SSME structural dynamic model development

A mathematical model of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) as a complete assembly, with detailed emphasis on LOX and High Fuel Turbopumps is developed. The advantages of both complete engine dynamics, and high fidelity modeling are incorporated. Development of this model, some results, and projected applications are discussed

Business events and friendship: Leveraging the sociable legacies

© 2014 Cognizant Comm. Corp. Business events are celebrated for their contributions to community and industry. They are understood to be shared social contexts in which people meet to advance knowledge, sell products, and network. Less celebrated and, arguably, less understood is that business events provide a context for the development of friendships. In 2011 an online survey was conducted with the delegates of five international business events held in Sydney, Australia in the period 2009-2011. The survey was designed to investigate business legacies of the events (such as investment opportunities, research collaborations) rather than sociable legacies. However, a surprising number of references to friendship were made in the "additional comments" sections of the questionnaire. Reflecting on this finding, this article argues that friendships forged at business events contribute to, respectively: the well-being of delegates, association membership levels, conference attendance, retention of personnel in the profession, successful research and professional collaborations, and creativity and innovation in the sector. Business event planners can maximize opportunities for sociable outcomes among delegates by designing warm and inviting event spaces that facilitate interaction, and by providing social space for the development of relationships, optimal conditions for sociability, and opportunities for play to stimulate creativity and build community

The excited hadron spectrum in lattice QCD using a new method of estimating quark propagation

Progress in determining the spectrum of excited baryons and mesons in lattice QCD is described. Large sets of carefully-designed hadron operators have been studied and their effectiveness in facilitating the extraction of excited-state energies is demonstrated. A new method of stochastically estimating the low-lying effects of quark propagation is proposed which will allow reliable determinations of temporal correlations of single-hadron and multi-hadron operators.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, talk given at Hadron 2009, Tallahassee, Florida, December 1, 200

Gene expression differs in susceptible and resistant amphibians exposed to Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.

Chytridiomycosis, the disease caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has devastated global amphibian biodiversity. Nevertheless, some hosts avoid disease after Bd exposure even as others experience near-complete extirpation. It remains unclear whether the amphibian adaptive immune system plays a role in Bd defence. Here, we describe gene expression in two host species-one susceptible to chytridiomycosis and one resistant-following exposure to two Bd isolates that differ in virulence. Susceptible wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) had high infection loads and mortality when exposed to the more virulent Bd isolate but lower infection loads and no fatal disease when exposed to the less virulent isolate. Resistant American bullfrogs (R. catesbeiana) had high survival across treatments and rapidly cleared Bd infection or avoided infection entirely. We found widespread upregulation of adaptive immune genes and downregulation of important metabolic and cellular maintenance components in wood frogs after Bd exposure, whereas American bullfrogs showed little gene expression change and no evidence of an adaptive immune response. Wood frog responses suggest that adaptive immune defences may be ineffective against virulent Bd isolates that can cause rapid physiological dysfunction. By contrast, American bullfrogs exhibited robust resistance to Bd that is likely attributable, at least in part, to their continued upkeep of metabolic and skin integrity pathways as well as greater antimicrobial peptide expression compared to wood frogs, regardless of exposure. Greater understanding of these defences will ultimately help conservationists manage chytridiomycosis

Rotational Dynamics of Organic Cations in CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskite

Methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) based solar cells have shown impressive power conversion efficiencies of above 20%. However, the microscopic mechanism of the high photovoltaic performance is yet to be fully understood. Particularly, the dynamics of CH3NH3+ cations and their impact on relevant processes such as charge recombination and exciton dissociation are still poorly understood. Here, using elastic and quasi-elastic neutron scattering techniques and group theoretical analysis, we studied rotational modes of the CH3NH3+ cation in CH3NH3PbI3. Our results show that, in the cubic (T > 327K) and tetragonal (165K < T < 327K) phases, the CH3NH3+ ions exhibit four-fold rotational symmetry of the C-N axis (C4) along with three-fold rotation around the C-N axis (C3), while in orthorhombic phase (T < 165K) only C3 rotation is present. Around room temperature, the characteristic relaxation times for the C4 rotation is found to be ps while for the C3 rotation ps. The -dependent rotational relaxation times were fitted with Arrhenius equations to obtain activation energies. Our data show a close correlation between the C4 rotational mode and the temperature dependent dielectric permittivity. Our findings on the rotational dynamics of CH3NH3+ and the associated dipole have important implications on understanding the low exciton binding energy and slow charge recombination rate in CH3NH3PbI3 which are directly relevant for the high solar cell performance