Preliminary operational results from the Willard solar power system

The solar powered system located near Willard, New Mexico, generates mechanical or electrical power at a capacity of 19 kW (25 HP). The solar collection system incorporates east/west tracking parabolic trough collectors with a total aperture area of 1275 sq m (13,720 sq ft). The hot oil type thermal energy storage is sufficient for approximately 20 hours of power system operation. The system utilizes a reaction type turbine in conjunction with an organic Rankine cycle engine. Total collector field efficiency reaches a maximum of 20 percent near the winter solstice and about 50 percent during the summer. During the month of July, 1979, the system pumped 60 percent of the 35,300 cu m (28.6 acre-feet) of water delivered. Operating efficiencies for the turbine component, organic Rankine cycle engine and the complete power system are respectively 65 to 75 percent, 12 to 15 percent and 5 to 6 percent. Significant maintenance time was expended on both the collector and power systems throughout the operational period

Autonomous agile teams: Challenges and future directions for research

According to the principles articulated in the agile manifesto, motivated and empowered software developers relying on technical excellence and simple designs, create business value by delivering working software to users at regular short intervals. These principles have spawned many practices. At the core of these practices is the idea of autonomous, self-managing, or self-organizing teams whose members work at a pace that sustains their creativity and productivity. This article summarizes the main challenges faced when implementing autonomous teams and the topics and research questions that future research should address

Pressure heterogeneity in small displacement electrohydraulic forming processes

Electrohydraulic (submerged arc discharge) forming of sheet metal parts has been used as a specialized high speed forming method since the 1960 s. The parts formed generally had a major dimension in the 5 to 25 cm range and required gross metal expansion in the centimeter range. In the descriptions of this process found in the literature, the pressure front emanating from the initial plasma generated by the arc is considered to be uniformly spherical in nature. At least one commercial system used this model to design hardware for pressure front focusing to optimize the forming process[1] and it has been the subject of continued research [2]. Recently, there has been commercial interest in adopting the electro-hydraulic method for the production of much smaller parts requiring very high die contact pressures but little gross sheet expansion. The forming of these small shallow parts required only a few kilojoules but proved to be problematic in other terms. The process development clearly showed indications of random patterns of large pressure heterogeneity across distances in the millimeter range. The apparent pressure heterogeneity produced unacceptable small scale variation in the part geometry. A test program was designed to verify and quantify this effect using a target (die) consisting of a flat plate having small closely spaced holes. This 50 mm diameter target proved very effective in clearly showing the extent of the heterogeneity as well as the approximate local pressures. Various discharge energies were investigated along with different chamber shapes and pressure transfer mediums. The pressure heterogeneity across the target face was a common feature to all experiments. These test results indicate that a uniform pressure front model can be seriously in error for the electrohydraulic process as implemented to date. The results of a qualitative hydro-code model of the test system including the discharge event are presented. The model results are similar enough to the experimental to imply that the coaxial electrode s inherent off center discharge is a primary suspect among potential explanations for the observed heterogeneity in terms of asymmetric shock interaction. The absence of this phenomena in the earlier electrohydraulic forming literature is also discussed

Missouri River history, floodplain construction, and soil formation in southwestern Iowa

The Platte River has influenced the Missouri River below the mouth of the Platte by contributing sizable suspended and coarser-textured bed loads. Consequently, the Missouri River has been and is a braided stream in a reach about 43 miles long below the mouth of the Platte. In this reach the channel is wider, is less sinuous, has greater low-water slope profile, and contains numerous bars and islands. The Otoe Bend area, in this reach of the Missouri River near the southwestern corner of Iowa, has inherited these channel characteristics. By use of historic maps and aerial photographs, the lateral shifting of the river channel at Otoe Bend may be reconstructed. Adjustments of scale and geographic locations must be made to compare features of all maps and aerial photographs to the present landforms in the area. The older maps usually are not as accurate as present-day cartography with photogrammetric field control. Within the different levels of cartographic accuracy, however, correlation of landforms can be made by similarity of features or similarity of sequences of features

Iowan Drift Problem, Northeastern Iowa

https://ir.uiowa.edu/igs_ri/1006/thumbnail.jp

Data-driven analysis methods for the measurement of reconstructed jets in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC

We present data-driven methods for the full reconstruction of jets in heavy ion collisions, for inclusive and co-incidence jet measurements at both RHIC and LHC. The complex structure of heavy ion events generates a large background of combinatorial jets, and smears the measured energy of the true hard jet signal. Techniques to correct for these background effects can induce biases in the reported jet distributions, which must be well controlled for accurate measurement of jet quenching. Using model studies, we evaluate the proposed methods for measuring jet distributions accurately while minimizing the fragmentation bias of the measured population.Comment: 5 pages, 14 figures, Hard Probe 2012 Conference Proceedin

Zonal image analysis of tumour vascular perfusion, hypoxia, and necrosis

A number of laboratories are utilising both hypoxia and perfusion markers to spatially quantify tumour oxygenation and vascular distributions, and scientists are increasingly turning to automated image analysis methods to quantify such interrelationships. In these studies, the presence of regions of necrosis in the immunohistochemical sections remains a potentially significant source of error. In the present work, frozen MCa-4 mammary tumour sections were used to obtain a series of corresponding image montages. Total vessels were identified using CD31 staining, perfused vessels by DiOC7 staining, hypoxia by EF5/Cy3 uptake, and necrosis by haematoxylin and eosin staining. Our goal was to utilise image analysis techniques to spatially quantitate hypoxic marker binding as a function of distance from the nearest blood vessel. Several refinements to previous imaging methods are described: (1) hypoxia marker images are quantified in terms of their intensity levels, thus providing an analysis of the gradients in hypoxia with increasing distances from blood vessels, (2) zonal imaging masks are derived, which permit spatial sampling of images at precisely defined distances from blood vessels, as well as the omission of necrotic artifacts, (3) thresholding techniques are applied to omit holes in the tissue sections, and (4) distance mapping is utilised to define vascular spacing

Foraging behavior and Doppler shift compensation in echolocating hipposiderid bats, I-Iipposideros bicolor and I-Iipposideros speoris

1. Two hipposiderid bats,H. bicolor andH. speoris, were observed in their natural foraging areas in Madurai (South India). Both species hunt close together near the foliage of trees and bushes but they differ in fine structure of preferred hunting space:H. bicolor hunts within the foliage, especially whenH. speoris is active at the same time, whereasH. speoris never flies in dense vegetation but rather in the more open area (Fig. 1, Table 1). 2. Both species emit CF/FM-sounds containing only one harmonic component in almost all echolocation situations. The CF-parts of CF/FM-sounds are species specific within a band of 127–138 kHz forH. speoris and 147–159 kHz forH. bicolor (Tables 2 and 3). 3. H. speoris additionally uses a complex harmonic sound during obstacle avoidance and during laboratory tests for Doppler shift compensation.H. bicolor consistently emits CF/FM-sounds in these same situations (Fig. 2). 4. Both hipposiderid bats respond to Doppler shifts in the returning echoes by lowering the frequency of the emitted sounds (Fig. 3). However, Doppler compensations are incomplete as the emitted frequencies are decreased by only 55% and 56% (mean values) of the full frequency shifts byH. speoris andH, bicolor, respectively. 5. The differences in Doppler shift compensation, echolocating and hunting behavior suggest thatH. speoris is less specialized on echolocation with CF/FM-sounds thanH. bicolor

Theory of Spike Spiral Waves in a Reaction-Diffusion System

We discovered a new type of spiral wave solutions in reaction-diffusion systems --- spike spiral wave, which significantly differs from spiral waves observed in FitzHugh-Nagumo-type models. We present an asymptotic theory of these waves in Gray-Scott model. We derive the kinematic relations describing the shape of this spiral and find the dependence of its main parameters on the control parameters. The theory does not rely on the specific features of Gray-Scott model and thus is expected to be applicable to a broad range of reaction-diffusion systems.Comment: 4 pages (REVTeX), 2 figures (postscript), submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Josephson Current between Triplet and Singlet Superconductors

The Josephson effect between triplet and singlet superconductors is studied. Josephson current can flow between triplet and singlet superconductors due to the spin-orbit coupling in the spin-triplet superconductor but it is finite only when triplet superconductor has $L_z=-S_z=\pm 1$, where $L_z$ and $S_z$ are the perpendicular components of orbital angular momentum and spin angular momentum of the triplet Cooper pairs, respectively. The recently observed temperature and orientational dependence of the critical current through a Josephson junction between UPt$_3$ and Nb is investigated by considering a non-unitary triplet state.Comment: 4 pages, no figure