Decision Support Model to Evaluate Methods for Reducing Air Pollution Emissions during Jet Engine Testing

The United States Air Force operates more than 6,800 aircraft that use more than 15,700 turbine engines. Whenever these engines are in operation they generate pollution. The majority of the pollution is composed of five air toxics: Particulate Matter, Carbon Monoxide, oxides of Nitrogen, Oxides of SulAir, and Unburned Hydrocarbons. Currently, the emissions from these engines are not regulated while the engines are in use in military aircraft. However, during the periodic maintenance and repair of aircraft turbine engines, maintainers must test the engines\u27 operation at each power setting. Emissions during these tests are permitted under Title V of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Because the Air Force has a large number of both engines and engine test facilities, future regulations based on current law have the potential to severely affect the Air Force engine testing program. This research uses decision analysis to clarify issues surrounding the question: How can Air Combat Command effectively test its jet engines and still comply with the environmental requirements of the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990? To answer this general question, the research objectives of this study were: (1) Perform a review of modern jet engines and the emissions that result from jet engine testing. This review focused on the underlying causes of emissions and potential methods to reduce these emissions; (2) Construct a decision model to compare the various existing and potential methods for meeting Clean Air Act regulatory requirements during jet engine testing in ACC; (3) Use this model to compare the costs and benefits of various notional methods for meeting regulatory requirements by reducing emissions during the testing of Air Combat Command\u27s jet engines. These notional methods were based on the technologies uncovered during the literature review

Processing of Silicon Carbide by Laser Micro Sintering

Silicon carbide – a solid with covalent bonds - is conventionally synthesized via the Acheson process. Usually solid bodies of silicon carbide with definite shapes are generated from the grained material via hot isostatic pressing or liquid phase sintering. Both processes are conducted under well-controlled temperature regimes. Applying the freeform fabrication technique “Laser Micro Sintering” poses a big challenge to experimental skill due to the nonequilibrium conditions that are characteristic features of laser material processing. Successive layers SiC layers with a thickness of 1μm were processed with coherent radiation of 1064 nm. The specific behavior of two different silicon carbide powders - one of them blended with additives - are reported along with interpretational approaches.Mechanical Engineerin

Solidarity in Consumption

Contrary to a common picture of relationships in a market economy, people often express communal and membership-seeking impulses via consumption choices, purchasing goods and services because other people are doing so as well. Shared identities are maintained and created in this way. Solidarity goods are goods whose value increases as the number of people enjoying them increases. Exclusivity goods are goods whose value decreases as the number of people enjoying them increases. Distinctions can be drawn among diverse value functions, capturing diverse relationships between the value of goods and the value of shared or unshared consumption. Though markets spontaneously produce solidarity goods, individuals sometimes have difficulty in producing such goods on their own, or in coordinating on choosing them. Here law has a potential role. There are implications for trend setting, clubs, partnerships, national events, social cascades, and compliance without enforcement

Element/Ca, C and O isotope ratios in modern brachiopods: Species-specific signals of biomineralization

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.Fossil brachiopods are of major importance for the reconstruction of palaeoenvironmental conditions, particularly of the Paleozoic. In order to better understand signals of ancient shell materials, modern analogue studies have to be conducted. Here we present C and O isotope data in conjunction with Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, Mn/Ca and Fe/Ca data for nine modern rhynchonellid and terebratulid brachiopod species from tropical to intermediate latitudes and shallow to very deep marine settings. C and O isotope signals of most species suggest formation of secondary shell layers near or in isotopic equilibrium with ambient seawater. Some species – especially in the suborder Terebratellidina – show partly distinct disequilibrium signals, suggesting some degree of phylogenetic control on the expression of vital effects. Mn/Ca and Fe/Ca ratios measured in the modern species form a baseline to assess fossil preservation, but also yield environmental information. Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios follow previously observed patterns, with all studied brachiopod species comprising low-Mg calcite. Strong covariation of Sr/Ca ratios with Mg/Ca ratios is only observed in rhynchonellids and possibly one terebratulid species, potentially linking the incorporation behaviour of alkaline earth metals to phylogeny. Sr/Ca show a strong negative correlation with δ13C values in terebratellidinid species which exhibit major isotopic disequilibrium and also combined data from three localities for which two species were studied indicate such a negative relation. The observed covariation of Sr/Ca ratios with δ13C values may therefore become a useful tool to detect δ13C disequilibrium and to robustly estimate δ13C values of ambient DIC in deep time.The authors acknowledge comments from two anonymous reviewers and Alberto Pérez-Huerta as well as the editor Michael E. Boettcher which helped to improve the quality and clarity of the manuscript. The authors thank the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin for providing brachiopod specimens of the species F. sanguinolenta (ZMB Bra 1934), M. venosa (ZMB Bra 2028), N. nigricans (ZMB Bra 2441), S. crosnieri (ZMB Bra 2442), C. inconspicua (ZMB Bra 2443), C. racovitzae (ZMB Bra 2444) and L. neozelanica (ZMB Bra 2445) and Andy Gale for providing specimens of T. transversa and Terebratulina sp. The authors are indebted to the crews of RV SONNE during the cruises SO 168 ZEALANDIA and SO 233 WALVIS 2 and their respective shipboard scientific parties. Financial support by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the project SO 168 ZEALANDIA (FKZ: 03G0168) and SO 233 WALVIS 2 (FKZ: 03G0233A) to CL is gratefully acknowledged. CVU acknowledges funding from the Leopoldina – German National Academy of Sciences (grant no. LPDS 2014-08)

Oxygen and carbon isotope and Sr/Ca signatures of high-latitude Permian to Jurassic calcite fossils from New Zealand and New Caledonia

Article available online 12 November 2015This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Calcite fossils from New Zealand and New Caledonia provide insight into the Permian to Jurassic climatic history of Southern High Latitudes (southern HL) and Triassic Southern Intermediate Latitudes (southern IL). These results permit comparison with widely studied, coeval sections in Low Latitudes (LL) and IL. Oxygen isotope ratios of well-preserved shell materials indicate a partially pronounced Sea Surface Temperature (SST) gradient in the Permian, whereas for the Triassic no indication of cold climates in the southern HL is found. The Late Jurassic of New Zealand is characterized by a slight warming in the Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian and a subsequent cooling trend in the Tithonian. Systematic variations in the δ13C values of southern HL samples are in concert with those from LL sections and confirm the global nature of the carbon isotope signature and changes in the long-term carbon cycle reported earlier. Systematic changes of Sr/Ca ratios in Late Triassic brachiopods, falling from 1.19 mmol/mol in the Oretian (early Norian) to 0.67 mmol/mol in the Warepan (late Norian) and subsequently increasing to 1.10 mmol/mol in the Otapirian (~ Rhaetian), are observed. Also Sr/Ca ratios of Late Jurassic belemnite genera Belemnopsis and Hibolithes show synchronous changes in composition that may be attributed to secular variations in the seawater Sr/Ca ratio. For the two belemnite genera an increase from 1.17 mmol/mol in the Middle Heterian (~ Oxfordian) to 1.78 mmol/mol in the Mangaoran (~ late Middle Tithonian) and a subsequent decrease to 1.51 mmol/mol in the Waikatoan (~ Late Tithonian) is documented.This project was funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research– Natural Sciences (project 09-072715), the Carlsberg Foundation (project nr 2011-01-0737) provided for CK, and by the University of Copenhagen (IGN). CVU acknowledges funding from the German National Academy of Sciences – Leopoldina (grant nr LPDS 2014-08