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At least 37 records · Page 2

Pivotable strakes for high angle of attack control

A series of pivotable strakes have been tested in combination with a 44-deg swept wing to determine their ability to provide pitch control at high angles of attack. The tests were carried out in the Langley 7 X 10-Foot High-Speed tunnel at nominal Mach numbers of 0.3 to 0.4. A total of five strakes with various aspects ratios and shapes were tested at negative deflection angles of 5, 10, 15, and 20 deg through an angle of attack range up to approximately 50 deg. In addition, a cranked delta wing with 70-deg sweep was tested with two different pivotable apex flaps. This paper shows lift, drag and moment data for the complete configurations as well as for the separate contributions of the strakes and fuselage nose which are mounted on a second balance. Generally, strake deflection was found to have a significant effect on moment while lift/drag changed very little.

Bobbitt, P. J.↗

Remote pivot decoupler pylon: Wing/store flutter suppressor

A device for suspending a store from an aerodynamic support surface, such an an aircraft wing, and more specifically, for improving upon singlet pivot decoupler pylons by reducing both frequency of active store, alignment, and alignment system space and power requirements. Two links suspend a lower pylon/rack section and releasable attached store from an upper pylon section mounted under the wing. The links allow the lower pylon section to rotate in pitch about a remote pivot point. A leaf spring connected between the lower section and electrical alignment system servomechanism provides pitch alignment of the lower section/store combination. The servomechanism utilizes an electric servomotor to drive the gear train and reversibly move the leaf spring, thereby maintaining the pitch attitude of the store within acceptable limits. The damper strokes when the lower section rotates to damp large oscillations of store.

Hassler, J. M., Jr.↗

Development of confidence limits by pivotal functions for estimating software reliability

The utility of pivotal functions is established for assessing software reliability. Based on the Moranda geometric de-eutrophication model of reliability growth, confidence limits for attained reliability and prediction limits for the time to the next failure are derived using a pivotal function approach. Asymptotic approximations to the confidence and prediction limits are considered and are shown to be inadequate in cases where only a few bugs are found in the software. Departures from the assumed exponentially distributed interfailure times in the model are also investigated. The effect of these departures is discussed relative to restricting the use of the Moranda model.

Dotson, Kelly J.↗

Pivotal-Function Assessment Of Reliability Of Software

Approach developed to establish utility of pivotal functions for estimation and prediction of reliability of software. Improved estimates of reliability with statistical confidence obtained when relatively few testing data available. Pivotal functions effective tools for determination of confidence limits for reliability of software and prediction limits for time to next failure. Provides exact confidence and prediction limits regardless of how many bugs found in software.

Hayhurst, Kelly J.↗

A new active virtual pivot six-degree-of-freedom hand controller for aerospace applications

During 1989 a new six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) active hand controller concept was designed and constructed based on the concept of a virtual pivot. This concept, labeled VPHC, was first demonstrated in a 1985 study and a patent was issued in 1990. Operator control input occurs via a force/torque sensor rigidly mounted to the handgrip. Sensed force/torque signals are used by microprocessors to generate motor drive control for each of six independently controlled motors mounted on the three-legged mechanism. The control microprocessor uses input biasing and rate-feedback motor controllers to generate the sensed feel of virtual springs and deadbands found in more conventional designs. An important advantage of this design is that the location of the virtual pivots, reflective forces and torques, breakout force levels, sensed spring rates, and operating modes, can be changed simply by changing the software. This approach yields an autonomous VPHC that can easily adapt itself to an individual operator (by software extension). A proof-of-concept version has been demonstrated, and further improvements are currently being studied and implemented.

Marshall, William C.↗

Pivoting-Head Wrench

Wrench ends pivot so it can be used to loosen or tighten nuts or bolts in confined spaces. One end equipped with open-end socket; other end, with double-hexagon socket. Heads pivot on pins. Pins fit tightly so heads do not flop; friction on pins sufficient to hold heads in positions until rotated intentionally.

Bradley, Glen L.↗

Pivotal Role of Cloud‐Planetary Boundary Layer Coupling to Explain Contrasting Aerosol‐Cloud Relationships

The radiative effect of aerosol on cloud albedo via altering cloud droplet effective radius (r e ) is a major uncertainty in the Earth's climate system. Remote sensing studies have reported either negative or positive relationships between re and aerosol number concentration (N a ) or other aerosol proxies. However, there are much fewer in situ observational evidences and physical explanation remains elusive for the contrasting N a -r e relationships. Here we quantify the N a -r e relationship by using in situ aircraft measurements, together with a re decomposition method. Our analysis reveals that the cloud-planetary boundary layer (PBL) coupling plays a pivotal role on the N a -r e relationship. Quantitative r e decomposition indicates that the contrasting N a -r e relationships in two cloud-PBL coupling regimes result from different balances of four distinct aspects. The widely recognized number effect may be outweighed by the joint effects of the remaining three that have been rarely investigated and largely ignored in N a -r e parameterizations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Rice NIN-LIKE PROTEIN 4 plays a pivotal role in nitrogen use efficiency

Nitrogen (N) is one of the key essential macronutrients that affects rice growth and yield. Inorganic N fertilizers are excessively used to boost yield and generate serious collateral environmental pollution. Therefore, improving crop N use efficiency (NUE) is highly desirable and has been a major endeavour in crop improvement. However, only a few regulators have been identified that can be used to improve NUE in rice to date. Here we show that the rice NIN-like protein 4 (OsNLP4) significantly improves the rice NUE and yield. Field trials consistently showed that loss-of-OsNLP4 dramatically reduced yield and NUE compared with wild type under different N regimes. In contrast, the OsNLP4 overexpression lines remarkably increased yield by 30% and NUE by 47% under moderate N level compared with wild type. Transcriptomic analyses revealed that OsNLP4 orchestrates the expression of a majority of known N uptake, assimilation and signalling genes by directly binding to the nitrate-responsive cis-element in their promoters to regulate their expression. Moreover, overexpression of OsNLP4 can recover the phenotype of Arabidopsis nlp7 mutant and enhance its biomass. Our results demonstrate that OsNLP4 plays a pivotal role in rice NUE and sheds light on crop NUE improvement.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A new upper bound for the growth factor in Gaussian elimination with complete pivoting

Abstract The growth factor in Gaussian elimination measures how large the entries of an LU factorization can be relative to the entries of the original matrix. It is a key parameter in error estimates, and one of the most fundamental topics in numerical analysis. We produce an upper bound of for the growth factor in Gaussian elimination with complete pivoting — the first improvement upon Wilkinson's original 1961 bound of .

Bisain, Ankit [Department of Mathematics Massachus↗