ZIN Technologies (United States)

Abstract Objective: Preterm birth (PTB) is a leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality worldwide with India alone contributing nearly 27% of the global PTB burden. Although alterations in the vaginal microbiome have been implicated in PTB its association in the Indian context is underemployed. This study aimed to investigate the association of vaginal microbiome and PTB in Indian women at the time of delivery. Study design: The vaginal swabs were collected at the time of delivery from 72 women (31 term 41 preterm) admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Western India. Microbial DNA was extracted and the V3 V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced. Community composition alpha and beta diversity and differential taxonomic abundance were assessed using bioinformatics pipelines. Results: At the time of delivery there were no significant differences in alpha or beta diversity between term and preterm groups. Principal coordinate and unsupervised clustering analyses showed no group wise segregation. The relative abundance of individual Lactobacillus species including L. iners and L. helveticus did not differ significantly between the two groups. However a modest difference in the relative abundance of Streptococcus was observed between the two groups after adjustment. Conclusion: This study found no major microbial shifts in the vaginal microbiome associated with preterm birth in this cross sectional cohort of Indian women suggesting that vaginal dysbiosis at the time of delivery may not be a principal driver of PTB in this population. These findings underscore the need for larger longitudinal and ethnically diverse studies using standardized methodologies better to understand the microbiomes role in PTB risk. Key Words: Prematurity Lactobacillus Streptococcus bacteria association

Abstract The self-assembly of colloidal particles enables the creation of complex materials with tailored properties. This process, particularly involving anisotropic particles, can lead to the formation of structurally unique and complex assemblies that are not achievable with isotropic particles. On Earth, gravitational forces limit the investigation of these particles’ intrinsic motion and interactions, posing significant challenges to comprehensively understanding the fundamental forces governing their interactions. To overcome these limitations, this study, in collaboration with NASA’s Glenn Research Center (GRC), employs the Light Microscopy Module (LMM) aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to observe the self-assembly phenomena of anisotropic particles under microgravity conditions. Our investigation shows that anisotropic Janus particles with their distinctive properties can spontaneously organize into ordered structures under microgravity. This directional interaction among anisotropic particles is expected to enable control over assembly processes, forming three-dimensional (3D) clustered structures that are unattainable on Earth. Thus, this study not only advances our understanding of particle self-assembly in microgravity but also opens new avenues for synthesizing materials with novel functionalities through the unique assembly of anisotropic colloids.

This paper describes results from testing the tensile strength of compressed masonry walls strengthened with fiber-reinforced cement matrix [FRCM] system on one side, both sides, or without any strengthening. Test models were prepared from masonry units made of autoclaved aerated concrete SOLBET OPTIMAL 4/600. Walls were built with a ready-mixed mortar for thin layer joints of class M5, without fi lling head joints. PBO fi bre grids embedded in a mineral matrix were used as superfi cial strengthening. Lateral surfaces of masonry walls were strengthened with ready-mixed mortar PBO-MX GOLD MASONRY with embedded grid PBO--MESH GOLD 22/22. Then, the surface layer of ready-mix mortar PBO-MX GOLD MASONRY was applied. The used superfi cial strengthening provided an additional strengthening of the cracked models and their safer behaviour after failure.

The Space Telecommunications Radio System (STRS) provides a common, consistent framework to abstract the application software from the radio platform hardware. STRS aims to reduce the cost and risk of using complex, configurable and reprogrammable radio systems across NASA missions. The Glenn Research Center (GRC) team made a software-defined radio (SDR) platform STRS compliant by adding an STRS operating environment and a field programmable gate array (FPGA) wrapper, capable of implementing each of the platforms interfaces, as well as a test waveform to exercise those interfaces. This effort serves to provide a framework toward waveform development on an STRS compliant platform to support future space communication systems for advanced exploration missions. Validated STRS compliant applications provided tested code with extensive documentation to potentially reduce risk, cost and efforts in development of space-deployable SDRs. This paper discusses the advantages of STRS, the integration of STRS onto a Reconfigurable, Intelligently-Adaptive, Communication System (RIACS) SDR platform, the sample waveform, and wrapper development efforts. The paper emphasizes the infusion of the STRS Architecture onto the RIACS platform for potential use in next generation SDRs for advance exploration missions.

The atmosphere is populated by a diverse array of dispersing insects and their predators. We studied aerial insect communities by tracking the foraging altitudes of an avian insectivore, the Purple Martin (Progne subis). By attaching altitude loggers to nesting Purple Martins and collecting prey delivered to their nestlings, we determined the flight altitudes of ants and other insects. We then tested hypotheses relating ant body size and reproductive ecology to flight altitude. Purple Martins flew up to 1,889 meters above ground, and nestling provisioning trips ranged up to 922 meters. Insect communities were structured by body size such that species of all sizes flew near the ground but only light insects flew to the highest altitudes. Ant maximum flight altitudes decreased by 60% from the lightest to the heaviest species. Winged sexuals of social insects (ants, honey bees, and termites) dominated the Purple Martin diet, making up 88% of prey individuals and 45% of prey biomass. By transferring energy from terrestrial to aerial food webs, mating swarms of social insects play a substantial role in aerial ecosystems. Although we focus on Purple Martins and ants, our combined logger and diet method could be applied to a range of aerial organisms.

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Engineering systems are often too complex and their behavior cannot be determined using closed form or exact methods. To circumvent this problem, numerical methods, such as boundary element method, have been formulated to obtain approximate solutions to partial differential equations, which describe the behavior of the physical engineering systems. However, the inherent uncertainty in constitutive formulation causes uncertainties in the solutions obtained by numerical methods and undermines their validity. Conventional analysis does not account for material uncertainty, which is, however, accounted for in the design phase. This paper addresses the impact of uncertain shear modulus for plane strain linear elasticity problems on the numerical solutions obtained using boundary element method. The uncertainty is modeled using fuzzy approach. Matrix parameterization is developed to obtain exact worst case bounds on the solutions assuming that a correct partial membership function is given. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the behavior of the method.</div></div>

A materials science experiment has been developed and readied for operation aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Components of this experiment are onboard ISS and are awaiting the flight of science samples. The goal of the experiment is to understand the dynamics of Ostwald ripening, also known as coarsening, a process that occurs in nearly any two-phase mixture found in nature. Attempts to obtain experimental data in ground-based laboratories are hindered due to the presence of gravity, which introduces material transport modes other than that of the coarsening phenomenon. This introduces adjustable parameters in the formulation of theory. The original coarsening in solid-liquid mixtures (CSLM) mission, which flew on the Space Shuttle in 1997, produced data from a coarsened eutectic alloy. Unfortunately, both the science matrix and the hardware, while nominally functional, did not account adequately for operations in microgravity. A significantly redesigned follow-on experiment, CSLM-2 has been developed to redress the inadequacies of the original experiment. This paper reviews the CSLM-2 project: its history, science goals, flight hardware implementation, and planned operations and analysis.

A novel printed multi-turn loop antenna for contact-less powering and RF telemetry from implantable bio-MEMS sensors at a design frequency of 300 MHz is demonstrated. In addition, computed values of input reactance, radiation resistance, skin effect resistance, and radiation efficiency for the printed multi-turn loop antenna are presented. The computed input reactance is compared with the measured values and shown to be in fair agreement. The computed radiation efficiency at the design frequency is about 24%.

Deep space probes and planetary exploration missions require electrical power management and control systems that are capable of efficient and reliable operation in very cold temperature environments. Typically, in deep space probes, heating elements are used to keep the spacecraft electronics near room temperature. The utilization of power electronics designed for and operated at low temperature will contribute to increasing efficiency and improving reliability of space power systems. At NASA Glenn Research Center, commercial-off-the-shelf devices as well as developed components are being investigated for potential use at low temperatures. These devices include semiconductor switching devices, magnetics, and capacitors. Integrated circuits such as digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters, DC/DC converters, operational amplifiers, and oscillators are also being evaluated. In this paper, results will be presented for selected analog-to-digital converters, oscillators, DC/DC converters, and pulse width modulation (PWM) controllers.