Lyophilized spore dispenser

A lyophilized spore dispenser is provided which produces a finely divided, monoparticulate cloud of bacterial spores. The spores are contained within a tightly sealed chamber, and a turbulator orifice connected to an air supply source provides a jet of air which stirs up the spores and causes the spores to be suspended in eddy currents within the chamber. This air jet also produces a positive pressure within the chamber which forces the spores out of an injection orifice

The Disconnect Between Rhetoric and Reality: Official Portrayals of the AMBER Alert System

Public perceptions regarding the AMBER Alert system are likely influenced by official statements made to the American people through various forms of media (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). However, what the public hears arguably represents a narrow view of the child abduction phenomena and its prospective solutions. To date, there has been no attempt to critically and systematically examine the language and rhetoric used in state website portrayals of AMBER Alert. This thesis is an attempt to address the existing research deficit though an exploratory content analysis of states‟ official AMBER Alert websites. Emphasizing an examination of various messages being sent to the public regarding the concern of missing children specifically, a total of seven themes were coded from all 50 state websites. While most websites contained the highly specific AMBER Alert issuing criteria as set forth by the federal government (n=45), only half contained information or links about current alerts in their state (n=25). More importantly, these websites expressed optimistic assurances rather than explicitly cautionary notes about AMBER Alerts' limits, a serious oversight that needs to be investigated

Using Hybrid Simulation/Analytical Queueing Networks to Capacitate USAF Air Mobility Command Passenger Terminals

The objective of this study is to model operations at an airport passenger terminal to determine the optimal service capacities at each station given estimated passenger flow patterns and service rates. The central formulation is an open Jackson queueing network that can be applied to any USAF Air Mobility Command (AMC) terminal regardless of passenger type mix and flow data. A complete methodology for analyzing passenger flows and queue performance of a single flight is produced and then embedded in a framework to analyze the same for multiple departing flights. Queueing network analysis (QNA) is used because no special software license or methodological training is required, results are obtained in a spreadsheet model with computational response times that are instantaneous, and data requirements are substantially reduced compared with discrete-event simulation (DES). However, because of the assumptions of QNA, additional research contributions were required. First, arrivals of passengers are time-dependent, not steady-state. Theoretical results for time-dependent queue networks in the literature are limited, so a method for using DES to adjust for arrival time-dependency in QNA is developed. Second, beyond quality of service in the network, a key performance measure is the percentage of passengers who do not clear the system by a fixed time. To populate the QNA mean value system sojourn time, DES is used to develop a generic sojourn time probability distribution. All DES computations have been pre-calculated off-line in this thesis and complete a hybrid DES/QNA analytical model. The model is exercised and validated through analysis of the facility at Hickam AFB, which is currently undergoing redesign. For larger flights, adding a server at the high-utilization queues, namely the USDA inspection and security screening stations, halve system congestion and dramatically increase throughput

Remediation of Contaminated Soils by Solvent Flushing

Solvent flushing is a potential technique for remediating a waste disposal/spill site contaminated with organic chemicals. This technique involves the injection of a solvent mixture (e.g., water plus alcohols) that enhances contaminant solubility, reduces the retardation factor, and increases the release rates of the contaminants. A simulation model is developed to predict contaminant elution curves during solvent flushing for the case of one‐dimensional, steady flow through a contaminated medium. Column experiments are conducted with a Eustis fine sand that is initially equilibrated with an aqueous naphthalene solution, and then eluted with different methanol‐water mixtures to remove the naphthalene. The model simulations, based on parameter values estimated from literature data, agree well with the measured elution profiles. Solvent flushing experiments, where the soil was initially equilibrated with a solution of naphthalene and anthracene, show that compounds with different retardation factors are separated at low cosolvent contents, while coelution of the compounds occurs at higher contents. In general, the smaller the retardation factor in water and the higher the cosolvent fraction, the faster the contaminant is recovered. The presence of nonequilibrium conditions, soil heterogeneity, and type of cosolvent will influence the time required to recover the contaminant.\u

Magnetoacoustic Oscillations of a Plasma Containing Two Species of Ions

Numerical calculations of linear magnetoacoustic resonant phenomena in a plasma containing two species of ions have been made for a cylindrical plasma with a model which includes the effects of collisional damping and radial non-uniformities in temperature and number density. At sufficiently high temperatures two frequencies are predicted at which magnetoacoustic resonances for the first radial mode will occur. These are expected from considerations of the effects of the ion-ion hybrid resonance

Wing shape as a potential discriminator of morphologically similar pest taxa within theBactrocera dorsalis species complex (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Four morphologically cryptic species of the Bactrocera dorsalis fruit fly complex (B. dorsalis s.s., B. papayae, B. carambolae and B. philippinensis) are serious agricultural pests. As they are difficult to diagnose using traditional taxonomic techniques, we examined the potential for geometric morphometric analysis of wing size and shape to discriminate between them. Fifteen wing landmarks generated size and shape data for 245 specimens for subsequent comparisons among three geographically distinct samples of each species. Intraspecific wing size was significantly different within samples of B. carambolae and B. dorsalis s.s. but not within samples of B. papayae or B. philippinensis. Although B. papayae had the smallest wings (average centroid size=6.002 mm±0.061 SE) and B. dorsalis s.s. the largest (6.349 mm±0.066 SE), interspecific wing size comparisons were generally non-informative and incapable of discriminating species. Contrary to the wing size data, canonical variate analysis based on wing shape data discriminated all species with a relatively high degree of accuracy; individuals were correctly reassigned to their respective species on average 93.27% of the time. A single sample group of B. carambolae from locality ‘TN Malaysia’ was the only sample to be considerably different from its conspecific groups with regards to both wing size and wing shape. This sample was subsequently deemed to have been originally misidentified and likely represents an undescribed species. We demonstrate that geometric morphometric techniques analysing wing shape represent a promising approach for discriminating between morphologically cryptic taxa of the B. dorsalis species complex

An Electrolysis Experiment for a Middle School Summer Science Camp

Higher education is often culturally deemphasized in the geographic area served by our rural, regional campus. As a result, faculty members have the opportunity to spearhead teaching efforts designed to educate the community about the importance of obtaining a post-secondary degree. To this end, we recently held a Science Summer Camp for middle school students, designed to infuse young people with an increased excitement for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education. In this report, we summarize a chemical electrolysis experiment we carried out with middle school students for our annual Science Summer Camp. We also provided procedural guidelines for small- and large-scale experiments. In the latter case, evolved H2 gas can be detonated for effect. Two modifications from literature procedure include: (1) using glass burettes, instead of test tubes, to collect the evolving H2 and O2 gases for the small-scale setup; and (2) prefilling the 100-mL graduated collection cylinders with aqueous NaOH prior to beginning electrolysis. Because these modifications provide aqueous solution in the collection reservoirs prior to starting the experiment, the total time required for the experiment is greatly reduced (~30 minutes)

Skin layer recovery of free-surface wakes: Relationship to surface renewal and dependence on heat flux and background turbulence

The thermal signatures of free-surface wakes observed in the open ocean show that the recovery of the cool skin layer is related to the degree of surface mixing and to ambient environmental conditions. Wakes produced by two surface-piercing cables of O(10−2 m) in diameter are analyzed using infrared imagery. Under low-wind-speed conditions when the swell and surface current were aligned, the wakes exhibited distinctive patchlike features of O(1 m) in diameter that were generated by the passage of individual waves. The time t* required by the skin layer to recover from these disturbances is compared to the surface-renewal timescale τ used in heat and gas flux models. At low wind speeds, t* is comparable to τ, but at moderate wind speeds the agreement is poor. The spatial and temporal variations in the skin temperature of these wakes are related to a wave Reynolds number used to characterize the strength of the disturbance due to the waves. The recovery process is characterized in terms of the restoring internal energy flux Jr which is proportional to both the initial thickness and the thermal recovery rate of the skin layer and was found to be directly related to the strength of the surface disruption. Comparison of the wake results with laboratory and other field measurements of breaking waves implies that Jr is also a strong function of the net heat flux and background turbulence, which relate directly to the existing environmental conditions such as wind stress and sea state. Our results demonstrate that Jr may vary by several orders of magnitude, depending on the environmental conditions

Microscale wave breaking and air-water gas transfer

Laboratory results showing that the air-water gas transfer velocity k is correlated with mean square wave slope have been cited as evidence that a wave-related mechanism regulates k at low to moderate wind speeds [Jähne et al., 1987; Bock et al., 1999]. Csanady [1990] has modeled the effect of microscale wave breaking on air-water gas transfer with the result that k is proportional to the fractional surface area covered by surface renewal generated during the breaking process. In this report we investigate the role of microscale wave breaking in gas transfer by determining the correlation between k and AB, the fractional area coverage of microscale breaking waves. Simultaneous, colocated infrared (IR) and wave slope imagery is used to verify that AB detected using IR techniques corresponds to the fraction of surface area covered by surface renewal in the wakes of microscale breaking waves. Using measurements of k and AB made at the University of Washington wind-wave tank at wind speeds from 4.6 to 10.7 m s−1, we show that k is linearly correlated with AB, regardless of the presence of surfactants. This result is consistent with Csanady's [1990] model and implies that microscale wave breaking is likely a fundamental physical mechanism contributing to gas transfer