16,940 research outputs found
Retention and application of Skylab experiences to future programs
The problems encountered and special techniques and procedures developed on the Skylab program are described along with the experiences and practical benefits obtained for dissemination and use on future programs. Three major topics are discussed: electrical problems, mechanical problems, and special techniques. Special techniques and procedures are identified that were either developed or refined during the Skylab program. These techniques and procedures came from all manufacturing and test phases of the Skylab program and include both flight and GSE items from component level to sophisticated spaceflight systems
High speed hydrogen/graphite interaction
Various aspects of a research program on high speed hydrogen/graphite interaction are presented. Major areas discussed are: (1) theoretical predictions of hydrogen/graphite erosion rates; (2) high temperature, nonequilibrium hydrogen flow in a nozzle; and (3) molecular beam studies of hydrogen/graphite erosion
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Cooling requirements fueled the collapse of a desert bird community from climate change.
Climate change threatens global biodiversity by increasing extinction risk, yet few studies have uncovered a physiological basis of climate-driven species declines. Maintaining a stable body temperature is a fundamental requirement for homeothermic animals, and water is a vital resource that facilitates thermoregulation through evaporative cooling, especially in hot environments. Here, we explore the potential for thermoregulatory costs to underlie the community collapse of birds in the Mojave Desert over the past century in response to climate change. The probability of persistence was lowest for species occupying the warmest and driest sites, which imposed the greatest cooling costs. We developed a general model of heat flux to evaluate whether water requirements for evaporative cooling contributed to species' declines by simulating thermoregulatory costs in the Mojave Desert for 50 bird species representing the range of observed declines. Bird species' declines were positively associated with climate-driven increases in water requirements for evaporative cooling and exacerbated by large body size, especially for species with animal-based diets. Species exhibiting reductions in body size across their range saved up to 14% in cooling costs and experienced less decline than species without size reductions, suggesting total cooling costs as a mechanism underlying Bergmann's rule. Reductions in body size, however, are unlikely to offset the 50 to 78% increase in cooling costs threatening desert birds from future climate change. As climate change spreads warm, dry conditions across the planet, water requirements are increasingly likely to drive population declines, providing a physiological basis for climate-driven extinctions
The suppression of galactose metabolism in Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes causes changes in cell surface molecular architecture and cell morphology.
The cell surface of the epimastigote form of Trypanosoma cruzi is covered by glycoconjugates rich in galactose. The parasite cannot take up galactose through its hexose transporter, suggesting that the epimerisation of UDP-glucose to UDP-galactose may be the parasite's only route to this sugar. The T. cruzi UDP-glucose 4'-epimerase is encoded by the TcGALE gene. We were unable to make a CL-Brener strain T. cruzi epimastigote TcGALE-/- null mutant, suggesting that the gene is essential. Two TcGALE+/- single-allele knockout clones displayed aberrant morphology and haploid deficiency with respect to galactose metabolism. The morphological phenotypes included shortened flagella, increased incidence of spheromastigotes, agglutination and a novel walnut-like appearance. The reduced supply of UDP-galactose was manifest in the two clones as a six- or nine-fold reduction in the expression of galactopyranose-containing cell surface mucins and negligible or two-fold reduction in the expression of galactofuranose-containing glycoinositolphospholipids. The major loss of mucins as opposed to glycoinositolphospholipids may indicate that the latter are more important for basic parasite survival in culture. The apparent haploid deficiency suggests that epimerase levels are close to limiting, at least in the epimastigote form, and might be exploited as a potential drug target
Cytokine Profiles of Stimulated Blood Lymphocytes in Asthmatic and Healthy Adolescents Cross the School Year
T cell cytokines play an important role in mediating airway inflammation in asthma. The predominance of a Th2 cytokine profile, particularly interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-5, is associated with the pathogenesis and course of asthma. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that a stressful life event alters the pattern of cytokine release in asthmatic individuals. Thirteen healthy controls and 21 asthmatic adolescents gave blood samples three times over a semester: midsemester, during the week of final examinations, and 2-3 weeks after examinations. Interferon-γ (IFN-γ), IL-2, IL-4, and IL-5 were measured from supernatants of cells stimulated with PHA/PMA for 24 h. Cells from asthmatic subjects released significantly more IL-5 during the examination and postexamination periods, whereas cells from healthy controls released significantly more IL-2 during the midsemester and examination periods, thereby indicating a bias for a Th2-like pattern in asthmatics and a Th 1-like pattern in healthy controls. IL-4 and IL-5 production showed a marked decrease during and after examinations in healthy controls, whereas this decline was absent in asthmatics. The ratios of IFN-γ:IL-4 and IFN-γ:IL-5 also revealed significant changes in the profile of cytokine release across the semester. These results indicate differential cytokine responses in asthmatics that may become pronounced during periods of cellular activation
Geometrical optics analysis of the short-time stability properties of the Einstein evolution equations
Many alternative formulations of Einstein's evolution have lately been
examined, in an effort to discover one which yields slow growth of
constraint-violating errors. In this paper, rather than directly search for
well-behaved formulations, we instead develop analytic tools to discover which
formulations are particularly ill-behaved. Specifically, we examine the growth
of approximate (geometric-optics) solutions, studied only in the future domain
of dependence of the initial data slice (e.g. we study transients). By
evaluating the amplification of transients a given formulation will produce, we
may therefore eliminate from consideration the most pathological formulations
(e.g. those with numerically-unacceptable amplification). This technique has
the potential to provide surprisingly tight constraints on the set of
formulations one can safely apply. To illustrate the application of these
techniques to practical examples, we apply our technique to the 2-parameter
family of evolution equations proposed by Kidder, Scheel, and Teukolsky,
focusing in particular on flat space (in Rindler coordinates) and Schwarzchild
(in Painleve-Gullstrand coordinates).Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Measurement of the intrinsic damping constant in individual nanodisks of YIG and YIG{\textbar}Pt
We report on an experimental study on the spin-waves relaxation rate in two
series of nanodisks of diameter 300, 500 and 700~nm, patterned out of
two systems: a 20~nm thick yttrium iron garnet (YIG) film grown by pulsed laser
deposition either bare or covered by 13~nm of Pt. Using a magnetic resonance
force microscope, we measure precisely the ferromagnetic resonance linewidth of
each individual YIG and YIG{\textbar}Pt nanodisks. We find that the linewidth
in the nanostructure is sensibly smaller than the one measured in the extended
film. Analysis of the frequency dependence of the spectral linewidth indicates
that the improvement is principally due to the suppression of the inhomogeneous
part of the broadening due to geometrical confinement, suggesting that only the
homogeneous broadening contributes to the linewidth of the nanostructure. For
the bare YIG nano-disks, the broadening is associated to a damping constant
. A 3 fold increase of the linewidth is observed for
the series with Pt cap layer, attributed to the spin pumping effect. The
measured enhancement allows to extract the spin mixing conductance found to be
for our
YIG(20nm){\textbar}Pt interface, thus opening large opportunities for the
design of YIG based nanostructures with optimized magnetic losses.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
A Simple Derivation of the Hard Thermal Loop Effective Action
We use the background field method along with a special gauge condition, to
derive the hard thermal loop effective action in a simple manner. The new point
in the paper is to relate the effective action explicitly to the S-matrix from
the onset.Comment: 11 pages, Latex; lost text after sect. 2 reinserte
Electronic control of the spin-wave damping in a magnetic insulator
It is demonstrated that the decay time of spin-wave modes existing in a
magnetic insulator can be reduced or enhanced by injecting an in-plane dc
current, , in an adjacent normal metal with strong spin-orbit
interaction. The demonstration rests upon the measurement of the ferromagnetic
resonance linewidth as a function of in a 5~m diameter
YIG(20nm){\textbar}Pt(7nm) disk using a magnetic resonance force microscope
(MRFM). Complete compensation of the damping of the fundamental mode is
obtained for a current density of , in
agreement with theoretical predictions. At this critical threshold the MRFM
detects a small change of static magnetization, a behavior consistent with the
onset of an auto-oscillation regime.Comment: 6 pages 4 figure
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