Development of battery separator composites

Improved inorganic-organic separators developed by NASA were commercially prepared. A single-ply asbestos substrate was developed, as well as alternative substrates based on cellulose and on polypropylene fibers. The single-ply asbestos was bound with butyl rubber and was functionally superior to the formerly used polyphenylene oxide saturated sheet. Commercially prepared separators exhibited better measured separator properties than the NASA standard. Cycle life in Ni/Zn and Ag/Zn cells was related to substrate, decreasing in the order; asbestos cellulose paper nonwoven polypropylene. The cycle life of solvent-coated separators was better than aqueous in Ni/Zn cells, while aqueous coatings were better in Ag/Zn cells

HERRO: A Science-Oriented Strategy for Crewed Missions Beyond LEO

This paper presents an exploration strategy for human missions beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the Moon that combines the best features of human and robotic spaceflight. This "Human Exploration using Real-time Robotic Operations" (HERRO) strategy refrains from placing humans on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars in the near-term. Rather, it focuses on sending piloted spacecraft and crews into orbit around exploration targets of interest, such as Mars, and conducting astronaut exploration of the surfaces using telerobots and remotely controlled systems. By eliminating the significant communications delay with Earth due to the speed of light limit, teleoperation provides scientists real-time control of rovers and other sophisticated instruments, in effect giving them a "virtual presence" on planetary surfaces, and thus expanding the scientific return at these destinations. It also eliminates development of the numerous man-rated landers, ascent vehicles and surface systems that are required to land humans on planetary surfaces. The propulsive requirements to travel from LEO to many destinations with shallow gravity-wells in the inner solar system are quite similar. Thus, a single spacecraft design could perform a variety of missions, including orbit-based surface exploration of the Moon, Mars and Venus, and rendezvous with Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs), as well as Phobos and Deimos. Although HERRO bypasses many of the initial steps that have been historically associated with human space exploration, it opens the door to many new destinations that are candidates for future resource utilization and settlement. HERRO is a first step that takes humans to exciting destinations beyond LEO, while expanding the ability to conduct science within the inner solar system

Alkaline battery, separator therefore

An improved battery separator for alkaline battery cells has low resistance to electrolyte ion transfer and high resistance to electrode ion transfer. The separator is formed by applying an improved coating to an electrolyte absorber. The absorber, preferably, is a flexible, fibrous, and porous substrate that is resistant to strong alkali and oxidation. The coating composition includes an admixture of a polymeric binder, a hydrolyzable polymeric ester and inert fillers. The coating composition is substantially free of reactive fillers and plasticizers commonly employed as porosity promoting agents in separator coatings. When the separator is immersed in electrolyte, the polymeric ester of the film coating reacts with the electrolyte forming a salt and an alcohol. The alcohol goes into solution with the electrolyte while the salt imbibes electrolyte into the coating composition. When the salt is formed, it expands the polymeric chains of the binder to provide a film coating substantially permeable to electrolyte ion transfer but relatively impermeable to electrode ion transfer during use

The Nub of an Automorphism of a Totally Disconnected, Locally Compact Group

To any automorphism, $\alpha$, of a totally disconnected, locally compact group, $G$, there is associated a compact, $\alpha$-stable subgroup of $G$, here called the \emph{nub} of $\alpha$, on which the action of $\alpha$ is topologically transitive. Topologically transitive actions of automorphisms of compact groups have been studied extensively in topological dynamics and results obtained transfer, via the nub, to the study of automorphisms of general locally compact groups. A new proof that the contraction group of $\alpha$ is dense in the nub is given, but it is seen that the two-sided contraction group need not be dense. It is also shown that each pair $(G,\alpha)$, with $G$ compact and $\alpha$ topologically transitive, is an inverse limit of pairs that have `finite depth' and that analogues of the Schreier Refinement and Jordan-H\"older Theorems hold for pairs with finite depth

The exchange of water between Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1977Prince William Sound is a complex fjord-type estuarine system bordering the northern Gulf of Alaska. This study is an analysis of exchange between Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska. Warm, high salinity deep water appears outside the Sound during summer and early autumn. Exchange between this ocean water and fjord water is a combination of deep and intermediate advective intrusions plus deep diffusive mixing. Intermediate exchange appears to be an annual phenomenon occurring throughout the summer. During this season, medium scale parcels of ocean water centered on temperature and NO maxima appear in the intermediate depth fjord water. Deep advective exchange also occurs as a regular annual event through the late summer and early autumn. Deep diffusive exchange probably occurs throughout the year, being more evident during the winter in the absence of advective intrusions

Book Review: Radical Political Theology: Religion and Politics After Liberalism by Clayton Crockett

As the supposed victory of liberal global capitalism becomes more widely accepted, the religious (re)turn to modernity’s secular world deconstructs the haphazardly constructed walls that divide the religious from the secular. While postmodern theology exemplifies those attempts at operating within the postsecular logic, it is decidedly apolitical, bordering on conservatism. Clayton Crockett’s Radical Political Theology represents a sophisticated radical theology with the ambitious goal of decentering establishment theology while maintaining an explicitly political focus. Indeed, at its most fundamental level, Crockett’s theopolitical project exists as a union of opposites that exhibits rewarding uses of post-Marxism, postmodernism, postliberalism, and postsecularism. With the rise of the Religious Right in America and what Naomi Klein calls "disaster capitalism" over the last three decades, many thinkers appear to be lost in the liberal-conservative binary while also stuck relying on pre-modern values in order to counterpose today’s ruling regimes. Responding to this climate, Crockett proposes to "sketch out a constructive theology that is neither liberal in a classic sense nor conservative or orthodox in any way, whether politically or theologically." This will demand a radical theology, which finds its roots in the American academy’s tradition of the death of God and postmodern theologies, as a counterweight to the Religious Right’s conservative Christianity, while also pursuing radical political commitments. Crockett explicates the focus of such theopolitical commitments by "suggesting that the political and the theological problem of our time is that of freedom... Radical theology’s task is to think freedom, which means to think the death of God, especially since the idea of God traditionally grounds sovereign power and serves as its highest instantiation.

Which IFRS Should the United States Adopt?

  AbstractAccounting is a byproduct of its environment. It takes information and transmits it for users that are both internal and external to the company. The United States has been working to converge with IFRS since the Norwalk Agreement in 2002.  These environmental factors have caused different accounting standards to develop in different countries. The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) were developed to address the differences in accounting standards worldwide. However problems persist with IFRS. Comparability even within countries that use IFRS is not perfect. Many countries use a local variation of IFRS. In addition, the European Union has a formal endorsement process for every IFRS standard published by the IASB to decide if the EU will adopt the standard. In addition to the political pressure this causes, it could cause further problems with comparability in the future if the United States adopt IFRS. The fundamental rules vs. principles debate and the cost of conversion to IFRS for US companies is also a barrier to the convergence project