Aerodynamic Characterization of a Modern Launch Vehicle

A modern launch vehicle is by necessity an extremely integrated design. The accurate characterization of its aerodynamic characteristics is essential to determine design loads, to design flight control laws, and to establish performance. The NASA Ares Aerodynamics Panel has been responsible for technical planning, execution, and vetting of the aerodynamic characterization of the Ares I vehicle. An aerodynamics team supporting the Panel consists of wind tunnel engineers, computational engineers, database engineers, and other analysts that address topics such as uncertainty quantification. The team resides at three NASA centers: Langley Research Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Ames Research Center. The Panel has developed strategies to synergistically combine both the wind tunnel efforts and the computational efforts with the goal of validating the computations. Selected examples highlight key flow physics and, where possible, the fidelity of the comparisons between wind tunnel results and the computations. Lessons learned summarize what has been gleaned during the project and can be useful for other vehicle development projects

Improving productivity through work measurement : a cooperative approach; Management advisory services practice aids. Technical consulting practice aid, 09

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/1097/thumbnail.jp

Brownian Thermal Noise in Multilayer Coated Mirrors

We analyze the Brownian thermal noise of a multi-layer dielectric coating, used in high-precision optical measurements including interferometric gravitational-wave detectors. We assume the coating material to be isotropic, and therefore study thermal noises arising from shear and bulk losses of the coating materials. We show that coating noise arises not only from layer thickness fluctuations, but also from fluctuations of the interface between the coating and substrate, driven by internal fluctuating stresses of the coating. In addition, the non-zero photoeleastic coefficients of the thin films modifies the influence of the thermal noise on the laser field. The thickness fluctuations of different layers are statistically independent, however, there exists a finite coherence between layers and the substrate-coating interface. Taking into account uncertainties in material parameters, we show that significant uncertainties still exist in estimating coating Brownian noise.Comment: 26 pages, 18 figure

Adequate Soil Phosphorus Decreases the Grass Tetany Potential of Tall Fescue Pasture

Abstract Grass tetany is a nutritional disease of ruminants caused by low dietary Mg. Previous research has shown that early spring P-fertilization increases the leaf Mg concentration of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) hay. However, little is known about how P-fertilization alters the mineral concentration of tall fescue under grazing. Our objective was to compare, under grazing, the Mg, K, Ca, and P concentration of tall fescue when soil P was considered either adequate or low

Terror from the Sky: Unconventional Linguistic Clues to the Negrito Past

Within recorded history. most Southeast Asian peoples have been of southern Mongoloid physical type, whether they speak Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman, Austronesian, Tai-Kadai, or Hmong-Mien languages. However, population distributions suggest that this is a post-Pleistocene phenomenon and that for tens of millennia before the last glaciation ended Greater Mainland Southeast Asia, which included the currently insular world that rests on the Sunda Shelf, was peopled by short, dark-skinned, frizzy-haired foragers whose descendants in the Philippines came to be labeled by the sixteenth-century Spanish colonizers as negritos, a term that has since been extended to similar groups throughout the region. There are three areas in which these populations survived into the present so as to become part of written history: the Philippines, the Malay Peninsula, and the Andaman Islands. All Philippine negritos speak Austronesian languages, and all Malayan negritos speak languages in the nuclear Mon-Khmer branch of Austroasiatic, but the linguistic situation in the Andamans is a world apart. Given prehistoric language shifts among both Philippine and Malayan negritos, the prospects of determining whether disparate negrito populations were once a linguistically or culturally unified community would appear hopeless. Surprisingly, however, some clues to a common negrito past do survive in a most unexpected way

Mannose Binding Lectin Is Required for Alphavirus-Induced Arthritis/Myositis

Mosquito-borne alphaviruses such as chikungunya virus and Ross River virus (RRV) are emerging pathogens capable of causing large-scale epidemics of virus-induced arthritis and myositis. The pathology of RRV-induced disease in both humans and mice is associated with induction of the host inflammatory response within the muscle and joints, and prior studies have demonstrated that the host complement system contributes to development of disease. In this study, we have used a mouse model of RRV-induced disease to identify and characterize which complement activation pathways mediate disease progression after infection, and we have identified the mannose binding lectin (MBL) pathway, but not the classical or alternative complement activation pathways, as essential for development of RRV-induced disease. MBL deposition was enhanced in RRV infected muscle tissue from wild type mice and RRV infected MBL deficient mice exhibited reduced disease, tissue damage, and complement deposition compared to wild-type mice. In contrast, mice deficient for key components of the classical or alternative complement activation pathways still developed severe RRV-induced disease. Further characterization of MBL deficient mice demonstrated that similar to C3−/− mice, viral replication and inflammatory cell recruitment were equivalent to wild type animals, suggesting that RRV-mediated induction of complement dependent immune pathology is largely MBL dependent. Consistent with these findings, human patients diagnosed with RRV disease had elevated serum MBL levels compared to healthy controls, and MBL levels in the serum and synovial fluid correlated with severity of disease. These findings demonstrate a role for MBL in promoting RRV-induced disease in both mice and humans and suggest that the MBL pathway of complement activation may be an effective target for therapeutic intervention for humans suffering from RRV-induced arthritis and myositis

Investigating the feasibility of child mortality surveillance with postmortem tissue sampling: generating constructs and variables to strengthen validity and reliability in qualitative research

The Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network aims to generate reliable data on the causes of death among children aged <5 years using all available information, including minimally invasive tissue sampling (MITS). The sensitive nature of MITS inevitably evokes religious, cultural, and ethical questions influencing the feasibility and sustainability of CHAMPS.Due to limited behavioral studies related to child MITS, we developed an innovative qualitative methodology to determine the barriers, facilitators, and other factors that affect the implementation and sustainability of CHAMPS surveillance across 7 diverse locations in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. We employed a multimethod grounded theory approach and analytical structure based on culturally specific conceptual frameworks. The methodology guided data interpretation and collective analyses confirming how to define dimensions of CHAMPS feasibility within the cultural context of each site while reducing subjectivity and bias in the process of interpretation and reporting.Findings showed that the approach to gain consent to conduct the MITS procedure involves religious factors associated with timing of burial, use of certain terminology, and methods of transporting the body. Community misperceptions and uncertainties resulted in rumor surveillance and consistency in information sharing. Religious pronouncements, recognition of health priorities, attention to pregnancy, and advancement of child health facilitated community acceptability. These findings helped formulate program priorities, guided site-specific adaptations in surveillance procedures, and verified inferences drawn from CHAMPS epidemiological and formative research data. Results informed appropriate community sensitization and engagement activities for introducing and sustaining mortality surveillance, including MITS