11,244 research outputs found
Space station needs, attributes, and architectural options: Space station program cost analysis
This report documents the principal cost results (Task 3) derived from the Space Station Needs, Attributes, and Architectural Options study conducted for NASA by the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company. The determined costs were those of Architectural Options (Task 2) defined to satisfy Mission Requirements (Task 1) developed within the study. A major feature of this part of the study was the consideration of realistic NASA budget constraints on the recommended architecture. Thus, the space station funding requirements were adjusted by altering schedules until they were consistent with current NASA budget trends
Measurement of the half-life of 198Au in a non-metal: High-precision measurement shows no host-material dependence
We have measured the half-life of the beta decay of 198Au to be 2.6948(9) d,
with the nuclide sited in an insulating environment. Comparing this result with
the half-life we measured previously with a metallic environment, we find the
half-lives in both environments to be the same within 0.04%, thus contradicting
a prediction that screening from a "plasma" of quasi-free electrons in a metal
increases the half-life by as much as 7%
The normalization of sibling violence: Does gender and personal experience of violence influence perceptions of physical assault against siblings?
Despite its pervasive and detrimental nature, sibling violence (SV) remains marginalized as a harmless and inconsequential form of familial aggression. The present study investigates the extent to which perceptions of SV differ from those of other types of interpersonal violence. A total of 605 respondents (197 males, 408 females) read one of four hypothetical physical assault scenarios that varied according to perpetrator–victim relationship type (i.e., sibling vs. dating partner vs. peer vs. stranger) before completing a series of 24 attribution items. Respondents also reported on their own experiences of interpersonal violence during childhood. Exploratory factor analysis reduced 23 attribution items to three internally reliable factors reflecting perceived assault severity, victim culpability, and victim resistance ratings. A 4 × 2 MANCOVA—controlling for respondent age—revealed several significant effects. Overall, males deemed the assault less severe and the victim more culpable than did females. In addition, the sibling assault was deemed less severe compared to assault on either a dating partner or a stranger, with the victim of SV rated just as culpable as the victim of dating, peer, or stranger-perpetrated violence. Finally, respondents with more (frequent) experiences of childhood SV victimization perceived the hypothetical SV assault as being less severe, and victim more culpable, than respondents with no SV victimization. Results are discussed in the context of SV normalization. Methodological limitations and applications for current findings are also outlined
Binaries in star clusters and the origin of the field stellar population
Many, possibly most, stars form in binary and higher-order multiple systems.
Therefore, the properties and frequency of binary systems provide strong clues
to the star-formation process, and constraints on star-formation models.
However, the majority of stars also form in star clusters in which the birth
binary properties and frequency can be altered rapidly by dynamical processing.
Thus, we almost never see the birth population, which makes it very difficult
to know if star formation (as traced by binaries, at least) is universal, or if
it depends on environment. In addition, the field population consists of a
mixture of systems from different clusters which have all been processed in
different ways.Comment: 16 pages, no figures. To appear as invited review article in a
special issue of the Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. A: Ch. 8 "Star clusters as
tracers of galactic star-formation histories" (ed. R. de Grijs). Fully peer
reviewed. LaTeX, requires rspublic.cls style fil
340 years of atmospheric circulation characteristics reconstructed from an eastern Antarctic Peninsula ice core
Copyright @ 2006 American Geophysical Union (AGU)Precipitation delivery mechanisms for Dolleman Island (DI), located off the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, are investigated using reanalysis and back trajectory data. The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and ENSO are both shown to influence precipitation delivery and event size. Precipitation delivery variability is compared against the interannual variation of chemical data from two DI ice cores. Nitrate concentration in the cores is strongly linked with the ratio of easterly to westerly back trajectories arriving at DI, as described by a Cross-Peninsula Index (CPI) defined in this paper. This CPI is used subsequently to reconstruct the atmospheric circulation characteristics for the 340-year ice core record. The analysis highlights a period of increased easterlies during 1720–1780 and an increase in westerlies for 1950–1980, the latter concomitant with a positive SAM trend and western Peninsula warming. The reconstruction also reveals periods when polynyas may have been present in the Weddell Sea
Dynamical order, disorder and propagating defects in homogeneous system of relaxation oscillators
Reaction-diffusion (RD) mechanisms in chemical and biological systems can
yield a variety of patterns that may be functionally important. We show that
diffusive coupling through the inactivating component in a generic model of
coupled relaxation oscillators give rise to a wide range of spatio-temporal
phenomena. Apart from analytically explaining the genesis of anti-phase
synchronization and spatially patterned oscillatory death regimes in the model
system, we report the existence of a chimera state, characterized by spatial
co-occurrence of patches with distinct dynamics. We also observe propagating
phase defects in both one- and two-dimensional media resembling persistent
structures in cellular automata, whose interactions may be used for computation
in RD systems.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Open questions in the study of population III star formation
The first stars were key drivers of early cosmic evolution. We review the
main physical elements of the current consensus view, positing that the first
stars were predominantly very massive. We continue with a discussion of
important open questions that confront the standard model. Among them are
uncertainties in the atomic and molecular physics of the hydrogen and helium
gas, the multiplicity of stars that form in minihalos, and the possible
existence of two separate modes of metal-free star formation.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the conference proceedings for IAU
Symposium 255: Low-Metallicity Star Formation: From the First Stars to Dwarf
Galaxie
Bounds on the mass and abundance of dark compact objects and black holes in dwarf spheroidal galaxy halos
We establish new dynamical constraints on the mass and abundance of compact
objects in the halo of dwarf spheroidal galaxies. In order to preserve
kinematically cold the second peak of the Ursa Minor dwarf spheroidal (UMi
dSph) against gravitational scattering, we place upper limits on the density of
compact objects as a function of their assumed mass. The mass of the dark
matter constituents cannot be larger than 1000 solar masses at a halo density
in UMi's core of 0.35 solar masses/pc^3. This constraint rules out a scenario
in which dark halo cores are formed by two-body relaxation processes. Our
bounds on the fraction of dark matter in compact objects with masses >3000
solar masses improve those based on dynamical arguments in the Galactic halo.
In particular, objects with masses solar masses can comprise no
more than a halo mass fraction . Better determinations of the
velocity dispersion of old overdense regions in dSphs may result in more
stringent constraints on the mass of halo objects. For illustration, if the
preliminary value of 0.5 km/s for the secondary peak of UMi is confirmed,
compact objects with masses above solar masses could be excluded
from comprising all its dark matter halo.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Spin correlations in Ca3Co2O6: A polarised-neutron diffraction and Monte Carlo study
We present polarised-neutron diffraction measurements of the Ising-like
spin-chain compound Ca3Co2O6 above and below the magnetic ordering temperature
TN. Below TN, a clear evolution from a single-phase spin-density wave (SDW)
structure to a mixture of SDW and commensurate antiferromagnet (CAFM)
structures is observed on cooling. For a rapidly-cooled sample, the majority
phase at low temperature is the SDW, while if the cooling is performed
sufficiently slowly, then the SDW and the CAFM structure coexist between 1.5
and 10 K. Above TN, we use Monte Carlo methods to analyse the magnetic diffuse
scattering data. We show that both intra- and inter-chain correlations persist
above TN, but are essentially decoupled. Intra-chain correlations resemble the
ferromagnetic Ising model, while inter-chain correlations resemble the
frustrated triangular-lattice antiferromagnet. Using previously-published bulk
property measurements and our neutron diffraction data, we obtain values of the
ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic exchange interactions and the single-ion
anisotropy.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
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