approaches yield the same melting curve, which is found to be weakly first
order with a heat of fusion of about per vortex pancake at a
field of The time averaged magnetic field distribution
experienced by a fixed spin is found to undergo a qualitative change at
freezing, in agreement with NMR and experiments. Melting in the
clean system is accompanied by a proliferation of free disclinations which show
a clear B-dependent 3D-2D crossover from long disclination lines parallel to
the c-axis at low fields, to 2D ``pancake'' disclinations at higher fields.
Strong point pins produce a logarithmical relaxation which results from
slow annealing out of disclinations in disordered samples.Comment: 31 pages, latex, revtex, 12 figures available upon request, No major
changes to the original text, but some errors in the axes scale for Figures 6
and 7 were corrected(new figures available upon request), to be published in
Physical Review B, July 199
Anomalous electronic susceptibility in Bi2Sr2CuO6+d and comparison with other overdoped cuprates
We report magnetic susceptibility performed on overdoped Bi2Sr2CuO6+d powders
as a function of oxygen doping d and temperature T. The decrease of the spin
susceptibility with increasing T is confirmed. At sufficient high temperature,
the spin susceptibility Chi_s presents an unusual linear temperature dependence
Chi_s ~ Chi_s0 -Chi_1 T. Moreover, a linear correlation between Chi_1 and
Chi_s0 for increasing hole concentration is displayed. A temperature Tchi,
independent of hole doping characterizes this scaling. Comparison with other
cuprates of the literature(LSCO, Tl-2201 and Bi-2212), over the same overdoped
range, shows similarities with above results. These non conventional metal
features will be discussed in terms of a singular narrow-band structure.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure
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