On using a pyroclastic deposit as a manned lunar base site

Hawke et al. (1990) suggest that ilmenite found in Apollo 17-type pyroclastic glass may provide feedstock for the hydrogen reduction of ilmenite process for producing lunar oxygen. They also suggest that the ilmenite may help retain solar wind hydrogen and helium which can be extracted for use at a lunar outpost or even transported back to Earth for fusion fuel in the case of helium-3. Therefore, they suggest that ilmenite-rich material may be the best candidate. Here, researchers propose a somewhat different approach. They propose that the pyroclastic glass can be reduced directly to produce oxygen and one or more metals. Sulfur would be another important byproduct of the processing. This process would eliminate the need for having specific minerals such as ilmenite or for doing any mineral concentration. The bulk pyroclastic would provide the feedstock. Some recent experiments at the Johnson Space Center suggest that an iron-rich composition would be the most suitable for this direct feedstock reduction and that the titanium content may not be important. Also, the lunar pyroclastic deposits would be extremely useful in constructing and supporting a lunar base

There's Iron in Them Thar Hills: A Geologic Look at the Aristarchus Plateau as a Potential Landing Site for Human Lunar Return

Lunar pyroclastic deposits are unique among lunar soils. Composed of very fine grained glass beads rich in Fe, Ti and Mg they yield unique spectral signatures. From the spectra two major classes and five subclasses of lunar dark mantling deposits have been identified. Recent work by me and others has shown that the larger regional deposits are more numerous, extensive, thicker, and widely distributed than previously thought, leading us to suggest that they would make ideal resource feedstock for future lunar surface activities. Returned sample studies and the recently collected Galileo and Clementine data also corroborate these findings. Recent planning for return to the Moon indicates that large cost savings can result from using locally produced oxygen, and recent JSC laboratory results indicate that iron-rich pyroclastic dark mantling deposits may be the richest oxygen resource on the Moon. My earlier work demonstrated that instead of using regolith, bulk lunar pyroclastic deposits are better suited for beneficiation as they are thick (lO's m's), unconsolidated, fine-grained deposits. In addition, the lack of rocks and boulders and the typically flat to gently rolling terrain will facilitate their mining and processing. In preparation for the Human Lunar Return (HLR) I have characterized the Aristarchus Plateau (24 deg. N 52 deg. W) as a potential landing site for an in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) demonstration. The geologic diversity and large volume of Fe-rich pyroclastic material present at the Aristarchus site make it an ideal target for extracting O2, H2 and halogens. This paper (1) describes the current understanding of the geology of Aristarchus plateau; (2) describes the resource potential of the Aristarchus plateau; and (3) presents several candidate landing sites on the plateau for future lunar activities

Metabolomic profiling and stable isotope labelling of Trichomonas vaginalis and Tritrichomonas foetus reveal major differences in amino acid metabolism including the production of 2-hydroxyisocaproic acid, cystathionine and S-methylcysteine

Trichomonas vaginalis and Tritrichomonas foetus are pathogens that parasitise, respectively, human and bovine urogenital tracts causing disease. Using LC-MS, reference metabolomic profiles were obtained for both species and stable isotope labelling with D-[U-13C6] glucose was used to analyse central carbon metabolism. This facilitated a comparison of the metabolic pathways of T. vaginalis and T. foetus, extending earlier targeted biochemical studies. 43 metabolites, whose identities were confirmed by comparison of their retention times with authentic standards, occurred at more than 3-fold difference in peak intensity between T. vaginalis and T. foetus. 18 metabolites that were removed from or released into the medium during growth also showed more than 3-fold difference between the species. Major differences were observed in cysteine and methionine metabolism in which homocysteine, produced as a bi-product of trans-methylation, is catabolised by methionine γ-lyase in T. vaginalis but converted to cystathionine in T. foetus. Both species synthesise methylthioadenosine by an unusual mechanism, but it is not used as a substrate for methionine recycling. T. vaginalis also produces and exports high levels of S-methylcysteine, whereas only negligible levels were found in T. foetus which maintains significantly higher intracellular levels of cysteine. 13C-labeling confirmed that both cysteine and S-methylcysteine are synthesised by T. vaginalis; S-methylcysteine can be generated by recombinant T. vaginalis cysteine synthase using phosphoserine and methanethiol. T. foetus contained higher levels of ornithine and citrulline than T. vaginalis and exported increased levels of putrescine, suggesting greater flux through the arginine dihydrolase pathway. T. vaginalis produced and exported hydroxy acid derivatives of certain amino acids, particularly 2-hydroxyisocaproic acid derived from leucine, whereas negligible levels of these metabolites occurred in T. foetus

The corporation, its normative significance, and the social egalitarian case for stakeholder theory

There are two important debates in business ethics that centre on the limited liability business corporation (the corporation). The first debate is whether the corporation has a special normative significance because of its legal form, which means that it comes with special moral responsibilities that are different to moral responsibilities in other, non-corporate contexts. The second debate is whether an egalitarian society should normatively regulate the corporation with stakeholder theory or shareholder value maximisation, where stakeholder theory requires that the corporation gives weight to the interests of all the corporation’s stakeholders and shareholder value maximisation requires that the corporation maximises profits for shareholders, albeit subject to certain constraints. In this thesis, I contribute to these debates by defending two over-arching claims. First, I claim that there are strong pro tanto reasons for society to regulate the corporation with special moral responsibilities because the corporation has a special governmental provenance and comes with special legal privileges for its shareholders. I defend this claim by developing an argument which I call the Corporate Fair Reciprocity Argument, because it is rooted in a conception of justice as fair reciprocity in which justice requires that citizens fairly benefit from and fairly contribute to society as a system of fair social cooperation. Second, I claim that a social egalitarian society, which is plausibly a more specific version of justice as fair reciprocity in which the primary concern of justice is that citizens relate to one another as social equals, has good reasons to favour stakeholder theory. I justify this claim by developing a refined version of stakeholder theory that is grounded in specific social egalitarian values and by defending this version of stakeholder theory as being superior to shareholder value maximisation

Discriminant analysis of principal components and pedigree assessment of genetic diversity and population structure in a tetraploid potato panel using SNPs

The reported narrow genetic base of cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum) can be expanded by the introgression of many related species with large genetic diversity. The analysis of the genetic structure of a potato population is important to broaden the genetic base of breeding programs by the identification of different genetic pools. A panel composed by 231 diverse genotypes was characterized using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers of the Illumina Infinium Potato SNP Array V2 to identify population structure and assess genetic diversity using discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) and pedigree analysis. Results revealed the presence of five clusters within the populations differentiated principally by ploidy, taxonomy, origin and breeding program. The information obtained in this work could be readily used as a guide for parental introduction in new breeding programs that want to maximize variability by combination of contrasting variability sources such as those presented here.Fil: Deperi, Sofía Irene. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata; ArgentinaFil: Tagliotti, Martin Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata; ArgentinaFil: Bedogni, María Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Buenos Aires Sur. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce; ArgentinaFil: Manrique Carpintero, Norma C.. Michigan State University; Estados UnidosFil: Coombs, Joseph. Michigan State University; Estados UnidosFil: Zhang, Ruofang. Inner Mongolia University; ChinaFil: Douches, David. Michigan State University; Estados UnidosFil: Huarte, Marcelo Atilio. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Buenos Aires Sur. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce; Argentin