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Briefs: Materials
Like the palladium chloride (PdCl2) films described in the immediately preceding article, gold nanowire sensors have been found to be useful for detecting airborne elemental mercury at...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Nanowire electron scattering spectroscopy (NESS) has been proposed as the basis of a class of ultra-small, ultra-low-power sensors that could be used to detect and identify chemical compounds present in...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
A proposal has been made to develop devices that would generate spin-polarized electron currents characterized by polarization ratios having magnitudes in excess of 1. Heretofore, such...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
A parameterized orthogonal tight-binding mathematical model of the quantum electronic structure of the bismuth telluride molecule has been devised for use in conjunction with a...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
An apparatus for extracting organic compounds from soils, sands, and other solid matrix materials utilizes water at subcritical temperature and pressure as a solvent. The apparatus,...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
A proposed, low-power, backpack-sized instrument, denoted the micro electron microprobe and sample analyzer (MEMSA), would serve as a means of rapidly performing high-resolution microscopy and...
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Briefs: Information Technology
A Software Rejuvenation Framework for Distributed Computing
A performability-oriented conceptual framework for software rejuvenation has been constructed as a means of increasing levels of reliability and performance in distributed stateful computing. As used here, “performability-oriented” signifies that the construction of the framework is...
Briefs: Information Technology
An algorithm for solving a particular nonlinear independent-component-analysis (ICA) problem, that differs from prior algorithms for solving the same problem, has been devised. The...
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Briefs: Information Technology
“Robust Real-Time Reconfigurable Robotics Software Architecture” (“R4SA”) is the name of both a software architecture and software that embodies the architecture. The architecture was conceived in...
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Briefs: Information Technology
R4SA for Controlling Robots
The R4SA GUI mentioned in the immediately preceding article is a user-friendly interface for controlling one or more robot(s). This GUI makes it possible to perform meaningful real-time field experiments and research in robotics at an unmatched level of fidelity, within minutes of setup. It provides such powerful...
Briefs: Information Technology
Bio-Inspired Neural Model for Learning Dynamic Models
A neural-network mathematical model that, relative to prior such models, places greater emphasis on some of the temporal aspects of real neural physical processes, has been proposed as a basis for massively parallel, distributed algorithms that learn dynamic models of possibly complex external...
Briefs: Information Technology
A methodology for processing spectral images to retrieve information on underlying physical, chemical, and/or biological phenomena is based on evolutionary and related computational methods...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Efforts are under way to develop data- acquisition, data- processing, and data- communication systems for monitoring disasters over large geographic areas by use of uninhabited aerial...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Complexity for Survival of Living Systems
A logical connection between the survivability of living systems and the complexity of their behavior (equivalently, mental complexity) has been established. This connection is an important intermediate result of continuing research on mathematical models that could constitute a unified representation of...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Using Drained Spacecraft Propellant Tanks for Habitation
A document proposes that future spacecraft for planetary and space exploration be designed to enable reuse of drained propellant tanks for occupancy by humans. This proposal would enable utilization of volume and mass that would otherwise be unavailable and, in some cases, discarded. Such...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Connecting Node
A paper describes the Octanode, a connecting node that facilitates the integration of multiple docking mechanisms, hatches, windows, and internal and external systems with the use of flat surfaces. The Octanode is a 26-faced Great Rhombicuboctahedron Archimedean solid with six octagon-shaped panels, eight hexagon-shaped panels, and...
Briefs: Materials
Electrolytes for Low-Temperature Operation of Li-CFₓ Cells
A report describes a study of electrolyte compositions selected as candidates for improving the low-temperature performances of primary electrochemical cells that contain lithium anodes and fluorinated carbonaceous (CFx) cathodes. This study complements the developments reported in...
Articles: Research Lab
The fourth servicing mission (SM-4) for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) offered an impressive and unprecedented set of advanced technologies that may yield the most...
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Articles: Energy
Renewable energy will be the world’s fastest-growing source of electricity generation over the next two decades, although it will still make up a relatively minor portion of...
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Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics
FARO® Laser Tracker FARO Technologies Lake Mary, FL 800-736-0234 www.faro.com Making its first flights to the International Space Station by the middle of the next decade, the Orion...
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Integrated miniature planar arrays of optical sensors for detecting specific biochemicals in extremely small quantities have been proposed. An array of this type would have an area of...
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Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Spectra® T950 tape libraries Spectra Logic Federal Boulder, CO 303-449-6400 www.spectralogic.com NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA, installed two Spectra® T950 tape...
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Products
IOtech, Cleveland, OH, has released the 6000 Series data acquisition modules with Encore software. The 6220 is a 12-channel, simultaneously sampled, 16-bit voltage input module that features a 100-kHz per channel sample...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Inter-Symbol Guard Time for Synchronizing Optical PPM
An inter-symbol guard time has been proposed as a means of synchronizing the symbol and slot clocks of an optical pulse-position modulation (PPM) receiver with the symbol and slot periods of an incoming optical PPM signal. (Such synchronization is necessary for correct identification of received...
Who's Who: Aerospace
Dr. Scott Barthelmy is the principal investigator for the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), a sophisticated instrument that...
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Techs for License
Low-Cost Engineered Properties for Non- Wovens, Films, and Laminates
A suite of nonwoven technologies offers low-cost mechanical processes that impart specific engineered properties to commodity-priced nonwovens, films, and laminates, and even to non-polymeric materials. A wide range of textures, controllable permeability, aperturing, multilayer...
Techs for License
Cooler, Quieter Jet Engine for Light-Sport Aircraft and Ultralights
A small jet engine is suitable for light-sport, ultralight, and experimental aircraft, and can replace the vibrating piston engine and propeller combination used in most sport aircraft. Exhaust heat is minimized for safety to 750 °C, so that a suitably insulated cowling can be...
Tech Needs
One-Megapixel Infrared Light Detector
A company seeks a detector array for the infrared region to detect two-dimensional radiation patterns. The sensor should have 1000 x 1000 pixels (or at least 512 × 640 pixels), which are individually addressable. The detector array is comparable to a high-speed CCD chip, but must have high sensitivity in the...
Tech Needs
Non-Fluoro-Based Textile Repellency Treatment
A company seeks a ready-to-use, non - fluorochemical - based repellent solution for oil- and water-borne stains for application on textiles. The textiles may be cotton, wool, or synthetic, or a blend of natural and synthetic fibers. This material may be fully formulated or partially formulated in a...

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