Parametric vision simulation study, part 2 Final report

Effects of landing site redesignation on visibility during manned lunar landin

The calibration of photographic and spectroscopic films: Reciprocity failure and thermal responses of IIaO film at liquid nitrogen temperatures

Reciprocity failure was examined for IIaO spectroscopic film. The results indicate reciprocity failure occurs at three distinct minimum points in time; 15 min, 30 min and 90 min. The results are unique because theory suggests only one minimum reciprocity failure point should occur. When incubating 70mm IIaO film for 15 and 30 min at temperatures of 30, 40, 50, and 60 C and then placing in a liquid nitrogen bath at a temperature of -190 C the film demonstrated an increase of the optical density when developed at a warm-up time of 30 min. Longer warm-up periods of 1, 2 and 3 hrs yield a decrease in optical density of the darker wedge patterns; whereas, shorter warm-up times yield an overall increase in the optical densities

Jet fuel property changes and their effect on producibility and cost in the U.S., Canada, and Europe

The effects of changes in properties and blending stocks on the refinery output and cost of jet fuel in the U.S., Canada, and Europe were determined. Computerized refinery models that minimize production costs and incorporated a 1981 cost structure and supply/demand projections to the year 2010 were used. Except in the West U.S., no changes in jet fuel properties were required to meet all projected demands, even allowing for deteriorating crude qualities and changes in competing product demand. In the West U.S., property changes or the use of cracked blendstocks were projected to be required after 1990 to meet expected demand. Generally, relaxation of aromatics and freezing point, or the use of cracked stocks produced similar results, i.e., jet fuel output could be increased by up to a factor of three or its production cost lowered by up to $10/cu m. High quality hydrocracked stocks are now used on a limited basis to produce jet fuel. The conversion of U.S. and NATO military forces from wide-cut to kerosene-based jet fuel is addressed. This conversion resulted in increased costs of several hundred million dollars annually. These costs can be reduced by relaxing kerosene jet fuel properties, using cracked stocks and/or considering the greater volumetric energy content of kerosene jet fuel

Collisions of boosted black holes: perturbation theory prediction of gravitational radiation

We consider general relativistic Cauchy data representing two nonspinning, equal-mass black holes boosted toward each other. When the black holes are close enough to each other and their momentum is sufficiently high, an encompassing apparent horizon is present so the system can be viewed as a single, perturbed black hole. We employ gauge-invariant perturbation theory, and integrate the Zerilli equation to analyze these time-asymmetric data sets and compute gravitational wave forms and emitted energies. When coupled with a simple Newtonian analysis of the infall trajectory, we find striking agreement between the perturbation calculation of emitted energies and the results of fully general relativistic numerical simulations of time-symmetric initial data.Comment: 5 pages (RevTex 3.0 with 3 uuencoded figures), CRSR-107

Calculation of AGARD Wing 445.6 Flutter Using Navier-Stokes Aerodynamics

An unsteady, 3D, implicit upwind Euler/Navier-Stokes algorithm is here used to compute the flutter characteristics of Wing 445.6, the AGARD standard aeroelastic configuration for dynamic response, with a view to the discrepancy between Euler characteristics and experimental data. Attention is given to effects of fluid viscosity, structural damping, and number of structural model nodes. The flutter characteristics of the wing are determined using these unsteady generalized aerodynamic forces in a traditional V-g analysis. The V-g analysis indicates that fluid viscosity has a significant effect on the supersonic flutter boundary for this wing

Identification of Robust Microsatellite Markers for Wild Pig Fecal DNA

Collection of fecal samples for use in a genetic capture-mark-recapture framework has become popular as a noninvasive method of monitoring wildlife populations. A major caveat to this process, however, is that fecal samples often yield low quality DNA that is prone to genotyping errors, potentially leading to biases in population parameter estimation. Therefore, considerable care is required to identify robust genetic markers, especially in hot or humid conditions that may accelerate DNA degradation. We identified microsatellite loci in wild pig (Sus scrofa) fecal samples that were robust and informative within warm, humid ecosystems. To examine how degradation affected genotyping success, we sampled pig feces across 5 days and calculated how the number of quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) cycles required to reach the fluorescent threshold (Ct) changed over time. We identified 17 microsatellite loci that had high polymorphism and amplification success and low genotyping error rates (0–0.050 per locus). In the degradation experiment, Ct increased over the 5 days, but in the absence of rain, the majority of samples produced accurate genotypes after 5 days (2,211/2,550 genotypes). Based on the high amplification success and low error rates, even after 5 days of exposure to warm, humid conditions, these loci are useful for estimating population parameters in pig fecal samples

Identification of Robust Microsatellite Markers for Wild Pig Fecal DNA

Collection of fecal samples for use in a genetic capture-mark-recapture framework has become popular as a noninvasive method of monitoring wildlife populations. A major caveat to this process, however, is that fecal samples often yield low quality DNA that is prone to genotyping errors, potentially leading to biases in population parameter estimation. Therefore, considerable care is required to identify robust genetic markers, especially in hot or humid conditions that may accelerate DNA degradation. We identified microsatellite loci in wild pig (Sus scrofa) fecal samples that were robust and informative within warm, humid ecosystems. To examine how degradation affected genotyping success, we sampled pig feces across 5 days and calculated how the number of quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) cycles required to reach the fluorescent threshold (Ct) changed over time. We identified 17 microsatellite loci that had high polymorphism and amplification success and low genotyping error rates (0–0.050 per locus). In the degradation experiment, Ct increased over the 5 days, but in the absence of rain, the majority of samples produced accurate genotypes after 5 days (2,211/2,550 genotypes). Based on the high amplification success and low error rates, even after 5 days of exposure to warm, humid conditions, these loci are useful for estimating population parameters in pig fecal samples

Developmental changes in the role of different metalinguistic awareness skills in Chinese reading acquisition from preschool to third grade

Copyright @ 2014 Wei et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.The present study investigated the relationship between Chinese reading skills and metalinguistic awareness skills such as phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness for 101 Preschool, 94 Grade-1, 98 Grade-2, and 98 Grade-3 children from two primary schools in Mainland China. The aim of the study was to examine how each of these metalinguistic awareness skills would exert their influence on the success of reading in Chinese with age. The results showed that all three metalinguistic awareness skills significantly predicted reading success. It further revealed that orthographic awareness played a dominant role in the early stages of reading acquisition, and its influence decreased with age, while the opposite was true for the contribution of morphological awareness. The results were in stark contrast with studies in English, where phonological awareness is typically shown as the single most potent metalinguistic awareness factor in literacy acquisition. In order to account for the current data, a three-stage model of reading acquisition in Chinese is discussed.National Natural Science Foundation of China and Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Preembryo Personhood: An Assessment of the President’s Council Arguments

The President’s Council on Bioethics has addressed the moral status of human preembryos in its reports on stem cell research and human therapeutic cloning. Although the Council has been criticized for being hand-picked to favor the right-to-life viewpoint concerning human preembryos, it has embraced the idea that the right-to-life position should be defended in secular terms. This is an important feature of the Council’s work, and it demonstrates a recognition of the need for genuine engagement between opposing sides in the debate over stem cell research. To promote this engagement, the Council has stated in secular terms several arguments for the personhood of human preembryos. This essay presents and critiques those arguments, and it concludes that they are unsuccessful. If the best arguments in support of the personhood of human preembryos have been presented by the Council, then there are no reasonable secular arguments in support of that view

Constitutive nuclear factor-kappa B mRNA, protein overexpression and enhanced DNA-binding activity in thymidylate synthase inhibitor-resistant tumour cells

In this study, the gene copy number, mRNA and protein expression levels and nuclear DNA-binding activity of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB) were compared in a panel of five pairs of thymidylate synthase (TS) inhibitor-resistant and wild-type parent cancer cell lines. High constitutive NF-kappaB DNA-binding activity was detected in all chemoresistant cell lines. The upregulated NF-kappaB activity was composed of NF-kappaB subunits p50 and p65. Four out of five resistant cell lines constitutively overexpressed NF-kappaB p50 and p63 mRNA and protein. One resistant cell line with the highest NF-kappaB DNA-binding activity showed normal p50 and p65 protein expression. No NF-kappaB gene amplification was detected in resistant cell lines. Transient exposure of wild-type RKOWT and H630(WT) cells to 5-FU induced NF-kappaB DNA-binding activity but had no effect on NF-kappaB protein expression in these cells, Our results indicate that high constitutive NF-kappaB activity caused by its gene overexpression is an intrinsic character of TS inhibitor-resistant cells. NF-kappaB can antagonise anticancer drug-induced apoptosis. High NF-kappaB expression and nuclear activity in TS inhibitor-resistant cancer cells may play an important role in the chemoresistance