Development of a silver-zinc battery system

Summary report is described of historical documentation and detailed design data for development of silver-zinc battery for use on Surveyor spacecraft. Electrical and physical characteristics of battery models are included, along with data on qualification, acceptance, solar-thermal-vacuum, mission simulation testing, and actual flight performance

Dominating sets and ego-centered decompositions in social networks

Our aim here is to address the problem of decomposing a whole network into a minimal number of ego-centered subnetworks. For this purpose, the network egos are picked out as the members of a minimum dominating set of the network. However, to find such an efficient dominating ego-centered construction, we need to be able to detect all the minimum dominating sets and to compare all the corresponding dominating ego-centered decompositions of the network. To find all the minimum dominating sets of the network, we are developing a computational heuristic, which is based on the partition of the set of nodes of a graph into three subsets, the always dominant vertices, the possible dominant vertices and the never dominant vertices, when the domination number of the network is known. To compare the ensuing dominating ego-centered decompositions of the network, we are introducing a number of structural measures that count the number of nodes and links inside and across the ego-centered subnetworks. Furthermore, we are applying the techniques of graph domination and ego=centered decomposition for six empirical social networks.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Effect of fuel molecular structure on soot formation in gas turbine combustion

The effect of fuel variations at the same hydrogen content on the formation of soot in a gas turbine combustor was studied. Six fuels were burned to a combustor over a matrix of about 50 test conditions with test conditions ranging over 500-1800 kPa (5-18 atm) pressure and 500-1000 K burner inlet temperature; fuel-air ratios were varied from 0.008-0.024. Flame radiation measurements were made through a sapphire window toward the end of the primary zone. The hydrogen content of the six test fuels ranged from 12.80 to 12.88%. Five fuels emphasized hydrocarbon types: (mono, di, and tricyclic), naphthenes (decalin) and partially hydrogenated aromatics (tetralin); the sixth fuel emphasized final boiling point

Fuel quality combustion analysis

A high pressure research combustor operating over a wide range of burner inlet conditions was used to determine the effects of fuel molecular structure on soot formation. Six test fuels with equal hydrogen content (12.8%) were blended to stress different molecular components and final boiling points. The fuels containing high concentrations (20%) of polycyclic aromatics and partially saturated polycyclic structures such as tetralin, produced more soot than would be expected from a hydrogen content correlation for typical petroleum based fuels. Fuels containing naphthenes such as decalin agreed with the hydrogen content correlation. The contribution of polycyclic aromatics to soot formation was equivalent to a reduction in fuel hydrogen content of about one percent. The fuel sensitivity to soot formation due to the polycyclic aromatic contribution decreased as burner inlet pressure and fuel/air ratio increased

Temporal and spatial expression of tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases 1 and 2 (TIMP-1 and -2) in the bovine corpus luteum

The matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their endogenous inhibitors, tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs), may mediate the dramatic structural and functional changes in the corpus luteum (CL) over the course of its life span. In addition to regulating MMP activity, TIMPs are also involved in a variety of cellular processes, including cell proliferation and steroidogenesis. In a series of initial studies, we determined that matrix metalloproteinase inhibitory activity was present in protein extracts from early (4 days old, estrus = day 0), mid (10–12 days old) and late (16 days old) CL (n = 3 for each stage). Reverse zymography revealed four metalloproteinase inhibitory protein bands with relative Molecular masses that are consistent with those reported for TIMP-1 to -4. In order to gain a better understanding of TIMPs and their role in luteal function, we further characterized this inhibitory activity with a particular focus on the temporal and spatial expression of TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 in the bovine CL. Northern blotting revealed that the TIMP-1 transcript (0.9 kb) was expressed at a higher (p \u3c 0.05) level in early and mid cycle CL than in the late stage. In contrast, two TIMP-2 mRNA species, one major 1 kb species and one minor 3.5 kb species, were significantly (p \u3c 0.05) increased in the mid and late cycle CL than in the early. Western blotting analyses demonstrated no differences in TIMP-1 (29 kDa) protein levels between early and mid stages, while its levels decreased (p \u3c 0.05) from the mid to late stage CL. Conversely, TIMP-2 (22 kDa) protein was detected at a low level in the early CL, but significantly (p \u3c 0.05) increased in the mid and late stages. Immunohistochemistry revealed that both TIMP-1 and -2 were localized to large luteal cells from all three ages of CL. TIMP-1 was also localized in capillary smooth muscle cells, while TIMP-2 was restricted to the endothelial cells in the capillary compartment. In conclusion, the different temporal expression patterns of TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 suggest that TIMP-1 may be important for luteal formation and development, while TIMP-2 may play significant roles during luteal development and maintenance. Furthermore, the distinct localization of these two inhibitors in the vascular compartment indicates that they may serve diverse physiological functions during different stages of luteal angiogenesis

Construction Dust Amelioration Techniques

INE/AUTC 12.0

The Jovian electron spectrum: 1978-1984

Observations of Jovian electrons through six consecutive 13-month Jovian synodic periods from 1978 to 1984 have been made by the University of Chicago electron spectrometer onboard the ISEE-3 (ICE) spacecraft. The Jovian electron spectrum was determined from 5 to 30 Mev and was found to have a shape which is not a power law in kinetic energy, but cuts off at approximately 30 MeV. The average shape of the spectrum over each of the six intervals of best magnetic connection remains the same for all intervals within uncertainties

Unbeatable Consensus

The unbeatability of a consensus protocol, introduced by Halpern, Moses and Waarts in 2001, is a stronger notion of optimality than the accepted notion of early stopping protocols. Using a novel knowledge-based analysis, this paper derives the first practical unbeatable consensus protocols in the literature, for the standard synchronous message-passing model with crash failures. These protocols strictly dominate the best known protocols for uniform and for non-uniform consensus, in some case beating them by a large margin. The analysis provides a new understanding of the logical structure of consensus, and of the distinction between uniform and nonuniform consensus. Finally, the first (early stopping and) unbeatable protocol that treats decision values "fairly" is presented. All of these protocols have very concise descriptions, and are shown to be efficiently implementable.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1311.690