Ion beam machining error control and correction for small scale optics.

PubMed

Xie, Xuhui; Zhou, Lin; Dai, Yifan; Li, Shengyi

2011-09-20

Ion beam figuring (IBF) technology for small scale optical components is discussed. Since the small removal function can be obtained in IBF, it makes computer-controlled optical surfacing technology possible to machine precision centimeter- or millimeter-scale optical components deterministically. Using a small ion beam to machine small optical components, there are some key problems, such as small ion beam positioning on the optical surface, material removal rate, ion beam scanning pitch control on the optical surface, and so on, that must be seriously considered. The main reasons for the problems are that it is more sensitive to the above problems than a big ion beam because of its small beam diameter and lower material ratio. In this paper, we discuss these problems and their influences in machining small optical components in detail. Based on the identification-compensation principle, an iterative machining compensation method is deduced for correcting the positioning error of an ion beam with the material removal rate estimated by a selected optimal scanning pitch. Experiments on ϕ10 mm Zerodur planar and spherical samples are made, and the final surface errors are both smaller than λ/100 measured by a Zygo GPI interferometer.

A Future State for NASA Laboratories - Working in the 21st Century

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kegelman, Jerome T.; Harris, Charles E.; Antcliff, Richard R.; Bushnell, Dennis M.; Dwoyer, Douglas L.

2009-01-01

The name "21 st Century Laboratory" is an emerging concept of how NASA (and the world) will conduct research in the very near future. Our approach is to carefully plan for significant technological changes in products, organization, and society. The NASA mission can be the beneficiary of these changes, provided the Agency prepares for the role of 21st Century laboratories in research and technology development and its deployment in this new age. It has been clear for some time now that the technology revolutions, technology "mega-trends" that we are in the midst of now, all have a common element centered around advanced computational modeling of small scale physics. Whether it is nano technology, bio technology or advanced computational technology, all of these megatrends are converging on science at the very small scale where it is profoundly important to consider the quantum effects at play with physics at that scale. Whether it is the bio-technology creation of "nanites" designed to mimic our immune system or the creation of nanoscale infotechnology devices, allowing an order of magnitude increase in computational capability, all involve quantum physics that serves as the heart of these revolutionary changes.

Proceedings of the 1st Army Installation Waste to Energy Workshop

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-08-01

Center 2902 Newmark Dr. Champaign, IL 61824 René S. Parker Select Engineering Services (SES) 1544 Woodland Park Ave. Suite 310 Layton , UT 84041...gasification technologies at different scales (Source: Larson, Eric D., “Small-Scale Gasification-Based Biomass Power Generation,” January 1998...Engineering Research Laboratory. Larson, Eric D. 1998. Small-scale gasification-based biomass power generation. Prepared for the Biomass Workshop

Case Study of a Small Scale Polytechnic Entrepreneurship Capstone Course Sequence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webster, Rustin D.; Kopp, Richard

2017-01-01

A multidisciplinary entrepreneurial senior capstone has been created for engineering technology students at a research I land-grant university statewide extension. The two semester course sequence welcomes students from Mechanical Engineering Technology, Electrical Engineering Technology, Computer Graphics Technology, and Organizational…

Stories of Success and Struggle: California's Small Farms.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warnert, Jeannette; McCue, Susan

1999-01-01

Describes the University of California's Small Farms Program, which aims to support the sustainability of small farms by providing small-scale farmers with state-of-the-art information, research, support networks, and technical assistance in technology adoption and decision making. Profiles four successful small farms that grow strawberries,…

Small Scale Marine Fisheries: An Extension Training Manual. TR-30.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martinson, Steven; And Others

This manual is designed for use in a preservice training program for prospective volunteers whose Peace Corps service will be spent working with small-scale artisanal fishing communities in developing nations. The program consists of 8 weeks of intensive training to develop competencies in marine fisheries technology and fisheries extension work…

Combined heat and power systems: economic and policy barriers to growth.

PubMed

Kalam, Adil; King, Abigail; Moret, Ellen; Weerasinghe, Upekha

2012-04-23

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems can provide a range of benefits to users with regards to efficiency, reliability, costs and environmental impact. Furthermore, increasing the amount of electricity generated by CHP systems in the United States has been identified as having significant potential for impressive economic and environmental outcomes on a national scale. Given the benefits from increasing the adoption of CHP technologies, there is value in improving our understanding of how desired increases in CHP adoption can be best achieved. These obstacles are currently understood to stem from regulatory as well as economic and technological barriers. In our research, we answer the following questions: Given the current policy and economic environment facing the CHP industry, what changes need to take place in this space in order for CHP systems to be competitive in the energy market? We focus our analysis primarily on Combined Heat and Power Systems that use natural gas turbines. Our analysis takes a two-pronged approach. We first conduct a statistical analysis of the impact of state policies on increases in electricity generated from CHP system. Second, we conduct a Cost-Benefit analysis to determine in which circumstances funding incentives are necessary to make CHP technologies cost-competitive. Our policy analysis shows that regulatory improvements do not explain the growth in adoption of CHP technologies but hold the potential to encourage increases in electricity generated from CHP system in small-scale applications. Our Cost-Benefit analysis shows that CHP systems are only cost competitive in large-scale applications and that funding incentives would be necessary to make CHP technology cost-competitive in small-scale applications. From the synthesis of these analyses we conclude that because large-scale applications of natural gas turbines are already cost-competitive, policy initiatives aimed at a CHP market dominated primarily by large-scale (and therefore already cost-competitive) systems have not been effectively directed. Our recommendation is that for CHP technologies using natural gas turbines, policy focuses should be on increasing CHP growth in small-scale systems. This result can be best achieved through redirection of state and federal incentives, research and development, adoption of smart grid technology, and outreach and education.

Evaluation of Arsenic Removal Technology: Arsenic Demonstration Program

EPA Science Inventory

Specific objectives of this program are to evaluate the reliability of the arsenic technologies of small scale systems; to gauge the simplicity of system operations, maintenance and operator skill; to determine the cost-effectiveness of the treatment technologies; and to characte...

Assessing the Educational and Financial Needs of Small-Scale Dairy Farmers in Socopo, Venezuela. Summary of Research 64.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nieto, Ruben D.; Henderson, Janet L.

The process of transferring agricultural technology in many countries was studied to determine the perceived educational and financial needs of small-scale dairy farmers in Socopo, Venezuela. The following data were collected: (1) demographic characteristics--age, educational level, farm size, number of lactating cows, dairy farming experience,…

Simple Assessment Techniques for Soil and Water. Environmental Factors in Small Scale Development Projects. Workshops.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coordination in Development, New York, NY.

This booklet was produced in response to the growing need for reliable environmental assessment techniques that can be applied to small-scale development projects. The suggested techniques emphasize low-technology environmental analysis. Although these techniques may lack precision, they can be extremely valuable in helping to assure the success…

Evaluation of Information and Communication Technology Utilization by Small Holder Banana Farmers in Gatanga District, Kenya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mwombe, Simon O. L.; Mugivane, Fred I.; Adolwa, Ivan S.; Nderitu, John H.

2014-01-01

Purpose: The study was carried out to identify information communication technologies (ICTs) used in production and marketing of bananas, to determine factors influencing intensity of use of ICT tools and to assess whether use of ICT has a significant influence on adoption of tissue culture bananas by small-scale banana farmers in Gatanga…

Appropriate Technology Sourcebook - For Tools and Techniques That Use Local Skills, Local Resources, and Renewable Sources of Energy. Volume One.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Darrow, Ken; Pam, Rick

Written in non-technical language, this sourcebook identifies plans and books for village and small community technology. It contains reviews of publications from 375 American and foreign sources on agriculture, alternative sources of energy, water supply, health care, housing, and related subjects. Emphasized are small-scale systems using local…

Propulsion engineering study for small-scale Mars missions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Whitehead, J.

1995-09-12

Rocket propulsion options for small-scale Mars missions are presented and compared, particularly for the terminal landing maneuver and for sample return. Mars landing has a low propulsive {Delta}v requirement on a {approximately}1-minute time scale, but at a high acceleration. High thrust/weight liquid rocket technologies, or advanced pulse-capable solids, developed during the past decade for missile defense, are therefore more appropriate for small Mars landers than are conventional space propulsion technologies. The advanced liquid systems are characterize by compact lightweight thrusters having high chamber pressures and short lifetimes. Blowdown or regulated pressure-fed operation can satisfy the Mars landing requirement, but hardwaremore » mass can be reduced by using pumps. Aggressive terminal landing propulsion designs can enable post-landing hop maneuvers for some surface mobility. The Mars sample return mission requires a small high performance launcher having either solid motors or miniature pump-fed engines. Terminal propulsion for 100 kg Mars landers is within the realm of flight-proven thruster designs, but custom tankage is desirable. Landers on a 10 kg scale also are feasible, using technology that has been demonstrated but not previously flown in space. The number of sources and the selection of components are extremely limited on this smallest scale, so some customized hardware is required. A key characteristic of kilogram-scale propulsion is that gas jets are much lighter than liquid thrusters for reaction control. The mass and volume of tanks for inert gas can be eliminated by systems which generate gas as needed from a liquid or a solid, but these have virtually no space flight history. Mars return propulsion is a major engineering challenge; earth launch is the only previously-solved propulsion problem requiring similar or greater performance.« less

EIA - Its Potential Application to Appropriate Technology in Developing Countries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goode, Pamela M.; Johnstone, Alastair I.

1988-01-01

Provided is a definition of "appropriate technology." Describes some of the less apparent adverse effects of such technology on society and the environment. Stresses the need for environmental impact assessment of small-scale projects and the advantages and disadvantages of such practices. (CW)

Pedagogical Technology Experiences of Successful Late-Career Faculty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blakely, Barbara J.

2015-01-01

A small-scale phenomenological study reveals interesting and suggestive insights into the pedagogical technology experiences of late-career faculty with institutional recognition as successful instructors. Referred to in much of the literature as "resistant" and assumed to lack training in pedagogical technology and/or to adhere to…

Combined heat and power systems: economic and policy barriers to growth

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems can provide a range of benefits to users with regards to efficiency, reliability, costs and environmental impact. Furthermore, increasing the amount of electricity generated by CHP systems in the United States has been identified as having significant potential for impressive economic and environmental outcomes on a national scale. Given the benefits from increasing the adoption of CHP technologies, there is value in improving our understanding of how desired increases in CHP adoption can be best achieved. These obstacles are currently understood to stem from regulatory as well as economic and technological barriers. In our research, we answer the following questions: Given the current policy and economic environment facing the CHP industry, what changes need to take place in this space in order for CHP systems to be competitive in the energy market? Methods We focus our analysis primarily on Combined Heat and Power Systems that use natural gas turbines. Our analysis takes a two-pronged approach. We first conduct a statistical analysis of the impact of state policies on increases in electricity generated from CHP system. Second, we conduct a Cost-Benefit analysis to determine in which circumstances funding incentives are necessary to make CHP technologies cost-competitive. Results Our policy analysis shows that regulatory improvements do not explain the growth in adoption of CHP technologies but hold the potential to encourage increases in electricity generated from CHP system in small-scale applications. Our Cost-Benefit analysis shows that CHP systems are only cost competitive in large-scale applications and that funding incentives would be necessary to make CHP technology cost-competitive in small-scale applications. Conclusion From the synthesis of these analyses we conclude that because large-scale applications of natural gas turbines are already cost-competitive, policy initiatives aimed at a CHP market dominated primarily by large-scale (and therefore already cost-competitive) systems have not been effectively directed. Our recommendation is that for CHP technologies using natural gas turbines, policy focuses should be on increasing CHP growth in small-scale systems. This result can be best achieved through redirection of state and federal incentives, research and development, adoption of smart grid technology, and outreach and education. PMID:22540988

A summary of the status of biomass conversion technologies and opportunities for their use in developing countries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waddle, D. B.; Perlack, R. D.; Wimberly, J.

Biomass plays a significant role in energy use in developing countries: however, these resources are often used very inefficiently. Recent technology developments have made possible improved conversion efficiencies for utility scale technologies. These developments may be of interest in the wake of recent policy changes occurring in several developing countries, with respect to independent power production. Efforts are also being directed at developing biomass conversion technologies that can interface and/or compete with internal combustion engines for small, isolated loads. The technological status is reviewed of biomass conversion technologies appropriate for commercial, industrial, and small utility applications in developing countries. Market opportunities, constraints, and technology developments are also discussed.

Small Scale Turbopump Manufacturing Technology and Material Processes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Alvarez, Erika; Morgan, Kristin; Wells, Doug; Zimmerman, Frank

2011-01-01

As part of an internal research and development project, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has been developing a high specific impulse 9,000-lbf LOX/LH2 pump-fed engine testbed with the capability to throttle 10:1. A Fuel Turbopump (FTP) with the ability to operate across a speed range of 30,000-rpm to 100,000-rpm was developed and analyzed. This small size and flight-like Fuel Turbopump has completed the design and analysis phase and is currently in the manufacturing phase. This paper highlights the manufacturing and processes efforts to fabricate an approximately 20-lb turbopump with small flow passages, intricately bladed components and approximately 3-in diameter impellers. As a result of the small scale and tight tolerances of the hardware on this turbopump, several unique manufacturing and material challenges were encountered. Some of the technologies highlighted in this paper include the use of powder metallurgy technology to manufacture small impellers, electron beam welding of a turbine blisk shroud, and casting challenges. The use of risk reduction efforts such as non-destructive testing (NDT) and evaluation (NDE), fractography, material testing, and component spin testing are also discussed in this paper.

A topology visualization early warning distribution algorithm for large-scale network security incidents.

PubMed

He, Hui; Fan, Guotao; Ye, Jianwei; Zhang, Weizhe

2013-01-01

It is of great significance to research the early warning system for large-scale network security incidents. It can improve the network system's emergency response capabilities, alleviate the cyber attacks' damage, and strengthen the system's counterattack ability. A comprehensive early warning system is presented in this paper, which combines active measurement and anomaly detection. The key visualization algorithm and technology of the system are mainly discussed. The large-scale network system's plane visualization is realized based on the divide and conquer thought. First, the topology of the large-scale network is divided into some small-scale networks by the MLkP/CR algorithm. Second, the sub graph plane visualization algorithm is applied to each small-scale network. Finally, the small-scale networks' topologies are combined into a topology based on the automatic distribution algorithm of force analysis. As the algorithm transforms the large-scale network topology plane visualization problem into a series of small-scale network topology plane visualization and distribution problems, it has higher parallelism and is able to handle the display of ultra-large-scale network topology.

Apiculture de Petite Eschelle (Small Scale Beekeeping). Appropriate Technologies for Development. Peace Corps Information Collection & Exchange Manual Series No. M-26.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gentry, Curtis

This French-language manual is designed to assist Peace Corps volunteers in French-speaking countries in the implementation of small-scale beekeeping programs as a tool for development. Addressed in the individual chapters are bees and humans; project planning; the types and habits of bees; the essence of beekeeping; bee space and beehives;…

A semi-operational agricultural inventory using small scale aerial photography

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Draeger, W. C.; Pettinger, L. R.

1970-01-01

The feasibility of performing inventories of agricultural resources using very small scale aerial or space photography was studied. The results were encouraging on two counts: (1) The very practical problems of an operational survey are being faced and solutions are being found. (2) It seems that a fully operational agricultural inventory using space photography is not beyond the scope of present technology.

A Method for Measuring Fishing Effort by Small-Scale Fish Aggregating Device (FAD) Fishers from the Commonwealth of Dominica

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alvard, Michael; McGaffey, Ethan; Carlson, David

2015-01-01

We used global positioning system (GPS) technology and tracking analysis to measure fishing effort by marine, small-scale, fish aggregating device (FAD) fishers of the Commonwealth of Dominica. FADs are human-made structures designed to float on the surface of the water and attract fish. They are also prone to common pool resource problems. To…

The development of small-scale mechanization means positioning algorithm using radio frequency identification technology in industrial plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Astafiev, A.; Orlov, A.; Privezencev, D.

2018-01-01

The article is devoted to the development of technology and software for the construction of positioning and control systems for small mechanization in industrial plants based on radio frequency identification methods, which will be the basis for creating highly efficient intelligent systems for controlling the product movement in industrial enterprises. The main standards that are applied in the field of product movement control automation and radio frequency identification are considered. The article reviews modern publications and automation systems for the control of product movement developed by domestic and foreign manufacturers. It describes the developed algorithm for positioning of small-scale mechanization means in an industrial enterprise. Experimental studies in laboratory and production conditions have been conducted and described in the article.

Rocket University at KSC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sullivan, Steven J.

2014-01-01

"Rocket University" is an exciting new initiative at Kennedy Space Center led by NASA's Engineering and Technology Directorate. This hands-on experience has been established to develop, refine & maintain targeted flight engineering skills to enable the Agency and KSC strategic goals. Through "RocketU", KSC is developing a nimble, rapid flight engineering life cycle systems knowledge base. Ongoing activities in RocketU develop and test new technologies and potential customer systems through small scale vehicles, build and maintain flight experience through balloon and small-scale rocket missions, and enable a revolving fresh perspective of engineers with hands on expertise back into the large scale NASA programs, providing a more experienced multi-disciplined set of systems engineers. This overview will define the Program, highlight aspects of the training curriculum, and identify recent accomplishments and activities.

Special Feature: Automotive Technology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Margaret; And Others

1993-01-01

Includes "National Trouble Shooting Contest--Training Technicians, Not Mechanics" (Wagner); "Front Wheel Drive on a Small Scale" (Waggoner); "Air Bags in Hit and Run on Rack and Pinion Technicians" (Collard); and "Future Technology--A Blind Spot Detector for Highway Driving" (Zoghi, Bellubi). (JOW)

Challenges with minimising mercury pollution in the small-scale gold mining sector: experiences from the Guianas.

PubMed

Hilson, Gavin; Vieira, Rickford

2007-12-01

This paper examines the barriers to mitigating mercury pollution at small-scale gold mines in the Guianas (Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname), and prescribes recommendations for overcoming these obstacles. Whilst considerable attention has been paid to analysing the environmental impacts of operations in the region, minimal research has been undertaken to identify appropriate policy and educational initiatives for addressing the mounting mercury problem. Findings from recent fieldwork and selected interviews with operators from Guyanese and Surinamese gold mining regions reveal that legislative incapacity, the region's varied industry policy stances, various technological problems, and low environmental awareness on the part of communities are impeding efforts to facilitate improved mercury management at small-scale gold mines in the Guianas. Marked improvements can be achieved, however, if legislation, particularly that pertaining to mercury, is harmonised in the region; educational seminars continue to be held in important mining districts; and additional outlets for disseminating environmental equipment and mercury-free technologies are provided.

Feasibility of Integrated Menu Recommendation and Self-Order System for Small-Scale Restaurants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kashima, Tomoko; Matsumoto, Shimpei; Ishii, Hiroaki

2010-10-01

In recent years, point of sales (POS) systems with order function have been developed for restaurants. Since expensive apparatus and system are required for installing POS systems, usually only large-scale restaurant chains can afford to introduce them. In this research, we consider the POS management in a restaurant, which cooperates with an automatic order function by using a personal digital device aiming at the safety of the food, pursuit of service, and further operational efficiency improvements, such as foods management, accounting treatment, and ordering work. In traditional POS systems, information recommendation technology is not taken into consideration. We realize the recommendation of a menu according to the user's preference using rough sets and menu planning based on stock status by applying information recommendation technology. Therefore, we believe that this system can be used in comfort with regard to freshness of foods, allergy, diabetes, etc. Furthermore, due to the reduction of the personnel expenses by an operational efficiency improvement such technology becomes even feasible for small-scale stores.

With a small stabilization parachute trailing behind, the X-40 sub-scale technology demonstrator is suspended under a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook cargo helicopter during a captive-carry test flight

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-12-08

With a small stabilization parachute trailing behind, the X-40 sub-scale technology demonstrator is suspended under a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook cargo helicopter during a captive-carry test flight at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. The captive carry flights are designed to verify the X-40's navigation and control systems, rigging angles for its sling, and stability and control of the helicopter while carrying the X-40 on a tether. Following a series of captive-carry flights, the X-40 made free flights from a launch altitude of about 15,000 feet above ground, gliding to a fully autonomous landing. The X-40 is an unpowered 82 percent scale version of the X-37, a Boeing-developed spaceplane designed to demonstrate various advanced technologies for development of future lower-cost access to space vehicles.

Co-governing decentralised water systems: an analytical framework.

PubMed

Yu, C; Brown, R; Morison, P

2012-01-01

Current discourses in urban water management emphasise a diversity of water sources and scales of infrastructure for resilience and adaptability. During the last 2 decades, in particular, various small-scale systems emerged and developed so that the debate has largely moved from centralised versus decentralised water systems toward governing integrated and networked systems of provision and consumption where small-scale technologies are embedded in large-scale centralised infrastructures. However, while centralised systems have established boundaries of ownership and management, decentralised water systems (such as stormwater harvesting technologies for the street, allotment/house scales) do not, therefore the viability for adoption and/or continued use of decentralised water systems is challenged. This paper brings together insights from the literature on public sector governance, co-production and social practices model to develop an analytical framework for co-governing such systems. The framework provides urban water practitioners with guidance when designing co-governance arrangements for decentralised water systems so that these systems continue to exist, and become widely adopted, within the established urban water regime.

Development and analysis of educational technologies for a blended organic chemistry course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evans, Michael James

Blended courses incorporate elements of both face-to-face and online instruction. The extent to which blended courses are conducted online, and the proper role of the online components of blended courses, have been debated and may vary. What can be said in general, however, is that online tools for blended courses are typically culled together from a variety of sources, are often very large scale, and may present distractions for students that decrease their utility as teaching tools. Furthermore, large-scale educational technologies may not be amenable to rigorous, detailed study, limiting evaluation of their effectiveness. Small-scale educational technologies run from the instructor's own server have the potential to mitigate many of these issues. Such tools give the instructor or researcher direct access to all available data, facilitating detailed analysis of student use. Code modification is simple and rapid if errors arise, since code is stored where the instructor can easily access it. Finally, the design of a small-scale tool can target a very specific application. With these ideas in mind, this work describes several projects aimed at exploring the use of small-scale, web-based software in a blended organic chemistry course. A number of activities were developed and evaluated using the Student Assessment of Learning Gains survey, and data from the activities were analyzed using quantitative methods of statistics and social network analysis methods. Findings from this work suggest that small-scale educational technologies provide significant learning benefits for students of organic chemistry---with the important caveat that instructors must offer appropriate levels of technical and pedagogical support for students. Most notably, students reported significant learning gains from activities that included collaborative learning supported by novel online tools. For the particular context of organic chemistry, which has a unique semantic language (Lewis structures), the incorporation of shared video was a novel but important element of these activities. In fields for which mere text would not provide enough information in communications between students, video offers an appealing medium for student-student interaction.

La Apaicultura de Pequena Escala (Small Scale Beekeeping). Appropriate Technologies for Development. Peace Corps Information Collection & Exchange Manual Series No. M-25.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gentry, Curtis

This Spanish-language manual is designed to assist Peace Corps volunteers in Spanish-speaking countries in the implementation of small-scale beekeeping programs as a tool for development. Addressed in the individual chapters are bees and humans; project planning; the types and habits of bees; the essence of beekeeping; bee space and beehives;…

Development of a gene synthesis platform for the efficient large scale production of small genes encoding animal toxins.

PubMed

Sequeira, Ana Filipa; Brás, Joana L A; Guerreiro, Catarina I P D; Vincentelli, Renaud; Fontes, Carlos M G A

2016-12-01

Gene synthesis is becoming an important tool in many fields of recombinant DNA technology, including recombinant protein production. De novo gene synthesis is quickly replacing the classical cloning and mutagenesis procedures and allows generating nucleic acids for which no template is available. In addition, when coupled with efficient gene design algorithms that optimize codon usage, it leads to high levels of recombinant protein expression. Here, we describe the development of an optimized gene synthesis platform that was applied to the large scale production of small genes encoding venom peptides. This improved gene synthesis method uses a PCR-based protocol to assemble synthetic DNA from pools of overlapping oligonucleotides and was developed to synthesise multiples genes simultaneously. This technology incorporates an accurate, automated and cost effective ligation independent cloning step to directly integrate the synthetic genes into an effective Escherichia coli expression vector. The robustness of this technology to generate large libraries of dozens to thousands of synthetic nucleic acids was demonstrated through the parallel and simultaneous synthesis of 96 genes encoding animal toxins. An automated platform was developed for the large-scale synthesis of small genes encoding eukaryotic toxins. Large scale recombinant expression of synthetic genes encoding eukaryotic toxins will allow exploring the extraordinary potency and pharmacological diversity of animal venoms, an increasingly valuable but unexplored source of lead molecules for drug discovery.

A summary of the status of biomass conversion technologies and opportunities for their use in Latin America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waddle, D. B.; Perlack, R. D.

1990-03-01

Biomass plays a significant role in energy use in developing countries; however, these resources are often used very inefficiently. Recent technology developments have made possible improved conversion efficiencies for utility scale technologies. These developments may be of interest in the wake of recent policy changes occurring in Central America, with respect to independent power production. Efforts are also being directed at developing biomass conversion technologies that can interface and/or compete with internal combustion engines for small, isolated loads. This paper reviews the technological status of biomass conversion technologies appropriate for commercial, industrial, and small utility applications in developing countries, and in Latin America in particular. Market opportunities, constraints, and technology developments are also discussed.

VCSEL Scaling, Laser Integration on Silicon, and Bit Energy

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-01

need of high efficiency with high temperature operation eliminates essentially all laser diode technologies except VCSELs. Therefore scaling of the...CW laser diode and separate modulator. Lower diagram circuitry shows the case for a DML VCSEL. The small gain volume and high speed modulation...speed of the modulator. However the CW laser that is needed for the modulator appears to create a technological roadblock for laser diode platforms

Small-Scale Evaluation of the Expeditionary Unit Water Purifier

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. EPA’s Technology Testing and Evaluation Program has been charged by EPA to evaluate the performance of commercially available water security-related technologies. Throughout 2007, an evaluation the Expeditionary Unit Water Purifier (EUWP), a mobile water treatment techno...

Overview of Accelerator Applications in Energy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garnett, Robert W.; Sheffield, Richard L.

An overview of the application of accelerators and accelerator technology in energy is presented. Applications span a broad range of cost, size, and complexity and include large-scale systems requiring high-power or high-energy accelerators to drive subcritical reactors for energy production or waste transmutation, as well as small-scale industrial systems used to improve oil and gas exploration and production. The enabling accelerator technologies will also be reviewed and future directions discussed.

Spreading the Load: Mobile Information and Communications Technologies and Their Effect on Information Overload

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, David K.; Shoard, M.

2005-01-01

Introduction: We report on a small-scale research project which examined the impact of mobile technologies on the users' experience of information overload. The project focused on a group of worker who have had relatively little attention in both the mobile technology and information overload literatures: senior managers. Method: The case study…

Three-Dimensional (3D) Printers in Libraries: Perspective and Preliminary Safety Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bharti, Neelam; Singh, Shailendra

2017-01-01

As an emerging technology, three-dimensional (3D) printing has gained much attention as a rapid prototyping and small-scale manufacturing technology around the world. In the changing scenario of library inclusion, Makerspaces are becoming a part of most public and academic libraries, and 3D printing is one of the technologies included in…

A summary of the status of biomass conversion technologies and opportunities for their use in developing countries

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Waddle, D.B.; Perlack, R.D.; Wimberly, J.

1990-01-01

Biomass plays a significant role in energy use in developing countries: however, these resources are often used very inefficiently. Recent technology developments have made possible improved conversion efficiencies for utility scale technologies. These developments may be of interest in the wake of recent policy changes occurring in several developing countries, with respect to independent power production. Efforts are also being directed at developing biomass conversion technologies that can interface and/or compete with internal combustion engines for small, isolated loads. This paper reviews the technological status of biomass conversion technologies appropriate for commercial, industrial, and small utility applications in developing countries.more » Market opportunities, constraints, and technology developments are also discussed. 25 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.« less

North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Development and Diplomacy

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-03

December 23, 2006. P. A12. Many of Kim Jong-il’s luxury goods purchases have been in Europe. They include Mercedes Benz and BMW automobiles, expensive...small scale atomic bomb. Most believed that North Korea had not reached the technology level to test the prototype of a small nuclear warhead.1 The...and possibly other weapons technology to Iran. There are known divisions within the Chinese government and Communist Party over the issue of support

Ceramic High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filter Final Report CRADA No. TC02160.0

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mitchell, M.; Bergman, W.

2017-08-25

The technical objective of this project was to develop a ceramic HEPA filter technology, by initially producing and testing coupon ceramics, small scale prototypes, and full scale prototype HEPA filters, and to address relevant manufacturing and commercialization technical issues.

High precision gas hydrate imaging of small-scale and high-resolution marine sparker multichannel seismic data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, D.; Cai, F.

2017-12-01

Small-scale and high-resolution marine sparker multi-channel seismic surveys using large energy sparkers are characterized by a high dominant frequency of the seismic source, wide bandwidth, and a high resolution. The technology with a high-resolution and high-detection precision was designed to improve the imaging quality of shallow sedimentary. In the study, a 20KJ sparker and 24-channel streamer cable with a 6.25m group interval were used as a seismic source and receiver system, respectively. Key factors for seismic imaging of gas hydrate are enhancement of S/N ratio, amplitude compensation and detailed velocity analysis. However, the data in this study has some characteristics below: 1. Small maximum offsets are adverse to velocity analysis and multiple attenuation. 2. Lack of low frequency information, that is, information less than 100Hz are invisible. 3. Low S/N ratio since less coverage times (only 12 times). These characteristics make it difficult to reach the targets of seismic imaging. In the study, the target processing methods are used to improve the seismic imaging quality of gas hydrate. First, some technologies of noise suppression are combined used in pre-stack seismic data to suppression of seismic noise and improve the S/N ratio. These technologies including a spectrum sharing noise elimination method, median filtering and exogenous interference suppression method. Second, the combined method of three technologies including SRME, τ-p deconvolution and high precision Radon transformation is used to remove multiples. Third, accurate velocity field are used in amplitude energy compensation to highlight the Bottom Simulating Reflector (short for BSR, the indicator of gas hydrates) and gas migration pathways (such as gas chimneys, hot spots et al.). Fourth, fine velocity analysis technology are used to improve accuracy of velocity analysis. Fifth, pre-stack deconvolution processing technology is used to compensate for low frequency energy and suppress of ghost, thus formation reflection characteristics are highlighted. The result shows that the small-scale and high resolution marine sparker multi-channel seismic surveys are very effective in improving the resolution and quality of gas hydrate imaging than the conventional seismic acquisition technology.

Recent advances in small molecule OLED-on-silicon microdisplays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghosh, Amalkumar P.; Ali, Tariq A.; Khayrullin, Ilyas; Vazan, Fridrich; Prache, Olivier F.; Wacyk, Ihor

2009-08-01

High resolution OLED-on-silicon microdisplay technology is unique and challenging since it requires very small subpixel dimensions (~ 2-5 microns). eMagin's OLED microdisplay is based on white top emitter architecture using small molecule organic materials. The devices are fabricated using high Tg materials. The devices are hermetically sealed with vacuum deposited thin film layers. LCD-type color filters are patterned using photolithography methods to generate primary R, G, B colors. Results of recent improvements in the OLED-on-silicon microdisplay technology, with emphasis on efficiencies, lifetimes, grey scale and CIE color coordinates for SVGA and SXGA resolution microdisplays is presented.

A Review of the Environmental Impacts for Marine and Hydrokinetic Projects to Inform Regulatory Permitting: Summary Findings from the 2015 Workshop on Marine and Hydrokinetic Technologies, Washington, D.C.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Baring-Gould, E. Ian; Christol, Corrie; LiVecchi, Al

In 2014 and 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy initiated efforts to develop and implement technology- and application-focused marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) workshops to share the global experience and knowledge base on evolving MHK technologies, observed and not-observed impacts, monitoring and measurement methods, and regulatory needs. The resulting MHK Regulator Workshops engaged resource managers and other decision makers at key regulatory organizations, scientists, researchers, facilitators, and technical experts and provided an opportunity to examine the risks of single-device and small-scale deployments, explore what can be learned and observed from single devices and small-scale arrays, and consider requirements for projects atmore » varying scales of deployment. Experts and stakeholders identified key remaining information gaps. Initial discussions focused on differentiating between monitoring required for single or small-scale deployments and MHK impact research that, although important, goes beyond what is feasible or should be needed to meet specific project regulatory requirements but is appropriate for broader research and development. Four areas of identified potential environmental impacts provided the focus for the workshop: acoustic output impacts, electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions, physical interactions, and environmental effects of MHK energy development on the physical environment. Discussions also focused on the regulatory process and experience, adaptive management, industry drivers, and lessons that can be learned from the wind energy industry. The discussion was set in the context of the types of MHK technologies that are currently proposed or planned in the United States. All presentations and the following discussions are summarized in this document.« less

A review of sensing technologies for small and large-scale touch panels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akhtar, Humza; Kemao, Qian; Kakarala, Ramakrishna

2017-06-01

A touch panel is an input device for human computer interaction. It consists of a network of sensors, a sampling circuit and a micro controller for detecting and locating a touch input. Touch input can come from either finger or stylus depending upon the type of touch technology. These touch panels provide an intuitive and collaborative workspace so that people can perform various tasks with the use of their fingers instead of traditional input devices like keyboard and mouse. Touch sensing technology is not new. At the time of this writing, various technologies are available in the market and this paper reviews the most common ones. We review traditional designs and sensing algorithms for touch technology. We also observe that due to its various strengths, capacitive touch will dominate the large-scale touch panel industry in years to come. In the end, we discuss the motivation for doing academic research on large-scale panels.

Student Teachers of Technology and Design: Can Short Periods of STEM-Related Industrial Placement Change Student Perceptions of Engineering and Technology?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibson, Ken S.

2012-01-01

This is a report, on a small-scale case study, of a programme of short industrial placements (5 day block) for student teachers of technology and design in Northern Ireland. Such placements increase student awareness and understanding of the nature of Engineering and Technology and therefore better prepare them to teach these subjects, as integral…

Scaling up Education Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaffney, Jon D. H.; Richards, Evan; Kustusch, Mary Bridget; Ding, Lin; Beichner, Robert J.

2008-01-01

The SCALE-UP (Student-Centered Activities for Large Enrollment for Undergraduate Programs) project was developed to implement reforms designed for small classes into large physics classes. Over 50 schools across the country, ranging from Wake Technical Community College to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have adopted it for classes of…

Design Based Research Methodology for Teaching with Technology in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jetnikoff, Anita

2015-01-01

Design based research (DBR) is an appropriate method for small scale educational research projects involving collaboration between teachers, students and researchers. It is particularly useful in collaborative projects where an intervention is implemented and evaluated in a grounded context. The intervention can be technological, or a new program…

Meeting Stakeholder Energy Technology Education Needs Using a Mobile Demonstration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Koff, Jason P.; Ricketts, John C.; Robbins, Chris; Illukpitiya, Prabodh; Wade, Alvin

2017-01-01

Understanding the impact of workshops that include mobile demonstrations for describing technical applications can be useful when planning an Extension program on new energy technologies. We used a mobile demonstration in a workshop that provided information on small-scale on-farm biodiesel production. Evaluation of the workshop outcomes…

New Technologies Extend the Reach of Many College Fund Raisers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicklin, Julie L.

1992-01-01

Increasingly, colleges are using new technologies, often expensive, to improve fund-raising capacity among small-scale donors. Techniques include computerized screening of prospective donors based on personal information, automatic dialing and phone-bank worker training, and sophisticated direct-mail tactics. Concern about privacy and loss of the…

Co-generation and innovative heat storage systems in small-medium CSP plants for distributed energy production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giaconia, Alberto; Montagnino, Fabio; Paredes, Filippo; Donato, Filippo; Caputo, Giampaolo; Mazzei, Domenico

2017-06-01

CSP technologies can be applied for distributed energy production, on small-medium plants (on the 1 MW scale), to satisfy the needs of local communities, buildings and districts. In this perspective, reliable, low-cost, and flexible small/medium multi-generative CSP plants should be developed. Four pilot plants have been built in four Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, and Italy) to demonstrate the approach. In this paper, the plant built in Italy is presented, with specific innovations applied in the linear Fresnel collector design and the Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system, based on a single the use of molten salts but specifically tailored for small scale plants.

Variation of methods in small-scale safety and thermal testing of improvised explosives

DOE PAGES

Sandstrom, Mary M.; Brown, Geoffrey W.; Preston, Daniel N.; ...

2014-09-29

Here, one of the first steps in establishing safe handling procedures for explosives is small-scale safety and thermal (SSST) testing. To better understand the response of homemade or improvised explosives (HMEs) to SSST testing, 16 HME materials were compared to 3 standard military explosives in a proficiency-type round robin study among five laboratories, two U.S. Department of Defense and three U.S. Department of Energy, sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, Science & Technology Directorate, Explosives Division.

Small scale adaptive optics experiment systems engineering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boykin, William H.

1993-01-01

Assessment of the current technology relating to the laser power beaming system which in full scale is called the Beam Transmission Optical System (BTOS). Evaluation of system integration efforts are being conducted by the various government agencies and industry. Concepts are being developed for prototypes of adaptive optics for a BTOS.

Life cycle environmental and economic tradeoffs of using fast pyrolysis products for power generation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Bio-oils produced from small-scale pyrolysis technology may have economic and environmental benefits for both densifying agricultural biomass and supplying local bio-energy markets (e.g., Renewable Portfolio Standards). This study presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a farm-scale bio-oil produ...

EDITORIAL: Selected papers from the 9th International Workshop on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (PowerMEMS 2009) Selected papers from the 9th International Workshop on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (PowerMEMS 2009)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghodssi, Reza; Livermore, Carol; Arnold, David

2010-10-01

This special section of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering presents papers selected from the 9th International Workshop on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (PowerMEMS 2009), which was held in Washington DC, USA from 1-4 December 2009. Since it was first held in Sendai, Japan in 2000, the PowerMEMS workshop has focused on small-scale systems that process, convert, or generate macroscopically significant amounts of power, typically with high power density or high energy density. In the workshop's early years, much of the research presented was on small-scale fueled systems, such as micro heat engines and micro fuel cells. The past nine years have seen a dramatic expansion in the range of technologies that are brought to bear on the challenge of high-power, small-scale systems, as well as an increase in the applications for such technologies. At this year's workshop, 158 contributed papers were presented, along with invited and plenary presentations. The papers focused on applications from micro heat engines and fuel cells, to energy harvesting and its enabling electronics, to thermal management and propulsion. Also presented were the technologies that enable these applications, such as the structuring of microscale, nanoscale and biological systems for power applications, as well as combustion and catalysis at small scales. This special section includes a selection of 12 expanded papers representing energy harvesting, chemical and fueled systems, and elastic energy storage at small scales. We would like to express our appreciation to the members of the International Steering Committee, the Technical Program Committee, the Local Organizing Committee, and to the workshop's financial supporters. We are grateful to the referees for their contributions to the review process. Finally, we would like to thank Dr Ian Forbes, the editorial staff of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, and the staff of IOP Publishing for making this special section possible.

Engineering Development of Ceramic Membrane Reactor System for Converting Natural Gas to Hydrogen and Synthesis Gas for Liquid Transportation Fuels

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Air Products and Chemicals

2008-09-30

An Air Products-led team successfully developed ITM Syngas technology from the concept stage to a stage where a small-scale engineering prototype was about to be built. This technology produces syngas, a gas containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen, by reacting feed gas, primarily methane and steam, with oxygen that is supplied through an ion transport membrane. An ion transport membrane operates at high temperature and oxygen ions are transported through the dense membrane's crystal lattice when an oxygen partial pressure driving force is applied. This development effort solved many significant technical challenges and successfully scaled-up key aspects of the technology tomore » prototype scale. Throughout the project life, the technology showed significant economic benefits over conventional technologies. While there are still on-going technical challenges to overcome, the progress made under the DOE-funded development project proved that the technology was viable and continued development post the DOE agreement would be warranted.« less

Scale-free models for the structure of business firm networks.

PubMed

Kitsak, Maksim; Riccaboni, Massimo; Havlin, Shlomo; Pammolli, Fabio; Stanley, H Eugene

2010-03-01

We study firm collaborations in the life sciences and the information and communication technology sectors. We propose an approach to characterize industrial leadership using k -shell decomposition, with top-ranking firms in terms of market value in higher k -shell layers. We find that the life sciences industry network consists of three distinct components: a "nucleus," which is a small well-connected subgraph, "tendrils," which are small subgraphs consisting of small degree nodes connected exclusively to the nucleus, and a "bulk body," which consists of the majority of nodes. Industrial leaders, i.e., the largest companies in terms of market value, are in the highest k -shells of both networks. The nucleus of the life sciences sector is very stable: once a firm enters the nucleus, it is likely to stay there for a long time. At the same time we do not observe the above three components in the information and communication technology sector. We also conduct a systematic study of these three components in random scale-free networks. Our results suggest that the sizes of the nucleus and the tendrils in scale-free networks decrease as the exponent of the power-law degree distribution lambda increases, and disappear for lambda>or=3 . We compare the k -shell structure of random scale-free model networks with two real-world business firm networks in the life sciences and in the information and communication technology sectors. We argue that the observed behavior of the k -shell structure in the two industries is consistent with the coexistence of both preferential and random agreements in the evolution of industrial networks.

Ceramic Filter for Small System Drinking Water Treatment: Evaluation of Membrane Pore Size and Importance of Integrity Monitoring

EPA Science Inventory

Ceramic filtration has recently been identified as a promising technology for drinking water treatment in households and small communities. This paper summarizes the results of a pilot-scale study conducted at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Test & Evaluation ...

Young Children's ICT Experiences in the Home: Some Parental Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Hara, Mark

2011-01-01

This small-scale study focuses on young children's reported information and communication technology (ICT) experiences in the home and the role of parents in providing technological opportunities, recognition and support. The children of the parents involved were all enrolled in nursery and reception classes (4-5 years of age) in two settings…

Costs of Arsenic Removal Technologies for Small Water Systems: U.S. EPA Arsenic Removal Technology Demonstration Program

EPA Science Inventory

As part of the Arsenic Rule Implementation Research Program, between July 2003 and July 2011, the U.S. environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted 50 full-scale demonstration projects on treatment systems removing arsenic from drinking water in 26 states throughout the U.S. ...

Historical evidence of importance to the industrialization of flat-plate silicon photovoltaic systems. Volume 1: Executive summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, J. L.

1978-01-01

An analysis is given of the Low-Cost Silicon Solar Array Project plans for the industrialization of new production technologies expected to be forthcoming as a result of the project's technology development efforts. In particular, LSSA's mandate to insure an annual production capability of 500 MW peak for the photovoltaic supply industry by 1986 is critically examined. The examination focuses on one of the concerns behind this goal -- timely development of industrial capacity to supply anticipated demand. Some of the conclusions include: (1) construction of small-scale pilot plants should be undertaken only for purposes of technology development; (2) large-scale demonstrations should be undertaken only when the technology is well in hand; (3) commercial-scale production should be left to the private sector; (4) the 500-MW annual output goal should be shifted to Program Headquarters.

A techno-economic & environmental analysis of a novel technology utilizing an internal combustion engine as a compact, inexpensive micro-reformer for a distributed gas-to-liquids system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Browne, Joshua B.

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) contribute to global warming, and must be mitigated. With GHG mitigation as an overarching goal, this research aims to study the potential for newfound and abundant sources of natural gas to play a role as part of a GHG mitigation strategy. However, recent work suggests that methane leakage in the current natural gas system may inhibit end-use natural gas as a robust mitigation strategy, but that natural gas as a feedstock for other forms of energy, such as electricity generation or liquid fuels, may support natural-gas based mitigation efforts. Flaring of uneconomic natural gas, or outright loss of natural gas to the atmosphere results in greenhouse gas emissions that could be avoided and which today are very large in aggregate. A central part of this study is to look at a new technology for converting natural gas into methanol at a unit scale that is matched to the size of individual natural gas wells. The goal is to convert stranded or otherwise flared natural gas into a commercially valuable product and thereby avoid any unnecessary emission to the atmosphere. A major part of this study is to contribute to the development of a novel approach for converting natural gas into methanol and to assess the environmental impact (for better or for worse) of this new technology. This Ph. D. research contributes to the development of such a system and provides a comprehensive techno-economic and environmental assessment of this technology. Recognizing the distributed nature of methane leakage associated with the natural gas system, this work is also intended to advance previous research at the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy that aims to show that small, modular energy systems can be made economic. This thesis contributes to and analyzes the development of a small-scale gas-to-liquids (GTL) system aimed at addressing flared natural gas from gas and oil wells. This thesis includes system engineering around a design that converts natural gas to synthesis gas (syngas) in a reciprocating internal combustion engine and then converts the syngas into methanol in a small-scale reactor. With methanol as the product, this research aims to show that such a system can not only address current and future natural gas flaring regulation, but eventually can compete economically with historically large-scale, centralized methanol production infrastructure. If successful, such systems could contribute to a shift away from large, multi-billion dollar capital cost chemical plants towards smaller systems with shorter lifetimes that may decrease the time to transition to more sustainable forms of energy and chemical conversion technologies. This research also quantifies the potential for such a system to contribute to mitigating GHG emissions, not only by addressing flared gas in the near-term, but also supporting future natural gas infrastructure ideas that may help to redefine the way the current natural gas pipeline system is used. The introduction of new, small-scale, distributed energy and chemical conversion systems located closer to the point of extraction may contribute to reducing methane leakage throughout the natural gas distribution system by reducing the reliance and risks associated with the aging natural gas pipeline infrastructure. The outcome of this thesis will result in several areas for future work. From an economic perspective, factors that contribute to overall system cost, such as operation and maintenance (O&M) and capital cost multiplier (referred to as the Lang Factor for large-scale petro-chemical plants), are not yet known for novel systems such as the technology presented here. From a technical perspective, commercialization of small-scale, distributed chemical conversion systems may create a demand for economical compression and air-separation technologies at this scale that do not currently exist. Further, new business cases may arise aimed at utilizing small, remote sources of methane, such as biogas from agricultural and municipal waste. Finally, while methanol was selected as the end-product for this thesis, future applications of this technology may consider methane conversion to hydrogen, ammonia, and ethylene for example, challenging the orthodoxy in the chemical industry that "bigger is better."

Large Eddy Simulation in the Computation of Jet Noise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mankbadi, R. R.; Goldstein, M. E.; Povinelli, L. A.; Hayder, M. E.; Turkel, E.

1999-01-01

Noise can be predicted by solving Full (time-dependent) Compressible Navier-Stokes Equation (FCNSE) with computational domain. The fluctuating near field of the jet produces propagating pressure waves that produce far-field sound. The fluctuating flow field as a function of time is needed in order to calculate sound from first principles. Noise can be predicted by solving the full, time-dependent, compressible Navier-Stokes equations with the computational domain extended to far field - but this is not feasible as indicated above. At high Reynolds number of technological interest turbulence has large range of scales. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) can not capture the small scales of turbulence. The large scales are more efficient than the small scales in radiating sound. The emphasize is thus on calculating sound radiated by large scales.

Dislocation dynamics simulations of plasticity at small scales

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhou, Caizhi

2010-01-01

As metallic structures and devices are being created on a dimension comparable to the length scales of the underlying dislocation microstructures, the mechanical properties of them change drastically. Since such small structures are increasingly common in modern technologies, there is an emergent need to understand the critical roles of elasticity, plasticity, and fracture in small structures. Dislocation dynamics (DD) simulations, in which the dislocations are the simulated entities, offer a way to extend length scales beyond those of atomistic simulations and the results from DD simulations can be directly compared with the micromechanical tests. The primary objective of this researchmore » is to use 3-D DD simulations to study the plastic deformation of nano- and micro-scale materials and understand the correlation between dislocation motion, interactions and the mechanical response. Specifically, to identify what critical events (i.e., dislocation multiplication, cross-slip, storage, nucleation, junction and dipole formation, pinning etc.) determine the deformation response and how these change from bulk behavior as the system decreases in size and correlate and improve our current knowledge of bulk plasticity with the knowledge gained from the direct observations of small-scale plasticity. Our simulation results on single crystal micropillars and polycrystalline thin films can march the experiment results well and capture the essential features in small-scale plasticity. Furthermore, several simple and accurate models have been developed following our simulation results and can reasonably predict the plastic behavior of small scale materials.« less

Proposal for a novel type of small scale aneutronic fusion reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gruenwald, J.

2017-02-01

The aim of this work is to propose a novel scheme for a small scale aneutronic fusion reactor. This new reactor type makes use of the advantages of combining laser driven plasma acceleration and electrostatic confinement fusion. An intense laser beam is used to create a lithium-proton plasma with high density, which is then collimated and focused into the centre of the fusion reaction chamber. The basic concept presented here is based on the 7Li-proton fusion reaction. However, the physical and technological fundamentals may generally as well be applied to 11B-proton fusion. The former fusion reaction path offers higher energy yields while the latter has larger fusion cross sections. Within this paper a technological realisation of such a fusion device, which allows a steady state operation with highly energetic, well collimated ion beam, is presented. It will be demonstrated that the energetic break even can be reached with this device by using a combination of already existing technologies.

Small Scale SOFC Demonstration Using Bio-Based and Fossil Fuels

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Petrik, Michael; Ruhl, Robert

2012-05-01

Technology Management, Inc. (TMI) of Cleveland, Ohio, has completed the project entitled Small Scale SOFC Demonstration using Bio-based and Fossil Fuels. Under this program, two 1-kW systems were engineered as technology demonstrators of an advanced technology that can operate on either traditional hydrocarbon fuels or renewable biofuels. The systems were demonstrated at Patterson's Fruit Farm of Chesterland, OH and were open to the public during the first quarter of 2012. As a result of the demonstration, TMI received quantitative feedback on operation of the systems as well as qualitative assessments from customers. Based on the test results, TMI believes thatmore » > 30% net electrical efficiency at 1 kW on both traditional and renewable fuels with a reasonable entry price is obtainable. The demonstration and analysis provide the confidence that a 1 kW entry-level system offers a viable value proposition, but additional modifications are warranted to reduce sound and increase reliability before full commercial acceptance.« less

Integration of Personalized Healthcare Pathways in an ICT Platform for Diabetes Managements: A Small-Scale Exploratory Study.

PubMed

Fico, Giuseppe; Fioravanti, Alessio; Arredondo, Maria Teresa; Gorman, Joe; Diazzi, Chiara; Arcuri, Giovanni; Conti, Claudio; Pirini, Giampiero

2016-01-01

The availability of new tools able to support patient monitoring and personalized care may substantially improve the quality of chronic disease management. A personalized healthcare pathway (PHP) has been developed for diabetes disease management and integrated into an information and communication technology system to accomplish a shift from organization-centered care to patient-centered care. A small-scale exploratory study was conducted to test the platform. Preliminary results are presented that shed light on how the PHP influences system usage and performance outcomes.

Effective E-Learning? Multi-Tasking, Distractions and Boundary Management by Graduate Students in an Online Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winter, Jennie; Cotton, Debby; Gavin, Joan; Yorke, Jon D.

2010-01-01

This paper reports the findings of a small-scale study that documented the use of information technology for learning by a small group of postgraduate students. Our findings support current knowledge about characteristics displayed by effective e-learners, but also highlight a less researched but potentially important issue in developing…

Extending Technologies among Small-Scale Farmers in Meru, Kenya: Ingredients for Success in Farmer Groups

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Kristin; Franzel, Steven; Hildebrand, Peter; Irani, Tracy; Place, Nick

2004-01-01

Agricultural extension is evolving worldwide, and there is much emphasis today on community-based mechanisms of dissemination in order to bring sustainable change. The goal of this study was to examine the factors that make farmer groups successful in dissemination of information and technologies. A mixed-methods, multiple-stage approach was used…

Computers in the Undergraduate Curriculum: An Aspect of the Many Section Problem.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Churchill, Geoffrey

A brief case study of the resistance to technological change is presented using DOG, a small scale deterministic business game, as the example of technology. DOG, a decision mathematics game for the purpose of providing an environment for application of mathematical concepts, consists of assignments mostly utilizing matrix algebra but also some…

Determining the Influence of Groundwater Composition on the Performance of Arsenic Adsorption Columns Using Rapid Small-Scale Column Tests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aragon, A. R.; Siegel, M.

2004-12-01

The USEPA has established a more stringent drinking water standard for arsenic, reducing the maximum contaminant level (MCL) from 50 μ g/L to 10 μ g/L. This will affect many small communities in the US that lack the appropriate treatment infrastructure and funding to reduce arsenic to such levels. For such communities, adsorption systems are the preferred technology based on ease of operation and relatively lower costs. The performance of adsorption media for the removal of arsenic from drinking water is dependent on site-specific water quality. At certain concentrations, co-occurring solutes will compete effectively with arsenic for sorption sites, potentially reducing the sorption capacity of the media. Due to the site-specific nature of water quality and variations in media properties, pilot scale studies are typically carried out to ensure that a proposed treatment technique is cost effective before installation of a full-scale system. Sandia National Laboratories is currently developing an approach to utilize rapid small-scale columns in lieu of pilot columns to test innovative technologies that could significantly reduce the cost of treatment in small communities. Rapid small-scale column tests (RSSCTs) were developed to predict full-scale treatment of organic contaminants by adsorption onto granular activated carbon (GAC). This process greatly reduced the time and costs required to verify performance of GAC adsorption columns. In this study, the RSSCT methodology is used to predict the removal of inorganic arsenic using mixed metal oxyhydroxide adsorption media. The media are engineered and synthesized from materials that control arsenic behavior in natural and disturbed systems. We describe the underlying theory and application of RSSCTs for the performance evaluation of novel media in several groundwater compositions. Results of small-scale laboratory columns are being used to predict the performance of pilot-scale systems and ultimately to design full-scale systems. RSSCTs will be performed on a suite of water compositions representing the variety of water supplies in the United States that are affected by the new drinking water standard. Ultimately, this approach will be used to carry out inexpensive short-term pilot studies at a large number of sites where large-scale pilots are not economically feasible. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

Improving awareness of mercury pollution in small-scale gold mining communities: challenges and ways forward in rural Ghana.

PubMed

Hilson, Gavin; Hilson, Christopher J; Pardie, Sandra

2007-02-01

This paper critiques the approach taken by the Ghanaian Government to address mercury pollution in the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector. Unmonitored releases of mercury-used in the gold-amalgamation process-have caused numerous environmental complications throughout rural Ghana. Certain policy, technological and educational initiatives taken to address the mounting problem, however, have proved marginally effective at best, having been designed and implemented without careful analysis of mine community dynamics, the organization of activities, operators' needs and local geological conditions. Marked improvements can only be achieved in this area through increased government-initiated dialogue with the now-ostracized illegal galamsey mining community; introducing simple, cost-effective techniques for the reduction of mercury emissions; and effecting government-sponsored participatory training exercises as mediums for communicating information about appropriate technologies and the environment.

Socio-Economics of Lake Victoria's Fisheries: An Analysis of the Shifting Roles and Status of Women Fish Traders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Craig, Heather

2007-01-01

Fishing industries around the world are currently undergoing a process of industrialization and commercialization. A similar story is unfolding in many fishing communities: large-scale industrial fishers who possess enormous capital and advanced technologies are threatening the lives of small-scale fisherfolk. The fishing industry in Lake Victoria…

The latest developments and outlook for hydrogen liquefaction technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ohlig, K.; Decker, L.

2014-01-01

Liquefied hydrogen is presently mainly used for space applications and the semiconductor industry. While clean energy applications, for e.g. the automotive sector, currently contribute to this demand with a small share only, their demand may see a significant boost in the next years with the need for large scale liquefaction plants exceeding the current plant sizes by far. Hydrogen liquefaction for small scale plants with a maximum capacity of 3 tons per day (tpd) is accomplished with a Brayton refrigeration cycle using helium as refrigerant. This technology is characterized by low investment costs but lower process efficiency and hence higher operating costs. For larger plants, a hydrogen Claude cycle is used, characterized by higher investment but lower operating costs. However, liquefaction plants meeting the potentially high demand in the clean energy sector will need further optimization with regard to energy efficiency and hence operating costs. The present paper gives an overview of the currently applied technologies, including their thermodynamic and technical background. Areas of improvement are identified to derive process concepts for future large scale hydrogen liquefaction plants meeting the needs of clean energy applications with optimized energy efficiency and hence minimized operating costs. Compared to studies in this field, this paper focuses on application of new technology and innovative concepts which are either readily available or will require short qualification procedures. They will hence allow implementation in plants in the close future.

Technological Innovation of Thin-Film Transistors: Technology Development, History, and Future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamamoto, Yoshitaka

2012-06-01

The scale of the liquid crystal display industry has expanded rapidly, driven by technological innovations for thin-film transistors (TFTs). The TFT technology, which started from amorphous silicon (a-Si), has produced large TVs, and low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) has become a core technology for small displays, such as mobile phones. Recently, various TFT technological seeds have been realized, indicating that new information appliances that match new lifestyles and information infrastructures will be available in the near future. In this article, I review the history of TFT technology and discuss the future of TFT technological development from the technological innovation viewpoint.

Feasibility of large-scale power plants based on thermoelectric effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Liping

2014-12-01

Heat resources of small temperature difference are easily accessible, free and enormous on the Earth. Thermoelectric effects provide the technology for converting these heat resources directly into electricity. We present designs for electricity generators based on thermoelectric effects that utilize heat resources of small temperature difference, e.g., ocean water at different depths and geothermal resources, and conclude that large-scale power plants based on thermoelectric effects are feasible and economically competitive. The key observation is that the power factor of thermoelectric materials, unlike the figure of merit, can be improved by orders of magnitude upon laminating good conductors and good thermoelectric materials. The predicted large-scale power generators based on thermoelectric effects, if validated, will have the advantages of the scalability, renewability, and free supply of heat resources of small temperature difference on the Earth.

Energy harvesting concepts for small electric unmanned systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qidwai, Muhammad A.; Thomas, James P.; Kellogg, James C.; Baucom, Jared N.

2004-07-01

In this study, we identify and survey energy harvesting technologies for small electrically powered unmanned systems designed for long-term (>1 day) time-on-station missions. An environmental energy harvesting scheme will provide long-term, energy additions to the on-board energy source. We have identified four technologies that cover a broad array of available energy sources: solar, kinetic (wind) flow, autophagous structure-power (both combustible and metal air-battery systems) and electromagnetic (EM) energy scavenging. We present existing conceptual designs, critical system components, performance, constraints and state-of-readiness for each technology. We have concluded that the solar and autophagous technologies are relatively matured for small-scale applications and are capable of moderate power output levels (>1 W). We have identified key components and possible multifunctionalities in each technology. The kinetic flow and EM energy scavenging technologies will require more in-depth study before they can be considered for implementation. We have also realized that all of the harvesting systems require design and integration of various electrical, mechanical and chemical components, which will require modeling and optimization using hybrid mechatronics-circuit simulation tools. This study provides a starting point for detailed investigation into the proposed technologies for unmanned system applications under current development.

Scale-free models for the structure of business firm networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kitsak, Maksim; Riccaboni, Massimo; Havlin, Shlomo; Pammolli, Fabio; Stanley, H. Eugene

2010-03-01

We study firm collaborations in the life sciences and the information and communication technology sectors. We propose an approach to characterize industrial leadership using k -shell decomposition, with top-ranking firms in terms of market value in higher k -shell layers. We find that the life sciences industry network consists of three distinct components: a “nucleus,” which is a small well-connected subgraph, “tendrils,” which are small subgraphs consisting of small degree nodes connected exclusively to the nucleus, and a “bulk body,” which consists of the majority of nodes. Industrial leaders, i.e., the largest companies in terms of market value, are in the highest k -shells of both networks. The nucleus of the life sciences sector is very stable: once a firm enters the nucleus, it is likely to stay there for a long time. At the same time we do not observe the above three components in the information and communication technology sector. We also conduct a systematic study of these three components in random scale-free networks. Our results suggest that the sizes of the nucleus and the tendrils in scale-free networks decrease as the exponent of the power-law degree distribution λ increases, and disappear for λ≥3 . We compare the k -shell structure of random scale-free model networks with two real-world business firm networks in the life sciences and in the information and communication technology sectors. We argue that the observed behavior of the k -shell structure in the two industries is consistent with the coexistence of both preferential and random agreements in the evolution of industrial networks.

Feasibility study for thermal treatment of solid tire wastes in Bangladesh by using pyrolysis technology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Islam, M.R., E-mail: mrislam1985@yahoo.com; Joardder, M.U.H.; Hasan, S.M.

2011-09-15

In this study on the basis of lab data and available resources in Bangladesh, feasibility study has been carried out for pyrolysis process converting solid tire wastes into pyrolysis oils, solid char and gases. The process considered for detailed analysis was fixed-bed fire-tube heating pyrolysis reactor system. The comparative techno-economic assessment was carried out in US$ for three different sizes plants: medium commercial scale (144 tons/day), small commercial scale (36 tons/day), pilot scale (3.6 tons/day). The assessment showed that medium commercial scale plant was economically feasible, with the lowest unit production cost than small commercial and pilot scale plants formore » the production of crude pyrolysis oil that could be used as boiler fuel oil and for the production of upgraded liquid-products.« less

a Model Study of Small-Scale World Map Generalization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Y.; Yin, Y.; Li, C. M.; Wu, W.; Guo, P. P.; Ma, X. L.; Hu, F. M.

2018-04-01

With the globalization and rapid development every filed is taking an increasing interest in physical geography and human economics. There is a surging demand for small scale world map in large formats all over the world. Further study of automated mapping technology, especially the realization of small scale production on a large scale global map, is the key of the cartographic field need to solve. In light of this, this paper adopts the improved model (with the map and data separated) in the field of the mapmaking generalization, which can separate geographic data from mapping data from maps, mainly including cross-platform symbols and automatic map-making knowledge engine. With respect to the cross-platform symbol library, the symbol and the physical symbol in the geographic information are configured at all scale levels. With respect to automatic map-making knowledge engine consists 97 types, 1086 subtypes, 21845 basic algorithm and over 2500 relevant functional modules.In order to evaluate the accuracy and visual effect of our model towards topographic maps and thematic maps, we take the world map generalization in small scale as an example. After mapping generalization process, combining and simplifying the scattered islands make the map more explicit at 1 : 2.1 billion scale, and the map features more complete and accurate. Not only it enhance the map generalization of various scales significantly, but achieve the integration among map-makings of various scales, suggesting that this model provide a reference in cartographic generalization for various scales.

Using sutures to attach miniature tracking tags to small bats for multimonth movement and behavioral studies

Treesearch

Kevin T. Castle; Ted Weller; Paul M. Cryan; Cris D. Hein; Michael R. Schirmacher

2015-01-01

Determining the detailed movements of individual animals often requires them to carry tracking devices, but tracking broad-scale movement of small bats (<30 g) has been limited by transmitter technology and long-term attachment methods. This limitation inhibits our understanding of bat dispersal and migration, particularly in the context of emerging...

Children and Young People's Views on Web 2.0 Technologies. LGA Research Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rudd, Peter; Walker, Matthew

2010-01-01

Web 2.0 technologies are online tools that allow users to share, collaborate and interact with one another. This small-scale project focused on young people's personal use of social media, and on the potential to use these tools to collect the views of young people and involve them in democracy in communities and local authorities. The main…

Demonstrating a new framework for the comparison of environmental impacts from small- and large-scale hydropower and wind power projects.

PubMed

Bakken, Tor Haakon; Aase, Anne Guri; Hagen, Dagmar; Sundt, Håkon; Barton, David N; Lujala, Päivi

2014-07-01

Climate change and the needed reductions in the use of fossil fuels call for the development of renewable energy sources. However, renewable energy production, such as hydropower (both small- and large-scale) and wind power have adverse impacts on the local environment by causing reductions in biodiversity and loss of habitats and species. This paper compares the environmental impacts of many small-scale hydropower plants with a few large-scale hydropower projects and one wind power farm, based on the same set of environmental parameters; land occupation, reduction in wilderness areas (INON), visibility and impacts on red-listed species. Our basis for comparison was similar energy volumes produced, without considering the quality of the energy services provided. The results show that small-scale hydropower performs less favourably in all parameters except land occupation. The land occupation of large hydropower and wind power is in the range of 45-50 m(2)/MWh, which is more than two times larger than the small-scale hydropower, where the large land occupation for large hydropower is explained by the extent of the reservoirs. On all the three other parameters small-scale hydropower performs more than two times worse than both large hydropower and wind power. Wind power compares similarly to large-scale hydropower regarding land occupation, much better on the reduction in INON areas, and in the same range regarding red-listed species. Our results demonstrate that the selected four parameters provide a basis for further development of a fair and consistent comparison of impacts between the analysed renewable technologies. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The bungling giant: Atomic Energy Canada Limited and next-generation nuclear technology, 1980--1994

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slater, Ian James

From 1980--1994 Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL), the Crown Corporation responsible for the development of nuclear technology in Canada, ventured into the market for small-scale, decentralized power systems with the Slowpoke Energy System (SES), a 10MW nuclear reactor for space heating in urban and remote areas. The SES was designed to be "passively" or "inherently" safe, such that even the most catastrophic failure of the system would not result in a serious accident (e.g. a meltdown or an explosion). This Canadian initiative, a beneficiary of the National Energy Program, was the first and by far the most successful attempt at a passively safe, decentralized nuclear power system anywhere in the world. Part one uses archival documentation and interviews with project leaders to reconstruct the history of the SES. The standard explanations for the failure of the project, cheap oil, public resistance to the technology, and lack of commercial expertise, are rejected. Part two presents an alternative explanation for the failure of AECL to commercialize the SES. In short, technological momentum towards large-scale nuclear designs led to structural restrictions for the SES project. These restrictions manifested themselves internally to the company (e.g., marginalization of the SES) and externally to the company (e.g., licensing). In part three, the historical lessons of the SES are used to refine one of the central tenets of Popper's political philosophy, "piecemeal social engineering." Popper's presentation of the idea is lacking in detail; the analysis of the SES provides some empirical grounding for the concept. I argue that the institutions surrounding traditional nuclear power represent a form utopian social engineering, leading to consequences such as the suspension of civil liberties to guarantee security of the technology. The SES project was an example of a move from the utopian social engineering of large-scale centralized nuclear technology to the piecemeal social engineering of small-scale, safer and simpler decentralized nuclear heating.

Imaging multi-scale dynamics in vivo with spiral volumetric optoacoustic tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deán-Ben, X. Luís.; Fehm, Thomas F.; Ford, Steven J.; Gottschalk, Sven; Razansky, Daniel

2017-03-01

Imaging dynamics in living organisms is essential for the understanding of biological complexity. While multiple imaging modalities are often required to cover both microscopic and macroscopic spatial scales, dynamic phenomena may also extend over different temporal scales, necessitating the use of different imaging technologies based on the trade-off between temporal resolution and effective field of view. Optoacoustic (photoacoustic) imaging has been shown to offer the exclusive capability to link multiple spatial scales ranging from organelles to entire organs of small animals. Yet, efficient visualization of multi-scale dynamics remained difficult with state-of-the-art systems due to inefficient trade-offs between image acquisition and effective field of view. Herein, we introduce a spiral volumetric optoacoustic tomography (SVOT) technique that provides spectrally-enriched high-resolution optical absorption contrast across multiple spatio-temporal scales. We demonstrate that SVOT can be used to monitor various in vivo dynamics, from video-rate volumetric visualization of cardiac-associated motion in whole organs to high-resolution imaging of pharmacokinetics in larger regions. The multi-scale dynamic imaging capability thus emerges as a powerful and unique feature of the optoacoustic technology that adds to the multiple advantages of this technology for structural, functional and molecular imaging.

Food Service Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rappole, C. L.; Louvier, S. A.

1985-01-01

A study to design a food service system using current technology to serve a small scale Space Station was conducted. The psychological, sociological and nutritional factors affecting feeding in microgravity conditions was investigated. The logistics of the food service system was defined.

Reducing Mercury Pollution from Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

To reduce airborne mercury emissions from these Gold Shops, EPA and the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) have partnered to design a low cost, easily constructible technology called the Gold Shop Mercury Capture System (MCS).

2012 Market Report on Wind Technologies in Distributed Applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Orrell, Alice C.

2013-08-01

An annual report on U.S. wind power in distributed applications – expanded to include small, mid-size, and utility-scale installations – including key statistics, economic data, installation, capacity, and generation statistics, and more.

Predator-Free New Zealand: Conservation Country.

PubMed

Russell, James C; Innes, John G; Brown, Philip H; Byrom, Andrea E

2015-05-01

Eradications of invasive species from over 1000 small islands around the world have created conservation arks, but to truly address the threat of invasive species to islands, eradications must be scaled by orders of magnitude. New Zealand has eradicated invasive predators from 10% of its offshore island area and now proposes a vision to eliminate them from the entire country. We review current knowledge of invasive predator ecology and control technologies in New Zealand and the biological research, technological advances, social capacity and enabling policy required. We discuss the economic costs and benefits and conclude with a 50-year strategy for a predator-free New Zealand that is shown to be ecologically obtainable, socially desirable, and economically viable. The proposal includes invasive predator eradication from the two largest offshore islands, mammal-free mainland peninsulas, very large ecosanctuaries, plus thousands of small projects that will together merge eradication and control concepts on landscape scales.

Predator-Free New Zealand: Conservation Country

PubMed Central

Russell, James C.; Innes, John G.; Brown, Philip H.; Byrom, Andrea E.

2015-01-01

Eradications of invasive species from over 1000 small islands around the world have created conservation arks, but to truly address the threat of invasive species to islands, eradications must be scaled by orders of magnitude. New Zealand has eradicated invasive predators from 10% of its offshore island area and now proposes a vision to eliminate them from the entire country. We review current knowledge of invasive predator ecology and control technologies in New Zealand and the biological research, technological advances, social capacity and enabling policy required. We discuss the economic costs and benefits and conclude with a 50-year strategy for a predator-free New Zealand that is shown to be ecologically obtainable, socially desirable, and economically viable. The proposal includes invasive predator eradication from the two largest offshore islands, mammal-free mainland peninsulas, very large ecosanctuaries, plus thousands of small projects that will together merge eradication and control concepts on landscape scales. PMID:26955079

Small-scale and large-scale testing of photo-electrochemically activated leaching technology in Aprelkovo and Delmachik Mines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sekisov, AG; Lavrov, AYu; Rubtsov, YuI

2017-02-01

The paper gives a description of tests and trials of the technology of heap gold leaching from rebellious ore in Aprelkovo and Delmachik Mines. Efficiency of leaching flowsheets with the stage-wise use of activated solutions of different reagents, including active forms of oxygen, is evaluated. Carbonate-peroxide solutions are used at the first stage of leaching to oxidize sulfide and sulfide-arsenide ore minerals to recover iron and copper from them. The second stage leaching uses active cyanide solutions to leach encapsulated and disperse gold and silver.

Advanced imaging research and development at DARPA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhar, Nibir K.; Dat, Ravi

2012-06-01

Advances in imaging technology have huge impact on our daily lives. Innovations in optics, focal plane arrays (FPA), microelectronics and computation have revolutionized camera design. As a result, new approaches to camera design and low cost manufacturing is now possible. These advances are clearly evident in visible wavelength band due to pixel scaling, improvements in silicon material and CMOS technology. CMOS cameras are available in cell phones and many other consumer products. Advances in infrared imaging technology have been slow due to market volume and many technological barriers in detector materials, optics and fundamental limits imposed by the scaling laws of optics. There is of course much room for improvements in both, visible and infrared imaging technology. This paper highlights various technology development projects at DARPA to advance the imaging technology for both, visible and infrared. Challenges and potentials solutions are highlighted in areas related to wide field-of-view camera design, small pitch pixel, broadband and multiband detectors and focal plane arrays.

Compartmental hollow fiber capillary membrane-based bioreactor technology for in vitro studies on red blood cell lineage direction of hematopoietic stem cells.

PubMed

Housler, Greggory J; Miki, Toshio; Schmelzer, Eva; Pekor, Christopher; Zhang, Xiaokui; Kang, Lin; Voskinarian-Berse, Vanessa; Abbot, Stewart; Zeilinger, Katrin; Gerlach, Jörg C

2012-02-01

Continuous production of red blood cells (RBCs) in an automated closed culture system using hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) progenitor cell populations is of interest for clinical application because of the high demand for blood transfusions. Previously, we introduced a four-compartment bioreactor that consisted of two bundles of hollow fiber microfiltration membranes for transport of culture medium (forming two medium compartments), interwoven with one bundle of hollow fiber membranes for transport of oxygen (O(2)), carbon dioxide (CO(2)), and other gases (forming one gas compartment). Small-scale prototypes were developed of the three-dimensional (3D) perfusion cell culture systems, which enable convection-based mass transfer and integral oxygenation in the cell compartment. CD34(+) HSC were isolated from human cord blood units using a magnetic separation procedure. Cells were inoculated into 2- or 8-mL scaled-down versions of the previously designed 800-mL cell compartment devices and perfused with erythrocyte proliferation and differentiation medium. First, using the small-scale 2-mL analytical scale bioreactor, with an initial seeding density of 800,000 cells/mL, we demonstrated approximately 100-fold cell expansion and differentiation after 7 days of culture. An 8-mL laboratory-scale bioreactor was then used to show pseudocontinuous production by intermediately harvesting cells. Subsequently, we were able to use a model to demonstrate semicontinuous production with up to 14,288-fold expansion using seeding densities of 800,000 cells/mL. The down-scaled culture technology allows for expansion of CD34(+) cells and stimulating these progenitors towards RBC lineage, expressing approximately 40% CD235(+) and enucleation. The 3D perfusion technology provides an innovative tool for studies on RBC production, which is scalable.

Compartmental Hollow Fiber Capillary Membrane–Based Bioreactor Technology for In Vitro Studies on Red Blood Cell Lineage Direction of Hematopoietic Stem Cells

PubMed Central

Housler, Greggory J.; Miki, Toshio; Schmelzer, Eva; Pekor, Christopher; Zhang, Xiaokui; Kang, Lin; Voskinarian-Berse, Vanessa; Abbot, Stewart; Zeilinger, Katrin

2012-01-01

Continuous production of red blood cells (RBCs) in an automated closed culture system using hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) progenitor cell populations is of interest for clinical application because of the high demand for blood transfusions. Previously, we introduced a four-compartment bioreactor that consisted of two bundles of hollow fiber microfiltration membranes for transport of culture medium (forming two medium compartments), interwoven with one bundle of hollow fiber membranes for transport of oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and other gases (forming one gas compartment). Small-scale prototypes were developed of the three-dimensional (3D) perfusion cell culture systems, which enable convection-based mass transfer and integral oxygenation in the cell compartment. CD34+ HSC were isolated from human cord blood units using a magnetic separation procedure. Cells were inoculated into 2- or 8-mL scaled-down versions of the previously designed 800-mL cell compartment devices and perfused with erythrocyte proliferation and differentiation medium. First, using the small-scale 2-mL analytical scale bioreactor, with an initial seeding density of 800,000 cells/mL, we demonstrated approximately 100-fold cell expansion and differentiation after 7 days of culture. An 8-mL laboratory-scale bioreactor was then used to show pseudocontinuous production by intermediately harvesting cells. Subsequently, we were able to use a model to demonstrate semicontinuous production with up to 14,288-fold expansion using seeding densities of 800,000 cells/mL. The down-scaled culture technology allows for expansion of CD34+ cells and stimulating these progenitors towards RBC lineage, expressing approximately 40% CD235+ and enucleation. The 3D perfusion technology provides an innovative tool for studies on RBC production, which is scalable. PMID:21933020

Paradigm change in ocean studies: multi-platform observing and forecasting integrated approach in response to science and society needs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tintoré, Joaquín

2017-04-01

The last 20 years of ocean research have allowed a description of the state of the large-scale ocean circulation. However, it is also well known that there is no such thing as an ocean state and that the ocean varies a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. More recently, in the last 10 years, new monitoring and modelling technologies have emerged allowing quasi real time observation and forecasting of the ocean at regional and local scales. Theses new technologies are key components of recent observing & forecasting systems being progressively implemented in many regional seas and coastal areas of the world oceans. As a result, new capabilities to characterise the ocean state and more important, its variability at small spatial and temporal scales, exists today in many cases in quasi-real time. Examples of relevance for society can be cited, among others our capabilities to detect and understand long-term climatic changes and also our capabilities to better constrain our forecasting capabilities of the coastal ocean circulation at temporal scales from sub-seasonal to inter-annual and spatial from regional to meso and submesoscale. The Mediterranean Sea is a well-known laboratory ocean where meso and submesoscale features can be ideally observed and studied as shown by the key contributions from projects such as Perseus, CMEMS, Jericonext, among others. The challenge for the next 10 years is the integration of theses technologies and multiplatform observing and forecasting systems to (a) monitor the variability at small scales mesoscale/weeks) in order (b) to resolve the sub-basin/seasonal and inter-annual variability and by this (c) establish the decadal variability, understand the associated biases and correct them. In other words, the new observing systems now allow a major change in our focus of ocean observation, now from small to large scales. Recent studies from SOCIB -www.socib.es- have shown the importance of this new small to large-scale multi-platform approach in ocean observation. Three examples from the integration capabilities of SOCIB facilities will be presented and discussed. First the quasi-continuous high frequency glider monitoring of the Ibiza Channel since 2011, an important biodiversity hot spot and a 'choke' point in the Western Mediterranean circulation, has allowed us to reveal a high frequency variability in the North-South exchanges, with very significant changes (0.8 - 0.9 Sv) occurring over periods of days to week of the same order as the previously known seasonal cycle. HF radar data and model results have also contributed more recently to better describe and understand the variability at small scales. Second, the Alborex/Perseus project multi-platform experiment (e.g., RV catamaran, 2 gliders, 25 drifters, 3 Argo type profilers & satellite data) that focused on submesoscale processes and ecosystem response and carried out in the Alborán Sea in May 2014. Glider results showed significant chlorophyll subduction in areas adjacent to the steep density front with patterns related to vertical motion. Initial dynamical interpretations will be presented. Third and final, I will discuss the key relevance of the data centre to guarantee data interoperability, quality control, availability and distribution for this new approach to ocean observation and forecasting to be really efficient in responding to key scientific state of the art priorities, enhancing technology development and responding to society needs.

"Let's Do Some Jumping Together": Intergenerational Participation in the Use of Remote Technology to Co-Construct Social Relations over Distance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Clare

2015-01-01

This article discusses a small-scale study that explores how members of one family based in Australia and the United Kingdom use remote technology to develop and maintain family relationships across generations and distance. Of particular interest was the manner in which Skype computer software was mediated to develop intersubjectivity between a…

Small-Scale Waste-to-Energy Technology for Contingency Bases

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-05-24

Expedient, No Waste Sorting Technology Readiness Level High Fuel Demand Water Required Steam Infrastructure Required Air Emissions Gasification ...Full gasification system • Costs $26K • GM Industrial Engine (GM 4 Cylinder, 3.00 L) • MeccAlte Generator Head • Imbert type downdraft reactor...Solid waste volume reduction − Response to waste streams  biomass , refuse-derived fuel, shredded waste − Operation and maintenance requirements

China Report, Science and Technology, White Paper, No. 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-04-02

traditional biotechnology to produce liquor, soy sauce, vinegar and other fermented food products. In the late fifties, China established an antibiotic...to transform the traditional fermentation industry, including the use of fixed fungi or fixed cells to make alcohol, beer, soy sauce, vinegar , and...use. We should also improve the techniques and equipment of fermentation , develop 35 the technologies of central heating and small-scale methane

The latest developments and outlook for hydrogen liquefaction technology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ohlig, K.; Decker, L.

2014-01-29

Liquefied hydrogen is presently mainly used for space applications and the semiconductor industry. While clean energy applications, for e.g. the automotive sector, currently contribute to this demand with a small share only, their demand may see a significant boost in the next years with the need for large scale liquefaction plants exceeding the current plant sizes by far. Hydrogen liquefaction for small scale plants with a maximum capacity of 3 tons per day (tpd) is accomplished with a Brayton refrigeration cycle using helium as refrigerant. This technology is characterized by low investment costs but lower process efficiency and hence highermore » operating costs. For larger plants, a hydrogen Claude cycle is used, characterized by higher investment but lower operating costs. However, liquefaction plants meeting the potentially high demand in the clean energy sector will need further optimization with regard to energy efficiency and hence operating costs. The present paper gives an overview of the currently applied technologies, including their thermodynamic and technical background. Areas of improvement are identified to derive process concepts for future large scale hydrogen liquefaction plants meeting the needs of clean energy applications with optimized energy efficiency and hence minimized operating costs. Compared to studies in this field, this paper focuses on application of new technology and innovative concepts which are either readily available or will require short qualification procedures. They will hence allow implementation in plants in the close future.« less

Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes as decentralized water treatment technologies to remediate domestic washing machine effluents.

PubMed

Dos Santos, Alexsandro Jhones; Costa, Emily Cintia Tossi de Araújo; da Silva, Djalma Ribeiro; Garcia-Segura, Sergi; Martínez-Huitle, Carlos Alberto

2018-03-01

Water scarcity is one of the major concerns worldwide. In order to secure this appreciated natural resource, management and development of water treatment technologies are mandatory. One feasible alternative is the consideration of water recycling/reuse at the household scale. Here, the treatment of actual washing machine effluent by electrochemical advanced oxidation processes was considered. Electrochemical oxidation and electro-Fenton technologies can be applied as decentralized small-scale water treatment devices. Therefore, efficient decolorization and total organic abatement have been followed. The results demonstrate the promising performance of solar photoelectro-Fenton process, where complete color and organic removal was attained after 240 min of treatment under optimum conditions by applying a current density of 66.6 mA cm -2 . Thus, electrochemical technologies emerge as promising water-sustainable approaches.

Genome scale engineering techniques for metabolic engineering.

PubMed

Liu, Rongming; Bassalo, Marcelo C; Zeitoun, Ramsey I; Gill, Ryan T

2015-11-01

Metabolic engineering has expanded from a focus on designs requiring a small number of genetic modifications to increasingly complex designs driven by advances in genome-scale engineering technologies. Metabolic engineering has been generally defined by the use of iterative cycles of rational genome modifications, strain analysis and characterization, and a synthesis step that fuels additional hypothesis generation. This cycle mirrors the Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle followed throughout various engineering fields that has recently become a defining aspect of synthetic biology. This review will attempt to summarize recent genome-scale design, build, test, and learn technologies and relate their use to a range of metabolic engineering applications. Copyright © 2015 International Metabolic Engineering Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Alternative to Traditional Developmental Thinking.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tebelius, Ulla

1992-01-01

A Swedish folk high school program was focused on practicing an alternative style of living in a resource-saving and small-scale technology way. Emphasis was on examining the Western way of living from an ecological, human, and global perspective. (SK)

Meeting today's challenges to supply tomorrow's energy. Clean fossil energy technical and policy seminar

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

2005-07-01

Papers discussed the coal policy of China, Russia, Indonesia and Vietnam; clean coal technology (small-scale coal power plants, carbon capture and sequestration, new coking process SCOPE21, coal gasification (HyPr-RING), CO{sub 2} reduction technology, Supercritical coal-fired units and CFB boilers, EAGLE project, coal liquefaction), the coal consumer's view of clean fossil energy policy, and natural gas policy and technology. Some of the papers only consist of the presentation overheads/viewgraphs.

Manufacturing of Proteins and Antibodies: Chapter Downstream Processing Technologies : Harvest Operations.

PubMed

Turner, Richard; Joseph, Adrian; Titchener-Hooker, Nigel; Bender, Jean

2017-08-04

Cell harvesting is the separation or retention of cells and cellular debris from the supernatant containing the target molecule Selection of harvest method strongly depends on the type of cells, mode of bioreactor operation, process scale, and characteristics of the product and cell culture fluid. Most traditional harvesting methods use some form of filtration, centrifugation, or a combination of both for cell separation and/or retention. Filtration methods include normal flow depth filtration and tangential flow microfiltration. The ability to scale down predictably the selected harvest method helps to ensure successful production and is critical for conducting small-scale characterization studies for confirming parameter targets and ranges. In this chapter we describe centrifugation and depth filtration harvesting methods, share strategies for harvest optimization, present recent developments in centrifugation scale-down models, and review alternative harvesting technologies.

The Study of Adopting Problem Based Learning in Normal Scale Class Course Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsu, Chia-ling

2014-01-01

This study adopts the Problem Based Learning (PBL) for pre-service teachers in teacher education program. The reasons to adopt PBL are the class scale is not a small class, the contents are too many to teach, and the technologies are ready to be used in classroom. This study used an intermediary, movie, for scenario to student to define the…

Wind Power Innovation Enables Shift to Utility-Scale - Continuum Magazine

Science.gov Websites

the 1930s, a farmer in South Dakota built a small wind turbine on his farm, generating enough enough electricity to power thousands of homes. Aerial photo of large wind turbine with mountains in the background. Aerial view of the Siemens utility-scale wind turbine at the National Wind Technology Center

Damage spreading in spatial and small-world random Boolean networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Qiming; Teuscher, Christof

2014-02-01

The study of the response of complex dynamical social, biological, or technological networks to external perturbations has numerous applications. Random Boolean networks (RBNs) are commonly used as a simple generic model for certain dynamics of complex systems. Traditionally, RBNs are interconnected randomly and without considering any spatial extension and arrangement of the links and nodes. However, most real-world networks are spatially extended and arranged with regular, power-law, small-world, or other nonrandom connections. Here we explore the RBN network topology between extreme local connections, random small-world, and pure random networks, and study the damage spreading with small perturbations. We find that spatially local connections change the scaling of the Hamming distance at very low connectivities (K¯≪1) and that the critical connectivity of stability Ks changes compared to random networks. At higher K¯, this scaling remains unchanged. We also show that the Hamming distance of spatially local networks scales with a power law as the system size N increases, but with a different exponent for local and small-world networks. The scaling arguments for small-world networks are obtained with respect to the system sizes and strength of spatially local connections. We further investigate the wiring cost of the networks. From an engineering perspective, our new findings provide the key design trade-offs between damage spreading (robustness), the network's wiring cost, and the network's communication characteristics.

High-speed inlet research program and supporting analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coltrin, Robert E.

1990-01-01

The technology challenges faced by the high speed inlet designer are discussed by describing the considerations that went into the design of the Mach 5 research inlet. It is shown that the emerging three dimensional viscous computational fluid dynamics (CFD) flow codes, together with small scale experiments, can be used to guide larger scale full inlet systems research. Then, in turn, the results of the large scale research, if properly instrumented, can be used to validate or at least to calibrate the CFD codes.

Modeling the intersections of Food, Energy, and Water in climate-vulnerable Ethiopia with an application to small-scale irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Y.; Sankaranarayanan, S.; Zaitchik, B. F.; Siddiqui, S.

2017-12-01

Africa is home to some of the most climate vulnerable populations in the world. Energy and agricultural development have diverse impacts on the region's food security and economic well-being from the household to the national level, particularly considering climate variability and change. Our ultimate goal is to understand coupled Food-Energy-Water (FEW) dynamics across spatial scales in order to quantify the sensitivity of critical human outcomes to FEW development strategies in Ethiopia. We are developing bottom-up and top-down multi-scale models, spanning local, sub-national and national scales to capture the FEW linkages across communities and climatic adaptation zones. The focus of this presentation is the sub-national scale multi-player micro-economic (MME) partial-equilibrium model with coupled food and energy sector for Ethiopia. With fixed large-scale economic, demographic, and resource factors from the national scale computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and inferences of behavior parameters from the local scale agent-based model (ABM), the MME studies how shocks such as drought (crop failure) and development of resilience technologies would influence FEW system at a sub-national scale. The MME model is based on aggregating individual optimization problems for relevant players. It includes production, storage, and consumption of food and energy at spatially disaggregated zones, and transportation in between with endogenously modeled infrastructure. The aggregated players for each zone have different roles such as crop producers, storage managers, and distributors, who make decisions according to their own but interdependent objective functions. The food and energy supply chain across zones is therefore captured. Ethiopia is dominated by rain-fed agriculture with only 2% irrigated farmland. Small-scale irrigation has been promoted as a resilience technology that could potentially play a critical role in food security and economic well-being in Ethiopia, but that also intersects with energy and water consumption. Here, we focus on the energy usage for small-scale irrigation and the collective impact on crop production and water resources across zones in the MME model.

Developing a New Wireless Sensor Network Platform and Its Application in Precision Agriculture

PubMed Central

Aquino-Santos, Raúl; González-Potes, Apolinar; Edwards-Block, Arthur; Virgen-Ortiz, Raúl Alejandro

2011-01-01

Wireless sensor networks are gaining greater attention from the research community and industrial professionals because these small pieces of “smart dust” offer great advantages due to their small size, low power consumption, easy integration and support for “green” applications. Green applications are considered a hot topic in intelligent environments, ubiquitous and pervasive computing. This work evaluates a new wireless sensor network platform and its application in precision agriculture, including its embedded operating system and its routing algorithm. To validate the technological platform and the embedded operating system, two different routing strategies were compared: hierarchical and flat. Both of these routing algorithms were tested in a small-scale network applied to a watermelon field. However, we strongly believe that this technological platform can be also applied to precision agriculture because it incorporates a modified version of LORA-CBF, a wireless location-based routing algorithm that uses cluster-based flooding. Cluster-based flooding addresses the scalability concerns of wireless sensor networks, while the modified LORA-CBF routing algorithm includes a metric to monitor residual battery energy. Furthermore, results show that the modified version of LORA-CBF functions well with both the flat and hierarchical algorithms, although it functions better with the flat algorithm in a small-scale agricultural network. PMID:22346622

Developing a new wireless sensor network platform and its application in precision agriculture.

PubMed

Aquino-Santos, Raúl; González-Potes, Apolinar; Edwards-Block, Arthur; Virgen-Ortiz, Raúl Alejandro

2011-01-01

Wireless sensor networks are gaining greater attention from the research community and industrial professionals because these small pieces of "smart dust" offer great advantages due to their small size, low power consumption, easy integration and support for "green" applications. Green applications are considered a hot topic in intelligent environments, ubiquitous and pervasive computing. This work evaluates a new wireless sensor network platform and its application in precision agriculture, including its embedded operating system and its routing algorithm. To validate the technological platform and the embedded operating system, two different routing strategies were compared: hierarchical and flat. Both of these routing algorithms were tested in a small-scale network applied to a watermelon field. However, we strongly believe that this technological platform can be also applied to precision agriculture because it incorporates a modified version of LORA-CBF, a wireless location-based routing algorithm that uses cluster-based flooding. Cluster-based flooding addresses the scalability concerns of wireless sensor networks, while the modified LORA-CBF routing algorithm includes a metric to monitor residual battery energy. Furthermore, results show that the modified version of LORA-CBF functions well with both the flat and hierarchical algorithms, although it functions better with the flat algorithm in a small-scale agricultural network.

Repurposing Mass-produced Internal Combustion Engines Quantifying the Value and Use of Low-cost Internal Combustion Piston Engines for Modular Applications in Energy and Chemical Engineering Industries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

L'Heureux, Zara E.

This thesis proposes that internal combustion piston engines can help clear the way for a transformation in the energy, chemical, and refining industries that is akin to the transition computer technology experienced with the shift from large mainframes to small personal computers and large farms of individually small, modular processing units. This thesis provides a mathematical foundation, multi-dimensional optimizations, experimental results, an engine model, and a techno-economic assessment, all working towards quantifying the value of repurposing internal combustion piston engines for new applications in modular, small-scale technologies, particularly for energy and chemical engineering systems. Many chemical engineering and power generation industries have focused on increasing individual unit sizes and centralizing production. This "bigger is better" concept makes it difficult to evolve and incorporate change. Large systems are often designed with long lifetimes, incorporate innovation slowly, and necessitate high upfront investment costs. Breaking away from this cycle is essential for promoting change, especially change happening quickly in the energy and chemical engineering industries. The ability to evolve during a system's lifetime provides a competitive advantage in a field dominated by large and often very old equipment that cannot respond to technology change. This thesis specifically highlights the value of small, mass-manufactured internal combustion piston engines retrofitted to participate in non-automotive system designs. The applications are unconventional and stem first from the observation that, when normalized by power output, internal combustion engines are one hundred times less expensive than conventional, large power plants. This cost disparity motivated a look at scaling laws to determine if scaling across both individual unit size and number of units produced would predict the two order of magnitude difference seen here. For the first time, this thesis provides a mathematical analysis of scaling with a combination of both changing individual unit size and varying the total number of units produced. Different paths to meet a particular cumulative capacity are analyzed and show that total costs are path dependent and vary as a function of the unit size and number of units produced. The path dependence identified is fairly weak, however, and for all practical applications, the underlying scaling laws seem unaffected. This analysis continues to support the interest in pursuing designs built around small, modular infrastructure. Building on the observation that internal combustion engines are an inexpensive power-producing unit, the first optimization in this thesis focuses on quantifying the value of engine capacity committing to deliver power in the day-ahead electricity and reserve markets, specifically based on pricing from the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO). An optimization was written in Python to determine, based on engine cost, fuel cost, engine wear, engine lifetime, and electricity prices, when and how much of an engine's power should be committed to a particular energy market. The optimization aimed to maximize profit for the engine and generator (engine genset) system acting as a price-taker. The result is an annual profit on the order of \\$30 per kilowatt. The most value in the engine genset is in its commitments to the spinning reserve market, where power is often committed but not always called on to deliver. This analysis highlights the benefits of modularity in energy generation and provides one example where the system is so inexpensive and short-lived, that the optimization views the engine replacement cost as a consumable operating expense rather than a capital cost. Having the opportunity to incorporate incremental technological improvements in a system's infrastructure throughout its lifetime allows introduction of new technology with higher efficiencies and better designs. An alternative to traditionally large infrastructure that locks in a design and today's state-of-the-art technology for the next 50 - 70 years, is a system designed to incorporate new technology in a modular fashion. The modular engine genset system used for power generation is one example of how this works in practice. The largest single component of this thesis is modeling, designing, retrofitting, and testing a reciprocating piston engine used as a compressor. Motivated again by the low cost of an internal combustion engine, this work looks at how an engine (which is, in its conventional form, essentially a reciprocating compressor) can be cost-effectively retrofitted to perform as a small-scale gas compressor. In the laboratory, an engine compressor was built by retrofitting a one-cylinder, 79 cc engine. Various retrofitting techniques were incorporated into the system design, and the engine compressor performance was quantified in each iteration. Because the retrofitted engine is now a power consumer rather than a power-producing unit, the engine compressor is driven in the laboratory with an electric motor. Experimentally, compressed air engine exhaust (starting at elevated inlet pressures) surpassed 650 psia (about 45 bar), which makes this system very attractive for many applications in chemical engineering and refining industries. A model of the engine compressor system was written in Python and incorporates experimentally-derived parameters to quantify gas leakage, engine friction, and flow (including backflow) through valves. The model as a whole was calibrated and verified with experimental data and is used to explore engine retrofits beyond what was tested in the laboratory. Along with the experimental and modeling work, a techno-economic assessment is included to compare the engine compressor system with state-of-the-art, commercially-available compressors. Included in the financial analysis is a case study where an engine compressor system is modeled to achieve specific compression needs. The result of the assessment is that, indeed, the low engine cost, even with the necessary retrofits, provides a cost advantage over incumbent compression technologies. Lastly, this thesis provides an algorithm and case study for another application of small-scale units in energy infrastructure, specifically in energy storage. This study focuses on quantifying the value of small-scale, onsite energy storage in shaving peak power demands. This case study focuses on university-level power demands. The analysis finds that, because peak power is so costly, even small amounts of energy storage, when dispatched optimally, can provide significant cost reductions. This provides another example of the value of small-scale implementations, particularly in energy infrastructure. While the study focuses on flywheels and batteries as the energy storage medium, engine gensets could also be used to deliver power and shave peak power demands. The overarching goal of this thesis is to introduce small-scale, modular infrastructure, with a particular focus on the opportunity to retrofit and repurpose inexpensive, mass-manufactured internal combustion engines in new and unconventional applications. The modeling and experimental work presented in this dissertation show very compelling results for engines incorporated into both energy generation infrastructure and chemical engineering industries via compression technologies. The low engine cost provides an opportunity to add retrofits whilst remaining cost competitive with the incumbent technology. This work supports the claim that modular infrastructure, built on the indivisible unit of an internal combustion engine, can revolutionize many industries by providing a low-cost mechanism for rapid change and promoting small-scale designs.

Propulsion Controls Modeling for a Small Turbofan Engine

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Connolly, Joseph W.; Csank, Jeffrey T.; Chicatelli, Amy; Franco, Kevin

2017-01-01

A nonlinear dynamic model and propulsion controller are developed for a small-scale turbofan engine. The small-scale turbofan engine is based on the Price Induction company's DGEN 380, one of the few turbofan engines targeted for the personal light jet category. Comparisons of the nonlinear dynamic turbofan engine model to actual DGEN 380 engine test data and a Price Induction simulation are provided. During engine transients, the nonlinear model typically agrees within 10 percent error, even though the nonlinear model was developed from limited available engine data. A gain scheduled proportional integral low speed shaft controller with limiter safety logic is created to replicate the baseline DGEN 380 controller. The new controller provides desired gain and phase margins and is verified to meet Federal Aviation Administration transient propulsion system requirements. In understanding benefits, there is a need to move beyond simulation for the demonstration of advanced control architectures and technologies by using real-time systems and hardware. The small-scale DGEN 380 provides a cost effective means to accomplish advanced controls testing on a relevant turbofan engine platform.

Vehicle concepts and technology requirements for buoyant heavy-lift systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ardema, M. D.

1981-01-01

Several buoyant-vehicle (airship) concepts proposed for short hauls of heavy payloads are described. Numerous studies identified operating cost and payload capacity advantages relative to existing or proposed heavy-lift helicopters for such vehicles. Applications involving payloads of from 15 tons up to 800 tons were identified. The buoyant quad-rotor concept is discussed in detail, including the history of its development, current estimates of performance and economics, currently perceived technology requirements, and recent research and technology development. It is concluded that the buoyant quad-rotor, and possibly other buoyant vehicle concepts, has the potential of satisfying the market for very heavy vertical lift but that additional research and technology development are necessary. Because of uncertainties in analytical prediction methods and small-scale experimental measurements, there is a strong need for large or full-scale experiments in ground test facilities and, ultimately, with a flight research vehicle.

Megatux

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

2012-09-25

The Megatux platform enables the emulation of large scale (multi-million node) distributed systems. In particular, it allows for the emulation of large-scale networks interconnecting a very large number of emulated computer systems. It does this by leveraging virtualization and associated technologies to allow hundreds of virtual computers to be hosted on a single moderately sized server or workstation. Virtualization technology provided by modern processors allows for multiple guest OSs to run at the same time, sharing the hardware resources. The Megatux platform can be deployed on a single PC, a small cluster of a few boxes or a large clustermore » of computers. With a modest cluster, the Megatux platform can emulate complex organizational networks. By using virtualization, we emulate the hardware, but run actual software enabling large scale without sacrificing fidelity.« less

Industrial technology for the economic and viable encapsulation for large-scale solar panels (technologie industrielle d'encapsulation economique et fiable pour panneaux solaires de grandes dimensions). Final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anguet, J.; Salles, Y.

The aim of the work is to apply the laminated glass technology used in buildings and car windscreens to the encapsulation of solar panels so as to form a glass-polyvinylbutyral-glass 'sandwich'. Based on small-scale experimental panels, the following studies were made: (1) adhesion techniques; (2) structure studies to find the most suitable means for maintaining the mechanical stability of the cells; (3) types of connections for the solar panels and (4) climatic tests and humidity resistance. Mechanical and climatic tests with the minimodules gave encouraging results, whereupon larger scale models were designed. The results obtained with these confirmed those obtainedmore » with the mini-modules.« less

Final Report “Electrical and mechanical characterization of rocks at the sub-millimeter scale” DE-SC0000757

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Scales, John

The broad purpose of CSM's 6-year (3 years plus renewal) DOE project was to develop and apply new experimental physics technology to the material characterization of rocks at the grain scale or smaller. This is motivated by a knowledge that the bulk chemistry and physics of rocks are strongly influenced by processes occurring at the grain scale: the flow of fluids, cation exchange, the state of cementation of grains, and many more. It may also be possible in some cases to ``upscale'' or homogenize the mesoscopic properties of rocks in order to directly infer the large-scale properties of formations, butmore » that is not our central goal. Understanding the physics and chemistry at the small scale is. During the first 3 years, most effort was devoted to developing and validating the near-field scanning technology. During the 3 year renewal phase, most effort was focused on applying the technology in the labs Professors Batzle (now deceased) in Geophysics and Prasad in Petroleum engineering.« less

Villacidro solar demo plant: Integration of small-scale CSP and biogas power plants in an industrial microgrid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Camerada, M.; Cau, G.; Cocco, D.; Damiano, A.; Demontis, V.; Melis, T.; Musio, M.

2016-05-01

The integration of small scale concentrating solar power (CSP) in an industrial district, in order to develop a microgrid fully supplied by renewable energy sources, is presented in this paper. The plant aims to assess in real operating conditions, the performance, the effectiveness and the reliability of small-scale concentrating solar power technologies in the field of distributed generation. In particular, the potentiality of small scale CSP with thermal storage to supply dispatchable electricity to an industrial microgrid will be investigated. The microgrid will be realized in the municipal waste treatment plant of the Industrial Consortium of Villacidro, in southern Sardinia (Italy), which already includes a biogas power plant. In order to achieve the microgrid instantaneous energy balance, the analysis of the time evolution of the waste treatment plant demand and of the generation in the existing power systems has been carried out. This has allowed the design of a suitable CSP plant with thermal storage and an electrochemical storage system for supporting the proposed microgrid. At the aim of obtaining the expected energy autonomy, a specific Energy Management Strategy, which takes into account the different dynamic performances and characteristics of the demand and the generation, has been designed. In this paper, the configuration of the proposed small scale concentrating solar power (CSP) and of its thermal energy storage, based on thermocline principle, is initially described. Finally, a simulation study of the entire power system, imposing scheduled profiles based on weather forecasts, is presented.

Structural Solutions for Low-Cost Bamboo Frames: Experimental Tests and Constructive Assessments

PubMed Central

Sassu, Mauro; De Falco, Anna; Giresini, Linda; Puppio, Mario Lucio

2016-01-01

Experimental tests and constructive assessments are presented for a simple bamboo framed structure with innovative low-cost and low technology joints, specifically conceived for small buildings in developing countries. Two full scale one-storey bamboo frames have been designed by using the simplest joints solution among three different tested typologies. The entire building process is based on low-technology and natural materials: bamboo canes, wooden cylinders, plywood plates and canapé rods. The first full scale specimen (Unit A) is a one-storey single deck truss structure subjected to monotonic collapse test; the second full scale specimen (Unit B) is a one-storey double deck truss structure used to evaluate the construction time throughout assembling tests. The first full scale specimen showed ductility in collapse and ease in strengthening; the second one showed remarkable ease and speed in assembling structural elements. Finally several constructive solutions are suggested for the design of simple one-storey buildings; they are addressed to four purposes (housing, school, chapel, health center) by the composition of the proposed full scale bamboo frames. Ease of use and maintenance with a low level of technology contribute to application in developing countries although not exclusively. PMID:28773472

INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH AT THE EASTERN TELEGRAPH COMPANY, 1872-1929

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

By the late nineteenth century the submarine telegraph cable industry, which had blossomed in the 1850s, had reached what historians regard as technological maturity. For a host of commercial, cultural and technical reasons, the industry seems to have become conservative in its attitude towards technological development, which is reflected in the small scale of its staff and facilities for research and development. This paper argues that the attitude of the cable industry towards research and development was less conservative and altogether more complex than historians have suggested. Focusing on the crucial case of the Eastern Telegraph Company, the largest single operator of submarine cables, it shows how the company encouraged inventive activity among outside and in-house electricians and, in 1903, established a small research laboratory where staff and outside scientific advisors pursued new methods of cable signalling and cable designs. The scale of research and development at the Eastern Telegraph Company, however, was small by comparison to that of its nearest competitor, Western Union, and dwarfed by that of large electrical manufacturers. This paper explores the reasons for this comparatively weak provision but also suggests that this was not inappropriate for a service-sector firm. PMID:25977587

Results of Small-scale Solid Rocket Combustion Simulator testing at Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goldberg, Benjamin E.; Cook, Jerry

1993-01-01

The Small-scale Solid Rocket Combustion Simulator (SSRCS) program was established at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and used a government/industry team consisting of Hercules Aerospace Corporation, Aerotherm Corporation, United Technology Chemical Systems Division, Thiokol Corporation and MSFC personnel to study the feasibility of simulating the combustion species, temperatures and flow fields of a conventional solid rocket motor (SRM) with a versatile simulator system. The SSRCS design is based on hybrid rocket motor principles. The simulator uses a solid fuel and a gaseous oxidizer. Verification of the feasibility of a SSRCS system as a test bed was completed using flow field and system analyses, as well as empirical test data. A total of 27 hot firings of a subscale SSRCS motor were conducted at MSFC. Testing of the Small-scale SSRCS program was completed in October 1992. This paper, a compilation of reports from the above team members and additional analysis of the instrumentation results, will discuss the final results of the analyses and test programs.

Intergenerational Wealth Transmission and the Dynamics of Inequality in Small-Scale Societies*

PubMed Central

Mulder, Monique Borgerhoff; Bowles, Samuel; Hertz, Tom; Bell, Adrian; Beise, Jan; Clark, Greg; Fazzio, Ila; Gurven, Michael; Hill, Kim; Hooper, Paul L.; Irons, William; Kaplan, Hillard; Leonetti, Donna; Low, Bobbi; Marlowe, Frank; McElreath, Richard; Naidu, Suresh; Nolin, David; Piraino, Patrizio; Quinlan, Rob; Schniter, Eric; Sear, Rebecca; Shenk, Mary; Smith, Eric Alden; von Rueden, Christopher; Wiessner, Polly

2009-01-01

Small-scale human societies range from foraging bands with a strong egalitarian ethos to more economically stratified agrarian and pastoral societies. We explain this variation in inequality using a dynamic model in which a population’s long-run steady-state level of inequality depends on the extent to which its most important forms of wealth are transmitted within families across generations. We estimate the degree of intergenerational transmission of three different types of wealth (material, embodied, and relational) as well as the extent of wealth inequality in 21 historical and contemporary populations. We show that intergenerational transmission of wealth and wealth inequality are substantial among pastoral and small-scale agricultural societies (on a par with or even exceeding the most unequal modern industrial economies) and quite limited among horticultural and foraging peoples (equivalent to the most egalitarian of modern industrial populations). Differences in the technology by which a people derive their livelihood and in the institutions and norms making up the economic system jointly contribute to this pattern. PMID:19900925

BIOSEP: A NEW ETHANOL RECOVERY TECHNOLOGY FOR SMALL SCALE RURAL PRODUCTION OF ETHANOL FROM BIOMASS

EPA Science Inventory

Research activities on bioethanol have increased substantially as a result of the current concerns with energy security. Inexpensive biomass including forest residues, mill residues, agricultural residues, urban wood wastes and dedicated energy corps that exists in abundance acr...

Testing low cost anaerobic digestion (AD) systems

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

To evaluate the potential for low technology and low cost digesters for small dairies, BARC and researchers from the University of Maryland installed six modified Taiwanese-model field-scale (FS) digesters near the original dairy manure digester. The FS units receive the same post-separated liquid ...

ADEPT - A Mechanically Deployable Entry System Technology in Development at NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Venkatapathy, Ethiraj; Wercinski, Paul; Cassell, Alan; Smith, Brandon; Yount, Bryan

2016-01-01

The proposed presentation will give an overview of a mechanically deployable entry system concept development with a comprehensive summary of the ground tests and design development completed to-date, and current plans for a small-scale flight test in the near future.

Enabling Large-Scale Design, Synthesis and Validation of Small Molecule Protein-Protein Antagonists

PubMed Central

Koes, David; Khoury, Kareem; Huang, Yijun; Wang, Wei; Bista, Michal; Popowicz, Grzegorz M.; Wolf, Siglinde; Holak, Tad A.; Dömling, Alexander; Camacho, Carlos J.

2012-01-01

Although there is no shortage of potential drug targets, there are only a handful known low-molecular-weight inhibitors of protein-protein interactions (PPIs). One problem is that current efforts are dominated by low-yield high-throughput screening, whose rigid framework is not suitable for the diverse chemotypes present in PPIs. Here, we developed a novel pharmacophore-based interactive screening technology that builds on the role anchor residues, or deeply buried hot spots, have in PPIs, and redesigns these entry points with anchor-biased virtual multicomponent reactions, delivering tens of millions of readily synthesizable novel compounds. Application of this approach to the MDM2/p53 cancer target led to high hit rates, resulting in a large and diverse set of confirmed inhibitors, and co-crystal structures validate the designed compounds. Our unique open-access technology promises to expand chemical space and the exploration of the human interactome by leveraging in-house small-scale assays and user-friendly chemistry to rationally design ligands for PPIs with known structure. PMID:22427896

Lessons from a pilot program to induce stove replacements in Chile: design, implementation and evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gómez, Walter; Chávez, Carlos; Salgado, Hugo; Vásquez, Felipe

2017-11-01

We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a subsidy program to introduce cleaner and more efficient household wood combustion technologies. The program was conducted in the city of Temuco, one of the most polluted cities in southern Chile, as a pilot study to design a new national stove replacement initiative for pollution control. In this city, around 90% of the total emissions of suspended particulate matter is caused by households burning wood. We created a simulated market in which households could choose among different combustion technologies with an assigned subsidy. The subsidy was a relevant factor in the decision to participate, and the inability to secure credit was a significant constraint for the participation of low-income households. Due to several practical difficulties and challenges associated with the implementation of large-scale programs that encourage technological innovation at the household level, it is strongly advisable to start with a small-scale pilot that can provide useful insights into the final design of a fuller, larger-scale program.

Computer 3D site model generation based on aerial images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheltov, Sergey Y.; Blokhinov, Yuri B.; Stepanov, Alexander A.; Skryabin, Sergei V.; Sibiriakov, Alexandre V.

1997-07-01

The technology for 3D model design of real world scenes and its photorealistic rendering are current topics of investigation. Development of such technology is very attractive to implement in vast varieties of applications: military mission planning, crew training, civil engineering, architecture, virtual reality entertainments--just a few were mentioned. 3D photorealistic models of urban areas are often discussed now as upgrade from existing 2D geographic information systems. Possibility of site model generation with small details depends on two main factors: available source dataset and computer power resources. In this paper PC based technology is presented, so the scenes of middle resolution (scale of 1:1000) be constructed. Types of datasets are the gray level aerial stereo pairs of photographs (scale of 1:14000) and true color on ground photographs of buildings (scale ca.1:1000). True color terrestrial photographs are also necessary for photorealistic rendering, that in high extent improves human perception of the scene.

Pilot testing of a membrane system for postcombustion CO 2 capture

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Merkel, Tim; Kniep, Jay; Wei, Xiaotong

2015-09-30

This final report summarizes work conducted for the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE) to scale up an efficient post-combustion CO 2 capture membrane process to the small pilot test stage (award number DE-FE0005795). The primary goal of this research program was to design, fabricate, and operate a membrane CO 2 capture system to treat coal-derived flue gas containing 20 tonnes CO 2/day (20 TPD). Membrane Technology and Research (MTR) conducted this project in collaboration with Babcock and Wilcox (B&W), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), WorleyParsons (WP), the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), Enerkem (EK), andmore » the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC). In addition to the small pilot design, build and slipstream testing at NCCC, other project efforts included laboratory membrane and module development at MTR, validation field testing on a 1 TPD membrane system at NCCC, boiler modeling and testing at B&W, a techno-economic analysis (TEA) by EPRI/WP, a case study of the membrane technology applied to a ~20 MWe power plant by ISTC, and an industrial CO 2 capture test at an Enerkem waste-to-biofuel facility. The 20 TPD small pilot membrane system built in this project successfully completed over 1,000 hours of operation treating flue gas at NCCC. The Polaris™ membranes used on this system demonstrated stable performance, and when combined with over 10,000 hours of operation at NCCC on a 1 TPD system, the risk associated with uncertainty in the durability of postcombustion capture membranes has been greatly reduced. Moreover, next-generation Polaris membranes with higher performance and lower cost were validation tested on the 1 TPD system. The 20 TPD system also demonstrated successful operation of a new low-pressure-drop sweep module that will reduce parasitic energy losses at full scale by as much as 10 MWe. In modeling and pilot boiler testing, B&W confirmed the viability of CO 2 recycle to the boiler as envisioned in the MTR process design. The impact of this CO 2 recycle on boiler efficiency was quantified and incorporated into a TEA of the membrane capture process applied to a full-scale power plant. As with previous studies, the TEA showed the membrane process to be lower cost than the conventional solvent capture process even at 90% CO 2capture. A sensitivity study indicates that the membrane capture cost decreases significantly if the 90% capture requirement is relaxed. Depending on the process design, a minimum capture cost is achieved at 30-60% capture, values that would meet proposed CO 2 emission regulations for coal-fired power plants. In summary, this project has successfully advanced the MTR membrane capture process through small pilot testing (technology readiness level 6). The technology is ready for future scale-up to the 10 MWe size.« less

Scaling of Ion Thrusters to Low Power

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Patterson, Michael J.; Grisnik, Stanley P.; Soulas, George C.

1998-01-01

Analyses were conducted to examine ion thruster scaling relationships in detail to determine performance limits, and lifetime expectations for thruster input power levels below 0.5 kW. This was motivated by mission analyses indicating the potential advantages of high performance, high specific impulse systems for small spacecraft. The design and development status of a 0.1-0.3 kW prototype small thruster and its components are discussed. Performance goals include thruster efficiencies on the order of 40% to 54% over a specific impulse range of 2000 to 3000 seconds, with a lifetime in excess of 8000 hours at full power. Thruster technologies required to achieve the performance and lifetime targets are identified.

Cheating Behaviours, the Internet and Education Undergraduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trushell, J.; Byrne, K.; Simpson, R.

2012-01-01

This paper describes an illuminative small-scale study that piloted an initial survey instrument intended to investigate correspondences between 47 undergraduate Education final year students' use of information and communications technology (ICT), including the Internet, and--within the context of their adoption of tactics intended to impress…

Achieving Self-Reliance: Backyard Energy Lessons.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cook, Stephen

Appropriate technology (the process most appropriate for local cultural, economic, and social conditions) is geared toward projects which: are small in scale, decentralized, and energy efficient; use local materials, labor, and ingenuity; are not capital-intensive; and maximize the use of renewable energy resources. Descriptions of such projects…

High Contrast Internal and External Coronagraph Masks Produced by Various Techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Balasubramanian, Kunjithapatha; Wilson, Daniel; White, Victor; Muller, Richard; Dickie, Matthew; Yee, Karl; Ruiz, Ronald; Shaklan, Stuart; Cady, Eric; Kern, Brian;

The economic and social benefits of an aquaponic system for the integrated production of fish and water plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rizal, A.; Dhahiyat, Y.; Zahidah; Andriani, Y.; Handaka, A. A.; Sahidin, A.

2018-04-01

Aquaponics is an evolving closed-system food production technology that integrates recirculating aquaculture with hydroponics. In this paper we give a brief literature overview of the benefit aspects of aquaponics by discussing its social, environmental, and economic impacts in different potential settings. The technology might be applied to commercial or community based urban food production, industrial scale production in rural areas, small scale farming in developing countries or as systems for education and decoration inside buildings. We concluded that due to the different potential applications and settings for installing the technology, benefit impacts need to be considered separately and that due the complexity, communities, urban and rural infrastructure and policy settings, further research and data acquisition is needed to be able to assess all benefit aspects.

Robust reflective pupil slicing technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meade, Jeffrey T.; Behr, Bradford B.; Cenko, Andrew T.; Hajian, Arsen R.

2014-07-01

Tornado Spectral Systems (TSS) has developed the High Throughput Virtual Slit (HTVSTM), robust all-reflective pupil slicing technology capable of replacing the slit in research-, commercial- and MIL-SPEC-grade spectrometer systems. In the simplest configuration, the HTVS allows optical designers to remove the lossy slit from pointsource spectrometers and widen the input slit of long-slit spectrometers, greatly increasing throughput without loss of spectral resolution or cross-dispersion information. The HTVS works by transferring etendue between image plane axes but operating in the pupil domain rather than at a focal plane. While useful for other technologies, this is especially relevant for spectroscopic applications by performing the same spectral narrowing as a slit without throwing away light on the slit aperture. HTVS can be implemented in all-reflective designs and only requires a small number of reflections for significant spectral resolution enhancement-HTVS systems can be efficiently implemented in most wavelength regions. The etendueshifting operation also provides smooth scaling with input spot/image size without requiring reconfiguration for different targets (such as different seeing disk diameters or different fiber core sizes). Like most slicing technologies, HTVS provides throughput increases of several times without resolution loss over equivalent slitbased designs. HTVS technology enables robust slit replacement in point-source spectrometer systems. By virtue of pupilspace operation this technology has several advantages over comparable image-space slicer technology, including the ability to adapt gracefully and linearly to changing source size and better vertical packing of the flux distribution. Additionally, this technology can be implemented with large slicing factors in both fast and slow beams and can easily scale from large, room-sized spectrometers through to small, telescope-mounted devices. Finally, this same technology is directly applicable to multi-fiber spectrometers to achieve similar enhancement. HTVS also provides the ability to anamorphically "stretch" the slit image in long-slit spectrometers, allowing the instrument designer to optimize the plate scale in the dispersion axis and cross-dispersion axes independently without sacrificing spatial information. This allows users to widen the input slit, with the associated gain of throughput and loss of spatial selectivity, while maintaining the spectral resolution of the spectrometer system. This "stretching" places increased requirements on detector focal plane height, as with image slicing techniques, but provides additional degrees of freedom to instrument designers to build the best possible spectrometer systems. We discuss the details of this technology for an astronomical context, covering the applicability from small telescope mounted spectrometers through long-slit imagers and radial-velocity engines. This powerful tool provides additional degrees of freedom when designing a spectrometer, enabling instrument designers to further optimize systems for the required scientific goals.

7th Annual Systems Biology Symposium: Systems Biology and Engineering

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Galitski, Timothy P.

2008-04-01

Systems biology recognizes the complex multi-scale organization of biological systems, from molecules to ecosystems. The International Symposium on Systems Biology has been hosted by the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Washington, since 2002. The annual two-day event gathers the most influential researchers transforming biology into an integrative discipline investingating complex systems. Engineering and application of new technology is a central element of systems biology. Genome-scale, or very small-scale, biological questions drive the enigneering of new technologies, which enable new modes of experimentation and computational analysis, leading to new biological insights and questions. Concepts and analytical methods in engineering aremore » now finding direct applications in biology. Therefore, the 2008 Symposium, funded in partnership with the Department of Energy, featured global leaders in "Systems Biology and Engineering."« less

US Army remotely piloted vehicle supporting technology program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gossett, T. D.

1981-01-01

Essential technology programs that lead to the full scale engineering development of the Aquila Remotely Piloted Vehicle system for U.S. Army are described. The Aquila system uses a small recoverable and reusable RPV to provide target acquisition, designation, and aerial reconnaissance mission support for artillery and smart munitions. Developments that will provide growth capabilities to the Aquila RPV system, as well as future RPV mission concepts being considered by the U.S. Army are presented.

Innovative technologies for decentralised water-, wastewater and biowaste management in urban and peri-urban areas.

PubMed

Otterpohl, R; Braun, U; Oldenburg, M

2003-01-01

Avoiding the comingling of water flows coming from different sources and thus obtaining flows with a very low dilution factor is the first and major step key to technical solutions for adequate treatment of household wastewaters. Through their decentral structure and effective recovery of water, energy and fertiliser these systems can be highly cost efficient. Fresh water consumption can be reduced by up to 80% while nutrients can be recovered to a large extent. Source control is also advantageous for hygienic reasons: low volumes are far easier to sanitise. Source separation technology in municipal waste water treatment does often lead decentralised or semicentral systems. The first essential step is the separate collection and treatment of toilet waste in households, which contains almost all pathogens and nutrients. New toilet systems with very low dilution factors, ranging from vacuum- through urine sorting to dry toilets, have been introduced in several projects and proven feasible. New ideas such as the black- and greywater cycle systems are presently under research at the Technical University Hamburg Harburg. Such modular, integrated and small scale systems are only possible through recent advances in membrane technology and, due to their small scale, do have the potential to be installed in densely populated regions. These technologies are options for following the principles of ecological sanitation, to contain, to sanitise and to reuse also in urban areas (EcoSanRes, 2003).

Karst medium characterization and simulation of groundwater flow in Lijiang Riversed, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, B. X.

2015-12-01

It is important to study water and carbon cycle processes for water resource management, pollution prevention and global warming influence on southwest karst region of China. Lijiang river basin is selected as our study region. Interdisciplinary field and laboratory experiments with various technologies are conducted to characterize the karst aquifers in detail. Key processes in the karst water cycle and carbon cycle are determined. Based on the MODFLOW-CFP model, new watershed flow and carbon cycle models are developed coupled subsurface and surface water flow models, flow and chemical/biological models. Our study is focused on the karst springshed in Mao village. The mechanisms coupling carbon cycle and water cycle are explored. Parallel computing technology is used to construct the numerical model for the carbon cycle and water cycle in the small scale watershed, which are calibrated and verified by field observations. The developed coupling model for the small scale watershed is extended to a large scale watershed considering the scale effect of model parameters and proper model structure simplification. The large scale watershed model is used to study water cycle and carbon cycle in Lijiang rivershed, and to calculate the carbon flux and carbon sinks in the Lijiang river basin. The study results provide scientific methods for water resources management and environmental protection in southwest karst region corresponding to global climate change. This study could provide basic theory and simulation method for geological carbon sequestration in China karst region.

Simulation of groundwater flow and evaluation of carbon sink in Lijiang Rivershed, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Bill X.; Cao, Jianhua; Tong, Juxiu; Gao, Bing

2016-04-01

It is important to study water and carbon cycle processes for water resource management, pollution prevention and global warming influence on southwest karst region of China. Lijiang river basin is selected as our study region. Interdisciplinary field and laboratory experiments with various technologies are conducted to characterize the karst aquifers in detail. Key processes in the karst water cycle and carbon cycle are determined. Based on the MODFLOW-CFP model, new watershed flow and carbon cycle models are developed coupled subsurface and surface water flow models, flow and chemical/biological models. Our study is focused on the karst springshed in Mao village. The mechanisms coupling carbon cycle and water cycle are explored. Parallel computing technology is used to construct the numerical model for the carbon cycle and water cycle in the small scale watershed, which are calibrated and verified by field observations. The developed coupling model for the small scale watershed is extended to a large scale watershed considering the scale effect of model parameters and proper model structure simplification. The large scale watershed model is used to study water cycle and carbon cycle in Lijiang rivershed, and to calculate the carbon flux and carbon sinks in the Lijiang river basin. The study results provide scientific methods for water resources management and environmental protection in southwest karst region corresponding to global climate change. This study could provide basic theory and simulation method for geological carbon sequestration in China karst region.

Improving a Counselor Education Web Site through Usability Testing: The Bibliotherapy Education Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMillen, Paula S.; Pehrsson, Dale-Elizabeth

2009-01-01

Technology proficiency expectations have proliferated in counselor education; however, limited information in the counseling literature details how to effectively evaluate or refine online resources from a design/utility standpoint. This description of a small-scale usability study demonstrates a cost-effective strategy for improving counselor…

Student and Faculty Inter-Generational Digital Divide: Fact or Fiction?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salajan, Florin D.; Schonwetter, Dieter J.; Cleghorn, Blaine M.

2010-01-01

This article analyzes the digital native-digital immigrant dichotomy based on the results of a small-scale study conducted at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Dentistry, regarding students' and faculty members' perceptions toward the implementation of digital learning technologies in the curriculum. The first element chosen for measurement…

Regenerating an Arsenic Removal Iron-Based Adsorptive Media System, Part 2: Performance and Cost

EPA Science Inventory

The replacement of exhausted, adsorptive media used to remove arsenic from drinking water accounts for approximately 80% of the total operational and maintenance (O/M) costs of this commonly used small system technology. The results of three, full scale system studies of an on-s...

Knock-on Effects of Mode Change on Academic Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Sheena

2004-01-01

Factors such as increases in student numbers and technological developments are threatening the luxury of one-on-one tutorials and bringing changes in modes of academic discourse. This small scale exploratory study identifies characteristics of taped oral, compared to written, feedback that are attributable to its spoken nature (longer, less…

Vitrification of plutonium at Rocky Flats the argument for a pilot plant

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moore, L.

1996-05-01

Current plans for stabilizing and storing the plutonium at Rocky Flats Plant fail to put the material in a form suitable for disposition and resistant to proliferation. Vitrification should be considered as an alternate technology. The vitrification should begin with a small-scale pilot plant.

Historians of Education and Social Media

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rochez, Charlotte

2015-01-01

Narrowing the focus of existing research on academics' and historians' use of digital technologies and social media, this paper considers historians of education and their use of online platforms. It combines a small-scale survey of the self-reflections of historians of education together with personal reflections gained from building the social…

United States Department of Energy solar receiver technology development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klimas, P. C.; Diver, R. B.; Chavez, J. M.

The United States Department of Energy (DOE), through Sandia National Laboratories, has been conducting a Solar Thermal Receiver Technology Development Program, which maintains a balance between analytical modeling, bench and small scale testing, and experimentation conducted at scales representative of commercially-sized equipment. Central receiver activities emphasize molten salt-based systems on large scales and volumetric devices in the modeling and small scale testing. These receivers are expected to be utilized in solar power plants rated between 100 and 200 MW. Distributed receiver research focuses on liquid metal refluxing devices. These are intended to mate parabolic dish concentrators with Stirling cycle engines in the 5 to 25 kW(sub e) power range. The effort in the area of volumetric receivers is less intensive and highly cooperative in nature. A ceramic foam absorber of Sandia design was successfully tested on the 200 kW(sub t) test bed at Plataforma Solar during 1989. Material integrity during the approximately 90-test series was excellent. Significant progress has been made with parabolic dish concentrator-mounted receivers using liquid metals (sodium or a potassium/sodium mixture) as heat transport media. Sandia has successfully solar-tested a pool boiling reflux receiver sized to power a 25 kW Stirling engine. Boiling stability and transient operation were both excellent. This document describes these activities in detail and will outline plans for future development.

Life Cycle Cost of Solar Biomass Hybrid Dryer Systems for Cashew Drying of Nuts in India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhanushkodi, Saravanan; Wilson, Vincent H.; Sudhakar, Kumarasamy

2015-12-01

Cashew nut farming in India is mostly carried out in small and marginal holdings. Energy consumption in the small scale cashew nut processing industry is very high and is mainly due to the high energy consumption of the drying process. The drying operation provides a lot of scope for energy saving and substitutions of other renewable energy sources. Renewable energy-based drying systems with loading capacity of 40 kg were proposed for application in small scale cashew nut processing industries. The main objective of this work is to perform economic feasibility of substituting solar, biomass and hybrid dryer in place of conventional steam drying for cashew drying. Four economic indicators were used to assess the feasibility of three renewable based drying technologies. The payback time was 1.58 yr. for solar, 1.32 for biomass and 1.99 for the hybrid drying system, whereas as the cost-benefit estimates were 5.23 for solar, 4.15 for biomass and 3.32 for the hybrid system. It was found that it is of paramount importance to develop solar biomass hybrid dryer for small scale processing industries.

Ultrastrong ductile and stable high-entropy alloys at small scales.

PubMed

Zou, Yu; Ma, Huan; Spolenak, Ralph

2015-07-10

Refractory high-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a class of emerging multi-component alloys, showing superior mechanical properties at elevated temperatures and being technologically interesting. However, they are generally brittle at room temperature, fail by cracking at low compressive strains and suffer from limited formability. Here we report a strategy for the fabrication of refractory HEA thin films and small-sized pillars that consist of strongly textured, columnar and nanometre-sized grains. Such HEA pillars exhibit extraordinarily high yield strengths of ∼ 10 GPa--among the highest reported strengths in micro-/nano-pillar compression and one order of magnitude higher than that of its bulk form--and their ductility is considerably improved (compressive plastic strains over 30%). Additionally, we demonstrate that such HEA films show substantially enhanced stability for high-temperature, long-duration conditions (at 1,100 °C for 3 days). Small-scale HEAs combining these properties represent a new class of materials in small-dimension devices potentially for high-stress and high-temperature applications.

Large-Scale 3D Printing: The Way Forward

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jassmi, Hamad Al; Najjar, Fady Al; Ismail Mourad, Abdel-Hamid

2018-03-01

Research on small-scale 3D printing has rapidly evolved, where numerous industrial products have been tested and successfully applied. Nonetheless, research on large-scale 3D printing, directed to large-scale applications such as construction and automotive manufacturing, yet demands a great a great deal of efforts. Large-scale 3D printing is considered an interdisciplinary topic and requires establishing a blended knowledge base from numerous research fields including structural engineering, materials science, mechatronics, software engineering, artificial intelligence and architectural engineering. This review article summarizes key topics of relevance to new research trends on large-scale 3D printing, particularly pertaining (1) technological solutions of additive construction (i.e. the 3D printers themselves), (2) materials science challenges, and (3) new design opportunities.

Progress of the Photovoltaic Technology Incubator Project Towards an Enhanced U.S. Manufacturing Base: Preprint

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ullal, H.; Mitchell, R.; Keyes, B.

In this paper, we report on the major accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Program (SETP) Photovoltaic (PV) Technology Incubator project. The Incubator project facilitates a company's transition from developing a solar cell or PV module prototype to pilot- and large-scale U.S. manufacturing. The project targets small businesses that have demonstrated proof-of-concept devices or processes in the laboratory. Their success supports U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu's SunShot Initiative, which seeks to achieve PV technologies that are cost-competitive without subsidies at large scale with fossil-based energy sources by the end of this decade. The Incubatormore » Project has enhanced U.S. PV manufacturing capacity and created more than 1200 clean energy jobs, resulting in an increase in American economic competitiveness. The investment raised to date by these PV Incubator companies as a result of DOE's $ 59 million investment totals nearly $ 1.3 billion.« less

Progress of the PV Technology Incubator Project Towards an Enhanced U.S. Manufacturing Base

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ullal, H.; Mitchell, R.; Keyes, B.

In this paper, we report on the major accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Program (SETP) Photovoltaic (PV) Technology Incubator project. The Incubator project facilitates a company's transition from developing a solar cell or PV module prototype to pilot- and large-scale U.S. manufacturing. The project targets small businesses that have demonstrated proof-of-concept devices or processes in the laboratory. Their success supports U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu's SunShot Initiative, which seeks to achieve PV technologies that are cost-competitive without subsidies at large scale with fossil-based energy sources by the end of this decade. The Incubatormore » Project has enhanced U.S. PV manufacturing capacity and created more than 1200 clean energy jobs, resulting in an increase in American economic competitiveness. The investment raised to date by these PV Incubator companies as a result of DOE's $ 59 million investment total nearly $ 1.3 billion.« less

Hydrogen generation from biogenic and fossil fuels by autothermal reforming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rampe, Thomas; Heinzel, Angelika; Vogel, Bernhard

Hydrogen generation for fuel cell systems by reforming technologies from various fuels is one of the main fields of investigation of the Fraunhofer ISE. Suitable fuels are, on the one hand, gaseous hydrocarbons like methane, propane but also, on the other hand, liquid hydrocarbons like gasoline and alcohols, e.g., ethanol as biogenic fuel. The goal is to develop compact systems for generation of hydrogen from fuel being suitable for small-scale membrane fuel cells. The most recent work is related to reforming according to the autothermal principle — fuel, air and steam is supplied to the reactor. Possible applications of such small-scale autothermal reformers are mobile systems and also miniature fuel cell as co-generation plant for decentralised electricity and heat generation. For small stand-alone systems without a connection to the natural gas grid liquid gas, a mixture of propane and butane is an appropriate fuel.

Current Laminar Flow Control Experiments at NASA Dryden

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bowers, Al

2010-01-01

An experiment to demonstrate laminar flow over the swept wing of a subsonic transport is being developed. Discrete Roughness Elements are being used to maintain laminar flow over a substantial portion of a wing glove. This passive laminar flow technology has only come to be recognized as a significant player in airliner drag reduction in the last few years. NASA is implementing this experiment and is planning to demonstrate this technology at full-scale Bight cruise conditions of a small-to-medium airliner.

Physicochemical characterization of fine particles from small-scale wood combustion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lamberg, Heikki; Nuutinen, Kati; Tissari, Jarkko; Ruusunen, Jarno; Yli-Pirilä, Pasi; Sippula, Olli; Tapanainen, Maija; Jalava, Pasi; Makkonen, Ulla; Teinilä, Kimmo; Saarnio, Karri; Hillamo, Risto; Hirvonen, Maija-Riitta; Jokiniemi, Jorma

2011-12-01

Emissions from small-scale wood combustion appliances are of special interest since fine particles have been consistently associated with adverse health effects. It has been reported that the physicochemical characteristics of the emitted particles affect also their toxic properties but the mechanisms behind these phenomena and the causative role of particles from wood combustion sources are still mostly unknown. Combustion situations vary significantly in small-scale appliances, especially in batch combustion. Combustion behaviour is affected by fuel properties, appliance type and operational practice. Particle samples were collected from six appliances representing different combustion situations in small-scale combustion. These appliances were five wood log fuelled stoves, including one stove equipped with modern combustion technology, three different conventional combustion appliances and one sauna stove. In addition, a modern small-scale pellet boiler represented advanced continuous combustion technology. The aim of the study was to analyze gas composition and fine particle properties over different combustion situations. Fine particle (PM 1) emissions and their chemical constituents emerging from different combustion situations were compared and this physicochemical data was combined with the toxicological data on cellular responses induced by the same particles (see Tapanainen et al., 2011). There were significant differences in the particle emissions from different combustion situations. Overall, the efficient combustion in the pellet boiler produced the smallest emissions whereas inefficient batch combustion in a sauna stove created the largest emissions. Improved batch combustion with air-staging produced about 2.5-fold PM 1 emissions compared to the modern pellet boiler (50.7 mg MJ -1 and 19.7 mg MJ -1, respectively), but the difference in the total particulate PAH content was 750-fold (90 μg MJ -1 and 0.12 μg MJ -1, respectively). Improved batch combustion and conventional batch combustion showed almost the same PM 1 emissions (51.6 mg MJ -1), but a 10-fold difference in total particulate PAH emissions (910 μg MJ -1). These results highlight that same PM 1 emissions can be associated with very different chemical compositions, potentially leading to different toxic properties of the particles. Thus, changing from an old, less efficient, combustion appliance to a modern appliance can have a greater impact on toxic properties than the emitted PM 1 mass might indicate.

Towards Personal Exposures: How Technology Is Changing Air Pollution and Health Research.

PubMed

Larkin, A; Hystad, P

2017-12-01

We present a review of emerging technologies and how these can transform personal air pollution exposure assessment and subsequent health research. Estimating personal air pollution exposures is currently split broadly into methods for modeling exposures for large populations versus measuring exposures for small populations. Air pollution sensors, smartphones, and air pollution models capitalizing on big/new data sources offer tremendous opportunity for unifying these approaches and improving long-term personal exposure prediction at scales needed for population-based research. A multi-disciplinary approach is needed to combine these technologies to not only estimate personal exposures for epidemiological research but also determine drivers of these exposures and new prevention opportunities. While available technologies can revolutionize air pollution exposure research, ethical, privacy, logistical, and data science challenges must be met before widespread implementations occur. Available technologies and related advances in data science can improve long-term personal air pollution exposure estimates at scales needed for population-based research. This will advance our ability to evaluate the impacts of air pollution on human health and develop effective prevention strategies.

Profiling protein function with small molecule microarrays

PubMed Central

Winssinger, Nicolas; Ficarro, Scott; Schultz, Peter G.; Harris, Jennifer L.

2002-01-01

The regulation of protein function through posttranslational modification, local environment, and protein–protein interaction is critical to cellular function. The ability to analyze on a genome-wide scale protein functional activity rather than changes in protein abundance or structure would provide important new insights into complex biological processes. Herein, we report the application of a spatially addressable small molecule microarray to an activity-based profile of proteases in crude cell lysates. The potential of this small molecule-based profiling technology is demonstrated by the detection of caspase activation upon induction of apoptosis, characterization of the activated caspase, and inhibition of the caspase-executed apoptotic phenotype using the small molecule inhibitor identified in the microarray-based profile. PMID:12167675

On the use of infrasound for constraining global climate models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Millet, Christophe; Ribstein, Bruno; Lott, Francois; Cugnet, David

2017-11-01

Numerical prediction of infrasound is a complex issue due to constantly changing atmospheric conditions and to the random nature of small-scale flows. Although part of the upward propagating wave is refracted at stratospheric levels, where gravity waves significantly affect the temperature and the wind, yet the process by which the gravity wave field changes the infrasound arrivals remains poorly understood. In the present work, we use a stochastic parameterization to represent the subgrid scale gravity wave field from the atmospheric specifications provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. It is shown that regardless of whether the gravity wave field possesses relatively small or large features, the sensitivity of acoustic waveforms to atmospheric disturbances can be extremely different. Using infrasound signals recorded during campaigns of ammunition destruction explosions, a new set of tunable parameters is proposed which more accurately predicts the small-scale content of gravity wave fields in the middle atmosphere. Climate simulations are performed using the updated parameterization. Numerical results demonstrate that a network of ground-based infrasound stations is a promising technology for dynamically tuning the gravity wave parameterization.

Pilot-scale demonstration of phytofiltration for treatment of arsenic in New Mexico drinking water.

PubMed

Elless, Mark P; Poynton, Charissa Y; Willms, Cari A; Doyle, Mike P; Lopez, Alisa C; Sokkary, Dale A; Ferguson, Bruce W; Blaylock, Michael J

2005-10-01

Arsenic contamination of drinking water poses serious health risks to millions of people worldwide. To reduce such risks, the United States Environmental Protection Agency recently lowered the Maximum Contaminant Level for arsenic in drinking water from 50 to 10 microgL(-1). The majority of water systems requiring compliance are small systems that serve less than 10,000 people. Current technologies used to clean arsenic-contaminated water have significant drawbacks, particularly for small treatment systems. In this pilot-scale demonstration, we investigated the use of arsenic-hyperaccumulating ferns to remove arsenic from drinking water using a continuous flow phytofiltration system. Over the course of a 3-month demonstration period, the system consistently produced water having an arsenic concentration less than the detection limit of 2 microgL(-1), at flow rates as high as 1900 L day(-1) for a total treated water volume of approximately 60,000 L. Our results demonstrate that phytofiltration provides the basis for a solar-powered hydroponic technique to enable small-scale cleanup of arsenic-contaminated drinking water.

Abatement of mercury pollution in the small-scale gold mining industry: restructuring the policy and research agendas.

PubMed

Hilson, Gavin

2006-06-01

This paper critiques contemporary research and policy approaches taken toward the analysis and abatement of mercury pollution in the small-scale gold mining sector. Unmonitored releases of mercury from gold amalgamation have caused considerable environmental contamination and human health complications in rural reaches of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia. Whilst these problems have caught the attention of the scientific community over the past 15-20 years, the research that has since been undertaken has failed to identify appropriate mitigation measures, and has done little to advance understanding of why contamination persists. Moreover, the strategies used to educate operators about the impacts of acute mercury exposure, and the technologies implemented to prevent further pollution, have been marginally effective at best. The mercury pollution problem will not be resolved until governments and donor agencies commit to carrying out research aimed at improving understanding of the dynamics of small scale gold mining communities. Acquisition of this knowledge is the key to designing and implementing appropriate support and abatement measures.

Radio astronomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kellermann, Kenneth I.; Heeschen, David; Backer, Donald C.; Cohen, Marshall H.; Davis, Michael; Depater, Imke; Deyoung, David; Dulk, George A.; Fisher, J. R.; Goss, W. Miller

1991-01-01

The following subject areas are covered: (1) scientific opportunities (millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelength astronomy; meter to hectometer astronomy; the Sun, stars, pulsars, interstellar masers, and extrasolar planets; the planets, asteroids, and comets; radio galaxies, quasars, and cosmology; and challenges for radio astronomy in the 1990's); (2) recommendations for new facilities (the millimeter arrays, medium scale instruments, and small-scale projects); (3) continuing activities and maintenance, upgrading of telescopes and instrumentation; (4) long range programs and technology development; and (5) social, political, and organizational considerations.

An Exploration of Desktop Virtual Reality and Visual Processing Skills in a Technical Training Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ausburn, Lynna J.; Ausburn, Floyd B.; Kroutter, Paul

2010-01-01

Virtual reality (VR) technology has demonstrated effectiveness in a variety of technical learning situations, yet little is known about its differential effects on learners with different levels of visual processing skill. This small-scale exploratory study tested VR through quasi-experimental methodology and a theoretical/conceptual framework…

New Technologies, Old Dilemmas: Theoretical and Practical Challenges in Preschool Immersion Playrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McPake, Joanna; Stephen, Christine

2016-01-01

This paper describes some of the findings emerging from a small-scale pilot study investigating the potential of a tablet app, "Our Story (Ar Stòiridh)," to enhance language-learning opportunities for children in Gaelic-medium preschool playrooms. The intervention drew on design-based research, a methodology for investigating the…

The Response of Small Scale Rigid Targets to Shallow Buried Explosive Detonations

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-09-01

properties as applied in this work was based on some of the standard defini- tions of soil constitutive properties as found in, e.g., Chen and Baladi [18...Technology Corporation; 2007. [18] Chen WF, Baladi GY. Soil plasticity: theory and implementation. New York: Elsevier Science; 1985. [19] Zimmerman

The Water Turbine: An Integrative STEM Education Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grubbs, Michael E.; Deck, Anita

2015-01-01

Water turbines have long been used to make work easier for humans while minimizing energy consumption. They are not only used in small- and large-scale operations, but also provide a great context for Integrative STEM education. Students can begin to understand the technological processes available by designing, building, and testing different…

Cowboys with Cameras: An Interactive Expedition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robert, Kenny; Lenz, Adam

2009-01-01

Utilizing the same technologies pioneered by the embedded journalists in Iraq, the University of Central Florida (UCF) teamed up with TracStar, Inc to create a small-scale, satellite-based expedition transmission package to accompany a university film and digital media professor into parts of Utah and the Moab Desert that had a historical…

Environmentally Sound Small-Scale Agricultural Projects: Guidelines for Planning. Revised Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altieri, Miguel; Vukasin, Helen L., Ed.

Environmental planning requires more than finding the right technology and a source of funds. Planning involves consideration of the social, cultural, economic, and natural environments in which the project occurs. The challenge is to develop sustainable food systems that have reasonable production but do not degrade the resource base and upset…

Teachers' Use of Textbooks in the Digital Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knight, Bruce Allen

2015-01-01

This paper explores teachers' use of textbooks in the digital age. After discussing student expectancies and needs, textbook use and the affordances of modern technology, the paper reports the results of a small-scale pilot study involving eight higher education teachers in Australia who discuss the use of textbooks in higher education in the…

Virtual Environments Supporting Learning and Communication in Special Needs Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cobb, Sue V. G.

2007-01-01

Virtual reality (VR) describes a set of technologies that allow users to explore and experience 3-dimensional computer-generated "worlds" or "environments." These virtual environments can contain representations of real or imaginary objects on a small or large scale (from modeling of molecular structures to buildings, streets, and scenery of a…

Next-generation air monitoring – an overview of EPA research to develop real-time instrumentation packages for stationary and mobile monitoring

EPA Science Inventory

Abstract. Air pollution measurement technology is advancing rapidly towards small-scale, real-time, wireless detectors, with a potential to significantly change the landscape of air pollution monitoring. The U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development is evaluating and developi...

What Makes Small-Scale Farmers Participate in Financing Agricultural Research and Extension? Analysis of Three Case Studies from Benin

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moumouni, Ismail M.; Vodouhe, Simplice D.; Streiffeler, Friedhelm

2009-01-01

This paper analyses the organizational, financial and technological incentives that service organizations used to motivate farmers to finance agricultural research and extension in Benin. Understanding the foundations and implications of these motivation systems is important for improving farmer financial participation in agricultural research and…

Mobile technology for obesity prevention: a randomized pilot study in racial- and ethnic-minority girls.

PubMed

Nollen, Nicole L; Mayo, Matthew S; Carlson, Susan E; Rapoff, Michael A; Goggin, Kathy J; Ellerbeck, Edward F

2014-04-01

Mobile technologies have wide-scale reach and disseminability, but no known studies have examined mobile technologies as a stand-alone tool to improve obesity-related behaviors of at-risk youth. To test a 12-week mobile technology intervention for use and estimate effect sizes for a fully powered trial. Fifty-one low-income, racial/ethnic-minority girls aged 9-14 years were randomized to a mobile technology (n=26) or control (n=25) condition. Both conditions lasted 12 weeks and targeted fruits/vegetables (FVs; Weeks 1-4); sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs; Weeks 5-8), and screen time (Weeks 9-12). The mobile intervention prompted real-time goal setting and self-monitoring and provided tips, feedback, and positive reinforcement related to the target behaviors. Controls received the same content in a written manual but no prompting. Outcomes included device utilization and effect size estimates of FVs, SSBs, screen time, and BMI. Data were collected and analyzed in 2011-2012. Mobile technology girls used the program on 63% of days and exhibited trends toward increased FVs (+0.88, p=0.08) and decreased SSBs (-0.33, p=0.09). The adjusted difference between groups of 1.0 servings of FVs (p=0.13) and 0.35 servings of SSBs (p=0.25) indicated small to moderate effects of the intervention (Cohen's d=0.44 and -0.34, respectively). No differences were observed for screen time or BMI. A stand-alone mobile app may produce small to moderate effects for FVs and SSBs. Given the extensive reach of mobile devices, this pilot study demonstrates the need for larger-scale testing of similar programs to address obesity-related behaviors in high-risk youth. Copyright © 2014 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Carbon nanotube transistors scaled to a 40-nanometer footprint.

PubMed

Cao, Qing; Tersoff, Jerry; Farmer, Damon B; Zhu, Yu; Han, Shu-Jen

2017-06-30

The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors challenges the device research community to reduce the transistor footprint containing all components to 40 nanometers within the next decade. We report on a p-channel transistor scaled to such an extremely small dimension. Built on one semiconducting carbon nanotube, it occupies less than half the space of leading silicon technologies, while delivering a significantly higher pitch-normalized current density-above 0.9 milliampere per micrometer at a low supply voltage of 0.5 volts with a subthreshold swing of 85 millivolts per decade. Furthermore, we show transistors with the same small footprint built on actual high-density arrays of such nanotubes that deliver higher current than that of the best-competing silicon devices under the same overdrive, without any normalization. We achieve this using low-resistance end-bonded contacts, a high-purity semiconducting carbon nanotube source, and self-assembly to pack nanotubes into full surface-coverage aligned arrays. Copyright © 2017 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Bio-stimuli-responsive multi-scale hyaluronic acid nanoparticles for deepened tumor penetration and enhanced therapy.

PubMed

Huo, Mengmeng; Li, Wenyan; Chaudhuri, Arka Sen; Fan, Yuchao; Han, Xiu; Yang, Chen; Wu, Zhenghong; Qi, Xiaole

2017-09-01

In this study, we developed bio-stimuli-responsive multi-scale hyaluronic acid (HA) nanoparticles encapsulated with polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers as the subunits. These HA/PAMAM nanoparticles of large scale (197.10±3.00nm) were stable during systematic circulation then enriched at the tumor sites; however, they were prone to be degraded by the high expressed hyaluronidase (HAase) to release inner PAMAM dendrimers and regained a small scale (5.77±0.25nm) with positive charge. After employing tumor spheroids penetration assay on A549 3D tumor spheroids for 8h, the fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) labeled multi-scale HA/PAMAM-FITC nanoparticles could penetrate deeply into these tumor spheroids with the degradation of HAase. Moreover, small animal imaging technology in male nude mice bearing H22 tumor showed HA/PAMAM-FITC nanoparticles possess higher prolonged systematic circulation compared with both PAMAM-FITC nanoparticles and free FITC. In addition, after intravenous administration in mice bearing H22 tumors, methotrexate (MTX) loaded multi-scale HA/PAMAM-MTX nanoparticles exhibited a 2.68-fold greater antitumor activity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Identification of Direct Protein Targets of Small Molecules

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Small-molecule target identification is a vital and daunting task for the chemical biology community as well as for researchers interested in applying the power of chemical genetics to impact biology and medicine. To overcome this “target ID” bottleneck, new technologies are being developed that analyze protein–drug interactions, such as drug affinity responsive target stability (DARTS), which aims to discover the direct binding targets (and off targets) of small molecules on a proteome scale without requiring chemical modification of the compound. Here, we review the DARTS method, discuss why it works, and provide new perspectives for future development in this area. PMID:21077692

Integrated Satellite Control in REIMEI (INDEX) Satellite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fukuda, Seisuke; Mizuno, Takahide; Sakai, Shin-Ichiro; Fukushima, Yousuke; Saito, Hirobumi

REIMEI/INDEX (INnovative-technology Demonstration EXperiment) is a 70kg class small satellite which the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Exploration Agency, ISAS/JAXA, has developed for observation of auroral small-scale dynamics as well as demonstration of advanced satellite technologies. An important engineering mission of REIMEI is integrated satellite control using commercial RISC CPUs with a triple voting system in order to ensure fault-tolerance against radiation hazards. Software modules concerning every satellite function, such as attitude control, data handling, and mission applications, work cooperatively so that highly sophisticated satellite control can be performed. In this paper, after a concept of the integrated satellite control is introduced, the Integrated Controller Unit (ICU) is described in detail. Also unique topics in developing the integrated control system are shown.

Research on the key technology of update of land survey spatial data based on embedded GIS and GPS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Dan; Liu, Yanfang; Yu, Hai; Xia, Yin

2009-10-01

According to the actual needs of the second land-use survey and the PDA's characteristics of small volume and small memory, it can be analyzed that the key technology of the data collection system of field survey based on GPS-PDA is the read speed of the data. In order to enhance the speed and efficiency of the analysis of the spatial data on mobile devices, we classify the layers of spatial data; get the Layer-Grid Index by getting the different levels and blocks of the layer of spatial data; then get the R-TREE index of the spatial data objects. Different scale levels of space are used in different levels management. The grid method is used to do the block management.

Heliogyro Solar Sail Research at NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilkie, W. Keats; Warren, Jerry E.; Guerrant, Daniel V.; Lawrence, Dale A.; Gibbs, S. Chad; Dowell, Earl H.; Heaton, Andrew F.; Heaton, Andrew F.; Juang, Jer-Nan; Horta, Lucas G.;

Lightning protection technology for small general aviation composite material aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Plumer, J. A.; Setzer, T. E.; Siddiqi, S.

1993-01-01

An on going NASA (Small Business Innovative Research) SBIR Phase II design and development program will produce the first lightning protected, fiberglass, General Aviation aircraft that is available as a kit. The results obtained so far in development testing of typical components of the aircraft kit, such as the wing and fuselage panels indicate that the lightning protection design methodology and materials chosen are capable of protecting such small composite airframes from lightning puncture and structural damage associated with severe threat lightning strikes. The primary objective of the program has been to develop a lightening protection design for full scale test airframe and verify its adequacy with full scale laboratory testing, thus enabling production and sale of owner-built, lightning-protected, Stoddard-Hamilton Aircraft, Inc. Glasair II airplanes. A second objective has been to provide lightning protection design guidelines for the General Aviation industry, and to enable these airplanes to meet lightening protection requirements for certification of small airplanes. This paper describes the protection design approaches and development testing results obtained thus far in the program, together with design methodology which can achieve the design goals listed above. The presentation of this paper will also include results of some of the full scale verification tests, which will have been completed by the time of this conference.

A small-scale, rolled-membrane microfluidic artificial lung designed towards future large area manufacturing.

PubMed

Thompson, A J; Marks, L H; Goudie, M J; Rojas-Pena, A; Handa, H; Potkay, J A

2017-03-01

Artificial lungs have been used in the clinic for multiple decades to supplement patient pulmonary function. Recently, small-scale microfluidic artificial lungs (μAL) have been demonstrated with large surface area to blood volume ratios, biomimetic blood flow paths, and pressure drops compatible with pumpless operation. Initial small-scale microfluidic devices with blood flow rates in the μ l/min to ml/min range have exhibited excellent gas transfer efficiencies; however, current manufacturing techniques may not be suitable for scaling up to human applications. Here, we present a new manufacturing technology for a microfluidic artificial lung in which the structure is assembled via a continuous "rolling" and bonding procedure from a single, patterned layer of polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS). This method is demonstrated in a small-scale four-layer device, but is expected to easily scale to larger area devices. The presented devices have a biomimetic branching blood flow network, 10  μ m tall artificial capillaries, and a 66  μ m thick gas transfer membrane. Gas transfer efficiency in blood was evaluated over a range of blood flow rates (0.1-1.25 ml/min) for two different sweep gases (pure O 2 , atmospheric air). The achieved gas transfer data closely follow predicted theoretical values for oxygenation and CO 2 removal, while pressure drop is marginally higher than predicted. This work is the first step in developing a scalable method for creating large area microfluidic artificial lungs. Although designed for microfluidic artificial lungs, the presented technique is expected to result in the first manufacturing method capable of simply and easily creating large area microfluidic devices from PDMS.

Economically sustainable scaling of photovoltaics to meet climate targets

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Needleman, David Berney; Poindexter, Jeremy R.; Kurchin, Rachel C.

To meet climate targets, power generation capacity from photovoltaics (PV) in 2030 will have to be much greater than is predicted from either steady state growth using today's manufacturing capacity or industry roadmaps. Analysis of whether current technology can scale, in an economically sustainable way, to sufficient levels to meet these targets has not yet been undertaken, nor have tools to perform this analysis been presented. Here, we use bottom-up cost modeling to predict cumulative capacity as a function of technological and economic variables. We find that today's technology falls short in two ways: profits are too small relative tomore » upfront factory costs to grow manufacturing capacity rapidly enough to meet climate targets, and costs are too high to generate enough demand to meet climate targets. We show that decreasing the capital intensity (capex) of PV manufacturing to increase manufacturing capacity and effectively reducing cost (e.g., through higher efficiency) to increase demand are the most effective and least risky ways to address these barriers to scale. We also assess the effects of variations in demand due to hard-to-predict factors, like public policy, on the necessary reductions in cost.Lastly, we review examples of redundant technology pathways for crystalline silicon PV to achieve the necessary innovations in capex, performance, and price.« less

Economically sustainable scaling of photovoltaics to meet climate targets

DOE PAGES

Needleman, David Berney; Poindexter, Jeremy R.; Kurchin, Rachel C.; ...

2016-04-21

To meet climate targets, power generation capacity from photovoltaics (PV) in 2030 will have to be much greater than is predicted from either steady state growth using today's manufacturing capacity or industry roadmaps. Analysis of whether current technology can scale, in an economically sustainable way, to sufficient levels to meet these targets has not yet been undertaken, nor have tools to perform this analysis been presented. Here, we use bottom-up cost modeling to predict cumulative capacity as a function of technological and economic variables. We find that today's technology falls short in two ways: profits are too small relative tomore » upfront factory costs to grow manufacturing capacity rapidly enough to meet climate targets, and costs are too high to generate enough demand to meet climate targets. We show that decreasing the capital intensity (capex) of PV manufacturing to increase manufacturing capacity and effectively reducing cost (e.g., through higher efficiency) to increase demand are the most effective and least risky ways to address these barriers to scale. We also assess the effects of variations in demand due to hard-to-predict factors, like public policy, on the necessary reductions in cost.Lastly, we review examples of redundant technology pathways for crystalline silicon PV to achieve the necessary innovations in capex, performance, and price.« less

A Different Approach to the Scientific Research Methods Course: Effects of a Small-Scale Research Project on Pre-Service Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bastürk, Savas

2017-01-01

Selecting and applying appropriate research techniques, analysing data using information and communication technologies, transferring the obtained results of the analysis into tables and interpreting them are the performance indicators evaluated by the Ministry of National Education under teacher competencies. At the beginning of the courses that…

From the End of the World to the End of the Rainbow: The Engelhard Story.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Voland, Maurice E.; Voland, Ellen L.

Engelhard is a very isolated rural community in Hyde County, North Carolina, economically dependent on seafood, small scale agriculture, and logging. In the mid-1980s the agricultural crisis, the decline in seafood landings, and changes in timber industry technology contributed to rising unemployment. Several decades of declining population and…

Analysing Test-Takers' Views on a Computer-Based Speaking Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amengual-Pizarro, Marian; García-Laborda, Jesús

2017-01-01

This study examines test-takers' views on a computer-delivered speaking test in order to investigate the aspects they consider most relevant in technology-based oral assessment, and to explore the main advantages and disadvantages computer-based tests may offer as compared to face-to-face speaking tests. A small-scale open questionnaire was…

Suitable for Whom? The Case of System of Rice Intensification in Tanzania

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tumusiime, Emmanuel

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study examines the suitability of the system of rice intensification (SRI) for diverse small-scale farmers in Tanzania by exploring if poor and non-poor farmers adopt the system to a similar extent. Originality: The suitability of low-external input technologies such as SRI for diverse African farmers is a contentious issue. Existing…

Investigating the Use of ICT-Based Concept Mapping Techniques on Creativity in Literacy Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riley, Nigel R.; Ahlberg, Mauri

2004-01-01

The key research question in this small-scale study focuses on the effects that an ICT (information and communications technologies)-based concept mapping intervention has on creativity and writing achievement in 10-11-year-old primary age pupils. The data shows that pupils using a concept mapping intervention significantly improve their NFER…

The Department of Defense Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) Technology Availability Program Plan for the Committees on Armed Services United States Congress.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-06-30

features of computer aided design systems and statistical quality control procedures that are generic to chip sets and processes. RADIATION HARDNESS -The...System PSP Programmable Signal Processor SSI Small Scale Integration ." TOW Tube Launched, Optically Tracked, Wire Guided TTL Transistor Transitor Logic

Geospatial application of the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) Model

Treesearch

D. C. Flanagan; J. R. Frankenberger; T. A. Cochrane; C. S. Renschler; W. J. Elliot

2011-01-01

The Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model is a process-based technology for prediction of soil erosion by water at hillslope profile, field, and small watershed scales. In particular, WEPP utilizes observed or generated daily climate inputs to drive the surface hydrology processes (infiltration, runoff, ET) component, which subsequently impacts the rest of the...

Integrating Technology in Today's Undergraduate Classrooms: A Look at Students' Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meehan, Kimberly C.; Salmun, Haydee

2016-01-01

The authors present the findings of a small-scale study of student opinions drawn from an anonymous and voluntary survey in an undergraduate science classroom. The survey questions focused on the use of basic tools in a college classroom. The tools included in the survey were PowerPoint, overhead projectors/chalkboards, personal response units,…

Multimodal Teaching and Learning with the Use of Technology: Meanings, Practices and Discourses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papageorgiou, Vasiliki; Lameras, Petros

2017-01-01

The aim of this paper is to report on teachers' experiences of, and approaches to, multimodality in teaching and learning. A small-scale online survey with closed and semi-structured questions has been deployed to school and university teachers (n = 68) for eliciting their experiences in multimodal teaching and learning. Thematic analysis has been…

Equipment characterization to mitigate risks during transfers of cell culture manufacturing processes.

PubMed

Sieblist, Christian; Jenzsch, Marco; Pohlscheidt, Michael

2016-08-01

The production of monoclonal antibodies by mammalian cell culture in bioreactors up to 25,000 L is state of the art technology in the biotech industry. During the lifecycle of a product, several scale up activities and technology transfers are typically executed to enable the supply chain strategy of a global pharmaceutical company. Given the sensitivity of mammalian cells to physicochemical culture conditions, process and equipment knowledge are critical to avoid impacts on timelines, product quantity and quality. Especially, the fluid dynamics of large scale bioreactors versus small scale models need to be described, and similarity demonstrated, in light of the Quality by Design approach promoted by the FDA. This approach comprises an associated design space which is established during process characterization and validation in bench scale bioreactors. Therefore the establishment of predictive models and simulation tools for major operating conditions of stirred vessels (mixing, mass transfer, and shear force.), based on fundamental engineering principles, have experienced a renaissance in the recent years. This work illustrates the systematic characterization of a large variety of bioreactor designs deployed in a global manufacturing network ranging from small bench scale equipment to large scale production equipment (25,000 L). Several traditional methods to determine power input, mixing, mass transfer and shear force have been used to create a data base and identify differences for various impeller types and configurations in operating ranges typically applied in cell culture processes at manufacturing scale. In addition, extrapolation of different empirical models, e.g. Cooke et al. (Paper presented at the proceedings of the 2nd international conference of bioreactor fluid dynamics, Cranfield, UK, 1988), have been assessed for their validity in these operational ranges. Results for selected designs are shown and serve as examples of structured characterization to enable fast and agile process transfers, scale up and troubleshooting.

[Estimating medicinal yield of Seutellaria baicalensis in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region based on 3S technology].

PubMed

Liu, Jin-xinp; Lu, Heng; Zeng, Yan; Yue, Jian-wei; Meng, Fan-yun; Zhang, Yi-guang

2012-09-01

Resources survey of traditional Chinese medicine and reserves estimation are found to be the most important issues for the protection and utilization of traditional Chinese medicine resources, this paper used multi-spatial resolution remote sensing images (RS) , geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) , to establish Scutellaria resources survey of 3S data platform. Combined with the traditional field survey methods, small-scale habitat types were established based on different skullcap reserve estimation model, which can estimate reserves of the wild Scutellaria in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and improve the estimation accuracy. It can provide an important parameter for the fourth national survey of traditional Chinese medicine resources and traditional Chinese medicine reserves estimates based on 3S technology by multiple spatial scales model.

Nanotechnology: Fundamental Principles and Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ranjit, Koodali T.; Klabunde, Kenneth J.

Nanotechnology research is based primarily on molecular manufacturing. Although several definitions have been widely used in the past to describe the field of nanotechnology, it is worthwhile to point out that the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), a federal research and development scheme approved by the congress in 2001 defines nanotechnology only if the following three aspects are involved: (1) research and technology development at the atomic, molecular, or macromolecular levels, in the length scale of approximately 1-100 nanometer range, (2) creating and using structures, devices, and systems that have novel properties and functions because of their small and/or intermediate size, and (3) ability to control or manipulate on the atomic scale. Nanotechnology in essence is the technology based on the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules to build complex structures that have atomic specifications.

Evaluation of pilot-scale pulse-corona-induced plasma device to remove NO{sub x} from combustion exhausts from a subscale combustor and from a hush house at Nellis AFB, Nevada. Final report, August 1994--January 1997

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Haythornthwaite, S.M.; Durham, M.D.; Anderson, G.L.

1997-05-01

Jet engine test cells (JETCs) are used to test-fire new, installed, and reworked jet engines. Because JETCs have been classified as stationary sources of pollutant emissions, they are subject to possible regulation under Title 1 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) as amended in 1990. In Phase 1 of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, a novel NOx-control approach utilizing pulsed-corona-induced plasma successfully showed 90% removal of NOx in the laboratory. The objective of Phase 2 was to reproduce the laboratory-scale results in a pilot-scale system. The technology was successfully demonstrated at pilot scale in the field, on amore » slipstream of JETC flue gas at Nellis Air Force Base. Based on the field data, cost projections were made for a system to treat the full JETC exhaust. The technology efficiently converted NO into ONO, and a wet scrubber was required to achieve the treatment goal of 50-percent removal and destruction of NOx. The plasma simultaneously removes hydrocarbons from the flue gas stream. This project demonstrated that pulse-corona-induced plasma technology is scalable to practical industrial dimensions.« less

Cells as advanced therapeutics: State-of-the-art, challenges, and opportunities in large scale biomanufacturing of high-quality cells for adoptive immunotherapies.

PubMed

Dwarshuis, Nate J; Parratt, Kirsten; Santiago-Miranda, Adriana; Roy, Krishnendu

2017-05-15

Therapeutic cells hold tremendous promise in treating currently incurable, chronic diseases since they perform multiple, integrated, complex functions in vivo compared to traditional small-molecule drugs or biologics. However, they also pose significant challenges as therapeutic products because (a) their complex mechanisms of actions are difficult to understand and (b) low-cost bioprocesses for large-scale, reproducible manufacturing of cells have yet to be developed. Immunotherapies using T cells and dendritic cells (DCs) have already shown great promise in treating several types of cancers, and human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) are now extensively being evaluated in clinical trials as immune-modulatory cells. Despite these exciting developments, the full potential of cell-based therapeutics cannot be realized unless new engineering technologies enable cost-effective, consistent manufacturing of high-quality therapeutic cells at large-scale. Here we review cell-based immunotherapy concepts focused on the state-of-the-art in manufacturing processes including cell sourcing, isolation, expansion, modification, quality control (QC), and culture media requirements. We also offer insights into how current technologies could be significantly improved and augmented by new technologies, and how disciplines must converge to meet the long-term needs for large-scale production of cell-based immunotherapies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Business models and leadership styles in small medical device and bio-science businesses--examples in a region and their implications.

PubMed

Williams, D J; Hourd, P C

2004-01-01

This paper reviews the leadership styles and business models found in small technologically based businesses operating in the healthcare sector within one of the UK regions, the East Midlands. The most frequently encountered business model strands were 1) mixed economies: that fund development with service income; cross-sectoral product portfolios; and decoupled business portfolios led by a single entrepreneur and 2) scale sensitive "stay small" models including the avoidance of venture capital; "early exit"; and virtual business strands. There was found to be little correlation between leadership style and business model for the small number of businesses surveyed. The avoidance of venture capital is in direct contrast to adjacent regions.

Systematic approaches to toxicology in the zebrafish.

PubMed

Peterson, Randall T; Macrae, Calum A

2012-01-01

As the current paradigms of drug discovery evolve, it has become clear that a more comprehensive understanding of the interactions between small molecules and organismal biology will be vital. The zebrafish is emerging as a complement to existing in vitro technologies and established preclinical in vivo models that can be scaled for high-throughput. In this review, we highlight the current status of zebrafish toxicology studies, identify potential future niches for the model in the drug development pipeline, and define the hurdles that must be overcome as zebrafish technologies are refined for systematic toxicology.

Progress in amorphous silicon based large-area multijunction modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carlson, D. E.; Arya, R. R.; Bennett, M.; Chen, L.-F.; Jansen, K.; Li, Y.-M.; Maley, N.; Morris, J.; Newton, J.; Oswald, R. S.; Rajan, K.; Vezzetti, D.; Willing, F.; Yang, L.

1996-01-01

Solarex, a business unit of Amoco/Enron Solar, is scaling up its a-Si:H/a-SiGe:H tandem device technology for the production of 8 ft2 modules. The current R&D effort is focused on improving the performance, reliability and cost-effectiveness of the tandem junction technology by systematically optimizing the materials and interfaces in small-area single- and tandem junction cells. Average initial conversion efficiencies of 8.8% at 85% yield have been obtained in pilot production runs with 4 ft2 tandem modules.

Cost as a technology driver. [in aerospace R and D

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fitzgerald, P. E., Jr.; Savage, M.

1976-01-01

Cost managment as a guiding factor in optimum development of technology, and proper timing of cost-saving programs in the development of a system or technology with payoffs in development and operational advances are discussed and illustrated. Advances enhancing the performance of hardware or software advances raising productivity or reducing cost, are outlined, with examples drawn from: thermochemical thrust maximization, development of cryogenic storage tanks, improvements in fuel cells for Space Shuttle, design of a spacecraft pyrotechnic initiator, cost cutting by reduction in the number of parts to be joined, and cost cutting by dramatic reductions in circuit component number with small-scale double-diffused integrated circuitry. Program-focused supporting research and technology models are devised to aid judicious timing of cost-conscious research programs.

DNA-encoded libraries - an efficient small molecule discovery technology for the biomedical sciences.

PubMed

Kunig, Verena; Potowski, Marco; Gohla, Anne; Brunschweiger, Andreas

2018-06-27

DNA-encoded compound libraries are a highly attractive technology for the discovery of small molecule protein ligands. These compound collections consist of small molecules covalently connected to individual DNA sequences carrying readable information about the compound structure. DNA-tagging allows for efficient synthesis, handling and interrogation of vast numbers of chemically synthesized, drug-like compounds. They are screened on proteins by an efficient, generic assay based on Darwinian principles of selection. To date, selection of DNA-encoded libraries allowed for the identification of numerous bioactive compounds. Some of these compounds uncovered hitherto unknown allosteric binding sites on target proteins; several compounds proved their value as chemical biology probes unraveling complex biology; and the first examples of clinical candidates that trace their ancestry to a DNA-encoded library were reported. Thus, DNA-encoded libraries proved their value for the biomedical sciences as a generic technology for the identification of bioactive drug-like molecules numerous times. However, large scale experiments showed that even the selection of billions of compounds failed to deliver bioactive compounds for the majority of proteins in an unbiased panel of target proteins. This raises the question of compound library design.

Evaluation and Testing of IONSIV IE-911 for the Removal of Cesium-137 from INEEL Tank Waste and Dissolved Calcines

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

N. R. Mann; T. A. Todd; K. N. Brewer

1999-04-01

Development of waste treatment processes for the remediation of radioactive wastes is currently underway. A number of experiments were performed at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Environmental Center (INTEC) located at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) with the commercially available sorbent material, IONSIV IE-911, crystalline silicotitanate (CST), manufactured by UOP LLC. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the removal efficiency, sorbent capacity and selectivity of CST for removing Cs-137 from actual and simulated acidic tank waste in addition to dissolved pilot-plant calcine solutions. The scope of this work included batch contact tests performed with non-radioactivemore » dissolved Al and Run-64 pilot plant calcines in addition to simulants representing the average composition of tank waste. Small-scale column tests were performed with actual INEEL tank WM-183 waste, tank waste simulant, dissolved Al and Run-64 pilot plant calcine solutions. Small-scale column experiments using actual WM-183 tank waste resulted in fifty-percent Cs-137 breakthrough at approximately 589 bed volumes. Small-scale column experiments using the tank waste simulant displayed fifty-percent Cs-137 breakthrough at approximately 700 bed volumes. Small-scale column experiments using dissolved Al calcine simulant displayed fifty-percent Cs-137 breakthrough at approximately 795 bed volumes. Column experiments with dissolved Run-64, pilot plant calcine did not reach fifty-percent breakthrough throughout the test.« less

A potential flight evaluation of an upper-surface-blowing/circulation-control-wing concept

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Riddle, Dennis W.; Eppel, Joseph C.

1987-01-01

The technology data base for powered lift aircraft design has advanced over the last 15 years. NASA's Quiet Short Haul Research Aircraft (QSRA) has provided a flight verification of upper surface blowing (USB) technology. The A-6 Circulation Control Wing flight demonstration aricraft has provide data for circulation control wing (CCW) technology. Recent small scale wind tunnel model tests and full scale static flow turning test have shown the potential of combining USB with CCW technology. A flight research program is deemed necessary to fully explore the performance and control aspects of CCW jet substitution for the mechanical USB Coanda flap. The required hardware design would also address questions about the development of flight weight ducts and CCW jets and the engine bleed-air capabilities vs requirements. NASA's QSRA would be an optimum flight research vehicle for modification to the USB/CCW configuration. The existing QSRA data base, the design simplicity of the QSRA wing trailing edge controls, availability of engine bleed-air, and the low risk, low cost potential of the suggested program is discussed.

Studying Scale-Up and Spread as Social Practice: Theoretical Introduction and Empirical Case Study

PubMed Central

Shaw, Sara; Wherton, Joseph; Hughes, Gemma; Greenhalgh, Trisha

2017-01-01

Background Health and care technologies often succeed on a small scale but fail to achieve widespread use (scale-up) or become routine practice in other settings (spread). One reason for this is under-theorization of the process of scale-up and spread, for which a potentially fruitful theoretical approach is to consider the adoption and use of technologies as social practices. Objective This study aimed to use an in-depth case study of assisted living to explore the feasibility and usefulness of a social practice approach to explaining the scale-up of an assisted-living technology across a local system of health and social care. Methods This was an individual case study of the implementation of a Global Positioning System (GPS) “geo-fence” for a person living with dementia, nested in a much wider program of ethnographic research and organizational case study of technology implementation across health and social care (Studies in Co-creating Assisted Living Solutions [SCALS] in the United Kingdom). A layered sociological analysis included micro-level data on the index case, meso-level data on the organization, and macro-level data on the wider social, technological, economic, and political context. Data (interviews, ethnographic notes, and documents) were analyzed and synthesized using structuration theory. Results A social practice lens enabled the uptake of the GPS technology to be studied in the context of what human actors found salient, meaningful, ethical, legal, materially possible, and professionally or culturally appropriate in particular social situations. Data extracts were used to illustrate three exemplar findings. First, professional practice is (and probably always will be) oriented not to “implementing technologies” but to providing excellent, ethical care to sick and vulnerable individuals. Second, in order to “work,” health and care technologies rely heavily on human relationships and situated knowledge. Third, such technologies do not just need to be adopted by individuals; they need to be incorporated into personal habits and collaborative routines (both lay and professional). Conclusions Health and care technologies need to be embedded within sociotechnical networks and made to work through situated knowledge, personal habits, and collaborative routines. A technology that “works” for one individual in a particular set of circumstances is unlikely to work in the same way for another in a different set of circumstances. We recommend the further study of social practices and the application of co-design principles. However, our findings suggest that even if this occurs, the scale-up and spread of many health and care technologies will be neither rapid nor smooth. PMID:28687532

Application of ATAD technology for digesting sewage sludge in small towns: Operation and costs.

PubMed

Martín, M A; Gutiérrez, M C; Dios, M; Siles, J A; Chica, A F

2018-06-01

In an economic context marked by increasing energy costs and stricter legislation regarding the landfill disposal of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) sewage sludge, and where biomethanization is difficult to implement in small WWTPs, an efficient alternative is required to manage this polluting waste. This study shows that autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion (ATAD) is a feasible technique for treating sewage sludge in small- and medium-sized towns. The experiments were carried out at pilot scale on a cyclical basis and in continuous mode for nine months. The main results showed an optimal hydraulic retention time of 7 days, which led to an organic matter removal of 34%. The sanitized sludge meets the microbial quality standards for agronomic application set out in the proposed European sewage sludge directive. An economic assessment for the operation of ATAD technology was carried out, showing a treatment cost of €6.5/ton for dewatered sludge. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thermophotovoltaic potential applications for civilian and industrial use in Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamaguchi, Hiromi; Yamaguchi, Masafumi

1999-03-01

Investigative research on potential market for TPV power sources in Japan has been focused on how TPV can contribute to energy conservation and environmental protection and harmony. The application needs for TPV were surveyed in comparison with conventional engine or turbine generators and developing power generation technologies such as fuel cells or chemical batteries, etc. The investigation on the performance of commercial generators shows that regarding system efficiency, TPV can compete with conventional generators in the output power class of tens of kW. According to the sales for small scale generators in Japan, most of the generators below 10 kW class are utilized mainly for construction, communication, leisure, and that 10-100 kW class generators are for cogeneration in small buildings. Waste heat recovery in dispersed furnaces is another potential application of compact TPV cells. Exhaust heat from small scale incinerators and industrial furnaces is undesirable to be recorded into electricity due to excessive heat loss of the smaller steam turbine generators. Solar powered TPV is also of our concern as a natural energy use. From the viewpoint of applicability for TPV, portable generators cogeneration systems, and solar power plants were selected for our system consideration. Intermediate report on the feasibility study concerning such TPV systems is given as well as the review of the current status of competing power generation technologies in Japan.

Investigation of the feasibility of a small scale transmutation device

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sit, Roger Carson

This dissertation presents the design and feasibility of a small-scale, fusion-based transmutation device incorporating a commercially available neutron generator. It also presents the design features necessary to optimize the device and render it practical for the transmutation of selected long-lived fission products and actinides. Four conceptual designs of a transmutation device were used to study the transformation of seven radionuclides: long-lived fission products (Tc-99 and I-129), short-lived fission products (Cs-137 and Sr-90), and selective actinides (Am-241, Pu-238, and Pu-239). These radionuclides were chosen because they are major components of spent nuclear fuel and also because they exist as legacy sources that are being stored pending a decision regarding their ultimate disposition. The four designs include the use of two different devices; a Deuterium-Deuterium (D-D) neutron generator (for one design) and a Deuterium-Tritium (D-T) neutron generator (for three designs) in configurations which provide different neutron energy spectra for targeting the radionuclide for transmutation. Key parameters analyzed include total fluence and flux requirements; transmutation effectiveness measured as irradiation effective half-life; and activation products generated along with their characteristics: activity, dose rate, decay, and ingestion and inhalation radiotoxicity. From this investigation, conclusions were drawn about the feasibility of the device, the design and technology enhancements that would be required to make transmutation practical, the most beneficial design for each radionuclide, the consequence of the transmutation, and radiation protection issues that are important for the conceptual design of the transmutation device. Key conclusions from this investigation include: (1) the transmutation of long-lived fission products and select actinides can be practical using a small-scale, fusion driven transmutation device; (2) the transmutation of long-lived fission products could result in an irradiation effective half-life of a few years with a three order magnitude increase in the on-target neutron flux accomplishable through a combination of technological enhancements to the source and system design optimization; (3) the transmutation of long-lived fission products requires a thermal-slow energy spectrum to prevent the generation of activation products with half-lives even longer than the original radionuclide; (4) there is no benefit in trying to transmute short-lived fission products due to the ineffectiveness of the transmutation process and the generation of a multiplicity of counterproductive activation products; (5) for actinides, irradiation effective half-lives of < 1 year can be achieved with a four orders magnitude increase in the on-target flux; (6) the ideal neutron energy spectra for transmuting actinides is highly dependent on the particular radionuclide and its fission-to-capture ratio as they determine the generationrate of other actinides; and (7) the methodology developed in this dissertation provides a mechanism that can be used for studying the feasibility of transmuting other radionuclides, and its application can be extended to studying the production of radionuclides of interest in a transmutation process. Although large-scale transmutation technology is presently being researched world-wide for spent fuel management applications, such technology will not be viable for a couple of decades. This dissertation investigated the concept of a small-scale transmutation device using present technology. The results of this research show that with reasonable enhancements, transmutation of specific radionuclides can be practical in the near term.

Scaling of graphene integrated circuits.

PubMed

Bianchi, Massimiliano; Guerriero, Erica; Fiocco, Marco; Alberti, Ruggero; Polloni, Laura; Behnam, Ashkan; Carrion, Enrique A; Pop, Eric; Sordan, Roman

2015-05-07

The influence of transistor size reduction (scaling) on the speed of realistic multi-stage integrated circuits (ICs) represents the main performance metric of a given transistor technology. Despite extensive interest in graphene electronics, scaling efforts have so far focused on individual transistors rather than multi-stage ICs. Here we study the scaling of graphene ICs based on transistors from 3.3 to 0.5 μm gate lengths and with different channel widths, access lengths, and lead thicknesses. The shortest gate delay of 31 ps per stage was obtained in sub-micron graphene ROs oscillating at 4.3 GHz, which is the highest oscillation frequency obtained in any strictly low-dimensional material to date. We also derived the fundamental Johnson limit, showing that scaled graphene ICs could be used at high frequencies in applications with small voltage swing.

ICE911 Research: Floating Safe Inert Materials to Preserve Ice and Conserve Water in Order to Mitigate Climate Change Impacts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Field, L. A.; Manzara, A.; Chetty, S.; Venkatesh, S.; Scholtz, A.

2015-12-01

Ice911 Research has conducted years of field testing to develop and test localized reversible engineering techniques to mitigate the negative impacts of polar ice melt. The technology uses environmentally safe materials to reflect energy in carefully selected, limited areas from summertime polar sun. The technology is now being adapted to help with California's drought. We have tested the albedo modification technique on a small scale over seven Winter/Spring seasons at sites including California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, a Canadian lake, and a small artificial pond in Minnesota about 100 ft in diameter and 6 ft deep at the center, using various materials and an evolving array of instrumentation. On the pond in Minnesota, this year's test results for ice preservation, using hollow glass spheres deployed over our largest test areas yet, showed that glass bubbles can provide an effective material for increasing albedo, significantly reducing the melting rate of ice. This year Ice911 also undertook its first small Arctic field test in Barrow, Alaska on a lake in Barrow's BEO area, and results are still coming in. The technology that Ice911 has been developing for ice preservation has also been shown to keep small test areas of water cooler, in various small-scale tests spanning years. We believe that with some adaptations of the technology, the materials can be applied to reservoirs and lakes to help stretch these precious resources further in California's ongoing drought. There are several distinct advantages for this method over alternatives such as large reverse osmosis projects or building new reservoirs, which could possibly allow a drought-stricken state to build fewer of these more-costly alternatives. First, applying an ecologically benign surface treatment of Ice911's materials can be accomplished within a season, at a lower cost, with far less secondary environmental impact, than such capital-and-time-intensive infrastructure projects. Second, keeping bodies of water cooler using these floating materials could help avoid scenarios like the overheated lakes and streams that led to millions of fish killed this summer in Washington State. Third, Ice911's materials can later be removed if no longer needed, and could be repurposed to another area in need.

Initial Field Deployment Results of Green PCB Removal from Sediment Systems (GPRSS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

DeVor, Robert William

2014-01-01

The goal of this task order was to complete optimization and development of the Green PCB Remediation from Sediment Systems(GPRSSs) technology, culminating in the production of functioning demonstration test units which would be deployed at a suitable demonstration location. This location would be selected in conjunction with Toxicological & Ecological Associates who have entered into a SAA with NASA to partner with and further develop this technology. The GPRSSs technology was initially developed under ESC Task Order 83 with the purpose of providing a green remediation technology capable of in-situ removal and remediation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from contaminated sediments. The core concept of the technology, a polymeric blanket capable of absorbing PCBs when in contact with contaminated sediments was then transitioned to Task Order 165 where the primary objective was to fully design and optimize a functioning test unit capable of testing the theoretical and laboratory scale concepts in a real world situation. Results from both task orders are included in this report for completeness, although Task Order 165 focused on the blanket design and the small scale field demonstration in which is currently still ongoing in Altavista, VA.

Innovating affordable neonatal care equipment for use at scale.

PubMed

Sashi Kumar, V; Paul, V K; Sathasivam, K

2016-12-01

The care of small and sick neonates requires biomedical technologies, such as devices that can keep babies warm (radiant warmers and incubators), resuscitate (self-inflating bags), track growth (weighing scales), treat jaundice (phototherapy units) and provide oxygen or respiratory support (hoods, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices and ventilators). Until the 1990s, most of these products were procured through import at a high cost and with little maintenance support. Emerging demand and an informal collaboration of neonatologists, engineers and entrepreneurs has led to the production of good quality equipment of several high-volume categories at affordable cost in India. Radiant warmers, resuscitation bags, phototherapy units, weighing scales and other devices manufactured by Indian small-scale companies have enabled an expansion of neonatal care in the country, particularly in district hospitals, medical college hospitals and subdistrict facilities in the public sector as a part of the National Rural Health Mission. Indian products have acquired international quality standards and are even exported to developed nations. This paper captures this story of innovation and entrepreneurship in neonatal care.

Innovating affordable neonatal care equipment for use at scale

PubMed Central

Sashi Kumar, V; Paul, V K; Sathasivam, K

2016-01-01

The care of small and sick neonates requires biomedical technologies, such as devices that can keep babies warm (radiant warmers and incubators), resuscitate (self-inflating bags), track growth (weighing scales), treat jaundice (phototherapy units) and provide oxygen or respiratory support (hoods, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices and ventilators). Until the 1990s, most of these products were procured through import at a high cost and with little maintenance support. Emerging demand and an informal collaboration of neonatologists, engineers and entrepreneurs has led to the production of good quality equipment of several high-volume categories at affordable cost in India. Radiant warmers, resuscitation bags, phototherapy units, weighing scales and other devices manufactured by Indian small-scale companies have enabled an expansion of neonatal care in the country, particularly in district hospitals, medical college hospitals and subdistrict facilities in the public sector as a part of the National Rural Health Mission. Indian products have acquired international quality standards and are even exported to developed nations. This paper captures this story of innovation and entrepreneurship in neonatal care. PMID:27924105

Acoustic characteristics of 1/20-scale model helicopter rotors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shenoy, Rajarama K.; Kohlhepp, Fred W.; Leighton, Kenneth P.

1986-01-01

A wind tunnel test to study the effects of geometric scale on acoustics and to investigate the applicability of very small scale models for the study of acoustic characteristics of helicopter rotors was conducted in the United Technologies Research Center Acoustic Research Tunnel. The results show that the Reynolds number effects significantly alter the Blade-Vortex-Interaction (BVI) Noise characteristics by enhancing the lower frequency content and suppressing the higher frequency content. In the time domain this is observed as an inverted thickness noise impulse rather than the typical positive-negative impulse of BVI noise. At higher advance ratio conditions, in the absence of BVI, the 1/20 scale model acoustic trends with Mach number follow those of larger scale models. However, the 1/20 scale model acoustic trends appear to indicate stall at higher thrust and advance ratio conditions.

Millimeter-scale MEMS enabled autonomous systems: system feasibility and mobility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pulskamp, Jeffrey S.

2012-06-01

Millimeter-scale robotic systems based on highly integrated microelectronics and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) could offer unique benefits and attributes for small-scale autonomous systems. This extreme scale for robotics will naturally constrain the realizable system capabilities significantly. This paper assesses the feasibility of developing such systems by defining the fundamental design trade spaces between component design variables and system level performance parameters. This permits the development of mobility enabling component technologies within a system relevant context. Feasible ranges of system mass, required aerodynamic power, available battery power, load supported power, flight endurance, and required leg load bearing capability are presented for millimeter-scale platforms. The analysis illustrates the feasibility of developing both flight capable and ground mobile millimeter-scale autonomous systems while highlighting the significant challenges that must be overcome to realize their potential.

The scaling of performance and losses in miniature internal combustion engines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menon, Shyam Kumar

Miniature glow ignition internal combustion (IC) piston engines are an off--the--shelf technology that could dramatically increase the endurance of miniature electric power supplies and the range and endurance of small unmanned air vehicles provided their overall thermodynamic efficiencies can be increased to 15% or better. This thesis presents the first comprehensive analysis of small (<500 g) piston engine performance. A unique dynamometer system is developed that is capable of making reliable measurements of engine performance and losses in these small engines. Methodologies are also developed for measuring volumetric, heat transfer, exhaust, mechanical, and combustion losses. These instruments and techniques are used to investigate the performance of seven single-cylinder, two-stroke, glow fueled engines ranging in size from 15 to 450 g (0.16 to 7.5 cm3 displacement). Scaling rules for power output, overall efficiency, and normalized power are developed from the data. These will be useful to developers of micro-air vehicles and miniature power systems. The data show that the minimum length scale of a thermodynamically viable piston engine based on present technology is approximately 3 mm. Incomplete combustion is the most important challenge as it accounts for 60-70% of total energy losses. Combustion losses are followed in order of importance by heat transfer, sensible enthalpy, and friction. A net heat release analysis based on in-cylinder pressure measurements suggest that a two--stage combustion process occurs at low engine speeds and equivalence ratios close to 1. Different theories based on burning mode and reaction kinetics are proposed to explain the observed results. High speed imaging of the combustion chamber suggests that a turbulent premixed flame with its origin in the vicinity of the glow plug is the primary driver of combustion. Placing miniature IC engines on a turbulent combustion regime diagram shows that they operate in the 'flamelet in eddy' regime whereas conventional--scale engines operate mostly in the 'wrinkled laminar flame sheet' regime. Taken together, the results show that the combustion process is the key obstacle to realizing the potential of small IC engines. Overcoming this obstacle will require new diagnostic techniques, measurements, combustion models, and high temperature materials.

Exploring Factors Affecting Voluntary Adoption of Electronic Medical Records Among Physicians and Clinical Assistants of Small or Solo Private General Practice Clinics.

PubMed

Or, Calvin; Tong, Ellen; Tan, Joseph; Chan, Summer

2018-05-29

The health care reform initiative led by the Hong Kong government's Food and Health Bureau has started the implementation of an electronic sharing platform to provide an information infrastructure that enables public hospitals and private clinics to share their electronic medical records (EMRs) for improved access to patients' health care information. However, previous attempts to convince the private clinics to adopt EMRs to document health information have faced challenges, as the EMR adoption has been voluntary. The lack of electronic data shared by private clinics carries direct impacts to the efficacy of electronic record sharing between public and private healthcare providers. To increase the likelihood of buy-in, it is essential to proactively identify the users' and organizations' needs and capabilities before large-scale implementation. As part of the reform initiative, this study examined factors affecting the adoption of EMRs in small or solo private general practice clinics, by analyzing the experiences and opinions of the physicians and clinical assistants during the pilot implementation of the technology, with the purpose to learn from it before full-scale rollout. In-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with 23 physicians and clinical assistants from seven small or solo private general practice clinics to evaluate their experiences, expectations, and opinions regarding the deployment of EMRs. Interview transcripts were content analyzed to identify key factors. Factors affecting the adoption of EMRs to record and manage health care information were identified as follows: system interface design; system functions; stability and reliability of hardware, software, and computing networks; financial and time costs; task and outcome performance, work practice, and clinical workflow; physical space in clinics; trust in technology; users' information technology literacy; training and technical support; and social and organizational influences. The factors are interrelated with the others. The adoption factors identified are multifaceted, ranging from technological characteristics, clinician-technology interactions, skills and knowledge, and the user-workflow-technology fit. Other findings, which have been relatively underrepresented in previous studies, contribute unique insights about the influence of work and social environment on the adoption of EMRs, including limited clinic space and the effects of physicians' decision to use the technology on clinical staffs' adoption decisions. Potential strategies to address the concerns, overcome adoption barriers, and define relevant policies are discussed.

Evaluation of micro-GPS receivers for tracking small-bodied mammals

PubMed Central

Shipley, Lisa A.; Forbey, Jennifer S.; Olsoy, Peter J.

2017-01-01

GPS telemetry markedly enhances the temporal and spatial resolution of animal location data, and recent advances in micro-GPS receivers permit their deployment on small mammals. One such technological advance, snapshot technology, allows for improved battery life by reducing the time to first fix via postponing recovery of satellite ephemeris (satellite location) data and processing of locations. However, no previous work has employed snapshot technology for small, terrestrial mammals. We evaluated performance of two types of micro-GPS (< 20 g) receivers (traditional and snapshot) on a small, semi-fossorial lagomorph, the pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis), to understand how GPS errors might influence fine-scale assessments of space use and habitat selection. During stationary tests, microtopography (i.e., burrows) and satellite geometry had the largest influence on GPS fix success rate (FSR) and location error (LE). There was no difference between FSR while animals wore the GPS collars above ground (determined via light sensors) and FSR generated during stationary, above-ground trials, suggesting that animal behavior other than burrowing did not markedly influence micro-GPS errors. In our study, traditional micro-GPS receivers demonstrated similar FSR and LE to snapshot receivers, however, snapshot receivers operated inconsistently due to battery and software failures. In contrast, the initial traditional receivers deployed on animals experienced some breakages, but a modified collar design consistently functioned as expected. If such problems were resolved, snapshot technology could reduce the tradeoff between fix interval and battery life that occurs with traditional micro-GPS receivers. Our results suggest that micro-GPS receivers are capable of addressing questions about space use and resource selection by small mammals, but that additional techniques might be needed to identify use of habitat structures (e.g., burrows, tree cavities, rock crevices) that could affect micro-GPS performance and bias study results. PMID:28301495

Developments in the Implementation of Acoustic Droplet Ejection for Protein Crystallography.

PubMed

Wu, Ping; Noland, Cameron; Ultsch, Mark; Edwards, Bonnie; Harris, David; Mayer, Robert; Harris, Seth F

2016-02-01

Acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) enables crystallization experiments at the low-nanoliter scale, resulting in rapid vapor diffusion equilibration dynamics and efficient reagent usage in the empirical discovery of structure-enabling protein crystallization conditions. We extend our validation of this technology applied to the diverse physicochemical property space of aqueous crystallization reagents where dynamic fluid analysis coupled to ADE aids in accurate and precise dispensations. Addition of crystallization seed stocks, chemical additives, or small-molecule ligands effectively modulates crystallization, and we here provide examples in optimization of crystal morphology and diffraction quality by the acoustic delivery of ultra-small volumes of these cofactors. Additional applications are discussed, including set up of in situ proteolysis and alternate geometries of crystallization that leverage the small scale afforded by acoustic delivery. Finally, we describe parameters of a system of automation in which the acoustic liquid handler is integrated with a robotic arm, plate centrifuge, peeler, sealer, and stacks, which allows unattended high-throughput crystallization experimentation. © 2015 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

Closed-loop feedback control for microfluidic systems through automated capacitive fluid height sensing.

PubMed

Soenksen, L R; Kassis, T; Noh, M; Griffith, L G; Trumper, D L

2018-03-13

Precise fluid height sensing in open-channel microfluidics has long been a desirable feature for a wide range of applications. However, performing accurate measurements of the fluid level in small-scale reservoirs (<1 mL) has proven to be an elusive goal, especially if direct fluid-sensor contact needs to be avoided. In particular, gravity-driven systems used in several microfluidic applications to establish pressure gradients and impose flow remain open-loop and largely unmonitored due to these sensing limitations. Here we present an optimized self-shielded coplanar capacitive sensor design and automated control system to provide submillimeter fluid-height resolution (∼250 μm) and control of small-scale open reservoirs without the need for direct fluid contact. Results from testing and validation of our optimized sensor and system also suggest that accurate fluid height information can be used to robustly characterize, calibrate and dynamically control a range of microfluidic systems with complex pumping mechanisms, even in cell culture conditions. Capacitive sensing technology provides a scalable and cost-effective way to enable continuous monitoring and closed-loop feedback control of fluid volumes in small-scale gravity-dominated wells in a variety of microfluidic applications.

INTERDISCIPLINARY PHYSICS AND RELATED AREAS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Influence of Blurred Ways on Pattern Recognition of a Scale-Free Hopfield Neural Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Wen-Li

2010-01-01

We investigate the influence of blurred ways on pattern recognition of a Barabási-Albert scale-free Hopfield neural network (SFHN) with a small amount of errors. Pattern recognition is an important function of information processing in brain. Due to heterogeneous degree of scale-free network, different blurred ways have different influences on pattern recognition with same errors. Simulation shows that among partial recognition, the larger loading ratio (the number of patterns to average degree P/langlekrangle) is, the smaller the overlap of SFHN is. The influence of directed (large) way is largest and the directed (small) way is smallest while random way is intermediate between them. Under the ratio of the numbers of stored patterns to the size of the network P/N is less than 0. 1 conditions, there are three families curves of the overlap corresponding to directed (small), random and directed (large) blurred ways of patterns and these curves are not associated with the size of network and the number of patterns. This phenomenon only occurs in the SFHN. These conclusions are benefit for understanding the relation between neural network structure and brain function.

Utilizing Maximal Independent Sets as Dominating Sets in Scale-Free Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Derzsy, N.; Molnar, F., Jr.; Szymanski, B. K.; Korniss, G.

Dominating sets provide key solution to various critical problems in networked systems, such as detecting, monitoring, or controlling the behavior of nodes. Motivated by graph theory literature [Erdos, Israel J. Math. 4, 233 (1966)], we studied maximal independent sets (MIS) as dominating sets in scale-free networks. We investigated the scaling behavior of the size of MIS in artificial scale-free networks with respect to multiple topological properties (size, average degree, power-law exponent, assortativity), evaluated its resilience to network damage resulting from random failure or targeted attack [Molnar et al., Sci. Rep. 5, 8321 (2015)], and compared its efficiency to previously proposed dominating set selection strategies. We showed that, despite its small set size, MIS provides very high resilience against network damage. Using extensive numerical analysis on both synthetic and real-world (social, biological, technological) network samples, we demonstrate that our method effectively satisfies four essential requirements of dominating sets for their practical applicability on large-scale real-world systems: 1.) small set size, 2.) minimal network information required for their construction scheme, 3.) fast and easy computational implementation, and 4.) resiliency to network damage. Supported by DARPA, DTRA, and NSF.

The X-40 sub-scale technology demonstrator and its U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter mothership fly over a dry lakebed runway during a captive-carry test flight at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center

NASA Image and Video Library

2000-12-08

The X-40 sub-scale technology demonstrator and its U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter mothership fly over a dry lakebed runway during a captive-carry test flight from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. The X-40 is attached to a sling which is suspended from the CH-47 by a 110-foot-long cable during the tests, while a small parachute trails behind to provide stability. The captive carry flights are designed to verify the X-40's navigation and control systems, rigging angles for its sling, and stability and control of the helicopter while carrying the X-40 on a tether. Following a series of captive-carry flights, the X-40 made free flights from a launch altitude of about 15,000 feet above ground, gliding to a fully autonomous landing. The X-40 is an unpowered 82 percent scale version of the X-37, a Boeing-developed spaceplane designed to demonstrate various advanced technologies for development of future lower-cost access to space vehicles.

Feasibility analysis of large length-scale thermocapillary flow experiment for the International Space Station

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alberts, Samantha J.

The investigation of microgravity fluid dynamics emerged out of necessity with the advent of space exploration. In particular, capillary research took a leap forward in the 1960s with regards to liquid settling and interfacial dynamics. Due to inherent temperature variations in large spacecraft liquid systems, such as fuel tanks, forces develop on gas-liquid interfaces which induce thermocapillary flows. To date, thermocapillary flows have been studied in small, idealized research geometries usually under terrestrial conditions. The 1 to 3m lengths in current and future large tanks and hardware are designed based on hardware rather than research, which leaves spaceflight systems designers without the technological tools to effectively create safe and efficient designs. This thesis focused on the design and feasibility of a large length-scale thermocapillary flow experiment, which utilizes temperature variations to drive a flow. The design of a helical channel geometry ranging from 1 to 2.5m in length permits a large length-scale thermocapillary flow experiment to fit in a seemingly small International Space Station (ISS) facility such as the Fluids Integrated Rack (FIR). An initial investigation determined the proposed experiment produced measurable data while adhering to the FIR facility limitations. The computational portion of this thesis focused on the investigation of functional geometries of fuel tanks and depots using Surface Evolver. This work outlines the design of a large length-scale thermocapillary flow experiment for the ISS FIR. The results from this work improve the understanding thermocapillary flows and thus improve technological tools for predicting heat and mass transfer in large length-scale thermocapillary flows. Without the tools to understand the thermocapillary flows in these systems, engineers are forced to design larger, heavier vehicles to assure safety and mission success.

The co-evolution of social institutions, demography, and large-scale human cooperation.

PubMed

Powers, Simon T; Lehmann, Laurent

2013-11-01

Human cooperation is typically coordinated by institutions, which determine the outcome structure of the social interactions individuals engage in. Explaining the Neolithic transition from small- to large-scale societies involves understanding how these institutions co-evolve with demography. We study this using a demographically explicit model of institution formation in a patch-structured population. Each patch supports both social and asocial niches. Social individuals create an institution, at a cost to themselves, by negotiating how much of the costly public good provided by cooperators is invested into sanctioning defectors. The remainder of their public good is invested in technology that increases carrying capacity, such as irrigation systems. We show that social individuals can invade a population of asocials, and form institutions that support high levels of cooperation. We then demonstrate conditions where the co-evolution of cooperation, institutions, and demographic carrying capacity creates a transition from small- to large-scale social groups. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Wafer scale fabrication of carbon nanotube thin film transistors with high yield

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tian, Boyuan; Liang, Xuelei, E-mail: liangxl@pku.edu.cn, E-mail: ssxie@iphy.ac.cn; Yan, Qiuping

Carbon nanotube thin film transistors (CNT-TFTs) are promising candidates for future high performance and low cost macro-electronics. However, most of the reported CNT-TFTs are fabricated in small quantities on a relatively small size substrate. The yield of large scale fabrication and the performance uniformity of devices on large size substrates should be improved before the CNT-TFTs reach real products. In this paper, 25 200 devices, with various geometries (channel width and channel length), were fabricated on 4-in. size ridged and flexible substrates. Almost 100% device yield were obtained on a rigid substrate with high out-put current (>8 μA/μm), high on/off current ratiomore » (>10{sup 5}), and high mobility (>30 cm{sup 2}/V·s). More importantly, uniform performance in 4-in. area was achieved, and the fabrication process can be scaled up. The results give us more confidence for the real application of the CNT-TFT technology in the near future.« less

Technological Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitra, Bivas

The study of networks in the form of mathematical graph theory is one of the fundamental pillars of discrete mathematics. However, recent years have witnessed a substantial new movement in network research. The focus of the research is shifting away from the analysis of small graphs and the properties of individual vertices or edges to consideration of statistical properties of large scale networks. This new approach has been driven largely by the availability of technological networks like the Internet [12], World Wide Web network [2], etc. that allow us to gather and analyze data on a scale far larger than previously possible. At the same time, technological networks have evolved as a socio-technological system, as the concepts of social systems that are based on self-organization theory have become unified in technological networks [13]. In today’s society, we have a simple and universal access to great amounts of information and services. These information services are based upon the infrastructure of the Internet and the World Wide Web. The Internet is the system composed of ‘computers’ connected by cables or some other form of physical connections. Over this physical network, it is possible to exchange e-mails, transfer files, etc. On the other hand, the World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet where nodes represent web pages and links represent hyperlinks between the pages. Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks [26] also have recently become a popular medium through which huge amounts of data can be shared. P2P file sharing systems, where files are searched and downloaded among peers without the help of central servers, have emerged as a major component of Internet traffic. An important advantage in P2P networks is that all clients provide resources, including bandwidth, storage space, and computing power. In this chapter, we discuss these technological networks in detail. The review is organized as follows. Section 2 presents an introduction to the Internet and different protocols related to it. This section also specifies the socio-technological properties of the Internet, like scale invariance, the small-world property, network resilience, etc. Section 3 describes the P2P networks, their categorization, and other related issues like search, stability, etc. Section 4 concludes the chapter.

GRAIN-SCALE FAILURE IN THERMAL SPALLATION DRILLING

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Walsh, S C; Lomov, I; Roberts, J J

2012-01-19

Geothermal power promises clean, renewable, reliable and potentially widely-available energy, but is limited by high initial capital costs. New drilling technologies are required to make geothermal power financially competitive with other energy sources. One potential solution is offered by Thermal Spallation Drilling (TSD) - a novel drilling technique in which small particles (spalls) are released from the rock surface by rapid heating. While TSD has the potential to improve drilling rates of brittle granitic rocks, the coupled thermomechanical processes involved in TSD are poorly described, making system control and optimization difficult for this drilling technology. In this paper, we discussmore » results from a new modeling effort investigating thermal spallation drilling. In particular, we describe an explicit model that simulates the grain-scale mechanics of thermal spallation and use this model to examine existing theories concerning spalling mechanisms. We will report how borehole conditions influence spall production, and discuss implications for macro-scale models of drilling systems.« less

Research gaps and technology needs in development of PHM for passive AdvSMR components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meyer, Ryan M.; Ramuhalli, Pradeep; Coble, Jamie B.; Hirt, Evelyn H.; Mitchell, Mark R.; Wootan, David W.; Berglin, Eric J.; Bond, Leonard J.; Henagar, Chuck H., Jr.

2014-02-01

Advanced small modular reactors (AdvSMRs), which are based on modularization of advanced reactor concepts, may provide a longer-term alternative to traditional light-water reactors and near-term small modular reactors (SMRs), which are based on integral pressurized water reactor (iPWR) concepts. SMRs are challenged economically because of losses in economy of scale; thus, there is increased motivation to reduce the controllable operations and maintenance costs through automation technologies including prognostics health management (PHM) systems. In this regard, PHM systems have the potential to play a vital role in supporting the deployment of AdvSMRs and face several unique challenges with respect to implementation for passive AdvSMR components. This paper presents a summary of a research gaps and technical needs assessment performed for implementation of PHM for passive AdvSMR components.

High Temperature Electrolysis for Hydrogen Production from Nuclear Energy – TechnologySummary

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

J. E. O'Brien; C. M. Stoots; J. S. Herring

2010-02-01

The Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, has requested that a Hydrogen Technology Down-Selection be performed to identify the hydrogen production technology that has the best potential for timely commercial demonstration and for ultimate deployment with the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP). An Independent Review Team has been assembled to execute the down-selection. This report has been prepared to provide the members of the Independent Review Team with detailed background information on the High Temperature Electrolysis (HTE) process, hardware, and state of the art. The Idaho National Laboratory has been serving as the lead lab for HTE research andmore » development under the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative. The INL HTE program has included small-scale experiments, detailed computational modeling, system modeling, and technology demonstration. Aspects of all of these activities are included in this report. In terms of technology demonstration, the INL successfully completed a 1000-hour test of the HTE Integrated Laboratory Scale (ILS) technology demonstration experiment during the fall of 2008. The HTE ILS achieved a hydrogen production rate in excess of 5.7 Nm3/hr, with a power consumption of 18 kW. This hydrogen production rate is far larger than has been demonstrated by any of the thermochemical or hybrid processes to date.« less

Exploring the resilience of Bt cotton's "pro-poor success story".

PubMed

Glover, Dominic

2010-01-01

Expectations play a powerful role in driving technological change. Expectations are often encapsulated in narratives of technological promise that emphasize potential benefits and downplay potential negative impacts. Genetically modified (GM, transgenic) crops have been framed by expectations that they would be an intrinsically "pro-poor" innovation that would contribute powerfully to international agricultural development. However, expectations typically have to be scaled back in the light of experience. Published reviews of the socio-economic impacts of GM crops among poor, small-scale farmers in the developing world indicate that these effects have been very mixed and contingent on the agronomic, socio-economic and institutional settings where the technology has been applied. These conclusions should modulate expectations about the pro-poor potential of GM crop technology and focus attention on the conditions under which it might deliver substantial and sustainable benefits for poor farmers. However, the idea of GM crop technology as an intrinsically pro-poor developmental success story has been sustained in academic, public and policy arenas. This narrative depends upon an analysis that disembeds the technology from the technical, social and institutional contexts in which it is applied. Agricultural development policy should be based on a more rigorous and dispassionate analysis, rather than optimistic expectations alone.

Monitoring global vegetation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Macdonald, R. B.; Houston, A. G.; Heydorn, R. P.; Botkin, D. B.; Estes, J. E.; Strahler, A. H.

1981-01-01

An attempt is made to identify the need for, and the current capability of, a technology which could aid in monitoring the Earth's vegetation resource on a global scale. Vegetation is one of our most critical natural resources, and accurate timely information on its current status and temporal dynamics is essential to understand many basic and applied environmental interrelationships which exist on the small but complex planet Earth.

Post-Secondary Students Using the iPad to Learn English: An Impact Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gitsaki, Christina; Robby, Matthew A.

2014-01-01

The use of mobile technology in language learning has increased considerably, with an unprecedented adoption of mobile tablets in K-12 and higher education settings. Despite the number of recent small-scale studies that have found increased student motivation and engagement in learning as a result of using mobile tablets, there is a need to…

Mitigating climate change through small-scale forestry in the USA: opportunities and challenges

Treesearch

Susan Charnley; David Diaz; Hannah Gosnell

2010-01-01

Forest management for carbon sequestration is a low-cost, low-technology, relatively easy way to help mitigate global climate change that can be adopted now while additional long-term solutions are developed. Carbon-oriented management of forests also offers forest owners an opportunity to obtain a new source of income, and commonly has environmental co-benefits. The...

THE APPLICATION OF IN SITU PERMEABLE REACTIVE (ZERO-VALENT IRON) BARRIER TECHNOLOGY FOR THE REMEDIATION OF CHROMATE-CONTAMINATED GROUNDWATER: A FIELD TEST

EPA Science Inventory

A small-scale field test was initiated in September 1994 to evaluate the in situ remediation of groundwater contaminated with chromate using a permeable reactive barrier composed of a mixture of zero-valent Fe, sand and aquifer sediment. The site used was an old chrome-plating f...

Small Scale Trace Contaminant Testing of SA9T at Ambient and Reduced Pressure Conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Broerman, Craig; Sweterlitsch, Jeffrey

2011-01-01

A principle concern for air revitalization technology in a closed loop system is the capability to control carbon dioxide (CO2) and humidity (H2O). An amine based sorbent technology, SA9T, has long been evaluated for use in this application and several programs are evaluating it for use in both a cabin as well as space suit applications. While the CO2 and H2O performance of the sorbent has been tested extensively, the question of how trace contaminants impact performance requires further evaluation. This paper presents experimental results of small scale SA9T testing that was performed over a variety of test conditions and with a variety of trace contaminants. Testing evaluated the ability of SA9T media to sufficiently remove CO2 and H2O after exposure to a fully saturated trace contaminant at ambient conditions. Testing also evaluated the impact of CO2 and H2O removal performance at suit loop pressures during cyclic operation with a constant inlet contaminant load. In addition, testing evaluated the performance of SA9T at ambient conditions in a continuous 30-day test with a mixed trace contaminant stream.

Applicability of interferometric SAR technology to ground movement and pipeline monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grivas, Dimitri A.; Bhagvati, Chakravarthy; Schultz, B. C.; Trigg, Alan; Rizkalla, Moness

1998-03-01

This paper summarizes the findings of a cooperative effort between NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL), the Italian Natural Gas Transmission Company (SNAM), and Arista International, Inc., to determine whether current remote sensing technologies can be utilized to monitor small-scale ground movements over vast geographical areas. This topic is of interest due to the potential for small ground movements to cause strain accumulation in buried pipeline facilities. Ground movements are difficult to monitor continuously, but their cumulative effect over time can have a significant impact on the safety of buried pipelines. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR or SARI) is identified as the most promising technique of those considered. InSAR analysis involves combining multiple images from consecutive passes of a radar imaging platform. The resulting composite image can detect changes as small as 2.5 to 5.0 centimeters (based on current analysis methods and radar satellite data of 5 centimeter wavelength). Research currently in progress shows potential for measuring ground movements as small as a few millimeters. Data needed for InSAR analysis is currently commercially available from four satellites, and additional satellites are planned for launch in the near future. A major conclusion of the present study is that InSAR technology is potentially useful for pipeline integrity monitoring. A pilot project is planned to test operational issues.

Greased Lightning (GL-10) Flight Testing Campaign

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fredericks, William J.; McSwain, Robert G.; Beaton, Brian F.; Klassman, David W.; Theodore, Colin R.

2017-01-01

Greased Lightning (GL-10) is an aircraft configuration that combines the characteristics of a cruise efficient airplane with the ability to perform vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). This aircraft has been designed, fabricated and flight tested at the small unmanned aerial system (UAS) scale. This technical memorandum will document the procedures and findings of the flight test experiments. The GL-10 design utilized two key technologies to enable this unique aircraft design; namely, distributed electric propulsion (DEP) and inexpensive closed loop controllers. These technologies enabled the flight of this inherently unstable aircraft. Overall it has been determined thru flight test that a design that leverages these new technologies can yield a useful VTOL cruise efficient aircraft.

Cloud chamber experiments on the origin of ice crystal complexity in cirrus clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schnaiter, Martin; Järvinen, Emma; Vochezer, Paul; Abdelmonem, Ahmed; Wagner, Robert; Jourdan, Olivier; Mioche, Guillaume; Shcherbakov, Valery N.; Schmitt, Carl G.; Tricoli, Ugo; Ulanowski, Zbigniew; Heymsfield, Andrew J.

2016-04-01

This study reports on the origin of small-scale ice crystal complexity and its influence on the angular light scattering properties of cirrus clouds. Cloud simulation experiments were conducted at the AIDA (Aerosol Interactions and Dynamics in the Atmosphere) cloud chamber of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). A new experimental procedure was applied to grow and sublimate ice particles at defined super- and subsaturated ice conditions and for temperatures in the -40 to -60 °C range. The experiments were performed for ice clouds generated via homogeneous and heterogeneous initial nucleation. Small-scale ice crystal complexity was deduced from measurements of spatially resolved single particle light scattering patterns by the latest version of the Small Ice Detector (SID-3). It was found that a high crystal complexity dominates the microphysics of the simulated clouds and the degree of this complexity is dependent on the available water vapor during the crystal growth. Indications were found that the small-scale crystal complexity is influenced by unfrozen H2SO4 / H2O residuals in the case of homogeneous initial ice nucleation. Angular light scattering functions of the simulated ice clouds were measured by the two currently available airborne polar nephelometers: the polar nephelometer (PN) probe of Laboratoire de Métérologie et Physique (LaMP) and the Particle Habit Imaging and Polar Scattering (PHIPS-HALO) probe of KIT. The measured scattering functions are featureless and flat in the side and backward scattering directions. It was found that these functions have a rather low sensitivity to the small-scale crystal complexity for ice clouds that were grown under typical atmospheric conditions. These results have implications for the microphysical properties of cirrus clouds and for the radiative transfer through these clouds.

Comprehensive Analysis Modeling of Small-Scale UAS Rotors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Russell, Carl R.; Sekula, Martin K.

2017-01-01

Multicopter unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, have continued their explosive growth in recent years. With this growth comes demand for increased performance as the limits of existing technologies are reached. In order to better design multicopter UAS aircraft, better performance prediction tools are needed. This paper presents the results of a study aimed at using the rotorcraft comprehensive analysis code CAMRAD II to model a multicopter UAS rotor in hover. Parametric studies were performed to determine the level of fidelity needed in the analysis code inputs to achieve results that match test data. Overall, the results show that CAMRAD II is well suited to model small-scale UAS rotors in hover. This paper presents the results of the parametric studies as well as recommendations for the application of comprehensive analysis codes to multicopter UAS rotors.

Experimental Hypervelocity Dust Impact in Olivine: FIB/TEM Characterization of Micron-Scale Craters with Comparison to Natural and Laser-Simulated Small-Scale Impact Effects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Christoffersen, R.; Loeffler, M. J.; Rahman, Z.; Dukes, C.; IMPACT Team

2017-01-01

The space weathering of regoliths on airless bodies and the formation of their exospheres is driven to a large extent by hypervelocity impacts from the high relative flux of micron to sub-micron meteoroids that comprise approximately 90 percent of the solar system meteoroid population. Laboratory hypervelocity impact experiments are crucial for quantifying how these small impact events drive space weathering through target shock, melting and vaporization. Simulating these small scale impacts experimentally is challenging because the natural impactors are both very small and many have velocities above the approximately 8 kilometers-per-second limit attainable by conventional chemical/light gas accelerator technology. Electrostatic "dust" accelerators, such as the one recently developed at the Colorado Center for Lunar Dust and Atmospheric Studies (CCLDAS), allow the experimental velocity regime to be extended up to tens of kilometers-per-second. Even at these velocities the region of latent target damage created by each impact, in the form of microcraters or pits, is still only about 0.1 to 10 micrometers in size. Both field-emission analytical scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and advanced field-emission scanning transmission electron microscopy (FE-STEM) are uniquely suited for characterizing the individual dust impact sites in these experiments. In this study, we have used both techniques, along with focused ion beam (FIB) sample preparation, to characterize the micrometer to nanometer scale effects created by accelerated dust impacts into olivine single crystals. To our knowledge this work presents the first TEM-scale characterization of dust impacts into a key solar system silicate mineral using the CCLDAS facility. Our overarching goal for this work is to establish a basis to compare with our previous results on natural dust-impacted lunar olivine and laser-irradiated olivine.

High-performance parallel processors based on star-coupled wavelength division multiplexing optical interconnects

DOEpatents

Deri, Robert J.; DeGroot, Anthony J.; Haigh, Ronald E.

2002-01-01

As the performance of individual elements within parallel processing systems increases, increased communication capability between distributed processor and memory elements is required. There is great interest in using fiber optics to improve interconnect communication beyond that attainable using electronic technology. Several groups have considered WDM, star-coupled optical interconnects. The invention uses a fiber optic transceiver to provide low latency, high bandwidth channels for such interconnects using a robust multimode fiber technology. Instruction-level simulation is used to quantify the bandwidth, latency, and concurrency required for such interconnects to scale to 256 nodes, each operating at 1 GFLOPS performance. Performance scales have been shown to .apprxeq.100 GFLOPS for scientific application kernels using a small number of wavelengths (8 to 32), only one wavelength received per node, and achievable optoelectronic bandwidth and latency.

Wolfram technologies as an integrated scalable platform for interactive learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaurov, Vitaliy

2012-02-01

We rely on technology profoundly with the prospect of even greater integration in the future. Well known challenges in education are a technology-inadequate curriculum and many software platforms that are difficult to scale or interconnect. We'll review an integrated technology, much of it free, that addresses these issues for individuals and small schools as well as for universities. Topics include: Mathematica, a programming environment that offers a diverse range of functionality; natural language programming for getting started quickly and accessing data from Wolfram|Alpha; quick and easy construction of interactive courseware and scientific applications; partnering with publishers to create interactive e-textbooks; course assistant apps for mobile platforms; the computable document format (CDF); teacher-student and student-student collaboration on interactive projects and web publishing at the Wolfram Demonstrations site.

Proteome-scale human interactomics

PubMed Central

Luck, Katja; Sheynkman, Gloria M.; Zhang, Ivy; Vidal, Marc

2017-01-01

Cellular functions are mediated by complex interactome networks of physical, biochemical, and functional interactions between DNA sequences, RNA molecules, proteins, lipids, and small metabolites. A thorough understanding of cellular organization requires accurate and relatively complete models of interactome networks at proteome-scale. The recent publication of four human protein-protein interaction (PPI) maps represents a technological breakthrough and an unprecedented resource for the scientific community, heralding a new era of proteome-scale human interactomics. Our knowledge gained from these and complementary studies provides fresh insights into the opportunities and challenges when analyzing systematically generated interactome data, defines a clear roadmap towards the generation of a first reference interactome, and reveals new perspectives on the organization of cellular life. PMID:28284537

The Roles of Technology in Primary HIV Prevention for Men Who Have Sex with Men.

PubMed

Sullivan, Patrick S; Jones, Jeb; Kishore, Nishant; Stephenson, Rob

2015-12-01

Men who have sex with men (MSM) are at disproportionate risk for HIV infection globally. The past 5 years have seen considerable advances in biomedical interventions to reduce the risk of HIV infection. To be impactful in reducing HIV incidence requires the rapid and expansive scale-up of prevention. One mechanism for achieving this is technology-based tools to improve knowledge, acceptability, and coverage of interventions and services. This review provides a summary of the current gap in coverage of primary prevention services, how technology-based interventions and services can address gaps in coverage, and the current trends in the development and availability of technology-based primary prevention tools for use by MSM. Results from agent-based models of HIV epidemics of MSM suggest that 40-50 % coverage of multiple primary HIV prevention interventions and services, including biomedical interventions like preexposure prophylaxis, will be needed to reduce HIV incidence among MSM. In the USA, current levels of coverage for all interventions, except HIV testing and condom distribution, fall well short of this target. Recent findings illustrate how technology-based HIV prevention tools can be used to provide certain kinds of services at much larger scale, with marginal incremental costs. A review of mobile apps for primary HIV prevention revealed that most are designed by nonacademic, nonpublic health developers, and only a small proportion of available mobile apps specifically address MSM populations. We are unlikely to reach the required scale of HIV prevention intervention coverage for MSM unless we can leverage technologies to bring key services to broad coverage for MSM. Despite an exciting pipeline of technology-based prevention tools, there are broader challenges with funding structures and sustainability that need to be addressed to realize the full potential of this emerging public health field.

Integration of SrBi2Ta2O9 thin films for high density ferroelectric random access memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wouters, D. J.; Maes, D.; Goux, L.; Lisoni, J. G.; Paraschiv, V.; Johnson, J. A.; Schwitters, M.; Everaert, J.-L.; Boullart, W.; Schaekers, M.; Willegems, M.; Vander Meeren, H.; Haspeslagh, L.; Artoni, C.; Caputa, C.; Casella, P.; Corallo, G.; Russo, G.; Zambrano, R.; Monchoix, H.; Vecchio, G.; Van Autryve, L.

2006-09-01

Ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) is an attractive candidate technology for embedded nonvolatile memory, especially in applications where low power and high program speed are important. Market introduction of high-density FeRAM is, however, lagging behind standard complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) because of the difficult integration technology. This paper discusses the major integration issues for high-density FeRAM, based on SrBi2Ta2O9 (strontium bismuth tantalate or SBT), in relation to the fabrication of our stacked cell structure. We have worked in the previous years on the development of SBT-FeRAM integration technology, based on a so-called pseudo-three-dimensional (3D) cell, with a capacitor that can be scaled from quasi two-dimensional towards a true three-dimensional capacitor where the sidewalls will importantly contribute to the signal. In the first phase of our integration development, we integrated our FeRAM cell in a 0.35μm CMOS technology. In a second phase, then, possibility of scaling of our cell is demonstrated in 0.18μm technology. The excellent electrical and reliability properties of the small integrated ferroelectric capacitors prove the feasibility of the technology, while the verification of the potential 3D effect confirms the basic scaling potential of our concept beyond that of the single-mask capacitor. The paper outlines the different material and technological challenges, and working solutions are demonstrated. While some issues are specific to our own cell, many are applicable to different stacked FeRAM cell concepts, or will become more general concerns when more developments are moving into 3D structures.

Development of RF plasma simulations of in-reactor tests of small models of the nuclear light bulb fuel region

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roman, W. C.; Jaminet, J. F.

1972-01-01

Experiments were conducted to develop test configurations and technology necessary to simulate the thermal environment and fuel region expected to exist in in-reactor tests of small models of nuclear light bulb configurations. Particular emphasis was directed at rf plasma tests of approximately full-scale models of an in-reactor cell suitable for tests in Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory's Nuclear Furnace. The in-reactor tests will involve vortex-stabilized fissioning uranium plasmas of approximately 200-kW power, 500-atm pressure and equivalent black-body radiating temperatures between 3220 and 3510 K.

Interleaved arrays antenna technology development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1986-01-01

Phase one and two of a program to further develop and investigate advanced graphite epoxy waveguides, radiators, and components with application to space antennas are discussed. The objective of the two phases were to demonstrate mechanical integrity of a small panel of radiators and parts procured under a previous contract and to develop alternate designs and applications of the technology. Most of the emphasis was on the assembly and test of a 5 x 5 element module. This effort was supported by evaluation of adhesives and waveguide joint configurations. The evaluation and final assembly considered not only mechanical performance but also producibility in large scale.

Development of a Thermoacoustic Stirling Engine Technology Demonstrator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reissner, Alexander; Gerger, Joachim; Hummel, Stefan; Reißig, Jannis; Pawelke, Roland

2014-08-01

Waste heat is a primary source of energy loss in many aerospace and terrestrial applications. FOTEC, an Austrian Research Company located in Wiener Neustadt, is presently developing a micro power converter, promising high efficiencies even for small- scale applications. The converter is based on an innovative thermoacoustic stirling engine concept without any moving parts. Such a maintenance-free engine system would be particularly suitable for advanced space power systems (radioisotope, waste heat) or even within the scope of terrestrial energy harvesting. This paper will summarizes the status of our ongoing efforts on this micro power converter technology.

Analysis of problems with dry fermentation process for biogas production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pilát, Peter; Patsch, Marek; Jandačka, Jozef

2012-04-01

The technology of dry anaerobic fermentation is still meeting with some scepticism, and therefore in most biogas plants are used wet fermentation technology. Fermentation process would be not complete without an optimal controlled condition: dry matter content, density, pH, and in particular the reaction temperature. If is distrust of dry fermentation eligible it was on the workplace of the Department of Power Engineering at University of Zilina built an experimental small-scale biogas station that allows analysis of optimal parameters of the dry anaerobic fermentation, in particular, however, affect the reaction temperature on yield and quality of biogas.

Risk, mobility or population size? Drivers of technological richness among contact-period western North American hunter-gatherers.

PubMed

Collard, Mark; Buchanan, Briggs; O'Brien, Michael J; Scholnick, Jonathan

2013-11-19

Identifying factors that influence technological evolution in small-scale societies is important for understanding human evolution. There have been a number of attempts to identify factors that influence the evolution of food-getting technology, but little work has examined the factors that affect the evolution of other technologies. Here, we focus on variation in technological richness (total number of material items and techniques) among recent hunter-gatherers from western North America and test three hypotheses: (i) technological richness is affected by environmental risk, (ii) population size is the primary determinant of technological richness, and (iii) technological richness is constrained by residential mobility. We found technological richness to be correlated with a proxy for environmental risk-mean rainfall for the driest month-in the manner predicted by the risk hypothesis. Support for the hypothesis persisted when we controlled for shared history and intergroup contact. We found no evidence that technological richness is affected by population size or residential mobility. These results have important implications for unravelling the complexities of technological evolution.

Risk, mobility or population size? Drivers of technological richness among contact-period western North American hunter–gatherers

PubMed Central

Collard, Mark; Buchanan, Briggs; O'Brien, Michael J.; Scholnick, Jonathan

2013-01-01

Identifying factors that influence technological evolution in small-scale societies is important for understanding human evolution. There have been a number of attempts to identify factors that influence the evolution of food-getting technology, but little work has examined the factors that affect the evolution of other technologies. Here, we focus on variation in technological richness (total number of material items and techniques) among recent hunter–gatherers from western North America and test three hypotheses: (i) technological richness is affected by environmental risk, (ii) population size is the primary determinant of technological richness, and (iii) technological richness is constrained by residential mobility. We found technological richness to be correlated with a proxy for environmental risk—mean rainfall for the driest month—in the manner predicted by the risk hypothesis. Support for the hypothesis persisted when we controlled for shared history and intergroup contact. We found no evidence that technological richness is affected by population size or residential mobility. These results have important implications for unravelling the complexities of technological evolution. PMID:24101622

Tremors behind the power outlet - where earthquakes appear on our monthly bill

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baisch, Stefan

2013-04-01

The world's appetite for energy has significantly increased over the last decades, not least due to the rapid growth of Asian economies. In parallel, the Fukushima shock raised widespread concerns against nuclear power generation and an increasing desire for clean energy technologies. To solve the conflict of higher demands, limited resources and a growing level of green consciousness, both up-scaling of conventional and development of renewable energy technologies are required. This is where the phenomenon of man-made earthquakes appears on the radar screen. Several of our energy production technologies have the potential to cause small, moderate, or sometimes even larger magnitude earthquakes. There is a general awareness that coal mining activities can produce moderate sized earthquakes. Similarly, long-term production from hydrocarbon reservoirs can lead to subsurface deformations accompanied by even larger magnitude earthquakes. Even the "renewables" are not necessarily earthquake-free. Several of the largest man-made earthquakes have been caused by water impoundment for hydropower plants. On a much smaller scale, micro earthquakes can occur in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). Although still in its infancy, the EGS technology has an enormous potential to supply base load electricity, and its technical feasibility for a large scale application is currently being investigated in about a dozen pilot projects. The principal concept of heat extraction by circulating water through a subsurface reservoir is fairly simple, the technical implementation of EGS, however, exhibits several challenges not all of which are yet being solved. As the hydraulic conductivity at depth is usually extremely low at EGS sites, a technical stimulation of hydraulic pathways is required for creating an artificial heat exchanger. By injecting fluid under high pressure into the subsurface, tectonic stress on existing fractures can be released and the associated shearing of the fractures (micro earthquakes) increases the hydraulic conductivity. Magnitudes of the induced micro earthquakes are typically below the human detection threshold, but a few exceptionally strong events in the order of ML=3.5 have occurred in EGS reservoirs. In one case, slight material damage was caused, which eventually led to a project stop. Although these induced micro earthquakes are usually generated under well-controlled conditions, the possibility of rare occurrences of felt events in EGS reservoirs remains part of the technology. The same applies for the up-scaling of hydrocarbon production. Tapping unconventional resources requires similar stimulation technologies as used for EGS. Every power production technology has got its prize - we have to decide what currency we are willing to pay and to what extent we are ready to accept the small tremors behind our power outlet.

Extracting land use information from the earth resources technology satellite data by conventional interpretation methods

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vegas, P. L.

1974-01-01

A procedure for obtaining land use data from satellite imagery by the use of conventional interpretation methods is presented. The satellite is described briefly, and the advantages of various scales and multispectral scanner bands are discussed. Methods for obtaining satellite imagery and the sources of this imagery are given. Equipment used in the study is described, and samples of land use maps derived from satellite imagery are included together with the land use classification system used. Accuracy percentages are cited and are compared to those of a previous experiment using small scale aerial photography.

ESNIB (European Science Notes Information Bulletin): Reports on Current European/Middle Eastern Science

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-11-01

tool for planning, programming , The TERMOS is a digital terrain modeling system and simulating, initiating, and surveying small-scale was developed ...workshop fea- (FRG) turing the European Strategic Program for Research and Conference Language: English Development in Information Technologies...self- * Research and Development in the Numerical addressed mailer and return it to ONREUR. Aerodynamic Systems Program , R. Bailey, NASA

Measuring Scaling Effects in Small Two-Stroke Internal Combustion Engines

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-20

Figure 17. The engines ingest air /fuel mixture through a dual mixing screw carburetor to the crankcase. Crankcase compression drives the scavenging...Alex K. Rowton, Captain, USAF AFIT-ENY-T-14-J-36 DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE AIR UNIVERSITY AIR FORCE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Wright...Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED. The views expressed

Small Scale Irrigation Systems for Peace Corps Volunteers. Appropriate Technologies for Development. Peace Corps Information Collection & Exchange Reprint No. R-10.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Development Planning and Research Associates, Inc., Manhattan, KS.

This manual is intended for use by Peace Corps trainees and volunteers as a resource in gaining understanding and knowledge of basic irrigation principles and practices. To be most useful, the manual should be used during training as a teaching guide and instructional tool. Although it provides useful charts, drawings, structural diagrams, and…

Engaging L2 Undergraduates in Relevant Project Work and Interaction: A Role for Video Conferencing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colwell O'Callaghan, Veronica

2013-01-01

This article reports on two small-scale international projects, both outcomes of a teaching staff exchange, which seek to exploit the potential afforded by new technologies to enrich L2 learning conditions and learners' experience of using the L2 (in this case English) as a lingua franca. Two undergraduate courses, one for professional and one for…

Superstring-inspired SO(10) GUT model with intermediate scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sasaki, Ken

1987-12-01

A new mechanism is proposed for the mixing of Weinberg-Salam Higgs fields in superstring-inspired SO(10) models with no SO(10) singlet fields. The higher-dimensional terms in the superpotential can generate both Higgs field mixing and a small mass for the physical neutrino. I would like to thank Professor C. Iso for hospitality extended to me at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Towards Gathering Initial Requirements of Developing a Mobile Service to Support Informal Learning at Cultural Heritage Sites

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alkhafaji, Alaa; Fallahkhair, Sanaz; Cocea, Mihaela

2015-01-01

Informal learning allows learners to be in charge of their own learning process instead of being a content consumer. Harnessing mobile technology in informal learning field could help learners in taking a learning opportunity whenever they need either individually or in a group. This paper presents a small-scale study to investigate how people may…

A Vision in Aeronautics: The K-12 Wind Tunnel Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

A Vision in Aeronautics, a project within the NASA Lewis Research Center's Information Infrastructure Technologies and Applications (IITA) K-12 Program, employs small-scale, subsonic wind tunnels to inspire students to explore the world of aeronautics and computers. Recently, two educational K-12 wind tunnels were built in the Cleveland area. During the 1995-1996 school year, preliminary testing occurred in both tunnels.

A Robust Damage Reporting Strategy for Polymeric Materials Enabled by Aggregation Induced Emission

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-08-17

and Technology, ‡Department of Chemistry, ∥Department of Materials Science and Engineering, ⊥Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, and...enabled by aggregation-induced emission (AIE). This simple, yet powerful system relies on a single active component, and the general mechanism ...delivers outstanding performance in a wide variety of materials with diverse chemical and mechanical properties. Small (micrometer) scale damage in

Small Fish Species as Powerful Model Systems to Study Vertebrate Physiology in Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muller, M.; Aceto, J.; Dalcq, J.; Alestrom, P.; Nourizadeh-Lillabadi, R.; Goerlich, R.; Schiller, V.; Winkler, C.; Renn, J.; Eberius, M.; Slenzka, K.

2008-06-01

Small fish models, mainly zebrafish (Danio rerio) and medaka (Oryzias latipes), have been used for many years as powerful model systems for vertebrate developmental biology. Moreover, these species are increasingly recognized as valuable systems to study vertebrate physiology, pathology, pharmacology and toxicology, including in particular bone physiology. The biology of small fishes presents many advantages, such as transparency of the embryos, external and rapid development, small size and easy reproduction. Further characteristics are particularly useful for space research or for large scale screening approaches. Finally, many technologies for easily characterizing bones are available. Our objective is to investigate the changes induced by microgravity in small fish. By combining whole genome analysis (microarray, DNA methylation, chromatin modification) with live imaging of selected genes in transgenic animals, a comprehensive and integrated characterization of physiological changes in space could be gained, especially concerning bone physiology.

Mini-STAR: A small space mission testing special relativity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gürlebeck, Norman

mSTAR (mini-STAR) is a proposed collaborative Saudi-USA-German small space mission to perform an advanced Kennedy-Thorndike (KT) type test of Special Relativity using the large and rapid velocity modulation available in low Earth orbit (LEO). An improvement of about a factor of 100 over present ground results is expected with an additional factor of 10 possible using more advanced technology. To date, limits on local Lorentz invariance violations (LLIV) related to boost effects are on the order of δc/c ≤ 10 15. While advances in technology will undoubtedly lead to further gains, it has become clear that space experiments in low Earth orbit offer a way to obtain much better results than ground experiments. The mSTAR LLIV experiment consists of the comparison of a molecular frequency reference, 532 nm Iodine, with a length reference, an optical cavity, in a LEO flight (7 km/s orbital velocity, 90 min period). The corresponding sensitivity to boost-dependent LLIV terms is improved relative to Earth based measurements because of the high velocity modulation and the increased number of the measurements. The mSTAR approach is to develop a small-scale instrument with a high scientific output that also provides instrument and spacecraft technology for subsequent missions, which would use further improved frequency standards.

Life Cycle Analysis of Dedicated Nano-Launch Technologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zapata, Edgar; McCleskey, Carey (Editor); Martin, John; Lepsch, Roger; Ternani, Tosoc

2014-01-01

Recent technology advancements have enabled the development of small cheap satellites that can perform useful functions in the space environment. Currently, the only low cost option for getting these payloads into orbit is through ride share programs - small satellites awaiting the launch of a larger satellite, and then riding along on the same launcher. As a result, these small satellite customers await primary payload launches and a backlog exists. An alternative option would be dedicated nano-launch systems built and operated to provide more flexible launch services, higher availability, and affordable prices. The potential customer base that would drive requirements or support a business case includes commercial, academia, civil government and defense. Further, NASA technology investments could enable these alternative game changing options. With this context, in 2013 the Game Changing Development (GCD) program funded a NASA team to investigate the feasibility of dedicated nano-satellite launch systems with a recurring cost of less than $2 million per launch for a 5 kg payload to low Earth orbit. The team products would include potential concepts, technologies and factors for enabling the ambitious cost goal, exploring the nature of the goal itself, and informing the GCD program technology investment decision making process. This paper provides an overview of the life cycle analysis effort that was conducted in 2013 by an inter-center NASA team. This effort included the development of reference nano-launch system concepts, developing analysis processes and models, establishing a basis for cost estimates (development, manufacturing and launch) suitable to the scale of the systems, and especially, understanding the relationship of potential game changing technologies to life cycle costs, as well as other factors, such as flights per year.

Manipulating biological agents and cells in micro-scale volumes for applications in medicine

PubMed Central

Tasoglu, Savas; Gurkan, Umut Atakan; Wang, ShuQi

2013-01-01

Recent technological advances provide new tools to manipulate cells and biological agents in micro/nano-liter volumes. With precise control over small volumes, the cell microenvironment and other biological agents can be bioengineered; interactions between cells and external stimuli can be monitored; and the fundamental mechanisms such as cancer metastasis and stem cell differentiation can be elucidated. Technological advances based on the principles of electrical, magnetic, chemical, optical, acoustic, and mechanical forces lead to novel applications in point-of-care diagnostics, regenerative medicine, in vitro drug testing, cryopreservation, and cell isolation/purification. In this review, we first focus on the underlying mechanisms of emerging examples for cell manipulation in small volumes targeting applications such as tissue engineering. Then, we illustrate how these mechanisms impact the aforementioned biomedical applications, discuss the associated challenges, and provide perspectives for further development. PMID:23575660

Data Retrieved by ARCADE-R2 Experiment On Board the BEXUS-17 Balloon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barbetta, M.; Branz, F.; Carron, A.; Olivieri, L.; Prendin, J.; Sansone, F.; Savioli, L.; Spinello, F.; Francesconi, A.

2015-09-01

The Autonomous Rendezvous, Control And Docking Experiment — Reflight 2 (ARCADE-R2) is a technology demonstrator aiming to prove automatic attitude determination and control, rendezvous and docking capabilities for small scale spacecraft and aircraft. The development of such capabilities could be fundamental to create, in the near future, fleets of cooperative, autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles for mapping, surveillance, inspection and remote observation of hazardous environments; small-class satellites could also benefit from the employment of docking systems to extend and reconfigure their mission profiles. ARCADE-R2 is designed to test these technologies on a stratospheric flight on board the BEXUS-17 balloon, allowing to demonstrate them in a harsh environment subjected to gusty winds and high pressure and temperature variations. In this paper, ARCADE-R2 architecture is introduced and the main results obtained from a stratospheric balloon flight are presented.

Emerging technologies in medical applications of minimum volume vitrification

PubMed Central

Zhang, Xiaohui; Catalano, Paolo N; Gurkan, Umut Atakan; Khimji, Imran; Demirci, Utkan

2011-01-01

Cell/tissue biopreservation has broad public health and socio-economic impact affecting millions of lives. Cryopreservation technologies provide an efficient way to preserve cells and tissues targeting the clinic for applications including reproductive medicine and organ transplantation. Among these technologies, vitrification has displayed significant improvement in post-thaw cell viability and function by eliminating harmful effects of ice crystal formation compared to the traditional slow freezing methods. However, high cryoprotectant agent concentrations are required, which induces toxicity and osmotic stress to cells and tissues. It has been shown that vitrification using small sample volumes (i.e., <1 μl) significantly increases cooling rates and hence reduces the required cryoprotectant agent levels. Recently, emerging nano- and micro-scale technologies have shown potential to manipulate picoliter to nanoliter sample sizes. Therefore, the synergistic integration of nanoscale technologies with cryogenics has the potential to improve biopreservation methods. PMID:21955080

Low-frequency noise behavior of polysilicon emitter bipolar junction transistors: a review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deen, M. Jamal; Pascal, Fabien

2003-05-01

For many analog integrated circuit applications, the polysilicon emitter bipolar junction transistor (PE-BJT) is still the preferred choice because of its higher operational frequency and lower noise performance characteristics compared to MOS transistors of similar active areas and at similar biasing currents. In this paper, we begin by motivating the reader with reasons why bipolar transistors are still of great interest for analog integrated circuits. This motivation includes a comparison between BJT and the MOSFET using a simple small-signal equivalent circuit to derive important parameters that can be used to compare these two technologies. An extensive review of the popular theories used to explain low frequency noise results is presented. However, in almost all instances, these theories have not been fully tested. The effects of different processing technologies and conditions on the noise performance of PE-BJTs is reviewed and a summary of some of the key technological steps and device parameters and their effects on noise is discussed. The effects of temperature and emitter geometries scaling is reviewed. It is shown that dispersion of the low frequency noise in ultra-small geometries is a serious issue since the rate of increase of the noise dispersion is faster than the noise itself as the emitter geometry is scaled to smaller values. Finally, some ideas for future research on PE-BJTs, some of which are also applicable to SiGe heteorjunction bipolar transistors and MOSFETs, are presented after the conclusions.

solar thermal power systems advanced solar thermal technology project, advanced subsystems development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

The preliminary design for a prototype small (20 kWe) solar thermal electric generating unit was completed, consisting of several subsystems. The concentrator and the receiver collect solar energy and a thermal buffer storage with a transport system is used to provide a partially smoothed heat input to the Stirling engine. A fossil-fuel combustor is included in the receiver designs to permit operation with partial or no solar insolation (hybrid). The engine converts the heat input into mechanical action that powers a generator. To obtain electric power on a large scale, multiple solar modules will be required to operate in parallel. The small solar electric power plant used as a baseline design will provide electricity at remote sites and small communities.

Scale effect challenges in urban hydrology highlighted with a Fully Distributed Model and High-resolution rainfall data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ichiba, Abdellah; Gires, Auguste; Tchiguirinskaia, Ioulia; Schertzer, Daniel; Bompard, Philippe; Ten Veldhuis, Marie-Claire

2017-04-01

Nowadays, there is a growing interest on small-scale rainfall information, provided by weather radars, to be used in urban water management and decision-making. Therefore, an increasing interest is in parallel devoted to the development of fully distributed and grid-based models following the increase of computation capabilities, the availability of high-resolution GIS information needed for such models implementation. However, the choice of an appropriate implementation scale to integrate the catchment heterogeneity and the whole measured rainfall variability provided by High-resolution radar technologies still issues. This work proposes a two steps investigation of scale effects in urban hydrology and its effects on modeling works. In the first step fractal tools are used to highlight the scale dependency observed within distributed data used to describe the catchment heterogeneity, both the structure of the sewer network and the distribution of impervious areas are analyzed. Then an intensive multi-scale modeling work is carried out to understand scaling effects on hydrological model performance. Investigations were conducted using a fully distributed and physically based model, Multi-Hydro, developed at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech. The model was implemented at 17 spatial resolutions ranging from 100 m to 5 m and modeling investigations were performed using both rain gauge rainfall information as well as high resolution X band radar data in order to assess the sensitivity of the model to small scale rainfall variability. Results coming out from this work demonstrate scale effect challenges in urban hydrology modeling. In fact, fractal concept highlights the scale dependency observed within distributed data used to implement hydrological models. Patterns of geophysical data change when we change the observation pixel size. The multi-scale modeling investigation performed with Multi-Hydro model at 17 spatial resolutions confirms scaling effect on hydrological model performance. Results were analyzed at three ranges of scales identified in the fractal analysis and confirmed in the modeling work. The sensitivity of the model to small-scale rainfall variability was discussed as well.

Chip in a lab: Microfluidics for next generation life science research

PubMed Central

Streets, Aaron M.; Huang, Yanyi

2013-01-01

Microfluidic circuits are characterized by fluidic channels and chambers with a linear dimension on the order of tens to hundreds of micrometers. Components of this size enable lab-on-a-chip technology that has much promise, for example, in the development of point-of-care diagnostics. Micro-scale fluidic circuits also yield practical, physical, and technological advantages for studying biological systems, enhancing the ability of researchers to make more precise quantitative measurements. Microfluidic technology has thus become a powerful tool in the life science research laboratory over the past decade. Here we focus on chip-in-a-lab applications of microfluidics and survey some examples of how small fluidic components have provided researchers with new tools for life science research. PMID:23460772

Factors affecting commercial application of embryo technologies in dairy cattle in Europe--a modelling approach.

PubMed

van Arendonk, Johan A M; Bijma, Piter

2003-01-15

Reproductive techniques have a major impact on the structure of breeding programmes, the rate of genetic gain and dissemination of genetic gain in populations. This manuscript reviews the impact of reproductive technologies on the underlying components of genetic gain and inbreeding with special reference to the role of female reproductive technology. Evaluation of alternative breeding schemes should be based on genetic gain while constraining inbreeding. Optimum breeding schemes can be characterised by: decreased importance of sib information; increased accuracy at the expense of intensity; and a factorial mating strategy. If large-scale embryo cloning becomes feasible, this will have a small impact on the rate of genetic gain but will have a large impact on the structure of breeding programmes.

Wolves will not provide small-scale ecological restoration

USGS Publications Warehouse

Belant, Jerrold L.; Adams, Layne G.

2010-01-01

Licht and colleagues (BioScience 60: 147–153) proposed a paradigm shift in wolf management to include the introductions of small, highly manipulated groups of wolves (Canis lupus) to confined natural areas to facilitate ecosystem recovery. Certainly, reductions or losses of apex predators from many regions worldwide have had profound effects on ecosystem characteristics (Soulé et al. 2003). Numerous efforts to restore or enhance predator populations through policy change or reintroductions have occurred, often with the intent to restore ecosystem function (Breitenmoser et al. 2001). However, in addition to the gargantuan technological and political challenges inherent in Licht and colleagues' proposal, we contend that intensively managed wolves will not restore natural ecosystem processes given the disparity in scale between these proposed actions and the ecosystem processes that wolves foster. Further, we note that predator-prey relationships are more complex than Licht suggested.

Wind turbine wake interactions at field scale: An LES study of the SWiFT facility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Xiaolei; Boomsma, Aaron; Barone, Matthew; Sotiropoulos, Fotis

2014-06-01

The University of Minnesota Virtual Wind Simulator (VWiS) code is employed to simulate turbine/atmosphere interactions in the Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility developed by Sandia National Laboratories in Lubbock, TX, USA. The facility presently consists of three turbines and the simulations consider the case of wind blowing from South such that two turbines are in the free stream and the third turbine in the direct wake of one upstream turbine with separation of 5 rotor diameters. Large-eddy simulation (LES) on two successively finer grids is carried out to examine the sensitivity of the computed solutions to grid refinement. It is found that the details of the break-up of the tip vortices into small-scale turbulence structures can only be resolved on the finer grid. It is also shown that the power coefficient CP of the downwind turbine predicted on the coarse grid is somewhat higher than that obtained on the fine mesh. On the other hand, the rms (root-mean-square) of the CP fluctuations are nearly the same on both grids, although more small-scale turbulence structures are resolved upwind of the downwind turbine on the finer grid.

Production of recombinant antigens and antibodies in Nicotiana benthamiana using 'magnifection' technology: GMP-compliant facilities for small- and large-scale manufacturing.

PubMed

Klimyuk, Victor; Pogue, Gregory; Herz, Stefan; Butler, John; Haydon, Hugh

2014-01-01

This review describes the adaptation of the plant virus-based transient expression system, magnICON(®) for the at-scale manufacturing of pharmaceutical proteins. The system utilizes so-called "deconstructed" viral vectors that rely on Agrobacterium-mediated systemic delivery into the plant cells for recombinant protein production. The system is also suitable for production of hetero-oligomeric proteins like immunoglobulins. By taking advantage of well established R&D tools for optimizing the expression of protein of interest using this system, product concepts can reach the manufacturing stage in highly competitive time periods. At the manufacturing stage, the system offers many remarkable features including rapid production cycles, high product yield, virtually unlimited scale-up potential, and flexibility for different manufacturing schemes. The magnICON system has been successfully adaptated to very different logistical manufacturing formats: (1) speedy production of multiple small batches of individualized pharmaceuticals proteins (e.g. antigens comprising individualized vaccines to treat NonHodgkin's Lymphoma patients) and (2) large-scale production of other pharmaceutical proteins such as therapeutic antibodies. General descriptions of the prototype GMP-compliant manufacturing processes and facilities for the product formats that are in preclinical and clinical testing are provided.

Neutron diffraction study of aqueous Laponite suspensions at the NIMROD diffractometer.

PubMed

Tudisca, V; Bruni, F; Scoppola, E; Angelini, R; Ruzicka, B; Zulian, L; Soper, A K; Ricci, M A

2014-09-01

The process of dynamical arrest, leading to formation of different arrested states such as glasses and gels, along with the closely related process of aging, is central for both basic research and technology. Here we report on a study of the time-dependent structural evolution of two aqueous Laponite clay suspensions at different weight concentrations. Neutron diffraction experiments have been performed with the near and intermediate range order diffractometer (NIMROD) that allows studies of the structure of liquids and disordered materials over a continuous length scale ranging from 1 to 300 Å, i.e., from the atomistic to the mesoscopic scales. NIMROD is presently a unique diffractometer, bridging the length scales traditionally investigated by small angle neutron scattering or small angle x-ray scattering with that accessible by traditional diffractometers for liquids. Interestingly, we have unveiled a signature of aging of both suspensions in the length scale region of NIMROD. This phenomenon, ascribed to sporadic contacts between Laponite platelets at long times, has been observed with the sample arrested as gel or as repulsive glass. Moreover, water molecules within the layers closest to Laponite platelets surface show orientational and translational order, which maps into the crystalline structure of Laponite.

NASA technology utilization program: The small business market

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vannoy, J. K.; Garcia-Otero, F.; Johnson, F. D.; Staskin, E.

1980-01-01

Technology transfer programs were studied to determine how they might be more useful to the small business community. The status, needs, and technology use patterns of small firms are reported. Small business problems and failures are considered. Innovation, capitalization, R and D, and market share problems are discussed. Pocket, captive, and new markets are summarized. Small manufacturers and technology acquisition are discussed, covering external and internal sources, and NASA technology. Small business and the technology utilization program are discussed, covering publications and industrial applications centers. Observations and recommendations include small business market development and contracting, and NASA management technology.

A Stirling engine for use with lower quality fuels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paul, Christopher J.

There is increasing interest in using renewable fuels from biomass or alternative fuels such as municipal waste to reduce the need for fossil based fuels. Due to the lower heating values and higher levels of impurities, small scale electricity generation is more problematic. Currently, there are not many technologically mature options for small scale electricity generation using lower quality fuels. Even though there are few manufacturers of Stirling engines, the history of their development for two centuries offers significant guidance in developing a viable small scale generator set using lower quality fuels. The history, development, and modeling of Stirling engines were reviewed to identify possible model and engine configurations. A Stirling engine model based on the finite volume, ideal adiabatic model was developed. Flow dissipation losses are shown to need correcting as they increase significantly at low mean engine pressure and high engine speed. The complete engine including external components was developed. A simple yet effective method of evaluating the external heat transfer to the Stirling engine was created that can be used with any second order Stirling engine model. A derivative of the General Motors Ground Power Unit 3 was designed. By significantly increasing heater, cooler and regenerator size at the expense of increased dead volume, and adding a combustion gas recirculation, a generator set with good efficiency was designed.

A New Event Builder for CMS Run II

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Albertsson, K.; Andre, J.-M.; Andronidis, A.; Behrens, U.; Branson, J.; Chaze, O.; Cittolin, S.; Darlea, G.-L.; Deldicque, C.; Dobson, M.; Dupont, A.; Erhan, S.; Gigi, D.; Glege, F.; Gomez-Ceballos, G.; Hegeman, J.; Holzner, A.; Jimenez-Estupiñán, R.; Masetti, L.; Meijers, F.; Meschi, E.; Mommsen, R. K.; Morovic, S.; Nunez-Barranco-Fernandez, C.; O'Dell, V.; Orsini, L.; Paus, C.; Petrucci, A.; Pieri, M.; Racz, A.; Roberts, P.; Sakulin, H.; Schwick, C.; Stieger, B.; Sumorok, K.; Veverka, J.; Zaza, S.; Zejdl, P.

2015-12-01

The data acquisition system (DAQ) of the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) assembles events at a rate of 100 kHz, transporting event data at an aggregate throughput of 100GB/s to the high-level trigger (HLT) farm. The DAQ system has been redesigned during the LHC shutdown in 2013/14. The new DAQ architecture is based on state-of-the-art network technologies for the event building. For the data concentration, 10/40 Gbps Ethernet technologies are used together with a reduced TCP/IP protocol implemented in FPGA for a reliable transport between custom electronics and commercial computing hardware. A 56 Gbps Infiniband FDR CLOS network has been chosen for the event builder. This paper discusses the software design, protocols, and optimizations for exploiting the hardware capabilities. We present performance measurements from small-scale prototypes and from the full-scale production system.

A Single-use Strategy to Enable Manufacturing of Affordable Biologics.

PubMed

Jacquemart, Renaud; Vandersluis, Melissa; Zhao, Mochao; Sukhija, Karan; Sidhu, Navneet; Stout, Jim

2016-01-01

The current processing paradigm of large manufacturing facilities dedicated to single product production is no longer an effective approach for best manufacturing practices. Increasing competition for new indications and the launch of biosimilars for the monoclonal antibody market have put pressure on manufacturers to produce at lower cost. Single-use technologies and continuous upstream processes have proven to be cost-efficient options to increase biomass production but as of today the adoption has been only minimal for the purification operations, partly due to concerns related to cost and scale-up. This review summarizes how a single-use holistic process and facility strategy can overcome scale limitations and enable cost-efficient manufacturing to support the growing demand for affordable biologics. Technologies enabling high productivity, right-sized, small footprint, continuous, and automated upstream and downstream operations are evaluated in order to propose a concept for the flexible facility of the future.

A new event builder for CMS Run II

DOE PAGES

Albertsson, K.; Andre, J-M; Andronidis, A.; ...

2015-12-23

The data acquisition system (DAQ) of the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) assembles events at a rate of 100 kHz, transporting event data at an aggregate throughput of 100 GB/s to the high-level trigger (HLT) farm. The DAQ system has been redesigned during the LHC shutdown in 2013/14. The new DAQ architecture is based on state-of-the-art network technologies for the event building. For the data concentration, 10/40 Gbps Ethernet technologies are used together with a reduced TCP/IP protocol implemented in FPGA for a reliable transport between custom electronics and commercial computing hardware. A 56 Gbps Innibandmore » FDR CLOS network has been chosen for the event builder. This paper discusses the software design, protocols, and optimizations for exploiting the hardware capabilities. In conclusion, ee present performance measurements from small-scale prototypes and from the full-scale production system.« less

New Markets for Solar Photovoltaic Power Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomas, Chacko; Jennings, Philip; Singh, Dilawar

2007-10-01

Over the past five years solar photovoltaic (PV) power supply systems have matured and are now being deployed on a much larger scale. The traditional small-scale remote area power supply systems are still important and village electrification is also a large and growing market but large scale, grid-connected systems and building integrated systems are now being deployed in many countries. This growth has been aided by imaginative government policies in several countries and the overall result is a growth rate of over 40% per annum in the sales of PV systems. Optimistic forecasts are being made about the future of PV power as a major source of sustainable energy. Plans are now being formulated by the IEA for very large-scale PV installations of more than 100 MW peak output. The Australian Government has announced a subsidy for a large solar photovoltaic power station of 154 MW in Victoria, based on the concentrator technology developed in Australia. In Western Australia a proposal has been submitted to the State Government for a 2 MW photovoltaic power system to provide fringe of grid support at Perenjori. This paper outlines the technologies, designs, management and policies that underpin these exciting developments in solar PV power.

Volumetric electromagnetic phase-shift spectroscopy of brain edema and hematoma.

PubMed

Gonzalez, Cesar A; Valencia, Jose A; Mora, Alfredo; Gonzalez, Fernando; Velasco, Beatriz; Porras, Martin A; Salgado, Javier; Polo, Salvador M; Hevia-Montiel, Nidiyare; Cordero, Sergio; Rubinsky, Boris

2013-01-01

Motivated by the need of poor and rural Mexico, where the population has limited access to advanced medical technology and services, we have developed a new paradigm for medical diagnostic based on the technology of "Volumetric Electromagnetic Phase Shift Spectroscopy" (VEPS), as an inexpensive partial substitute to medical imaging. VEPS, can detect changes in tissue properties inside the body through non-contact, multi-frequency electromagnetic measurements from the exterior of the body, and thereby provide rapid and inexpensive diagnostics in a way that is amenable for use in economically disadvantaged parts of the world. We describe the technology and report results from a limited pilot study with 46 healthy volunteers and eight patients with CT radiology confirmed brain edema and brain hematoma. Data analysis with a non-parametric statistical Mann-Whitney U test, shows that in the frequency range of from 26 MHz to 39 MHz, VEPS can distinguish non-invasively and without contact, with a statistical significance of p<0.05, between healthy subjects and those with a medical conditions in the brain. In the frequency range of between 153 MHz to 166 MHz it can distinguish with a statistical significance of p<0.05 between subjects with brain edema and those with a hematoma in the brain. A classifier build from measurements in these two frequency ranges can provide instantaneous diagnostic of the medical condition of the brain of a patient, from a single set of measurements. While this is a small-scale pilot study, it illustrates the potential of VEPS to change the paradigm of medical diagnostic of brain injury through a VEPS classifier-based technology. Obviously substantially larger-scale studies are needed to verify and expand on the findings in this small pilot study.

Volumetric Electromagnetic Phase-Shift Spectroscopy of Brain Edema and Hematoma

PubMed Central

Gonzalez, Cesar A.; Valencia, Jose A.; Mora, Alfredo; Gonzalez, Fernando; Velasco, Beatriz; Porras, Martin A.; Salgado, Javier; Polo, Salvador M.; Hevia-Montiel, Nidiyare; Cordero, Sergio; Rubinsky, Boris

2013-01-01

Motivated by the need of poor and rural Mexico, where the population has limited access to advanced medical technology and services, we have developed a new paradigm for medical diagnostic based on the technology of “Volumetric Electromagnetic Phase Shift Spectroscopy” (VEPS), as an inexpensive partial substitute to medical imaging. VEPS, can detect changes in tissue properties inside the body through non-contact, multi-frequency electromagnetic measurements from the exterior of the body, and thereby provide rapid and inexpensive diagnostics in a way that is amenable for use in economically disadvantaged parts of the world. We describe the technology and report results from a limited pilot study with 46 healthy volunteers and eight patients with CT radiology confirmed brain edema and brain hematoma. Data analysis with a non-parametric statistical Mann-Whitney U test, shows that in the frequency range of from 26 MHz to 39 MHz, VEPS can distinguish non-invasively and without contact, with a statistical significance of p<0.05, between healthy subjects and those with a medical conditions in the brain. In the frequency range of between 153 MHz to 166 MHz it can distinguish with a statistical significance of p<0.05 between subjects with brain edema and those with a hematoma in the brain. A classifier build from measurements in these two frequency ranges can provide instantaneous diagnostic of the medical condition of the brain of a patient, from a single set of measurements. While this is a small-scale pilot study, it illustrates the potential of VEPS to change the paradigm of medical diagnostic of brain injury through a VEPS classifier-based technology. Obviously substantially larger-scale studies are needed to verify and expand on the findings in this small pilot study. PMID:23691001

A study of large scale gust generation in a small scale atmospheric wind tunnel with applications to Micro Aerial Vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roadman, Jason Markos

Modern technology operating in the atmospheric boundary layer can always benefit from more accurate wind tunnel testing. While scaled atmospheric boundary layer tunnels have been well developed, tunnels replicating portions of the atmospheric boundary layer turbulence at full scale are a comparatively new concept. Testing at full-scale Reynolds numbers with full-scale turbulence in an "atmospheric wind tunnel" is sought. Many programs could utilize such a tool including Micro Aerial Vehicle(MAV) development, the wind energy industry, fuel efficient vehicle design, and the study of bird and insect flight, to name just a few. The small scale of MAVs provide the somewhat unique capability of full scale Reynolds number testing in a wind tunnel. However, that same small scale creates interactions under real world flight conditions, atmospheric gusts for example, that lead to a need for testing under more complex flows than the standard uniform flow found in most wind tunnels. It is for these reasons that MAVs are used as the initial testing application for the atmospheric gust tunnel. An analytical model for both discrete gusts and a continuous spectrum of gusts is examined. Then, methods for generating gusts in agreement with that model are investigated. Previously used methods are reviewed and a gust generation apparatus is designed. Expected turbulence and gust characteristics of this apparatus are compared with atmospheric data. The construction of an active "gust generator" for a new atmospheric tunnel is reviewed and the turbulence it generates is measured utilizing single and cross hot wires. Results from this grid are compared to atmospheric turbulence and it is shown that various gust strengths can be produced corresponding to weather ranging from calm to quite gusty. An initial test is performed in the atmospheric wind tunnel whereby the effects of various turbulence conditions on transition and separation on the upper surface of a MAV wing is investigated using the surface oil flow visualization technique.

Practice brief. Securing wireless technology for healthcare.

PubMed

Retterer, John; Casto, Brian W

2004-05-01

Wireless networking can be a very complex science, requiring an understanding of physics and the electromagnetic spectrum. While the radio theory behind the technology can be challenging, a basic understanding of wireless networking can be sufficient for small-scale deployment. Numerous security mechanisms are available to wireless technologies, making it practical, scalable, and affordable for healthcare organizations. The decision on the selected security model should take into account the needs for additional server hardware and administrative costs. Where wide area network connections exist between cooperative organizations, deployment of a distributed security model can be considered to reduce administrative overhead. The wireless approach chosen should be dynamic and concentrate on the organization's specific environmental needs. Aspects of organizational mission, operations, service level, and budget allotment as well as an organization's risk tolerance are all part of the balance in the decision to deploy wireless technology.

Liquid fuel supplies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perry, H.

1980-06-01

This paper presents an overview of United States and world petroleum, natural gas, and natural gas liquids presumed recoverable but as yet undiscovered resources and suggests that the depletion of these fuels may not occur as quickly as frequently predicted. The paper points out that the construction of a synthetic fuels industry will be very costly and will provide only a small amount of increased energy independence. The fear is expressed that haste in accepting a specific synfuels process on the basis of present technology may serve to forestall the development of a better technology. The paper suggests that we construct relatively few plants now each using a different technology in order to gain better understanding of the various technologies, more information on costs and the essential but as yet unknown information on environmental and socioeconomic effects of large scale plants.

FASTSAT-HSV01 synergistic observations of the magnetospheric response during active periods: MINI-ME, PISA and TTI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Casas, Joseph; Collier, Michael; Rowland, Douglas; Sigwarth, John; Boudreaux, Mark

Understanding the complex processes within the inner magnetosphere of Earth particularly during storm periods requires coordinated observations of the particle and field environment using both in-situ and remote sensing techniques. In fact in order to gain a better understand-ing of our Heliophysics and potentially improve our space weather forecasting capabilities, new observation mission approaches and new instrument technologies which can provide both cost effective and robust regular observations of magnetospheric activity and other space weather related phenomenon are necessary. As part of the effort to demonstrate new instrument tech-niques and achieve necessary coordinated observation missions, NASA's Fast Affordable Sci-ence and Technology Satellite Huntsville 01 mission (FASTSAT-HSV01) scheduled for launch in 2010 will afford a highly synergistic solution which satisfies payload mission opportunities and launch requirements as well as contributing in the near term to our improved understanding of Heliophysics. NASA's FASTSAT-HSV01 spacecraft on the DoD Space Test Program-S26 (STP-S26) Mission is a multi-payload mission executed by the DoD Space Test Program (STP) at the Space Development and Test Wing (SDTW), Kirtland AFB, NM. and is an example of a responsive and economical breakthrough in providing new possibilities for small space technology-driven and research missions. FASTSAT-HSV is a unique spacecraft platform that can carry multiple small instruments or experiments to low-Earth orbit on a wide range of expendable launch vehicles for a fraction of the cost traditionally required for such missions. The FASTSAT-HSV01 mission allows NASA to mature and transition a technical capability to industry while increasing low-cost access to space for small science and technology (ST) payloads. The FASTSAT-HSV01 payload includes three NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) new technology built instruments that will study the terrestrial space environment and potentially contribute to space weather research in a synergistic manner. MINI-ME, a neutral atom imager, will observe the neutral atom inputs to ionospheric heating which can be important during high levels of magnetospheric activity. PISA, a plasma impedance spec-trometer, will measure simultaneously the local electron densities and temperatures as well as measure small scale density structure (500 m spatial scale) during these active periods. TTI, a thermospheric imager, will remotely determine the thermospheric temperature response to this magnetospheric activity. Together, these observations will contribute significantly to a comprehensive understanding of the flow of energy through and the response of the storm-time terrestrial magnetosphere.

FASTSAT-HSV01 Synergistic Observations of the Magnetospheric Response During Active Periods: MINI-ME, PISA and TTI

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Casas, Joseph C.; Collier, Michael R.; Rowland, Douglas E.; Sigwarth, John B.; Boudreaux, Mark E.

2010-01-01

Understanding the complex processes within the inner magnetosphere of Earth particularly during storm periods requires coordinated observations of the particle and field environment using both in-situ and remote sensing techniques. In fact in order to gain a better understanding of our Heliophysics and potentially improve our space weather forecasting capabilities, new observation mission approaches and new instrument technologies which can provide both cost effective and robust regular observations of magnetospheric activity and other space weather related phenomenon are necessary. As part of the effort to demonstrate new instrument techniques and achieve necessary coordinated observation missions, NASA's Fast Affordable Science and Technology Satellite Huntsville 01 mission (FASTSAT-HSVOI) scheduled for launch in 2010 will afford a highly synergistic solution which satisfies payload mission opportunities and launch requirements as well as contributing iri the near term to our improved understanding of Heliophysics. NASA's FASTSAT-HSV01 spacecraft on the DoD Space Test Program-S26 (STP-S26) Mission is a multi-payload mission executed by the DoD Space Test Program (STP) at the Space Development and Test Wing (SDTW), Kirtland AFB, NM. and is an example of a responsive and economical breakthrough in providing new possibilities for small space technology-driven and research missions. FASTSAT-HSV is a unique spacecraft platform that can carry multiple small instruments or experiments to low-Earth orbit on a wide range of expendable launch vehicles for a fraction of the cost traditionally required for such missions. The FASTSAT-HSV01 mission allows NASA to mature and transition a technical capability to industry while increasing low-cost access to space for small science and technology (ST) payloads. The FASTSAT-HSV01 payload includes three NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) new technology built instruments that will study the terrestrial space environment and potentially contribute to space weather research in a synergistic manner. MINI-ME, a neutral atom imager, will observe the neutral atom inputs to ionospheric heating which can be important during high levels of magnetospheric activity. PISA, a plasma impedance spectrometer, will measure simultaneously the local electron densities and temperatures as well as measure small scale density structure (500 m spatial scale) during these active periods. TTI, a thermospheric imager, will remotely determine the thermospheric temperature response to this magnetospheric activity. Together, these observations will contribute significantly to a comprehensive understanding of the flow of energy through and the response of the storm-time terrestrial magnetosphere.

Development of test methods for scale model simulation of aerial applications in the NASA Langley Vortex Research Facility. [agricultural aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jordan, F. L., Jr.

1980-01-01

As part of basic research to improve aerial applications technology, methods were developed at the Langley Vortex Research Facility to simulate and measure deposition patterns of aerially-applied sprays and granular materials by means of tests with small-scale models of agricultural aircraft and dynamically-scaled test particles. Interactions between the aircraft wake and the dispersed particles are being studied with the objective of modifying wake characteristics and dispersal techniques to increase swath width, improve deposition pattern uniformity, and minimize drift. The particle scaling analysis, test methods for particle dispersal from the model aircraft, visualization of particle trajectories, and measurement and computer analysis of test deposition patterns are described. An experimental validation of the scaling analysis and test results that indicate improved control of chemical drift by use of winglets are presented to demonstrate test methods.

Non-Gaussian Multi-resolution Modeling of Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling Processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, M.; Paul, D.; Lee, T. C. M.; Matsuo, T.

2016-12-01

The most dynamic coupling between the magnetosphere and ionosphere occurs in the Earth's polar atmosphere. Our objective is to model scale-dependent stochastic characteristics of high-latitude ionospheric electric fields that originate from solar wind magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions. The Earth's high-latitude ionospheric electric field exhibits considerable variability, with increasing non-Gaussian characteristics at decreasing spatio-temporal scales. Accurately representing the underlying stochastic physical process through random field modeling is crucial not only for scientific understanding of the energy, momentum and mass exchanges between the Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere, but also for modern technological systems including telecommunication, navigation, positioning and satellite tracking. While a lot of efforts have been made to characterize the large-scale variability of the electric field in the context of Gaussian processes, no attempt has been made so far to model the small-scale non-Gaussian stochastic process observed in the high-latitude ionosphere. We construct a novel random field model using spherical needlets as building blocks. The double localization of spherical needlets in both spatial and frequency domains enables the model to capture the non-Gaussian and multi-resolutional characteristics of the small-scale variability. The estimation procedure is computationally feasible due to the utilization of an adaptive Gibbs sampler. We apply the proposed methodology to the computational simulation output from the Lyon-Fedder-Mobarry (LFM) global magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) magnetosphere model. Our non-Gaussian multi-resolution model results in characterizing significantly more energy associated with the small-scale ionospheric electric field variability in comparison to Gaussian models. By accurately representing unaccounted-for additional energy and momentum sources to the Earth's upper atmosphere, our novel random field modeling approach will provide a viable remedy to the current numerical models' systematic biases resulting from the underestimation of high-latitude energy and momentum sources.

Scaling considerations for a multi-megawatt class supercritical CO2 brayton cycle and commercialization.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fleming, Darryn D.; Holschuh, Thomas Vernon,; Conboy, Thomas M.

2013-11-01

Small-scale supercritical CO2 demonstration loops are successful at identifying the important technical issues that one must face in order to scale up to larger power levels. The Sandia National Laboratories supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle test loops are identifying technical needs to scale the technology to commercial power levels such as 10 MWe. The small size of the Sandia 1 MWth loop has demonstration of the split flow loop efficiency and effectiveness of the Printed Circuit Heat Exchangers (PCHXs) leading to the design of a fully recuperated, split flow, supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle demonstration system. However, there were many problems thatmore » were encountered, such as high rotational speeds in the units. Additionally, the turbomachinery in the test loops need to identify issues concerning the bearings, seals, thermal boundaries, and motor controller problems in order to be proved a reliable power source in the 300 kWe range. Although these issues were anticipated in smaller demonstration units, commercially scaled hardware would eliminate these problems caused by high rotational speeds at small scale. The economic viability and development of the future scalable 10 MWe solely depends on the interest of DOE and private industry. The Intellectual Property collected by Sandia proves that the ~10 MWe supercritical CO2 power conversion loop to be very beneficial when coupled to a 20 MWth heat source (either solar, geothermal, fossil, or nuclear). This paper will identify a commercialization plan, as well as, a roadmap from the simple 1 MWth supercritical CO2 development loop to a power producing 10 MWe supercritical CO2 Brayton loop.« less

Proteome-Scale Human Interactomics.

PubMed

Luck, Katja; Sheynkman, Gloria M; Zhang, Ivy; Vidal, Marc

2017-05-01

Cellular functions are mediated by complex interactome networks of physical, biochemical, and functional interactions between DNA sequences, RNA molecules, proteins, lipids, and small metabolites. A thorough understanding of cellular organization requires accurate and relatively complete models of interactome networks at proteome scale. The recent publication of four human protein-protein interaction (PPI) maps represents a technological breakthrough and an unprecedented resource for the scientific community, heralding a new era of proteome-scale human interactomics. Our knowledge gained from these and complementary studies provides fresh insights into the opportunities and challenges when analyzing systematically generated interactome data, defines a clear roadmap towards the generation of a first reference interactome, and reveals new perspectives on the organization of cellular life. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Technological adaptation in traditional fisheries: way to survive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salam, A.

2018-03-01

Traditional fisheries use traditional fishing gear and fishing boats at a scale of household and the small group of fishermen. Traditional fishing gear and boats which have been used since ancient times are still used in the era when more advanced technologies are available. What makes this simple technology able to survive today and how does it interact with new technologies? This question is tried to be answered through surveys conducted over the last few months (March-July 2017) in several fishing villages on the coast of the Celebes Sea and the Islands of Sangir in North Sulawesi. The level of mastery of local boat-making technology, the tendency of fishermen to maintain their technique known and mastered for generations and limited access to new technologies are among other factors that make traditional fisheries remain. On the other hand, the limitations of natural raw materials, the introduction of new technologies by governments or fishermen from other regions, as well as the needs of fishing communities encourage traditional fisheries to adapt technologies continually. This article also illustrates some examples of technological adaptations to the fishing boats.

NASA Goddard Thermal Technology Overview 2018

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butler, Dan; Swanson, Ted

2018-01-01

This presentation summarizes the current plans and efforts at NASA/Goddard to develop new thermal control technology for anticipated future missions. It will also address some of the programmatic developments currently underway at NASA, especially with respect to the NASA Technology Development Program. The effects of the recently submitted NASA budget will also be addressed. While funding for basic technology development is still tight, significant efforts are being made in direct support of flight programs. Thermal technology Implementation on current flight programs will be reviewed, and the recent push for Cube-sat mission development will also be addressed. Many of these technologies also have broad applicability to DOD, DOE, and commercial programs. Partnerships have been developed with the Air Force, Navy, and various universities to promote technology development. In addition, technology development activities supported by internal research and development (IRAD) program and the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program are reviewed in this presentation. Specific technologies addressed include; two-phase systems applications and issues on NASA missions, latest developments of thermal control coatings, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), Micro-scale Heat Transfer, and various other research activities.

Survey of lift-fan aerodynamic technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hickey, David H.; Kirk, Jerry V.

1993-01-01

Representatives of NASA Ames Research Center asked that a summary of technology appropriate for lift-fan powered short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft be prepared so that new programs could more easily benefit from past research efforts. This paper represents one of six prepared for that purpose. The authors have conducted or supervised the conduct of research on lift-fan powered STOVL designs and some of their important components for decades. This paper will first address aerodynamic modeling requirements for experimental programs to assure realistic, trustworthy results. It will next summarize the results or efforts to develop satisfactory specialized STOVL components such as inlets and flow deflectors. It will also discuss problems with operation near the ground, aerodynamics while under lift-fan power, and aerodynamic prediction techniques. Finally, results of studies to reduce lift-fan noise will be presented. The paper will emphasize results from large scale experiments, where available, for reasons that will be brought out in the discussion. Some work with lift-engine powered STOVL aircraft is also applicable to lift-fan technology and will be presented herein. Small-scale data will be used where necessary to fill gaps.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities are phylogenetically clustered at small scales

PubMed Central

Horn, Sebastian; Caruso, Tancredi; Verbruggen, Erik; Rillig, Matthias C; Hempel, Stefan

2014-01-01

Next-generation sequencing technologies with markers covering the full Glomeromycota phylum were used to uncover phylogenetic community structure of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) associated with Festuca brevipila. The study system was a semi-arid grassland with high plant diversity and a steep environmental gradient in pH, C, N, P and soil water content. The AMF community in roots and rhizosphere soil were analyzed separately and consisted of 74 distinct operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in total. Community-level variance partitioning showed that the role of environmental factors in determining AM species composition was marginal when controlling for spatial autocorrelation at multiple scales. Instead, phylogenetic distance and spatial distance were major correlates of AMF communities: OTUs that were more closely related (and which therefore may have similar traits) were more likely to co-occur. This pattern was insensitive to phylogenetic sampling breadth. Given the minor effects of the environment, we propose that at small scales closely related AMF positively associate through biotic factors such as plant-AMF filtering and interactions within the soil biota. PMID:24824667

System level airworthiness tool: A comprehensive approach to small unmanned aircraft system airworthiness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burke, David A.

One of the pillars of aviation safety is assuring sound engineering practices through airworthiness certification. As Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) grow in popularity, the need for airworthiness standards and verification methods tailored for UAS becomes critical. While airworthiness practices for large UAS may be similar to manned aircraft, it is clear that small UAS require a paradigm shift from the airworthiness practices of manned aircraft. Although small in comparison to manned aircraft these aircraft are not merely remote controlled toys. Small UAS may be complex aircraft flying in the National Airspace System (NAS) over populated areas for extended durations and beyond line of sight of the operators. A comprehensive systems engineering framework for certifying small UAS at the system level is needed. This work presents a point based tool that evaluates small UAS by rewarding good engineering practices in design, analysis, and testing. The airworthiness requirements scale with vehicle size and operational area, while allowing flexibility for new technologies and unique configurations.

Hydrogen peroxide propulsion for smaller satellites (SSC98-VIII-1)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Whitehead, J C

1998-07-13

As satellite designs shrink, providing maneuvering and control capability falls outside the realm of available propulsion technology. While cold gas has been used on the smallest satellites, hydrogen peroxide propellant is suggested as the next step in performance and cost before hydrazine. Minimal toxicity and a small scale enable benchtop propellant preparation and development testing. Progress toward low-cost thrusters and self-pressurizing tank systems is described.

A FUEL-RICH PRECOMBUSTOR. FIELD EVALUATION OF LOW-EMISSION COAL BURNER TECHNOLOGY ON UTILITY BOILERS - VOLUME IV. ALTERNATE CON- CEPTS FOR SOX, NOX, AND PARTICULATE EMISSIONS CONTROL FROM

EPA Science Inventory

The report gives results a study of the use of precombustors for the simultaneous control of S02, NOx, and ash emissions from coal combustion. In Phase 1, exploratory testing was conducted on a small pilot scale--293 kW (million Btu/hr)-pulverized-coal-fired precombustor to ident...

An Evaluation of the Use of Voice Boards, E-Book Readers and Virtual Worlds in a Postgraduate Distance Learning Applied Linguistics and TESOL Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rogerson-Revell, Pamela; Nie, Ming; Armellini, Alejandro

2012-01-01

We researched the incorporation of three learning technologies (voice boards, i.e. voice-based discussion boards, e-book readers, and Second Life virtual world), into the Master's Programme in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages offered by distance learning at the University of Leicester. This small-scale study…

Preserving third year medical students' empathy and enhancing self-reflection using small group "virtual hangout" technology.

PubMed

Duke, Pamela; Grosseman, Suely; Novack, Dennis H; Rosenzweig, Steven

2015-01-01

Medical student professionalism education is challenging in scope, purpose, and delivery, particularly in the clinical years when students in large universities are dispersed across multiple clinical sites. We initiated a faculty-facilitated, peer small group course for our third year students, creating virtual classrooms using social networking and online learning management system technologies. The course emphasized narrative self-reflection, group inquiry, and peer support. We conducted this study to analyze the effects of a professionalism course on third year medical students' empathy and self-reflection (two elements of professionalism) and their perceptions about the course. Students completed the Groningen Reflection Ability Scale (GRAS) and the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) before and after the course and provided anonymous online feedback. The results of the JSE before and after the course demonstrated preservation of empathy rather than its decline. In addition, there was a statistically significant increase in GRAS scores (p < 0.001), suggesting that the sharing of personal narratives may foster reflective ability and reflective practice among third year students. This study supports previous findings showing that students benefit from peer groups and discussion in a safe environment, which may include the use of a virtual group video platform.

TPS design for aerobraking at Earth and Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, S. D.; Gietzel, M. M.; Rochelle, W. C.; Curry, D. M.

1991-08-01

An investigation was made to determine the feasibility of using an aerobrake system for manned and unmanned missions to Mars, and to Earth from Mars and lunar orbits. A preliminary thermal protection system (TPS) was examined for five unmanned small nose radius, straight bi-conic vehicles and a scaled up Aeroassist Flight Experiment (AFE) vehicle aerocapturing at Mars. Analyses were also conducted for the scaled up AFE and an unmanned Sample Return Cannister (SRC) returning from Mars and aerocapturing into Earth orbit. Also analyzed were three different classes of lunar transfer vehicles (LTV's): an expendable scaled up modified Apollo Command Module (CM), a raked cone (modified AFT), and three large nose radius domed cylinders. The LTV's would be used to transport personnel and supplies between Earth and the moon in order to establish a manned base on the lunar surface. The TPS for all vehicles analyzed is shown to have an advantage over an all-propulsive velocity reduction for orbit insertion. Results indicate that TPS weight penalties of less than 28 percent can be achieved using current material technology, and slightly less than the most favorable LTV using advanced material technology.

Small blob identification in medical images using regional features from optimum scale.

PubMed

Zhang, Min; Wu, Teresa; Bennett, Kevin M

2015-04-01

Recent advances in medical imaging technology have greatly enhanced imaging-based diagnosis which requires computational effective and accurate algorithms to process the images (e.g., measure the objects) for quantitative assessment. In this research, we are interested in one type of imaging objects: small blobs. Examples of small blob objects are cells in histopathology images, glomeruli in MR images, etc. This problem is particularly challenging because the small blobs often have in homogeneous intensity distribution and an indistinct boundary against the background. Yet, in general, these blobs have similar sizes. Motivated by this finding, we propose a novel detector termed Hessian-based Laplacian of Gaussian (HLoG) using scale space theory as the foundation. Like most imaging detectors, an image is first smoothed via LoG. Hessian analysis is then launched to identify the single optimal scale on which a presegmentation is conducted. The advantage of the Hessian process is that it is capable of delineating the blobs. As a result, regional features can be retrieved. These features enable an unsupervised clustering algorithm for postpruning which should be more robust and sensitive than the traditional threshold-based postpruning commonly used in most imaging detectors. To test the performance of the proposed HLoG, two sets of 2-D grey medical images are studied. HLoG is compared against three state-of-the-art detectors: generalized LoG, Radial-Symmetry and LoG using precision, recall, and F-score metrics.We observe that HLoG statistically outperforms the compared detectors.

NASA Agricultural Aircraft Research Program in the Langley Vortex Research Facility and the Langley Full Scale Wind Tunnel

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jordan, F. L., Jr.; Mclemore, H. C.; Bragg, M. B.

1978-01-01

The current status of aerial applications technology research at the Langley's Vortex Research Facility and Full-Scale Wind Tunnel is reviewed. Efforts have been directed mainly toward developing and validating the required experimental and theoretical research tools. A capability to simulate aerial dispersal of materials from agricultural airplanes with small-scale airplane models, numerical methods, and dynamically scaled test particles was demonstrated. Tests on wake modification concepts have proved the feasibility of tailoring wake properties aerodynamically to produce favorable changes in deposition and to provide drift control. An aerodynamic evaluation of the Thrush Commander 800 agricultural airplane with various dispersal systems installed is described. A number of modifications intended to provide system improvement to both airplane and dispersal system are examined, and a technique for documenting near-field spray characteristics is evaluated.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rehder, J.B.

The project focuses on an appropriate technology for small-scale hydro power: floating waterwheels and turbines. For background, relic and existing systems such as early floating mills, traditional Amish waterwheels, and micro-hydro systems are examined. In the design phase of the project, new designs for Floating Hydro Power Systems include: an analysis of floatation materials and systems; a floating undershot waterwheel design; a floating cylinder (fiberglass storage tank) design; a submerged tube design; and a design for a floating platform with submerged propellers. Finally, in the applications phase, stream flow data from East Tennessee streams are used in a discussion ofmore » the potential applications of floating hydro power systems in small streams.« less

Wavefront Sensing and Control Technology for Submillimeter and Far-Infrared Space Telescopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Redding, Dave

2004-01-01

The NGST wavefront sensing and control system will be developed to TRL6 over the next few years, including testing in a cryogenic vacuum environment with traceable hardware. Doing this in the far-infrared and submillimeter is probably easier, as some aspects of the problem scale with wavelength, and the telescope is likely to have a more stable environment; however, detectors may present small complications. Since this is a new system approach, it warrants a new look. For instance, a large space telescope based on the DART membrane mirror design requires a new actuation approach. Other mirror and actuation technologies may prove useful as well.

77 FR 46909 - Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-06

... Technology Transfer (STTR) Program Policy Directives AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration. ACTION...) and Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) Policy Directives. These amendments implement... to Edsel Brown, Assistant Director, Office of Technology, U.S. Small Business Administrator, 409...

Technology for small spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1994-01-01

This report gives the results of a study by the National Research Council's Panel on Small Spacecraft Technology that reviewed NASA's technology development program for small spacecraft and assessed technology within the U.S. government and industry that is applicable to small spacecraft. The panel found that there is a considerable body of advanced technology currently available for application by NASA and the small spacecraft industry that could provide substantial improvement in capability and cost over those technologies used for current NASA small spacecraft. These technologies are the result of developments by commercial companies, Department of Defense agencies, and to a lesser degree NASA. The panel also found that additional technologies are being developed by these same entities that could provide additional substantial improvement if development is successfully completed. Recommendations for future technology development efforts by NASA across a broad technological spectrum are made.

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Developing Renewable Energy Mixes at the Community Scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gormally, Alexandra M.; Whyatt, James D.; Timmis, Roger J.; Pooley, Colin G.

2013-04-01

Renewable energy has risen on the global political agenda due to concerns over climate change and energy security. The European Union (EU) currently has a target of 20% renewable energy by the year 2020 and there is increasing focus on the ways in which these targets can be achieved. Here we focus on the UK context which could be considered to be lagging behind other EU countries in terms of targets and implementation. The UK has a lower overall target of 15% renewable energy by 2020 and in 2011 reached only 3.8 % (DUKES, 2012), one of the lowest progressions compared to other EU Member States (European Commission, 2012). The reticence of the UK to reach such targets could in part be due to their dependence on their current energy mix and a highly centralised electricity grid system, which does not lend itself easily to the adoption of renewable technologies. Additionally, increasing levels of demand and the need to raise energy awareness are key concerns in terms of achieving energy security in the UK. There is also growing concern from the public about increasing fuel and energy bills. One possible solution to some of these problems could be through the adoption of small-scale distributed renewable schemes implemented at the community-scale with local ownership or involvement, for example, through energy co-operatives. The notion of the energy co-operative is well understood elsewhere in Europe but unfamiliar to many UK residents due to its centralised approach to energy provision. There are many benefits associated with engaging in distributed renewable energy systems. In addition to financial benefits, participation may raise energy awareness and can lead to positive responses towards renewable technologies. Here we briefly explore how a mix of small-scale renewables, including wind, hydro-power and solar PV, have been implemented and managed by a small island community in the Scottish Hebrides to achieve over 90% of their electricity needs from renewable resources (Yadoo et al., 2011), before considering how similar mixes could be developed for rural on-grid communities in the mainland UK. We adopt an interdisciplinary approach that combines quantitative methods (spatial analysis and calculated energy outputs) with secondary data sources to assess resource potential at the regional scale (resolution 1km2) to highlight areas with significant local resources for a mix of renewable energy technologies (Gormally et al., 2012). We then focus at the community-level and use a combination of primary qualitative data (questionnaires and interviews on community acceptance to technologies) and primary quantitative data (primary resource data to assess how renewable mixes may vary throughout the year eg. hourly, daily, monthly) to produce a portfolio of energy scenarios. The scenarios assess different 'supply side' options, including different scales and mixes of technology, 'demand side' options including business as usual and reduced demand, and resilience to change, for example extreme events (droughts, floods). Here we present a methodology and outputs for a case study community in the UK but will highlight how the approach may be adopted for use in other communities across Europe. DUKES (2012) Digest of UK Energy Statistics. Accessed:07/01/2013 European Commission (2012) EUROPE 2020 TARGETS: climate change and energy. Accessed:07/01/2013 Gormally, A. M., Whyatt, J. D., Timmis, R. J. & Pooley, C. G. (2012) A regional-scale assessment of local renewable energy resources in Cumbria, UK. Energy Policy, 50, 283-293. Yadoo, A., Gormally, A. & Cruickshank, H. (2011) Low-carbon off-grid electrification for rural areas in the United Kingdom: Lessons from the developing world. Energy Policy, 39, 6400-6407.

Status of the Combustion Devices Injector Technology Program at the NASA MSFC

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jones, Gregg; Protz, Christopher; Trinh, Huu; Tucker, Kevin; Nesman, Tomas; Hulka, James

2005-01-01

To support the NASA Space Exploration Mission, an in-house program called Combustion Devices Injector Technology (CDIT) is being conducted at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) for the fiscal year 2005. CDIT is focused on developing combustor technology and analysis tools to improve reliability and durability of upper-stage and in-space liquid propellant rocket engines. The three areas of focus include injector/chamber thermal compatibility, ignition, and combustion stability. In the compatibility and ignition areas, small-scale single- and multi-element hardware experiments will be conducted to demonstrate advanced technological concepts as well as to provide experimental data for validation of computational analysis tools. In addition, advanced analysis tools will be developed to eventually include 3-dimensional and multi- element effects and improve capability and validity to analyze heat transfer and ignition in large, multi-element injectors.

Nanobonding: A key technology for emerging applications in health and environmental sciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howlader, Matiar M. R.; Deen, M. Jamal; Suga, Tadatomo

2015-03-01

In this paper, surface-activation-based nanobonding technology and its applications are described. This bonding technology allows for the integration of electronic, photonic, fluidic and mechanical components into small form-factor systems for emerging sensing and imaging applications in health and environmental sciences. Here, we describe four different nanobonding techniques that have been used for the integration of various substrates — silicon, gallium arsenide, glass, and gold. We use these substrates to create electronic (silicon), photonic (silicon and gallium arsenide), microelectromechanical (glass and silicon), and fluidic (silicon and glass) components for biosensing and bioimaging systems being developed. Our nanobonding technologies provide void-free, strong, and nanometer scale bonding at room temperature or at low temperatures (<200 °C), and do not require chemicals, adhesives, or high external pressure. The interfaces of the nanobonded materials in ultra-high vacuum and in air correspond to covalent bonds, and hydrogen or hydroxyl bonds, respectively.

The role of the Department of Defense in PACS and telemedicine research and development.

PubMed

Mogel, Greg T

2003-01-01

The United States Department of Defense (DOD) has played a leading role in the movement of digital imaging, picture archiving and communications systems, and more recently telemedicine with its associated technologies into the mainstream of healthcare. Beginning in the 1980s with domestic implementations, and followed in the 1990s by both small and large-scale military deployments, these technologies have been put into action with varying degrees of success. These efforts however, have always served as a guidepost for similar civilian efforts and the establishment of a marketplace for the technologies. This paper examines the history of the DOD's role in these areas, the projects and programs established, assessing their current state of development and identifying the future direction of the DOD's research and implementation efforts in telemedicine and advanced medical technologies. Copyright 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Five Kilowatt Solid Oxide Fuel Cell/Diesel Reformer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dennis Witmer; Thomas Johnson

2008-12-31

Reducing fossil fuel consumption both for energy security and for reduction in global greenhouse emissions has been a major goal of energy research in the US for many years. Fuel cells have been proposed as a technology that can address both these issues--as devices that convert the energy of a fuel directly into electrical energy, they offer low emissions and high efficiencies. These advantages are of particular interest to remote power users, where grid connected power is unavailable, and most electrical power comes from diesel electric generators. Diesel fuel is the fuel of choice because it can be easily transportedmore » and stored in quantities large enough to supply energy for small communities for extended periods of time. This projected aimed to demonstrate the operation of a solid oxide fuel cell on diesel fuel, and to measure the resulting efficiency. Results from this project have been somewhat encouraging, with a laboratory breadboard integration of a small scale diesel reformer and a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell demonstrated in the first 18 months of the project. This initial demonstration was conducted at INEEL in the spring of 2005 using a small scale diesel reformer provided by SOFCo and a fuel cell provided by Acumentrics. However, attempts to integrate and automate the available technology have not proved successful as yet. This is due both to the lack of movement on the fuel processing side as well as the rather poor stack lifetimes exhibited by the fuel cells. Commercial product is still unavailable, and precommercial devices are both extremely expensive and require extensive field support.« less

ARCADE small-scale docking mechanism for micro-satellites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boesso, A.; Francesconi, A.

2013-05-01

The development of on-orbit autonomous rendezvous and docking (ARD) capabilities represents a key point for a number of appealing mission scenarios that include activities of on-orbit servicing, automated assembly of modular structures and active debris removal. As of today, especially in the field of micro-satellites ARD, many fundamental technologies are still missing or require further developments and micro-gravity testing. In this framework, the University of Padova, Centre of Studies and Activities for Space (CISAS), developed the Autonomous Rendezvous Control and Docking Experiment (ARCADE), a technology demonstrator intended to fly aboard a BEXUS stratospheric balloon. The goal was to design, build and test, in critical environment conditions, a proximity relative navigation system, a custom-made reaction wheel and a small-size docking mechanism. The ARCADE docking mechanism was designed against a comprehensive set of requirements and it can be classified as small-scale, central, gender mating and unpressurized. The large use of commercial components makes it low-cost and simple to be manufactured. Last, it features a good tolerance to off-nominal docking conditions and a by-design soft docking capability. The final design was extensively verified to be compliant with its requirements by means of numerical simulations and physical testing. In detail, the dynamic behaviour of the mechanism in both nominal and off-nominal conditions was assessed with the multibody dynamics analysis software MD ADAMS 2010 and functional tests were carried out within the fully integrated ARCADE experiment to ensure the docking system efficacy and to highlight possible issues. The most relevant results of the study will be presented and discussed in conclusion to this paper.

Chemical composition and speciation of particulate organic matter from modern residential small-scale wood combustion appliances.

PubMed

Czech, Hendryk; Miersch, Toni; Orasche, Jürgen; Abbaszade, Gülcin; Sippula, Olli; Tissari, Jarkko; Michalke, Bernhard; Schnelle-Kreis, Jürgen; Streibel, Thorsten; Jokiniemi, Jorma; Zimmermann, Ralf

2018-01-15

Combustion technologies of small-scale wood combustion appliances are continuously developed decrease emissions of various pollutants and increase energy conversion. One strategy to reduce emissions is the implementation of air staging technology in secondary air supply, which became an established technique for modern wood combustion appliances. On that account, emissions from a modern masonry heater fuelled with three types of common logwood (beech, birch and spruce) and a modern pellet boiler fuelled with commercial softwood pellets were investigated, which refer to representative combustion appliances in northern Europe In particular, emphasis was put on the organic constituents of PM2.5, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), oxygenated PAHs (OPAHs) and phenolic species, by targeted and non-targeted mass spectrometric analysis techniques. Compared to conventional wood stoves and pellet boilers, organic emissions from the modern appliances were reduced by at least one order of magnitude, but to a different extent for single species. Hence, characteristic ratios of emission constituents and emission profiles for wood combustion identification and speciation do not hold for this type of advanced combustion technology. Additionally, an overall substantial reduction of typical wood combustion markers, such as phenolic species and anhydrous sugars, were observed. Finally, it was found that slow ignition of log woods changes the distribution of characteristic resin acids and phytosterols as well as their thermal alteration products, which are used as markers for specific wood types. Our results should be considered for wood combustion identification in positive matrix factorisation or chemical mass balance in northern Europe. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

JPRS Report, Science & Technology, China: Energy

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-06-29

capacity. There are currently two types of HTGR reactor designs: the particle-bed core , which uses spherical fuel elements, and the rod type core , in...and trial operating experience with the HTGR reactor. Its main design features are as follows. 1. A particle-bed core , continuous fueling and...Favorable for Development of Small-Scale HTGR (Xu Jiming; HE DONGLI GONGCHENG, Feb 88) 47 ERRATUM: In JPRS-CEN-88-003 of 25 April 1988 in article

Prospector IX: Human Powered Systems Technologies

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-04-01

nugget, we too reviewed the current techniques "looking for nuggets", before embarking on a search of new ground . For this we assembled a wide range...area). Chemical to Electrical • Biofuel cells not well developed or characterized • Scaling of composters and digesters and methods of speeding up...Systems" EricTkaczyk (GE) Figure 2 The remainder of the workshop was spent in small working groups centered around: • Potential Applications, Specific

Cultured meat: every village its own factory?

PubMed

van der Weele, Cor; Tramper, Johannes

2014-06-01

Rising global demand for meat will result in increased environmental pollution, energy consumption, and animal suffering. Cultured meat, produced in an animal-cell cultivation process, is a technically feasible alternative lacking these disadvantages, provided that an animal-component-free growth medium can be developed. Small-scale production looks particularly promising, not only technologically but also for societal acceptance. Economic feasibility, however, emerges as the real obstacle. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Autonomy Community of Interest (COI) Test and Evaluation, Verification and Validation (TEVV) Working Group: Technology Investment Strategy 2015-2018

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-05-01

Evaluation Center of Excellence SUAS Small Unmanned Aircraft System SUT System under Test T&E Test and Evaluation TARDEC Tank Automotive Research...17 Distribution A: Distribution Unlimited 2 Background In the past decade, unmanned systems have significantly impacted warfare...environments at a speed and scale beyond manned capability. However, current unmanned systems operate with minimal autonomy. To meet warfighter needs and

2011 NDIA Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy/DoD Workshop

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-09-12

the Government to rectify industrial base shortfalls • Synergy of technical and business objectives focused on long- term economic viability and...Earth Materials May Switch From a Net Exporter to a Net Importer Shifting Economics Of Rare Earth Materials Advanced Research Projects Agency • Energy...scale for success – Immature technology and business – Lack of knowledge and patience to do business with government, which is a small customer • DoD

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - Department of the Navy Near Term Energy-Efficient Technologies Projects

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-23

contract; information required to be in the offeror’s proposal; and factors and significant subfactors, and their relative importance, which will...development and testing, alternative fuels, alternative fuel sources, and small-scale cogeneration . 1. On-Board Vehicle Power The purpose of the On...savings of 20 percent, greater heating and cooling capacity , and provision of full 30 kilowatts of electrical power output in all environments

Removal of dissolved and colloidal silica

DOEpatents

Midkiff, William S.

2002-01-01

Small amorphous silica particles are used to provide a relatively large surface area upon which silica will preferentially adsorb, thereby preventing or substantially reducing scaling caused by deposition of silica on evaporative cooling tower components, especially heat exchange surfaces. The silica spheres are contacted by the cooling tower water in a sidestream reactor, then separated using gravity separation, microfiltration, vacuum filtration, or other suitable separation technology. Cooling tower modifications for implementing the invention process have been designed.

Energy Systems Integration Partnerships: NREL + Cogent Energy Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Berdahl, Sonja E

2017-08-09

NREL is collaborating with Cogent Energy Systems (Cogent) to introduce small-scale waste-to-energy technology in microgrids.The focus of the project is to test and demonstrate the feasibility, reliability, and usefulness of integrating electricity generated using a simulated syngas composition matching the syngas stream to be produced by a HelioStorm-based WTE gasifier to power a microgrid as a means of addressing and complementing the intermittency of other sources of electricity.

High-performance holographic technologies for fluid-dynamics experiments

PubMed Central

Orlov, Sergei S.; Abarzhi, Snezhana I.; Oh, Se Baek; Barbastathis, George; Sreenivasan, Katepalli R.

2010-01-01

Modern technologies offer new opportunities for experimentalists in a variety of research areas of fluid dynamics. Improvements are now possible in the state-of-the-art in precision, dynamic range, reproducibility, motion-control accuracy, data-acquisition rate and information capacity. These improvements are required for understanding complex turbulent flows under realistic conditions, and for allowing unambiguous comparisons to be made with new theoretical approaches and large-scale numerical simulations. One of the new technologies is high-performance digital holography. State-of-the-art motion control, electronics and optical imaging allow for the realization of turbulent flows with very high Reynolds number (more than 107) on a relatively small laboratory scale, and quantification of their properties with high space–time resolutions and bandwidth. In-line digital holographic technology can provide complete three-dimensional mapping of the flow velocity and density fields at high data rates (over 1000 frames per second) over a relatively large spatial area with high spatial (1–10 μm) and temporal (better than a few nanoseconds) resolution, and can give accurate quantitative description of the fluid flows, including those of multi-phase and unsteady conditions. This technology can be applied in a variety of problems to study fundamental properties of flow–particle interactions, rotating flows, non-canonical boundary layers and Rayleigh–Taylor mixing. Some of these examples are discussed briefly. PMID:20211881

IS THE SMALL-SCALE MAGNETIC FIELD CORRELATED WITH THE DYNAMO CYCLE?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Karak, Bidya Binay; Brandenburg, Axel, E-mail: bbkarak@nordita.org

2016-01-01

The small-scale magnetic field is ubiquitous at the solar surface—even at high latitudes. From observations we know that this field is uncorrelated (or perhaps even weakly anticorrelated) with the global sunspot cycle. Our aim is to explore the origin, and particularly the cycle dependence, of such a phenomenon using three-dimensional dynamo simulations. We adopt a simple model of a turbulent dynamo in a shearing box driven by helically forced turbulence. Depending on the dynamo parameters, large-scale (global) and small-scale (local) dynamos can be excited independently in this model. Based on simulations in different parameter regimes, we find that, when onlymore » the large-scale dynamo is operating in the system, the small-scale magnetic field generated through shredding and tangling of the large-scale magnetic field is positively correlated with the global magnetic cycle. However, when both dynamos are operating, the small-scale field is produced from both the small-scale dynamo and the tangling of the large-scale field. In this situation, when the large-scale field is weaker than the equipartition value of the turbulence, the small-scale field is almost uncorrelated with the large-scale magnetic cycle. On the other hand, when the large-scale field is stronger than the equipartition value, we observe an anticorrelation between the small-scale field and the large-scale magnetic cycle. This anticorrelation can be interpreted as a suppression of the small-scale dynamo. Based on our studies we conclude that the observed small-scale magnetic field in the Sun is generated by the combined mechanisms of a small-scale dynamo and tangling of the large-scale field.« less

Why small-scale cannabis growers stay small: five mechanisms that prevent small-scale growers from going large scale.

PubMed

Hammersvik, Eirik; Sandberg, Sveinung; Pedersen, Willy

2012-11-01

Over the past 15-20 years, domestic cultivation of cannabis has been established in a number of European countries. New techniques have made such cultivation easier; however, the bulk of growers remain small-scale. In this study, we explore the factors that prevent small-scale growers from increasing their production. The study is based on 1 year of ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews conducted with 45 Norwegian cannabis growers, 10 of whom were growing on a large-scale and 35 on a small-scale. The study identifies five mechanisms that prevent small-scale indoor growers from going large-scale. First, large-scale operations involve a number of people, large sums of money, a high work-load and a high risk of detection, and thus demand a higher level of organizational skills than for small growing operations. Second, financial assets are needed to start a large 'grow-site'. Housing rent, electricity, equipment and nutrients are expensive. Third, to be able to sell large quantities of cannabis, growers need access to an illegal distribution network and knowledge of how to act according to black market norms and structures. Fourth, large-scale operations require advanced horticultural skills to maximize yield and quality, which demands greater skills and knowledge than does small-scale cultivation. Fifth, small-scale growers are often embedded in the 'cannabis culture', which emphasizes anti-commercialism, anti-violence and ecological and community values. Hence, starting up large-scale production will imply having to renegotiate or abandon these values. Going from small- to large-scale cannabis production is a demanding task-ideologically, technically, economically and personally. The many obstacles that small-scale growers face and the lack of interest and motivation for going large-scale suggest that the risk of a 'slippery slope' from small-scale to large-scale growing is limited. Possible political implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Deployment Effects of Marine Renewable Energy Technologies: Wave Energy Scenarios

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mirko Previsic

2010-06-17

Given proper care in siting, design, deployment, operation and maintenance, wave energy conversion could become one of the more environmentally benign sources of electricity generation. In order to accelerate the adoption of these emerging hydrokinetic and marine energy technologies, navigational and environmental concerns must be identified and addressed. All developing hydrokinetic projects involve a wide variety of stakeholders. One of the key issues that site developers face as they engage with this range of stakeholders is that, due to a lack of technical certainty, many of the possible conflicts (e.g., shipping and fishing) and environmental issues are not well-understood,. Inmore » September 2008, re vision consulting, LLC was selected by the Department of Energy (DoE) to apply a scenario-based assessment to the emerging hydrokinetic technology sector in order to evaluate the potential impact of these technologies on the marine environment and navigation constraints. The project’s scope of work includes the establishment of baseline scenarios for wave and tidal power conversion at potential future deployment sites. The scenarios capture variations in technical approaches and deployment scales to properly identify and characterize environmental effects and navigational effects. The goal of the project is to provide all stakeholders with an improved understanding of the potential range of technical attributes and potential effects of these emerging technologies and focus all stakeholders on the critical issues that need to be addressed. By identifying and addressing navigational and environmental concerns in the early stages of the industry’s development, serious mistakes that could potentially derail industry-wide development can be avoided. This groundwork will also help in streamlining siting and associated permitting processes, which are considered key hurdles for the industry’s development in the U.S. today. Re vision is coordinating its efforts with two other project teams funded by DoE which are focused on regulatory issues (Pacific Energy Ventures) and navigational issues (PCCI). The results of this study are structured into three reports: (1) Wave power scenario description (2) Tidal power scenario description (3) Framework for Identifying Key Environmental Concerns This is the first report in the sequence and describes the results of conceptual feasibility studies of wave power plants deployed in Humboldt County, California and Oahu, Hawaii. These two sites contain many of the same competing stakeholder interactions identified at other wave power sites in the U.S. and serve as representative case studies. Wave power remains at an early stage of development. As such, a wide range of different technologies are being pursued by different manufacturers. In order to properly characterize potential effects, it is useful to characterize the range of technologies that could be deployed at the site of interest. An industry survey informed the process of selecting representative wave power devices. The selection criteria requires that devices are at an advanced stage of development to reduce technical uncertainties, and that enough data are available from the manufacturers to inform the conceptual design process of this study. Further, an attempt is made to cover the range of different technologies under development to capture variations in potential environmental effects. Table 1 summarizes the selected wave power technologies. A number of other developers are also at an advanced stage of development, but are not directly mentioned here. Many environmental effects will largely scale with the size of the wave power plant. In many cases, the effects of a single device may not be measurable, while larger scale device arrays may have cumulative impacts that differ significantly from smaller scale deployments. In order to characterize these effects, scenarios are established at three deployment scales which nominally represent (1) a small pilot deployment, (2) a small commercial deployment, and (3) a large commercial scale plant. It is important to understand that the purpose of this study was to establish baseline scenarios based on basic device data that was provided to use by the manufacturer for illustrative purposes only.« less

Improvement of General Electric’s Chilled Ammonia Process with the use of Membrane Technology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Muraskin, Dave; Dube, Sanjay; Baburao, Barath

General Electric Environmental Control Solutions (formerly Alstom Power Environmental Control Systems) set out to complete the Phase 1 award requirements for a Phase II renewal application for their project selected under DOE-FOA-0001190 “Small and Large Scale Pilots for Reducing the Cost of CO 2 Capture and Compression”. The project focus was to implement several improvement concepts utilizing membrane technology at the recipient’s Chilled Ammonia Process (CAP) CO 2 capture large-scale pilot plant. The goal was to lower the overall cost of technology. During the development of costs for the preliminary techno-economic assessment (TEA), it became clear that the capital andmore » operating costs of this concept were not economically attractive. All work related to a Phase II renewal application at that point was halted as GE made the decision not to submit a Phase II renewal application. Discussions with DOE resulted in a path towards useful information produced from the design and cost work already completed on the project. With the reverse osmosis (RO) unit providing most of the cost issues, GE would provide a sensitivity analysis of the RO unit with respect to project cost. This information would be included with the Techno-Economic Analysis along with the Technology Gap Analysis.« less

Advanced Soil Moisture Network Technologies; Developments in Collecting in situ Measurements for Remote Sensing Missions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moghaddam, M.; Silva, A. R. D.; Akbar, R.; Clewley, D.

2015-12-01

The Soil moisture Sensing Controller And oPtimal Estimator (SoilSCAPE) wireless sensor network has been developed to support Calibration and Validation activities (Cal/Val) for large scale soil moisture remote sensing missions (SMAP and AirMOSS). The technology developed here also readily supports small scale hydrological studies by providing sub-kilometer widespread soil moisture observations. An extensive collection of semi-sparse sensor clusters deployed throughout north-central California and southern Arizona provide near real time soil moisture measurements. Such a wireless network architecture, compared to conventional single points measurement profiles, allows for significant and expanded soil moisture sampling. The work presented here aims at discussing and highlighting novel and new technology developments which increase in situ soil moisture measurements' accuracy, reliability, and robustness with reduced data delivery latency. High efficiency and low maintenance custom hardware have been developed and in-field performance has been demonstrated for a period of three years. The SoilSCAPE technology incorporates (a) intelligent sensing to prevent erroneous measurement reporting, (b) on-board short term memory for data redundancy, (c) adaptive scheduling and sampling capabilities to enhance energy efficiency. A rapid streamlined data delivery architecture openly provides distribution of in situ measurements to SMAP and AirMOSS cal/val activities and other interested parties.

Parallel production and verification of protein products using a novel high-throughput screening method.

PubMed

Tegel, Hanna; Yderland, Louise; Boström, Tove; Eriksson, Cecilia; Ukkonen, Kaisa; Vasala, Antti; Neubauer, Peter; Ottosson, Jenny; Hober, Sophia

2011-08-01

Protein production and analysis in a parallel fashion is today applied in laboratories worldwide and there is a great need to improve the techniques and systems used for this purpose. In order to save time and money, a fast and reliable screening method for analysis of protein production and also verification of the protein product is desired. Here, a micro-scale protocol for the parallel production and screening of 96 proteins in plate format is described. Protein capture was achieved using immobilized metal affinity chromatography and the product was verified using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight MS. In order to obtain sufficiently high cell densities and product yield in the small-volume cultivations, the EnBase® cultivation technology was applied, which enables cultivation in as small volumes as 150 μL. Here, the efficiency of the method is demonstrated by producing 96 human, recombinant proteins, both in micro-scale and using a standard full-scale protocol and comparing the results in regard to both protein identity and sample purity. The results obtained are highly comparable to those acquired through employing standard full-scale purification protocols, thus validating this method as a successful initial screening step before protein production at a larger scale. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Imbibition of a textured surface decorated by short pillars with rounded edges.

PubMed

Obara, Noriko; Okumura, Ko

2012-08-01

Imbibition of micropatterned surfaces can have broad technological and fundamental implications for areas ranging from biomedical devices and fuel transport to writing with ink. Despite rapidly growing interests aimed at various applications, a fundamental physical understanding of the imbibition dynamics is still in its infancy. Recently, two simple scaling regimes for the dynamics have been established for a textured surface decorated with long pillars whose top and bottom edges are sharp. Here, we study the imbibition dynamics of textured surfaces decorated by short pillars with rounded edges, to find a different scaling regime. Interestingly, this regime originates not from the balance of two effects but from the hybrid balance of three effects. Furthermore, this scaling law can be universal or independent of the details of the texture geometry. We envision that this potentially universal scaling regime might be ubiquitous and will be useful in the handling and transportation of a small amount of liquid.

Livelihood analysis of floating net cages fish farmers at Sendang Village Sub-district of Gajah Mungkur Reservoir of Wonogiri Regency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nissa, Z. N. A.; Suadi; Sukardi

2018-03-01

Floating net cages farming (KJA) is one of the main livelihood resources in Sendang Village, Gajah Mungkur Reservoir. The purposes of this study were to determine the livelihood asset of fish farmers, the problems of livelihood asset management and the utilization strategy to support aquaculture businesses also farmers livelihood. The study showed that the natural capital, provides easiest way to farmer in fish cultivation. The fish farmers also have good technical capabilities in fish cultivation and the product has high demand and value which is essential for farmers livelihood. The main problems faced by small-scale farmers and all large-scale farmers were transition period, and the rise of cost price which sometime cause the failure in the business. The strategies to deal the problems include technological adjustment, managing the pattern of stocking of tilapia seeds and income source diversification. There were differences in dealing the rise of cost. The small-scale farmers borrow from the bank, while medium-scale farmers use their savings. Another difference of livelihood strategy was the management of financial capital. However, various strategies were still required to increase the livelihood of fish farmers and could address the vulnerabilities in the cultivation of KJA as a common pool resources.

Fabrication and testing of the first 8.4-m off-axis segment for the Giant Magellan Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, H. M.; Allen, R. G.; Burge, J. H.; Kim, D. W.; Kingsley, J. S.; Tuell, M. T.; West, S. C.; Zhao, C.; Zobrist, T.

2010-07-01

The primary mirror of the Giant Magellan Telescope consists of seven 8.4 m segments which are borosilicate honeycomb sandwich mirrors. Fabrication and testing of the off-axis segments is challenging and has led to a number of innovations in manufacturing technology. The polishing system includes an actively stressed lap that follows the shape of the aspheric surface, used for large-scale figuring and smoothing, and a passive "rigid conformal lap" for small-scale figuring and smoothing. Four independent measurement systems support all stages of fabrication and provide redundant measurements of all critical parameters including mirror figure, radius of curvature, off-axis distance and clocking. The first measurement uses a laser tracker to scan the surface, with external references to compensate for rigid body displacements and refractive index variations. The main optical test is a full-aperture interferometric measurement, but it requires an asymmetric null corrector with three elements, including a 3.75 m mirror and a computer-generated hologram, to compensate for the surface's 14 mm departure from the best-fit sphere. Two additional optical tests measure large-scale and small-scale structure, with some overlap. Together these measurements provide high confidence that the segments meet all requirements.

Free Flight Rotorcraft Flight Test Vehicle Technology Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hodges, W. Todd; Walker, Gregory W.

1994-01-01

A rotary wing, unmanned air vehicle (UAV) is being developed as a research tool at the NASA Langley Research Center by the U.S. Army and NASA. This development program is intended to provide the rotorcraft research community an intermediate step between rotorcraft wind tunnel testing and full scale manned flight testing. The technologies under development for this vehicle are: adaptive electronic flight control systems incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, small-light weight sophisticated sensors, advanced telepresence-telerobotics systems and rotary wing UAV operational procedures. This paper briefly describes the system's requirements and the techniques used to integrate the various technologies to meet these requirements. The paper also discusses the status of the development effort. In addition to the original aeromechanics research mission, the technology development effort has generated a great deal of interest in the UAV community for related spin-off applications, as briefly described at the end of the paper. In some cases the technologies under development in the free flight program are critical to the ability to perform some applications.

A Survey of Geosensor Networks: Advances in Dynamic Environmental Monitoring

PubMed Central

Nittel, Silvia

2009-01-01

In the recent decade, several technology trends have influenced the field of geosciences in significant ways. The first trend is the more readily available technology of ubiquitous wireless communication networks and progress in the development of low-power, short-range radio-based communication networks, the miniaturization of computing and storage platforms as well as the development of novel microsensors and sensor materials. All three trends have changed the type of dynamic environmental phenomena that can be detected, monitored and reacted to. Another important aspect is the real-time data delivery of novel platforms today. In this paper, I will survey the field of geosensor networks, and mainly focus on the technology of small-scale geosensor networks, example applications and their feasibility and lessons learnt as well as the current research questions posed by using this technology today. Furthermore, my objective is to investigate how this technology can be embedded in the current landscape of intelligent sensor platforms in the geosciences and identify its place and purpose. PMID:22346721

Deployment Effects of Marin Renewable Energy Technologies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Brian Polagye; Mirko Previsic

2010-06-17

Given proper care in siting, design, deployment, operation and maintenance, marine and hydrokinetic technologies could become one of the more environmentally benign sources of electricity generation. In order to accelerate the adoption of these emerging hydrokinetic and marine energy technologies, navigational and environmental concerns must be identified and addressed. All developing hydrokinetic projects involve a wide variety of stakeholders. One of the key issues that site developers face as they engage with this range of stakeholders is that many of the possible conflicts (e.g., shipping and fishing) and environmental issues are not well-understood, due to a lack of technical certainty.more » In September 2008, re vision consulting, LLC was selected by the Department of Energy (DoE) to apply a scenario-based approach to the emerging wave and tidal technology sectors in order to evaluate the impact of these technologies on the marine environment and potentially conflicting uses. The project’s scope of work includes the establishment of baseline scenarios for wave and tidal power conversion at potential future deployment sites. The scenarios will capture variations in technical approaches and deployment scales to properly identify and characterize environmental impacts and navigational effects. The goal of the project is to provide all stakeholders with an improved understanding of the potential effects of these emerging technologies and focus all stakeholders onto the critical issues that need to be addressed. This groundwork will also help in streamlining siting and associated permitting processes, which are considered key hurdles for the industry’s development in the U.S. today. Re vision is coordinating its efforts with two other project teams funded by DoE which are focused on regulatory and navigational issues. The results of this study are structured into three reports: 1. Wave power scenario description 2. Tidal power scenario description 3. Framework for Identifying Key Environmental Concerns This is the second report in the sequence and describes the results of conceptual feasibility studies of tidal power plants deployed in Tacoma Narrows, Washington. The Narrows contain many of the same competing stakeholder interactions identified at other tidal power sites and serves as a representative case study. Tidal power remains at an early stage of development. As such, a wide range of different technologies are being pursued by different manufacturers. In order to properly characterize impacts, it is useful to characterize the range of technologies that could be deployed at the site of interest. An industry survey informs the process of selecting representative tidal power devices. The selection criteria is that such devices are at an advanced stage of development to reduce technical uncertainties and that enough data are available from the manufacturers to inform the conceptual design process of this study. Further, an attempt is made to cover the range of different technologies under development to capture variations in potential environmental effects. A number of other developers are also at an advanced stage of development including Verdant Power, which has demonstrated an array of turbines in the East River of New York, Clean Current, which has demonstrated a device off Race Rocks, BC, and OpenHydro, which has demonstrated a device at the European Marine Energy Test Center and is on the verge of deploying a larger device in the Bay of Fundy. MCT demonstrated their device both at Devon (UK) and Strangford Narrows (Northern Ireland). Furthermore OpenHydro, CleanCurrent, and MCT are the three devices being installed at the Minas Passage (Canada). Environmental effects will largely scale with the size of tidal power development. In many cases, the effects of a single device may not be measurable, while larger scale device arrays may have cumulative impacts that differ significantly from smaller scale deployments. In order to characterize these effects, scenarios are established at three deployment scales which nominally represent (1) a small pilot deployment, (2) an early, small commercial deployment, and (3) a large commercial scale plant. For the three technologies and scales at the selected site, this results in a total of nine deployment scenarios outlined in the report.« less

Advances in cell culture: anchorage dependence

PubMed Central

Merten, Otto-Wilhelm

2015-01-01

Anchorage-dependent cells are of great interest for various biotechnological applications. (i) They represent a formidable production means of viruses for vaccination purposes at very large scales (in 1000–6000 l reactors) using microcarriers, and in the last decade many more novel viral vaccines have been developed using this production technology. (ii) With the advent of stem cells and their use/potential use in clinics for cell therapy and regenerative medicine purposes, the development of novel culture devices and technologies for adherent cells has accelerated greatly with a view to the large-scale expansion of these cells. Presently, the really scalable systems—microcarrier/microcarrier-clump cultures using stirred-tank reactors—for the expansion of stem cells are still in their infancy. Only laboratory scale reactors of maximally 2.5 l working volume have been evaluated because thorough knowledge and basic understanding of critical issues with respect to cell expansion while retaining pluripotency and differentiation potential, and the impact of the culture environment on stem cell fate, etc., are still lacking and require further studies. This article gives an overview on critical issues common to all cell culture systems for adherent cells as well as specifics for different types of stem cells in view of small- and large-scale cell expansion and production processes. PMID:25533097

The Computing and Data Grid Approach: Infrastructure for Distributed Science Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnston, William E.

2002-01-01

With the advent of Grids - infrastructure for using and managing widely distributed computing and data resources in the science environment - there is now an opportunity to provide a standard, large-scale, computing, data, instrument, and collaboration environment for science that spans many different projects and provides the required infrastructure and services in a relatively uniform and supportable way. Grid technology has evolved over the past several years to provide the services and infrastructure needed for building 'virtual' systems and organizations. We argue that Grid technology provides an excellent basis for the creation of the integrated environments that can combine the resources needed to support the large- scale science projects located at multiple laboratories and universities. We present some science case studies that indicate that a paradigm shift in the process of science will come about as a result of Grids providing transparent and secure access to advanced and integrated information and technologies infrastructure: powerful computing systems, large-scale data archives, scientific instruments, and collaboration tools. These changes will be in the form of services that can be integrated with the user's work environment, and that enable uniform and highly capable access to these computers, data, and instruments, regardless of the location or exact nature of these resources. These services will integrate transient-use resources like computing systems, scientific instruments, and data caches (e.g., as they are needed to perform a simulation or analyze data from a single experiment); persistent-use resources. such as databases, data catalogues, and archives, and; collaborators, whose involvement will continue for the lifetime of a project or longer. While we largely address large-scale science in this paper, Grids, particularly when combined with Web Services, will address a broad spectrum of science scenarios. both large and small scale.

Waste Heat-to-Power Using Scroll Expander for Organic Rankine Bottoming Cycle

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dieckmann, John; Smutzer, Chad; Sinha, Jayanti

The objective of this program was to develop a novel, scalable scroll expander for conversion of waste heat to power; this was accomplished and demonstrated in both a bench-scale system as well as a full-scale system. The expander is a key component in Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) waste heat recovery systems which are used to convert medium-grade waste heat to electric power in a wide range of industries. These types of waste heat recovery systems allow for the capture of energy that would otherwise just be exhausted to the atmosphere. A scroll expander has the benefit over other technologies ofmore » having high efficiency over a broad range of operating conditions. The speed range of the TIAX expander (1,200 to 3,600 RPM) enables the shaft power output to directly drive an electric generator and produce 60 Hz electric power without incurring the equipment costs or losses of electronic power conversion. This greatly simplifies integration with the plant electric infrastructure. The TIAX scroll expander will reduce the size, cost, and complexity of a small-scale waste heat recovery system, while increasing the system efficiency compared to the prevailing ORC technologies at similar scale. During this project, TIAX demonstrated the scroll expander in a bench-scale test setup to have isentropic efficiency of 70-75% and operated it successfully for ~200 hours with minimal wear. This same expander was then installed in a complete ORC system driven by a medium grade waste heat source to generate 5-7 kW of electrical power. Due to funding constraints, TIAX was unable to complete this phase of testing, although the initial results were promising and demonstrated the potential of the technology.« less

Scale interaction and arrangement in a turbulent boundary layer perturbed by a wall-mounted cylindrical element

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Zhanqi; Jiang, Nan

2018-05-01

This study reports the modifications of scale interaction and arrangement in a turbulent boundary layer perturbed by a wall-mounted circular cylinder. Hot-wire measurements were executed at multiple streamwise and wall-normal wise locations downstream of the cylindrical element. The streamwise fluctuating signals were decomposed into large-, small-, and dissipative-scale signatures by corresponding cutoff filters. The scale interaction under the cylindrical perturbation was elaborated by comparing the small- and dissipative-scale amplitude/frequency modulation effects downstream of the cylinder element with the results observed in the unperturbed case. It was obtained that the large-scale fluctuations perform a stronger amplitude modulation on both the small and dissipative scales in the near-wall region. At the wall-normal positions of the cylinder height, the small-scale amplitude modulation coefficients are redistributed by the cylinder wake. The similar observation was noted in small-scale frequency modulation; however, the dissipative-scale frequency modulation seems to be independent of the cylindrical perturbation. The phase-relationship observation indicated that the cylindrical perturbation shortens the time shifts between both the small- and dissipative-scale variations (amplitude and frequency) and large-scale fluctuations. Then, the integral time scale dependence of the phase-relationship between the small/dissipative scales and large scales was also discussed. Furthermore, the discrepancy of small- and dissipative-scale time shifts relative to the large-scale motions was examined, which indicates that the small-scale amplitude/frequency leads the dissipative scales.

Microelectromechanical Systems for Aerodynamics Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mehregany, Mehran; DeAnna, Russell G.; Reshotko, Eli

1996-01-01

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) embody the integration of sensors, actuators, and electronics on a single substrate using integrated circuit fabrication techniques and compatible micromachining processes. Silicon and its derivatives form the material base for the MEMS technology. MEMS devices, including micro-sensors and micro-actuators, are attractive because they can be made small (characteristic dimension about microns), be produced in large numbers with uniform performance, include electronics for high performance and sophisticated functionality, and be inexpensive. MEMS pressure sensors, wall-shear-stress sensors, and micromachined hot-wires are nearing application in aeronautics. MEMS actuators face a tougher challenge since they have to be scaled (up) to the physical phenomena that are being controlled. MEMS actuators are proposed, for example, for controlling the small structures in a turbulent boundary layer, for aircraft control, for cooling, and for mixing enhancement. Data acquisition or control logistics require integration of electronics along with the transducer elements with appropriate consideration of analog-to-digital conversion, multiplexing, and telemetry. Altogether, MEMS technology offers exciting opportunities for aerodynamics applications both in wind tunnels and in flight

Superconducting rebalance acceleration and rate sensor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Torti, R.; Gerver, M.; Gondhalekar, V.; Maxwell, B.

1994-01-01

The goal of this program is the development of a high precision multisensor based on a high T(sub c) superconducting proof mass. The design of a prototype is currently underway. Key technical issues appear resolvable. High temperature superconductors have complicated, hysteretic flux dynamics but the forces on them can be linearly controlled for small displacements. Current data suggests that the forces on the superconductors decay over a short time frame and then stabilize, though very long term data is not available. The hysteretic force characteristics are substantial for large scale excursions, but do not appear to be an issue for the very small displacements required in this device. Sufficient forces can be exerted for non-contact suspension of a centimeter sized proof mass in a vacuum sealed nitrogen jacket cryostat. High frequency capacitive sensing using stripline technology will yield adequate position resolution for 0.1 micro-g measurements at 100 Hz. Overall, a reasonable cost, but very high accuracy, system is feasible with this technology.

Scalable electrophysiology in intact small animals with nanoscale suspended electrode arrays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzales, Daniel L.; Badhiwala, Krishna N.; Vercosa, Daniel G.; Avants, Benjamin W.; Liu, Zheng; Zhong, Weiwei; Robinson, Jacob T.

2017-07-01

Electrical measurements from large populations of animals would help reveal fundamental properties of the nervous system and neurological diseases. Small invertebrates are ideal for these large-scale studies; however, patch-clamp electrophysiology in microscopic animals typically requires invasive dissections and is low-throughput. To overcome these limitations, we present nano-SPEARs: suspended electrodes integrated into a scalable microfluidic device. Using this technology, we have made the first extracellular recordings of body-wall muscle electrophysiology inside an intact roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans. We can also use nano-SPEARs to record from multiple animals in parallel and even from other species, such as Hydra littoralis. Furthermore, we use nano-SPEARs to establish the first electrophysiological phenotypes for C. elegans models for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, and show a partial rescue of the Parkinson's phenotype through drug treatment. These results demonstrate that nano-SPEARs provide the core technology for microchips that enable scalable, in vivo studies of neurobiology and neurological diseases.

Superconducting rebalance acceleration and rate sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torti, R.; Gerver, M.; Gondhalekar, V.; Maxwell, B.

1994-05-01

The goal of this program is the development of a high precision multisensor based on a high T(sub c) superconducting proof mass. The design of a prototype is currently underway. Key technical issues appear resolvable. High temperature superconductors have complicated, hysteretic flux dynamics but the forces on them can be linearly controlled for small displacements. Current data suggests that the forces on the superconductors decay over a short time frame and then stabilize, though very long term data is not available. The hysteretic force characteristics are substantial for large scale excursions, but do not appear to be an issue for the very small displacements required in this device. Sufficient forces can be exerted for non-contact suspension of a centimeter sized proof mass in a vacuum sealed nitrogen jacket cryostat. High frequency capacitive sensing using stripline technology will yield adequate position resolution for 0.1 micro-g measurements at 100 Hz. Overall, a reasonable cost, but very high accuracy, system is feasible with this technology.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schecker, Jay A

After a prolonged absence, the word 'nuclear' has returned to the lexicon of sustainable domestic energy resources. Due in no small part to its demonstrated reliability, nuclear power is poised to playa greater role in the nation's energy future, producing clean, carbon-neutral electricity and contributing even more to our energy security. To nuclear scientists, the resurgence presents an opportunity to inject new technologies into the industry to maximize the benefits that nuclear energy can provide. 'By developing new options for waste management and exploiting new materials to make key technological advances, we can significantly impact the use of nuclear energymore » in our future energy mix,' says Chris Stanek, a materials scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Stanek approaches the big technology challenges by thinking way small, all the way down to the atoms. He and his colleagues are using cutting edge atomic-scale simulations to address a difficult aspect of nuclear waste -- predicting its behavior far into the future. Their research is part of a broader, coordinated effort on the part of the Laboratory to use its considerable experimental, theoretical, and computational capabilities to explore advanced materials central to not only waste issues, but to nuclear fuels as well.« less

Description of the NIF Laser

DOE PAGES

Spaeth, M. L.; Manes, K. R.; Kalantar, D. H.; ...

2017-03-23

The possibility of imploding small capsules to produce mini-fusion explosions was explored soon after the first thermonuclear explosions in the early 1950s. Various technologies have been pursued to achieve the focused power and energy required for laboratory-scale fusion. Each technology has its own challenges. For example, electron and ion beams can deliver the large amounts of energy but must contend with Coulomb repulsion forces that make focusing these beams a daunting challenge. The demonstration of the first laser in 1960 provided a new option. Energy from laser beams can be focused and deposited within a small volume; the challenge becamemore » whether a practical laser system can be constructed that delivers the power and energy required while meeting all other demands for achieving a high-density, symmetric implosion. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the laser designed and built to meet the challenges for study of high-energy-density physics and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions. This study describes the architecture, systems, and subsystems of NIF. Finally, it describes how they partner with each other to meet these new, complex demands and describes how laser science and technology were woven together to bring NIF into reality.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Spaeth, M. L.; Manes, K. R.; Kalantar, D. H.

The possibility of imploding small capsules to produce mini-fusion explosions was explored soon after the first thermonuclear explosions in the early 1950s. Various technologies have been pursued to achieve the focused power and energy required for laboratory-scale fusion. Each technology has its own challenges. For example, electron and ion beams can deliver the large amounts of energy but must contend with Coulomb repulsion forces that make focusing these beams a daunting challenge. The demonstration of the first laser in 1960 provided a new option. Energy from laser beams can be focused and deposited within a small volume; the challenge becamemore » whether a practical laser system can be constructed that delivers the power and energy required while meeting all other demands for achieving a high-density, symmetric implosion. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the laser designed and built to meet the challenges for study of high-energy-density physics and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions. This study describes the architecture, systems, and subsystems of NIF. Finally, it describes how they partner with each other to meet these new, complex demands and describes how laser science and technology were woven together to bring NIF into reality.« less

NASA Goddard Thermal Technology Overview 2017

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butler, Dan; Swanson, Ted

2017-01-01

This presentation summarizes the current plans and efforts at NASA Goddard to develop new thermal control technology for anticipated future missions. It will also address some of the programmatic developments currently underway at NASA, especially with respect to the NASA Technology Development Program. The effects of the recently enacted FY 17 NASA budget, which includes a sizeable increase, will also be addressed. While funding for basic technology development is still tight, significant efforts are being made in direct support of flight programs. Thermal technology Implementation on current flight programs will be reviewed, and the recent push for CubeSat mission development will also be addressed. Many of these technologies also have broad applicability to DOD (Dept. of Defense), DOE (Dept. of the Environment), and commercial programs. Partnerships have been developed with the Air Force, Navy, and various universities to promote technology development. In addition, technology development activities supported by internal research and development (IRAD) program and the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program are reviewed in this presentation. Specific technologies addressed include; two-phase systems applications and issues on NASA missions, latest developments of electro-hydrodynamically pumped systems, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), Micro-scale Heat Transfer, and various other research activities.

NASA Goddard Thermal Technology Overview 2016

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butler, Dan; Swanson, Ted

2016-01-01

This presentation summarizes the current plans and efforts at NASA Goddard to develop new thermal control technology for anticipated future missions. It will also address some of the programmatic developments currently underway at NASA, especially with respect to the NASA Technology Development Program. The effects of the recently enacted FY 16 NASA budget, which includes a sizeable increase, will also be addressed. While funding for basic technology development is still tight, significant efforts are being made in direct support of flight programs. Thermal technology implementation on current flight programs will be reviewed, and the recent push for Cube-sat mission development will also be addressed. Many of these technologies also have broad applicability to DOD, DOE, and commercial programs. Partnerships have been developed with the Air Force, Navy, and various universities to promote technology development. In addition, technology development activities supported by internal research and development (IRAD) program and the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program are reviewed in this presentation. Specific technologies addressed include; two-phase systems applications and issues on NASA missions, latest developments of electro-hydrodynamically pumped systems, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), Micro-scale Heat Transfer, and various other research activities.

A Model of the Turbulent Electric Dynamo in Multi-Phase Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dementyeva, Svetlana; Mareev, Evgeny

2016-04-01

Many terrestrial and astrophysical phenomena witness the conversion of kinetic energy into electric energy (the energy of the quasi-stationary electric field) in conducting media, which is natural to treat as manifestations of electric dynamo by analogy with well-known theory of magnetic dynamo. Such phenomena include thunderstorms and lightning in the Earth's atmosphere and atmospheres of other planets, electric activity caused by dust storms in terrestrial and Martian atmospheres, snow storms, electrical discharges occurring in technological setups, connected with intense mixing of aerosol particles like in the milling industry. We have developed a model of the large-scale turbulent electric dynamo in a weakly conducting medium, containing two heavy-particle components. We have distinguished two main classes of charging mechanisms (inductive and non-inductive) in accordance with the dependence or independence of the electric charge, transferred during a particle collision, on the electric field intensity and considered the simplified models which demonstrate the possibility of dynamo realization and its specific peculiarities for these mechanisms. Dynamo (the large-scale electric field growth) appears due to the charge separation between the colliding and rebounding particles. This process is may be greatly intensified by the turbulent mixing of particles with different masses and, consequently, different inertia. The particle charge fluctuations themselves (small-scale dynamo), however, do not automatically mean growth of the large-scale electric field without a large-scale asymmetry. Such an asymmetry arises due to the dependence of the transferred charge magnitude on the electric field intensity in the case of the inductive mechanism of charge separation, or due to the gravity and convection for non-inductive mechanisms. We have found that in the case of the inductive mechanism the large-scale dynamo occurs if the medium conductivity is small enough while the electrification process determined by the turbulence intensity and particles sizes is strong enough. The electric field strength grows exponentially. For the non-inductive mechanism we have found the conditions when the electric field strength grows but linearly in time. Our results show that turbulent electric dynamo could play a substantial role in the electrification processes for different mechanisms of charge generation and separation. Thunderstorms and lightning are the most frequent and spectacular manifestations of electric dynamo in the atmosphere, but turbulent electric dynamo may also be the reason of electric discharges occurring in dust and snow storms or even in technological setups with intense mixing of small particles.

Electroactive polymers for gaining sea power

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scherber, Benedikt; Grauer, Matthias; Köllnberger, Andreas

2013-04-01

Target of this article will be the energy harvesting with dielectric elastomers for wave energy conversion. The main goal of this article is to introduce a new developed material profile enabling a specific amount of energy, making the harvesting process competitive against other existing offshore generation technologies. Electroactive polymers offer the chance to start with small wave energy converters to gain experiences and carry out a similar development as wind energy. Meanwhile there is a consortium being formed in Germany to develop such materials and processes for future products in this new business area. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the technological advancements, a scale demonstrator of a wave energy generator will be developed as well.

From path models to commands during additive printing of large-scale architectural designs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chepchurov, M. S.; Zhukov, E. M.; Yakovlev, E. A.; Matveykin, V. G.

2018-05-01

The article considers the problem of automation of the formation of large complex parts, products and structures, especially for unique or small-batch objects produced by a method of additive technology [1]. Results of scientific research in search for the optimal design of a robotic complex, its modes of operation (work), structure of its control helped to impose the technical requirements on the technological process for manufacturing and design installation of the robotic complex. Research on virtual models of the robotic complexes allowed defining the main directions of design improvements and the main goal (purpose) of testing of the the manufactured prototype: checking the positioning accuracy of the working part.

A prototype for communitising technology: Development of a smart salt water desalination device

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fakharuddin, F. M.; Fatchurrohman, N.; Puteh, S.; Puteri, H. M. A. R.

2018-04-01

Desalination is defined as the process that removes minerals from saline water or commonly known as salt water. Seawater desalination is becoming an attractive source of drinking water in coastal states as the costs for desalination declines. The purpose of this study is to develop a small scale desalination device and able to do an analysis of the process flow by using suitable sensors. Thermal technology was used to aid the desalination process. A graphical user interface (GUI) for the interface was made to enable the real time data analysis of the desalination device. ArduinoTM microcontroller was used in this device in order to develop an automatic device.

Transforming classroom questioning using emerging technology.

PubMed

Mahon, Paul; Lyng, Colette; Crotty, Yvonne; Farren, Margaret

2018-04-12

Classroom questioning is a common teaching and learning strategy in postgraduate nurse education. Technologies such as audience response systems (ARS) may offer advantage over traditional approaches to classroom questioning. However, despite being available since the 1960s, ARSs are still considered novel in many postgraduate nurse education classroom settings. This article aims to explicate the attitudes of postgraduate nursing students in an Irish academic teaching hospital towards classroom questioning (CQ) and the use of ARSs as an alternative to traditional CQ techniques. The results of this small-scale study demonstrate that ARSs have a role to play in CQ in the postgraduate setting, being regarded by students as beneficial to learning, psychological safety and classroom interaction.

The moving-ring field-reversed mirror prototype reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, A. C., Jr.; Carlson, G. A.; Fleischmann, H. H.; Grossman, W., Jr.; Kammash, T.; Schultz, K. R.; Woodall, D. M.

1981-03-01

A prototype fusion reactor was designed based on magnetic field reversed plasma confinement. A set of physics, technology, and mechanical design criteria were developed in order to make this concept attractive. Six major criteria guide the commercial prototype design. The prototype must: (1) produce net electricity decisively P sub net 70% of P sub gross; (2) scale to an economical commercial plant and have small physical size; (3) have all features required of a correcial upgrade plant (H-3 breeding, etc.); (4) minimize exotic technology and maintenance complexity; (5) promise significantly lower safety hazards than fission plants (environmentally and socially acceptable); and (6) be modular in design to permit repetitive production of components.

Boron epoxy rocket motor case program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stang, D. A.

1971-01-01

Three 28-inch-diameter solid rocket motor cases were fabricated using 1/8 inch wide boron/epoxy tape. The cases had unequal end closures (4-1/8-inch-diameter forward flanges and 13-inch-diameter aft flanges) and metal attachment skirts. The flanges and skirts were titanium 6Al-4V alloy. The original design for the first case was patterned after the requirements of the Applications Technology Satellite apogee kick motor. The second and third cases were designed and fabricated to approximate the requirements of a small Applications Technology Satellite apogee kick motor. The program demonstrated the feasibility of designing and fabricating large-scale filament-wound solid propellant rocket motor cases with boron/epoxy tape.

Space research - At a crossroads

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcdonald, Frank B.

1987-01-01

Efforts which must be expended if U.S. space research is to regain vitality in the next few years are discussed. Small-scale programs are the cornerstone for big science projects, giving both researchers and students a chance to practice the development of space missions and hardware and identify promising goals for larger projects. Small projects can be carried aloft by balloons, sounding rockets, the Shuttle and ELVs. It is recommended that NASA continue the development of remote sensing systems, and join with other government agencies to fund space-based materials science, space biology and medical research. Increased international cooperation in space projects is necessary for affording moderate to large scale missions, for political reasons, and to maximize available space resources. Finally, the establishment and funding of long-range goals in space, particularly the development of the infrastructure and technologies for the exploration and colonization of the planets, must be viewed as the normal outgrowth of the capabilities being developed for LEO operations.

Design and Characterization of a Photometer-Colorimeter Standard

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eppeldauer, George P.; Rácz, Miklós

2004-05-01

A photometer and tristimulus colorimeter has been developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to realize a color scale. A novel construction was developed to implement the spectral-responsivity-based scale with small uncertainty. The new device can be used as a reference illuminance and luminance meter as well. Temperature-controlled filter combinations, with 5-8 layers in one package, are used to match the responsivity of a silicon tunnel-trap detector to the CIE color-matching functions with small spectral mismatch values (f1'). Design considerations to extend the tunnel-trap detector with replaceable single and double apertures and changeable filter combinations are described. The design and fabrication of the filter packages and the dependence of the f1' values on the thickness of the filter layers are discussed. The colorimeter was characterized for angular, spatial, and spectral responsivity. An improved preamplifier can convert current to voltage in an 11-decade dynamic range with 0.01% uncertainty.

Design and characterization of a photometer-colorimeter standard.

PubMed

Eppeldauer, George P; Rácz, Miklós

2004-05-01

A photometer and tristimulus colorimeter has been developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to realize a color scale. A novel construction was developed to implement the spectral-responsivity-based scale with small uncertainty. The new device can be used as a reference illuminance and luminance meter as well. Temperature-controlled filter combinations, with 5-8 layers in one package, are used to match the responsivity of a silicon tunnel-trap detector to the CIE color-matching functions with small spectral mismatch values (f1'). Design considerations to extend the tunnel-trap detector with replaceable single and double apertures and changeable filter combinations are described. The design and fabrication of the filter packages and the dependence of the f1' values on the thickness of the filter layers are discussed. The colorimeter was characterized for angular, spatial, and spectral responsivity. An improved preamplifier can convert current to voltage in an 11-decade dynamic range with 0.01% uncertainty.

Evaluation of Penalized and Nonpenalized Methods for Disease Prediction with Large-Scale Genetic Data.

PubMed

Won, Sungho; Choi, Hosik; Park, Suyeon; Lee, Juyoung; Park, Changyi; Kwon, Sunghoon

2015-01-01

Owing to recent improvement of genotyping technology, large-scale genetic data can be utilized to identify disease susceptibility loci and this successful finding has substantially improved our understanding of complex diseases. However, in spite of these successes, most of the genetic effects for many complex diseases were found to be very small, which have been a big hurdle to build disease prediction model. Recently, many statistical methods based on penalized regressions have been proposed to tackle the so-called "large P and small N" problem. Penalized regressions including least absolute selection and shrinkage operator (LASSO) and ridge regression limit the space of parameters, and this constraint enables the estimation of effects for very large number of SNPs. Various extensions have been suggested, and, in this report, we compare their accuracy by applying them to several complex diseases. Our results show that penalized regressions are usually robust and provide better accuracy than the existing methods for at least diseases under consideration.

Synthesis of a Novel Energetic Heterocyclic Oxidizer with Higher Energy and Lower Sensitivity (Phase 2) Final Report CRADA No. TC02125.0

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pagoria, P. F.; Racoveanu, A.

2017-09-08

This project was a continuation of work originally performed under a Phase 1 of the Small Business Technology Transfer (STIR). The success of the Phase 1 led to the award of a Phase 2 of the STIR. In Phase 1 of the STIR, the target energetic compound, 3,4-bis(4-nitro-l,2,5- oxadiazol-3yl)-1,2,5-oxadiazole-l-oxide (DNTF), was synthesized at the 5g scale and small-scale safety tests were performed. DNTF showed promising performance· and safety properties. DNTF was shown to be relatively insensitive while performing better than the current industry standard, H1vIX, in solid propellant formulations. Because of the successful research and development project involving PSI, LLNLmore » and Aerojet in Phase I of the STIR, the sponsors wanted to obtain larger quantities of DNTF for further testing.« less

Affordable proteomics: the two-hybrid systems.

PubMed

Gillespie, Marc

2003-06-01

Numerous proteomic methodologies exist, but most require a heavy investment in expertise and technology. This puts these approaches out of reach for many laboratories and small companies, rarely allowing proteomics to be used as a pilot approach for biomarker or target identification. Two proteomic approaches, 2D gel electrophoresis and the two-hybrid systems, are currently available to most researchers. The two-hybrid systems, though accommodating to large-scale experiments, were originally designed as practical screens, that by comparison to current proteomics tools were small-scale, affordable and technically feasible. The screens rapidly generated data, identifying protein interactions that were previously uncharacterized. The foundation for a two-hybrid proteomic investigation can be purchased as separate kits from a number of companies. The true power of the technique lies not in its affordability, but rather in its portability. The two-hybrid system puts proteomics back into laboratories where the output of the screens can be evaluated by researchers with experience in the particular fields of basic research, cancer biology, toxicology or drug development.

ARCADE-R2 experiment on board BEXUS 17 stratospheric balloon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barbetta, Marco; Boesso, Alessandro; Branz, Francesco; Carron, Andrea; Olivieri, Lorenzo; Prendin, Jacopo; Rodeghiero, Gabriele; Sansone, Francesco; Savioli, Livia; Spinello, Fabio; Francesconi, Alessandro

2015-09-01

This paper provides an overview of the ARCADE-R2 experiment, a technology demonstrator that aimed to prove the feasibility of small-scale satellite and/or aircraft systems with automatic (a) attitude determination, (b) control and (c) docking capabilities. The experiment embodies a simplified scenario in which an unmanned vehicle mock-up performs rendezvous and docking operations with a fixed complementary unit. The experiment is composed by a supporting structure, which holds a small vehicle with one translational and one rotational degree of freedom, and its fixed target. The dual system features three main custom subsystems: a relative infrared navigation sensor, an attitude control system based on a reaction wheel and a small-scale docking mechanism. The experiment bus is equipped with pressure and temperature sensors, and wind probes to monitor the external environmental conditions. The experiment flew on board the BEXUS 17 stratospheric balloon on October 10, 2013, where several navigation-control-docking sequences were executed and data on the external pressure, temperature, wind speed and direction were collected, characterizing the atmospheric loads applied to the vehicle. This paper describes the critical components of ARCADE-R2 as well as the main results obtained from the balloon flight.

Energy-Efficiency Retrofits in Small-Scale Multifamily Rental Housing: A Business Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeChambeau, Brian

The goal of this thesis to develop a real estate investment model that creates a financial incentive for property owners to perform energy efficiency retrofits in small multifamily rental housing in southern New England. The medium for this argument is a business plan that is backed by a review of the literature and input from industry experts. In addition to industry expertise, the research covers four main areas: the context of green building, efficient building technologies, precedent programs, and the Providence, RI real estate market for the business plan. The thesis concludes that the model proposed can improve the profitability of real estate investment in small multifamily rental properties, though the extent to which this is possible depends partially on utility-run incentive programs and the capital available to invest in retrofit measures.

The design of an air-cooled metallic high temperature radial turbine

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Snyder, Philip H.; Roelke, Richard J.

1988-01-01

Recent trends in small advanced gas turbine engines call for higher turbine inlet temperatures. Advances in radial turbine technology have opened the way for a cooled metallic radial turbine capable of withstanding turbine inlet temperatures of 2500 F while meeting the challenge of high efficiency in this small flow size range. In response to this need, a small air-cooled radial turbine has been designed utilizing internal blade coolant passages. The coolant flow passage design is uniquely tailored to simultaneously meet rotor cooling needs and rotor fabrication constraints. The rotor flow-path design seeks to realize improved aerodynamic blade loading characteristics and high efficiency while satisfying rotor life requirements. An up-scaled version of the final engine rotor is currently under fabrication and, after instrumentation, will be tested in the warm turbine test facility at the NASA Lewis Research Center.

Japanese RDF-fired power generation system and fundamental research on RDF combustion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Narukawa, Kimihito; Goto, Hidenori; Chen, Y.

1997-12-31

Power generation from refuse derived fuel (RDF) is one of the new technologies for municipal solid waste (MSW) management. This technology is strongly attracting the attention of the Japanese government. The results of a feasibility study of this system in Japan is presented. To develop this highly efficient RDF-fired CFB generating process, combustibility and dechlorination characteristics of RDF were investigated by both the thermo-balance technique and combustion tests with an electric furnace. RDF combustion tests by a bench scale CFBC were carried out and then the following experimental results were obtained: (1) RDF can be combusted almost completely even inmore » small scale CFBC; (2) HCl and N{sub 2}O emissions are quite low at any conditions; and (3) NO{sub x} emissions are a little higher in single stage combustion, however they are reduced at 50% air bias ratio. Some of the results can be explained by a RDF combustion model.« less

Rapid underway profiling of water quality in Queensland estuaries.

PubMed

Hodge, Jonathan; Longstaff, Ben; Steven, Andy; Thornton, Phillip; Ellis, Peter; McKelvie, Ian

2005-01-01

We present an overview of a portable underway water quality monitoring system (RUM-Rapid Underway Monitoring), developed by integrating several off-the-shelf water quality instruments to provide rapid, comprehensive, and spatially referenced 'snapshots' of water quality conditions. We demonstrate the utility of the system from studies in the Northern Great Barrier Reef (Daintree River) and the Moreton Bay region. The Brisbane dataset highlights RUM's utility in characterising plumes as well as its ability to identify the smaller scale structure of large areas. RUM is shown to be particularly useful when measuring indicators with large small-scale variability such as turbidity and chlorophyll-a. Additionally, the Daintree dataset shows the ability to integrate other technologies, resulting in a more comprehensive analysis, whilst sampling offshore highlights some of the analytical issues required for sampling low concentration data. RUM is a low cost, highly flexible solution that can be modified for use in any water type, on most vessels and is only limited by the available monitoring technologies.

Recent advances of nanotechnology in medicine and engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nobile, Lucio; Nobile, Stefano

2016-05-01

The aim of this paper is to give an overview of some advances of nanotechnology in medicine and engineering, exploring typical applications of these emerging technologies. The mechanical properties of such small structures determine their utility and are therefore of considerable interest. Based on nanometer scale tests, a theoretical model to predict the bending strength of a nanobeam is proposed. A fracture approach which takes into account imperfections on the beam surface and crack growth is employed.

Recent Progress of Microfluidics in Translational Applications

PubMed Central

Liu, Zongbin; Han, Xin

2016-01-01

Microfluidics, featuring microfabricated structures, is a technology for manipulating fluids at the micrometer scale. The small dimension and flexibility of microfluidic systems are ideal for mimicking molecular and cellular microenvironment, and show great potential in translational research and development. Here, the recent progress of microfluidics in biological and biomedical applications, including molecular analysis, cellular analysis, and chip-based material delivery and biomimetic design is presented. The potential future developments in the translational microfluidics field are also discussed. PMID:27091777

A methodology for small scale rural land use mapping in semi-arid developing countries using orbital imagery. Part 3: Review of land use surveys using orbital imagery in the USA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vangenderen, J. L. (Principal Investigator); Lock, B. F.

1976-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Techniques of preprocessing, interpretation, classification, and ground truth sampling were studied. It has shown the need for a low cost, low level technology, viable, operational methodology to replace the emphasis given in the U.S. to machine processing, which many developing countries cannot afford, understand, nor implement.

Recent advances of nanotechnology in medicine and engineering

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nobile, Lucio; Nobile, Stefano

The aim of this paper is to give an overview of some advances of nanotechnology in medicine and engineering, exploring typical applications of these emerging technologies. The mechanical properties of such small structures determine their utility and are therefore of considerable interest. Based on nanometer scale tests, a theoretical model to predict the bending strength of a nanobeam is proposed. A fracture approach which takes into account imperfections on the beam surface and crack growth is employed.

Brayton cycle heat exchanger and duct assembly (HXDA, preliminary design and technology tests

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coombs, M. G.; Morse, C. J.; Graves, R. F.; Gibson, J. C.

1972-01-01

A preliminary design of the heat exchanger and duct assembly (HXDA) for a 60 kwe, closed loop, Brayton cycle space power system is presented. This system is weight optimized within the constraints imposed by the defined structural and operational requirements. Also presented are the results of several small scale tests, directed to obtaining specific design data and/or the resolution of a design approach for long life Brayton cycle heat exchanger systems.

Energy Production from Biogas: Competitiveness and Support Instruments in Latvia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klāvs, G.; Kundziņa, A.; Kudrenickis, I.

2016-10-01

Use of renewable energy sources (RES) might be one of the key factors for the triple win-win: improving energy supply security, promoting local economic development, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The authors ex-post evaluate the impact of two main support instruments applied in 2010-2014 - the investment support (IS) and the feed-in tariff (FIT) - on the economic viability of small scale (up to 2MWel) biogas unit. The results indicate that the electricity production cost in biogas utility roughly corresponds to the historical FIT regarding electricity production using RES. However, if in addition to the FIT the IS is provided, the analysis shows that the practice of combining both the above-mentioned instruments is not optimal because too high total support (overcompensation) is provided for a biogas utility developer. In a long-term perspective, the latter gives wrong signals for investments in new technologies and also creates unequal competition in the RES electricity market. To provide optimal biogas utilisation, it is necessary to consider several options. Both on-site production of electricity and upgrading to biomethane for use in a low pressure gas distribution network are simulated by the cost estimation model. The authors' estimates show that upgrading for use in a gas distribution network should be particularly considered taking into account the already existing infrastructure and technologies. This option requires lower support compared to support for electricity production in small-scale biogas utilities.

LSST (Hoop/Column) Maypole Antenna Development Program, phase 1, part 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sullivan, M. R.

1982-01-01

The first of a two-phase program was performed to develop the technology necessary to evaluate, design, manufacture, package, transport and deploy the hoop/column deployable antenna reflector by means of a ground based program. The hoop/column concept consists of a cable stiffened large diameter hoop and central column structure that supports and contours a radio frequency reflective mesh surface. Mission scenarios for communications, radiometer and radio astronomy, were studied. The data to establish technology drivers that resulted in a specification of a point design was provided. The point design is a multiple beam quadaperture offset antenna system wich provides four separate offset areas of illumination on a 100 meter diameter symmetrical parent reflector. The periphery of the reflector is a hoop having 48 segments that articulate into a small stowed volume around a center extendable column. The hoop and column are structurally connected by graphite and quartz cables. The prominence of cables in the design resulted in the development of advanced cable technology. Design verification models were built of the hoop, column, and surface stowage subassemblies. Model designs were generated for a half scale sector of the surface and a 1/6 scale of the complete deployable reflector.

Systematic development of technical textiles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beer, M.; Schrank, V.; Gloy, Y.-S.; Gries, T.

2016-07-01

Technical textiles are used in various fields of applications, ranging from small scale (e.g. medical applications) to large scale products (e.g. aerospace applications). The development of new products is often complex and time consuming, due to multiple interacting parameters. These interacting parameters are production process related and also a result of the textile structure and used material. A huge number of iteration steps are necessary to adjust the process parameter to finalize the new fabric structure. A design method is developed to support the systematic development of technical textiles and to reduce iteration steps. The design method is subdivided into six steps, starting from the identification of the requirements. The fabric characteristics vary depending on the field of application. If possible, benchmarks are tested. A suitable fabric production technology needs to be selected. The aim of the method is to support a development team within the technology selection without restricting the textile developer. After a suitable technology is selected, the transformation and correlation between input and output parameters follows. This generates the information for the production of the structure. Afterwards, the first prototype can be produced and tested. The resulting characteristics are compared with the initial product requirements.

Review of Strategies and Technologies for Demand-Side Management on Isolated Mini-Grids

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Harper, Meg

This review provides an overview of strategies and currently available technologies used for demandside management (DSM) on mini-grids throughout the world. For the purposes of this review, mini-grids are defined as village-scale electricity distribution systems powered by small local generation sources and not connected to a main grid.1 Mini-grids range in size from less than 1 kW to several hundred kW of installed generation capacity and may utilize different generation technologies, such as micro-hydro, biomass gasification, solar, wind, diesel generators, or a hybrid combination of any of these. This review will primarily refer to AC mini-grids, though much of themore » discussion could apply to DC grids as well. Many mini-grids include energy storage, though some rely solely on real-time generation.« less

Nested Focusing Optics for Compact Neutron Sources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nabors, Sammy A.

2015-01-01

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH) have developed novel neutron grazing incidence optics for use with small-scale portable neutron generators. The technology was developed to enable the use of commercially available neutron generators for applications requiring high flux densities, including high performance imaging and analysis. Nested grazing incidence mirror optics, with high collection efficiency, are used to produce divergent, parallel, or convergent neutron beams. Ray tracing simulations of the system (with source-object separation of 10m for 5 meV neutrons) show nearly an order of magnitude neutron flux increase on a 1-mm diameter object. The technology is a result of joint development efforts between NASA and MIT researchers seeking to maximize neutron flux from diffuse sources for imaging and testing applications.

Microsensor research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hughes, R. C.; Drebing, C. G.

1990-04-01

The technology that led to very large scale integrated circuits on silicon chips also provides a basis for new microsensors that are small, inexpensive, low power, rugged, and reliable. Two examples of microsensors Sandia is developing that take advantage of this technology are the microelectronic chemical sensor array and the radiation sensing field effect transistor (RADFET). Increasingly, the technology of chemical sensing needs new microsensor concepts. Applications in this area include environmental monitoring, criminal investigations, and state-of-health monitoring, both for equipment and living things. Chemical microsensors can satisfy sensing needs in the industrial, consumer, aerospace, and defense sectors. The microelectronic chemical-sensor array may address some of these applications. We have fabricated six separate chemical gas sensing areas on the microelectronic chemical sensor array. By using different catalytic metals on the gate areas of the diodes, we can selectively sense several gases.

Cryogenic fluid management (base R/T): Cryogenic fluid systems, Cryogenic Orbital Nitrogen Experiment (CONE), Cryogenic Orbital Hydrogen Experiment (COHE). (Transportation focused technology)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Symons, Pat

1991-01-01

The topics presented are covered in viewgraph form. The concluded remarks are: (1) advanced cryogenic fluid systems technology is enhancing or enabling to all known transportation scenarios for space exploration; (2) an integrated/coordinated program involving LeRC/MSFC has been formulated to address all known CFM needs - new needs should they develop, can be accommodated within available skills/facilities; (3) all required/experienced personnel and facilities are finally in place - data from initial ground-based experiments is being collected and analyzed - small scale STS experiments are nearing flight - program is beginning to yield significant results; (4) future proposed funding to primarily come from two sources; and (5) cryogenic fluid experimentation is essential to provide required technology and assure implementation in future NASA missions.

Force-controlled inorganic crystallization lithography.

PubMed

Cheng, Chao-Min; LeDuc, Philip R

2006-09-20

Lithography plays a key role in integrated circuits, optics, information technology, biomedical applications, catalysis, and separation technologies. However, inorganic lithography techniques remain of limited utility for applications outside of the typical foci of integrated circuit manufacturing. In this communication, we have developed a novel stamping method that applies pressure on the upper surface of the stamp to regulate the dewetting process of the inorganic buffer and the evaporation rate of the solvent in this buffer between the substrate and the surface of the stamp. We focused on generating inorganic microstructures with specific locations and also on enabling the ability to pattern gradients during the crystallization of the inorganic salts. This approach utilized a combination of lithography with bottom-up growth and assembly of inorganic crystals. This work has potential applications in a variety of fields, including studying inorganic material patterning and small-scale fabrication technology.

"Physics Stories": How the Early Technologies of High Voltage and High Vacuum Led to "Modern Physics"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greenslade, Thomas B.

2018-05-01

Some of you may remember the 1979 television series "Connections" that was written and narrated by James Burke, a British science writer. Burke's technique was to choose a number of seemingly unrelated ideas and show how they led to developments in science and technology. This is an enjoyable business, even if some of the connections seem to be stretched at times, and led to a book by Burke. In a number of talks that I have given over the years, I have made somewhat less fanciful connections that suggest how the technologies of high vacuum and high voltage led to what used to be called "modern physics." Today we might limit the "modern" era to the years from 1890 to 1920 that gave the first workable theories of small-scale physics.

Cable tunnel fire experiment study based on linear optical fiber fire detectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Dian; Ding, Hongjun

2013-09-01

Aiming at exiting linear temperature fire detection technology including temperature sensing cable, fiber Raman scattering, fiber Bragg grating, this paper establish an experimental platform in cable tunnel, set two different experimental scenes of the fire and record temperature variation and fire detector response time in the processing of fire simulation. Since a small amount of thermal radiation and no flame for the beginning of the small-scale fire, only directly contacting heat detectors can make alarm response and the rest of other non- contact detectors are unable to respond. In large-scale fire, the alarm response time of the fiber Raman temperature sensing fire detector and fiber Bragg grating temperature sensing fire detector is about 30 seconds, and depending on the thermocouples' record the temperature over the fire is less than 35° in first 60 seconds of large-scale fire, while the temperature rising is more than 5°/min within the range of +/- 3m. According to the technical characteristics of the three detectors, the engineering suitability of the typical linear heat detectors in cable tunnels early fire detection is analyzed, which provide technical support for the preparation of norms.

Magnetic and velocity fields in a dynamo operating at extremely small Ekman and magnetic Prandtl numbers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Šimkanin, Ján; Kyselica, Juraj

2017-12-01

Numerical simulations of the geodynamo are becoming more realistic because of advances in computer technology. Here, the geodynamo model is investigated numerically at the extremely low Ekman and magnetic Prandtl numbers using the PARODY dynamo code. These parameters are more realistic than those used in previous numerical studies of the geodynamo. Our model is based on the Boussinesq approximation and the temperature gradient between upper and lower boundaries is a source of convection. This study attempts to answer the question how realistic the geodynamo models are. Numerical results show that our dynamo belongs to the strong-field dynamos. The generated magnetic field is dipolar and large-scale while convection is small-scale and sheet-like flows (plumes) are preferred to a columnar convection. Scales of magnetic and velocity fields are separated, which enables hydromagnetic dynamos to maintain the magnetic field at the low magnetic Prandtl numbers. The inner core rotation rate is lower than that in previous geodynamo models. On the other hand, dimensional magnitudes of velocity and magnetic fields and those of the magnetic and viscous dissipation are larger than those expected in the Earth's core due to our parameter range chosen.

The cosmic ray muon tomography facility based on large scale MRPC detectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Xuewu; Zeng, Ming; Zeng, Zhi; Wang, Yi; Zhao, Ziran; Yue, Xiaoguang; Luo, Zhifei; Yi, Hengguan; Yu, Baihui; Cheng, Jianping

2015-06-01

Cosmic ray muon tomography is a novel technology to detect high-Z material. A prototype of TUMUTY with 73.6 cm×73.6 cm large scale position sensitive MRPC detectors has been developed and is introduced in this paper. Three test kits have been tested and image is reconstructed using MAP algorithm. The reconstruction results show that the prototype is working well and the objects with complex structure and small size (20 mm) can be imaged on it, while the high-Z material is distinguishable from the low-Z one. This prototype provides a good platform for our further studies of the physical characteristics and the performances of cosmic ray muon tomography.

Effective deployment of technology-supported management of chronic respiratory conditions: a call for stakeholder engagement.

PubMed

Costello, Richard W; Dima, Alexandra L; Ryan, Dermot; McIvor, R Andrew; Boycott, Kay; Chisholm, Alison; Price, David; Blakey, John D

2017-01-01

Healthcare systems are under increasing strain, predominantly due to chronic non-communicable diseases. Connected healthcare technologies are becoming ever more capable and their components cheaper. These innovations could facilitate both self-management and more efficient use of healthcare resources for common respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, newer technologies can only facilitate major changes in practice, and cannot accomplish them in isolation. There are now large numbers of devices and software offerings available. However, the potential of such technologies is not being realised due to limited engagement with the public, clinicians and providers, and a relative paucity of evidence describing elements of best practice in this complex and evolving environment. Indeed, there are clear examples of wasted resources and potential harm. We therefore call on interested parties to work collaboratively to begin to realize the potential benefits and reduce the risks of connected technologies through change in practice. We highlight key areas where such partnership can facilitate the effective and safe use of technology in chronic respiratory care: developing data standards and fostering inter-operability, making collaborative testing facilities available at scale for small to medium enterprises, developing and promoting new adaptive trial designs, developing robust health economic models, agreeing expedited approval pathways, and detailed planning of dissemination to use. The increasing capability and availability of connected technologies in respiratory care offers great opportunities and significant risks. A co-ordinated collaborative approach is needed to realize these benefits at scale. Using newer technologies to revolutionize practice relies on widespread engagement and cannot be delivered by a minority of interested specialists. Failure to engage risks a costly and inefficient chapter in respiratory care.

Effective deployment of technology-supported management of chronic respiratory conditions: a call for stakeholder engagement

PubMed Central

Costello, Richard W; Dima, Alexandra L; Ryan, Dermot; McIvor, R Andrew; Boycott, Kay; Chisholm, Alison; Price, David; Blakey, John D

2017-01-01

Background Healthcare systems are under increasing strain, predominantly due to chronic non-communicable diseases. Connected healthcare technologies are becoming ever more capable and their components cheaper. These innovations could facilitate both self-management and more efficient use of healthcare resources for common respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, newer technologies can only facilitate major changes in practice, and cannot accomplish them in isolation. Focus of review There are now large numbers of devices and software offerings available. However, the potential of such technologies is not being realised due to limited engagement with the public, clinicians and providers, and a relative paucity of evidence describing elements of best practice in this complex and evolving environment. Indeed, there are clear examples of wasted resources and potential harm. We therefore call on interested parties to work collaboratively to begin to realize the potential benefits and reduce the risks of connected technologies through change in practice. We highlight key areas where such partnership can facilitate the effective and safe use of technology in chronic respiratory care: developing data standards and fostering inter-operability, making collaborative testing facilities available at scale for small to medium enterprises, developing and promoting new adaptive trial designs, developing robust health economic models, agreeing expedited approval pathways, and detailed planning of dissemination to use. Conclusion The increasing capability and availability of connected technologies in respiratory care offers great opportunities and significant risks. A co-ordinated collaborative approach is needed to realize these benefits at scale. Using newer technologies to revolutionize practice relies on widespread engagement and cannot be delivered by a minority of interested specialists. Failure to engage risks a costly and inefficient chapter in respiratory care. PMID:28740444

Maestro: an orchestration framework for large-scale WSN simulations.

PubMed

Riliskis, Laurynas; Osipov, Evgeny

2014-03-18

Contemporary wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have evolved into large and complex systems and are one of the main technologies used in cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things. Extensive research on WSNs has led to the development of diverse solutions at all levels of software architecture, including protocol stacks for communications. This multitude of solutions is due to the limited computational power and restrictions on energy consumption that must be accounted for when designing typical WSN systems. It is therefore challenging to develop, test and validate even small WSN applications, and this process can easily consume significant resources. Simulations are inexpensive tools for testing, verifying and generally experimenting with new technologies in a repeatable fashion. Consequently, as the size of the systems to be tested increases, so does the need for large-scale simulations. This article describes a tool called Maestro for the automation of large-scale simulation and investigates the feasibility of using cloud computing facilities for such task. Using tools that are built into Maestro, we demonstrate a feasible approach for benchmarking cloud infrastructure in order to identify cloud Virtual Machine (VM)instances that provide an optimal balance of performance and cost for a given simulation.

Maestro: An Orchestration Framework for Large-Scale WSN Simulations

PubMed Central

Riliskis, Laurynas; Osipov, Evgeny

2014-01-01

Contemporary wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have evolved into large and complex systems and are one of the main technologies used in cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things. Extensive research on WSNs has led to the development of diverse solutions at all levels of software architecture, including protocol stacks for communications. This multitude of solutions is due to the limited computational power and restrictions on energy consumption that must be accounted for when designing typical WSN systems. It is therefore challenging to develop, test and validate even small WSN applications, and this process can easily consume significant resources. Simulations are inexpensive tools for testing, verifying and generally experimenting with new technologies in a repeatable fashion. Consequently, as the size of the systems to be tested increases, so does the need for large-scale simulations. This article describes a tool called Maestro for the automation of large-scale simulation and investigates the feasibility of using cloud computing facilities for such task. Using tools that are built into Maestro, we demonstrate a feasible approach for benchmarking cloud infrastructure in order to identify cloud Virtual Machine (VM)instances that provide an optimal balance of performance and cost for a given simulation. PMID:24647123

Art on the Nanoscale and Beyond.

PubMed

Yetisen, Ali K; Coskun, Ahmet F; England, Grant; Cho, Sangyeon; Butt, Haider; Hurwitz, Jonty; Kolle, Mathias; Khademhosseini, Ali; Hart, A John; Folch, Albert; Yun, Seok Hyun

2016-03-02

Methods of forming and patterning materials at the nano- and microscales are finding increased use as a medium of artistic expression, and as a vehicle for communicating scientific advances to a broader audience. While sharing many attributes of other art forms, miniaturized art enables the direct engagement of sensory aspects such as sight and touch for materials and structures that are otherwise invisible to the eye. The historical uses of nano-/microscale materials and imaging techniques in arts and sciences are presented. The motivations to create artwork at small scales are discussed, and representations in scientific literature and exhibitions are explored. Examples are presented using semiconductors, microfluidics, and nanomaterials as the artistic media; these utilized techniques including micromachining, focused ion beam milling, two-photon polymerization, and bottom-up nanostructure growth. Finally, the technological factors that limit the implementation of artwork at miniature scales are identified, and potential future directions are discussed. As research marches toward even smaller length scales, innovative and engaging visualizations and artistic endeavors will have growing implications on education, communication, policy making, media activism, and public perception of science and technology. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Sensor Measurement Strategies for Monitoring Offshore Wind and Wave Energy Devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Donnell, Deirdre; Srbinovsky, Bruno; Murphy, Jimmy; Popovici, Emanuel; Pakrashi, Vikram

2015-07-01

While the potential of offshore wind and wave energy devices is well established and accepted, operations and maintenance issues are still not very well researched or understood. In this regard, scaled model testing has gained popularity over time for such devices at various technological readiness levels. The dynamic response of these devices are typically measured by different instruments during such scaled tests but agreed sensor choice, measurement and placement guidelines are still not in place. This paper compared the dynamic responses of some of these sensors from a scaled ocean wave testing to highlight the importance of sensor measurement strategies. The possibility of using multiple, cheaper sensors of seemingly inferior performance as opposed to the deployment of a small number of expensive and accurate sensors are also explored. An energy aware adaptive sampling theory is applied to highlight the possibility of more efficient computing when large volumes of data are available from the tested structures. Efficient sensor measurement strategies are expected to have a positive impact on the development of an device at different technological readiness levels while it is expected to be helpful in reducing operation and maintenance costs if such an approach is considered for the devices when they are in operation.

Evaluation of new farming technologies in Ethiopia using the Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS).

PubMed

Clarke, Neville; Bizimana, Jean-Claude; Dile, Yihun; Worqlul, Abeyou; Osorio, Javier; Herbst, Brian; Richardson, James W; Srinivasan, Raghavan; Gerik, Thomas J; Williams, Jimmy; Jones, Charles A; Jeong, Jaehak

2017-01-31

This study investigates multi-dimensional impacts of adopting new technology in agriculture at the farm/village and watershed scale in sub-Saharan Africa using the Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS). Application of IDSS as an integrated modeling tool helps solve complex issues in agricultural systems by simultaneously assessing production, environmental, economic, and nutritional consequences of adopting agricultural technologies for sustainable increases in food production and use of scarce natural resources. The IDSS approach was applied to the Amhara region of Ethiopia, where the scarcity of resources and agro-environmental consequences are critical to agricultural productivity of small farm, to analyze the impacts of alternative agricultural technology interventions. Results show significant improvements in family income and nutrition, achieved through the adoption of irrigation technologies, proper use of fertilizer, and improved seed varieties while preserving environmental indicators in terms of soil erosion and sediment loadings. These pilot studies demonstrate the usefulness of the IDSS approach as a tool that can be used to predict and evaluate the economic and environmental consequences of adopting new agricultural technologies that aim to improve the livelihoods of subsistence farmers.

Assessing Resource Assessment for MRE (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanson, H. P.; Bozec, A.; Duerr, A. S.; Rauchenstein, L. T.

2010-12-01

The Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center at Florida Atlantic University is concerned with marine renewable energy (MRE) recovery from the Florida Current using marine hydrokinetic technology and, in the future, from the thermocline in the Florida Straits via ocean thermal energy conversion. Although neither concept is new, technology improvements and the evolution of policy now warrant optimism for the future of these potentially rich resources. In moving toward commercial-scale deployments of energy-generating systems, an important first step is accurate and unembellished assessment of the resource itself. In short, we must ask: how much energy might be available? The answer to this deceptively simple question depends, of course, on the technology itself - system efficiencies, for example - but it also depends on a variety of other limiting factors such as deployment strategies, environmental considerations, and the overall economics of MRE in the context of competing energy resources. While it is universally agreed that MRE development must occur within a framework of environmental stewardship, it is nonetheless inevitable that there will be trade-offs between absolute environmental protection and realizing the benefits of MRE implementation. As with solar-energy and wind-power technologies, MRE technologies interact with the environment in which they are deployed. Ecological, societal, and even physical resource concerns all require investigation and, in some cases, mitigation. Moreover, the converse - how will the environment affect the equipment? - presents technical challenges that have confounded the seagoing community forever. Biofouling, for example, will affect system efficiency and create significant maintenance and operations issues. Because this will also affect the economics of MRE, nonlinear interactions among the limiting factors complicate the overall issue of resource assessment significantly. While MRE technology development is largely an engineering task, resource assessment falls more to the oceanography community. Current and temperature structure measurements, for example, are critical for these efforts. Once again, however, the picture is complicated by the nature of the endeavor: deploying complex equipment of scales of tens of meters into a medium that is traditionally measured on scales of tens of kilometers implies a scale mismatch that must be overcome. The challenge, then, is to develop assessments of the resource on larger scales - so that the potential of the resource may be understood - while characterizing it on very small scales to be able to understand how equipment will be affected. Meeting this challenge will require both funding and time, but it will also result in new oceanographic insight and understanding.

Large- and small-scale constraints on power spectra in Omega = 1 universes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gelb, James M.; Gradwohl, Ben-Ami; Frieman, Joshua A.

1993-01-01

The CDM model of structure formation, normalized on large scales, leads to excessive pairwise velocity dispersions on small scales. In an attempt to circumvent this problem, we study three scenarios (all with Omega = 1) with more large-scale and less small-scale power than the standard CDM model: (1) cold dark matter with significantly reduced small-scale power (inspired by models with an admixture of cold and hot dark matter); (2) cold dark matter with a non-scale-invariant power spectrum; and (3) cold dark matter with coupling of dark matter to a long-range vector field. When normalized to COBE on large scales, such models do lead to reduced velocities on small scales and they produce fewer halos compared with CDM. However, models with sufficiently low small-scale velocities apparently fail to produce an adequate number of halos.

Novel method to construct large-scale design space in lubrication process utilizing Bayesian estimation based on a small-scale design-of-experiment and small sets of large-scale manufacturing data.

PubMed

Maeda, Jin; Suzuki, Tatsuya; Takayama, Kozo

2012-12-01

A large-scale design space was constructed using a Bayesian estimation method with a small-scale design of experiments (DoE) and small sets of large-scale manufacturing data without enforcing a large-scale DoE. The small-scale DoE was conducted using various Froude numbers (X(1)) and blending times (X(2)) in the lubricant blending process for theophylline tablets. The response surfaces, design space, and their reliability of the compression rate of the powder mixture (Y(1)), tablet hardness (Y(2)), and dissolution rate (Y(3)) on a small scale were calculated using multivariate spline interpolation, a bootstrap resampling technique, and self-organizing map clustering. The constant Froude number was applied as a scale-up rule. Three experiments under an optimal condition and two experiments under other conditions were performed on a large scale. The response surfaces on the small scale were corrected to those on a large scale by Bayesian estimation using the large-scale results. Large-scale experiments under three additional sets of conditions showed that the corrected design space was more reliable than that on the small scale, even if there was some discrepancy in the pharmaceutical quality between the manufacturing scales. This approach is useful for setting up a design space in pharmaceutical development when a DoE cannot be performed at a commercial large manufacturing scale.

Chip Scale Ultra-Stable Clocks: Miniaturized Phonon Trap Timing Units for PNT of CubeSats

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rais-Zadeh, Mina; Altunc, Serhat; Hunter, Roger C.; Petro, Andrew

2016-01-01

The Chip Scale Ultra-Stable Clocks (CSUSC) project aims to provide a superior alternative to current solutions for low size, weight, and power timing devices. Currently available quartz-based clocks have problems adjusting to the high temperature and extreme acceleration found in space applications, especially when scaled down to match small spacecraft size, weight, and power requirements. The CSUSC project aims to utilize dual-mode resonators on an ovenized platform to achieve the exceptional temperature stability required for these systems. The dual-mode architecture utilizes a temperature sensitive and temperature stable mode simultaneously driven on the same device volume to eliminate ovenization error while maintaining extremely high performance. Using this technology it is possible to achieve parts-per-billion (ppb) levels of temperature stability with multiple orders of magnitude smaller size, weight, and power.

Optical/IR from ground

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Strom, Stephen; Sargent, Wallace L. W.; Wolff, Sidney; Ahearn, Michael F.; Angel, J. Roger; Beckwith, Steven V. W.; Carney, Bruce W.; Conti, Peter S.; Edwards, Suzan; Grasdalen, Gary

1991-01-01

Optical/infrared (O/IR) astronomy in the 1990's is reviewed. The following subject areas are included: research environment; science opportunities; technical development of the 1980's and opportunities for the 1990's; and ground-based O/IR astronomy outside the U.S. Recommendations are presented for: (1) large scale programs (Priority 1: a coordinated program for large O/IR telescopes); (2) medium scale programs (Priority 1: a coordinated program for high angular resolution; Priority 2: a new generation of 4-m class telescopes); (3) small scale programs (Priority 1: near-IR and optical all-sky surveys; Priority 2: a National Astrometric Facility); and (4) infrastructure issues (develop, purchase, and distribute optical CCDs and infrared arrays; a program to support large optics technology; a new generation of large filled aperture telescopes; a program to archive and disseminate astronomical databases; and a program for training new instrumentalists)

Optically enhanced acoustophoresis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDougall, Craig; O'Mahoney, Paul; McGuinn, Alan; Willoughby, Nicholas A.; Qiu, Yongqiang; Demore, Christine E. M.; MacDonald, Michael P.

2017-08-01

Regenerative medicine has the capability to revolutionise many aspects of medical care, but for it to make the step from small scale autologous treatments to larger scale allogeneic approaches, robust and scalable label free cell sorting technologies are needed as part of a cell therapy bioprocessing pipeline. In this proceedings we describe several strategies for addressing the requirements for high throughput without labeling via: dimensional scaling, rare species targeting and sorting from a stable state. These three approaches are demonstrated through a combination of optical and ultrasonic forces. By combining mostly conservative and non-conservative forces from two different modalities it is possible to reduce the influence of flow velocity on sorting efficiency, hence increasing robustness and scalability. One such approach can be termed "optically enhanced acoustophoresis" which combines the ability of acoustics to handle large volumes of analyte with the high specificity of optical sorting.

Leading a change process to improve health service delivery.

PubMed Central

Bahamon, Claire; Dwyer, Joseph; Buxbaum, Ann

2006-01-01

In the fields of health and development, donors channel multiple resources into the design of new practices and technologies, as well as small-scale programmes to test them. But successful practices are rarely scaled up to the level where they beneficially impact large, impoverished populations. An effective process for change is to use the experiences of new practices gained at the programme level for full-scale implementation. To make an impact, new practices need to be applied, and supported by management systems, at many organizational levels. At every level, potential implementers and likely beneficiaries must first recognize some characteristics that would benefit them in the new practices. An effective change process, led by a dedicated internal change agent, comprises several well-defined phases that successively broaden and institutionalize the use of new practices. PMID:16917654

Fine-Scale Structure Design for 3D Printing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panetta, Francis Julian

Modern additive fabrication technologies can manufacture shapes whose geometric complexities far exceed what existing computational design tools can analyze or optimize. At the same time, falling costs have placed these fabrication technologies within the average consumer's reach. Especially for inexpert designers, new software tools are needed to take full advantage of 3D printing technology. This thesis develops such tools and demonstrates the exciting possibilities enabled by fine-tuning objects at the small scales achievable by 3D printing. The thesis applies two high-level ideas to invent these tools: two-scale design and worst-case analysis. The two-scale design approach addresses the problem that accurately simulating--let alone optimizing--the full-resolution geometry sent to the printer requires orders of magnitude more computational power than currently available. However, we can decompose the design problem into a small-scale problem (designing tileable structures achieving a particular deformation behavior) and a macro-scale problem (deciding where to place these structures in the larger object). This separation is particularly effective, since structures for every useful behavior can be designed once, stored in a database, then reused for many different macroscale problems. Worst-case analysis refers to determining how likely an object is to fracture by studying the worst possible scenario: the forces most efficiently breaking it. This analysis is needed when the designer has insufficient knowledge or experience to predict what forces an object will undergo, or when the design is intended for use in many different scenarios unknown a priori. The thesis begins by summarizing the physics and mathematics necessary to rigorously approach these design and analysis problems. Specifically, the second chapter introduces linear elasticity and periodic homogenization. The third chapter presents a pipeline to design microstructures achieving a wide range of effective isotropic elastic material properties on a single-material 3D printer. It also proposes a macroscale optimization algorithm placing these microstructures to achieve deformation goals under prescribed loads. The thesis then turns to worst-case analysis, first considering the macroscale problem: given a user's design, the fourth chapter aims to determine the distribution of pressures over the surface creating the highest stress at any point in the shape. Solving this problem exactly is difficult, so we introduce two heuristics: one to focus our efforts on only regions likely to concentrate stresses and another converting the pressure optimization into an efficient linear program. Finally, the fifth chapter introduces worst-case analysis at the microscopic scale, leveraging the insight that the structure of periodic homogenization enables us to solve the problem exactly and efficiently. Then we use this worst-case analysis to guide a shape optimization, designing structures with prescribed deformation behavior that experience minimal stresses in generic use.

Using new video mapping technology in landscape ecology

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stohlgren, T.J.; Kaye, Margot W.; McCrumb, A.D.; Otsuki, Yuka; Pfister, B.; Villa, C.A.

2000-01-01

Biological and ecological monitoring continues to play an important role in the conservation of species, natural communities, and landscapes (Spellerberg 1991). Although resource-monitoring programs have advanced knowledge about natural ecosystems, weaknesses persist in our ability to rapidly transfer landscape-scale information to the public. Ecologists continue to search for new technologies to address this problem and to communicate natural resource information quickly and effectively. New video mapping technology may provide much-needed help.Ecologists realize that only a small portion of large nature reserves can be monitored because of cost and logistical constraints. However, plant and animal populations are usually patchily distributed in subpopulations scattered throughout heterogeneous landscapes, and they are often associated with rare habitats. These subpopulations and rare habitats may respond differently to climate change, land use, and management practices such as grazing, fire suppression, prescribed burning, or invasion of exotic species (Stohlgren et al. 1997b). In many national parks, monuments, and wildlife reserves, a few long-term monitoring plots are used to infer the status and trends of natural resources in much larger areas. To make defensible inferences about populations, habitats, and landscapes, it is necessary to extrapolate from a few monitoring plots (local scale) to the larger, unsampled landscape with known levels of accuracy and precision.Recent technological developments have given population biologists and landscape ecologists a unique tool for bridging the data gap between small, intensively sampled monitoring plots and the greater landscape and for transferring this information quickly to resource managers and the public. In this article, we briefly describe this tool, a hand-held video mapping system linked to a geographic information system (GIS). We provide examples of its use in quantifying patterns of native and exotic plant species and cryptobiotic crusts in the new Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Utah, and in surveying aspen clones and regeneration in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Advanced ceramic matrix composite materials for current and future propulsion technology applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, S.; Beyer, S.; Knabe, H.; Immich, H.; Meistring, R.; Gessler, A.

2004-08-01

Current rocket engines, due to their method of construction, the materials used and the extreme loads to which they are subjected, feature a limited number of load cycles. Various technology programmes in Europe are concerned, besides developing reliable and rugged, low cost, throwaway equipment, with preparing for future reusable propulsion technologies. One of the key roles for realizing reusable engine components is the use of modern and innovative materials. One of the key technologies which concern various engine manufacturers worldwide is the development of fibre-reinforced ceramics—ceramic matrix composites. The advantages for the developers are obvious—the low specific weight, the high specific strength over a large temperature range, and their great damage tolerance compared to monolithic ceramics make this material class extremely interesting as a construction material. Over the past years, the Astrium company (formerly DASA) has, together with various partners, worked intensively on developing components for hypersonic engines and liquid rocket propulsion systems. In the year 2000, various hot-firing tests with subscale (scale 1:5) and full-scale nozzle extensions were conducted. In this year, a further decisive milestone was achieved in the sector of small thrusters, and long-term tests served to demonstrate the extraordinary stability of the C/SiC material. Besides developing and testing radiation-cooled nozzle components and small-thruster combustion chambers, Astrium worked on the preliminary development of actively cooled structures for future reusable propulsion systems. In order to get one step nearer to this objective, the development of a new fibre composite was commenced within the framework of a regionally sponsored programme. The objective here is to create multidirectional (3D) textile structures combined with a cost-effective infiltration process. Besides material and process development, the project also encompasses the development of special metal/ceramic and ceramic/ceramic joining techniques as well as studying and verifying non destructive investigation processes for the purpose of testing components.

Emotion-on-a-chip (EOC): evolution of biochip technology to measure human emotion using body fluids.

PubMed

Lee, Jung-Hyun; Hwang, Yoosun; Cheon, Keun-Ah; Jung, Hyo-Il

2012-12-01

Recent developments in nano/micro technology have made it possible to construct small-scale sensing chips for the analysis of biological markers such as nucleic acids, proteins, small molecules, and cells. Although biochip technology for the diagnosis of severe physiological diseases (e.g., cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease) has been extensively studied, biochips for the monitoring of human emotions such as stress, fear, depression, and sorrow have not yet been introduced, and the development of such a biochip is in its infancy. Emotion science (or affective engineering) is a rapidly expanding engineering/scientific discipline that has a major impact on human society. The growing interest in the integration of emotion science and engineering is a result of the recent trend of merging various academic fields. In this paper we discuss the potential importance of biochip technology in which human emotion can be precisely measured in real time using body fluids such as blood, saliva, urine, or sweat. We call these biochips emotion-on-a-chip (EOC). The EOC system consists of four parts: (1) collection of body fluids, (2) separation of emotional markers, (3) detection of optical or electrical signals, and (4) display of results. These techniques provide new opportunities to precisely investigate human emotion. Future developments in EOC techniques will combine social and natural sciences to expand their scope of study. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Inverse Interscale Transport of the Reynolds Shear Stress in Plane Couette Turbulence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawata, Takuya; Alfredsson, P. Henrik

2018-06-01

Interscale interaction between small-scale structures near the wall and large-scale structures away from the wall plays an increasingly important role with increasing Reynolds number in wall-bounded turbulence. While the top-down influence from the large- to small-scale structures is well known, it has been unclear whether the small scales near the wall also affect the large scales away from the wall. In this Letter we show that the small-scale near-wall structures indeed play a role to maintain the large-scale structures away from the wall, by showing that the Reynolds shear stress is transferred from small to large scales throughout the channel. This is in contrast to the turbulent kinetic energy transport which is from large to small scales. Such an "inverse" interscale transport of the Reynolds shear stress eventually supports the turbulent energy production at large scales.

Scale-up of organic reactions in ball mills: process intensification with regard to energy efficiency and economy of scale.

PubMed

Stolle, Achim; Schmidt, Robert; Jacob, Katharina

2014-01-01

The scale-up of the Knoevenagel-condensation between vanillin and barbituric acid carried out in planetary ball mills is investigated from an engineering perspective. Generally, the reaction proceeded in the solid state without intermediate melting and afforded selectively only one product. The reaction has been used as a model to analyze the influence and relationship of different parameters related to operation in planetary ball mills. From the viewpoint of technological parameters the milling ball diameter, dMB, the filling degree with respect to the milling balls' packing, ΦMB,packing, and the filling degree of the substrates with respect to the void volume of the milling balls' packing, ΦGS, have been investigated at different reaction scales. It was found that milling balls with small dMB lead to higher yields within shorter reaction time, treaction, or lower rotation frequency, rpm. Thus, the lower limit is set considering the technology which is available for the separation of the milling balls from the product after the reaction. Regarding ΦMB,packing, results indicate that the optimal value is roughly 50% of the total milling beakers' volume, VB,total, independent of the reaction scale or reaction conditions. Thus, 30% of VB,total are taken by the milling balls. Increase of the initial batch sizes changes ΦGS significantly. However, within the investigated parameter range no negative influence on the yield was observed. Up to 50% of VB,total can be taken over by the substrates in addition to 30% for the total milling ball volume. Scale-up factors of 15 and 11 were realized considering the amount of substrates and the reactor volume, respectively. Beside technological parameters, variables which influence the process itself, treaction and rpm, were investigated also. Variation of those allowed to fine-tune the reaction conditions in order to maximize the yield and minimize the energy intensity.

Tracking and visualization of space-time activities for a micro-scale flu transmission study.

PubMed

Qi, Feng; Du, Fei

2013-02-07

Infectious diseases pose increasing threats to public health with increasing population density and more and more sophisticated social networks. While efforts continue in studying the large scale dissemination of contagious diseases, individual-based activity and behaviour study benefits not only disease transmission modelling but also the control, containment, and prevention decision making at the local scale. The potential for using tracking technologies to capture detailed space-time trajectories and model individual behaviour is increasing rapidly, as technological advances enable the manufacture of small, lightweight, highly sensitive, and affordable receivers and the routine use of location-aware devices has become widespread (e.g., smart cellular phones). The use of low-cost tracking devices in medical research has also been proved effective by more and more studies. This study describes the use of tracking devices to collect data of space-time trajectories and the spatiotemporal processing of such data to facilitate micro-scale flu transmission study. We also reports preliminary findings on activity patterns related to chances of influenza infection in a pilot study. Specifically, this study employed A-GPS tracking devices to collect data on a university campus. Spatiotemporal processing was conducted for data cleaning and segmentation. Processed data was validated with traditional activity diaries. The A-GPS data set was then used for visual explorations including density surface visualization and connection analysis to examine space-time activity patterns in relation to chances of influenza infection. When compared to diary data, the segmented tracking data demonstrated to be an effective alternative and showed greater accuracies in time as well as the details of routes taken by participants. A comparison of space-time activity patterns between participants who caught seasonal influenza and those who did not revealed interesting patterns. This study proved that tracking technology an effective technique for obtaining data for micro-scale influenza transmission research. The findings revealed micro-scale transmission hotspots on a university campus and provided insights for local control and prevention strategies.

Demonstration of Plasma Arc Environmental Technology Applications for the Demilitarization of DOD Stockpiles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Ed; Zaghloul, Hany; Filius, Krag; Rivers, Tim

2000-01-01

Since 1989 the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories (USACERL) have been active participants in the research and development toward establishing Plasma Arc Technology (PAT) as an efficient, economical, and safe hazardous waste immobilization tool. A plasma torch capable of generating high temperatures makes this technology a viable and powerful tool for the thermal destruction of various military industrial waste streams into an innocuous ceramic material no longer requiring hazardous waste landfill (Class 1) disposal. The emerging pl asma environmental thermal treatment process, has been used to safely and efficiently meet the waste disposal needs for various demilitarized components disposal needs, such as: pyrotechnic smoke assemblies, thermal batteries, proximity fuses, cartridge actuated devices (CAD's), and propellant actuated devices (PAD's). MSE Technology Applications, Inc., (MSE) has proposed and fabricated a Mobile Plasma Treatment System to be a technology demonstrator for pilot-scale mobile plasma waste processing. The system is capable of providing small-scale waste remediation services, and conducting waste stream applicability demonstrations. The Mobile Plasma Treatment System's innovative concept provides the flexibility to treat waste streams at numerous sites and sites with only a limited quantity of waste, yet too hazardous to transport to a regional fixed facility. The system was designed to be operated as skid mounted modules; consisting of a furnace module, controls module, offgas module, and ancillary systems module. All system components have been integrated to be operated from a single control station with both semi-continuous feeding and batch slag-pouring capability.

Exometabolome analysis reveals hypoxia at the up-scaling of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae high-cell density fed-batch biopharmaceutical process

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Scale-up to industrial production level of a fermentation process occurs after optimization at small scale, a critical transition for successful technology transfer and commercialization of a product of interest. At the large scale a number of important bioprocess engineering problems arise that should be taken into account to match the values obtained at the small scale and achieve the highest productivity and quality possible. However, the changes of the host strain’s physiological and metabolic behavior in response to the scale transition are still not clear. Results Heterogeneity in substrate and oxygen distribution is an inherent factor at industrial scale (10,000 L) which affects the success of process up-scaling. To counteract these detrimental effects, changes in dissolved oxygen and pressure set points and addition of diluents were applied to 10,000 L scale to enable a successful process scale-up. A comprehensive semi-quantitative and time-dependent analysis of the exometabolome was performed to understand the impact of the scale-up on the metabolic/physiological behavior of the host microorganism. Intermediates from central carbon catabolism and mevalonate/ergosterol synthesis pathways were found to accumulate in both the 10 L and 10,000 L scale cultures in a time-dependent manner. Moreover, excreted metabolites analysis revealed that hypoxic conditions prevailed at the 10,000 L scale. The specific product yield increased at the 10,000 L scale, in spite of metabolic stress and catabolic-anabolic uncoupling unveiled by the decrease in biomass yield on consumed oxygen. Conclusions An optimized S. cerevisiae fermentation process was successfully scaled-up to an industrial scale bioreactor. The oxygen uptake rate (OUR) and overall growth profiles were matched between scales. The major remaining differences between scales were wet cell weight and culture apparent viscosity. The metabolic and physiological behavior of the host microorganism at the 10,000 L scale was investigated with exometabolomics, indicating that reduced oxygen availability affected oxidative phosphorylation cascading into down- and up-stream pathways producing overflow metabolism. Our study revealed striking metabolic and physiological changes in response to hypoxia exerted by industrial bioprocess up-scaling. PMID:24593159

78 FR 48537 - Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-08

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Docket Number: 2013-0008] Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs Commercialization Benchmark AGENCY: Small Business Administration. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Small Business Administration (SBA) is publishing the Small Business...

A Methodological Framework to Estimate the Site Fidelity of Tagged Animals Using Passive Acoustic Telemetry

PubMed Central

Capello, Manuela; Robert, Marianne; Soria, Marc; Potin, Gael; Itano, David; Holland, Kim; Deneubourg, Jean-Louis; Dagorn, Laurent

2015-01-01

The rapid expansion of the use of passive acoustic telemetry technologies has facilitated unprecedented opportunities for studying the behavior of marine organisms in their natural environment. This technological advance would greatly benefit from the parallel development of dedicated methodologies accounting for the variety of timescales involved in the remote detection of tagged animals related to instrumental, environmental and behavioral events. In this paper we propose a methodological framework for estimating the site fidelity (“residence times”) of acoustic tagged animals at different timescales, based on the survival analysis of continuous residence times recorded at multiple receivers. Our approach is validated through modeling and applied on two distinct datasets obtained from a small coastal pelagic species (bigeye scad, Selar crumenophthalmus) and a large, offshore pelagic species (yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares), which show very distinct spatial scales of behavior. The methodological framework proposed herein allows estimating the most appropriate temporal scale for processing passive acoustic telemetry data depending on the scientific question of interest. Our method provides residence times free of the bias inherent to environmental and instrumental noise that can be used to study the small scale behavior of acoustic tagged animals. At larger timescales, it can effectively identify residence times that encompass the diel behavioral excursions of fish out of the acoustic detection range. This study provides a systematic framework for the analysis of passive acoustic telemetry data that can be employed for the comparative study of different species and study sites. The same methodology can be used each time discrete records of animal detections of any nature are employed for estimating the site fidelity of an animal at different timescales. PMID:26261985

A Methodological Framework to Estimate the Site Fidelity of Tagged Animals Using Passive Acoustic Telemetry.

PubMed

Capello, Manuela; Robert, Marianne; Soria, Marc; Potin, Gael; Itano, David; Holland, Kim; Deneubourg, Jean-Louis; Dagorn, Laurent

2015-01-01

The rapid expansion of the use of passive acoustic telemetry technologies has facilitated unprecedented opportunities for studying the behavior of marine organisms in their natural environment. This technological advance would greatly benefit from the parallel development of dedicated methodologies accounting for the variety of timescales involved in the remote detection of tagged animals related to instrumental, environmental and behavioral events. In this paper we propose a methodological framework for estimating the site fidelity ("residence times") of acoustic tagged animals at different timescales, based on the survival analysis of continuous residence times recorded at multiple receivers. Our approach is validated through modeling and applied on two distinct datasets obtained from a small coastal pelagic species (bigeye scad, Selar crumenophthalmus) and a large, offshore pelagic species (yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares), which show very distinct spatial scales of behavior. The methodological framework proposed herein allows estimating the most appropriate temporal scale for processing passive acoustic telemetry data depending on the scientific question of interest. Our method provides residence times free of the bias inherent to environmental and instrumental noise that can be used to study the small scale behavior of acoustic tagged animals. At larger timescales, it can effectively identify residence times that encompass the diel behavioral excursions of fish out of the acoustic detection range. This study provides a systematic framework for the analysis of passive acoustic telemetry data that can be employed for the comparative study of different species and study sites. The same methodology can be used each time discrete records of animal detections of any nature are employed for estimating the site fidelity of an animal at different timescales.

Solar thermoelectricity via advanced latent heat storage: A cost-effective small-scale CSP application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glatzmaier, G. C.; Rea, J.; Olsen, M. L.; Oshman, C.; Hardin, C.; Alleman, J.; Sharp, J.; Weigand, R.; Campo, D.; Hoeschele, G.; Parilla, P. A.; Siegel, N. P.; Toberer, E. S.; Ginley, D. S.

2017-06-01

We are developing a novel concentrating solar electricity-generating technology that is both modular and dispatchable. Solar ThermoElectricity via Advanced Latent heat Storage (STEALS) uses concentrated solar flux to generate high-temperature thermal energy, which directly converts to electricity via thermoelectric generators (TEGs), stored within a phase-change material (PCM) for electricity generation at a later time, or both allowing for simultaneous charging of the PCM and electricity generation. STEALS has inherent features that drive its cost-competitive scale to be much smaller than current commercial concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. Most obvious is modularity of the solid-state TEG, which favors smaller scales in the kilowatt range as compared to CSP steam turbines, which are minimally 50 MWe for commercial power plants. Here, we present techno-economic and market analyses that show STEALS can be a cost-effective electricity-generating technology with particular appeal to small-scale microgrid applications. We evaluated levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for STEALS and for a comparable photovoltaic (PV) system with battery storage. For STEALS, we estimated capital costs and the LCOE as functions of the type of PCM including the use of recycled aluminum alloys, and evaluated the cost tradeoffs between plasma spray coatings and solution-based boron coatings that are applied to the wetted surfaces of the PCM subsystem. We developed a probabilistic cost model that accounts for uncertainties in the cost and performance inputs to the LCOE estimation. Our probabilistic model estimated LCOE for a 100-kWe STEALS system that had 5 hours of thermal storage and 8-10 hours of total daily power generation. For these cases, the solar multiple for the heliostat field varied between 1.12 and 1.5. We identified microgrids as a likely market for the STEALS system. We characterized microgrid markets in terms of nominal power, dispatchability, geographic location, and customer type, and specified additional features for STEALS that are needed to meet the needs of this growing power market.

PREFACE: 7th European Conference on Applied Superconductivity (EUCAS '05)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weber, Harald W.; Sauerzopf, Franz M.

2006-07-01

This issue of Journal of Physics: Conference Series contains those contributed papers that were submitted to the Conference Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Applied Superconductivity (EUCAS '05) on 11 - 15 September 2005. The plenary and invited papers were published in the journal Superconductor Science and Technology 19 2006 (March issue). The scientific aims of EUCAS '05 followed the tradition established at the preceding conferences in Göttingen, Edinburgh, Eindhoven, Sitges (Barcelona), Lyngby (Copenhagen) and finally Sorrento (Napoli). The focus was placed on the interplay between the most recent developments in superconductor research and the positioning of applications of superconductivity in the marketplace. Although initially founded as an exchange forum mainly for European scientists, it has gradually developed into a truly international meeting with significant attendance from the Far East and the United States. The Vienna conference attracted 813 participants in the scientific programme and 90 guests: of the particpants 59% were from Europe, 31% from the Far East, 6% from the United States and Canada and 4% from other nations worldwide. There were 32 plenary and invited lectures highlighting the state-of-the-art in the areas of materials, large-scale and small-scale applications, and 625 papers were contributed (556 of these were posters) demonstrating the broad range of exciting activities in all research areas of our field. A total of 27 companies presented their most recent developments in the field. This volume contains 349 papers, among them 173 on materials (49.6%), 90 on large scale applications (25.8%) and 86 on small scale applications (24.6%). EUCAS '05 generated a feeling of optimism and enthusiasm for this fascinating field of research and for its well established technological potential, especially among the numerous young researchers attending this Conference. We are grateful to all those who participated in the meeting and contributed to its success. Harald W Weber (Conference Chairman) Franz M Sauerzopf (Conference Secretary)

Literature review on monitoring technologies and their outcomes in independently living elderly people.

PubMed

Peetoom, Kirsten K B; Lexis, Monique A S; Joore, Manuela; Dirksen, Carmen D; De Witte, Luc P

2015-07-01

To obtain insight into what kind of monitoring technologies exist to monitor activity in-home, what the characteristics and aims of applying these technologies are, what kind of research has been conducted on their effects and what kind of outcomes are reported. A systematic document search was conducted within the scientific databases Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane, PsycINFO and Cinahl, complemented by Google Scholar. Documents were included in this review if they reported on monitoring technologies that detect activities of daily living (ADL) or significant events, e.g. falls, of elderly people in-home, with the aim of prolonging independent living. Five main types of monitoring technologies were identified: PIR motion sensors, body-worn sensors, pressure sensors, video monitoring and sound recognition. In addition, multicomponent technologies and smart home technologies were identified. Research into the use of monitoring technologies is widespread, but in its infancy, consisting mainly of small-scale studies and including few longitudinal studies. Monitoring technology is a promising field, with applications to the long-term care of elderly persons. However, monitoring technologies have to be brought to the next level, with longitudinal studies that evaluate their (cost-) effectiveness to demonstrate the potential to prolong independent living of elderly persons. [Box: see text].

Recent Progress of Microfluidics in Translational Applications.

PubMed

Liu, Zongbin; Han, Xin; Qin, Lidong

2016-04-20

Microfluidics, featuring microfabricated structures, is a technology for manipulating fluids at the micrometer scale. The small dimension and flexibility of microfluidic systems are ideal for mimicking molecular and cellular microenvironment, and show great potential in translational research and development. Here, the recent progress of microfluidics in biological and biomedical applications, including molecular analysis, cellular analysis, and chip-based material delivery and biomimetic design is presented. The potential future developments in the translational microfluidics field are also discussed. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

U. S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center: Rapid Repair of Levee Breaches

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-01

tensile loads while allowing rigid (nonfabric) structural elements to bear the compressive loads, as shown in Figure 2.2. In Figure 2.2(a), the...Report 81000-01 2.7.3 Small-Scale Modeling Flume Tests An 80 ft long tilting flume was used to provide a simulated levee breach and flow for...somewhat peripheral to the main thrust of the DHS-SERRI funding in this project, only a cursory description of the technology and testing results will

A Look Inside Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials

ScienceCinema

Divan, Ralu; Rosenthal, Dan; Rose, Volker; Wai Hla

2018-05-23

At a very small, or "nano" scale, materials behave differently. The study of nanomaterials is much more than miniaturization - scientists are discovering how changes in size change a material's properties. From sunscreen to computer memory, the applications of nanoscale materials research are all around us. Researchers at Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials are creating new materials, methods and technologies to address some of the world's greatest challenges in energy security, lightweight but durable materials, high-efficiency lighting, information storage, environmental stewardship and advanced medical devices.

Structural properties of iron and nickel mixed oxide nano particles.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dehipawala, Sunil; Samarasekara, Pubudu; Gafney, Harry

Small scale magnets have very high technological importance today. Instead of traditional expensive methods, scientists are exploring new low cost methods to produce micro magnets. We synthesized thin film magnets containing iron and nickel oxides. Films will be synthesized using sol-gel method and spin coating technique. Several different precursor concentrations were tested to find out the ideal concentrations for stable thin films. Structural properties of iron and nickel oxide particles were investigated using X-ray absorption and Mossbauer spectroscopy. PSC-CUNY.

Technology Challenges in Solid Energetic Materials for Micro Propulsion Applications

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-11-01

thruster is a relatively new class of micro propulsion system for micro spacecraft , though there are many other potential uses in power generation...micro spacecraft , micro satellites (10 to 100 kg), nano satellites (1 to 10 kg), and pico satellites (0.1 to 1 kg). These small-scale satellites will...rocket thruster, assuming that it is used for the attitude control of a 10 kg spacecraft with 1 m/s velocity increment to maneuver around an object in

Conversion of Low Quality Waste Heat to Electric Power with Small-Scale Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Engine/Generator Technology

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-01

Allan Robichaux, DPW PWD GTMO and the management and staff of the GTMO on site contractor , Centerra. Page Intentionally Left Blank ii Table of...operations and maintenance contractor to ensure that data transfers are completed as required. Figure 4 shows the location of the ORC installation on MUSE...this issue with telephone support from CRM’s controls contractor (Winn-Marion, W-M); however, the problem remained unresolved as of Sept. 1 when

Final Reports for Contract N00014-87-K-0181 (University of Hawaii, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology)

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-09-01

CONTENT A. Administration B. Dynamics of Small-scale Ocean Motions (P. Muller) C. Seismic Anisotropy ( G . Fryer) D. Low Frequency Modulus Measurements...Manghnani G . Marching the Elastodynamic Wave Equation (N. Frazer) H. Theoretical & Computational Studies in Marine Seismology (N. Frazer) I. Correction and...Publication. and in the summary article: Muller, P.,E. D’Asaro and G . Holloway, 1991: Internal Gravity Waves and Mixing. EOS, T:ansactions, American

GPU Multi-Scale Particle Tracking and Multi-Fluid Simulations of the Radiation Belts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ziemba, T.; Carscadden, J.; O'Donnell, D.; Winglee, R.; Harnett, E.; Cash, M.

2007-12-01

The properties of the radiation belts can vary dramatically under the influence of magnetic storms and storm-time substorms. The task of understanding and predicting radiation belt properties is made difficult because their properties determined by global processes as well as small-scale wave-particle interactions. A full solution to the problem will require major innovations in technique and computer hardware. The proposed work will demonstrates liked particle tracking codes with new multi-scale/multi-fluid global simulations that provide the first means to include small-scale processes within the global magnetospheric context. A large hurdle to the problem is having sufficient computer hardware that is able to handle the dissipate temporal and spatial scale sizes. A major innovation of the work is that the codes are designed to run of graphics processing units (GPUs). GPUs are intrinsically highly parallelized systems that provide more than an order of magnitude computing speed over a CPU based systems, for little more cost than a high end-workstation. Recent advancements in GPU technologies allow for full IEEE float specifications with performance up to several hundred GFLOPs per GPU and new software architectures have recently become available to ease the transition from graphics based to scientific applications. This allows for a cheap alternative to standard supercomputing methods and should increase the time to discovery. A demonstration of the code pushing more than 500,000 particles faster than real time is presented, and used to provide new insight into radiation belt dynamics.

Going wild: what a global small-animal tracking system could do for experimental biologists.

PubMed

Wikelski, Martin; Kays, Roland W; Kasdin, N Jeremy; Thorup, Kasper; Smith, James A; Swenson, George W

2007-01-01

Tracking animals over large temporal and spatial scales has revealed invaluable and spectacular biological information, particularly when the paths and fates of individuals can be monitored on a global scale. However, only large animals (greater than approximately 300 g) currently can be followed globally because of power and size constraints on the tracking devices. And yet the vast majority of animals is small. Tracking small animals is important because they are often part of evolutionary and ecological experiments, they provide important ecosystem services and they are of conservation concern or pose harm to human health. Here, we propose a small-animal satellite tracking system that would enable the global monitoring of animals down to the size of the smallest birds, mammals (bats), marine life and eventually large insects. To create the scientific framework necessary for such a global project, we formed the ICARUS initiative (www.IcarusInitiative.org), the International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space. ICARUS also highlights how small-animal tracking could address some of the ;Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences' identified by the US National Academy of Sciences, such as the spread of infectious diseases or the relationship between biological diversity and ecosystem functioning. Small-animal tracking would allow the quantitative assessment of dispersal and migration in natural populations and thus help solve enigmas regarding population dynamics, extinctions and invasions. Experimental biologists may find a global small-animal tracking system helpful in testing, validating and expanding laboratory-derived discoveries in wild, natural populations. We suggest that the relatively modest investment into a global small-animal tracking system will pay off by providing unprecedented insights into both basic and applied nature. Tracking small animals over large spatial and temporal scales could prove to be one of the most powerful techniques of the early 21st century, offering potential solutions to a wide range of biological and societal questions that date back two millennia to the Greek philosopher Aristotle's enigma about songbird migration. Several of the more recent Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences, such as the regulation and functional consequences of biological diversity or the surveillance of the population ecology of zoonotic hosts, pathogens or vectors, could also be addressed by a global small-animal tracking system. Our discussion is intended to contribute to an emerging groundswell of scientific support to make such a new technological system happen.

Design of small Stirling dynamic isotope power system for robotic space missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bents, D. J.; Schreiber, J. G.; Withrow, C. A.; Mckissock, B. I.; Schmitz, P. C.

1992-01-01

Design of a multihundred-watt Dynamic Isotope Power System (DIPS) based on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) and small (multihundred-watt) free-piston Stirling engine (FPSE) technology is being pursued as a potential lower cost alternative to radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG's). The design is targeted at the power needs of future unmanned deep space and planetary surface exploration missions ranging from scientific probes to Space Exploration Initiative precursor missions. Power level for these missions is less than a kilowatt. Unlike previous DIPS designs which were based on turbomachinery conversion (e.g. Brayton), this small Stirling DIPS can be advantageously scaled down to multihundred-watt unit size while preserving size and mass competitiveness with RTG's. Preliminary characterization of units in the output power ranges 200-600 We indicate that on an electrical watt basis the GPHS/small Stirling DIPS will be roughly equivalent to an advanced RTG in size and mass but require less than a third of the isotope inventory.

Recent Advances and Applications in Cryogenic Propellant Densification Technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tomsik, Thomas M.

2000-01-01

This purpose of this paper is to review several historical cryogenic test programs that were conducted at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), Cleveland, Ohio over the past fifty years. More recently these technology programs were intended to study new and improved denser forms of liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LO2) cryogenic rocket fuels. Of particular interest are subcooled cryogenic propellants. This is due to the fact that they have a significantly higher density (eg. triple-point hydrogen, slush etc.), a lower vapor pressure and improved cooling capacity over the normal boiling point cryogen. This paper, which is intended to be a historical technology overview, will trace the past and recent development and testing of small and large-scale propellant densification production systems. Densifier units in the current GRC fuels program, were designed and are capable of processing subcooled LH2 and L02 propellant at the X33 Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) scale. One final objective of this technical briefing is to discuss some of the potential benefits and application which propellant densification technology may offer the industrial cryogenics production and end-user community. Density enhancements to cryogenic propellants (LH2, LO2, CH4) in rocket propulsion and aerospace application have provided the opportunity to either increase performance of existing launch vehicles or to reduce the overall size, mass and cost of a new vehicle system.

Nanomedicine: Promising Tiny Machine for the Healthcare in Future-A Review

PubMed Central

Saha, Moni

2009-01-01

One of the 21st century’s most promising technologies is nanotechnology. Nanomedicine, an offshoot of nanotechnology, refers to highly specific medical intervention at the molecular scale for curing disease or repairing damaged tissues, such as bone, muscle, or nerve. Nanotechnology is a collective term referring to technological developments on the nanometer scale, usually 0.1-100 nm. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, too small to be seen with a conventional laboratory microscope. It is at this size scale - about 100 nanometers or less - that biological molecules and structures inside living cells operate. Therefore, nanotechnology is engineering and manufacturing at the molecular scale. Utilities of nanotechnology to biomedical sciences imply creation of materials and devices designed to interact with the body at sub-cellular scales with a high degree of specificity. This could be potentially translated into targeted cellular and tissue-specific clinical applications aimed at maximal therapeutic effects with very limited adverse-effects. Nanomedicine can offer impressive resolutions for various life threatening diseases. Disease areas which can be expected to benefit most from nanotechnology within the next few years are cancer, diseases of the cardiovascular system, the lungs, blood, neurological (especially neurodegenerative) diseases, diabetes, inflammatory/infectious diseases, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease and orthopaedic problems. In the first half of the 21st century, nanomedicine should eliminate virtually all common diseases of the 20th century, and virtually all medical pain. This article presents an overview of some of the applications of nanotechnology in nanomedicine. PMID:22216376

Scaling in two-fluid pinch-off

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pommer, Chris; Harris, Michael; Basaran, Osman

2010-11-01

The physics of two-fluid pinch-off, which arises whenever drops, bubbles, or jets of one fluid are ejected from a nozzle into another fluid, is scientifically important and technologically relevant. While the breakup of a drop in a passive environment is well understood, the physics of pinch-off when both the inner and outer fluids are dynamically active remains inadequately understood. Here, the breakup of a compound jet whose core and shell are incompressible Newtonian fluids is analyzed computationally when the interior is a "bubble" and the exterior is a liquid. The numerical method employed is an implicit method of lines ALE algorithm which uses finite elements with elliptic mesh generation and adaptive finite differences for time integration. Thus, the new approach neither starts with a priori idealizations, as has been the case with previous computations, nor is limited to length scales above that set by the wavelength of visible light as in any experimental study. In particular, three distinct responses are identified as the ratio m of the outer fluid's viscosity to the inner fluid's viscosity is varied. For small m, simulations show that the minimum neck radius r initially scales with time τ before breakup as r ˜0.58° (in accord with previous experiments and inviscid fluid models) but that r ˜τ once r becomes sufficiently small. For intermediate and large values of m, r ˜&αcirc;, where the exponent α may not equal one, once again as r becomes sufficiently small.

Greased Lightning (GL-10) Performance Flight Research: Flight Data Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McSwain, Robert G.; Glaab, Louis J.; Theodore, Colin R.; Rhew, Ray D. (Editor); North, David D. (Editor)

2017-01-01

Modern aircraft design methods have produced acceptable designs for large conventional aircraft performance. With revolutionary electronic propulsion technologies fueled by the growth in the small UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) industry, these same prediction models are being applied to new smaller, and experimental design concepts requiring a VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) capability for ODM (On Demand Mobility). A 50% sub-scale GL-10 flight model was built and tested to demonstrate the transition from hover to forward flight utilizing DEP (Distributed Electric Propulsion)[1][2]. In 2016 plans were put in place to conduct performance flight testing on the 50% sub-scale GL-10 flight model to support a NASA project called DELIVER (Design Environment for Novel Vertical Lift Vehicles). DELIVER was investigating the feasibility of including smaller and more experimental aircraft configurations into a NASA design tool called NDARC (NASA Design and Analysis of Rotorcraft)[3]. This report covers the performance flight data collected during flight testing of the GL-10 50% sub-scale flight model conducted at Beaver Dam Airpark, VA. Overall the flight test data provides great insight into how well our existing conceptual design tools predict the performance of small scale experimental DEP concepts. Low fidelity conceptual design tools estimated the (L/D)( sub max)of the GL-10 50% sub-scale flight model to be 16. Experimentally measured (L/D)( sub max) for the GL-10 50% scale flight model was 7.2. The aerodynamic performance predicted versus measured highlights the complexity of wing and nacelle interactions which is not currently accounted for in existing low fidelity tools.

Indirect Effects of Energy Development in Grasslands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duquette, Cameron Albert

Grassland landscapes in North America are undergoing rapid industrialization due to energy development facilitated by the growing popularity of fracking and horizontal drilling technology. Each year over 3 million hectares are lost from grassland and shrubland habitats to well infrastructure. Direct footprints from energy infrastructure cause impacts to vegetation cover, available cattle forage, carbon sequestration potential, and usable space for wildlife. However, legacy effects from well construction and noise pollution, light pollution, and altered viewsheds have the potential to impact areas beyond this direct footprint, causing additive and persistent changes to nearby grassland function. While these additional areas may be small on a well pad basis, they may have substantial cumulative impacts over time. To investigate these effects via a diversity of mechanisms, we studied the seasonal habitat selection of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus, hereafter bobwhite) in an energy-producing landscape to evaluate space use patterns relative to energy infrastructure. Habitat selection was modeled in the breeding and nonbreeding season using resource Utilization functions (RUFs). We then investigated patterns of vegetation, arthropod, and soil characteristics surrounding well pads to assess small scale environmental gradients extending away from drilling pads via a combination of multivariate and univariate techniques (i.e., Nonmetric dimensional scaling and ANOVA). We found minimal avoidance of energy structures by quail, suggesting a tolerance of moderate development levels. All small-scale effects studied except for soil moisture were impacted at the pad itself (P < 0.01). Off-pad impacts to arthropod abundance and biomass were spatially limited to areas close to pads, while vegetation cover was typically lower than the surrounding habitat beyond 10 m of pads. Soil surface temperature was higher at distances close to well pads, and soil moisture was not different between areas close to and far from well pads. Small-scale gradient results indicate vegetation effects around active drilling pads, potentially increasing erosion and decreasing nesting cover, decreasing carbon sequestration potential, and decreasing forage. Collectively, this research highlights the complexity and importance of impact thresholds in landscape fragmentation.

Composting, anaerobic digestion and biochar production in Ghana. Environmental–economic assessment in the context of voluntary carbon markets

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Galgani, Pietro, E-mail: p.galgani@hotmail.com; Voet, Ester van der; Korevaar, Gijsbert

2014-12-15

Highlights: • Economic–environmental assessment of combining composting with biogas and biochar in Ghana. • These technologies can save greenhouse gas emissions for up to 0.57 t CO{sub 2} eq/t of waste treated. • Labor intensive, small-scale organic waste management is not viable without financial support. • Carbon markets would make these technologies viable with carbon prices in the range of 30–84 EUR/t. - Abstract: In some areas of Sub-Saharan Africa appropriate organic waste management technology could address development issues such as soil degradation, unemployment and energy scarcity, while at the same time reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. This paper investigatesmore » the role that carbon markets could have in facilitating the implementation of composting, anaerobic digestion and biochar production, in the city of Tamale, in the North of Ghana. Through a life cycle assessment of implementation scenarios for low-tech, small scale variants of the above mentioned three technologies, the potential contribution they could give to climate change mitigation was assessed. Furthermore an economic assessment was carried out to study their viability and the impact thereon of accessing carbon markets. It was found that substantial climate benefits can be achieved by avoiding landfilling of organic waste, producing electricity and substituting the use of chemical fertilizer. Biochar production could result in a net carbon sequestration. These technologies were however found not to be economically viable without external subsidies, and access to carbon markets at the considered carbon price of 7 EUR/ton of carbon would not change the situation significantly. Carbon markets could help the realization of the considered composting and anaerobic digestion systems only if the carbon price will rise above 75–84 EUR/t of carbon (respectively for anaerobic digestion and composting). Biochar production could achieve large climate benefits and, if approved as a land based climate mitigation mechanism in carbon markets, it would become economically viable at the lower carbon price of 30 EUR/t of carbon.« less

Biosensors in the small scale: methods and technology trends.

PubMed

Senveli, Sukru U; Tigli, Onur

2013-03-01

This study presents a review on biosensors with an emphasis on recent developments in the field. A brief history accompanied by a detailed description of the biosensor concepts is followed by rising trends observed in contemporary micro- and nanoscale biosensors. Performance metrics to quantify and compare different detection mechanisms are presented. A comprehensive analysis on various types and subtypes of biosensors are given. The fields of interest within the scope of this review are label-free electrical, mechanical and optical biosensors as well as other emerging and popular technologies. Especially, the latter half of the last decade is reviewed for the types, methods and results of the most prominently researched detection mechanisms. Tables are provided for comparison of various competing technologies in the literature. The conclusion part summarises the noteworthy advantages and disadvantages of all biosensors reviewed in this study. Furthermore, future directions that the micro- and nanoscale biosensing technologies are expected to take are provided along with the immediate outlook.

78 FR 59410 - Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-26

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Docket Number: 2013-0008] Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs Commercialization Benchmark AGENCY: Small Business... Business Administration (SBA) is reopening the comment period for the Small Business Innovation Research...

PILOT-SCALE REMOVAL OF FLUORIDE FROM LEGACY PLUTONIUM MATERIALS USING VACUUM SALT DISTILLATION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pierce, R. A.; Pak, D. J.

2012-09-11

Between September 2009 and January 2011, the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and HB-Line designed, developed, tested, and successfully deployed a system for the distillation of chloride salts. In 2011, SRNL adapted the technology for the removal of fluoride from fluoride-bearing salts. The method involved an in situ reaction between potassium hydroxide (KOH) and the fluoride salt to yield potassium fluoride (KF) and the corresponding oxide. The KF and excess KOH can be distilled below 1000{deg}C using vacuum salt distillation (VSD). The apparatus for vacuum distillation contains a zone heated by a furnace and a zone actively cooled using eithermore » recirculated water or compressed air. During a vacuum distillation operation, a sample boat containing the feed material is placed into the apparatus while it is cool, and the system is sealed. The system is evacuated using a vacuum pump. Once a sufficient vacuum is attaned, heating begins. Volatile salts distill from the heated zone to the cooled zone where they condense, leaving behind the non-volatile material in the feed boat. Studies discussed in this report were performed involving the use of non-radioactive simulants in small-scale and pilot-scale systems as well as radioactive testing of a small-scale system with plutonium-bearing materials. Aspects of interest include removable liner design considerations, boat materials, in-line moisture absorption, and salt deposition.« less

Automatic detection of small surface targets with electro-optical sensors in a harbor environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouma, Henri; de Lange, Dirk-Jan J.; van den Broek, Sebastiaan P.; Kemp, Rob A. W.; Schwering, Piet B. W.

2008-10-01

In modern warfare scenarios naval ships must operate in coastal environments. These complex environments, in bays and narrow straits, with cluttered littoral backgrounds and many civilian ships may contain asymmetric threats of fast targets, such as rhibs, cabin boats and jet-skis. Optical sensors, in combination with image enhancement and automatic detection, assist an operator to reduce the response time, which is crucial for the protection of the naval and land-based supporting forces. In this paper, we present our work on automatic detection of small surface targets which includes multi-scale horizon detection and robust estimation of the background intensity. To evaluate the performance of our detection technology, data was recorded with both infrared and visual-light cameras in a coastal zone and in a harbor environment. During these trials multiple small targets were used. Results of this evaluation are shown in this paper.

A window-DEA based efficiency evaluation of the public hospital sector in Greece during the 5-year economic crisis

PubMed Central

Flokou, Angeliki; Aletras, Vassilis; Niakas, Dimitris

2017-01-01

The main objective of this study was to apply the non-parametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure the efficiency of Greek NHS hospitals between 2009–2013. Hospitals were divided into four separate groups with common characteristics which allowed comparisons to be carried out in the context of increased homogeneity. The window-DEA method was chosen since it leads to increased discrimination on the results especially when applied to small samples and it enables year-by-year comparisons of the results. Three inputs -hospital beds, physicians and other health professionals- and three outputs—hospitalized cases, surgeries and outpatient visits- were chosen as production variables in an input-oriented 2-year window DEA model for the assessment of technical and scale efficiency as well as for the identification of returns to scale. The Malmquist productivity index together with its components (i.e. pure technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change and technological scale) were also calculated in order to analyze the sources of productivity change between the first and last year of the study period. In the context of window analysis, the study identified the individual efficiency trends together with “all-windows” best and worst performers and revealed that a high level of technical and scale efficiency was maintained over the entire 5-year period. Similarly, the relevant findings of Malmquist productivity index analysis showed that both scale and pure technical efficiency were improved in 2013 whilst technological change was found to be in favor of the two groups with the largest hospitals. PMID:28542362

Evaluation of direct membrane filtration and direct forward osmosis as concepts for compact and energy-positive municipal wastewater treatment.

PubMed

Hey, Tobias; Bajraktari, Niada; Davidsson, Åsa; Vogel, Jörg; Madsen, Henrik Tækker; Hélix-Nielsen, Claus; Jansen, Jes la Cour; Jönsson, Karin

2018-02-01

Municipal wastewater treatment commonly involves mechanical, biological and chemical treatment steps to protect humans and the environment from adverse effects. Membrane technology has gained increasing attention as an alternative to conventional wastewater treatment due to increased urbanization. Among the available membrane technologies, microfiltration (MF) and forward osmosis (FO) have been selected for this study due to their specific characteristics, such as compactness and efficient removal of particles. In this study, two treatment concepts were evaluated with regard to their specific electricity, energy and area demands. Both concepts would fulfil the Swedish discharge demands for small- and medium-sized wastewater treatment plants at full scale: (1) direct MF and (2) direct FO with seawater as the draw solution. The framework of this study is based on a combination of data obtained from bench- and pilot-scale experiments applying direct MF and FO, respectively. Additionally, available complementary data from a Swedish full-scale wastewater treatment plant and the literature were used to evaluate the concepts in depth. The results of this study indicate that both concepts are net positive with respect to electricity and energy, as more biogas can be produced compared to that using conventional wastewater treatment. Furthermore, the specific area demand is significantly reduced. This study demonstrates that municipal wastewater could be treated in a more energy- and area-efficient manner with techniques that are already commercially available and with future membrane technology.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Demaria, N.

This paper is a review of recent progress of RD53 Collaboration. Results obtained on the study of the radiation effects on 65 nm CMOS have matured enough to define first strategies to adopt in the design of analog and digital circuits. Critical building blocks and analog very front end chains have been designed, tested before and after 5–800 Mrad. Small prototypes of 64×64 pixels with complex digital architectures have been produced, and point to address the main issues of dealing with extremely high pixel rates, while operating at very small in-time thresholds in the analog front end. Lastly, the collaborationmore » is now proceeding at full speed towards the design of a large scale prototype, called RD53A, in 65 nm CMOS technology.« less

Standard Free Droplet Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction as a New Tool for the Quality Control of High-Capacity Adenoviral Vectors in Small-Scale Preparations

PubMed Central

Boehme, Philip; Stellberger, Thorsten; Solanki, Manish; Zhang, Wenli; Schulz, Eric; Bergmann, Thorsten; Liu, Jing; Doerner, Johannes; Baiker, Armin E.

2015-01-01

Abstract High-capacity adenoviral vectors (HCAdVs) are promising tools for gene therapy as well as for genetic engineering. However, one limitation of the HCAdV vector system is the complex, time-consuming, and labor-intensive production process and the following quality control procedure. Since HCAdVs are deleted for all viral coding sequences, a helper virus (HV) is needed in the production process to provide the sequences for all viral proteins in trans. For the purification procedure of HCAdV, cesium chloride density gradient centrifugation is usually performed followed by buffer exchange using dialysis or comparable methods. However, performing these steps is technically difficult, potentially error-prone, and not scalable. Here, we establish a new protocol for small-scale production of HCAdV based on commercially available adenovirus purification systems and a standard method for the quality control of final HCAdV preparations. For titration of final vector preparations, we established a droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) that uses a standard free-end-point PCR in small droplets of defined volume. By using different probes, this method is capable of detecting and quantifying HCAdV and HV in one reaction independent of reference material, rendering this method attractive for accurately comparing viral titers between different laboratories. In summary, we demonstrate that it is possible to produce HCAdV in a small scale of sufficient quality and quantity to perform experiments in cell culture, and we established a reliable protocol for vector titration based on ddPCR. Our method significantly reduces time and required equipment to perform HCAdV production. In the future the ddPCR technology could be advantageous for titration of other viral vectors commonly used in gene therapy. PMID:25640117

U.S. Department of Energy's regional carbon sequestration partnership initiative: Update on validation and development phases

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rodosta, T.; Litynski, J.; Plasynski, S.; Spangler, L.; Finley, R.; Steadman, E.; Ball, D.; Gerald, H.; McPherson, B.; Burton, E.; Vikara, D.

2011-01-01

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is the lead federal agency for the development and deployment of carbon sequestration technologies. The Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSPs) are the mechanism DOE utilizes to prove the technology and to develop human capital, stakeholder networks, information for regulatory policy, best practices documents and training to work toward the commercialization of carbon capture and storage (CCS). The RCSPs are tasked with determining the most suitable technologies, regulations, and infrastructure for carbon capture, transport, and storage in their respective geographic areas of responsibility. The seven partnerships include more than 400 state agencies, universities, national laboratories, private companies, and environmental organizations, spanning 43 states and four Canadian provinces. The Regional Partnerships Initiative is being implemented in three phases: Characterization, Validation, and Development. The initial Characterization Phase began in 2003 and was completed in 2005 and focused on characterization of CO2 storage potential within each region. It was followed by the Validation Phase, which began in 2005 and is nearing completion in 2011. The focus of the Validation Phase has been on small-scale field tests throughout the seven partnerships in various formation types such as saline, oil-bearing, and coal seams. The Validation Phase has characterized suitable CO2 storage reservoirs and identified the need for comprehensive legal and regulatory frameworks to enable commercial-scale CCS deployment. Finally, the Development Phase will consist of a series of large-scale, one-million-ton, injection tests throughout the United States and Canada. The objective of these large-scale tests is to identify the regulatory path or challenges in permitting CCS projects, to demonstrate the technology can inject CO2 safely, and to verify its permanence in geologic formations in preparation for the commercialization of geologic sequestration. ?? 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ?? 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Applications of Microfluidics in Quantitative Biology.

PubMed

Bai, Yang; Gao, Meng; Wen, Lingling; He, Caiyun; Chen, Yuan; Liu, Chenli; Fu, Xiongfei; Huang, Shuqiang

2018-05-01

Quantitative biology is dedicated to taking advantage of quantitative reasoning and advanced engineering technologies to make biology more predictable. Microfluidics, as an emerging technique, provides new approaches to precisely control fluidic conditions on small scales and collect data in high-throughput and quantitative manners. In this review, the authors present the relevant applications of microfluidics to quantitative biology based on two major categories (channel-based microfluidics and droplet-based microfluidics), and their typical features. We also envision some other microfluidic techniques that may not be employed in quantitative biology right now, but have great potential in the near future. © 2017 Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Biotechnology Journal Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

Develop and test fuel cell powered on-site integrated total energy systems: Phase 3, full-scale power plant development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaufman, A.; Pudick, S.; Wang, C. L.; Werth, J.; Whelan, J. A.

1985-01-01

Two 25 cell stacks of the 13 inch x 23 inch cell size (about 4kW) remain on test after 4000 hours and 2900 hours, respectively, using simulated reformate fuel. These tests are focusing on the durability of fuel cell stack components developed through the end of 1983. Also, these stacks are serving as forerunners of a 25kW stack that will contain 175 cells of the same size and will employ the same technology base. The stack technology development program has focused on a new, low cost bipolar plate edge seal technique and evaluation of advanced cathode catalysts, an electrolyte replenishment system, and nonmetallic cooling plates in small stacks.

Development of mass production technology for block copolymer lithographic materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Himi, Toshiyuki; Matsuki, Ryota; Kosaka, Terumasa; Ogaki, Ryosuke; Kawaguchi, Yukio; Shimizu, Tetsuo

2017-03-01

We have successfully synthesized various and over wide range molecular weight block copolymers (BCPs): these are polystyrene(PS)-polymethylmethacrylate(PMMA) as general components and poly(4-trimethylsilylstyrene)(PTMSS)- poly(4-hydroxystyrene)(PHS) system as very strong segregated components (high chi) and multiblock type of those copolymers which form the microphase-separated structure pattern using living anionic polymerizing method by which the size of polymer can be precisely controlled. In addition, we were able to observe alternating lamellar and cylinder structures which were formed by our various BCPs using small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Moreover, we have successfully developed new apparatus for high volume manufacturing including our original technologies such as purification of monomer, improvement of wetted surface, and mechanical technology for high vacuum. And we have successfully synthesized all the BCPs with narrow molecular weight distribution (PDI <1.1) with large-scale apparatus.

Nanosatellites for quantum science and technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oi, Daniel K. L.; Ling, Alex; Grieve, James A.; Jennewein, Thomas; Dinkelaker, Aline N.; Krutzik, Markus

2017-01-01

Bringing quantum science and technology to the space frontier offers exciting prospects for both fundamental physics and applications such as long-range secure communication and space-borne quantum probes for inertial sensing with enhanced accuracy and sensitivity. But despite important terrestrial pathfinding precursors on common microgravity platforms and promising proposals to exploit the significant advantages of space quantum missions, large-scale quantum test beds in space are yet to be realised due to the high costs and lead times of traditional 'Big Space' satellite development. But the 'small space' revolution, spearheaded by the rise of nanosatellites such as CubeSats, is an opportunity to greatly accelerate the progress of quantum space missions by providing easy and affordable access to space and encouraging agile development. We review space quantum science and technology, CubeSats and their rapidly developing capabilities and how they can be used to advance quantum satellite systems.

Review of infrared technology in The Netherlands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Jong, Arie N.

1993-11-01

The use of infrared sensors in the Netherlands is substantial. Users can be found in a variety of disciplines, military as well as civil. This need for IR sensors implied a long history on IR technology and development. The result was a large technological-capability allowing the realization of IR hardware: specialized measuring equipment, engineering development models, prototype and production sensors for different applications. These applications range from small size, local radiometry up to large space-borne imaging. Large scale production of IR sensors has been realized for army vehicles. IR sensors have been introduced now in all of the armed forces. Facilities have been built to test the performance of these sensors. Models have been developed to predict the performance of a new sensor. A great effort has been spent on atmospheric research, leading to knowledge upon atmospheric- and background limitations of IR sensors.

Miniaturisation of Pressure-Sensitive Paint Measurement Systems Using Low-Cost, Miniaturised Machine Vision Cameras.

PubMed

Quinn, Mark Kenneth; Spinosa, Emanuele; Roberts, David A

2017-07-25

Measurements of pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) have been performed using new or non-scientific imaging technology based on machine vision tools. Machine vision camera systems are typically used for automated inspection or process monitoring. Such devices offer the benefits of lower cost and reduced size compared with typically scientific-grade cameras; however, their optical qualities and suitability have yet to be determined. This research intends to show relevant imaging characteristics and also show the applicability of such imaging technology for PSP. Details of camera performance are benchmarked and compared to standard scientific imaging equipment and subsequent PSP tests are conducted using a static calibration chamber. The findings demonstrate that machine vision technology can be used for PSP measurements, opening up the possibility of performing measurements on-board small-scale model such as those used for wind tunnel testing or measurements in confined spaces with limited optical access.

Sustainability in Ironmaking: The Rise of Direct Reduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Battle, Thomas P.

Modern-day direct reduction of iron first developed as a small-scale, low capital and operating cost alternative to the blast furnace. Since commercialization of continuous DR technology in the late 1960s, the market for the products of direct reduction has grown to more than 74 million tonnes in 2012. The initial advantages of DR plants over BF facilities have grown over the years, for several reasons, including the increased size of DR modules, lower energy and emissions (particularly CO2), along with the flexibility to use a number of different reductants. The development of DR technology over the past forty years will be emphasized in this presentation, including recent developments that allow for even more direct sustainability comparisons with the iron blast furnace — and even combine the two technologies for improved synergies. Also briefly discussed will be the possibilities of using direct reduction for non-ferrous ores.

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: From Energy Applications to Advanced Medical Therapies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tijana Rajh

2009-10-14

Dr. Rajh will present a general talk on nanotechnology – an overview of why nanotechnology is important and how it is useful in various fields. The specific focus will be on Solar energy conversion, environmental applications and advanced medical therapies. She has broad expertise in synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials that are used in nanotechnology including novel hybrid systems connecting semiconductors to biological molecules like DNA and antibodies. This technology could lead to new gene therapy procedures, cancer treatments and other medical applications. She will also discuss technologies made possible by organizing small semiconductor particles called quantum dots, materials thatmore » exhibit a rich variety of phenomena that are size and shape dependent. Development of these new materials that harnesses the unique properties of materials at the 1-100 nanometer scale resulted in the new field of nanotechnology that currently affects many applications in technological and medical fields.« less

Engines for experiment: laboratory revolution and industrial labor in the nineteenth-century city.

PubMed

Dierig, Sven

2003-01-01

This article brings together what until now have been separate fields of nineteenth-century history: the development of experimental physiology, the growth of mechanized industry, and the city, where their threads intertwined. The main argument is that the laboratory in the city employed the same technological and organizational approaches to modernize that the city used to industrialize. To bring the adoption of technology into focus, the article discusses laboratory research as it developed after the introduction of small-scale power engines. With its machines, the industrialized city provided not only the key metaphor of the nineteenth-century life sciences but also a key technology that shifted experimental practices in animal research from a kind of preindustrial craft to a more mechanized production of knowledge. With its "factory-laboratories," the late-nineteenth-century city became the birthplace for the first living, data-producing hybird---part animal and part machine.

Miniaturisation of Pressure-Sensitive Paint Measurement Systems Using Low-Cost, Miniaturised Machine Vision Cameras

PubMed Central

Spinosa, Emanuele; Roberts, David A.

2017-01-01

Measurements of pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) have been performed using new or non-scientific imaging technology based on machine vision tools. Machine vision camera systems are typically used for automated inspection or process monitoring. Such devices offer the benefits of lower cost and reduced size compared with typically scientific-grade cameras; however, their optical qualities and suitability have yet to be determined. This research intends to show relevant imaging characteristics and also show the applicability of such imaging technology for PSP. Details of camera performance are benchmarked and compared to standard scientific imaging equipment and subsequent PSP tests are conducted using a static calibration chamber. The findings demonstrate that machine vision technology can be used for PSP measurements, opening up the possibility of performing measurements on-board small-scale model such as those used for wind tunnel testing or measurements in confined spaces with limited optical access. PMID:28757553

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: From Energy Applications to Advanced Medical Therapies

ScienceCinema

Tijana Rajh

2017-12-09

Dr. Rajh will present a general talk on nanotechnology – an overview of why nanotechnology is important and how it is useful in various fields. The specific focus will be on Solar energy conversion, environmental applications and advanced medical therapies. She has broad expertise in synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials that are used in nanotechnology including novel hybrid systems connecting semiconductors to biological molecules like DNA and antibodies. This technology could lead to new gene therapy procedures, cancer treatments and other medical applications. She will also discuss technologies made possible by organizing small semiconductor particles called quantum dots, materials that exhibit a rich variety of phenomena that are size and shape dependent. Development of these new materials that harnesses the unique properties of materials at the 1-100 nanometer scale resulted in the new field of nanotechnology that currently affects many applications in technological and medical fields.

The effectiveness of small scale Photovoltaic (PV) systems design and cost analysis simulation on Saudi Arabian Economy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Almansour, Faris Abdullah

The advantages of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are much more than the disadvantages, RES such as solar, wind energy, biomass, and geothermal, which can be used for generating distributed power but cannot directly replace the existing electric energy grid technologies. The latter are far too well established to abandon, while the new RES technologies are not sufficiently developed to meet the total energy demand. Therefore, it is sensible to gradually infuse RES into existing grids and transform the system over time Saudi Arabia (SA) is a semi-developed nation with a population of over twenty nine million people. It is the largest country in western Asia with an area of 2.225MKm2. SA's largest export is oil, owning 1/5 of the world's supply, and producing twelve million barrels a day. However, SA is far behind in developing a smart grid and RES. A lot of this is to do with lack of participation by both the government and the private business sector. Currently SA spends over $13B a year on generating electricity from oil. SA is the largest consumer of petroleum in the Middle East, due to the high demand for transportation and electricity generation. According to the Saudi electrical company, the total amount of generated power in 2011 was 190.280GW. In addition, SA's electricity consumption is currently growing 8% a year. SA aims to generate 55GW of renewable energy by 2020, in order to free up fossil fuels for export. 41GW of the 55GW will be generated from solar energy. Smart grid technologies are also under consideration in SA; this will allow an efficient and reliable way to control the energy in the future. In addition, the potential for wind and geothermal energy is very high. In this thesis, there is a full exploration of RES components which are critical to manage carbon emission and the limitations of the current grid to the new RES technologies, which face barriers to full-scale deployment. A study in Dhahran, SA has been simulated on a installing a Dual-Tariff PV system using HOMER. The result of the simulation has been discussed, analyzed, and plotted. We also give evidence in the thesis how useful the small PV systems can be as oppose to the larger scale system that must deal with location issues.

Reynolds number trend of hierarchies and scale interactions in turbulent boundary layers.

PubMed

Baars, W J; Hutchins, N; Marusic, I

2017-03-13

Small-scale velocity fluctuations in turbulent boundary layers are often coupled with the larger-scale motions. Studying the nature and extent of this scale interaction allows for a statistically representative description of the small scales over a time scale of the larger, coherent scales. In this study, we consider temporal data from hot-wire anemometry at Reynolds numbers ranging from Re τ ≈2800 to 22 800, in order to reveal how the scale interaction varies with Reynolds number. Large-scale conditional views of the representative amplitude and frequency of the small-scale turbulence, relative to the large-scale features, complement the existing consensus on large-scale modulation of the small-scale dynamics in the near-wall region. Modulation is a type of scale interaction, where the amplitude of the small-scale fluctuations is continuously proportional to the near-wall footprint of the large-scale velocity fluctuations. Aside from this amplitude modulation phenomenon, we reveal the influence of the large-scale motions on the characteristic frequency of the small scales, known as frequency modulation. From the wall-normal trends in the conditional averages of the small-scale properties, it is revealed how the near-wall modulation transitions to an intermittent-type scale arrangement in the log-region. On average, the amplitude of the small-scale velocity fluctuations only deviates from its mean value in a confined temporal domain, the duration of which is fixed in terms of the local Taylor time scale. These concentrated temporal regions are centred on the internal shear layers of the large-scale uniform momentum zones, which exhibit regions of positive and negative streamwise velocity fluctuations. With an increasing scale separation at high Reynolds numbers, this interaction pattern encompasses the features found in studies on internal shear layers and concentrated vorticity fluctuations in high-Reynolds-number wall turbulence.This article is part of the themed issue 'Toward the development of high-fidelity models of wall turbulence at large Reynolds number'. © 2017 The Author(s).

MEMS-based flexible reflective analog modulators (FRAM) for projection displays: a technology review and scale-down study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Picard, Francis; Ilias, Samir; Asselin, Daniel; Boucher, Marc-André; Duchesne, François; Jacob, Michel; Larouche, Carl; Vachon, Carl; Niall, Keith K.; Jerominek, Hubert

2011-02-01

A MEMS based technology for projection display is reviewed. This technology relies on mechanically flexible and reflective microbridges made of aluminum alloy. A linear array of such micromirrors is combined with illumination and Schlieren optics to produce a pixels line. Each microbridge in the array is individually controlled using electrostatic actuation to adjust the pixels intensities. Results of the simulation, fabrication and characterization of these microdevices are presented. Activation voltages below 250 V with response times below 10 μs were obtained for 25 μm × 25 μm micromirrors. With appropriate actuation voltage waveforms, response times of 5 μs and less are achievable. A damage threshold of the mirrors above 8 kW/cm2 has been evaluated. Development of the technology has produced projector engines demonstrating this light modulation principle. The most recent of these engines is DVI compatible and displays VGA video streams at 60 Hz. Recently applications have emerged that impose more stringent requirements on the dimensions of the MEMS array and associated optical system. This triggered a scale down study to evaluate the minimum micromirror size achievable, the impact of this reduced size on the damage threshold and the achievable minimum size of the associated optical system. Preliminary results of this scale down study are reported. FRAM with active surface as small as 5 μm × 5 μm have been investigated. Simulations have shown that such micromirrors could be activated with 107 V to achieve f-number of 1.25. The damage threshold has been estimated for various FRAM sizes. Finally, design of a conceptual miniaturized projector based on 1000×1 array of 5 μm × 5 μm micromirrors is presented. The volume of this projector concept is about 12 cm3.

Flexible Ultra Moisture Barrier Film for Thin-Film Photovoltaic Applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

David M. Dean

2012-10-30

Flexible Thin-film photovoltaic (TFPV) is a low cost alternative to incumbent c-Si PV products as it requires less volume of costly semiconductor materials and it can potentially reduce installation cost. Among the TFPV options, copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) has the highest efficiency and is believed to be one of the most attractive candidates to achieve PV cost reduction. However, CIGS cells are very moisture sensitive and require module water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of less than 1x10-4 gram of water per square meter per day (g-H2O/m2/day). Successful development and commercialization of flexible transparent ultra moisture barrier film is themore » key to enable flexible CIGS TFPV products, and thus enable ultimate PV cost reduction. At DuPont, we have demonstrated at lab scale that we can successfully make polymer-based flexible transparent ultra moisture barrier film by depositing alumina on polymer films using atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology. The layer by layer ALD approach results in uniform and amorphous structure which effectively reduces pinhole density of the inorganic coating on the polymer, and thus allow the fabrication of flexible barrier film with WVTR of 10-5 g-H2O/m2/day. Currently ALD is a time-consuming process suitable only for high-value, relatively small substrates. To successfully commercialize the ALD-on-plastic technology for the PV industry, there is the need to scale up this technology and improve throughput. The goal of this contract work was to build a prototype demonstrating that the ALD technology could be scaled-up for commercial use. Unfortunately, the prototype failed to produce an ultra-barrier film by the close of the project.« less

Investigate the complex process in particle-fluid based surface generation technology using reactive molecular dynamics method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Xuesong; Li, Haiyan; Zhao, Fu

2017-07-01

Particle-fluid based surface generation process has already become one of the most important materials processing technology for many advanced materials such as optical crystal, ceramics and so on. Most of the particle-fluid based surface generation technology involves two key process: chemical reaction which is responsible for surface softening; physical behavior which is responsible for materials removal/deformation. Presently, researchers cannot give a reasonable explanation about the complex process in the particle-fluid based surface generation technology because of the small temporal-spatial scale and the concurrent influence of physical-chemical process. Molecular dynamics (MD) method has already been proved to be a promising approach for constructing effective model of atomic scale phenomenon and can serve as a predicting simulation tool in analyzing the complex surface generation mechanism and is employed in this research to study the essence of surface generation. The deformation and piles of water molecule is induced with the feeding of abrasive particle which justifies the property mutation of water at nanometer scale. There are little silica molecule aggregation or materials removal because the water-layer greatly reduce the strength of mechanical interaction between particle and materials surface and minimize the stress concentration. Furthermore, chemical effect is also observed at the interface: stable chemical bond is generated between water and silica which lead to the formation of silconl and the reaction rate changes with the amount of water molecules in the local environment. Novel ring structure is observed in the silica surface and it is justified to be favored of chemical reaction with water molecule. The siloxane bond formation process quickly strengthened across the interface with the feeding of abrasive particle because of the compressive stress resulted by the impacting behavior.

Demonstration of Technologies for Remote and in Situ Sensing of Atmospheric Methane Abundances - a Controlled Release Experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aubrey, A. D.; Thorpe, A. K.; Christensen, L. E.; Dinardo, S.; Frankenberg, C.; Rahn, T. A.; Dubey, M.

2013-12-01

It is critical to constrain both natural and anthropogenic sources of methane to better predict the impact on global climate change. Critical technologies for this assessment include those that can detect methane point and concentrated diffuse sources over large spatial scales. Airborne spectrometers can potentially fill this gap for large scale remote sensing of methane while in situ sensors, both ground-based and mounted on aerial platforms, can monitor and quantify at small to medium spatial scales. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and collaborators recently conducted a field test located near Casper, WY, at the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Test Center (RMOTC). These tests were focused on demonstrating the performance of remote and in situ sensors for quantification of point-sourced methane. A series of three controlled release points were setup at RMOTC and over the course of six experiment days, the point source flux rates were varied from 50 LPM to 2400 LPM (liters per minute). During these releases, in situ sensors measured real-time methane concentration from field towers (downwind from the release point) and using a small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) to characterize spatiotemporal variability of the plume structure. Concurrent with these methane point source controlled releases, airborne sensor overflights were conducted using three aircraft. The NASA Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) participated with a payload consisting of a Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) and an in situ methane sensor. Two imaging spectrometers provided assessment of optical and thermal infrared detection of methane plumes. The AVIRIS-next generation (AVIRIS-ng) sensor has been demonstrated for detection of atmospheric methane in the short wave infrared region, specifically using the absorption features at ~2.3 μm. Detection of methane in the thermal infrared region was evaluated by flying the Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES), retrievals which interrogate spectral features in the 7.5 to 8.5 μm region. Here we discuss preliminary results from the JPL activities during the RMOTC controlled release experiment, including capabilities of airborne sensors for total columnar atmospheric methane detection and comparison to results from ground measurements and dispersion models. Potential application areas for these remote sensing technologies include assessment of anthropogenic and natural methane sources over wide spatial scales that represent significant unconstrained factors to the global methane budget.

Small scale structure on cosmic strings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Albrecht, Andreas

1989-01-01

The current understanding of cosmic string evolution is discussed, and the focus placed on the question of small scale structure on strings, where most of the disagreements lie. A physical picture designed to put the role of the small scale structure into more intuitive terms is presented. In this picture it can be seen how the small scale structure can feed back in a major way on the overall scaling solution. It is also argued that it is easy for small scale numerical errors to feed back in just such a way. The intuitive discussion presented here may form the basis for an analytic treatment of the small scale structure, which argued in any case would be extremely valuable in filling the gaps in the present understanding of cosmic string evolution.

The Structure and Climate of Size: Small Scale Schooling in an Urban District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LeChasseur, Kimberly

2009-01-01

This study explores mechanisms involved in small scale schooling and student engagement. Specifically, this study questions the validity of arguments for small scale schooling reforms that confound the promised effects of small scale schooling "structures" (such as smaller enrollments, schools-within-schools, and smaller class sizes)…

Present and future trends of laser materials processing in Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsunawa, Akira

1991-10-01

Lasers quickly penetrated into Japanese industries in the mid-80s. The paper reviews the present situation of industrial lasers and their applications in Japanese industries for materials removal, joining, and some surface modification technologies as well as their economical evaluation compared with competitive technologies. Laser cutting of metallic and nonmetallic thin sheets is widely prevalent even in small scale industries as a flexible manufacturing tool. As for the laser welding is concerned, industrial applications are rather limited in mass production lines. This mainly comes from the fact that the present laser technologies have not employed the adaptive control because of the lack of sensors, monitoring, and control systems which can tolerate the high-precision and high-speed processing. In spite of this situation, laser welding is rapidly increasing in recent years in industries such as automotive, machinery, electric/electronic, steel, heavy industries, etc. Laser surface modification technologies have attracted significant interest from industrial people, but actual application is very limited today. However, the number of R&D papers is increasing year by year. The paper also reviews these new technology trends in Japan.

On the scaling of small-scale jet noise to large scale

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soderman, Paul T.; Allen, Christopher S.

1992-01-01

An examination was made of several published jet noise studies for the purpose of evaluating scale effects important to the simulation of jet aeroacoustics. Several studies confirmed that small conical jets, one as small as 59 mm diameter, could be used to correctly simulate the overall or perceived noise level (PNL) noise of large jets dominated by mixing noise. However, the detailed acoustic spectra of large jets are more difficult to simulate because of the lack of broad-band turbulence spectra in small jets. One study indicated that a jet Reynolds number of 5 x 10(exp 6) based on exhaust diameter enabled the generation of broad-band noise representative of large jet mixing noise. Jet suppressor aeroacoustics is even more difficult to simulate at small scale because of the small mixer nozzles with flows sensitive to Reynolds number. Likewise, one study showed incorrect ejector mixing and entrainment using a small-scale, short ejector that led to poor acoustic scaling. Conversely, fairly good results were found with a longer ejector and, in a different study, with a 32-chute suppressor nozzle. Finally, it was found that small-scale aeroacoustic resonance produced by jets impacting ground boards does not reproduce at large scale.

On the scaling of small-scale jet noise to large scale

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soderman, Paul T.; Allen, Christopher S.

1992-01-01

An examination was made of several published jet noise studies for the purpose of evaluating scale effects important to the simulation of jet aeroacoustics. Several studies confirmed that small conical jets, one as small as 59 mm diameter, could be used to correctly simulate the overall or PNL noise of large jets dominated by mixing noise. However, the detailed acoustic spectra of large jets are more difficult to simulate because of the lack of broad-band turbulence spectra in small jets. One study indicated that a jet Reynolds number of 5 x 10 exp 6 based on exhaust diameter enabled the generation of broad-band noise representative of large jet mixing noise. Jet suppressor aeroacoustics is even more difficult to simulate at small scale because of the small mixer nozzles with flows sensitive to Reynolds number. Likewise, one study showed incorrect ejector mixing and entrainment using small-scale, short ejector that led to poor acoustic scaling. Conversely, fairly good results were found with a longer ejector and, in a different study, with a 32-chute suppressor nozzle. Finally, it was found that small-scale aeroacoustic resonance produced by jets impacting ground boards does not reproduce at large scale.

Selection and Manufacturing of Membrane Materials for Solar Sails

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryant, Robert G.; Seaman, Shane T.; Wilkie, W. Keats; Miyaucchi, Masahiko; Working, Dennis C.

2013-01-01

Commercial metallized polyimide or polyester films and hand-assembly techniques are acceptable for small solar sail technology demonstrations, although scaling this approach to large sail areas is impractical. Opportunities now exist to use new polymeric materials specifically designed for solar sailing applications, and take advantage of integrated sail manufacturing to enable large-scale solar sail construction. This approach has, in part, been demonstrated on the JAXA IKAROS solar sail demonstrator, and NASA Langley Research Center is now developing capabilities to produce ultrathin membranes for solar sails by integrating resin synthesis with film forming and sail manufacturing processes. This paper will discuss the selection and development of polymer material systems for space, and these new processes for producing ultrathin high-performance solar sail membrane films.

Development of circulation control technology for powered-lift STOL aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Englar, Robert J.

1987-01-01

The flow entraining capabilities of the Circulation Control Wing high lift system were employed to provide an even stronger STOL potential when synergistically combined with upper surface mounted engines. The resulting configurations generate very high supercirculation lift in addition to a vertical component of the pneumatically deflected engine thrust. A series of small scale wind tunnel tests and full scale static thrust deflection tests are discussed which provide a sufficient data base performance. These tests results show thrust deflections of greater than 90 deg produced pneumatically by nonmoving aerodynamic surfaces, and the ability to maintain constant high lift while varying the propulsive force from high thrust recovery required for short takeoff to high drag generation required for short low speed landings.

Assessing Impacts of Climate Change on Food Security Worldwide

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosenzweig, Cynthia E.; Antle, John; Elliott, Joshua

2015-01-01

The combination of a warming Earth and an increasing population will likely strain the world's food systems in the coming decades. Experts involved with the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) focus on quantifying the changes through time. AgMIP, a program begun in 2010, involves about 800 climate scientists, economists, nutritionists, information technology specialists, and crop and livestock experts. In mid-September 2015, the Aspen Global Change Institute convened an AgMIP workshop to draft plans and protocols for assessing global- and regional-scale modeling of crops, livestock, economics, and nutrition across major agricultural regions worldwide. The goal of this Coordinated Global and Regional Integrated Assessments (CGRA) project is to characterize climate effects on large- and small-scale farming systems.

Small, fast, and tough: Shrinking down integrated elastomer transducers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosset, Samuel; Shea, Herbert R.

2016-09-01

We review recent progress in miniaturized dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), sensors, and energy harvesters. We focus primarily on configurations where the large strain, high compliance, stretchability, and high level of integration offered by dielectric elastomer transducers provide significant advantages over other mm or μm-scale transduction technologies. We first present the most active application areas, including: tunable optics, soft robotics, haptics, micro fluidics, biomedical devices, and stretchable sensors. We then discuss the fabrication challenges related to miniaturization, such as thin membrane fabrication, precise patterning of compliant electrodes, and reliable batch fabrication of multilayer devices. We finally address the impact of miniaturization on strain, force, and driving voltage, as well as the important effect of boundary conditions on the performance of mm-scale DEAs.

The Electrochemical Flow Capacitor: Capacitive Energy Storage in Flowable Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dennison, Christopher R.

Electrical energy storage (EES) has emerged as a necessary aspect of grid infrastructure to address the increasing problem of grid instability imposed by the large scale implementation of renewable energy sources (such as wind or solar) on the grid. Rapid energy recovery and storage is critically important to enable immediate and continuous utilization of these resources, and provides other benefits to grid operators and consumers as well. In past decades, there has been significant progress in the development of electrochemical EES technologies which has had an immense impact on the consumer and micro-electronics industries. However, these advances primarily address small-scale storage, and are often not practical at the grid-scale. A new energy storage concept called "the electrochemical flow capacitor (EFC)" has been developed at Drexel which has significant potential to be an attractive technology for grid-scale energy storage. This new concept exploits the characteristics of both supercapacitors and flow batteries, potentially enabling fast response rates with high power density, high efficiency, and long cycle lifetime, while decoupling energy storage from power output (i.e., scalable energy storage capacity). The unique aspect of this concept is the use of flowable carbon-electrolyte slurry ("flowable electrode") as the active material for capacitive energy storage. This dissertation work seeks to lay the scientific groundwork necessary to develop this new concept into a practical technology, and to test the overarching hypothesis that energy can be capacitively stored and recovered from a flowable media. In line with these goals, the objectives of this Ph.D. work are to: i) perform an exploratory investigation of the operating principles and demonstrate the technical viability of this new concept and ii) establish a scientific framework to assess the key linkages between slurry composition, flow cell design, operating conditions and system performance. To achieve these goals, a combined experimental and computational approach is undertaken. The technical viability of the technology is demonstrated, and in-depth studies are performed to understand the coupling between flow rate and slurry conductivity, and localized effects arising within the cell. The outlook of EFCs and other flowable electrode technologies is assessed, and opportunities for future work are discussed.

Technological progress in sealed lead/acid batteries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamashita, J.; Nakashima, H.; Kasai, Y.

A brief review is given of the history of the research and development of sealed lead/acid batteries during the 30 years since, in 1959, the Yuasa Battery Co. introduced a small-sized sealed battery as the power supply for portable television sets. In 1965, Yuasa began the full-scale mass production and sale of a small-sized sealed lead/acid battery under the NOYPER brand. In 1970, the use of a PbCa alloy grid was adopted, and there followed the successful development of a sealed battery with an oxygen-recombination facility. In 1976, Yuasa more or less established the basic technology for the valve-regulated sealed lead/acid battery — the NP battery — which is now the type in general use. Throughout the 1980s, Yuasa, has continued development in order to expand the sphere of application for the production technology of valve-regulated batteries for motorcycles, as well as for stationary duties with large capacities of 100 to 3000 A h. Recently, in order to improve the reliability and boost the output of sealed lead/acid batteries for employment in UPS power sources, Yuasa has been working intently on the design of a valve-regulated lead/acid battery with outstanding characteristics for high-rate discharge and resistance to high temperatures.

Environmental potentials of policy instruments to mitigate nutrient emissions in Chinese livestock production.

PubMed

Zheng, Chaohui; Liu, Yi; Bluemling, Bettina; Mol, Arthur P J; Chen, Jining

2015-01-01

To minimize negative environmental impact of livestock production, policy-makers face a challenge to design and implement more effective policy instruments for livestock farmers at different scales. This research builds an assessment framework on the basis of an agent-based model, named ANEM, to explore nutrient mitigation potentials of five policy instruments, using pig production in Zhongjiang county, southwest China, as the empirical filling. The effects of different policy scenarios are simulated and compared using four indicators and differentiating between small, medium and large scale pig farms. Technology standards, biogas subsidies and information provisioning prove to be the most effective policies, while pollution fees and manure markets fail to environmentally improve manure management in pig livestock farming. Medium-scale farms are the more relevant scale category for a more environmentally sound development of Chinese livestock production. A number of policy recommendations are formulated as conclusion, as well as some limitations and prospects of the simulations are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Multiscale infrared and visible image fusion using gradient domain guided image filtering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Jin; Jin, Weiqi; Li, Li; Han, Zhenghao; Wang, Xia

2018-03-01

For better surveillance with infrared and visible imaging, a novel hybrid multiscale decomposition fusion method using gradient domain guided image filtering (HMSD-GDGF) is proposed in this study. In this method, hybrid multiscale decomposition with guided image filtering and gradient domain guided image filtering of source images are first applied before the weight maps of each scale are obtained using a saliency detection technology and filtering means with three different fusion rules at different scales. The three types of fusion rules are for small-scale detail level, large-scale detail level, and base level. Finally, the target becomes more salient and can be more easily detected in the fusion result, with the detail information of the scene being fully displayed. After analyzing the experimental comparisons with state-of-the-art fusion methods, the HMSD-GDGF method has obvious advantages in fidelity of salient information (including structural similarity, brightness, and contrast), preservation of edge features, and human visual perception. Therefore, visual effects can be improved by using the proposed HMSD-GDGF method.

Materials and structure synergistic with in-space materials utilization. [as means of reducing costs of space missions, colonization, and settlements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramohalli, Kumar; Shadman, Farhang; Sridhar, K. R.

1992-01-01

The significant advances made recently toward actual hardware realizations of various concepts for the application of in-space materials utilization (ISMU) are demonstrated. The overall plan for taking innovative concepts through technical feasibility, small-scale tests, scale-up, computer modeling, and larger-scale execution is outlined. Two specific fields of endeavor are surveyed: one has direct applications to construction on the moon, while the other has more basic implications, in addition to the practical aspects of lunar colonies. Several fundamental scientific advances made in the characterization of the physical and chemical processes that need to be elucidated for any intelligent application of the ISMU concepts in future space missions are described. A rigorous quantitative technique for the unambiguous evaluation of various components and component technology that form any space (or terrestrial mission) is also described.

Scalable ion-photon quantum interface based on integrated diffractive mirrors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghadimi, Moji; Blūms, Valdis; Norton, Benjamin G.; Fisher, Paul M.; Connell, Steven C.; Amini, Jason M.; Volin, Curtis; Hayden, Harley; Pai, Chien-Shing; Kielpinski, David; Lobino, Mirko; Streed, Erik W.

2017-12-01

Quantum networking links quantum processors through remote entanglement for distributed quantum information processing and secure long-range communication. Trapped ions are a leading quantum information processing platform, having demonstrated universal small-scale processors and roadmaps for large-scale implementation. Overall rates of ion-photon entanglement generation, essential for remote trapped ion entanglement, are limited by coupling efficiency into single mode fibers and scaling to many ions. Here, we show a microfabricated trap with integrated diffractive mirrors that couples 4.1(6)% of the fluorescence from a 174Yb+ ion into a single mode fiber, nearly triple the demonstrated bulk optics efficiency. The integrated optic collects 5.8(8)% of the π transition fluorescence, images the ion with sub-wavelength resolution, and couples 71(5)% of the collected light into the fiber. Our technology is suitable for entangling multiple ions in parallel and overcomes mode quality limitations of existing integrated optical interconnects.

Spatial Distribution of Stony Desertification and Key Influencing Factors on Different Sampling Scales in Small Karst Watersheds

PubMed Central

Zhang, Zhenming; Zhou, Yunchao; Wang, Shijie

2018-01-01

Karst areas are typical ecologically fragile areas, and stony desertification has become the most serious ecological and economic problems in these areas worldwide as well as a source of disasters and poverty. A reasonable sampling scale is of great importance for research on soil science in karst areas. In this paper, the spatial distribution of stony desertification characteristics and its influencing factors in karst areas are studied at different sampling scales using a grid sampling method based on geographic information system (GIS) technology and geo-statistics. The rock exposure obtained through sampling over a 150 m × 150 m grid in the Houzhai River Basin was utilized as the original data, and five grid scales (300 m × 300 m, 450 m × 450 m, 600 m × 600 m, 750 m × 750 m, and 900 m × 900 m) were used as the subsample sets. The results show that the rock exposure does not vary substantially from one sampling scale to another, while the average values of the five subsamples all fluctuate around the average value of the entire set. As the sampling scale increases, the maximum value and the average value of the rock exposure gradually decrease, and there is a gradual increase in the coefficient of variability. At the scale of 150 m × 150 m, the areas of minor stony desertification, medium stony desertification, and major stony desertification in the Houzhai River Basin are 7.81 km2, 4.50 km2, and 1.87 km2, respectively. The spatial variability of stony desertification at small scales is influenced by many factors, and the variability at medium scales is jointly influenced by gradient, rock content, and rock exposure. At large scales, the spatial variability of stony desertification is mainly influenced by soil thickness and rock content. PMID:29652811

Spatial Distribution of Stony Desertification and Key Influencing Factors on Different Sampling Scales in Small Karst Watersheds.

PubMed

Zhang, Zhenming; Zhou, Yunchao; Wang, Shijie; Huang, Xianfei

2018-04-13

Karst areas are typical ecologically fragile areas, and stony desertification has become the most serious ecological and economic problems in these areas worldwide as well as a source of disasters and poverty. A reasonable sampling scale is of great importance for research on soil science in karst areas. In this paper, the spatial distribution of stony desertification characteristics and its influencing factors in karst areas are studied at different sampling scales using a grid sampling method based on geographic information system (GIS) technology and geo-statistics. The rock exposure obtained through sampling over a 150 m × 150 m grid in the Houzhai River Basin was utilized as the original data, and five grid scales (300 m × 300 m, 450 m × 450 m, 600 m × 600 m, 750 m × 750 m, and 900 m × 900 m) were used as the subsample sets. The results show that the rock exposure does not vary substantially from one sampling scale to another, while the average values of the five subsamples all fluctuate around the average value of the entire set. As the sampling scale increases, the maximum value and the average value of the rock exposure gradually decrease, and there is a gradual increase in the coefficient of variability. At the scale of 150 m × 150 m, the areas of minor stony desertification, medium stony desertification, and major stony desertification in the Houzhai River Basin are 7.81 km², 4.50 km², and 1.87 km², respectively. The spatial variability of stony desertification at small scales is influenced by many factors, and the variability at medium scales is jointly influenced by gradient, rock content, and rock exposure. At large scales, the spatial variability of stony desertification is mainly influenced by soil thickness and rock content.

An item response theory analysis of the Olweus Bullying scale.

PubMed

Breivik, Kyrre; Olweus, Dan

2014-12-02

In the present article, we used IRT (graded response) modeling as a useful technology for a detailed and refined study of the psychometric properties of the various items of the Olweus Bullying scale and the scale itself. The sample consisted of a very large number of Norwegian 4th-10th grade students (n = 48 926). The IRT analyses revealed that the scale was essentially unidimensional and had excellent reliability in the upper ranges of the latent bullying tendency trait, as intended and desired. Gender DIF effects were identified with regard to girls' use of indirect bullying by social exclusion and boys' use of physical bullying by hitting and kicking but these effects were small and worked in opposite directions, having negligible effects at the scale level. Also scale scores adjusted for DIF effects differed very little from non-adjusted scores. In conclusion, the empirical data were well characterized by the chosen IRT model and the Olweus Bullying scale was considered well suited for the conduct of fair and reliable comparisons involving different gender-age groups. Information Aggr. Behav. 9999:XX-XX, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

An item response theory analysis of the Olweus Bullying scale.

PubMed

Breivik, Kyrre; Olweus, Dan

2015-01-01

In the present article, we used IRT (graded response) modeling as a useful technology for a detailed and refined study of the psychometric properties of the various items of the Olweus Bullying scale and the scale itself. The sample consisted of a very large number of Norwegian 4th-10th grade students (n = 48 926). The IRT analyses revealed that the scale was essentially unidimensional and had excellent reliability in the upper ranges of the latent bullying tendency trait, as intended and desired. Gender DIF effects were identified with regard to girls' use of indirect bullying by social exclusion and boys' use of physical bullying by hitting and kicking but these effects were small and worked in opposite directions, having negligible effects at the scale level. Also scale scores adjusted for DIF effects differed very little from non-adjusted scores. In conclusion, the empirical data were well characterized by the chosen IRT model and the Olweus Bullying scale was considered well suited for the conduct of fair and reliable comparisons involving different gender-age groups. Information Aggr. Behav. 41:1-13, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The most common friend first immunization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nian, Fu-Zhong; Hu, Cha-Sheng

2016-12-01

In this paper, a standard susceptible-infected-recovered-susceptible(SIRS) epidemic model based on the Watts-Strogatz (WS) small-world network model and the Barabsi-Albert (BA) scale-free network model is established, and a new immunization scheme — “the most common friend first immunization” is proposed, in which the most common friend’s node is described as being the first immune on the second layer protection of complex networks. The propagation situations of three different immunization schemes — random immunization, high-risk immunization, and the most common friend first immunization are studied. At the same time, the dynamic behaviors are also studied on the WS small-world and the BA scale-free network. Moreover, the analytic and simulated results indicate that the immune effect of the most common friend first immunization is better than random immunization, but slightly worse than high-risk immunization. However, high-risk immunization still has some limitations. For example, it is difficult to accurately define who a direct neighbor in the life is. Compared with the traditional immunization strategies having some shortcomings, the most common friend first immunization is effective, and it is nicely consistent with the actual situation. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61263019), the Program for International Science and Technology Cooperation Projects of Gansu Province, China (Grant No. 144WCGA166), and the Program for Longyuan Young Innovation Talents and the Doctoral Foundation of Lanzhou University of Technology, China.

Cosmic microwave background polarimetry with ABS and ACT: Instrumental design, characterization, and analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simon, Sara Michelle

The LCDM model of the universe is supported by an abundance of astronomical observations, but it does not confirm a period of inflation in the early universe or explain the nature of dark energy and dark matter. The polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) may hold the key to addressing these profound questions. If a period of inflation occurred in the early universe, it could have left a detectable odd-parity pattern called B-modes in the polarization of the CMB on large angular scales. Additionally, the CMB can be used to probe the structure of the universe on small angular scales through lensing and the detection of galaxy clusters and their motions via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, which can improve our understanding of neutrinos, dark matter, and dark energy. The Atacama B-mode Search (ABS) instrument was a cryogenic crossed-Dragone telescope located at an elevation of 5190m in the Atacama Desert in Chile that observed from February 2012 until October 2014. ABS searched on degree-angular scales for inflationary B-modes in the CMB and pioneered the use of a rapidly-rotating half-wave plate (HWP), which modulates the polarization of incoming light to permit the measurement of celestial polarization on large angular scales that would otherwise be obscured by 1/f noise from the atmosphere. Located next to ABS in the Atacama is the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), which is an off-axis Gregorian telescope. Its large 6m primary mirror facilitates measurements of the CMB on small angular scales. HWPs are baselined for use with the upgraded polarization-sensitive camera for ACT, called Advanced ACTPol, to extend observations of the polarized CMB to larger angular scales while also retaining sensitivity to small angular scales. The B-mode signal is extremely faint, and measuring it poses an instrumental challenge that requires the development of new technologies and well-characterized instruments. I will discuss the use of novel instrumentation and methods on the ABS telescope and Advanced ACTPol, the characterization of the ABS instrument, and the first two seasons of ABS data, including an overview of the data selection process.

Adsorption of triazine herbicides from aqueous solution by functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes grown on silicon substrate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Archivio, Angelo Antonio; Maggi, Maria Anna; Odoardi, Antonella; Santucci, Sandro; Passacantando, Maurizio

2018-02-01

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), because of their small size and large available surface area, are potentially efficient sorbents for the extraction of water solutes. Dispersion of MWCNTs in aqueous medium is suitable to adsorb organic contaminants from small sample volumes, but, the recovery of the suspended sorbent for successive re-use represents a critical step, which makes this method inapplicable in large-scale water-treatment technologies. To overcome this problem, we proposed here MWCNTs grown on silicon supports and investigated on a small-volume scale their adsorption properties towards triazine herbicides dissolved in water. The adsorption efficiency of the supported MWCNTs has been tested on seven triazine herbicides, which are emerging water contaminants in Europe and USA, because of their massive use, persistence in soils and potential risks for the aquatic organisms and human health. The investigated compounds, in spite of their common molecular skeleton, cover a relatively large property range in terms of both solubility in water and hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity. The functionalisation of MWCNTs carried out by acidic oxidation, apart from increasing wettability of the material, results in a better adsorption performance. Increasing of functionalisation time between 17 and 60 h progressively increases the extraction of all seven pesticides and produces a moderate increment of selectivity.

Optimization study of small-scale solar membrane distillation desalination systems (s-SMDDS).

PubMed

Chang, Hsuan; Chang, Cheng-Liang; Hung, Chen-Yu; Cheng, Tung-Wen; Ho, Chii-Dong

2014-11-24

Membrane distillation (MD), which can utilize low-grade thermal energy, has been extensively studied for desalination. By incorporating solar thermal energy, the solar membrane distillation desalination system (SMDDS) is a potential technology for resolving energy and water resource problems. Small-scale SMDDS (s-SMDDS) is an attractive and viable option for the production of fresh water for small communities in remote arid areas. The minimum cost design and operation of s-SMDDS are determined by a systematic method, which involves a pseudo-steady-state approach for equipment sizing and dynamic optimization using overall system mathematical models. Two s-SMDDS employing an air gap membrane distillation module with membrane areas of 11.5 m(2) and 23 m(2) are analyzed. The lowest water production costs are $5.92/m(3) and $5.16/m(3) for water production rates of 500 kg/day and 1000 kg/day, respectively. For these two optimal cases, the performance ratios are 0.85 and 0.91; the recovery ratios are 4.07% and 4.57%. The effect of membrane characteristics on the production cost is investigated. For the commercial membrane employed in this study, the increase of the membrane mass transfer coefficient up to two times is beneficial for cost reduction.

Optimization Study of Small-Scale Solar Membrane Distillation Desalination Systems (s-SMDDS)

PubMed Central

Chang, Hsuan; Chang, Cheng-Liang; Hung, Chen-Yu; Cheng, Tung-Wen; Ho, Chii-Dong

2014-01-01

Membrane distillation (MD), which can utilize low-grade thermal energy, has been extensively studied for desalination. By incorporating solar thermal energy, the solar membrane distillation desalination system (SMDDS) is a potential technology for resolving energy and water resource problems. Small-scale SMDDS (s-SMDDS) is an attractive and viable option for the production of fresh water for small communities in remote arid areas. The minimum cost design and operation of s-SMDDS are determined by a systematic method, which involves a pseudo-steady-state approach for equipment sizing and dynamic optimization using overall system mathematical models. Two s-SMDDS employing an air gap membrane distillation module with membrane areas of 11.5 m2 and 23 m2 are analyzed. The lowest water production costs are $5.92/m3 and $5.16/m3 for water production rates of 500 kg/day and 1000 kg/day, respectively. For these two optimal cases, the performance ratios are 0.85 and 0.91; the recovery ratios are 4.07% and 4.57%. The effect of membrane characteristics on the production cost is investigated. For the commercial membrane employed in this study, the increase of the membrane mass transfer coefficient up to two times is beneficial for cost reduction. PMID:25421065