Metamorphic temperature investigation of coexisting calcite and dolomite marble––examples from Nikani Ghar marble and Nowshera Formation, Peshawar Basin, Pakistan

Using marble samples from the Nikani Ghar marble and Nowshera Formation from Northern Pakistan the determination of the temperature of metamorphism was undertaken with the help of calcite-dolomite solvus geothermometer. Two types of marbles, that is, calcite-dolomite marble and quartz-bearing calcite-dolomite marble were selected. Petrographic and scanning electron microscope analysis of dolomite samples indicated different grain sizes. X-ray diffraction technique indicated the calcites MgCO₃ content up to 7.93 mol.%. Nikani Ghar marble samples have shown lower contents of MgCO₃ as compared to samples from Nowshera Formation. The calcite-dolomite-quartz marble has also showed relatively lower MgCO₃ content and hence rather low temperature (~500 °C). The temperature reached during peak metamorphism of the investigated marble occurrence, based on calcitedolomite solvus was 628 °C. Metamorphic temperatures derived from the present study were shown as a linear graph and values were in good agreement with the published literature.The authors acknowledge the financial support extended by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan and National Academy of Sciences (USA), project ID 131, under the PAK-USA S & T Cooperation Program, Award (No. 0521315). The authors are grateful to the HEC, Pakistan for their support in the form of “International Research Support Initiative Program (IRSIP)” to conduct a part of research at Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, United 996 Muhammad Fahad, Yaseen Iqbal, Mohammad Riaz, Rick Ubic and Simon A. T. Redfern Kingdom. The financial support extended by the Directorate of S & T, KP regarding minerals upgradation is also acknowledged

Performance of Nickel-Cadmium Batteries on the GOES I-K Series of Weather Satellites

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) spacecraft (among others) to support weather forecasting, severe storm tracking, and meteorological research by the National Weather Service (NWS). The latest in the GOES series consists of 5 spacecraft (originally named GOES I-M), three of which are in orbit and two more in development. Each of five spacecraft carry two Nickel-Cadmium batteries, with batteries designed and manufactured by Space Systems Loral (SS/L) and cells manufactured by Gates Aerospace Batteries (sold to SAFT in 1993). The battery, which consists of 28 cells with a 12 Ah capacity, provides the spacecraft power needs during the ascent phase and during the semi-annual eclipse seasons lasting for approximately 45 days each. The maximum duration eclipses are 72 minutes long which result in a 60 percent depth of discharge (DOD) of the batteries. This paper provides a description of the batteries, reconditioning setup, DOD profile during a typical eclipse season, and flight performance from the 3 launched spacecraft (now GOES 8, 9, and 10) in orbit

Performance of Nickel-Cadmium Batteries on the GOES-1 Series of Weather Satellites

This is an errata from an original paper published in the 1997 NASA Aerospace Battery workshop proceedings. A minor change was made to the second equation on page 98 and table 4 was revised during the final preparation of the paper. These changes were inadvertently left out of the final proceedings. These pages are reproduced in their entirety

Closing the Achievement Gap in a Large Introductory Course by Balancing Reduced In-Person Contact with Increased Course Structure

Hybrid and online courses are gaining attention as alternatives to traditional face-to-face classes. In addition to the pedagogical flexibility afforded by alternative formats, these courses also appeal to campuses aiming to maximize classroom space. The literature, however, reports conflicting results regarding the effect of hybrid and online courses on student learning. We designed, taught, and assessed a fully online course (100% online) and a hybrid-and-flipped course (50% online 50% face-to-face) and compared those formats with a lecture-based face-to-face course. The three formats also varied in the degree of structure; the hybrid course was the most structured and the face-to-face course was the least structured. All three courses were taught by the same instructor in a large Hispanic-serving research university. We found that exam scores for all students were lowest in the face-to-face course. Hispanic and Black students had higher scores in the hybrid format compared with online and face-to-face, while white students had the highest performance in the online format. We conclude that a hybrid course format with high structure can improve exam performance for traditionally underrepresented students, closing the achievement gap even while in-person contact hours are reduced

Mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of triassic lithium-rich K-Bentonite deposits in Xiejiacao section, South China

Widespread alteration in the Early–Middle Triassic volcanic ash of the Xiejiacao section, south China, has resulted in significant occurrences of lithium-rich K-bentonite deposits with economic potential. Detailed mineralogical and geochemical investigations of Li-rich K-bentonite deposits from the Xiejiacao section of Guangan city, South China, are presented here. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) data and major element chemistry indicates that the Li-rich K-bentonite deposits contain quartz, clay minerals, feldspar, calcite and dolomite, and the clay minerals are dominated by illite and ordered (R3) illite/smectite (I/S). The concentrations of major and trace elements in Li-rich K-bentonite deposits altered from volcanic ashes are most likely derived from felsic magmas, associated with intense volcanic arc activity. The composition of the clay components suggests that the Li-rich K-bentonite deposits are probably altered from the smectite during diagenesis, whereas smectite is mainly formed by submarine alterations of volcanic materials and subsequently the I/S derived from the volcanogenic smectite illitization. Moreover, accurate determination of the structure in I/S reveals that the temperatures reached by the sedimentary series are around 180 °C with a burial depth of ~6000 m. The widely distributed lithium-rich clay deposits strongly indicate widespread eruptions of volcanic ashes in the Early–Middle Triassic, which released huge amounts of volcanic ash. Lithium fixed in the illite and I/S is considered to have leached from the volcanogenic products by a mixed fluid source (i.e., meteoric, porewater and hydrothermal fluids). These Li-rich clay minerals in the marine basin contain economically extractable levels of metal and are a promising new target for lithium exploration.</jats:p

Building cloud applications for challenged networks

Cloud computing has seen vast advancements and uptake in many parts of the world. However, many of the design patterns and deployment models are not very suitable for locations with challenged networks such as countries with no nearby datacenters. This paper describes the problem and discusses the options available for such locations, focusing specifically on community clouds as a short-term solution. The paper highlights the impact of recent trends in the development of cloud applications and how changing these could better help deployment in challenged networks. The paper also outlines the consequent challenges in bridging different cloud deployments, also known as cross-cloud computing

Impacts of Acclimation in Warm-Low pH Conditions on the Physiology of the Sea Urchin Heliocidaris erythrogramma and Carryover Effects for Juvenile Offspring

Ocean warming (OW) and acidification (OA) affects nearly all aspects of marine organism physiology and it is important to consider both stressors when predicting responses to climate change. We investigated the effects of long-term exposure to OW and OA on the physiology of adults of the sea urchin, Heliocidaris erythrogramma, a species resident in the southeast Australia warming hotspot. The urchins were slowly introduced to stressor conditions in the laboratory over a 7-week adjustment period to three temperature (ambient, +2°C, +3°C) and two pH (ambient: pHT 8.0; −0.4 units: pHT 7.6) treatments. They were then maintained in a natural pattern of seasonal temperature and photoperiod change, and fixed pH, for 22 weeks. Survival was monitored through week 22 and metabolic rate was measured at 4 and 12 weeks of acclimation, feeding rate and ammonia excretion rate at 12 weeks and assimilation efficiency at 13 weeks. Acclimation to +3°C was deleterious regardless of pH. Mortality from week 6 indicated that recent marine heatwaves are likely to have been deleterious to this species. Acclimation to +2°C did not affect survival. Increased temperature decreased feeding and increased excretion rates, with no effect of acidification. While metabolic rate increased additively with temperature and low pH at week 4, there was no difference between treatments at week 12, indicating physiological acclimation in surviving urchins to stressful conditions. Regardless of treatment, H. erythrogramma had a net positive energy budget indicating that the responses were not due to energy limitation. To test for the effect of parental acclimation on offspring responses, the offspring of acclimated urchins were reared to the juvenile stage in OW and OA conditions. Parental acclimation to warming, but not acidification altered juvenile physiology with an increase in metabolic rate. Our results show that incorporation of gradual seasonal environmental change in long-term acclimation can influence outcomes, an important consideration in predicting the consequences of changing climate for marine species

Integration of 2D Lateral Groundwater Flow into the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) Model and Effects on Simulated Fluxes for Different Grid Resolutions and Aquifer Diffusivities

Better representations of groundwater processes need to be incorporated into large-scale hydrological models to improve simulations of regional- to global-scale hydrology and climate, as well as understanding of feedbacks between the human and natural systems. We incorporated a 2D groundwater flow model into the variable infiltration capacity (VIC) hydrological model code to address its lack of a lateral groundwater flow component. The water table was coupled with the variably saturated VIC soil column allowing bi-directional exchange of water between the aquifer and the soil. We then investigated how variations in aquifer properties and grid resolution affect modelled evapotranspiration (ET), runoff and groundwater recharge. We simulated nine idealised, homogenous aquifers with different combinations of transmissivity, storage coefficient, and three grid resolutions. The magnitude of cell ET, runoff, and recharge significantly depends on water table depth. In turn, the distribution of water table depths varied significantly as grid resolution increased from 1° to 0.05° for the medium and high transmissivity systems, resulting in changes of model-average fluxes of up to 12.3% of mean rainfall. For the low transmissivity aquifer, increasing the grid resolution has a minimal effect as lateral groundwater flow is low, and the VIC grid cells behave as vertical columns. The inclusion of the 2D groundwater model in VIC will enable the future representation of irrigation from groundwater pumping, and the feedbacks between groundwater use and the hydrological cycle

The meaning of religious beliefs for a group of cancer patients during rehabilitation

Este estudo exploratório teve o objetivo de identificar como a religião influencia a sobrevivência de um grupo de pacientes oncológicos. Consistiu em estudo de caso etnográfico, com a participação de seis laringectomizados, de ambos os sexos, na faixa etária de 51 a 72 anos, operados de dois a cinco anos. Os dados foram coletados por entrevistas semi-estruturadas e analisados segundo os conceitos de cultura e religião. Sintetizou-se os resultados em três categorias descritivas: a representação moral do câncer, as crenças religiosas na trajetória do câncer e a negociação com a religião para a sobrevivência. O significado que emerge - "a expectativa por uma segunda chance" - enfatiza a importância da religião como parte das redes de apoio que se articulam com o enfrentamento do estigma do câncer, com a expectativa da cura e com as formas de organizar a vida cotidiana, na sobrevivência.La finalidad de este estudio exploratorio fue identificar cómo la religión influencia la supervivencia de un grupo de pacientes oncológicos. Consistió en un estudio de caso etnográfico con la participación de seis laringectomizados, de ambos sexos, con edad de 51 a 72 años, que habían sido operados de dos a cinco años antes. Los datos fueron recogidos por entrevistas semi-estructuradas y analizados según los conceptos de cultura y religión. Sintetizamos los resultados en tres categorias descriptivas: la representación moral del cáncer, las creencias religiosas en el trayecto del cáncer y la negociación con la religión por la supervivencia. El significado que resulta - "la expectativa por una segunda oportunidad" - enfatiza la importancia de la religión como parte de las redes de apoyo que se encadenan con la conciliación con el estigma del cáncer, con la expectativa de cura y con las formas de arreglar la vida cotidiana, en la supervivenvia.The objective of this exploratory study was to identify how religion influences the survival of a group of cancer patients. The study consisted of an ethnographic case with the participation of six laryngectomized male and female patients between 51 and 72 years old, who had been operated on two to five years earlier. Data were collected by semistructured interviews and analyzed on the basis of the concepts of culture and religion. The results were synthesized into three descriptive categories: the moral representation of cancer, religious beliefs about the cancer trajectory, and negotiation with religion for survival. These categories give rise to the meaning "the hope for a second chance", which emphasizes the importance of religion as part of the support networks that articulate with the patient's coping with the stigma of cancer, with the hope for cure, and with the ways of organizing everyday life, during survival