The flammability of electronic components in spacecraft environments Final report, 15 Mar. - 15 Oct. 1968

Mathematical model for combustion at zero gravity in spacecraft environment

Marine aggregate extraction regulation in EU member states

This paper provides a brief review of regulations and procedures relevant to the authorization of marine aggregate (MA) operations in eight EU Member States. MA operations are affected by a multi-level legislative/regulatory regime, consisting of international conventions (e.g. the UNCLOS 1982, OSPAR, Helsinki, ICES, Barcelona and Espoo Conventions), secondary EC legislation (e.g. the Environmental Impact Assessment Directives (85/337/EEC and 97/11 EC) and the Freedom of Access to Environmental Information Directive (2003/4/EC)) and national legislation or regulation. It appears that rules and procedures relevant to MA extraction vary considerably between the considered Member States. In general, relevant information is not easily available in accurate, comprehensive and up-to date form. As a result, it is difficult to assess whether and to which extent national practice in relation to MA extraction authorization is in substantive compliance with the requirements of existing international and European rules and regulations aimed at sustainable development and protection of the marine and coastal environment

Kinetics of CheY phosphorylation by small molecule phosphodonors

AbstractThe chemotaxis response regulator CheY can acquire phosphoryl groups either from its associated autophosphorylating protein kinase, CheA, or from small phosphodonor molecules such as acetyl phosphate. We report a stopped-flow kinetic analysis of CheY phosphorylation by acetyl phosphate. The results show that CheY has a very low affinity for this phosphodonor (Ks≫0.1 M), consistent with the conclusion that, whereas CheY provides catalytic functions for the phosphotransfer reaction, the CheA kinase may act simply to increase the effective phosphodonor concentration at the CheY active site

Cell-specific discrimination of desmosterol and desmosterol mimetics confers selective regulation of LXR and SREBP in macrophages.

Activation of liver X receptors (LXRs) with synthetic agonists promotes reverse cholesterol transport and protects against atherosclerosis in mouse models. Most synthetic LXR agonists also cause marked hypertriglyceridemia by inducing the expression of sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP)1c and downstream genes that drive fatty acid biosynthesis. Recent studies demonstrated that desmosterol, an intermediate in the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway that suppresses SREBP processing by binding to SCAP, also binds and activates LXRs and is the most abundant LXR ligand in macrophage foam cells. Here we explore the potential of increasing endogenous desmosterol production or mimicking its activity as a means of inducing LXR activity while simultaneously suppressing SREBP1c-induced hypertriglyceridemia. Unexpectedly, while desmosterol strongly activated LXR target genes and suppressed SREBP pathways in mouse and human macrophages, it had almost no activity in mouse or human hepatocytes in vitro. We further demonstrate that sterol-based selective modulators of LXRs have biochemical and transcriptional properties predicted of desmosterol mimetics and selectively regulate LXR function in macrophages in vitro and in vivo. These studies thereby reveal cell-specific discrimination of endogenous and synthetic regulators of LXRs and SREBPs, providing a molecular basis for dissociation of LXR functions in macrophages from those in the liver that lead to hypertriglyceridemia

Multifaceted contributions : health workers and smallpox eradication in India

Smallpox eradication in South Asia was a result of the efforts of many grades of health-workers. Working from within the confines of international organisations and government structures, the role of the field officials, who were of various nationalities and also drawn from the cities and rural enclaves of the countries in these regions, was crucial to the development and deployment of policies. However, the role of these personnel is often downplayed in official histories and academic histories, which highlight instead the roles played by a handful of senior officials within the World Health Organization and the federal governments in the sub-continent. This article attempts to provide a more rounded assessment of the complex situation in the field. In this regard, an effort is made to underline the great usefulness of the operational flexibility displayed by field officers, wherein lessons learnt in the field were made an integral part of deploying local campaigns; careful engagement with the communities being targeted, as well as the employment of short term workers from amongst them, was an important feature of this work

Using FaceReader to explore the potential for harnessing emotional reactions to motivate hand hygiene

Background: Handwashing is a key strategy for reducing the spread of infection but hand hygiene practises are often poor. Pre-testing messages prior to a campaign is expensive and time consuming. Objective: This study investigates (1) emotional reactions to handwashing messages based on four different theoretical constructs (Knowledge of Risk, Comfort, Disgust and Social Norms), (2) how images may influence emotional reactions and (3) the influence of emotion, images and theoretical construct on handwashing motivation. Methods A novel methodology was employed whereby FaceReader, software that automatically analyses emotions, was used to identify reactions to handwashing messages. Thirty-one participants from The University of Sheffield were recruited for this laboratory study. Results: Most participants did not react strongly to any message and emotional reactions were similar for messages from different theoretical constructs. Adding images to text messages intensified some emotional reactions, particularly Happy and Disgusted for the two messages from the Disgust theoretical perspective. Moreover, participants thought that messages that used images were 1.8 times more likely to encourage handwashing. Knowledge of Risk messages (most encouraging) were 2.9 times more likely to be selected as encouraging handwashing than Comfort messages (least encouraging). An increase in the Disgusted emotion was also associated with an increase in encouragement. Discussion: This study suggests that handwashing messages should be designed to exploit emotional reactions but more research is needed to understand how to design messages for these reactions. Whether disgust is as important post Covid-19 requires future investigation. FaceReader can be usefully and inexpensively employed to pre-test handwashing messages

A Culture of Fire: Identifying Community Risk Perceptions Surrounding Prescribed Burning in the Flint Hills, Kansas

In the Flint Hills region of eastern Kansas, there is a long tradition of spring prescribed burns. However, air quality concerns in downwind communities have sparked conversation regarding the environmental and social impacts of these burns. This study aimed to identify the risk perceptions associated with prescribed burns using two theoretical frameworks: the social amplification of risk framework and the protective action decision model. In April 2022, we conducted 18 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Flint Hills community members from different social stations. Participants identified several benefits of prescribed burns: cattle production gains, invasive species management, prairie ecological health maintenance, and wildfire prevention. Some participants viewed prescribed burning as a protective response. However, risk perceptions differed between rural and urban participants: rural community members were primarily concerned with prescribed fires that went out of control, while those in downwind cities were primarily concerned with smoke exposure. Participants sometimes used protective actions to mitigate their risks, but also explained the complexities of changing burn practices that are integral to the local culture, economies, and greater society. Additionally, formal communication of health and safety risks from prescribed burns is not uniform across Kansas counties. We therefore recommend systematic county and statewide communication of burn practices and protective behaviors. Understanding community perceptions of the risks and effects of prescribed burns, and any protective actions taken, can inform how professional communicators approach burning in similar agricultural and ranching communities

Effects of sand extraction on the macrobenthos of the Belgian Continental Shelf: a comparison of long-term datasets: Thesis summary

Stations sampled on the Kwintebank in late seventies, mid nineties and 2001 were used to detect possible changes in macrobenthic communities related to the impact of sand extraction. The community analysis based on data covering the entire sandbank in the nineties, failed to detect a difference between stations subject to high sand extraction and stations subject to low sand extraction on the sandbank. Comparing the community analyses of the seventies and 2001 no real community shift could be detected, except the indications in the depression. But an overall decrease in density and diversity is defined at all stations in 2001 relative to the seventies. The most intensive sand extraction is situated at the centre and the northern part of the sandbank, where both geomorphological and granulometric as meiofauna communities are affected by sand extraction. For macrofauna there is no clear evidence for a change in community structure in the north and the centre due to the impact of sand extraction, although some clear changes in density, diversity and sediment grain size are recorded in these two most impacted areas. Although methodological problems enhanced the difficulties in comparing the results of the seventies with the nineties and 2001, Hesionura elongata was considered to be a suitable indicator for human disturbances

Higgs After the Discovery: A Status Report

Recently, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations have announced the discovery of a 125 GeV particle, commensurable with the Higgs boson. We analyze the 2011 and 2012 LHC and Tevatron Higgs data in the context of simplified new physics models, paying close attention to models which can enhance the diphoton rate and allow for a natural weak-scale theory. Combining the available LHC and Tevatron data in the ZZ* 4-lepton, WW* 2-lepton, diphoton, and b-bbar channels, we derive constraints on the effective low-energy theory of the Higgs boson. We map several simplified scenarios to the effective theory, capturing numerous new physics models such as supersymmetry, composite Higgs, dilaton. We further study models with extended Higgs sectors which can naturally enhance the diphoton rate. We find that the current Higgs data are consistent with the Standard Model Higgs boson and, consequently, the parameter space in all models which go beyond the Standard Model is highly constrained.Comment: 37 pages; v2: ATLAS dijet-tag diphoton channel added, dilaton and doublet-singlet bugs corrected, references added; v3: ATLAS WW channel included, comments and references adde