Stabilization, pointing and command control of a balloon-borne 1-meter telescope

A 1-meter balloon-borne telescope has been constructed and flown to observe far-infrared radiation from celestial sources. The attitude control systems must perform to the diffraction limit of the telescope for stabilization and have positioning capability for source acquisition. These and associated systems are discussed in detail, as is the command control of the payload as a whole

Clay flocculation effect on microbial community composition in water and sediment

Clay-based flocculation techniques have been developed to mitigate harmful algal blooms; however, the potential ecological impacts on the microbial community are poorly understood. In this study, chemical measurements were combined with 16S rRNA sequencing to characterize the microbial community response to different flocculation techniques, including controls, clay flocculation, clay flocculation with zeolite, and clay flocculation with O2 added zeolite capping. Sediment bacterial biomass measured by PLFA were not significantly altered by the various flocculation techniques used. However, 16S rRNA sequencing revealed differences in water microbial community structure between treatments with and without zeolite capping. The differences were related to significant reductions of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and ammonia (NH4+) concentration and increase of nitrate (NO3-) concentration in zeolite and O2 loaded zeolite capping. The relative abundance of ammonia oxidizing bacteria increased four-fold in zeolite capping microcosms, suggesting zeolite promoted absorbed ammonia removal in the benthic zone. Zeolite-capping promoted bacteria nitrogen cycling activities at the water-sediment interface. Potential pathogens that are usually adapted to eutrophic water bodies were reduced after clay flocculation. This study demonstrated clay flocculation did not decrease bacterial populations overall and may reduce regulatory indicators and pathogenic contaminants in water. Zeolite capping may also help prevent nutrients from being released back into the water thus preventing additional algal blooms

Temperature-dependent Raman scattering of DyScO3 and GdScO3 single crystals

We report a temperature-dependent Raman scattering investigation of DyScO3 and GdScO3 single crystals from room temperature up to 1200 {\deg}C. With increasing temperature, all modes decrease monotonously in wavenumber without anomaly, which attests the absence of a structural phase transition. The high temperature spectral signature and extrapolation of band positions to higher temperatures suggest a decreasing orthorhombic distortion towards the ideal cubic structure. Our study indicates that this orthorhombic-to-cubic phase transition is close to or higher than the melting point of both rare-earth scandates (\approx 2100 {\deg}C), which might exclude the possibility of the experimental observation of such a phase transition before melting. The temperature-dependent shift of Raman phonons is also discussed in the context of thermal expansion

Comments from the Editors

In this piece outgoing editor Sandy Estanek looks backward at where the journal has come since being revived, and incoming editor Logan Hazen looks forward to where the journal is heading