860 research outputs found

    Preliminary catalog of pictures taken on the lunar surface during the Apollo 16 mission

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    A catalog of all pictures taken from the lunar module or the lunar surface during the Apollo 16 lunar stay is presented. The tabulations are arranged for the following specific uses: (1) given the number of a particular frame, find its location in the sequence of lunar surface activity, the station from which it was taken and the subject matter of the picture; (2) given a particular location or activity within the sequence of lunar surface activity, find the pictures taken at that time and their subject matter; and (3) given a sample number from the voice transcript listed, find the designation assigned to the same sample by the lunar receiving laboratory

    Preliminary catalog of pictures taken on the lunar surface during the Apollo 15 mission

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    Catalog of all pictures taken from lunar module or lunar surface during Apollo 15 missio

    A Benefit-Cost Assessment of New Vehicle Technologies and Fuel Economy in the U.S. Market

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    Increasingly stringent fuel economy and emissions regulations alongside efforts to reduce oil dependence have accelerated the global deployment of advanced vehicle technologies. In recent years, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and consumers have generally been successful in mutually deploying cleaner vehicle options with little sacrifice in cost, performance or overall utility. Projections regarding the challenges and impacts associated with compliance with mid- and long-term targets in the U.S., however, incur much greater uncertainty. The share of existing new vehicles that is expected to comply with future regulations, for example, falls below 10% by 2020. This article explores advanced technologies that result in reduced fuel consumption and emissions that are commercially available in 2014 Model Year compact and midsize passenger cars. A review of the recent research literature and publicly available cost and technical specification data addressing correlations between incremental cost and fuel economy is presented. This analysis reveals that a 10% improvement in the sales-weighted average fuel economy of passenger cars has been achieved between 2011 and 2014 at costs that are at or below levels anticipated by the regulations by means of reductions in weight, friction, and drag; advancements in internal combustion efficiency; turbocharging combined with engine downsizing; transmission upgrades; and the growth of hybrids. Benefit-cost analyses performed on best-selling models in the selected classifications reveal that consumers thus far are not substantially incentivized to purchase fuel economy. Under baseline conditions, benefit-cost ratios are above a breakeven value of unity for only 6 of 28 models employing improved fuel-economy technologies. Sales-weighted data indicate that the ‘‘average’’ consumer that elected to invest in greater fuel economy spent 1490torealizea17.31490 to realize a 17.3% improvement in fuel economy, equating to estimated savings of 1070. Thus savings were, on average, insufficient to cover technology costs in the baseline scenario. However, a sensitivity analysis reveals that a majority of new technologies become financially attractive to consumers when average fuel prices exceed $5.60/gallon, or when annual miles traveled exceed 16,400. The article concludes with techno-economic implications of the research on future fuel economy regulations for stakeholders. In general, the additional cost consumers incur in exchange for a given level of fuel economy improvement in the coming years will need to be steadily reduced compared to current levels to ensure that the expected benefits of fuel savings are financially warranted

    How Can India Help Prevent Food Price Volatility?

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    This article is about India's role in reducing food price volatility in the world. India has come a long way from a ‘ship?to?mouth existence’ to a country that is ready to confer legal right to food to its citizens based on its own production. India has 18 per cent of the world's population and therefore food self?sufficiency of India would be a blessing for the struggle against price volatility. By improving productivity, by reducing energy use, by augmenting water resources and by conserving prime farm land, India can produce enough food for an estimated population of 1.5 billion by 2030. Further, by controlling speculative trade in food prices, by maintaining stable domestic prices and by sharing its agricultural and food policy expertise, India can help reduce food price volatility. However, to reduce global price volatility and to remove price distortions in the world market, it is important to resolve the issues of agricultural trade and to adopt a small farmer?friendly global trading system

    GIVE: portable genome browsers for personal websites.

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    Growing popularity and diversity of genomic data demand portable and versatile genome browsers. Here, we present an open source programming library called GIVE that facilitates the creation of personalized genome browsers without requiring a system administrator. By inserting HTML tags, one can add to a personal webpage interactive visualization of multiple types of genomics data, including genome annotation, "linear" quantitative data, and genome interaction data. GIVE includes a graphical interface called HUG (HTML Universal Generator) that automatically generates HTML code for displaying user chosen data, which can be copy-pasted into user's personal website or saved and shared with collaborators. GIVE is available at: https://www.givengine.org/

    Direct comparison of the histidine-rich protein-2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (HRP-2 ELISA) and malaria SYBR green I fluorescence (MSF) drug sensitivity tests in Plasmodium falciparum reference clones and fresh ex vivo field isolates from Cambodia

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    BACKGROUND: Performance of the histidine-rich protein-2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (HRP-2 ELISA) and malaria SYBR Green I fluorescence (MSF) drug sensitivity tests were directly compared using Plasmodium falciparum reference strains and fresh ex vivo isolates from Cambodia against a panel of standard anti-malarials. The objective was to determine which of these two common assays is more appropriate for studying drug susceptibility of “immediate ex vivo” (IEV) isolates, analysed without culture adaption, in a region of relatively low malaria transmission. METHODS: Using the HRP-2 and MSF methods, the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) values against a panel of malaria drugs were determined for P. falciparum reference clones (W2, D6, 3D7 and K1) and 41 IEV clinical isolates from an area of multidrug resistance in Cambodia. Comparison of the IC(50) values from the two methods was made using Wilcoxon matched pair tests and Pearson’s correlation. The lower limit of parasitaemia detection for both methods was determined for reference clones and IEV isolates. Since human white blood cell (WBC) DNA in clinical samples is known to reduce MSF assay sensitivity, SYBR Green I fluorescence linearity of P. falciparum samples spiked with WBCs was evaluated to assess the relative degree to which MSF sensitivity is reduced in clinical samples. RESULTS: IC(50) values correlated well between the HRP-2 and MSF methods when testing either P. falciparum reference clones or IEV isolates against 4-aminoquinolines (chloroquine, piperaquine and quinine) and the quinoline methanol mefloquine (Pearson r = 0.85-0.99 for reference clones and 0.56-0.84 for IEV isolates), whereas a weaker IC(50) value correlation between methods was noted when testing artemisinins against reference clones and lack of correlation when testing IEV isolates. The HRP-2 ELISA produced a higher overall success rate (90% for producing IC(50) best-fit sigmoidal curves), relative to only a 40% success rate for the MSF assay, when evaluating ex vivo Cambodian isolates. Reduced sensitivity of the MSF assay is likely due to an interference of WBCs in clinical samples. CONCLUSIONS: For clinical samples not depleted of WBCs, HRP-2 ELISA is superior to the MSF assay at evaluating fresh P. falciparum field isolates with low parasitaemia (<0.2%) generally observed in Southeast Asia

    Solving Global Optimization Problems Using MANGO

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    Traditional approaches for solving global optimization problems generally rely on a single algorithm. The algorithm may be hybrid or applied in parallel. Contrary to traditional approaches, this paper proposes to form teams of algorithms to tackle global optimization problems. Each algorithm is embodied and ran by a software agent. Agents exist in a multiagent system and communicate over Our proposed MultiAgent ENvironment for Global Optimization (MANGO). Through Communication and cooperation, the agents complement each other in tasks that they cannot do on their own. This paper gives a formal description of MANGO and Outlines design principles for developing agents to execute Oil MANGO. Our case study shows the effectiveness of multiagent teams in solving global optimization problems

    Sustainability, Peak oil

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    none4openDe leo Federica, Pier paolo Miglietta, Stefania Massari, Marcello RubertiDE LEO, Federica; Miglietta, PIER PAOLO; Massari, Stefania; Ruberti, Marcell
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