Solar Thermal Upper Stage Liquid Hydrogen Pressure Control Testing

High-energy cryogenic propellant is an essential element in future space exploration programs. Therefore, NASA and its industrial partners are committed to an advanced development/technology program that will broaden the experience base for the entire cryogenic fluid management community. Furthermore, the high cost of microgravity experiments has motivated NASA to establish government/aerospace industry teams to aggressively explore combinations of ground testing and analytical modeling to the greatest extent possible, thereby benefitting both industry and government entities. One such team consisting of ManTech SRS, Inc., Edwards Air Force Base, and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) was formed to pursue a technology project designed to demonstrate technology readiness for an SRS liquid hydrogen (LH2) in-space propellant management concept. The subject testing was cooperatively performed June 21-30, 2000, through a partially reimbursable Space Act Agreement between SRS, MSFC, and the Air Force Research Laboratory. The joint statement of work used to guide the technical activity is presented in appendix A. The key elements of the SRS concept consisted of an LH2 storage and supply system that used all of the vented H2 for solar engine thrusting, accommodated pressure control without a thermodynamic vent system (TVS), and minimized or eliminated the need for a capillary liquid acquisition device (LAD). The strategy was to balance the LH2 storage tank pressure control requirements with the engine thrusting requirements to selectively provide either liquid or vapor H2 at a controlled rate to a solar thermal engine in the low-gravity environment of space operations. The overall test objective was to verify that the proposed concept could enable simultaneous control of LH2 tank pressure and feed system flow to the thruster without necessitating a TVS and a capillary LAD. The primary program objectives were designed to demonstrate technology readiness of the SRS concept at a system level as a first step toward actual flight vehicle demonstrations. More specific objectives included testing the pressure and feed control system concept hardware for functionality, operability, and performance. Valuable LH2 thermodynamic and fluid dynamics data were obtained for application to both the SRS concept and to future missions requiring space-based cryogen propellant management

Globalisation from Above? Corporate Social Responsibility, the Workers' Party and the Origins of the World Social Forum

In its assessment of the origins and early development of the World Social Forum this article challenges traditional understandings of the Forum as representing ‘globalisation from below’. By tracing the intricate relations among elements of business, civil society, and the Workers’ Party in the first years of the Forum, this article reveals the major role played by a corporate movement stemming from the Brazilian democratisation process in the 1980s, and how this combined with the transformed agenda of the Workers’ Party as it gained higher political offices to constrain the Forum’s activities from the outset. In so doing, this article challenges not only widespread conceptions of the Forum as a counter‐hegemonic alternative but also current critiques concerning its subsequent limitations. Furthermore, it reveals how traditional understandings of the World Social Forum and of global civil society are underpinned by flawed assumptions which typecast political activities in the global ‘South’

Early infant HIV-1 diagnosis programs in resource-limited settings: opportunities for improved outcomes and more cost-effective interventions

Early infant diagnosis (EID) of HIV-1 infection confers substantial benefits to HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected infants, to their families, and to programs providing prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services, but has been challenging to implement in resource-limited settings. In order to correctly inform parents/caregivers of infant infection status and link HIV-infected infants to care and treatment, a 'cascade' of events must successfully occur. A frequently cited barrier to expansion of EID programs is the cost of the required laboratory assays. However, substantial implementation barriers, as well as personnel and infrastructure requirements, exist at each step in the cascade. In this update, we review challenges to uptake at each step in the EID cascade, highlighting that even with the highest reported levels of uptake, nearly half of HIV-infected infants may not complete the cascade successfully. We next synthesize the available literature about the costs and cost effectiveness of EID programs; identify areas for future research; and place these findings within the context of the benefits and challenges to EID implementation in resource-limited settings

Lentiviral Vector Platform for Production of Bioengineered Recombinant Coagulation Factor VIII

Patients with hemophilia A present with spontaneous and sometimes life-threatening bleeding episodes that are treated using blood coagulation factor VIII (fVIII) replacement products. Although effective, these products have limited availability worldwide due to supply limitations and product costs, which stem largely from manufacturing complexity. Current mammalian cell culture manufacturing systems yield around 100 µg/l of recombinant fVIII, with a per cell production rate of 0.05 pg/cell/day, representing 10,000-fold lesser production than is achieved for other similar-sized recombinant proteins (e.g. monoclonal antibodies). Expression of human fVIII is rate limited by inefficient transport through the cellular secretory pathway. Recently, we discovered that the orthologous porcine fVIII possesses two distinct sequence elements that enhance secretory transport efficiency. Herein, we describe the development of a bioengineered fVIII product using a novel lentiviral-driven recombinant protein manufacturing platform. The combined implementation of these technologies yielded production cell lines that biosynthesize in excess of 2.5 mg/l of recombinant fVIII at the rate of 9 pg/cell/day, which is the highest level of recombinant fVIII production reported to date, thereby validating the utility of both technologies