Identifying, Monitoring, Quantifying and Converting Algae to Bio-Fuels in Bio-Reactors

Growing algae as a source for bio-fuels has become an area of interest due to concerns about global warming and the reliability and ecology of the production of fossil fuels. Dried algae harvested from a pilot water quality improvement technology at the Rockaway Wastewater Treatment Facility in New York were examined as a source of carbohydrates and lipids for the production of bio-fuels in bio-reactors. The length of storage time, storage conditions, sugar and lipid extraction processes, and fuel production were studied. The results show that if the algae is stored dry (0.015 g/g algae even after a year in storage. The types of algae harvested has an effect on the amounts of sugars and lipids extracted, so two different methods to identify, monitor and quantify algae grown in both open and closed systems were evaluated. Capillary electrophoresis single strand conformational polymorphism (CE-SSCP) was able to identify known algae samples in an environmental system by fingerprint comparison, but may be most useful as a fast, accurate method of monitoring changes in the species in closed systems. We also examined and found capillary electrophoresis single base extension (CE-SBE) to be an extremely fast and accurate method to quantify the algae DNA of Chlorella vulgaris and Spirulina platensis in a closed system photo-bioreactor. A primer was designed that allowed the accurate correlation of the algae DNA amounts with the area under the curve in an electropherogram. This primer also distinguished between and quantified each species. CE-SBE demonstrated great potential for quantification of algae with difficult morphologies, and algae grown in a co-culture photo-bioreactor

Second Symposium on Space Industrialization

The policy, legal, and economic aspects of space industrialization are considered along with satellite communications, material processing, remote sensing, and the role of space carriers and a space station in space industrialization

Optical and X-ray Observations of the Afterglow to XRF030723

The X-ray-flash XRF030723 was detected by the HETE satellite and rapidly disseminated, allowing for an optical transient to be detected ~1 day after the burst. We discuss observations in the optical with Magellan, which confirmed the fade of the optical transient. In a 2-epoch ToO observation with Chandra, we discovered a fading X-ray source spatially coincident with the optical transient. We present spectral fits to the X-ray data. We also discuss the possibility that the source underwent a rebrightening in the X-rays, as was observed in the optical. We find that the significance of a possible rebrightening is very low (~1 sigma).Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Santa Fe GRB Conference Proceedings, 200

Strategic Authenticity and Voice: New Ways of Seeing and Being Seen as Young Mothers through Digital Storytelling

This paper presents the Ford Foundation-funded Hear Our Stories: Diasporic Youth for Sexual Rights and Justice project, which explores the subjective experience of structural violence and the ways young parenting Latinas embody and respond to these experiences. We prioritize uprooted young parenting Latinas, whose material conditions and cultural worlds have placed them in tenuous positions, both socially constructed and experientially embodied. Existing programs and policies focused on these women fail to use relevant local knowledge and rarely involve them in messaging efforts. This paper offers a practical road map for rendering relevant and modifying notions of voice as a form of knowledge with the potential to disrupt authoritative knowledge. We present the context and method behind the four digital storytelling workshops that served as a venue for transforming assumptions about young parenting women and producing novel understandings of teen pregnancy and parenting. We end by suggesting an intervention for what we call “strategic authenticity” as it plays out in storytelling, meaning making, and voice, and implications for policy concerned with social justice and equity

Color-dependent learning in restrained africanized honey bees

Q2Q1Associative color learning has been demonstrated to be very poor using restrained European honey bees unless the antennae are amputated. Consequently, our understanding of proximate mechanisms in visual information processing is handicapped. Here we test learning performance of Africanized honey bees under restrained conditions with visual and olfactory stimulation using the proboscis extension response (PER) protocol. Restrained individuals were trained to learn an association between a color stimulus and a sugar–water reward. We evaluated performance for ‘absolute’ learning (learned association between a stimulus and a reward) and ‘discriminant’ learning (discrimination between two stimuli). Restrained Africanized honey bees (AHBs) readily learned the association of color stimulus for both blue and green LED stimuli in absolute and discriminatory learning tasks within seven presentations, but not with violet as the rewarded color. Additionally, 24-h memory improved considerably during the discrimination task, compared with absolute association (15–55%). We found that antennal amputation was unnecessary and reduced performance in AHBs. Thus color learning can now be studied using the PER protocol with intact AHBs. This finding opens the way towards investigating visual and multimodal learning with application of neural techniques commonly used in restrained honey bees.https://scienti.minciencias.gov.co/cvlac/visualizador/generarCurriculoCv.do?cod_rh=0000002842Revista Nacional - Indexad

Assessment of students’ crisis communications skill increase based on classroom instruction and Second Life™ training

Crisis communication training and skill development are critical to ensure the sustainability of the agriculture industry. The purpose of this study was to assess students’ perceptions of knowledge, ability, and skills on select crisis-related skills, tasks, and activities in order to identify the potential effectiveness of a Second LifeTM (SL) simulation. Pre- and post-test data were collected to determine the potential changes in skill in the seven crisis communication constructs of (a) related knowledge; (b) mass, group, and intrapersonal communications; (c) contingency planning; (d) use of related supplies and tools; (e) identifying learning and training needs; (f) related areas of expertise; and (g) personality traits. Participants also identified their SL Performance Expectancy as it pertained to crisis communications training. Of the population of study (N = 15), 12 usable pairs (n = 12) were analyzed and described in the findings. Participants identified their current competency level in each of the crisis communication skill areas using a 6-point Likert-type scale that ranged from “no knowledge/experience” to “expert”. A grand mean was calculated for each construct with differences between pre- and post-test scores being examined. The resulting difference in each of the seven crisis communication constructs represented a large effect when comparing pre-test/post-test scores. Based on data, participants increased in knowledge, ability, and skills on associated items. Each item could be used to improve a communicator’s ability to effectively manage a crisis. Virtual worlds appear to be an effective training mechanism and additional research should be focused in this area

Environmental decontamination

The record of the proceedings of the workshop on environmental decontamination contains twenty-seven presentations. Emphasis is placed upon soil and surface decontamination, the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, and assessments of instrumentation and equipment used in decontamination. (DLS