Toroidal equipment packaging

For optimal packaging of equipment in shallow-cone vehicle toroidal packaging sets center of gravity of equipment forward. Packages are supported on rings within probe structure to provide low center of gravity. System permits interchanging of units for balance control, so minimum of lateral ballast is required

Katalysis: helping Andean farmers adapt to climate change

Recent studies of global climate change paint a bleak picture for the Andes. Researchers have proposed expert-led solutions, such as improved climatic modelling and forecasting, and the breeding of drought-tolerant crop varieties. In this article, the authors argue that farmers need to shape the research agenda according to local priorities, and that smallholders and researchers should learn together. The Katalysis approach to climate change adaptation is on enhancing local knowledge of climate change and creating opportunities for coping with it. Katalysis aims at helping rural people to creatively manage their own resources in response to the growing threat of climate change. Katalysis builds on Farmer Field Schools ‘discovery learning’ tradition and other flexible, knowledge based approaches for improving agriculture through farmer participation in group problem-solving. The approach requires strong facilitators with flexible programmes and funding to support open-ended learning-action. Donor and development agencies must hand over more trust and responsibility to communities to design and implement their own agendas. Local people and outsiders need to be free to learn from each other, and to learn as they go along

A constitutive model with damage for high temperature superalloys

A unified constitutive model is searched for that is applicable for high temperature superalloys used in modern gas turbines. Two unified inelastic state variable constitutive models were evaluated for use with the damage parameter proposed by Kachanov. The first is a model (Bodner, Partom) in which hardening is modeled through the use of a single state variable that is similar to drag stress. The other (Ramaswamy) employs both a drag stress and back stress. The extension was successful for predicting the tensile, creep, fatigue, torsional and nonproportional response of Rene' 80 at several temperatures. In both formulations, a cumulative damage parameter is introduced to model the changes in material properties due to the formation of microcracks and microvoids that ultimately produce a macroscopic crack. A back stress/drag stress/damage model was evaluated for Rene' 95 at 1200 F and is shown to predict the tensile, creep, and cyclic loading responses reasonably well

Lumber Futures and Timberland Investment

Using 20 years of data, we derive a pricing model for timberland market values. We examine the relationship between lumber futures, capitalization rates, anticipated inflation, anticipated construction and timberland value. Using an ordinary least squares regression model and Johansen’s cointegration technique, we find that timberland market values have a long-run significant positive equilibrium relationship with lumber futures, and building permits. Capitalization rates have a significant negative relationship as expected. In the short run, unanticipated shocks in the independent variables provide a permanent change in timberland market values.

Cooled Infrared Dichroic Beamsplitters and Filters for the MIRI Spectrometer and Imager (5-29µm)

The spectral design and fabrication of cooled (7K) mid-infrared dichroic beamsplitters and bandpass filter coatings for the MIRI spectrometer and imager are described. Design methods to achieve the spectral performance and coating materials are discussed

Study of Compliance Behavior of Hemodialysis Patients

This research project was designed to identify variables within the dialysis patients' ecological field associated with behaviors. The import of this study lies in the fact that dialysis patients' health and levels of social functioning are affected by the degree to which they are able to comply with their prescribed medical and dietary regimen. Five measures of compliance were selected as the dependent measures for this study. Serum phosphorous, serum potassium, and between dialysis weight gains constituted three objective measures. An Overall Objective Compliance Index was created by standardizing and summing the patient's scores on the three objective measures.The fifth dependent measure was based upon the patients' self-reports of their compliance. We found this measure to be the least reliable and negatively correlated with the objective measures. Independent variables were grouped into five domains, demographic, intra-personal, inter-personal, health delivery system and environmental factors. A random sample of 60 patients was selected from the 131 patient population at the Brooklyn Kidney Center for this cross-sectional descriptive study. Fifty-five patients were interviewed and five patients refused to be interviewed. The interviewed sample was predominantly male (66%), Black (73%). with less than a high school education (52%), had a mean age of 46 and had been on dialysis an average of four years. A structured interview format was utilized to collect data; information was also abstracted from a review of the medical charts. Each patient was interviewed while they were being dialyzed. Less educated, married, female patients new to dialysis reported experiencing the greatest impact from renal failure and dialysis treatments. However, when we correlated the overall degree of impact of the illness with the five dependent measures, there were no statistically significant associations. In other words, while these patients experienced the greatest impact, there was no relationship between their subjective experience and the compliance measures. The findings between the demographic characteristics and compliance measures indicate that some patients are at higher risk of experiencing social role disruptions. A demographic profile of the patients most at risk in being non-compliant shows that they were older males, with less education, of lower socio-economic status, unemployed, born in the New York City area and new to dialysis. The patients' coping activities and the availability of a neighbor were the only independent variables which emerged as being associated with all four objective measures of compliance. Patients who tended to reach out to others and did not solely rely on themselves and who continued to think about the current crisis were more compliant with respect to all four objective measures. Patients who had a neighbor to call upon when in need of help were also more compliant. Families that lacked organization, internal support, or tended toward either of the extremes of over involvement or disengagement from the patient appeared to increase the likelihood that the patients would have problems with compliance. Patients with lower objective knowledge scores and who experienced barriers to following their medical and dietary instructions such as the lack of cash to purchase medications when needed, feeling depressed, being too busy, etc., were less compliant. Contrary to expectations, patients who reported higher levels of satisfaction with the dialysis staff and quality of care were also less compliant. This was attributed to the patients' use of denial and fear of staff's criticisms. A recommended program for increasing dialysis patients' compliance levels is presented in which more reliance is placed on a comprehensive psychosocial evaluation and the initiation of family and group services. Future research projects are discussed noting the importance of utilizing longitudinal type designs

Engineering planetary lasers for interstellar communication

Spacefaring skills evolved in the twenty-first century will enable missions of unprecedented complexity. One such elaborate project might be to develop tools for efficient interstellar data transfer. Informational links to other star systems would facilitate eventual human expansion beyond our solar system, as well as intercourse with potential extraterrestrial intelligence. This paper reports the major findings of a 600-page, 3-year, NASA-funded study examining in quantitative detail the requirements, some seemingly feasible methods, and implications of achieving reliable extrasolar communications

Measurement of outflow facility using iPerfusion

Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is the predominant risk factor for glaucoma, and reducing IOP is the only successful strategy to prevent further glaucomatous vision loss. IOP is determined by the balance between the rates of aqueous humour secretion and outflow, and a pathological reduction in the hydraulic conductance of outflow, known as outflow facility, is responsible for IOP elevation in glaucoma. Mouse models are often used to investigate the mechanisms controlling outflow facility, but the diminutive size of the mouse eye makes measurement of outflow technically challenging. In this study, we present a new approach to measure and analyse outflow facility using iPerfusion™, which incorporates an actuated pressure reservoir, thermal flow sensor, differential pressure measurement and an automated computerised interface. In enucleated eyes from C57BL/6J mice, the flow-pressure relationship is highly non-linear and is well represented by an empirical power law model that describes the pressure dependence of outflow facility. At zero pressure, the measured flow is indistinguishable from zero, confirming the absence of any significant pressure independent flow in enucleated eyes. Comparison with the commonly used 2-parameter linear outflow model reveals that inappropriate application of a linear fit to a non-linear flow-pressure relationship introduces considerable errors in the estimation of outflow facility and leads to the false impression of pressure-independent outflow. Data from a population of enucleated eyes from C57BL/6J mice show that outflow facility is best described by a lognormal distribution, with 6-fold variability between individuals, but with relatively tight correlation of facility between fellow eyes. iPerfusion represents a platform technology to accurately and robustly characterise the flow-pressure relationship in enucleated mouse eyes for the purpose of glaucoma research and with minor modifications, may be applied in vivo to mice, as well as to eyes from other species or different biofluidic systems