Compressed Air-Driven Tests of a Prototype TurbX\u3csup\u3eTM\u3c/sup\u3e Engine

A century of research of existing thermodynamic cycles has developed piston engines exceeding 40% efficiency and open cycle gas turbine engines approaching 30% practical efficiency. A breakthrough engine concept has been invented by Dr. Michael Wilson (US Patents 5,966,927 and 6,105,359) and is called the TurbXTM engine. This new engine, operating on the Atkinson cycle, can theoretically increase engine performance and fuel economy, and reduce emissions as compared to the open cycle gas turbine. The TurbX™ engine implements a constant volume, continuous combustion process in rotating turbo-machinery. Based on a theoretically ideal thermodynamic analysis, this novel innovation will always have a higher thermal efficiency than a typical gas turbine at the same compression ratio. This particular concept has the inherent capability of easily varying the load with very simple controls. The purpose of this study was to determine experimentally the non-fueled or air driven performance characteristics of the prototype TurbX™ engine. The results of this study will be presented and discussed. Results of loaded tests indicate that with lower gap settings the engine has negative torque-speed characteristics similar to those of gas turbine engines. Although air driven tests were limited to combustion chamber pressures of up to 345 kPa, the prototype engine did not produce the anticipated torque values as envisioned by the inventor. Poor torque output was indicative of the excess leakage prevalent across the rotor/stator gap. It is recommended that TurbX™ design changes should address a better way to control the gap setting between the rotor and two stators, as well address blade angle and expansion passage designs to reduce the losses associated with poor air-incidence angles

Michel Aflaq : founder of the Arab Ba\u27th Party

This thesis examines the life and influence of Michel Aflaq, the founder of the Arab Ba\u27th Party. Aflaq\u27s Ba\u27thists seized power in Syria and Iraq after military coups in 1963. Much like Lenin, Aflaq, secretary general of the Ba\u27thist Party since its inception, has emphasized the necessity of maintaining an elite vanguard of party leadership rather than a mass movement to insure the purity of Ba\u27thist ideology. This political ideology has, as its focus, the three goals of the party slogan: Unity, Liberty and Socialism. In evaluating the impact of Aflaq and his party, this study examines the philosopher\u27s letters, political speeches, party statements and newspaper articles. Research reveals a political figure embroiled in Arab nationalist pursuits, seeking a difficult Arab unity while striving to prevent intra-party strife. At present, the Ba\u27thists remain divided although Aflaq\u27s ideological legacy continues to transform the Ba\u27thist government, transcending the political boundaries of several Arab states

EPA's P2 Program

Overview of EPA Headquarters' pollution prevention initiatives and strategic plan.Ope

Experimental evidence that group foragers can converge on predicted producer-scrounger equilibria

When foraging together, animals are often observed to feed from food discoveries of others. The producer-scrounger game predicts how frequently this phenomenon of food parasitism should occur. The game has two major requirements: (i) all individuals must either produce, meaning they invest time and/or energy getting resources, or scrounge, meaning they try to get resources from producers, and (ii) the payoffs received from the scrounger tactic must be highly negatively frequency-dependent such that they do better than producers when rare, but worse when common. This study provides the first experimental support for the use of the producer-scrounger game in group foraging contexts. A total of five flocks of spice finches (Lonchura punctulata) were used on two experiments. Payoffs were measured by feeding rate (seeds/s) in two feeding conditions. In all cases, payoffs to scroungers were found to be highly negatively frequency-dependent on the frequency of scrounging. All functions were linear (p $<$.05). In the second part of experiment 2, birds adopted the predicted producer or scrounger foraging tactics over a series of trials lasting 16 days (eight consecutive per feeding condition). In both experiments, individuals in the flocks also demonstrated plasticity in tactic used. Future studies should look at testing the performance of different learning rules using a similar experimental design

Studies of energy conservation in Chlamydomonas reinhardii

An attempt was made to gain an insight into the energy conservation process in Chlamydomonas reinhardii. This organism possesses both mitochondria and a chloroplast and so respiration and photosynthesis can be studied in the same cell. The growth of C.reinhardii under different trophic conditions was characterised. The sensitivity of the wild-type (wt+) strain to a wide range, of inhibitors was determined in order to select potentially useful inhibitors for the isolation of drug-resistant mutants. The effect of these inhibitors on energy conservation was determined using chloroplast preparations from pea (Pisum sativum) and the CW15+ (cell wall-1ess) strain of C.reinhardii. The reported modes of action of the triorganotins and alky1guanidines on photosynthetic energy conservation were confirmed and, in some cases, extended. Mutant strains of C.reinhardii, which are resistant to inhibitors of oxidativa and photosynthetic phosphorylation, may provide an insight into the energy conservation process. Drug-resistant strains ot C.reinhardii were isolated and divided into five major classes on the basis of their cross-resistance characteristics. The TP-8+ (triorganotin-resistant) mutant was specifically resistant to trimethy1tin and triethy1tin but more sensitive than the Wt+ strain to other inhibitors. The alkylguanidine and ethidium bromide-resistant mutants exhibited pleiotropic resistance patterns to other membrane-active inhibitors. The resistance phenotypes of all the mutant strains were inherited in a Mendelian fashion and were generally present under different trophic conditions. The resistance, in these mutants may be due to change(s) in one or more of the cell membranes but the exact locus of resistance was not, determined. However, the resistance of the EBr-6+ (ethidium bromide-resistant) strain may be due to reduced uptake of ethidium bromide. Attempts to localise the mode of resistance of the TP-8+ strain at the sub-cellular level were unsuccessful