Application of advanced technologies to small, short-haul transport aircraft (STAT)

The benefits of selected advanced technologies for 19 and 30 passenger, short-haul aircraft were identified. Advanced technologies were investigated in four areas: aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, and ride quality. Configuration sensitivity studies were conducted to show design tradeoffs associated with passenger capacity, cabin comfort level, and design field length

Is Frost Heaving Killing Your Legumes?

Frost heaving is a serious hazard to the maintenance of legume stands on many of our Iowa soils - especially on level claypan soils. But there are some things you can do to reduce your frost heaving losses

Concorde Noise-Induced Building Vibrations, Montgomery County, Maryland

A series of studies are reported to assess the noise induced building vibrations associated with Concorde operations. The levels of induced vibration and associated indoor/outdoor noise levels resulting from aircraft and nonaircraft events in selected homes, historic and other buildings near Dulles International Airport were recorded. The building response resulting from aircraft operations was found to be directly proportional to the overall sound pressure level and approximately independent of the aircraft type. The noise levels and, consequently, the response levels were observed to be higher for the Concorde operations than for the CTOL operations. Furthermore, the vibration could be closely reproduced by playing aircraft noise through a loudspeaker system located near the vibration measurement location. Nonaircraft events such as door closing were again observed to result in higher response levels than those induced by aircraft

Molecular features of a human rhabdomyosarcoma cell line with spontaneous metastatic progression

A novel human cell line was established from a primary botryoid rhabdomyosarcoma. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction investigations of this cell line, called RUCH-2, demonstrated expression of the regulatory factors PAX3, Myf3 and Myf5. After 3.5 months in culture, cells underwent a crisis after which Myf3 and Myf5 could no longer be detected, whereas PAX3 expression remained constant over the entire period. Karyotype analysis revealed breakpoints in regions similar to previously described alterations in primary rhabdomyosarcoma tumour samples. Interestingly, cells progressed to a metastatic phenotype, as observed by enhanced invasiveness in vitro and tumour growth in nude mice in vivo. On the molecular level, microarray analysis before and after progression identified extensive changes in the composition of the extracellular matrix. As expected, down-regulation of tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases and up-regulation of matrix metalloproteinases were observed. Extensive down-regulation of several death receptors of the tumour necrosis factor family suggests that these cells might have an altered response to appropriate apoptotic stimuli. The RUCH-2 cell line represents a cellular model to study multistep tumorigenesis in human rhabdomyosarcoma, allowing molecular comparison of tumorigenic versus metastatic cancer cells. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

The 1.06 optical receiver

High performance 1.06 micron m avalanche photodetectors (APDs), fabricated in the GaAlSb system, have high quantum efficiency (90 percent), high speed (risetime less than 60 ps) and low leakage currents (less than 50 na). The dark current represents more than an order of magnitude reduction compared to previously reported results. The high speed avalanche gain of these devices is between 20 and 50. The area uniformity is better than + or - 10 percent. GaAlAs APDs at 0.53 micron m have even faster speed, lower dark currents, and high speed gains of 100 to 200. Optical rangefinders based on measured APD performance parameters have far superior performance when compared to even ideal photomultiplier tubes in either a one color or two color rangefinder system. For a one color system, f factor of two lower time jitter can be achieved with identical transmitted power. The superiority of the APD based two color receiver is significant and exists in the entire range of desired time jitters (less than 100 ps) and received power levels

Concorde noise-induced building vibrations for Sully Plantation, Chantilly, Virginia

A study to assess the noise-induced building vibrations associated with Concorde operations is presented. The approach is to record the levels of induced vibrations and associated indoor/outdoor noise levels in selected homes, historic and other buildings near Dulles and Kennedy International Airports. Presented is a small, representative sample of data recorded at Sully Plantation, Chantilly, Virginia during the period of May 20 through May 28, 1976. Recorded data provide relationships between the vibration levels of walls, floors, windows, and the noise associated with Concorde operations (2 landings and 3 takeoffs), other aircraft, nonaircraft sources, and normal household activities. Results suggest that building vibrations resulting from aircraft operations were proportional to the overall sound pressure levels and relatively insensitive to spectral differences associated with the different types of aircraft. Furthermore, the maximum levels of vibratory response resulting from Concorde operations were higher than those associated with conventional aircraft. The vibrations of nonaircraft events were observed in some cases to exceed the levels resulting from aircraft operations. These nonaircraft events are currently being analyzed in greater detail

Thermoelectric properties of the bismuth telluride nanowires in the constant-relaxation-time approximation

Electronic structure of bismuth telluride nanowires with the growth directions [110] and [015] is studied in the framework of anisotropic effective mass method using the parabolic band approximation. The components of the electron and hole effective mass tensor for six valleys are calculated for both growth directions. For a square nanowire, in the temperature range from 77 K to 500 K, the dependence of the Seebeck coefficient, the electron thermal and electrical conductivity as well as the figure of merit ZT on the nanowire thickness and on the excess hole concentration are investigated in the constant-relaxation-time approximation. The carrier confinement is shown to play essential role for square nanowires with thickness less than 30 nm. The confinement decreases both the carrier concentration and the thermal conductivity but increases the maximum value of Seebeck coefficient in contrast to the excess holes (impurities). The confinement effect is stronger for the direction [015] than for the direction [110] due to the carrier mass difference for these directions. The carrier confinement increases maximum value of ZT and shifts it towards high temperatures. For the p-type bismuth telluride nanowires with growth direction [110], the maximum value of the figure of merit is equal to 1.3, 1.6, and 2.8, correspondingly, at temperatures 310 K, 390 K, 480 K and the nanowire thicknesses 30 nm, 15 nm, and 7 nm. At the room temperature, the figure of merit equals 1.2, 1.3, and 1.7, respectively.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, typos added, added references for sections 2-