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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1981

A comparison of rat myosin from fast and slow skeletal muscle and the effect of disuse

Certain enzymatic and structural features of myosin, purified from rat skeletal muscles representative of the fast twitch glycolytic (type IIb), the fast twitch oxidative (type IIa), and the slow twitch oxidative (type I) fiber, were determined and the results were compared with the measured contractile properties. Good correlation was found between the shortening velocities and Ca(2+)-activated ATPase activity for each fiber type. Short term hind limb immobilization caused prolongation of contraction time and one-half relaxation time in the fast twitch muscles and a reduction of these contractile properties in slow twitch soleus. Furthermore, the increased maximum shortening velocity in the immobilized soleus could be correlated with increased Ca(2+)-ATPase, but no change was observed in the enzymatic activity of the fast twitch muscles. No alteration in light chain distribution with disuse was observed in any of the fiber types. The myosin from slow twitch soleus could be distinguished from fast twitch myosins on the basis of the pattern of peptides generated by proteolysis of the heavy chains. Six weeks of hind limb immobilization resulted in both an increased ATPase activity and an altered heavy chain primary structure in the slow twitch soleus muscle.

Unsworth, B. R.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Iterated Stretching of Viscoelastic Jets

We examine, with asymptotic analysis and numerical simulation, the iterated stretching dynamics of FENE and Oldroyd-B jets of initial radius r(sub 0), shear viscosity nu, Weissenberg number We, retardation number S, and capillary number Ca. The usual Rayleigh instability stretches the local uniaxial extensional flow region near a minimum in jet radius into a primary filament of radius [Ca(1 - S)/ We](sup 1/2)r(sub 0) between two beads. The strain-rate within the filament remains constant while its radius (elastic stress) decreases (increases) exponentially in time with a long elastic relaxation time 3We(r(sup 2, sub 0)/nu). Instabilities convected from the bead relieve the tension at the necks during this slow elastic drainage and trigger a filament recoil. Secondary filaments then form at the necks from the resulting stretching. This iterated stretching is predicted to occur successively to generate high-generation filaments of radius r(sub n), (r(sub n)/r(sub 0)) = square root of 2[r(sub n-1)/r(sub 0)](sup 3/2) until finite-extensibility effects set in.

Chang, Hsueh-Chia↗
NASA NTRS1992

Muscle fatigue in frog semitendinosus: role of intracellular pH

The purpose of this study was to utilize glass microelectrodes to characterize the intracellular pH (pHi) before and during recovery from fatigue in the frog semitendinosus (ST) muscle. A second objective was to evaluate the relationship between pHi and contractile function. The frog ST muscle (22 degrees C) was fatigued by direct electrical stimulation with 100-ms 150-Hz trains at 1/s for 5 min. Peak tetanic force (Po) was reduced to 8.5% of initial force and recovered in a biphasic manner, returning to the resting value by 40 min. Resting pHi was 7.00 +/- 0.02 (n = 37) and declined with fatigue to an average value of 6.42 at 3 min of recovery. During recovery pHi significantly increased and by 25 min had returned to the prefatigue value. The pHi recovery was highly correlated to the slow phase of Po recovery (r = 0.98, P less than 0.001). The mean resting membrane potential was -78 +/- 1.0 mV (n = 42) and at 3 min of recovery was depolarized to -67 +/- 4 mV. Both the peak rate of twitch force development (+dP/dt) (r = 0.99, P less than 0.001) and decline (-dP/dt) (r = 0.94, P less than 0.014) were highly correlated to pHi during the slow phase of recovery. Contraction time (CT) and one-half relaxation time (1/2RT) increased significantly and recovered exponentially. The recovery of CT and 1/2RT were both significantly correlated to pHi (r = -0.93, P less than 0.001 and r = -0.86, P less than 0.001 for CT and 1/2RT, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS).

NASA Discipline Musculoskeletal↗
NASA NTRS1992

A numerical model for sonic boom propagation through an inhomogeneous, windy atmosphere

The ZEPHYRUS computer model calculates sonic boom distortion during propagation through the atmosphere. The model includes the effects of nonlinear distortion, attenuation, dispersion, and wind. Trial runs with the model indicate that, in general, stable shocks have not formed when the sonic boom reaches the ground. Also, the rise time of the lead shock may strongly depend on the overall waveform shape, and may be significantly increased by purely dispersive effects when matching occurs between the rise time and the characteristic oxygen molecular relaxation time.

Robinson, Leick D.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Investigation of the basic physics of high efficiency semiconductor hot carrier solar cell

The main purpose of this research program is to investigate potential semiconductor materials and their multi-band-gap MQW (multiple quantum wells) structures for high efficiency solar cells for aerospace and commercial applications. The absorption and PL (photoluminescence) spectra, the carrier dynamics, and band structures have been investigated for semiconductors of InP, GaP, GaInP, and InGaAsP/InP MQW structures, and for semiconductors of GaAs and AlGaAs by previous measurements. The barrier potential design criteria for achieving maximum energy conversion efficiency, and the resonant tunneling time as a function of barrier width in high efficiency MQW solar cell structures have also been investigated in the first two years. Based on previous carrier dynamics measurements and the time-dependent short circuit current density calculations, an InAs/InGaAs - InGaAs/GaAs - GaAs/AlGaAs MQW solar cell structure with 15 bandgaps has been designed. The absorption and PL spectra in InGaAsP/InP bulk and MQW structures were measured at room temperature and 77 K with different pump wavelength and intensity, to search for resonant states that may affect the solar cell activities. Time-resolved IR absorption for InGaAsP/InP bulk and MQW structures has been measured by femtosecond visible-pump and IR-probe absorption spectroscopy. This, with the absorption and PL measurements, will be helpful to understand the basic physics and device performance in multi-bandgap InAs/InGaAs - InGaAs/InP - InP/InGaP MQW solar cells. In particular, the lifetime of the photoexcited hot electrons is an important parameter for the device operation of InGaAsP/InP MQW solar cells working in the resonant tunneling conditions. Lastly, time evolution of the hot electron relaxation in GaAs has been measured in the temperature range of 4 K through 288 K using femtosecond pump-IR-probe absorption technique. The temperature dependence of the hot electron relaxation time in the X valley has been measured.

Alfano, R. R.↗
NASA NTRS1990

A new continuum model for suspensions of gyrotactic micro-organisms

A new continuum model is formulated for dilute suspensions of swimming micro-organisms with asymmetric mass distributions. Account is taken of randomness in a cell's swimming direction, p, by postulating that the probability density function for p satisfies a Fokker-Planck equation analogous to that obtained for colloid suspensions in the presence of rotational Brownian motion. The deterministic torques on a cell, viscous and gravitational, are balanced by diffusion, represented by an isotropic rotary diffusivity Dr, which is unknown a priori, but presumably reflects stochastic influences on the cell's internal workings. When the Fokker-Planck equation is solved, macroscopic quantities such as the average cell velocity Vc, the particle diffusivity tensor D and the effective stress tensor sigma can be computed; Vc and D are required in the cell conservation equation, and sigma in the momentum equation. The Fokker-Planck equation contains two dimensionless parameters, lambda and epsilon; lambda is the ratio of the rotary diffusion time Dr-1 to the torque relaxation time B (balancing gravitational and viscous torques), while epsilon is a scale for the local vorticity or strain rate made dimensionless with B. In this paper we solve the Fokker-Planck equation exactly for epsilon = 0 (lambda arbitrary) and also obtain the first-order solution for small epsilon. Using experimental data on Vc and D obtained with the swimming alga, Chlamydomonas nivalis, in the absence of bulk flow, the epsilon = 0 results can be used to estimate the value of lambda for that species (lambda approximately 2.2; Dr approximately 0.13 s-1). The continuum model for small epsilon is then used to reanalyse the instability of a uniform suspension, previously investigated by Pedley, Hill & Kessler (1988). The only qualitatively different result is that there no longer seem to be circumstances in which disturbances with a non-zero vertical wavenumber are more unstable than purely horizontal disturbances. On the way, it is demonstrated that the only significant contribution to sigma, other than the basic Newtonian stress, is that derived from the stresslets associated with the cells' intrinsic swimming motions.

NASA Discipline Number 28-20↗
DOE OSTI2026

Benchtop Autonomous Electrochemical Characterization System for Combinatorial Thin-Film Solid Oxide Electrodes

The design of materials for electrochemical energy conversion is complicated by a vast search space of candidate materials and multifaceted property requirements: multicarrier conductivity, stability, and catalytic activity are all necessary but rarely intersect. Although self-driving laboratories are rapidly rising to address such material optimization problems, the required infrastructure for integrated, large-scale robotic facilities can be cost-prohibitive. Here we develop and evaluate a closed-loop measurement system for efficient screening of proton-conducting oxide electrodes for ceramic fuel cells and electrolyzers, building on top of an existing benchtop instrument and integrating techniques for rapid impedance measurement and automated analysis. This system exemplifies a “minimum viable” self-driving implementation that can deliver substantial benefits with relatively simple infrastructure. Combinatorial thin-film microelectrode libraries are characterized with a recently developed joint time-domain and frequency-domain impedance measurement technique, which provides an order-of-magnitude acceleration relative to conventional impedance spectroscopy. The distribution of relaxation times is extracted from impedance data and analyzed without human intervention. These results feed an active learning and Bayesian optimization process that learns to predict electrochemical impedance as a function of material composition, measurement temperature, oxygen partial pressure, and electrical bias, which further reduces the screening time by tenfold with optimized experimental sequences. We apply this system to Ba⁡(Co,Fe,Zr,Y)⁢O 3−𝛿 combinatorial libraries and evaluate its effectiveness for learning material property trends and optimizing expensive-to-evaluate properties such as activation energy. This offers insights into key methodological aspects of practical autonomous experimentation, including surrogate model validation, cost-aware acquisition functions, and high-throughput data interpretation. Our results demonstrate the efficacy of the system for rapidly gathering information, but also highlight real-world experimental challenges of thin-film degradation and numerical instability in surrogate models.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS1964

Spin-lattice relaxation in ruby.

Spin-lattice relaxation times for ruby of very low chromium concentration at low temperatures for one-phonon kronig-van vleck process

LATTICE VIBRATION↗