Effect of inert propellant injection on Mars ascent vehicle performance

A Mars ascent vehicle is limited in performance by the propellant which can be brought from Earth. In some cases the vehicle performance can be improved by injecting inert gas into the engine, if the inert gas is available as an in-situ resource and does not have to be brought from Earth. Carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon are constituents of the Martian atmosphere which could be separated by compressing the atmosphere, without any chemical processing step. The effect of inert gas injection on rocket engine performance was analyzed with a numerical combustion code that calculated chemical equilibrium for engines of varying combustion chamber pressure, expansion ratio, oxidizer/fuel ratio, and inert injection fraction. Results of this analysis were applied to several candidate missions to determine how the required mass of return propellant needed in low Earth orbit could be decreased using inert propellant injection

Labor, Management, and Government Interactions

[Excerpt] Labor, management, and government engage in complex interactions in emerging countries, and these interactions strongly influence the evolution of labor relations in those countries. For example, unions and other workers’ movements in some countries have aligned with a particular political party or in some cases are the core constituents of a labor party that is active in the political arena. This chapter will discuss cases where particular unions were aligned with the governing leaders or party. Another way unions and workers have influenced governments is through their involvement in protests or other political actions that are part of democratization campaigns or movements. As will be discussed in this chapter, some of these efforts to promote democracy have succeeded in recent years and have led to major political transformations in particular countries

Global Pressures: Multinational Corporations, International Unionism, and NGOs

[Excerpt] The globalization of product, financial, and labor markets has made it easier for companies to produce many of the goods and services they sell wherever in the world the right skills can be found at the lowest cost. The desire to sell products worldwide has also created incentives for firms to have a presence in multiple countries. Together these facts have made labor relations in many industries global in scope. Globalization is of particular importance to emerging countries. Nearly 50 percent of the world’s manufacturing employment is now located in emerging countries. Globalization poses significant challenges to labor relations practices. Historically the laws, markets, institutions, norms, and practices of labor relations have developed on a national basis. Globalization has weakened, though not eliminated, the role of national systems of labor relations and given rise to a number of new institutions, structures, and processes for dealing with all of the labor relations functions discussed in previous chapters. In this chapter we will discuss these new arrangements and the challenges globalization poses to labor relations. To do so we will use the framework laid out in chapter 1 for analyzing labor relations

The Negotiations Process and Structures

[Excerpt] This chapter examines the process by which unions and employers negotiate collective agreements and the structures they use for those negotiations, continuing the analysis of the middle (functional) level of labor relations activity. It explains the dynamics of negotiations and the factors that lead to strikes and then goes on to discuss the different bargaining structures used in negotiations

An Introduction to U.S. Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations

[Excerpt] This comprehensive textbook provides an introduction to collective bargaining and labor relations with a focus on developments in the United States. It is appropriate for students, policy analysts, and labor relations professionals including unionists, managers, and neutrals. A three-tiered strategic choice framework unifies the text, and the authors’ thorough grounding in labor history and labor law assists students in learning the basics. In addition to traditional labor relations, the authors address emerging forms of collective representation and movements that address income inequality in novel ways. Harry C. Katz, Thomas A. Kochan, and Alexander J. S. Colvin provide numerous contemporary illustrations of business and union strategies. They consider the processes of contract negotiation and contract administration with frequent comparisons to nonunion practices and developments, and a full chapter is devoted to special aspects of the public sector. An Introduction to U.S. Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations has an international scope, covering labor rights issues associated with the global supply chain as well as the growing influence of NGOs and cross-national unionism. The authors also compare how labor relations systems in Germany, Japan, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa compare to practices in the United States

The Role of the Economic, Technological, and Demographic Environments

[Excerpt] This chapter examines how various forces in the environment influence labor relations in emerging countries. We focus in particular on how factors in the economic, technological, and demographic environments influence the bargaining power of both labor and management. In doing so we are moving downward in our three-tiered framework by examining how external environmental factors influence the functional level of labor relations

Brief Note: Nest Transfer of Young Barn Owls

Author Institution: Department of Biology, John Carroll Universit

Busy Parents Can Help Their Children Be Good Readers

What do you tell the parents of a primary grade child when they ask this age-old question. How can I help my child be a good reader? Or what do you say at the next P.T.A. meeting when your principal calls on you to address this question

Henry Taylor Wickham and the Virginia Senate, 1888-1907

The decade of the 1890s was a complex period in the political history of Virginia. Virginia had experienced prosperity because of the development of railroads after the Civil War. Because of this contribution to statewide growth, the railroads had developed monopolistic characteristics which prompted an ambivalent response from most Virginians. It was said that during the 1890s Virginia\u27s railroads controlled the state legislature through the medium of the Democratic Party. During this period before the creation of laws dealing with political conflicts of interests, Henry Taylor Wickham represented the counties of Caroline and Hanover in the Virginia Senate. In 1937, when the Senator was eighty-eight years old, an associate suggested that Wickham should write a memoir of the Senator\u27s career in the era of railroad politics. Wickham refused to devote his declining years to a project which he felt would create unnecessary controversy. Wickham had considered it best to bury the past, and he left no personal account of his role in Democratic state politics. Wickham, a high ranking railroad official, had been in the inner sanctum of the Virginia Democracy. This thesis represents the first attempt to interpret Wickham\u27s role as a statesman during the controversial era of the 1890s. The author has drawn extensively from newspaper accounts in his research

Elucidating mechanisms of protein aggregation in Alzheimer’s Disease using antibody-based strategies.

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder. There are two characteristic histopathological hallmarks in the brain: senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, composed of insoluble aggregates of the amyloids Amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau protein, respectively. These diagnostic markers, though distinctive, are not apparent effectors of AD pathology. Evidence has mounted suggesting smaller soluble aggregates (oligomers) of Aβ or tau are the true drivers of disease progression. This dissertation presents several amyloid biophysics projects. Aggregate biophysical parameters such as weight, shape, and conformation were measured using a range of methodologies, including Multiangle Light Scattering, Dynamic Light Scattering, UV-Circular Dichroism, UV-Fluorescence, Scanning Electron Microscopy and immunochemistry. In the first, the behavior of 2N3R tau protein was examined in a seeded oligomerization paradigm, where preformed oligomer may act as a template for monomer aggregation. In comparison to unseeded controls an elution time shift in the seeded solution was noted, suggesting conformational change due to seeding. Interestingly, when the seeded solutions were probed with T22, a tau oligomer-specific antibody raised against 2N4R oligomers, no binding was detected, suggesting the seeded 2N3R oligomer conformation is not the same as the seeded 2N4R oligomer. The second project examined protofibril formation in Aβ42/Aβ40 monomer mixtures with variable isoform ratios. Novel methods were developed to generate pre-fibrillar soluble species from monomeric Aβ solutions, thus minimizing the influence of preformed aggregates on the monomer aggregation pathway. Mixed-monomer solutions displayed ratio-dependent aggregation profile changes. Biochemical analysis demonstrated a higher inclusion rate of Aβ42 inclusion into protofibrils. Furthermore, relative protofibril yield and β-sheet secondary structure were both reduced with decreased Aβ42/Aβ40 monomer ratio, which suggests an additional inhibitory effect from Aβ40. The final project presented is characterization of a novel conformation-specific anti-serum, AbSL, developed by the Nichols Lab against prefibrillar Aβ species. Testing demonstrated specificity for Aβ42 protofibrils over Aβ42 monomer or fibril, as well as over Aβ40 protofibrils. The AbSL specificity epitope was probed, and indicated to incorporate part of the N-terminal 1-16 region