Space station common module network topology and hardware development

Conceptual space station common module power management and distribution (SSM/PMAD) network layouts and detailed network evaluations were developed. Individual pieces of hardware to be developed for the SSM/PMAD test bed were identified. A technology assessment was developed to identify pieces of equipment requiring development effort. Equipment lists were developed from the previously selected network schematics. Additionally, functional requirements for the network equipment as well as other requirements which affected the suitability of specific items for use on the Space Station Program were identified. Assembly requirements were derived based on the SSM/PMAD developed requirements and on the selected SSM/PMAD network concepts. Basic requirements and simplified design block diagrams are included. DC remote power controllers were successfully integrated into the DC Marshall Space Flight Center breadboard. Two DC remote power controller (RPC) boards experienced mechanical failure of UES 706 stud-mounted diodes during mechanical installation of the boards into the system. These broken diodes caused input to output shorting of the RPC's. The UES 706 diodes were replaced on these RPC's which eliminated the problem. The DC RPC's as existing in the present breadboard configuration do not provide ground fault protection because the RPC was designed to only switch the hot side current. If ground fault protection were to be implemented, it would be necessary to design the system so the RPC switched both the hot and the return sides of power

Roundoff-induced Coalescence of Chaotic Trajectories

Numerical experiments recently discussed in the literature show that identical nonlinear chaotic systems linked by a common noise term (or signal) may synchronize after a finite time. We study the process of synchronization as function of precision of calculations. Two generic behaviors of the average coalescence time are identified: exponential or linear. In both cases no synchronization occurs if iterations are done with {\em infinite} precision.Comment: 6 pages, 3 postscript figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

DECODING MOLECULAR PROCESSOR INFORMATION

There are non-imaginable resources of information inherently stored and naturally processed in the physical world. Eliciting and processing information does assume, as usual, the existence of the system (e. g., classic logical gates) suitable for operations or measurements performed. Meanwhile, the powerful chemical and other complex system conversions of information have not used implementation of this kind. Processes in living and non-living physical world run with immediate changes of the properties of objects constituting complex systems. We can detect the features of changing structures and thus to acquire the knowledge about environment. The main part of the structural properties and processes is however hidden though it can underlie important transformations. A massive information which is cumulated and processed in structures of complex systems turns out to constitute a kind of a specific number processor. Thus, the information by which the molecular systems are loaded is to be elicited and transformed to the forms suitable for detection.Pozna

Dissipation time and decay of correlations

We consider the effect of noise on the dynamics generated by volume-preserving maps on a d-dimensional torus. The quantity we use to measure the irreversibility of the dynamics is the dissipation time. We focus on the asymptotic behaviour of this time in the limit of small noise. We derive universal lower and upper bounds for the dissipation time in terms of various properties of the map and its associated propagators: spectral properties, local expansivity, and global mixing properties. We show that the dissipation is slow for a general class of non-weakly-mixing maps; on the opposite, it is fast for a large class of exponentially mixing systems which include uniformly expanding maps and Anosov diffeomorphisms.Comment: 26 Pages, LaTex. Submitted to Nonlinearit

Calcium oxalate crystals induce renal inflammation by NLRP3-mediated IL-1β secretion

Nephrocalcinosis, acute calcium oxalate (CaOx) nephropathy, and renal stone disease can lead to inflammation and subsequent renal failure, but the underlying pathological mechanisms remain elusive. Other crystallopathies, such as gout, atherosclerosis, and asbestosis, trigger inflammation and tissue remodeling by inducing IL-1β secretion, leading us to hypothesize that CaOx crystals may induce inflammation in a similar manner. In mice, intrarenal CaOx deposition induced tubular damage, cytokine expression, neutrophil recruitment, and renal failure. We found that CaOx crystals activated murine renal DCs to secrete IL-1β through a pathway that included NLRP3, ASC, and caspase-1. Despite a similar amount of crystal deposits, intrarenal inflammation, tubular damage, and renal dysfunction were abrogated in mice deficient in MyD88; NLRP3, ASC, and caspase-1; IL-1R; or IL-18. Nephropathy was attenuated by DC depletion, ATP depletion, or therapeutic IL-1 antagonism. These data demonstrated that CaOx crystals trigger IL-1β–dependent innate immunity via the NLRP3/ASC/caspase-1 axis in intrarenal mononuclear phagocytes and directly damage tubular cells, leading to the release of the NLRP3 agonist ATP. Furthermore, these results suggest that IL-1β blockade may prevent renal damage in nephrocalcinosis

Students as producers and active partners in enhancing equality and diversity: ‘culturosity’ at Canterbury Christ Church University

Equality and diversity of truths, of opportunity, of outcome, of dignity and of identities lie at the heart of the idea of university (Wolff, 1992, p. 68). However, despite the fact that the UK ‘has well-established equality law and practice’ and the Equality Act 2010 requires universities to implement changes that protect their students and employees from various forms and effects of discrimination, ‘inequality remains, albeit often in more complex and subtle forms than have been understood before’, argues David Ruebain (2012, p. 3). This study contributes to the discussion about equality and diversity practices in the university context by proposing strategies to embed into students’ learning community equality and diversity and subsequent graduate attributes. The case study is the Culturosity Project: an equality and diversity training initiative co-created by Dr Kasia Lech and a group of final-year students and graduates from Drama and Performing Arts programmes and delivered – as a Canterbury Christ Church University Partners in Learning project – to L4 and foundation-year students. The project was first delivered in 2015 and has now become part of student induction at the CCCU Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Tissue Microenvironments Define and Get Reinforced by Macrophage Phenotypes in Homeostasis or during Inflammation, Repair and Fibrosis

Current macrophage phenotype classifications are based on distinct in vitro culture conditions that do not adequately mirror complex tissue environments. In vivo monocyte progenitors populate all tissues for immune surveillance which supports the maintenance of homeostasis as well as regaining homeostasis after injury. Here we propose to classify macrophage phenotypes according to prototypical tissue environments, e.g. as they occur during homeostasis as well as during the different phases of (dermal) wound healing. In tissue necrosis and/or infection, damage- and/or pathogen-associated molecular patterns induce proinflammatory macrophages by Toll-like receptors or inflammasomes. Such classically activated macrophages contribute to further tissue inflammation and damage. Apoptotic cells and antiinflammatory cytokines dominate in postinflammatory tissues which induce macrophages to produce more antiinflammatory mediators. Similarly, tumor-associated macrophages also confer immunosuppression in tumor stroma. Insufficient parenchymal healing despite abundant growth factors pushes macrophages to gain a profibrotic phenotype and promote fibrocyte recruitment which both enforce tissue scarring. Ischemic scars are largely devoid of cytokines and growth factors so that fibrolytic macrophages that predominantly secrete proteases digest the excess extracellular matrix. Together, macrophages stabilize their surrounding tissue microenvironments by adapting different phenotypes as feed-forward mechanisms to maintain tissue homeostasis or regain it following injury. Furthermore, macrophage heterogeneity in healthy or injured tissues mirrors spatial and temporal differences in microenvironments during the various stages of tissue injury and repair. Copyright (C) 2012 S. Karger AG, Base

Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Bent-Core Liquid Crystals

By molecular modeling we demonstrate that the nematic long-range order discovered in bent-core liquid crystal systems should reveal further spatially homogeneous phases. Two of them are identified as a tetrahedratic nematic ($N_T$) phase with $D_{2d}$ symmetry and a chiral tetrahedratic nematic ($N_T^*$) phase with $D_2$ symmetry. These new phases were found for a lattice model with quadrupolar and octupolar anisotropic interactions using Mean Field theory and Monte Carlo simulations. The phase diagrams exhibit tetrahedratic ($T$), $N_T$ and $N_T^*$ phases, in addition to ordinary isotropic ($I$), uniaxial nematic ($N_U$) and biaxial nematic ($N_B$) phases. To our knowledge, this is the first molecular model with spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in non-layered systems.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted for publicatio