Influence of damping and mass-stiffness discontinuities upon the dynamic stability of a free-free beam under a gimballed thrust of periodically-varying magnitude Technical memorandum no. 103

Damping and mass stiffness discontinuity effects on dynamic stability of free-free beam under gimballed pulsating end thrus

Solar-cycle variation of the sound-speed asphericity from GONG and MDI data 1995-2000

We study the variation of the frequency splitting coefficients describing the solar asphericity in both GONG and MDI data, and use these data to investigate temporal sound-speed variations as a function of both depth and latitude during the period from 1995-2000 and a little beyond. The temporal variations in even splitting coefficients are found to be correlated to the corresponding component of magnetic flux at the solar surface. We confirm that the sound-speed variations associated with the surface magnetic field are superficial. Temporally averaged results show a significant excess in sound speed around 0.92 solar radii and latitude of 60 degrees.Comment: To be published in MNRAS, accepted July 200

Kinetics of natural aging in Al-Mg-Si alloys studied by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy

The process of natural aging in pure ternary Al-Mg-Si alloys was studied by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy in real time in order to clarify the sequence and kinetics of clustering and precipitation. It was found that natural aging takes place in at least five stages in these alloys, four of which were directly observed. This is interpreted as the result of complex interactions between vacancies and solute atoms or clusters. One of the early stages of positron lifetime evolution coincides with a clustering process observed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and involves the formation of a positron trap with \sim 0.200 ns lifetime. In later stages, a positron trap with a higher lifetime develops in coincidence with the DSC signal of a second clustering reaction. Mg governs both the kinetics and the lifetime change in this stage. Within the first 10 min after quenching, a period of nearly constant positron lifetime was found for those Mg-rich alloys that later show an insufficient hardness response to artificial aging, the so-called "negative effect." The various processes observed could be described by two effective activation energies that were found by varying the aging temperature from 10 to 37\degree C.Comment: arXiv admin note: same as v2, to correct mistaken v

Dynamics of axial separation in long rotating drums

We propose a continuum description for the axial separation of granular materials in a long rotating drum. The model, operating with two local variables, concentration difference and the dynamic angle of repose, describes both initial transient traveling wave dynamics and long-term segregation of the binary mixture. Segregation proceeds through ultra-slow logarithmic coarsening.Comment: 4 pages, 3 Postscript figures; submitted to PR

Production of high molecular weight organic compounds on the surfaces of amorphous iron silicate catalysts: Implications for organic synthesis in the solar nebula

The high molecular weight organic products of Fischer-Tropsch/Haber-Bosch syntheses on the surfaces of Fe-silicate catalysts have been studied by GCMS

Evaluating the ecological realism of plant species distribution models with ecological indicator values

Species distribution models (SDMs) are routinely applied to assess current as well as future species distributions, for example to assess impacts of future environmental change on biodiversity or to underpin conservation planning. It has been repeatedly emphasized that SDMs should be evaluated based not only on their goodness of fit to the data, but also on the realism of the modelled ecological responses. However, possibilities for the latter are hampered by limited knowledge on the true responses as well as a lack of quantitative evaluation methods. Here we compared modelled niche optima obtained from European-scale SDMs of 1,476 terrestrial vascular plant species with empirical ecological indicator values indicating the preferences of plant species for key environmental conditions. For each plant species we first fitted an ensemble SDM including three modeling techniques (GLM, GAM and BRT) and extracted niche optima for climate, soil, land use and nitrogen deposition variables with a large explanatory power for the occurrence of that species. We then compared these SDM-derived niche optima with the ecological indicator values by means of bivariate correlation analysis. We found weak to moderate correlations in the expected direction between the SDM-derived niche optima and ecological indicator values. The strongest correlation occurred between the modelled optima for growing degree days and the ecological indicator values for temperature. Correlations were weaker for SDM-derived niche optima with a more distal relationship to ecological indicator values (notably precipitation and soil moisture). Further, correlations were consistently highest for BRT, followed by GLM and GAM. Our method gives insight into the ecological realism of modelled niche optima and projected core habitats and can be used to improve SDMs by making a more informed selection of environmental variables and modeling techniques

Sprayable low density ablator and application process

A sprayable, low density ablative composition is described consisting esentially of: (1) 100 parts by weight of a mixture of 25-65% by weight of phenolic microballoons, 0-20% by weight of glass microballoons, 4-10% by weight of glass fibers, 25-45% by weight of an epoxy-modified polyurethane resin, 2-4% by weight of a bentonite dispersing aid, and 1-2% by weight of an alcohol activator for the bentonite; (2) 1-10 parts by weight of an aromatic amine curing agent; and (3) 200-400 parts by weight of a solvent