Scaling and Similitude in Single Nozzle Supersonic Retropropulsion Aerodynamics Interference

Retropropulsion, or the firing of rocket engines or motors into the direction of flight, is a method of spacecraft deceleration and soft landing that dates back to the early 1960s. Current conceptual designs for landing humans on the surface of Mars require supersonic retropropulsion, or initiation of retropropulsion at supersonic freestream conditions, as part of an extended powered descent phase of flight. The objective of this work is to identify the design parameters and flow condition bounds for self-similar behavior of powered descent aerodynamic interference in relevant flight environments. In applications of sub-scale test data, an unknown uncertainty lies in scaling to and from full-scale environments and systems. The issue of scaling for the opposing flows characteristic of powered descent is the focus of the following analysis, using data from wind tunnel testing of figurations with a single, central nozzle as a point of departure

Aerodynamics for the ADEPT SR-1 Flight Experiment

Adaptable, Deployable, Entry, and Placement Technology (ADEPT) is a combination of a heatshield and an aerodynamic decelerator for atmospheric entry applications. The ADEPT Sounding Rocket (SR)-1 mission was a suborbital flight experiment of an 0.7 m-diameter ADEPT to verify system-level performance and to characterize dynamic stability behavior. The aerodynamic database for ADEPT SR-1 was constructed from non-continuum and continuum flowfield computations, along with data from recent ADEPT ground testing and the IRVE-3 flight test vehicle. High-altitude (free-molecular and transitional regimes) data were generated using DSMC methods. Pre-flight predictions of continuum static aerodynamics coefficients were derived from Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes solutions at conditions along a design trajectory, with comparisons to available ground test data of the nano-ADEPT geometry. Dynamic pitch damping characteristics were taken from functional forms developed for the IRVE-3 flight test vehicle through ballistic range testing. Comparison of pre-flight predictions to post-flight reconstruction of aerodynamic force and moment coefficients is presented

Vegetation of the Eastern Arctic between 2.595–2.554 Ma (Data from Lake El’gygytgyn, North-East Russia)

The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary, set at 2.588 Ma or the base of the Gelasian age, represents a shift in global climates from those of the comparatively warm Pliocene to the cooler conditions of the Pleistocene. Lake El’gygytgyn (Chukotka) provides one of the few continuous terrestrial records that permits a close examination of this important transition in Earth’s climate states. The MIS 102-MIS 103 portion of the El’gygytgyn palynological record indicates that, during the earliest Pleistocene, this area of the Arctic was vegetated by closed Larix-BetulaAlnus forest. Such vegetation contrasts to that of the latest Pliocene, when Larix forest-tundra dominated, and differs from the herb and shrub tundra found today in northern Chukotka. This earliest period of the Gelasian represents the climatic optimum for MIS 103. Even under the most severe conditions during MIS 102, Larix forest-tundra persisted, which differs greatly from the herb tundra that characterized many glacial intervals in the Arctic during the Late and Middle Pleistocene

Optical constatnts of yttrium-iron garnet single-crystal film strucrures

Light-attenuation spectra of yttrium–iron gar-net single-crystal film structures grown on a gallium–gadolinium garnet substrate by liquid-phase epitaxy from the undercooled solution in the melt have been studied and compared with those of bulk yttrium–iron garnet samples. The calculated optical constants are discussed tak-ing into account the influence of crystal field on the splitting of the energy states of iron ions in the film samples.

Procalcitonin Identifies Cell Injury, Not Bacterial Infection, in Acute Liver Failure

Background Because acute liver failure (ALF) patients share many clinical features with severe sepsis and septic shock, identifying bacterial infection clinically in ALF patients is challenging. Procalcitonin (PCT) has proven to be a useful marker in detecting bacterial infection. We sought to determine whether PCT discriminated between presence and absence of infection in patients with ALF. Method Retrospective analysis of data and samples of 115 ALF patients from the United States Acute Liver Failure Study Group randomly selected from 1863 patients were classified for disease severity and ALF etiology. Twenty uninfected chronic liver disease (CLD) subjects served as controls. Results Procalcitonin concentrations in most samples were elevated, with median values for all ALF groups near or above a 2.0 ng/mL cut-off that generally indicates severe sepsis. While PCT concentrations increased somewhat with apparent liver injury severity, there were no differences in PCT levels between the pre-defined severity groups–non-SIRS and SIRS groups with no documented infections and Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock groups with documented infections, (p = 0.169). PCT values from CLD patients differed from all ALF groups (median CLD PCT value 0.104 ng/mL, (p ≤0.001)). Subjects with acetaminophen (APAP) toxicity, many without evidence of infection, demonstrated median PCT \u3e2.0 ng/mL, regardless of SIRS features, while some culture positive subjects had PCT values Summary/Conclusions While PCT appears to be a robust assay for detecting bacterial infection in the general population, there was poor discrimination between ALF patients with or without bacterial infection presumably because of the massive inflammation observed. Severe hepatocyte necrosis with inflammation results in elevated PCT levels, rendering this biomarker unreliable in the ALF setting

PECULIARITIES OF TERRITORIAL DISTRIBUTION OF TICK-BORNE ENCEPHALITIS MORBIDITY WITHIN IRKUTSK RESIDENTS

Irkutsk residents are infected, with, tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) mainly in Pribaykalie (Irkutsk region and Buryat Republic). TBE foci are rather various on this territory. Differences in some parameters of morbidity structure at the infection in different areas of this territory are reviewed, in this article

The Current State of Natural Foci of Tick-Borne Encephalitis near Irkutsk City

Among main factors that influence intensity of tick-borne encephalitis foci one can distinguish the numbers of core vector (here, taiga tick Ixodes persulcatus) and the percentage of infected ticks. This paper shows the results of five-year monitoring of the tick-borne encephalitis focus, which is situated near Irkutsk city. Detected are the variations in numbers and infestation of the core vector of tick-borne encephalitis, both spatial and temporal. Cause-effect connection between these factors and human TBE morbidity is not found. However, morbidity rates of the Irkutsk population, observed on the annual basis, bear evidence of high activity and intensity of the foci. In this regard, a number of preventive measures is put forward, but further observations concerning all the parameters that influence foci activity are required

Distribution of Tryptophan-Dependent <I>Yersinia pestis</I> Variants in the Altai Mountain Natural Plague Focus

Carried out is the analysis of spatial location of tryptophan-dependent variants of plague microbe in the territory of Altai mountain plague natural focus. 1166 Y. pestis strains isolated in 1990–2010, were studied as regards nutrient requirements. 140 of them (12 %) were determined as tryptophan-dependent. The highest occurence of such strains was registered in Ulandryk focal region (21.6 % in average). Among strains isolated in Tarkhatin focal region only 2.3 % were tryptophan-dependent, and in Kuray region they were absent. Thus, the data obtained suggest that spatial heterogeneity of Y. pestis subsp. altaica in the focus takes place

High-latitude vegetation and climate changes during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition inferred from a palynological record from Lake El'gygytgyn, NE Russian Arctic

© 2017 Collegium Boreas.A continuous pollen record from Lake El'gygytgyn (northeastern Russian Arctic) provides detailed information concerning the regional vegetation and climate history during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT), between 1091 ka (end of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 32) and 715 ka (end of MIS 18). Pollen-based qualitative vegetation reconstruction along with biome reconstruction indicate that the interglacial regional vegetation history during the MPT is characterized by a gradual replacement of forest and shrub vegetation by open herbaceous communities (i.e. tundra/cold steppe). The pollen spectra reveal seven vegetation successions that have clearly distinguishable glacial-interglacial cycles. These successions are represented by the intervals of cold deciduous forest (CLDE) biome scores changing from high to low, which are basically in phase with the variations of obliquity from maxima to minima. The dominating influence of obliquity forcing on vegetation successions contradicts with the stronger power of eccentricity, as demonstrated by the result of wavelet analysis based on landscape openness reconstruction. This discrepancy shows that a single index is insufficient for catching signals of all the impacting factors. Comparisons with vegetation and environmental changes in the Asian interior suggest that global cooling during the MPT was probably the key force driving long-term aridification in the Arctic region. The accelerated aridification after MIS 24-22 was probably caused by the additional effect of the Tibetan Plateau uplift, which played an important role on intensification of the Siberian High and westerly jet systems