486 research outputs found
Space science/space station attached payload pointing accommodation study: Technology assessment white paper
Technology assessment is performed for pointing systems that accommodate payloads of large mass and large dimensions. Related technology areas are also examined. These related areas include active thermal lines or power cables across gimbals, new materials for increased passive damping, tethered pointing, and inertially reacting pointing systems. Conclusions, issues and concerns, and recommendations regarding the status and development of large pointing systems for space applications are made based on the performed assessments
Electrical and Thermal Transport in Metallic Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes on Insulating Substrates
We analyze transport in metallic single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on
insulating substrates over the bias range up to electrical breakdown in air. To
account for Joule self-heating, a temperature-dependent Landauer model for
electrical transport is coupled with the heat conduction equation along the
nanotube. The electrical breakdown voltage of SWNTs in air is found to scale
linearly with their length, approximately as 5 V/um; we use this to deduce a
thermal conductance between SWNT and substrate g ~ 0.17 +/- 0.03 W/K/m per tube
length, which appears limited by the SWNT-substrate interface rather than the
thermal properties of the substrate itself. We examine the phonon scattering
mechanisms limiting electron transport, and find the strong temperature
dependence of the optical phonon absorption rate to have a remarkable influence
on the electrical resistance of micron-length nanotubes. Further analysis
reveals that unlike in typical metals, electrons are responsible for less than
15% of the total thermal conductivity of metallic nanotubes around room
temperature, and this contribution decreases at high bias or higher
temperatures. For interconnect applications of metallic SWNTs, significant
self-heating may be avoided if power densities are limited below 5 uW/um, or if
the SWNT-surrounding thermal interface is optimized.Comment: accepted for publication in J. Appl. Phys. (2007
Repulsive Casimir forces
We discuss repulsive Casimir forces between dielectric materials with non
trivial magnetic susceptibility. It is shown that considerations based on naive
pair-wise summation of Van der Waals and Casimir Polder forces may not only
give an incorrect estimate of the magnitude of the total Casimir force, but
even the wrong sign of the force when materials with high dielectric and
magnetic response are involved. Indeed repulsive Casimir forces may be found in
a large range of parameters, and we suggest that the effect may be realized in
known materials. The phenomenon of repulsive Casimir forces may be of
importance both for experimental study and for nanomachinery applications
Modulation of eDNA Release and Degradation Affects Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Maturation
Recent studies have demonstrated a role for Staphylococcus aureus cidA-mediated cell lysis and genomic DNA release in biofilm adherence. The current study extends these findings by examining both temporal and additional genetic factors involved in the control of genomic DNA release and degradation during biofilm maturation. Cell lysis and DNA release were found to be critical for biofilm attachment during the initial stages of development and the released DNA (eDNA) remained an important matrix component during biofilm maturation. This study also revealed that an lrgAB mutant exhibits increased biofilm adherence and matrix-associated eDNA consistent with its proposed role as an inhibitor of cidA-mediated lysis. In flow-cell assays, both cid and lrg mutations had dramatic effects on biofilm maturation and tower formation. Finally, staphylococcal thermonuclease was shown to be involved in biofilm development as a nuc mutant formed a thicker biofilm containing increased levels of matrix-associated eDNA. Together, these findings suggest a model in which the opposing activities of the cid and lrg gene products control cell lysis and genomic DNA release during biofilm development, while staphylococcal thermonuclease functions to degrade the eDNA, possibly as a means to promote biofilm dispersal
Nonperturbative Light-Front QCD
In this work the determination of low-energy bound states in Quantum
Chromodynamics is recast so that it is linked to a weak-coupling problem. This
allows one to approach the solution with the same techniques which solve
Quantum Electrodynamics: namely, a combination of weak-coupling diagrams and
many-body quantum mechanics. The key to eliminating necessarily nonperturbative
effects is the use of a bare Hamiltonian in which quarks and gluons have
nonzero constituent masses rather than the zero masses of the current picture.
The use of constituent masses cuts off the growth of the running coupling
constant and makes it possible that the running coupling never leaves the
perturbative domain. For stabilization purposes an artificial potential is
added to the Hamiltonian, but with a coefficient that vanishes at the physical
value of the coupling constant. The weak-coupling approach potentially
reconciles the simplicity of the Constituent Quark Model with the complexities
of Quantum Chromodynamics. The penalty for achieving this perturbative picture
is the necessity of formulating the dynamics of QCD in light-front coordinates
and of dealing with the complexities of renormalization which such a
formulation entails. We describe the renormalization process first using a
qualitative phase space cell analysis, and we then set up a precise similarity
renormalization scheme with cutoffs on constituent momenta and exhibit
calculations to second order. We outline further computations that remain to be
carried out. There is an initial nonperturbative but nonrelativistic
calculation of the hadronic masses that determines the artificial potential,
with binding energies required to be fourth order in the coupling as in QED.
Next there is a calculation of the leading radiative corrections to these
masses, which requires our renormalization program. Then the real struggle of
finding the right extensions to perturbation theory to study the
strong-coupling behavior of bound states can begin.Comment: 56 pages (REVTEX), Report OSU-NT-94-28. (figures not included,
available via anaonymous ftp from pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu in subdirectory
pub/infolight/qcd
Factor Xa Generation by Computational Modeling: An Additional Discriminator to Thrombin Generation Evaluation
Factor (f)Xa is a critical enzyme in blood coagulation that is responsible for the initiation and propagation of thrombin generation. Previously we have shown that analysis of computationally generated thrombin profiles is a tool to investigate hemostasis in various populations. In this study, we evaluate the potential of computationally derived time courses of fXa generation as another approach for investigating thrombotic risk. Utilizing the case (n = 473) and control (n = 426) population from the Leiden Thrombophilia Study and each individual's plasma protein factor composition for fII, fV, fVII, fVIII, fIX, fX, antithrombin and tissue factor pathway inhibitor, tissue factor-initiated total active fXa generation was assessed using a mathematical model. FXa generation was evaluated by the area under the curve (AUC), the maximum rate (MaxR) and level (MaxL) and the time to reach these, TMaxR and TMaxL, respectively. FXa generation was analyzed in the entire populations and in defined subgroups (by sex, age, body mass index, oral contraceptive use). The maximum rates and levels of fXa generation occur over a 10- to 12- fold range in both cases and controls. This variation is larger than that observed with thrombin (3–6 fold) in the same population. The greatest risk association was obtained using either MaxR or MaxL of fXa generation; with an ∼2.2 fold increased risk for individuals exceeding the 90th percentile. This risk was similar to that of thrombin generation(MaxR OR 2.6). Grouping defined by oral contraceptive (OC) use in the control population showed the biggest differences in fXa generation; a >60% increase in the MaxR upon OC use. FXa generation can distinguish between a subset of individuals characterized by overlapping thrombin generation profiles. Analysis of fXa generation is a phenotypic characteristic which may prove to be a more sensitive discriminator than thrombin generation among all individuals
Defining the Boundaries of Normal Thrombin Generation: Investigations into Hemostasis
In terms of its soluble precursors, the coagulation proteome varies quantitatively among apparently healthy individuals. The significance of this variability remains obscure, in part because it is the backdrop against which the hemostatic consequences of more dramatic composition differences are studied. In this study we have defined the consequences of normal range variation of components of the coagulation proteome by using a mechanism-based computational approach that translates coagulation factor concentration data into a representation of an individual's thrombin generation potential. A novel graphical method is used to integrate standard measures that characterize thrombin generation in both empirical and computational models (e.g max rate, max level, total thrombin, time to 2 nM thrombin (“clot time”)) to visualize how normal range variation in coagulation factors results in unique thrombin generation phenotypes. Unique ensembles of the 8 coagulation factors encompassing the limits of normal range variation were used as initial conditions for the computational modeling, each ensemble representing “an individual” in a theoretical healthy population. These “individuals” with unremarkable proteome composition was then compared to actual normal and “abnormal” individuals, i.e. factor ensembles measured in apparently healthy individuals, actual coagulopathic individuals or artificially constructed factor ensembles representing individuals with specific factor deficiencies. A sensitivity analysis was performed to rank either individual factors or all possible pairs of factors in terms of their contribution to the overall distribution of thrombin generation phenotypes. Key findings of these analyses include: normal range variation of coagulation factors yields thrombin generation phenotypes indistinguishable from individuals with some, but not all, coagulopathies examined; coordinate variation of certain pairs of factors within their normal ranges disproportionately results in extreme thrombin generation phenotypes, implying that measurement of a smaller set of factors may be sufficient to identify individuals with aberrant thrombin generation potential despite normal coagulation proteome composition
Upper limits on the strength of periodic gravitational waves from PSR J1939+2134
The first science run of the LIGO and GEO gravitational wave detectors
presented the opportunity to test methods of searching for gravitational waves
from known pulsars. Here we present new direct upper limits on the strength of
waves from the pulsar PSR J1939+2134 using two independent analysis methods,
one in the frequency domain using frequentist statistics and one in the time
domain using Bayesian inference. Both methods show that the strain amplitude at
Earth from this pulsar is less than a few times .Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the Proceedings of the 5th Edoardo
Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, Tirrenia, Pisa, Italy, 6-11 July
200
Improving the sensitivity to gravitational-wave sources by modifying the input-output optics of advanced interferometers
We study frequency dependent (FD) input-output schemes for signal-recycling
interferometers, the baseline design of Advanced LIGO and the current
configuration of GEO 600. Complementary to a recent proposal by Harms et al. to
use FD input squeezing and ordinary homodyne detection, we explore a scheme
which uses ordinary squeezed vacuum, but FD readout. Both schemes, which are
sub-optimal among all possible input-output schemes, provide a global noise
suppression by the power squeeze factor, while being realizable by using
detuned Fabry-Perot cavities as input/output filters. At high frequencies, the
two schemes are shown to be equivalent, while at low frequencies our scheme
gives better performance than that of Harms et al., and is nearly fully
optimal. We then study the sensitivity improvement achievable by these schemes
in Advanced LIGO era (with 30-m filter cavities and current estimates of
filter-mirror losses and thermal noise), for neutron star binary inspirals, and
for narrowband GW sources such as low-mass X-ray binaries and known radio
pulsars. Optical losses are shown to be a major obstacle for the actual
implementation of these techniques in Advanced LIGO. On time scales of
third-generation interferometers, like EURO/LIGO-III (~2012), with
kilometer-scale filter cavities, a signal-recycling interferometer with the FD
readout scheme explored in this paper can have performances comparable to
existing proposals. [abridged]Comment: Figs. 9 and 12 corrected; Appendix added for narrowband data analysi
Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas
This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing
molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin
- …