Knowledge modeling for software design

This paper develops a modeling framework for systems engineering that encompasses systems modeling, task modeling, and knowledge modeling, and allows knowledge engineering and software engineering to be seen as part of a unified developmental process. This framework is used to evaluate what novel contributions the 'knowledge engineering' paradigm has made and how these impact software engineering

The space shuttle launch vehicle aerodynamic verification challenges

The Space Shuttle aerodynamics and performance communities were challenged to verify the Space Shuttle vehicle (SSV) aerodynamics and system performance by flight measurements. Historically, launch vehicle flight test programs which faced these same challenges were unmanned instrumented flights of simple aerodynamically shaped vehicles. However, the manned SSV flight test program made these challenges more complex because of the unique aerodynamic configuration powered by the first man-rated solid rocket boosters (SRB). The analyses of flight data did not verify the aerodynamics or performance preflight predictions of the first flight of the Space Transportation System (STS-1). However, these analyses have defined the SSV aerodynamics and verified system performance. The aerodynamics community also was challenged to understand the discrepancy between the wind tunnel and flight defined aerodynamics. The preflight analysis challenges, the aerodynamic extraction challenges, and the postflight analyses challenges which led to the SSV system performance verification and which will lead to the verification of the operational ascent aerodynamics data base are presented

Computer recommendations for an automatic approach and landing system for V/STOL aircraft. Volume 2 - Equations

Automatic approach and landing system for V/STOL aircraf

Linking habitat mosaics and connectivity in a coral reef seascape

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of National Academy of Sciences for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109 (2012): 15372-15376, doi:10.1073/pnas.1206378109.Tropical marine ecosystems are under mounting anthropogenic pressure from overfishing and habitat destruction, leading to declines in their structure and function on a global scale. While maintaining connectivity among habitats within a seascape is necessary for preserving population resistance and resilience, quantifying movements of individuals within seascapes remains challenging. Traditional methods of identifying and valuing potential coral reef fish nursery habitats are indirect, often relying on visual surveys of abundance and correlations of size and biomass among habitats. We used compound-specific stable isotope analyses to determine movement patterns of commercially important fish populations within a coral reef seascape. This approach allowed us to quantify the relative contributions of individuals from inshore nurseries to reef populations and identify migration corridors among important habitats. Our results provided direct measurements of remarkable migrations by juvenile snapper of over 30 km between nurseries and reefs. We also found significant plasticity in juvenile nursery residency. While a majority of individuals on coastal reefs had used seagrass nurseries as juveniles, many adults on oceanic reefs had settled directly into reef habitats. Moreover, seascape configuration played a critical but heretofore unrecognized role in determining connectivity among habitats. Finally, our approach provides key quantitative data necessary to estimate the value of distinctive habitats to ecosystem services provided by seascapes.This research was based on work supported by Award Nos. USA 00002 and KSA 00011 made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Additional funding was provided by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and an International Society for Reef Studies-Ocean Conservancy Coral Reef Fellowship. K. McMahon received support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program

Life-Cycle Energy Savings Potential from Aluminum-Intensive Vehicles

The life-cycle energy and fuel-use impacts of US-produced aluminum-intensive passenger cars and passenger trucks are assessed. The energy analysis includes vehicle fuel consumption, material production energy, and recycling energy. A model that stimulates market dynamics was used to project aluminum-intensive vehicle market shares and national energy savings potential for the period between 2005 and 2030. We conclude that there is a net energy savings with the use of aluminum-intensive vehicles. Manufacturing costs must be reduced to achieve significant market penetration of aluminum-intensive vehicles. The petroleum energy saved from improved fuel efficiency offsets the additional energy needed to manufacture aluminum compared to steel. The energy needed to make aluminum can be reduced further if wrought aluminum is recycled back to wrought aluminum. We find that oil use is displaced by additional use of natural gas and nonfossil energy, but use of coal is lower. Many of the results are not necessarily applicable to vehicles built outside of the United States, but others could be used with caution

Potential applications of wrought magnesium alloys for passenger vehicles

Vehicle weight reduction is one of the major means available for improving automotive fuel efficiency. Although high-strength steels, aluminum (Al), and polymers are already being used to achieve significant weight reductions, substantial additional weight reductions could be achieved by increased use of magnesium (Mg) and its alloys, which have very low density. Magnesium alloys are currently used in relatively small quantities for auto parts; use is generally limited to die castings, such as housings. The Center for Transportation Research at Argonne National Laboratory has performed a study for the Lightweight Materials Program within DOE`s Office of Transportation Materials to evaluate the suitability of wrought Mg and its alloys to replace steel or aluminum for automotive structural and sheet applications. This study identifies technical and economic barriers to this replacement and suggests R&D areas to enable economical large-volume use. Detailed results of the study will be published at a later date. Magnesium sheet could be used in body nonstructural and semi-structural applications, while extrusions could be used in such structural applications as spaceframes. Currently, Mg sheet has found limited use in the aerospace industry, where costs are not a major concern. The major barrier to greatly increased automotive use is high cost; two technical R&D areas are identified that could enable major reductions in costs. These are novel reduction technology and better hot-forming technology, possibly operating at lower temperatures and involving superplastic behavior

Potential automotive uses of wrought magnesium alloys

Vehicle weight reduction is one of the major means available to improve automotive fuel efficiency. High-strength steels, aluminum (Al), and polymers are already being used to reduce weight significantly, but substantial additional reductions could be achieved by greater use of low-density magnesium (Mg) and its alloys. Mg alloys are currently used in relatively small quantities for auto parts, generally limited to die castings (e.g., housings). Argonne National Laboratory`s Center for Transportation Research has performed a study for the Lightweight Materials Program within DOE`s Office of Transportation Materials to evaluate the suitability of wrought Mg and its alloys to replace steel/aluminum for automotive structural and sheet applications. Mg sheet could be used in body nonstructural and semi-structural applications, while extrusions could be used in such structural applications as spaceframes. This study identifies high cost as the major barrier to greatly increased Mg use in autos. Two technical R and D areas, novel reduction technology and better hot-forming technology, could enable major cost reductions

Analysis of the potential for new automotive uses of magnesium

This paper describes the scope of a new project, just initiated, for the Lightweight Materials Program within the Office of Transportation Materials. The Center for Transportation Research and the Energy Technology Division at Argonne National Laboratory will assess the feasibility and technical potential of using magnesium and its alloys in place of steel or aluminum for automotive structural and sheet applications in order to enable more energy-efficient, lightweight passenger vehicles. The analysis will provide an information base to help guide magnesium research and development in the most promising directions

A new hypothesis for organic preservation of Burgess Shale taxa in the middle Cambrian Wheeler Formation

Abstract Cambrian konservat-lagerstätten are the most significant fossil deposits for our understanding of the initiation of Phanerozoic life. Although many modes of preservation may occur, these deposits most frequently contain nonmineralized fossils preserved in the form of kerogenized carbon films, a rare yet important taphonomic pathway that has not previously been explained for any unit by a comprehensive model. The middle Cambrian Wheeler Formation of Utah, one of these lagerstätten, contains abundant kerogenized preservation of nonmineralized tissues, which occurs within a distinctive taphofacies that accumulated under the following conditions: (1) domination of the siliciclastic fraction by clay-sized particles, (2) close proximity to a carbonate platform, which resulted in mixed carbonate-clay sediments, (3) a well-developed oxygen minimum precluding benthic colonization and burrowing, and (4) relative proximity to oxic bottom-waters, facilitating transport of organisms from a habitable environment to one that favored their preservation. We propose that preservation of nonmineralized tissues in the Wheeler Formation may have resulted from a combination of influences that reduced permeability and, thus, lowered oxidant flux, which in turn may have restricted microbial decomposition of some nonmineralized tissues. Those influences include near bottom anoxia, preventing sediment irrigation by restriction of bioturbation; reducing conditions near the sediment-water interface that may have acted to deflocculate aggregations of clay minerals, resulting in low permeability face-to-face contacts; early diagenetic pore occluding carbonate cements; and an absence of coarse grains such as silt, skeletonized microfossils, fecal pellets, or bioclasts. This model may be applicable to kerogenized preservation of macrofossils in other fossil lagerstätten.