Relationship between X-ray and ultraviolet emission in 3C 273

In 3C 273, ultraviolet flux and X-ray flux measured by BATSE are not well correlated, contrarily to predictions of several models, unless the X-ray flux lags the UV emission by 1.75 yr. The absence of observed correlation at small lag cannot be due to spectral variability. A Comptonizing corona model is however compatible with all UV and X-ray observations covering the BATSE period.Comment: LaTeX, 4 pages, 6 figures. espcrc2.sty style file included. Poster contribution to the symposium "The Active X-ray Sky: Results from BepppoSAX and Rossi-XTE", Rome, October 199

The carbon footprint associated with water management policy options in the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada

A system dynamics model was developed to estimate the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with conveyance of water from the water source to the distribution laterals of the Las Vegas Valley. In addition, the impact of several water management policies, including water conservation, reuse, and population growth rate change was evaluated. The results show that, at present, nearly 0.53 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year are released due to energy use for water conveyance in distribution laterals of the Valley from Lake Mead, located 32.2 km (20 miles) southeast of the Las Vegas at an elevation of nearly 366 m (1200 ft) below the Valley. The results show that the reduction in per capita water demand to 753 lpcd by 2035 can lower the CO2 emissions by approximately 16.5%. The increase in reuse of treated wastewater effluent within the valley to 77 million cubic meters by 2020 results in the decrease of CO2 emissions by 3.6%. Similarly, change in population growth rate by ±0.5% can result in CO2 emissions reduction of nearly 12.8% by 2035 when compared to the current status

Energy Consumption in Large Wastewater Treatment Plants as a Function of Wastewater Strength

Wastewater treatment (WWT) is an energy-intensive process. Strict standards for discharge often require energy intensive advanced treatment technologies. As a result, the number of plants using advanced treatment has increased (Figure 1). Rising energy costs and concerns about greenhouse gas generation present a major incentive for tracking energy usage of WWT. Energy usage in plant, for instance, typically represents 18 to 30% of the operational budget. Water efficient fixtures are also increasing loadings of organic matter to plants while lowering or maintaining overall liquid flow. The increased loadings have a significant impact on energy consumption. Previous work has focused primarily on aeration consumption for activated sludge rather than a plant as whole. There are very few studies that show energy requirements on a plant-wide scale with the Water Environment Federation (WEF) being one major source. This research presents a general methodology for tracking energy usage in a plant with regards to wastewater strength. It is anticipated that this research will provide a tool for designers and owners who wish to predict their energy impact before construction of a new plant or before implementing a new process on an existing plant

Rectal Microbiome Composition Correlates with Humoral Immunity to HIV-1 in Vaccinated Rhesus Macaques.

The microbiome is an integral and dynamic component of the host and is emerging as a critical determinant of immune responses; however, its influence on vaccine immunogenicity is largely not well understood. Here, we examined the pivotal relationship between the mucosal microbiome and vaccine-induced immune responses by assessing longitudinal changes in vaginal and rectal microbiome profiles after intradermal immunization with a human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) DNA vaccine in adult rhesus macaques that received two prior DNA primes. We report that both vaginal and rectal microbiomes were dominated by Firmicutes but were composed of distinct genera, denoting microbiome specialization across mucosal tissues. Following immunization, the vaginal microbiome was resilient, except for a transient decrease in Streptococcus In contrast, the rectal microbiome was far more responsive to vaccination, exhibiting an increase in the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes Within Bacteroidetes, multiple genera were significantly decreased, including Prevotella, Alloprevotella, Bacteroides, Acetobacteroides, Falsiporphyromonas, and Anaerocella. Decreased abundance of Prevotella correlated with induction of gut-homing α4β7 + effector CD4 T cells. Prevotella abundance also negatively correlated with rectal HIV-1 specific IgG levels. While rectal Lactobacillus was unaltered following DNA vaccination, baseline Lactobacillus abundance showed strong associations with higher rectal HIV-1 gp140 IgA induced following a protein boost. Similarly, the abundance of Clostridium in cluster IV was associated with higher rectal HIV-1 gp140 IgG responses. Collectively, these data reveal that the temporal stability of bacterial communities following DNA immunization is site dependent and highlight the importance of host-microbiome interactions in shaping HIV-1 vaccine responses. Our findings have significant implications for microbial manipulation as a strategy to enhance HIV vaccine-induced mucosal immunity.IMPORTANCE There is considerable effort directed toward evaluating HIV-1 vaccine platforms to select the most promising candidates for enhancing mucosal HIV-1 antibody. The most successful thus far, the RV144 trial provided partial protection due to waning HIV-1 antibody titers. In order to develop an effective HIV vaccine, it may therefore be important to understand how biological factors, such as the microbiome, modulate host immune responses. Furthermore, as intestinal microbiota antigens may generate antibodies cross-reactive to the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein, understanding the relationship between gut microbiota composition and HIV-1 envelope antibody responses after vaccination is important. Here, we demonstrate for the first time in rhesus macaques that the rectal microbiome composition can influence HIV-1 vaccine immunogenicity, and we report temporal changes in the mucosal microbiome profile following HIV-1 vaccination. Our results could inform findings from the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) vaccine studies and contribute to an understanding of how the microbiome influences HIV-1 antibody responses

Joint U.S. Agricultural Run-Off Program: Poland Agriculture and Water Quality Protection Project

As Poland\u27s economic transformation progresses, its agricultural sector must adopt new technologies in order to operate safely and efficiently, to remain competitive in the world marketplace, and to meet basic standards of environmental protection. This paper reports on the Poland Agriculture and Water Quality Protection Project (PAWQP), developed under a cooperative agreement between the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region VII. The paper discusses the innovative approach of encouraging sustainable management practices, through farm and watershed demonstrations, baseline surveys and environmental monitoring, education, and institutional strengthening, Initial results from all aspects of the project are presented

Towards automated sample collection and return in extreme underwater environments

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Billings, G., Walter, M., Pizarro, O., Johnson-Roberson, M., & Camilli, R. Towards automated sample collection and return in extreme underwater environments. Journal of Field Robotics, 2(1), (2022): 1351–1385, https://doi.org/10.55417/fr.2022045.In this report, we present the system design, operational strategy, and results of coordinated multivehicle field demonstrations of autonomous marine robotic technologies in search-for-life missions within the Pacific shelf margin of Costa Rica and the Santorini-Kolumbo caldera complex, which serve as analogs to environments that may exist in oceans beyond Earth. This report focuses on the automation of remotely operated vehicle (ROV) manipulator operations for targeted biological sample-collection-and-return from the seafloor. In the context of future extraterrestrial exploration missions to ocean worlds, an ROV is an analog to a planetary lander, which must be capable of high-level autonomy. Our field trials involve two underwater vehicles, the SuBastian ROV and the Nereid Under Ice (NUI) hybrid ROV for mixed initiative (i.e., teleoperated or autonomous) missions, both equipped seven-degrees-of-freedom hydraulic manipulators. We describe an adaptable, hardware-independent computer vision architecture that enables high-level automated manipulation. The vision system provides a three-dimensional understanding of the workspace to inform manipulator motion planning in complex unstructured environments. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the vision system and control framework through field trials in increasingly challenging environments, including the automated collection and return of biological samples from within the active undersea volcano Kolumbo. Based on our experiences in the field, we discuss the performance of our system and identify promising directions for future research.This work was funded under a NASA PSTAR grant, number NNX16AL08G, and by the National Science Foundation under grants IIS-1830660 and IIS-1830500. The authors would like to thank the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energy and National System of Conservation Areas for permitting research operations at the Costa Rican shelf margin, and the Schmidt Ocean Institute (including the captain and crew of the R/V Falkor and ROV SuBastian) for their generous support and making the FK181210 expedition safe and highly successful. Additionally, the authors would like to thank the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs for permitting the 2019 Kolumbo Expedition to the Kolumbo and Santorini calderas, as well as Prof. Evi Nomikou and Dr. Aggelos Mallios for their expert guidance and tireless contributions to the expedition