The Great Albatross Philippine Expedition and Its Fishes

The Philippine Expedition of 1907-10 was the longest and most extensive assignment of the Albatross's 39-year career. It came about because the United States had acquired the Philippines following the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the bloody Philippine Insurection of 1899-1902. The purpose of the expedition was to surbey and assess the aquatic resources of the Philippine Islands. Dr. Hugh M. Smith, the Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, was the Director of the Expedition. Other scientific participants were Frederick M. Chamberlain, Lewis Radcliffe, Paul Bartsch, Harry C. Fasset, Clarence Wells, Albert Burrows, Alvin Seale, and Roy Chapman Andrews. The expedition consisted of a series of cruises, each beginning and ending in Manila and exploring a different part of the island group. In addition to the Philippines proper, the ship also explored parts of the Dutch East Indies and areas around Hong Kong and Taiwan. The expedition returned great quantities of fish and invertebrate speciments as well as hydrographic and fisheries data; most of the material was eventually deposited in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. The fisehs were formally accessioned into the museum in 1922 and fell under the car of Barton A. Bean, Assistant Curator of Fishes, who then recruited Henry W. Fowler to work up the material. Fowler completed his studies of the entire collection, but only part of it was ever published, due in part to the economic constraints caused by the Depression. The material from the Philippine Expedition constituted the largest single accession of fishes ever received by the museum. These speciments are in good condition today and are still being used in scientific research

Instrumented Lumbar Corpectomy and Spinal Reconstruction Comparing rhBMP-2/Compression-Resistant Matrix, rhBMP-2/Absorbable Collagen Sponge/Ceramic Granules Mixture, and Autograft in Two Different Devices: A Study in Sheep

Study Design. Fusion success with rhBMP-2 and autograft in titanium or PEEK corpectomy devices was evaluated in a sheep lumbar corpectomy model. The 6 treatment groups included titanium mesh or PEEK corpectomy devices filled with rhBMP-2 on a compression-resistant matrix (CRM) carrier; rhBMP-2 in a morselized absorbable collagen sponge (ACS) carrier combined with resorbable ceramic granules; and autograft. Objective. The aim of this study was to determine fusion rates associated with 2 different preparations of rhBMP-2 as well as autograft in an instrumented ovine lumbar corpectomy model 6 months postoperatively. Summary of Background Data. Vertebral reconstruction with corpectomy devices requires bone graft. Bone graft substitutes have the potential to avoid a second operation, donor site pain, and attendant morbidity associated with autograft. Methods. Twenty-four sheep in 6 treatment groups underwent lumbar corpectomy via a retroperitoneal trans-psoas approach. Spines were reconstructed with autograft, rhBMP-2 on a CRM, or rhBMP-2 on an ACS mixed with ceramic granules. Grafting materials were placed in either a titanium mesh or PEEK conduit in spines with internal fixation. Computed tomographic (CT) scans were evaluated for fusion. Undecalcified histology was used to evaluate for fusion as well as the amount and extent of graft incorporation and graft resorption. Results. Regardless of corpectomy device used, rhBMP-2/CRM or rhBMP-2/ACS with MASTERGRAFT resulted in a 100% fusion rate. The autograft group had a lower (75%) radiographic fusion rate. Using either preparation of rhBMP-2 resulted in the length of the defect filling with solid bone. Autograft fragments and ceramic granules were incorporated into the fusion masses with much of the ceramic granules being resorbed by 6 months. Conclusion. Both of the rhBMP-2 formulations have the potential to effect bony fusion and vertebral reconstruction within the corpectomy devices

The Development and Implementation of Ground Safety Requirements for Project Orion Abort Flight Testing - A Case Study

A rigorous set of detailed ground safety requirements is required to make sure that ground support equipment (GSE) and associated planned ground operations are conducted safely. Detailed ground safety requirements supplement the GSE requirements already called out in NASA-STD-5005. This paper will describe the initial genesis of these ground safety requirements, the establishment and approval process and finally the implementation process for Project Orion. The future of the requirements will also be described. Problems and issues encountered and overcame will be discussed

Carbon Consequences of Forest Disturbance and Recovery Across the Conterminous United States

Forests of North America are thought to constitute a significant long term sink for atmospheric carbon. The United States Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program has developed a large data base of stock changes derived from consecutive estimates of growing stock volume in the US. These data reveal a large and relatively stable increase in forest carbon stocks over the last two decades or more. The mechanisms underlying this national increase in forest stocks may include recovery of forests from past disturbances, net increases in forest area, and growth enhancement driven by climate or fertilization by CO2 and Nitrogen. Here we estimate the forest recovery component of the observed stock changes using FIA data on the age structure of US forests and carbon stocks as a function of age. The latter are used to parameterize forest disturbance and recovery processes in a carbon cycle model. We then apply resulting disturbance/recovery dynamics to landscapes and regions based on the forest age distributions. The analysis centers on 28 representative climate settings spread about forested regions of the conterminous US. We estimate carbon fluxes for each region and propagate uncertainties in calibration data through to the predicted fluxes. The largest recovery-driven carbon sinks are found in the South central, Pacific Northwest, and Pacific Southwest regions, with spatially averaged net ecosystem productivity (NEP) of about 100 g C / square m / a driven by forest age structure. Carbon sinks from recovery in the Northeast and Northern Lake States remain moderate to large owing to the legacy of historical clearing and relatively low modern disturbance rates from harvest and fire. At the continental scale, we find a conterminous U.S. forest NEP of only 0.16 Pg C/a from age structure in 2005, or only 0.047 Pg C/a of forest stock change after accounting for fire emissions and harvest transfers. Recent estimates of NEP derived from inventory stock change, harvest, and fire data show twice the NEP sink we derive from forest age distributions. We discuss possible reasons for the discrepancies including modeling errors and the possibility of climate and/or fertilization (CO2 or N) growth enhancements

Magnetic form factor of SrFe2_2As2_2

Neutron diffraction measurements have been carried out to investigate the magnetic form factor of the parent SrFe2As2 system of the iron-based superconductors. The general feature is that the form factor is approximately isotropic in wave vector, indicating that multiple d-orbitals of the iron atoms are occupied as expected based on band theory. Inversion of the diffraction data suggests that there is some elongation of the spin density toward the As atoms. We have also extended the diffraction measurements to investigate a possible jump in the c-axis lattice parameter at the structural phase transition, but find no detectable change within the experimental uncertainties

A Soft X-ray Transient in the M31 Bulge

We have examined a probable soft X-ray transient source in the M31 bulge at R.A.=0:42:41.814 +/- 0.08", Dec. = 41:16:35.86 +/- 0.07". On the three occasions we observed the source, its spectrum was soft (kT_{in} ~1 keV). The brightest detection of the source was 2004 July 17 with a 0.3-7 keV luminosity of ~5 X 10^{37} erg/s. The only previous detection of the source was in 1979 by the Einstein observatory. The multiple detections over 25 years suggest the duty cycle of the source is in the range 0.02-0.06. Coordinated HST/ACS imaging before, during, and after the outburst revealed no variable optical source within the position errors of the X-ray source. The optical data place a firm upper limit on the brightness of the counterpart of the X-ray outburst of B>24.7, suggesting the binary has a period <5.2 days. The X-ray spectrum and lack of bright stars at the source location indicate the source was a soft transient event occurring in a low-mass X-ray binary, making this source a good black hole candidate in M31.Comment: 18 pages, 4 tables, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Impacts of disturbance history on forest carbon stocks and fluxes: Merging satellite disturbance mapping with forest inventory data in a carbon cycle model framework

Forest carbon stocks and fluxes are highly dynamic following stand-clearing disturbances from severe fire and harvest and this presents a significant challenge for continental carbon budget assessments. In this work we use forest inventory data to parameterize a carbon cycle model to represent post-disturbance carbon trajectories of carbon pools and fluxes for specific forest types growing in high and low site productivity class settings. We then apply these trajectories to landscapes and regions based on forest age distributions derived from either the FIA data or from Landsat time series stacks (1985–2006) for 54 representative scenes throughout most of the conterminous United States.Weestimate the net carbon uptake in forests caused by post-disturbance growth and decomposition (“regrowth sink”) for forested regions across the country. At the landscape scale, the prevailing condition of positive net ecosystem productivity (NEP) is in stark contrast to local patcheswith large sources, particularly in the west where fires and clear cuts create contiguous disturbed patches. At the continental scale, regional differences in disturbance rates reflect management patterns of high disturbance rates in the Southeastern and South Central states, and lower disturbance rates in the Northeast andNorthern Lakes States. Despite low contemporary disturbance rates in the Northeast and Northern Lakes States (0.61 and 0.74% y−1), the regrowth sink there remains of moderate to large strength (88 and 57 g C m−2 y−1) owing to the continued legacy from historical clearing. Large regrowth sinks are also found in the Southeast, South Central, and Pacific Southwest regions (85, 86, and 95 g C m−2 y−1) where disturbance rates also tend to be higher (1.59, 1.38, and 0.93% y−1). Overall, the Landsat-derived disturbance rates are elevated relative to FIA-derived rates (1.19 versus 0.93% y−1) particularly for western regions. The differences only modestly adjust regional- and continental-scale carbon budgets, reducing NEP from forest regrowth by about 8%

Crystallization, X-ray diffraction analysis and preliminary structure determination of the TIR domain from the flax resistance protein L6

The Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domain is a protein-protein interaction domain that is found in both animal and plant immune receptors. In animal Toll-like receptor signalling, both homotypic TIR-domain interactions between two receptor molecules and heterotypic interactions between receptors and TIR-domain-containing adaptors are required for initiation of an innate immune response. The TIR domains in cytoplasmic nucleotide-binding/leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) plant disease-resistance proteins are not as well characterized, but recent studies have suggested a role in defence signalling. In this study, the crystallization, X-ray diffraction analysis and preliminary structure determination of the TIR domain from the flax resistance protein L6 (L6TIR) are reported. Plate-like crystals of L6TIR were obtained using PEG 200 as a precipitant and diffracted X-rays to 2.3 angstrom resolution. Pseudo-translation complicated the initial assignment of the crystal symmetry, which was ultimately found to correspond to space group P2(1)2(1)2 with two molecules per asymmetric unit. The structure of L6TIR was solved by molecular replacement using the structure of the TIR-domain-containing protein AT1G72930 from Arabidopsis as a template