Nickel-Hydrogen Cell Testing Experience, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

The objectives of the project were to test the Nickel-Hydrogen Cell to: (1) verify the Aerospace Cell Flight Worthiness, (2) Elucidate the Aerospace Cell Thermal Behavior, (3) Develop the Aerospace Battery Assembly Design(s) and In-orbit Battery Management plan(s) and (4) Understand the Aerospace Cell Failure Mechanism. The tests included the LEO and GEO Life cycle tests, Calorimetric Analysis, Destructive Physical analysis, and special tests. Charts show the Mission Profile Cycling Data, Stress Cycling Data. The test data complies with the mission requirements, validating the flight worthiness of batteries. The nominal stress and mission profile cycling performance test shows the charge voltage as high as 1.60V and recharge ratio greater than 1.05. It is apparent that the electrochemical signatures alone do not provide conclusive proof for Nickel precharge. The researchers recommend a gas and positive plate analyses for further confirmation

NASA Center update: Goddard Space Flight Center

The topics covered are presented in viewgraph form and include the following: spacecraft operations, life cycle testing an the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), and destructive physical analysis at COMSAT laboratories. The subtopics under spacecraft operations are the Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX), the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE), the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS), the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The subtopics under the life cycle testing at NSWC are the following: advanced NiCd cells from Hughes Aircraft Company/Eagle Picher Industries; conventional NiCd cells from Gates Aerospace Batteries; conventional NiCd cells from General Electric; NiCd cells from SAFT; NiH2 celss from Eagle Picher Industries; and data as of 10/26/92

Survey of vector-like fermion extensions of the Standard Model and their phenomenological implications

With the renewed interest in vector-like fermion extensions of the Standard Model, we present here a study of multiple vector-like theories and their phenomenological implications. Our focus is mostly on minimal flavor conserving theories that couple the vector-like fermions to the SM gauge fields and mix only weakly with SM fermions so as to avoid flavor problems. We present calculations for precision electroweak and vector-like state decays, which are needed to investigate compatibility with currently known data. We investigate the impact of vector-like fermions on Higgs boson production and decay, including loop contributions, in a wide variety of vector-like extensions and their parameter spaces.Comment: 43 pages, 17 figures; v2: text modified to improve readability, references added, journal versio

Efficient Quality of Service Support in Multimedia Computer Operating Systems

This report describes our approach towards providing quality of service (QoS) guarantees for network communication within the endsystems to support multimedia applications. We first address the problem of QoS specification by identifying a set of application classes and their QoS parameters that cover the communication requirements of most applications. We then describe the QoS mapping problem, and show how requirements for resources (such as the CPU, the network interface adaptor and network connections) can be automatically derived from the application QoS parameters. We then deal with the QoS enforcement issue in which we describe techniques for scheduling protocol processing threads in order to reduce context switching overhead, as well as derive sufficiency conditions in order to provide predictable performance. We integrate all these solutions in a protocol implementation model. The key feature of the model is that protocols are part of the application process and are processed using protocol threads with individual scheduling attributes derived using our QoS mapping method. We propose several performance improvement techniques for application level protocol implementations that can reduce the high cost of data movement and context switching in these implementations. A significant component of this work will consist of implementation and experimentation which will result in significant contributions of practical utility

Chiral Couplings of W' and Top Quark Polarization at the LHC

If a TeV-scale charged gauge boson (W') is discovered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), it will become imperative to determine its chiral couplings to standard model (SM) fermions in order to learn about the underlying theory containing the W'. We describe the reconstruction of the t, b decay mode of the W' at the LHC, and identify various kinematic observables such as the angular distributions of the top quark and the lepton resulting from top decay that can be used to disentangle the chiral couplings of the W' to SM fermions. We demonstrate by presenting analytical expressions, numerical simulations, as well as intuitive illustrations for these observables at the LHC that among the SM fermions, the polarized top quark can most directly probe the chirality of such couplings.Comment: 35 pages, 12 Figure

B-meson signatures of a Supersymmetric U(2) flavor model

We discuss B-meson signatures of a Supersymmetric U(2) flavor model, with relatively light (electroweak scale masses) third generation right-handed scalars. We impose current B and K meson experimental constraints on such a theory, and obtain expectations for B->X_s gamma, B->X_s glue, B->X_s l+ l-, B->phi K_s, B_s-B_sbar mixing, and the dilepton asymmetry in B_s. We show that such a theory is compatible with all current data, and furthermore, could reconcile the apparent deviations from Standard Model predictions that have been found in some experiments.Comment: 37 pages, 21 figures, RevTeX4; v.2 - minor modifications to improve readability. Published versio

Effect of Storage on Performance of Super Nickel-Cadmium Cells

A study was undertaken to examine the capacity maintenance features of SUPER nickel-cadmium cells when stored for extended periods to determine whether the features change when the same kinds of positive plates as that used in nickel-hydrogen cells are used, The cells maintained their capacity when stored at 0 C in the discharged state and at 0 C in the charged state by continuously trickle charging. There was a capacity loss when stored in the open-circuit condition at 28 C. A cycling test at 17% depth of discharge for 2400 cycles using cells stored at various conditions showed that cells maintained good end of discharge voltage regardless of their storage history. However, the EOD voltages of stored cells were lower by 10 mV compared to those of fresh cells. The capacity at the end of the cycling test decreased for the stored cells by 2-7 Ah. The storage related capacity loss is lower for SUPER Ni-Cd cells compared to that of Ni-H2 cells containing a hydrogen precharge. The results suggest the pivotal role of hydrogen pressure in the capacity loss phenomenon

Cost variation analysis of statins available in India

Background: The current study aimed to find out the percentage cost variation among the various brands of statins marketed in India. Statins are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors which are widely prescribed as blood cholesterol lowering agents and hence reduce illness and mortality in those who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease. There are numerous brands of statins are marketed in India.Methods: Cost of a particular drug manufactured by different companies in the same strength and the dosage form was obtained from the price list provided by the pharmaceutical companies in current index of medical specialities (CIMS) (42nd year January to April 2021). The difference in the maximum and the minimum price of the same drug manufactured by different pharmaceutical companies, cost ratio and the percentage variation in price were analysed.Results: The percentage cost variation of statins was seen highest with tablet atorvastatin 20 mg (564.06%), followed by combination of capsule atorvastatin 10 mg+aspirin 75 mg (325%) which was followed by combination of film coated tablet atorvastatin 10 mg+fenofibrate 160 mg (267.4%), tablet rosuvastatin 20 mg (171.1%), tablet lovastatin 10 mg (108.9%), combination of tablet rosuvastatin 10 mg+fenofibrate 160 mg (87.34%) and lowest was seen with tablet simvastatin 20 mg (6.0%).Conclusions: There is a very wide cost variation among different brands of statins marketed in India. The percentage cost variation was found to be the highest among the moderate intensity statins.