Spacecraft and mission design for the SP-100 flight experiment

The design and performance of a spacecraft employing arcjet nuclear electric propulsion, suitable for use in the SP-100 Space Reactor Power System (SRPS) Flight Experiment, are outlined. The vehicle design is based on a 93 kW(e) ammonia arcjet system operating at an experimentally measured specific impulse of 1031 s and an efficiency of 42.3 percent. The arcjet/gimbal assemblies, power conditioning subsystem, propellant feed system, propulsion system thermal control, spacecraft diagnostic instrumentation, and the telemetry requirements are described. A 100 kW(e) SRPS is assumed. The spacecraft mass is baselined at 5675 kg excluding the propellant and propellant feed system. Four mission scenarios are described which are capable of demonstrating the full capability of the SRPS. The missions considered include spacecraft deployment to possible surveillance platform orbits, a spacecraft storage mission, and an orbit raising round trip corresponding to possible orbit transfer vehicle (OTV) missions

VANETs Signal Quality-based Route Selection in Smart Cities

In road networks, the most common metrics to determine the optimal route relaying two points are either the path length or the travel time. However, as autonomous smart cars are expected to emerge in future smart cities and lead to an unprecedented growth of mobile applications spectrum for both drivers and passengers, we argue that other metrics can be also considered for route selection. Therefore, the best route for a driver will be also determined by specific in-vehicle users' requirements such as, ensuring sufficient quality for wireless connection with minimum cost, and selecting preferred access networks, etc. To this end, we propose an original algorithm that enables route selection based on maximum expected signal quality with respect to the drivers' maximum tolerated prolongation of journey. Our ultimate objective is to select the route that ensures sufficient signal quality for users on board by maximizing the usage of VANETs resources, through RSUs, while minimizing the usage of the costly LTE-A resources. The obtained simulation results, under several scenarios, have proven the high efficiency of the proposed algorithm

Multiplicities of charged pions and unidentified charged hadrons from deep-inelastic scattering of muons off an isoscalar target

Multiplicities of charged pions and unidentified hadrons produced in deep-inelastic scattering were measured in bins of the Bjorken scaling variable $x$, the relative virtual-photon energy $y$ and the relative hadron energy $z$. Data were obtained by the COMPASS Collaboration using a 160 GeV muon beam and an isoscalar target ($^6$LiD). They cover the kinematic domain in the photon virtuality $Q^2$ > 1(GeV/c$)^2$, $0.004 < x < 0.4$, $0.2 < z < 0.85$ and $0.1 < y < 0.7$. In addition, a leading-order pQCD analysis was performed using the pion multiplicity results to extract quark fragmentation functions

Leading-order determination of the gluon polarisation from semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering data

Using a novel analysis technique, the gluon polarisation in the nucleon is re-evaluated using the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry measured in the cross section of semi-inclusive single-hadron muoproduction with photon virtuality $Q^2>1~({\rm GeV}/c)^2$. The data were obtained by the COMPASS experiment at CERN using a 160 GeV/$c$ polarised muon beam impinging on a polarised $^6$LiD target. By analysing the full range in hadron transverse momentum $p_{\rm T}$, the different $p_{\rm T}$-dependences of the underlying processes are separated using a neural-network approach. In the absence of pQCD calculations at next-to-leading order in the selected kinematic domain, the gluon polarisation $\Delta g/g$ is evaluated at leading order in pQCD at a hard scale of $\mu^2= \langle Q^2 \rangle = 3 ({\rm GeV}/c)^2$. It is determined in three intervals of the nucleon momentum fraction carried by gluons, $x_{\rm g}$, covering the range $0.04 \!<\! x_{ \rm g}\! <\! 0.28$~ and does not exhibit a significant dependence on $x_{\rm g}$. The average over the three intervals, $\langle \Delta g/g \rangle = 0.113 \pm 0.038_{\rm (stat.)}\pm 0.036_{\rm (syst.)}$ at $\langle x_{\rm g} \rangle \approx 0.10$, suggests that the gluon polarisation is positive in the measured $x_{\rm g}$ range.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Multiple Determinants of Externalizing Behavior in 5-Year-Olds: A Longitudinal Model

In a community sample of 116 children, assessments of parent-child interaction, parent-child attachment, and various parental, child, and contextual characteristics at 15 and 28 months and at age 5 were used to predict externalizing behavior at age 5, as rated by parents and teachers. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis and path analysis yielded a significant longitudinal model for the prediction of age 5 externalizing behavior, with independent contributions from the following predictors: child sex, partner support reported by the caregiver, disorganized infant-parent attachment at 15 months, child anger proneness at 28 months, and one of the two parent-child interaction factors observed at 28 months, namely negative parent-child interactions. The other, i.e., a lack of effective guidance, predicted externalizing problems only in highly anger-prone children. Furthermore, mediated pathways of influence were found for the parent-child interaction at 15 months (via disorganized attachment) and parental ego-resiliency (via negative parent-child interaction at 28 months)

Optimal deployment of components of cloud-hosted application for guaranteeing multitenancy isolation

One of the challenges of deploying multitenant cloud-hosted services that are designed to use (or be integrated with) several components is how to implement the required degree of isolation between the components when there is a change in the workload. Achieving the highest degree of isolation implies deploying a component exclusively for one tenant; which leads to high resource consumption and running cost per component. A low degree of isolation allows sharing of resources which could possibly reduce cost, but with known limitations of performance and security interference. This paper presents a model-based algorithm together with four variants of a metaheuristic that can be used with it, to provide near-optimal solutions for deploying components of a cloud-hosted application in a way that guarantees multitenancy isolation. When the workload changes, the model based algorithm solves an open multiclass QN model to determine the average number of requests that can access the components and then uses a metaheuristic to provide near-optimal solutions for deploying the components. Performance evaluation showed that the obtained solutions had low variability and percent deviation when compared to the reference/optimal solution. We also provide recommendations and best practice guidelines for deploying components in a way that guarantees the required degree of isolation

Measurement of azimuthal hadron asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering off unpolarised nucleons

Spin-averaged asymmetries in the azimuthal distributions of positive and negative hadrons produced in deep inelastic scattering were measured using the CERN SPS longitudinally polarised muon beam at 160 GeV/c and a (LiD)-Li-6 target. The amplitudes of the three azimuthal modulations cos phi(h), cos 2 phi(h) and sin phi(h) were obtained binning the data separately in each of the relevant kinematic variables x, z or p(T)(h), and binning in a three-dimensional grid of these three variables. The amplitudes of the cos phi(h) and cos 2 phi(h) modulations show strong kinematic dependencies both for positive and negative hadrons