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The neutron-capture reaction plays a critical role in the synthesis of the elements in stars and is important for societal applications including nuclear power generation and stockpile-stewardship science. However, it is difficult-if not impossible-to directly measure neutron capture cross sections for the exotic, short-lived nuclei that participate in these processes. In this Letter we demonstrate a new technique which can be used to indirectly determine neutron-capture cross sections for exotic systems. This technique makes use of the (d,p) transfer reaction, which has long been used as a tool to study the structure of nuclei. Recent advances in reaction theory, together with data collected using this reaction, enable the determination of neutron-capture cross sections for short-lived nuclei. A benchmark study of the ^{95}Mo(d,p) reaction is presented, which illustrates the approach and provides guidance for future applications of the method with short-lived isotopes produced at rare isotope accelerators.

Experiments were carried out at the Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory at Yale University using the 21MV ESTU Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator with the purpose of studying 88Y. A beam of 18O impinged at laboratory energies of 60, 65 and 70 MeV on a 600 μg/cm2 74Ge target with a thick (10mg/cm2) 197Au backing. This experiment was performed with the specific aim of accessing medium spin states of the nucleus of interest. A second experiment was undertaken to populate the nucleus of interest in higher spin states by impinging the same 18O beam on a thin 62 μg/cm2 76Ge target with a 20 μg/cm2 carbon backing at a laboratory beam energy of 90 MeV. Gamma rays emitted following the decay of excited states in 88Y and other nuclei populated in the reactions were measured using the YRAST ball detector array, consisting of 10 Compton suppressed HPGe clover detectors. In conjunction with the experimental study presented here, nuclear shell model calculations using a truncated valence space have also been performed in an attempt to describe the single-particle make-up of the states observed. Preliminary results from these experiments and theoretical calculations are presented.

Application of the modern control theory to derive an optimal sun tracking control for a point focusing solar concentrator is presented. A standard tracking problem converted to regulator problem using a sun rate input achieves an almost zero steady state tracking error with the optimal control formulation. However, these control techniques are costly because optimal type algorithms require large computing systems, thus they will be used mainly as comparison standards for other types of control algorithms and help in their development.

Two USAF flying populatins of 622 subjects each were subjected to the oral glucose tolerance test. One of these populations was prepared for the test by the ingestion of at least 300 grams per day (g/d) of dietary carbohydrate for the 3 d preceding the test; the other by 150 g/d of dietary carbohydrate. Statistical analysis of the data obtained from these populations revealed no change in the reliability of the oral glucose tolerance test as a diagnostic tool. Thaf school of Aerospace Medicine Consultation Service on all patients undergoing oral glucose tolerance tests.

Imaging for navigation and science has been studied for a 1980 Encke flyby at 0.4 to 0.8 AU from the sun with spinning and three-axis spacecraft. Trajectory errors, maneuvers, encounter geometry, imaging performance, and data transmission were considered. Onboard comet sightings are needed for navigation. Recommended for a three-axis spacecraft are two vidicon cameras and a nucleus sensor for closed-loop pointing control. The cameras are essentially the Mariner 9 and Mariner 10 instruments; the nucleus sensor is an updated version of a sensor flown on Mariners 6 and 7. For a spinning spacecraft, a framing camera using a charge-coupled device and a spin-scan photometer are proposed. The framing camera would be a new design; it would not be despun, but the spin axis should point along the comet-centered velocity vector. The photometer is essentially that flown on Pioneer 10 and 11.