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At least 343 records · Page 19

Shifting the closed-loop spectrum in the optimal linear quadratic regulator problem for hereditary systems

In the optimal linear quadratic regulator problem for finite dimensional systems, the method known as an alpha-shift can be used to produce a closed-loop system whose spectrum lies to the left of some specified vertical line; that is, a closed-loop system with a prescribed degree of stability. This paper treats the extension of the alpha-shift to hereditary systems. As infinite dimensions, the shift can be accomplished by adding alpha times the identity to the open-loop semigroup generator and then solving an optimal regulator problem. However, this approach does not work with a new approximation scheme for hereditary control problems recently developed by Kappel and Salamon. Since this scheme is among the best to date for the numerical solution of the linear regulator problem for hereditary systems, an alternative method for shifting the closed-loop spectrum is needed. An alpha-shift technique that can be used with the Kappel-Salamon approximation scheme is developed. Both the continuous-time and discrete-time problems are considered. A numerical example which demonstrates the feasibility of the method is included.

Gibson, J. S.↗

The second-order gravitational red shift

The direct measurement of the nonlinear term of the gravitational field equations by using very stable clocks is discussed along with measuring the perhelion advance of a planet or satellite. These are considered measurements of the second-order gravitational red shift. The exact expression for the frequency shift of light in a gravitational field is derived. Other topics discussed include: The Doppler-cancelling technique; the second-order red shift in a spherically symmetric gravitational field; finite signal transit time; and the reality and interpretation of coordinates in the second-order red shift experiment.

Jaffe, J.↗

Critique of the Hughes Aircraft shuttle Ku band leading edge bit synchronizer

A bit synchronizer is analyzed via timing diagrams in a noise-free environment. It is believed that this new bit synchronizer will track the rising edge of the data bits with 25% asymmetry and up to a 90 deg phase shift between the received clock and data bit timing. In addition, the data bits will be demodulated correctly. It is not true that phase shifts larger than 90 deg will necessarily be corrected by this bit synchronizer. However, the specifications currently require the loop to operate over only a + or - 75 deg phase shift between the received data stream leading edges and the bit synchronizer leading edges; consequently, there should be no problem.

Holmes, J. K.↗

Variation in Sleep Duration and Circadian Phase by Duty Start Time Among Short-Haul Commercial Airline Pilots

Prior studies have confirmed that commercial airline pilots experience circadian phase shifts and short sleep duration following travel with layovers in different time zones. Few studies have examined the impact of early and late starts on the sleep and circadian phase of airline pilots who return to their domicile after each duty period. We recruited 44 pilots (4 female) from a short-haul commercial airline to participate in a study examining sleep and circadian phase over four duty schedules (baseline, early starts, mid-day starts, late starts). Each duty schedule was five days long, separated by three rest days. Participants completed the rosters in the same order. Sleep outcomes were estimated using wrist-borne actigraphy (Actiware Software, Respironics, Bend, OR) and daily sleep diaries. Thirteen participants volunteered to collect urine samples for the assessment of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin (aMT6s). Urine samples were collected in four hourly bins during the day and eight-hourly bins during sleep episodes, for 24 hours immediately following each experimental duty schedule. The aMT6s results were fit to a cosine in order to obtain the acrophase to estimate circadian phase. Univariate statistics were calculated for acrophase changes, schedule start times and sleep times. All statistical analyses were computed using SAS software (Cary, IN).The mean duty start times varied as expected (baseline 10:17 [ 3:50], early starts 5:24 [ 0:30], mid-day starts 13:52 [ 1:20], late starts 16:33 [ 1:33]). Actigraphy-derived sleep duration varied between schedule types, with the shortest average sleep durations occurring during the early starts and night duty. Mean circadian phase was similar during each schedule type (baseline 26:14 [ 3:22], early starts 25:29 [2:13], mid-day starts 26:20 [ 3:16], late starts 25:49 [ 4:28]), but there were wide inter-individual differences in phase shifting from the beginning to the end of the study, with phase shifts ranging from a 5.98 hour phase advance to an 11.34 hour phase delay. Our preliminary findings suggest that early and late starts are associated with reduced sleep duration. The dispersion in inter-individual differences in circadian phase across shifting duty schedules should be further evaluated to determine how schedule-induced phase shifts may affect operational performance.

Flynn-Evans, Erin↗

Interpolation schemes in the control of systems with unknown dynamics

Time-delay control for systems with unknown dynamics involves estimations. In its present form, these estimations include not only the interpolation of a time-varying function but also its derivative between data points. Presently, the control law is reformulated, taking into account the computation delay. A window-shifting scheme is then devised to view n data points as they are sampled in order to perform the function estimation. At each new sampling time, the window shifts to include the new data point as well as the last n-1 points. Several interpolation methods are considered. These methods use data points from a sampled function to construct a polynomial estimate of the function. The control system performance was experimentally tested using a servosystem. The results show that a Newtonian interpolation provided best results when the computation time was 0.4 times the sampling period.

Youcef-Toumi, K.↗

The dilemma of future electric power demand

Dim prospects are held out for continued exponential growth rates in the generation and use of electric power worldwide and in many local areas, extrapolating from current trends and common projections. While acknowledging the unique advantages of electric power use, the article points out the 30% level of efficiency in conversion of other forms of energy to electrical energy, with huge volumes of wasted energy plus thermal pollution. Even growth at a fixed rate is found problematical, with future needs exhausting water and land resources and fossil fuels in time. Alleviation of the situation by shifting much of the load to still unproven technologies is considered cautiously

Wu, Y.-C.↗

Infrared observations of comets

Infrared observation are important for deducing a great deal about properties of the cometary dust surrounding the cometary nucleus. All observations in the infrared are limited to long period comets. Three features of the spectrum which seem to be present in nearly all of the comets observed are discussed. First, there is a peak in the spectrum in the near infrared and visible wavelength, which can be attributed to scattered sunlight. This feature, as expected, gets fainter as a comet recedes from the sun. The second dominant feature in the spectrum is a broad peak in the infrared which is attributed to the thermal emission of the dust in the coma. This part of the spectrum also gets dimmer as the comet gets further from the sun but, at the same time the peak of the spectrum shifts to longer wavelengths, indicating that the dust from which this radiation arises is cooling as the comets recedes. The other feature in the spectrum which is noted is the emission feature at about 10 microns attributed to emission from metallic ilicates. T.M.

Hobbs, R. W.↗

NMR studies of electronic structure in crystalline and amorphous Zr2PdH/x/

The proton Knight shifts and spin-lattice relaxation times have been measured in crystalline and amorphous Ze2PdH(x). Core polarization from the Zr d-band dominates the proton hyperfine interactions. The density of Fermi level d-electron states is reduced in the amorphous phase relative to the electron density in crystalline Zr2PdH(x).

Bowman, R. C., Jr.↗

Temporal variations of the tropical 40-50 day oscillation

In recent years there has been a great deal of interest in a quasi-periodic tropical oscillation of zonal winds, which was first reported by Madden and Julian. An attempt to determine the temporal variation of the oscillation parameters is presented here. Using a 4-year duration global time series and a 25-year station time series, it is found that although the nonseasonal variations are large, any seasonal cycle in the oscillation amplitude and frequency must be very small. The small seasonal signal in the oscillation frequency seems to argue against explanations for the time scale based on Doppler-shifted traveling waves.

Anderson, J. R.↗

Configuration of the high-latitude thermosphere neutral circulation for IMF B(y) negative and positive

Asymmetries in the Northern Hemisphere neutral circulation that are dependent on the sign of the east-west 'B(y)' component of the IMF are presently illustrated by measurements of the neutral wind in the polar F-region which were conducted by the DE-2 spacecraft. The data thus obtained are categorized according to the sign of the hourly averaged IMF B(y) component measured by ISEE-3 for the hour preceding the DE-2 measurements. It is noted that there is (1) an asymmetry in the polar cap neutral flow velocity, with the region of most rapid antisunward flow shifting from the dawn side to the dusk side of the polar cap as B(y) changes from positive to negative; (2) a shift occurs in the magnetic local time of the region of entry of neutral gas into the polar cap, from a location on the dawn side of the moon-midnight meridian for B(y) positive to one more biased, for B(y) negative; and (3) there is an enhancement of velocities associated with the dawn anticlockwise neutral vortex for B(y) negative relative to those observed for B(y) positive.

Mccormac, F. G.↗

Magnetic optical activity in intense laser fields. I - Self-rotation and Verdet constant

The paper is concerned with the Faraday rotation and circular dichroism of dilute gases in longitudinal magnetic fields subject to strong radiation fields. In particular, magnetic fields are considered which produce Zeeman shifts much smaller than inverse collision times but which may be greater or smaller then the multipole relaxation times. Doppler broadening is considered, and explicit expressions are given for dipole transitions in a two-level system with arbitrary angular momentum for strong and weak magnetic fields. The same system is then studied as a function of the external magnetic-field strength with a fixed laser frequency. It is shown that this experimental arrangement, referred to as forward scattering, has certain advantages that are not present in the more usual magnetic rotation spectroscopy.

Giraud-Cotton, S.↗

Aeronautical mobile TDMA/MCTDMA system

A multiple carrier Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) system capable of supporting voice, stream data, and packet data traffic between aircraft and ground terminals is presented. Demand assignment permits efficient resource sharing for voice and stream data. The bandwidth efficiency of uncoded A Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (AQPSK) is 1 bps/Hz. High time efficiency (approximately equals 83 percent) is achieved through the use of symbol synchronous TDMA. Demodulation is achieved without loop hang-up while requiring only a 16 symbol preamble each burst. A concatenated coding system provides reliable transmission under multipath conditions.

Magill, Thomas↗

Multiple-Symbol Detection Of Multiple-Trellis-Coded MDPSK

In proposed scheme for detection and decoding of multiple-trellis-coded multilevel differential-phase-shift-keyed (MDPSK) radio signals, observation time for differential detection extended from conventional 2 to larger number of symbol periods. Decreases rate of error in differential detection of uncoded MDPSK by increasing number of symbol periods.

Divsalar, Dariush↗

Emergency egress requirements for Space Station Freedom

There is a real concern regarding the requirements for safe emergency egress from the Space Station Freedom (SSF). The possible causes of emergency are depressurization due to breach of the station hull by space debris, meteoroids, seal failure, or vent failure; chemical toxicity; and a large fire. The objectives of the current study are to identify the tasks required to be performed in emergencies, establish the time required to perform these tasks, and to review the human equipment interface in emergencies. It was found that a fixed time value specified for egress has shifted focus from the basic requirements of safe egress, that in some situations the crew members may not be able to complete the emergency egress tasks in three minutes without sacrificing more than half of the station, and that increased focus should be given to human factors aspects of space station design.

Ray, Paul S.↗

Heterodyne spectroscopy of carbon monoxide lines perturbed by hydrogen and helium

Infrared heterodyne spectroscopy has been used for the first time to measure the widths and shifts of CO rovibrational spectra perturbed by H2 and He. A spectral resolution of 20 MHz was achieved. The CO-He line-broadening measurements were accurate enough to distinguish between two proposed intermolecular potential models of this system. Also, a measured increase in the broadening coefficient as a function of rotational quantum number j was observed for CO-He at temperatures of 80 K. This is not easy to explain in the context of so-called 'sudden approximations' which have been used to interpret pressure broadening data for this system.

Mannucci, Anthony J.↗