Low thrust rocket test facility

A low thrust chemical rocket test facility has recently become operational at the NASA-Lewis. The new facility is used to conduct both long duration and performance tests at altitude over a thruster's operating envelope using hydrogen and oxygen gas for propellants. The facility provides experimental support for a broad range of objectives, including fundamental modeling of fluids and combustion phenomena, the evaluation of thruster components, and life testing of full rocket designs. The major mechanical and electrical systems are described along with aspects of the various optical diagnostics available in the test cell. The electrical and mechanical systems are designed for low down time between tests and low staffing requirements for test operations. Initial results are also presented which illustrate the various capabilities of the cell

Three Cost-effective Public Domain On-site Sewage Treatment Technologies Verified for Their Ability to Denitrify

Sewage typically contains high levels of nitrogen. Even with new technologies, on-site sewage (septic) treatment systems typically do not reduce nitrogen levels in treated wastewater. Cost effective on-site sewage systems with adequate denitrification capabilities are needed for areas where nitrogen has been determined a contaminant of concern. A collaborative effort between the Washington State Department of Health and the University of Washington Civil and Environmental Engineering Department was undertaken to design and evaluate cost effective, reliable, and low maintenance public domain treatment technologies that have high nitrogen removal efficiencies. The systems were installed and tested at the Snoqualmie Wastewater Treatment Plant. In addition to meeting low effluent biochemical oxygen demand and low total and volatile suspended solids concentrations and bacteriological reduction, a major treatment objective was to produce an effluent TN concentration below 20 milligrams per liter (mg/L). A total nitrogen (TN) concentration of less than 20 mg/L is the Washington State technology-based standard for on-site nitrogen removal. Using the EPA Environmental Technology Verification protocol for nutrient reduction, three novel systems were evaluated for performance and denitrification capability. All three systems met the objective of reducing total nitrogen concentrations to less than 20 mg/L. This presentation will summarize the system designs, evaluation protocols, results, and next steps

Values- Versus Monetary Reward-Enhanced Exposure Therapy For The Treatment of Social Anxiety In Emerging Adulthood

Exposure therapy represents the gold-standard treatment for social anxiety disorder, yet significant improvement is still needed. One promising avenue involves explicitly linking the exposures to a source of motivation. Specifically, personal values represents an intrinsic source of motivation drawn from acceptance and commitment therapy, whereas money represents an extrinsic source of motivation commonly used to motivate behavior change. The current study examined the impact of values-enhanced versus monetary reward-enhanced exposures on social anxiety fear and avoidance outcomes, and directly compared the role of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in motivating treatment engagement and willingness. Secondarily, the study explored the impact of personal values linked to exposures on exposure learning and generalization from an inhibitory learning framework. Finally, potential mediators and moderators of fear, avoidance, and engagement outcomes were explored. Methods: Participants were 60 emerging adults ages 17-26 who self-reported high levels of social and public speaking anxiety. Participants were randomized to one of three conditions: values-enhanced exposure, monetary reward-enhanced exposure, or exposure alone. They completed three sessions: a baseline laboratory session with the condition-specific intervention and public speaking exposure, a laboratory-based follow-up one week later, and an online follow-up two weeks later. Subjective, behavioral, and physiological measures of anxiety were collected. Results: Linking exposures to one&rsquo;s values decreased self-reported anxiety following a speech task, and this anxiety reduction generalized to anticipatory anxiety prior to a novel speech task. Linking exposures to money temporarily increased speech length, particularly for those who expressed less readiness to change, but this difference did not remain during the novel speech task. Neither positive affect nor spontaneous homework completion mediated this result. Conclusion: Extrinsic motivators may be useful to initiate behavior change in individuals who lack internal motivation, while a brief values intervention can be used to enhance exposure learning and subsequently decrease subjective anxiety across feared situations. If replicated, this has important implications for exposure framing and anxiety treatment more broadly. Continued exploration of the role of values in exposure therapy, and the role of motivators in treatment engagement more generally, will be important.</p

On-site sewage system (OSS) and social vulnerability GIS dashboard: using data to inform approaches for equitable wastewater futures

Public Health – Seattle & King County created the On-site Sewage Systems (OSS) and social vulnerability GIS map and dashboard to evaluate if the distribution of aging on-site wastewater treatment systems (also known as septic systems) is correlated with demographics and social inequities. The dashboard combines King County OSS location and age data with the CDC Social vulnerability index at the census tract level, showing that urban OSS are more likely to be located in the most vulnerable census tracts. The map and dashboard provide a data-informed tool to help prioritize locations that have the greatest need for infrastructure planning to address systematic inequitable investments in public sewer infrastructure. It also helps identify locations where OSS provide sufficient treatment and can be the prioritized wastewater treatment option. This has implications for policy development and localized neighborhood scale project prioritization to reduce pollution sources and promote clean water. We will present the process used to create and validate the OSS data necessary for this tool, present the interactive map, and share a summary of the policy implications and examples of localized projects that resulted from using this tool

The effect of potassium infusion on proximal sodium reabsorption and renin release in the dog

The effect of potassium infusion on proximal sodium reabsorption and renin release in the dog. The effect of infusions of potassium chloride (KC1) on sodium reabsorption by the proximal tubule and renal renin release was measured in 18 dogs. Following renal arterial infusions of 8 or 16 µEq/min/kg potassium chloride, fractional and absolute sodium reabsorption by the proximal tubule, measured by micropuncture techniques, was not significantly altered. As compared to five control dogs, urinary sodium excretion was significantly increased following both infusions of KC1. The release of renin was significantly decreased following both rates of potassium infusion. The inhibition of renin release was not associated with consistent changes in either glomerular filtration rate or renal plasma flow. The data indicate that the inhibition of renin release following the infusion of potassium is probably not the result of a marked increase in sodium delivery from the proximal tubule

Aquilegia, Vol. 32 No. 4, Winter 2008, Newsletter of the Colorado Native Plant Society

https://epublications.regis.edu/aquilegia/1126/thumbnail.jp

Stress-Dependent Impairment Of Passive-Avoidance Memory By Propranolol Or Naloxone

Previous work has shown that the effect of opioid-receptor blockade on memory modulation is critically dependent upon the intensity of stress. The current study determined the effect of adrenergic-receptor blockade on memory modulation under varied levels of stress and then compared the effect of adrenergic-receptor blockade under intense stress to that of a) opioid-receptor blockade and b) concurrent opioid- and adrenergic-receptor blockade. In the first experiment, the β-adrenergic-receptor blocker propranolol impaired retention in the passive-avoidance procedure when administered immediately after exposure to intense stress (passive-avoidance training followed by swim stress) but not mild stress (passive-avoidance training alone). In the second experiment, while separate administration of either propranolol or the opioid-receptor blocker naloxone immediately after exposure to intense stress impaired retention, the combined administration of propranolol and naloxone failed to do so. These findings demonstrate that the effect of β-adrenergic-receptor blockade or opioid-receptor blockade on memory modulation in the passive-avoidance procedure is dependent upon the intensity of stress, and suggest that concurrent inactivation of endogenous adrenergic- and opioid-based memory modulation systems under stressful conditions is protective of memory

Environmental and Social Matters in Mandatory Corporate Reporting: an Academic Note

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.This note provides an overview of mandatory corporate reporting for environmental and social matters in Canada, the United States and the European Union. When researchers and educators consider reporting on these matters, they often look to voluntary corporate reporting. However, we argue that a lot of related information exists in companies’ mandatory reports, either in the disclosures dictated by securities regulators, or via other required channels. Our objective is threefold. First, to describe what currently exists regarding mandatory reporting on environmental and social matters (to inform). Second, to discuss several of the current ongoing debates regarding such reporting (to encourage discourse). Third, to encourage research into the mandatory reporting of environmental and social matters