Power law distribution in statistics of failures in operation of spacecraft onboard equipment

The possibility of using the statistics of recurrence time for extreme events is studied in this paper having in mind the problems of control and prediction of failures in spacecraft operation. The information about failures onboard satellites of various types presented by the US National Geophysical Data Center was analyzed. It was found that the probability density of recurrence intervals followed a power law of the Pareto type with an index equal to 2.3. The obtained result is consistent both with the theory of normal catastrophes and with the principle of self-organization of criticality for metastable active heterogeneous environment. A practical consequence of the obtained result consists in the fact that predictions of these extreme events should not rely on traditional models with the second-order Pearson statistics. To make predictions, the models are necessary that take into account the power law distribution of recurrence intervals for failures on satellites. The failures should be considered in these models as extreme events connected with manifestation of the space environment factors.     

Adaptive boosting for SAR automatic target recognition

The paper proposed a novel automatic target recognition (ATR) system for classification of three types of ground vehicles in the moving and stationary target acquisition and recognition (MSTAR) public release database. First MSTAR image chips are represented as fine and raw feature vectors, where raw features compensate for the target pose estimation error that corrupts fine image features. Then, the chips are classified by using the adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) algorithm with the radial basis function (RBF) network as the base learner. Since the RBF network is a binary classifier, the multiclass problem was decomposed into a set of binary ones through the error-correcting output codes (ECOC) method, specifying a dictionary of code words for the set of three possible classes. AdaBoost combines the classification results of the RBF network for each binary problem into a code word, which is then "decoded" as one of the code words (i.e., ground-vehicle classes) in the specified dictionary. Along with classification, within the AdaBoost framework, we also conduct efficient fusion of the fine and raw image-feature vectors. The results of large-scale experiments demonstrate that our ATR scheme outperforms the state-of-the-art systems reported in the literature     

An investigation into instrumental nonlinear effects

High order spectral techniques are one of the most powerful tools for the identification of non-linear processes in space plasma turbulence. Without such tools it is impossible to determine, for example, the occurrence of non-linear interactions between spectral components. However, since the observations made by an instrument involve some internal processing, it is possible that non-linearities may arise from within the instrument itself rather than in the plasma. The possibility of such effects are investigated using data resulting from tests carried out using the Cluster Wideband electric field instrument.     

Main characteristics of biological components of developing life support system observed during the experiments aboard orbital complex MIR.

Since 1990, the orbital complex MIR has witnessed several incubator experiments for determination of spaceflight effects on embryogenesis of Japanese quail. First viable chicks who had completed the whole embryological cycle in MIR microgravity hatched out in 1990; it became clear that newborns would not be able to adapt to microgravity unaided. There were 8 successful incubations of chicks in the period from 1990 to 1999. In 1995-1997 the MIR-NASA space science program united Russian and US investigators. As a result, experiments Greenhouse-1 and 2 were performed with an effort to grow super dwarf wheat from seed to seed, and experiment Greenhouse-3 aimed at receiving two successive generations of Brassica rapa. But results of these experiments could not be used for definitive conclusions concerning effects of spaceflight on plant ontogenesis and, therefore, experiments Greenhouse-4 and 5 were staged within the framework of the Russian national space program. The experiments finally yielded wheat seeds. Some of the seeds was left on the space station and, being planted, gave viable seedlings which, in their turn, produced the second crop of space seeds.     

Effects of slow clinorotation on lipid contents and proton permeability of thylakoid membranes of pea chloroplasts.

Photochemical characteristics and lipid composition of thylakoid membranes from 12 day-old pea leaves that were exposed to slow clino-rotation were examined and compared with a vertical control. Proton permeability of thylakoid membranes was estimated from light-induced proton uptake (delta H+) and post-illumination proton efflux in chloroplast suspensions. The delta pH magnitude was calculated from the level of light-induced quenching of 9-aminoacridine fluorescence. Proton permeability of thylakoid membranes increased during exposure to clino-rotation. When subsequently transferred to darkness, proton efflux increased almost 2-fold in clinorotated leaves. The results were compared with data on pigment and polar lipid composition of photosynthetic membranes in clino-rotated and control plants. It was concluded that both the increase of proton permeability and the decrease of polar lipid content in chloroplasts were induced by clino-rotation.     

Sunspot Structure and Dynamics

Sunspots are the most prominent magnetic features on the Sun but it is only within the last few years that the intricate structure of their magnetic fields has been resolved. In the penumbra the fields in bright and dark filaments differ in inclination by 30°. The field in the bright filaments is less inclined to the vertical, while the field in dark filaments becomes almost horizontal at the edge of the spot. Recent models suggest that this interlocking-comb structure is maintained through downward pumping of magnetic flux by small-scale granular convection, and that filamentation originates as a convective instability. Within the bright filaments convection patterns travel radially owing to the inclination of the field. A proper understanding of these processes requires new observations, from space and from the ground, coupled with large-scale numerical modelling.     

菲利普斯曲线之中国验证——基于1985-2004年的数据分析

本文在介绍分析菲利普斯曲线三种形态及其政策含义的基础上,使用中国的相关数据对其进行验证。本文对我国菲利普斯曲线的三种形态分别进行绘制和分析。在简要回顾对曲线走势有重要影响的宏观经济政策之后,提出当前应当逐渐由扩张性财政政策向中性的财政政策转变。     

Variations of the gravitational field as a motive power for rhythmics of biochemical processes.

Variations of the gravitational field affected by the Sun and the Moon while the Earth's moving along the orbit seem to be a powerful source of many rhythmical processes typical of biochemical processes. Studies carried out in AARI revealed the obvious relationships between the dynamics of some biochemical reactions and lambda(D)-function describing the regular variations of the gravitational field under combined influence of the Sun and the Moon. The following of them are examined as examples: the rate of the unithiol oxidation in vitro, concentration of the thiol compounds in human urine, some hematological indicators (rate of the erythrocytes sedimentation, hemoglobin content). Compatibility of run of the biochemical indicators and lambda(D)-function is indicative of essential influence of the regular variations of the gravitational field on rhythmics of the biochemical processes. As this takes place, the solar activity acts like to the instability factor. Balance of the solar activity effects and the varying gravitational field effect alter in time depending on location in the solar activity cycle.     

Stable-Member Mounted Instrument Environment Simulation Model Development

The equations of motion for the stable member of a threegimbal platform are presented [3]. These equations are combined with models of the three platform control loops to formulate a model for the system. The system model is simplified and a digital simulation is developed for studying the motion of the stable member under conditions of dynamic vehicle angular environment.