Time maintenance of user clocks via the tracking and data relay satellite system

A system is described which uses the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) itself to compare the user satellite clock with a clock at the White Sands station that is referenced to Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). No command of the spacecraft by the system is required, and actual on-board clock corrections are made by the spacecraft control center at its discretion. Computer models were constructed using basic orbital parameters for user and TDRS satellites. With only first-order corrections and simple averaging techniques for constant clock rates, error measurement precision of better than one microsecond was obtained. More sophisticated computations should allow considerable improvement over this

Nitric oxide donation lowers blood pressure in adrenocorticotrophic hormone-induced hypertensive rats.

Adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) elevates systolic blood pressure (SBP) and lowers plasma reactive nitrogen intermediates in rats. We assessed the ability of NO donation from isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN) to prevent or reverse the hypertension caused by ACTH. In the prevention study, male Sprague Dawley rats were treated with ACTH (0.2 mg/kg/day) or saline control for 8 days, with either concurrent ISDN (100 mg/kg/day) via the drinking water or water alone. Animals receiving ISDN via the drinking water were provided with nitrate-free water for 8 hours every day. In the reversal study ISDN (100 mg/kg) or vehicle was given as a single oral dose on day 8. SBP was measured daily by the indirect tail-cuff method in conscious, restrained rats. ACTH caused a significant increase in SBP compared with saline (P < 0.0015). In the prevention study, chronic administration of ISDN (100 mg/kg/day) did not affect the SBP in either group. In the reversal study, ISDN significantly lowered SBP in ACTH-treated rats at 1 and 2.5 hours (132 +/- 3 mmHg (1 h) and 131 +/- 2 mmHg (2.5 h) versus 143 +/- 3 mmHg (0 h), P < 0.002), but not to control levels. It had no effect in control (saline treated) rats. In conclusion, the lowering of SBP by NO donation is consistent with the notion that ACTH-induced hypertension involves an impaired bioavailability or action of NO in vivo

Submicrosecond comparisons of time standards via the Navigation Technology Satellites (NTS)

An interim demonstration was performed of the time transfer capability of the NAVSTAR GPS system using a single NTS satellite. Measurements of time difference (pseudo-range) are made from the NTS tracking network and at the participating observatories. The NTS network measurements are used to compute the NTS orbit trajectory. The central NTS tracking station has a time link to the Naval Observatory UTC (USNO,MC1) master clock. Measurements are used with the NTS receiver at the remote observatory, the time transfer value UTC (USNO,MC1)-UTC (REMOTE, VIA NTS) is calculated. Intercomparisons were computed using predicted values of satellite clock offset and ephemeus

Submicrosecond comparison of international clock synchronization by VLBI and the NTS satellite

The intercontinental clock synchronization capabilities of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and the Navigation Technology Satellite (NTS) were compared using both methods to synchronize the Cesium clocks at the NASA Deep Space Net complexes at Madrid, Spain and Goldstone, California. Verification of the accuracy of both systems was examined. The VLBI experiments used the Wideband VLBI Data Acquisition System developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The NTS Satellites were designed and built by the Naval Research Laboratory used with NTS Timing Receivers developed by the Goddard Space Flight Center. The two methods agreed at about the one-half microsecond level

Reflections on a coaching pilot project in healthcare settings

This paper draws on personal reflection of coaching experiences and learning as a coach to consider the relevance of these approaches in a management context with a group of four healthcare staff who participated in a pilot coaching project. It explores their understanding of coaching techniques applied in management settings via their reflections on using coaching approaches and coaching applications as healthcare managers. Coaching approaches can enhance a manager’s skill portfolio and offer the potential benefits in terms of successful goal achievement, growth, mutual learning and development for both themselves and staff they work with in task focused scenarios

Starburst-driven Starbursts in the Heart of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies

There is increasing evidence for the presence of blue super star clusters in the central regions of ultraluminous infrared galaxies like Arp 220. Ultraluminous galaxies are thought to be triggered by galaxy mergers, and it has often been argued that these super star clusters may form during violent collisions between gas clouds in the final phase of the mergers. We now investigate another set of models which differ from previous ones in that the formation of the super star clusters is linked directly to the very intense starburst occurring at the very center of the galaxy. Firstly we show that a scenario in which the super star clusters form in material compressed by shock waves originating from the central starburst is implausible because the objects so produced are much smaller than the observed star clusters in Arp 220. We then investigate a scenario (based on the Shlosman-Noguchi model) in which the infalling dense gas disk is unstable gravitationally and collapses to form massive gaseous clumps. Since these clumps are exposed to the external high pressure driven by the superwind (a blast wave driven by a collective effect of a large number of supernovae in the very core of the galaxy), they can collapse and then massive star formation may be induced in them. The objects produced in this kind of collapse have properties consistent with those of the observed super star clusters in the center of Arp 220.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, ApJ (Letters) in pres

Comment on "mt-Keima detects PINK1-PRKN mitophagy in vivo with greater sensitivity than mito-QC"

Peer reviewe

Dynamical Expansion of Ionization and Dissociation Front around a Massive Star. I. A Mode of Triggered Star Formation

We analyze the dynamical expansion of the HII region and outer photodissociation region (PDR) around a massive star by solving the UV and FUV radiation transfer and the thermal and chemical processes in a time-dependent hydrodynamics code. We focus on the physical structure of the shell swept up by the shock front (SF) preceding the ionization front (IF). After the IF reaches the initial Stromgren radius, the SF emerges in front of the IF and the geometrically thin shell bounded with the IF and the SF is formed. The gas density inside the shell is about 10-100 times as high as the ambient gas density. Initially the dissociation fronts expands faster than IF and the PDR is formed outside the HII region. Thereafter the IF and SF gradually overtakes the proceeding dissociation fronts (DFs), and eventually DFs are taken in the shell. The chemical composition within the shell is initially atomic, but hydrogen and carbon monoxide molecules are gradually formed. This is partly because the IF and SF overtake DFs and SF enters the molecular region, and partly because the reformation timescales of the molecules become shorter than the dynamical timescale. The gas shell becomes dominated by the molecular gas by the time of gravitational fragmentation, which agrees with some recent observations. A simple estimation of star formation rate in the shell can provide a significant star formation rate in our galaxy.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures ; Accepted for publication in ApJ, scheduled for the April 2005, v623 2 issu

Cost efficient operations for Discovery class missions

The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) program at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is scheduled to launch the first spacecraft in NASA's Discovery program. The Discovery program is to promote low cost spacecraft design, development, and mission operations for planetary space missions. The authors describe the NEAR mission and discuss the design and development of the NEAR Mission Operations System and the NEAR Ground System with an emphasis on those aspects of the design that are conducive to low-cost operations