Unique Features and Spacecraft Applications of Dynamic Isotope Power Systems

The dynamic isotope power system represents the most recent attempt to develop a heat-engine generator for space electric power. A major objective in this most recent effort was to increase the power and to reduce the cost of nuclear space power systems to the point where the unique features of this power source could be brought to bear for Earth-orbit missions which could benefit therefrom. This objective was largely achieved; both weight and cost of the dynamic isotope systems are comparable to solar power systems. The dynamic isotope power system, designed for spacecraft requiring prime power in the 500-2000 W range, has been successfully built and ground tested. A number of studies, summarized herein, have demonstrated the advantages of using such a power system instead of the conventional solar system for a variety of Earth-orbit missions. These advantages stem from the unique nature of the dynamic isotope system, different in kind from solar power systems. As a result, in many cases, the spacecraft design can be significantly simplified and more closely harmonized with mission requirements. This overall advantage can be crucial in missions which have stringent pointing, stability, viewing, and/or positioning requirements

Balanced Allocations: A Simple Proof for the Heavily Loaded Case

We provide a relatively simple proof that the expected gap between the maximum load and the average load in the two choice process is bounded by $(1+o(1))\log \log n$, irrespective of the number of balls thrown. The theorem was first proven by Berenbrink et al. Their proof uses heavy machinery from Markov-Chain theory and some of the calculations are done using computers. In this manuscript we provide a significantly simpler proof that is not aided by computers and is self contained. The simplification comes at a cost of weaker bounds on the low order terms and a weaker tail bound for the probability of deviating from the expectation

Synthesis and Characterization of α-diimine Complexes of Aluminum

Conventional aluminum complexes are incapable of one- and two-electron redox chemistry. As a result, despite being the most abundant metal on Earth, aluminum is seldom used in redox catalysis—one of chemistry’s most impactful fields. We are motivated to break this barrier to provide a green alternative to the countless redox catalysts built around the toxic, mining-intensive platinum-group metals. To create aluminum complexes that do desirable redox chemistry, we coordinate redox-active α-diimine ligands to the metal center. These ligands are stable across multiple oxidation states, allowing for multi-electron redox chemistry for their aluminum complexes. This thesis will report the synthesis of several α-diimine complexes of aluminum, across various ligand substitution patterns and oxidation states. These complexes have been characterized by combinations of X-ray diffraction, multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, and density functional theory. For our neutral-ligand compounds, we will report their catalytic activity for the epoxidation of cyclohexene by peracetic acid

Compact magneto-optical sources of slow atoms

Three different configurations of compact magneto-optical sources of slow Rb atoms(LVIS, 2D(+)-MOT and 2D-MOT) were compared with each other at fixed geometry of cooling laser beams. A precise control of the intensity balances between the four separate transverse cooling laser beams provided a total continuous flux of cold atoms from the LVIS and 2D(+)-MOT sources about 8x10^9 atoms/s at total laser power of 60 mW. The flux was measured directly from the loading rate of a 3D-MOT, placed 34 cm downstream from the sources. Average velocities of the cooled atomic beam for the LVIS and 2D(+)-MOT sources were about 8.5 m/s and 11 m/s respectively. An essential advantage of the compact magneto-optical sources is that their background flux of thermal atoms is two to three orders of the magnitude smaller than the flux of slow atoms.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures. to be published in Optics Communication

Effects of Replication on the Duration of Failure in Distributed Databases

Replicating data objects has been suggested as a means of increasing the performance of a distributed database system in a network subject to link and site failures. Since a network may partition as a consequence of such failures, a data object may become unavailable from a given site for some period of time. In this paper we study duration failure, which we define as the length of time, once the object becomes unavailable from a particular site, that the object remains unavailable. We show that, for networks composed of highly-reliable components, replication does not substantially reduce the duration of failure. We model a network as a collection of sites and links, each failing and recovering independently according to a Poisson process. Using this model, we demonstrate via simulation that the duration of failure incurred using a non-replicated data object is nearly as short as that incurred using a replicated object and a replication control protocol, including an unrealizable protocol which is optimal with respect to availability. We then examine analytically a simplified system in which the sites but not the links are subject to failure. We prove that if each site operates with probability p, then the optimal replication protocol, Available Copies [5,26], reduces the duration of failure by at most a factor of 1-p/1+p. Lastly, we present bounds for general systems, those in which both the sites and the communications between the sites may fail. We prove, for example, that if sites are 95% reliable and a communications failure is sufficiently short (either infallible or satisfying a function specified in the paper) then replication can improve the duration of failure by at most 2.7% of that experienced using a single copy. These results show that replication has only a small effect of the duration of failure in present-day partitionable networks comprised of realistically reliable components

Complexity of Network Reliability and Optimal Database Placement Problems

A fundamental problem of distributed database design in an existing network where components can fail is finding an optimal location at which to place the database in a centralized system or copies of each data item in a decentralized or replicated system. In this paper it is proved for the first time exactly how hard this placement problem is under the measure of data availability. Specifically, we show that the optimal placement problem for availability is #P- complete, a measure of intractability at least as severe as NP-completeness. Given the anticipated computational difficulty of finding an exact solution, we go on to describe an effective, practical method for approximating the optimal copy placement. To obtain these results, we model the environment in which a distributed database operates by a probabilistic graph, which is a set of fully-reliable vertices representing sites, and a set of edges representing communication links, each operational with a rational probability. We prove that finding the optimal copy placement in a probabilistic graph is #P-complete by giving a sequence of reductions from #Satisfiability. We generalize this result to networks in which each site and each link has an independent, rational operational probability and to networks in which all the sites or all the links have a fixed, uniform operational probabilities

Effects of Replication on Data Availability

In this paper we examine the effects of replication on the availability of data in a large network. This analysis differs from previous analyses in that it compares the performance of a dynamic consistency control protocol not only to that of other consistency control protocols, but also to the performance of non-replication and to an upper bound on data availability. This analysis also differes in that we gather extensive simulations on large networks subject to partitions at realistically high component reliabilities. We examine the dynamic consistency protocol presented by Jajodia and Mutchler [9, 12] and by Long and Paris[18] along with two proposed enhancements to this protocol[10,11]. We study networks of 101 sites and up to 5050 links (fully-connected) in which all components, although highly reliable, are subject to failure. We demonstrate the importance in this realistic environment of an oft neglected parameter of the system model, the ratio of transaction submissions to component failures. We also show the impact of the number of copies on both the protocol performance and the potential of replicaion as measured by the upper bound. Our simulations show that the majority of current protocol performs optimally for topologies that yield availabilities of at least 65%. On the other hand, the availability provided by non-replicaion is inferior to that of the majority of current protocol by a most 5.9 percentage points for these same topologies. At this point of maximum difference, theprimary copy protocol yields availability 59.1% and the majority of current protocol yields availability 65.0%. We discuss the characteristics of the model limiting the performance of replication

A Tight Upper Bound on the Benefits of Replication and Consistency Control Protocols

We present an upper bound on the performance provided by a protocol guaranteeing mutually exclusive access to a replicated resource in a network subject to component failure and subsequent partitioning. The bound is presented in terms of the performance of a single resource in the same network. The bound is tight and is the first such bound known to us. Since mutual exclusion is one of the requirements for maintaining the consistency of a database object, this bound provides an upper limit on the availability provided by any database consistency control protocol, including those employing dynamic data relocation and replication. We show that if a single copy provides availability A for 0 \u3c= A \u3c= 1, then no scheme can achieve availability greater than sqrt(A) in the same network. We show this bound to be the best possible for any network with availability greater than .25. Although, as we proved, the problem of calculating A is #P-complete, we describe a method for approximating the optimal location for a single copy which adjusts dynamically to current network characteristcs. This bound is most useful for high availabilities, which tend to be obtainable with modern networks and their constituent components

Availability Issues in Data Replication in Distributed Database

Replication of data at more than one site in a distributed database has been reported to increase the availability in data in systems where sites and links are subject to failure. We have shown in results summarized in this paper that in many interesting cases the advantage is slight. A well-placed single copy is available to transactions almost as much of the time as is correct replicated data no matter how ingeniously it is managed. We explain these findings in terms of the behavior of the partitions that form in networks where components fail. We also show that known and rather simple protocols for the maintenance of multiple copies are essentially best possible by comparing them against an unrealizable protocol that knows the future. We complete our study of these questions by reporting that while computing the availability of data is #P-complete, nonetheless there is a tight analytical bound on the amount replication can improve over a well-located single copy. We close with some observations regarding system design motivated by this work

Finding Optimal Quorum Assigments for Distributed Databases

Replication has been studied as a method of increasing the availability of a data item in a distributed database subject to component failures and consequent partitioning. The potential for partitioning requires that a protocol be employed which guarantees that any access to a data item is aware of the most recent update to that data item. By minimizing the number of access requests denied due to this constraint, we maximize availability. In the event that all access requests are reads, placing one copy of the data item at each site clearly leads to maximum availability. The other extreme, all access requests are write requests or are treated as such, has been studied extensively in the literature. In this paper we investigate the performance of systems with both read and write requests. We describe a distributed on-line algorithm for determining the optimal parameters, or optimal quorum assignments, for a commonly studied protocol, the quorum consensus protocol[9]. We also show how to incorporate these optimization techniques into a dynamic quorum reassignment protocol. In addition, we demonstrate via simulation both the value of this algorithm and the effect of various read-write rations on availability. This simulation, on 101 sites and up to 5050 links(fully- connected), demonstrates that the techniques described here can greatly increase data availability, and that the best quorum assignments are frequently realized at the extreme values of the quorum parameters