Motion synchronization of a mechanism to deploy and restow a truss beam

The functions of the Control of Flexible Structures I (COFS I) deployer and retractor assembly (DRA) are primarily to deploy and retract the Mast I beam, and secondarily to latch, unlatch, and restow the DRA mechanism. The problems associated with the diagonal folding mechanism that retracts the beam is presented, the synchronization requirements critical to the process of restowing the beam is discussed, and a proposed solution to the problem of synchronization between the mechanical systems is presented. In addition, a detailed description is presented of the design and functioning of the DRA

Brief Amicus Curiae of the Honorable Margaret W. Hassan Governor of the State of New Hampshire in Support of the Plaintiffs/Cross-Appellants

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT The Governor confines her argument in this amicus brief to whether the superior court correctly concluded that the education tax credit program enacted under RSA § 77-G violates Article 83 insofar as it permits organizations authorized to receive donations subsidized by the credit to use those donations to fund student scholarships to religious, non-public schools. In the Governor’s view, the superior court’s finding of unconstitutionality was correct. In its text, structure, and history (including its interpretive history), the New Hampshire Constitution significantly differs from the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause with respect to the question whether revenue generated through taxation—i.e., public funds—may be used to subsidize student scholarships to religious, non-public schools. Accordingly, more permissive federal court precedents interpreting the Establishment Clause should have little bearing on this question. Under the New Hampshire Constitution, the answer to the question is “no”; public funds may not be used to subsidize student scholarships to religious, non-public schools. Public financial support of religious schools would not only violate the constitutional rights of New Hampshire taxpayers who do not wish their tax dollars to subsidize the operation of such schools, but it also would necessitate additional public regulation of the affairs of religious schools. Either way, the result would be a dangerous state entanglement in religion that is inconsistent with New Hampshire’s Constitution and traditions. The question therefore becomes whether the superior court correctly concluded that revenue raised and appropriated through the tax credit program enacted pursuant to RSA § 77-G constitutes “money raised by taxation” within the meaning of Article 83. The superior court’s conclusion was correct. The monies made available to schools through RSA § 77-G are monies raised by taxation. The legislature has appropriated a portion of New Hampshire’s tax dollars to pay for scholarships to religious schools through the tax credit program. Any other conclusion would require this Court to bless a formalistic and functionally meaningless distinction between tax dollars appropriated directly by the State, and tax dollars directed to religious schools through the tax credit program legislation. Such a crabbed reading of the Article 83 guarantee would jeopardize both the hallowed underpinnings of religious tolerance and freedom, and the prohibition against entanglement made sacred by our New Hampshire Constitution. This Court should not vindicate a formalism that would enable an easy end-run around a basic constitutional limit on the power of the State with respect to taxpayer funds. Finally, the violation of Article 83 occasioned by RSA § 77-G is no mere technical breach of the wall of separation between church and state. The Governor views tax incentives as appropriate tools of public policy when revenues are allocated to constitutional uses. Moreover, nothing prevented individuals or businesses from contributing to private religious schools of choice—and from enjoying the federal tax benefits of such contributions— before RSA § 77-G was adopted, and nothing prevents them from doing so now. Yet § 77-G creates a vehicle by which substantial sums of public revenue raised through the taxation of New Hampshire citizens would be diverted to religious, non-public institutions. Such a financially imprudent diversion of scarce tax dollars would undermine the State’s ability to meet its other obligations in the coming years, including the provision of an adequate education for all New Hampshire children; providing New Hampshire’s civil and criminal justice systems with adequate resources to ensure the delivery of justice in New Hampshire; and maintaining the health, safety and wellbeing of New Hampshire’s citizens. The superior court’s order should be affirmed

Molded composite pyrogen igniter for rocket motors

A lightweight pyrogen igniter assembly including an elongated molded plastic tube adapted to contain a pyrogen charge was designed for insertion into a rocket motor casing for ignition of the rocket motor charge. A molded plastic closure cap provided for the elongated tube includes an ignition charge for igniting the pyrogen charge and an electrically actuated ignition squib for igniting the ignition charge. The ignition charge is contained within a portion of the closure cap, and it is retained therein by a noncorrosive ignition pellet retainer or screen which is adapted to rest on a shoulder of the elongated tube when the closure cap and tube are assembled together. A circumferentially disposed metal ring is provided along the external circumference of the closure cap and is molded or captured within the plastic cap in the molding process to provide, along with O-ring seals, a leakproof rotary joint

A comparison of the chemistry of pseudotachylyte breccias in the Archean Levack Gneisses of the Sudbury structure, Ontario

The Archean Levack Gneisses of the North Range host millimeter-thick veins and centimeter-thick lenses of pseudotachylyte, as well as substantially larger meter-wide, dykelike bodies of pseudotachylytic 'breccia'. The 'breccia' occurs up to several tens of kilometers away from the Sudbury Igneous Complex and is commonly sited within or near joints and other natural weaknesses such as bedding, dyke contacts, and lithological boundaries. The larger 'breccia' dykes comprise a generally dark matrix containing rounded to subrounded and occasionally angular rock fragments derived predominantly from Levack Gneiss. Selected samples of bulk Sudbury Breccia and Sudbury Breccia matrices were chemically analyzed and compared to existing data on the Levack Gneisses and Sudbury Breccia. The matrices are apparently enriched in Fe and, to a lesser extent, Mg, Ti, and Ca compared to the wallrocks and the majority of clasts. This enrichment can be partly explained by the preferential cataclasis and/or frictional melting of hydrous ferromagnesian wallrock minerals, but also appear to require contamination by more basic exotic lithologies. This suggests that certain components of pseudotachylitic Sudbury Breccia have undergone significant transport during their formation

Mass Loss by Hot Stars

Mechanism explaining mass loss for luminous hot stars using ultraviolet line spectra of some ion

Quaternary warping at Gorge Saddle, western Southland

Gorge Saddle is one low point on a drainage divide between Fiordland and the Southland Plain. Eastward sloping Quaternary terraces east of the divide and westward sloping terraces to the west contain granitic pebbles which could have been derived only from the west. This suggests doming at the present divide concurrent with transport from the west

The precision of experienced action video-game players: Line bisection reveals reduced leftward response bias

Twenty-two experienced action video-game players (AVGPs) and 18 non-VGPs were tested on a pen-and-paper line bisection task that was untimed. Typically, right-handers bisect lines 2 % to the left of true centre, a bias thought to reflect the dominance of the right-hemisphere for visuospatial attention. Expertise may affect this bias, with expert musicians showing no bias in line bisection performance. Our results show that experienced-AVGPs also bisect lines with no bias with their right hand and a significantly reduced bias with their left hand compared to non-AVGPs. Bisections by experienced-AVGPs were also more precise than those of non-AVGPs. These findings show the cognitive proficiencies of experienced-AVGPs can generalize beyond computer based tasks, which resemble their training environment