9,479 research outputs found
Apollo experience report: Development and use of specialized radio equipment for Apollo recovery operations
New personal communications equipment was required for the Apollo Program recovery operations. Two new, small, personal radios were developed and used successfully in the Apollo recovery program
Academic Support at Leeds Metropolitan Library
Leeds Metropolitanâs Library Academic Support Stream is made up of Academic Librarians and Information Services Librarians who provide academic support to the universityâs six faculties. The team use innovative methods of working together to engage students and enhance their experience. The team only formed a year ago so this is a good time to reflect on our success so far. The library service at Leeds Met is continually developing and offers new challenges and opportunities for staff providing library academic support. Innovation has even become part of our new name â âLibraries and Learning Innovationâ. We still offer all the traditions types of library academic support, but there is an increasing emphasis on finding innovative ways of supporting students and publicising what we can offer. This year the Library Academic Support Stream won a University Attitude Character and Talents Award for Future Focus
Collective Transport in Arrays of Quantum Dots
(WORDS: QUANTUM DOTS, COLLECTIVE TRANSPORT, PHYSICAL EXAMPLE OF KPZ)
Collective charge transport is studied in one- and two-dimensional arrays of
small normal-metal dots separated by tunnel barriers. At temperatures well
below the charging energy of a dot, disorder leads to a threshold for
conduction which grows linearly with the size of the array. For short-ranged
interactions, one of the correlation length exponents near threshold is found
from a novel argument based on interface growth. The dynamical exponent for the
current above threshold is also predicted analytically, and the requirements
for its experimental observation are described.Comment: 12 pages, 3 postscript files included, REVTEX v2, (also available by
anonymous FTP from external.nj.nec.com, in directory /pub/alan/dotarrays [as
separate files]) [replacement: FIX OF WRONG VERSION, BAD SHAR] March 17,
1993, NEC
Supersonic aircraft Patent
Design of supersonic aircraft with novel fixed, swept wing planfor
Matching Kasteleyn Cities for Spin Glass Ground States
As spin glass materials have extremely slow dynamics, devious numerical
methods are needed to study low-temperature states. A simple and fast
optimization version of the classical Kasteleyn treatment of the Ising model is
described and applied to two-dimensional Ising spin glasses. The algorithm
combines the Pfaffian and matching approaches to directly strip droplet
excitations from an excited state. Extended ground states in Ising spin glasses
on a torus, which are optimized over all boundary conditions, are used to
compute precise values for ground state energy densities.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; minor clarification
A crossâfaculty simulation model for authentic learning
This paper proposes a crossâfaculty simulation model for authentic learning that bridges the gap between short groupâbased simulations within the classroom and longer individual placements in professional working contexts. Dissemination of the model is expected to widen the use of authentic learning approaches in higher education (HE). The model is based on a crossâfaculty project in which UK HE students acted as professional developers to produce prototype educational games for academic clients from other subject areas. Perceptions about the project were obtained from interviews with project participants. The stakeholders believed the crossâfaculty simulation to be a motivating learning experience, whilst identifying possible improvements. To evaluate whether the authenticity of the studentâclient relationship could be improved, the interview data were compared to four themes for authentic learning described by Rule in 2006. The data supported Ruleâs themes, whilst highlighting the added value gained from metaâawareness of the simulation as a learning opportunity
Reynolds-Averaged Turbulence Model Assessment for a Highly Back-Pressured Isolator Flowfield
The use of computational fluid dynamics in scramjet engine component development is widespread in the existing literature. Unfortunately, the quantification of model-form uncertainties is rarely addressed with anything other than sensitivity studies, requiring that the computational results be intimately tied to and calibrated against existing test data. This practice must be replaced with a formal uncertainty quantification process for computational fluid dynamics to play an expanded role in the system design, development, and flight certification process. Due to ground test facility limitations, this expanded role is believed to be a requirement by some in the test and evaluation community if scramjet engines are to be given serious consideration as a viable propulsion device. An effort has been initiated at the NASA Langley Research Center to validate several turbulence closure models used for Reynolds-averaged simulations of scramjet isolator flows. The turbulence models considered were the Menter BSL, Menter SST, Wilcox 1998, Wilcox 2006, and the Gatski-Speziale explicit algebraic Reynolds stress models. The simulations were carried out using the VULCAN computational fluid dynamics package developed at the NASA Langley Research Center. A procedure to quantify the numerical errors was developed to account for discretization errors in the validation process. This procedure utilized the grid convergence index defined by Roache as a bounding estimate for the numerical error. The validation data was collected from a mechanically back-pressured constant area (1 2 inch) isolator model with an isolator entrance Mach number of 2.5. As expected, the model-form uncertainty was substantial for the shock-dominated, massively separated flowfield within the isolator as evidenced by a 6 duct height variation in shock train length depending on the turbulence model employed. Generally speaking, the turbulence models that did not include an explicit stress limiter more closely matched the measured surface pressures. This observation is somewhat surprising, given that stress-limiting models have generally been developed to better predict shock-separated flows. All of the models considered also failed to properly predict the shape and extent of the separated flow region caused by the shock boundary layer interactions. However, the best performing models were able to predict the isolator shock train length (an important metric for isolator operability margin) to within 1 isolator duct height
Energetics and geometry of excitations in random systems
Methods for studying droplets in models with quenched disorder are critically
examined. Low energy excitations in two dimensional models are investigated by
finding minimal energy interior excitations and by computing the effect of bulk
perturbations. The numerical data support the assumptions of compact droplets
and a single exponent for droplet energy scaling. Analytic calculations show
how strong corrections to power laws can result when samples and droplets are
averaged over. Such corrections can explain apparent discrepancies in several
previous numerical results for spin glasses.Comment: 4 pages, eps files include
Global stability analysis of birhythmicity in a self-sustained oscillator
We analyze global stability properties of birhythmicity in a self-sustained
system with random excitations. The model is a multi-limit cycles variation of
the van der Pol oscillatorintroduced to analyze enzymatic substrate reactions
in brain waves. We show that the two frequencies are strongly influenced by the
nonlinear coefficients and . With a random excitation, such as
a Gaussian white noise, the attractor's global stability is measured by the
mean escape time from one limit-cycle. An effective activation energy
barrier is obtained by the slope of the linear part of the variation of the
escape time versus the inverse noise-intensity 1/D. We find that the
trapping barriers of the two frequencies can be very different, thus leaving
the system on the same attractor for an overwhelming time. However, we also
find that the system is nearly symmetric in a narrow range of the parameters.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, to appear on Choas, 201
Resonant steps and spatiotemporal dynamics in the damped dc-driven Frenkel-Kontorova chain
Kink dynamics of the damped Frenkel-Kontorova (discrete sine-Gordon) chain
driven by a constant external force are investigated. Resonant steplike
transitions of the average velocity occur due to the competitions between the
moving kinks and their radiated phasonlike modes. A mean-field consideration is
introduced to give a precise prediction of the resonant steps. Slip-stick
motion and spatiotemporal dynamics on those resonant steps are discussed. Our
results can be applied to studies of the fluxon dynamics of 1D
Josephson-junction arrays and ladders, dislocations, tribology and other
fields.Comment: 20 Plain Latex pages, 10 Eps figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
- âŠ