Advanced expander test bed program

The Advanced Expander Test Bed (AETB) is a key element in NASA's Space Chemical Engine Technology Program for development and demonstration of expander cycle oxygen/hydrogen engine and advanced component technologies applicable to space engines as well as launch vehicle upper stage engines. The AETB will be used to validate the high-pressure expander cycle concept, investigate system interactions, and conduct investigations of advanced mission focused components and new health monitoring techniques in an engine system environment. The split expander cycle AETB will operate at combustion chamber pressures up to 1200 psia with propellant flow rates equivalent to 20,000 lbf vacuum thrust. Contract work began 27 Apr. 1990. During 1992, a major milestone was achieved with the review of the final design of the oxidizer turbopump in Sep. 1992

First teuthid cephalopod from the Lower Jurassic of South America (Neuquén Basin, Argentina)

A new species of squid, Teudopsis jeletzkyi n. sp., is described from the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) of the Los Molles Formation in Neuquen Province, central west Argentina. Fossil squids have thus far been unknown in the Mesozoic of South America. This species is the first record of the Order Teuthida in the Jurassic of South America

First teuthid cephalopod from the Lower Jurassic of South America (Neuquén Basin, Argentina)

A new species of squid, Teudopsis jeletzkyi n. sp., is described from the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) of the Los Molles Formation in Neuquen Province, central west Argentina. Fossil squids have thus far been unknown in the Mesozoic of South America. This species is the first record of the Order Teuthida in the Jurassic of South America

Metal determination in organic fluids of patients with stainless steel hip arthroplasty.

In 20 stainless steel Charnley hip arthroplasties (with a follow-up of 10-13 years) nickel, chromium and manganese levels were measured in blood, plasma and urine by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Skin patch tests for these metals, and clinical and roentgenographic results of arthroplasty were also assessed. Metal levels in organic fluids were plotted against a control population homogene- ous for age, residence and anamnestic conditions with the first, but which had never undergone a prosthesis or other metallic implant surgical procedure. Nickel levels in blood, plasma and urine, manganese levels in blood and urine and chromium levels in plasma were significantly higher in the hip prostheses popula- tion. Metal ion release from stainless steel prostheses is discussed with regard to implant failure, metal sensitivity and carcinogenesis

Past and Present Forest Composition and Natural History of Deep Woods, Hocking County, Ohio

Author Institution: Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio UniversityDeep Woods, a 114-ha private preserve in Hocking County, OH, is the site of an all taxa biotic inventory (ATBI) coordinated by the Ohio Biological Survey. Here we describe the forest vegetation and natural history of the site and evaluate the role of human disturbance in structuring the regional landscape. Due to various abiotic factors, the area offers a diversity of habitats and species. The bedrock geology consists of sedimentary rock from the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian formations with alluvial deposits along a riparian corridor. At least three soil orders are represented: alfisols, inceptisols, and ultisols. As is typical of most of unglaciated Ohio, the forests here have been subjected to a long history of anthropogenic disturbance. The first inhabitants of the area were ancient moundbuilders (ca. 2500 YBP). During the 1700s, Shawnee and Delaware groups resided throughout the county. Anglo settlers drove all Native American groups out of the area by the early 1800s. The original land survey data (1801) suggested that the dominant vegetation at Deep Woods was composed of Quercus alba, Q. velutina, Carya spp., and Cornus florida (relative importance value, RIV = 34, 13, 12, 11%, respectively). Tax records show that Anglo-ownership of the property dates from the mid-1830s. County death records indicate occupations of 19th century landowners primarily as farmers. Dominant vegetation types include: hydric floodplain, mesic upland, and xeric ridgetop. Betula nigra, Carpinus caroliniana, Ulmus americana, andLiriodendron tulipifera (RIV = 16, 11, 11, 10%) dominate the floodplain. Whereas L. tulipifera, Acer saccharum, andB. alleghaniensis (RIV = 21, 15, 11%) and A rubrum, Q. prinus, and Q. alba (RIV= 27, 13, 9%) dominate the upland and ridgetop, respectively. Several other minor habitats also exist such as pasture fields, hemlock ravines, sandstone outcrops, and rockhouse formations. We conclude that the present species composition resembles the 1801 land survey, even though the post settlement disturbances were different than Native American disturbance regimes

Tripartite entanglement detection through tripartite quantum steering in one-sided and two-sided device-independent scenarios

In the present work, we study tripartite quantum steering of quantum correlations arising from two local dichotomic measurements on each side in the two types of partially device-independent scenarios: $1$-sided device-independent scenario where one of the parties performs untrusted measurements while the other two parties perform trusted measurements and $2$-sided device-independent scenario where one of the parties performs trusted measurements while the other two parties perform untrusted measurements. We demonstrate that tripartite steering in the $2$-sided device-independent scenario is weaker than tripartite steering in the $1$-sided device-independent scenario by using two families of quantum correlations. That is these two families of quantum correlations in the $2$-sided device-independent framework detect tripartite entanglement through tripartite steering for a larger region than that in the $1$-sided device-independent framework. It is shown that tripartite steering in the $2$-sided device-independent scenario implies the presence of genuine tripartite entanglement of $2\times 2 \times 2$ quantum system, even if the correlation does not exhibit genuine nonlocality or genuine steering.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Disentangling the Structure-Activity Relationships of Naphthalene Diimides as Anticancer G-Quadruplex-Targeting Drugs

In the context of developing efficient anticancer therapies aimed at eradicating any sort of tumors, G-quadruplexes represent excellent targets. Small molecules able to interact with G-quadruplexes can interfere with cell pathways specific of tumors and common to all cancers. Naphthalene diimides (NDIs) are among the most promising, putative anticancer G-quadruplextargeting drugs, due to their ability to simultaneously target multiple G-quadruplexes and their strong, selective in vitro and in vivo anticancer activity. Here, all the available biophysical, biological, and structural data concerning NDIs targeting Gquadruplexes were systematically analyzed. Structure−activity correlations were obtained by analyzing biophysical data of their interactions with G-quadruplex targets and control duplex structures, in parallel to biological data concerning the antiproliferative activity of NDIs on cancer and normal cells. In addition, NDI binding modes to G-quadruplexes were discussed in consideration of the structures and properties of NDIs by in-depth analysis of the available structural models of G-quadruplex/NDI complexes

Quantum encoding of dynamic directed graphs

In application domains such as routing, network analysis, scheduling, and planning, directed graphs are widely used as both formal models and core data structures for the development of efficient algorithmic solutions. In these areas, graphs are often evolving in time: for example, connection links may fail due to temporary technical issues, meaning that edges of the graph cannot be traversed for some time interval and alternative paths have to be followed. In classical computation graphs have been implemented both explicitly through adjacency matrices/lists and symbolically as ordered binary decision diagrams. Moreover, ad-hoc visit procedures have been developed to deal with dynamically evolving graphs. Quantum computation, exploiting interference and entanglement, has provided an exponential speed-up for specific problems, e.g., database search and integer factorization. In the quantum framework everything must be represented and manipulated using reversible operators. This poses a challenge when one has to deal with traversals of dynamically evolving directed graphs. Graph traversals are not intrinsically reversible because of converging paths. In the case of dynamically evolving graphs also the creation/destruction of paths comes into play against reversibility. In this paper we propose a novel high level graph representation in quantum computation supporting dynamic connectivity typical of real-world network applications. Our procedure allows to encode any multigraph into a unitary matrix. We devise algorithms for computing the encoding that are optimal in terms of time and space and we show the effectiveness of the proposal with some examples. We describe how to react to edge/node failures in constant time. Furthermore, we present two methods to perform quantum random walks taking advantage of this encoding: with and without projectors. We implement and test our encoding obtaining that the theoretical bounds for the running time are confirmed by the empirical results and providing more details on the behavior of the algorithms over graphs of different densities