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At least 523 records · Page 29
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1998

The Auroral Oval Boundaries on January 10, 1997: A Comparison of Global Magnetospheric Simulations with UVI Images

We present the results of a global magnetospheric simulation of the initial period of the January 10 - 11, 1997 magnetic cloud event. Distinct magnetospheric boundaries derived from the model are mapped down to the ionosphere and compared to UVI images of the auroral oval from 1:00 to 4:30 UT. The convection reversal boundary, which coincides with the maximum Region I currents, tends to generally match the UVI equatorward boundary. This boundary is almost always poleward of the boundary separating Region 1 and Region 2 currents. The separatrix between open and closed magnetic field lines as mapped in the model matches the poleward boundary of the UVI images very well during quiet periods. During dynamic periods, however, when the separatrix can move several degrees in latitude in some sectors, the poleward boundary of the Region 1 currents matches the UVI images better.

Elsen, R.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Infrared Emission from Comets

A brief discussion of the infrared observations from 4 to 20 micrometers of seven comets is presented. The observed infrared emission from comets depends primarily on their heliocentric distance. A model based on grain populations composed of a mixture of silicate and amorphous carbon particles in the mass ratio of about 40 to 1, with a power-law size distribution similar to that inferred for comet Halley, is applied to the observations. The model provides a good match to the observed heliocentric variation of both the 10 micrometers feature and the overall thermal emission from comets West and Halley. Matches to the observations of comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock and the antitail of comet Kohoutek require slightly larger grains. While the model does not match the exact profile and position of the 3.4 micrometers feature discovered in comet Halley, it does produce a qualitative fit to the observed variation of the feature's strength as a function of heliocentric distance. The calculations predict that the continuum under the 3.4 micrometers feature is due primarily to thermal emission from the comet dust when the comet is close to the Sun and to scattered solar radiation at large heliocentric distances, as is observed. A brief discussion of the determination of cometary grain temperatures from the observed infrared emission is presented. It is found that the observed shape of the emission curve from about 4 to 8 micrometers provides the best spectral region for estimating the cometary grain temperature distribution.

Swamy, K. S. Krishna↗
NASA NTRS1998

A 90 GHz Amplifier Assembled Using a Bump-Bonded InP-Based HEMT

We report on the performance of a novel W-band amplifier fabricated utilizing very compact bump bonds. We bump-bonded a high-speed, low-noise InP high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) onto a separately fabricated passive circuit having a GaAs substrate. The compact bumps and small chip size were used for efficient coupling and maximum circuit design flexibility. This new quasi-monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuit (Q-MMIC) amplifier exhibits a peak gain of 5.8 dB at approx. 90 GHz and a 3 dB bandwidth of greater than 25%. To our knowledge, this is the highest frequency amplifier assembled using bump-bonded technology. Our bump-bonding technique is a useful alternative to the high cost of monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuits (MMIC's). Effects of the bumps on the circuit appear to be minimal. We used the simple matching circuit for demonstrating the technology - future circuits would have all of the elements (resistors, via holes, bias lines, etc.) included 'in conventional MMIC's. Our design in different from other investigators' efforts in that the bumps are only 8 microns thick by 15 microns wide. The bump sizes were sufficiently small that the devices, originally designed for W-band hybrid circuits, could be bonded without alteration. Figure 3 shows the measured and simulated magnitude of S-parameters from 85-120 GHz, of the InP HEMT bump-bonded to the low noise amplifier (LNA) passive. The maximum gain is 5.8 dB at approx. 90 GHz, and gain extends to 117 GHz. Measurement of a single device (without matching networks) shows approx. 1 dB of gain at 90 GHz. The measured gain of the amplifier agrees well with the design in the center of the measurement band, and the agreement falls off at the band edges. Since no accommodation for the bump-bonding parasitics was made in the design, the result implies that the parasitic elements associated with the bonding itself do not dominate the performance of the LNA circuit. It should be noted that this amplifier was designed for good noise performance, which is why the input and output return losses are poorer than one would expect for an amplifier simply matched for gain. However, noise performance has not been measured at this time. While the agreement between modeled vs. experimental data is not exact, the data prove that bump-bonded technology can be used for amplifiers at frequencies at least as high as 100 GHz. JPL is pursuing this technology as a way to economically and quickly incorporate the best available HEMTs into a circuit with all of the reliability and circuit design flexibility offered by MMIC technology. We are currently using the technology to fabricate 4-stage, wide-band, W-band LNA's. We have also performed pull and shear tests which show that the bump bonds are sufficiently robust for any anticipated application.

Pinsukanjana, Paul R.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Adaptive Error Estimation in Linearized Ocean General Circulation Models

Data assimilation methods are routinely used in oceanography. The statistics of the model and measurement errors need to be specified a priori. This study addresses the problem of estimating model and measurement error statistics from observations. We start by testing innovation based methods of adaptive error estimation with low-dimensional models in the North Pacific (5-60 deg N, 132-252 deg E) to TOPEX/POSEIDON (TIP) sea level anomaly data, acoustic tomography data from the ATOC project, and the MIT General Circulation Model (GCM). A reduced state linear model that describes large scale internal (baroclinic) error dynamics is used. The methods are shown to be sensitive to the initial guess for the error statistics and the type of observations. A new off-line approach is developed, the covariance matching approach (CMA), where covariance matrices of model-data residuals are "matched" to their theoretical expectations using familiar least squares methods. This method uses observations directly instead of the innovations sequence and is shown to be related to the MT method and the method of Fu et al. (1993). Twin experiments using the same linearized MIT GCM suggest that altimetric data are ill-suited to the estimation of internal GCM errors, but that such estimates can in theory be obtained using acoustic data. The CMA is then applied to T/P sea level anomaly data and a linearization of a global GFDL GCM which uses two vertical modes. We show that the CMA method can be used with a global model and a global data set, and that the estimates of the error statistics are robust. We show that the fraction of the GCM-T/P residual variance explained by the model error is larger than that derived in Fukumori et al.(1999) with the method of Fu et al.(1993). Most of the model error is explained by the barotropic mode. However, we find that impact of the change in the error statistics on the data assimilation estimates is very small. This is explained by the large representation error, i.e. the dominance of the mesoscale eddies in the T/P signal, which are not part of the 21 by 1" GCM. Therefore, the impact of the observations on the assimilation is very small even after the adjustment of the error statistics. This work demonstrates that simult&neous estimation of the model and measurement error statistics for data assimilation with global ocean data sets and linearized GCMs is possible. However, the error covariance estimation problem is in general highly underdetermined, much more so than the state estimation problem. In other words there exist a very large number of statistical models that can be made consistent with the available data. Therefore, methods for obtaining quantitative error estimates, powerful though they may be, cannot replace physical insight. Used in the right context, as a tool for guiding the choice of a small number of model error parameters, covariance matching can be a useful addition to the repertory of tools available to oceanographers.

Chechelnitsky, Michael Y.↗
NASA NTRS2000

A Comparison of Analytical and Experimental Data for a Magnetic Actuator

Theoretical and experimental force-displacement and force-current data are compared for two configurations of a simple horseshoe, or bipolar, magnetic actuator. One configuration utilizes permanent magnet wafers to provide a bias flux and the other configuration has no source of bias flux. The theoretical data are obtained from two analytical models of each configuration. One is an ideal analytical model which is developed under the following assumptions: (1) zero fringing and leakage flux, (2) zero actuator coil mmf loss, and (3) infinite permeability of the actuator core and suspended element flux return path. The other analytical model, called the extended model, is developed by adding loss and leakage factors to the ideal model. The values of the loss and leakage factors are calculated from experimental data. The experimental data are obtained from a magnetic actuator test fixture, which is described in detail. Results indicate that the ideal models for both configurations do not match the experimental data very well. However, except for the range around zero force, the extended models produce a good match. The best match is produced by the extended model of the configuration with permanent magnet flux bias.

Groom, Nelson J.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Boby-Vortex Interaction, Sound Generation and Destructive Interference

It is generally recognized that interaction of vortices with downstream blades is a major source of noise production. To analyze this problem numerically, a two-dimensional model of inviscid flow together with the method of matched asymptotic expansions is proposed. The method of matched asymptotic expansions is used to match the inner region of incompressible flow to the outer region of compressible flow. Because of incompressibility, relatively simple numerical methods are available to treat multiple vortices and multiple bodies of arbitrary shape. Disturbances from vortices and bodies propagate outward as sound waves. Due to their interactions, either constructive or destructive interference may result. When it is destructive, the combined sound intensity can be reduced, sometimes substantially. In addition, an analytical solution to sound generation by the cascade-vonex interaction is given.

Kao, Hsiao C.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Efficiency Improvements to the Displacement Based Multilevel Structural Optimization Algorithm

Multilevel Structural Optimization (MSO) continues to be an area of research interest in engineering optimization. In the present project, the weight optimization of beams and trusses using Displacement based Multilevel Structural Optimization (DMSO), a member of the MSO set of methodologies, is investigated. In the DMSO approach, the optimization task is subdivided into a single system and multiple subsystems level optimizations. The system level optimization minimizes the load unbalance resulting from the use of displacement functions to approximate the structural displacements. The function coefficients are then the design variables. Alternately, the system level optimization can be solved using the displacements themselves as design variables, as was shown in previous research. Both approaches ensure that the calculated loads match the applied loads. In the subsystems level, the weight of the structure is minimized using the element dimensions as design variables. The approach is expected to be very efficient for large structures, since parallel computing can be utilized in the different levels of the problem. In this paper, the method is applied to a one-dimensional beam and a large three-dimensional truss. The beam was tested to study possible simplifications to the system level optimization. In previous research, polynomials were used to approximate the global nodal displacements. The number of coefficients of the polynomials equally matched the number of degrees of freedom of the problem. Here it was desired to see if it is possible to only match a subset of the degrees of freedom in the system level. This would lead to a simplification of the system level, with a resulting increase in overall efficiency. However, the methods tested for this type of system level simplification did not yield positive results. The large truss was utilized to test further improvements in the efficiency of DMSO. In previous work, parallel processing was applied to the subsystems level, where the derivative verification feature of the optimizer NPSOL had been utilized in the optimizations. This resulted in large runtimes. In this paper, the optimizations were repeated without using the derivative verification, and the results are compared to those from the previous work. Also, the optimizations were run on both, a network of SUN workstations using the MPICH implementation of the Message Passing Interface (MPI) and on the faster Beowulf cluster at ICASE, NASA Langley Research Center, using the LAM implementation of UP]. The results on both systems were consistent and showed that it is not necessary to verify the derivatives and that this gives a large increase in efficiency of the DMSO algorithm.

Plunkett, C. L.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Fiber Grating Coupled Light Source Capable of Tunable, Single Frequency Operation

Fiber Bragg grating coupled light sources can achieve tunable single-frequency (single axial and lateral spatial mode) operation by correcting for a quadratic phase variation in the lateral dimension using an aperture stop. The output of a quasi-monochromatic light source such as a Fabry Perot laser diode is astigmatic. As a consequence of the astigmatism, coupling geometrics that accommodate the transverse numerical aperture of the laser are defocused in the lateral dimension, even for apsherical optics. The mismatch produces the quadratic phase variation in the feedback along the lateral axis at the facet of the laser that excites lateral modes of higher order than the TM 00 . Because the instability entails excitation of higher order lateral submodes, single frequency operation also is accomplished by using fiber Bragg gratings whose bandwidth is narrower than the submode spacing. This technique is particularly pertinent to the use of lensed fiber gratings in lieu of discrete coupling optics. Stable device operation requires overall phase match between the fed-back signal and the laser output. The fiber Bragg grating acts as a phase-preserving mirror when the Bragg condition is met precisely. The phase-match condition is maintained throughout the fiber tuning range by matching the Fabry-Perot axial mode wavelength to the passband center wavelength of the Bragg grating.

Michael A Krainak↗
NASA NTRS1997

Up-down Asymmetries in Speed Perception

We compared speed matches for pairs of stimuli that moved in opposite directions (upward and downward). Stimuli were elliptical patches (2 deg horizontally by 1 deg vertically) of horizontal sinusoidal gratings of spatial. frequency 2 cycles/deg. Two sequential 380 msec reveal presentations were compared. One of each pair of gratings (the standard) moved at 4 Hz (2 deg/sec), the other (the test) moved at a rate determined by a simple up-down staircase. The point of subjectively equal speed was calculated from the average of the last eight reversals. The task was to fixate a central point and to determine which one of the pair appeared to move faster. Eight of 10 observers perceived the upward drifting grating as moving faster than a grating moving downward but otherwise identical. on average (N = 10), when the standard moved downward, it was matched by a test moving upward at 94.7+/-1.7(SE)% of the standard speed, and when the standard moved upward it was matched by a test moving downward at 105.1+/-2.3(SE)% of the standard speed. Extending this paradigm over a range of spatial (1.5 to 13.5 c/d) and temporal (1.5 to 13.5 Hz) frequencies, preliminary results (N = 4) suggest that, under the conditions of our experiment, upward matter is seen as faster than downward for speeds greater than approx.1 deg/sec, but the effect appears to reverse at speeds below approx.1 deg/sec with downward motion perceived as faster. Given that an up-down asymmetry has been observed for the optokinetic response, both perceptual and oculomotor contributions to this phenomenon deserve exploration.

Thompson, Peter↗
NASA NTRS2002

X-ray Properties of Deep Radio-Selected Quasars

This report summarizes the research supported by the ADP grant entitled 'X-ray Properties of Deep Radio-Selected Quasars'. The primary effort consisted of correlating the ROSAT All-Sky Survey catalog with the April 1997 release of the FIRST (Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimeters) radio catalog. We found that a matching radius of 60 sec excluded most false matches while retaining most of the true radio-X-ray sources. The correlation of the approx. 80,000 source RASS and approx. 268,000 FIRST catalogs matched 2,588 FIRST sources with 1,649 RASS sources out of a possible 5,520 RASS sources residing in the FIRST survey area. This number is much higher than expected from our previous experience of correlating the RASS with radio surveys and indicates we detected new classes of objects not seen in the correlations with less sensitive radio surveys.

Becker, Robert↗
NASA NTRS2002

Convective Heat Transfer in the Reusable Solid Rocket Motor of the Space Transportation System

This simulation involved a two-dimensional axisymmetric model of a full motor initial grain of the Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) of the Space Transportation System (STS). It was conducted with CFD (computational fluid dynamics) commercial code FLUENT. This analysis was performed to: a) maintain continuity with most related previous analyses, b) serve as a non-vectored baseline for any three-dimensional vectored nozzles, c) provide a relatively simple application and checkout for various CFD solution schemes, grid sensitivity studies, turbulence modeling and heat transfer, and d) calculate nozzle convective heat transfer coefficients. The accuracy of the present results and the selection of the numerical schemes and turbulence models were based on matching the rocket ballistic predictions of mass flow rate, head end pressure, vacuum thrust and specific impulse, and measured chamber pressure drop. Matching these ballistic predictions was found to be good. This study was limited to convective heat transfer and the results compared favorably with existing theory. On the other hand, qualitative comparison with backed-out data of the ratio of the convective heat transfer coefficient to the specific heat at constant pressure was made in a relative manner. This backed-out data was devised to match nozzle erosion that was a result of heat transfer (convective, radiative and conductive), chemical (transpirating), and mechanical (shear and particle impingement forces) effects combined.

Ahmad, Rashid A.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Standards-and Component-Based Mission Operations Architecture at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) manages many of NASA s earth and space science satellite missions. A wide variety of commercial products and GSFC-developed software components are typically integrated into a unique system configuration for each mission. Independent development of the many mission operations center systems has led to systems that are expensive to integrate, difficult to infuse with new capabilities developed for other programs, and cumbersome to maintain. This traditional approach becomes even more problematic as NASA moves towards satellite constellations, new operations concepts, and even further budgets reductions. The GSFC Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC) is creating a new architecture for future missions at GSFC. Instead of selecting the best-in-class components and creating a standard control center system, GMSEC is developing component interface standards so that multiple products can plug-and-play into the configuration. Missions can then select the best components based on the merits of the product and not simply based on recent integration history at NASA. The GMSEC system utilizes a publish/subscribe information bus and standard XML-based key message interfaces. Functional components can either match directly to the interface standard, or adapters can be developed to match the product's interface to the GMSEC standard with out impacting the source product. Applications Program Interfaces (API's) are being developed to isolate the underlying middleware from the applications software and to allow the middleware product to be switched if necessary. Interface Control Documents (ICDs) between each pair of communicating components is replaced by a single message/API specification document. New applications must simply match to the information bus standards and need not worry about all of the other applications in the system. For legacy software, adapters can be developed to facilitate communications between the application and the information bus. As the approach has matured, it has become apparent that it can provide innovative solutions to some of the multi-satellite challenges facing GSFC.

Smith, Danford↗
NASA NTRS2003

Comparing SeaWiFS Reprocessing Versions (R3 vs. R4)

Satellite observations of global ocean chlorophyll from SeaWiFS were recently reprocessed to incorporate calibration and algorithm improvements. Here, comparisons are made between the newly reprocessed SeaWiFS Level-3 chlorophyll product and the previous version using in situ measurements. The results show that the newly reprocessed SeaWiFS data matches up better with the surface measurements than the previous version did. Globally, the slope of the match-ups improves to 0.85 from 0.78 in log-log scale. A significant trend that contributed to this improvement was the overall decrease in SeaWiFS chlorophyll levels less than 1.0 mg m(exp -3). Regional analyses reveal that the matchups improve in every oceanic basin, except the Antarctic. However, SeaWiFS continues to exhibit poor correspondence with in situ data in the North Atlantic where the match-ups have a slope of 0.54. Also, an examination of monthly images for May 1999 revealed that the number and magnitude of high-value chlorophyll pixels had increased in the high-latitude open ocean of the South Pacific.

Casey, Nancy W.↗
NASA NTRS2003

The VISAR Process

The Video Image Stabilization And Registration (VISAR) process is an award winning video image processing software developed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. VISAR has a wide variety of application areas where the refinement of digital video is needed. It is used to correct jitter, rotation, and zoom effects by registering and processing on individual image captures that are a part of normal video capturing. Its most prominent uses were the 1996 Olympic Bombing case and in identifying Saddam Hussein during the Iraq war. Based on first-hand knowledge, this paper describes the VISAR process, which consists of several steps designed to refine digital video using VISAR software. The process determines the differences between two video images so that one, or both, of the images can be changed in ways that make them match as well as possible. Corrections include changes in position (horizontal and vertical image shifts), changes in orientation (image rotation), and changes in magnification (image zoom). While much of the VISAR process is automated, in its current embodiment it requires the user to initially identify the area of interest and to reset a threshold parameter if the default gives unacceptable results. The basic process that is used is an old tried and true method that determines how well the two images match. This process is called cross-correlation. It gives a single number, the correlation coefficient, that is equal to 1.0 if the images are perfectly matched, is equal to 0.0 if the images have nothing in common, and is equal to -1.0 if one image is the negative of the other. This basic process is used by many image stabilization methods. With VISAR we use it in a manner that provides statistical information needed to best determine orientation and magnification.

Hathaway, David↗
NASA NTRS2003

A Tabletop Tool for Modeling Life Support Systems

This paper describes the development plan for a comprehensive research and diagnostic tool for aspects of advanced life support systems in space-based laboratories. Specifically it aims to build a high fidelity tabletop model that can be used for the purpose of risk mitigation, failure mode analysis, contamination tracking, and testing reliability. We envision a comprehensive approach involving experimental work coupled with numerical simulation to develop this diagnostic tool. It envisions a 10% scale transparent model of a space platform such as the International Space Station that operates with water or a specific matched index of refraction liquid as the working fluid. This allows the scaling of a 10 ft x 10 ft x 10 ft room with air flow to 1 ft x 1 ft x 1 ft tabletop model with water/liquid flow. Dynamic similitude for this length scale dictates model velocities to be 67% of full-scale and thereby the time scale of the model to represent 15% of the full- scale system; meaning identical processes in the model are completed in 15% of the full- scale time. The use of an index matching fluid (fluid that matches the refractive index of cast acrylic, the model material) allows making the entire model (with complex internal geometry) transparent and hence conducive to non-intrusive optical diagnostics. So using such a system one can test environment control parameters such as core flows (axial flows), cross flows (from registers and diffusers), potential problem areas such as flow short circuits, inadequate oxygen content, build up of other gases beyond desirable levels, test mixing processes within the system at local nodes or compartments and assess the overall system performance. The system allows quantitative measurements of contaminants introduced in the system and allows testing and optimizing the tracking process and removal of contaminants. The envisaged system will be modular and hence flexible for quick configuration change and subsequent testing. The data and inferences from the tests will allow for improvements in the development and design of next generation life support systems and configurations.

Ramachandran, N.↗
NASA NTRS2004

An Automated Approach to Reasoning Under Multiple Perspectives

This is the final report with emphasis on research during the last term. The context for the research has been the development of an automated reasoning technology for use in SMS (symbolic Manipulation System), a system used to build and query knowledge bases (KBs) using a special knowledge representation language SL (Symbolic Language). SMS interpreters assertive SL input and enters the results as components of its universe. The system operates in two basic models: 1) constructive mode (for building KBs); and 2) query/search mode (for querying KBs). Query satisfaction consists of matching query components with KB components. The system allows "penumbral matches," that is, matches that do not exactly meet the specifications of the query, but which are deemed relevant for the conversational context. If the user wants to know whether SMS has information that holds, say, for "any chow," the scope of relevancy might be set so that the system would respond based on a finding that it has information that holds for "most dogs," although this is not exactly what was called for by the query. The response would be qualified accordingly, as would normally be the case in ordinary human conversation. The general goal of the research was to develop an approach by which assertive content could be interpreted from multiple perspectives so that reasoning operations could be successfully conducted over the results. The interpretation of an SL statement such as, "{person believes [captain (asserted (perhaps)) (astronaut saw (comet (bright)))]}," which in English would amount to asserting something to the effect that, "Some person believes that a captain perhaps asserted that an astronaut saw a bright comet," would require the recognition of multiple perspectives, including some that are: a) epistemically-based (focusing on "believes"); b) assertion-based (focusing on "asserted"); c) perception-based (focusing on "saw"); d) adjectivally-based (focusing on "bight"); and e) modally-based (focusing on "perhaps"). Any conclusion reached under a line of reasoning that employs such an assertion or its associated implications should somehow reflect the employed perspectives. The investigators made significant progress in developing an approach that would enable a system to conduct reasoning operations over assertions of this kind while maintaining consistency in its knowledge bases. Significant accomplishments were made in the areas of: 1) integration and inferencing; 2) generation of perspectives, including wholistic ad composite views; and 3) consistency maintenance.

deBessonet, Cary↗
NASA NTRS2002

Stereo transparency and the disparity gradient limit

Several studies (Vision Research 15 (1975) 583; Perception 9 (1980) 671) have shown that binocular fusion is limited by the disparity gradient (disparity/distance) separating image points, rather than by their absolute disparity values. Points separated by a gradient >1 appear diplopic. These results are sometimes interpreted as a constraint on human stereo matching, rather than a constraint on fusion. Here we have used psychophysical measurements on stereo transparency to show that human stereo matching is not constrained by a gradient of 1. We created transparent surfaces composed of many pairs of dots, in which each member of a pair was assigned a disparity equal and opposite to the disparity of the other member. For example, each pair could be composed of one dot with a crossed disparity of 6' and the other with uncrossed disparity of 6', vertically separated by a parametrically varied distance. When the vertical separation between the paired dots was small, the disparity gradient for each pair was very steep. Nevertheless, these opponent-disparity dot pairs produced a striking appearance of two transparent surfaces for disparity gradients ranging between 0.5 and 3. The apparent depth separating the two transparent planes was correctly matched to an equivalent disparity defined by two opaque surfaces. A test target presented between the two transparent planes was easily detected, indicating robust segregation of the disparities associated with the paired dots into two transparent surfaces with few mismatches in the target plane. Our simulations using the Tsai-Victor model show that the response profiles produced by scaled disparity-energy mechanisms can account for many of our results on the transparency generated by steep gradients.

NASA Discipline Space Human Factors↗
NASA NTRS2001

The anabolic activity of bone tissue, suppressed by disuse, is normalized by brief exposure to extremely low-magnitude mechanical stimuli

It is generally believed that mechanical signals must be large in order to be anabolic to bone tissue. Recent evidence indicates, however, that extremely low-magnitude (<10 microstrain) mechanical signals readily stimulate bone formation if induced at a high frequency. We examined the ability of extremely low-magnitude, high-frequency mechanical signals to restore anabolic bone cell activity inhibited by disuse. Adult female rats were randomly assigned to six groups: baseline control, age-matched control, mechanically stimulated for 10 min/day, disuse (hind limb suspension), disuse interrupted by 10 min/day of weight bearing, and disuse interrupted by 10 min/day of mechanical stimulation. After a 28 day protocol, bone formation rates (BFR) in the proximal tibia of mechanically stimulated rats increased compared with age-matched control (+97%). Disuse alone reduced BFR (-92%), a suppression only slightly curbed when disuse was interrupted by 10 min of weight bearing (-61%). In contrast, disuse interrupted by 10 min per day of low-level mechanical intervention normalized BFR to values seen in age-matched controls. This work indicates that this noninvasive, extremely low-level stimulus may provide an effective biomechanical intervention for the bone loss that plagues long-term space flight, bed rest, or immobilization caused by paralysis.

Non-NASA Center↗