An investigation of some thermal and mechanical properties of a low-density phenolic-nylon ablation material Final report

Thermal and mechanical properties of phenolic nylon ablation material

Long-term variability of CO2 and O in the Mars upper atmosphere from MRO radio science data

We estimate the annual variability of CO2 and O partial density using approximately 6years of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) radio science data from August 2006 to January 2012, which cover three full Martian years (from the northern hemisphere summer of 28 to the northern hemisphere summer of 31). These two elements are the dominant species at the MRO periapsis altitude, constituting about 70-80% of the total density. We report the recovered annual cycle of CO2 and the annual and seasonal cycle of O in the upper atmosphere. Although no other observations are available at those altitudes, our results are in good agreement with the density measurements of the Mars Express Spectroscopy for Investigation of Characteristics of the Atmosphere of Mars, which uses stellar occultations between 60 and 130km to determine the CO2 variability, and with the Mars Global Reference Atmospheric Model 2010 for the O annual and seasonal variabilities. Furthermore, the updated model provides more reasonable MRO drag coefficients (CD), which are estimated to absorb mismodeling in the atmospheric density prediction. The higher content of dust in the atmosphere due to dust storms increases the density, so the CDs should compensate for this effect. The correlation between the drag coefficient and the dust optical depth, measured by the Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) instrument, increases from 0.4 to 0.8 with the a priori and adjusted models, respectively. The trend of CDs not only confirms a substantial improvement in the prediction of the atmospheric density with the updated model but also provides useful information for local dust storms, near MRO periapsis, that cannot be measured by the opacity level since THEMIS does not always sample the southern hemisphere evenly

Columnar structure formation of a dilute suspension of settling spherical particles in a quiescent fluid

The settling of heavy spherical particles in a column of quiescent fluid is investigated. The performed experiments cover a range of Galileo numbers ($110 \leq \text{Ga} \leq 310$) for a fixed density ratio of $\Gamma = \rho_p/\rho_f = 2.5$. In this regime the particles are known (M. Jenny, J. Du\v{s}ek and G. Bouchet, Journal of Fluid Mechanics 508, 201 (2004).) to show a variety of motions. It is known that the wake undergoes several transitions for increasing $\text{Ga}$ resulting in particle motions that are successively: vertical, oblique, oblique oscillating, and finally chaotic. Not only does this change the trajectory of single, isolated, settling particles, but it also changes the dynamics of a swarm of particles as collective effects become important even for dilute suspensions, with volume fraction up to $\Phi_V = \mathcal{O}\left(10^{-3}\right)$, which are investigated in this work. Multi-camera recordings of settling particles are recorded and tracked over time in 3 dimensions. A variety of analysis are performed and show a strong clustering behavior. The distribution of the cell areas of the Vorono\"i tessellation in the horizontal plane are compared to that of a random distribution of particles and shows clear clustering. Moreover, a negative correlation was found between the Vorono\"i area and the particle velocity; clustered particles fall faster. In addition, the angle between two adjacent particles and the vertical is calculated and compared to a homogeneous distribution of particles, clear evidence of vertical alignment of particles is found. The experimental findings are compared to simulations.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Recursive internetwork architecture, investigating RINA as an alternative to TCP/IP (IRATI)

Driven by the requirements of the emerging applications and networks, the Internet has become an architectural patchwork of growing complexity which strains to cope with the changes. Moore’s law prevented us from recognising that the problem does not hide in the high demands of today’s applications but lies in the flaws of the Internet’s original design. The Internet needs to move beyond TCP/IP to prosper in the long term, TCP/IP has outlived its usefulness. The Recursive InterNetwork Architecture (RINA) is a new Internetwork architecture whose fundamental principle is that networking is only interprocess communication (IPC). RINA reconstructs the overall structure of the Internet, forming a model that comprises a single repeating layer, the DIF (Distributed IPC Facility), which is the minimal set of components required to allow distributed IPC between application processes. RINA supports inherently and without the need of extra mechanisms mobility, multi-homing and Quality of Service, provides a secure and configurable environment, motivates for a more competitive marketplace and allows for a seamless adoption. RINA is the best choice for the next generation networks due to its sound theory, simplicity and the features it enables. IRATI’s goal is to achieve further exploration of this new architecture. IRATI will advance the state of the art of RINA towards an architecture reference model and specifcations that are closer to enable implementations deployable in production scenarios. The design and implemention of a RINA prototype on top of Ethernet will permit the experimentation and evaluation of RINA in comparison to TCP/IP. IRATI will use the OFELIA testbed to carry on its experimental activities. Both projects will benefit from the collaboration. IRATI will gain access to a large-scale testbed with a controlled network while OFELIA will get a unique use-case to validate the facility: experimentation of a non-IP based Internet

Consistent description of NN and pi-N interactions using the solitary boson exchange potential

A unified description of NN and pi-N elastic scattering is presented in the framework of the one solitary boson exchange potential (OSBEP). This model already successfully applied to analyze NN scattering is now extended to describe pi-N scattering while also improving its accuracy in the NN domain. We demonstrate the importance of regularization of pi-N scattering amplitudes involving Delta isobars and derivative meson-nucleon couplings, as this model always yields finite amplitudes without recourse to phenomenological form factors. We find an empirical scaling relation of the meson self interaction coupling constants consistent with that previously found in the study of NN scattering. Finally, we demonstrate that the OSBEP model does not contradict the soft-pion theorems of pi-N scattering.Comment: 29 pages RevTeX, submitted to Phys. Rev. C, further information at http://i04ktha.desy.d

Long-term prognosis of epilepsy, prognostic patterns and drug resistance: a population-based study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Seizures in most people with epilepsy remit but prognostic markers are poorly understood. There is also little information on the long-term outcome of people who fail to achieve seizure control despite the use of two antiepileptic drugs (drug resistance). METHODS: People with a validated diagnosis of epilepsy in whom two antiepileptic drugs had failed were identified from primary care records. All were registered with one of 123 family physicians in an area of northern Italy. Remission (uninterrupted seizure freedom lasting 2 years or longer) and prognostic patterns (early remission, late remission, remission followed by relapse, no remission) were determined. RESULTS: In all, 747 individuals (381 men), aged 11 months to 94 years, were followed for 11 045.5 person-years. 428 (59%) were seizure-free. The probability of achieving 2-year remission was 18% at treatment start, 34% at 2 years, 45% at 5, 52% at 10 and 67% at 20 years (terminal remission, 60%). Epilepsy syndrome and drug resistance were the only independent predictors of 2- and 5-year remission. Early remission was seen in 101 people (19%), late remission in 175 (33%), remission followed by relapse in 85 (16%) and no remission in 166 (32%). Treatment response was the only variable associated with differing prognostic patterns. CONCLUSION: The long-term prognosis of epilepsy is favourable in most cases. Early seizure remission is not invariably followed by terminal remission and seizure outcome varies according to well-defined patterns. Prolonged seizure remission and prognostic patterns can be predicted by broad syndromic categories and the failure of two antiepileptic drugs

Pairwise alignment incorporating dipeptide covariation

Motivation: Standard algorithms for pairwise protein sequence alignment make the simplifying assumption that amino acid substitutions at neighboring sites are uncorrelated. This assumption allows implementation of fast algorithms for pairwise sequence alignment, but it ignores information that could conceivably increase the power of remote homolog detection. We examine the validity of this assumption by constructing extended substitution matrixes that encapsulate the observed correlations between neighboring sites, by developing an efficient and rigorous algorithm for pairwise protein sequence alignment that incorporates these local substitution correlations, and by assessing the ability of this algorithm to detect remote homologies. Results: Our analysis indicates that local correlations between substitutions are not strong on the average. Furthermore, incorporating local substitution correlations into pairwise alignment did not lead to a statistically significant improvement in remote homology detection. Therefore, the standard assumption that individual residues within protein sequences evolve independently of neighboring positions appears to be an efficient and appropriate approximation

Systematic identification of cancer driving signaling pathways based on mutual exclusivity of genomic alterations.

We present a novel method for the identification of sets of mutually exclusive gene alterations in a given set of genomic profiles. We scan the groups of genes with a common downstream effect on the signaling network, using a mutual exclusivity criterion that ensures that each gene in the group significantly contributes to the mutual exclusivity pattern. We test the method on all available TCGA cancer genomics datasets, and detect multiple previously unreported alterations that show significant mutual exclusivity and are likely to be driver events

First principles calculation of structural and magnetic properties for Fe monolayers and bilayers on W(110)

Structure optimizations were performed for 1 and 2 monolayers (ML) of Fe on a 5 ML W(110) substrate employing the all-electron full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave (FP-LAPW) method. The magnetic moments were also obtained for the converged and optimized structures. We find significant contractions ($\sim$ 10 %) for both the Fe-W and the neighboring Fe-Fe interlayer spacings compared to the corresponding bulk W-W and Fe-Fe interlayer spacings. Compared to the Fe bcc bulk moment of 2.2 $\mu_B$, the magnetic moment for the surface layer of Fe is enhanced (i) by 15% to 2.54 $\mu_B$ for 1 ML Fe/5 ML W(110), and (ii) by 29% to 2.84 $\mu_B$ for 2 ML Fe/5 ML W(110). The inner Fe layer for 2 ML Fe/5 ML W(110) has a bulk-like moment of 2.3 $\mu_B$. These results agree well with previous experimental data