Yet Another Snapshot of Foundational Attitudes Toward Quantum Mechanics

A survey probing respondents' views on various foundational issues in quantum mechanics was recently created by Schlosshauer, Kofler, and Zeilinger [arXiv:1301.1069] and then given to 33 participants at a quantum foundations conference. Here we report the results of giving this same survey to the attendees at another recent quantum foundations conference. While it is rather difficult to conclude anything of scientific significance from the poll, the results do strongly suggest several interesting cultural facts -- for example, that there exist, within the broad field of "quantum foundations", sub-communities with quite different views, and that (relatedly) there is probably even significantly more controversy about several fundamental issues than the already-significant amount revealed in the earlier poll.Comment: 11 pages, 16 bar graph

30 Day Lunar/Martian Planetary Habitation Analog: Subjective Crew Analysis Of Behavioral Health

Long duration spaceflight poses risks to astronauts from stressors including challenging living environments, rigorous workloads, physical and mental fatigue, interpersonal conflict, mission uncertainty, emergencies, isolation and confinement. Analog space exploration simulations on Earth provide researchers with controlled environments to train and study human spaceflight operations. The findings of this study provided data on self-assessed metrics from an analog crew (N=3) who independently completed subjective reports of sleep quality, stress, anxiety, fatigue, mental exertion, and also provided objectively assessed sleep quality data by biometric watches. The daily mean reports from subjects were compared across time in order to ascertain possible quarterly phase changes during a 30 day simulated Lunar/Martian analog habitation mission. A 12x3x3 meter living habitat, detachable electric planetary rover and space suits were used as life support. Results confirmed the initial hypotheses that the autonomous, isolated and confined environment was associated with consistent third quarter effects. Furthermore, a noticeable increased first quarter phase effect in numerous measurements was evident

Search for Cosmic-Ray Antideuterons with the AMS-02 Experiment on the International Space Station

Ph.D.Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 201

Stress and Coping During Simulated EVAs and Habitat Living

Planning for long duration exploration missions (LDEM) involves both the effectiveness of the extravehicular operations, in particular as it is related to the functioning and comfort of the space suits, and how the crew functions together in accomplishing the objectives of the mission. The University of North Dakota Department of Space Studies has developed a multi-modular Inflatable Lunar/Mars Analog Habitat (ILMAH) and is testing iterations of their NDX-2AT space suit. Five 12-14 day missions, each consisting of 3-4 individuals (Total 13; 11 men, two women) were carried out. Team members independently completed a Daily Rating Form (DRF) each day of the mission; the measure assessed space suit functioning during a simulated exploration EVA, psychological factors of mood, positive events and stressful situations experienced, and strategy/decision making processes. The EVAs proceeded in a smooth manner and ratings indicated that the space suit performed well in enabling the team members to carry out the simulated exploration tasks effectively. There were few incidents of tension or arguments with a teammate; ratings of mood state indicated that positive mood predominated over negative mood throughout the mission. Adaptive coping methods were reported as appropriate for the particular stressor experienced; problem-focused coping, for example, discussing task concerns with a teammate, emotion-focused coping methods, relaxation, meditation, humor; and meaning-focused coping, keeping the goal in sight. The specific behavioral and cognitive coping methods participants used to deal with the stressors experienced were highly effective in promoting optimal personal and team performance. Training in the use of particular coping strategies and the flexibility to use different coping methods depending on the specific stressors experienced appears helpful in preparing astronauts for the many demands and challenges of living and working together on LDEM. This training should also be helpful for dealing with the psychological recovery period following an EVA

Web Archiving as Entertainment

We want to make web archiving entertaining so that it can be enjoyed like a spectator sport. To this end, we have been working on a proof of concept that involves gamification of the web archiving process and integrating video games and web archiving. Our vision for this proof of concept involves a web archiving live stream and a gaming live stream. We are creating web archiving live streams that make the web archiving process more transparent to viewers by live streaming the web archiving and replay sessions to video game live streaming platforms like Twitch, Facebook Gaming, and YouTube. We also want to live stream gameplay from games where the gameplay is influenced by web archiving and replay performance. So far we have created web archiving live streams that show the web archiving and replay sessions for two web archive crawlers and gaming live streams that show gameplay influenced by the web archiving performance from the web archiving live stream. We have also applied the gaming concept of speedruns, where a player attempts to complete a game as quickly as possible. This could make a web archiving live stream more entertaining, because we can have a competition between two crawlers to see which crawler is faster at archiving a set of URIs.Comment: This is an extended version of a paper from ICADL 2022. 20 pages and 10 figure

Thermodynamic Analysis of an Electrochemically Driven Chemical Looping Heat Pump

Electrochemical cells have been widely explored for their use in high efficiency energy systems. In this paper a novel heat pump cycle is proposed which utilizes chemical looping driven by electrochemical cells. Chemical looping is a method that has been applied to various applications such as combustion and air separation. It consists of the cycling of a substance between different chemical compositions in order to produce a desired effect. When the chemical composition of a fluid changes, various properties such as its saturation pressure will also change. In the proposed concept, the chemical looping of electrochemically active fluids was leveraged in order to generate a heat pumping effect. A number of electrochemically active liquid organic hydrogen carriers including alcohols such as cyclohexanol and isopropanol have been investigated for use in conjunction with electrochemical cells. These organic fluids were integrated into a thermodynamic model of the proposed cycle. When operating as an air conditioner the model indicated that an increase in cooling COP of over 20% could be achieved in comparison to a conventional vapor compression system using R410A

Liquid-Flooded Ericsson Power Cycle

In this paper, the use of liquid flooding is examined to create a high efficiency Ericsson Power Cycle. The introduction of significant amounts of liquid into the compression and expansion processes of a gas leads to quasi-isothermal behavior approximating that of an Ericsson cycle. A thermodynamic model is presented and various working fluid pairs are examined under operating conditions suitable for solar thermal power generation. The Liquid-Flooded Ericsson Cycle (LFEC) can be manufactured with fixed volume ratio machinery currently mass produced for the refrigeration industry. In this manner low cost, distributed solar thermal generation can be promoted. The thermodynamic performance of the LFEC is compared to that of other power cycles proposed for solar thermal systems. It is shown that for sufficiently high component efficiencies the Liquid-Flooded Ericsson Cycle provides higher thermal efficiencies than any other power cycle currently under consideration

Laboratory Investigation of Grouted Coupler Connection Details for ABC Bridge Projects

With an ever increasing desire to utilize accelerated bridge construction (ABC) techniques, it is becoming critical that bridge designers and contractors have confidence in typical details. The Keg Creek Bridge on US 6 in Iowa was a recent ABC example that utilized connection details that had been utilized elsewhere. The connection details used between the drilled shaft and pier column and between the pier column and the pier cap were details needing evaluation. These connection details utilized grouted couplers that have been tested by others with mixed results—some indicating quality performance and others indicating questionable performance. There was a need to test these couplers to gain an understanding of their performance in likely Iowa details and to understand how their performance might be impacted by different construction processes. The objective of the work was to perform laboratory testing and evaluation of the grouted coupler connection details utilized on precast concrete elements for the Keg Creek Bridge. The Bridge Engineering Center (BEC), with the assistance of the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Bridges and Structures, developed specimens representative of the Keg Creek Bridge connections for testing under static and fatigue loads in the structures laboratory. The specimens were also evaluated for their ability to resist the intrusion of water and chlorides. Evaluation of their performance was made through comparisons with design assumptions and previous research, as well as the physical performance of the coupled connections