Automated biowaste sampling system urine subsystem operating model, part 1

The urine subsystem automatically provides for the collection, volume sensing, and sampling of urine from six subjects during space flight. Verification of the subsystem design was a primary objective of the current effort which was accomplished thru the detail design, fabrication, and verification testing of an operating model of the subsystem

The effect of market size structure on competition: the case of small business lending

Banking industry consolidation has raised concern about the supply of small business credit since large banks generally invest lower proportions of their assets in small business loans. However, we find that the likelihood that a small business borrows from a bank of a given size is roughly proportional to the local market presence of banks of that size, although there are exceptions. Moreover, small business loan interest rates depend more on the size structure of the market than on the size of the bank providing the credit, with markets dominated by large banks generally charging lower prices.Small business ; Bank size ; Bank loans ; Banking market

Nonet Symmetry and Two-Body Decays of Charmed Mesons

The decay of charmed mesons into pseudoscalar (P) and vector (V) mesons is studied in the context of nonet symmetry. We have found that it is badly broken in the PP channels and in the P sector of the PV channels as expected from the non-ideal mixing of the \eta and the \eta'. In the VV channels, it is also found that nonet symmetry does not describe the data well. We have found that this discrepancy cannot be attributed entirely to SU(3) breaking at the usual level of 20--30%. At least one, or both, of nonet and SU(3) symmetry must be very badly broken. The possibility of resolving the problem in the future is also discussed.Comment: 9 pages, UTAPHY-HEP-

Quasi-Particle Degrees of Freedom versus the Perfect Fluid as Descriptors of the Quark-Gluon Plasma

The hot nuclear matter created at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has been characterized by near-perfect fluid behavior. We demonstrate that this stands in contradiction to the identification of QCD quasi-particles with the thermodynamic degrees of freedom in the early (fluid) stage of heavy ion collisions. The empirical observation of constituent quark ``$n_q$'' scaling of elliptic flow is juxtaposed with the lack of such scaling behavior in hydrodynamic fluid calculations followed by Cooper-Frye freeze-out to hadrons. A ``quasi-particle transport'' time stage after viscous effects break down the hydrodynamic fluid stage, but prior to hadronization, is proposed to reconcile these apparent contradictions. However, without a detailed understanding of the transitions between these stages, the ``$n_q$'' scaling is not a necessary consequence of this prescription. Also, if the duration of this stage is too short, it may not support well defined quasi-particles. By comparing and contrasting the coalescence of quarks into hadrons with the similar process of producing light nuclei from nucleons, it is shown that the observation of ``$n_{q}$'' scaling in the final state does not necessarily imply that the constituent degrees of freedom were the relevant ones in the initial state.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, Updated text and figure

A gauge theoretical view of the charge concept in Einstein gravity

We will discuss some analogies between internal gauge theories and gravity in order to better understand the charge concept in gravity. A dimensional analysis of gauge theories in general and a strict definition of elementary, monopole, and topological charges are applied to electromagnetism and to teleparallelism, a gauge theoretical formulation of Einstein gravity. As a result we inevitably find that the gravitational coupling constant has dimension $\hbar/l^2$, the mass parameter of a particle dimension $\hbar/l$, and the Schwarzschild mass parameter dimension l (where l means length). These dimensions confirm the meaning of mass as elementary and as monopole charge of the translation group, respectively. In detail, we find that the Schwarzschild mass parameter is a quasi-electric monopole charge of the time translation whereas the NUT parameter is a quasi-magnetic monopole charge of the time translation as well as a topological charge. The Kerr parameter and the electric and magnetic charges are interpreted similarly. We conclude that each elementary charge of a Casimir operator of the gauge group is the source of a (quasi-electric) monopole charge of the respective Killing vector.Comment: LaTeX2e, 16 pages, 1 figure; enhanced discussio

ORFEUS II and IUE Spectroscopy of EX Hydrae

Using ORFEUS-SPAS II FUV spectra, IUE UV spectra, and archival EUVE deep survey photometry, we present a detailed picture of the behavior of the magnetic cataclysmic variable EX Hydrae. Like HUT spectra of this source, the FUV and UV spectra reveal broad emission lines of He II, C II-IV, N III and V, O VI, Si III-IV, and Al III superposed on a continuum which is blue in the UV and nearly flat in the FUV. Like ORFEUS spectra of AM Her, the O VI doublet is resolved into broad and narrow emission components. Consistent with its behavior in the optical, the FUV and UV continuum flux densities, the FUV and UV broad emission line fluxes, and the radial velocity of the O VI broad emission component all vary on the spin phase of the white dwarf, with the maximum of the FUV and UV continuum and broad emission line flux light curves coincident with maximum blueshift of the broad O VI emission component. On the binary phase, the broad dip in the EUV light curve is accompanied by strong eclipses of the UV emission lines and by variations in both the flux and radial velocity of the O VI narrow emission component. The available data are consistent with the accretion funnel being the source of the FUV and UV continuum and the O VI broad emission component, and the white dwarf being the source of the O VI narrow emission component.Comment: 21 pages, 10 Postscript figures; LaTeX format, uses aaspp4.sty; table2.tex included separately because it must be printed sideways - see instructions in the file; accepted on 1999 Feb 20 for publication in The Astrophysical Journa