Proposed reintroduction of fishers in the North Cascades National Park environmental impact assessment

The proposed action is the reintroduction of fishers in the North Cascades. Approximately 160 fishers will be translocated from British Columbia to the North Cascades over a four to six year period. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), the National Park Service (NPS), and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) have proposed this action

Software for Remote Monitoring of Space-Station Payloads

Telescience Resource Kit (TReK) is a suite of application programs that enable geographically dispersed users to monitor scientific payloads aboard the International Space Station (ISS). TReK provides local ground support services that can simultaneously receive, process, record, playback, and display data from multiple sources. TReK also provides interfaces to use the remote services provided by the Payload Operations Integration Center which manages all ISS payloads. An application programming interface (API) allows for payload users to gain access to all data processed by TReK and allows payload-specific tools and programs to be built or integrated with TReK. Used in conjunction with other ISS-provided tools, TReK provides the ability to integrate payloads with the operational ground system early in the lifecycle. This reduces the potential for operational problems and provides "cradle-to-grave" end-to-end operations. TReK contains user guides and self-paced tutorials along with training applications to allow the user to become familiar with the system

Enabling planetary science across light-years. Ariel Definition Study Report

Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, was adopted as the fourth medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme to be launched in 2029. During its 4-year mission, Ariel will study what exoplanets are made of, how they formed and how they evolve, by surveying a diverse sample of about 1000 extrasolar planets, simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths. It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of hundreds of transiting exoplanets, enabling planetary science far beyond the boundaries of the Solar System. The payload consists of an off-axis Cassegrain telescope (primary mirror 1100 mm x 730 mm ellipse) and two separate instruments (FGS and AIRS) covering simultaneously 0.5-7.8 micron spectral range. The satellite is best placed into an L2 orbit to maximise the thermal stability and the field of regard. The payload module is passively cooled via a series of V-Groove radiators; the detectors for the AIRS are the only items that require active cooling via an active Ne JT cooler. The Ariel payload is developed by a consortium of more than 50 institutes from 16 ESA countries, which include the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, and a NASA contribution

The ARCiS framework for exoplanet atmospheres

Aims. We present ARCiS, a novel code for the analysis of exoplanet transmission and emission spectra. The aim of the modelling framework is to provide a tool able to link observations to physical models of exoplanet atmospheres. Methods. The modelling philosophy chosen in this paper is to use physical and chemical models to constrain certain parameters while leaving certain parts of the model, where our physical understanding remains limited, free to vary. This approach, in between full physical modelling and full parameterisation, allows us to use the processes we understand well and parameterise those less understood. We implemented a Bayesian retrieval framework and applied it to the transit spectra of a set of ten hot Jupiters. The code contains chemistry and cloud formation and has the option for self-consistent temperature structure computations. Results. The code presented is fast and flexible enough to be used for retrieval and for target list simulations for JWST or the ESA Ariel missions for example. We present results for the retrieval of elemental abundance ratios using the physical retrieval framework and compare this to results obtained using a parameterised retrieval setup. Conclusions. We conclude that for most of the targets considered, their elemental abundance ratios cannot be reliably constrained based on the current dataset. We find no significant correlations between different physical parameters. We confirm that planets in our sample with a strong slope in the optical transmission spectrum are those for which we find cloud formation to be most active. Finally, we conclude that with ARCiS we have a computationally efficient tool to analyse exoplanet observations in the context of physical and chemical models

Meeting Report: Risk Assessment of Tamiflu® use under Pandemic Conditions

On 3 October 2007, 40 participants with diverse expertise attended the workshop Tamiflu and the Environment: Implications of Use under Pandemic Conditions to assess the potential human health impact and environmental hazards associated with use of Tamiflu during an influenza pandemic. Based on the identification and risk-ranking of knowledge gaps, the consensus was that oseltamivir ethylester-phosphate (OE-P) and oseltamivir carboxylate (OC) were unlikely to pose an ecotoxicologic hazard to freshwater organisms. OC in river water might hasten the generation of OC-resistance in wildfowl, but this possibility seems less likely than the potential disruption that could be posed by OC and other pharmaceuticals to the operation of sewage treatment plants. The workgroup members agreed on the following research priorities: a) available data on the ecotoxicology of OE-P and OC should be published ; b) risk should be assessed for OC-contaminated river water generating OC-resistant viruses in wildfowl ; c) sewage treatment plant functioning due to microbial inhibition by neuraminidase inhibitors and other antimicrobials used during a pandemic should be investigated ; and d) realistic worst-case exposure scenarios should be developed. Additional modeling would be useful to identify localized areas within river catchments that might be prone to high pharmaceutical concentrations in sewage treatment plant effluent. Ongoing seasonal use of Tamiflu in Japan offers opportunities for researchers to assess how much OC enters and persists in the aquatic environment