Analytical Investigations of Coil-System Design Parameters for a Constant-Velocity Traveling Magnetic Wave Plasma Engine

Coil-system design parameters for constant velocity traveling-magnetic-wave plasma engin

Space station automation of common module power management and distribution

The purpose is to automate a breadboard level Power Management and Distribution (PMAD) system which possesses many functional characteristics of a specified Space Station power system. The automation system was built upon 20 kHz ac source with redundancy of the power buses. There are two power distribution control units which furnish power to six load centers which in turn enable load circuits based upon a system generated schedule. The progress in building this specified autonomous system is described. Automation of Space Station Module PMAD was accomplished by segmenting the complete task in the following four independent tasks: (1) develop a detailed approach for PMAD automation; (2) define the software and hardware elements of automation; (3) develop the automation system for the PMAD breadboard; and (4) select an appropriate host processing environment

Novel methods for spatial prediction of soil functions within landscapes (SP0531)

Previous studies showed that soil patterns could be predicted in agriculturally managed landscapes by modelling and extrapolating from extensive existing but related integrated datasets. Based on these results we proposed to develop and apply predictive models of the relationships between environmental data and known soil patterns to predict capacity for key soil functions within diverse landscapes for which there is little detailed underpinning soil information available. Objectives were: To develop a high-level framework in which the non-specialist user-community could explore questions. To generate digital soil maps for three selected catchments at a target resolution of 1:50000 to provide the base information for soil function prediction. To use a modelling approach to predict the performance of key soil functions in catchments undergoing change but where only sparse or low resolution soil survey data are available. To use a modelling approach to assess the impact of different management scenarios and/or environmental conditions on the delivery of multiple soil functions within a catchment. To create a detailed outline of the requirements for ground-truthing to test the predicted model outputs at a catchment scale. To contribute to the development of a high-level framework for decision makers

Micro-finance, women’s empowerment and fertility decline in Bangladesh: How important was women’s agency?

As Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen has argued “[Bangladesh’s development achievements have] important lessons for other countries across the globe, [in particular a focus on] reducing gender inequality”. A major avenue through which this emphasis has been manifest lies, according to this narrative, in enhancements to women’s agency for instrumental and intrinsic reasons particularly through innovations in family planning and microfinance. The “Bangladesh paradox” of improved wellbeing despite low economic growth over the last four decades is claimed as a paradigmatic case of the spread of both modern family planning programmes and microfinance leading to women’s empowerment and fertility reduction. In this paper we show that the links between microfinance, empowerment and fertility reduction, are fraught with problems, and far from robust; hence the claimed causal links between microfinance and family planning via women’s empowerment needs to be further reconsidered

Restoration of Ailing Wetlands

The science of ecological restoration involves building the technical understanding needed to restore damaged ecosystems, such as wetlands, which provide critical services needed to support human health and economic well-being

Measurements of the Ratios B(Ds+→ηℓ+ν)/B(Ds+→ϕℓ+ν){\cal B}(D_s^+\to \eta\ell^+\nu)/{\cal B}(D_s^+\to \phi\ell^+\nu) and B(Ds+→η′ℓ+ν)/B(Ds+→ϕℓ+ν){\cal B}(D_s^+\to \eta'\ell^+\nu)/{\cal B}(D_s^+\to \phi\ell^+\nu)

Using the CLEO~II detector we measure ${\cal B}(D_s^+\to \eta e^+\nu)/{\cal B}(D_s^+\to \phi e^+\nu) =1.24\pm0.12\pm0.15$, ${\cal B}(D_s^+\to \eta' e^+\nu)/{\cal B}(D_s^+\to \phi e^+\nu) =0.43\pm0.11\pm0.07$ and ${\cal B}(D_s^+\to \eta' e^+\nu)/{\cal B}(D_s^+\to \eta e^+\nu) =0.35\pm0.09\pm0.07$. We find the vector to pseudoscalar ratio, ${\cal B}(D_s^+\to \phi e^+\nu)/{\cal B}(D_s^+\to (\eta+\eta') e^+\nu) =0.60\pm0.06\pm0.06$, which is similar to the ratio found in non strange $D$ decays.Comment: 11 page uuencoded postscript file, postscript file also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN

Search for Exclusive Charmless Hadronic B Decays

We have searched for two-body charmless hadronic decays of $B$ mesons. Final states include $\pi\pi$, $K \pi$, and $KK$ with both charged and neutral kaons and pions; $\pi\rho$, $K \rho$, and $K^*\pi$; and $K\phi$, $K^*\phi$, and $\phi\phi$. The data used in this analysis consist of 2.6~million $B\bar{B}$~pairs produced at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ taken with the CLEO-II detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR). We measure the branching fraction of the sum of $B^0 \rightarrow \pi^+\pi^-$ and $B^0 \rightarrow K^+\pi^-$ to be $(1.8^{+0.6+0.2}_{-0.5-0.3}\pm0.2) \times 10^{-5}$. In addition, we place upper limits on individual branching fractions in the range from $10^{-4}$ to $10^{-6}$.Comment: 33 page LATEX file, uses REVTEX and psfig, 14 figures in a separate uuencoded postscript file, postscript version also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN