Design of a Particle Beam Satellite System for Lunar Prospecting

One potential use for neutral particle beam (NPB) technology is as an active orbital probe to investigate the composition of selected locations on the lunar surface. Because the beam is narrow and can be precisely directed, the NPB probe offers possibilities for high resolution experiments that cannot be accomplished using passive techniques. Rather, the combination of both passive and active techniques can be used to provide both full-coverage mapping (passively) at low resolution (tens of kilometers) and high-resolution information for discrete locations of special interest. A preliminary study of NPB applicability for this dual-use application was recently conducted. The study was completed in Feb. 1993. A novel feature was the consideration of the use of a Russian launch vehicle (e.g., the Proton). The use of other Russian space hardware and capabilities was also encouraged. This paper describes the lunar prospector system design. Other researchers discuss the issues and opportunities involving lunar scientific experimentation using an NPB. The NPB lunar prospector utilizes a modified design of the Far Field Optics Experiment (FOX). Like the Earth-orbiting FOX, the core capability of the NPB lunar prospector will be a pulsed RF LINAC that produces a 5-MeV proton beam that is projected to the target with a 30-micro-r beam divergence and a 10-micro-r beam-pointing accuracy. Upon striking the lunar surface, the proton beam will excite characteristic radiation (e.g., X-rays) that can be sensed by one or more detectors on the NPB platform or on a separate detector satellite

The effect of time manipulation on immersion in digital games

Many empirical studies look into identifying factors that influence the quality of experience in video games. In this paper, we present research into the effect of playing time and players’ perception of the time on their immersion in the game. We invited 20 participants to play a puzzle game Bejeweled 2 for 7 min. They played the game in two conditions, namely, correct time (timer was programmed to be exactly 7 min) and wrong time (the countdown was set to be for 6 min, but was presented as a 7 min timer to the player). Players’ immersion scores were measured after the game using the IEQ. The results show no significant difference in immersion scores between the two conditions and participants’ comments also revealed that they perceived no difference in playing time between the conditions. This suggests that there is a dissociation between gaming time and subjective experience of gaming. Further research is required to investigate the relationship between playing time and positive gaming experiences

Effect of Piper betle and Brucea javanica on the Differential Expression of Hyphal Wall Protein (HWP1) in Non-Candida albicans Candida (NCAC) Species

The study aimed to identify the HWP1 gene in non-Candida albicans Candida species and the differential expression of HWP1 following treatment with Piper betle and Brucea javanica aqueous extracts. All candidal suspensions were standardized to 1 x 10(6) cells/mL. The suspension was incubated overnight at 37 degrees C (C. parapsilosis, 35 degrees C). Candidal cells were treated with each respective extract at 1, 3, and 6 mg/mL for 24 h. The total RNA was extracted and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was carried out with a specific primer of HWP1. HWP1 mRNAs were only detected in C. albicans, C. parapsilosis, and C. tropicalis. Exposing the cells to the aqueous extracts has affected the expression of HWP1 transcripts. C. albicans, C. parapsilosis, and C. tropicalis have demonstrated different intensity of mRNA. Compared to P. betle, B. javanica demonstrated a higher suppression on the transcript levels of HWP1 in all samples. HWP1 was not detected in C. albicans following the treatment of B. javanica at 1 mg/mL. In contrast, C. parapsilosis and C. tropicalis were shown to have HWP1 regulation. However, the expression levels were reduced upon the addition of higher concentration of B. javanica extract. P. betle and B. javanica have potential to be developed as oral health product.Article Link : http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/397268

Changes in sulfhydryl groups of honeybee glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase associated with generation of the intermediate plateau in its saturation kinetics

Honeybee and rabbit muscle GPDH were studied to obtain information at the chemical level regarding anomolous saturation kinetics of the honeybee enzyme. Results demonstrate that the enzyme's sulfhydryl groups are implicated in the process. Measured by DTNB titration, native honeybee GPDH has one less active SH than the native rabbit muscle enzyme and displays changes in overall sulfhydryl reactivity after preincubation with G-3-P or G-3-P plus NAD+. The total DTNB reactive sulfhydryls of rabbit muscle GPDH are not changed by preincubation with NAD+ or G-3-P; honeybee GPDH, under certain conductions of preincubation with these ligands, shows a decrease of two total DTNB reactive SH groups. This difference has been confirmed by an independent experiment in which the two enzymes were carboxymethylated with C-14 bromoacetic acid

Automated pH Regulator For Freshwater Prawn With Analog pH Meter Pro

In Malaysia, farmers faced the problems of prawn diseases which cause billions of USD in damage, along with the loss of prawn production. Farmers begin to wipe out from the prawn industry and investors are unwilling to finance prawn production. There will be a risk that it will decrease the productivity of Malaysia's prawn production due to the prawn affected by diseases. Research shows that an uncontrolled pH level in the prawn tank causes the prawn to be stressed and lower the prawn immunity system. As a result, diseases such as Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS), White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV), and Taura syndrome virus (TSV) can easily attack the prawn.  The existing water quality monitoring system lacks a complete solution from monitoring the pH level until autonomous remedial action is taken to control the pH level. When developing the system, no autonomous remedial action being taken to control when the pH level is out of range. Automated pH Regulator For Freshwater Prawn with Analog pH Meter Pro help farmers to monitor and control pH level in prawn tank. Logged data is stored in a personal computer for reference to prawn health. This paper proposes a conceptual framework with three (3) stages that consist of monitoring pH level with threshold data to determine pH level, provide autonomous remedial action to control the pH level in prawn tank, and logged data into a personal computer for reference. By having an Automated pH Regulator For Freshwater Prawn with Analog pH Meter Pro, immediate action can be carried out to save the prawn's life from diseases

The effect of filler loading and silane coupling agent on properties of rice husk powder filled natural rubber compounds / Razif Nordin, Said C. S. and Ismail H.

The effect of silane coupling agent, bis(triethoxysilyl propyl) tetrasulphide, Si69 on cure characteristics and mechanical properties of rice husk powder, RHP filled natural rubber, NR compounds were studied. Scorch time t2 and cure time t90 of the compounds decrease with increasing filler loading and with presence of a silane coupling agent, Si69. However, minimum torque increases with increasing filler loading but at a similar filler loading shows lower value with the presence of Si69. The mechanical properties of compounds viz tensile strength, tensile modulus and hardness were also increased while resilience decreases with additional of Si6

The room temperature phosphine-free synthesis of near-infrared emitting HgSe quantum dots

Luminescent mercury selenide (HgSe) quantum dots have been synthesised by a phosphine-free method using oleic acid as a capping agent. The modification of experimental conditions such as temperature resulted in particles of various sizes (15–100 nm) and morphologies not previously seen in HgSe, with emission tuneable between 1000 nm and 1350 nm

Incident and Traffic-Bottleneck Detection Algorithm in High-Resolution Remote Sensing Imagery

One  of  the  most  important  methods  to  solve  traffic  congestion  is  to detect the incident state of a roadway. This paper describes the development of a method  for  road  traffic  monitoring  aimed  at  the  acquisition  and  analysis  of remote  sensing  imagery.  We  propose  a  strategy  for  road  extraction,  vehicle detection  and incident detection  from remote sensing imagery using techniques based on neural networks, Radon transform  for angle detection and traffic-flow measurements.  Traffic-bottleneck  detection  is  another  method  that  is  proposed for recognizing incidents in both offline and real-time mode. Traffic flows and incidents are extracted from aerial images of bottleneck zones. The results show that the proposed approach has a reasonable detection performance compared to other methods. The best performance of the learning system was a detection rate of 87% and a false alarm rate of less than 18% on 45 aerial images of roadways. The performance of the traffic-bottleneck detection  method had a detection rate of 87.5%