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Technological complexities of current ground combat systems require advanced maintenance methods to keep the fleet in a state of operational readiness. Currently, maintenance personnel use paper Technical Manuals (TM) that are cumbersome and not easily transportable or updated in the field. This thesis proposes using the latest technology to support maintainers in the field or depot by integrating the TMs with the onboard diagnostics Built-In-Test (BIT) and Fault Isolation Test (FIT) of the vehicle, to provide the maintainer with an improved diagnostics tool to expedite troubleshooting analysis. This will be accomplished by connecting the vehicle, using the vehicle's 1553 multiplex bus, with the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of an Intelligent Maintenance Aid (IMA). The IMA will use Troubleshooting Procedure (TP) codes generated during BIT and FIT testing. Using the information provided by these TP codes, through the IMA GUI, information from the technical manuals will be displayed to aid the maintainers in their diagnostic work. The results of this thesis will serve as a baseline for further research and will be presented to the program management office for combat systems (PM-CS) for further consideration and development. / US Army RDECOM-TACOM author (civilian).

O texto descreve a definição e formalização da técnica de forcing, através de uma abordagem direta, sem a conversão para modelos transitivos. Também usa esta abordagem para provar um certo número de teoremas de consistência no âmbito da aritmética de cardinais e afins. / The text describes the definition and formalization of the forcing technique, via a direct approach, without the transition to ground models. It also uses this approach to prove a number of consistency theorems on cardinal arithmetic and related subjects.

"Carbon is one of the most abundant non-metal elements in the world. The unique arrangement of electrons enables diverse properties and applications of carbon. Long before the discovery of C60 in 1985, which is now considered a milestone in the vibrant field of carbon nanotechnology, carbon has been a vital part of human history. It has been a key enabling material in many fields including aerospace, transportation, energy storage, electric devices, infrared sensors, etc. The report of fullerene triggered a feverish surge of interest and effort in the study of nanostructured carbon. Along with the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene nanosheets (GNS), the nanocarbon family has been extensively studied. However, controlled production of carbon nanomaterials with low cost and high efficiency and incorporation of nanocarbons to maximize their contribution in advanced applications still faces a lot of technical difficulties. The objective of this work is to study and optimize processes to synthesize multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and GNS, and to apply GNS in nanocomposite anode materials for Lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Therefore, in this thesis, there are three main parts: (1) development of the post-processing method to obtain free-standing CNT arrays by the template-assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method; (2) development of a synthesis protocol to obtain GNS by oxidation of natural graphite flakes and reduction of the resulted graphene oxides; and (3) fabrication of TiO2/GNS in core-shell structure by a static electric assembling method to improve anode performance for LIB applications."

Understanding and controlling the nature of interactions at interfaces between various materials and systems has always been of interest, but with the fast development and need of new technologies it has become crucial to employ these interactions for various applications that range from biosensing of analytes in bodily fluids and the environment, to the development of bio-compatibatible and bio-mimicking surfaces that can be used to successfully couple biological systems to artificial materials and also build models for understanding biological systems better. Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are organized molecular assemblies that are formed by spontaneous adsorption of a compound in solution to a surface. They can change the surface properties without the need of changing the physical properties of the bulk material. Formation of SAMs on different substrates was investigated and performed in the work described in the thesis to be used in the detection of nucleic acids and enzyme inhibitors, development of surfaces with anti-adhesive and anti-microbial properties, development of surfaces for directed and patterned cell adhesion, and the construction of artificial membranes that can be used for studying the interaction of membrane proteins and the discovery of new pharmaceuticals. The surface of gold substrates was modified with alkanethiol compounds in order to attach biomolecules such as nucleic acids and proteins which allowed the modified surface to be used as a biosensor. Binding interactions were detected by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and surface plasmon resonance. A surface resonance sensor provided a platform for the detection of DNA and RNA oligonucleotide sequences and also the detection of one-nucleotide mismatches from the hybridization these oligonucleotides. The same sensor platform, but with a different surface modification, was used to covalently attach an enzyme whose inhibitors are used as therapeutic drugs and also as pesticides and nerve agents. The sensor was able to detect two of these inhibitors, which are used in the treatments of Alzheimer's disease, at a range of concentrations. This allowed the determination of binding affinity constants for the two inhibitors. The surface of gold was modified with functional groups in order to obtain inert surfaces with anti-adhesive properties with regard to the attachment of proteins. These surfaces are of interest in generating bio-compatible medical implants that can resist rejection from the host's immune system andor the formation of bacterial biofilms. The inert property was combined with anti bacterial properties by attaching an antibiotic which is known to kill bacteria by binding to the cell membrane. Following characterization of gold surfaces by contact angle measurements, ellipsometry, grazing angle FT-IR, cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, the surface of glass substrates was modified with similar functional groups, by switching to a different coupling ligand for the substrate. Alkoxysilanes were used to modify the surface of glass, which can also be used to modify other materials, such as polymers and stainless steel. Gold and glass surfaces were also modified with antibodies, other proteins, and other functional groups which favored or prevented cell adhesion. This led to the ability for patterned and directed adhesion, and differentiation of several cell lines. Preparation and chemical modification of magnetic beads and the ability to modify the bead surface created the possibility to grow and trap cells in a flow-through magnetic bioreactor, which will be used for the continuous production of metabolites and growth of tissue in a three-dimensional construct. Modification of gold substrates also led to the construction of artificial phospholipid membranes, whose composition can be controlled and most importantly can be used for the insertion and characterization of membrane proteins on a two-dimensional platform. This will allow for characterization of ligand-protein and protein-protein interactions with surface characterization techniques such as surface plasmon resonance and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The various surface modifications and applications described in this work underscore a general theme that the surface of many different materials can be modified by using the correct functional groups for the formation of the self-assembled monolayer on the substrate surface, thus obtaining the same surface properties without the need to change the physical and chemical properties of the bulk material.

No description available.

Current fashion in "user-friendly'' software design tends to place an overreliance on direct manipulation interfaces. To be truly expressive (and thus truly user-friendly), applications need both learnable interfaces and domain-enriched languages that are accessible to the user. This paper discusses some of the design issues that arise in the creation of such programmable applications. As an example, we present "SchemePaint", a graphics application that combines a MacPaint-like interface with an interpreter for (a "graphics-enriched'') Scheme.