Extraction-Separation Performance and Dynamic Modeling of Orion Test Vehicles with Adams Simulation: 2nd Edition

NASA's Orion Capsule Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) project has advanced into the third generation of its parachute test campaign and requires technically comprehensive modeling capabilities to simulate multi-body dynamics (MBD) of test articles released from a C-17. Safely extracting a 30,000 lbm mated test article from a C-17 and performing stable mid-air separation maneuvers requires an understanding of the interaction between elements in the test configuration and how they are influenced by extraction parachute performance, aircraft dynamics, aerodynamics, separation dynamics, and kinetic energy experienced by the system. During the real-time extraction and deployment sequences, these influences can be highly unsteady and difficult to bound. An avionics logic window based on time, pitch, and pitch rate is used to account for these effects and target a favorable separation state in real time. The Adams simulation has been employed to fine-tune this window, as well as predict and reconstruct the coupled dynamics of the Parachute Test Vehicle (PTV) and Cradle Platform Separation System (CPSS) from aircraft extraction through the mid-air separation event. The test-technique for the extraction of CPAS test articles has evolved with increased complexity and requires new modeling concepts to ensure the test article is delivered to a stable test condition for the programmer phase. Prompted by unexpected dynamics and hardware malfunctions in drop tests, these modeling improvements provide a more accurate loads prediction by incorporating a spring-damper line-model derived from the material properties. The qualification phase of CPAS testing is on the horizon and modeling increasingly complex test-techniques with Adams is vital to successfully qualify the Orion parachute system for human spaceflight

Effect of oxidizing and reducing atmospheres on Ba(Ti0.90Zr0.10)O3:2V ceramics as characterized by piezoresponse force microscopy

The effect of annealing atmospheres (At amb, N2 and O2) on the electrical properties of Ba(Ti0.90Zr0.10)O3:2V (BZT10:2V) ceramics obtained by the mixed oxide method was investigated. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicates that oxygen vacancies present near Zr and Ti ions reduce ferroelectric properties, especially in samples treated in an ambient atmosphere (At amb). BZT10:2V ceramics sintered in a nitrogen atmosphere showed better dielectric behaviour at room temperature with a dielectric permittivity measured at a frequency of 10 kHz equal to 16800 with dielectric loss of 0.023. Piezoelectric force microscopy (PFM) images reveal improvement in the piezoelectric coefficient by sintering the sample under nitrogen atmosphere. Thus, BZT10:2V ceramics sintered under a nitrogen atmosphere can be useful for practical applications which include nonvolatile digital memories, spintronics and data-storage media

Rare Coding Variants in Patients with Non-Syndromic Vestibular Dysfunction

The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/ 10.3390/genes14040831/s1A.A.M.S. received a scholarship from the Philippine Council for Health and Research Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCHRD-DOST) under the Research Enrichment (Sandwich) Grant of the Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resource Devel- opment Program. O.A.K. was supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH)—National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) grant T32 DC012280 (to Sue C. Kinnamon and Herman A. Jenkins). This work was supported by the NIH through the NIDCD grants R01 DC019642 (to R.L.P.S.-C. and Ivana V. Yang) and R01 DC013912 (to S.P.G.); and the National Insti- tute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases grant R01 AR068292 (to N.H.-M.). Funding was also provided by Junta de Andalucia, grant Retos en Investigacion PY20_00303 (to J.A.L.-E.).Vertigo due to vestibular dysfunction is rare in children. The elucidation of its etiology will improve clinical management and the quality of life of patients. Genes for vestibular dysfunction were previously identified in patients with both hearing loss and vertigo. This study aimed to identify rare, coding variants in children with peripheral vertigo but no hearing loss, and in patients with potentially overlapping phenotypes, namely, Meniere’s disease or idiopathic scoliosis. Rare variants were selected from the exome sequence data of 5 American children with vertigo, 226 Spanish patients with Meniere’s disease, and 38 European–American probands with scoliosis. In children with vertigo, 17 variants were found in 15 genes involved in migraine, musculoskeletal phenotypes, and vestibular development. Three genes, OTOP1, HMX3, and LAMA2, have knockout mouse models for vestibular dysfunction. Moreover, HMX3 and LAMA2 were expressed in human vestibular tissues. Rare variants within ECM1, OTOP1, and OTOP2 were each identified in three adult patients with Meniere’s disease. Additionally, an OTOP1 variant was identified in 11 adolescents with lateral semicircular canal asymmetry, 10 of whom have scoliosis. We hypothesize that peripheral vestibular dysfunction in children may be due to multiple rare variants within genes that are involved in the inner ear structure, migraine, and musculoskeletal disease.Philippine Council for Health and Research Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCHRD-DOST) under the Research Enrichment (Sandwich) Grant of the Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resource Development ProgramUS National Institutes of Health (NIH)-National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) T32 DC012280NIH through the NIDCD R01 DC019642, R01 DC013912United States Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA NIH National Institute of Arthritis & Musculoskeletal & Skin Diseases (NIAMS) R01 AR068292Junta de Andalucia PY20_0030

Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Pt-Au Nanoparticles with Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity for the Oxidation of Formic Acid

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) is gratefully acknowledged for financial support under Research Project BJT-2014/400117/2014-2 and for the research support (HV: grant #306151/2010-3). Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) is also acknowledged for financial support (grants #2013/07296-2 and #2013/16930-7), and scholarship (FWH: grant #2014/08030-9). GC gratefully acknowledges R. Camargo for his collaboration in the acquisition of the HR-TEM images and for useful discussion and suggestions.Peer reviewedPostprin

U-Pb SHRIMP zircon dating of Grenvillian metamorphism in Western Sierras Pampeanas (Argentina) : correlation with the Arequipa-Antofalla craton and constraints on the extent of the Precordillera Terrane

The Sierras Pampeanas of Argentina, the largest outcrop of pre-Andean crystalline basement in southern South America, resulted from plate interactions along the proto-Andean margin of Gondwana, from as early as Mesoproterozoic to Late Paleozoic times (e.g., Ramos, 2004, and references therein). Two discrete Paleozoic orogenic belts have been recognized: the Early Cambrian Pampean belt in the eastern sierras, and the Ordovician Famatinian belt, which partially overprints it to the west (e.g., Rapela et al., 1998). In the Western Sierras Pampeanas, Mesoproterozoic igneous rocks (ca. 1.0–1.2 Ga) have been recognized in the Sierra de Pie de Palo (Fig. 1) (McDonough et al., 1993 M.R. McDonough, V.A. Ramos, C.E. Isachsen, S.A. Bowring and G.I. Vujovich, Edades preliminares de circones del basamento de la Sierra de Pie de Palo, Sierras Pampeanas occidentales de San Juán: sus implicancias para el supercontinente proterozoico de Rodinia, 12° Cong. Geol. Argentino, Actas vol. 3 (1993), pp. 340–342.McDonough et al., 1993, Pankhurst and Rapela, 1998 and Vujovich et al., 2004) that are time-coincident with the Grenvillian orogeny of eastern and northeastern North America (e.g., Rivers, 1997 and Corrievau and van Breemen, 2000). These Grenvillian-age rocks have been considered to be the easternmost exposure of basement to the Precordillera Terrane, a supposed Laurentian continental block accreted to Gondwana during the Famatinian orogeny (Thomas and Astini, 2003, and references therein). However, the boundaries of this Grenvillian belt are still poorly defined, and its alleged allochthoneity has been challenged (Galindo et al., 2004). Moreover, most of the Grenvillian ages so far determined relate to igneous protoliths, and there is no conclusive evidence for a Grenvillian orogenic belt, other than inferred from petrographic evidence alone (Casquet et al., 2001). We provide here the first evidence, based on U–Pb SHRIMP zircon dating at Sierra de Maz, for a Grenville-age granulite facies metamorphism, leading to the conclusion that a continuous mobile belt existed throughout the proto-Andean margin of Gondwana in Grenvillian times

High Prevalence of Systemic Autoimmune Diseases in Patients with Menière's Disease

BACKGROUND: Autoimmunity appears to be associated with the pathophysiology of Meniere's disease (MD), an inner ear disorder characterized by episodes of vertigo associated with hearing loss and tinnitus. However, the prevalence of autoimmune diseases (AD) in patients with MD has not been studied in individuals with uni or bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). METHODS AND FINDINGS: We estimated the prevalence of AD in 690 outpatients with MD with uni or bilateral SNHL from otoneurology clinics at six tertiary referral hospitals by using clinica criteria and an immune panel (lymphocyte populations, antinuclear antibodies, C3, C4 and proinflammatory cytokines TNFα, INFγ). The observed prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) was higher than expected for the general population (1.39 for RA, 0.87 for SLE and 0.70 for AS, respectively). Systemic AD were more frequently observed in patients with MD and diagnostic criteria for migraine than cases with MD and tension-type headache (p = 0.007). There were clinical differences between patients with uni or bilateral SNHL, but no differences were found in the immune profile. Multiple linear regression showed that changes in lymphocytes subpopulations were associated with hearing loss and persistence of vertigo, suggesting a role for the immune response in MD. CONCLUSIONS: Despite some limitations, MD displays an elevated prevalence of systemic AD such as RA, SLE and AS. This finding, which suggests an autoimmune background in a subset of patients with MD, has important implications for the treatment of MD

Asymmetric data acquisition system for an endoscopic PET-US detector

According to current prognosis studies of pancreatic cancer, survival rate nowadays is still as low as 6% mainly due to late detections. Taking into account the location of the disease within the body and making use of the level of miniaturization in radiation detectors that can be achieved at the present time, EndoTOFPET-US collaboration aims at the development of a multimodal imaging technique for endoscopic pancreas exams that combines the benefits of high resolution metabolic information from time-of- flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET) with anatomical information from ultrasound (US). A system with such capabilities calls for an application-specific high-performance data acquisition system (DAQ) able to control and readout data from different detectors. The system is composed of two novel detectors: a PET head extension for a commercial US endoscope placed internally close to the region-of-interest (ROI) and a PET plate placed over the patient's abdomen in coincidence with the PET head. These two detectors will send asymmetric data streams that need to be handled by the DAQ system. The approach chosen to cope with these needs goes through the implementation of a DAQ capable of performing multi-level triggering and which is distributed across two different on-detector electronics and the off-detector electronics placed inside the reconstruction workstation. This manuscript provides an overview on the design of this innovative DAQ system and, based on results obtained by means of final prototypes of the two detectors and DAQ, we conclude that a distributed multi-level triggering DAQ system is suitable for endoscopic PET detectors and it shows potential for its application in different scenarios with asymmetric sources of data