Effects of wing-leading-edge modifications on a full-scale, low-wing general aviation airplane: Wind-tunnel investigation of high-angle-of-attack aerodynamic characteristics

Wing-leading-edge modifications included leading-edge droop and slat configurations having full-span, partial-span, or segmented arrangements. Other devices included wing-chord extensions, fences, and leading-edge stall strips. Good correlation was apparent between the results of wind-tunnel data and the results of flight tests, on the basis of autorotational stability criterion, for a wide range of wing-leading-edge modifications

Methodology for the comparative assessment of the Satellite Power System (SPS) and alternative technologies

The energy systems concerned are the satellite power system, several coal technologies, geothermal energy, fission, fusion, terrestrial solar systems, and ocean thermal energy conversion. Guidelines are suggested for the characterization of these systems, side-by-side analysis, alternative futures analysis, and integration and aggregation of data. A description of the methods for assessing the technical, economic, environmental, societal, and institutional issues surrounding the development of the selected energy technologies is presented

Lessons learned from U.S. Department of Defense 911-Bio Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations.

The US Department of Defense (DoD), in cooperation with other federal agencies, has taken many initiatives to improve its ability to support civilian response to a domestic biological terrorism incident. This paper discusses one initiative, the 911-Bio Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations (ACTDs), conducted by the Office of the Secretary of Defense during 1997 to better understand: (1) the capability of newly developed chemical and biological collection and identification technologies in a field environment; (2) the ability of specialized DoD response teams to use these new technologies within the structure of cooperating DoD and civilian consequence management organizations; and (3) the adequacy of current modeling tools for predicting the dispersal of biological hazards. This paper discusses the experience of the ACTDs from the civilian community support perspective. The 911-Bio ACTD project provided a valuable opportunity for DoD and civilian officials to learn how they should use their combined capabilities to manage the aftermath of a domestic biological terrorism incident

Apatites in Gale Crater

ChemCam is an active remote sensing instrument suite that has operated successfully on MSL since landing Aug. 6th, 2012. It uses laser pulses to remove dust and to analyze rocks up to 7 m away. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) obtains emission spectra of materials ablated from the samples in electronically excited states. The intensities of the emission lines scale with the abundances of the related element. ChemCam is sensitive to most major rock-forming elements as well as to a set of minor and trace elements such as F, Cl, Li, P, Sr, Ba, and Rb. The measured chemical composition can then be used to infer the mineralogical composition of the ablated material. Here, we report a summary of inferred apatite detections along the MSL traverse at Gale Crater. We present the geologic settings of these findings and derive some interpretations about the formation conditions of apatite in time and space

The impact of ocean acidification on the functional morphology of foraminifera

This work was supported by the NERC UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme grant NE/H017445/1. WENA acknowledges NERC support (NE/G018502/1). DMP received funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland). MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.Culturing experiments were performed on sediment samples from the Ythan Estuary, N. E. Scotland, to assess the impacts of ocean acidification on test surface ornamentation in the benthic foraminifer Haynesina germanica. Specimens were cultured for 36 weeks at either 380, 750 or 1000 ppm atmospheric CO2. Analysis of the test surface using SEM imaging reveals sensitivity of functionally important ornamentation associated with feeding to changing seawater CO2 levels. Specimens incubated at high CO2 levels displayed evidence of shell dissolution, a significant reduction and deformation of ornamentation. It is clear that these calcifying organisms are likely to be vulnerable to ocean acidification. A reduction in functionally important ornamentation could lead to a reduction in feeding efficiency with consequent impacts on this organism’s survival and fitness.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The potassic sedimentary rocks in Gale Crater, Mars, as seen by ChemCam on board Curiosity

The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity encountered potassium-rich clastic sedimentary rocks at two sites in Gale Crater, the waypoints Cooperstown and Kimberley. These rocks include several distinct meters thick sedimentary outcrops ranging from fine sandstone to conglomerate, interpreted to record an ancient fluvial or fluvio-deltaic depositional system. From ChemCam Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) chemical analyses, this suite of sedimentary rocks has an overall mean K2O abundance that is more than 5 times higher than that of the average Martian crust. The combined analysis of ChemCam data with stratigraphic and geographic locations reveals that the mean K2O abundance increases upward through the stratigraphic section. Chemical analyses across each unit can be represented as mixtures of several distinct chemical components, i.e., mineral phases, including K-bearing minerals, mafic silicates, Fe-oxides, and Fe-hydroxide/oxyhydroxides. Possible K-bearing minerals include alkali feldspar (including anorthoclase and sanidine) and K-bearing phyllosilicate such as illite. Mixtures of different source rocks, including a potassium-rich rock located on the rim and walls of Gale Crater, are the likely origin of observed chemical variations within each unit. Physical sorting may have also played a role in the enrichment in K in the Kimberley formation. The occurrence of these potassic sedimentary rocks provides additional evidence for the chemical diversity of the crust exposed at Gale Crater

Calibration of the MSL/ChemCam/LIBS Remote Sensing Composition Instrument

The ChemCam instrument suite on board the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Rover, Curiosity, will provide remote-sensing composition information for rock and soil samples within seven meters of the rover using a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system, and will provide context imaging with a resolution of 0.10 mradians using the remote micro-imager (RMI) camera. The high resolution is needed to image the small analysis footprint of the LIBS system, at 0.2-0.6 mm diameter. This fine scale analytical capability will enable remote probing of stratigraphic layers or other small features the size of "blueberries" or smaller. ChemCam is intended for rapid survey analyses within 7 m of the rover, with each measurement taking less than 6 minutes. Repeated laser pulses remove dust coatings and provide depth profiles through weathering layers, allowing detailed investigation of rock varnish features as well as analysis of the underlying pristine rock composition. The LIBS technique uses brief laser pulses greater than 10 MW/square mm to ablate and electrically excite material from the sample of interest. The plasma emits photons with wavelengths characteristic of the elements present in the material, permitting detection and quantification of nearly all elements, including the light elements H, Li, Be, B, C, N, O. ChemCam LIBS projects 14 mJ of 1067 nm photons on target and covers a spectral range of 240-850 nm with resolutions between 0.15 and 0.60 nm FWHM. The Nd:KGW laser is passively cooled and is tuned to provide maximum power output from -10 to 0 C, though it can operate at 20% degraded energy output at room temperature. Preliminary calibrations were carried out on the flight model (FM) in 2008. However, the detectors were replaced in 2009, and final calibrations occurred in April-June, 2010. This presentation describes the LIBS calibration and characterization procedures and results, and details plans for final analyses during rover system thermal testing, planned for early March

Gene-resolution analysis of DNA copy number variation using oligonucleotide expression microarrays

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) is a high-throughput method for measuring genome-wide DNA copy number changes. Current aCGH methods have limited resolution, sensitivity and reproducibility. Microarrays for aCGH are available only for a few organisms and combination of aCGH data with expression data is cumbersome.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We present a novel method of using commercial oligonucleotide expression microarrays for aCGH, enabling DNA copy number measurements and expression profiles to be combined using the same platform. This method yields aCGH data from genomic DNA without complexity reduction at a median resolution of approximately 17,500 base pairs. Due to the well-defined nature of oligonucleotide probes, DNA amplification and deletion can be defined at the level of individual genes and can easily be combined with gene expression data.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A novel method of gene resolution analysis of copy number variation (graCNV) yields high-resolution maps of DNA copy number changes and is applicable to a broad range of organisms for which commercial oligonucleotide expression microarrays are available. Due to the standardization of oligonucleotide microarrays, graCNV results can reliably be compared between laboratories and can easily be combined with gene expression data using the same platform.</p

Fluorine and Lithium at the Kimberley Outcrop, Gale Crater

ChemCam is an active remote sensing instrument which has operated successfully on MSL since landing in August, 2012. Its laser pulses remove dust and to profile through weathering coatings of rocks up to 7 m away. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) produces emission spectra of materials ablated from the samples in electronically excited states. As the plasma cools, elements can recombine and molecular emission lines are observed. Recent experiments have shown that some of these molecular emissions can be much brighter than the associated atomic lines, especially when halo-gens and rare earth elements are present. We observed these molecular emissions in some of the ChemCam spectra and report the first detection of chlorine and fluorine with ChemCam. It is also the first time ever that fluorine has been detected on the surface of Mars. Among all the F-bearing observations, one third are observed in the Kimberley outcrop. We will dis-cuss the potential mineralogies related to these observations as well as the related elemental correlations and propose interpretations