The effect of atomic oxygen on polysiloxane-polyimide for spacecraft applications in low Earth orbit

Polysiloxane-polyimide films are of interest as a replacement for polyimide Kapton in the Space Station Freedom solar array blanket. The blanket provides the structural support for the solar cells as well as providing transport of heat away from the back of the cells. Polyimide Kapton would be an ideal material to use; however, its high rate of degradation due to attack by atomic oxygen in low Earth orbit, at the altitudes Space Station Freedom will fly, is of such magnitude that if left unprotected, the blanket will undergo structural failure in much less than the desired 15 year operating life. Polysiloxane-polyimide is of interest as a replacement material because it should from its own protective silicon dioxide coating upon exposure to atomic oxygen. Mass, optical, and photomicrographic data obtained in the evaluation of the durability of polysiloxane-polyimide to an atomic oxygen environment are presented

Thermal emittance enhancement of graphite-copper composites for high temperature space based radiators

Graphite-copper composites are candidate materials for space based radiators. The thermal emittance of this material, however, is a factor of two lower than the desired emittance for these systems of greater than or equal to 0.85. Arc texturing was investigated as a surface modification technique for enhancing the emittance of the composite. Since the outer surface of the composite is copper, and samples of the composite could not be readily obtained for testing, copper was used for optimization testing. Samples were exposed to various frequencies and currents of arcs during texturing. Emittances near the desired goal were achieved at frequencies less than 500 Hz. Arc current did not appear to play a major role under 15 amps. Particulate carbon was observed on the surface, and was easily removed by vibration and handling. In order to determine morphology adherence, ultrasonic cleaning was used to remove the loosely adherent material. This reduced the emittance significantly. Emittance was found to increase with increasing frequency for the cleaned samples up to 500 Hz. The highest emittance achieved on these samples over the temperature range of interest was 0.5 to 0.6, which is approximately a factor of 25 increase over the untextured copper emittance

Adult reading acquisition: a study of error types and related difficulties of adults enrolled in literacy classes

This study involved the close observation of the reading of 59 adults in literacy tuition and 25 twelve-year old children in remedial classes, and the recording of their oral reading errors and ability in comprehension, short term memory, word reading and definitions measures. Fundamental differences were found in the structures of the two samples and their approach to the reading task. Differences between subjects in the adult sample stemmed from the presence or not of semantic acceptability among errors coupled with ability in areas like comprehension, definitions skills and metalanguage. The measures used by which the adults were grouped by the Literacy Scheme were found to be inadequate and alternative adult groupings were discovered in the corpus of the data. Suggestions were made for incorporating meaning related tasks into the teaching of reading to adults

Development of Plasmid Vectors of Neurodevelopmental Proteins

Throughout this semester, work has been done to generate copies of the human genes for protocadherin-19 (PCDH-19), neural cadherin (NCAD), receptor-like tyrosine kinase (RYK), and a recombinant protein of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) with a Protocadherin-19 signal peptide that would create a form of GFP secreted from the cell. These cloned vectors would then be able to be used to study whether disruptions of interactions between these proteins leads to a female-specific form of epilepsy. In order to achieve this, the Platinum Taq DNA Polymerase High Fidelity system was used to generate many copies of the template target DNA. These copies were then identified using gel electrophoresis and isolated using the NucleoSpin Gel and PCR cleanup kit. A restriction digest was done to create ends compatible for insertion into a target vector digested with the same enzymes. Results of the digest were verified using gel electrophoresis. Inserts were then ligated to the plasmids using the T4 DNA ligase system and transformed into DH5 Competent cells. The plasmid contained a kanamycin resistance gene which was used to identify successfully transformed cells. The plasmids were then isolated using the NucleoSpin Plasmid Kit. Data from gel electrophoresis at intermediate steps provides preliminary evidence of successful cloning of each construct for protein expression. This will allow protein interactions to be tested in a mammalian cell culture system

Cost Comparison of Calcium Phosphate Transfection and Lipofectamine Transfection for Production of PCDH19 Protein in HeLa Cells

Protocadherin-19 (PCDH19) is a protein coding gene expressed within the brains of vertebrate organisms. Mutations in this gene have been identified in human patients with PCDH19 clustering epilepsy, a form of epilepsy that primarily affects females and often coincides with varying degrees of intellectual disabilities. In addition, PCDH19 has been shown to play an important role in organizing cellular interactions in early neurodevelopmental processes. Ultimately, by gaining a greater understanding of the functions for PCDH19, we can further understand neurodevelopment and various neurodevelopmental diseases. For many in vitro studies of PCDH19, we first must obtain protein for use in the experiments. Human cell culture can be used to produces proteins of interest, when transfected with vectors containing the gene of interest. Here we tested two common transfection methods, lipofectamine transfection and calcium phosphate transfection, to determine which is the most cost effective method for the production of a PCDH19-GFP fusion protein. The cost per transfection is approximately five times higher per transfection with lipofectamine compared to calcium phosphate. However, the protein levels detected from lipofectamine were also consistently higher. The degree of increased protein production was variable and would require further replications to ascertain. From this data, we concluded that calcium phosphate is more cost effective, but lipofectamine may be necessary in some cases to reach sufficient levels of protein expression for some experiments

Interview with Erma Ellis

An interview with Erma Ellis regarding her experiences in a one-room school house.https://scholars.fhsu.edu/ors/1178/thumbnail.jp

Great Bay Coast Watch: A Citizen Water Monitoring Program Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Manual, 2004

The Great Bay Coast Watch is citizen volunteers, working within the UNH Cooperative Extension/NH Sea Grant Program, protecting the long-term health and natural resources of New Hampshire’s coastal waters and estuarine systems through monitoring and education projects. The purpose of this document is to present step-by-step instructions for conducting water quality testing in support of the Great Bay Coast Watch (GBCW)