Control of microorganisms in flowing nutrient solutions.

Controlling microorganisms in flowing nutrient solutions involves different techniques when targeting the nutrient solution, hardware surfaces in contact with the solution, or the active root zone. This review presents basic principles and applications of a number of treatment techniques, including disinfection by chemicals, ultrafiltration, ultrasonics, and heat treatment, with emphasis on UV irradiation and ozone treatment. Procedures for control of specific pathogens by nutrient solution conditioning also are reviewed.     

A new deterministic VXI highway interconnect

Programs based upon the VXIbus modular instrumentation standard are playing a significant role in test systems for both defense and commercial applications. Typical single-chassis VXI systems include an embedded computer-based controller as the system host. Multi-chassis systems generally use a parallel bus or a local area network, such as Ethernet, to interconnect the chassis. An important class of multi-chassis test systems requires high I/O throughput, low latency and a highly deterministic I/O response. This paper describes a new highway interconnect system that includes host computer interface options for VMEbus, EISA and PCI bus. A typical system is configured with a host interface, a fiber-optic highway “loop” and slot-0 controllers in the VXI chassis. The system supports up to 126 VXI chassis, an aggregate I/O throughput of 10 megabytes per second, extremely low latency and a highly deterministic I/O response. Typical applications, including jet aircraft engine testing, missile test systems and high-performance wind tunnel data systems are discussed     

Optimal radar threshold determination in Weibull clutter andGaussian noise

A technique is presented for determining the ideal detection threshold when Gaussian noise and Weibull distributed clutter returns are present on a radar receiver and neither is dominant. Quantitative data is presented for several clutter types and false alarm probabilities     

Target detection and tracking with HF radar using reciprocal SARtechniques

Sustained research and development at Memorial University of Newfoundland has led to an operational High Frequency Ground Wave Radar (HF-GWR) system for coastal surveillance. This radar system has demonstrated over-the-horizon detection of targets such as vessels, ice hazards and low-flying aircraft, and performed ocean parameter measurements over a large area. The industrial developers of offshore hydrocarbon reserves in ice infested regions have an urgent requirement for the long range detection and tracking of icebergs from their production platforms. However, due to space restrictions, a rig- or ship-based system can only accommodate a compact antenna array. The uniform trajectory and low velocity of icebergs is ideal for Reciprocal Synthetic Aperture Radar (RSAR) processing with long target dwell times. The proven ice detection capability of HF-GWR systems, coupled with the compact antennas suggested by the RSAR technique, can be used to develop a rig- or ship-based all-weather surveillance device for ice hazards. It is also anticipated that the results of this research will allow the use of shorter antenna arrays for many other applications. Preliminary results using real data from the operational HF-GWR system are presented     

Possible contribution of different energy sources to the production of organics in Titan's atmosphere.

A quantitative comparison of the products arising from the irradiation of a Titan's simulated atmosphere is presented. The energy sources used represent some of the main events that occur in the satellite's atmosphere. All of the compounds identified are classified in the hydrocarbon and nitrile chemical families. Almost all of the detected compounds in Titan's atmosphere are produced by one or more energy sources. The compounds with the highest energy yields include the C2 hydrocarbons, methanonitrile and ethanonitrile. The possibility of using some of the produced organics as tracer compounds during the Huygens descend to identify the leading energy form in the different atmospheric levels remains open.     

Infrared spectrometer PFS for the Mars 94 orbiter

Thin films containing a mixture of aliphatic (glycine) and aromatic (tryptophan or tyrosine) amino acids were exposed to a vacuum ultraviolet radiation (VUV) with wavelenghts 100–200 nm. Dipeptides (glycyl-tryptophan and glycyl-tyrosine) were synthesized in these conditions. We compared the actions of VUV and γ-radiation. Polymerization is an essential step in prebiological evolution and we have shown that this stage probably occured over an early Solar system history.     

Evolution of the Martian water cycle.

The current Martian water cycle is extremely asymmetric, with large amounts of vapor subliming off a permanent north polar water ice cap in northern summer, but with no apparent major source of water vapor in the southern hemisphere. Detailed simulations of this process with a three-dimensional circulation model indicate that the summertime interhemispheric exchange (Hadley cell) is very much stronger than transport by eddies in other seasons. As a result, water ice would be distributed globally were it not for the buffering action of regolith soil adsorption which limits the net flux of water vapor off the north polar cap to amounts that are insignificant even on the scale of thousands of years. It has been suggested that the polar layered deposits are the result of exchange on these long time scales, driven by changes in Martian orbital parameters. We therefore are conducting simulations to test the effect of varied orbital parameters on the Martian water cycle. We find that when the perihelion summer pole is charged with a polar water ice cap, large quantities of water are quickly transfered to the aphelion summer pole, setting up an annual cycle that resembles the present one. Thus, the adsorptivity of the Martian regolith may be in the narrow range where it can limit net transport from the aphelion but not the perihelion pole.     

A low-cost space-based radar system concept

A space-based radar system concept is described that can provide continuous world-wide, all-weather, day-night observation and tracking of ships, aircraft, vehicles and ground facilities of interest. The system employs a constellation of radar satellites in low-earth orbit to provide continuous world-wide target access. The radars employ reflector antennas, TWT transmitters and high frequency (e.g., X band) to achieve long range with relatively low weight, complexity and cost. The radars operate in moving-target-detection (MTD) and synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) spotlight imaging modes to observe moving and fixed targets, respectively. The system could support a wide range of military, intelligence, law-enforcement and civilian missions     

Origin of organic compounds in carbonaceous chondrites.

Carbonaceous chondrites, a class of primitive meteorite, have long been known to contain their complement of carbon largely in the form of organic, i.e., hydrocarbon-related, matter. Both discrete organic compounds and an insoluble, macromolecular material are present. Several characteristics of these materials provide evidence for their abiotic origin. The principal formation hypotheses have invoked chemistry occurring either in the solar nebula or on the parent body. However, recent stable isotope analyses of the meteorite carboxylic acids and amino acids indicate that they may be related to interstellar cloud compounds. These results suggest a formation scheme in which interstellar compounds were incorporated into the parent body and subsequently converted to the present suite of meteorite organics by the hydrothermal process believed to have formed the clay minerals of the meteorite matrix.