Using Fly-By-Wire Technology in Future Models of the UH-60 and Other Rotary Wing Aircraft

Several fixed-winged airplanes have successfully used fly-by-wire (FBW) technology for the last 40 years. This technology is now beginning to be incorporated into rotary wing aircraft. By using FBW technology, manufacturers are expecting to improve upon the weight, maintenance time and costs, handling and reliability of the aircraft. Before mass production of this new system begins in new models such as the UH-60MU, testing must be conducted to insure the safety of this technology as well as to reassure others it will be worth the time and money to make such a dramatic change to a perfectly functional machine. The RASCAL JUH-60A has been modified for these purposes. This Black Hawk helicopter has already been equipped with the FBW technology and can be configured as a near perfect representation of the UH-60MU. Because both machines have very similar qualities, the data collected from the RASCAL can be used to make future decisions about the UH-60MU. The U.S. Army AFDD Flight Project Office oversees all the design modifications for every hardware system used in the RASCAL aircraft. This project deals with specific designs and analyses of unique RASCAL aircraft subsystems and their modifications to conduct flight mechanics research

Prompt Beta Spectroscopy as a Diagnostic for Mix in Ignited NIF Capsules

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) technology is designed to drive deuterium-tritium (DT) internal confinement fusion (ICF) targets to ignition using indirect radiation from laser beam energy captured in a hohlraum. Hydrodynamical instabilities at interfaces in the ICF capsule leading to mix between the DT fue l and the ablator shell material are of fundamental physical interest and can affect the performance characteristics of the capsule. In this Letter we describe new radiochemical diagnostics for mix processes in ICF capsules with plastic or Be (0.9%Cu) ablator shells. Reactions of high-energy tritons with shell material produce high-energy $\beta$-emitters. We show that mix between the DT fuel and the shell material enhances high-energy prompt beta emission from these reactions by more than an order of magnitude over that expected in the absence of mix

Professional development in teaching and learning for early career academic geographers: Contexts, practices and tensions

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Geography in Higher Education on 16th May 2011, available online: doi: 10.1080/03098265.2011.563380This paper provides a review of the practices and tensions informing approaches to professional development for early career academic geographers who are teaching in higher education. We offer examples from Britain, Canada, Nigeria and the USA. The tensions include: institutional and departmental cultures; models that offer generic and discipline-specific approaches; the credibility of alternative settings for professional development in teaching and learning; the valuing of professional development and of teaching in academic systems of reward and recognition; and the challenges of balancing professional and personal life. We summarize concepts of good practice and suggest opportunities for future research

MINAS—a database of Metal Ions in Nucleic AcidS

Correctly folded into the respective native 3D structure, RNA and DNA are responsible for uncountable key functions in any viable organism. In order to exert their function, metal ion cofactors are closely involved in folding, structure formation and, e.g. in ribozymes, also the catalytic mechanism. The database MINAS, Metal Ions in Nucleic AcidS (http://www.minas.uzh.ch), compiles the detailed information on innersphere, outersphere and larger coordination environment of >70 000 metal ions of 36 elements found in >2000 structures of nucleic acids contained today in the PDB and NDB. MINAS is updated monthly with new structures and offers a multitude of search functions, e.g. the kind of metal ion, metal-ligand distance, innersphere and outersphere ligands defined by element or functional group, residue, experimental method, as well as PDB entry-related information. The results of each search can be saved individually for later use with so-called miniPDB files containing the respective metal ion together with the coordination environment within a 15 Å radius. MINAS thus offers a unique way to explore the coordination geometries and ligands of metal ions together with the respective binding pockets in nucleic acids

TRAINING CENTRE FOR ENERGY TRADING

Reforme energetskog sektora i nove poslovne mogućnosti nametnule su potrebu stjecanja i prenošenja znanja i vještina svim sudionicima koji preuzimaju nove uloge i odgovornosti u energetskom sektoru. Stoga su Fakultet elektrotehnike i računarstva Sveučilišta u Zagrebu (FER), Hrvatska elektroprivreda d.d. (HEP d.d.) i norveška tvrtka Technor Energy AS pokrenule projekt uspostave Trening centra za trgovanje energijom (Training Centre for Energy Trading TCET). U članku je predstavljen rezultat ove suradnje – pisani materijali koji služe kao podloga za učenje i simulator tržišta koji omogućava različitim tržišnim sudionicima, iz raznih zemalja i s različitim tržišnim interesima, da kroz igru iskušaju tržišno natjecanje. Ovo je prvi trening centar takve vrste u Europi, a projekt njegove uspostave financiralo je Ministarstvo vanjskih poslova Kraljevine Norveške i HEP d.d.The current reforms in the energy sector and the resulting new business opportunities have imposed a need for knowledge and skills to be acquired by or imparted to all those who will assume new roles and responsibilities in the energy sector. To this end the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computering of the University of Zagreb (FER), Hrvatska elektroprivreda d.d. – The Croatian Electricity Company (HEP d.d.) and the Norwegian company Technor Energy AS launched a project to establish the Training Centre for Energy Trading (TCET). This article presents the results of this co-operation – printed materials to serve as teaching aid and a market simulator to help various market participants from different countries and with different market interests to try their hand at market competition by playing games. This is the first training centre project of this kind in Europe, co-financed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway and HEP d.d

Acetate Kinase Isozymes Confer Robustness in Acetate Metabolism

Acetate kinase (ACK) (EC no: 2.7.2.1) interconverts acetyl-phosphate and acetate to either catabolize or synthesize acetyl-CoA dependent on the metabolic requirement. Among all ACK entries available in UniProt, we found that around 45% are multiple ACKs in some organisms including more than 300 species but surprisingly, little work has been done to clarify whether this has any significance. In an attempt to gain further insight we have studied the two ACKs (AckA1, AckA2) encoded by two neighboring genes conserved in Lactococcus lactis (L. lactis) by analyzing protein sequences, characterizing transcription structure, determining enzyme characteristics and effect on growth physiology. The results show that the two ACKs are most likely individually transcribed. AckA1 has a much higher turnover number and AckA2 has a much higher affinity for acetate in vitro. Consistently, growth experiments of mutant strains reveal that AckA1 has a higher capacity for acetate production which allows faster growth in an environment with high acetate concentration. Meanwhile, AckA2 is important for fast acetate-dependent growth at low concentration of acetate. The results demonstrate that the two ACKs have complementary physiological roles in L. lactis to maintain a robust acetate metabolism for fast growth at different extracellular acetate concentrations. The existence of ACK isozymes may reflect a common evolutionary strategy in bacteria in an environment with varying concentrations of acetate

Identification of a Sex Pheromone Produced by Sternal Glands in Females of the Caddisfly Molanna angustata Curtis

In the caddisfly Molanna angustata, females produce a sex pheromone in glands with openings on the fifth sternite. Gas chromatographic analyses of pheromone gland extracts with electroantennographic detection revealed four major compounds that stimulated male antennae. These compounds were identified by means of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and enantioselective gas chromatography as heptan-2-one, (S)-heptan-2-ol, nonan-2-one, and (S)-nonan-2-ol in the approximate ratio of 1:1:4:10, respectively. Field tests showed that the mixture of the two alcohols was attractive to males whereas addition of the corresponding ketones reduced trap catches. The sex pheromone of M. angustata, a species in the family Molannidae within the suborder Integripalpia, is similar to the pheromones or pheromone-like compounds previously reported from six other trichopteran families, including members of the basal suborder Annulipalpia. This suggests that minimal evolutionary change of the pheromone chemistry has taken place within the leptoceroid branch of integripalpian Trichoptera compared to the ancestral character state

E/Z MAS: An easy-to-use computerized materials control and accountability system

Nuclear facilities that handle and process nuclear materials are required to track their nuclear holdings and to keep adequate records that manage and control the inventory of those holdings. The complexity of a system that does this job is directly proportional to the complexity of the facility`s operations. This paper describes an approach to computerized materials protection, control, and accountability (MPC and A) that was introduced by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the fall of 1997. This new system, E/Z MAS, is the latest addition to the LANL suite of computerized MPC and A tools, which also includes the CoreMAS system. E/Z MAS was initially designed to address the needs of those facilities that have small to modest MPC and A needs but has been expanded to provide full functionality for any facility. The system name, E/Z MAS, reflects the system`s easy-to-use characteristics, which include ease of installation and ease of software maintenance. Both CoreMAS and E/Z MAS have been provided to facilities in the Former Soviet Union to assist them in implementing a computerized MPC and A system that meets their needs. In this paper the authors will address the functionality of CoreMAS and E/Z MAS, and an argument in favor of intranet-based material control and accountability will be advanced