Study of airborne science experiment management concepts for application to space shuttle. Volume 1: Executive summary

The management concepts and operating procedures are documented as they apply to the planning of shuttle spacelab operations. Areas discussed include: airborne missions; formulation of missions; management procedures; experimenter involvement; experiment development and performance; data handling; safety procedures; and applications to shuttle spacelab planning. Characteristics of the airborne science experience are listed, and references and figures are included

Study of airborne science experiment management concepts for application to space shuttle. Volume 3: Appendixes

Detailed information is presented concerning specific airborne missions in support of the ASSESS program. These missions are the AIDJEX expeditions, meteor shower expeditions, CAT and atmospheric sampling missions, ocean color expeditions, and the Lear Jet missions. For Vol. 2, see N73-31729

Computational Assay of H7N9 Influenza Neuraminidase Reveals R292K Mutation Reduces Drug Binding Affinity

The emergence of a novel H7N9 avian influenza that infects humans is a serious cause for concern. Of the genome sequences of H7N9 neuraminidase available, one contains a substitution of arginine to lysine at position 292, suggesting a potential for reduced drug binding efficacy. We have performed molecular dynamics simulations of oseltamivir, zanamivir and peramivir bound to H7N9, H7N9-R292K, and a structurally related H11N9 neuraminidase. They show that H7N9 neuraminidase is structurally homologous to H11N9, binding the drugs in identical modes. The simulations reveal that the R292K mutation disrupts drug binding in H7N9 in a comparable manner to that observed experimentally for H11N9-R292K. Absolute binding free energy calculations with the WaterSwap method confirm a reduction in binding affinity. This indicates that the efficacy of antiviral drugs against H7N9-R292K will be reduced. Simulations can assist in predicting disruption of binding caused by mutations in neuraminidase, thereby providing a computational ‘assay.

Perspective: Web-based machine learning models for real-time screening of thermoelectric materials properties

The experimental search for new thermoelectric materials remains largely confined to a limited set of successful chemical and structural families, such as chalcogenides, skutterudites, and Zintl phases. In principle, computational tools such as density functional theory (DFT) offer the possibility of rationally guiding experimental synthesis efforts toward very different chemistries. However, in practice, predicting thermoelectric properties from first principles remains a challenging endeavor [J. Carrete et al., Phys. Rev. X 4, 011019 (2014)], and experimental researchers generally do not directly use computation to drive their own synthesis efforts. To bridge this practical gap between experimental needs and computational tools, we report an open machine learning-based recommendation engine (http://thermoelectrics.citrination.com) for materials researchers that suggests promising new thermoelectric compositions based on pre-screening about 25 000 known materials and also evaluates the feasibility of user-designed compounds. We show this engine can identify interesting chemistries very different from known thermoelectrics. Specifically, we describe the experimental characterization of one example set of compounds derived from our engine, RE12Co5Bi (RE = Gd, Er), which exhibits surprising thermoelectric performance given its unprecedentedly high loading with metallic d and f block elements and warrants further investigation as a new thermoelectric material platform. We show that our engine predicts this family of materials to have low thermal and high electrical conductivities, but modest Seebeck coefficient, all of which are confirmed experimentally. We note that the engine also predicts materials that may simultaneously optimize all three properties entering into zT; we selected RE12Co5Bi for this study due to its interesting chemical composition and known facile synthesis.We thank the National Science Foundation for support of this research through NSF-DMR 1121053, as well as the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the DARPA SIMPLEX program N66001-15-C-4036. Additionally, this research made extensive use of shared experimental facilities of the Materials Research Laboratory: a NSF MRSEC, supported by NSF-DMR 1121053. MWG is thankful for support from NSERC through a Postgraduate Scholarship, support from the US Department of State through an International Fulbright Science & Technology Award, and support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska–Curie grant agreement No. 659764. BM and GJM are founders and significant shareholders in Citrine Informatics Inc

Nitrogen fixation and release of fixed nitrogen by Trichodesmium spp. in the Gulf of Mexico

During a 3‐yr study in the Gulf of Mexico, we measured dinitrogen (N2) fixation and nitrogen (N) release by Trichodesmium and compared these rates with water column N demand and the estimated N necessary to support blooms of Karenia brevis, a toxic dinoflagellate that severely affects the West Florida shelf. Net and gross N2 fixation rates were compared in simultaneous incubations using δ15N2 uptake and acetylene reduction, respectively. The difference between net and gross N2 fixation is assumed to be an approximation of the rate of N release. Results demonstrate that Trichodesmium in the Gulf of Mexico are fixing N2 at high rates and that an average of 52% of this recently fixed N2 is rapidly released. Calculations suggest that observed densities of Trichodesmium can provide enough N to support moderately sized K. brevis blooms. Based on other studies where δ15N2 and acetylene reduction were compared directly, it appears that N release from Trichodesmium is common but varies in magnitude among environments. In addition, carbon (C) and N‐based doubling times for Trichodesmium vary among studies and environments. Comparing gross N2 fixation and C fixation directly, C‐based doubling times exceeded N‐based doubling times, which suggests an imbalance in elemental turnover or a failure to fully quantify Trichodesmium N use

The rural and regional ambulance paramedic : moving beyond emergency response - report to the Council of Ambulance Authorities Inc. March 2006

Serious long-term recruitment and retention problems amongst rural health workers in Australiacontribute to inequitable health service access for rural Australians. In response, new healthcaremodels with flexible workforce roles are emerging including expanded-scope paramedic roles.This research project was born from the view that expanding ambulance paramedics’ scope ofpractice offers the potential to improve patient care and the general health of the community.New healthcare models with flexible workforce roles are clearly needed in rural Australia andexpanded-scope paramedic roles are valuable innovations

Simulated Regional Yields of Spring Barley in the United Kingdom under Projected Climate Change

This paper assessed the effect of projected climate change on the grain yield of barley in fourteen administrative regions in the United Kingdom (UK). Climate data for the 2030s, 2040s and 2050s for the high emission scenario (HES), medium emissions scenario (MES) and low emissions scenario (LES) were obtained from the UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09) using the Weather Generator. Simulations were performed using the AquaCrop model and statistics of simulated future yields and baseline yields were compared. The results show that climate change could be beneficial to UK barley production. For all emissions scenarios and regions, differences between the simulated average future yields (2030s–2050s) and the observed yields in the baseline period (1961–1990) ranged from 1.4 to 4 tons·ha−1. The largest increase in yields and yield variability occurred under the HES in the 2050s. Absolute increases in yields over baseline yields were substantially greater in the western half of the UK than in the eastern regions but marginally from south to north. These increases notwithstanding, yield reductions were observed for some individual years due to saturated soil conditions (most common in Wales, Northern Ireland and South-West Scotland). These suggest risks of yield penalties in any growing season in the future, a situation that should be considered for planning adaptation and risk management

Denitrification and total nitrate uptake in streams of a tropical landscape

Author Posting. © Ecological Society of America, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of Ecological Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ecological Applications 20 (2010): 2104-2115, doi:10.1890/09-1110.1.Rapid increases in nitrogen (N) loading are occurring in many tropical watersheds, but the fate of N in tropical streams is not well documented. Rates of nitrate uptake and denitrification were measured in nine tropical low-order streams with contrasting land use as part of the Lotic Intersite Nitrogen eXperiment II (LINX II) in Puerto Rico using short term (24-hour) additions of K15NO3 and NaBr. Background nitrate concentrations ranged from 105 to 997 μg N/L, and stream nitrate uptake lengths were long, varying from 315 to 8480 m (median of 1200 m). Other indices of nitrate uptake (mass transfer coefficient, Vf [cm/s], and whole-stream nitrate uptake rate, U [μg N·m−2·s−1]) were low in comparison to other regions and were related to chemical, biological, and physical parameters. Denitrification rates were highly variable (0–133 μg N·m−2·min−1; median = 15 μg N·m−2·min−1), were dominated by the end product N2 (rather than N2O), and were best predicted by whole-stream respiration rates and stream NO3 concentration. Denitrification accounted for 1–97% of nitrate uptake with five of nine streams having 35% or more of nitrate uptake via denitrification, showing that denitrification is a substantial sink for nitrate in tropical streams. Whole-stream nitrate uptake and denitrification in our study streams closely followed first-order uptake kinetics, indicating that NO3 uptake is limited by delivery of substrate (NO3) to the organisms involved in uptake or denitrification. In the context of whole-catchment nitrogen budgets, our finding that in-stream denitrification results in lower proportional production of N2O than terrestrial denitrification suggests that small streams can be viewed as the preferred site of denitrification in a watershed in order to minimize greenhouse gas N2O emissions. Conservation of small streams is thus critical in tropical ecosystem management.This research was part of the Lotic Intersite Nitrogen eXperiment II (LINX II) funded by the National Science Foundation (DEB-0111410). Additional support was provided by the National Science Foundation to the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology at the University of Puerto Rico and the International Institute of Tropical Forestry (DEB-0218039 and DEB-0620919) through the Luquillo Long Term Ecological Research (LUQ LTER) program