Pressure application technique for high-temperature composite fabrication

Technique utilizes characteristic of room-temperature vulcanizing rubber (RTV) which expands readily when heated. RTV expansion can exert uniform pressure on filament-reinforced polymer materials during curing. Technology accommodates high-temperature pressure application for P13-N polyimide composite consolidation during cure

Nonlinear actuator disk theory and flow field calculations, including nonuniform loading

Actuator disk theory and flow field calculations for propeller induced flow with nonuniform circulation distributio

Market Bubbles and Wasteful Avoidance: Tax and Regulatory Constraints on Short Sales

Although short sales make an important contribution to financial markets, this transaction faces legal constraints that do not govern long positions. In evaluating these constraints, other commentators, who are virtually all economists, have not focused rigorously enough on the precise contours of current law. Some short sale constraints are mischaracterized, while others are omitted entirely. Likewise, the existing literature neglects many strategies in which well advised investors circumvent these constraints; this avoidance may reduce the impact of short sale constraints on market prices, but may contribute to social waste in other ways. To fill these gaps in the literature, this paper offers a careful look at current law and draws three conclusions. First, short sales play a valuable role in the financial markets; while there may be plausible reasons to regulate short sales-- most notably, concerns about market manipulation and panics -- current law is very poorly tailored to these goals. Second, investor self-help can ease some of the harm from this poor tailoring, but at a cost. Third, relatively straightforward reforms can eliminate the need for self-help while accommodating legitimate regulatory goals. In making these points, we focus primarily on a burden that other commentators have neglected: profits from short sales generally are ineligible for the reduced tax rate on long-term capital gains, even if the short sale is in place for more than one year.Short sales, Momentum traders, Value investors

Using Variational Eigensolvers on Low-End Hardware to Find the Ground State Energy of Simple Molecules

Key properties of physical systems can be described by the eigenvalues of matrices that represent the system. Computational algorithms that determine the eigenvalues of these matrices exist, but they generally suffer from a loss of performance as the matrix grows in size. This process can be expanded to quantum computation to find the eigenvalues with better performance than the classical algorithms. One application of such an eigenvalue solver is to determine energy levels of a molecule given a matrix representation of its Hamiltonian using the variational principle. Using a variational quantum eigensolver, we determine the ground state energies of different molecules. We focus on the choice of optimization strategy for a Qiskit simulator on low-end hardware. The benefits of several different optimizers were weighed in terms of accuracy in comparison to an analytic classical solution as well as code efficiency

Field Metabolic Rate and Food Consumption of Two Sympatric Hummingbird Species in Southeastern Arizona

We compared the field metabolic rate (FMR) and behavior around sugar-water feeders of sympatric territorial and non-territorial hummingbirds in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona during July 1987 and 1989. The territorial species was the Blue-throated Hummingbird (Lampornis clemenciae; mean mass 8.77 g) and the non-territorial species the Black-chinned Hummingbird( Archilochusa lexandri; mean mass 3.67 g). FMR (CO2p roduction)a nd watert urnoverw erem easuredu singt he doublyl abeledw ater technique. FMR averaged 81.7 kJ/day (n = 4) in L. clemenciae and 29.1 kJ/day (n = 4) in A. alexandri. Mean mass-specific FMR was higher in L. clemenciae (18.36 ml CO2 g-\u27 hr-\u27) than in A. alexandri (15.58 ml CO2 g-\u27 hr-\u27). This might be due to higher activity costs associated with the aggressive territorial behavior of L. clemenciae.Water influx averaged 1,734 ml kg-\u27 day-\u27 in L. clemenciae (n = 5) and 1,728 ml kg-\u27 day-\u27 in A. alexandri (n = 6). These values represent turnover rates equivalent to 185% and 245% of body mass per day respectivelya nd arec onsistentw ith measurementsm ade on otherh ummingbirds pecies. Where these species coexist in the Chiricahua Mountains, L. clemenciae is a dominant territorials pecies whereasA . alexandria ppearst o be non-territoriala, cquiringe nergy by robbing nectar from L. clemenciae territories. Lampornis clemenciae is highly aggressive againstc onspecifics,b ut appears to ignore intruding A. alexandri. Lack of territorial defense behavior in A. alexandri might reduce field energy expenditures and contribute to a lower FMR than L. clemenciae. We hypothesize that the lack of territorial aggression by L. clemenciae against A. alexandri is due to the high quality, abundance, and predictability of their food source which eliminates the profitability of such aggression. We also suggest that the intense aggression exhibited by L. clemenciae towards conspecifics might be motivated by factors relating to fitness other than defense of a food source

Slots in Dielectrically Loaded Waveguide

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116085/1/rds19661131.pd

Fluctuation spectra in the NASA Lewis bumpy-torus plasma

The electrostatic potential fluctuation spectrum in the NASA Lewis bumpy-torus plasma was studied with capacitive probes in the low pressure (high impedance) mode and in the high pressure (low impedance) mode. Under different operating conditions, the plasma exhibited electrostatic potential fluctuations (1) at a set of discrete frequencies, (2) at a continuum of frequencies, and (3) as incoherent high-frequency turbulence. The frequencies and azimuthal wave numbers were determined from digitally implemented autopower and cross-power spectra. The azimuthal dispersion characteristics of the unstable waves were examined by varying the electrode voltage, the polarity of the voltage, and the neutral background density at a constant magnetic field strength

System-wide analysis reveals a complex network of tumor-fibroblast interactions involved in tumorigenicity

Many fibroblast-secreted proteins promote tumorigenicity, and several factors secreted by cancer cells have in turn been proposed to induce these proteins. It is not clear whether there are single dominant pathways underlying these interactions or whether they involve multiple pathways acting in parallel. Here, we identified 42 fibroblast-secreted factors induced by breast cancer cells using comparative genomic analysis. To determine what fraction was active in promoting tumorigenicity, we chose five representative fibroblast-secreted factors for in vivo analysis. We found that the majority (three out of five) played equally major roles in promoting tumorigenicity, and intriguingly, each one had distinct effects on the tumor microenvironment. Specifically, fibroblast-secreted amphiregulin promoted breast cancer cell survival, whereas the chemokine CCL7 stimulated tumor cell proliferation while CCL2 promoted innate immune cell infiltration and angiogenesis. The other two factors tested had minor (CCL8) or minimally (STC1) significant effects on the ability of fibroblasts to promote tumor growth. The importance of parallel interactions between fibroblasts and cancer cells was tested by simultaneously targeting fibroblast-secreted amphiregulin and the CCL7 receptor on cancer cells, and this was significantly more efficacious than blocking either pathway alone. We further explored the concept of parallel interactions by testing the extent to which induction of critical fibroblast-secreted proteins could be achieved by single, previously identified, factors produced by breast cancer cells. We found that although single factors could induce a subset of genes, even combinations of factors failed to induce the full repertoire of functionally important fibroblast-secreted proteins. Together, these results delineate a complex network of tumor-fibroblast interactions that act in parallel to promote tumorigenicity and suggest that effective anti-stromal therapeutic strategies will need to be multi-targeted

Inward transport of a toroidally confined plasma subject to strong radial electric fields

Digitally implemented spectral analysis techniques were used to investigate the frequency-dependent fluctuation-induced particle transport across a toroidal magnetic field. When the electric field pointed radially inward, the transport was inward and a significant enhancement of the plasma density and confinement time resulted

Ion confinement and transport in a toroidal plasma with externally imposed radial electric fields

Strong electric fields were imposed along the minor radius of the toroidal plasma by biasing it with electrodes maintained at kilovolt potentials. Coherent, low-frequency disturbances characteristic of various magnetohydrodynamic instabilities were absent in the high-density, well-confined regime. High, direct-current radial electric fields with magnitudes up to 135 volts per centimeter penetrated inward to at least one-half the plasma radius. When the electric field pointed radially toward, the ion transport was inward against a strong local density gradient; and the plasma density and confinement time were significantly enhanced. The radial transport along the electric field appeared to be consistent with fluctuation-induced transport. With negative electrode polarity the particle confinement was consistent with a balance of two processes: a radial infusion of ions, in those sectors of the plasma not containing electrodes, that resulted from the radially inward fields; and ion losses to the electrodes, each of the which acted as a sink and drew ions out of the plasma. A simple model of particle confinement was proposed in which the particle confinement time is proportional to the plasma volume. The scaling predicted by this model was consistent with experimental measurements