Technical Order Library in Orbit

This paper is a follow-on technical analysis of M The Technical Order Library in Orbit 11,! a paper written by Mr. Rene M. Winz, Titan I Technical Writing Chief, and presented to our Denver Division and corporate management last summer. In his paper, Mr. Winz proposed three alternate methods of providing technical order support to a manned orbital space station. These were: ground station-to-space station, orbiting data station, and on-board technical orders (in microform). His conclusion recommended the ground station-to-space station approach. Mr. Moravec and I have elected to expand on all three of the philosophies and present possible methods of accomplishing; data storage, transmission, receipt, and display; not only for manned orbital space stations, but also for manned space vehicles

High temperature mobility of CdTe

The Hall mobility of electrons μH is measured in CdTe in the temperature interval 450-1050°C and defined Cd overpressure in near-intrinsic conditions. The strong decrease of μH above 600°C is reported. The effect is explained within a model of multivalley conduction where both electrons in �1c minimum and in L1c minima participate. The theoretical description is based on the solution of the Boltzmann transport equation within the relaxation time approximation including the polar and acoustic phonon intravalley and intervalley scatterings. The �1c to L1c separation �E=0.29 - 10-4T (eV) for the effective mass in the L valley mL=0.35m0 is found to best fit the experimental data. Such �E is about four times smaller than it is predicted by first-principle calculations. © 2001 American Institute of Physics

Bayesian Integration of Genetics and Epigenetics Detects Causal Regulatory SNPs Underlying Expression Variability

The standard expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) detects polymorphisms associated with gene expression without revealing causality. We introduce a coupled Bayesian regression approach—eQTeL, which leverages epigenetic data to estimate regulatory and gene interaction potential, and identifies combination of regulatory single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that explain the gene expression variance. On human heart data, eQTeL not only explains a significantly greater proportion of expression variance but also predicts gene expression more accurately than other methods. Based on realistic simulated data, we demonstrate that eQTeL accurately detects causal regulatory SNPs, including those with small effect sizes. Using various functional data, we show that SNPs detected by eQTeL are enriched for allele-specific protein binding and histone modifications, which potentially disrupt binding of core cardiac transcription factors and are spatially proximal to their target. eQTeL SNPs capture a substantial proportion of genetic determinants of expression variance and we estimate that 58% of these SNPs are putatively causal

Towards Visual Feedback Loops for Robot-Controlled Additive Manufacturing

Robotic additive manufacturing methods have enabled the design and fabrication of novel forms and material systems that represent an important step forward for architectural fabrication. However, a common problem in additive manufacturing is to predict and incorporate the dynamic behavior of the material that is the result of the complex confluence of forces and material properties that occur during fabrication. While there have been some approaches towards verification systems, to date most robotic additive manufacturing processes lack verification to ensure deposition accuracy. Inaccuracies, or in some instances critical errors, can occur due to robot dynamics, material self-deflection, material coiling, or timing shifts in the case of multi-material prints. This paper addresses that gap by presenting an approach that uses vision-based sensing systems to assist robotic additive manufacturing processes. Using online image analysis techniques, occupancy maps can be created and updated during the fabrication process to document the actual position of the previously deposited material. This development is an intermediary step towards closed-loop robotic control systems that combine workspace sensing capabilities with decision-making algorithms to adjust toolpaths to correct for errors or inaccuracies if necessary. The occupancy grid map provides a complete representation of the print that can be analyzed to determine various key aspects, such as, print quality, extrusion diameter, adhesion between printed parts, and intersections within the meshes. This valuable quantitative information regarding system robustness can be used to influence the system’s future actions. This approach will help ensure consistent print quality and sound tectonics in robotic additive manufacturing processes, improving on current techniques and extending the possibilities of robotic fabrication in architecture

Soft eSkin:distributed touch sensing with harmonized energy and computing

Inspired by biology, significant advances have been made in the field of electronic skin (eSkin) or tactile skin. Many of these advances have come through mimicking the morphology of human skin and by distributing few touch sensors in an area. However, the complexity of human skin goes beyond mimicking few morphological features or using few sensors. For example, embedded computing (e.g. processing of tactile data at the point of contact) is centric to the human skin as some neuroscience studies show. Likewise, distributed cell or molecular energy is a key feature of human skin. The eSkin with such features, along with distributed and embedded sensors/electronics on soft substrates, is an interesting topic to explore. These features also make eSkin significantly different from conventional computing. For example, unlike conventional centralized computing enabled by miniaturized chips, the eSkin could be seen as a flexible and wearable large area computer with distributed sensors and harmonized energy. This paper discusses these advanced features in eSkin, particularly the distributed sensing harmoniously integrated with energy harvesters, storage devices and distributed computing to read and locally process the tactile sensory data. Rapid advances in neuromorphic hardware, flexible energy generation, energy-conscious electronics, flexible and printed electronics are also discussed. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Harmonizing energy-autonomous computing and intelligence’

Cosmic Needles versus Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

It has been suggested by a number of authors that the 2.7K cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation might have arisen from the radiation from Population III objects thermalized by conducting cosmic graphite/iron needle-shaped dust. Due to lack of an accurate solution to the absorption properties of exceedingly elongated grains, in existing literature which studies the CMB thermalizing process they are generally modelled as (1) needle-like spheroids in terms of the Rayleigh approximation; (2) infinite cylinders; and (3) the antenna theory. We show here that the Rayleigh approximation is not valid since the Rayleigh criterion is not satisfied for highly conducting needles. We also show that the available intergalactic iron dust, if modelled as infinite cylinders, is not sufficient to supply the required opacity at long wavelengths to obtain the observed isotropy and Planckian nature of the CMB. If appealing to the antenna theory, conducting iron needles with exceedingly large elongations (10^4) appear able to provide sufficient opacity to thermalize the CMB within the iron density limit. But the applicability of the antenna theory to exceedingly thin needles of nanometer/micrometer in thickness needs to be justified.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures; submitted to ApJ