Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Mars Color Imager (MARCI): A New Workflow for Processing Its Image Data

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's (MRO's) Mars Color Imager (MARCI) has returned approximately daily, approximately global image data of Mars since late 2006, in up to seven different colors, from ultraviolet through near-infrared. To-date, that is over 5300 Mars days of data, nearly eight full Mars Years, or more than 15 Earth years. The data are taken at up to nearly 500 meters per pixel, and the nearly circular orbit of MRO and its consistent early afternoon imaging provide an unprecedented baseline of data with which to study Mars' atmosphere and surface processes. Unfortunately, processing MARCI data is difficult, fraught with exploding file sizes, issues that require workarounds in free software, and other problems that make this a severely under-utilized dataset. This paper discusses a workflow to process MARCI data to their fullest, including suggestions on how to work around issues unique to MARCI and how the data work with the current version of the free software ISIS (Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers). Discussion of some trades that can be made to dramatically speed data processing are also described. Examples of processed MARCI images, mosaics, and color composites are shown, demonstrating the abilities of this workflow on global, regional, and local areas at the full, 96 pixels per degree scale afforded by MARCI

Planetary Surface Properties, Cratering Physics, and the Volcanic History of Mars from a New Global Martian Crater Database

Impact craters are arguably the primary exogenic planetary process contributing to the surface evolution of solid bodies in the solar system. Craters appear across the entire surface of Mars, and they are vital to understanding its crustal properties as well as surface ages and modification events. They allow inferences into the ancient climate and hydrologic history, and they add a key data point for the understanding of impact physics. Previously available databases of Mars impact craters were created from now antiquated datasets, automated algorithms with biases and inaccuracies, were limited in scope, and/or complete only to multi-kilometer diameters. This work presents a new global database for Mars that contains 378,540 craters statistically complete for diameters D ≥ 1 km. This detailed database includes location and size, ejecta morphology and morphometry, interior morphology and degradation state, and whether the crater is a secondary impact. This database allowed exploration of global crater type distributions, depth, and morphologies in unprecedented detail that were used to re-examine basic crater scaling laws for the planet. The inclusion of hundreds of thousands of small, approximately kilometer-sized impacts facilitated a detailed study of the properties of nearby fields of secondary craters in relation to their primary crater. It also allowed the discovery of vast distant clusters of secondary craters over 5000 km from their primary crater, Lyot. Finally, significantly smaller craters were used to age-date volcanic calderas on the planet to re-construct the timeline of the last primary eruption events from 20 of the major Martian volcanoes

An Analysis of Regulations Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

This Article analyzes efforts to deal with the generation, transportation, treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous wastes under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Environmental Protection Agency\u27s regulations promulgated thereunder

The Ursinus Weekly, May 20, 1963

Pi Gamma Mu initiates new members tonight • Curtis defeated in Mock College Bowl program • New plans for Design for Living • Delta Pi pledge class completes project • Big-little sister program receives strong support • 1963 Parents Day planning begins • Afternoon recital • Reverend Frank Reynolds to be Baccalaureate preacher • Supply evening hours under question • Nine and one in \u2763 and prospects even brighter • New Color Guard members selected • Editorial: In retrospect • Greek gleanings • Letters to the editor • Students make final preparations for European travel • WSGA minutes • Hitting sour against Lehigh; Pitching wilts against Moravian • Cindermen close greatest season • Dick Dean named outstanding senior athlete • Beaver blasted in softball, 12-5 • Seals and Sig Rho battle for championship • Ursinus taunts Temple • Golf team performs well in MACs • UC downs Drexel lacrosse team 9-2https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1297/thumbnail.jp

What Is a Polygonal Impact Crater? A Proposed Framework Toward Quantifying Crater Shapes

Impact craters are used for a wide array of investigations of planetary surfaces. A crater form that is somewhat rare, forming only ∼10% of impact craters, is the polygonal impact crater (or PIC). These craters have been visually, manually identified as having at least two rim segments that are best represented as straight lines. Such straight lines or edges are most often used to infer details about the subsurface crust where faults control the structure of the crater cavity as it formed. The PIC literature is scant, but almost exclusively these craters are identified manually, and the potentially straight edges are classified and measured manually. The reliance on human subjectivity in both the identification and measurement motivated us to design a more objective algorithm to fit the crater rim shape, measure any straight edges, and measure joint angles between straight edges. The developed code uses a Monte Carlo approach from a user-input number of edges to first find a reasonable shape from purely random possible shapes; it then uses an iterative Monte Carlo approach to improve the shape until a minimum difference between the shape and rim trace is found. It returns the result in a concise, parameterized form. This code is presented as a first step because, while we experimented with several different metrics, we could not find one that could consistently, objectively return an answer that stated which shape for a given crater was the best; this objective metric is an area for future improvement

The Ursinus Weekly, May 13, 1963

Bears annex first MAC championship • Cold weather doesn\u27t freeze Mississippi mud • Senior show slated for May 16 • Sir George Thomson, famed physicist, to speak at Commencement exercises • Joyce Maloney wins title of Miss Montgomery County • Registration open for Summer school • Angelo Cutone, custodian, plans return to Italy • Pre-med society selects officers • Music Club names 1963-64 officers • Shinnick, Kelly, Gould elected class presidents • Whitians elect 1963-64 leaders • Dr. Steere urges understanding • Peggy Cooper new head cheerleader • GOP elects officers • New officers • As Helfferich leaves Girard Trust • Greek gleanings • UC Band presents Spring concert • Minutes of MSGA • Tibetan lamas • Fine casting and producing lead Staring match to success • Ursinus smites fiery Dragons 8-1; Bears give explorers victory 9-5 • Tennis team trims the Main Line • Jim Egolf: Freshman find • Ursinus racketeers stumble • Haverford beaten second time, 6-2 • UC shears Ewes • Bears drop Shoremen from undefeated ranks • Lacrosse team drops WC, 6-4https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1296/thumbnail.jp

Intravenous Iron to Treat Anaemia following Critical care (INTACT): A protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled trial

Background: Anaemia is common in patients who survive critical illness and is associated with high levels of fatigue and poor quality of life. In non-critically ill patients, treating anaemia with intravenous iron has resulted in meaningful improvements in quality of life, but uncertainties regarding the benefits, risks, timing and optimal route of iron therapy in survivors of critical illness remain.Methods / Design: INtravenous Iron to Treat Anaemia following CriTical care (INTACT) is an open-label, feasibility, parallel group, randomised controlled trial with 1:1 randomisation to either intravenous iron (1000 mg ferric carboxymaltose) or usual medical care. The primary objective is to assess the feasibility of a future, multicentre randomised controlled trial. Participants will be followed up for up to 90 days post-randomisation. The primary outcome measures, which will be used to determine feasibility, are recruitment and randomisation rates, protocol adherence and completeness of follow-up. Secondary outcome measures include collecting clinical, laboratory, health-related quality of life and safety data to inform the power calculations of a future definitive trial.Conclusion: Improving recovery from critical illness is a recognised research priority. Whether or not correcting anaemia, with intravenous iron, improves health-related quality of life and recovery requires further investigation. If so, it has the potential to become a rapidly translatable intervention. Prior to embarking on a phase III multicentre trial, a carefully designed and implemented feasibility trial is essential

Identification of essential and non-essential single-stranded DNA-binding proteins in a model archaeal organism

Single-stranded DNA-binding proteins (SSBs) play vital roles in all aspects of DNA metabolism in all three domains of life and are characterized by the presence of one or more OB fold ssDNA-binding domains. Here, using the genetically tractable euryarchaeon Haloferax volcanii as a model, we present the first genetic analysis of SSB function in the archaea. We show that genes encoding the OB fold and zinc finger-containing RpaA1 and RpaB1 proteins are individually non-essential for cell viability but share an essential function, whereas the gene encoding the triple OB fold RpaC protein is essential. Loss of RpaC function can however be rescued by elevated expression of RpaB, indicative of functional overlap between the two classes of haloarchaeal SSB. Deletion analysis is used to demonstrate important roles for individual OB folds in RpaC and to show that conserved N- and C-terminal domains are required for efficient repair of DNA damage. Consistent with a role for RpaC in DNA repair, elevated expression of this protein leads to enhanced resistance to DNA damage. Taken together, our results offer important insights into archaeal SSB function and establish the haloarchaea as a valuable model for further studies