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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 559 records · Page 31
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1976

Health protection and food preservation by gamma irradiation

Results of several major studies on food systems for space missions beginning with Apollo 12 through Apollo-Soyuz and investigations of the application of irradiation to food for manned space flight are reported. The study of flight food systems involved the application of radurization (pasteurizing levels) doses of gamma irradiation to flour and bread supplied by Pepperidge Farms in advance of the missions. All flights from Apollo 12 through 17 carried irradiated fresh bread. On Apollo 17, cooperation with Natick Laboratories permitted the introduction of a ham sandwich using irradiated bread and irradiated sterile ham. Investigations centered on irradiated bread were conducted during the course of these missions. Studies were applied to the concept of improving fresh bread from the point of view of mold inhibition. The studies considered how irradiation could best be applied at what levels and on a variety of bread types. Throughout the studies of the application of gamma irradiation the emphasis was placed upon using low levels of irradiation in the pasteurizing or radurizing doses--under a Megarad. The primary goal was to determine if a public health benefit could be demonstrated using radurization along with food preservation and food quality improvements. The public health benefit would be parallel to that of pasteurization of milk as a concept. Publications are included providing the details of these observations, one dealing with the flour characteristics and the other dealing with the influence on fresh bread types. These demonstrate the major findings noted during the period of the studies examining bread.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1981

The utilization of orbital images as an adequate form of control of preserved areas

The synoptic view and the repetitive acquisition of LANDSAT imagery provide precise information, in real-time, for monitoring preserved areas based on spectral, temporal and spatial properties. The purpose of this study was to monitor, with the use of multispectral imagery, the systematic annual burning, which causes the degradation of ecosystems in the National Park of Araguaia. LANDSAT imagery of channel 5 (0.6 a 0.7 microns) and 7 (0.8 a 1.1 microns), at the scale of 1:250.000, were used to identify and delimit vegetation units and burned area, based on photointerpretation parameter of tonality. The results show that the gallery forest can be discriminated from the seasonally flooded 'campo cerrado', and that 4,14% of the study area was burned. Conclusions point out that the LANDSAT images can be used for the implementation of environmental protection in national parks.

Dejesusparada, N.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Preserved signatures of ion flux modulations observed by ATS 6

The considered investigation is concerned with a detailed analysis of the event of August 13, 1974. The considered day was a geomagnetically quiet day, and ATS 6 was stationed at 94 deg W longitude. On the basis of the conducted analysis it is found that the observed flux oscillations may be a fossil signature of flux modulations which have occurred in ions at an earlier time and at a region away from the spot of observation. In conclusion, it is pointed out that the August 13, 1974, and the January 23, 1975, events of proton flux oscillations observed by ATS 6 are of great importance. They reveal another unique capability of the drifting particles for preserving small modulation signatures imposed upon them during earlier wave-particle interactions. At the present, no conclusions are drawn as to what kind of the wave-particle interaction process was responsible for the observation.

Su, S.-Y.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Biologically mediated isotope fractionations - Biochemistry, geochemical significance and preservation in the earth's oldest sediments

Preferential metabolization of isotopically light carbon and sulfur has resulted in a fractionation of the stable isotopes of these elements on a global scale, with the light species (C-12, S-32) markedly concentrated in biogenic materials. Since the biological effects are basically retained when carbon and sulfur are incorporated in sediments, the respective fractionations are propagated into the rock section of the geochemical cycle, this having consequently caused a characteristic bipartition of both elements between 'light' and 'heavy' crustal reservoirs. Preservation of the biological isotope effects in sedimentary rocks makes it possible to trace the underlying biochemical processes back over most of the geological record. According to the available evidence, biological (autotrophic) carbon fixation arose prior to 3.5(if not 3.8) billion years ago, while the emergence of dissimilatory sulfate reduction antedates the appearance of the oldest presumably bacteriogenic sulfur isotope patterns in rocks between 2.7 and 2.8 billion years old. Hence, biological control of the terrestrial carbon and sulfur cycles has been established very early in the earth's history.

Schidlowski, M.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Use of shape-preserving interpolation methods in surface modeling

In many large-scale scientific computations, it is necessary to use surface models based on information provided at only a finite number of points (rather than determined everywhere via an analytic formula). As an example, an equation of state (EOS) table may provide values of pressure as a function of temperature and density for a particular material. These values, while known quite accurately, are typically known only on a rectangular (but generally quite nonuniform) mesh in (T,d)-space. Thus interpolation methods are necessary to completely determine the EOS surface. The most primitive EOS interpolation scheme is bilinear interpolation. This has the advantages of depending only on local information, so that changes in data remote from a mesh element have no effect on the surface over the element, and of preserving shape information, such as monotonicity. Most scientific calculations, however, require greater smoothness. Standard higher-order interpolation schemes, such as Coons patches or bicubic splines, while providing the requisite smoothness, tend to produce surfaces that are not physically reasonable. This means that the interpolant may have bumps or wiggles that are not supported by the data. The mathematical quantification of ideas such as physically reasonable and visually pleasing is examined.

Ftitsch, F. N.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Polarization preserving single mode fiber optic coupler

A technique is described for fabrication of etched single mode fiber optical waveguide couplers which preserve the polarization state to within 0.0001. The coupling ratio is tunable over a broad range (0-9 percent) during fabrication. Back-coupling is less than 0.001, insertion loss is less than 1.5 dB, and coupling ratio thermal coefficient is about 1 percent per degree C.

Nelson, M. D.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Precambrian organic geochemistry - Preservation of the record

A review of earlier studies is presented, and new results in Precambrian organic geochemistry are discussed. It is pointed out that two lines of evidence can be developed. One is based on structural organic chemistry, while the other is based on isotopic analyses. In the present investigation, the results of both structural and isotopic investigations of Precambrian organic matter are discussed. Processes and products related to organic geochemistry are examined, taking into account the carbon cycle, an approximate view of the principal pathways of carbon cycling associated with organic matter in the present global ecosystem, processes affecting sedimentary organic matter, and distribution and types of organic matter. Attention is given to chemical fossils in Precambrian sediments, kerogen analyses, the determination of the structural characteristics of kerogen, and data concerning the preservation of the Precambrian organic geochemical record.

Hayes, J. M.↗
NASA NTRS1985

The Pongola structure of southeastern Africa - The world's oldest preserved rift?

Rocks of the Pongola Supergroup form an elongate belt in the Archean Kaapvaal Craton of southern Africa. Because these rocks exhibit many features that are characteristic of rocks deposited in continental rifts, including rapid lateral variations in thickness and character of sediments, volcanic rocks that are bimodal in silica content, coarse, basement derived conglomerates and thick sequences of shallow water sedimentary facies associations, it is suggested that the Pongola Supergroup was deposited in such a rift. The age of these rocks (approximately 3.0 Ga) makes the Pongola structure the world's oldest well-preserved rift so far recognized, and comparison of the Pongola Rift with other rifts formed more recently in earth history reveals striking similarities, suggesting that the processes that formed this rift were not significantly different from those that form continental rifts today.

Burke, K.↗
NASA NTRS1986

On self-preserving, variable-density, turbulent free jets

Published experimental data on incompressible, compresible, free binary, and confined binary turbulent axisymmetric jet flows are compiled and characterized, and the effect of varying turbulent diffusivity across the mixing region of a free jet is investigated analytically, applying the similarity-solution approach of So and Hwang (1986) to the self-preserving region. It is shown that closed-form solutions, represented by Gaussian error functions and having the turbulent Reynolds number and a profile-shape factor as free parameters, can be obtained if the turbulent diffusivities of momentum, mass, or heat are assumed to be different and to vary in both the streamwise and radial directions. An entrainment function uniquely related to the turbulent Reynolds number is derived, and good agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental measurements is demonstrated in graphs.

So, R. M. C.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Investigations into the shape-preserving interpolants using symbolic computation

Shape representation is a central issue in computer graphics and computer-aided geometric design. Many physical phenomena involve curves and surfaces that are monotone (in some directions) or are convex. The corresponding representation problem is given some monotone or convex data, and a monotone or convex interpolant is found. Standard interpolants need not be monotone or convex even though they may match monotone or convex data. Most of the methods of investigation of this problem involve the utilization of quadratic splines or Hermite polynomials. In this investigation, a similar approach is adopted. These methods require derivative information at the given data points. The key to the problem is the selection of the derivative values to be assigned to the given data points. Schemes for choosing derivatives were examined. Along the way, fitting given data points by a conic section has also been investigated as part of the effort to study shape-preserving quadratic splines.

Lam, Maria↗
NASA NTRS1988

Mars sample collection and preservation

The intensive exploration of Mars is a major step in the systematic exploration of the solar system. Mars, earth, and Venus provide valuable contrasts in planetary evolution. Mars exploration has progressed through the stages of exploration and is now ready for a sample-return mission. About 5 kg of intelligently selected samples will be returned from Mars. A variety of samples are wanted. This requires accurate landing in areas of high interest, surface mobility and analytical capability, a variety of sampling tools, and stringent preservation and isolation measures.

Blanchard, Douglas P.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Controller reduction by preserving impulse response energy

A model order reduction algorithm based on a Krylov recurrence formulation is developed to reduce order of controllers. The reduced-order controller is obtained by projecting the full-order LQG controller onto a Krylov subspace in which either the controllability or the observability grammian is equal to the identity matrix. The reduced-order controller preserves the impulse response energy of the full-order controller and has a parameter-matching property. Two numerical examples drawn from other controller reduction literature are used to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed reduction algorithm.

Craig, Roy R., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Optical transmission through a polarization preserving single mode optical fiber at two Ar(+) laser wavelengths

The transmission characteristics of two Ar(+) laser wavelengths through a twenty meter Panda type Polarization Preserving Single Mode Optical Fiber (PPSMOF) were measured. The measurements were done with both single and multi-longitudinal mode radiation. In the single longitudinal mode case, a degrading Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) is observed as a backward scattering loss. By choosing an optimum coupling system and manipulating the input polarization, the threshold of the SBS onset can be raised and the transmission efficiency can be increased.

Tedjojuwono, Ken K.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Could organic matter have been preserved on Mars for 3.5 billion years?

About 3.5 Gyr ago, when it is thought that Mars and earth had similar climates, biological evolution on earth had made considerable progress, such that life was abundant. It is therefore surmised that prior to this time period, the advent of chemical evolution and subsequent origin of life occurred on earth and may have occurred on Mars. Analysis for organic compounds in the soil buried beneath the Martian surface may yield useful information regarding the occurrence of chemical evolution and possibly biological evolution. Calculations based on the stability of amino acids lead to the conclusion that remnants of these compounds, if they existed on Mars 3.5 Gyr ago, might have been preserved buried beneath the surface oxidizing layer. For example, if phenylalanine, an amino acid of average stability, existed on Mars 3.5 Gyr ago, then 1.6 percent would remain buried today. Martian soil may exist from remnants of meteoritic and cometary bombardment, assuming that 1 percent of the organics survived impact.

Kanavarioti, Anastassia↗
NASA NTRS1991

A superior edge preserving filter with a systematic analysis

A new, adaptive, edge preserving filter for use in image processing is presented. It had superior performance when compared to other filters. Termed the contiguous K-average, it aggregates pixels by examining all pixels contiguous to an existing cluster and adding the pixel closest to the mean of the existing cluster. The process is iterated until K pixels were accumulated. Rather than simply compare the visual results of processing with this operator to other filters, some approaches were developed which allow quantitative evaluation of how well and filter performs. Particular attention is given to the standard deviation of noise within a feature and the stability of imagery under iterative processing. Demonstrations illustrate the performance of several filters to discriminate against noise and retain edges, the effect of filtering as a preprocessing step, and the utility of the contiguous K-average filter when used with remote sensing data.

Holladay, Kenneth W.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Early Archean (approximately 3.4 Ga) prokaryotic filaments from cherts of the apex basalt, Western Australia: The oldest cellularly preserved microfossils now known

In comparison with that known from later geologic time, the Archean fossil record is miniscule: although literally hundreds of Proterozoic formations, containing more that 2800 occurrences of bona fide microfossils are now known, fewer than 30 units containing some 43 categories of putative microfossils (the vast majority of which are of questionable authenticity) have been reported from the Archean. Among the oldest known fossils are Early Archean filaments reported from cherts of the Towers Formation and the Apex Basalt of the 3.3-3.6 Ga-old Warrawoona Group of Western Australia. The paleobiologic significance of the Towers Formation microstructures is open to question: thin aggregated filaments are properly regarded as dubiomicrofossils (perhaps biogenic, but perhaps not); therefore, they cannot be regarded as firm evidence of Archean life. Although authentic, filamentous microfossiles were reported from a second Towers Formation locality, because the precise layer containing the fossiliferous cherts was not relocated, this discovery can neither be reconfirmed by the original collector nor confirmed independently by other investigators. Discovery of microfossils in bedded cherts of the Apex Basalt, the stratigraphic unit immediately overlying the Towers Formation, obviates the difficulties stored above. The cellularly preserved filaments of the Apex Basalt meet all of the criteria required of a bona fide Archean microfossils. Recent studies indicate that the Apex assemblage includes at least six morphotypes of uniseriate filaments, composed of barrel-shaped, discoidal, or quadrate cells and exhibiting rounded or conical terminal cells and medial bifurcated and paired half-cells that reflect the occurrence of prokaryotic binary cell division. Interestingly, the majority of these morphotypes are morphologically more similar to extant cyanobacteria than to modern filamentous bacteria. Prokaryotes seem clearly to have been hypobradytelic, and the evidence suggests (but does not prove) that physiologically advanced oxygen-producing photosynthesizers may have been represented in the Early Archean biota.

Schopf, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Divergence preserving discrete surface integral methods for Maxwell's curl equations using non-orthogonal unstructured grids

Several new discrete surface integral (DSI) methods for solving Maxwell's equations in the time-domain are presented. These methods, which allow the use of general nonorthogonal mixed-polyhedral unstructured grids, are direct generalizations of the canonical staggered-grid finite difference method. These methods are conservative in that they locally preserve divergence or charge. Employing mixed polyhedral cells, (hexahedral, tetrahedral, etc.) these methods allow more accurate modeling of non-rectangular structures and objects because the traditional stair-stepped boundary approximations associated with the orthogonal grid based finite difference methods can be avoided. Numerical results demonstrating the accuracy of these new methods are presented.

Madsen, Niel K.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Locally adaptive vector quantization: Data compression with feature preservation

A study of a locally adaptive vector quantization (LAVQ) algorithm for data compression is presented. This algorithm provides high-speed one-pass compression and is fully adaptable to any data source and does not require a priori knowledge of the source statistics. Therefore, LAVQ is a universal data compression algorithm. The basic algorithm and several modifications to improve performance are discussed. These modifications are nonlinear quantization, coarse quantization of the codebook, and lossless compression of the output. Performance of LAVQ on various images using irreversible (lossy) coding is comparable to that of the Linde-Buzo-Gray algorithm, but LAVQ has a much higher speed; thus this algorithm has potential for real-time video compression. Unlike most other image compression algorithms, LAVQ preserves fine detail in images. LAVQ's performance as a lossless data compression algorithm is comparable to that of Lempel-Ziv-based algorithms, but LAVQ uses far less memory during the coding process.

Cheung, K. M.↗