Planetary atmospheres

Four years is approximately the doubling time for knowledge of extra-terrestrial planetary atmospheres. During 1975–8 the results of several important missions to Venus, Mars, Jupiter and its satellites were analyzed, and during 1979 more spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter and Saturn. Spacecraft data are supplemented by ground-based observations, often at higher spectral resolution and extending over longer periods of time. As a result of this rapid growth of information, many first-order questions concerning the composition, physical state and kinematics of planetary atmospheres have been answered

State of the Art: Small Spacecraft Technology

This report provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art of small spacecraft technology, with particular emphasis placed on the state-of-the-art of CubeSat-related technology. It was first commissioned by NASAs Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP) in mid-2013 in response to the rapid growth in interest in using small spacecraft for many types of missions in Earth orbit and beyond, and was revised in mid-2015 and 2018. This work was funded by the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). For the sake of this assessment, small spacecraft are defined to be spacecraft with a mass less than 180 kg. This report provides a summary of the state-of-the-art for each of the following small spacecraft technology domains: Complete Spacecraft, Power, Propulsion, Guidance Navigation and Control, Structures, Materials and Mechanisms, Thermal Control, Command and Data Handling, Communications, Integration, Launch and Deployment, Ground Data Systems and Operations, and Passive Deorbit Devices

Evangelical Christianity and Women’s Changing Lives

Women have outnumbered men as followers of Christianity at least since the transition to industrial capitalist modernity in the West. Yet developments in women's lives in relation to employment, family and feminist values are challenging their Christian religiosity. Building on a new strand of gender analysis in the sociology of religion, this article argues that gender is central to patterns of religiosity and secularization in the West. It then offers a case study of evangelical Christianity in England to illustrate how changes in women's lives are affecting their religiosity. Specifically, it argues that evangelical Christianity continues to be important among women occupying more traditional social positions (as wives and mothers), but adherence is declining among the growing number whose lives do not fit this older model

Improving care for people with dementia: development and initial feasibility study for evaluation of life story work in dementia care

Background: Improving dementia care quality is an urgent priority nationally and internationally. Life story work (LSW) is an intervention that aims to improve individual outcomes and care for people with dementia and their carers. LSW gathers information and artefacts about the person, their history and interests, and produces a tangible output: the ‘life story’. Objective: To establish whether or not full evaluation of LSW was feasible. Design: Mixed-methods feasibility study. Methods: In-depth interviews and focus groups explored experiences of LSW and best practice with people with dementia, family members and dementia care staff. A systematic review explored best practice and theories of change for LSW. These stages helped to identify the outcomes and resources to explore in the feasibility study. A representative sample survey of health and social care dementia care providers in England established LSW practice in different settings. A survey of a self-selected sample of family members of people with dementia explored how LSW is experienced. Two small outcome studies (stepped-wedge study in six care homes and pre-test post-test study in inpatient specialist dementia care wards) explored the feasibility of full evaluation of LSW in these settings. Settings: Survey: generalist and specialist care homes; NHS dementia care settings; and community dementia services. Feasibility study: care homes and NHS inpatient dementia care wards. Participants: NHS and social care services, people with dementia, family carers, care home staff and NHS staff. Interventions: LSW. Main outcome measures: Spread of LSW and good practice, quality of life (QoL) for the person with dementia and carers, relationships between people with dementia and family carers, staff attitudes about dementia, staff burnout, resource use and costs. Review methods: Narrative review and synthesis, following Centre for Review and Dissemination guidelines. Results: Good practice in LSW is identifiable, as are theories of change about how it might affect given outcomes. Indicators of best practice were produced. LSW is spreading but practice and use vary between care settings and are not always in line with identified good practice. Two different models of LSW are evident; these are likely to be appropriate at different stages of the dementia journey. The feasibility study showed some positive changes in staff attitudes towards dementia and, for some people with dementia, improvements in QoL. These may be attributable to LSW but these potential benefits require full evaluation. The feasibility work established the likely costs of LSW and highlighted the challenges of future evaluation in care homes and inpatient dementia care settings. Limitations: There was insufficient evidence in the literature to allow estimation of outcome size. We did not carry out planned Markov chain modelling to inform decisions about carrying out future evaluation because of the dearth of outcome data in the literature; low levels of data return for people with dementia in the hospital settings; lack of detected effect for most people with dementia; and questions about implementation in the research settings. Conclusions: LSW is used across different health and social care settings in England, but in different ways, not all of which reflect ‘good practice’. This large, complex study identified a wide range of challenges for future research, but also the possibility that LSW may help to improve care staff attitudes towards dementia and QoL for some people with dementia. Future work: Full evaluation of LSW as an intervention to improve staff attitudes and care is feasible with researchers based in or very close to care settings to ensure high-quality data collection. Funding: The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme. Keywords

Factors associated with optimal pharmacy refill adherence for antiretroviral medications and plasma HIV RNA non-detectability among HIV-positive crack cocaine users: a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Crack cocaine use is known to contribute to poor adherence to antiretroviral medications; however, little is known about facilitators of or barriers to effective HIV treatment use among HIV-infected crack cocaine users. We sought to identify correlates of optimal pharmacy refill adherence for antiretroviral medications and plasma HIV RNA viral load (pVL) suppression among this population. METHODS: Data from a prospective cohort of HIV-positive people who use illicit drugs in Vancouver, Canada, were linked to comprehensive HIV clinical monitoring and pharmacy dispensation records. We used multivariable generalized linear mixed-effects modelling to longitudinally identify factors associated with ≥95 % adherence to pharmacy refills for antiretroviral medications and pVL <50 copies/mL among crack cocaine users exposed to highly-active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). RESULTS: Among 438 HAART-exposed crack cocaine users between 2005 and 2013, 240 (54.8 %) had ≥95 % pharmacy refill adherence in the previous 6 months at baseline. In multivariable analyses, homelessness (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 0.58), ≥daily crack cocaine smoking (AOR: 0.64), and ≥ daily heroin use (AOR: 0.43) were independently associated with optimal pharmacy refill adherence (all p < 0.05). The results for pVL non-detectability were consistent with those of medication adherence, except that longer history of HAART (AOR: 1.06), receiving a single tablet-per-day regimen (AOR: 3.02) and participation in opioid substitution therapies was independently associated with pVL non-detectability (AOR: 1.55) (all p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Homelessness, and daily crack cocaine and/or heroin use were independently and negatively associated with optimal HAART-related outcomes. With the exception of opioid substitution therapies, no addiction treatment modalities assessed appeared to facilitate medication adherence or viral suppression. Evidence-based treatment options for crack cocaine use that also confer benefits to HAART need to be developed

Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in a Maine Coon cat

Junior Mint, a 14 month old castrated male Maine Coon cat, presented to the Cornell University Soft Tissue Surgery Service on August 24, 2004 for evaluation of a caudal abdominal mass. The mass was first noticed at 4 months of age, and had been growing since then. No other complaints were noted by the owner. Upon physical exam, Junior Mint was found to be normal, except for a large non-painful solid mass in his caudal abdomen. Evaluation by ultrasound and CT scan showed the mass to arise from the abdominal body wall. Incisional biopsy of the mass was performed and histopathology revealed the tumor to be an embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma of the abdominal rectus muscle. The definitive treatment was surgical excision of the mass. Rhabdomyosarcomas are rare in domestic species, and the subtype embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas are exceedingly rare. Rhabdomyosarcomas arise from striated muscle and are most often solid painless masses. These masses are most commonly found in the head and neck region, however, incidence throughout the body has been reported. There are two forms of embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas. In the first large round cells (rhabdomyoblasts) dominate the population, while small primitive myotubule cells dominate in the second form. Rhabdomyosarcomas are often locally invasive and have the potential to metastasize to distant locations including regional lymph nodes and the lungs. Since these tumors are so rare, determining a prognosis for patients with embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas is exceedingly difficult. Although, presently there are no published reports of treatment of embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas in cats conventional treatments in humans consists of surgical excision followed by appropriate radiation and chemotherapy

Back-filling of trenches

Thesis (B.S.)--University of Illinois, 1903.Ms

Stability of polar frosts in spherical bowl-shaped craters on the Moon, Mercury, and Mars

Following Svitek (Martian Water Frost: Control of Global Distribution by Small-Scale Processes, Ph.D Thesis, California Institute of Technology, 1992), analytic solutions are presented for the effective albedo, the effective emissivity, and the radiative equilibrium temperature in the shadowed portions of a spherical bowl-shaped crater. The model assumes that the surface is a Lambert scatterer with visual albedo and infrared emissivity each independent of wavelength across their respective spectral ranges. Absorption, emission, and multiple scattering from the walls of the crater are treated rigorously to all orders. For airless bodies whose surfaces are in radiative equilibrium, all shadowed portions of any individual crater have the same temperature, whose value depends on four quantities: the insolation (product of the solar constant and the sine of the solar elevation angle), the depth/diameter ratio of the crater, the visual albedo, and the infrared emissivity. As long as the crater is deep enough to have shadows, the lowest temperatures are for the shallowest crater—those with the smallest depth/diameter ratio. The model is applied first to the Moon and Mercury using a depth/diameter ratio of 0.2, which is typical of the lunar highlands according to Pike (Geophys. Res. Lett. 1, 291–294 (1974); in Impact and Explosion Cratering (Roddy et al., Eds.), pp. 489–509, Pergamon, New York, 1977). For Mercury and the Moon, temperatures in shadows in polar craters are below 102 K, so the sublimation rate of water ice calculated according to the model of Watson et al. (J. Geophys. Res. 66, 3033-3015 (1961)) is less than 1 cm per byr. The latitudinal extent of the cold zone on the Moon is greater than that on Mercury, although temperatures at the poles of the two planets are similar. The other application is to polar frosts on Mars. Illuminated water frosts in radiative equilibrium grow rougher, because the average temperature of a depression is greater than that of flat ground. Subliming CO_2 frosts, which are always at the same temperature, grow rougher at low solar elevation angles because the heat flux absorbed by a depression is greater than that for a flat surface. At high insolation rates (high Sun near perihelion) the average heat flux to a depression is less than for a flat surface. The latter evaporates faster, which makes the average surface smoother and leads to a high average albedo. This behavior helps explain the fact that the south CO_2 cap, which receives its greatest insolation near perihelion, has a higher effective albedo and therefore can survive the summer, whereas the north CO_2 cap has a lower effective albedo and disappears each year around summer solstice