Investigating the Possibility of Using Smelted Water-Cooled Copper Slag Regolith as a Terrestrial Based Lunar Regolith Simulant

There is a need for a stable, efficient, and cost-effective option of a terrestrial lunar regolith simulant that can be easily made and at a lower cost to the consumer. A lunar regolith is the layer of unconsolidated rocky material covering bedrock that is on planets. All simulants fabricated for the moon, are based off three types of lunar regolith areas. The first is the lunar highlands which are the high areas of the moon, these areas are anthracitic. The second is lunar mare which is the meteoroid bombarded areas of the moon that look like dark grey areas from earth, these areas are basaltic. The third is lunar dust and miscellaneous lunar regolith. While the amount of lunar regolith material that was brought back to Earth is, considered to be plentiful, with the new “space race,” there is not enough material to share with individual companies to evaluate the new equipment that is being built to study the planets in our universe. Today all simulants are created by using the duplicated characteristics of the lunar materials brought back from the moon. There are different regolith simulants that are made for different planets like Mars and Venus. Having a common test site or a site where simulant is already in place and that meets the standards of the lunar regolith that returned to Earth. Thereby allowing companies to bring their new equipment and machinery to evaluate on site, this would be more efficient and cost effective than what is currently offered. In this study a new potential material was examined to be used as lunar regolith simulant. Laboratory tests were conducted to investigate whether using a water-cooled copper slag is a practical alternative for a terrestrial based lunar regolith simulant compared to what is currently being offered in the scientific community and private sector. This study showed that using the water-cooled copper slag is possible according to the data found vs the data standards given by NASA. Using USCS the classification of the water-cooled slag would be GW (gravel well sorted) while classified by AASHTO it is, A-1-a (Granular materials are 35% or less total sample passing No. 200. The relative soil density testing shows that the sample to vary from loose to very dense, the guidelines were medium to dense to very dense. Bulk density showed the data to be right in the middle of the standards given. Specific mass of solids testing determined the specific mass of solids were a little higher than the guidelines, but the number is \u3c 0.1. Deciding unit weight had to be completed using the gravity of earth first then reconfigured to the moon gravity which is 1/6 that of earth the data was within standards. Cohesion testing determined data is .99 kPa and the NASA standards require 0.1 to 1 kPa. Friction angle testing was measured to be 48º the lunar regolith standard measures at 30º to 50º. The ultimate bearing capacity which is the amount of weight the soil can hold before failure the standard is 25 – 55 kPa testing shows the copper slag to be at the following: Continuous (15 kPa) like a small structure, Square (46 kPa) a landing pad, and Circular (45 kPa) the landing gear of shuttles. NASA requires 25–55 kPa, and the intercrater areas to be \u3c 25 kPa the data was found using Terzaghi bearing capacity formulas. Permeability testing data showed that the water flowed freely after soaking the sample

Epidemiology and Economic Implications of Anaplasmosis in Louisiana (Prevalence, Incidence).

The research consisted of a literature review of the epidemiology of anaplasmosis and a descriptive epidemiological study of anaplasmosis in the Red River Plains and Southeast areas of Louisiana. The prevalence of anaplasmosis assessed by indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) testing of 11,085 serum samples that had been obtained from cattle located in the study areas was 7.8%. Beef cattle appeared to show a higher Anaplasma antibody prevalence than dairy cattle, that is 11.2% to 3.8%, respectively. Among breeds, the Angus and Angus-cross animals seemed to show an increased susceptibility to infection. The prevalence of infection in free-roaming deer was determined by serologically testing 331 deer serum samples. Six, or 1.8%, of the deer serum samples were positive by the IFA test for Anaplasma antibodies. Incidence rates of clinical anaplasmosis in beef cows, bulls and dairy cows were determined by producer surveys to be 0.31, 0.50 and 0.21%, respectively. Peak incidence of cases reported by producers and veterinary practitioners occurred in July, August and September as 88% of 256 cases were seen during these three months. The recognized principal vectors of anaplasmosis in Louisiana are the Tabanidae which are most abundant from mid-May to near the end of July. Hence, the clinical cases occurred 4-12 weeks after the peak abundance of the tabanid vectors. The majority of the cases were 4-6 years of age and the outcome was death in close to 50% of the cases. The relationship of clinical anaplasmosis in herds with other disease morbidity, nutritional supplementation, vaccinations, external and internal parasite control, tetracycline supplementation, reproductive management and use of veterinary services could not be found statistically. Herd location of seropositive animals and clinical cases of anaplasmosis was related to Tabanidae abundant areas of bottomland hardwood vegetation. Death loss, value of cull loss, dairy milk production loss, veterinary service, treatment and prevention costs in beef cows, beef bulls and dairy cows were valued at close to $0.5 million for the study areas in 1983. This determination was achieved through extrapolation of the epidemiological and economic parameters computed from the survey results

Mediating urban politics

Despite the turn to relational vocabularies in urban theory, most work on urban politics acknowledging the importance of media has tended to reproduce a centred image of ‘the media’ and a functionalist account of mediation. This essay suggests, by contrast, that media might be understood more phenomenologically, as those technologies embedded in the dispersed practices of urban life, and as assemblages of integrative practices (i.e. ‘the media’), both of which identify and subject to action a range of issues that are problematized as ‘urban’. Such a focus on media-in-practices is an important shift in perspective for research hoping to bring together the shared political concerns of urban and media studies, and to take advantage of the converging spatial imaginations and reconfigured understandings of mediation emerging across both fields

Understanding the Atmosphere of 51 Eri b: Do Photochemical Hazes Cloud the Planets Spectrum?

The first young giant planet to be discovered by the Gemini Planet Imager was the (is) approximately 2MJ planet 51 Eri b. This approximately 20 Myr old young Jupiter is the first directly imaged planet to show unmistakable methane in H band. To constrain the planet's mass, atmospheric temperature, and composition, the GPI J and H band spectra as well as some limited photometric points were compared to the predictions of substellar atmosphere models. The best fitting models reported in the discovery paper (Macintosh et al. 2015) relied upon a combination of clear and cloudy atmospheric columns to reproduce the data. However for an object as cool as 700 K, the origin of the cloud coverage is somewhat puzzling, as the global silicate and iron clouds would be expected to have sunk well below the photosphere by this effective temperature. While strong vertical mixing in these low gravity atmospheres remains a plausible explanation, we have explored whether atmospheric photochemistry, driven by the UV flux from the primary star, may yield hazes that also influence the observed spectrum of the planet. To explore this possibility we have modeled the atmospheric photochemistry of 51 Eri b using two state-of-the-art photochemical models, both capable of predicting yields of complex hydrocarbons under various atmospheric conditions. In our presentation we will summarize the modeling approach employed to characterize 51 Eri b, explaining constraints on the planet's effective temperature, gravity, and atmospheric composition and also present results of our studies of atmospheric photochemistry. We will discuss whether photochemical hazes could indeed be responsible for the particulate opacity that apparently sculpts the spectrum of the planet

Linking surface and subsurface volcanic stratigraphy in the Turkana Depression of the East African Rift System

Acknowledgments The Kenyan JV (Tullow Oil, Africa Oil and Total) are thanked for allowing publication of this paper. Views expressed within this paper by authors are not necessarily the views of the Kenyan JV. Seismic and Well Interpretation was undertaken using Schlumberger Petrel and Techlog Software. ALS Petrophysics is acknowledged for thin section petrography of Epir-1 in Figure 7. Stuart Archer is thanked for discussions with regard to rift stratigraphy. We would like to thank Simon Holford and Craig Feibel for reviews which considerably helped improve this paper. Tyrone O. Rooney is thanked for editorial guidance. Dennis Wairimu and Francis Karanja are thanked for accompanying in the field. The Kapese Camp and Drivers are thanked for accommodating the fieldwork in a very professional manner. Mark Goodchild is thanked for facilitating fieldwork and research funding. Funding: The Kenyan JV are thanked for providing research funding for the project.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Geometry of the Prytz Planimeter

The Prytz planimeter is a simple example of a system governed by a non-holonomic constraint. It is unique among planimeters in that it measures something more subtle than area, combining the area, centroid and other moments of the region being measured, with weights depending on the length of the planimeter. As a tool for measuring area, it is most accurate for regions that are small relative to its length. The configuration space of the planimeter is a non-principal circle bundle acted on by SU(1,1), (isom. to SL(2,R)). The motion of the planimeter is realized as parallel translation for a connection on this bundle and for a connection on a principal SU(1,1)-bundle. The holonomy group is SU(1,1). As a consequence, the planimeter is an example of a system with a phase shift on the circle that is not a simple rotation. There is a qualitative difference in the holonomy when tracing large regions as opposed to small ones. Generic elements of SU(1,1) act on S^1 with two fixed points or with no fixed points. When tracing small regions, the holonomy acts without fixed points. Menzin's conjecture states (roughly) that if a planimeter of length L traces the boundary of a region with area A > pi L^2, then it exhibits an asymptotic behavior and the holonomy acts with two fixed points, one attracting and one repelling. This is obvious if the region is a disk, and intuitively plausible if the region is convex and A >> pi L^2. A proof of this conjecture is given for a special case, and the conjecture is shown to imply the isoperimetric inequality.Comment: AmS-TeX, 23 pages, 12 figures in 2 *.gif files. To appear in Reports on Mathematical Physics. Part of proceedings of Workshop on Non-holonomic Constraints in Dynamics, Univ. of Calgary, Aug. 199

Distinct signalling pathways mediate insulin and phorbol ester- stimulated eukaryotic initiation factor 4F assembly and protein synthesis in HEK 293 cells

Stimulation of serum-starved human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells with either the phorbol ester, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), or insulin resulted in increases in the phosphorylation of 4E-BP1 and p70 S6 kinase, eIF4F assembly, and protein synthesis. All these effects were blocked by rapamycin, a specific inhibitor of mTOR. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and protein kinase B were activated by insulin but not by TPA. Therefore TPA can induce eIF4F assembly, protein synthesis, and the phosphorylation of p70 S6 kinase and 4E-BP1 independently of both phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and protein kinase B. Using two structurally unrelated inhibitors of MEK (PD098059 and U0126), we provide evidence that Erk activation is important in TPA stimulation of eIF4F assembly and the phosphorylation of p70 S6 kinase and 4E-BP1 and that basal MEK activity is important for basal, insulin, and TPA-stimulated protein synthesis. Transient transfection of constitutively active mitogen-activated protein kinase interacting kinase 1 (the eIF4E kinase) indicated that inhibition of protein synthesis and eIF4F assembly by PD098059 is not through inhibition of eIF4E phosphorylation but of other signals emanating from MEK. This report also provides evidence that increased eIF4E phosphorylation alone does not affect the assembly of the eIF4F complex or general protein synthesis

Feasibility and safety of low-flow extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal to facilitate ultra-protective ventilation in patients with moderate acute respiratory distress sindrome

BACKGROUND: Mechanical ventilation with a tidal volume (V(T)) of 6 mL/kg/predicted body weight (PBW), to maintain plateau pressure (P(plat)) lower than 30 cmH(2)O, does not completely avoid the risk of ventilator induced lung injury (VILI). The aim of this study was to evaluate safety and feasibility of a ventilation strategy consisting of very low V(T) combined with extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO(2)R). METHODS: In fifteen patients with moderate ARDS, V(T) was reduced from baseline to 4 mL/kg PBW while PEEP was increased to target a plateau pressure – (P(plat)) between 23 and 25 cmH(2)O. Low-flow ECCO(2)R was initiated when respiratory acidosis developed (pH < 7.25, PaCO(2) > 60 mmHg). Ventilation parameters (V(T), respiratory rate, PEEP), respiratory compliance (C(RS)), driving pressure (DeltaP = V(T)/C(RS)), arterial blood gases, and ECCO(2)R system operational characteristics were collected during the period of ultra-protective ventilation. Patients were weaned from ECCO(2)R when PaO(2)/FiO(2) was higher than 200 and could tolerate conventional ventilation settings. Complications, mortality at day 28, need for prone positioning and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and data on weaning from both MV and ECCO(2)R were also collected. RESULTS: During the 2 h run in phase, V(T) reduction from baseline (6.2 mL/kg PBW) to approximately 4 mL/kg PBW caused respiratory acidosis (pH < 7.25) in all fifteen patients. At steady state, ECCO(2)R with an average blood flow of 435 mL/min and sweep gas flow of 10 L/min was effective at correcting pH and PaCO(2) to within 10 % of baseline values. PEEP values tended to increase at V(T) of 4 mL/kg from 12.2 to 14.5 cmH(2)O, but this change was not statistically significant. Driving pressure was significantly reduced during the first two days compared to baseline (from 13.9 to 11.6 cmH(2)O; p < 0.05) and there were no significant differences in the values of respiratory system compliance. Rescue therapies for life threatening hypoxemia such as prone position and ECMO were necessary in four and two patients, respectively. Only two study-related adverse events were observed (intravascular hemolysis and femoral catheter kinking). CONCLUSIONS: The low-flow ECCO(2)R system safely facilitates a low volume, low pressure ultra-protective mechanical ventilation strategy in patients with moderate ARDS