Investigation of a pulsed electrothermal thruster system

The performance of an ablative wall Pulsed Electrothermal (PET) thruster is accurately characterized on a calibrated thrust stand, using polyethylene propellant. The thruster is tested for four configurations of capillary length and pulse length. The exhaust velocity is determined with twin time-of-flight photodiode stagnation probes, and the ablated mass is measured from the loss over ten shots. Based on the measured thrust impulse and the ablated mass, the specific impulse varies from 1000 to 1750 seconds. The thrust to power varies from .05 N/kW (quasi-steady mode) to .10 N/kW (unsteady mode). The thruster efficiency varies from .56 at 1000 seconds to .42 at 1750 seconds. A conceptual design is presented for a 40 kW PET propulsion system. The point design system performance is .62 system efficiency at 1000 seconds specific impulse. The system's reliability is enhanced by incorporating 20, 20 kW thruster modules which are fired in pairs. The thruster design is non-ablative, and uses water propellant, from a central storage tank, injected through the cathode

Earliest Holocene south Greenland ice sheet retreat within its late Holocene extent

Early Holocene summer warmth drove dramatic Greenland ice sheet (GIS) retreat. Subsequent insolation-driven cooling caused GIS margin readvance to late Holocene maxima, from which ice margins are now retreating. We use 10Be surface exposure ages from four locations between 69.4°N and 61.2°N to date when in the early Holocene south to west GIS margins retreated to within these late Holocene maximum extents. We find that this occurred at 11.1 ± 0.2 ka to 10.6 ± 0.5 ka in south Greenland, significantly earlier than previous estimates, and 6.8 ± 0.1 ka to 7.9 ± 0.1 ka in southwest to west Greenland, consistent with existing 10Be ages. At least in south Greenland, these 10Be ages likely provide a minimum constraint for when on a multicentury timescale summer temperatures after the last deglaciation warmed above late Holocene temperatures in the early Holocene. Current south Greenland ice margin retreat suggests that south Greenland may have now warmed to or above earliest Holocene summer temperatures

Response of Amphibian and Invertebrate Communities to Wetland Mitigation in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

In the United States, a “no net loss” of wetlands policy mandates that when wetland impacts cannot be avoided, they must be mitigated by creating or restoring wetlands of equal or greater area. A primary goal of these projects is often habitat replacement, but success is generally evaluated only through presence of wetland-associated vegetation and physical characteristics, which may not be good surrogates for wetland function. Because amphibians and aquatic macroinvertebrates integrate processes at multiple levels and are sensitive to conditions in both the aquatic and surrounding terrestrial environment, evaluating their response to wetland mitigation may be more meaningful. The Wyoming Department of Transportation recently (2008-2013) constructed and restored 38 wetlands in Teton County, WY to mitigate for loss of wetland area caused by a road reconstruction project. Our objectives were to assess differences in species richness and community composition of amphibian and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities among ten constructed, seven impacted and ten reference wetlands. Preliminary results suggest that amphibians and invertebrates have quickly colonized created wetlands, leading to similar species richness among wetland types, but that community composition remains distinct even several years after wetland construction. These results suggest that wetland creation may be an important tool, but that the life histories of target species should be accounted for in the design phase to maximize the probability of native amphibian and invertebrate colonization and persistence

The Tumor Suppressor HHEX Inhibits Axon Growth when Prematurely Expressed in Developing Central Nervous System Neurons

Neurons in the embryonic and peripheral nervoussystem respond to injury by activating transcriptional programs supportive of axon growth, ultimately resulting in functional recovery. In contrast, neurons in the adult central nervous system (CNS) possess a limited capacity to regenerate axons after injury, fundamentally constraining repair. Activating pro-regenerative gene expression in CNS neurons is a promising therapeutic approach, but progress is hampered by incomplete knowledge of the relevant transcription factors. An emerging hypothesis is that factors implicated in cellular growth and motility outside the nervous system may also control axon growth in neurons. We therefore tested sixty-nine transcription factors, previously identified as possessing tumor suppressive or oncogenic properties in non-neuronal cells, in assays of neurite outgrowth. This screen identified YAP1 and E2F1 as enhancers of neurite outgrowth, and PITX1, RBM14, ZBTB16, and HHEX as inhibitors. Follow-up experiments are focused on the tumor suppressor HHEX, one of the strongest growth inhibitors. HHEX is widely expressed in adult CNS neurons, including corticospinal tract neurons after spinal injury, but is present only in trace amounts in immature cortical neurons and adult peripheral neurons. HHEX overexpression in early postnatal cortical neurons reduced both initial axonogenesis and the rate of axon elongation, and domain deletion analysis strongly implicated transcriptional repression as the underlying mechanism. These findings suggest a role for HHEX in restricting axon growth in the developing CNS, and substantiate the hypothesis that previously identified oncogenes and tumor suppressors can play conserved roles in axon extension

Stratigraphic Control on CCL4 and CHCL3 Concentrations in the 200 West Area, Hanford Site

An extensive subsurface contaminant plume of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) is the focus of a remedial effort in the 200 West Area of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in eastern Washington. Remediation requires a high-resolution understanding of the region’s spatially variable lithofacies and of the effect these lithofacies have on CCl4 migration through the unconfi ned aquifer. To increase the level of detail of our current understanding, a transect was chosen along the primary groundwater fl ow path in the most heavily contaminated area. Borehole logs of wells along this 3.7 km-long transect were standardized and used to create a cross section displaying the depth and continuity of lithofacies. Natural and spectral gamma geophysical logs were examined to pinpoint the depths of geologic units. Depth discrete concentrations of CCl4 and its reductive dechlorination product, chloroform (CHCl3), were overlain on this cross section. Comparison of stratigraphy to contaminant levels shows that peaks in CCl4 concentration occur in thin, fine-grained layers and that other fine-grained layers frequently form lower boundaries to regions of high concentration. Peaks in CCl4 concentrations are frequently located at different depths from those of CHCl3, suggesting that these concentrations are affected by dechlorination of CCl4. Transformation of CCl4 to CHCl3 appears to be more prevalent within reduced, iron-containing sediments. The infl uence of thin, fine-grained layers within the larger aquifer unit indicates that characterization of contamination in this locality should consider subsurface geology with at least as much resolution as provided in this study

Pulsed electrothermal thruster

A plasma electrothermal thruster includes a capillary passage in which a plasma discharge is formed and directed out of an open end of the passage into a supersonic nozzle. Liquid supplied to the capillary passage becomes partially atomized to cool a confining surface of the passage. The plasma discharge is formed as the atomized liquid flows out of the open end into a supersonic equilibrium nozzle. The discharge can have a duration greater than the two way travel time of acoustic energy in the capillary to cause the plasma to flow continuously through the nozzle during the time of the discharge pulse

Integrating Knowledge for Instruction: A Tale of Two Teachers

Teacher knowledge is a critical factor that influences pedagogical decisions. If we want teachers to make appropriate choices in the classroom we must know and understand the types of knowledge used during this decision-making process. To this end, we sought to understand how, and the extent to which, two 5th grade teachers drew upon and integrated their knowledge of mathematics, learners, and pedagogy while teaching. Stimulated recall interviews were analyzed to uncover the types of knowledge and interactions that occurred. Both teachers primarily used their knowledge of learners and pedagogy, with the knowledge of mathematics playing a supportive role. In addition, the teachers integrated their knowledge in one of two ways: a) one knowledge type was used to justify or explain a statement about a second knowledge type and b) a discussion of one knowledge type lead to an implication or reflection about a second knowledge type. These interactions allowed the teachers to use and build their connected knowledge. Understanding how teachers integrate and use their knowledge has implications for the structure of teacher professional development

Rhythms of locomotion and seasonal changes in activity expressed by horseshoe crabs in their natural habitat

The American horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus expresses both tidal and daily rhythms of locomotion in the laboratory and the tidal rhythms can be entrained to artificial tides. The main purpose of this study was to determine the types of rhythms horseshoe crabs express when freely moving in their natural habitat where they are exposed to natural light:dark and tidal cycles. A secondary goal was to determine if their overall activity patterns and depth preferences changed during the year. In 2010 and 2011, 20 adult horseshoe crabs (11 males, 9 females) were fitted with ultrasonic tags and released in the Great Bay Estuary, NH, USA. The tags transmitted acceleration and depth data every 3 to 5 min from June until December during the year in which they were tagged, and from March to May of the following year. Acoustic transmissions from the tags were detected and logged by a series of VR2W receivers moored throughout the estuary. Accelerometer data were used to assess when animals were active and to determine (1) whether they were expressing tidal or daily rhythms and (2) their overall activity level each month. We discovered that horseshoe crabs were just as likely to express tidal rhythms as daily rhythms, despite being continuously exposed to natural tide cycles. In addition, there was a tendency to move into deeper water and become less active as water temperatures cooled in the fall, and then to move up into the estuary and become more active as water temperatures warmed in the spring

InnateDB: systems biology of innate immunity and beyond—recent updates and continuing curation

peer-reviewedInnateDB (http://www.innatedb.com) is an integrated analysis platform that has been specifically designed to facilitate systems-level analyses of mammalian innate immunity networks, pathways and genes. In this article, we provide details of recent updates and improvements to the database. InnateDB now contains >196 000 human, mouse and bovine experimentally validated molecular interactions and 3000 pathway annotations of relevance to all mammalian cellular systems (i.e. not just immune relevant pathways and interactions). In addition, the InnateDB team has, to date, manually curated in excess of 18 000 molecular interactions of relevance to innate immunity, providing unprecedented insight into innate immunity networks, pathways and their component molecules. More recently, InnateDB has also initiated the curation of allergy- and asthma-related interactions. Furthermore, we report a range of improvements to our integrated bioinformatics solutions including web service access to InnateDB interaction data using Proteomics Standards Initiative Common Query Interface, enhanced Gene Ontology analysis for innate immunity, and the availability of new network visualizations tools. Finally, the recent integration of bovine data makes InnateDB the first integrated network analysis platform for this agriculturally important model organism.This work was supported by Genome BC through the Pathogenomics of Innate Immunity (PI2) project and by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research under the Grand Challenges in Global Health Research Initiative [Grand Challenges ID: 419]. Further funding was also provided by AllerGen grants 12ASI1 and 12B&B2. D.J.L. was funded in part during this project by a postdoctoral trainee award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). F.S.L.B. is a MSFHR Senior Scholar and R.E.W.H. holds a Canada Research Chair (CRC). Funding to enable bovine systems biology in InnateDB is provided by Teagasc [RMIS6018] and the Teagasc Walsh Fellowship scheme. IMEx is funded by the European Commission under the PSIMEx project [contract number FP7-HEALTH-2007-223411]. Funding for open access charge: Teagasc [RMIS6018]