The influence of the noise field on parametric oscillations of flexible square plates

This paper examines the impact of the external field intensity of white noise on the nonlinear dynamics of square plates under the longitudinal load. It is shown that in some cases, the noise of high intensity is able to reduce the number of frequencies in the oscillation spectrum of the system.     

Heavy ion induced changes in small intestinal parameters.

The effects on 17 different structural parameters of mouse small intestine three days after treatment with three types of heavy ion (neon, iron and niobium) are compared, the first two being of particular relevance to space flight. The data for niobium are given in full, showing that changes after niobium ion treatment are not standard and are concentrated in the epithelial compartment, with few of the parameters having a response which is dose dependent. When comparisons are made for the three types of heavy ion, the damage is greatest after neon ion irradiation, implying that the additional non-epithelial damage produced as LET rises from X rays through neutrons to neon ions is not necessarily maintained as LET continues to rise. Further understanding is therefore needed of the balance between changes affecting the vascular and absorptive components of the organ. Variation from group to group is also important, as is variation of strain or gastrointestinal status. All such factors are important in the understanding of changes in multicellular organs after exposure to heavy ion radiation.     

Hypersonic flows over slender circular cones at small angles of attack

This paper presents a perturbation theory for hypersonic flows past pointed-nose slender bodies of revolution at small angles of attack. The theory presents the counter part of other theories on two-dimensional flow, axisymmetric flow, and flow past delta wings, in the case of bodies of revolution. Further restricting the analysis to Newtonian flow, a straightforward perturbation in the angle of attack is applied to the equations obtained and the resulting equations are solved only for circular cones. A striking feature of this approach is the absence of a vortical layer and a uniformally valid solution at body surface and all over the flowfield. In spite of the yaw angle, conical streamlines at cone surface are predicted which bend around towards the leeward plane. Results obtained for the surface pressure and the shock wave of a circular cone compare very well with other approximate calculations and experiment.     

A passive tracking filter for missile capture

A practical filter is suggested for ground-based missile tracking in a capture-guidance mode utilizing angle-only measurements from a passive missile sensor, and its performance is evaluated by a realistic system-simulation study. A missile-acceleration model that provides inputs to the filter is also suggested. The filter has a decoupled structure of independent azimuth and elevation channels, which requires fewer computations in solving the filter gain compared to a coupled structure. Simulation results show good tracking performance of the filter when used in association with the proposed missile-acceleration model     

Atmospheric dynamics and bioregenerative technologies in a soil-based ecological life support system: initial results from Biosphere 2.

Biosphere 2 is the first man-made, soil-based, bioregenerative life support system to be developed and tested. The utilization and amendment of local space resources, e.g. martian soil or lunar regolith, for agricultural and other purposes will be necessary if we are to minimize the requirement for Earth materials in the creation of long-term off-planet bases and habitations. Several of the roles soil plays in Biosphere 2 are 1) for air purification 2) as a key component in created wetland systems to recycle human and animal wastes and 3) as nutrient base for a sustainable agricultural cropping program. Initial results from the Biosphere 2 closure experiment are presented. These include the accelerated cycling rates due to small reservoir sizes, strong diurnal and seasonal fluxes in atmospheric CO2, an unexpected and continuing decline in atmospheric oxygen, overall maintenance of low levels of trace gases, recycling of waste waters through biological regeneration systems, and operation of an agriculture designed to provide diverse and nutritionally adequate diets for the crew members.     

Some practical strategies for reducing intermodulation in satellitecommunications

Various heuristic procedures for obtaining practical solutions to the general one-level carrier frequency assignment problem are described. The problem treated is general in the sense that it accommodates the case where L of the N slots may be explicitly designated as prohibited and unavailable for assignment. This problem occurs in satellite transmission with many small carriers accessing the same transponder where, due to multipath and TV interference from crosspolarized transponders of the same satellite and from copolarized transponders of the adjacent satellites, some portions of the bandwidth of the considered transponder cannot be used. To permit comparison with respect to the intermodulation advantage and central-processing-unit time required, the case without prohibited slots is considered. The sequential insertion procedure in which, starting with two carriers at the two end slots, one additional carrier at a time is optimally inserted into one of the unassigned slots is found best when the ratio between the available bandwidth and the total carrier bandwidth is greater than about 125%. All the heuristic procedures produced assignments whose intermodulation advantages are all greater than the bandwidth ratio     

The benefits of using ATE systems in the testing of printed circuitboards

An industry-based pragmatic review is provided of the economic and product-quality consequences of automatic test equipment (ATE) usage in printed circuit board testing. The company selection process, the nature of the industrial participants, and the data collection process are described. The benefits obtained by users are identified. It is demonstrated that the use of ATE systems does result in definable economic and quality-level benefits     

Detection of Projectiles by Electric Field Measurements

A number of various physical mechanisms cause aircraft, missiles, and projectiles to he electrically charged during free flight. The electric charge is in the 10-6 C range for aircraft and in the 10-10 C range for projectiles. The electric field thus transported provides information by which measuring the position and velocity of a projectile is possible. A measuring device is described to determine the position of a projectile in free flight while it is passing a target plane. The electric field distribution is measured by means of three electrodes in the manner of metal plates which are positioned in the proximity of the trajectory of the projectile. A mathematical formula can be derived to describe the coherence between the values measured of the electric field strength and the coordinates of the projectile. This measuring device consists of the target plane, 1 × 1 m2 in size, and the electric device controlled by a microprocessor. The measuring system has been tested with projectiles of the 4-30 mm caliber range and at velocities within the 50-1100 m/s range. The accuracy of the coordinates measured was found to be ± 7.5 mm.