MISAT: Designing a Series of Powerful Small Satellites Based upon Micro Systems Technology

MISAT is a research and development cluster which will create a small satellite platform based on Micro Systems Technology (MST) aiming at innovative space as well as terrestrial applications. MISAT is part of the Dutch MicroNed program which has established a microsystems infrastructure to fully exploit the MST knowledge chain involving public and industrial partners alike. The cluster covers MST-related developments for the spacecraft bus and payload, as well as the satellite architecture. Particular emphasis is given to distributed systems in space to fully exploit the potential of miniaturization for future mission concepts. Examples of current developments are wireless sensor and actuator networks with plug and play characteristics, autonomous digital Sun sensors, re-configurable radio front ends with minimum power consumption, or micro-machined electrostatic accelerometer and gradiometer system for scientific research in fundamental physics as well as geophysics. As a result of MISAT, a first nano-satellite will be launched in 2007 to demonstrate the next generation of Sun sensors, power subsystems and satellite architecture technology. Rapid access to in-orbit technology demonstration and verification will be provided by a series of small satellites. This will include a formation flying mission, which will increasingly rely on MISAT technology to improve functionality and reduce size, mass and power for advanced technology demonstration and novel scientific applications.

Loss mechanisms of surface plasmon polaritons on gold probed by cathodoluminescence imaging spectroscopy

We use cathodoluminescence imaging spectroscopy to excite surface plasmon polaritons and measure their decay length on single crystal and polycrystalline gold surfaces. The surface plasmon polaritons are excited on the gold surface by a nanoscale focused electron beam and are coupled into free space radiation by gratings fabricated into the surface. By scanning the electron beam on a line perpendicular to the gratings, the propagation length is determined. Data for single-crystal gold are in agreement with calculations based on dielectric constants. For polycrystalline films, grain boundary scattering is identified as additional loss mechanism, with a scattering coefficient SG=0.2%

Person prominence and relation prominence : on the typology of syntactic relations with particular reference to Yucatec Maya

PM3969, ISO 639-3 : -, Maya language--Syntax1. Introduction 2. Theoretical background 2.1. The cognitive structure of a situation 2.1.1. Situation, situation core, and participants 2.1.2. Participant features 2.1.3. Participant roles 2.2. Syntactic functions 2.3. Correlation between syntactic functions and participant roles 3. Prominence in typology 3.1. Subject prominence vs. topic prominence 3.2. Reference domination vs. role domination 3.3. Person prominence vs. relation prominence 4. Languages investigated 4.1. Yucatec Maya 4.2. Samoan 4.3. Maori 4.4. Tamil 4.5. Lezgian 4.6. Korean 5. Prominence in syntactic constructions 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Higher predicates 5.2.1. Modal predicates 5.2.2. Phase predicates 5.2.3. Tense, aspect, and aktionsart auxiliaries 5.3. Possessive constructions 5.3.1. Part-whole relations 5.3.2. Ascription of possession 5.3.3. Predication of belonging 5.3.4. Ascription of property to body part 5.3.5. Affection of possessor 5.4. Mental, sensual, and emotional states and processes 5.4.1. Preliminaries 5.4.2. Sensual states and processes 5.4.3. Emotional states and processes 5.4.4. Mental states and processes 5.4.5. Conclusion 5.5. Benefactive 6. Relation prominence in YM: a historical-comparative perspective 6.1. Colonial Yucatec Maya 6.1.1. Preliminaries 6.1.2. Modal predicates 6.1.3. Phase predicates 6.1.4. Aspect auxiliaries 6.1.5. Conclusion 6.2. Cognate languages 6.2.1. Preliminaries 6.2.2. Higher predicates 6.2.3. Possessive constructions 6.2.4. Mental, sensual and emotional states and processes 6.2.5. Benefactive 6.2.6. Conclusion 7. Typology 7.1. Empirical generalizations 7.1.1. The domain of possession 136 7.1.2. Higher predicates 7.1.3. Participant roles 7.2. Grammatical correlations 7.3. Conclusion Indices Abbreviations Morpheme glosses & syntactic categories Languages Sources of data Bibliographical references LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLE

High quality ultrafast transmission electron microscopy using resonant microwave cavities

Ultrashort, low-emittance electron pulses can be created at a high repetition rate by using a TM$_{110}$ deflection cavity to sweep a continuous beam across an aperture. These pulses can be used for time-resolved electron microscopy with atomic spatial and temporal resolution at relatively large average currents. In order to demonstrate this, a cavity has been inserted in a transmission electron microscope, and picosecond pulses have been created. No significant increase of either emittance or energy spread has been measured for these pulses. At a peak current of $814\pm2$ pA, the root-mean-square transverse normalized emittance of the electron pulses is $\varepsilon_{n,x}=(2.7\pm0.1)\cdot 10^{-12}$ m rad in the direction parallel to the streak of the cavity, and $\varepsilon_{n,y}=(2.5\pm0.1)\cdot 10^{-12}$ m rad in the perpendicular direction for pulses with a pulse length of 1.1-1.3 ps. Under the same conditions, the emittance of the continuous beam is $\varepsilon_{n,x}=\varepsilon_{n,y}=(2.5\pm0.1)\cdot 10^{-12}$ m rad. Furthermore, for both the pulsed and the continuous beam a full width at half maximum energy spread of $0.95\pm0.05$ eV has been measured

Transfer from implicit to explicit phonological abilities in first and second language learners

Children's abilities to process the phonological structure of words are important predictors of their literacy development. In the current study, we examined the interrelatedness between implicit (i.e., speech decoding) and explicit (i.e., phonological awareness) phonological abilities, and especially the role therein of lexical specificity (i.e., the ability to learn to recognize spoken words based on only minimal acoustic-phonetic differences). We tested 75 Dutch monolingual and 64 Turkish–Dutch bilingual kindergartners. SEM analyses showed that speech decoding predicted lexical specificity, which in turn predicted rhyme awareness in the first language learners but phoneme awareness in the second language learners. Moreover, in the latter group there was an impact of the second language: Dutch speech decoding and lexical specificity predicted Turkish phonological awareness, which in turn predicted Dutch phonological awareness. We conclude that language-specific phonological characteristics underlie different patterns of transfer from implicit to explicit phonological abilities in first and second language learners