Life systems for a lunar base

The Biosphere 2 project is pioneering work on life systems that can serve as a prototype for long-term habitation on the Moon. This project will also facilitate the understanding of the smaller systems that will be needed for initial lunar base life-support functions. In its recommendation for a policy for the next 50 years in space, the National Commission on Space urged, 'To explore and settle the inner Solar System, we must develop biospheres of smaller size, and learn how to build and maintain them' (National Commission on Space, 1986). The Biosphere 2 project, along with its Biospheric Research and Development Center, is a materially closed and informationally and energetically open system capable of supporting a human crew of eight, undertaking work to meet this need. This paper gives an overview of the Space Biospheres Ventures' endeavor and its lunar applications

InP shallow-homojunction solar cells

Indium phosphide solar cells with very thin n-type emitters have been made by both ion implantation and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Air mass zero efficiencies as high as 18.8 percent (NASA measurement) have been achieved. Although calculations show that, as is the case with GaAs, a heterostructure is expected to be required for the highest efficiencies attainable, the material properties of InP give the shallow-homojunction structure a greater potential than in the case of GaAs. The best cells, which were those made by ion implantation, show open-circuit voltage (V sub oc) of 873 mV, short-circuit current of 357 A/sq m (35.7 mA/sq cm), and fill factor of 0.829. Improvements are anticipated in all three of these parameters. Internal quantum efficiency peaks at over 90 percent in the red end of the spectrum, but drops to 54 percent in the blue end. Other cells have achieved 74 percent in the blue end. Detailed modeling of the data indicates that a high front surface recombination velocity is responsible for the low blue response, that the carrier lifetime is high enough to allow good carrier collection from both the base and the emitter, and that the voltage is base-limited

The Influence of Economics and Finance on Accounting Theory in Academic Accounting Research in Nigeria

Economics and Finance is a conceptual framework for standards-settings as well as for the teaching and practice of financial accounting with the aim to establish an agreed- upon sets of principles and concepts driving towards uniformity in the presentation and preparation of corporate reports, thereby making an informed decision available for users of accounting information. Expos facto research design is adopted in this study using time series data collected over a successive point in time and the sample of the study was arrived at through purposive sampling technique. Thus, the sample of the study covers the period of eleven years from 2007 to 2017. Findings revealed that economics and finance has positive and significant influence on the accounting theory in academic research in Nigeria and it is recommended that researchers, corporate bodies, government and other economic agents must take into consideration the influence of economic variables and financial variables in the process of adopting any accounting theory. Key Words: Accounting Theory, Accounting Practice, Economics Theory, Finance Theory, Academc Accounting Research

The mythical nature of MDG7c to Kenya's arid and semi-arid lands (ASALS)

Achieving millennium development Goal 7c (MDG7c) on access to improved water seems doubtful for Kenya’s Arid and semi-Arid lands (ASALs). This work sought to investigate the progress made in Kenya’s ASALs towards achieving the MDG7c, with a view to establishing whether it is achievable with the short time left. Heads of 4872 household (HH) in six ASAL counties of Kenya were identified using Probability and non-probability sampling techniques, and pretested structured questionnaire, Key Informant Interviews (KII) and Focused Group Discussions (FGD) administered to them. There are at least six different water sources, with 43% HHs using natural water sources. Whereas 89% of the world’s population had attained the MDG goal on access to improved water source, Sub-Saharan Africa is only 61% while Kenya’s ASALs rate even worse, with only 33% of all HHs have attained the MDG7 on improved water, rendering its achievement a myth in these ASAL areas

Identification of interstitial lung diseases using deep learning

The advanced medical imaging provides various advantages to both the patients and the healthcare providers. Medical Imaging truly helps the doctor to determine the inconveniences in a human body and empowers them to make better choices. Deep learning has an important role in the medical field especially for medical image analysis today. It is an advanced technique in the machine learning concept which can be used to get efficient output than using any other previous techniques. In the anticipated work deep learning is used to find the presence of interstitial lung diseases (ILD) by analyzing high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) images and identifying the ILD category. The efficiency of the diagnosis of ILD through clinical history is less than 20%. Currently, an open chest biopsy is the best way of confirming the presence of ILD. HRCT images can be used effectively to avoid open chest biopsy and improve accuracy. In this proposed work multi-label classification is done for 17 different categories of ILD. The average accuracy of 95% is obtained by extracting features with the help of a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture called SmallerVGGNet