Energy consumption analysis of the Venus Deep Space Station (DSS-13)

This report continues the energy consumption analysis and verification study of the tracking stations of the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, and presents an audit of the Venus Deep Space Station (DSS 13). Due to the non-continuous radioastronomy research and development operations at the station, estimations of energy usage were employed in the energy consumption simulation of both the 9-meter and 26-meter antenna buildings. A 17.9% decrease in station energy consumption was experienced over the 1979-1981 years under study. A comparison of the ECP computer simulations and the station's main watt-hour meter readings showed good agreement

Why will rat's go where rats will not

Experimental evidence indicates that regular plurals are nearly always omitted from English compounds (e.g., rats-eater) while irregular plurals may be included within these structures (e.g., mice-chaser). This phenomenon is considered to be good evidence to support the dual mechanism model of morphological processing (Pinker & Prince, 1992). However, evidence from neural net modelling has shown that a single route associative memory based account might provide an equally, if not more, valid explanation of the compounding phenomenon

Plural morphology in compounding is not good evidence to support the dual mechanism model

The compounding phenomena is considered to be good evidence to support the dual mechanism model of morphological processing (Pinker & Prince, 1992). However evidence from initial neural net modeling has shown that a single route associative memory based account might provide an equally, if not more valid explanation of the treatment of plurals in compounds. Further neural net modeling and empirical work is proposed to test this single route accoun

Prawn Shell Chitosan Has Anti-Obesogenic Properties, Influencing Both Nutrient Digestibility and Microbial Populations in a Pig Model

This study was supported financially (Grant-Aid Agreement No. MFFRI/07/01) under the Sea Change Strategy with the support of the Marine Institute and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, funded under the National Development Plan 2007–2013.peer-reviewedThe potential of natural products to prevent obesity have been investigated, with evidence to suggest that chitosan has anti-obesity effects. The current experiment investigated the anti-obesity potential of prawn shell derived chitosan on a range of variables relevant to obesity in a pig model. The two dietary treatment groups included in this 63 day study were: T1) basal diet and T2) basal diet plus 1000 ppm chitosan (n = 20 gilts per group (70 ± 0.90 kg). The parameter categories which were assessed included: performance, nutrient digestibility, serum leptin concentrations, nutrient transporter and digestive enzyme gene expression and gut microbial populations. Pigs offered chitosan had reduced feed intake and final body weight (P< 0.001), lower ileal digestibility of dry matter (DM), gross energy (GE) (P< 0.05) and reduced coefficient of apparent total tract digestibility (CATTD) of gross energy and nitrogen (P<0.05) when compared to the basal group. Fatty acid binding protein 2 (FABP2) gene expression was down-regulated in pigs offered chitosan (P = 0.05) relative to the basal diet. Serum leptin concentrations increased (P< 0.05) in animals offered the chitosan diet compared to pigs offered the basal diet. Fatness traits, back-fat depth (mm), fat content (kg), were significantly reduced while lean meat (%) was increased (P<0.05) in chitosan supplemented pigs. Pigs offered chitosan had decreased numbers of Firmicutes in the colon (P <0.05), and Lactobacillus spp. in both the caecum (P <0.05) and colon (P <0.001). Bifidobacteria populations were increased in the caecum of animals offered the chitosan diet (P <0.05). In conclusion, these findings suggest that prawn shell chitosan has potent anti-obesity/body weight control effects which are mediated through multiple biological systems in vivo.This study was supported financially (Grant-Aid Agreement No. MFFRI/07/01) under the Sea Change Strategy with the support of the Marine Institute and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, funded under the National Development Plan 2007–2013

Observations on a new method of canalizing strictures of the oesophagus

No Abstrac

Social Justice Teacher Educators of Color: Their Work, Perspectives, and Insights

For the first time in the US, the majority of public school students are students of color in addition to being culturally and linguistically diverse (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013). Yet many teacher educators and teachers do not reflect this diversity (U.S. Dept. of Education, 2013). The overwhelming majority of teacher educators and teachers in the U.S. continue to be mono-racial, mono-linguistic, mono-cultural, and of a middle-class background; a workforce that misrepresents the demographics of this nation (Ladson- Billings, 2005). Students deserve educational settings that are a reflection of society’s diversity and also them. Therefore, diversifying the teacher workforce is imperative and urgent. One way to impact teacher diversity and the educational experiences of all students is through teacher education. Teacher educators are uniquely positioned in the field of education. They can have influence over recruitment, retention, curriculum, pre-service program experiences, mentoring, school and university partnerships, and policy to name a few. This dissertation explores the work and experiences of teacher educators—those who employ equity-centered, social justice oriented, race conscious and critical pedagogy in their teaching, and who also identify as People of Color. I refer to these individuals as Social Justice Teacher Educators of Color (SJTEC). I contend that SJTECs offer an important perspective from which to view the field and practice of teacher education. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a theoretical framework, I explore the lived experiences, narratives, and counter-narratives of SJTEC. I use qualitative interview methods and semi-structured interviews with six SJTECs nation-wide. The findings suggest that SJTEC labor in institutional spaces that espouse missions of social justice teacher education, but sometimes fall short. They work in predominately White colleges and universities with predominately White preservice teachers, which can make their work even more challenging. Participants also stress the importance of a diverse teacher workforce and critical education, while illuminating the challenges to making this vision a reality. They describe how they implement Social Justice Teacher Education in their classrooms despite these challenges, and describe their motivations for doing this work. Additional implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are also discussed

Stability, chaos and entrapment of stars in very wide pairs

The relative motion of stars and other celestial objects in very wide pairs, separated by distances of the order of 1 pc, is strongly influenced by the tidal gravitational potential of the Galaxy. The Coriolis component of the horizontal tidal force in the rotating reference frame tends to disrupt such marginally bound pairs. However, even extremely wide pairs of bodies can be bound over intervals of time comparable to the Hubble time, under appropriate initial conditions. Here we show that for arbitrary chosen initial coordinates of a pair of stars, there exists a volume of the space of initial velocity components where the orbits remain bound in the planar tidal field for longer than 10 Gyr, even though the initial separation is well outside the Jacobi radius. The boundary of this phase space of stable orbits is fractal, and the motion at the boundary conditions is clearly chaotic. We found that the pairs may remain confined for several Gyr, and then suddenly disintegrate due to a particularly close rendezvous. By reversing such long-term stable orbits, we find that entrapment of unrelated stars into wide pairs is possible, but should be quite rare. Careful analysis of precision astrometry surveys revealed that extremely wide pairs of stars are present in significant numbers in the Galaxy. These results are expected to help discriminating the cases of genuine binarity and chance entrapment, and to make inroads in testing the limits of Newtonian gravitation.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters. 3 figures v.2 : minor correction

Chemical signatures of the Anthropocene in the Clyde Estuary, UK: sediment hosted Pb, 207/206 Pb, Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH), Polyaromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) and Polychlorinated Bipheny (PCB) pollution records

The sediment concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Pb and 207/206Pb isotope ratios were measured in seven cores from the middle Clyde estuary (Scotland, UK) with an aim of tracking the late Anthropocene. Concentrations of TPHs ranged from 34 to 4386 mg kg−1, total PAHs from 19 to 16 163 μg kg−1 and total PCBs between less than 4.3 to 1217 μg kg−1. Inventories, distributions and isomeric ratios of the organic pollutants were used to reconstruct pollutant histories. Pre-Industrial Revolution and modern non-polluted sediments were characterized by low TPH and PAH values as well as high relative abundance of biogenic-sourced phenanthrene and naphthalene. The increasing industrialization of the Clyde gave rise to elevated PAH concentrations and PAH isomeric ratios characteristic of both grass/wood/coal and petroleum and combustion (specifically petroleum combustion). Overall, PAHs had the longest history of any of the organic contaminants. Increasing TPH concentrations and a concomitant decline in PAHs mirrored the lessening of coal use and increasing reliance on petroleum fuels from about the 1950s. Thereafter, declining hydrocarbon pollution was followed by the onset (1950s), peak (1965–1977) and decline (post-1980s) in total PCB concentrations. Lead concentrations ranged from 6 to 631 mg kg−1, while 207/206Pb isotope ratios spanned 0.838–0.876, indicative of various proportions of ‘background’, British ore/coal and Broken Hill type petrol/industrial lead. A chronology was established using published Pb isotope data for aerosol-derived Pb and applied to the cores