Index to NASA Tech Briefs, 1975

This index contains abstracts and four indexes--subject, personal author, originating Center, and Tech Brief number--for 1975 Tech Briefs

The Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU): Proven hardware for Satellite Servicing

A general technical description of the extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) is given. The description provides a basis for understanding EMU mobility capabilities and the environments a payload is exposed to in the vicinity of an EMU

Advance Drying Technology for Heat Sensitive Products

This book presents the advance drying technology for heat sensitive products cited from international journals, handbooks, and current research of authors. In the first edition, the printing and publication was funded Diponegoro University. In this second edition, the publication was supported from Directory of Higher Education under competitive research grant. The topic discusses the current drying technology for heat sensitive product, challenges, development and application in accordance with high quality product as well as efficient energy usage. Unlike first edition, this book observes and evaluates several food products drying under air dehumidification. The conceptual process has been also submitted to Indonesian Patent 2014. In the first edition, the book consisted of 7 chapters. Whereas, in this second edition, the book was extended up to 10 chapters completed with application of air dehumidification for food drying. Chapter 1 discusses about the challenge and progress on drying technology development. Chapter 2 describes the application and research of vacuum and freezes dryer. It is followed by the concept of air dehumidified by zeolite for efficient drying, depicted in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 evaluates the conventional condenser and adsorption dryer for low temperature drying. Chapter 5 is an overview of microwave and radio frequency dryer. After that, Chapter 6 presents the types of dryers applied in industries involving tray, spray, fluidized, moving bed, and drum dryer. Chapter 7 evaluates the future possible development for innovative dryer namely adsorption dryer with zeolite for industry. Chapters 8, 9 and 10 present the application of air dehumidification for agriculture and food drying. These chapters are results of the research conducted during 2012 – 2014

Study for evaluation of incineration and microwave treatment of human fecal matter for spacecraft operation

Incineration and microwave treatment of human fecal matter to determine concentration ranges and identities of liquid, gaseous, and solid product

Simulation of site-specific irrigation control strategies with sparse input data

Crop and irrigation water use efficiencies may be improved by managing irrigation application timing and volumes using physical and agronomic principles. However, the crop water requirement may be spatially variable due to different soil properties and genetic variations in the crop across the field. Adaptive control strategies can be used to locally control water applications in response to in-field temporal and spatial variability with the aim of maximising both crop development and water use efficiency. A simulation framework ‘VARIwise’ has been created to aid the development, evaluation and management of spatially and temporally varied adaptive irrigation control strategies (McCarthy et al., 2010). VARIwise enables alternative control strategies to be simulated with different crop and environmental conditions and at a range of spatial resolutions. An iterative learning controller and model predictive controller have been implemented in VARIwise to improve the irrigation of cotton. The iterative learning control strategy involves using the soil moisture response to the previous irrigation volume to adjust the applied irrigation volume applied at the next irrigation event. For field implementation this controller has low data requirements as only soil moisture data is required after each irrigation event. In contrast, a model predictive controller has high data requirements as measured soil and plant data are required at a high spatial resolution in a field implementation. Model predictive control involves using a calibrated model to determine the irrigation application and/or timing which results in the highest predicted yield or water use efficiency. The implementation of these strategies is described and a case study is presented to demonstrate the operation of the strategies with various levels of data availability. It is concluded that in situations of sparse data, the iterative learning controller performs significantly better than a model predictive controller

Air pollution and livestock production

The air in a livestock farming environment contains high concentrations of dust particles and gaseous pollutants. The total inhalable dust can enter the nose and mouth during normal breathing and the thoracic dust can reach into the lungs. However, it is the respirable dust particles that can penetrate further into the gas-exchange region, making it the most hazardous dust component. Prolonged exposure to high concentrations of dust particles can lead to respiratory health issues for both livestock and farming staff. Ammonia, an example of a gaseous pollutant, is derived from the decomposition of nitrous compounds. Increased exposure to ammonia may also have an effect on the health of humans and livestock. There are a number of technologies available to ensure exposure to these pollutants is minimised. Through proactive means, (the optimal design and management of livestock buildings) air quality can be improved to reduce the likelihood of risks associated with sub-optimal air quality. Once air problems have taken hold, other reduction methods need to be applied utilising a more reactive approach. A key requirement for the control of concentration and exposure of airborne pollutants to an acceptable level is to be able to conduct real-time measurements of these pollutants. This paper provides a review of airborne pollution including methods to both measure and control the concentration of pollutants in livestock buildings

Potential of Microwave Curing for Precast Concrete Manufacture

In this paper, an ongoing research sponsored by Innovate UK on developing an intelligent microwave system for manufacturing concrete products is introduced. The key features of this microwave system include using optical fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors to control the temperature and the humidity inside concrete and microwave oven cavity, respectively. Using this tailor-made microwave system, research is ongoing in the Advanced and Innovative Materials (AIM) Group at University College London to explore the potential of curing two types of low-carbon cementitious systems, namely high-volume fly ash (HVFA) and alkali-activated fly ash (AAFA). In both systems, thermal curing is essential for the strength development, in particular, early strength development. Their results indicate that, by using the microwave curing technique, the low-carbon performance can be achieved from both systems whilst the early strength was not affected. The current results also demonstrate a good potential of microwave curing for manufacturing low-carbon precast concrete elements in the future

Pretreatment of citrus by-products affects polyphenol recovery:a review

A large amount of citrus waste is generated annually. This waste is of great economic worth, since it contains high levels of polyphenols, which have attracted scientific interest due to their potent antimicrobial and antiradical activities. Pretreatment is a crucial step that precedes the extraction process and influences the yields and quality of polyphenols. This review emphasizes the effect of different drying processes, such as freeze drying, hot-air drying, vacuum drying, microwave drying, infrared drying, and high-speed drying, on the polyphenol retention in citrus by-products. Further treatments of the dried citrus by-products for assisting the liberation of bound polyphenols are also provided and comprehensively discussed

Scope & Sequence

WELCOME to WINDOWS on the INQUIRY CLASSROOM! You have landed on a piece of a National Science Foundation Project (DUE 1245730) directed by Professor Chris Bauer, Chemistry Department, University of New Hampshire. This is one part of a completely documented inquiry-based university science course called “Fire & Ice” which explores the nature of heat and temperature. There are multiple video perspectives and commentary from instructors and students, and documents of all course materials (agenda, instructions, student work). It’s too complicated to explain here. Take a look at the user orientation document at this link