The flammability of electronic components in spacecraft environments Final report, 15 Mar. - 15 Oct. 1968

Mathematical model for combustion at zero gravity in spacecraft environment

Struggling to a monumental triumph : Re-assessing the final stages of the smallpox eradication program in India, 1960-1980

The global smallpox program is generally presented as the brainchild of a handful of actors from the WHO headquarters in Geneva and at the agency's regional offices. This article attempts to present a more complex description of the drive to eradicate smallpox. Based on the example of India, a major focus of the campaign, it is argued that historians and public health officials should recognize the varying roles played by a much wider range of participants. Highlighting the significance of both Indian and international field officials, the author shows how bureaucrats and politicians at different levels of administration and society managed to strengthen—yet sometimes weaken—important program components. Centrally dictated strategies developed at WHO offices in Geneva and New Delhi, often in association with Indian federal authorities, were reinterpreted by many actors and sometimes changed beyond recognition

Marine aggregate extraction regulation in EU member states

This paper provides a brief review of regulations and procedures relevant to the authorization of marine aggregate (MA) operations in eight EU Member States. MA operations are affected by a multi-level legislative/regulatory regime, consisting of international conventions (e.g. the UNCLOS 1982, OSPAR, Helsinki, ICES, Barcelona and Espoo Conventions), secondary EC legislation (e.g. the Environmental Impact Assessment Directives (85/337/EEC and 97/11 EC) and the Freedom of Access to Environmental Information Directive (2003/4/EC)) and national legislation or regulation. It appears that rules and procedures relevant to MA extraction vary considerably between the considered Member States. In general, relevant information is not easily available in accurate, comprehensive and up-to date form. As a result, it is difficult to assess whether and to which extent national practice in relation to MA extraction authorization is in substantive compliance with the requirements of existing international and European rules and regulations aimed at sustainable development and protection of the marine and coastal environment

Multifaceted contributions : health workers and smallpox eradication in India

Smallpox eradication in South Asia was a result of the efforts of many grades of health-workers. Working from within the confines of international organisations and government structures, the role of the field officials, who were of various nationalities and also drawn from the cities and rural enclaves of the countries in these regions, was crucial to the development and deployment of policies. However, the role of these personnel is often downplayed in official histories and academic histories, which highlight instead the roles played by a handful of senior officials within the World Health Organization and the federal governments in the sub-continent. This article attempts to provide a more rounded assessment of the complex situation in the field. In this regard, an effort is made to underline the great usefulness of the operational flexibility displayed by field officers, wherein lessons learnt in the field were made an integral part of deploying local campaigns; careful engagement with the communities being targeted, as well as the employment of short term workers from amongst them, was an important feature of this work

Developing a western Siberia reference site for tropospheric water vapour isotopologue observations obtained by different techniques (in situ and remote sensing)

Water stable isotopologues provide integrated tracers of the atmospheric water cycle, affected by changes in air mass origin, non-convective and convective processes and continental recycling. Novel remote sensing and in situ measuring techniques have recently offered opportunities for monitoring atmospheric water vapour isotopic composition. Recently developed infrared laser spectrometers allow for continuous in situ measurements of surface water vapour δD_v and δ¹⁸O_v. So far, very few intercomparisons of measurements conducted using different techniques have been achieved at a given location, due to difficulties intrinsic to the comparison of integrated with local measurements. Nudged simulations conducted with high-resolution isotopically enabled general circulation models (GCMs) provide a consistent framework for comparison with the different types of observations. Here, we compare simulations conducted with the ECHAM5-wiso model with two types of water vapour isotopic data obtained during summer 2012 at the forest site of Kourovka, western Siberia: hourly ground-based FTIR total atmospheric columnar δD_v amounts, and in situ hourly Picarro δD_v measurements. There is an excellent correlation between observed and predicted δD_v at surface while the comparison between water column values derived from the model compares well with FTIR estimates

The dynamics of the bipolar HII region RCW 36 with SOFIA

Interstellar matter and star formatio

A potential new phase of massive star formation: a luminous outflow cavity centred on an infrared quiet core

Context. Due to the sparsity and rapid evolution of high-mass stars, a detailed picture of the evolutionary sequence of massive protostellar objects still remains to be drawn. Some of the early phases of their formation are so short that only a select number of objects throughout the Milky Way currently find themselves spending time in those phases.Aims. Star-forming regions going through the shortest stages of massive star formation present different observational characteristics than most regions. By studying the dust continuum and line emission of such unusual clouds, one might be able to set strong constraints on the evolution of massive protostellar objects.Methods. We present a detailed analysis of the G345.88-1.10 hub filament system, which is a newly discovered star-forming cloud that hosts an unusually bright bipolar infrared nebulosity at its centre. We used archival continuum observations from Berschel, WISE, Spitzer, 2MASS, and SUMSS in order to fully characterise the morphology and spectral energy distribution of the region. We further made use of APEX 12CO(2–1), 13CO(2–1), C18O(2–1), and H30α observations to investigate the presence of outflows and map the kinematics of the cloud. Finally, we performed RADMC-3D radiative transfer calculations to constrain the physical origin of the central nebulosity.Results. At a distance of 2.26-0.21+0.30 kpc, G345.88-1.10 exhibits a network of parsec-long converging filaments. At the junction of these filaments lie four infrared-quiet fragments. The fragment H1 is the densest one (with M = 210 M⊙, Reff = 0.14 pc) and sits right at the centre of a wide (opening angle of ~90 ± 15°) bipolar nebulosity where the column density reaches local minima. The 12CO(2–1) observations of the region show that these infrared-bright cavities are spatially associated with a powerful molecular outflow that is centred on the H1 fragment. Negligible radio continuum and no H30α emission is detected towards the cavities, seemingly excluding the idea that ionising radiation drives the evolution of the cavities. Radiative transfer calculations of an embedded source surrounded by a disc and/or a dense core are unable to reproduce the observed combination of a low-luminosity (≲500 L⊙) central source and a surrounding high-luminosity (~4000 L⊙) mid-infrared-bright bipolar cavity. This suggests that radiative heating from a central protostar cannot be responsible for the illumination of the outflow cavities.Conclusions. This is, to our knowledge, the first reported object of this type. The rarity of objects such as G345.88-1.10 is likely related to a very short phase in the massive star and/or cluster formation process that has been unidentified thus far. We discuss whether mechanical energy deposition by one episode or successive episodes of powerful mass accretion in a collapsing hub might explain the observations. While promising in some aspects, a fully coherent scenario that explains the presence of a luminous bipolar cavity centred on an infrared-dark fragment remains elusive at this point

Higgs After the Discovery: A Status Report

Recently, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations have announced the discovery of a 125 GeV particle, commensurable with the Higgs boson. We analyze the 2011 and 2012 LHC and Tevatron Higgs data in the context of simplified new physics models, paying close attention to models which can enhance the diphoton rate and allow for a natural weak-scale theory. Combining the available LHC and Tevatron data in the ZZ* 4-lepton, WW* 2-lepton, diphoton, and b-bbar channels, we derive constraints on the effective low-energy theory of the Higgs boson. We map several simplified scenarios to the effective theory, capturing numerous new physics models such as supersymmetry, composite Higgs, dilaton. We further study models with extended Higgs sectors which can naturally enhance the diphoton rate. We find that the current Higgs data are consistent with the Standard Model Higgs boson and, consequently, the parameter space in all models which go beyond the Standard Model is highly constrained.Comment: 37 pages; v2: ATLAS dijet-tag diphoton channel added, dilaton and doublet-singlet bugs corrected, references added; v3: ATLAS WW channel included, comments and references adde

Implementation of Novel Molecular Biomarkers for Non-small Cell Lung Cancer in the Netherlands:How to Deal With Increasing Complexity

The diagnostic landscape of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is changing rapidly with the availability of novel treatments. Despite high-level healthcare in the Netherlands, not all patients with NSCLC are tested with the currently relevant predictive tumor markers that are necessary for optimal decision-making for today's available targeted or immunotherapy. An expert workshop on the molecular diagnosis of NSCLC involving pulmonary oncologists, clinical chemists, pathologists, and clinical scientists in molecular pathology was held in the Netherlands on December 10, 2018. The aims of the workshop were to facilitate cross-disciplinary discussions regarding standards of practice, and address recent developments and associated challenges that impact future practice. This paper presents a summary of the discussions and consensus opinions of the workshop participants on the initial challenges of harmonization of the detection and clinical use of predictive markers of NSCLC. A key theme identified was the need for broader and active participation of all stakeholders involved in molecular diagnostic services for NSCLC, including healthcare professionals across all disciplines, the hospitals and clinics involved in service delivery, healthcare insurers, and industry groups involved in diagnostic and treatment innovations. Such collaboration is essential to integrate different technologies into molecular diagnostics practice, to increase nationwide patient access to novel technologies, and to ensure consensus-preferred biomarkers are tested