Flare observation during Max 1991 balloon campaigns

A brief overview is presented for some of the large flare properties as observed during the prime SMM flare observation interval, 1980 to 1984. Two of these properties, namely their tendency to occur in groups and the strong effects of the 154 day periodicity, can be used to increase the probability of detecting large flares during the limited observing duration of Max 1991 balloon campaigns provided the solar flare characteristics of the 1991 solar cycle follows that observed in 1980 to 1984

The Twelfth Man? Refereeing Bias in English and German Soccer

This paper investigates potential bias in awards of player disciplinary sanctions, in the form of cautions (yellow cards) and dismissals (red cards) by referees in the English Premier League and the Bundesliga. Previous studies of behaviour of soccer referees have not adequately incorporated within-game information. Descriptive statistics from our samples clearly show that home teams receive fewer yellow and red cards than away teams. But biases may be wrongly identified where the modeller has failed to include within-game events such as goals scored and recent cards issued. What appears as referee favouritism may actually be excessive and illegal aggressive behaviour by players in teams that are behind in score. We deal with these issues using a minute-by-minute bivariate probit analysis of yellow and red cards issued in games over six seasons in the two leagues. The significance of a variable to denote score difference at the time of sanction suggests that excessive effort, induced by a losing position, is an important influence on award of yellow and red cards. Controlling for a number of pre-game and within-game variables, we find evidence of home team favouritism in Germany as home teams with running tracks in their stadia attract more yellow and red cards than teams playing in stadia with separation of fans from pitch. This is indicative of referee response to social pressure. Separating the competing teams in matches by favourite and underdog status, as perceived by the betting market, yields further evidence, this time for both leagues, that the source of home teams receiving fewer cards is not just that they are disproportionately often the favoured team. Rather, there appears to be pure referee bias in relative treatments of home and away teams.Soccer, football, referee, sports

Single-peptide DNA-dependent RNA polymerase homologous to multi-subunit RNA polymerase

Transcription in all living organisms is accomplished by multi-subunit RNA polymerases (msRNAPs). msRNAPs are highly conserved in evolution and invariably share a B400 kDa five-subunit catalytic core. Here we characterize a hypothetical B100 kDa single-chain protein, YonO, encoded by the SPb prophage of Bacillus subtilis. YonO shares very distant homology with msRNAPs, but no homology with single-subunit polymerases. We show that despite homology to only a few amino acids of msRNAP, and the absence of most of the conserved domains, YonO is a highly processive DNA-dependent RNA polymerase. We demonstrate that YonO is a bona fide RNAP of the SPb bacteriophage that specifically transcribes its late genes, and thus represents a novel type of bacteriophage RNAPs. YonO and related proteins present in various bacteria and bacteriophages have diverged from msRNAPs before the Last Universal Common Ancestor, and, thus, may resemble the single-subunit ancestor of all msRNAPs

AN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL REVIEW OF GAMBLING IN GREAT BRITAIN

The paper considers the nature and scale of the benefits and costs of gambling, with special reference to machine gaming. Although the industry is argued to be unlikely to have a significant macroeconomic impact, evidence is consistent with it generating considerable benefits to individual (responsible) consumers, whether measured by consumer surplus or through the pattern of responses to a wellbeing question. At the same time, a minority of users of gaming facilities, problem gamblers, appear to make consistently flawed decisions such that those with gambling disorder experience exceptionally low wellbeing.  Public policy and regulatory decisions should consider the effects, on the margin, on both the net benefits to recreational gamblers and the net costs to problem gamblers. Many policy decisions may involve a trade-off between the welfare of recreational gamblers and the welfare of problem gamblers. Contemporary interest in targeted policies appears to represent an attempt to avoid the need to confront such a trade-off by searching for policies which are aimed very explicitly at problem gamblers alone.

‘Whatever people say I am…’: Multiple voices on screen and page in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

The British New Wave in cinema, which ran from 1958 to 1962, was built around the adaptation of a number of literary texts that derived their ‘newness’ by vocalising working-class protagonists, hitherto largely suppressed in popular visions of British society. As a knock-on-effect, British screen culture refreshed, suffering as it did from the same level of under-representation that blighted literature. In a wider context, the films’ freshness and vigour can also be seen to be identified in a new approach to film style and aesthetics which had more in common with the European art cinema than the staid traditions of British filmmaking.

Challenges and Lessons Learned in the Application of Autonomy to Space Operations

NASA's Space Operations Management Office (SOMO) is working toward a goal of providing an integrated infrastructure of mission and data services for space missions undertaken by NASA enterprises. A significant portion of this effort is focused on reducing the cost of these services. We are interested in the potential of autonomy to reduce operations costs. SOMO services support space missions, but are not part of the mission objectives; therefore the level of acceptable risk is very low. In fact, SOMO could be effective ly prevented from applying autonomy if customers merely perceive it as adding risk to their mission(s). We are interested in this workshop from the standpoint of understanding what can be done to realize the potential cost savings due to autonomy while maintaining acceptable risk and serving the needs of our customers. We would like to present our lessons learned so far in adopting autonomy and automation, which we think will contribute to clarifying the challenges facing the use of such technology. SOMO provides services to a diverse and ambitious set of mission customers. Many of these missions are groundbreaking missions for which communications, data, and other operations requirements sometimes cannot be clearly articulated early in the program. This motivates a need for systems that are robust in the face of unanticipated situations so that customer missions are not unreasonably constrained or impacted by "shortcomings" in SOMO services. One of SOMO's primary goals is to realize a paradigm in which SOMO acts as a service provider to organizations that fly space missions for NASA, other government agencies, and even the commercial sector. These organizations purchase SOMO services "by the pound" as customers. We have to provide systems that are not experiments themselves, but rather stable bases from which to do bold experiments. To this end, SOMO also seeks to work closely with industry to see that robust autonomy technology gets infused into products and services for the space industry and beyond. The potential for application of these technologies spans space-based communications networks (e.g. TDRSS) and ground-based assets including communication and tracking antenna systems, data networks, and control centers. There are several problems that are candidates for the application of autonomy, if it can be made reliable enough, including: antenna control, antenna scheduling, communication link scheduling and operation, navigation, attitude determination, fault detection, isolation, and reconfiguration (for spacecraft or ground assets), and mission-level planning and scheduling. Some attempts have been made to apply autonomy and automation in these areas in the past with varying degrees of success. We will present relevant case histories and the lessons inferred from them. Combining this past experience with anticipated future needs, we can clarify the challenges that must be met in order to realize the benefits of autonomy

Source-Separated Urine Nitrification and Ion Accumulation in Sub-Irrigated Planters Using Domestic Wastewater

Wastewater reuse is a field at the crux of the food-energy-water nexus. This nexus is a modern attempt at qualifying relationships between resource availability and stewardship, and the choices and needs of market-driven culture. This study aims to develop simple low-tech systems to use domestic wastewater or source-separated urine, treated onsite, for domestic container garden water and nutrient supply. Four experiments were conducted to assess specific aspects of this technology to help develop relevant stages in this reuse chain. The objective of the first experiment was a proof of concept to assess compatibility of sub-irrigated planters (SIP) with treated domestic effluent. Domestic blackwater was treated with aeration; random sampling values ranged between 0.34-0.57 mg/L DO and had a hydraulic residence time (HRT) of about seven days. This effluent was used in two SIPs as the sole source of water and nutrients. After one successful growing season,soil samples showed transport of elements from planter reservoir through the capillary fringe, in addition to plant uptake in the rhizosphere. The objective of the second experiment was to assess parameters in using the planter reservoir for treatment of dilute urine as feed for SIP. Fresh dilute urine was used directly in an aerated and oversized SIP reservoir. After one growing season, soil samples showed some transport of elements from planter reservoir through the capillary fringe in addition to plant uptake in the rhizosphere. Planter evapotranspiration was also recorded and seen to be the primary factor determining reservoir HRT, treatment time, and thus suitability as feed solution. The objective of the third experiment was to assess the effects of media choice on nitrification of human urine. Time for biological nitrification of four media were tested (loose potting soil, confined soil, perlite, plastic MBBR) in separate batch reactors filled with fresh dilute urine (0.8 mS). Confined soil completed partial nitrification (oxidation to nitrite) first in 31 days followed by loose soil at 39 days. The MBBR media completed partial nitrification last at 61 days. After day 61, all reactors were daily pH adjusted to 8. Full nitrification (oxidation to nitrate) was first seen at day 79 with MBBR media, on day 80 both soil reactors show full nitrate speciation, and day 85 for the perlite media. The objective of the fourth experiment was to determine the aforementioned nitrified urine’s stability against denitrification at various DO concentrations. The contents of reactors 1, 2, and 3 from Experiment 3 were combined and the resultant nitrate solution used in four different SIP reservoir configurations. DO values for the four reservoirs (R1-R4) ranged between 0.50 mg/L and 8.1 mg/L during the 20 days of observation. Day nine showed R2 with a 6% nitrate concentration drop when compared to initial concentrations, and was associated with 5 days of DO between 0.50 – 1.5 mg/L. On the other hand, R4, which had DO between 1.75 - .50 mg/L from day 8 to day 20, finished with a nitrate concentration almost identical to that on day 1. These experiments may be useful in establishing parameters for some configurations of backyard bioreactors and SIP. In particular, nitrification of source-separated urine for onsite food production seems to hold vast potential for decentralized food security