Data conditioning and display for Apollo prelaunch checkout - Test matrix technique

Test matrix technique for checkout and launching of Apollo-Saturn spacecraf

Magnetic forming studies

Investigation of the tensile strength dependability on the characteristic time over which a pressure pulse is applied to a metal workpiece shows that the mechanical properties of these materials are functions of the rate at which the material is undergoing strain. These results and techniques are used in magnetomotive metal forming

Gimme That Real Old Time Religion: Re-embedding White Identities Through Ethnic Neo-Pagan Reconfigurations of European Heritage in Texas

According to social theorists, Westerners are increasingly inter-connected with other societies through the complex processes of modernity and globalization, thereby creating an increasingly multiethnic and religiously pluralistic world still dominated by the rationalism of modernity. Consequently, their world is disenchanted and their identities disembedded from traditional contexts, thus placing many individuals in a state of identity crisis. For working and middle-class white Americans, this problem is exacerbated by the unmarkedness of white racial identities, and the subsumption of ancestral ethnic European identities within this unmarked racial category. This dilemma has led some to question and challenge the authenticity and legitimacy of their religious identities and traditions, and to develop strategies to re-embed, revalorize, and refashion their racial and class identities. My research offers an investigation of one such strategy, specifically that employed by Neo-Pagans with an ethnic focus. I explore how recent traditions compose a new strategy that is attractive to white Americans seeking to re-root and give new meanings to their racial and religious identities. Furthermore, I suggest that a key reason some are drawn to and mark identification with ethnic Neo-Pagan traditions is a desire to refashion ethnoreligious identities to re-embed themselves in a re-enchanted physical and social world where ethnic ancestry and whiteness matter in new ways. This research is guided by the following questions: How might ethnic Neo-Pagan options mitigate the foregoing dilemma experienced by primarily white and working or middle-class adherents? What potential benefits come with identification with these traditions? Are ethnic Neo-Pagans concerned with legitimacy and authenticity as they reconstruct European folk traditions and histories, and how might those practices and narratives conflate European ethnicities into newly revalorized forms of whiteness? These questions are addressed through a combination of qualitative data-collection methods. Interview and participant observation data for this project were collected at diverse Neo-Pagan field sites in Texas. I identified and analyzed themes of ethnic heritage and ancestry that emerged from these data to determine how they bear on prominent race and class performance theories, particularly regarding questions about changing constructions of race, ethnicity, and religious identities in response to globalization

Kinetic analysis of the growth of bone marrow mononuclear phagocytes in long term cultures

Contains fulltext : 4427.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

An equilibrium model for RFP plasmas in the presence of resonant tearing modes

The equilibrium of a finite-beta RFP plasma in the presence of saturated-amplitude tearing modes is investigated. The singularities of the MHD force balance equation JXB=grad(p) at the modes rational surfaces are resolved through a proper regularization of the zeroth-order (equilibrium) profiles, by setting to zero there the gradient of the pressure and parallel current density. An equilibrium model, which satisfies the regularization rule at the various rational surfaces, is developed. The comparison with the experimental data from the Reversed Field eXperiment (RFX) gives encouraging results. The model provides an easy tool for magnetic analysis: many aspects of the perturbations can be analyzed and reconstructed.Comment: Final accepted version. 36 page

The Effects of 6-Chromanol SUL-138 during Hypothermic Machine Perfusion on Porcine Deceased Donor Kidneys

Diminishing ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) by improving kidney preservation techniques offers great beneficial value for kidney transplant recipients. Mitochondria play an important role in the pathogenesis of IRI and are therefore interesting targets for pharmacological interventions. Hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP), as a preservation strategy, offers the possibility to provide mitochondrial–targeted therapies. This study focuses on the addition of a mitochondrial protective agent SUL—138 during HMP and assesses its effect on kidney function and injury during normothermic reperfusion. In this case, 30 min of warm ischemia was applied to porcine slaughterhouse kidneys before 24 h of non–oxygenated HMP with or without the addition of SUL—138. Functional assessment was performed by 4 h normothermic autologous blood reperfusion. No differences in renal function or perfusion parameters were found between both groups. ATP levels were lower after 30 min of warm ischemia in the SUL–138 group (n.s, p = 0.067) but restored significantly during 24 h of HMP in combination with SUL—138. Aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT) levels were significantly lower for the SUL—138 group. SUL—138 does not influence renal function in this model. Restoration of ATP levels during 24 h of HMP with the addition of SUL in combination with lower ASAT levels could be an indication of improved mitochondrial function

Heliac parameter study

Helical axis stellarators (heliacs) with zero net current are found to possess very good stability properties. Helically symmetric or straight heliacs with bean-shaped cross sections have a first region of stability that reaches to (..beta..) of 30% or more. Those with circular cross sections have second region of stability to Mercier modes. In addition we report on the stability properties of these plasma configurations as functions of pressure profile, helical aspect ratio, and helical period length