Study of advanced fuel system concepts for commercial aircraft and engines

The impact on a commercial transport aircraft of using fuels which have relaxed property limits relative to current commercial jet fuel was assessed. The methodology of the study is outlined, fuel properties are discussed, and the effect of the relaxation of fuel properties analyzed. Advanced fuel system component designs that permit the satisfactory use of fuel with the candidate relaxed properties in the subject aircraft are described. The two fuel properties considered in detail are freezing point and thermal stability. Three candidate fuel system concepts were selected and evaluated in terms of performance, cost, weight, safety, and maintainability. A fuel system that incorporates insulation and electrical heating elements on fuel tank lower surfaces was found to be most cost effective for the long term

Fetal Environment and Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia and related disorders are adult-onset illnesses with no definitively established risk factors. Several studies report that exposures to infection and nutritional deprivation during early development may elevate the risk of later developing schizophrenia, specifically during the prenatal period. Preliminary evidence implicates lead exposure as well, suggesting that chemical exposures during early development may constitute a new class of risk factors for schizophrenia that has not been adequately investigated. Exposure to lead is given as an example of a chemical agent for which some effects have been described throughout the life course on both general neurodevelopmental outcomes and now on a specific psychiatric diagnosis. Findings from prospectively collected birth cohorts are offered as examples of both innovations in methodology and opportunities for future generations of investigators

The interplay between electron-electron interactions and impurities in one-dimensional rings

The persistent current and charge stiffness of a one-dimensional Luttinger liquid on a ring threaded by a magnetic flux are calculated by Monte Carlo simulation. By changing the random impurity potential strength and the electron-electron interaction, we see a crossover behavior between weak and strong impurity limits. For weak impurity potentials, interactions enhance impurity effects, that is, interactions decrease the current and the stiffness. On the other hand, interactions tend to screen impurities when the impurity potential is strong. Temperature dependence of the persistent current and the charge stiffness shows a peak at a characteristic temperature, consistent with a recent single impurity study.Comment: 4 pages (ReVTeX3.0) + 3 figures (in uuencoded postscript format) appended in the end of the fil

Local Electronic Structure of a Single Magnetic Impurity in a Superconductor

The electronic structure near a single classical magnetic impurity in a superconductor is determined using a fully self-consistent Koster-Slater algorithm. Localized excited states are found within the energy gap which are half electron and half hole. Within a jellium model we find the new result that the spatial structure of the positive-frequency (electron-like) spectral weight (or local density of states), can differ strongly from that of the negative frequency (hole-like) spectral weight. The effect of the impurity on the continuum states above the energy gap is calculated with good spectral resolution for the first time. This is also the first three-dimensional self-consistent calculation for a strong magnetic impurity potential.Comment: 13 pages, RevTex, change in heuristic picture, no change in numerical result

Quantum Transition between an Antiferromagnetic Mott Insulator and dx2−y2d_{x^2 - y^2} Superconductor in Two Dimensions

We consider a Hubbard model on a square lattice with an additional interaction, $W$, which depends upon the square of a near-neighbor hopping. At half-filling and a constant value of the Hubbard repulsion, increasing the strength of the interaction $W$ drives the system from an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator to a $d_{x^2 -y^2}$ superconductor. This conclusion is reached on the basis of zero temperature quantum Monte Carlo simulations on lattice sizes up to $16 \times 16$.Comment: 4 pages (latex) and 4 postscript figure

Permanent current from non-commutative spin algebra

We show that a spontaneous electric current is induced in a nano-scale conducting ring just by putting three ferromagnets. The current is a direct consequence of the non-commutativity of the spin algebra, and is proportional to the non-coplanarity (chirality) of the magnetization vectors. The spontaneous current gives a natural explanation to the chirality-driven anomalous Hall effect.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures on separate pag

Attachment, Social Support, and Perceived Mental Health of Adult Dog Walkers: What Does Age Have to Do With It?

In part of a larger pilot study of dog walking as a physical activity intervention we assessed levels of attachment, social supports, and perceived mental health of 75 dog owners, identified through a tertiary- care veterinary hospital. Owners completed the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Social Support Survey, mental health component of the Short-Form-12 (SF-12) Health Survey, and the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS). Of particular interest was that younger owners had stronger attachments to their dogs (r = -.488;p \u3c.001) and less social support (r = .269;p =.021). Our study suggests the importance of companion animals for social support, particularly for those without close friends/relatives. For younger owners, our study reveals vulnerabilities in support networks that may warrant referrals to human helping professionals. We suggest the use of Carstensen\u27s Socioemotional Selectivity Theory as an interpretive framework to underscore the importance of including companion animals as part of the human social convoy, especially in terms of providing affectionate and interactional social support

Persistent Currents in 1D Disordered Rings of Interacting Electrons

We calculate the persistent current of 1D rings of spinless fermions with short-range interactions on a lattice with up to 20 sites, and in the presence of disorder, for various band fillings. We find that {\it both} disorder and interactions always decrease the persistent current by localizing the electrons. Away from half-filling, the interaction has a much stronger influence in the presence of disorder than in the pure case.Comment: Latex file, 11 pages, 5 figures available on request, Report LPQTH-93/1

Reversing non-local transport through a superconductor by electromagnetic excitations

Superconductors connected to normal metallic electrodes at the nanoscale provide a potential source of non-locally entangled electron pairs. Such states would arise from Cooper pairs splitting into two electrons with opposite spins tunnelling into different leads. In an actual system the detection of these processes is hindered by the elastic transmission of individual electrons between the leads, yielding an opposite contribution to the non-local conductance. Here we show that electromagnetic excitations on the superconductor can play an important role in altering the balance between these two processes, leading to a dominance of one upon the other depending on the spatial symmetry of these excitations. These findings allow to understand some intriguing recent experimental results and open the possibility to control non-local transport through a superconductor by an appropriate design of the experimental geometry.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Temperature Derivative of the Superfluid Density in the Attractive Hubbard model

Based on extensions of the grand-canonical Quantum Monte-Carlo algorithm to incorporate magnetic fields, we provide numerical data confirming the existence of a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in the attractive Hubbard model. Here, we calculate the temperature derivative of the superfluid density, to pin down the transition. Away from half-band filling, the above quantity, shows a response which increases with lattice size at the transition temperature. In contrast, such a signal is not observed for the case of a half-band filling.Comment: Latex 8 pages, 3 figures (in postscript format) appendded at the end of the fil