Flight Testing of the Forward Osmosis Bag for Water Recovery on STS-135

The Forward Osmosis Bag (FOB) is a personal water purification device for recovery of potable liquid from almost any non-potable water source. The FOB experiment was flown as a sortie mission on STS-135/ULF7 using flight-certified materials and a design based on the X-Pack(TradeMark) from Hydration Technology Innovations (Albany, OR). The primary objective was to validate the technology for use under microgravity conditions. The FOB utilizes a difference in solute concentration across a selectively permeable membrane to draw water molecules from the non-potable water while rejecting most chemical and all microbial contaminants contained within. Six FOB devices were tested on STS-135 for their ability to produce a potable liquid permeate from a feed solution containing 500 mL potassium chloride (15 g/L) amended with 0.1% methyl blue dye (w:v) tracer against an osmotic gradient created by addition of 60 mL of concentrate containing the osmolytes fructose and glucose, and 0.01% sodium fluorescein (w:v) tracer. Three FOB devices were physically mixed by hand for 2 minutes by a crewmember after loading to augment membrane wetting for comparison with three unmixed FOB devices. Hydraulic flux rate and rejection of salt and dye in microgravity were determined from a 60-mL sample collected by the crew on orbit after 6 hours. Post-flight analysis of samples collected on orbit demonstrated that the Forward Osmosis Bag achieved expected design specifications in microgravity. The hydraulic flux rate of water across the membrane was reduced approximately 50% in microgravity relative to ground controls that generated an average of 50 mL per hour using the same water and osmolyte solutions. The membrane rejected both potassium and chloride at >92% and methyl blue dye at >99.9%. Physical mixing of the FOB during water recovery did not have any significant effect on either flux rate or rejection of solutes from the water solution. The absence of buoyancy-driven convection in microgravity suggests that mass transport was dominated by diffusion, slowing the rate of permeate production across the membrane. It is possible that a predicted reduction in concentration polarization at the membrane surface that may have acted to increase the rate of permeate production in microgravity was negligible under the described test conditions

The Mortenson Ranch: Cattle and Trees at Home on the Range. A Restoration Guidebook

Early agriculture on western rangeland met with little success and resulted in serious consequences including soil erosion, loss of native woodlands and wildlife, and economic ruin. The Mortenson family in Stanley County, South Dakota, has been engaged in restoring degraded rangeland on their ranch for more than 50 years. Their primary goal has been to return the land to its condition prior to white settlement while maintaining a profitable cattle ranching operation. In recent years the ranch has served as a model of successful ranching based on a conservation ethic. This guidebook summarizes the restoration techniques and grazing regime used by the Mortensons and offers suggestions for applying these ideas to other locations. It is not intended to be a step-by-step cookbook, an all-complete reference, or a set of hard and fast rules. It is meant to provide an example of land management practices based on sound ecological principles. The quotes throughout these pages are Clarence Mortenson\u27s. Since 1941, he has observed the changes taking place on the property described here. Sons Todd, Jeff, and Curt are now involved; Todd manages the land and the cattle operation. The ranch lost extensive bottomland forest to Oahe Reservoir on the nearby Missouri River in the 1950s. [Page 1

Cultural variations in emotion and effective emotional support processes: Documenting differences in the experience, expression, and management of emotional distress

A variety of research programs in the study of emotion have explored the ways in which people experience, display and cope with distressful emotions. Research in social support has examined factors related to how we respond to the distress of others. However, little research has attempted to provide an integrated analysis of emotional management that accounts for how emotional experiences, emotional displays, coping behaviors, and response behaviors interact and influence the social process of distress management. The research presented here examines the influence of culture and cultural values such as individualism and collectivism on the experience and enactment of social distress. Utilizing a theory of cultural rules for the management of distress, this research ties literature addressing both emotion and cultural values into an integrated theory. This project examines how culture influences (a) the way people conceptualize distress, (b) the strategies people employ for coping with distress, (c) the types of distressing situations that are seen as appropriate or inappropriate for the provision of social support, and (d) the characteristics of effective and sensitive responses to another\u27s distress. 100 Euro-Americans and 100 Chinese respondents took part in this survey-based study. Respondents embodied both culture-transcendent and culture specific rules of emotional management. Culture transcendent rules encouraged the expression of distressing emotions and the approach of troubling situations and feelings. At the same time, respondents also embodied emotional rules specific to their respective cultural groups. Chinese participants embodied emotional rules geared toward preserving social harmony among ingroup members, down-playing emotional displays, and encouraging the use of instrumental (i.e., problem-focused) coping and social support. Euro-American participants generally embodied emotional rules geared toward self expression, the pursuit of individual goals, and encouraging the use of affective (i.e., emotion-focused) coping and social support

Intrinsic disorder associated with 14-3-3 proteins and their partners

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) mediate a variety of cellular processes and form complex networks, where connectivity is achieved owing to the “hub” proteins whose interaction with multiple protein partners is facilitated by the intrinsically disordered protein regions (IDPRs) and posttranslational modifications (PTMs). Universal regulatory proteins of the eukaryotic 14-3-3 family nicely exemplify these concepts and are the focus of this chapter. The extremely wide interactome of 14-3-3 proteins is characterized by high levels of intrinsic disorder (ID) enabling protein phosphorylation and consequent specific binding to the well-structured 14-3-3 dimers, one of the first phosphoserine/phosphothreonine binding modules discovered. However, high ID enrichment also challenges structural studies, thereby limiting the progress in the development of small molecule modulators of the key 14-3-3 PPIs of increased medical importance. Besides the well-known structural flexibility of their variable C-terminal tails, recent studies revealed the strong and conserved ID propensity hidden in the N-terminal segment of 14-3-3 proteins (~ 40 residues), normally forming the α-helical dimerization region, that may have a potential role for the dimer/monomer dynamics and recently reported moonlighting chaperone-like activity of these proteins. We review the role of ID in the 14-3-3 structure, their interactome, and also in selected 14-3-3 complexes. In addition, we discuss approaches that, in the future, may help minimize the disproportion between the large amount of known 14-3-3 partners and the small number of 14-3-3 complexes characterized with atomic precision, to unleash the whole potential of 14-3-3 PPIs as drug targets.Fil: Sluchanko, Nikolai N.. Moscow State University; Rusia. Russian Academy of Sciences; RusiaFil: Bustos, Diego Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Histología y Embriología de Mendoza Dr. Mario H. Burgos; Argentin