Operational benefits from the terminal configured vehicle

The NASA Terminal Configured Vehicle is a flying laboratory used to conduct research and development on improved airborne systems (including avionics) and operational flight procedures, with particular emphasis on utilization in the terminal area environment. The objectives of this technology development activity, focused on conventional transport aircraft, are to develop and demonstrate improvements which can lead to increased airport and runway capacity, increased air traffic controller productivity, energy efficient terminal area operations, reduced weather minima with safety, and reduced community noise by use of appropriate procedures. This paper discusses some early results of this activity in addition to defining present efforts and future research plans

Summary of a flight-test evaluation of the CL-84 tilt-wing V/STOL aircraft

Flight test evaluation of second generation CL-84 tilt-wing aircraft in hover, transition, and cruise mode

Engineering tyrosine-based electron flow pathways in proteins: The case of aplysia myoglobin

Tyrosine residues can act as redox cofactors that provide an electron transfer ("hole-hopping") route that enhances the rate of ferryl heme iron reduction by externally added reductants, for example, ascorbate. Aplysia fasciata myoglobin, having no naturally occurring tyrosines but 15 phenylalanines that can be selectively mutated to tyrosine residues, provides an ideal protein with which to study such through-protein electron transfer pathways and ways to manipulate them. Two surface exposed phenylalanines that are close to the heme have been mutated to tyrosines (F42Y, F98Y). In both of these, the rate of ferryl heme reduction increased by up to 3 orders of magnitude. This result cannot be explained in terms of distance or redox potential change between donor and acceptor but indicates that tyrosines, by virtue of their ability to form radicals, act as redox cofactors in a new pathway. The mechanism is discussed in terms of the Marcus theory and the specific protonation/deprotonation states of the oxoferryl iron and tyrosine. Tyrosine radicals have been observed and quantified by EPR spectroscopy in both mutants, consistent with the proposed mechanism. The location of each radical is unambiguous and allows us to validate theoretical methods that assign radical location on the basis of EPR hyperfine structure. Mutation to tyrosine decreases the lipid peroxidase activity of this myoglobin in the presence of low concentrations of reductant, and the possibility of decreasing the intrinsic toxicity of hemoglobin by introduction of these pathways is discussed. © 2012 American Chemical Society

Fine forecasts: encouraging the media to include ultraviolet radiation information in summertime weather forecasts

Melanoma and skin cancer are largely attributable to over-exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Reports of UVR levels within media weather forecasts appear to be well received by the public and have good potential to communicate the need for appropriate sun protection to a broad audience. This study describes provision of UVR messages by New Zealand newspapers, radio and TV stations over a 4-year period, and examines the impact of an intervention which aimed to address media concerns about the financial costs of accessing UVR information for broadcast. Newspaper and radio presentation of UVR information increased immediately after these costs were removed; however, among radio stations it dropped in subsequent years. Among those media that were presenting UVR, this information was broadcast throughout the summer period and repeated throughout the day. Furthermore, most reports included concomitant, behavioral sun protection messages. At the final assessment (summer 2001/02), 66% of radio stations, both TV channels and 48% of newspapers reported UVR information in summertime weather reports. Efforts to further increase UVR presentation will need to address media concerns about time constraints on weather forecasts and media perceptions of poor audience demand or understanding of some UVR message

Nitrogen loading of shallow groundwater aquifers in varying soil and topographic settings of southwestern Indiana

Presented at the Geological Society of America Meeting (22–25 October 2006), Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaNumerous sources of nitrogen capable of impacting groundwater exist in rural areas of the midwestern United States. These sources include commercial and non-commercial fertilizers as well as on-site septic distribution systems. Over the past three years, we have undertaken detailed monitoring studies aimed at quantifying nitrate loading of shallow groundwater aquifers resulting from natural recharge at seven sites in southwestern Indiana. The sites occur in a variety of topographic settings and are associated with both well drained and poorly drained soils. Measured changes in soil-moisture profiles were used along with continuous measurements of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration to calculate the storage and movement of groundwater in the unsaturated zone. Nitrate loading of the shallow aquifers was then calculated by combining the flow rate with analytical data on solute chemistry from multiple depths within the unsaturated zone. The results of these calculations show that the highest loading rates occur at the study sites adjacent to agricultural fields treated with commercial and non-commercial (manure) fertilizers. The calculated nitrogen loading at these three sites ranged from 21 to as high as 136 kg of N per hectare (the highest loading rate occurred at the site where the manure was applied). In contrast, much lower loading rates were calculated using data collected from four sites associated with residential on-site septic distribution systems. In these cases, the calculated nitrogen loading values were an order of magnitude lower and ranged from 1.3 to 7.4 kg of N per hectare. These findings have implications for land-use management and have been used to guide the compilation of GIS-based maps that identify high- and low-risk areas throughout Indiana. This was accomplished by evaluating areas on the basis of soil characteristics and unsaturated zone thicknesses.Funding provided by a U.S. EPA Clean Water Act Section 104(b)(3) Water Quality Cooperative Agreements/Grants Program and a Cooperative Agreement between IGS and the Indiana State Department of Healt

On the elliptic nonabelian Fourier transform for unipotent representations of p-adic groups

In this paper, we consider the relation between two nonabelian Fourier transforms. The first one is defined in terms of the Langlands-Kazhdan-Lusztig parameters for unipotent elliptic representations of a split p-adic group and the second is defined in terms of the pseudocoefficients of these representations and Lusztig's nonabelian Fourier transform for characters of finite groups of Lie type. We exemplify this relation in the case of the p-adic group of type G_2.Comment: 17 pages; v2: several minor corrections, references added; v3: corrections in the table with unipotent discrete series of G

Alternatively spliced variants of the cell adhesion molecule CD44 and tumour progression in colorectal cancer.

Increased expression of alternatively spliced variants of the CD44 family of cell adhesion molecules has been associated with tumour metastasis. In the present study, expression of alternatively spliced variants of CD44 and their cellular distribution have been investigated in human colonic tumours and in the corresponding normal mucosa, in addition to benign adenomatous polyps. The expression of CD44 alternatively spliced variants has been correlated with tumour progression according to Dukes' histological stage. CD44 variant expression was determined by immunohistochemisty using monoclonal antibodies directed against specific CD44 variant domains together with RT-PCR analysis of CD44 variant mRNA expression in the same tissue specimens. We demonstrate that as well as being expressed in colonic tumour cells, the full range of CD44 variants, CD44v2-v10, are widely expressed in normal colonic crypt epithelium, predominantly in the crypt base. CD44v6, the epitope which is most commonly associated with tumour progression and metastasis, was not only expressed by many benign colonic tumours, but was expressed as frequently in normal basal crypt epithelium as in malignant colonic tumour cells, and surprisingly, was even absent from some metastatic colorectal tumours. Expression of none of the CD44 variant epitopes was found to be positively correlated with tumour progression or with colorectal tumour metastasis to the liver, results which are inconsistent with a role for CD44 variants as indicators of colonic cancer progression