Identification of specific requirements for a NASA aerospace law information system and identification of the acquisition requirements for an aerospace law collection for the NASA law library

The study to develop, implement, and maintain a space law library and information system is summarized. The survey plan; major interviews with individuals representative of potential sources, users and producers of information related to aerospace law; and system trade-off analyses are discussed along with the NASA/RECON system capability. The NASA publications of STAR and IAA are described, and the NASA legal micro-thesaurus is included

Space law information system design, phase 2

Design alternatives were defined for the implementation of a Space Law Information System for the Office of the General Counsel, NASA. A thesaurus of space law terms was developed and a selected document sample indexed on the basis of that thesaurus. Abstracts were also prepared for the sample document set

Repulsive Casimir Pistons

Casimir pistons are models in which finite Casimir forces can be calculated without any suspect renormalizations. It has been suggested that such forces are always attractive. We present three scenarios in which that is not true. Two of these depend on mixing two types of boundary conditions. The other, however, is a simple type of quantum graph in which the sign of the force depends upon the number of edges.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; RevTeX. Minor additions and correction

A new code for Fourier-Legendre analysis of large datasets: first results and a comparison with ring-diagram analysis

Fourier-Legendre decomposition (FLD) of solar Doppler imaging data is a promising method to estimate the sub-surface solar meridional flow. FLD is sensible to low-degree oscillation modes and thus has the potential to probe the deep meridional flow. We present a newly developed code to be used for large scale FLD analysis of helioseismic data as provided by the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG), the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) instrument, and the upcoming Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument. First results obtained with the new code are qualitatively comparable to those obtained from ring-diagram analyis of the same time series.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 4th HELAS International Conference "Seismological Challenges for Stellar Structure", 1-5 February 2010, Arrecife, Lanzarote (Canary Islands

Precision Spectroscopy of Molecular Hydrogen Ions: Towards Frequency Metrology of Particle Masses

We describe the current status of high-precision ab initio calculations of the spectra of molecular hydrogen ions (H_2^+ and HD^+) and of two experiments for vibrational spectroscopy. The perspectives for a comparison between theory and experiment at a level of 1 ppb are considered.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, to appear in "Precision Physics of Simple Atomic Systems", Lecture Notes in Physics, Springer, 200

Legal Uncertainty and Land Disputes in the Peri-Urban Areas of Mozambique: Land Markets in Transition

The Government of Mozambique is considering legal changes in its land law and administration of state leasehold property-an enormous challenge given its past socialist history and the uncertainties created by its current transition to a private market economy. The present research sought to identify dispute causes and de facto processes of dispute resolution as one basis for gauging inadequacies in the current law and system of state land administration.Land Economics/Use,

A Measurement of Water Vapour amid a Largely Quiescent Environment on Europa

Previous investigations proved the existence of local density enhancements in Europas atmosphere, advancing the idea of a possible origination from water plumes. These measurement strategies, however, were sensitive either to total absorption or atomic emissions, which limited the ability to assess the water content. Here we present direct searches for water vapour on Europa spanning dates from February 2016 to May 2017 with the Keck Observatory. Our global survey at infrared wavelengths resulted in non-detections on 16 out of 17 dates, with upper limits below the water abundances inferred from previous estimates. On one date (26 April 2016) we measured 2,095 658 tonnes of water vapour at Europas leading hemisphere. We suggest that the outgassing ls than previously estimated, with only rare localized events of stronger activity

Polymeric forms of carbon in dense lithium carbide

The immense interest in carbon nanomaterials continues to stimulate intense research activities aimed to realize carbon nanowires, since linear chains of carbon atoms are expected to display novel and technologically relevant optical, electrical and mechanical properties. Although various allotropes of carbon (e.g., diamond, nanotubes, graphene, etc.) are among the best known materials, it remains challenging to stabilize carbon in the one-dimensional form because of the difficulty to suitably saturate the dangling bonds of carbon. Here, we show through first-principles calculations that ordered polymeric carbon chains can be stabilized in solid Li$_2$C$_2$ under moderate pressure. This pressure-induced phase (above 5 GPa) consists of parallel arrays of twofold zigzag carbon chains embedded in lithium cages, which display a metallic character due to the formation of partially occupied carbon lone-pair states in \emph{sp}$^2$-like hybrids. It is found that this phase remains the most favorable one in a wide range of pressure. At extreme pressure (larger the 215 GPa) a structural and electronic phase transition towards an insulating single-bonded threefold-coordinated carbon network is predicted.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Atomic Bose and Anderson glasses in optical lattices

An ultra cold atomic Bose gas in an optical lattice is shown to provide an ideal system for the controlled analysis of disordered Bose lattice gases. This goal may be easily achieved under the current experimental conditions, by introducing a pseudo-random potential created by a second additional lattice or, alternatively, by placing a speckle pattern on the main lattice. We show that for a non commensurable filling factor, in the strong interaction limit, a controlled growing of the disorder drives a dynamical transition from superfluid to Bose-glass phase. Similarly, in the weak interaction limit, a dynamical transition from superfluid to Anderson-glass phase may be observed. In both regimes, we show that even very low-intensity disorder-inducing lasers cause large modifications of the superfluid fraction of the system.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes. To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. (2003