ALBERT

Description: Polyimide XU-218 films containing approximately 5 wt pct of Eu(III), Gd(III), Tb(III), and Er(III) were prepared, and the effects of complexing each of the metals with the following four ligands were investigated: N-phenylphthalamate (NPPA), 2,4-pentanedionate (AcAc), 1,3-diphenyl 1,3-propanedionate (DBM), and a new hexa-aza-macrocyclic (MAC) ligand. The tris-chelated complexes of the mononegative ligands NPPA, AcAc, and DBM produced transparent, flexible films, which had magnetic and spectral properties very similar to those of the parent lanthanide complexes, while complexes of MAC showed problems due to the presence of lattice water and yielded dark brittle films. AcAc caused little or no effect on the glass transition temperature (Tg), while NPPA and DBM complexes lowered Tg to 269-290 C, and MAC indicated moisture by inflexion at 95-100 C with a true Tg at 320 C. All lanthanide-containing films were paramagnetic.

Description: An unidentified filamentous purple bacterium, probably belonging to a new genus or even a new family, is found in close association with the filamentous, mat-forming cyanobacterium Microcoleus chthonoplastes in a hypersaline pond at Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico, and in Solar Lake, Sinai, Egypt. This organism is a gliding, segmented trichome, 0.8-0.9 micrometer wide. It contains intracytoplasmic stacked lamellae which are perpendicular and obliquely oriented to the cell wall, similar to those described for the purple sulfur bacteria Ectothiorhodospira. These bacteria are found inside the cyanobacterial bundle, enclosed by the cyanobacterial sheath. Detailed transmission electron microscopical analyses carried out in horizontal sections of the upper 1.5 mm of the cyanobacterial mat show this cyanobacterial-purple bacterial association at depths of 300-1200 micrometers, corresponding to the zone below that of maximal oxygenic photosynthesis. Sharp gradients of oxygen and sulfide are established during the day at this microzone in the two cyanobacterial mats studied. The close association, the distribution pattern of this association and preliminary physiological experiments suggest a co-metabolism of sulfur by the two-membered community. This probable new genus of purple bacteria may also grow photoheterotrophically using organic carbon excreted by the cyanobacterium. Since the chemical gradients in the entire photic zone fluctuate widely in a diurnal cycle, both types of metabolism probably take place. During the morning and afternoon, sulfide migrates up to the photic zone allowing photoautotrophic metabolism with sulfide as the electron donor. During the day the photic zone is highly oxygenated and the purple bacteria may either use oxidized species of sulfur such as elemental sulfur and thiosulfate in the photoautotrophic mode or grow photoheterotrophically using organic carbon excreted by M. chthonoplastes. The new type of filamentous purple sulfur bacteria is not available yet in pure culture, and its taxonomical position cannot be fully established. This organism is suggested to be a new type of gliding, filamentous, purple phototroph.

Description: A study is conducted to ascertain the synergistic advantages obtainable by combining, in the EOS orbital instrument platform, instruments for the optical and microwave measurements of biophysical properties important in ecosystem modeling. Attention is given to the comparative coverages of the SAR, HIRIS, TIMS and MODIS instruments that will be carried by the platform, and to the ongoing development of joint inversion algorithms for the modeling of the ecosystems-related data thus obtained. A three-dimensional characterization of the physical attributes of the vegetation canopy and its background surface will be attempted.

Description: Examination of many individual event periods in the ISEE 3 deep-tail data set has suggested that magnetospheric substorms produce a characteristic pattern of effects in the distant magnetotail. During the growth, or tail-energy-storage phase of substorms, the magnetotail appears to grow diametrically in size, often by many earth radii. Subsequently, after the substorm expansive phase onset at earth, the distant tail undergoes a sequence of plasma, field, and energetic-particle variations as large-scale plasmoids move rapidly down the tail following their disconnection from the near-earth plasma sheet. ISEE 3 data are appropriate for the study of these effects since the spacecraft remained fixed within the nominal tail location for long periods. Using newly available auroral electrojet indices (AE and AL) and Geo particle data to time substorm onsets at earth, superposed epoch analyses of ISEE 3 and near-earth data prior to, and following, substorm expansive phase onsets have been performed. These analyses quantify and extend substantially the understanding of the deep-tail pattern of response to global substorm-induced dynamical effects.

Description: Unsteady two- and three-dimensional flow structure at leading and trailing edges of bodies can be characterized effectively using recently developed techniques for acquisition and interpretation of flow visualization. The techniques addressed here include: flow image/surface pressure correlations; 3-D reconstruction of flow structure from flow images; and interactive interpretation of flow images with theoretical simulations. These techniques can be employed in conjunction with: visual correlation and ensemble-averaging, both within a given image and between images; recognition of patterns from images; and estimates of velocity eigenfunctions from images.

Description: A set of freshly collected and separated human platelet suspensions were transported, in three types of plastic containers, on a 6 day, 2 hr mission of the orbiter Columbia to study the effect of prolonged exposure of human blood cells to microgravity. A controlled environment at a temperature of 22 + or - 1 deg with air flow was provided and another set of samples held on the ground acted as controls. Paired comparisons of platelets at ug versus controls at lxg revealed superior platelet survival at microgravity. When viewed in terms of plastic type, ug platelets in containers fabricated from PVC-TOTM displayed the best overall postflight viability.

Description: A dynamic analysis technique is presented that can be used to determine the response of a discrete model of a large linear structural system composed of multiple substructures. The technique circumvents the costly computation of the modal characteristics of the combined system. This is accomplished by relying on a predictor-corrector scheme to converge iteratively to the interface accelerations of the combined system, while the equations of motions of the individual structures are integrated separately. In this regard, the temporal slopes of the interface accelerations (jerks) are computed at each time point of integration to predict the interface accelerations at the next time point. The proposed technique is exemplified by conducting a Space Shuttle landing loads analysis; the obtained numerical data demonstrate its reliability and efficiency.

Description: NASCRAC - a computer code for fracture mechanics analysis of crack growth - is described in this paper. The need for such a code is increasing as requirements grow for high reliability and low weight in aerospace components. The code is comprehensive and versatile, as well as user friendly. The major purpose of the code is calculation of fatigue, corrosion fatigue, or stress corrosion crack growth, and a variety of crack growth relations can be selected by the user. Additionally, crack retardation models are included. A very wide variety of stress intensity factor solutions are contained in the code, and extensive use is made of influence functions. This allows complex stress gradients in three-dimensional crack problems to be treated easily and economically. In cases where previous stress intensity factor solutions are not adequate, new influence functions can be calculated by the code. Additional features include incorporation of J-integral solutions from the literature and a capability for estimating elastic-plastic stress redistribution from the results of a corresponding elastic analysis. An example problem is presented which shows typical outputs from the code.

Description: IRAS sky mapping data is being reconstructed as images, and an entropy-based restoration algorithm is being applied in an attempt to improve spatial resolution in extended sources. Reconstruction requires interpolation of non-uniformly sampled data. Restoration is accomplished with an iterative algorithm which begins with an inverse filter solution and iterates on it with a weighted entropy-based spectral subtraction.