862 research outputs found
Investigation of Bio-Regenerative Life Support and Trash-To-Gas Experiment on a 4 Month Mars Simulation Mission
Future crewed missions to other planets or deep space locations will require regenerative Life Support Systems (LSS) as well as recycling processes for mission waste. Constant resupply of many commodity materials will not be a sustainable option for deep space missions, nor will storing trash on board a vehicle or at a lunar or Martian outpost. The habitable volume will decline as the volume of waste increases. A complete regenerative environmentally controlled life support system (ECLSS) on an extra-terrestrial outpost will likely include physico-chemical and biological technologies, such as bioreactors and greenhouse modules. Physico-chemical LSS do not enable food production and bio-regenerative LSS are not stable enough to be used alone in space. Mission waste that cannot be recycled into the bio-regenerative ECLSS can include excess food, food packaging, clothing, tape, urine and fecal waste. This waste will be sent to a system for converting the trash into the high value products. Two crew members on a 120 day Mars analog simulation, in collaboration with Kennedy Space Centers (KSC) Trash to Gas (TtG) project investigated a semi-closed loop system that treated non-edible biomass and other logistical waste for volume reduction and conversion into useful commodities. The purposes of this study are to show the how plant growth affects the amount of resources required by the habitat and how spent plant material can be recycled. Real-time data was sent to the reactor at KSC in Florida for replicating the analog mission waste for laboratory operation. This paper discusses the 120 day mission plant growth activity, logistical and plant waste management, power and water consumption effects of the plant and logistical waste, and potential energy conversion techniques using KSCs TtG reactor technology
How Much Do Benzodiazepines Matter for Electroconvulsive Therapy in Patients With Major Depression?
BACKGROUND: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one of the most effective treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD), especially in cases of treatment-resistant MDD. Because of their pharmacological profiles, benzodiazepines (BZDs) are suspected to decrease the efficacy of ECT. This study investigated the effect of BZDs on ECT-induced clinical outcomes and ECT course parameters in patients with MDD.
METHOD: The impact of BZDs on severity of depression (Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale scores) and on ECT course parameters (seizure threshold, clinical and electroencephalographic seizure duration) was investigated in 70 patients with MDD who received an ECT course using dose-titration method (22 received concomitant BZDs).
RESULTS: Lower remission rates (52.0%) and smaller decreases in Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale scores were observed in the non-BZD group than in the BZD group (81.2%, P = 0.02). There were no significant differences between the 2 groups regarding seizure duration and seizure threshold.
LIMITATIONS: This was a retrospective study. Impact of BZDs on anxiety and cognition was not assessed.
CONCLUSIONS: Benzodiazepines increased the clinical efficacy of ECT when delivered using dose-titration method and bitemporal stimulation. Further studied are needed to understand the interaction between BZDs and ECT on clinical outcomes
Hyper-Raman scattering analysis of the vibrations in vitreous boron oxide
Hyper-Raman scattering has been measured on vitreous boron oxide,
BO. This spectroscopy, complemented with Raman scattering and
infrared absorption, reveals the full set of vibrations that can be observed
with light. A mode analysis is performed based on the local D symmetry
of BO triangles and BO boroxol rings. The results show that in
BO the main spectral components can be succesfully assigned using
this relatively simple model. In particular, it can be shown that the
hyper-Raman boson peak arises from external modes that correspond mainly to
librational motions of rigid boroxol rings.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, 2 table
Aesthetic Worlds: Rimbaud, Williams and Baroque Form
The sense of form that provides the modern poet with a unique experience of the literary object has been crucial to various attempts to compare poetry to other cultural activities. In maintaining similar conceptions of the relationship between poetry and painting, Arthur Rimbaud and W. C. Williams establish a common basis for interpreting their creative work. And yet their poetry is more crucially concerned with the sudden emergence of visible "worlds" containing verbal objects that integrate a new kind of literary text. This paper discusses the emergence of "aesthetic worlds" in the work of both poets and then examines how a common concern with Baroque form unites them in the phenomenological task of overcoming Cartesian dualism
Identifying essential components of a plant LINC complex
The higher plant NE contains a functional Linker of Nucleoskeleton and Cytoskeleton (LINC) complex based on conserved Sad1-Unc84 (SUN) domain proteins and plant specific Klarsicht/Anc1/Syne homology (KASH) domain proteins (Figure 1). Recent evidence suggests the presence of a plant lamina underneath the inner membrane and various coiled-coil proteins have been hypothesised to be associated with it including Crowded Nuclei (CRWN), Nuclear Envelope Associated Protein (NEAP) protein families as well as the CRWN binding protein KAKU4. In this study, we explore the presence of proteins of these nuclear envelope (NE) proteins from the most ancestral plant species to advanced angiosperms
Spectral and stratigraphic mapping of hydrated sulfate and phyllosilicate-bearing deposits in northern Sinus Meridiani, Mars
We present detailed stratigraphic and spectral analyses that focus on a region in
northern Sinus Meridiani located between 1°N to 5°N latitude and 3°W to 1°E longitude.
Several stratigraphically distinct units are defined and mapped using morphologic
expression, spectral properties, and superposition relationships. Previously unreported
exposures of hydrated sulfates and Fe/Mg smectites are identified using MRO CRISM and
MEX OMEGA nearâinfrared (1.0 to 2.5 ”m) spectral reflectance observations. Layered
deposits with monohydrated and polyhydrated sulfate spectral signatures that occur in
association with a northeastâsouthwest trending valley are reexamined using highresolution
CRISM, HiRISE, and CTX images. Layers that are spectrally dominated by
monohydrated and polyhydrated sulfates are intercalated. The observed compositional
layering implies that multiple wetting events, brine recharge, or fluctuations in evaporation
rate occurred. We infer that these hydrated sulfateâbearing layers were unconformably
deposited following the extensive erosion of preexisting layered sedimentary rocks and
may postdate the formation of the sulfateâ and hematiteâbearing unit analyzed by the MER
Opportunity rover. Therefore, at least two episodes of deposition separated by an
unconformity occurred. Fe/Mg phyllosilicates are detected in units that predate the sulfateand
hematiteâbearing unit. The presence of Fe/Mg smectite in older units indicates that the
relatively low pH formation conditions inferred for the younger sulfateâ and hematitebearing
unit are not representative of the aqueous geochemical environment that prevailed
during the formation and alteration of earlier materials. Sedimentary deposits indicative of
a complex aqueous history that evolved over time are preserved in Sinus Meridiani, Mars
Clinical Characteristics of Suicidal Youths and Adults: A One-Year Retrospective Study
Suicide is a major mental health problem, particularly during youth, when it is the second
leading cause of death. Since young people at risk of suicide are often cared for by the adult health
system, we sought to identify the specificities and similarities between suicidal youths and adults in
order to further inform the potential need for adaptations in taking care of suicidal youths. For this
study, we used the following data: mental disorders, treatments, previous hospitalization, and reasons
for current hospitalization, that were collected from November 2016 to October 2017 among people
hospitalized for a suicidal crisis in a specialized psychiatric unit. First, we compared the data from
the youth group with those from the adult group, and then we tried to determine if there were
any associations between variables. Analyses showed that youths were more similar to adults than
expected. In particular, we found comparable rates of personality disorders (especially borderline) and
relapse, and similar profiles of reasons for hospitalization in suicidal crisis. Remarkably, among youth,
neuroleptics appeared to be associated with fewer hospitalizations for behavioral than ideational
reasons, but with more relapses. Results of this study suggest that young people could benefit from
brief psychotherapeutic interventions implemented for adult
NCERA-101 Station Report from Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA (April 2019)
This is our annual "station report" of activities related to controlled environment research to the North Central Education Research Activity (NCERA-101) committee. The committee is sponsored the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Kennedy Space Center has participated in this committee for over 30 years
Study of the system in the mass range up to 1200 MeV
The reaction has been studied with GAMS-2000
spectrometer in the secondary 38 GeV/c -beam of the IHEP U-70
accelerator. Partial wave analysis of the reaction has been performed in the
mass range up to 1200 MeV. The -meson is seen as a sharp
peak in S-wave. The -dependence of production cross section has
been studied. Dominant production of the at a small transfer
momentum confirms the hypothesis of Achasov and Shestakov about significant
contribution of the exchange () in the mechanism
of meson production in -channel of the reaction.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, talk given at HADRON'9
Phyllosilicate and Hydrated Sulfate Deposits in Meridiani
Several phyllosilicate and hydrated sulfate deposits in Meridiani have been mapped in detail with high resolution MRO CRISM [1] data. Previous studies have documented extensive exposures of outcrop in Meridiani (fig 1), or etched terrain (ET), that has been interpreted to be sedimentary in origin [e.g., 2,3]. These deposits have been mapped at a regional scale with OMEGA data and show enhanced hydration (1.9 m absorption) in several areas [4]. However, hydrated sulfate detections were restricted to valley exposures in northern Meridiani ET [5]. New high resolution CRISM images show that hydrated sulfates are present in several spatially isolated exposures throughout the ET (fig 1). The hydrated sulfate deposits in the valley are vertically heterogeneous with layers of mono and polyhydrated sulfates and are morphologically distinct from other areas of the ET. We are currently mapping the detailed spatial distribution of sulfates and searching for distinct geochemical horizons that may be traced back to differential ground water recharge and/or evaporative loss rates. The high resolution CRISM data has allowed us to map out several phyllosilicate deposits within the fluvially dissected Noachian cratered terrain (DCT) to the south and west of the hematite-bearing plains (Ph) and ET (fig 1). In Miyamoto crater, phyllosilicates are located within ~30km of the edge of Ph, which is presumably underlain by acid sulfate deposits similar to those explored by Opportunity. The deposits within this crater may record the transition from fluvial conditions which produced and/or preserved phyllosilicates deposits to a progressively acid sulfate dominated groundwater system in which large accumulations of sulfate-rich evaporites were deposited
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