An Offline/Online DDDAS Capability for Self-Aware Aerospace Vehicles

In this paper we develop initial offline and online capabilities for a self-aware aerospace vehicle. Such a vehicle can dynamically adapt the way it performs missions by gathering information about itself and its surroundings via sensors and responding intelligently. The key challenge to enabling such a self-aware aerospace vehicle is to achieve tasks of dynamically and autonomously sensing, planning, and acting in real time. Our first steps towards achieving this goal are presented here, where we consider the execution of online mapping strategies from sensed data to expected vehicle capability while accounting for uncertainty. Libraries of strain, capability, and maneuver loading are generated offline using vehicle and mission modeling capabilities we have developed in this work. These libraries are used dynamically online as part of a Bayesian classification process for estimating the capability state of the vehicle. Failure probabilities are then computed online for specific maneuvers. We demonstrate our models and methodology on decisions surrounding a standard rate turn maneuver

N=2 SYM Action as a BRST Exact Term, Topological Yang Mills and Instantons

By constructing a nilpotent extended BRST operator \bs that involves the N=2 global supersymmetry transformations of one chirality, we show that the standard N=2 off-shell Super Yang Mills Action can be represented as an exact BRST term \bs \Psi, if the gauge fermion $\Psi$ is allowed to depend on the inverse powers of supersymmetry ghosts. By using this nonanalytical structure of the gauge fermion (via inverse powers of supersymmetry ghosts), we give field redefinitions in terms of composite fields of supersymmetry ghosts and N=2 fields and we show that Witten's topological Yang Mills theory can be obtained from the ordinary Euclidean N=2 Super Yang Mills theory directly by using such field redefinitions. In other words, TYM theory is obtained as a change of variables (without twisting). As a consequence it is found that physical and topological interpretations of N=2 SYM are intertwined together due to the requirement of analyticity of global SUSY ghosts. Moreover, when after an instanton inspired truncation of the model is used, we show that the given field redefinitions yield the Baulieu-Singer formulation of Topological Yang Mills.Comment: Latex, 1+15 pages. Published versio

InGaN/GaN based LEDs with electroluminescence in violet, blue, and green tuned by epitaxial growth temperature

[No abstract available

Energy utilization and growth performance of chickens fed novel wheat inbred lines selected for different pentosan levels with and without xylanase supplementation

Different F5 recombinant inbred lines from the cross Yumai 34 × Ukrainka were grown in replicated trials on a single site in one harvest year at Rothamsted Research. A total of 10 samples from those lines were harvested and used in a broiler experiment. Twenty nutritionally complete meal-form diets that had 630 g/kg of wheat with different amounts of pentosan, with and without exogenous xylanase supplementation, were used to compare broiler growth performance and determine apparent metabolizable energy corrected for N retention (AMEn). We examined the relationship between the nutritive value of the wheat samples and their chemical compositions and results of quality tests. The amounts of total and water soluble pentosans in wheat samples ranged from 36.7 to 48.0 g/kg DM, and 6.7 to 11.6 g/kg DM, respectively. The mean crude oil and protein contents of the wheat samples were 10.5 and 143.9 g/kg DM, respectively. The average determined value for the kinematic viscosity was 0.0018 mPa.s, and 2.1 mPa.s for the dynamic viscosity. The AMEn of the wheat-based diets had a maximum range of 0.47 MJ/kg DM within the ten wheat samples that were tested. Xylanase supplementation improved (P < 0.05) dietary AMEn, dry matter, and fat digestibility coefficients. There was a positive (P < 0.05) relationship between in vitro kinematic viscosity of the wheat samples and the total pentosan content. There was a negative relationship between the total pentosan content in the wheat and broiler growth performance. An increase by 10 g of pentosan per kg of wheat reduced (P < 0.001) daily feed intake and weight gain by 2.9 g and 3.5 g, respectively. The study shows that the feeding quality of wheat samples can be predicted by their total pentosan content. Supplementary xylanase improved energy and nutrient availability of all wheat samples that was independent of differences in pentosan content

Transcriptomic Signatures of Ash (Fraxinus spp.) Phloem

Ash (Fraxinus spp.) is a dominant tree species throughout urban and forested landscapes of North America (NA). The rapid invasion of NA by emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), a wood-boring beetle endemic to Eastern Asia, has resulted in the death of millions of ash trees and threatens billions more. Larvae feed primarily on phloem tissue, which girdles and kills the tree. While NA ash species including black (F. nigra), green (F. pennsylvannica) and white (F. americana) are highly susceptible, the Asian species Manchurian ash (F. mandshurica) is resistant to A. planipennis perhaps due to their co-evolutionary history. Little is known about the molecular genetics of ash. Hence, we undertook a functional genomics approach to identify the repertoire of genes expressed in ash phloem.Using 454 pyrosequencing we obtained 58,673 high quality ash sequences from pooled phloem samples of green, white, black, blue and Manchurian ash. Intriguingly, 45% of the deduced proteins were not significantly similar to any sequences in the GenBank non-redundant database. KEGG analysis of the ash sequences revealed a high occurrence of defense related genes. Expression analysis of early regulators potentially involved in plant defense (i.e. transcription factors, calcium dependent protein kinases and a lipoxygenase 3) revealed higher mRNA levels in resistant ash compared to susceptible ash species. Lastly, we predicted a total of 1,272 single nucleotide polymorphisms and 980 microsatellite loci, among which seven microsatellite loci showed polymorphism between different ash species.The current transcriptomic data provide an invaluable resource for understanding the genetic make-up of ash phloem, the target tissue of A. planipennis. These data along with future functional studies could lead to the identification/characterization of defense genes involved in resistance of ash to A. planipennis, and in future ash breeding programs for marker development

Nitric oxide synthetic pathway and cGMP levels are altered in red blood cells from end-stage renal disease patients

Red blood cells (RBCs) enzymatically produce nitric oxide (NO) by a functional RBC-nitric oxide synthase (RBC-NOS). NO is a vascular key regulatory molecule. In RBCs its generation is complex and influenced by several factors, including insulin, acetylcholine, and calcium. NO availability is reduced in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and associated with endothelial dysfunction. We previously demonstrated that, through increased phosphatidylserine membrane exposure, ESRD-RBCs augmented their adhesion to human cultured endothelium, in which NO bioavailability decreased. Since RBC-NOS-dependent NO production in ESRD is unknown, this study aimed to investigate RBC-NOS levels/activation, NO production/bioavailability in RBCs from healthy control subjects (C, N = 18) and ESRD patients (N = 27). Although RBC-NOS expression was lower in ESRD-RBCs, NO, cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), RBC-NOS Serine1177 phosphorylation level and eNOS/Calmodulin (CaM)/Heat Shock Protein-90 (HSP90) interaction levels were higher in ESRD-RBCs, indicating increased enzyme activation. Conversely, following RBCs stimulation with insulin or ionomycin, NO and cGMP levels were significantly lower in ESRD- than in C-RBCs, suggesting that uremia might reduce the RBC-NOS response to further stimuli. Additionally, the activity of multidrug-resistance-associated protein-4 (MRP4; cGMP-membrane transporter) was significantly lower in ESRD-RBCs, suggesting a possible compromised efflux of cGMP across the ESRD-RBCs membrane. This study for the first time showed highest basal RBC-NOS activation in ESRD-RBCs, possibly to reduce the negative impact of decreased NOS expression. It is further conceivable that high NO production only partially affects cell function of ESRD-RBCs maybe because in vivo they are unable to respond to physiologic stimuli, such as calcium and/or insulin

Development of robust control law for active buffeting load alleviation of smart fin structures

Aerodynamic buffeting load can lead to pre-mature fatigue damage of aircraft vertical fin structures. This paper presents a robust control law development strategy for active buffeting load alleviation of a smart fin structure. The impact of aerodynamic loads on the modeling uncertainties of the smart fin was investigated through extensive wind tunnel tests. Test results revealed that the airflow introduced higher damping ratio and caused frequency shift to the vibration modes. These aerodynamic effects may adversely affect the performance and robustness of active control laws. Based on the observations, the structured singular value synthesis technique was used to develop a robust control law for the smart fin using a truncated baseline dynamic model. A parametric uncertainty block was introduced to account for the changes in the modal parameters of the baseline dynamic model due to the aerodynamic effects. An additive uncertainty block was included to account for the un-modeled higher order vibration modes as well as the modeling errors in the low frequency range. The robust performance of the control law was demonstrated through simulations as well as extensive closed-loop control experiments in the wind tunnel using various free airstreams and vortical airflows. This provided a verified control law design strategy for active buffeting alleviation applications.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Development of robust control law for active buffeting load alleviation of smart fin structures

Aerodynamic buffeting load can lead to premature fatigue damage of aircraft vertical fin structures. This article presents a robust control law development strategy for active buffeting load alleviation of a smart fin structure. The impact of aerodynamic loads on the modeling uncertainties of the smart fin was investigated through extensive wind tunnel tests. Test results revealed that the airflow introduced higher damping ratio and caused frequency shift to the vibration modes. These aerodynamic effects may adversely affect the performance and robustness of active control laws. Based on the observations, the structured singular value synthesis technique was used to develop a robust control law for the smart fin using a truncated baseline dynamic model. A parametric uncertainty block was introduced to account for the changes in the modal parameters of the baseline dynamic model due to the aerodynamic effects. An additive uncertainty block was included to account for the unmodeled higher-order vibration modes as well as the modeling errors in the low frequency range. The robust performance of the control law was demonstrated through simulations as well as extensive closed-loop control experiments in the wind tunnel using various free airstreams and vortical airflows. This provided a verified control law design strategy for active buffeting alleviation applications. \ua9 The Author(s) 2013.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Adaptation and stability analysis in the selected lines of Tir wheat

Genotype and environment (G x E) interactions are of major concern to plant breeders in breeding cultivars. The objective of this study was to determine the stability of grain yield in 12 wheat genotypes. Eleven lines selected from Tir wheat population (Triticum aestivum) were used in the study. The experiment was conducted in Van, Ercis, and Adilcevaz located in the eastern part of Turkey in 1997-98 and 1998-99. Two stability parameters were obtained as linear regression coefficient (b) of an entry mean on the average of all entries and deviation from regression (s(2)d), then stability was tested with the hypotheses b = 1.0 and s(2)d = 0. The results indicated that there were significant differences and interactions among genotypes, locations and years. The regression coefficient (b) values of the 11 genotypes used in this study ranged from 0.46 to 1.73; deviation from regression ranged from 69.9 to 2896.7. According to estimates of the two stability parameters, none of the genotypes were stable for grain yield. However, based on the linear regression coefficient and average grain yield, line 2 (Adilcevaz-40/1) and 11 (Van-Edremit/1) appeared to be promising because their yields were above the average in all of the environmental conditions of this study