Electronic/electric technology benefits study

The benefits and payoffs of advanced electronic/electric technologies were investigated for three types of aircraft. The technologies, evaluated in each of the three airplanes, included advanced flight controls, advanced secondary power, advanced avionic complements, new cockpit displays, and advanced air traffic control techniques. For the advanced flight controls, the near term considered relaxed static stability (RSS) with mechanical backup. The far term considered an advanced fly by wire system for a longitudinally unstable airplane. In the case of the secondary power systems, trades were made in two steps: in the near term, engine bleed was eliminated; in the far term bleed air, air plus hydraulics were eliminated. Using three commercial aircraft, in the 150, 350, and 700 passenger range, the technology value and pay-offs were quantified, with emphasis on the fiscal benefits. Weight reductions deriving from fuel saving and other system improvements were identified and the weight savings were cycled for their impact on TOGW (takeoff gross weight) and upon the performance of the airframes/engines. Maintenance, reliability, and logistic support were the other criteria

Systems level circuit model of C. elegans undulatory locomotion: mathematical modeling and molecular genetics

To establish the relationship between locomotory behavior and dynamics of neural circuits in the nematode C. elegans we combined molecular and theoretical approaches. In particular, we quantitatively analyzed the motion of C. elegans with defective synaptic GABA and acetylcholine transmission, defective muscle calcium signaling, and defective muscles and cuticle structures, and compared the data with our systems level circuit model. The major experimental findings are: (i) anterior-to-posterior gradients of body bending flex for almost all strains both for forward and backward motion, and for neuronal mutants, also analogous weak gradients of undulatory frequency, (ii) existence of some form of neuromuscular (stretch receptor) feedback, (iii) invariance of neuromuscular wavelength, (iv) biphasic dependence of frequency on synaptic signaling, and (v) decrease of frequency with increase of the muscle time constant. Based on (i) we hypothesize that the Central Pattern Generator (CPG) is located in the head both for forward and backward motion. Points (i) and (ii) are the starting assumptions for our theoretical model, whose dynamical patterns are qualitatively insensitive to the details of the CPG design if stretch receptor feedback is sufficiently strong and slow. The model reveals that stretch receptor coupling in the body wall is critical for generation of the neuromuscular wave. Our model agrees with our behavioral data(iii), (iv), and (v), and with other pertinent published data, e.g., that frequency is an increasing function of muscle gap-junction coupling.Comment: Neural control of C. elegans motion with genetic perturbation

Evaluation of a Warm Season Supplemental Forage Combination for White-Tailed Deer: Iron and Clay Cowpeas and Alyceclover

Last updated: 6/1/200

Delayed GeV--TeV Photons from Gamma-Ray Bursts Producing High-Energy Cosmic Rays

A scenario in which cosmic rays (CRs) above $10^{20}{\rm eV}$ are produced by cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is consistent with observations provided that deflections by the inter-galactic magnetic field (IGMF) delay and spread the arrival time of the CRs over $\geq50{\rm yr}$. The energy lost by the CRs as they propagate and interact with the microwave background is transformed by cascading into secondary GeV-TeV photons. We show that a significant fraction of these photons can arrive with delays much smaller than the CR delay if much of inter-galactic space is occupied by large-scale magnetic ``voids'', regions of size $\gtrsim5{\rm Mpc}$ and field weaker than $10^{-15}{\rm G}$. Such voids might be expected, for example, in models where a weak primordial field is amplified in shocked, turbulent regions of the intergalactic medium during the formation of large-scale structure. For a field strength $\sim4\times10^{-11}{\rm G}$ in the high field regions, the value required to account for observed galactic fields if the IGMF were frozen in the protogalactic plasma, the delay of CRs produced by a burst at a distance of $100{\rm Mpc}$ is $\sim100{\rm yr}$, and the fluence of secondary photons above $10{\rm GeV}$ on hour--day time scales is $I(>E)\sim10^{-6}E_{\rm TeV}^{-1}{\rm cm}^{-2}$. This fluence is close to the detection threshold of current high-energy $\gamma$-ray experiments. Detection of the delayed flux would support the GRB-CR association and would also provide information on the IGMF structure.Comment: ApJ Letters in press; 10 pages (LaTeX file, 2 PostScript figures, aaspp4.sty style file, tar'ed, gzip'ed and uuencoded

Integrated digital/electric aircraft concepts study

The integrated digital/electrical aircraft (IDEA) is an aircraft concept which employs all electric secondary power systems and advanced digital flight control systems. After trade analysis, preferred systems were applied to the baseline configuration. An additional configuration, the alternate IDEA, was also considered. For this concept the design ground rules were relaxed in order to quantify additional synergistic benefits. It was proposed that an IDEA configuration and technical risks associated with the IDEA systems concepts be defined and the research and development required activities to reduce these risks be identified. The selected subsystems include: power generation, power distribution, actuators, environmental control system and flight controls systems. When the aircraft was resized, block fuel was predicted to decrease by 11.3 percent, with 7.9 percent decrease in direct operating cost. The alternate IDEA shows a further 3.4 percent reduction in block fuel and 3.1 percent reduction in direct operating cost

Matter-Wave Decoherence due to a Gas Environment in an Atom Interferometer

Decoherence due to scattering from background gas particles is observed for the first time in a Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer, and compared with decoherence due to scattering photons. A single theory is shown to describe decoherence due to scattering either atoms or photons. Predictions from this theory are tested by experiments with different species of background gas, and also by experiments with different collimation restrictions on an atom beam interferometer.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted to PR

Signatures of the Origin of High-Energy Cosmic Rays in Cosmological Gamma-Ray Bursts

We derive observational consequences of the hypothesis that cosmic rays (CR's) of energy $>10^{19}eV$ originate in the same cosmological objects producing gamma-ray bursts (GRB's). Inter-galactic magnetic fields $\gtrsim 10^{-12} G$ are required in this model to allow CR's to be observed continuously in time by producing energy dependent delays in the CR arrival times. This results in individual CR sources having very narrow observed spectra, since at any given time only those CR's having a fixed time delay are observed. Thus, the brightest CR sources should be different at different energies. The average number of sources contributing to the total CR flux decreases with energy much more rapidly than in a model of steady CR sources, dropping to one at $E_{crit} \simeq2\times10^{20}$~eV with very weak sensitivity to the inter-galactic magnetic field strength. Below $E_{crit}$, a very large number of sources is expected, consistent with observations. Above $E_{crit}$, a source may be observed with a flux considerably higher than the time-averaged CR flux from all sources, if a nearby GRB occurred recently. If such a source is present, its narrow spectrum may produce a ``gap'' in the total spectrum. These signatures should be detectable by the planned ``Auger'' CR experiment.Comment: Submitted to the ApJ Letters; 10 pages (LaTeX file, 3 PostScript figures, aaspp4.sty style file, tar'ed, gzip'ed and uuencoded

Possible Signature of Low Scale Gravity in Ultra High Enegry Cosmic Rays

We show that the existence of low scale gravity at TeV scale could lead to a direct production of photons with energies above 10^22 eV due to annihilation of ultra high energy neutrinos on relic massive neutrinos of the galactic halo. Air showers initialized in the terrestrial atmosphere by these ultra energetic photons could be collected in near future by the new generation of cosmic ray experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure