Spatially-Resolved Temperature Diagnostic for Supersonic Flow Using Cross-Beam Doppler-Limited Laser Saturation Spectroscopy

Optical techniques for measuring the temperature in three-dimensional supersonic reactive flows have typically depended on lineshape measurements using single-beam laser absorption spectroscopy. However, absorption over extended path lengths in flows with symmetric, turbulent eddies can lead to systematically high extracted temperatures due to Doppler shifts resulting from flow along the absorption path. To eliminate these problems, Cross-Beam Saturation Absorption Spectroscopy (CBSAS) and Cross-Beam Inter-Modulated Fluorescence (CBIMF) have been developed which utilize two crossed and nearly copropogating laser beams.to record the spectral signal of an I2 ro-vibrational line in a small three-dimensional volume using a tunable CW dye laser. Temperature is extracted by fitting the recorded signal with a theoretical signal constructed from the Doppler-broadened hyperfine components of the ro-vibrational line. The CBIMF technique proved successful for extracting the temperature of an I2-seeded, Ar gas flow within a small, Mach 2, Laval nozzle where the overlap volume of the two 1 mm diameter laser beams was 2.4 mm3. At a test point downstream of the nozzle throat, the average temperature of 146 K ± 1.5 K extracted from measurements of the I2 P(46) 17-1 spectral line compared favorably with the 138 K temperature calculated from isentropic, one-dimensional flow theory

NASA Advanced Concepts Office, Earth-To-Orbit Team Design Process and Tools

The Earth-to-Orbit Team (ETO) of the Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is considered the pre-eminent "go-to" group for pre-phase A and phase A concept definition. Over the past several years the ETO team has evaluated thousands of launch vehicle concept variations for a significant number of studies including agency-wide efforts such as the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), Constellation, Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLLV), Augustine Report, Heavy Lift Propulsion Technology (HLPT), Human Exploration Framework Team (HEFT), and Space Launch System (SLS). The ACO ETO Team is called upon to address many needs in NASA's design community; some of these are defining extremely large trade-spaces, evaluating advanced technology concepts which have not been addressed by a large majority of the aerospace community, and the rapid turn-around of highly time critical actions. It is the time critical actions, those often limited by schedule or little advanced warning, that have forced the five member ETO team to develop a design process robust enough to handle their current output level in order to meet their customer's needs. Based on the number of vehicle concepts evaluated over the past year this output level averages to four completed vehicle concepts per day. Each of these completed vehicle concepts includes a full mass breakdown of the vehicle to a tertiary level of subsystem components and a vehicle trajectory analysis to determine optimized payload delivery to specified orbital parameters, flight environments, and delta v capability. A structural analysis of the vehicle to determine flight loads based on the trajectory output, material properties, and geometry of the concept is also performed. Due to working in this fast-paced and sometimes rapidly changing environment, the ETO Team has developed a finely tuned process to maximize their delivery capabilities. The objective of this paper is to describe the interfaces between the three disciplines used in the design process: weights and sizing, trajectory, and structural analysis. The tools used to perform such analysis are INtegrated Rocket Sizing (INTROS), Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories (POST), and Launch Vehicle Analysis (LVA) respectively. The methods each discipline uses to streamline their particular part of the design process will also be discussed

NASA Advanced Concepts Office, Earth-To-Orbit Team Design Process and Tools

The Earth-to-Orbit Team (ETO) of the Advanced Concepts Office (ACO) at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is considered the pre-eminent go-to group for pre-phase A and phase A concept definition. Over the past several years the ETO team has evaluated thousands of launch vehicle concept variations for a significant number of studies including agency-wide efforts such as the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), Constellation, Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLLV), Augustine Report, Heavy Lift Propulsion Technology (HLPT), Human Exploration Framework Team (HEFT), and Space Launch System (SLS). The ACO ETO Team is called upon to address many needs in NASA s design community; some of these are defining extremely large trade-spaces, evaluating advanced technology concepts which have not been addressed by a large majority of the aerospace community, and the rapid turn-around of highly time critical actions. It is the time critical actions, those often limited by schedule or little advanced warning, that have forced the five member ETO team to develop a design process robust enough to handle their current output level in order to meet their customer s needs. Based on the number of vehicle concepts evaluated over the past year this output level averages to four completed vehicle concepts per day. Each of these completed vehicle concepts includes a full mass breakdown of the vehicle to a tertiary level of subsystem components and a vehicle trajectory analysis to determine optimized payload delivery to specified orbital parameters, flight environments, and delta v capability. A structural analysis of the vehicle to determine flight loads based on the trajectory output, material properties, and geometry of the concept is also performed. Due to working in this fast-paced and sometimes rapidly changing environment, the ETO Team has developed a finely tuned process to maximize their delivery capabilities. The objective of this paper is to describe the interfaces between the three disciplines used in the design process: weights and sizing, trajectory, and structural analysis. The tools used to perform such analysis are INtegrated Rocket Sizing (INTROS), Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories (POST), and Launch Vehicle Analysis (LVA) respectively. The methods each discipline uses to streamline their particular part of the design process will also be discussed

Altered outer hair cell mitochondrial and subsurface cisternae connectomics are candidate mechanisms for hearing loss in mice

Organelle crosstalk is vital for cellular functions. The propinquity of mitochondria, ER, and plasma membrane promote regulation of multiple functions, which include intracellular C

New Herbig Ae/Be stars confirmed via high-resolution optical spectroscopy

We present FEROS high-resolution (R~45000) optical spectroscopy of 34 Herbig Ae/Be star candidates with previously unknown or poorly constrained spectral types. Within the sample, 16 sources are positionally coincident with nearby (d<250 pc) star-forming regions (SFRs). All the candidates have IR excess. We determine the spectral type and luminosity class of the sources, derive their radial and rotational velocities, and constrain their distances employing spectroscopic parallaxes. We confirm 13 sources as Herbig Ae/Be stars and find one classical T Tauri star. Three sources are emission line early-type giants and may be Herbig Ae/Be stars. One source is a main-sequence A-type star. Fourteen sources are post-main-sequence giant and supergiant stars. Two sources are extreme emission-line stars. Most of the sources appear to be background stars at distances over 700 pc. We show that high-resolution optical spectroscopy is a crucial tool for distinguishing young stars from post-main sequence stars in samples taken from emission-line star catalogs based on low-resolution spectroscopy. Within the sample, 3 young stars (CD-38 4380, Hen 3-1145, and HD 145718) and one early-type luminosity class III giant with emission lines (Hen 3-416) are at distances closer than 300 pc and are positionally coincident with a nearby SFR. These 4 sources are likely to be nearby young stars and are interesting for follow-up observations at high-angular resolution. Furthermore, seven confirmed Herbig Ae/Be stars at d>700 pc (Hen 2-80, Hen 3-1121 N&S, HD 313571, MWC 953, WRAY 15-1435, and Th 17-35) are inside or close (<5') to regions with extended 8 micron continuum emission and in their 20' vicinity have astronomical sources characteristic of SFRs. These 7 sources are likely to be members of SFRs. These regions are attractive for future studies of their stellar content.Comment: 24 pages, 6 Figures, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press

Digital PCR methods improve detection sensitivity and measurement precision of low abundance mtDNA deletions

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations are a common cause of primary mitochondrial disorders, and have also been implicated in a broad collection of conditions, including aging, neurodegeneration, and cancer. Prevalent among these pathogenic variants are mtDNA deletions, which show a strong bias for the loss of sequence in the major arc between, but not including, the heavy and light strand origins of replication. Because individual mtDNA deletions can accumulate focally, occur with multiple mixed breakpoints, and in the presence of normal mtDNA sequences, methods that detect broad-spectrum mutations with enhanced sensitivity and limited costs have both research and clinical applications. In this study, we evaluated semi-quantitative and digital PCR-based methods of mtDNA deletion detection using double-stranded reference templates or biological samples. Our aim was to describe key experimental assay parameters that will enable the analysis of low levels or small differences in mtDNA deletion load during disease progression, with limited false-positive detection. We determined that the digital PCR method significantly improved mtDNA deletion detection sensitivity through absolute quantitation, improved precision and reduced assay standard error

Targeting the TGF-β1 Pathway to Prevent Normal Tissue Injury After Cancer Therapy

Evidence supporting the critical role of transforming growth factor β1 in the development of normal tissue injury after cancer therapy is reviewed and the results of recent research aimed at preventing normal tissue injury by targeting the transforming growth factor β1 pathway are presented

Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST) Final Report

In December 2010, NASA created a Science Definition Team (SDT) for WFIRST, the Wide Field Infra-Red Survey Telescope, recommended by the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey as the highest priority for a large space mission. The SDT was chartered to work with the WFIRST Project Office at GSFC and the Program Office at JPL to produce a Design Reference Mission (DRM) for WFIRST. Part of the original charge was to produce an interim design reference mission by mid-2011. That document was delivered to NASA and widely circulated within the astronomical community. In late 2011 the Astrophysics Division augmented its original charge, asking for two design reference missions. The first of these, DRM1, was to be a finalized version of the interim DRM, reducing overall mission costs where possible. The second of these, DRM2, was to identify and eliminate capabilities that overlapped with those of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (henceforth JWST), ESA's Euclid mission, and the NSF's ground-based Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (henceforth LSST), and again to reduce overall mission cost, while staying faithful to NWNH. This report presents both DRM1 and DRM2.Comment: 102 pages, 57 figures, 17 table

The Dystroglycan Complex Is Necessary for Stabilization of Acetylcholine Receptor Clusters at Neuromuscular Junctions and Formation of the Synaptic Basement Membrane

The dystrophin-associated protein (DAP) complex spans the sarcolemmal membrane linking the cytoskeleton to the basement membrane surrounding each myofiber. Defects in the DAP complex have been linked previously to a variety of muscular dystrophies. Other evidence points to a role for the DAP complex in formation of nerve–muscle synapses. We show that myotubes differentiated from dystroglycan−/− embryonic stem cells are responsive to agrin, but produce acetylcholine receptor (AChR) clusters which are two to three times larger in area, about half as dense, and significantly less stable than those on dystroglycan+/+ myotubes. AChRs at neuromuscular junctions are similarly affected in dystroglycan-deficient chimeric mice and there is a coordinate increase in nerve terminal size at these junctions. In culture and in vivo the absence of dystroglycan disrupts the localization to AChR clusters of laminin, perlecan, and acetylcholinesterase (AChE), but not rapsyn or agrin. Treatment of myotubes in culture with laminin induces AChR clusters on dystroglycan+/+, but not −/− myotubes. These results suggest that dystroglycan is essential for the assembly of a synaptic basement membrane, most notably by localizing AChE through its binding to perlecan. In addition, they suggest that dystroglycan functions in the organization and stabilization of AChR clusters, which appear to be mediated through its binding of laminin