Biological responses to space: results of the experiment "Exobiological Unit" of ERA on EURECA I.

Spores of different strains of Bacillus subtilis and the Escherichia coli plasmid pUC19 were exposed to selected conditions of space (space vacuum and/or defined wavebands and intensities of solar ultraviolet radiation) in the experiment ER 161 "Exobiological Unit" of the Exobiology Radiation Assembly (ERA) on board of the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA). After the approximately 11 months lasting mission, their responses were studied in terms of survival, mutagenesis in the his (B. subtilis) or lac locus (pUC19), induction of DNA strand breaks, efficiency of DNA repair systems, and the role of external protective agents. The data were compared with those of a simultaneously running ground control experiment. The survival of spores treated with the vacuum of space, however shielded against solar radiation, is substantially increased, if they are exposed in multilayers and/or in the presence of glucose as protective, whereas all spores in "artificial meteorites", i.e. embedded in clays or simulated Martian soil, are killed. Vacuum treatment leads to an increase of mutation frequency in spores, but not in plasmid DNA. Extraterrestrial solar ultraviolet radiation is mutagenic, induces strand breaks in the DNA and reduces survival substantially; however, even at the highest fluences, i.e. 3 x 10(8) J m-2, a small but significant fraction of spores survives the insolation. Action spectroscopy confirms results of previous space experiments of a synergistic action of space vacuum and solar UV radiation with DNA being the critical target.     

Influence of graviceptives cues at different level of visual information processing: the effect of prolonged weightlessness

We evaluated the influence of prolonged weightlessness on the performance of visual tasks in the course of the Russian-French missions ANTARES, Post-ANTARES and ALTAIR aboard the MIR station. Eight cosmonauts were subjects in two experiments executed pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight sessions.

In the first experiment, cosmonauts performed a task of symmetry detection in 2-D polygons. The results indicate that this detection is locked in a head retinal reference frame rather than in an environmentally defined one as meridional orientations of symmetry axis (vertical and horizontal) elicited faster response times than oblique ones. However, in weightlessness the saliency of a retinally vertical axis of symmetry is no longer significantly different from an horizontal axis. In the second experiment, cosmonauts performed a mental rotation task in which they judged whether two 3-D objects presented in different orientations were identical. Performance on this task is basically identical in weightlessness and normal gravity.     

The effect of head-down tilt on brain potentials related to visual attention

To study the possible effect of simulated weightlessness on brain function state, the brain event-related potentials (ERPs) in a simple visual selective response task were compared between HDT and HUT in 9 normal subjects. The results were: The Target(T) and non-Target(NT) flash signals both induced significant slow positive potentials which were supposed to related to the attention state; the amplitude of the positive potentials in frontal regions decreased significantly especially for NT-ERPs during HDT comprared with that during HUT. The data reported provide new evidence indicating that more attention should be paid on the brain function study during space flight.     

Effect of potassium and calcium loading on healthy subjects under hypokinesia and physical exercise with fluid and salt supplements

The objective of this investigation was to determine the acute responses to the electrolyte challenges under hypokinesia and physical exercise (PE) of different intensities with fluid and salt supplementation (FSS). The studies were performed on 12 physically healthy male volunteers aged 19-24 years under 364 days of hypokinesia (decreased number of steps per day) with a set of PE with FSS. The volunteers were divided into two equal groups. The first group was subjected to a set of intensive PE and the second group was submitted to a set of moderate PE. Both groups of subjects consumed daily water and salt supplements that aimed to increase the body hydration level. For simulation of the hypokinetic effect all subjects were kept under an average of 3000 steps per day. Functional tests with a potassium chloride (KCl) and calcium lactate (Cal) load were performed during the hypokinetic period of 364 days and the 60-day, prehypokinetic period that served as control, while both groups of subjects consumed daily calcium and potassium supplements. The concentration of electrolyte and hormone levels in the blood and their excretion rate in urine were determined. Renal excretion of calcium and potassium and the blood concentration thereof increased markedly in both groups of subjects. With the potassium chloride load tests the increased potassium excretion was accompanied by higher aldosterone and insulin blood levels, and with the calcium lactate load tests the increased calcium excretion was accompanied by a decreased parathyroid content in the blood. FSS and PE, regardless of intensity, failed to attenuate calcium and potassium losses. Additional intake of KCl and Cal also failed to normalize potassium and calcium abnormalities. It was concluded that during the KCl and Cal loading tests, the increased losses of potassium and calcium in the hypokinetic subjects were due to the inability of their bodies to retain these electrolytes, and that electrolyte abnormalities could not be reversed by PE or rehydration in individuals subjected to prolonged restriction of motor activity.     

壁压法在非矩形风洞中的应用

 解决大攻角洞壁干扰修正的壁压法,是利用一定数量固定位置和形状的线源和线涡来模拟风洞内模型的堵塞效应和升力效应。矩形风洞实验段边界对绕模型流动的影响,可用两个方向有限层的镜像线源和线涡来代替,并利用在风洞上下壁和侧壁上测压点处测量所得     

用非线性模型分析气动液阀的启动特性

对气动液阀的启动过程建立了非线性数学模型,分析了尺寸参数和推进剂进、出口压力对该阀的启动特性的影响。计算结果表明：在保证必要的工作寿命的前提下,适当地增大控制腔气孔的直径或增大靠近控制腔的活塞端面直径,降低推进剂进口和出口的压力有利于提高该阀的响应能力。     

Robust space-time adaptive processing for airborne radar in nonhomogeneous clutter environments

Space-time adaptive processing (STAP) holds tremendous potential for the new generation airborne surveillance radar, in which the phased array antennas and pulse Doppler processing mode are adopted. A new STAP approach using the multiple-beam and multiple Doppler channels is presented here for airborne phased array radar. The approach with space-time multiple-beam (STMB) architecture is robust to array errors and has very low system degrees of freedom (DOFs). Hence, it has low sample support requirement and it is very suitable for the practical planar phased array radar under nonhomogeneous clutter environments. Meanwhile, a new nonhomogeneous detector (NHD) based on the correlation dimension (CD) is also proposed here, which is used as an effective method to screen tracing data prior to detection processing. It can further improve the performance of the STAP approach in the severely nonhomogeneous clutter environments. Therefore, a scheme that incorporates the correlation dimension nonhomogeneity detector (CD-NHD) with the STMB is recommended, which we term CD-NHD-STMB. The experimental simulation results indicate that: 1) the STMB processor is robust to array element error and has high performance under nonhomogeneous clutter environments; 2) the CD-NHD is also effective on the nonhomogeneous clutter. As a result, the CD-NHD-STMB scheme is robust to array element error and nonhomogeneous clutter, and therefore available for airborne phased array radar applications.     

单刻线样板检定装置测量不确定度分析

分析了单刻线样板检定装置的测量不确定度，并分析了用该检定装置检定的单刻线样板的不确定度。     

民用飞机初始备件计划研究及系统软件实现

国内民用航空制造业如今正在加速发展，而相应的备件工程与波音、空客都还是有一定的差距。结合ARJ21飞机项目研究了民用飞机初始备件计划模型，并在此基础上开发了备件计划软件系统，完成了初始备件计划工作的计算机化。     

旋转环形截面弯管内流场结构及换热特性

环形截面弯管围绕其中心轴旋转时，同时受到科氏力和离心力作用，弯管内的对流换热更为复杂，本文对旋转环形截面弯管内的流动特性和温度分布进行了数值分析。结果表明：旋转环形截面弯管内的换热特性主要由Dn数，F数（科氏力和离心力之比),Pr数，和δ值（内外径之比）决定；文中给出并分析了在不同δ下流场结构与摩擦系数比随F数的变化特性和随Dn数的变化规律，并给出了在不同δ和Pr数情况下，温度场和管道Nu数随F数和Dn数的变化规律。