The NASA Langley building solar project and the supporting Lewis solar technology program

The use of solar energy to heat and cool a new office building that is now under construction is reported. Planned for completion in December 1975, the 53,000 square foot, single story building will utilize 15,000 square feet of various types of solar collectors in a test bed to provide nearly all of the heating demand and over half of the air conditioning demand. Drawing on its space-program-developed skills and resources in heat transfer, materials, and systems studies, NASA-Lewis will provide technology support for the Langley building project. A solar energy technology program underway at Lewis includes solar collector testing in an indoor solar simulator facility and in an outdoor test facility, property measurements of solar panel coatings, and operation of a laboratory-scale solar model system test facility. Based on results obtained in this program, NASA-Lewis will select and procure the solar collectors for the Langley test bed

Producers' Use of Crop Borders for Management of Potato Virus Y (PVY) in Seed Potatoes

Potato virus Y (PVY) is a very serious problem throughout most major seed potato producing states. Seed potato producers in Minnesota and North Dakota were surveyed in early 2005 to assess their perception of the profitability and risks associated with using crop borders to manage PVY in seed lots. Five of the 23 producers responding (a 25% response rate) said they had used crop borders in 2004. These 23 producers entered 152 seed lots into state seed certification programs. On average, producers had less than 0.1 seed lots rejected for PVY based on summer inspection. The average number of seed lots rejected in winter trials was 1.7. Of the 152 seed lots, these producers said they had entered into state seed certification programs, they reported detailed information on 108 lots. Generations 1 and 2 were the most likely generations to be protected by a crop border. Of these 108 seed lots, 104 passed summer inspection for PVY. Seventy-four percent of the 89 lots sent in for the winter test were reported to have passed. The use of crop borders was significant in explaining whether a seed lot had passed the winter test or not. Thirty-one (97%) of the 32 seed lots that were planted within a crop border passed the winter test while 31 (54%) of the 57 seed lots that were not planted with a crop border passed the winter test. No relationship was found between the choice of border crop and passing the winter test. Producers also were asked to state their agreement or disagreement with several statements regarding their knowledge and opinions on use of crop borders.Crop Production/Industries,

Summary of recent gaseous reactor fluid mechanics experiments

Summaries of recent gaseous reactor fluid mechanics experiment

Mariner Venus 67 spacecraft environmental test results

Mariner 5 spacecraft environmental test result

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF USING A BORDER TREATMENT FOR REDUCING ORGANOPHOSPHATE USE IN SEED POTATO PRODUCTION

Recent research shows initial colonization of potato fields by winged green peach aphid is concentrated at field edges. This suggests that insecticides applied only to field margins during initial colonization would largely eliminate a colonizing aphid population, conserve natural enemies in the field center, and reduce insecticide use. To better understand the costs and benefits of reducing organophosphate use, the six participating growers were interviewed to ascertain their reason for participating and their satisfaction with the border only treatment method as well as their estimated net economic benefits. Five of the farms ranked cost reduction as the most important reason for participating. The sixth farm ranked reducing virus spread as the most important reason with cost reduction as their second most important reason. The average cost savings over all 28 participating fields of using the border treatment is estimated to be $23.85 per acre for the entire field-a 93% savings. Almost all the farmers found the border treatment method to be successful at aphid control. None of the farmers observed any impact on the physical yield of seed potato. All the fields were certified during the summer except for one of Farmer F's fields that was lost because of off type. In conclusion, the border treatment method seems likely to be adopted by many farmers since the potential cost saving is large and farmers dislike Monitor. However, some farmers may resist the method due to scouting requirements and costs. Also, farmers with fields that do not meet the uniformity requirements of the border treatment will not be successful in their use of the border method.Crop Production/Industries,

UR-363 Quantum Machine Learning Applied to Cybersecurity

We propose the development of a system that uses the TensorFlow Quantum and PennyLane packages and applies quantum machine learning (QML) algorithms to process various security and malicious data sets and compares the performance with classical machine learning (CML) algorithms. One of the most important applications of QML is for cybersecurity. This project will begin with research of quantum computing and machine learning, then followed by the development of a system that uses the TensorFlow Quantum and PennyLane packages and applies quantum machine learning (QML) algorithms to process various security and malicious data sets and compares the performance with classical machine learning (CML) algorithms.The data sets for our modules include DDoS prevention, malware detection, user behavior anomaly detection, and spam email filtering. We provide detailed instructions for program implementation on our project website in order to better proliferate quantum programming in order to encourage others to explore quantum algorithms

The general relativistic infinite plane

Uniform fields are one of the simplest and most pedagogically useful examples in introductory courses on electrostatics or Newtonian gravity. In general relativity there have been several proposals as to what constitutes a uniform field. In this article we examine two metrics that can be considered the general relativistic version of the infinite plane with finite mass per unit area. The first metric is the 4D version of the 5D "brane" world models which are the starting point for many current research papers. The second case is the cosmological domain wall metric. We examine to what extent these different metrics match or deviate from our Newtonian intuition about the gravitational field of an infinite plane. These solutions provide the beginning student in general relativity both computational practice and conceptual insight into Einstein's field equations. In addition they do this by introducing the student to material that is at the forefront of current research.Comment: Accepted for publication in the American Journal of Physic

Milk production costs and milk prices

Cover title

Reduced GABA(B) receptor subunit expression and paired-pulse depression in a genetic model of absence seizures

Neocortical networks play a major role in the genesis of generalized spike-and-wave (SW) discharges associated with absence seizures in humans and in animal models, including genetically predisposed WAG/Rij rats. Here, we tested the hypothesis that alterations in GABAB receptors contribute to neocortical hyperexcitability in these animals. By using Real-Time PCR we found that mRNA levels for most GABAB(1) subunits are diminished in epileptic WAG/Rij neocortex as compared with age-matched non-epileptic controls (NEC), whereas GABAB(2) mRNA is unchanged. Next, we investigated the cellular distribution of GABAB(1) and GABAB(2) subunits by confocal microscopy and discovered that GABAB(1) subunits fail to localize in the distal dendrites of WAG/Rij neocortical pyramidal cells. Intracellular recordings from neocortical cells in an in vitro slice preparation demonstrated reduced paired-pulse depression of pharmacologically isolated excitatory and inhibitory responses in epileptic WAG/Rij rats as compared with NECs; moreover, paired-pulse depression in NEC slices was diminished by a GABAB receptor antagonist to a greater extent than in WAG/Rij rats further suggesting GABAB receptor dysfunction. In conclusion, our data identify changes in GABAB receptor subunit expression and distribution along with decreased paired-pulse depression in epileptic WAG/Rij rat neocortex. We propose that these alterations may contribute to neocorticalhyperexcitability and thus to SW generation in absence epilepsy