A Method for siting and prioritizing the removal of derelict vessels in Florida Coastal Waters: test applications in the Florida Keys

Increased boating activities and new waterfront developments have contributed an estimated 3,000 dismantled, abandoned, junked, wrecked, derelict vessels to Florida coastal waters. This report outlines a method of siting and prioritizing derelict vessel removal using the Florida Keys as a test area. The data base was information on 240 vessels, obtained from Florida Marine Patrol files. Vessel location was plotted on 1:250,000 regional and 1:5,000 and 1:12,000 site maps. Type of vessel, length, hull material, engine, fuel tanks, overall condition, afloat and submerged characteristics, and accessibility, were used to derive parametric site indices of removal priority and removal difficulty. Results indicate 59 top priority cases which should be the focus of immediate clean up efforts in the Florida Keys. Half of these cases are rated low to moderate in removal difficulty; the remainder are difficult to remove. Removal difficulty is a surrogate for removal cost: low difficulty -low cost, high difficulty - high cost. The rating scheme offers coastal planners options of focusing removal operations either on (1) specific areas with clusters of high priority derelict vessels or on (2) selected targeted derelicts at various, specific locations. (PDF has 59 pages.

The potential impact on Florida-based marina and boating industries of a post-embargo Cuba: an analysis of geographic, physical, policy and industry trends

The information in this Technical Paper addresses the future of the US-Cuban marina and recreational boating industries from the geographic, physical, policy making and economic perspectives for a post-embargo Cuba. Each individual paper builds on the presentations made at the workshop, the information obtained in the subsequent trip to Cuba and presents in detailed form information which we hope is useful to all readers. (147pp.

Rendimientos del cultivo de colza en Mendoza con distintos regímenes de riego en períodos no críticos

Actualmente existe interés en el cultivo de colza (Brassica napus) para la obtención de biodiesel porque sus semillas contienen hasta un 50% de su peso en materia grasa. Desde hace un tiempo, debido a la producción de biocombustibles, el cultivo cobró impulso, como bioenergético, dado que cumple con todos los requisitos de calidad, de acuerdo al estándar europeo (Körbitz, 1999). Si bien en Argentina la producción de aceites vegetales se hace exclusivamente basándose en cultivos estivales, la colza se presenta como una interesante alternativa de producción invernal para una amplia zona. En Argentina, a partir del año 2010 debe usarse en el gasoil un mínimo de 5% de biodiesel. Por esa razón consideramos importante realizar esta experiencia en colza. Al ser un cultivo de ciclo inverno-primaveral, el uso del recurso hídrico no compite con los principales cultivos de la región que en su gran mayoría son de ciclo primavero estival. Mendoza es de clima árido, donde los cultivos solo prosperan bajo riego y como es sabido, el agua es un recurso escaso. Esto nos motivó a cuantificar sus necesidades hídricas totales y también a determinar el manejo óptimo del riego en cuanto a láminas y momentos de aplicación, a fin de maximizar la ecuación producción por m 3 de agua aplicada. Encontramos importante determinar y cuantificar esos “ahorros de agua" que se puedan realizar durante la fase o período no crítico al estrés hídrico, sin que esto produzca disminuciones en el rendimiento. Se propuso analizar durante dos años la respuesta del cultivo al riego diferenciado, aplicándo 4 diferentes tratamientos durante el período no sensible, reponiéndose en todos los casos durante el período crítico el 100% de la demanda evapotranspirativa. Los períodos no sensibles son: Fase nº 1: Plántula, Roseta y Elongación y Fase nº 3 de endurecimiento de grano a cosecha. Esta experiencia se llevó a cabo en los dos predios que posee la Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. (Bermejo y Luján ambos sitios ubicados dentro del oasis norte. Mendoza, Argentina) La variedad utilizada fue: SW 2836, variedad de tipo primaveral, ciclo corto. Los tratamientos fueron los siguientes: T0 en donde se aplicó el 100 % de las necesidades hídricas del cultivo y luego tres tratamientos denominados T1, T2 y T3 en los que se aplicó respectivamente el 125, 75 y 50 % de las mismas. También se cuantificaron los rendimientos en semilla y aceite que se obtuvieron con distintos manejos del riego en cuanto a láminas y momentos de aplicación, para determinar el manejo que maximice la ecuación Kg de semilla y/o aceite por m 3 de agua aplicada. Es importante destacar que en esta experiencia contamos con estudiantes avanzados de la carrera de agronomía, como así también con personal de campo de las fincas de la facultad.Fil: Antonini, C. A. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias AgrariasFil: Barros, R. A. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agraria

Test of constancy of speed of light with rotating cryogenic optical resonators

A test of Lorentz invariance for electromagnetic waves was performed by comparing the resonance frequencies of two optical resonators as a function of orientation in space. In terms of the Robertson-Mansouri-Sexl theory, we obtain $\beta-\delta-1/2=(+0.5\pm 3\pm 0.7) E-10$, a ten-fold improvement compared to the previous best results. We also set a first upper limit for a so far unknown parameter of the Standard Model Extension test theory, $|(\tilde{\kappa}_{e-})^{ZZ}| < 2\cdot E-14$.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication Phys. Rev. A (2005

llama meat nutritional properties

The aim of this study was to determine the chemical composition of the muscle Longissimus thoracis taken from 20 llama males, reared in the Andean region, slaughtered at an age of 25 months and at a mean final body weight of 74kg. Llama meat showed a low fat (3.51%) and cholesterol content (58.16mg/100g), a good protein content (22.42%) and an ash content of 3.06%. The Warner-Bratzler shear force values determined in llama meat was 6.56 kg/cm2. This study confirmed that llama meat is healthy and nutritious, and represents a good source of proteins for Andean population

Acute silica toxicity: attenuation by amiodarone-induced pulmonary phospholipidosis.

Exposure to the toxic mineral dust silica has been shown to produce an acute inflammatory response in the lungs of both humans and laboratory animals. Coating silica with phospholipids reduces its toxicity when studied with in vitro systems. The drug amiodarone increases phospholipid within the cells, airways, and alveoli of the lungs. This increase in phospholipid is due to amiodarone\u27s ability to inhibit phospholipase activity within alveolar macrophages (AMs) and whole lung. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the amiodarone-induced increase in pulmonary phospholipid would protect the lungs from acute damage caused by the intratracheal instillation of silica. Treatment of male Fischer 344 rats with amiodarone for 14 days caused an increase in phospholipid content in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and AMs compared to vehicle-treated controls. The rats were then instilled with silica or saline vehicle. At both 1 and 14 days after silica exposure, pulmonary phospholipidosis was associated with a marked reduction in acute silica-induced pulmonary damage as assessed by biochemical parameters in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, however, the influx of neutrophils into the airspaces was not reduced. Four times more phospholipid was bound to the silica recovered from amiodarone-treated rats compared to controls. The results of these in vivo experiments indicate that pulmonary phospholipidosis attenuates the acute damage associated with the intratracheal instillation of silica in rats. By using an in vitro cell culture system, we demonstrated that, in contrast to control AMs, phospholipidotic AMs were significantly more resistant to the cytotoxicity of surfactant-coated silica.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS

Properties of Modified Cytochromes

SUMMARY Reduced (Fe"+) carboxymethylated cytochrome c (Cmcytochrome c) reversibly binds ligands of ferrous iron, e.g. CO, cyanide, ethyl isocyanide, and oxygen, at neutral PH. Titrations of the reduced protein with CO show that over the pH range 6 to 9.5 the stoichiometry of binding is one, and that the spectrum of the Cm-cytochrome c complex with CO is practically pH-independent. The kinetics of CO binding of Cm-cytochrome c have been studied as a function of pH. At low pH values the binding process as observed by stopped flow or photolysis techniques conforms to a simple bimolecular process (2' = 1.6 X 106M-r s-l), whereas at high pH the process, although remaining simple, it is NlOO-fold slower. At intermediate pH values, the binding of CO occurs in a biphasic reaction, the proportions of the fast and slow phases depending on the pH, on the monitoring wave length, and, in the case of photolytic experiments, on the CO concentration. The dissociation rate constants of CO from Cm-cytochrome c were measured by replacement with oxygen or ethyl isocyanide. A model is proposed in which the acid and alkaline conformers of the ligand-free protein have different ligandbinding properties. It is suggested that there is a pH-dependent transition in the CO adduct of Cm-cytochrome c and the pK of this transition is reported. The model is consistent with simple thermodynamic considerations. Binding between ferrous Cm-cytochrome c and 02 has been examined. At pH 6, a stable O2 complex, similar to myoglobin, is formed, whereas at pH 9 0% rapidly oxidized the heme iron

VOF simulations of the contact angle dynamics during the drop spreading: Standard models and a new wetting force model

Introduction In this study,a novel numerical implementation for the adhesion of liquid droplets impacting normally on solid dry surfaces is presented. The advantage of this new approach, compared to the majority of existing models, is that the dynamic contact angle forming during the surface wetting process is not inserted as a boundary condition, but is derived implicitly by the induced fluid flow characteristics (interface shape) and the adhesion physics of the gas-liquid-surface interface (triple line), starting only from the advancing and receding equilibrium contact angles. These angles are required in order to define the wetting properties of liquid phases when interacting with a solid surface. Methodology The physical model is implemented as a source term in the momentum equation of a Navier-Stokes CFD flow solver as an "adhesion-like" force which acts at the triple-phase contact line as a result of capillary interactions between the liquid drop and the solid substrate. The numerical simulations capture the liquid-air interface movement by considering the volume of fluid (VOF) method and utilizing an automatic local grid refinement technique in order to increase the accuracy of the predictions at the area of interest, and simultaneously minimize numerical diffusion of the interface. Results The proposed model is validated against previously reported experimental data of normal impingement of water droplets on dry surfaces at room temperature. A wide range of impact velocities, i.e. Weber numbers from as low as 0.2 up to 117, both for hydrophilic (θadv = 10° - 70°) and hydrophobic (θadv = 105° - 120°) surfaces, has been examined. Predictions include in addition to droplet spreading dynamics, the estimation of the dynamic contact angle; the latter is found in reasonable agreement against available experimental measurements. Conclusion It is thus concluded that theimplementation of this model is an effective approach for overcoming the need of a pre-defined dynamic contact angle law, frequently adopted as an approximate boundary condition for such simulations. Clearly, this model is mostly influential during the spreading phase for the cases of low We number impacts (We <80) since for high impact velocities, inertia dominates significantly over capillary forces in the initial phase of spreading