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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 937 records · Page 52
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1993

Immune changes in humans concomitant with space flights of up to 10 days duration

The time relation of various classes of in-flight human physiological changes is illustrated. Certain problems, such as neurovestibular, fluid, and electrolyte imbalances tend to occur early in a flight, followed by stabilization at some microgravity equilibrium level. Cardiovascular dysfunctions and erythrocyte mass losses appear to follow a similar pattern, although the significant changes occur later in flight. Bone and calcium changes and radiation effects are thought to progressively worsen with time, whereas the time course of immune change is yet to be fully understood. Significant immunologic changes in cosmonauts and astronauts during and after space flight have been documented as have microbiological changes. Thus, space flight can be expected to effect a blunting of the human cellular immune mechanism concomitant with a relative increase in potentially pathogenic microorganisms. This combination would seem to increase the probability of infectious disease events in flight.

Taylor, Gerald R.↗
NASA NTRS1981

An approximate solution to improve computational efficiency of impedance-type payload load prediction

The computational efficiency of the impedance type loads prediction method was studied. Three goals were addressed: devise a method to make the impedance method operate more efficiently in the computer; assess the accuracy and convenience of the method for determining the effect of design changes; and investigate the use of the method to identify design changes for reduction of payload loads. The method is suitable for calculation of dynamic response in either the frequency or time domain. It is concluded that: the choice of an orthogonal coordinate system will allow the impedance method to operate more efficiently in the computer; the approximate mode impedance technique is adequate for determining the effect of design changes, and is applicable for both statically determinate and statically indeterminate payload attachments; and beneficial design changes to reduce payload loads can be identified by the combined application of impedance techniques and energy distribution review techniques.

White, C. W.↗
NASA NTRS1977

A high-temperature wideband pressure transducer

A condenser microphone AM carrier system, which has been developed to measure pressure fluctuations at elevated temperatures, consists of the following components: a condenser microphone designed for operation at elevated temperatures; existing carrier electronics developed under two previous research grants but adapted to meet present requirements; a 6 m cable operating as a half-wavelength transmission line between the microphone and carrier electronics; and a voltage-controlled oscillator used in a feedback loop for automatic tuning control. Both theoretical and practical aspects of the development program are considered. The three predominant effects of temperature changes are changes in the membrane-backplate gap, membrane tension, and air viscosity. The microphone is designed so that changes in gap and membrane tension tend to have compensating effects upon the microphone sensitivity.

Zuckerwar, A. J.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Functional relationships among monitoring performance: Subjective report of thought process and compromising states of awareness

A biocybernetic system for use in adaptive automation was evaluated using EEG indices based on the beta, alpha, and theta bandwidths. Subjects performed a compensatory tracking task while their EEG was recorded and one of three engagement indices was derived: beta/(alpha + theta), beta/alpha, or 1/alpha. The task was switched between manual and automatic modes as a function of the subjects' level of engagement and whether they were under a positive or negative feedback condition. It was hypothesized that negative feedback would produce more switches between manual and automatic modes, and that the beta/(alpha + theta) index would produce the strongest effect. The results confirmed these hypotheses. There were no systematic changes in these effects over three 16-minute trials. Tracking performance was found to be better under negative feedback. An analysis of the different EEG bands under positive and negative feedback in manual and automatic modes found more beta power in the positive feedback/manual condition and less in the positive feedback/automatic condition. The opposite effect was observed for alpha and theta power. The implications of biocybernetic systems for adaptive automation are discussed.

Freeman, Frederick↗
NASA NTRS2005

Scattering-Type Surface-Plasmon-Resonance Biosensors

Biosensors of a proposed type would exploit scattering of light by surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Related prior biosensors exploit absorption of light by SPR. Relative to the prior SPR biosensors, the proposed SPR biosensors would offer greater sensitivity in some cases, enough sensitivity to detect bioparticles having dimensions as small as nanometers. A surface plasmon wave can be described as a light-induced collective oscillation in electron density at the interface between a metal and a dielectric. At SPR, most incident photons are either absorbed or scattered at the metal/dielectric interface and, consequently, reflected light is greatly attenuated. The resonance wavelength and angle of incidence depend upon the permittivities of the metal and dielectric. An SPR sensor of the type most widely used heretofore includes a gold film coated with a ligand a substance that binds analyte molecules. The gold film is thin enough to support evanescent-wave coupling through its thickness. The change in the effective index of refraction at the surface, and thus the change in the SPR response, increases with the number of bound analyte molecules. The device is illuminated at a fixed wavelength, and the intensity of light reflected from the gold surface opposite the ligand-coated surface is measured as a function of the angle of incidence. From these measurements, the angle of minimum reflection intensity is determined

Wang, Yu↗
NASA NTRS2020

The GGCMI Phase 2 emulators: global gridded crop model responses to changes in CO2, temperature, water, and nitrogen (version 1.0)

Statistical emulation allows combining advantageous features of statistical and process-based crop models for understanding the effects of future climate changes on crop yields. We describe here the development of emulators for nine process-based crop models and five crops using output from the Global Gridded Model Intercomparison Project (GGCMI) Phase 2. The GGCMI Phase 2 experiment is designed with the explicit goal of producing a structured training dataset for emulator development that samples across four dimensions relevant to crop yields: atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, temperature, water supply, and nitrogen inputs (CTWN). Simulations are run under two different adaptation assumptions: that growing seasons shorten in warmer climates, and that cultivar choice allows growing seasons to remain fixed. The dataset allows emulating the climatological-mean yield response of all models with a simple polynomial in mean growing-season values. Climatological-mean yields are a central metric in climate change impact analysis; we show here that they can be captured without relying on interannual variations. In general, emulation errors are negligible relative to differences across crop models or even across climate model scenarios; errors become significant only in some marginal lands where crops are not currently grown. We demonstrate that the resulting GGCMI emulators can reproduce yields under realistic future climate simulations, even though the GGCMI Phase 2 dataset is constructed with uniform CTWN offsets, suggesting that the effects of changes in temperature and precipitation distributions are small relative to those of changing means. The resulting emulators therefore capture relevant crop model responses in a lightweight, computationally tractable form, providing a tool that can facilitate model comparison, diagnosis of interacting factors affecting yields, and integrated assessment of climate impacts.

James A Franke↗
NASA NTRS1993

Long-term changes in Jovian synchrotron radio emission - Intrinsic variations or effects of viewing geometry?

Possible causes of the observed long-term variation of Jovian synchrotron radio emission, including both intrinsic changes in the Jovian radiation belts and apparent changes due to variations in the Jovigraphic declination of the earth, D sub E, are investigated. An increase in diffusion rate with other parameters held constant results in an inward displacement of the peak emission radial distance that is not observed. Effects of viewing geometry changes are examined. The possible importance of such effects is suggested by a correlation between the total decimetric radio flux and D sub E, which varies between -3.3 and +3.3 deg during one Jovian orbital period. Because the Jovian central meridian longitudes where the magnetic latitude passes through zero during a given Jovian rotation change substantially with D sub E and since significant longitudinal asymmetries exist in both the volume emissivity and the latitudinal profile of the beam, the total intensity should be at least a partial function of D sub E.

Hood, Lon L.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Satellite Data Sets in the Polar Regions

We have generated about two decades of consistently derived geophysical parameters in the polar regions. The key parameters are sea ice concentration, surface temperature, albedo, and cloud cover statistics. Sea ice concentrations were derived from the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) data and the Special Scanning Cl Microwave Imager (SSM/I) data from several platforms using the enhanced Bootstrap Algorithm for the period 1978 through 1999. The new algorithm reduces the errors associated with spatial and temporal variations in the emissivity and surface temperatures of sea ice. Also, bad data at ocean/land interfaces are identified and deleted in an unsupervised manner. Surface ice temperature, albedo and cloud cover statistics are derived simultaneously from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data from 1981 through 1999 and mapped at a higher resolution but the same format as the ice concentration data. The technique makes use these co-registered ice concentration maps to enable cloud masking to be done separately for open ocean, sea ice and land areas. The effect of inversion is minimized by taking into consideration the expected changes in the effect of inversion with altitude, especially in the Antarctic. A technique for ice type regional classification has also been developed using multichannel cluster analysis and a neural network. This provide a means to identify large areas of thin ice, first year ice, and older ice types. The data sets have been shown to be coherent with each other and provide a powerful tool for in depth studies of the currently changing Arctic and Antarctic environment.

Comiso, Josefino C.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Directed Incremental Symbolic Execution

The last few years have seen a resurgence of interest in the use of symbolic execution -- a program analysis technique developed more than three decades ago to analyze program execution paths. Scaling symbolic execution and other path-sensitive analysis techniques to large systems remains challenging despite recent algorithmic and technological advances. An alternative to solving the problem of scalability is to reduce the scope of the analysis. One approach that is widely studied in the context of regression analysis is to analyze the differences between two related program versions. While such an approach is intuitive in theory, finding efficient and precise ways to identify program differences, and characterize their effects on how the program executes has proved challenging in practice. In this paper, we present Directed Incremental Symbolic Execution (DiSE), a novel technique for detecting and characterizing the effects of program changes. The novelty of DiSE is to combine the efficiencies of static analysis techniques to compute program difference information with the precision of symbolic execution to explore program execution paths and generate path conditions affected by the differences. DiSE is a complementary technique to other reduction or bounding techniques developed to improve symbolic execution. Furthermore, DiSE does not require analysis results to be carried forward as the software evolves -- only the source code for two related program versions is required. A case-study of our implementation of DiSE illustrates its effectiveness at detecting and characterizing the effects of program changes.

Person, Suzette↗
NASA NTRS1988

An experimental investigation of the aerodynamic characteristics of slanted base ogive cylinders using magnetic suspension technology

An experimental investigation is reported on slanted base ogive cylinders at zero incidence. The Mach number range is 0.05 to 0.3. All flow disturbances associated with wind tunnel supports are eliminated in this investigation by magnetically suspending the wind tunnel models. The sudden and drastic changes in the lift, pitching moment, and drag for a slight change in base slant angle are reported. Flow visualization with liquid crystals and oil is used to observe base flow patterns, which are responsible for the sudden changes in aerodynamic characteristics. Hysteretic effects in base flow pattern changes are present in this investigation and are reported. The effect of a wire support attachment on the 0 deg slanted base model is studied. Computational drag and transition location results using VSAERO and SANDRAG are presented and compared with experimental results. Base pressure measurements over the slanted bases are made with an onboard pressure transducer using remote data telemetry.

Alcorn, Charles W.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Aerodynamic effects of an attitude control vane on a tilt-nacelle V/STOL propulsion system

One possible technique for obtaining longitudinal control on a tilt-nacelle V/STOL aircraft is the use of a variable attitude vane assembly mounted in the propulsion system exhaust. Deflecting the vane produces large forces and moments without depending on forward speed of the aircraft. Tests are carried out in the Ames 40 by 80 ft wind tunnel on a large-scale tilt-nacelle V/STOL propulsion system with and without a variable attitude control vane assembly. Aerodynamic characteristics are analyzed in terms of nacelle aerodynamics, vane aerodynamics, and vane-induced effects on the nacelle aerodynamics. It is shown that the aerodynamic forces due to the nacelle without the vane can be a significant part of the total forces produced by the propulsion system. The control vane effectively produces large changes in pitching moment which are accompanied by significant changes in total lift and drag. The vane has a substantial effect on the propulsion-system aerodynamics. Other pertinent results are also given.

Betzina, M. D.↗
NASA NTRS1992

SAR observations of the Gulf Stream during SWADE

The Surface Wave Dynamics Experiment (SWADE) has gathered SAR observations of the Gulf Stream that show a change in ocean surface brightness; this may be due to the effects of a change in air-sea temperature difference across the observed edge, where the boundary is defined by warm, quickly flowing Gulf Stream water and cooler, relatively stationary shelf water. The two images discussed indicate the possibility of deepening understanding of Gulf Stream front dynamics by using the abundant spatial data of SAR imagery, in conjunction with more conventional (point-like) data on hydrography and currents.

Vachon, Paris W.↗
NASA NTRS1947

Wind-tunnel investigation of the effect of power and flaps on the static lateral characteristics of a single-engine low-wing airplane model

Tests were made in the Langley 7- by 10-foot tunnel to determine the lateral-stability characteristics with and without power of a model of a typical low-wing single-engine airplane with flaps neutral, with a full-span single slotted flap, and with a full-span double slotted flap. Power decreased the dihedral effect regardless of flap condition, and the double-slotted flap configuration showed the most marked decrease. The usual effect of power in increasing the directional stability was also shown. Deflection of the single slotted flap produced negative dihedral effect, but increased the directional stability. The effects of deflecting the double slotted flap were erratic and marked changes in both effective dihedral and directional stability occurred. The addition of the tail surfaces always contributed directional stability and generally produced positive dihedral effect.

Tamburello, Vito↗
NASA NTRS1996

Effective Thermal Conductivity of an Aluminum Foam + Water Two Phase System

This study examined the effect of volume fraction and pore size on the effective thermal conductivity of an aluminum foam and water system. Nine specimens of aluminum foam representing a matrix of three volume fractions (4-8% by vol.) and three pore sizes (2-4 mm) were tested with water to determine relationships to the effective thermal conductivity. It was determined that increases in volume fraction of the aluminum phase were correlated to increases in the effective thermal conductivity. It was not statistically possible to prove that changes in pore size of the aluminum foam correlated to changes in the effective thermal conductivity. However, interaction effects between the volume fraction and pore size of the foam were statistically significant. Ten theoretical models were selected from the published literature to compare against the experimental data. Models by Asaad, Hadley, and de Vries provided effective thermal conductivity predictions within a 95% confidence interval.

Moskito, John↗