Unintended Consequences: Potential Downsides of the Air Force\u27s Conversion to Biofuels

The desire to reduce US dependence on foreign energy, ongoing environmental concerns, and the rising cost of petroleum have sparked significant development of greener alternative and renewable energy sources such as alcohol-based biofuels. To address these issues, the Department of Defense DOD has moved to diminish its reliance on petroleum for fueling aircraft and ground equipment. The US Air Force, in alignment with DOD objectives, has initiated several goals for reducing its use of energy: (1) decrease the use of petroleum-based fuel by 2 percent annually for the vehicle fleet, (2) increase the use of alternative fuel in motor vehicles annually by 10 percent, (3) certify all aircraft and weapon systems for a 5050 alternative fuel blend by 2011, and (4) have Air Force aircraft flying on 50 percent alternative fuel blends by 2016.1 This aggressive timetable moves the world s single largest petroleum consumer, the DOD, squarely into the alternative energies market. As the world s most prodigious fuel consumer, the DOD would likely drive segments of the aviation and motor fuels markets around the world to meet the demand for newly formulated alternative fuels and to convert existing fuel delivery systems to support the new market. Although conversion to alternative fuels can clearly lower the production of carbon dioxide, the risks that potential fuel spills pose to soil and groundwater are only now becoming clear

Blood glucose variance measured by continuous glucose monitors across the menstrual cycle

Past studies on how blood glucose levels vary across the menstrual cycle have largely shown inconsistent results based on limited blood draws. In this study, 49 individuals wore a Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitor and a Fitbit Sense smartwatch while measuring their menstrual hormones and self-reporting characteristics of their menstrual cycles daily. The average duration of participation was 79.3 ± 21.2 days, leading to a total of 149 cycles and 554 phases in our dataset. We use periodic restricted cubic splines to evaluate the relationship between blood glucose and the menstrual cycle, after which we assess phase-based changes in daily median glucose level and associated physiological parameters using mixed-effects models. Results indicate that daily median glucose levels increase and decrease in a biphasic pattern, with maximum levels occurring during the luteal phase and minimum levels occurring during the late-follicular phase. These trends are robust to adjustments for participant characteristics (e.g., age, BMI, weight) and self-reported menstrual experiences (e.g., food cravings, bloating, fatigue). We identify negative associations between each of daily estrogen level, step count, and low degrees of fatigue with higher median glucose levels. Conversely, we find positive associations between higher food cravings and higher median glucose levels. This study suggests that blood glucose could be an important parameter for understanding menstrual health, prompting further investigation into how the menstrual cycle influences glucose fluctuation

Magnetic and Magnetotransport Properties of La0.7ca0.3mn1-x(zn,cu)xo3

Magnetic and magnetotransport properties of two perovskite manganite samples of La0.7Ca0.3Mn0.9Zn0.1O3 and La0.7Ca0.3Mn0.95Cu0.05O3 prepared by conventional solid-state reaction have been studied in detail. Experimental results revealed that the temperature dependences of magnetization and resistance varied strongly around the phase-transition temperature. Maximum magnetoresistance (MR) values of La0.7Ca0.3Mn0.9Zn0.1O3 and La0.7Ca0.3Mn0.95Cu0.05O3 under an applied field of 400 Oe were about 21.4 % and 11.0 %, respectively. The maximum magnetic-entropy change (ΔSM) was 2.73 J/kg.K for La0.7Ca0.3Mn0.9Zn0.1O3, and 3.34 J/kg.K for La0.7Ca0.3Mn0.95Cu0.05O3 when the applied field was 45 kOe. Both the MR and ΔSM values obtained from two samples were smaller than those of the parent compound La0.7Ca0.3MnO3. This was due to the change in the Mn3+/Mn4+ ratio caused by Zn and Cu dopants, which led to a change in the type of the ferromagneticparamagnetic phase transition

A brief on tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) functionalized-adsorbents in CO2 capture application

Among numerous carbon capture technologies, adsorption is considered one of the most effective approaches to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the atmosphere. Various modification approaches of adsorbents have been introduced to enhance the CO2 adsorption ability. Recently, an amine such as tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) has been extensively used as an adsorbent's promoter because of its high amine density, low viscosity, low cost, and low toxicity properties. This has added an advantage to the adsorbent in terms of economical and environmentally benign. Therefore, it is important to provide the latest review on TEPA-functionalized adsorbents, specifically on the effects of TEPA functionalization, different TEPA loading, diverse adsorption conditions, as well as the structure of adsorbents towards the CO2 adsorption capacity. Different adsorption conditions over a wide range of adsorption temperatures were thoroughly discussed and several recommendations for future studies were also been proposed

Prototyping of DSSDs for Particle Tracking and Spectroscopy within the EXL Project at Fair

Prototype double-sided silicon strip detectors (DSSD$s$) of 300 $\mu$m thickness produced at PTI St. Petersburg (Russia) were tested for the use as position sensitive, $\Delta E$ and E detectors for tracking and particle identification in the EXL (EXotic nuclei studied in Light-ion induced reactions at the NESR storage ring) setup at the FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) project at GSI. We describe the characteristics of detectors with $16 \times 16,\;64\times 64$ and $64\times 16$ strips, respectively. The response of these detectors for $^{241}$Am $\alpha$ particles injected either from the p or n side was examined. The test measurements were performed partially at GSI and the University of Edinburgh. A first in-beam test with a proton beam of 50 MeV with the latter two DSSDs and two 6.5 mm thick Si(Li) detectors was also done at KVI Groningen, the Netherlands. The results reveal good spectroscopic properties of these detectors

Dipole polarizability of 120Sn and nuclear energy density functionals

The electric dipole strength distribution in 120Sn between 5 and 22 MeV has been determined at RCNP Osaka from a polarization transfer analysis of proton inelastic scattering at E_0 = 295 MeV and forward angles including 0{\deg}. Combined with photoabsorption data an electric dipole polarizability \alpha_D(120Sn) = 8.93(36) fm^3 is extracted. The dipole polarizability as isovector observable par excellence carries direct information on the nuclear symmetry energy and its density dependence. The correlation of the new value with the well established \alpha_D(208Pb) serves as a test of its prediction by nuclear energy density functionals (EDFs). Models based on modern Skyrme interactions describe the data fairly well while most calculations based on relativistic Hamiltonians cannot.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Low-energy electric dipole response in 120Sn

The electric dipole strength in 120Sn has been extracted from proton inelastic scattering experiments at E_p = 295 MeV and at forward angles including 0 degree. Below neutron threshoild it differs from the results of a 120Sn(gamma,gamma') experiment and peaks at an excitation energy of 8.3 MeV. The total strength corresponds to 2.3(2)% of the energy-weighted sum rule and is more than three times larger than what is observed with the (gamma,gamma') reaction. This implies a strong fragmentation of the E1 strength and/or small ground state branching ratios of the excited 1- states.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure