The 10-ft. space simulator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pumping, vacuum, cryogenic, solar simulation, and supporting systems for space simulator facilit

Did the ban on smoking reduce the revenue in pubs and restaurants in Norway?

After 16 years of exemptions from the ban on indoor smoking in other places of work, Norway became the second country after Ireland to implement a smoke-free regime in pubs and restaurants. This paper evaluates the economic impact on the hospitality sector in a northern region with a cold climate. The data consists of bi-monthly observations of revenues in restaurants and pubs starting in January 1999 and ending in August 2007. Auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) intervention analysis was used to test for possible economic impacts, controlling for variations in temperature. The ban on smoking did not have a statistically significant effect on revenue in restaurants or on restaurant revenue as a share of personal consumption. There is also no evidence that the ban reduce revenues in bars, but there is some indication that it may have reduced bar revenue as a share of personal consumption. Conclusion: A large body of research has found no negative economic effect of smoke-free legislation on restaurant and bar sales in the United States, Australia and elsewhere Our study confirms these results in a northern region with a cold climate with respect to restaurants, but the results was more mixed for bars.Tobacco; economics; business; passive smoking; legislation

Magnetic activity, differential rotation and dynamo action in the pulsating F9IV star KIC 5955122

We present photometric spot modeling of the nearly four-year long light-curve of the Kepler target KIC 5955122 in terms of persisting dark circular surface features. With a Bayesian technique, we produced a plausible surface map that shows dozens of small spots. After some artifacts are removed, the residuals are at $\pm 0.16$\,mmag. The shortest rotational period found is $P = 16.4 \pm 0.2$ days. The equator-to-pole extrapolated differential rotation is $0.25 \pm 0.02$ rad/d. The spots are roughly half as bright as the unperturbed stellar photosphere. Spot latitudes are restricted to the zone $\pm 60^\circ$ latitude. There is no indication for any near-pole spots. In addition, the p-mode pulsations enabled us to determine the evolutionary status of the star, the extension of the convective zone, and its radius and mass. We discuss the possibility that the clear signature of active regions in the light curve of the F9IV star KIC 5955122 is produced by a flux-transport dynamo action at the base of the convection zone. In particular, we argue that this star has evolved from an active to a quiet status during the Q0--Q16 period of observation, and we predict, according to our dynamo model, that the characteristic activity cycle is of the order of the solar one.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, to be published on A&

SIMPLIFIED DATA ANALYSIS FOR GENERALLY BALANCED BUT MESSY EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS

Johnson posted the essential elements of a \u27messy\u27 experimental design and challenged participants at the 1991 KSU Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture to provide an analysis. Subsequently, he proposed an analysis using SAS. The experiment was laid out by a soil scientist and involved six classifying factors in an intricate crossing and nesting arrangement which lead to a need to consider eight error terms. My objective at the poster session was to show by live computer demonstration that the analysis can be setup and conducted more easily by use of software applying Wilkinson\u27s methodology

Examining Shades of Grey with Students: Social Justice Education in Action

The researcher undertook a critical examination of an innovative social justice education course being piloted at an urban high school in the prairie region of western Canada. The research involved observations, conversations, document analysis, and in-depth interviews with a small number of students and teachers, in order to analyze the daily experiences, challenges, and successes of a group of students and teachers who have undertaken to address issues of discrimination, social justice, and human rights in their school. This research links ongoing academic and school work by focusing attention on the experiences of a specific group of students and their teachers in a unique and promising social justice education program. Findings point to a number of strengths of the course, including the comprehensive nature of the information surveyed, the strong theme of student involvement, the passion and commitment of the teachers, their honoring the complexity of understanding current social justice issues, the appropriateness of the course to student interests and strengths, the inquiry approach taken by the teachers, and the daily use of technology and the Internet in their learning

Model of Chlorocarbon (CFC-12) Chemisorption on Solid Rocket Motor Alumina Exhaust Particles

Solid Rocket (SRMs) that power Titan IV rockets and Space Shuttles, exhaust large quantities of potentially ozone damaging pollutants directly into the stratosphere, while in powered flight. In the past, studies on potential stratospheric impact of the exhaust products from aluminum/ammonium perchlorate based SRMs have focused on the effect of gaseous HCl from SRMs on the stratosphere. Until recently, the impact of heterogeneous chemistry on stratospheric ozone was believed to be relatively insignificant. This research investigates the potential heterogeneous process of CFC-12 dissociative chemisorption on alumina surfaces and the release of reactive halogen species known to destroy ozone. Through a PM3 semi-empirical computational study of small alumina surface \u27clusters,\u27 dissociative chemisorption and desorption of CFC-12 was investigated. It was determined that CFC-12 does chemisorb but does not dissociate or desorb thermally based on our models. Follow-on work involving larger alumina structures should be investigated