Conceptual study of an advanced supersonic technology transport (AST-107) for transpacific range using low-bypass-ratio turbofan engines

An advanced supersonic technology configuration concept designated the AST-107, using a low bypass ratio turbofan engine, is described and analyzed. The aircraft had provisions for 273 passengers arranged five abreast. The cruise Mach number was 2.62. The mission range for the AST-107 was 8.48 Mm (4576 n.mi.) and an average lift drag ratio of 9.15 during cruise was achieved. The available lateral control was not sufficient for the required 15.4 m/s (30 kt) crosswind landing condition, and a crosswind landing gear or a significant reduction in dihedral effect would be necessary to meet this requirement. The lowest computed noise levels, including a mechanical suppressor noise reduction of 3 EPNdB at the flyover and sideline monitoring stations, were 110.3 EPNdB (sideline noise), 113.1 EPNdB (centerline noise) and 110.5 EPNdB (approach noise)

Comparison of T1 mapping techniques for ECV quantification. histological validation and reproducibility of ShMOLLI versus multibreath-hold T1 quantification equilibrium contrast CMR

BACKGROUND: Myocardial extracellular volume (ECV) is elevated in fibrosis or infiltration and can be quantified by measuring the haematocrit with pre and post contrast T1 at sufficient contrast equilibrium. Equilibrium CMR (EQ-CMR), using a bolus-infusion protocol, has been shown to provide robust measurements of ECV using a multibreath-hold T1 pulse sequence. Newer, faster sequences for T1 mapping promise whole heart coverage and improved clinical utility, but have not been validated. METHODS: Multibreathhold T1 quantification with heart rate correction and single breath-hold T1 mapping using Shortened Modified Look-Locker Inversion recovery (ShMOLLI) were used in equilibrium contrast CMR to generate ECV values and compared in 3 ways.Firstly, both techniques were compared in a spectrum of disease with variable ECV expansion (n=100, 50 healthy volunteers, 12 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, 18 with severe aortic stenosis, 20 with amyloid). Secondly, both techniques were correlated to human histological collagen volume fraction (CVF%, n=18, severe aortic stenosis biopsies). Thirdly, an assessment of test:retest reproducibility of the 2 CMR techniques was performed 1 week apart in individuals with widely different ECVs (n=10 healthy volunteers, n=7 amyloid patients). RESULTS: More patients were able to perform ShMOLLI than the multibreath-hold technique (6% unable to breath-hold). ECV calculated by multibreath-hold T1 and ShMOLLI showed strong correlation (r(2)=0.892), little bias (bias -2.2%, 95%CI -8.9% to 4.6%) and good agreement (ICC 0.922, range 0.802 to 0.961, p<0.0001). ECV correlated with histological CVF% by multibreath-hold ECV (r(2)= 0.589) but better by ShMOLLI ECV (r(2)= 0.685). Inter-study reproducibility demonstrated that ShMOLLI ECV trended towards greater reproducibility than the multibreath-hold ECV, although this did not reach statistical significance (95%CI -4.9% to 5.4% versus 95%CI -6.4% to 7.3% respectively, p=0.21). CONCLUSIONS: ECV quantification by single breath-hold ShMOLLI T1 mapping can measure ECV by EQ-CMR across the spectrum of interstitial expansion. It is procedurally better tolerated, slightly more reproducible and better correlates with histology compared to the older multibreath-hold FLASH techniques

Temperature anisotropy and differential streaming of solar wind ions -- Correlations with transverse fluctuations

We study correlations of the temperature ratio (which is an indicator for perpendicular ion heating) and the differential flow of the alpha particles with the power of transverse fluctuations that have wave numbers between 0.01 and 0.1 (normalized to $k_p=1/l_p$, where $l_p$ is the proton inertial length). We found that both the normalized differential ion speed, $V_{\alpha p}/V_\mathrm{A}$ (where $V_\mathrm{A}$ is the Alfv\'en speed) and the proton temperature anisotropy, $T_{\perp p}/T_{\parallel p}$, increase when the relative wave power is growing. Furthermore, if the normalized differential ion speed stays below 0.5, the alpha-particle temperature anisotropy, $T_{\perp \alpha}/T_{\parallel \alpha}$, correlates positively with the relative power of the transverse fluctuations. However, if $V_{\alpha p}/V_\mathrm{A}$ is higher than 0.6, then the alpha-particle temperature anisotropy tends to become lower and attain even values below unity despite the presence of transverse fluctuations of relatively high amplitudes. Our findings appear to be consistent with the expectations from kinetic theory for the resonant interaction of the ions with Alfv\'en/ion-cyclotron waves and the resulting wave dissipation.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics journa

Cultivating Motivation: The importance of autonomy, competence & relatedness for instruction involving digital archives and objects

What motivates students to learn? More specifically, how can instruction involving primary sources, digital archives, or museum collections become more engaging and meaningful for students? Purdue librarians and instructional developers have found success in addressing issues of motivation by focusing on three aspects of Self-Determination Theory (SDT): autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy is defined as feelings of volition and choice, students’ ownership of their own learning processes, and endorsement of behaviors requested by an instructor. Competence refers to the degree to which students believe they can perform academically, and relatedness is concerned with student perceptions of feeling connected to other students, the instructor, and the course content. Student perceptions of these three interdependent psychological needs play an important role in fostering or impeding motivation, engagement, and knowledge-transfer. Incorporating principles of SDT in instruction provides specific and measurable goals for fostering student motivation across a variety of instructional contexts. Purdue Librarians gained exposure to the concepts of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the IMPACT (Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation) program. IMPACT is a program through which faculty redesign foundational courses with the goal of creating learning-centered environments. Librarians, instructional developers, and educational technologists form teams with faculty through a 13-week instructional design process. This panel will apply lessons learned about student motivation to examine how learning experiences which involve digital objects and archives can be structured in ways that motivate students and allow instructors to assess student motivation to influence learning

Global and regional left ventricular myocardial deformation measures by magnetic resonance feature tracking in healthy volunteers: comparison with tagging and relevance of gender

This work was funded by a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/G030693/1) and supported by the Oxford British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence and the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centr

A Hot Helium Plasma in the Galactic Center Region

Recent X-ray observations by the space mission Chandra confirmed the astonishing evidence for a diffuse, hot, thermal plasma at a temperature of 9. $10^7$ K (8 keV) found by previous surveys to extend over a few hundred parsecs in the Galactic Centre region. This plasma coexists with the usual components of the interstellar medium such as cold molecular clouds and a soft (~0.8 keV) component produced by supernova remnants, and its origin remains uncertain. First, simple calculations using a mean sound speed for a hydrogen-dominated plasma have suggested that it should not be gravitationally bound, and thus requires a huge energy source to heat it in less than the escape time. Second, an astrophysical mechanism must be found to generate such a high temperature. No known source has been identified to fulfill both requirements. Here we address the energetics problem and show that the hot component could actually be a gravitationally confined helium plasma. We illustrate the new prospects this opens by discussing the origin of this gas, and by suggesting possible heating mechanisms.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in APJ

Electronic Scattering Effects in Europium-Based Iron Pnictides

In a comprehensive study, we investigate the electronic scattering effects in EuFe$_{2}$(As$_{1-x}$P$_{x}$)$_{2}$ by using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. In spite of the fact that Eu$^{2+}$ local moments order around $T_\text{Eu} \approx 20$\,K, the overall optical response is strikingly similar to the one of the well-known Ba-122 pnictides. The main difference lies within the suppression of the lower spin-density-wave gap feature. By analysing our spectra with a multi-component model, we find that the high-energy feature around 0.7\,eV -- often associated with Hund's rule coupling -- is highly sensitive to the spin-density-wave ordering, this further confirms its direct relationship to the dynamics of itinerant carriers. The same model is also used to investigate the in-plane anisotropy of magnetically detwinned EuFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ in the antiferromagnetically ordered state, yielding a higher Drude weight and lower scattering rate along the crystallographic $a$-axis. Finally, we analyse the development of the room temperature spectra with isovalent phosphor substitution and highlight changes in the scattering rate of hole-like carriers induced by a Lifshitz transition

An Ab Initio Approach to the Solar Coronal Heating Problem

We present an ab initio approach to the solar coronal heating problem by modelling a small part of the solar corona in a computational box using a 3D MHD code including realistic physics. The observed solar granular velocity pattern and its amplitude and vorticity power spectra, as reproduced by a weighted Voronoi tessellation method, are used as a boundary condition that generates a Poynting flux in the presence of a magnetic field. The initial magnetic field is a potential extrapolation of a SOHO/MDI high resolution magnetogram, and a standard stratified atmosphere is used as a thermal initial condition. Except for the chromospheric temperature structure, which is kept fixed, the initial conditions are quickly forgotten because the included Spitzer conductivity and radiative cooling function have typical timescales much shorter than the time span of the simulation. After a short initial start up period, the magnetic field is able to dissipate 3-4 10^6 ergs cm^{-2} s^{-1} in a highly intermittent corona, maintaining an average temperature of $\sim 10^6$ K, at coronal density values for which emulated images of the Transition Region And Coronal Explorer(TRACE) 171 and 195 pass bands reproduce observed photon count rates.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures. Submitted to Ap

Spin Transfer Torques in MnSi at Ultra-low Current Densities

Spin manipulation using electric currents is one of the most promising directions in the field of spintronics. We used neutron scattering to observe the influence of an electric current on the magnetic structure in a bulk material. In the skyrmion lattice of MnSi, where the spins form a lattice of magnetic vortices similar to the vortex lattice in type II superconductors, we observe the rotation of the diffraction pattern in response to currents which are over five orders of magnitude smaller than those typically applied in experimental studies on current-driven magnetization dynamics in nanostructures. We attribute our observations to an extremely efficient coupling of inhomogeneous spin currents to topologically stable knots in spin structures