NASA Hybrid Wing Aircraft Aeroacoustic Test Documentation Report

This report summarizes results of the Hybrid Wing Body (HWB) N2A-EXTE model aeroacoustic test. The N2A-EXTE model was tested in the NASA Langley 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Tunnel (14x22 Tunnel) from September 12, 2012 until January 28, 2013 and was designated as test T598. This document contains the following main sections: Section 1 - Introduction, Section 2 - Main Personnel, Section 3 - Test Equipment, Section 4 - Data Acquisition Systems, Section 5 - Instrumentation and Calibration, Section 6 - Test Matrix, Section 7 - Data Processing, and Section 8 - Summary. Due to the amount of material to be documented, this HWB test documentation report does not cover analysis of acquired data, which is to be presented separately by the principal investigators. Also, no attempt was made to include preliminary risk reduction tests (such as Broadband Engine Noise Simulator and Compact Jet Engine Simulator characterization tests, shielding measurement technique studies, and speaker calibration method studies), which were performed in support of this HWB test. Separate reports containing these preliminary tests are referenced where applicable

Recombination Resulting in Virulence Shift in Avian Influenza Outbreak, Chile

Influenza A viruses occur worldwide in wild birds and are occasionally associated with outbreaks in commercial chickens and turkeys. However, avian influenza viruses have not been isolated from wild birds or poultry in South America. A recent outbreak in chickens of H7N3 low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) occurred in Chile. One month later, after a sudden increase in deaths, H7N3 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus was isolated. Sequence analysis of all eight genes of the LPAI virus and the HPAI viruses showed minor differences between the viruses except at the hemagglutinin (HA) cleavage site. The LPAI virus had a cleavage site similar to other low pathogenic H7 viruses, but the HPAI isolates had a 30 nucleotide insert. The insertion likely occurred by recombination between the HA and nucleoprotein genes of the LPAI virus, resulting in a virulence shift. Sequence comparison of all eight gene segments showed the Chilean viruses were also distinct from all other avian influenza viruses and represent a distinct South American clade

AGEMAP: A Gene Expression Database for Aging in Mice

We present the AGEMAP (Atlas of Gene Expression in Mouse Aging Project) gene expression database, which is a resource that catalogs changes in gene expression as a function of age in mice. The AGEMAP database includes expression changes for 8,932 genes in 16 tissues as a function of age. We found great heterogeneity in the amount of transcriptional changes with age in different tissues. Some tissues displayed large transcriptional differences in old mice, suggesting that these tissues may contribute strongly to organismal decline. Other tissues showed few or no changes in expression with age, indicating strong levels of homeostasis throughout life. Based on the pattern of age-related transcriptional changes, we found that tissues could be classified into one of three aging processes: (1) a pattern common to neural tissues, (2) a pattern for vascular tissues, and (3) a pattern for steroid-responsive tissues. We observed that different tissues age in a coordinated fashion in individual mice, such that certain mice exhibit rapid aging, whereas others exhibit slow aging for multiple tissues. Finally, we compared the transcriptional profiles for aging in mice to those from humans, flies, and worms. We found that genes involved in the electron transport chain show common age regulation in all four species, indicating that these genes may be exceptionally good markers of aging. However, we saw no overall correlation of age regulation between mice and humans, suggesting that aging processes in mice and humans may be fundamentally different

Hybrid Wing Body Aircraft Acoustic Test Preparations and Facility Upgrades

NASA is investigating the potential of acoustic shielding as a means to reduce the noise footprint at airport communities. A subsonic transport aircraft and Langley's 14- by 22-foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel were chosen to test the proposed "low noise" technology. The present experiment studies the basic components of propulsion-airframe shielding in a representative flow regime. To this end, a 5.8-percent scale hybrid wing body model was built with dual state-of-the-art engine noise simulators. The results will provide benchmark shielding data and key hybrid wing body aircraft noise data. The test matrix for the experiment contains both aerodynamic and acoustic test configurations, broadband turbomachinery and hot jet engine noise simulators, and various airframe configurations which include landing gear, cruise and drooped wing leading edges, trailing edge elevons and vertical tail options. To aid in this study, two major facility upgrades have occurred. First, a propane delivery system has been installed to provide the acoustic characteristics with realistic temperature conditions for a hot gas engine; and second, a traversing microphone array and side towers have been added to gain full spectral and directivity noise characteristics

Astro2020: Empirically Constraining Galaxy Evolution

Over the past decade, empirical constraints on the galaxy-dark matter halo connection have significantly advanced our understanding of galaxy evolution. Past techniques have focused on connections between halo properties and galaxy stellar mass and/or star formation rates. Empirical techniques in the next decade will link halo assembly histories with galaxies' circumgalactic media, supermassive black holes, morphologies, kinematics, sizes, colors, metallicities, and transient rates. Uncovering these links will resolve many critical uncertainties in galaxy formation and will enable much higher-fidelity mock catalogs essential for interpreting observations. Achieving these results will require broader and deeper spectroscopic coverage of galaxies and their circumgalactic media; survey teams will also need to meet several criteria (cross-comparisons, public access, and covariance matrices) to facilitate combining data across different surveys. Acting on these recommendations will continue enabling dramatic progress in both empirical modeling and galaxy evolution for the next decade.Comment: Science white paper submitted to the Astro2020 Decadal Surve

X-Ray Spectroscopy of Stars

(abridged) Non-degenerate stars of essentially all spectral classes are soft X-ray sources. Low-mass stars on the cooler part of the main sequence and their pre-main sequence predecessors define the dominant stellar population in the galaxy by number. Their X-ray spectra are reminiscent, in the broadest sense, of X-ray spectra from the solar corona. X-ray emission from cool stars is indeed ascribed to magnetically trapped hot gas analogous to the solar coronal plasma. Coronal structure, its thermal stratification and geometric extent can be interpreted based on various spectral diagnostics. New features have been identified in pre-main sequence stars; some of these may be related to accretion shocks on the stellar surface, fluorescence on circumstellar disks due to X-ray irradiation, or shock heating in stellar outflows. Massive, hot stars clearly dominate the interaction with the galactic interstellar medium: they are the main sources of ionizing radiation, mechanical energy and chemical enrichment in galaxies. High-energy emission permits to probe some of the most important processes at work in these stars, and put constraints on their most peculiar feature: the stellar wind. Here, we review recent advances in our understanding of cool and hot stars through the study of X-ray spectra, in particular high-resolution spectra now available from XMM-Newton and Chandra. We address issues related to coronal structure, flares, the composition of coronal plasma, X-ray production in accretion streams and outflows, X-rays from single OB-type stars, massive binaries, magnetic hot objects and evolved WR stars.Comment: accepted for Astron. Astrophys. Rev., 98 journal pages, 30 figures (partly multiple); some corrections made after proof stag