AgRISTARS: Foreign commodity production forecasting. Country summary report, Australia

Australia is one of the world's major growers and exporters of wheat and as such is one of the countries of interest in the AgRISTARS program which endeavors to develop technology to estimate crop production using aerospace remote sensing. A compilation of geographic, political, and agricultural information on Australia is presented. Also included is a summary of the aerospace remote sensing, meteorological, and ground-observed data which were collected with respect to Australia, as well as a summary of contacts between AgRISTARS and Australia personnel

Production, transfer and re-trapping of highly charged Ar¹⁴⁺ from an electron beam ion trap into a superconducting cryogenic Paul trap

High precision spectroscopy of highly charged ions demands ultra cold and stable environments, a prerequisite uncommon for their location of production. To evade this difficulty, the CryPTEx-II experiment spatially separates the ion production from storage by trapping these inside a cryogenic superconducting Paul trap. During this thesis, argon ions were produced inside an electron beam ion trap and guided through a beamline towards the Paul trap. The different charge states that made up the ion beam were identified by their time of flight and a single charge state, Ar14+, was selected. These selected ions were decelerated and bunched inside a pulsed drift tube and injected into a Paul trap biased to an elevated potential. Electrodes acting as mirrors for charged particles reected the ion bunch multiple times inside the trap. Meanwhile, a Coulomb crystal of Be+ ions cooled the reected ions sympathetically. Finally, Ar14+ ions were stopped inside the crystal, demonstrating the successful transfer of a highly charged ion into an ultra cold environment suitable for precision spectroscopy

Political Implications of Medicaid Expansion: A Decision for Five Incumbent Southern Governors Seeking Re-election in 2014 and 2015

This paper argues that five governors had a greater chance of winning re-election if they opposed Medicaid expansion instead of supporting it before their Republican primary elections. The five governors were Robert Bentley of Alabama, Nathan Deal of Georgia, Phil Bryant of Mississippi, Nikki Haley of South Carolina, and Bill Haslam of Tennessee. First, a summary of arguments for and against Medicaid expansion in the five states is provided. The next part of the paper seeks to develop a political justification for the decision to oppose Medicaid expansion before the Republican primary elections. This paper concludes that, in the five states, opposing Medicaid expansion is a better political decision because the Republican primary electorate rewards conservative candidates, Medicaid expansion’s connection to President Obama makes it difficult for a Republican governor to support, and a strong argument for Medicaid expansion—its cost-effectiveness—is difficult to explain to voters

The degradation of alzak by short wavelength ultraviolet radiation

The changes in reflectance of thermal aluminum coating samples exposed to different irradiating utraviolet wavelengths are discussed. It is shown that the coating is damaged faster and further by 180 to 210 in radiation than by Lyman alpha radiation. On an equivalent incident energy basis, Lyman alpha does less damage than 180 to 210 nm radiation. Above 300 nm no degradation is observed for long exposures and below 300 nm increasing degradation with decreasing wavelength is found. It is concluded that Lyman alpha radiation need not be included in laboratory testing of this thermal coating for spacecraft structures

NECAP: NASA's Energy-Cost Analysis Program. Part 2: Engineering manual

Each segment of NECAP is described, and the algorithms that were programmed into each subroutine are presented. For part 1, see

NECAP: NASA's Energy-Cost Analysis Program. Part 1: User's manual

The NECAP is a sophisticated building design and energy analysis tool which has embodied within it all of the latest ASHRAE state-of-the-art techniques for performing thermal load calculation and energy usage predictions. It is a set of six individual computer programs which include: response factor program, data verification program, thermal load analysis program, variable temperature program, system and equipment simulation program, and owning and operating cost program. Each segment of NECAP is described, and instructions are set forth for preparing the required input data and for interpreting the resulting reports

Test and evaluate passive orbital disconnect struts (PODS 3)

The objectives of the Passive Orbital Disconnect Struts (PODS) test are to evaluate modal resonance of the PODS-III supports to obtain engineering data required for use of PODS-III on flight systems; determine possible performance improvements in large LO2/LH2 space applications. (1) Modal Vibration Tests. A modal resonance survey is performed on a set of six PODS-III struts assembled in a dewar simulator. The survey conditions simulate both launch and orbital loadings of the struts. The orbital load range spans a full to an empty tank. The frequencies surveyed cover the range consistent with Shuttle qualification requirements and the principal resonant modes of the strut system. (2) Benefit study. The benefit of using PODS-III supports on OTV and Space Station LO sub 2 and LH sub 2 reference tanks was compared to nondisconnect supports. Four LO sub 2 and LH sub 2 tanks were studied under various conditions: (1) holding the launch resonance at 35 Hz and varying the orbit resonance; (2) analyzing both full and emtpy tanks at launch; (3) varying orbit boundary temperaure; (4) varying the number of struts; (5) varying orbit times; and (6) using or not using vapor cooling

Active synthetic soil

A synthetic soil/fertilizer for horticultural application having all the agronutrients essential for plant growth is disclosed. The soil comprises a synthetic apatite fertilizer having sulfur, magnesium, and micronutrients dispersed in a calcium phosphate matrix, a zeolite cation exchange medium saturated with a charge of potassium and nitrogen cations, and an optional pH buffer. Moisture dissolves the apatite and mobilizes the nutrient elements from the apatite matrix and the zeolite charge sites