TIME-TEMPERATURE MONITORS FOR FRESH AND FROZEN FOODS

Agribusiness,

Effect of reduced aft diameter and increased blade number on high-speed counterrotation propeller performance

Performance data of 0.17-scale model counterrotation pusher propeller configurations were taken in the NASA Lewis 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel at Mach numbers of 0.66, 0.71, 0.75, and 0.79. These tests investigated the aerodynamic performance of the unducted fan (UDF) demonstrator propeller engine developed in a joint program by General Electric and NASA. Data were recorded to show the effect on counterrotation propeller cruise efficiency of two takeoff noise-reduction concepts. These two concepts are reduced aft blade diameter and increased forward blade number. The four configurations tested were a baseline (F1/A1 8/8) configuration, a reduced aft diameter (F1/A3 8/8) configuration, an increase forward blade number (F1/A1 9/8) configuration, and a combination of the latter two (F1/A3 9/8) configurations. Data were collected with a complex counterrotation propeller test rig via rotating thrust and torque balances and pressure instrumentation. Data comparisons documented the power differences between the baseline and the reduced aft diameter concepts. Performance comparisons to the baseline configuration showed that reducing the aft blade diameter reduced the net efficiency, and adding a blade to the front rotor increased the net efficiency. The combination of the two concepts showed only slightly lower net efficiency than the baseline configuration. It was also found that the counterrotation demonstrator propeller model (F7/A7 8/8) configuration outperformed the baseline (F1/A1 8/8) configuration

Induction of Winter Breeding in Small Mammals by 6-MBOA

A plant-derived cyclic carbamate, 6-methoxybenzoxazolinone (6-MBOA), is known to initiate reproductive activity in Microtus montanus. We studied overwintering populations of four other rodent species, and observed increased reproduction in experimental populations of two herbivorous species, Microtus pennsylvanicus and Sigmodon hispidus, but not in two omnivorous species, Oryzomys palustris and Mus musculus. These results suggest that low concentrations of 6-MBOA may trigger seasonal breeding primarily in herbivorous small mammals

Anti-Asian Bullying and Harassment: Symptoms of racism in K-12 schools during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed many challenges for K-12 students. However, these challenges have not been experienced equally across student groups. There has been a significant increase in mainstream media coverage of anti-Asian racism, but very little attention has been given to Asian American youth, who are not immune from incidents of bullying and harassment in our K-12 schools. This brief discusses how Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI)1 students face unique challenges associated with bullying and harassment because of their racial and ethnic identity. We examine the historical context of bullying and harassment of Asian Americans and how that persists as anti-Asian racism today. Finally, we propose policy solutions to create a more positive learning environment and address racist attitudes towards this specific community. Notably, we propose that K-12 leaders disaggregate data by ethnic subgroup, collect more comprehensive data on school bullying, harassment, and victimization disaggregated by AAPI ethnic subgroups, and invest in culturally sustaining mental health resources and curriculum

A Racial Reckoning: Anti-Asian racism and exclusion in higher education

The Atlanta massacre on March 16, 2021, spurred a series of solidarity statements with the broader Asian and Asian American1 community from higher education institutions across the nation. While many colleges and universities have expressed their grief and support with the larger Asian and Asian American community, the same institutions have yet to reflect and reckon with their own history of exclusion, which has omitted Asian and Asian American students from larger conversations of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The purposes of this brief are to name the forms of anti-Asian racism that already exist in higher education institutions and to propose a series of recommendations to address the foreseeable forms of overt and covert anti-Asian violence that may occur when students return to campuses in fall 2021 and beyond. We recommend that institutions of higher education: create effectual task forces to think strategically about racism and xenophobia towards Asian and Asian American students; increase funding for ethnic studies, specifically, Asian American Studies Departments, Programs, and Centers; and collect and report disaggregated data on diverse subgroups of Asian and Asian American students

Ocean thermal energy conversion power plants : My role in the NOAA-NMFS preliminary fishery impacts study

From July, 1982 to August, 1983 I had the privilege of serving an internship as an oceanographer at the National Marine Fisheries Service Beaufort Laboratory. During the period of my appointment I assisted in a preliminary assessment of the potential fishery impacts of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) power plants. This report serves as summary account of that internship. This report has been divided into a number of parts. It begins with an introduction to ocean thermal energy conversion and OTEC power system technology. These sections are the basis for a discussion of the reasons for concern over the potential environmental impacts of OTEC operations, which is followed by a brief examination of those provisions of the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Act of 1980 which were intended to protect marine resources from excessive impacts. This section is, in turn, followed by a description of my role in the study, and a discussion of some of the difficulties that I faced during my internship. The report concludes with a description of the methods used and the difficulties faced in the most frustrating and yet most fascinating part of my duties: the locating of data in the literature. Three appendices have also been included. The first is a list of the reports produced as part of the study in which I took part. The second is a copy of the characterization of potential OTEC sites in the Caribbean which I drafted and co-edited. This is followed by a short, in-house report on ciguatera fish poisoning which I authored

Regional perturbation of gene transcription is associated with intrachromosomal rearrangements and gene fusion transcripts in high grade ovarian cancer.

Genomic rearrangements are a hallmark of cancer biology and progression, allowing cells to rapidly transform through alterations in regulatory structures, changes in expression patterns, reprogramming of signaling pathways, and creation of novel transcripts via gene fusion events. Though functional gene fusions encoding oncogenic proteins are the most dramatic outcomes of genomic rearrangements, we investigated the relationship between rearrangements evidenced by fusion transcripts and local expression changes in cancer using transcriptome data alone. 9,953 gene fusion predictions from 418 primary serious ovarian cancer tumors were analyzed, identifying depletions of gene fusion breakpoints within coding regions of fused genes as well as an N-terminal enrichment of breakpoints within fused genes. We identified 48 genes with significant fusion-associated upregulation and furthermore demonstrate that significant regional overexpression of intact genes in patient transcriptomes occurs within 1 megabase of 78 novel gene fusions that function as central markers of these regions. We reveal that cancer transcriptomes select for gene fusions that preserve protein and protein domain coding potential. The association of gene fusion transcripts with neighboring gene overexpression supports rearrangements as mechanism through which cancer cells remodel their transcriptomes and identifies a new way to utilize gene fusions as indicators of regional expression changes in diseased cells with only transcriptomic data

Superoxide dismutase downregulation in osteoarthritis progression and end-stage disease

Oxidative stress is proposed as an important factor in osteoarthritis (OA). To investigate the expression of the three superoxide dismutase (SOD) antioxidant enzymes in OA. SOD expression was determined by real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry using human femoral head cartilage. SOD2 expression in Dunkin–Hartley guinea pig knee articular cartilage was determined by immunohistochemistry. The DNA methylation status of the SOD2 promoter was determined using bisulphite sequencing. RNA interference was used to determine the consequence of SOD2 depletion on the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) using MitoSOX and collagenases, matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1) and MMP-13, gene expression. All three SOD were abundantly expressed in human cartilage but were markedly downregulated in end-stage OA cartilage, especially SOD2. In the Dunkin–Hartley guinea pig spontaneous OA model, SOD2 expression was decreased in the medial tibial condyle cartilage before, and after, the development of OA-like lesions. The SOD2 promoter had significant DNA methylation alterations in OA cartilage. Depletion of SOD2 in chondrocytes increased ROS but decreased collagenase expression. This is the first comprehensive expression profile of all SOD genes in cartilage and, importantly, using an animal model, it has been shown that a reduction in SOD2 is associated with the earliest stages of OA. A decrease in SOD2 was found to be associated with an increase in ROS but a reduction of collagenase gene expression, demonstrating the complexities of ROS function