534 research outputs found
Next-Generation MKIII Lightweight HUT/Hatch Assembly
The MK III (H-1) carbon-graphite/ epoxy Hard Upper Torso (HUT)/Hatch assembly was designed, fabricated, and tested in the early 1990s. The spacesuit represented an 8.3 psi (58 kPa) technology demonstrator model of a zero prebreathe suit. The basic torso shell, brief, and hip areas of the suit were composed of a carbon-graphite/epoxy composite lay-up. In its current configuration, the suit weighs approximately 120 lb (54 kg). However, since future planetary suits will be designed to operate at 0.26 bar (26 kPa), it was felt that the suit's re-designed weight could be reduced to 79 lb (35 kg) with the incorporation of lightweight structural materials. Many robust, lightweight structures based on the technologies of advanced honeycomb materials, revolutionary new composite laminates, metal matrix composites, and recent breakthroughs in fullerene fillers and nanotechnology lend themselves well to applications requiring materials that are both light and strong. The major problem involves the reduction in weight of the HUT/ Hatch assembly for use in lunar and/or planetary applications, while at the same time maintaining a robust structural design. The technical objective is to research, design, and develop manufacturing methods that support fa b rica - tion of a lightweight HUT/Hatch assembly using advanced material and geometric redesign as necessary. Additionally, the lightweight HUT/Hatch assembly will interface directly with current MK III hardware. Using the new operating pressure and current MK III (H-1) interfaces as a starting block, it is planned to maximize HUT/Hatch assembly weight reduction through material selection and geometric redesign. A hard upper torso shell structure with rear-entry closure and corresponding hatch will be fabricated. The lightweight HUT/Hatch assembly will retrofit and interface with existing MK III (H-1) hardware elements, providing NASA with immediate "plug-andplay" capability. NASA crewmembers will have a lightweight, robust, life-support system that will minimize fatigue during extraterrestrial surface sojourns. Its unique feature is the utilization of a new and innovative family of materials used by the aerospace industry, which at the time of this reporting has not been used for the proposed application
ANCA-negative Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis: A Difficult Diagnosis
Granulomatosis with polyangitiis (GPA) is a systemic small and medium vessel vasculitis, commonly associated with anti-neutrophil
cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCAs). Presenting signs and symptoms in GPA are varied and patients may present with constitutional, nonspecific
symptoms, which can delay the diagnosis. Tissue biopsy of the site of active disease can confirm the diagnosis of GPA, in which
necrotising granulomatous inflammation is seen. However, surrogate markers may be used for diagnosis without a tissue biopsy. They
include upper and lower airway symptoms, signs of glomerulonephritis and a positive ANCA. However, approximately 10â20% of patients
with GPA are ANCA negative, allowing for the diagnosis to be overlooked, particularly in those patients with non-specific findings. The
reason for the absence of ANCAs is unclear
Submission in response to the Australian Governmentâs Consultation Paper on the Establishment of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
A submission in response to the Australian Government\u27s Consultation Paper on the Establishment of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Introduction
We are a team of academics and researchers, from the disciplines of historical studies, social work and archival science, who have substantive years of experience working on projects exploring the legacy of Australia\u27s institutional \u27care\u27 of children. Our work in this space, particularly since the release of the Forgotten Australians report in 2004, has involved ongoing engagement with a broad range of stakeholders, including care leavers, support and advocacy groups, past and current providers of out-of-home care, state and federal government departments, and cultural institutions.
We welcome the opportunity to make a submission in response to the Australian Government\u27s Consultation Paper on the Establishment of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Our submission discusses the vital importance that records will play in this Royal Commission, with particular reference to records in the custody of past providers in religious, charitable and government sectors. We submit that records are a key issue for this Royal Commission
Six of the best: priorities for continuing professional development (CPD) of academics
This article reports on a small-scale study at NU to determine which development activities " formal and informal " staff had found most influential in their CPD. The formal involves such activities as attending workshops, formal training sessions and conferences, consulting experts, undertaking research, getting published, keeping a reflective journal and designing curriculum, teaching materials and teaching strategies. The informal involves reading, conversations with colleagues, receiving informal feedback from colleagues and students and networking. It was hoped that, as a result of the study, we might identify, and further build upon, those formal events which most impacted on that development
The Heritage of the Deep: Finding s/s Stefano
It has been long since been considered that the Black Rock, a dangerous, isolated reef near Point Cloates, Western Australia (WA) was the place where the barque Stefano (owned by the Baccic family from Dubrovnik, during the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy) was wrecked in 1875. There were only two survivors of 17 crew members (all Croatians from Dalmatia, majority from the region of Dubrovnik and bar one English boy).
The modern underwater scientific search for Stefano started at the beginning of the 1980sâ under the leadership of Graeme Henderson then Curator of Maritime Archaeology at the WA Maritime Museum at Fremantle. He developed the Museumâs colonial shipwrecks management programme and, together with his wife Kandy-Jane Henderson, who was an archivist in the State Archives of WA, published the book on shipwrecks in which the Stefano featured entitled Unfinished voyages 1851-1880. In 1988 Graeme Henderson won the Australian Heritage Award for an outstanding contribution to the preservation and promotion of Australian heritage and environment. While searching for the wreck of the Portuguese despatch vessel Correio dâ Azia lost near Point Cloates in 1816, Henderson was also searching for evidence of the Stefano tragedy of October 27th 1875. His search of nearby Ningaloo Reef was without the expected result, however. Success was had almost at the end of the 1990sâ by a four-member team led by Jeremy Green, a remote-sensing specialist and Head of the Department of Maritime Archaeology. With him on that occasion was Mike McCarthy, Bob Richards and senior technical officer Geoff Kimpton. It was he who, while being towed underwater, all of a sudden, spotted a davit, and later what appeared to be an anchor from Stefano. The discovery of the Stefano wreck extended the number of scientists and experts from different fields interested in the case
Ventilation rates and moisture-related allergens in UK dwellings
Recent studies show that the UK is one of the countries with the highest asthma prevalence worldwide. It has been suggested that the trend towards the reduction of domestic ventilation rates for energy-efficiency reasons has resulted in poor indoor air quality and may represent a causal factor for the high asthma prevalence in the UK.
This study firstly aims to assess whether a link exists between asthma and low ventilation rates in housing. Secondly, the study aims to establish the minimum ventilation rate required in a dwelling in order to control levels of moisture-related pollutants (dust mites, mould) and therefore reduce the number of respiratory hazards. The work was funded by the UK Government's Building Regulations Research Programme.
An extensive review was performed of the UK and overseas published information on the links between asthma and domestic ventilation rates. The study also included an analysis of existing UK data sets where respiratory health, mould growth and housing characteristics were surveyed. In addition, the study involved theoretical modeling of a typical UK dwelling, to predict the impact that changes in ventilation rates will have on house dust mite (HDM) in a bed and on mould growth.
The literature review has highlighted that most existing data is inadequate for conclusions to be drawn regarding the direct association between ventilation rates and respiratory problems. For moisture-related pollutants the literature offers some advice on the minimum ventilation rates required to reduce pollutants levels. The analysis of existing UK data sets has not revealed any significant direct links between ventilation, respiratory health and moisture-related pollutants. The results of the theoretical modeling indicate that in most cases 0.5 ach-1 is required to avoid mould growth but a significantly higher ventilation rate (0.8 ach-1) may be required to control mitesâ growth.
Most current guidance on domestic ventilation is based on the assumption that if adequate ventilation is provided for avoiding mould growth, then other IAQ problems will be contained. This study indicates that this may not be the case. In order to fully evaluate the direct link between asthma and low ventilation rates in the UK, a large scale prospective study is needed, where indoor pollutants, respiratory health indicators, air- tightness and ventilation rates are all adequately measured
State of the UK climate 2018
This report provides a summary of the UK weather and climate through the calendar year 2018, alongside the historical context for a number of essential climate variables. This is the fifth in a series of annual âState of the UK climateâ publications and an update to the 2017 report (Kendon et al., 2018). It provides an accessible, authoritative and upâtoâdate assessment of UK climate trends, variations and extremes based on the most up to date observational datasets of climate quality.
The majority of this report is based on observations of temperature, precipitation, sunshine and wind speed from the UK land weather station network as managed by the Met Office and a number of key partners and coâoperating volunteers. The observations are carefully managed such that they conform to current best practice observational standards as defined by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The observations also pass through a range of quality assurance procedures at the Met Office before application for climate monitoring. In addition, time series of nearâcoast seaâsurface temperature (SST) and seaâlevel rise are also presented. The process for generating national and regional statistics from these observations has been updated since Kendon et al., 2018. This report makes use of a new dataset, HadUKâGrid, which provides improved quality and traceability for these national statistics along with temperature and rainfall series that extend back into the 19th Century. Differences with previous data are described in the relevant sections and appendices.
The report presents summary statistics for year 2018 and the most recent decade (2009â2018) against 1961â1990 and 1981â2010 averages. Year 2009â2018 is a nonâstandard reference period, but it provides a 10âyear âsnapshotâ of the most recent experience of the UK's climate and how that compares to historical records. This means differences between 2009 and 2018 and the baseline reference averages may reflect shorterâterm decadal variations as well as longâterm trends. These data are presented to show what has happened in recent years, not necessarily what is expected to happen in a changing climate.
The majority of maps in this report show year 2018 against the 1981â2010 baseline reference averaging periodâthat is, they are anomaly maps which show the spatial variation in this difference from average. Maps of actual values are in most cases not displayed because these are dominated by the underlying climatology, which for this report is of a lesser interest than the yearâtoâyear variability.
Throughout the report's text the terms âabove normalâ and âabove average,â etc. refer to the 1981â2010 baseline reference averaging period unless otherwise stated. Values quoted in tables throughout this report are rounded, but where the difference between two such values is quoted in the text (for example, comparing the most recent decade with 1981â2010), this difference is calculated from the original unrounded values
HI Selected Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey I: Optical Data
We present the optical data for 195 HI-selected galaxies that fall within
both the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Parkes Equatorial Survey (ES).
The photometric quantities have been independently recomputed for our sample
using a new photometric pipeline optimized for large galaxies, thus correcting
for SDSS's limited reliability for automatic photometry of angularly large or
low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies. We outline the magnitude of the
uncertainty in the SDSS catalog-level photometry and derive a quantitative
method for correcting the over-sky subtraction in the SDSS photometric
pipeline. The main thrust of this paper is to present the ES/SDSS sample and
discuss the methods behind the improved photometry, which will be used in
future scientific analysis. We present the overall optical properties of the
sample and briefly compare to a volume-limited, optically-selected sample.
Compared to the optically-selected SDSS sample (in the similar volume),
HI-selected galaxies are bluer and more luminous (fewer dwarf ellipticals and
more star formation). However, compared to typical SDSS galaxy studies, which
have their own selection effects, our sample is bluer, fainter and less
massive.Comment: 14 pages, 8 Figures, accepted for publication in AJ. Complete tables
will be available in the AJ electronic version and on the Vizier sit
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