23,947 research outputs found
Metabolic energy requirements for space flight
The international space community, including the USSR, Japan, Germany, the European Space Agency, and the US, is preparing for extended stays in space. Much of the research planned for space will be tended by humans, thus, maintaining adequate nutritional status during long stays in space has lately become an issue of much interest. Historically, it appears that minimum nutritional requirements are being met during stays in space. Thus far, crewmembers have been able to consume food adequate for maintaining nominal performance in microgravity. The physiological data obtained from ground-based and flight research that may enable us to understand the biochemical alterations that effect energy utilization and performance. Focus is on energy utilization during the Apollo lunar missions, Skylab's extended space lab missions, and Space Shuttle flights. Available data includes those recorded during intra- and extravehicular activities as well as during microgravity simulation (bed rest). Data on metabolism during flight and during bed rest are discussed, with a follow-up on human gastrointestinal function
Wide-range dynamic pressure sensor
Transducer measures pressure by sensing the damping of a vibrating diaphragm immersed in the atmosphere to be measured. Improved sensor can be included in rugged, lightweight package for use aboard aircraft, meteorological vehicles, and space probes
Differential Astrometry of Sub-arcsecond Scale Binaries at the Palomar Testbed Interferometer
We have used the Palomar Testbed Interferometer to perform very high
precision differential astrometry on the 0.25 arcsecond separation binary star
HD 171779. In 70 minutes of observation we achieve a measurement uncertainty of
approximately 9 micro-arcseconds in one axis, consistent with theoretical
expectations. Night-to-night repeatability over four nights is at the level of
16 micro-arcseconds. This method of very-narrow-angle astrometry may be
extremely useful for searching for planets with masses as small as 0.5 Jupiter
Masses around a previously neglected class of stars -- so-called ``speckle
binaries.'' It will also provide measurements of stellar parameters such as
masses and distances, useful for constraining stellar models at the 10^-3
level.Comment: 19 pages including 6 figures. Submitted to ApJ. Typos corrected,
several parts reworded for clarificatio
Spherical Categories
This paper is a study of monoidal categories with duals where the tensor
product need not be commutative. The motivating examples are categories of
representations of Hopf algebras and the motivating application is the
definition of 6j-symbols as used in topological field theories.
We introduce the new notion of a spherical category. In the first section we
prove a coherence theorem for a monoidal category with duals following MacLane
(1963). In the second section we give the definition of a spherical category,
and construct a natural quotient which is also spherical.
In the third section we define spherical Hopf algebras so that the category
of representations is spherical. Examples of spherical Hopf algebras are
involutory Hopf algebras and ribbon Hopf algebras. Finally we study the natural
quotient in these cases and show it is semisimple.Comment: 16 pages. Minor correction
Electronic structure and magnetism in two-dimensional hexagonal 5d transition metal carbides, Tan+1Cn (n=1,2,3)
Density functional calculations are used to investigate the electronic
structure of two-dimensional 5d tantalum carbides with honeycomb-like lattice
structures. We focus on changes in the low-energy bands near the Fermi level
with dimensionality. We find that the Ta 5d states dominate, but the extended
nature of the wavefunctions makes them weakly correlated. The carbide sheets
are prone to long range magnetic order. We evaluate the stability of these
states to enhanced electron--electron interactions through a Hubbard U
correction. Lastly, we find spin orbit interactions strongly renormalize the
band structure for n=2, but play a minor role in n=1 and 3.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Dry matter yields and quality of organic lupin/cereal mixtures for wholecrop forage
In view of climate change predictions and the general desirability of increasing the amount of home grown protein, a case exists for the investigation of lupins and lupin/cereal bicrop combinations as wholecrop forage on organic farms. A replicated randomised block trial is described which took place at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, in 2005. This involved spring sown blue, white and yellow lupins, millet, wheat and triticale and lupin/cereal bi-crops. Data for dry matter yields for wholecrop silage, crude protein, MAD fi bre content and estimated ME, are presented for a single harvest. It is concluded that white lupins and white lupin bi-crops with spring wheat or triticale offer the best prospects for a viable wholecrop forage crop in an organic situation
Spatial and Temporal Extrapolation of Disdrometer Size Distributions Based on a Lagrangian Trajectory Model of Falling Rain
Methodologies to improve disdrometer processing, loosely based on
mathematical techniques common to the field of particle flow and fluid
mechanics, are examined and tested. The inclusion of advection and vertical
wind field estimates appears to produce significantly improved results in a
Lagrangian hydrometeor trajectory model, in spite of very strict assumptions of
noninteracting hydrometeors, constant vertical air velocity, and time
independent advection during a radar scan time interval. Wind field data can be
extracted from each radar elevation scan by plotting and analyzing reflectivity
contours over the disdrometer site and by collecting the radar radial velocity
data to obtain estimates of advection. Specific regions of disdrometer spectra
(drop size versus time) often exhibit strong gravitational sorting signatures,
from which estimates of vertical velocity can be extracted. These independent
wind field estimates can be used as initial conditions to the Lagrangian
trajectory simulation of falling hydrometeors.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to The Open Atmospheric
Science Journal, http://www.bentham.org/open/toascj
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