9,752 research outputs found
Design of internal support structures for an inflatable lunar habitat
NASA has a long range goal of constructing a fully equipped, manned lunar outpost on the near side of the moon by the year 2015. The proposed outpost includes an inflatable lunar habitat to support crews during missions longer that 12 months. A design for the internal support structures of the inflatable habitat is presented. The design solution includes material selection, substructure design, assembly plan development, and concept scale model construction. Alternate designs and design solutions for each component of the design are discussed. Alternate materials include aluminum, titanium, and reinforced polymers. Vertical support alternates include column systems, truss systems, suspension systems, and lunar lander supports. Horizontal alternates include beams, trusses, floor/truss systems, and expandable trusses. Feasibility studies on each alternate showed that truss systems and expandable trusses were the most feasible candidates for conceptual design. The team based the designs on the properties of 7075 T73 aluminum. The substructure assembly plan, minimizes assembly time and allows crews to construct the habitat without the use of EVA suits. In addition to the design solutions, the report gives conclusions and recommendations for further study of the inflatable habitat design
Can disorder enhance incoherent exciton diffusion?
Recent experiments aimed at probing the dynamics of excitons have revealed
that semiconducting films composed of disordered molecular subunits, unlike
expectations for their perfectly ordered counterparts, can exhibit a
time-dependent diffusivity in which the effective early time diffusion constant
is larger than that of the steady state. This observation has led to
speculation about what role, if any, microscopic disorder may play in enhancing
exciton transport properties. In this article, we present the results of a
model study aimed at addressing this point. Specifically, we present a general
model, based upon F\"orster theory, for incoherent exciton diffusion in a
material composed of independent molecular subunits with static energetic
disorder. Energetic disorder leads to heterogeneity in molecule-to-molecule
transition rates which we demonstrate has two important consequences related to
exciton transport. First, the distribution of local site-specific diffusivity
is broadened in a manner that results in a decrease in average exciton
diffusivity relative to that in a perfectly ordered film. Second, since
excitons prefer to make transitions that are downhill in energy, the steady
state distribution of exciton energies is biased towards low energy molecular
subunits, those that exhibit reduced diffusivity relative to a perfectly
ordered film. These effects combine to reduce the net diffusivity in a manner
that is time dependent and grows more pronounced as disorder is increased.
Notably, however, we demonstrate that the presence of energetic disorder can
give rise to a population of molecular subunits with exciton transfer rates
exceeding that of subunits in an energetically uniform material. Such
enhancements may play an important role in processes that are sensitive to
molecular-scale fluctuations in exciton density field.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure
Space-Time Forecasting Using Soft Geostatistics: A Case Study in Forecasting Municipal Water Demand for Phoenix, AZ
Managing environmental and social systems in the face of uncertainty requires the best possible forecasts of future conditions. We use space-time variability in historical data and projections of future population density to improve forecasting of residential water demand in the City of Phoenix, Arizona. Our future water estimates are derived using the first and second order statistical moments between a dependent variable, water use, and an independent variable, population density. The independent variable is projected at future points, and remains uncertain. We use adjusted statistical moments that cover projection errors in the independent variable, and propose a methodology to generate information-rich future estimates. These updated estimates are processed in Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME), which produces maps of estimated water use to the year 2030. Integrating the uncertain estimates into the space-time forecasting process improves forecasting accuracy up to 43.9% over other space-time mapping methods that do not assimilate the uncertain estimates. Further validation studies reveal that BME is more accurate than co-kriging that integrates the error-free independent variable, but shows similar accuracy to kriging with measurement error that processes the uncertain estimates. Our proposed forecasting method benefits from the uncertain estimates of the future, provides up-to-date forecasts of water use, and can be adapted to other socioeconomic and environmental applications.
Nonequilibrium dynamics of localized and delocalized excitons in colloidal quantum dot solids
Self-assembled quantum dot (QD) solids are a highly tunable class of
materials with a wide range of applications in solid-state electronics and
optoelectronic devices. In this perspective, we highlight how the presence of
microscopic disorder in these materials can influence their macroscopic
optoelectronic properties. Specifically, we consider the dynamics of excitons
in energetically disordered QD solids using a theoretical model framework for
both localized and delocalized excitonic regimes. In both cases, we emphasize
the tendency of energetic disorder to promote nonequilibrium relaxation
dynamics and discuss how the signatures of these nonequilibrium effects
manifest in time-dependent spectral measurements. Moreover, we describe the
connection between the microscopic dynamics of excitons within the material and
the measurement of material specific parameters, such as emission linewidth
broadening and energetic dissipation rate.Comment: 4 figure
Reasonable Accommodation Under the ADA
This brochure is one of a series on human resources practices and workplace accommodations for persons with disabilities edited by Susanne M. Bruyère, Ph.D., CRC, SPHR, Director, Program on Employment and Disability, School of Industrial and Labor Relations – Extension Division, Cornell University. Cornell University was funded in the early 1990’s by the U.S. Department of Education National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research as a National Materials Development Project on the employment provisions (Title I) of the ADA (Grant #H133D10155). These updates, and the development of new brochures, have been funded by Cornell’s Program on Employment and Disability, the Pacific Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center, and other supporters
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