10,046 research outputs found
Life science payloads planning study integration facility survey results
The integration facility survey effort described is structured to examine the facility resources needed to conduct life science payload (LSP) integration checkout activities at NASA-JSC. The LSP integration facility operations and functions are defined along with the LSP requirements for facility design. A description of available JSC life science facilities is presented and a comparison of accommodations versus requirements is reported
An investigation of the thermal radiation properties of certain spacecraft materials Final report
Thermal radiation analysis for anodized aluminum - anodizing process evaluation for optimum properties under space conditions for spacecraft temperature contro
Energy Conservation and Gravity Waves in Sound-proof Treatments of Stellar Interiors: Part I Anelastic Approximations
Typical flows in stellar interiors are much slower than the speed of sound.
To follow the slow evolution of subsonic motions, various sound-proof equations
are in wide use, particularly in stellar astrophysical fluid dynamics. These
low-Mach number equations include the anelastic equations. Generally, these
equations are valid in nearly adiabatically stratified regions like stellar
convection zones, but may not be valid in the sub-adiabatic, stably stratified
stellar radiative interiors. Understanding the coupling between the convection
zone and the radiative interior is a problem of crucial interest and may have
strong implications for solar and stellar dynamo theories as the interface
between the two, called the tachocline in the Sun, plays a crucial role in many
solar dynamo theories. Here we study the properties of gravity waves in
stably-stratified atmospheres. In particular, we explore how gravity waves are
handled in various sound-proof equations. We find that some anelastic
treatments fail to conserve energy in stably-stratified atmospheres, instead
conserving pseudo-energies that depend on the stratification, and we
demonstrate this numerically. One anelastic equation set does conserve energy
in all atmospheres and we provide recommendations for converting low-Mach
number anelastic codes to this set of equations.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 20 pages emulateapj format, 7
figure
Meson Condensation in Dense Matter Revisited
The results for meson condensation in the literature vary markedly depending
on whether one uses chiral perturbation theory or the current-algebra-plus-PCAC
approach. To elucidate the origin of this discrepancy, we re-examine the role
of the sigma-term in meson condensation. We find that the resolution of the
existing discrepancy requires a knowledge of terms in the Lagrangian that are
higher order in density than hitherto considered.Comment: 10pages, USC(NT)-94-
A comparison of Noether charge and Euclidean methods for Computing the Entropy of Stationary Black Holes
The entropy of stationary black holes has recently been calculated by a
number of different approaches. Here we compare the Noether charge approach
(defined for any diffeomorphism invariant Lagrangian theory) with various
Euclidean methods, specifically, (i) the microcanonical ensemble approach of
Brown and York, (ii) the closely related approach of Ba\~nados, Teitelboim, and
Zanelli which ultimately expresses black hole entropy in terms of the Hilbert
action surface term, (iii) another formula of Ba\~nados, Teitelboim and Zanelli
(also used by Susskind and Uglum) which views black hole entropy as conjugate
to a conical deficit angle, and (iv) the pair creation approach of Garfinkle,
Giddings, and Strominger. All of these approaches have a more restrictive
domain of applicability than the Noether charge approach. Specifically,
approaches (i) and (ii) appear to be restricted to a class of theories
satisfying certain properties listed in section 2; approach (iii) appears to
require the Lagrangian density to be linear in the curvature; and approach (iv)
requires the existence of suitable instanton solutions. However, we show that
within their domains of applicability, all of these approaches yield results in
agreement with the Noether charge approach. In the course of our analysis, we
generalize the definition of Brown and York's quasilocal energy to a much more
general class of diffeomorphism invariant, Lagrangian theories of gravity. In
an appendix, we show that in an arbitrary diffeomorphism invariant theory of
gravity, the ``volume term" in the ``off-shell" Hamiltonian associated with a
time evolution vector field always can be expressed as the spatial
integral of , where are the constraints
associated with the diffeomorphism invariance.Comment: 29 pages (double-spaced) late
Adapting Real Quantifier Elimination Methods for Conflict Set Computation
The satisfiability problem in real closed fields is decidable. In the context
of satisfiability modulo theories, the problem restricted to conjunctive sets
of literals, that is, sets of polynomial constraints, is of particular
importance. One of the central problems is the computation of good explanations
of the unsatisfiability of such sets, i.e.\ obtaining a small subset of the
input constraints whose conjunction is already unsatisfiable. We adapt two
commonly used real quantifier elimination methods, cylindrical algebraic
decomposition and virtual substitution, to provide such conflict sets and
demonstrate the performance of our method in practice
Inpatient costs, mortality and 30-day re-admission in patients with central-line-associated bloodstream infections
AbstractPrevious work has suggested that central-line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) is associated with increased costs and risk of mortality; however, no studies have looked at both total and variable costs, and information on outcomes outside of the intensive-care unit (ICU) is sparse. The aim of this study was to determine the excess in-hospital mortality and costs attributable to CLABSI in ICU and non-ICU patients. We conducted a retrospective cohort and cost-of-illness study from the hospital perspective of 398 patients at a tertiary-care academic medical centre from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2010. All CLABSI patients and a simple random sample drawn from a list of all central lines inserted during the study period were included. Generalized linear models with log link and gamma distribution were used to model costs as a function of CLABSI and important covariates. Costs were adjusted to 2010 US dollars by use of the personal consumption expenditures for medical care index. We used multivariable logistic regression to identify independent predictors of in-hospital mortality. Among both ICU and non-ICU patients, adjusted variable costs for patients with CLABSI were c. $32 000 (2010 US dollars) higher on average than for patients without CLABSI. After we controlled for severity of illness and other healthcare-associated infections, CLABSI was associated with a 2.27-fold (95% CI 1.15–4.46) increased risk of mortality. Other healthcare-associated infections were also significantly associated with greater costs and mortality. Overall, CLABSI was associated with significantly higher adjusted in-hospital mortality and total and variable costs than those for patients without CLABSI
Kaon effective mass and energy from a novel chiral SU(3)-symmetric Lagrangian
A new chiral SU(3) Lagrangian is proposed to describe the properties of kaons
and antikaons in the nuclear medium, the ground state of dense matter and the
kaon-nuclear interactions consistently.
The saturation properties of nuclear matter are reproduced as well as the
results of the Dirac-Br\"{u}ckner theory. Our numerical results show that the
kaon effective mass might be changed only moderately in the nuclear medium due
to the highly non-linear density effects. After taking into account the
coupling between the omega meson and the kaon, we obtain similar results for
the effective kaon and antikaon energies as calculated in the
one-boson-exchange model while in our model the parameters of the kaon-nuclear
interactions are constrained by the SU(3) chiral symmetry.Comment: 13 pages, Latex, 3 PostScript figures included; replaced by the
revised version, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Estimating Infection Risks and the Global Burden of Diarrheal Disease Attributable to Intermittent Water Supply Using QMRA.
: Intermittent water supply (IWS) is prevalent throughout low and middle-income countries. IWS is associated with increased microbial contamination and potentially elevated risk of waterborne illness. We used existing data sets to estimate the population exposed to IWS, assess the probability of infection using quantitative microbial risk assessment, and calculate the subsequent burden of diarrheal disease attributable to consuming fecally contaminated tap water from an IWS. We used reference pathogens Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, and rotavirus as conservative risk proxies for infections via bacteria, protozoa, and viruses, respectively. Results indicate that the median daily risk of infection is an estimated 1 in 23 500 for Campylobacter, 1 in 5 050 000 for Cryptosporidium, and 1 in 118 000 for rotavirus. Based on these risks, IWS may account for 17.2 million infections causing 4.52 million cases of diarrhea, 109 000 diarrheal DALYs, and 1560 deaths each year. The burden of diarrheal disease associated with IWS likely exceeds the WHO health-based normative guideline for drinking water of 10-6 DALYs per person per year. Our results underscore the importance water safety management in water supplies and the potential benefits of point-of-use treatment to mitigate risks.<br/
- …