Thermoplastic rubberlike material produced at low cost

Thermoplastic rubberlike material is prepared by blending a copolymer of ethylene and vinyl acetate with asphalt and a petroleum distillate. This low cost material is easily molded or extruded and is compatible with a variety of fillers

Thermoplastic rubber comprising ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, asphalt and fluxing oil

A thermoplastic rubber is made from a mixture of between about 10 percent and about 50 percent of asphalt, between about 5 percent and about 30 percent fluxing oil, and between about 35 percent and about 70 percent of a copolymer of polyethylene and vinyl acetate

Cold solid propellant motor has stop-restart capability

Solid propellant rocket is kept and fired at low temperatures in launch vehicles or spacecraft. The motor is capable of developing a specific impulse comparable to that of liquid propellant motors, is started, stopped, and restarted, and is stored in space without solar radiation causing hot spots on the motor casing

Addition of solid oxidizer increases liquid fuel specific impulse

Adding soluble solid oxidizers to hydrazine and similar fuels makes them useful in low temperature bipropellant systems. These oxidizers improve the low specific impulse, high freezing point, low boiling point, and low density of the fuels

Review of solid propellants for space exploration

Solid propellants for space vehicles and spacecraft fuel application

Diffusion as a Ruler: Modeling Kinesin Diffusion as a Length Sensor for Intraflagellar Transport

An important question in cell biology is whether cells are able to measure size, either whole cell size or organelle size. Perhaps cells have an internal chemical representation of size that can be used to precisely regulate growth, or perhaps size is just an accident that emerges due to constraint of nutrients. The eukaryotic flagellum is an ideal model for studying size sensing and control because its linear geometry makes it essentially one-dimensional, greatly simplifying mathematical modeling. The assembly of flagella is regulated by intraflagellar transport (IFT), in which kinesin motors carry cargo adaptors for flagellar proteins along the flagellum and then deposit them at the tip, lengthening the flagellum. The rate at which IFT motors are recruited to begin transport into the flagellum is anticorrelated with the flagellar length, implying some kind of communication between the base and the tip and possibly indicating that cells contain some mechanism for measuring flagellar length. Although it is possible to imagine many complex scenarios in which additional signaling molecules sense length and carry feedback signals to the cell body to control IFT, might the already-known components of the IFT system be sufficient to allow length dependence of IFT? Here we investigate a model in which the anterograde kinesin motors unbind after cargo delivery, diffuse back to the base, and are subsequently reused to power entry of new IFT trains into the flagellum. By mathematically modeling and simulating such a system, we are able to show that the diffusion time of the motors can in principle be sufficient to serve as a proxy for length measurement. We found that the diffusion model can not only achieve a stable steady-state length without the addition of any other signaling molecules or pathways, but also is able to produce the anticorrelation between length and IFT recruitment rate that has been observed in quantitative imaging studies

Nuclear Molecular Imaging Strategies in Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy

Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy (ICT) is a new treatment strategy developed for the treatment of cancer. ICT inhibits pathways known to downregulate the innate immune response to cancer cells. These drugs have been shown to be effective in the treatment of a variety of cancers, including metastatic melanoma and lung cancer. Challenges in response evaluation of patients in ICT have risen as immune related side effects and immune cell infiltration may be confused with progressive disease. Furthermore, the timing of the evaluation scan may be challenged by relatively slow responses. To overcome this, new response criteria for evaluating these patients with morphologic imaging have been proposed. The aim of this paper is to review and discuss the current evidence for the use of molecular imaging, e.g., PET/CT (Positron Emission Tomography/Computer Tomography) with 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucoes (FDG) as an alternative imaging method for monitoring patients undergoing ICT. Following the currently available evidence, this review will primarily focus on patients with malignant melanoma

Improving Co-benefits and 'Triple Win' Impacts from Climate Action: The Role of Guidance Tools

This CDI Practice Paper by L.O. Naess, M. Hagemann, B. Harvey, F. Urban, S. Hendel-Blackford and N. Höhne addresses the role of tools in supporting interventions to achieve the ‘triple wins’ of adaptation, mitigation and development. Over recent years there has been a proliferation of guidance tools to support adaptation or mitigation, increasingly in a development context, but little work on the role tools play in helping to bridge the gap between these three areas in practice. Based on a review of tools in view of ‘climate compatible development’, the paper suggests key considerations for how tools could help achieve ‘triple wins’. They include (1) the importance of understanding how tools are a way of defining and shaping a goal, not merely helping to implement actions to achieve it; (2) the value of acknowledging different starting points, and that a lot of the integration is happening – and will continue to happen – on the side of users; and (3) because tools cannot provide all the answers to complex problems they need to be complemented by analysis of actors, goals and outcomes.UK Department for International Developmen

Diffusion as a Ruler: Modeling Kinesin Diffusion as a Length Sensor for Intraflagellar Transport

An important question in cell biology is whether cells are able to measure size, either whole cell size or organelle size. Perhaps cells have an internal chemical representation of size that can be used to precisely regulate growth, or perhaps size is just an accident that emerges due to constraint of nutrients. The eukaryotic flagellum is an ideal model for studying size sensing and control because its linear geometry makes it essentially one-dimensional, greatly simplifying mathematical modeling. The assembly of flagella is regulated by intraflagellar transport (IFT), in which kinesin motors carry cargo adaptors for flagellar proteins along the flagellum and then deposit them at the tip, lengthening the flagellum. The rate at which IFT motors are recruited to begin transport into the flagellum is anticorrelated with the flagellar length, implying some kind of communication between the base and the tip and possibly indicating that cells contain some mechanism for measuring flagellar length. Although it is possible to imagine many complex scenarios in which additional signaling molecules sense length and carry feedback signals to the cell body to control IFT, might the already-known components of the IFT system be sufficient to allow length dependence of IFT? Here we investigate a model in which the anterograde kinesin motors unbind after cargo delivery, diffuse back to the base, and are subsequently reused to power entry of new IFT trains into the flagellum. By mathematically modeling and simulating such a system, we are able to show that the diffusion time of the motors can in principle be sufficient to serve as a proxy for length measurement. We found that the diffusion model can not only achieve a stable steady-state length without the addition of any other signaling molecules or pathways, but also is able to produce the anticorrelation between length and IFT recruitment rate that has been observed in quantitative imaging studies