Investigation of foamed metals for application on space capsules annual report, 29 jun. 1963 - 15 aug. 1964

Foamed metal development for space capsules - brazing, variable density beam, thermal testing, mechanical tests, and machinin

Vibration Analysis of Commercial Thermal Barrier Coatings

Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are currently used in turbine engine components to protect substrate material from being exposed to high temperatures and corrosion. These coatings also have the potential to reduce stress in critical engine parts which could increase the life cycle of these parts. The fact that these coatings are already qualified for use in turbine engines makes it worth investigating their damping properties. The problem with TBCs is that they are difficult to characterize as they display nonlinear properties. This research utilizes an experimental and finite element procedure to characterize these coatings. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was also employed to observe the microstructure contribution to the damping properties. This program utilizes a testing method which employs a test setup that attempts to eliminate any external factors which may add any unwanted damping. The major contributions of this research are: a comparison of the material properties of two different thermal barrier coatings, magnesium aluminate spinel and yttria stabilized zirconia; the confirmation that sweep rate does not cause data recorded in the log decrement method to coincide with data recorded with the half-power bandwidth method; and SEM images that confirm the damping properties of plasma sprayed thermal barrier coatings are directly related to the crack structure of a coating on a microstructural level

Tunneling of Cooper pairs across voltage biased asymmetric single-Cooper-pair transistors

We analyze tunneling of Cooper pairs across voltage biased asymmetric single-Cooper-pair transistors. Also tunneling of Cooper pairs across two capacitively coupled Cooper-pair boxes is considered, when the capacitive coupling and Cooper pair tunneling are provided by a small Josephson junction between the islands. The theoretical analysis is done at subgap voltages, where the current-voltage characteristics depend strongly on the macroscopic eigenstates of the island(s) and their coupling to the dissipative environment. As the environment we use an impedance which satisfies Re[Z]<<R_Q and a few LC-oscillators in series with Z. The numerically calculated I-V curves are compared with experiments where the quantum states of mesoscopic SQUIDs are probed with inelastic Cooper pair tunneling. The main features of the observed I-V data are reproduced. Especially, we find traces of band structure in the higher excited states of the Cooper-pair boxes as well as traces of multiphoton processes between two Cooper-pair boxes in the regime of large Josephson coupling.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, Revtex

Consumers favor “right brain” training: The dangerous lure of neuromarketing

Over the past decade the neuromarketing of educational products has become increasingly common. Researchers have however expressed concern about the misapplication of neuroscience to education marketing, fearing that consumers may be deceived into investing in apparently “brain-based” products under the misapprehension that they will be more effective. This study provides the first demonstration that these fears are justified. We presented 180 participants with one of four advertisements for an identical educational program, named either “Right Brain” or “Right Start” Training; the advertisements either did, or did not, include an MRI brain image in one corner. Results demonstrated that “Right Brain” training was deemed more interesting, educationally valuable, and scientifically strong than an identical product named “Right Start” training. Advertisements including an unrelated brain image enhanced ratings of scientific rationale. These results confirm that by implying a strong scientific basis, “brain-based” product names are remarkably effective in implicitly manipulating consumer opinion

Kentucky River Basin: Unified Long-Range Water Resources Plan. Historic Water Supply Plans of the Kentucky River Basin

The Kentucky River Authority was mandated by regulatory statute 420 KAR I :030, Section 4 to develop a Unified Long-Range Water Resources Plan (ULRWRP) for the Kentucky River Basin. This summary document was written by the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute under a contractual agreement with the Kentucky River Authority in support of this plan. It addresses several required components of the ULRWRP, including: Acquisition and utilization of the Kentucky River Lock and Dam system; Construction, acquisition and control of projects and facilities; Regulation of flows and allocation of supplies; Basin-wide and specific local land and water conservation measures and practices; and Economic development. This report provides summaries of the numerous documents written about the water resources of the Kentucky River. Section 1.0 provides a chronological listing of these documents. Due to the fact that many of these reports were written upon the request of a local, state or federal agency, or were required by state or federal legislation, Section 2. 0 categorizes the historical documents by the agency or organization sponsoring the specific study. The document summaries in Section 3.0 are also categorized by the sponsoring entity. Reports written about the Kentucky River basin cover a variety of topics, but focus primarily on water supply issues and the potential for developing additional supplies in the basin. Many proposals are offered for ways to increase storage in the mainstem pools of the river, as well as for potential reservoir sites in various river tributaries. The summary table at the conclusion of the report (Section 4.0) lists historically proposed water supply alternatives, along with a notation of which projects were actually implemented. For those supply alternatives not completed, an attempt is made to explain why it was not pursued

Development of a Decision Support System for Drought Characterization and Management: Application to Lexington, Kentucky

This report presents the results of an investigation into the potential use of expert system technology as an effective tool for drought forecasting and management. Historical data derived from the Kentucky River Basin was used to test the resulting decision support system. This study has demonstrated that expert system technology can serve as an effective platform for use in assisting the decision maker in both characterizing the nature of an existing drought and in selecting and implementing the required management policy. The success of any decision making process will of course be dependent upon the quality of the data upon which those decisions are made. In the current study, the critical data were the forecasted streamflow and the forecasted system demand for the coming week. Several different model structures were investigated for use in forecasting both streamflow and system demand. While a reasonable level of accuracy was obtained for the demand forecasts, only limited success was obtained in forecasting future weekly average streamflows. As a result, a probabilistic model structure was developed for use with streamflow forecasts that allowed more interaction with the decision maker. Although the resulting model evaluations failed to produce what may be considered satisfactory results, the developed model structure does provide a flexibility that may lead to improved performance by augmentation with additional rule based heuristics. Although not fully explored, several potential heuristic structures are identified. Additional model improvement can be expected by further refinement of the underlying deterministic streamflow forecast model structure

Effect of the shot-noise on a Coulomb blockaded single Josephson junction

We have investigated how the Coulomb blockade of a mesoscopic Josephson junction in a high-impedance environment is suppressed by shot noise from an adjacent junction. The presented theoretical analysis is an extension of the phase correlation theory for the case of a non-Gaussian noise. Asymmetry of the non-Gaussian noise should result in the shift of the conductance minimum from zero voltage and the ratchet effect (nonzero current at zero voltage), which have been experimentally observed. The analysis demonstrates that a Coulomb blockaded tunnel junction in a high impedance environment can be used as an effective noise detector.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; figure and typos corrected, added reference